177. FINKEL, RABBI ELIEZER YEHUDA / YESHIVAS MIR

Lot of 32 letters. A fascinating archive of correspondence spanning a period of 25 years from 1937-1962; this collection is a virtual history of Yeshivas Mir from the yeshiva’s time in Mir Poland, through its reestablishment in Jerusalem. Written to offices of the Joint Distribution Committee (“the Joint”) under the direction of Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung. ™ Yeshivas Mir was founded in the small Polish town of Mir in 1814 by R. Shmuel Tiktinsky. After his death, his youngest son, R. Chaim Leib Tiktinsky, was appointed Rosh Yeshiva. He was succeeded by his son, R. Avraham Tiktinsky, who in turn brought R. Eliyahu Baruch Kamai into the yeshiva. In 1903, Rabbi Kamai’s daughter married R. Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, son of R. Nosson Tzvi Finkel (the famed Alter of Slabodka), who in time became the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir and whose descendants lead the yeshiva until today. At the onset of WWII, R. Eliezer Yehuda traveled to Palestine in an attempt to obtain visas for his students with the intention of relocating the yeshiva to Jerusalem, but these plans were interrupted by the upheavals of the war. In 1944, he opened a branch of the yeshiva in Jerusalem which today has grown to be the largest yeshiva in the world. The story of the escape of the Mir Yeshiva was one of the great miracles of the Holocaust as this yeshiva was the only one of the great Lithuanian yeshivas to survive the war intact. Typed on institutional letterheads and signed by R. E.Y. Finkel. Eight letters written in Poland, and 24 in Jerusalem. In presentation album. Fine condition with some folds and minor repairs.

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