A thrilling letter in the handwriting and signature of Rabbi Moshe Shatzkes While serving as rabbi of Lomza. Adar 13, 1938. In his letter, the Gaon asks the gaba'd of Liverpool to assist Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Shkop, the son of Rabbi Shimon Shkop (in the life of Rabbi Shimon Shkop), who 'his rabbinical wife fell seriously ill', after he was sorry to see him with great sorrow, 'I have no power to save'. (Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Shkop was a rabbi at his father's yeshiva "Sha'ar HaTorah" and filled his place in the rabbinate of the city of Hordena before the outbreak of World War II. At the beginning of the war he managed to escape from Vilnius to the United States).
The Gaon Rabbi Moshe son of Rabbi Avraham Aharon Shatzkes [1882-1958], rabbi of Finishok and Ivy (Belarus), the last rabbi of Lomza, and after the Holocaust Rosh Yeshivat Rabbenu Yitzchak Elchanan. He was born in Vilnius (Vilna) to Rabbi Avraham Aharon Shatzkes, the "Iluy from Zetal", who died at the age of 27. In his youth he studied at the Telz and Salvodka yeshivas. Relyed on teaching by Rabbi Raphael Shapira of Volozhin, Rabbi Eliezer Gordon of Telz and Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz of Minsk. In 1909, he was appointed First Rabbinate in Lipnishok. During the First World War he moved to serve in the Ivy rabbinate (for about 16 years) and represented the Jewish community before the German occupation authorities and later before the Polish army. In 1931, was elected rabbi of Lomza. He was known as a gifted orator, and headed the eulogies at the funeral of the Hafetz Chaim and Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzanski. At the outbreak of World War II, he fled to Vilnius (Vilna), and, on the recommendation of Rabbi Chaim Ozer, replaced Rabbi Shimon Shkop, who headed the Grodno Yeshiva, which also fled to Vilnius (Vilna). After the Russian occupation, he fled through Russia to Japan, and in 1941, managed to reach the United States and settled in New York. He rejected rabbinical proposals in Eretz Israel and England, and began serving as Rosh Yeshiva at the Yeshiva of Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan in New York and one of the yeshiva's ordained rabbis. He was later appointed honorary president of the United States and Canada Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Moshe Shatzeks died at Tevet 18, 1958, and his coffin was raised for burial on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem. His son, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Shatzeks - Rosh Yeshiva in the Yeshiva of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan.
[1] leaf. Official stationery of Rabbi Moshe Shatzkes. Slight tear at the fold mark on the right. Very good condition.
