"Please tell my grandchildren ... David: If he writes me Torah novella, he will receive US dollars from me."
Five letters in the handwriting and signature of the genius of Lomza, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Gordin. Written on postcards to his family from Chicago.
In one of the postcards sent in early October 1922, the genius promises to his grandson US dollars for Torah novellae to be sent to him, in another postcard in which He kept his promise:
"I sent two dollars especially to my grandchildren ... for the Torah novellae." Other postcards deal with things he sent to his family, and other personal matters.
The Genius Rabbi Yehuda Leib Gordin [1853-1925] Rabbi of various cities in Belarus and Poland, and served as Lomza's rabbi at the end of his life, after which he is known as the 'Lomza genius'. In his youth, he studied with Rabbi Moshe Danishevsky. When he was 24 years old, Rabbi of Michalshok died Rabbi Yehuda Leib Cohen Korlitzer, and in his will ordered to appoint Rabbi Gordin under him. He served for nine years in the rabbinate. And in 1886, he moved to serve as a rabbi in the town of Augustov, near Bialystok, which was then part of the Subalek province. Although he was "Mitnaged", he was also accepted by Augustov's hasidic Jews. In 1904 he was elected to serve as Rabbi of Samargon, and established a yeshiva there, attended by about two hundred students.
In 1913, he was elected to serve as Lomza's rabbi, shortly after his appointment, World War I broke out and he dealt with the needs of the city's Jews against its changing authorities. As the city rabbi, also Anxious for the fate of the Lomza Yeshiva and in 1925 traveled to Chicago to raise Donors for the Yeshiva. His appearance in Chicago, giving his speeches in English, made an impression on ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Chicago, and they chose to appoint him as chief rabbi of Chicago. He agreed to accept the appointment, but as he was preparing to take up his post, he fell ill and died in Chicago in May 4, 1925. He was buried at a mass funeral in Chicago. The letters before us all were written during this time when he was a rabbi in Chicago.
[5] Postcards. Some postcards have stains. general condition good - very good.
