Historic & important long letter by the Gaon Rabbi Yeshaya Fuerst Rabbi of Vienna. Discussing his plans to ...

Historic & important long letter by the Gaon Rabbi Yeshaya Fuerst Rabbi of Vienna. Discussing his plans to immigrate to Israel.

Wonderful letter by Rabbi Yeshaya Fuerst Av Beit Din of Kehal Adat Yisrael " Schiffshul " in Vienna - About his longing & desire to immigrate to Israel.

Written in poetic verses. See Hebrew description for a partial transcription.

Resort town Semmering, 1933?

Rabbi Yeshaya Fuerst (1856-1943), a leading disciple of the Ktav Sofer and son of the Shevet Sofer in the Pressburg Yeshiva. Son of Rabbi Moshe Av Beit Din of Maros-Vásárhely, author of Mareh Moshe and son-in-law of Rabbi Shalom Kutna Av Beit Din Eisenstadt. For over 70 years he taught Torah. From 1881, he served as Av Beit Din of Tyrnau and there established a yeshiva. In 1895, he moved to serve in the Eperies rabbinate and in 1897, served as Rabbi of the Orthodox community Kehal Adat Yisrael – the Schiffshul in Vienna (succeeding Rabbi Zalman Shpitzer son-in-law of the Chatam Sofer, the first rabbi of the Charedi community in Vienna), and was known as one of the greatest rabbis of his times.

Many of the members of his community were active in the Agudat Yisrael movement. Rabbi Fuerst participated in the large Agudat Yisrael conventions and was a member of Mo'etzet Gedolei HaTorah. He had close connections with leading Rebbes who lived in Vienna concerning public matters. In 1938, he moved to London and was appointed chairman of the Mo’etzet Gedolei HaTorah in England. He died at the age of 87. Some of his Torah teachings were printed in the book Chazon Yeshaya (Brooklyn, 1986).

Written to his disciple David-Zvi Pinkas (1895 –1952)  who was a Zionist activist and Israeli politician. A signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence, he was the country's third Minister of Transport.

Born in Sopron in Austria-Hungary (today in Hungary), Pinkas attended high school in Vienna where he was a disciple of Rabbi Fuerst , before studying at the yeshiva in Pressburg.

In 1923, he was a delegate to the 13th Zionist congress, and two years later immigrated to Mandate Palestine. He became director of Bank Mizrahi in 1932, the same year in which he was elected to Tel Aviv city council. Three years later he was appointed head of the city's education department.

In 1944 he became a member of the Assembly of Representatives, and between 1947 and 1948 served as a member of the Jewish National Council's directorate. In 1948 he was one of the people to sign the Israeli declaration of independence. During the subsequent Arab-Israeli War, he was one of the leaders of the security committee.

Following independence, Pinkas assumed membership of the Provisional State Council, and was responsible for drawing up the regulations for the council's committees. In Israel's first elections in 1949 he was elected to the Knesset as a member of the United Religious Front, an alliance of Agudat Yisrael, Poalei Agudat Yisrael, Mizrachi (Pinkas' party) and Hapoel HaMizrachi, and served as chairman of the influential finance committee. In 1950, he was also elected Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv.  Ramat Pinkas was named after him.