Bidspirit auction | (ZIONISM). PATTERSON, JOHN HENRY. AUTOGRAPH

(ZIONISM). PATTERSON, JOHN HENRY. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED written in English to Rabbi Leib Aisack Falk. Eight pages. 8vo. With original autograph stamped envelope. London (The Cavalry Club), 23rd December, 1920. An Irish Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, John Henry Patterson (1867-1947) was an ardent Zionist who commanded the Zion Mule Corps during WWI. Leib Aisack Falk (1889-1957) was a Lithuanian-Australian rabbi, who studied under Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. During WWI he was stationed in Egypt and Palestine where he was chaplain of the First Judeans (formally the 38th-40th Royal Fusiliers). In later years he had an eventful public life serving as rabbi in Sydney, Australia. Patterson assumes here a friendly tone, addressing Chaplain Falk as “My dear Padre.” Patterson, who was also a writer, refers to the book he had written but not yet published: This was his “With the Judaeans in the Palestine Campaign” (London, 1922). THROUGHOUT THE LETTER ARE SENTENCES THAT CASUALLY SHOW MEN BESTRIDING HISTORY: * “I am very sorry to hear that affairs are not in a promising condition in Palestine, everything is in a state of flux… * “It is very regrettable to hear that the Judians are now down to only 70 men… * “I have done all I could here & so has Jabotinsky who is a tower of strength to the cause here… * “Weizmann tells me all is now settled and that although the mandate is a bit vague it is the best he could get out of the govt… * “I luncheoned with the Emir Feizal the other day, he seems to be a quiet unassuming young man…Weizman was there too so it was a very interesting meeting.” At his reburial ceremony in Israel in 2010, the Prime Minister of Israel said of Patterson: ”He was the godfather of the Israeli army, a great friend of our people, a great champion of Zionism and a great believer in the Jewish State.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Patterson_(author).