Bidspirit auction | KOSSOWSKY, YITZCHOK (1877-1951). Typed Letter

KOSSOWSKY, YITZCHOK (1877-1951). Typed Letter Signed written in Hebrew on letterhead to Rabbi Menahem Papo. A heartbreaking letter concerning a Jewish orphan found abandoned in Nairobi, Kenya. The child only speaks Polish and Rabbi Kossowsky advises that the child’s emotional health will rapidly improve as soon as he begins to learn English. One page. Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday, Parshath Vayigash, 1945. Nephew of the Netziv of Volozhin and brother-in-law of R. Chaim Ozer Grodzenski, R. Yitzchak Kossowsky, left Lithuania for South Africa in 1933 where he became “one of the founding fathers of our South African Jewish Community” (Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein) see https://www.chiefrabbi.co.za/2020/05/pesach-a-community-dedicated-to-heaven-will-endure -forever/ . Rabbi Menachem (Manfred) Papo (1898-1966) was the rabbi of the Rhodes Sephardic community in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now, Zimbabwe). This unique community in Rhodesia was constituted via a wave of immigration from the Greek island of Rhodes earlier in the 20th century. Viennese-born Papo was the rabbi of this community from 1944 until his retirement in 1963.