Bidspirit auction | SHAPIRA, AVRAHAM DOVBER KAHANE (Chief

SHAPIRA, AVRAHAM DOVBER KAHANE (Chief Rabbi of Kovno, 1873–1943). Autograph Letter Signed, written in Hebrew on letterhead. One page. Kovno, 6th Nissan, 1940. Direct descendant of R. Chaim of Volozhin, the last Chief Rabbi of Kovno and one of the great leaders of Lithuanian Jewry. R. Kahana-Shapiro’s three-volume scholarly responsa “Dvar Avraham” gained him the greatest respect in Rabbinic circles. A disciple of the Volozhin Yeshiva, he was the son of R. Zalman Sender Kahane Shapira and son-in-law of the ”Minsk Gadol” R. Yerucham Yehuda Leib Perlman. R. Kahana-Shapiro was in Switzerland for health reasons when the WWII broke out. His son, who was living in the United States, sent him papers to join him in America. His father’s response was “The captain is the last to abandon his sinking ship, not the first. At this time of danger, my place is with the people of my city. I am going to Kovno” (Devar Avraham, Vol. I p. 3). He died in the Kovno Ghetto in 1943. His selfless guidance is frequently and reverently recounted in R. Ephraim Oshry’s Holocaust responsa, Shu”T Mima’amakim, which records the heartrending Halachic questions Rabbis Shapira and Oshry were asked by their pious flock. (Note: The Soviets began their occupation of Lithuania two months after this letter was written. The Nazi’s would arrive one year after that).