Letter from the Heads of the Vaad HaKlali in the United States, to Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar – Regarding the ...

Letter from the Heads of the Vaad HaKlali in the United States, to Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar – Regarding the Institutions Polemic of R. Michel HaKohen – Exposing the Attitude of the Vaad HaKlali in Jerusalem to the Maharil Diskin – United States, 1894
Original copy of an important, unknown letter, sent from the United States to Eretz Israel, to the Rishon L'Tzion R. Yaakov Shaul Elyashar – the Yisa Bracha, from the administrators of the Vaad HaKlali in New York. New York, [ca. 1893-1894].
Written on the official stationery of R. Dov Ber Abramovich, one of the rabbis of New York and heads of the Vaad HaKlali. It appears that some of the copying is handwritten by R. Dov Ber himself. The head of the paper contains a handwritten title: "Copying of the body of the letter from Rashi script".
This letter was presumably written during the rift between institutions in Jerusalem, in 1893, when the scribe R. Michel HaKohen, who originally served as the secretary of the institutions of the Ashkenazi community and was one of the city's most dynamic activists, was dismissed together with his son and son-in-law R. Chaim Michel Michlin from their positions in the Etz Chaim Talmud Torah and the Bikur Cholim Hospital. They went over to serve the Sephardi community as secretaries of the Misgav LaDach institutions, taking with them the "Donors lists" of the Ashkenazi institutions and doing whatever they could to cause detriment to the fundraising of the institutions they were fired from.
This letter relates to the letter published in the HaTzvi newspaper by the three dismissed secretaries, where they contested and slandered R. Shmuel Salant, and responds to what was said in that letter in the name of R. Elyashar. The writers protest about these rumors: " …Who if not for you know of the piety of R. Shmuel Salant, who can account for every penny…", and counter the contentions of the three secretaries who wish to summon the Ashkenazi community to a Din Torah before the Maharil Diskin of Brisk. The writers explain why the Ashkenazi community will not agree to be judged before the Maharil Diskin on this matter, since "the true Torah scholar from Brisk, in his great holiness and piousness, is very far removed from this whole affair, and he is completely uninvolved in the management of Jerusalem… and in particular regarding charity funds, it is not something he can judge about, since he is a concerned party, as we all know. How much ink has been spilt and how many quills were broken over the funds of this great scholar, who established an orphanage… and no generous or respected rabbi and scholar will be comfortable encroaching on this charity fund, and the whole existence of these funds which support the orphanage is only due to the respect for this elder…".
[1] leaf, official stationery. 27.5 cm. Written on both sides. Fair-good condition. Many stains and wear.