A Letter in the Handwriting and With the Signature of Yaakov Yisrael De Haan

A Letter in the Handwriting and With the Signature of Yaakov Yisrael De Haan

A letter in the handwriting and with the signature of Yaakov Israel de Haan, about a year before his murder. Dated: Rosh Chodesh Tevet 1923. 

In the letter De Haan writes to Rabbi Shlomo Roth on behalf of the management of Batei Machse to inform him that he must leave Batei Machse  due to a limitation written in the Batei Machse lawbook, whereby staying in the place is restricted, and he has stayed there for longer than permitted "and we ask he vacates the house immediately". 

Yaakov Israel de Haan [1881-1924], a Jewish jurist, journalist and poet, born in Holland. In 1919, after he became religious and became a Zionist activist, he immigrated to the Land of Israel with the goal of integrating into the Zionist movement. After being rejected by the groups and institutions he wanted to join, he joined the Eida Chareidit group and had a close relationship with Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. He began to take action against the Zionist Yishuv and often attacked Zionism and its leaders. Among other things he organized an ultra-orthodox delegation to Abdullah King of Jordan. In 1924, as he left the synagogue after afternoon prayers and walked onto Jaffa Street, De Haan was murdered with three shots by an assassin whose identity was never revealed in what is considered the first political assassination in the Land of Israel. [Over the years several names of leaders of the underground movements of the Zionist Yishuv were raised as being involved and responsible for the assassination]. 

[1] official paper leaf of 'The Committee of Clerks and Administrators of the Holy Land in Jerusalem', 21x28 cm. Slight scribbles with no damage to text. Fine condition.