Historic 1962 NYU Document Signed by Dr. Abraham Katsh & Faculty to Israeli President Itzhak Ben-Zvi
Description
Overview: An exceptional, multi-signed official institutional letter dated July 19, 1962, composed on the official letterhead of New York University (NYU) Graduate School of Arts and Science, typed from the Institute of Hebrew Studies at Washington Square, New York.
Recipient: The letter is addressed directly to the second President of the State of Israel, President Itzhak Ben-Zvi (הנשיא יצחק בן-צבי), at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.
Content: Dr. Katsh and his assembly express their deepest gratitude to President Ben-Zvi for personally receiving their NYU academic delegation at the Ben-Zvi Institute on July 7th. The text beautifully commends President Ben-Zvi’s tireless dedication to the academic understanding of prophetic teachings and notes how a combined stress on Biblical scholarship can serve to elevate humanity as a whole.
Main Author: Written and personally signed by Dr. Abraham Isaac Katsh (פרופ’ אברהם יצחק כ"ץ; 1908–1998). Dr. Katsh was a towering 20th-century educator who persuaded NYU to offer the first modern Hebrew course at any American university in 1933. He famously discovered and microfilmed thousands of hidden Hebrew manuscripts and Cairo Genizah fragments from behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
The Signatures: In addition to Dr. Katsh, the document features a remarkable, dense block of 15 handwritten ink signatures from the leading professors, Semitic language scholars, and theologians of the NYU Institute of Hebrew Studies (including W. B. West Jr. and future seminary president Robert Cooley).
Dr. Abraham I. Katsh – Director of the Institute of Hebrew Studies; renowned author and manuscript researcher.
Norman Hoeg – Academic Administrator and Graduate School Registrar.
Sylvio J. Scorza – Professor of Semitic Languages and Biblical Text Interpretation.
Joseph L. Mifelic – Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Literature.
Dr. J. G. Williams – Scholar of Semitic Languages and Near Eastern Civilizations.
Robert Cooley NYU Graduate Fellow; later prominent archaeologist and Seminary President.
Wendell Stearns – Professor of Biblical Studies and Early Religious History.
Charles M. Connoy – University Academic Administrator.
Francis Neal – Professor of Theology and Near Eastern Literature.
S. Irwin Shuman – Distinguished Professor of Law and Philosophy.
Henry Mullickan – Academic Fellow in Semitic Languages.
Treillis E. Bishop – Academic Researcher and Institute Coordinator.
W. B. West, Jr. – Eminent Biblical Scholar, Author, and Pioneer of Religious Studies.
G. T. Whittington – University Academic Administrator.
Milo Chapman – Prominent Professor of Theology and Biblical Literature.
Phyllis J. Scorza – Academic Researcher and Language Educator.
Auction Premium: This item is uniquely paired with an original Hebrew attachment slip secured by a vintage paperclip, serving as a rare artifact connecting early American secular Hebrew academia with the highest echelons of Israeli statehood.
Condition report:
Status: Excellent Archival Condition.
Details: The paper is clean, bright, and structurally sound. It exhibits original, uniform horizontal folding creases from its historic mailing to Jerusalem. The typed text is crisp, and all 16 original handwritten signatures in blue and dark ink are perfectly preserved, rich in colour, and completely legible without any fading.
