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Judaica and Hasidic Books and Manuscripts

Lot 93:

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Historic 1953 Bilingual Rosh Hashanah Greeting Card – "Batei-Avot" Orphans Home of Ponevezh Yeshiva, Signed in Print by the Ponevezher Rav, Rabbi J. Kahaneman (Dated תשי"ד)

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Start price: £100

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Description

A beautiful and deeply moving piece of post-Holocaust institutional ephemera, capturing the historic rebuilding of the Torah world and the rescue of surviving children in the early years of the State of Israel.

  • Overview & Date: An official folded seasonal greeting card (L’Shanah Tovah), featuring stylized artistic typography in parallel Hebrew and English blocks. It is explicitly dated to the eve of the New Year: Erev Rosh Hashonoh 5714 (ערב תשי"ד / September 1953).
  • The Institutional Context: The card was published by "Batei-Avot" (בתי אבות), the dedicated network of orphanages and homes for rescued children ("Homes for Rescued Children / פנימיות לילדים ניצולי הגולה") established in Kiryat HaYeshiva, Bnei Brak. Founded in the shadow of the Holocaust, these homes were a crowning achievement of chessed, providing a haven for European youth who lost their entire families in the camps.
  • The Leadership: The seasonal blessings are formally extended on behalf of the children by the visionary builder of post-war Orthodoxy, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (הגאון רבי יוסף שלמה כהנמן זצ"ל / known universally as the Ponevezher Rav), whose printed signature appears at the base of both language tracks.
  • The Poetic Blessings: The inner panels contain moving, rhythmic blessings printed in an elegant mid-century typeface, expressing hopes for a year of life, prosperity, peace, and beautifully echoing the post-WWII reality: "A year of reunion and return unto our Holy Land / שנת ושבו בנים לגבולם".
  • Collector’s Highlight: Early ephemera from the foundational years of Kiryat Ponovezh in Bnei Brak are highly sought after by collectors of modern Judaica. Documenting the intersection of elite Lithuanian yeshiva history, post-war survivor rescue, and early Israeli institutional design, this card serves as a visually striking and historic exhibition piece.
  • Notable Connection — The Greenhouse of Giants: This folder card carries immense historical and biographical prestige. The "Batei-Avot" homes under the Ponevezher Rav successfully raised shattered war orphans into the premier rabbinic elite of the Jewish world. Among the famous figures who grew up and spent their youth inside these exact Batei-Avot dormitories are Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein (Preeminent global Posek and member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah), Rabbi Avraham Dov Auerbach (the legendary Chief Rabbi of Tiberias), Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman (Chief Rabbi of the Federation in London), and Professor Avner Shaki (renowned legal scholar and Israeli Minister of Religious Affairs).

Condition report:

Status: Very Good Antique Condition.


Physical Dimensions (Folded): Approx. 11.5×15 cm (4.5×5.9 inches).

Details: The multi-panel folded greeting card is structurally complete, secure, and textually flawless. The cardboard stock displays a beautiful, uniform natural cream aging patina with a very faint, minor moisture tone line along the upper margin of the cover page, well removed from any text boundaries. The printed Hebrew and English typography, emblems, and titles remain 100% sharp, bold, and perfectly distinct.