(Rosh Yeshiva of Volozhin, 1832-1913) Autograph Postcard Signed, written in Hebrew to Rabbi Aharon Mendel Cohen (1866-1927), Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in Cairo, Egypt.

BERLIN, CHAIM.

Friday of Parshath Naso

Yelizavetgrad (Kirovograd/ Kropyvnytskyi)

1903

Addressed to Egypt on verso.

Rabbi Berlin writes that he was glad to make Rabbi Cohen’s acquaintance at the Rabbinical Assembly in Cracow. However he feels that another assembly should not be organized at this time, arguing that the Russian rabbis already held one, and it would be difficult to organize the rabbis of Austria, Hungary, and Galicia to come together. Specifically he names: “The Gaon Shmelkes of Lvov, the Gaon Sholom Mordechai HaKohen of Brezan, the Gaon Yitzchak Leib Sofer of Drohobych, his brother Rabbi Simcha Bunim Sofer of Pressburg…”). R. Chaim Berlin was the son of Rabbi Naphtali Zevi Judah Berlin (the Netziv), dean of the Volozhin Yeshivah. R. Chaim served as Rabbi of Moscow, later succeeding his father in Volozhin, until the yeshiva’s forced closure. In later years, he served as Jerusalem’s unofficial, senior consulting rabbi. The prominent Yeshivath R. Chaim Berlin of Brooklyn, New York, was named in his memory.