Maria Edgeworth to Rebecca Gratz - October 01, 1839

Rebecca writes to her brother Ben, sending her deepest condolences on the death of his wife, Maria Gist Gratz. Their niece Sarah adds a note, also expressing her grief.

Rebecca and her brother Joseph send their condolences upon the death of Maria's mother. In addition, Joseph discusses the transport of goods.

Rebecca tells her friend Maria her thoughts about Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe, her impressions of a sermon by a Unitarian preacher, and shares family news, including Issac Hays's graduation from medical school.

The document is a philosophical address, likely by Elie Wiesel, to Rabbi Keermaier on the occasion of his induction into a leadership role. It begins by interpreting the Pirkei Avot passage "Assé lekha rav u'kné leha khaver" (Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend), exploring the complex relationship between a student (hassid) and a teacher (Rebbe). The author reflects on the nature of a true Rav, referencing the compassionate yet suffering Hasidic masters of Wizsnitz. The text then broadens to discuss the current era of global distrust and the unique challenges facing the Jewish people. Citing the destruction of the Temples and centuries of persecution, the author posits that Jewish survival is a mystery sustained by the unwavering commitment to learning the Torah. An anecdote about advising the Dalai Lama on survival in exile underscores this point: the Jews carried the Torah from Jerusalem, and this love of learning preserved their memory and soul. The address concludes by directly encouraging Rabbi Keermaier, emphasizing that his own learning will be central to his new leadership position.

Pearl Herling was born in Budapest, Hungary August 24, 1924 to a religious upper middle class family. Her father was in the wholesale textile business. She describes her family history and pre-war life, antisemitism and discrimination against Jews which peaked in 1938. She also describes the increasingly harsh restrictions against Hungarian Jews between 1940 and 1944 and the creation of ghettos (“Yellow Star Houses”), labor battalions, and cruelty exhibited by Hungarian Nazis. Her father disappeared and never came back. Pearl gives detailed descriptions of her many efforts to stay alive: she never wore the mandatory yellow star, avoided transport to a labor camp, posed as a Gentile using false papers she typed herself, through a bluff managed to get herself and all the people in her building into one of the Swedish “safe” houses established by Raoul Wallenberg and also obtain Schutzpasses. Just before this building was raided, she managed to join her sister at a labor camp in Kelenföld, run by Hungarian Nazis. She describes an incredible vignette of how she, her sister, and her sister’s two young children avoided a roundup, then got papers classifying them as refugees in Russian-occupied Hungary. Her mother and other family members survived under the protection of the head of a German labor camp. She describes her family’s continued struggle living in Budapest posing as non-Jews using false papers, starvation, and near escapes from detection. She refers to a special transport of Hungarian Jews from Bergen-Belsen to Switzerland and a failed attempt to exchange Jews for trucks. She witnessed a death march from Buda. She met and married her second husband while both were posing as non-Jews, and relates how difficult it was for him to get his son back from a Catholic family that sheltered him. Pearl was liberated by the Russians in January 1945. She gives a very extensive and graphic account of her experiences in Hungary under Russian occupation, and many attempts to flee. She also mentions Russian soldiers raping women. Pearl details her husband’s flight from Soviet authorities while she was running two businesses. She describes her own harrowing attempted escapes from Budapest-- one with her sedated infant, another when she was separated from her seven-year old step-son and got arrested, and her final escape to Vienna using an Israeli passport. Pearl and her husband survived in Vienna for two years but experienced discrimination. They emigrated to the United States in 1950.