Letter from Rabbi Yosef Elimelech Kahana Rabbi of Ungvar - Ungvar, 1942 - About a Rabbinic Convention during the ...

Letter from Rabbi Yosef Elimelech Kahana Rabbi of Ungvar - Ungvar, 1942 - About a Rabbinic Convention during the Holocaust and the Abuse of Hungarian Jews
Letter handwritten and signed by R. Yosef Elimelech Kahana Rabbi of Ungvar and the region. Ungvar (Uzhhorod), 1942.
Addressed to his colleague R. Shmuel Sanvil Kahana-Fränkel, head of the Central Bureau of Orthodox Jewry in Hungary. In the letter, he writes: "I would have very much wanted to attend this important convention… but from the time we became one nation, just once… I travelled by train to a convention in Pest. Besides that time, I did not travel by train because I do not have the necessary documents. Last week, someone arrived here from Chop. His long beard was shaved on the train. Certainly, if I was able to travel, I would do so, but it is impossible… Yosef Elimelech Kahana".
R. Yosef Elimelech Kahana (1866-1944, perished in the Holocaust), was a leading rabbi and yeshiva dean in Hungary. Disciple of R. Shlomo Ganzfried, author of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, and of the Shevet Sofer, he served as Rabbi of Hernád-Zsadány (Zsadány) from 1892 in place of his father R. Yitzchak Isak Kahana. In 1917, he moved to serve as Rabbi of Bonyhád, and in 1923, of Tzelem (Deutschkreutz). In 1931, he was appointed Rabbi of the large city of Ungvar and its region. In all these places, he headed a large yeshiva and taught thousands of disciples. Among his renowned disciples: R. Shmuel HaLevi Wosner, author of Shevet HaLevi, R. Menasheh Klein Rabbi of Ungvar, author of Mishneh Halachot, R. Yaakov Snyders Rabbi of Basel, R. Amram Blum Chief Rabbi of Argentina, R. Yekutiel Yehuda Greenwald Rabbi of Columbus. His writings, novellae on Talmudic topics and responsa, were destroyed in the Holocaust, and remnants of his novellae and responsa were published in the book Chiddushei R. Yosef Elimelech HaKohen (Jerusalem, 1969), by his grandson R. Yitzchak Isak Jungreis. Beit Yisrael HaShalem (Taussig, part VIII, p. 211) relates in the name of his disciple R. Simcha Bunem David Sofer, that R. Yosef Elimelech Kahana Rabbi of Ungvar would recite the Akdamot on Shavuot with great passion, declaring that whoever listened carefully to his Akdamot recital, was sure to repent before his death.
[1] leaf, official stationery. 23 cm. Approx. 14 autograph lines and signature. Very good condition.