Rare Zionist Autograph letter handwritten and signed by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, New York 1940

$6,500.00

1 in stock

Autograph letter handwritten and signed by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, addressed to the philanthropist Yefim Kirshner. Sent from New York, May 1940. Three and a half handwritten pages, in Russian.

In the letter, Jabotinsky asks Kirshner for a donation of $15,000 to finance his activities in the United States and to advance his principal objective: the creation of a united Zionist front that would demand Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel.

At the beginning of the letter, Jabotinsky writes about the grave situation in Europe and the growing need for a new refuge for Jewish war refugees—namely, the Land of Israel:

“I believe that by the end of the war there will be several million homeless Jews—so utterly homeless that we will have nowhere to send them except to the ‘Jewish State.’ The great powers will find no country for this purpose other than Palestine (although at the moment it seems they are about to find one)… Britain will not object, and no one will take the Arabs into consideration.”

Jabotinsky then discusses the difficulties of securing the support of American Jewry and of building a united Zionist front, emphasizing the crucial importance of this mission:

“This is, of course, the last great undertaking of my life. It is especially difficult because everyone here is asleep—Zionists and assimilationists alike—and I am treated as anyone always is, everywhere, when trying to awaken others… Our people are perishing in Eastern Europe, and the final hour has now arrived in which our generation can fulfill its historic mission…”

Toward the end of the letter, Jabotinsky writes about his son, who was being held in detention in the Land of Israel. (In 1937, Ari Jabotinsky was arrested by the British Mandatory authorities following his involvement in retaliatory operations against Arab attackers.)

Jabotinsky arrived in the United States in 1940 as part of a Revisionist Zionist delegation campaigning for the establishment of a Jewish army. During this visit, he suffered a fatal heart attack and died. Only Jabotinsky himself was aware of his heart condition during his final years, and he regarded this mission to America as the last great undertaking of his life—a sentiment clearly reflected in the present letter.

[4] pages. 28 cm. Good condition. Slight creases. Filing holes. Slight tears in the margins.