Three (Brief) Letters Handwritten and Signed by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski

Three (Brief) Letters Handwritten and Signed by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski
Three letters handwritten and signed by R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski of Vilna. One from the 1890s, and two from 1924.
• The first letter is addressed to the administrators of the charity fund in Jerusalem, regarding 72 silver rubles he is sending them from the inheritance of R. Mordechai of Minsk (see previous item). He instructs them to distribute the money "following the directives of R. Shmuel Salant". [Vilna, ca. 1892].
• The other two letters are brief notes, written in Nisan 1924, addressed to the "Tzag office" (the Tzedaka Gedola fund), and contain instructions regarding the distribution of charity monies to various needy individuals. In the letter dated 10th Nisan, he instructs to give him "according to the protocol", and in the letter from 12th Nisan, he writes to give a Jew whose name was omitted from the list, the sum of "25 million mark" (the letter was written during the hyperinflation of 1923-1925, following WWI, whence the value of the German mark plummeted, to the point that a million mark sufficed only to buy two loaves of bread…).
R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) was a foremost rabbi of his generation and leader of the entire European Jewry. He was the son of R. David Shlomo Grodzinski Rabbi of Iwye. He was renowned from his childhood for his exceptional brilliance. He entered the Volozhin yeshiva at the young age of 11, and became a disciple of R. Chaim of Brisk. At the age of 24, he was appointed rabbi and posek of Vilna, in place of his father-in-law R. Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnansky posek in Vilna, son-in-law of R. Yisrael Salanter. He assumed the yoke of public leadership from a young age, and for close to fifty years, his opinion was conclusive on all communal matters which arose throughout the Diaspora. The first letter discloses that even as a young rabbi (under the age of 30), R. Chaim Ozer already governed communal matters, with his broad viewpoint and authority. The other two letters provide an interesting documentation of his engagement in charity matters in his city, Vilna, down to the finest details, including providing instructions for distribution to needy individuals. It must be noted that at that time, R. Chaim Ozer already bore the burden of the entire Jewish nation - including Agudath Israel matters, the rabbinic positions in various communities worldwide, assisting Jews in Bolshevik Russia and Russian refugees, and the responsibility for the survival of the Lithuanian and Polish yeshivot and Jewish education.
Three letters, one of them on official stationery. 6.5-13 cm. Good condition. Stains and creases.