A very moving letter from Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Rabinowitz of Arsan Adessa – Tel Aviv, 3rd of Adar, 1937, in which he recounts his many troubles and implores for help.
"…The festival of Pesach will be celebrated with joy by the esteemed and honored one, your servant Y.L. Horowitz, may he live long… After all the troubles, sorrows, and many disasters that have befallen us this past year, may it not be repeated, we have been stricken in both property and soul, as you know. Now, we have suffered further, our livelihood is broken, and we find ourselves in terrible deprivation beyond description… Please save us, as His good name is known, and His reward will be immense."
Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Rabinowitz zt”l (1840 – 16th of Cheshvan, 1941), known as "The Rebbe of Arsan, " was the eldest son of Rabbi Pinchas of Kantikuziva, and a descendant of notable Chassidic dynasties including Linitz, Karatz, Tchernobyl, Apter, Berdichev, the Baal HaTanya, Rizhyn, and Savoran. At the age of maturity, he married the daughter of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman of Reskov. In 1910, he began his leadership in Arsan, and in 1923 he immigrated to Eretz Yisrael, where he became the first Rebbe to spread the light of Chassidus in Tel Aviv. He was the uncle of the famed Rabbi Yochanan II of Rachmastrivka, who frequently visited him in Tel Aviv. He is buried on Har HaZeisim near the Rachmastrivka section. His writings were published in "She’arit Yaakov."
