Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen served in the Civil War and went on to become a pioneer in the field of head and neck diseases and surgery.

“our eternal unsolvable problem...is a sickness of the others, and not our own, meaning that the most important thing is not to catch it and to keep our balance—as long as they don’t beat us to death.”

The first issue of the Official Gazette of the Israeli provisional government, contains the first printing of “The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel,” the new nation’s Declaration of Independence. The names of the 37 members of the Provisional Government who signed the document, headed by David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), are listed on the second page.

“May the spirit of Chalutziut [pioneering] from Palestine spur you on to even greater results”

“…Will you help?”

Elaborate receipt for Newport, Rhode Island sale of land from estate of Benjamin Seixas (1747-1817) signed by numerous members of his family and members of the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Congregation who were heirs to the property, known now as the Buliod-Perry House at 29 Touro Street, to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the great naval hero of the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813.

“The darkening clouds in our country’s skies… not just the IDF will be put to a supreme test, but the staying power of the economy as well, and first and foremost our industrial capacity…”

“I am pleased that our State is a secular state and not under a religious regime.… I do not object to the spreading of religion in the way it is done in all democratic states through synagogues, Yeshivas and youth movements…”

“I came to recognize that your service as Foreign Minister was not for the good of the country, although I did not cease to value your talents and dedication....”

“Scientific successes in the 20^th century made for an unprecedented upsurge of the creative force of human genius… Yet, at the same time, they unleashed unheard-of forces of annihilation, of subjugation of many by man, of destruction of the environment. …”

“The idea of perestroika was to free society from totalitarianism, arbitrariness, coercion and violence, to give people freedom, while at the same time bringing about a change in international relations.”

In 1947, as the British mandate over Palestine (established by the League of Nations in 1922) was about to expire, the United Nations called for partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. Jewish leaders accepted the plan, but Arab leaders announced that they would oppose its implementation by force. President Harry Truman had endorsed partition despite opposition within his administration. On March 19, 1948, the U.S. shockingly reversed its position supporting partition; instead it called for a temporary United Nations trusteeship.

David Ben-Gurion, as head of the Jewish Agency, masterfully worked to contain the damage. Less than two months after writing this letter, Ben-Gurion and the recipient of this letter, Rabbi Judah Leib Fishman (Maiman), both would help draft and sign Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

“You understand that the Yiddish edition of the World arose from the need to reach those social strata that were not reached by the German World. It was absolutely necessary to create a periodical which would in a reliable and faithful manner report on Zionist events and the Zionist requirements.”

Though his newspaper Die Welt linked together supporters across three continents. Herzl recognized that, for his vision of a Jewish homeland to become a reality, Western and Eastern Jews would need to join forces, as would the literati and the Yiddish-speaking man-in-the-street. This letter supports Di Velt, the short-lived Yiddish edition launched in 1900, one of Herzl’s attempts to bridge class, cultural and linguistic gaps.

A unique and important artifact of his childhood.