A historic handwritten letter by Rabbi Chaim ben Attar (1696-1743), the revered author of the biblical commentary "Or HaChaim," sold for $700,000 (2.5 million shekels) at auction in Jerusalem Wednesday. The sale, conducted by Kedem auction house, includes an additional 25 percent commission fee.

The manuscript, which emerged from a comprehensive collection assembled by Attorney Dr. Avigdor Klagsbald, features the distinctive signature of Rabbi Chaim ben Attar and addresses the religious judges of Meknes regarding tax relief for a community member. The letter was discovered within a remarkable volume containing hundreds of manuscripts and signatures from prominent 18th-century Moroccan Torah scholars, including Rabbi Yaakov ibn Tzur and Rabbi Yehudah ben Attar.

Rabbi Chaim ben Attar's legacy extends far beyond this single document. As a leading advocate for Jewish immigration to the land of Israel, he led by example during a period of severe persecution and famine in Morocco. These challenging circumstances not only influenced his decision to immigrate but also impacted the writing of his seminal work "Or HaChaim," where he acknowledged variations in commentary length due to the period's upheavals.

In a remarkable journey that would shape Jerusalem's religious landscape, Rabbi Chaim ben Attar arrived first in Acre with 30 students, intending to establish a yeshiva. After navigating through epidemics in the Galilee, he eventually settled in Jerusalem, where he purchased a historic courtyard – traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, commonly known as the Ari, two centuries earlier – and established his study hall.

Despite his Sephardic background, Rabbi Chaim ben Attar achieved unprecedented recognition among Hasidic communities throughout Europe, with his writings becoming cornerstone texts in Hasidic thought. The study hall he founded demonstrated similar resilience, surviving the 1948 Jordanian destruction of Jewish institutions and later undergoing renovation on Or HaChaim Street in the Jewish Quarter following the Six-Day War.

Rabbi Chaim ben Attar's influence continues well beyond his brief life, which ended at age 47 in 1743. His tomb on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives serves as a significant pilgrimage site, drawing thousands annually who seek blessings at the final resting place of this influential Jewish scholar.

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The world's oldest and most complete Hebrew Bible sold for $38.1 million on Wednesday, Sotheby's said, one of the highest prices ever for a book or document sold at auction.

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Wednesday's winning bid for the Codex Sassoon was made via a donation by Alfred H. Moses, a former US ambassador and president of the American Jewish Committee, who is giving it to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. 

The price surpasses the $30.8 million paid in 1994 for Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester manuscript, Sotheby's said. But it was below the estimated $50 million that Sotheby's said in February it could sell for and below the $43.2 million paid in 2021 for a first edition of the US Constitution, the world record for any book or document.

The Codex Sassoon, written around the year 900, is named after a previous owner, David Solomon Sassoon, who acquired the Bible in 1929 and assembled one of the most significant private collections of Judaica and Hebraica manuscripts of the 20th century.

The document offers a critical link bridging Jewish oral tradition to the modern Hebrew Bible. It was not until recently that former owner, collector Jacqui Safra, had the Codex Sassoon carbon dated, confirming it was older than the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, two other major early Hebrew Bibles, according to Sotheby's. The auctioneer said the Codex Sassoon had been dated to either the late 9th or early 10th century on both scientific and paleographic grounds and contains almost the entirety of the Bible. The oldest copies of Biblical text ever found were the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in caves in 1947.

The Hebrew Bible contains 24 separate books organized into three parts – the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings. Starting with the book of Genesis and ending with Chronicles, the Hebrew Bible is foundational to Judaism, as well as Christianity and Islam.

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The anonymous seller of the Nazi tattoo kit that is said to have been used on prisoners in the Auschwitz extermination camp informed the Tel Aviv District Court Thursday that he planned to bring the matter to a conclusion by donating the items to the Haifa Holocaust Museum.

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The auction of the controversial items was announced by the Tzolman Auction house several weeks ago. Following outrage by Holocaust survivors, the Tel Aviv District Court temporarily halted the sale. The Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors filed a lawsuit against the auction house and the owner in an attempt to prevent the sale of the dies altogether.

During the first hearing on Tuesday, the head of the auction house, Meir Tzolman, asked for the name of the seller to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the matter. The court informed the seller's lawyers that he had eight days to make a decision with regard to the conflict over the items, which is when he decided to donate the items.

In a letter to the court, the seller explained that as someone who works in the field of Holocaust history and purchases items to keep its memory alive, he did not expect the auction to cause a storm.

The letter also stressed that all along the owner meant to sell the kits to "an individual who would then donate it to a Holocaust commemorative organization," rather than to someone unsuitable.

The owner pointed out that "while he has no legal obligation to give away the items, he is willing to do so in light of the fact that at the end of the day, his only goal is to act for the commemoration of the Holocaust."

He has decided to donate the dies to the Yad Ezer L'Haver ("Helping Hand to Friends") organization that runs the Haifa Holocaust Museum and works with survivors.

The matter did not sit well, however, with the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors that wanted the items to be transferred to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.

The seller has made his decision known to the court and it is now up to them to decide the fate of the items.

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Twenty-six years removed since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a piece of memorabilia from his early days in the Palmach, the underground pre-state fighting force of the Haganah, the paramilitary organization that was the precursor to the IDF, will be publicly auctioned by Pentagon – Auction house on Sunday, October 3.

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The extremely rare item is a personal notebook that belonged to Rabin, containing the signature of his code name at the time – "Amiram."

In 1941, while still a student at Kaduri Agricultural High School, Rabin was among the first to join the Palmach, which was established that same year. Four years later, in 1945, he was appointed deputy commander of the organization's first battalion. In 1946, then-Palmach commander Yigal Allon tabbed Rabin to lead another battalion, and a year later the young officer was appointed to head the Palmach's operations branch.

The notebook presently up for auction, which despite the many years that have passed is still in extraordinarily good condition, is a rare copy of a weapons instruction manual issued to Palmach members. The notebook, as stated, was signed by the future Israeli premier with his underground code name, Amiram.

According to the auction house, Rabin's signature likely makes the manual a one-of-a-kind.

"This is an extremely unique item, which came from an estate left behind by a friend of Yitzhak Rabin," said Eyal Ilya, the owner of Pentagon – Auction house. "What's special is that this is the first time we see the name 'Amiram,' Rabin's code name. This is an unmatched historical item – the only one in the world."

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An unusual item has recently arrived at the Appel Auction house in New York.

Collectors will soon have the chance to bid on the wheelchair that belonged to the leading 19-century Chabad Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.

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Schneersohn was the sixth Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch Hassidic movement, potentially leading to great interest among collectors and Chabad members.

The auction house published photos and letters attesting to the item's authenticity. Based on the items, Schneersohn used to have two wheelchairs. One was kept at the Chabad World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, New York, while the other was used by Schneersohn for community events.

The wheelchair currently on auction was gifted by Schneersohn's grandson, Shalom Ber Gourary, to Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch.

"My grandfather has two wheelchairs. This chair [referring to the photo] shows that he used it to go to events," he wrote in a letter. In one of the photos, Schneersohn is seen using the wheelchair at a Chabad event in 1943, seven years prior to his death.

Schneerson was the last Chabad Rebbe to live in the town of Lubavitch, a town that was at the time under Tsarist Russia's control and today is part of Belarus. In 1920 he became the leader of the movement after his father, the fifth Rebbe, Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, passed away.

In 1927, he was sentenced to death without trial for operating a secret network of Jewish schools, a matter illegal at the time. As a result of international pressure, he was instead sent to exile to the city of Kostroma, more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Moscow. After his release, again due to international pressure, he was allowed to leave Russia. He moved to Latvia, and eventually to the United States.

In 1940, he purchased the famous 770 building in New York. After passing away in 1950, his son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, took over.

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Israel's premier museum for Islamic art has scrapped the planned auction of scores of rare and precious items after public outcry over the attempted sale, which had been expected to fetch millions of dollars from wealthy private collectors.

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In a settlement struck Wednesday, the Sotheby's auction house agreed to return 268 items from London back to the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem.

The agreement ends a saga that drew broad condemnation and threatened to gut one of Israel's prized public art collections. Art experts criticized the attempted sale to private collectors, saying it had been hidden from the public and violated the museum's founding mission to edify the Israeli public about the Islamic world through art.

As part of the arrangement, the Al Thani Collection Foundation, an art foundation funded by a descendent of the ruling family of the energy-rich Gulf Arab state of Qatar, "will generously provide an annual sponsorship to the LA Mayer Museum for Islamic Art" for 10 years, while one of the Islamic Art Museum's pieces will be given on long-term loan to the Al Thani Collection's gallery at the Hotel de la Marine in Paris.

Haaretz said that Sotheby's would receive a 2 million pound cancellation fee. Neither Sotheby's nor the museum would provide details on the fee or the annual funding for the museum, though the auction house said "given the circumstances, Sotheby's reduced its withdrawal fees."

The item to be loaned is an intricately decorated, 11th-century silver jug, part of a hoard of silver objects discovered in the early 20th century near Nivahand, in northeastern Iran. The item was purchased early last century by art collector Ralph Harari, who later sold it to the museum's founder, Vera Salomons.

An Arabic inscription beneath a frieze of running animals on the jug reads: "Perfect blessing, lasting wealth, abundant happiness and overall security to its owner." It was not one of the items originally up for auction at Sotheby's in October sale.

Israel and Qatar do not have formal diplomatic relations, but contacts exist to facilitate Qatar's transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Sotheby's said it had facilitated the cooperation between the Islamic Art Museum and the Al Thani Collection.

The Islamic Art Museum and the Hermann de Stern Foundation, which had initiated the Sotheby's auction, welcomed the agreement, saying it "will ensure the continued operation of the museum over time."

"This is a truly momentous final outcome and we are thrilled to be partnering with The Al Thani Collection Foundation in this way to further our shared aims of increasing cultural exchange, while allowing the museum to continue to enhance art and culture for the benefit of the Israeli public and art lovers," the museum and the foundation said in a joint statement.

The Al Thani Collection said it was "very pleased to play a part in the survival of a unique institution that makes a meaningful difference to the communities around it."

The items from the museum's collection, including several centerpiece objects and prized antique watches, were slated for auction at Sotheby's in October. The Hermann de Stern Foundation, a Liechtenstein-based trust that funds the bulk of the museum's budget, said the sale was aimed at covering the cost of maintaining the institution. It insisted that it had the legal right to sell the items.

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The Hashava Foundation, an Israeli art theft prevention organization, petitioned the Supreme Court in November to halt the auction. It said the sale was "in gross violation" of Israel's laws governing museums and antiquities, and that it would cause "irreversible damage and major loss to the general public."

Meir Heller, Hashava's founder, said the organization was proud that the petition "achieved its aim and brought about the return of this rare and precious collection to Israel and its exhibition for the public."

The museum was established in the 1960s by Vera Frances Bryce Salomons, the scion of a British-Jewish aristocratic family who died in 1969, and named for Leo Arie Mayer, a prominent scholar of the Middle East. It is home to thousands of Islamic artifacts dating from the 7th to the 19th centuries. It also has a collection of antique watches handed down by the Salomons family, including dozens by the famed Parisian horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet. His timepieces adorned European royalty in the 17th and 18th centuries, including Marie Antoinette.

Among the items that were to be auctioned were a 15th-century Ottoman helm inlaid in silver calligraphy, a 12th-century bowl depicting a Persian prince and a collection of antique watches, including three designed by Breguet.

The removal of the artwork drew public outcry by President Reuven Rivlin, Culture Minister Hili Tropper, museum curators and academics, and forced the postponement and eventual halt to the auction.

"I am delighted that all our strenuous efforts to preserve intact the entirety of the collection of the L.A. Mayer Museum have come to such a successful conclusion," Tropper said, saying the Al Thani Collection Foundation's "generosity is a great tribute to the spirit of cross-cultural cooperation."

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The Petach Tikva Magistrate Court on Thursday accepted the state's request to delay the auction of historic items held by the Royal Pentagon Auction House. The court is set to hold a hearing on Dec. 14 in the presence of both parties.

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The auction house has recently put up for sale the recording reels of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, which include the documentation of the Declaration of Independence, former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel, and interviews with other important historical figures.

More items in the auction include an ivory key Israel's second president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, received as a gift in 1962 during his trip to Liberia, and a notebook classified as top-secret with the summary of the Sinai Campaign in 1956 written two days after the completion of the war.

The state attorney's office appealed to the court to issue an injunction preventing the sale of items of such historical and cultural importance.

The office explained in its request that the items are part of Israel's cultural assets and therefore belong to the state. The intention behind the request was to ensure that the items would not be sold to private persons and to ensure that the items would not be irreversibly damaged.

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Amitai Hazan Tiroche, managing director of Tiroche Auction House, explained that "Jacob's Ladder" was infamously stolen from the Gordon Auction House in 1996, several days before it was set to be offered to the public. It was discovered more than 23 years later, and after undergoing a short legal process, was bequeathed by an Israeli court to the insurance company that had underwritten it.

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"The painting depicts one of the most important biblical stories, symbolizing the history of the Jewish people and the Land of Israel," said Tiroche. "The ladder links the earth with heaven, and the angels rise and fall, alluding to the Divine prophecy descending upon human beings."

He added that "Chagall chose not to depict the scene in utopian colors, but rather to use dramatic colors according to the painting period of 1973 to 1974, near the difficult time of the Yom Kippur War."

In another version of the painting, which was completed in the 1950s, Tiroche maintained that Chagall used similar colors, but there is a marked difference in the "colors of war" he used in the to-be-auctioned painting, showing that perhaps the war was indeed difficult for the artist.

Chagall, the eldest of nine children, was born in 1887 to hassidic parents in Lithuania. He was said to have felt the need to document Jewish life, particularly shtetl life in Russia, which was in the process of great change and eventually rewritten by two world wars. He spent much time in France, steeped in its "Golden Age" of artistic styles, before fleeing Europe for the United States in 1941. Chagall was lauded for his use of color, and not only worked in oils but stained glass, examples of which include the famed windows at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. He returned to France after World War II, working and living there until his death in 1985 at the age of 97.

Tiroche is the grandson of Jean Tiroche, a Holocaust survivor who established the first art gallery in Tel Aviv in the 1950s after immigrating from Poland to Israel, going on to become an art dealer both there and in the United States. Although he did not appreciate it when he was a teenager, Tiroche told JNS that he used to frequent art museums with his grandfather, which he must have internalized into his DNA, he said, as he is now an "enthusiastic art collector."

The Tiroche Auction House was founded in 1992 by Jean Tiroche's son-in-law, Dov Hazan, and son, Mickey Tiroche, and was later joined by Galia and Amitai, the children of Hazan and Tiroche's daughter Orna.

'Increasing interest across the art world'

Though many bidders are owners of Israeli companies, CEOs and oligarchs from the top 1%-2% of the Israeli economy, Tiroche said those seeking Israeli contemporary art have come from all over the world, including the United States, Australia, South America, and China.

With a collection that spans the decades of pre-state Israel through the 1960s abstract era and contemporary art, the auction house has sold paintings and art collections of prominent figures and estates, including Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir, Abba Eban, Ephraim Kishon, and the Baron de Rothschild.

"While contemporary art continues to dominate the international market, the Israeli masters still see strong and increasing interest across the art world, with new bidders and acquisitions from the United States over the last three to four years," he added.

"Jacob's Ladder" will be part of the auction house's larger "Israeli and International Art Auction" in Herzliya Pituach, north of Tel Aviv, which includes works from one of the greatest collections of art in Israel by the late Ami Brown and his wife, Gabi.

The collection includes rare Judaica works of Reuven Rubin's "The Musicians of Safed" and Nachum Gutman's "Synagogue," along with a number of Yohanan Simon's important paintings from the kibbutz period, such as "Figures in the Kibbutz." Other iconic works include Yosl Bergner's "Jewish Klezmers," Ludwig Blum's "Tiberias, Sea of Galilee and Mount Hermon," Samuel Bak's "Mountain and Pear," Naftali Bezem's "Lovers and a Lion," Abel Pann's "Mother Sarah" and an "Untitled" by Lea Nikel.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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According to various reports, Chatila spent some €550,000 at the German auction house Hermann Historica – an auction which caused a German and international uproar last week.

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In addition to the top hat, the businessman acquired some 10 total articles, including Hitler's cigar box and writing machine, as well as a luxury edition of his book Mein Kampf, containing an eagle and swastika insignia belonging to the Nazi leader Hermann Goring.

He told Israel Hayom on Sunday he would donate the items to the Israel-based Karen Hayesod Foundation.

Chatila said: "I saw in the media that there was a complaint about the auction house and I quickly approached the Keren Hayesod Foundation – with which I am in contact, with the goal of preventing these objects from falling into the wrong hands. We live in a time where views are becoming too extreme in all directions. Under these circumstances, dangerous anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are growing and such items could serve them.

"Everything happened quickly. I donated [the items] to Keren Hayesod and they will decide whether they are transferred to Yad Vashem or any other body," he added.

Chairman of the European Jewish Association Rabbi Menachem Margolin thanked Chatila, saying "his deed is a noble one of the first degree. In light of the fact that the auction house insisted on promoting the sale, despite the protest, it is touching to see that even in 2019, there are still people in the world who act beyond cynicism to make sure these despicable items would not be used to glorify the Nazi legacy."

Ahead of the auction, Margolin said in a letter to Hermann Historica that the sale was a disgrace.

"You all say 'Never Again,' make it so," he wrote. "Selling such items should be no different than selling the personal items belonging to Osama Bin Laden, or Anders Breivik."

Keren Hayesod said in a statement: "We will handle the items with reverence and when they come to us we will consult with all the relevant bodies to make the best decision possible about what to do with them."

Chatila earlier told the weekly Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche that he bought the memorabilia "so it would not be used for purposes of neo-Nazi propaganda."

"The far-right and anti-Semitism are gaining momentum across Europe and the world, which is why I didn't want the items to fall into the wrong hands," he said, adding that in his opinion, "they should be burned."

Born in Beirut in 1974 to a family of Christian jewelers, Chatila is one of the 300 wealthiest people in Switzerland. He made his fortune in diamonds and real estate in Geneva.

Parts of this article were originally published by i24NEWS.

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These were the late Prime Minister Golda Meir's remarks to bereaved families just 24 hours before the State of Israel would embark on what was to be the most difficult war in the country's history, the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

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Thousands of Israeli soldiers would lose their lives in the fighting.

An official letter of condolence sent by Meir to the bereaved families is now up for auction at the Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem. Due to the timing of the letter, which was sent on Erev Yom Kippur, Oct. 5, 1973, bidding for the letter is set to start at $8,000.

In the decades following the country's establishment, Israel's leaders would maintain ties with the families of fallen soldiers, sending them condolence letters in the lead-up to state holidays. Meir in particular adhered to this custom, corresponding often with the bereaved.

As part of this correspondence, Meir also sent a letter on the High Holiday in which she wrote, "On Erev Yom Kippur, a day of introspection, we painfully recall the precious memory of Israel's heroes. At holiday time, the beloved figures of our dear fallen soldiers appear before our eyes, those who in their deaths granted us life."

Meir continued by sharing her hope that further killing would be avoided and peace established with Israel's neighbors, a tragic articulation given the historical context.

"Dear families," she wrote, "We owe you a great debt. Your pain is the pain of the entire nation, [it] encourages us to do everything for the achievement of the loftiest goals for which our loved ones gave their lives, and foremost among them – achieving peace for Israel. The memory of our loved ones motivates us to do everything so that there will be no more killing and for us not to know anymore bereavement."

Meron Eren, one of the owners and founders of the Kedem Auction House, called the letter "particularly exciting" as a reflection of the extent of the tragedy that befell the State of Israel 46 years ago.

He noted that "mere hours after the prime minister gave expression to her participation in the national state mourning, the war in which thousands more bereaved families joined the circle of mourning broke out."

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