The letter appeals for donations to place European refugee children in traditional Jewish homes in the Land of Israel. The letter was distributed by the "Child Home Placement Bureau – To Support European Refugees Children in Traditional Jewish Homes in the Holy Land" and was signed by many dignitaries including Rabbi Isaac Herzog, the Chief Rabbi of Israel at the time, and some writers, doctors, and lawyers.
The letter appeals to the local Jewish community to help parents who are trying to save their children from the dangers facing them in Europe:
“In their great despair, they quite naturally stretch out their hand to the National Homeland of the Jewish people for help.”
The authors of the letter call on the religious sentiments of readers, claiming that it is their religious and moral imperative to help these Jews:
“Dare we step aside, and by so doing aid in the destruction of the future of our race? Their cries in this terrible hour rend the very Heavens. How can we then, 'Rachmonim Bnai Rachmonim,' do other than attune our hearts to their cries, and with mercy and understanding come to their rescue?”
The authors are referring here to a quote from the Sefer HaChinuch, a thirteenth-century work about the 613 commandments, in which mercy for others is seen as one of the most noble Jewish characteristics.
The letter outlines the plans to take care of the children until they can be reunited with their families and the large sums of money that will be required. The letter ends with the following vision:
“Children saved from the ruins of present European Jewry, and nurtured in the tenets of their ancient faith in the Land of Israel, are a pledge for the salvation and the future rebirth of the People of Israel.” This letter was written in December 1938 at a time when German Jews were desperate to get out of Germany. Hitler had been in power for five years, and the situation for German Jews had deteriorated. Two months earlier, in October, their passports had been declared invalid, and the previous month, on November 10-11, Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) had taken place when many Jewish shops, homes, and synagogues were destroyed. Many Jews had been arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps.
