Dear friends!
With great joy I received your letter, in fact we have waited a long time for it. In January, as soon as news from you arrived, we immediately replied without delay. Evidently as a result of unreliable work by our postal service, our letter [to you] was lost somewhere. I hope that this inconvenience will not be repeated.
We are very glad that you are continuing your blessed action, for which you not only deserve honor and respect from the recipients, but it is a “groise mitzvah” for the Almighty. We have a saying, “Don’t have a hundred rubles, have a hundred friends” [NB: This is a perfect rhyme in Russian]. This saying is very true especially in our time, when there is so little goodness!
Here, for example, there are improprieties that triumph over justice, that are the result of long years of the rule of Communism. It is not easy to become free of these things. However, we hope that with the assistance of civilized countries good will triumph over evil and not the other way around. Your deeds are a demonstration of this.
With your noble deeds you are doing God’s work, you are not only showing us what it means to “love others as yourself” but the also next generation…
The money you have sent to my address-this for me is life-for I am a seriously ill person and although I am 88 years old, I want to live, all the more among such beautiful people as yourself! Your money is used exclusively for medicine.
We want very much to know what you do by profession, for on this depends the theme of my letters to you, my dear friends. I want very much to share with you thoughts that will be of interest to you. I can also write to you in Polish, if that is convenient for you.
With great respect/esteem for you. May God bless you, your children and grandchildren!
Shulem Aleichem [NB: Written in the Ukrainian Yiddish dialect].
Your friend,
Aron