"I APPRECIATE WHAT THE STATE OF ISRAEL HAS DONE IN THE WAY OF KFAR TRUMAN": SCARCE JUNE 17, 1953 TYPED LETTER SIGNED AND ADDITIONALLY INSCRIBED BY PRESIDENT TRUMAN
TRUMAN, Harry. Typed letter signed and inscribed. Kansas City, Missouri: June 17, 1953. Single original letterhead leaf (measures 7-1/4 by 10-1/2 inches) in typescript, signed and inscribed on the recto. $1650.
June 17, 1953 typed letter signed and additionally inscribed by President Truman on the letterhead of his Kansas City office, thanking philanthropist Joseph Levy for his letter, writing in part, “I appreciate what the State of Israel has done in the way of Kfar Truman”—the village established in 1950 to honor Truman—with the president adding a warm note, penned by him below his signature, “I read that letter twice—so you know I appreciated it.”
On May 26, 1952 President Truman spoke in Washington at a Dinner for the Jewish National Fund about Kfar Truman, a village established in 1950 in honor of Truman, who recognized the new State of Israel just eleven minutes after the proclamation of independence on May 14, 1948. At the dinner, only one year before the date of this letter, Truman said, in part: "It was a great pleasure for me when you named one of the new villages of Israel after me. I have been very much interested in the growth and progress of that village. And you know, that tends to keep the President on a straight and narrow path, where I hope I will never do anything to cause you to change the name of that village… I hope that the people of Kfar Truman will have a wonderful future. But they will have to work for it, just as they have worked for the independence of their country. But I know they will make their village a lasting example of what free men can do when they are united in a great cause." At the dinner Truman was also presented with a scroll commemorating the completion of the village near Lydda (now Ben-Gurion) airport. The first settlers of Kfar Truman, built under the auspices of the Jewish National Fund, were eighty Jewish families from Poland, Rumania and Hungary.
This letter, to prominent New York entrepreneur and philanthropist Joseph Levy, is on Truman's personal letterhead printed with the address of his office at the "Federal Reserve Bank Building, Kansas City 6, Missouri." It reads in typescript: "June 17, 1953 Dear Mr. Levy: Thanks a lot for your most interesting letter of June eleventh. I know you must have had a wonderful trip to the Far East. I appreciate what the State of Israel has done in the way of Kfar Truman. Thanks again for your good letter. Sincerely yours, [signed] Harry Truman," followed by Truman's warm inscribed note: "I read that letter twice—so you know I appreciated it." Typescript at the lower left reads: "Mr. Joseph Levy, Crawford Clothes, Inc. 34-02 Queens Boulevard, Long Island City 1, New York."
Only faint foldlines. A fine letter.