A window in to the finances of the Rabbis of Old, Rabbi Yehoshua Herschorn (1893–1969) of Montreal

Reading personal letters of long-gone Rabbis of old, can often allow you to glean much Halakhic information and records of Jewish History at the time. On occasion, you get an insight in to the personal life of the correspondents as well. One such case is this letter below, which I recently came across. Rabbi Samuel Alter, of Brooklyn writes to Rabbi Yehoshua Herschorn (1893–1969) of Montreal, complaining that a check, which Rabbi Hershorn sent him, written out for $3.50 has bounced due to insufficient funds.

Rabbi Alter states that he is not sure what is going on, as he does not speak English and can not communicate with the Bank, and requests that Rabbi Hershorn replace the check and cover the fees imposed by the bank.