Card from Mr.Schterenbuch

A few cards received by my great-grand-father came with the binder.

I share here one from "U. Schterenburg" :

The card reads:

Telephone Royal 7934

U. Schterenbuch.
Swiss Embroideries. Handkerchiefs, etc
(special lines for shipping.)

 8 Colonial Avenue, Minories
London, E.C.3

Represented by ___________

I have seen in the passport of my grand-greath-father that he did indeed made a trip to London in 1930 (I will show that in a later post). I thus make the assumption he was the receiver of this card.
Googling "Schterenbuch London" gives this link amongst others. Its a kind of 'who's who' of the synagogue community in 1931. "U. Schternbuch" is mentionned twice : 

Schterenbuch	U	Adath Yisroel Synagogue, N16	Treasurer
Schterenbuch	U	Adath Yisroel Synagogue, N16	Treasurer, Gemiluth Chasodim Fund

This could explain that my great-grand-father did not meet Mr Schterenbuch because of his shop, but rather for his role in the synagogue community in London.

What makes this card so interesting is the back side of it. A handwritten message is put with a pencil and is hardly readable, probably due to the time effect and manipulations.
This is the backside which I enlarge a bit :

Click to enlarge

 On the first line I read a "Dear Mr Kestenbaum". It did not take me a long time to go back to the London Synagogue Officials 1931 list and find Mr Kerstenbaum :

Kestenbaum	I	Adath Yisroel Synagogue, N16	Chairman, Gemiluth Chasodim Fund
Kestenbaum	I	Adath Yisroel Synagogue, N16	Representative to the Board of Deputies
Kestenbaum	I	Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations	Chairman

So the message is one from Schterenbuch, Treasurer, to Mr Kestenbaum, Chairman of the Gemiluth Chasodim Fund. That makes sense.

Of course I would like to know what the message says. Not all words are readable to me. There are five lines of text. I will rewrite them hereunder, replacing any word I cannot read for sure with wwwx where x is a sequencial number.

Dear Mr Kestenbaum          www1
www2  www3 Mr. Kahan is a Talmud Chochom
his family is in very bad circumstances
Hope you will listen to his www7 www8
www9 best for him 
              Kind regards
              (signature USchterenbuch)

I miss nine words. Any help to find the missing words is highly appreciated, and you can put your input as comment to this note.


The "his family is in very bad" part is key of course. It could explain the reason see Mr Schterenbuch and seek help. Would that then be in 1930 as a visa shows in the passport ? or later, closer to the war ?

I am thankfull to Mr Jeffrey Maynard, NY, who put the London Synagogue Officials 1931 list available on his website, and helping me out with finding the 'Talmud Chochom' in the text.

UPDATE April 1, 2013 : 
The words www4 and www5 are hebrew and read "Talmud Chochom", literally one with the wisdom of the Talmud, an honorific title given to a scholar.
Mr Maynard was so kind to share that the first name of Mr Schterenbuch would be Usher. and that he was registered in the London telephone directories from 1922 till 1935, the year of his death.
As this link reveals, the synagogue Adath Yisroel was located at that time at 124/126 Green Lanes, Stamford Hill, London N16 (1905 to 1957)