Testimonial letter from Samuel Schapiro

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This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.

This letter is from Samuel Schapiro. It is "Exhibit A-615" in the Noles collection.

The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file of the original letter, it has one page.

A PARTNERSHIP. SAM & VENU
Rajneesh Hotel
1115 S. W. 11th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97205
July 20, 1983

To Whom it may Concern;

I am a known film producer who has produced many short films which have received much critical acclaim, including the prestigious "Bronze Lion" at the Canne Film Festival in France. And my work and myself have been written about in numerous publications.

I knew of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh through his tapes, through his books and through friends.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is an exceptional artist of words, a great actor, and an exceptional religious leader. A man of such gifts is a rare jewel.

Sincerely,
[signed]
Samuel Schapiro
1558 Sunset Plaza Drive, Los Angeles, California 90069 (213) 855-0934


(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)