a—THE BULLETIN—Thursday, August 21, 1975_
FORD AomssES LUBAVITCH Chide Rumania's Rosen for not
letting 'sholiet' leave for Israel
PRESIDENT FORD addresses the American Friends of Lubavitch in Philadelphia, honoring the Senate minority leader, Senator Hugh Scott (right). The Lubavitch movement has built a library named after the Senator in Israel. JCNS
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TEL AVIV—A unique hunger strike in siqiport of free emigration was held in front of the Rumanian Embassy here, with the protest aimed not at any authorities, but atRumania's Chief Rabbi Dr. Moshe Rosen.
On strike for several days were the children of Rabbi Pinhas Was-serman, who cannot leave Rumania because his exit has been obstructed by Rabbi Rosen. The Chief Rabbi has opposed the elderly rabbi's departure on the grounds that he is one of Rumania's last 'shohatim' (ritual slaughterers).
Participants in the sit-doWn strike were:.Rabbi Wasserman's two sons, Yehuda and Yosef, and his daughters, Mrs. Deborah Hal-amish, Mrs. Phea Tobias and Mrs. Yetti Kfirare and their children.
The Rabbi has yet another daughter in Israel, but she is on a visit abroad. All his daughters are married to Rabbis and his sons are doing military service.
Rabbi Rosen is able toprevent Rabbi Wasserman's exit from Rumania because the country's laws specify that anyone who wishes to
leave must get a document from his employer saying that he can be spared.
Rabbi Wasserman's children say, that there are a number of 'shohatim' who would be willing to replace Rabbi Wasserman in Rumania for limited periods. The family suggests thatifitisimpossible for Rabbi Wasserman to leave Rumania he should at least be allowed to join his family here for a month each year.
He has not been allowed to visit Israel, even for the marriage of his children, and has never seen his grandchildren.
The family says that despite Rabbi Rosen's concern for the future of 'kashrut' among Jewish congregations, "he has no right to curtail the freedom of another Jew as the 'halacha' forbids forced labor."
Rabbi Rosen has said that he will leave the final decisimi to the Chief Rabbinate in Israel, and will accept its decision.
Rabbi Rosen, who recently visited Israel, met with the Minister
Meeting recently in Jerusalem to consider the problem, the Chief Rabbinate Council laid down the foUov/ing conditions: that Rabbi Wasserman be allowed to visit Israel one month a year; that before each departure he sign a guarantee that he shall return at the end of the month; that in case he should break his word and stay in Israel he would automatically be disqualified from serving as a 'shohet' in Israel.
of Religious Affairs, Dr. Yitzhak Raphael, and explained that it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain Jewish religious life in Rumania, as most religious functionaries had emigrated to Israel.
There were only two rabbis left in Rumania.
Rabbi Rosen said that he felt it was.his duty to the community to keep Rabbi Wasserman in his job until a suitable replacement could be found.'
(Jerusalem Post).
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By special correspondent JERUSALEM-"To deprive religious courts of their jurisdiction in matters of marriage and divorce and introduce civil marriage in Israel would be a disaster for the Jewish pec^le," Israel's Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren stated in an exclusive interview.
Marriage was not, as was so often r^resented, a personal matter, but a status which impinged on the very existence of the Jewish people, he declared.
"The crucial question is whether we are to remain a single nation or not."
Rabbi Goren said that civil marriage, divorce and conversions which did not accord with the halacha (rabbinic law) would create "within no more than 25 years two entirely separate peoples within the State.
"Those who advocate civil marriage to solve the problems of a few individuals have only a narrow and extremely short-term perspective.
"With civil marriage we would soon have one-third of the nation "unable to marry members of the remaining two-thirds who wish to remain true to the halacha.
"Instead of a couple of hundred cases of psolei hitun (forbidden to marry) that we have now, one million people would be excluded, an entire caste of outlawed fam-iUes."
Rabbi Goren said that the rejection of civil marriage did not mean that efforts were not continuing to solve within the halacha the problems of individual cases of mamzerim (bastards who cannot marry the partners of their
choice): aguna ( a deserted wife whose husband has disappeared without divorcing her and who can not remarry); and chalitza, (a ceremony releasing a widow from the obligation of marrying her late husband's brother if the husband died without issue).
"Not all the problems have been solved, some, I fear, may have no solution, but in most instances we do find ways to solve the difficulty without circumventing the halacha," Rabbi Goren said.
The mamzerut question was particularly difficult, but without specilying details the Chief Rabbi emphasized that there had been "significant steps" to "alleviate" its problems.
Of the Beersheba Beth Din's decision to insert a clause in a divorce certificate forbidding the woman concerned to marry either her former husband or the man by whom she was pregnant before the divorce, die Chief Rabbi said:
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ulation and the overwhelming majority of the non-religious Israelis." Only a few anti-religious extremist groups would remain "beyond the pale."
Rabbi Goren then censored the situation within the Chief Rabbinate and the circumstances surrounding his own position, saying:
"Had I known when I was asked to take the office what I know today I would have run to the ends of the earth rather than agree to accept the post.
"To my deep regret I have failed to fulfil the various targets I set myself on assuming office over 2 1/2 years ago."
This, he claimed, was not because the objectives could not be attained, but because of the obstacles deliberately laid by "hostile elements" to "trip me up and make me fail."
Rabbi Goren declined to define the "hostile elements" precisely, but indicated that hostility stemmed from two main sources, the Aguda movement which was traditionally opposed to a chief rabbinate, and the "duplication" of the office, with no clear distinction of functions.
(There are two Israel Chief Rabbis, one "Ashkenazi" and the odier "Sephardi." Both are co-presidents of the Supreme Rabbi-inical Council. The Sephardi m-cumbent is Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yossef.)
Because of the duplication, Rabbi (loren claimed, there was a
situation where "whenever I say one thing, ttiey say another. . . . It is as if the country had two Prime Ministers. . .
As a result, no decisions could be reached by the Supreme Rabbinical Council, no action was possible and no budgets could be ratified and the situation was "impossible."
But Rabbi Goren said that he would not resign. He would not do so because "this is what my opponents want," and he was now looking for alternative methods to carry through his plans.
He pointed out that this involved outside fihahcial Support because under present circumstances, the expenditures required could not be approved. JCNS.
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likely case to conjure up sympathy for the idea of civil marriage. I feel there is absolutely no obligation to make any special effort to find a solution in this case."
The Chief Rabbi rejected as untrue claims that rabbis had adopted a more severe line in interpreting the halacha for individual problems and he maintained tiiat the Supreme Rabbinical' Court on which he sat was exercising to the utmost "the limits. of permissibility within the halacha."
But for the atmosphere of "intrigue and obstructionism" surrounding the Chief Rabbinate, he declared, "we would be making real progress towards mutual understanding and love between the religious segment of the pap-
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