Blog
The '50s saw a rather subdued Chief Rabbinate. It is difficult to relate to the feelings of that time. Israel was new, and its survival precarious. The first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, was tough. He saw it as his historical obligation to...
Comments
Likes
Although the most significant conflicts between the rabbinate and the government (and within the rabbinate) occurred around the year 1970, there was a preliminary cause celelbre in the early 1960s. Oswald Rufeisen was a Polish Jew, hidden, like...
Comments
Likes
The Langer case threatened to tare Israel apart. The rabbis appeared helpless. The secular wondered if there ever could be a way of coexisting with the religious. At this point, center stage is taken by Rabbi Shlomo Goren (1917-1994). Rabbi Goren...
Comments
Likes
The Langer case was by no means the only one tackled by Rabbi Goren. Ironically, his very brave moves to ease the secular public's opposition to halachah, largely backfired. At the same time as the Langer case, another challenge was on the...
Comments
Likes
Before we can talk about the after effects of the debacles of the Rabbinate of the '70s., we must address the profound changes in Israel at that time. The Six Day War of 1967 was followed by a remarkable euphoria; no one had expected Israel to...
Comments
Likes
The Chief rabbinate, under Rabbis Goren and Yosef, is generally deemed a failure. Time and energy were dissipated on internal disputes. After they left office, Rabbi Goren continued as the head of a Yeshiva, occasionally speaking his mind on one...
Comments
Likes
The Chief Rabbinate elections of 1993 represented a complete change of direction; not only for Israel, but for world Jewry. The Rabin governemnt had been voted in the previous year. It's two major coalition partners were the ultra Left, vehemently...
Comments
Likes
To understand how the Israeli Chief Rabbinate essentially commandeered American Orthodoxy, we must look at some history first. Although Jews began arriving in America already in the seventeenth century, few rabbis, or even mediocre scholars, did....
Comments
Likes
The new Chief Rabbis who were elected in 1993, were heavily under the influence of Hareidi rabbis. Around that time, the main Hareidi rabbis, especially in the Lithuanian Yeshiva sector, had adopted the very stringent approach to conversion, that...
Comments
Likes
There have been, in recent years, movements that have challenged the status quo in the Chief Rabbinate, as well as their American proxy, the RCA. While receiving much criticism, and even threats of violence in some cases, they have, nevertheless,...
Comments
Likes
Most Popular
