Home Home / Letter from Michael Th. Michael about t…

Correspondence

May 19, 1961

Letter from Michael Th. Michael about the Status of Bene Israel in Israel (1961)

Combating Assimilation Who Is a Jew? India
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Correspondence

Letter to R. Gotthold about Marrying Bene Israel (1961)

Dear Rabbi Gotthold: Please accept my expressions of admiration at the dispatch with which you handled the "Indian purity" affair. I must say that I cannot blame the Bene Israel for their agitation. At the same time, I am completely nonplussed by what seems to be Rabbi Nissim's acquiescence to the delegation which visited him and his agreement to affirm the permissive decisions of the two late Chief Rabbis, especially after he hedged when I broached the matter to him several months ago. I am glad to hear, however, that he is now ready to go along with the "heter." I do not recall if I have kept you abreast of my own correspondence on this matter. I have written to Rabbi Rozovsky some four times asking him to publish his essay, then to add, if he feels unqualified, that the discussion is meant as theoretical and not in the form of a legal decision. He has not as much as answered one of my letters, although he promised to when I visited him in Bnai Brak.Neither has Rabbi Unterman in Tel Aviv answered me yet, although I discussed the matter with him too when I was in Israel. I am certainly most interested in receiving a copy of the paper by Rabbi Rozovsky which, I gather from your letter, Rabbi Itamar has in his possession.I am confident that you will do your level best to urge the rabbinate to come to a decision – one way or the other – very quickly and conclusively.With regard to the technical questions concerning Nagavker, I am leaving that and all other matters of this nature in the capable hands of Dr. Samson R. Weiss, who will be contacting you about them.I will discuss with Dr. Weiss your recommendation that Rabbi Shweika be sent to Bombay as a rabbi. Perhaps you ought to send to Dr. Weiss (who is in constant contact with me) a description in somewhat greater detail of Rabbi Shweika's qualifications as well as the expected remuneration, etc.Thank you once again, and do let me hear from you about Tradition.Sincerely yours,Rabbi Norman Lamm
Combating Assimilation Who Is a Jew? India

Correspondence

Letter from Haham Gaon about the Status of the Bene Israel (1961)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I was glad to receive the copy of your letter to Mr. Abraham Jhirad of Bombay. I agree with everything you write. Immediately on the publication of the news that some of our Bnei Israel were not being recognised as Jews in Israel, I cabled to the Chief Rabbinate who assured me that this was not so. They stood by their earlier decision and that was that they leave it to the individual Batei Din to decide on these matters. In the meantime, I have been in touch with Bnei Israel families in London who were very disturbed by the rumours, and I assured them that, as far as our Beth Din, is concerned, they have nothing to worry for themselves or for their children.I think, however, the time has come when perhaps a joint effort should be made by us all in order to urge Israeli Rabbinate to come to a definite solution. The Bnei Israel problem has now become a burning one and almost all the touchstone of good faith, as far as this part of the House of Israel is concerned.I do hope to have the opportunity of seeing you soon and hoping to hear from you on this matter.Yours sincerely,GaonHaham
Combating Assimilation Who Is a Jew? India

Correspondence

Letter to R. Sassoon about the Status of the Bene Israel (1961)

Dear Rabbi Sassoon: I feel somewhat guilty in writing to you because of my neglect in doing so until now. My visit with you in London last January left a very deep impression upon me and I, by all means, should have corresponded with you instead of merely exchanging regards through various visitors and via correspondence with others. The matter about which I write to you now is quite urgent. I am sure you are in close touch with the complex developments in Israel on the Bene Israel question. The situation as it stands today is that Rabbi Nissim has announced a permissive decision, but has not yet instructed the local Rabbinate to act on the basis of this “heter.” A good part of the "right wing" of the Israeli Rabbinate has been quite articulate in opposing the decision.I spoke with Rabbi Unterman via overseas telephone this morning and he informed me that one of the key issues is the announcement made by the leaders of the Sassoon Synagogues in Bombay, reversing the old ban on intermarriage with Bene Israel and urging Iraqi Jews to welcome the Bene Israel as their brothers. It seems that simultaneous with or shortly after this proclamation, the archives of the correspondence with the Beth Din in Baghdad were burnt.In a series of articles in the Agudist newspaper in Jerusalem, Rabbi Weidenberg has pointed to this event as proof that the Baghdadi Beth Din never permitted intermarriage and that the action of the community leaders was one of open resistance to the religious authorities.Rabbi Unterman now seeks clarification of this somewhat mysterious event. His own analysis of the episode is that the community leaders of Iraqi Jewry in India were all pious and devout people and would not have done what they did without ecclesiastical approval.What is needed, therefore, is a clarification of what happened at that time. Do you have any specific information about this event? Do you think that, in any event, the community leaders would have taken the law into their own ha…
Combating Assimilation Who Is a Jew? India