Home Home / Letter from R. Cherrick about Archbisho…

Correspondence

Feb. 2, 1967

Letter from R. Cherrick about Archbishop Visit to Hebrew University (1967)

Interfaith
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

Exchange with R. Bergman about Archbishop Visit to Hebrew University (1967)

Dear Dr. Bergman: Earlier this week I called you over the telephone in order to inform myself of the particulars concerning your charge against the Hebrew University and their invitation to Archbishop Cody of Chicago. I met with the officials of the Hebrew University that same day, this past Monday, and I think it important to relate to you impressions of that meeting and my opinions, whatever they are worth, on the matter. First, I think it is exceedingly important to refrain from any exaggerations or extravagances, lest we vitiate the true merit of our argument. Therefore, I would not confuse the proposed “Archbishop Cody Chair in Canon Law” with the teaching about Christianity in general and, in fact, with instruction in Canon Law itself at the Hebrew University. I cannot see any objection to the teaching of Christianity at a university. I am a shomer mitzvot and the chairman of the comparative religion department is a warm, observant Jew who is a shomer mitzvot. Furthermore, I do not believe that the proposal is at all one of giving aid and comfort to Christian missions in Israel. Nevertheless, I was upset by the report of the establishment of this chair, and that is why I called you and attended the meeting with the people from the University. The information that was given to me, and which I believe to be correct, is that the entire matter was excited by a local public relations man who had failed to clear the plan with the proper authorities of the Archbishop – who is a most friendly man and had been visited – and the association mentioned, it was obviously impossible to withdraw and amounted to a slap in the face to him and the entire Catholic community of Chicago. Moreover, despite the local radio and television announcements, there was no mention in print, or impression given to the Archbishop, that there was to be a chair at the University for Canon Law. Mr. Charwik of Jerusalem specifically told the audience in Chicago that what was planned was a visit…
Interfaith

Correspondence

Letter to Dr. Rabinowitz on Leak of Meeting with Cardinal Spellman (1963)

My Dear Dr. Rabinowitz: I just received this morning from Mrs. Max Stern your letter and the enclosed article you submitted for TRADITION. I do regret that we have not had the opportunity to communicate with each other as much as I would have liked to. Hence, as long as I am writing, let me be a bit elaborate, at least sufficiently to clear up certain misconceptions. You mention that you are in touch with my activities through the press, and hence are aware of my visit to the Cardinal with Rabbi Jakobovits. It seems, unfortunately, that in our mortal and imperfect society the impressions a man makes bear but little resemblance to the actual nature of his activities. The visit you speak of was quite innocuous. I was promised that not a word of it would be breathed to the public. Regretfully, and to my great disappointment it was "leaked" by a source whom I never would have suspected. Both Jakobovits and I were deeply distressed. The visit was magnified beyond all proportions. The report you refer to is, no doubt, the one contained in the Jewish Chronicle in the article by [redacted.] Her report is, to put it mildly false in all its main of truth la the fact of the visit. Everything else that she mentions is a complete and hair raising distortion. what complicates the injustice that she has done is the fact that I personally called her some weeks in advance of the articled appearance to inform her of the actual facts as they occurred. But the lady was so passionately interested in condemning Rabbi Jakobovits for a variety of reasons, all quite emotional, that I do not believe she paid attention to what I told her. fey I assure you, therefore, that the report was pernicious, and a conscious distortion and fabrication. I had considered writing to the Chronicle (I had even originally thought of action in the courts against Leo Pfeffer, the first source of these mendacities), but I thought the better of it. Experience has taught that the more you deny, the more the origi…
Interfaith

Correspondence

Letter from R. Hershel Schacter about Archbishop Visit to Hebrew University (1967)

Dear Reb Nachum: Enclosed is the clipping I discussed with you this morning. I did see the statement by Professor Rotensterich in Haaretz of January 22, the substance of which you conveyed to me. It is my feeling that perhaps it would be prudent to emphasize that the few laws in Israel which bring the area of personal status under religious law are certainly not responsible for restraining the aliya of "modern" Americans. Do our opponents see in the individual freedom that is characteristic of American life any positive ties on the part of Jewish intellectuals to the Jewish people? Do they possess any roots that restrain the corrosive influences of assimilation and intermarriage threatening to engulf us? Do they think that if Israeli society would liberate itself from the hallowed historic roots then this would ipso facto motivate the aliyah of those intellectuals who are so concerned with individual freedom of conscience? Do they think that a cursory knowledge of Jewish history or even the Hebrew language would be adequate to deepen the bonds of affinity and kinship with the Jewish people and its homeland, if we rend asunder the ties of religious practice which unite our people in Israel and in the Diaspora?I leave this in your capable hands. While I realize the many pressures under which you labor, I earnestly ask that you dispatch the letter to the Jerusalem Post at your earliest convenience. "דבר בעתו מה טוב"I know you are at least as concerned with these issues as we all are. I also hope that you have taken care of the request for the letter from the American Friends of the Hebrew University and that you will forward it to me upon your receipt of same. Thanks a million. Regards from house to house.Cordially yours,Rabbi Herschel Schacter
Interfaith