Dear Mr. Penkar: Since you sent a copy of your letter of January 5 this year to me, I forwarded the copy to Chief Rabbi Nissim. He certainly will inform you. You are informed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs that all existing marriage difficulties between members of the Bene Israel and other parts of the Jewish population were abolished. On the part of the Chief Rabbinate, there are at present no cases of refusal. There are, however, a few rabbis who consider the decision of Chief Rabbi Nissim as not justified enough, and have even started a public opposition.I returned only a few days ago from a visit to the United States, where, among others, I took up with representatives of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Communities in America—Rabbi Dr. Weiss and Dr. Lamm—the problem of an Orthodox rabbi necessary for India.I was assured that the Union will see to a subsidy for this purpose. They prefer to have one of the young persons studying in the Yeshiva "Kol Israel" trained for this particular purpose and sent afterwards to India. Chief Rabbi Nissim accepted this idea but insisted that in the meantime another proper candidate be sent to India, since the young rabbi will require at least three years of training.He has now a new candidate for this position, a man who was born in America and has the necessary qualifications to become the spiritual leader of Indian Jewry.The candidate will come both to my office in another few days, and I shall then inform you and the Union of Orthodox Communities in America about my impressions and suggestions.It is not the habit of the World Jewish Congress to interfere with the existing differences of opinion in religious affairs in the various Jewish communities. Since you wrote to Chief Rabbi Nissim about your relations with Mr. Benjamin Ours, he certainly will inform you about his attitude.Our duty is merely to abolish the existing cases of discrimination and to help where our help is necessary in satisfying the religious needs of the…

Dear Dr. Weiss: You may remember the conference which a few months ago took place in your office, at which time I discussed with you the problem of the Bene Israel community in India and Israel, and an "agreement" was reached between us, according to which you would be ready to grant your assistance in training an Orthodox rabbi for the Bene Israel in India. I informed Chief Rabbi Nissim about the content of our conference immediately upon my return to Israel. He was glad to hear it but at the same time was afraid that training a rabbi here in Israel would require at least two or three years, whereas the urgent need in India already exists at the present.He therefore wondered whether your assistance in covering the budget of the rabbinate in Bombay could not be promised immediately, provided that a proper candidate will be found here in Israel, whereas at the same time another young candidate would be trained, whose training and living expenses anyway are being taken care of on the spot. May I have the benefit of your reaction to this suggestion?I did not write you before, since there was again trouble in this country with the marriage affairs of the Bene Israel and an angry controversy between Chief Rabbi Nissim and the representatives of the Bene Israel, but my impression is that the atmosphere calmed considerably down in the last few weeks, and the moment may have come to consider again the important problem of the religious education of the Bene Israel in India.I am taking advantage of this opportunity in order to submit to you another request on behalf of Dr. Se. Sabath, author of the book *"In the Camps of the North: The Fate of a Jewish Prisoner Behind the Iron Curtain"* (Hebrew, published in Israel in 1959, 574 pp.), which had a very favorable review in *Jewish Life*, December 1961. Encouraged by this review, where among others the publication of the book in English is being urged, the author, who happens to be a friend of mine, asked me to find out, with y…

Dear Dr. Tartakower: Thank you for your letter of April 22nd. We will be happy to hear from Chief Rabbi Nissim concerning the appropriate candidate for Bombay. Once the right man is found and the Chief Rabbi recommends to us the undertaking of financial assistance in this project, I am sure that our commission will give it most sympathetic consideration. As you know, we corresponded with the Chief Rabbi concerning a previous candidate who unfortunately was not found acceptable.I brought the request of Dr. S. Sabath to the attention of the Chairman of our Publications Commission. It is with regret that I must inform you that this commission does not find itself in a position to finance the translation, though the merits of the book of Dr. Sabath are unquestionable.With kindest regards and all good wishes, I amSincerely yours,Dr. Samson R. WeissExecutive Vice PresidentSRW/sdDr. Aryeh Tartakower1 Ben Yehuda RoadJerusalem, Israel