Yeshivah Director Takes Leave of Absence in Israel
When one thinks of Detroit's
Yeshivath Beth Yehudah, one
automatically pictures its exec-
utive director, Rabbi Max J.
Wohlgelernter, whose life for
the past 18 years has been inex-
tricably bound up in his love,
work, hope and prayer for that
center of Orthodox teaching.
We hear often that any busi-
ness, any institution or for that
matter any government can sur-
vine without the services of any
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one individual. Yet, it is difficult
to imagine the Yeshivah with-
out Rabbi Wohlgelernter.
His plans call tentatively for
a one year's leave of absence
in Israel, but he has intimated,
and his close friends believe,
that the rabbi, who is also spir-
itual leader of Cong. Mogen
Abraham, will remain in the
Jewish state.
Besides the deep yearning of
all pious Jews to live in the
Promised Land, there is another
consideration in the instance of
Rabbi Wohlgelernter's depar-
ture.
His new duties will provide
a challenge — strangely, in
building the religiosity of the
Jewish state and of helping to
achieve a unified and effective
system of law, based on the
teachings of the Talmud.
Immediately on his arrival in
Israel, Rabbi Wohlgelernter will
assume duties as Head Assistant
to the Chief Rabbis—Rabbi Is-
Happy Holiday
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All Over the U.S.A,
a
aac Halevy Herzog, the Ashken-
azic Chief Rabbi, and Rabbi Is-
aac Nissim, the Sephardic Chief
Rabbi.
Why two Chief Rabbis in Is-
rael? Does either have a more
authoritative position? What are
the duties of the Chief Rabbi-
nate? These were questions Rab-
bi Wohlgelernter was eager to
answer.
Oddly enough, the creation of
the Chief Rabbinate was a Brit-
ish device, inaugurated in '1921
during the Mandate period which
followed the Balfour Declara-
tion.
Today, following approval by
the Israel Parliament in 1949 to
continue the office, an electoral
college of rabbis and community
leaders chooses the Chief Rab-
bis. They are elected once ev-
ery five years.
Under Turkish rule, Jewish
Palestine was governed by the
Sephardic community, and the
designation conferred on the tit-
ular head of the community was
"Rishon LeZion," the first of
Zion.
Following the advent of Zi-
onism, the Jewish communities
from Eastern Europe slowly
made their way to Palestine,
gradually becoming a greater
force numerically than the Se-
phardic. Thus the basis for the
two Chief Rabbis.
With the great influx of Ye-
menite and North African Jew-
ry which has been taking place
in the past few years, the Se-
a
phardic community holds
slight edge in the total popula-
tion.
What does this mean? Rabbi
Wohlgelernter explained that it
means actually nothing, that it
is easier for the Ashkenazic
Chief Rabbi to tend to the af-
fairs of the East Europeans be-
cause he is more familiar with
their backgrounds, languages,
hopes a n d aspirations. The
same holds true for the Sephar-
dic Chief Rabbi who is in con-
tact with the people from the
so-called "Oriental" lands. Both
similarly maintain contact with
Diaspora Jewry.
The Chief Rabbinate is re-
sponsible for many matters
pertaining to the religious life
of Israel's subjects, Rabbi
Wohlgelernter said. First and
foremost, it acts as a Supreme
Court of Appeals on matters
of legislation in the purview
of the rabbinate.
These include marriage, di-
vorce, family status, inheritance
and even civil matters when
both parties agree to take their
problems to supreme religious
body.
Moreover, the Chief. Rabbi-
nate has a department of re-
search which brings up-to-date
all civil law; maintains a libra-
ry whose goal is a minimum of
100,000 books on Rabbinic and
Talmudic law; is composed of
an executive council of all the
Chief Rabbis in major cities;
has a department which works
exclusively on Responsa, which
seeks clarification and moderni-
zation of the law.
The approval of community
rabbis, says Rabbi Wohlgelern-
ter, also - is within its jurisdic-
tion, and only recently two dis-
tinct groupings of rabbis were es-
tablished. The one we are famil-
iar with is the spiritual leader
type who performs marriages and
handles routine duties. The sec-
ond is the Judge, who is the
only one qualified to determine
questions of law.
There are presently 300 syna-
gogues under construction in Is-
rael, which will bring the total
number of congregations in Is-
rael to over 2,000. These are
administered through the Chief
Rabbinate.
The office of the Chief Rab-
binate, which is soon to be
housed in a Supreme Religious
Center now nearing completion,
will maintain departments for
its Councils on sabbath observ-
ance, Kashrut and burial, Rabbi
Wohlgelernter said.
What Israel needs most is a
rabbinate which will provide
religious counseling, Rabbi
Wohlgelernter said. The rabbi
there is a scholar, which fre-
quently means a disassocia-
56
—
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, December• 9, /955
tion with the rabbinate, and
this is still to be provided,
Rabbi Wohlgelernter conclud-
ed.
Undoubtedly, the latter prob-
lem will be one whiCh Rabbi
Wohlgelernter will seek to solve
when he leaves here to assume
his new duties.
Making the trip with him
aboard the SS Israel will be
his wife and their two chil
dren, Tamar, 17,- and Joshua, 6.
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