8 Friday, August 1, 1975

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Baruch Litvin, Defended Orthodoxy, Famous for Mehitza, Identity Tasks

Baruch Litvin, the de-
fender of Orthodoxy who
gained fame with works on
mehitza and Jewish identifi-

SHO

To

DAILY, THURSDAY 'TIE 9

cation, died July 24 at age
85.
Born in Russia, Mr. Litvin
was sentenced by the czar at
age 14 for revolutionary ac-
tivities. Escaping his im-
prisonment, he arrived in
Detroit in 1918 at age 15 and
worked as a carpenter.
He opened upa lumber

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business, Wolverine Stair
Co. on Greeley Ave. and
later moved to Hubbell Ave.
During. the Depression, the
court appointed him his own
receiver in the dissolution of
his business, a position
usually held by a stranger.

amed the Macomb Whole-
sale Lumber Co.

While in Detroit, Mr. Lit-
vin began his activities as a
leftist radical, but later re-
turned to the faith and
adopted an Orthodox
stance. (See Commentary,
Page Two, this issue.)

In 1935 Mr. Litvin re-
entered the lumber busi-
ness and opened up the
Freeland Lumber Co. In
1939, he bought the Pag-
ganitti Lumber Co. of
Mount Clemens, and lived
there ever since. His sons
operate the business, ren-

He became nationally
prominent as the author of
a volume on the Mehitza-
the Orthodox-required div-
iding line in seating men
and women in the syn-
agogue. That volume was
the result of a famous

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Mount Clemens court case
in which Mr. Litvin fought
and won in the Michigan
State Supreme Court the
case for separation of men
and women in his congrega-
tion. (See Jewish News, Oct.
29, 1965)

In 1965, Mr. Litvin pub-
lished a book on Jewish
identification which an-
swered the oft-posed ques-
tion by former Israel Pre-
mier David Ben-Gurion,
"Who is a Jew?" Mr. Lit-
yin's book, which con-
tained the views of top
Jewish scholars, met with
opposition prior to its pub-
lication. However, at Mr.
Litvin's expense the origi-
nally titled, "Who Is a
Jew" was published as
"Jewish Identity."

His grandson, Daniel Lit-
vin, holds a bachelor's and a
master's degree from Tech-
nion-Israel Institute of
Technology.
Mr. Litvin, who resided at
57 Lodewyck, Mount Cle-

174
"X

BARUCH LITVIN

mens, is survived by four
sons, Paul, Nathan, Eman-
uel and Morris; three broth-
ers, Thomas H., Frederick
Lettvin and Solomon Lett-
vin, all of Chicago; two sis-
ters, Mrs. Isadore (Clara)
Levinson and Mrs. Sally
Kane, both of Chicago; 12
grandchildren and nine
great-grandchildren.

so,

",

Labor Party Rabbi Scores
State of Religion in Israel

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JERUSALEM JTA) — A
rabbi who is a Labor mem-
ber of the Knesset deplored
the state of religion in Israel
and delivered a stinging at-
tack on the religious estab-
lishment which, he charged
in a Knesset speech Mon-
day, was involved more in
politics than in its spiritual
calling.
Rabbi Menachem Ha-
cohen, the religious mentor
of the Labor Party and His-
tadrut, blamed his own
party for the state of affairs
no less-than the National
Religious Party which con-
trols the Ministry for Reli-
gious Affairs and the local
religious councils that func-
tion in most Israeli cities
and towns.
Rabbi Hacohen spoke
during the annual Knesset
debate on the Religious Af-
fairs Ministry. He charged
that rabbis were increas-
ingly becoming state-em-
ployed kashrut watchdogs
while their traditional role
as spiritual leaders has dim-
inished.

The local religious coun-
cils were often sloppy and
inefficient in the use of the
large funds made avail-
able to them, Rabbi Ha-
cohen said, while the chief
rabbinate itself was para-
lyzed by discord. He was
referring to the perpetual
feuding between the Ash-
kenazic and Sephardic
Chief Rabbis, Shlomo
Goren and Ovadia Yosef,
since their election three
years ago.

Din) are undermanned —
often as a result of interne-
cine feuding — and over-
worked, causing suffering -
and hardship for the liti-
gants who appear before
them, Rabbi Hacohen said.
Although the Labor Party
rabbi has long urged the
separation of religion and
state in Israel in the best in-
terests of both, he did not
refer to that issue in his
Knesset speech. Instead, he
urged Religious Affairs
Minister Yitzhak Rafael to
undertake a thorough over-
haul of his ministry with a
- view to improving the serv-
ices it is supposed to provide
the citizenry.

But Rabbi Hacohen was
not the only Knesseter to
inveigh against the Minis-
try for Religious Affairs
and Rafael personally.
Likud's Gideon Patt called
on Premier Yitzhak Rab-
bin to dismiss Rafael on
the grounds that his
"negative public image
causes additional tension
between religious and ir-
religious Israelis.

Aguda's Shlomo Lorincz
aimed his attacks at Rabbi
Goren whom he compared
to Idi Amin of Uganda. Both
of them liked to wear Israeli
paratroopers wings he
pointed out and both of
them practiced tyranny and
vengeance and dictatorship.
The Independent Liber-
al's Yehuda Shaari de-
manded that Conservative
and Reform rabbis also be
recognized by the Israeli
authorities. Under the pre-
sent rules only Orthodox
rabbis are recognized. He
called for the appointment
of one chief rabbi instead of
the present two who he said
feuded ceaselessly.

Rabbi Hacohen, himself
an Orthodox rabbi, also as-
sailed the yeshivot which, he
said were for the most part
sealed off from the world
around them and played vir-
tually no role in the life of
the state. He charged that
most yeshiva students, le-
Friend of Man
gally exempt from military
To be a Jew is to be a
duties on religious grounds,
failed to assume their fair friend of mankind, to he a
share of the burden of na- proclaimer of liberty and
peace.
tional defense.
—Ludwig Lewisohn
The religious courts (Beth

