“chief Rabbi Abraham Rosenbach of Roumania”: a Week-minded Man of Sixty with a Bee in His Bonnet Who

The Grand Mufti’s organ “E1 Jamea el Arabia” published a report recently (given in the J.T.A. Bulletin of December 25th.) that “Chief Rabbi Abraham Rosenbach of Roumania” had written to the Palestine Government to demand that the site of the Temple on which the Mosque of Omar now stands should be given back to the Jews, so that the priests should restore the Temple Service of Sacrifices on the Rock where the burnt offerings were offered in the First Temple, and which was the scene of the sacrifice of Isaac.

“Rabbi” Abraham Rosenbach, who lives in Czernowitz, is a Jew of about 60 years of age, who is not and has never been a Rabbi. The J.T.A. representative here learns that it is true that some time ago he sent a letter to the Palestine Administration for permission to restore the Jewish sacrifice of burnt-offerings on the Holy Rock. Rosenbach is a weak-minded man with a bee in his bonnet, who is not taken seriously here, and he certainly had no authority from anyone for writing his letter and he represents no one at all. His letter is, in fact, nothing more than the act of a half-wit.

The publication of the report of Rosenbach’s letter in the “Jamea el Arabia” coincided with fresh disturbances at the Wailing Wall, stones being thrown at Jewish worshippers, two Yeshiba students being hit. The Moslem Youth Association of Safed was also impelled at the same time to cable to the late Mohamed Ali, who was then critically ill in London, calling on him to save the Mosque of Omar from being seized by the Jews.