Leaders of Conservative Judaism attending the World Council of Synagogues convention here appeared unanimous in their approval today of Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren’s handling of the Langer case. Rabbi Judah Nadich, president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, read a congratulatory telegram he sent to Rabbi Goren at the opening session of the convention last night: “We bless you for your courage and the great ruling which will increase the glory of the Torah.”
Prof. Simon Greenberg, Vice Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, said Rabbi Goren’s ruling was in the spirit of halacha and quoted the Biblical verse, “Sons shall not die for the sins of their fathers,” Prof. Saul Lieberman of the JTS said he could not comment on the ruling itself which he hadn’t seen but that he esteemed Rabbi Goren as a scholar and a righteous man.
Rabbi Goren resolved the Langer case swiftly Sunday when a nine-man court of dayanim (rabbin- ical judges) he assembled removed the taint of illegitimacy from Hanoch and Miriam Langer and permitted them to marry their fiances. The two couples were married at a joint wedding ceremony Sunday night. Rabbi Goren’s action proved immensely popular with a majority of Israelis although it engendered bitterness among die-hard conservatives in the rabbinate and in ultra-Orthodox circles.
GOREN UNDER POLICE PROTECTION
Rabbi Goren’s Tel Aviv home has been placed under police guard and the Chief Rabbi is accompanied by a personal bodyguard when he leaves as a precaution against physical assaults by religious zealots. Four yeshiva students were arrested yesterday when they attempted to attack Rabbi Goren while he attended burial services for Rabbi Yisrael Beeri of Ness Ziona.
The popularity of Rabbi Goren’s action at home seemed to be shared by Jewish religious leaders abroad. Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits of Great Britain who is Orthodox indicated his approval. “Sometimes there are cases like this before Batei Din” (rabbinical courts), he said, “but often we find solutions under halacha.” He cautioned, however, that “We cannot change the law completely” and claimed that “because punishment for committing adultery is so severe we have had so few cases of It. If there is a way out of a particular problem we are, of course, very happy about it.”
Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan of France said he could not comment without seeing Goren’s court ruling. Rabbi Joseph Glazer, an American Reform Rabbi, now in Israel, said he was happy for the Langers but noted that the solution of their particular case did not solve the overall problem–the cruelty of archaic laws.
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