Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren promised today that the full text of the controversial ruling in the Langer case would be published here this week. At the same time, he charged that yeshiva heads were employing methods of “terror” to try to force their views on rabbis and dayanim (religious court judges) and declared that he would not tolerate such acts.
Rabbi Goren has come under severe attack from ultra-Orthodox religious circles here and abroad for the ruling by a nine-man rabbinical court last month that Hanoch and Miriam Langer were not bastards and were free to marry their fiances. Rabbi Goren said the text of the ruling and the names of the dayanim have not been released until now to protect them from harassment and possible physical violence.
Addressing the weekly meeting of the Engineers Club here, he said he would seek to solve all family and personal problems according to halacha (religious law) but would see to it that halachic problems are solved by rabbis and rabbinical courts, not by yeshiva heads. He said he would not allow “terror” to be used to prevent dayanim from making decisions according to their conscience.
(In New York it was reported today that about 2500 Jews demonstrated in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn against Rabbi Goren’s ruling in the Langer case and against the National Religious Party Cabinet ministers for falling to effect an amendment to Israel’s Law of Return stipulating that all conversions must be according to halacha–religious law. No incidents were reported.)
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