A repentant young Jewish inmate of McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary has resolved to teach himself to read the Bible in the original Hebrew, he revealed in a letter to Rabbi Max J. Wohgelernter, Seattle Talmud Torah educational director.
The letter tells how the inmate of the island “prison without walls” already has been taught to read Yiddish by other Jewish prisoners and requests “the loan of a Hebrew text book, a Bible in the original and a volume of the Talmud, in Hebrew,”
That the non-Jewish warden of the prison, Finch Archer, has taken an interest in the Jewish inmate’s resolve to teach himself Hebrew in order that he may study the Bible and the Talmud in the original was indicated in a letter from the warden, accompanying that of the prisoner.
“This case has merit,” Warden Archer wrote. “This prisoner is trying to improve himself.”
Rabbi Wohlgelernter said the request will be granted.
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