Polish Orthodox Jewry to Fight to Keep Religious Character of Kehillahs

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Orthodox Jewry in the Republic of Poland, split into various factions due to geographic and other influences, will unite to put up a desperate fight for maintaining the religious character of the Kehillahs, the time honored institutions functioning as the executive organs of the Jewish communities in Poland.

In this fight which is to develop soon in connection with the forthcoming Kehillah elections in Galicia and in the Eastern provinces of Poland, recently included in the Kehillah statute of Congress Poland, Orthodox rabbis of the Eastern provinces, the stern guardians of the letter of the law, will unite with the Chassidic rabbis of Galicia and Central Poland, with whom they are often at variance.

A national conference of Orthodox rabbis, Chassidic rabbis and Orthodox lay leaders will convene here shortly. The convention will be called “Moazath Gdolei Ha’torah,” Council of Torah Authorities. Rabbis of the eastern provinces will sit in counsel together with the Chassidic rebbes of Gura Kalwarija, of Radzin, Sochaczow, Belz and Bobow. Ways and means will be sought to create a united front of Orthodox Jewry at the forthcoming elections.

The plan has been put forward to ask for the establishment of separate Orthodox Kehillahs in case the elections will prove that the process of secularizing the Kehillahs and turning them into institutions of an anti-religious character cannot be halted.

The secularization of the Kehillah institutions is a plank in the program of Polish Zionists. The situation has become more aggravating to the Orthodox Jews, since the Jewish labor parties Bund and Poale Zion, have decided to participate in the Kehillah elections and to “bore from within” with a view to undermining the authority and the influence of the rabbinate.