Four leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis issued a statement here decrying and spurning the Chief Rabbinate Council’s excommunication last week of Knesset member Shlomo Lorincz. The Aguda Knesseter earned this reprobation for having compared Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren to Idi Amin in a Knesset speech last week, Rabbi Goren himself headed the Council session when the excommunication bull was issued.
The four rabbis–Eliezer Shack of Ponewezh Yeshiva, Yaacov Kanievsky of Hazon Ish Yeshiva (both of Bnei Brak); Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Shalom Eliashiv (both of Jerusalem)–recalled in their statement an earlier declaration by themselves and other leading rabbis ruling that all of Rabbi Goren’s judgements and halachic ordinances were “void.” Referring to last week’s “excommunication” in quotation marks, the four–all of whom are held in high esteem in ultra-Orthodox circles–say that the same applies to it, too. (By David Landau)
CORRECTION
The story on P. 1 of Wednesday’s Bulletin stated that the Jewish Agency’s aliya department is contacting NYC Jewish municipal employes who were laid off. This was incorrect. This is being done by the Israel Aliya Center which is sponsored by the World Zionist Organization-American Section.
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