Premier David Ben Gurion today told a delegation of Orthodox rabbis from the United States that there will be no “religious coercion” in Israel. The delegation was led by Rabbi Isaac Stollman of Detroit, president of the Religious Zionists of America.
The Premier stated that Israel could not afford luxury of disunity and a national debate on religious matters until the population had at least doubled. He deprecated the position of many extremists and scored them as “smearers. “
It is possible, he added, that there is no place for a swimming pool for mixed bathing in Jerusalem–an issue which has exercised Orthodox Jews In and outside of Israel–but the government is not empowered to intervene.
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