(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
The problems and difficulties of the Orthodox Rabbinate in the Jewish communities in the United States were presented on the second day of the twenty-fifth annual convention of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis which is in session here at the Carlton Hotel.
Rabbi Eliezar Silver of Springfield. Mass and Dr. B. Revel, president of the faculty of the Rabbi Isaac El-chanan Seminary, presided at the morning and afternoon sessions respectively.
Messages from rabbinical bodies in Palestine. Poland and other countries were received congratulating the Union on its twenty-fifth anniversary and urging it to continue its work. An appeal to come to the aid of the Yeshivahs in Poland was contained in the message from Rabbi Ozer Grodzinski of Vilna in behalf of a rabbinical conference held there recently.
The discussion on the conditions under which the Orthodox rabbis perform their work in the various communities revealed innumerable difficulties and hardships that result from the rapidly changing conditions in Jewish life in America. Unity among the rabbis was urged as necessary to raise the prestige of the spiritual leader. A resolution to create an insurance fund for aged rabbis by taxing the communities and deducting a percentage of the rabbis’ salaries was tabled.
Rabbi Aaron Teitlebaum announced that the Central Relief Committee will not be in a position any longer to contribute toward the Ezrath Torah Fund which aids aged and sick rabbis abroad and which has expended close to $700,000 during the past 13 years. An appeal to the rabbis to undertake collections in their communities for the fund was made.
The convention accorded a rousing ovation to Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz of Slobodka. Lithuania. famous Talmudic scholar who recently arrived in America.
The debate which took place on the supervision of the production of kosher foodstuffs was particularly intense. Charges were made by some of the speakers against some rabbis that they had issued Hecksherim (certificates of approval) for products manufactured under conditions which do not warrant the issuance of such certificates. Particular charges were brought against Rabbi Iskolski of New York. who was suspended from membership in the Union pending a call that he appear before a committee to justify his action in issuing a certificate of approval for products manufactured in a sausage factory which put on the market both kosher and nonkosher products. Rabbi Israel Rosenberg of Brooklyn, chairman of the praesidium, appealed for unity.
Rabbi J. Kanowitz of Newark was appointed chairman of the committee on Palestine; Rabbi Fliezar Silver chairman of the committee on membership; Rabbi Isaac Siegel, committee on arrangments; Rabbi Isaiah Karlinsky, committee on nominations, Rabbi B. L. Levinthal, committee on resolutions; Rabbi Joseph Rosen, committee on Sabbath observance; Rabbi Chaim Block, committee on finance.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
