Jewish Agency chairman Leon Dulzin accused “certain circles in Canada and in Chicago” of “incitement” of Ethiopian immigrants against halachic requirements laid down by the Israeli chief rabbinate.
In a lengthy radio interview here Friday, Dulzin said these circles, which he did not identify, had in the past falsely maligned the State of Israel for ostensibly failing to bring the Ethiopians on aliya. And now these same circles were active in inciting the newcomers on the matter of the symbolic renewal of the covenant ceremony, he said.
Dulzin praised the Chief Rabbis who, he said, had been sympathetic and responsive to Ethiopian sensibilities and had thus dispensed with the requirement of a symbolic recircumcision.
Recircumcision, through a drawing of a drop of blood, had been required of Cochin Indian Jewish immigrants to Israel 25 years ago, Dulzin noted.
Today’s two Chief Rabbis, Mordechai Eliahu and Avraham Shapiro, had ruled that the Ethiopians were fully and entirely Jewish for every halachic purpose but if they wished to get married, they would have to undergo the very same examination of their Jewishness as every non-Israeli coming on aliya and wishing to marry is required to undergo.
In fact, Dulzin said, the Chief Rabbis’ requirement that Ethiopians immerse in the ritual bath prior to being permitted to marry was a dispensation — since it simplified this process of Jewish-credential-and-antecedent checking.
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.
