Thousands of Polish Jews in the capital gathered in the streets through which the funeral procession passed for the late Rabbi Joseph Mordecai Leiner of Radzyn, the leader of the branch of the Chassidic movement in Poland known under the name of that town.
Not only the Radzyner Chassidim but large crowds of other affiliations came to pay tribute to the Rabbi. At the request of the Warsaw Rabbinate, Jewish stores and offices in the streets along which the procession passed were closed. The Warsaw police detailed a special mounted detachment to keep order. The Kehillah allotted special ground for the grave as well as for the construction of a memorial chapel, as is the custom for the leaders of the Chassidic movement.
Rabbi Leiner, who was next to the Rabbi of Gura, Kalwarjia in popularity, was the son of Rabbi Gerson Henich Leiner, the founder of the dynasty of Radzyn. Rabbi Gerson Henich, half a century ago, startled the Jewish religious world in Poland by his reintroduction into practice the wearing of the “rib and of blue” in the fringes (Zizit) as is Biblical command (Numbers XV, 38). For many centruries the blue strand had been omitted among East European Jews as there was no certainty about the exact shade of blue to be used. Rabbi Gerson Henich, who was a learned and travelled man was said to have discovered the exact shading of the blue on a visit to Rome. Upon his entering the ministry and establishing the Radzyner branch of the Chassidic movement all members of the sect were required to wear the blue stra(###)d in their fringes, the tassels attached to the four corners of the ancient Jewish under garment, the Arba Kaniot.
Other leaders of the Chassidic movement were doubtful about the discovery, as were the Talmudic authorities among the rabbis, but the custom persisted and Radzyn became a center for the production of the fringes with the blue strand, dyed by a secret formula. The wearing of the blue stranded fringe is the mark of Radzyner Chassidim.
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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.
