Pictures Of Rebbetzin Weiss, A”H
I was so sorry to hear of the loss of Rebbetzin Miriam Libby Weiss, wife of Jewish Press columnist Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss. Rebbetzin Weiss was such an exceptional person and a true tzaddekes.
I want to thank Rabbi Weiss and The Jewish Press for publishing pictures of Rebbetzin Weiss with the columns Rabbi Weiss has been writing in tribute to his wife. Now I know what a tzaddekes looks like.
I tried to find a picture of her before Rabbi Weiss’s Jan. 12 and Jan. 19 columns, but any reference to her online was accompanied by a picture of a candle.
I think all Jewish girls and women need to see pictures of role models. Rebbetzin Weiss certainly was a role model for us all. Thank you again for publishing the photographs. May Rabbi Weiss and his family know no more sorrows.
Helen Rich
(Via E-Mail)
Open Orthodoxy
I read with much interest Rabbi Yerachmiel Seplowitz’s “Time for Open Orthodox Congregations to Leave the OU?” (op-ed, Jan. 19).
His very salient points and descriptions of the goals and positions of “Open Orthodoxy” were very much on target. There is, however, one area on which I must comment.
Rabbi Seplowitz mentions that some of the leaders and founding rabbis of Open Orthodoxy have resigned from the RCA. But – having been a member of the RCA during my tenure in the rabbinate during the 1970s – I would characterize the lack of response on the part of both the RCA and the OU as timid and ineffective.
I believe both of those fine organizations should have been more proactive and taken a more decisive and forceful approach.
It would have been to their credit and honor and would have made a much more bold and courageous statement had they pre-empted the rabbis and the congregations. They should have long ago removed them from their membership for violating the halachic standards that form the bedrock upon which these two organizations rest.
In addition, Yeshiva University, of which I am a musmach, should immediately revoke the semicha of the leaders and especially the founders of Open Orthodoxy.
Rav Soloveitchik, zt”l, would be heartsick to learn that some of his talmidim are invoking his name while violating all semblances of halacha as he and other gedolim have defined it.
I hope these very important organizations make the right decision before more damage is done.
Rabbi Ronald Gross
Elizabeth, NJ
Rabbi Seplowitz replies: RCA rank and file members have spoken out eloquently, approving resolutions opposing the ordination of women. But, speaking as a member of the RCA’s Executive Committee, I am frustrated by the apparent lack of public proactivity by RCA leadership against these reforms.
As well, the OU, by not taking a stronger public stand, risks undermining its stellar reputation for uncompromising standards in kashrus and other Orthodox values if it continues to ignore this breach.
These Open Orthodox congregations desperately want to remain in the Orthodox Union because membership implies they are accepted as part of the Orthodox mainstream. And that is exactly why they have to go.
Ancient Inscriptions
Thank you for the front-page Jan. 5 headline regarding the governor of the city inscription found near the Kotel in Jerusalem. The inscription, which is Sar Ha-Ir in Hebrew, is found in the Tanach.
Jewish Press readers need not travel to Israel to see this amazing inscription. It’s available for view in my collection at The Living Torah Museum in Boro Park, along with many other inscriptions from the First temple period including one from King Hezekiah.
The Living Torah Museum houses an amazing collection of antiquities that shed new light on the Torah and also features exhibits of animals of the Torah, which children in particular find fascinating.
Harvey (Chaim) Herbert
Brooklyn, NY
Jewish And Arab Refugees
It is ironic that The New York Times, a newspaper that essentially ignored the Holocaust, now attacks the state of Israel on very nearly a daily basis.
A recent piece, like so many before it, condemned Israel for the Palestinian refugee plight, ignoring the fact that more Jews were expelled from Arab lands than the total number of Palestinians who left Israel in 1947-48 at the orders of the invading Arab armies.
While the article detailed the current problems of the descendants of those Arab refugees, there was no mention of the Jews who were expelled from Arab lands. The Jewish exiles from Arab countries have been assimilated into Israel and are contributing to the state, in sharp contrast to the situation of the Palestinian Arabs in Arab countries.
Nelson Marans
New York, NY