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DISPLACED GLORY, Nissan Wo/pin ............................................................ 3 "'rELL ME, RABBI BUTRASHVILLI .. ,"Dov Goldstein, trans­ lation by Mirian1 Margoshes 5 So~rn THOUGHTS FROM THE ROSHEI YESHIVA 8 THE RABBINATE AT BAY, David Meyers................................................ 10 VOLUNTARY SERVICE FOR WOMEN: COMPROMISE OF A NATION'S PURITY, Ezriel Toshavi ..... 19 SECOND LOOKS RESIGNATION REQUESTED ............................................................... 25 THE JEWISH OBSERVER is published monthly, except July and August, by the Agudath Israel of America, 5 Beekman Street, New York, New York 10038. Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y. Subscription: $5.00 per year; Two years, $8.50; Three years, $12.00; outside of the United States, $6.00 per year. Single copy, fifty cents. SPECIAL OFFER! Printed in the U.S.A. RABBI N ISSON W OLPJN THE JEWISH OBSERVER Editor 5 Beekman Street 7 New York, N. 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VIII, No. l 0 O D Bill me: $ 0 Series Ill ~@J . .· Displaced·Glory . the epic f ourney of the Jews of Soviet Ge~rgia across the head­ lines of our times: froni the inspiring "Letter of the Eighteen," to their current defaniation by the press-from the placid eye of the Russian hurricane, to their stormy resettlement zn outlying areas of Israel. The Letter fo the U.N. The letter astoui1ded its readers, and at the same time seemed to set into motion an expanding chain of ·u· N'fn:. TWO YEARS AGO, the Jews of Russia were defiance that brought Georgian Jews to gather in protest ..·.· subject for d~ffident shoulder-shrugging and ~elp- ··demonstrations and to declare public fasts in Tbilis (Tif­ .· less speculation. Then, unexpectedly, the mr of .· !is) and Moscow in demand for exit visas to Israel. quiet defeatism was shattered. Eighteen Georgian Jews sent a letter to the Human Rights Commission of the The Letter to Podgorny United Nations, and even dared affix their signatures to ···s INCE TtlAt TIME, thousands of Jews have been this historic document. Golda Meir tearfully read its granted exit visas and have begun arriving by the ·· ... contents on Kol Yisrael. Rabbi Yitzchok Meir Levin planeload in Israel. And now another letter has .... recited parts of it on the Knesset floor. The heart leaped been penned by Georgian Jews, and it too has sent at the realization that in the Soviet Province of Georgia shockwaves around the world. This letter was addressed ~birthplace of Josef Stalin-this hardy group had to USSR President Podgorny. In effect, it said: Situa­ · preserved its faith. .tions here do not make this the promised land we While in surrounding territories, other Jews were dreamed about. Allow us to return to Georgia. forced to wander from place to place, abandon profes­ Tht: substance of their discontent has been docu;. , sional careers for night-watch assignments or jobs as mented and received a certain amount of airing, as is boot-blacks to maintain a life of Yiddishkeit without evidenced by the interview with one of their leaders, . arousing suspicions, the Georgian Jews stayed at home. R abbi Yehudah Butrashvilli, which was printed in the Unyielding to political and economic pressures, endur- popular Israeli daily, Maariv. (The text of the interview ing terms in labor camps-and entertaining no pleas follows this article.) . for assimilation-they remained a viable community ..· Mainly, they complain about their community being complete with shuts, mikvaos, shechitah, Hebrew fragmented to the point where they can no longer be schools. And it all found proud expression in their secure in their individual religious practice. They point . letter: to exposure to subtle and blatant irreligious pressures, assignments to jobs that involve Shabbos violation, and ·· ~'We religious Jews believe that there can be nO ·· a lack of Torah-education and general religious facil­ Jew without belief, just as there is no belief with­ ities in the areas of their newly assigned homes. out tradition. For decades we have been Israeli officialdom has found itself perplexed and caught up in the struggle against religion- we frustrated by the Georgian reaction. In the past, "ab· therefore want to go to Eretz Yisroel. We sorption" of new immigrants has meant total assiniila­ .. will wait months, and years-and if necessary, .. tion into the life-pattern of modern Israel at its lowest all of our lives--and we will not forsake our common denominator by means of a systematic wean­ faith and our hope. We believe that our prayers ing away from Torah. And these systematic efforts will reach the Almighty. We know that our call succeeded. To a good many of the olim 9f previous will reach the hearts of men. We ask little, only · immigrations, coming to Israel meant leaping over a that we be permitted to go out to the Land of time barrier into the 20th Century- and they were our Fathers." shorn of superstilions, payos, tefillin, emunah and fnitz- vos, distrust of sophisticated machinery, and faith in the traditions of fathers, all with one decisive snip. Some Immigrants Pulled out of old habits, folk-ways, and allegiances, they were cast into a new mold without Torah. Thus In Israel Ask Return were the shameful chapters of Yaldei Teheran, Yaldei Morroco, and Ya/dei Teiman (Yemen) entered into To Georgia in Soviet the infamous record of "successful absorption." 'fhe Georgian immigrants refused to conform to Special to The New York T!mn the tragic patterns of the past. They had been living TEL AVIV, Nov. 26--Several dozen immigrant families fro!1'1 in one of the most advanced and prosperous of the the Soviet Repubhc of Georgia Soviet states. They are not wide-eyed strangers to the want t'o go baCk there, it was 20th century, nor are they unexposed innocents when reported here today. The newspaper Maariv quote it comes to resisting anti-religious coercion. Their Micha Minkashwilli, a ritual allegiance to Torah has been tested by a half-century slaughter now living in Ashdod, as having said that between 50 of Soviet rule, and it has survived. They are coming to and 200 heads of families. had ]srael-not as refugees from physical terror, as were signed petitions to PreSident their predecessors who fled from Arab lands-but as Nikolai V. Podgorny of the So­ pilgrims thirsty for religious fulfillment, and they see viet Union asking to be allowed back. f no need to settle for less than fulfillment. An official of the M1·n1stry o Absorption in Jerusalem co~­ finned today that some Georgia The Response-Smokescreen and Distortion families wanted to leave the country, but he said it was a NSTEAD OF REASSESSING their policies, the govern­ marginal proble!11. .The gr~at ment ministries and the Jewish Agency have thrown majority were adJus_t1n_g, he s~1d. I Requests for repatnat1on by im­ up a smokescreen of half-truths and distortions. migrants from other parts of As a result, the official press releases fed to the Jewish the Soviet Union have been Telegraphic Agency have, in turn, described Georgian rare, he added. demands for placement in religious settlements as de­ mands for "more spacious and luxurious apartments ... ~~ The Jews of Georgia, who had in densely populated urban areas." ... Only recently, clung tenaciously to religious since the New York Times published a more accurate practices in their old country under the Communists, were account of the story, has the Ministry admitted to the shocked by-what they consid· true nature of some of the demands of the olim. ered the laxness of religious The activity of Israeli dati'im aimed at reassuring life in the Jewish state. Some newspapers charged the olim and giving them religious articles and advice that Commu~ists had agitated has been distorted in JTA reports to the work of among the immigrants and had provoked the petition-signing. Communist provocateurs, sowing seeds of discontent, However; a Ministry of Absorp­ urging olim to return. The existence of such agents is tion official acknowledged that certainly a possibility, but it is being used as cause their problems were genuine. for "the Jewish Agency ... to alert bnmigration per­ from the N. Y. Tinies, Noveniber 27, 1971 sonnel. As a result of the alert, strangers found at the hostels and absorption centers will be asked to leave if they cannot give a satisfactory explanation for their refused to accept the keys to the shul. By contrast the presence" (JTA). Exclusion of "strangers" has also JTA story read: meant exclusion of personnel from Yad L'Achim, the "Jewish emigres from Soviet Georgia finally agreed Israeli Agudah, and other Georgian Jews. to accept the keys to a temporary house of worship in An incident revolving around the presentation of a A shkelon that was put at their disposal by the Absorp­ set of keys for a shul in Ashkelon was similarly dis­ tion .Ministry until a permanent synagogue can be built.