R. Nathan Kamenetsky wrote to me pointing out that when R. Dovid Leibowitz was let go from Yeshiva Torah va-Daas in the 1930s, one of the complaints against him was that he was promoting communism (whether the complaint was justified I cannot say.)
Kamenetsky continues:
You do not base your suggestion on philology - and nor will I. I also do not think that you are correct sociologically that white-collar workers were assumed to be less religiously observant than other Jews. I believe that Rabbi Graubart meant pharmacists, because, like doctors, they were not expected to be observant. I know this from my father's attitude (which was grounded in the pre-World War I Jewish environment). For example, when my father would speak of my native Tzitevian, the town where he served as rabbi, and telling an involved story about how a Jewish woman who was suspected by my mother of not using the mikveh found that her husband was carrying on with their goyisheh maid, he added, (not in these exact words) "Naturally, besides the pharmacist's wife, all the women in the shtetl used the mikveh." Insofar as doctors, and likely pharmacists too, they weren't trusted to be profesionally reliable if they were observant! See my Making of a Godol, page 557, (within my discussion about Dr. Einhorn, a mysterious figure), where I quote an article about that doctor which said, "The [townspeople] realized that [Dr. Einhorn's] way of life, his devoutness, did not harmonize with his profession."
R. Nathan Kamenetsky wrote to me pointing out that when R. Dovid Leibowitz was let go from Yeshiva Torah va-Daas in the 1930s, one of the complaints against him was that he was promoting communism.
At least R' Dovid Leibowitz was only into the socialist aspects of Communism. Someone else who left YTV on not such great terms, Margulies, is a Communist in the Totalitarian sense.
http://seforim.blogspot.com/2008/04/responses-to-comments-and-elaborations.html
ReplyDeleteR. Nathan Kamenetsky wrote to me pointing out that when R. Dovid Leibowitz was let go from Yeshiva Torah va-Daas in the 1930s, one of the complaints against him was that he was promoting communism (whether the complaint was justified I cannot say.)
Kamenetsky continues:
You do not base your suggestion on philology - and nor will I. I also do not think that you are correct sociologically that white-collar workers were assumed to be less religiously observant than other Jews. I believe that Rabbi Graubart meant pharmacists, because, like doctors, they were not expected to be observant. I know this from my father's attitude (which was grounded in the pre-World War I Jewish environment). For example, when my father would speak of my native Tzitevian, the town where he served as rabbi, and telling an involved story about how a Jewish woman who was suspected by my mother of not using the mikveh found that her husband was carrying on with their goyisheh maid, he added, (not in these exact words) "Naturally, besides the pharmacist's wife, all the women in the shtetl used the mikveh." Insofar as doctors, and likely pharmacists too, they weren't trusted to be profesionally reliable if they were observant! See my Making of a Godol, page 557, (within my discussion about Dr. Einhorn, a mysterious figure), where I quote an article about that doctor which said, "The [townspeople] realized that [Dr. Einhorn's] way of life, his devoutness, did not harmonize with his profession."
R. Nathan Kamenetsky wrote to me pointing out that when R. Dovid Leibowitz was let go from Yeshiva Torah va-Daas in the 1930s, one of the complaints against him was that he was promoting communism.
ReplyDelete*
That is correct!
At least R' Dovid Leibowitz was only into the socialist aspects of Communism. Someone else who left YTV on not such great terms, Margulies, is a Communist in the Totalitarian sense.
ReplyDeleteComrade Lipa, how many victims have you silenced?
http://seforim.blogspot.com/2008/03/rabbis-and-communism-by-marc-b.html?m=1
ReplyDeleteRegarding orthodox Jewish Communists and supporters.
http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-bible-teaches-about-capitalism.html
ReplyDelete