A number of issues of urgent concern to religious Jews around
the world were addressed, debated and discussed over three
days by the close to 100 Agudath Israel rabbinic and lay
leaders from around the world who gathered here for the most
recent conference of the international board of the Agudath
Israel World Organization (AIWO -- the Vaad Hapoel
Haolami).
Security and social issues in Eretz Yisroel were a prime
focus of the conference, which featured a number of prominent
roshei yeshiva, rabbonim and askonim.
A resolution was passed by the conference expressing "deep
pain and profound concern" over developments across the
Atlantic indicating that greater Yerushalayim has apparently
been placed on the Israeli-Palestinian bargaining table.
That development was seen by AIWO's chairman, Rabbi Yehudah
Meir Abramowitz, as not unconnected to the dire internal
state of contemporary Israel. A number of concerns in that
regard were addressed as well, including tensions between
Israel's religious and nonreligious populations, the
onslaught of American-style "Jewish religious pluralism," the
campaign for shemiras Shabbos, the Israeli High
Court's rulings on a variety of religious matters and the Tal
Commission bill concerning military service for bnei
yeshiva.
Rabbi Menachem Porush, former Knesset member and acting
chairman of Mercaz Agudas Yisroel in Eretz Yisroel, reported
on latest developments in Eretz Yisroel.
Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine; Rabbi
Pinchos Goldschmidt, the Chief Rabbi of Moscow; and Rabbi
Moshe Kishon, the Chief Rabbi of Azerbaijan, outlined the
tremendous opportunity before world Jewry to help Eastern
European Jews reconnect to their Torah heritage.
Rabbi Shmuel Dishon, mashgiach ruchani, Yeshivas
Karlin- Stolin, delivered a stirring emotional appeal,
calling on the Vaad Hapoel Haolami to undertake
responsibility for the spiritual needs of Jews in former Iron
Curtain lands. We must stop thinking of Jews who live in
Russia, he said, as "Russian Jews," because what they are,
simply, are Jews, our brothers and sisters who happen to
reside in Russia.
One proposal raised during discussion was that the world's
yeshivos and Chassidic groups each "adopt" a particular
community in a former Soviet land, taking responsibility for
seeing that it has a competent rabbi, kosher food, a mikva
and other Jewish needs.
The state of Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe was also a
topic of major concern to the conference. In a session
chaired by Reb Yechiel Ben Zion Fishoff, chairman of the
Board of Trustees of Agudath Israel of America, there was
intensive discussion about how best to utilize the laws of
Eastern European countries to serve the cause of cemetery
preservation. Over 500 known Jewish cemeteries are in dire
need of fences and upkeep.
Agudath Israel of America presidium member Rabbi Chaskel
Besser, a longstanding and only recently reappointed member
the U.S. government's Commission to Preserve America's
Heritage Abroad, described how certain local groups in Gdansk
and elsewhere have improperly claimed to represent Jewish
communities in Eastern Europe, thereby harming efforts to
preserve botei dinim and otherwise undermining
important Jewish communal interests. The delegates passed a
resolution calling upon Eastern European governments to deal
exclusively with the legitimate representatives of local
Jewish communities.
Jewish concerns in the United Nations and other diplomatic
settings was a topic addressed by Agudath Israel World
Organization director of international affairs and United
Nations Representative Professor Moishe Zvi Reicher, who
presented a broad overview of AIWO's work in the world
body.
Professor Reicher spoke to the delegates about a project AIWO
has undertaken to establish an international legal resource
center, to help share ideas and approaches toward legal
problems facing Jewish individuals and communities the world
over. Even as the session on international affairs was
ending, a call came in to a participant regarding a disputed
kever -- believed to be that of Rav Ashi -- on the
Lebanese border with Israel that was presenting a dilemma for
United Nations peacekeeping forces charged with fine-tuning
the border between the two countries. Professor Reicher was
duly informed and told Yated that AIWO will be
weighing in at the U.N. on the issue.
A session on the issue of Holocaust-era restitution, chaired
by Mr. Yitzchok Meir Cymerman, heard reports from Agudath
Israel representatives to a number of international bodies
involved in restitution issues, including the Memorial
Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Claims Conference and the
World Jewish Restitution Organization. Much discussion
ensued.
Mr. George Klein, who spearheaded a special AIWO historical
research project that formed the basis of the organization's
presentation on behalf of Orthodox institutions in the "Swiss
Banks" lawsuit, made an impassioned plea for the
strengthening of the World Agudah movement. So much could be
accomplished, he said, if we were only able to present a
unified voice on behalf of Torah concerns the world over.
Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, Agudath Israel of America's executive
vice president, called on those present to undertake the
empowerment of the World Agudah by both organizing new
chapters of the international organization in countries
around the globe that currently lack them, and by taking
concrete steps to facilitate communication and interaction
among all AIWO branches.
Rabbi Abramowitz announced his intention to establish two
positions, one in Europe and one in South America, to be
manned by professionals charged with facilitating the
establishment and coordination of new branches of the
organization.
Another important session at the conference was dedicated to
media issues. Rabbi Yisroel Eichler, editor of Hamachane
Hacharedi, and Yonason Rosenblum, Am Echad's Israeli
director and columnist for the Jerusalem Post, focused
on the difficulties of ensuring that the Orthodox community's
positions are effectively and accurately conveyed to the
press.
The major highlight of the conference was a special session
on "The Vision and Responsibility of the World Agudah", which
featured Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller, rosh hayeshiva,
Yeshivas Telshe, Chicago; Rabbi Betzalel Rakow, av
beis din (Gateshead); Rabbi Yaakov Meir Rosenbaum,
rosh hayeshiva, Lev Simcha (London); and Rabbi Shmuel
Akiva Schlesinger, rav of Strassbourg.
Rabbi Keller bemoaned the contemporary spread of the
"uprooters of Torah" who have taken over so many public
forums and media, and stressed the historic role of Agudath
Israel in fulfilling the Jewish mandate to have a holy effect
on the entire world. The means for the execution of that
mission, he declared, quoting from a letter from Rav Elchonon
Wassermann, Hy"d, is by concretizing the thoughts and
insights of gedolei Yisroel.
Rabbi Schlesinger, quoting the Chasam Sofer, stressed that
the Ovos Hakedoshim were not ready to accept a "partial
geula" and that neither should we be ready today to do
the same. Klal Yisroel, he declared, should be ready
to accept even extended golus in order to be zoche
to the geula sheleima.
Absent for the first time in many years from a World Agudah
conference was the late Agudath Israel leader Rabbi Moshe
Sherer, zt"l. Rabbi Abramowitz spoke movingly about Rabbi
Sherer, and his memory and wisdom were repeatedly invoked by
other speakers over the course of the three-day gathering.
