By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive & Hasidic Archives
Rabbi Moses Rosen, Chief Rabbi of Romania, toiled for the Jews of his community. Throughout the reign of the Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, he maintained his position as the chief rabbi of the country and yielded unprecedented political power, which he used for the benefit of the Jewish community.
With great pride, he oversaw the exodus of 400,000 Jews to Israel. His policy, however, was that any Jewish clergy members, ritual slaughterers and the like, first needed to be vetted by him before leaving the country.
In one instance, the family of the shochet of the small Jewish community in Dorohoi had immigrated in Israel, yet Rabbi Rosen refused to permit the shochet to abandon his community.
On a visit to Israel, Rabbi Rosen was greeted by demonstrators and crying family members. “How dare you separate a father from his family?” they asked.
Rabbi Rosen was torn, unsure if he should grant the man an exit permit.
A short while later, while visiting New York, Rabbi Rosen met the Rebbe for a meeting in the early morning hours.
Regarding the dilemma of the Dorohoi shochet, the Rebbe said: “Until you are able to replace him, it is incumbent upon the slaughterer to not abandon the small Jewish community. Let him commute from Romania to Israel to be with his family, but he must return to Romania to help preserve the Jewish observance of the Dorohoi community.”
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Thanks for the article!
Thank you for sharing this. Keep up giving us such fine quality content!!
Grammatical error, third paragraph, immigrate to… in case you’d like to correct before you go to print.
Thanks for the story!