Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Thank You, Rabbi Morris Rose

The Reader’s Forum

To the Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:

I am one of the rabbis of the Central Conference who refused to endorse the resolution of Rabbi Israel for the following reasons:

(a) Practically all congregations in America consist of middle-class and capitalist Jews, and one cannot support Socialism in Palestine without endorsing it in America.

(b) No rabbi speaks as an individual, but rather is looked upon as the spokesman of his community. Surely 241 rabbis will be treated by our non-Jewish friends as the voice of Israel.

(c) I know too much about the Histadruth and their religious aspirations to suspect that they would encourage the Jewish faith in Palestine.

(d) I am a Revisionist since 1926 and attended the Second World Revisionist Conference and as a member of the presidium helped shape its program. I never remember anything that we discussed that had anything to do with Fascism.

(e) The Betar is merely a replica of the scout movement in America. As a rabbi I always supported the American scouts in spite of their brown uniforms. I am sure other rabbis did likewise. What may be good for America should also prove profitable for the Jewish people in Poland.

(f) In reference to social justice, I am sure that Rabbi Israel knows enough of Marxian theory to be able to distinguish between a philosophy of materialism and that of the Prophets to understand that the gulf is wide enough not to imply the same meaning.

(g) The class struggle is not necessarily the best method that will bring about social justice, and a knowledge of present-day conditions in Palestine may not prove to be very healthy under the circumstances.


Morris M. Rose,
Temple Sinai of Brooklyn.
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Feb. 7, 1935.

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From the NYTimes obit:

RABBI MORRIS M. ROSEPublished: March 31, 1983

Rabbi Morris M. Rose, former leader of congregations in Brooklyn and Queens, and in Morgantown, W.Va., died of a stroke Saturday at University Hospital. He was 85 years old, and lived in Kew Gardens, Queens.

From 1929 to 1951, Rabbi Rose was the leader of Temple Sinai in the East New York section of Brooklyn. He then became leader of the Tree of Life Congregation in Morgantown, and at his death was rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth Israel in St. Albans, Queens. He was a former president of the Zionists-Revisionists of America.

He is survived by his wife, the former Etta Millens; a son, Rabbi Herbert H. Rose, of Boulder, Colo.; two sisters, Vicki Press of Miami, and Katie Halperin of Chicago; a brother, Rabbi Abraham J. Rose, of Quincy, Ill., and six grandchildren.


From 1929 on political Zionism:



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