Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Unintended consequences of the 1958 Massive Jerusalem Protest against the proposed Mixed Bathing Swimming Pool

In 1958, one of the largest protests of the Haredim in infant Israel took place, against a proposed public swimming pool that would allow mixed swimming of men and women. The protests did indeed work, and the swimming pool project was eventually called off, but I found a letter which shows some of the unintended causalities of such protests, which persist long after the dust from the protests have settled.

The letter is from the wife of Ben Zion Ashkenazi who was arrested in the protest. His wife describes how now, four months after his arrest, he is ill and lacks medical care, she and her son are are living in shame and sorrow from their many creditors......

The letter is signed and stamped on reverse by a member of the Edah Haharedit, Rabbi Yisrael Yitzchak Halevi Reisman (Otzar Harabbanim 12254) a dayan of of the Eidah, with 4 lines in his handwriting.

The letter is addressed to Rabbi Dov Zuckerman of Buffalo, NY.

Letter concerning a massive protest, against building a "swimming pool with mixed swimming" in Jerusalem the Holy City, signed by the heads of the "Mo'etzet Gedolei HaTorah" in Jerusalem: Rabbi "Zvi Pesach Frank" Rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi "Dov Berish Weidenfeld" the Tshebin Rav, Rabbi "Eliezer Yehuda Finkel" Head of Mir Yeshiva, Rabbi "Zalman Sorotzkin" the Rabbi of Lutsk and Rabbi "Akiva Sofer" the Rabbi from Pressburg.


  1. R. Weidenfeld is referred to as the Tshebiner Rav, not Rebbe.