A strongly worded letter against Rabbi Eliyahu Ram, signed by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Deutsch, the father-in-law of ...

A strongly worded letter against Rabbi Eliyahu Ram, signed by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Deutsch, the father-in-law of the Grich Zonnenfeld, and the Kabbalist Rabbi Yeshaya Asher Zelig Margaliyot, on the subject of girls’ education in Jerusalem.

Letter on official letterhead of the “The Vaad of the Beit Chinuch HaYashan [Old Educational Institution] for Girls in Jerusalem”, from 5th of Adar 1923. Addressed to “the Rabbanim Geonim HaGedolim of the Badatz of the Ashkenazi communities.”

The letter writers—the head of the Vaad, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Deutsch (father-in-law, 2nd marriage, to the Mara d’Atra Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld) and the secretary Rabbi Yeshaya Asher Zelig Margaliyot (written entirely in his handwriting)—complain about the shochet u’bodek Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu Ram of Birz and the shochet u’bodek Rabbi Moshe Weinstock (uncle of the kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Yair Weinstock, the brother of the latter’s father) for “sending their daughters to the Beit Ashkolot Merirot (House of Bitter Grapes) of “Schpitzer”. They request that the rabbis act publicly to oppose this and to force the shuvim to take their daughters out of the Schpitzer school, and also ask whether one can eat food made from animals they slaughtered(!!!). Filing holes and creases.

Background: The Schpitzer school was founded in 1918 by the educator Channah Miriam Schpitzer, who saw the lack of basic education among girls in the Old Yishuv of Jerusalem, and her fears regarding the spiritual and practical advancement of the girls led her to establish the “Talmud Torah for Girls Alef”, first in her home and then in the Beit Yehudiyof in the Bukharim neighborhood of Jerusalem.

She tried to recruit other organizations to establish a school but suffered great opposition from male leaders of the Old Yishuv. She approached the Agudas Yisrael, since her father Rabbi Shmuel Zenovil Schpitzer was one of its important activists in the city, but she was refused since she insisted on teaching the girls Hebrew. Around a year after establishing the program the Mizrahi movement responded to her request and supported the school, with Schpitzer’s condition that the movement not be mentioned in any way so as not to prejudice members of the Old Yishuv against sending their girls to the institute. However, as a result a herem was placed on the school.

Despite the herem, many great leaders of Jerusalem Jewry sent their daughters, which saved many from needing to rebel against their parents.

This letter expresses the strength of the machloket and the zealousness of those on either side wishing for purity in education.