Ephraim E. Urbach as a Military Chaplain
I just happened to stumble upon a recently published book, רשימות בימי מלחמה, which the diary that E.E. Urbach kept when he was a military chaplain in the British Army during the years 1942-1944. It looks like a very interesting book, and here are a few things which I saw after a quick look at it.
Much of Urbach’s time was spent in North Africa and Italy, and he has many descriptions of the Jewish community in Tunisia and Libya.
In the entry to December 30, 1942, Urbach describes a conversation that he had with a soldier stationed at an Air Force base. At the time, Urbach was in the Egypt, and the soldier was also from the Land of Israel (throughout the book Urbach describes himself as an ארץ-ישראלי). From the conversation, Urbach learns that soldiers are smuggling many things into the Land of Israel, and it seems that one of the other chaplains, a Rabbi C., is aware of the situation, and quite possibly involved himself. Urbach seemed determined to find out what is going on and put a stop to it, since such types of actions will cause the desecration of God’s name (אני מוכרח לחקור את הדבר כדי למנוע חילול השם).
In the entry to September 27, 1943, he describes how he met an American chaplain, R. Werfel from Yeshiva U., whom I assume is R. Louis Werfel. Urbach adds that the students at the other rabbinical seminaries in America are ignorant and don’t know anything, both when they enter, and when they finish. The only exceptions are those who are already learned before they begin their rabbinical studies. Urbach then writes, מכל השיחה נודע לי עד כמה ירוד הוא מצב היהדות שם וכי לרבנות חדר חוש ה”ביזנס וישנן תופעות מחפירות הגורמות לחילול השם ולחילול הדת.
“From the conversation it became known to me how bad the situation of Judaism is there, and that into the rabbinate has penetrated the feeling of ‘business’ and that there are a number of outrageous phenomenon that cause a desecration of God’s name and a desecration of the religion.” (p. 208)
Here are some of the other interesting incidents of which Urbach wrote. How he was approached by an Anglican chaplain who told him of a Jewish soldier, originally from Germany, who wanted to convert. Urbach responded by saying that a Christian soldier had also approached him about converting. When Urbach told the Anglican minister that in line with Jewish tradition he tried to dissuade the soldier, and he then asked the Anglican minister if he did the same thing, Urbach wrote “על זה כמובן לא ענה” (”On this, he of course didn’t answer.”) [pp. 81-82] Urbach also arranged for a get to be given from one soldier to another.
In the entry to November 29, 1942, Urbach wrote about the information that they were beginning to hear about the massacres of Jews in Poland. A few days later, Urbach writes about his quick return to the Land of Israel from Egypt in order to visit with the terminally ill Prof. Avigdor Aptowitzer. Urbach stayed in Israel until Aptowitzer passed away a few days later. “ביום ו’ בערב, ליל ב’ דחנוכה יצאה נשמתו של מורנו ורבנו הרב אביגדור בן משה אהרון אפטוביצר אחרי גסיסה קצרה”
I am sure that there are many more interesting things that one can find in this diary.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
That’s a pretty nasty comment about the rabbinate in the US - but a typical remark from EEU. (typo to fix - “arranged”)
August 6th, 2008 at 6:07 am
I only brought the beginning of Urbach’s quote about American rabbis. He went on to criticize very harshly Reform rabbis who opposed the Zionist enterprise. There he may have been talking about the American Council for Judaism. Thanks for the typo correction.