TREASURES FROM THE RABBI’S LIBRARY – PART 10

Over many years Rabbi Dunner has collected innumerable oddities and rarities spanning every era of Jewish history and literary activity. In his series “Treasures from the Rabbi’s Library”, Rabbi Dunner reveals some of the forgotten pieces hidden away in storage for many years, revealing the stories behind them, and the reasons for his interest in them.

In this episode, Rabbi Dunner examines a Jewish community controversy that erupted in 1928 in — of all places! — Hull, an obscure port city in Yorkshire, in the north-east of England.

A local rabbi, Rabbi Mordechai Tzvi Schwartz, discovered that one of the shuls in Hull, established some years earlier in a former church building, was actually built over a Christian cemetery. Horrified, he challenged the rabbi who had allowed it, the primary rabbinic scholar of England at the time, Rabbi Yisroel Chaim Daiches, the senior rabbi of nearby Leeds.

A vicious exchange of polemical pamphlets ensued, and the controversy rumbled on for years. Rabbi Dunner reveals the full backstory to this long-forgotten controversy, and adds a host of fascinating anecdotes regarding both protagonists.

Once again, a refreshing look at a forgotten corner of Jewish history to end this first series of “Treasures from the Rabbi’s Library”.