HQ for Judaism

Solomon would have been astonished. In Jerusalem last week the Israelis dedicated a "supreme religious center" in the form of a glittering seven-story building, white-cupolaed and monumental with pillars, fitted out inside with tiles and marble, English oak paneling, elevators, and hot-air blowers (instead of towels) in the lavatories. It cost $1,700,000--more than two-thirds of it from the pocket of British Chain Store Tycoon Isaac Wolf son--and the dedication ceremony was appropriate for a building that aspires to be the new center of religious law for all the world's Orthodox Jews.

Bearded rabbis in frock coats and black hats stepped solemnly down King George Avenue to the pale gold building, crossed the pastel rose and green entrance hall and climbed the Galilee-marble staircase (or took the elevator) to the huge reception hall on the fifth floor. They mingled there with a crush of notables as international as Israel herself: robed prelates of the Greek Orthodox and Coptic Churches, Moslem and Druse dignitaries, and members of the diplomatic corps (who kept their hats on like their Israeli hosts). There were even some English ladies in picture hats--guests of Benefactor Wolf-son--bobbing like exotic flowers in the wilderness of beards and black hats, and they caused a dither of commotion among the ushers when they refused to be seated in isolation at the back of the hall, insisted on accompanying their menfolk.

Rosy-cheeked Donor Wolfson formally declared the center open, accepted a gold key and quipped: "First time in my life I've ever received a golden dividend on opening day." There were prayers, speeches, readings of messages and singing of psalms. Two Yemenites ended the ceremony with a blast on twisted ram's horn shofars.

Irreverent Israelis call the new center "the Vatican"; the more cynical refer to it as "party headquarters" for Mizrahi, the National Religious Party in Premier David Ben-Gurion's government. The Chief Rabbinate that the center will house --Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Itzhak Nissim, plus their staffs of scholars and law courts--has jurisdiction over marriage, divorce and many disputes affecting the personal status of Israelis. The rabbinate--which is already staffing its research departments with Talmudic scholars for the job--is breaking new ground in setting itself up as chief authority among the world's Jews in interpretation of the Talmud.

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