[Avodah] Which way to Jerusalem?

[David Riceman]

  On 9/13/2010 10:28 AM, Simon Montagu wrote:
>
> In hachei namei. I don't know about the first Jews on the east coast 
> of the USA, but the large-scale immigration at the end of the 19th 
> century came by ship from Northern Europe, and would have come in a 
> direction closer to the great circle than the rhumb line to Jerusalem.
>
>
On reflection, I don't know how much of what I wrote is actually 
relevant.  With the admirable exception of Habad, most new Jewish 
communities in the US were not set up by religious scholars, and most 
shuls were not founded by them.  By the time scholars got there the 
local custom was already established, and changing an established 
direction of prayer is a different issue from establishing one (see MB 
94 SK 10 and see BH ad. loc. for a dissenting opinion, though admittedly 
they're not talking about the desireability of redesigning the synagogue).



David Riceman