[Avodah] The great Mixed Dancing Controversy of 1960-61.

[Prof. Levine]

  From http://tinyurl.com/43v27uk

Here's the abstract: by 1960, in Great Britain, like in the United
States, the majority of Orthodox Jews saw nothing religiously wrong
with mixed dancing at social events, even in the synagogue. Although
such a practice would be exceedingly difficult if not impossible to
justify from halachic sources, the rabbis either saw nothing really
wrong with it, or justified it as a lesser of evils or they saw
nothing at all. Yet in September of 1960 the Beth Din of Manchester
took a stand against it. Following this, and feeling that they did
not go far enough, some months later other rabbis held a conference
in Leeds, criticized mixed and dancing and publicly called for a ban
on it. This generated a heated correspondence (including the
assertion that mixed dancing causes illegitimate children) and a
heated editorial in the pages of the Jewish Chronicle. The editorial
in particular was very intemperate, being an editorial, saying that
the action of those rabbis raises questions about their "emotional
stability" and "mental hygiene." This was too much for the rabbis,
who included R. Yitzchak Weiss, and collectively they wrote the
Jewish Chronicle a letter (dated December 19, 1960) stating that they
demanded a prominently placed apology, which in itself would not be
enough, and therefore they also demand monetary compensation for
defamation. In addition, they served notice that the editor was
hereby called to a Din Torah. The editor responded that first of all
the facts are in his favor, and secondly he cannot submit to the will
of a Din Torah as this is a matter of Freedom of the Press, and a
free press is integral to society. The editor himself did, however,
appear before the London Beth Din in what he called "an act of
courtesy to the Chief Rabbi and his court," to tell them that he must
decline to take part in a Din Torah.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20110622/e2860df1/attachment.htm>