Ros. Responsa 12 a

Ros. Responsa 12 a

Other

1909

Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana

Isaäk (Izak) de Jongh

de Jongh

Orah Haim

TRUE

In a small and poor Ashkenazi community the one rich Sephardi man will support the town if the synagogue adopt all the Sephardi ritual and customs.

In a small community of Ashkenazim there resides a very wealthy Sephardi man. And the people in that community are very poor and cannot meet their needs. The rich man not only has wealth but also teaches the children. And the situation was very painful to the community. And on a certain day the rich Sephardi man invited the people in the community and told them: "On order that the service in the synagogue, the reading of the Torah, etc. does not come to an end, I find it my heart to give a large amount of money to the community, the fruits of which will be sufficient to satisfy their needs (?), but on the condition that from this day onward they pray with the Sephardi pronunciation, and all the customs of the public prayers, and all that is related to it, use the Sephardi customs. And they should no longer do anything according to the ways and customs of the Ashkenazim which have been used until now. And in that way the community can continue to exist. And now the question is what should they do?