The following letters give us a glimpse into some of the happenings in the Orthodox Jewish world at the outset of WW2. The attack on Pearl Harbor had yet to happen, but there was talk of War, and as such the needs of the soldiers had to be met. Rabbi Leo Jung was Orthodox, as you all know, as was Rabbi Herbert Goldstein, so this wasn't a Stephen Wise we were dealing with. Did Reb Mike not believe that they could handle the needs of Jewish soldiers properly? It seems a bit odd that he would want to go around them just because. I'm sure a frumme bochur in the army could get the tefillin and heter to not use a razor through the JWB just as much as through the AI. And I doubt that the latter would have more pull than the JWB, even of they were more sympathetic to a frummere bochur's needs. Maybe you all can fill in the details. Some of us are losing sleep over this. The letter seems to be signed by Rabbi David de Sola Pool, Rabbi of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in NYC and a musmach of the Hildesheimer Seminary. Reading between the lines WILL show you a bit of the "talking down" that Reb Mike gets from RDdLSP, and gives you a general idea of what the Yekkes thought of the Agudists...
Via Ancestory.com
