Civil War. A study of Wawa Morejno and the Lodz congregation in 1956

Abstract

The article focuses on the disputes between Rabbi Zew Morejno — who aspired to become the “Chief Rabbi of the City of Łódź, Chief Rabbi of Poland, and Chairman of the Chief Rabbinical Council” — and, both personally and institutionally, the figures managing the Religious Union of the Mosaic Faith, the Chief Rabbinical Council, and the Congregation of the Mosaic Faith in Lodz (including Izaak Frenkel, Ber Percowicz, and Herz Jabłko). Morejno was an ultra-Orthodox adherent of Judaism, while Frenkel, Percowicz, and Jabłko represented the majority of religious Jews who supported the movement known as Reform Judaism. The struggle between them can also be viewed as a confrontation between traditionalist and progressive forces. Although the events discussed in the article took place in Lodz, they were set against the backdrop of broader socio-political transformations occurring in Poland. In academic literature [and online], Zew Morejno is often described as the Rabbi of the City of Lodz and Rabbi of Poland. The article also serves another purpose — it clarifies that, in the postwar period, Zew Morejno served as a rabbi in Lodz, but he was not the city’s Chief Rabbi.