Reflecting on Judaism

 The story of my meeting Rabbi Abraham starts in the early 1950’s. He died on the 18th July 2011 after a long illness.
                My brother-in-law was stationed in Hong Kong as a soldier in the British army. Although not particularly observant, he went to the synagogue one Friday evening, was noticed by two young girls, and was invited home by them for a Friday night meal. There he met most of the Abraham family which comprised in total, mother, father, five daughters and four sons, not all of whom were in Hong Kong at the time.  All four boys eventually became rabbonim, one of whom was Sasson Abrahams, then studying for his smichah in a yeshiva in the USA.
                My wife, Evelyn, received a letter from her brother saying that the Abraham family was coming to London and would be staying in the Jewish shelter in Mansell Street in East London. Would we please go to welcome and look after them because they had been very good to him.  A short while later, Rabbi Sasson Abraham, known to his family as Sonny, arrived in London from the USA, having obtained his smichah. No one could have looked less like a rabbi. He was wearing a very light blue suit, a flashy tie and a light grey trilby style hat, worn jauntily on the side of his head. We and the Abraham family became good friends.
                Before he married, he, his sister Channah, my wife and I, all went out one evening together. We were then living in the East End of London and passed the Bloom’s famous kosher restaurant on the way home. ‘Anyone want a salt beef sandwich?’ I asked. My wife and Channah replied yes but Sonny answered no. ‘Why not’? I asked. ‘I eat only Glatt’, he replied. Somewhat sarcastically I said, ‘Oh, kosher for us and treif for you’. ‘If that is how you take it, I’ll have one too’, he replied.
                Some years later I became chairman of a local synagogue’s set of classes, probably the largest synagogue classes in the world, with almost 1,000 pupils. The classes were divided into infants, junior and senior sections. We were having trouble finding a suitable head teacher for the senior section and I approached Sonny and offered him the position. Before accepting he asked to see over the classes, for it was not really his cup of tea.  I took him first to the infants section, which met for three hours a week only, on a Sunday morning. When we arrived the classes had already started. We found the head teacher checking the boys to see whether they were wearing tzitzis. When we left Sonny remarked that he approved of boys wearing tzitzis but since we have these young children for only three hours a week can we not find something more valuable for them to learn in the short time available.
                Every year the classes’ Parents’ Association arranged a sports day on a Sunday afternoon in Springfield Park. Some 4/5 hundred children would participate. Rabbi Abraham came with his son, aged about seven. The Parents Association distributed ice cream to the children. The chairman of the P.A. came to me and whispered ‘I’m sorry Woolfie, we made a mistake, the ice cream is not kosher for it contains gelatine’. I passed this message to Sonny, for his son too was eating an ice cream.  He completely ignored me. Next time we met I said to him, ‘What a fine rabbi you are, I told you that the ice cream was not kosher and you completely ignored me’. He replied ‘listen Woolfie, there is a minority opinion that gelatine is not treif. Had I taken the ice cream from my son he would have cried. People would have asked, why is your son crying? The whole afternoon might have been spoilt and for what good reason?’
                I now make a short digression for, at the time, I could not understand how gelatine could not be treif.  I subsequently found confirmation of his opinion from two authoritative sources. When Dayan Grossnass of the London Bet Din died some years ago his obituary, published in the Jewish Chronicle, included the fact that he had researched the production of gelatine and found that it was kosher. The results of his research were never published officially. By coincidence, at the shivah for Sonny, I was sitting near a leading rabbi of ‘Munks’, a strictly observant community, who overheard me tell the above story. The rabbi said that, coincidently, his next sermon was planned to be on the subject of gelatine and he would be saying that all gelatine is 100% kosher. 
                Some 45 years ago a niece of mine enrolled in the Chelmsford Teachers Training College. There she encountered a lot of anti-Semitism with which she could not cope. She asked my advice and I referred her to Rabbi Abraham. It turned out that he was very knowledgeable on the subject of Christianity and he wrote a 5 page guide for her which helped her considerably. She still refers to Rabbi Abraham with affection for the help he gave her. Rabbi Abraham’s wife, Ruttie, recalls him sitting up late into the night preparing the guide.
                 When my niece’s mother, my sister, died, we two were the only ones sitting shiva. My niece approached and asked me whether we could sit shiva in my home as it was larger than her home. Of course I agreed. She and her mother were members of the reform community and she asked whether my community would lead the evening prayers on the first three nights and her community for the last two nights. I did not object. On the third night after prayers, my local rabbi told a nephew of mine, from the other side of my family, that he should not attend on the fourth night as the service was being led by the Reform minister.  I am glad to say that my nephew ignored this advice. After the service Rabbi Sonny and his brother Rabbi Isaac approached me to offer their condolences. I apologised for not telling them that the evening prayers would be led by the Reform minister but I did not know that they were coming. What are you talking about, they replied, we were at the service and there was nothing wrong with it. In fact it was exactly the same service as the orthodox.
                He was, for several years, Head of Jewish Studies at the JFS Secondary School. As such he encouraged pupils to discuss, argue and challenge aspects of our religion. His success and popularity and can be measured by the fact than when he joined the school attendance at the Minchah service was sparse, but voluntary attendance grew significantly because of his presence. Unfortunately ill health caused him to take early retirement.    
                I learned Chumash with Rabbi Abraham, continuously for 25 years, breaking for holidays and illnesses only. During the course of our studies he made me read many secular books relating to the Torah.  Our conversations ranged over subjects far and wide. He was a mine of information. One evening, just before Pesach, I noticed that he was very agitated. Suddenly he burst forth to my wife and said, ‘Evelyn, what are you doing?’ ‘What do you mean, what are you doing’ replied Evelyn, ‘I am trying to Kosher my kitchen for Pesach’.  ‘Yes, you have to kosher your kitchen but you don’t have to kill yourself whilst doing it. Do you mind if I do it for you?’ ‘Be my guest’, replied Evelyn. Sonny apologised for leaving me and in 30 minutes our kitchen was kosher l’Pesach.
                I have discussed Sonny many times with many people. The consensus is that that he was a great halachist of independent mind, who would not readily accept just conventional wisdom. If he thought that a halachic decision was correct he would accept it but if he thought that it was only politically correct he would not accept it.
                I am sure that his family will miss him greatly and in truth, so will I. He was truly a great man, a learned and knowledgeable man and a great rabbi.
Woolf Abrahams.
July 21st 2011.