Word: orthodox
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...after Pearl Harbor, tall, grizzle-bearded Aristocles Spyrou tried to join the U.S. Army. But he was turned down as too old (56) and so he went back to his duties as Archbishop Athenagoras, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in North and South America. Born in a little Greek town under Turkish rule, Athenagoras frequently reminded his U.S. flock of their good fortune. "Just to be here," he would say, "that is happiness...
...bearlike Karl Barth of Basel, Switzerland, had jolted the Amsterdam delegates with a speech on the text: Take counsel together and it shall come to naught . . . for God is with us! (Isaiah 8:10). Perhaps, he said, the much-regretted absence of either Roman Catholic or Russian Orthodox delegates was God's doing: "I propose that we should now praise and thank God, that it pleases Him to stand so clearly in the way of our plans." Barth warned the churchmen that their job was to bear witness to the Gospel -not to presume to the world-saving functions...
...tried to marry a Jewess. A rabbi refused to officiate (because the captain was not a Jew); ditto a district commissioner (because he was not a British subject). He was turned down by an Anglican church in Jaffa (because the bride was not a Christian) and by a Greek Orthodox priest (who considered both outside his flock). A ship captain said he could perform the ceremony by taking them on a special trip beyond the three-mile limit. But when he quoted his price, the couple decided it would be cheaper to fly to Europe and be married there...
Religious Jews were also calling for an official investigation. Two orthodox Jews, cooks in the army, had been sentenced to three months in jail and had had their heads shaved when they refused an order to cook on the Sabbath. (Ben-Gurion revoked the jail sentences, but could do nothing about the sidecurls, particularly precious to orthodox Jews.*) Even Rabbi Fishman, who had been protesting the official use of government cars on the Sabbath, had a complaint to make. His own official automobile-with "Minister of Religion" printed prominently on the windshield-had been seen on the Sabbath cruising about...
...Orthodox concern for sidecurls starts with Leviticus, 19:27: "Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard." The Talmud carefully enumerates the corners: two on each cheek, one on the chin. Yemenite Jews often shave their heads, but leave the sidecurls (peoth) untouched...