Louis Ginzberg - Responsa On Wine During Prohibition

Responsa On Wine During Prohibition

One of his responsa concerns the use of wine in the Jewish community during the Prohibition era. The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1920, declared that "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within... the United States... for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited." The subsequent Volstead Act defined "intoxicating liquors" and provided for several exceptions, one of which as for sacramental use. The Christian Church was able to successfully regulate the use of ceremonial wine. The clergy could easily monitor the nominal amount of sacramental wine that each worshipper drank, especially because it was usually drunk only in Church and only on Sundays (for the communion or Eucharist ceremony).

This was not the case for the Jews. Jews needed a greater quantity of wine per person. Furthermore, the wine was drunk in the privacy of the home on Shabbat, Jewish holidays, weddings and brit milah (circumcision ceremonies). This alone would have made the regulation of ceremonial wine complicated. It was not difficult for crooks to rig illegal "wine synagogues" to trick the government to receive their wine which would then be bootlegged.

Orthodox Jewish authorities had little difficulty with the issue, because based on Talmudic sources virtually all agreed that grape juice was an acceptable substitute, though some questioned whether it was acceptable for the Passover seder . Nonetheless, Reform movement in 1920 also proclaimed that grape juice be used instead of wine further to eliminate future complaints. Shortly afterwards, on January 24, 1922, the Conservative movement publicized the 71-page response written by Ginzberg tackling the halakhic aspects of drinking grape juice instead of wine in light of the historical circumstances. Besides Ginzberg’s well-grounded decision to permit grape juice, he includes meta-halakhic reasoning:

"…The decision of the author of Magen Abraham that the commandment is honored best by the use of old wine is rejected. Even this authority would admit that it is better to pronounce the Kiddush over new wine than to desecrate the Name and to disgrace the Jewish people, and we well know the damage caused the Jewish people by the trafficking in sacramental wine."