JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

sial, Dworkin holds that nonetheless there is always only one
right answer in hard cases. Rights, he holds, are inherent in
the Constitution and in the precedents that interpret it. Judges
make moral judgments as they apply precedents to factual situations
– precedents on which principles are based and which
are the bases of decisions.
In Ronald Dworkin and Contemporary Jurisprudence
(1984), the editor – Professor Marshall Cohen – states, “In the
opinion of the editor, the jurisprudential writings of Ronald
Dworkin constitute the finest contribution yet made by an
American writer to the philosophy of law.”
Despite Dworkin’s close association, as student and as
teacher, with Oxford, he is basically an American thinker.
Much more than would be true of a British jurist, Dworkin
has been influenced by American constitutional law and constitutional
jurisprudence. His emphasis on principle is a reflection
of this influence.
Dworkin holds the positions of professor of philosophy
and Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law at NYU and chair
at University College, London. He is a fellow of the British
Academy and a member of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, as well as co-chairman of the Democratic Party
Abroad, a member of the Council of Writers and Scholars
Educational Trust and of the Programme Committee of the
Ditchley Foundation, and a consultant on human rights to
the Ford Foundation.
Other works by Dworkin include Philosophical Issues in
Senile Dementia (1987), A Bill of Rights for Britain (1990), Life’s
Dominion: An Argument About Abortion, Euthanasia and Individual
Freedom (1993), Freedom’s Law: The Moral Reading of
the American Constitution (1996), and Sovereign Virtue: The
Theory and Practice of Equality (2000).
Add. Bibliography: S. Guest, Ronald Dworkin (1991); M.
Cohen (ed.), Ronald Dworkin and Contemporary Jurisprudence (1984),
A. Hunt (ed.), Reading Dworkin Critically (1992).
[Milton Ridvas Konvitz / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
DWORKIN, ZALMAN SHIMON (1911–1985), Lubavitch
rabbi. Dworkin was born in Rogotchov, White Russia. At the
age of 11, he arrived in the city of Lubavitch, then the center
of activities of the *Chabad-Lubavitch movement, to study in
the Yeshivah Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch. In late 1915, when
the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shalom Dov Baer, relocated from
Lubavitch and settled in Rostov, Dworkin also settled there.
As the need for additional Chabad grade schools and yeshivot
across Eastern Europe became apparent to the Rebbe in Rostov,
Dworkin was one of the students that served as the seed
group in establishing many of them, as the Rebbe’s emissary.
He received rabbinic ordination from the Rogotchover Gaon,
Rabbi Joseph *Rozin.
Following his marriage, Dworkin became the rabbi of
the city of Stardov, Russia. He also served as a rosh yeshivah
in Yeshivah Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch in Samarkand and
in later years in Paris, France. During World War II, he oversaw
the kashrut of meat in Ireland. After the war, he arrived
dyche, john alexander
in the United States and settled in the Lubavitch community
in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, N.Y. In the mid-1960s, he
was appointed to the position of “rav” and “av bet din” in the
Lubavitcher community.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel *Schneersohn,
was very fond of Dworkin and would refer many people
with complicated halakhic questions to him, but also those
with personal dilemmas that needed a bright and caring individual
to assist them. The rabbi was exemplary in treating
every individual, no matter who he was, with great sensitivity
and understanding. He was a renowned expert on sheḥitah
(ritual slaughter) and many other issues. After his death his
responsa were published in book form as Koveẓ Razash.
[Michoel A. Seligson (2nd ed.)]
DYATLOVO (Pol. Zdzięciol; Yid. Zhetl), town in Grodno
district, Belarus. Jews first settled there around 1580, and by
1670 a community was formed. Rabbi Ḥayyim ha-Kohen
Rapoport served there in 1720–29, and then moved to Lvov,
where he was an important participant in the dispute with the
Frankists in 1759. The number of Jews in the town steadily increased;
of the total population of 3,979 in 1897, 3,033 (75%)
were Jews. Personalities associated with Dyatlovo include
Aryeh Leib ha-Levi Horowitz and Ḥayyim ha-Kohen *Rapoport.
Dyatlovo was the birthplace of Jacob of Dubno (the
“Dubner Maggid”) and Israel Meir ha-Kohen (the “Ḥafeẓ
Ḥayyim”). Zalman *Sorotzkin was rabbi of the community
from 1912 to 1929. There were 3,450 Jews (75% of the total)
in 1926, comprising 621 Jewish families. Of these, 303 earned
their livelihoods from crafts, mainly as tailors and shoemakers,
while 210 lived from trade. The community had a hospital
and an old age home. Two schools were in operation: a Hebrew
Tarbut school and a Yiddish CYSHO school.Communal
and Zionist activities continued until the outbreak of World
War II. The Germans occupied the town on June 30, 1941. A
hundred and twenty prominent Jews were executed on July
25 and 400 were sent to the Dworzec labor camp on December
15. On February 22, 1941, a ghetto was created, housing
together with refugees 4,000 Jews. On April 30 around 1,200
were murdered and on August 6, 1942 another 1,500–2,000.
About 800 succeeded in escaping into the forests and joined
the Soviet partisans or later the Red Army. A hundred of them
died in the battles.
Bibliography: B. Kaplinski (ed.), Pinkas Zhetel (1957); PK.
[Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]
DYCHE, JOHN ALEXANDER (1867–1939), U.S. labor
leader. Dyche was born in Kovno, Lithuania. He went to
New York City in 1900 after 14 years in England, where he
was active in trade unionism. Dyche soon became involved
in the newly founded International Ladies’ Garment Workers’
Union, and from 1904 was its secretary-treasurer. Dyche
defended the principles of “pure and simple” trade unionism,
including the sanctity of contracts, the use of the strike
only as a last resort and only under the strict control of a na-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 75