Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Jews: The Lost Leader
"A man who has no wife lives without joy, blessing and good," says the Talmud. Amram Blau might also add: "But be careful of the wife you pick." A 65-year-old widowed Reb, or teacher, and 50 times a grandfather, Blau has been forced to surrender leadership of Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox sect known as the Neturei Karta (Guardians of the City) for the scandal and sin of marrying shy, devout Ruth Ben-David, 45, who is not only a divorced woman but a convert from Catholicism as well.
For more than 40 years, Reb Blau has...
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