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Yisroel Dovid Weiss

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Yisroel Dovid Weiss
File:Yisroel Dovid Weiss.jpg
Yisroel Dovid Weiss
Born1956
United States

Yisroel Dovid Weiss (born 1956) is an adherent of Neturei Karta, a controversial anti-Zionist grouping of Haredi Jews. Based in Monsey, New York, he believes that observant Jews should peacefully oppose the existence of the Israeli state: "It would be forbidden for us to have a State, even if it would be in a land that is desolate and uninhabited."[1] In late 2006 Weiss was condemned by other anti-Zionists, such the Edah HaChareidis[2] and Satmar,[3] for attending a Holocaust conference in Tehran.

Background

Weiss is the son of Hungarian Jewish holocaust survivors, who were active in anti-Zionist activities even before the establishment of the State of Israel. His father spent the period of Nazi occupation hiding in a cellar, and survived to immigrate to America. His grandparents and all of his aunts and uncles were lost in the war.[4] Weiss describes his current religious position as Associate Rabbi with Neturei Karta International,[citation needed] an organization that also uses the name Jews United Against Zionism.[5]

Anti-Zionist campaigning

Weiss often speaks at rallies and conferences in the United States and internationally, criticising Israel and Zionism.[6][7][8] In 2001 he attended the UN-organized World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa as part of the Islamic Human Rights Commission delegation.[9] During the conference, US and Israeli delegates walked out over an unsuccessful attempt to condemn Israel for racism.[10]

In December 2006 Weiss spoke at the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, held by the Iranian government in Tehran which was described by media sources such as NPR as a gathering of Holocaust deniers.[11] In his five minute speech, Rabbi Weiss addressed the issue of holocaust denial as well:

Now maybe I can say that at the discussion of the holocaust, I may be the representative, the voice of the people who died in the holocaust because my grandparents died there. They were killed in Auschwitz. My parents were from Hungary. My father escaped and his parents remained. He wasn’t able to get them out of Hungary and they died in Auschwitz as were other relatives and all the communities that they knew. So to say that they didn’t die, to me you can not say that. I am the living remnant of the people who died in the holocaust and I am here, I believe sent by God, to humbly say, simply to speak to the people here and say, 'You should know that the Jewish people died, and do not try to say that it did not happen. They did die!' There are people throughout the Jewish communities, still alive in their seventies and eighties and every one of them will tell you their stories. It is something which you can not refute, but that being said, it doesn’t mean that the holocaust is a tool to use to oppress other people.[1]

Weiss states that though Israelis have used the Holocaust to gain sympathy and advantage, he does not believe the Holocaust toll is exaggerated.[12]

Response from other Haredim

Both the anti-Zionist Edah HaChareidis[2] and Satmar hasidim,[3] have condemned him and the other Haredim who went to Tehran. Shmuel Poppenheim, editor of Ha'edah, the newsletter of the Edah HaChareidis, stated that “That tiny group of weirdos is liable to incite hatred against haredim.”[2] He continued that “[t]hose people's distorted anti-Zionist zealotry, which is sanctified in their eyes above and beyond the opinion of our Torah sages, brought them to that conference…the very fact that they participated gave Ahmadinejad the justification to say: ‘Look, the haredim feel the same way we do about the Holocaust.’”[2] Poppenheim estimated that maybe there were 10 extremists in Israel, and a couple of dozen world-wide, who supported participating in the Holocaust conference.[2]

The Satmar movement published an official denounciation of “fanaticism, and those committing insane acts to walk hand in hand with the Arabs.”[3] This described conference participants as “attend[ing] a special conference of the nations of the world that despise [the people of] Israel (may the names of the evil rot), deny the Holocaust, and deny and belittle the immensity of the evil and murder of those killed for sanctifying the Lord; they desecrated the name of the heavens.”[3]

Israeli response

The Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yonah Metzger, called on world rabbis to reject Neturei Karta members who participated in the Holocaust denial conference, saying they “should not be allowed entrance to Temples [sic].”[13]

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, stated that the attendance of the group was “completely insane. If it’s possible that there is any Jew, who for some reason or another can support a Holocaust denier in a generation where people with numbers tattooed on their arms are still among us – it’s an insanity that has no justification and no explanation.”[14]

American response

American Jewish organisations including Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union, have also issued statements distancing themselves from Weiss.[15] The executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, has called the group ‘embarrassing’,[15] and Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, called Neturei Karta's public display of affection for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ‘graphic and disgusting.’[15]

Since returning to the U.S. from the conference, Weiss and other individuals who attended have been ostracized by synagogues, denied service at kosher stores, and have been the subject disparagement in some communities with strong Orthodox Jewish populations such as Brooklyn and Monsey.[16] A demonstration outside a Neturei Karta synagogue on the 7th of January was met by a counter demonstration attended by "a much smaller contingent" of supporters of Rabbi Weiss.[16]

Weiss explanation

Weiss states that the Jewish world has misunderstood the Neturei Karta actions. He said the organization did not appear at the conference to deny the Holocaust, but to draw a distinction between Zionists and Jews.[15] Weiss stated that Ahmadinejad is not an enemy of the Jews, but is a “God-fearing man [who] respects the Jewish people and he protects them in Iran.”[15]

Fire in April 2007

On Sunday night, 1 April 2007, a fire broke out in the synagogue of Weiss' group and the apartment of their leader Rabbi Moshe Ber Beck which was located directly above the synagogue.[17] The synagogue and the apartment were destroyed, although there were no injuries as no-one was in the building at the time. Although police initially treated the fire as suspicious,[18] local and federal investigators have found no evidence of arson, and Weiss himself has retracted his previous claims to that effect.[19]

Quotes

  • "Many times we have hundreds of thousands of Jews demonstrating in Jerusalem and New York." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nClbNB-qNRA)
  • "The Jewish people have been living in Muslim countries, including Palestine, in peace and harmony with their Arab neighbors, until the advent of Zionism."
  • "Apologize to the Palestinian people for the inequities suffered under Israel, disband the Jewish state and live in peace under Muslim rule."
  • "The Zionists use the Holocaust issue to their benefit. We, Jews who perished in the Holocaust, do not use it to advance our interests. We stress that there are hundreds of thousands Jews around the world who identify with our opposition to the Zionist ideology and who feel that Zionism is not Jewish, but a political agenda...What we want is not a withdrawal to the '67 borders, but to everything included in it, so the country can go back to the Palestinians and we could live with them..."[20][21]
  • "You should know that the Jewish people died, and do not try to say that it did not happen. They did die!" - to the Tehran Holocaust Conference.

References

  1. ^ a b "Speech by Rabbi Y. D. Weiss, Tehran Conference , December 2006". Neturei Karta International. December 12, 2006. Retrieved 2007-03-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e Wagner, Matthew (December 14, 2006). "Haredim slam fringe over Iran parley". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2007-03-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d Sela, Neta (December 15, 2006). "Satmar court slams Neturei Karta". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2007-03-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Weiss, Yisroel Dovid; Beck, Moshe Dov (Ber); Weberman, Mordecai (January 11, 2007). "Recent AntiZionist Rabbis meeting with Ahmadienjad" (YouTube) (video). Interviewed by Harold Hudson Channer. {{cite interview}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |city= (help); Unknown parameter |callsign= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink= ignored (|subject-link= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Neturei Karta International". Neturei Karta International. Retrieved 2007-04-08.
  6. ^ Maher, Ahmad (2003-08-26). "Zionism, Israel Threat to Peace: Rabbi Weiss". IslamOnline.net. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ "UK Muslims present: Jews against Zionism". Ynetnews. 2006-05-07. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Against Zionism, Jewish Perspectives - 2 July 2006". Islamic Human Rights Commission. 2006-07-02. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ The Race Against Racism: A report of IHRC's work at the UN World Conference Against Racism, 2001 (Islamic Human Rights Commission) November 1, 2001.
  10. ^ Racism summit seeks breakthrough (BBC) September 5, 2001.
  11. ^ Iran Hosts Large Meeting of Holocaust Deniers, All Things Considered, 11 December 2006.
  12. ^ Correction: Iran-Holocaust-Conference (Fox News) January 09, 2007
  13. ^ Sela, Neta (December 14, 2006). "Rabbi Metzger: Boycott Neturei Karta participants of Iran conference". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2007-03-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Cohen, Dudi (December 14, 2006). "Ahmadinejad, Neturei Karta: Zionists are criminals". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2007-03-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ a b c d e Berkman, Jacob (December 19, 2006). "Orthodox furious at anti-Zionist sect". Jewish United Fund. Retrieved 2007-03-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ a b Santos, Ferdinand (January 15, 2007, corrected January 17, 2007). "New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-03-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Salazar, Christian (2007-04-02). "Suspicious fire destroys anti-Zionist Jewish group's NY synagogue". Newsday.com. Retrieved 2007-04-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ Lieberman, Steve (2007-04-02). "Anti-Zionist group's building destroyed by fire". The Journal News. Retrieved 2007-04-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ Calabrese, Erin (April 3, 2007). "FIERY RHETORIC: ANTI-ZION RABBI RIPS 'TERROR' BY RIVALS". Local. The New York Post. Retrieved 2007-04-05. Still, preliminary findings in the investigation into the blaze at the Neturei Karta sect's synagogue Sunday night showed no trace of arson, officials said. With the burned-out structure falling down, only specially trained dogs could be sent in, and they did not detect any accelerants commonly used in arsons, according to Detective Lt. Louis Falco of the Rockland County Sheriff's Bureau of Investigation. Before the officials' preliminary determination, the ultra-Orthodox sect's leaders vehemently insisted that the spark was deliberate. 'I am 99 percent [certain] that this was a terrorist attack,' said Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss immediately after the fire. 'This was a hate crime.'…Officials with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which investigates domestic terrorism, were at the scene during the day. After being told that fire investigators were now leaning toward the blaze being ruled accidental, Weiss appeared to back off his charges - although not completely. 'We know that we were threatened,' he said. '[But] if they say it wasn't [arson], it wasn't.' {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ Neturei Karta in Iran: Zionists use Holocaust by Roee Nahmias, (YNetNews) 12 March, 2006.
  21. ^ Neturei Karta sect pays visit to Iran by Michael Freund (Jerusalem Post) 8 March 2006.


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