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Meir Kahane

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Template:MKs Rabbi Meir David Kahane (Hebrew: מאיר דוד כהנא, also known by the pseudonyms Michael King and David Sinai, 1 August 1932 – 5 November 1990) was an American-Israeli Orthodox rabbi and a member of the Israeli Knesset.[1]

Kahane was known in the United States and Israel for his strong political, nationalist views, exemplified in his promotion of a Greater Israel based on Jewish law. He founded two controversial movements: the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in the USA and Kach, an Israeli political party. In 1984, Kach gained one seat in the Knesset and Rabbi Meir Kahane became a member. In 1986, Kach was declared a racist party by the Israeli government and banned from the Knesset, and, in 1994, following the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre - the massacre of Arabs in Al-Haram Al-Ibraheme mosque by Baruch Goldstein the movement was outlawed completely. Kahane's Knesset career was ended by section 7a of Basic Law: The Knesset (1958): "Prevention of Participation of Candidates List."

Kahane was assassinated in Manhattan in 1990, after concluding a speech calling on American Jews to emigrate to Israel, in a New York City hotel.[2]

Biography

Kahane was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York in 1932 to an Orthodox Jewish family. His father, Rabbi Yechezkel Sharaga Kahane, was born in Safed, Ottoman Palestine (in present-day Israel), in 1905, and went to study in Polish and Czech yeshiva religious schools. Later, he emigrated to the USA, where he served as rabbi of two congregations. Meir received his rabbinical ordination from the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, and earned a B.A. in political science from Brooklyn College. He was fully conversant with the Talmud and Tanakh (Jewish Bible), and worked as a pulpit rabbi and teacher in the 1960s. During this period, he tutored folk musician Arlo Guthrie for his Bar Mitzvah.[3] Subsequently, he earned a JD from New York Law School and an L.L.M from New York University Law School.

As a teenager, he became an ardent admirer of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who was a frequent guest in his parents' home, and joined the Betar (Brit Trumpeldor) youth wing of Revisionist Zionism. He was active in protests against Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Secretary who blocked the immigration of Nazi death camp survivors to the Jewish Homeland and opposed Israel's independence in favor of creating a Hashemite Arab monarchy dependent on British power. Kahane organized mass rallies in New York against the Soviet Union's policy of persecuting Zionist activists and curbing Jewish aliyah to Israel. He was active in the "Free Soviet (Russian) Jewry" movement and pushed for the release of Russian refuseniks and their resettlement in Israel.

In the 1960s, Kahane was an editor of an American-Jewish weekly, Brooklyn's The Jewish Press, and was a regular correspondent for that paper.

In 1956, Kahane married Libby, with whom he had four children.[4]On December 31, 2000, one of his sons, Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, and his daughter-in-law Talya, were shot to death as they returned from Jerusalem to their home in the Israeli settlement of Kfar Tapuach. Palestinian gunmen fired more than 60 machine-gun rounds into their van.

Ideology

Main article: Kahanism

Kahane argued that observance of Torah was the only reason to be Jewish. He saw secular Jews as hypocritical racists:

The biggest racist is the Jew who doesn't see that to be a Jew is something special... Of course, a person born a Jew is a Jew. There’s no doubt about that. But if he doesn’t respect the Torah, he’s not a good Jew. The only reason to be Jewish is the Torah. There’s no other logical reason to be Jewish.[5]

Kahane advocated a Jewish State founded on Halakha. He believed that

democracy and Judaism are two opposite things. One absolutely cannot confuse them. The objective of a democratic state is to allow a person to do exactly as he wishes. The objective of Judaism is to serve God and to make people better. These are two totally opposite conceptions of life.[6]

Kahane advocated basing Israeli law on Halakha, including laws such as banning the sale of pork, outlawing missionary activities in Israel, and a ban on all sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews.[7] Supporters say Kahane was protecting Torah values and the integrity of the Jewish nation, but his detractors consider Kahane's views bigoted. (See: Jewish view of marriage.)

Kahane also believed that a Jewish democracy with non-Jewish citizens was self-contradictory because the non-Jewish citizens might someday become a numerical majority and vote to make the state non-Jewish:

I ask a question that sends Israelis crazy, both on the Left and on the Right. The question is as follows: if the Arabs settle among us and make enough children to become a majority, will Israel continue to be a Jewish state? Do we have to accept that the Arab majority will decide?
... Western democracy has to be ruled out. For me that's cut and dried: there's no question of setting up democracy in Israel, because democracy means equal rights for all, irrespective of racial or religious origins.[6]

Kahane claimed that historically there are no examples of Arab Muslims living peacefully alongside other non-Arab ethnic groups. Thus Kahane proposed the forcible deportation of nearly all Arabs from all lands controlled by the Israeli government. When he served as a Member of the Knesset he proposed a $40,000 compensation plan for the Arabs he was to evict. But he made it clear that Arabs who refused compensation would be expelled by force:

I’d offer financial compensation for those who want to leave the country voluntarily. I would only use force for those who don’t want to leave. I’d go all the way, and they know that... I’m going to hold the bridges on the Jordan river; we’ll hold them for two weeks. We’ll evacuate the Arabs and let Jordan go to the United Nations.[6]

To deter Arab terrorism and to frighten the Arab population into leaving, he advocated Jewish pressure:

I want to scare them and I want to make them realize that, contrary to what they have believed for fifteen years, time is not on their side... And I approve of anybody who commits such acts of violence. Really, I don’t think that we can sit back and watch Arabs throwing rocks at buses whenever they feel like it. They must understand that a bomb thrown at a Jewish bus is going to mean a bomb thrown at an Arab bus.[6]

Kahane proposed a Jewish state within its Biblical borders:

Let me tell you what the minimal borders are, and which the rabbis agree upon, according to the description given in the Bible. The southern boundary goes up to El Arish, which takes in all of northern Sinai, including Yamit. To the east, the frontier runs along the western part of the East Bank of the Jordan river, hence part of what is now Jordan. Eretz Yisrael also includes part of the Lebanon and certain parts of Syria, and part of Iraq, all the way to the Tigris river.[6]

To the objection that this would mean perpetual war, he replied, "There will be a perpetual war. With or without Kahane."

Supporters

In the early 1970s, Bob Dylan was accused of being a supporter of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League.[8] In a Time Magazine interview, Dylan said about Kahane, "He's a really sincere guy. He's really put it all together."[9]

According to Kahane, Dylan did attend several meetings of the Jewish Defense League in order to find out "what we're all about"[10] and started to have talks with the rabbi.[11]

Joe Kaufman, a prominent campaigner against American Islamic organizations he claims are linked to Hamas, in the past has listed kahane.org as a recommended link on his website. Kaufman later removed the link.

In an article written in January 2001 on a forum of the Jewish Defense League, Kaufman praised the Kahane movement and its founder Meir Kahane. In that article Kaufman said of Kahane: "It was perfectly understandable, if he were to have hated Arabs. Just like, during the Holocaust, it was perfectly understandable for a Jew to hate Germans…If the Kahanes' memory serves us any purpose, it's to show that trust (and peace) is ultimately between only ourselves."

Israel

In the U.S., the Jewish Defense League (JDL) engaged in militant activity and harassment of its political and intellectual opponents. Consequently, police pressure began to build upon Kahane, and, in 1971, he emigrated to Israel.

In Israel he established the Kach party. In 1980, Kahane stood unsuccessfully for election to the Knesset. Later, in 1980, Kahane served 6 months in prison following an detention order. According to Ehud Sprinzak, "the prevailing rumour was that a very provocative act of sabotage on the Temple Mount was planned by Kahane and a close associate of his, Baruch Green (AKA Baruch Ben Yosef) ."[12]

In 1984, Kahane was elected as an MK - Member of the Knesset (Israel's Parliament). The Central Elections Committee had banned him from being a candidate on the grounds that Kach was a racist party, but the Israeli High Court determined that the Committee was not authorized to ban Kahane's candidacy. The High Court suggested that the Knesset should pass a law that would authorize the exclusion of racist parties from future elections (the Anti-Racist Law of 1988).

Kahane refused to take the standard oath of office for the Knesset and insisted on adding a Biblical verse from Psalms, to indicate that when the national laws and Torah conflict, Torah (Biblical) law should have supremacy over the laws of the Knesset.

Kahane's legislative proposals focused on revoking the Israeli citizenship for non-Jews and banning Jewish-Gentile marriages and sexual relations, based on the Code of Jewish Law compiled by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah. None of Israel's mainstream religious parties or prominent rabbis publicly supported Kach legislation.

As his political career progressed, Kahane became increasingly isolated in the Knesset. His speeches, boycotted by Knesset members, were made to an empty parliament, except for the duty chairman and the transcriptionist. Kahane's legislative proposals and motions of no-confidence against the government were ignored or rejected by fellow Knesset members. Kahane often pejoratively called other Knesset members "Hellenists" in Hebrew (a reference from Jewish religious texts describing ancient Jews who assimilated into Greek culture after Judea's occupation by Alexander the Great). In 1987, Rabbi Kahane opened a yeshiva (HaRaayon HaYehudi) with funding from US supporters, for the teaching of "the Authentic Jewish Idea".

In 1985, the Knesset passed an amendment to Israel's Basic Law, barring "racist" candidates from election. The committee banned Kahane a second time, and he appealed to the Israeli High Court. This time the court found in favor of the committee, declaring Kahane to be unsuitable for election.

Assassination

In November 1990, after a speech in a Manhattan, New York Marriott hotel, Kahane was assassinated. The prime suspect, El Sayyid Nosair, was subsequently acquitted of murder but convicted on gun possession charges. Kahane was buried in Jerusalem. The killer was recharged and convicted to life sentence some years later, after the discovery of his membership in one of Sheikh Omar Abd El-Rahman's terror cells connected to Al-Qaeda in the united states. A couple of years later, during the filming of a documentary on Kahane, Nosair sent a letter in which he admit he was the killer.

Political legacy

Graffiti in Herzliya: "כהנא צדק" ("Kahane was right")

Following Kahane's death, no charismatic leader emerged to replace him in the movement, and Kahane's ideology declined in popularity among Israelis. Two small Kahanist factions later emerged; one under the name of Kach and the other Kahane chai (Hebrew: כהנא חי, literally "Kahane lives [on]").

In 1994, following the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre (Al-Haram Al-Ibrahemi mosque massacre) of Palestinian Muslim civillian worshippers in Hebron by Kach supporter Dr. Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli government declared both parties to be terrorist organizations.[13][14] The U.S. State Department also added Kach and Kahane Chai to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Providing funds or material support to these organizations is a crime in both Israel and the USA.

In late 2000, as bombing attacks on Israel during the Al-Aqsa Intifada began, Kahane supporters spray-painted graffiti on hundreds of bus shelters and bridges all across Israel. The message on each target was identical, simply reading: "Kahane Was Right".

Since the 1994 banning of Kach and Kahane Chai no party has officially represented the 'Kahanist' position in politics. There have been, however, several parties which have had clear ideological links to Rabbi Kahane.

The first, Herut, which split off from the National Union list ran in 2002 with Michael Kleiner and Hebron resident Baruch Marzel taking the top two spots on the list. The joint effort narrowly missed the 1.5% minimum necessary for entry into the Knesset. The second faction, Jewish National Front led by Baruch Marzel, fared better but also failed to pass the minimum threshold.

See also

Publications

  • (Partially under pseudonym Michael King; with Joseph Churba) The Jewish Stake in Vietnam, Crossroads, 1967
  • Never Again! A Program for Survival, Pyramid Books, 1972
  • Time to Go Home, Nash, 1972.
  • Letters from Prison, Jewish Identity Center, 1974
  • Our Challenge: The Chosen Land, Chilton, 1974
  • The Story of the Jewish Defense League, Chilton, 1975, 2nd edition, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, (Brooklyn, NY), 2000
  • Why Be Jewish? Intermarriage, Assimilation, and Alienation, Stein & Day, 1977
  • Listen, Vanessa, I Am a Zionist, Institute of the Authentic Jewish Idea, 1978
  • They Must Go, Grosset & Dunlop, 1981
  • Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews, Lyle Stuart, 1987
  • Israel: Revolution or Referendum, Barricade Books (Secaucus, NJ), 1990
  • Or ha-ra'yon, English title: The Jewish Idea, n.p. (Jerusalem), 1992, translated from the Hebrew by Raphael Blumberg, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1996
  • On Jews and Judaism: Selected Articles 1961–1990, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1993
  • Perush ha-Makabi: al Sefer Devarim, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1993, 1995
  • Perush ha-Makabi: al Sefer Shemu'el u-Nevi'im rishonim, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1994
  • Listen World, Listen Jew, 3rd edition, Institute for the Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1995
  • Kohen ve-navi: osef ma'amarim, ha-Makhon le-hotsa'at kitve ha-Rav Kahana (Jerusalem), 2000
  • Cuckooland, illustrated by Shulamith bar Itzhak (yet unpublished).
  • DVD-quality downloadable videos of Meir Kahane's lectures, SamsonBlinded.org

Also author of Numbers 23:9: "... lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations," I. Block, 1970s. Contributor—sometimes under pseudonym Michael King—to periodicals, including New York Times. Editor of Jewish Press, 1968.

For supplementary information and insights:

References

  1. ^ Rabbi Meir Kahane Jewish Virtual Library
  2. ^ Jewish militant faces bomb trial BBC News, 15 June 2004
  3. ^ "A Jewish Visit to Guthrie's Land".
  4. ^ Carrying a Torch
  5. ^ God's Law: an Interview with Rabbi Meir Kahane
  6. ^ a b c d e God's Law: an Interview with Rabbi Meir Kahane
  7. ^ New York Times, 12 June 1981
  8. ^ Talkin' Hava Nagilah Blues by Seth Rogovoy
  9. ^ Bob Dylan interview
  10. ^ The Wandering Kind by Douglas Wolk
  11. ^ Heylin, Clinton (2001). Bob Dylan Behind the Shades. The Biography-Take Two. London: Penguin Books. p. 328. ISBN 0-1402-8146-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. ^ Kach and Meir Kahane: The Emergence of Jewish Quasi-Fascism by Ehud Sprinzak, published by The American Jewish Committee.
  13. ^ "Kach and Kahane Chai".
  14. ^ "Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT)".
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