Sunday, February 25, 2018

R" Shmuel Auerbach Passes Away at 86


Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, the leader of the so-called Jerusalem Faction, an extremist Haredi political group, died early on Shabbat morning from a heart attack, aged 86.
A medical team, after 30 minutes of resuscitation efforts, had managed to restore the rabbi’s pulse. Emergency services took Auerbach to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, but he suffered another heart attack and died 40 minutes later, between 2 and 3 o’clock in the morning.
Auerbach’s funeral procession will leave on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. from his Jerusalem neighborhood of Sha’arei Hesed and he will be buried in the capital’s Har Hamenuhot Cemetery.


Auerbach, a noted Torah scholar and son of the late Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, was a staunch conservative within the Haredi, non-hassidic (Lithuanian) community.
Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, the leader of the so-called Jerusalem Faction, an extremist Haredi political group, died early on Shabbat morning from a heart attack, aged 86.
A medical team, after 30 minutes of resuscitation efforts, had managed to restore the rabbi’s pulse. Emergency services took Auerbach to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, but he suffered another heart attack and died 40 minutes later, between 2 and 3 o’clock in the morning.
Auerbach’s funeral procession will leave on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. from his Jerusalem neighborhood of Sha’arei Hesed and he will be buried in the capital’s Har Hamenuhot Cemetery.
Auerbach, a noted Torah scholar and son of the late Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, was a staunch conservative within the Haredi, non-hassidic (Lithuanian) community.
Already in the mid-to-late 1990s, Auerbach was agitating against the mainstream Haredi leadership. He even issued support for an alternative party to the established Degel Hatorah party – which represents the Lithuanian community – when then-leader Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach was in severe physical decline.
Nevertheless, Auerbach was a member of the Council of Torah Sages of the Degel Hatorah political movement for more than a decade starting in 2002, but he and a coterie of advisers rebelled against the mainstream rabbinical leadership in 2012 after the death of then-leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, seeking to take the mantle of leadership for Auerbach.
Auerbach ultimately lost that battle to the more senior Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, but then together with his close aides fought an insurgency against the mainstream Lithuanian community.
The rabbi and one of his two closest assistants, Nati Grossman, set about establishing institutions for the new political movement, which became known as the Jerusalem Faction; it is thought to constitute 10% to 15% of the Lithuanian community.
Grossman set up the Hapeles newspaper as a mouthpiece for the movement which quickly began to attack the mainstream leadership. A political party, Bnei Torah, was also established, capturing a small number of seats on municipal councils in the local elections of 2013 in Jerusalem, Modi’in Illit and Bnei Brak.
The split in the community has become ever more acrimonious and trenchant, and has developed ever deeper roots, as educational institutions of the two factions are increasingly segregated from each other and marriage between members of the opposing groups becoming rarer.
Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
It is this historic political split from the mainstream Haredi Lithuanian community which Auerbach will be most remembered for, as he splintered the hitherto politically unified community which had been run along the lines of consensus within the rabbinical leadership.
Although Shteinman was widely perceived to be the “leader of the generation” of the Haredi community, Auerbach’s rebellion was nevertheless a serious dent in the notion of one, undisputed spiritual leader of the sector.
And with Shteinman’s death last year, the notion of one leader with primacy over the community has been thrown into even more doubt, as there are now two rabbis who are leading the mainstream Ashkenazi Haredi community.
THE FLAGSHIP ISSUE taken up by Auerbach and his Jerusalem Faction was that of unceasing, unremitting, vitriolic opposition to Haredi enlistment in the IDF.
Starting approximately from the formation of a new government in 2013 including Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, the Jerusalem Faction adopted a scorched-earth policy of fierce riots and incitement against efforts to draft Haredi men into military service.
Auerbach insisted that the only purpose of drafting Haredi men was to make them nonreligious, and therefore refused to countenance any notion that they could be allowed to join the IDF under any circumstances.
The rabbi and his advisers would frequently send out large numbers of yeshiva students studying in institutions associated with the Jerusalem Faction onto the streets of Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, and to intersections of major highways, to block traffic in protest of proposed policies regarding enlistment and against the arrest of yeshiva students who failed to report for IDF duty when called.
In recent months, these demonstrations have increased in frequency due to the Jerusalem Faction’s policy of instructing its yeshiva students not to cooperate with the IDF in any way.
This rendered them deserters who are liable to arrest by the Military Police – unlike the majority of Haredi yeshiva students who do cooperate and receive their military service exemption.
As more and more yeshiva students associated with the faction have turned 18 over the last six years, more and more have been arrested for failing to cooperate with the IDF. This has led to more violent protests by the radical group which themselves lead to more arrests, feeding a cycle of extremist civil disobedience.
With Auerbach’s death, however, it appears that the Jerusalem Faction will be considerably weakened and lose much of its influence, since he was the lone rabbinical leader and source of legitimacy for the group.
The Jerusalem Faction was only able to attract members of the Haredi community to its ideology by dint of the fact that Auerbach was considered to be a true and great Torah scholar.
But there are no other senior, prominent rabbis on Auerbach’s level who are associated with the faction, which will diminish its moral authority – especially bearing in mind the criticism that has been voiced by the senior mainstream Haredi rabbinic leadership of the radical group in recent months and years.
Given that political legitimacy in the Haredi world stems only from the weight of the rabbinical leaders behind a given movement, it therefore seems likely that the Jerusalem Faction’s influence within the Haredi community, its ability to bring out large numbers of protesters to the street, and its ability to impact the agenda and tenor of the Haredi public will be significantly damaged.
Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)
Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)
Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)
Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)
Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)
Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)Ultra Orthodox followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach mourn by his body in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2018. Rabbi Auerbach, leader of the Jerusalem Faction, passed away this evening at the age of 86. (Credit: Flash90)

19 comments:

Mark Levin said...

"an extremist Haredi political group"
This is very true...relative from where your coming from.
From the view of a crack addicted, miserable, hating, suicidal, elementary school dropout, and OTD klux Klan Grand Wizard... yes that would be considered extreme.
I understand why you view it that way.

FRUM BUT NORMAL said...

Hopefully this criminal traitorous enterprise called Peleg will now disappear.

Anonymous said...

May he rot in hell for eternity.
Self hating jew, bastard.

Chafraud-Depravitch said...

Imagine his surprise seeing Rav Shteinman again so soon.

Jonny said...

He was a wonderful and amazing person. Someone I lived next to for years! The rumors about him are not true. Whoever spreads bad about his name obviously never met or spoke to him before! I guarantee you that anyone whos ever spoken or met him things highly of him.
Obviously things were done in his name and made people think that he was behind things he would never support.
He was a gadol who would ask that the people in the local shteibel shouldnt even wait for him to continue in davening, since his shmoneh esrei was long and he didnt want it to hold back everyone else.
That doesnt sound like someone who causes massive protests and hurts people who have nothing to do with issue at hand (ie. the public).

People who say bad about him will have to reckon for their statements. Especially since they didn't know him. If i were those people, i would no besmirch the name of a holy man.

The wonderful wizard of crap said...

He is actually a middle aged man, but yes, slightly wizard like.

The wonderful wizard of crap said...

Dus, you ferkakte used baby wipe.

1. You are promoting lashon hara about rav shlomo zalmans son. Do you have no fear of Rav shlomo zalman auerbach ztl?
2. We don't speak ill of the dead.
You pick and choose what you like in judaism, you furshlugginer mess.

H said...

Oh Dear...how sad....never mind.

H said...

Tell me where they bury him so I can go and piss on his Kaivah

H said...

@Mark Levin....He was a jew hating piece of crap, and so are you. Go and get sterilized so that Am Yisroel can clean out it's gene pool and won't have to suffer freaks like you.

FRUM BUT NORMAL said...

Have an idea for a new leader for that gangster org. called Jerusalem Faction Why not release that murderous terrorist palestinian swine Barghouti,put him on a Shtreimel and make him the new leader of that TRAITOROUS gangster organization
he would fit in like a perfect jig-saw puzzle

jancsibacsi said...

So now in his new kilgul will become a seargeant in the israeli army :)

Dusiznies said...

12:59
You are a bloody fool .... I lived next to a guy who everyone thought was the nicest guy and then one morning he murdered his pregnant wife ... Im not comparing Chas Ve'sholom the situations but your comment is very foolish
Oh Oh "He was a gadol who would ask that the people in the local shteibel shouldnt even wait for him to continue in davening, since his shmoneh esrei was long and he didnt want it to hold back everyone else."
What a stupid comment ....
He held everyone back that was in a car or on a bus that needed to go to Kollel or to a hospital ...
so according to you its ok not to hold back people that are davening and its ok to hold back people who are going or coming back from work .... how totally stupid you're remark is
The people talking bad about him were the biggest gedoilim of our generations...
R' Chaim Kanievsky called him a Zakon Mamre" ... he defied R' Shteinman and most Gedoilei Yisroel ...

The wonderful wizard of crap said...
"1. You are promoting lashon hara about rav shlomo zalmans son. Do you have no fear of Rav shlomo zalman auerbach ztl?"
He had no relations with his great father and they stopped speaking ....

"You pick and choose what you like in judaism, you furshlugginer mess."
You choose what you like too....dont you? ...Arn't you choosing a guy that fought with R' Shteinman and R' Chaim Kanievsky" who stopped talking to his own father, and who caused massive Chillul Hashem's every single day ...

You chose ta great name for yourself ... You piece of "Crap"



Anonymous said...

Oh where is Aish? He would have had something to break this machlokes up. For once there was actually a gentle person on here.

Anonymous said...

I don't think he'll be able to see rav shteinman without a telescope

Anonymous said...

He defied steinman, so what? He had in his pinky when he was 30 years old more than steinman had throughout all his life, and regards to the old kookoo from רח' רשבם who with all of his stupid statements he belongs in a mental institution, and if anything זקן ממרא is more matching on kakayevsky

SD said...

People wrote here that he had stopped to his father, z"tl.

What is your source for this?

Anonymous said...

@5:42

You're scribbling shows us exactly what is wrong with Judaism. Your disrespect as a so-called frummer is hilarious.

Kakayevsky? Is that supposed to be funny? I know that you're trying (and failing) to make a serious point, but does your humor and intellect rise above that of a 4 year old?

I do hope that your lack of derech eretz, your loshon hora, your accusations against gedolim are somehow justifiable to yourself and G-d.

But I'm sure you'll wear black and act like a good Haredi-Hypocrite does...jut like they all do.

Anonymous said...

5,42,
was your mom in the blocked ambulance last month? Is she ok?