For the life of me, I cannot understand why Frum Jews would travel to Poland, a country responsible for the murder of millions of Jews.
A country soaked with Jewish blood, yet, Frum Jews have no issue with willingly pouring hard earned Jewish money to blood thirsty anti-Semitic barbarians!
Time to take R' Elimelech's body out of that cursed earth and bring it to the Holy Land!
The leader of one of the world's largest Chassidic movements has ordered his followers to avoid traveling to Poland due to what is popularly referred to as the "Holocaust Law", a newly passed piece of legislation in Poland which allows a sentence of up to three years in prison for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".
According to a report by Kikar Hashabbat, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, the Gur Grand Rebbe, was approached by a group of his followers seeking approval to travel to the grave of Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk, an influential 17th-century rabbi who is buried near Warsaw.
While the rabbi gave his approval to visit the graves of prominent rabbis in Europe, he ordered that Poland be dropped from the itinerary due to the Holocaust Law. He also banned his followers from traveling to Poland for any reason other than business.
The Holocaust Law was first passed last month and outlaws claims of collusion by the Polish nation with the Holocaust. The legislation caused outrage in Israel and has been criticized by the U.S. State Department, the French Foreign Ministry, and certain Jewish organizations.
Stung by the heavy criticism, the Polish government sent a delegation to Israel last week in an attempt to resolve the dispute but the two sides unable to find common ground.
Reb Elimelech of Lizhenzk lived in the 18th century, not the 17th. The Baal Shem Tov himself was born around 1700, the last year of the 17th century.
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