Dayan Fisher Addresses Civil War in Eida Hachreidis and Sends Warning to Satmar

 

Dayan Fisher 

I didn't really want to write about this, but I received countless e-mails of readers trying to understand what's happening within the Eida Hachreidis. So instead of answering individually, I decided to explain it to my readers as best as I can ... because as you will see it's complicated!

The Eida Hacreidis was founded by Rav Chaim Yosef Sonnenfeld in partnership with  Rav Yitzchok Yerucham Diskin in 1921. They were succeeded by R' Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky followed by  R' Zelig Reuven Bengis, followed by R' Yoel Tetelbaum, Satmar Rebbe, and then R' Moshe Teitelbaum.

The Eida is  presently headed by the "Gaavad"  R' Tuvia Weiss, and by the "Raavad" Rav Moshe Sternbuch.

As you can imagine the Eida Hachreidis is vehemently anti Zionist. And this anti-Zionist stance is ideologically derived from the Vayoel Moshe, which was written by the late Satmar Rebbe , R' Yoel Teitelbaum z"l.

Within the Eida there exists a group that are even more extreme than their leaders and they are called "Sikrinim".....

Years ago when R' Yoel Teitelbaum decided that the residents of Yerushalayim should vote in local elections, the "sikrinim" or extremists, went out of their minds and like the "progressives" and "DemonRats" in USA politics, shut all debates and threatened violence, the Satmar Rebbe got intimidated and quickly withdrew his suggestion and now it's all  forgotten except in the memory of some old Yerushalmie Jews. Reading the Vayoel Moshe one would never know what transpired a half century ago. 

In 1959 R' Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik established the "Asra Kadisha" which is presently headed by R' Dovid Shmidel and he is  allegedly called the "Godfather of the Asra Kadisha Mafia"

Why is this organisation called a "Mafia" ...?

Originally this self appointed organization was supposed to monitor archeological  sites exclusively throughout Israel and report when they came across Jewish bones. 

One of the ways they distinguish who's who,, is examining how these bones are buried and where. Jewish people were buried away from cities and towns, so most bones found in Israel are not Jewish, this is something that even the Asra agrees. 

In the last decade or so, the Zionists undertook a massive building campaign to accommodate its residents, which of course included Chareidim. 

The Asra Kadisha discovered a great way to make money. They began to protest all constructions sites and would only render them "kosher" after extorting huge amounts of money from the developers..

Of course this was only in the Chareidie areas, because in Tel Aviv, their protests would last about 3 and half seconds.

Interesting, they never found Jewish bones in Bnei Brak or Meah Shearim or any site where a Shul  or a yeshiva was being built... 

Being history buffs  they know that the Romans would never have murdered and buried Jews where Yeshivas or Kollilim would be built 2,000 years later.

 

As I posted previously the Satmar Bais Medrish in Meah Shearim is sitting on a site that no developer previously would touch since Dovid Shmidel insisted that the vacant lot contained Jewish bones. 

Lo and behold years later, Satmar built their Shul on top of that very site.... 

What happened? Did the bones disappear? 

Shmidel who claims that R' Yoel Teitelbaum is the one  who instructed R Yitzchok Soloveitchik to establish the "Asra Kadisha" wanted Satmar to buy the lot for practically nothing, and what a better way to accomplish that; spreading rumours that the lot was a Jewish burial ground 2,000 years ago.

A couple of years ago a chassidishe developer named "Gulovnazitz" started to build a development in Bet Shemesh Bet, and took the "Raavad" of the Eida Hachareidis, R' Moshe Shternbuch to inspect the site,,,, after spending some time there, R' Shternbuch declared the site "kosher" and the developer began to build.

When the "sikrinim" encouraged by Dovid Shmidel got wind of it, they were very disappointed since that meant that they would never see a "Shekel"from Gulovnazitz, so they told the "Gaavad" R' Tuvia Weiss that they found Jewish bones on the site, and of course R' Tuvia Weiss paskened that the site was "trief"

Rav Shternbuch who had examined the site with his very own eyes, didn't get intimidated and declared his "psak" "100%" Valid & kosher"

Gulolvntziz completed his project without caving in to the "mafia"; hundreds of Chareidie families live there now.

What to do now? Two leaders of the Eida Hachreidis contradicting each other.

So the "Sikrinim" organised protests to denounce R' Shternbuch and would embarrass him in public, calling him "Rasha" and even assaulted  him.

Rav Shternbuch unlike the Satmar Rebbe who caved in to the "Sikrinim" over 50 years ago, refused and refuses to back down and stands by his psak.

The "sikrinim" now facing a formidable foe from their very own organization, organised last week what was supposed to be a huge rally to defend the "Honor of the Zakon Hador, R' Tuvia Weiss"

They had to do this, to discourage other developers from doing a "Gulovntziz"

They couldn't call it a protest against Rav Shternbuch as he is the head of their own Eida Hachreidis .....

So they held the rally in support of R Tuvia Weiss,  implying  that by  Rav Shternbuch holding on to his psak that was in fact "dissing" and being "Mevaza" Rav Tuvia Weiss.

To give the rally legitimacy, they dragged the 95 year old R' Tuvia Weiss to the rally, who looked confused the entire 10 minutes that he was there.

They were in for a huge surprise!

First of all, they expected thousands to show, but only a handful showed.... 

but most important was the fiery speech that Dayan Fisher, the official spokesman of the Eida Hachreidis made in the presence of R' Tuvia Weiss which was carried live on many Chareidie radio station and may have delivered a fatal blow to the "skrinim" and to the Eida Hachreidis!

Rav Fisher, like Calev ben Yefuna, first began his "drasha" praising the Gaavad R' Tuvia Weiss and when he had the attention of his audience, ripped into them and said that he doesn't understand how one organises a rally in support of a Talmud Chacham yet at the very same time embarrasses and curses another... he never mentioned the intended target of the Sikrinim  the Raavad R' Moshe Shternbuch, ......but everyone knew who he meant.

he then stormed off the stage leaving everyone in shock. All the "big beards" on the dais were stunned and couldn't leave fast enough .

 Dayan Fisher knew that Satmar would twist what he said and say what he meant in his "drasha" was that no-one should be "mevaza" R' Weiss when he clearly meant R' Shternbuch,  and so he fired off a letter (above) to the Israeli Satmar Newspaper "Kahala Kadisha" which is the Israeli version of the Ahroinie newspaper "Der Blatt"warning them not to twist his words. He did that because Satmar  naturally backs  R' Tuvia Weiss since they control the Asra Kadisha

The Eida Hachreidis is now in midst of a civil war, and that doesn't bode well with the leaders, because the Eida is a honey pot with a lot of shekels coming in with their Hashgachas ....and they cannot afford to lose that ..

Let's get the popcorn and watch as this unfolds...