Note: The Imrei Emes's anti Zionist position was only pre-WW2 and during the Holocaust when he hadn't found out yet how enormous the tragedy actually was. The Imrei Emes totally turned after the holocaust and after the State was actually established!
In 1943, Gur Hasidim beat Ben-Gurion’s brother — Moshe Nachmani — to death.
This is one of the most serious incidents in the history of relations between the Haredim and the Zionists in the State of Israel. Three Gur Hasidim severely beat Ben-Gurion’s brother, Rabbi Avraham Green. Shortly afterward, he died from his injuries.
Within a short time, the affair was swept under the rug and completely forgotten. Ben-Gurion did not make an issue of it, nor did the religious Zionists, and of course not the Gur Hasidim.
It is a painful story that teaches us how far violence can go, and how a heated argument can deteriorate into bloodshed. Above all, it teaches us that anyone who dares to criticize a revered Rebbe, admired by thousands of Hasidim, may end up in the grave.
1. It all began in 5703 (1943), in the midst of the Holocaust.
The Rebbe of Gur, the Imrei Emes, published a public proclamation in which he wrote: “It is a time of trouble for Jacob, the likes of which has never been in Israel, and there is no other counsel but to strengthen faith and trust in God… We must strengthen the observance of Torah and mitzvot, the education of sons and daughters in the way of Torah, and love of Israel.”
Later in his letter, the Rebbe added: “My opinion and outlook, as always, is now as then — only to strengthen Agudat Yisrael, and my opinion is against other parties that deviate from the paved path.”
The meaning was clear: Do not cooperate with the Mizrachi movement or join it; Zionism — which brought tens of thousands of Jews to the Land of Israel and established the Yishuv with great sacrifice — is forbidden.
Indeed, already in the 1920s, the Rebbe of Gur had published that Mizrachi was a danger to Haredi Judaism, which caused protest from the Mizrachi leadership: “It is strange that the Rebbe speaks ill of the Mizrachi organization, which includes great rabbinic geniuses and famous Rebbes, and especially given the well-known positive attitude of the great Gaon, the Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, Rav Kook.” (HaTzefira, October 5, 1927)
2. One of the people who read the Rebbe’s proclamation was Rabbi Avraham Green, a religious Zionist Torah scholar who immigrated from Poland and lived in Tel Aviv. He read the Rebbe’s words and was shocked.
“As Haredi Jews born in Poland, who know well the pathways of the Rebbe of Gur’s court, we were astonished and amazed by this letter. Its strange conclusions contradict one another and distort truth and reality. Our Haredi–Torah conscience does not allow us to remain silent.”
“His Torah honor cannot remain ungrateful to the religious Zionists for all they have done in this land for our entire people, including his own family and himself. After God helped him escape the Nazis who sought his life, and he managed to settle in our land and enjoy in his old age the fruits of their labor, he must admit the truth — that he erred unknowingly all this time regarding the Zionist idea and its flag bearers, and must join body and soul with these builders.”
‘A well from which you drank water — do not throw a stone into it. Is it the way of our Torah and tradition to throw stones at people who toiled and labored until they created, with the sweat of their brow, a place of refuge with the greatest comfort possible — which he himself uses every day?!”
3. Rabbi Green, Ben-Gurion’s brother, wrote a long and sharp response to the Rebbe’s words and printed it under the title “Let the Law Pierce the Mountain.”
On the cover it said: “A public response of the religious Zionists to the letter of the Rebbe of Gur regarding the birth pangs of the Messiah of our brothers in Europe and ‘Agudat Yisrael.’”
In this booklet, Rabbi Green hinted that the Rebbe of Gur and his colleagues bore some responsibility for the death of three million Jews in the Holocaust (the number known at the time), because of their warnings not to join the Zionist movement that had been bringing Jews to the Land of Israel for decades before the Holocaust.
4. When Gur Hasidim saw the booklet criticizing their Rebbe, they tried to obtain all copies and destroy them.
The booklet was published under a pseudonym (“Avraham Greenberg”), and they worked hard to discover who dared write such blasphemy against the Rebbe.
After several months, they realized it was Avraham Green, Ben-Gurion’s brother. Soon we will describe what happened once they discovered this.
Shortly afterward, on April 19, 1945, a short notice appeared in Haaretz:
“Yesterday, at age 67, Rabbi Avraham Green, brother of the Chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, Mr. David Ben-Gurion, passed away at the municipal hospital in Tel Aviv. The deceased was a devoted activist in the Mizrachi movement, fought anti-Zionists, and published several booklets on Zionist topics.”
Age 67 is relatively young… What did he die from? Was he ill? Haaretz does not tell us.
The Zionist newspaper HaOlam also published a very short notice:
“In Tel Aviv, Rabbi Avraham Green, age 67, one of the founders of Mizrachi in Poland, brother of David Ben-Gurion, passed away. The deceased was a Torah scholar and a man of noble character.”
Thus the newspapers covered up the tragic event behind his death, and most readers assumed he died naturally…
5. Only the newspaper HaBoker gave a small hint:
“A year ago he published a booklet titled ‘Let the Law Pierce the Mountain’ in which he attacked the Rebbes for opposing Zionism. He left behind a wife and two sons.”
But why did he suddenly die? What is the connection between his death and the booklet? It is unclear…
To understand what really happened, we must go back to the days when people still dared to speak about the beginning of the affair.
The first edition of the booklet bore the pseudonym “Avraham Greenberg.” Gur Hasidim were desperate to find the author and teach him a lesson.
Someone among the Hasidim suggested that the author was Rabbi Yaakov Gutkovsky of Tel Aviv.
In HaMashkif (January 26, 1944) it was written:
“A few days ago, two young Haredim burst into the home of Rabbi Y. Gutkovsky on Ahad Ha’am Street, caused a scandal in the house, and even beat the rabbi. The rebbetzin, who rushed to help her husband, was also injured.”
This was a tragic mistake; Rabbi Gutkovsky was beaten brutally for nothing. He had no connection to the booklet.
He did know Rabbi Avraham Green, who attended his classes, but he had absolutely no part in publishing the booklet.
The article continued: “Gur Hasidim in Tel Aviv also approached Rabbi Amiel to investigate who wrote the booklet. According to reports, Rabbi Gutkovsky denies any connection to it.”
6. Eventually Rabbi Avraham Green admitted he was the author, and the Hasidim quickly came to him and beat him severely.
How severe were the beatings? Again, one must dig deep to find out. Most newspapers ignored it, likely for political reasons.
The only detailed source is a rare article by the courageous writer and journalist Ben-Zion Katz, published in Haaretz (March 2, 1944).
Katz, who grew up in yeshivas as a prodigy and later became a journalist, was known for defending Beilis in the famous trial and for exposing the innocence of Stavsky and Rosenblatt in the Arlosoroff murder affair. “A fighter for truth and freedom of expression,” it was written after his death.
In this painful affair, Katz intervened. He wrote that the Hasidim “beat him and poured filth upon him until he lay bedridden for two weeks.”
It was January 1944. Three Hasidim attacked Avraham as he entered the synagogue of the Old-Age Home on HaAvoda Street 9 in Tel Aviv. They cursed him, calling him “heretic” and “criminal of Israel,” and threatened to kill him.
They did not stop at threats. Soon they acted. A few days later they came again, attacked him with a stick, and punched him in the chest until he fell to the ground.
With respect, Chaim Yoavi Rabinowitz A simple citizen
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