The author Andrew Getraer is wondering why no one listened to Zev Jabotinsky's dire warning in 1938 that a destruction of European Jewry was a sure thing in coming, but I am not surprised at all.
I grew up amongst survivors, and I remember them saying that Jabotinsky was going frum shul to shul to warn them and the Rabbanim would not let him in to speak, why?
Because he was a Zionist and they didn't want anyone making Aliya or even going to the USA which they called the "treifina medina" they believed that Hitler would never ever come to Hungary and Romania.
Frum Jews especially what we now know as "Charedim" are disconnected from history and even their very own history, they don't, on principle refuse to even learn Nach except if a verse is mentioned in the gemarrah.
But they learned nothing!
In New York City they elected a Muslim antisemitic Mayor whose rhetoric of hate aginst the State of Israel instigated the stabbings against Jews just last week, yet Satmar who endorsed this vile cesspool of hate, have yet to join the chorus of Jews condemning the Mayor's hate speech? Why? Because they believe the Mayor is going to come through for their Mosidois that preach and embed hate against other Jews living in Israel. (see the side bar "The Williamsburg Bubbie from Hell ")
by Andrew Getraer
The Jewish Sages say that prophecy ceased 2,500 years ago. I'm not so sure.
The Prophet Jeremiah spent years trying to warn the Jews of his time that disaster, death, and destruction were coming unless they took action. In the 20th Century, another man tried to do the same.
The brilliant writer and Zionist leader Zev Jabotinsky spent years trying to warn the Jews of his time that disaster, death, and destruction were coming unless they took action.
On Tisha B'Av 1938, on the eve of the Holocaust, he delivered this speech in Warsaw, Poland:
“It is for three years that I have been calling on you, Jews of Poland, the glory of world Jewry, with an appeal. I have been ceaselessly warning you that the catastrophe is coming closer.
My hair has turned white, and I have aged in these years because my heart is bleeding, for you, dear brothers and sisters, do not see the volcano that will soon begin to spurt out the fire of destruction.
I see a terrifying sight. The time is short in which one can still be saved.
I know: you do not see because you are bothered and rushing about with everyday worries … Listen to my remarks at the twelfth hour.
For God’s sake, may each one save his life while there is still time. And time is short.
I want to say one more thing to you on this day of the Ninth of Av: Those who will succeed to escape from the catastrophe will merit a moment of great Jewish joy — the rebirth and rise of a Jewish State.
I do not know if I will earn that. My son, yes!
I believe in this just as I am sure that tomorrow morning the sun will shine once again. I believe in this with total faith.”
Like Jeremiah, Jabotinsky prophesied in vain, was ostracized by the Jewish leaders of his day, and broke himself trying to save his people. And like Jeremiah, his prophecy came true.
Likewise, Theodor Herzl was a prophet. The poet Uri Zvi Greenberg was a prophet. No one listened.
Are there prophets today, deeply caring, visionary people who see the disaster before us, are trying to warn us, and that no one wants to believe?
42 comments:
You jhave to remember the context of the times.
1) No one could every believe that the Holocaust could happen. Even as news of it started to leak out, no one believed it because it made no sense. Mass persecution and torment was believable. Mass slave labour was believable. But mass murder? It was a waste of resources and the Germans weren't known to waste resources. Why would you dedicate money and equipment to wiping out an economical beneficial supply of slaves for your war efforts?
2) Zionism was mostly controlled by the Labour Zionists at that point and Jabotinsky was a Revisionist. Labour Zionism wasn't interested in a pluralistic Zionism. You were either labour Zionist "New Jew" or you were on the outside. So Jabotinsky, z"l, struggled to find an audience.
DIN make sure the chronicles record yours too
So Jabotinsky was a pretty decent guy despite being from the sad camp of Tzionim ober fort there are no "Neviyim" by the Tzionim, just some Neviyei Sheker like the Uganda maniac (Who DIN keeps trying to conflate his Meshugass with KJ to counter-attack Rebbeinee Yoel zya)
Garnel
The Gedoilim in Europe did not distinguish between Zionists; to them, anyone promoting Aliya was a Zionist. They didn't listen to him because as you said they didn't believe that Germans would be that cruel to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Eastern Europe , in fact my father z"l told me a story that he remembers when two Auschwitz escapees, with shaven heads and disheveled, came in the Satmar Shul and asked to address the Oilim , but the Rebbe after hearing their stories, dismissed them saying that they were deranged and that they were lying. According to Esther Farbstein's two-volume book on the Holocaust, "Hidden in the Heights, "the rebbe already knew in 1942 that Jews were being shipped to Auschwitz, but he didn't think that it was in such a large capacity, and he believed that Hitler was never going to come to Hungary and Romania and he didn't want to frighten his followers, something that Rudolf Kastner was accused of!
But Jabotinsky, who in retrospect was on target in his prediction, wasn't taken seriously by Hungarian Jews precisely because he was a Zionist!
Meanwhile Zionists in Hungary and Romania were training their youth to fight and embedded into their youth a love of Eretz Yisrael focusing on Aliya, so they did not need any convincing from Jabotinsky.
Unfortunately there was a lot of mistrust and still is all around. The original Zionist party blocked Jewish refugees looking to escape Hitler - they banned them from entering Israel.
Potch in Face 10:46
I am not trying to "conflate" anything.
Simply stating the facts that R' Yoel Teitelbaum, who was saved by the Zionists during the Holocaust, stole Binyomin Zev Herzl z'l initial failed idea of settling Jews in Uganda and established KJ Uganda in Monroe.
There is one major difference between Herzl's idea and the Satmar Idea, Herzl z"l idea was that Uganda would be open to all Jews, whereas Satmar Uganda in KJ is exclusively for Satmar Chassidim, though that is now falling apart as Viznitz is infiltrating and Satmar is trying to deport them, having learned a thing or two from the Majar/Nazis in Romania
11:04
That is actually not true and is Satmar propaganda.
The Zionist party was for years trying to get visas and it's only natural that they would prioritize visas for their own, I don't think that if it were in reverse and Satmar were in charge of visas, they would have been any different and would not have given those precious visas to Zionists. That's why it s a crying shame that Satmar doesn't give any credit to the Zionists for having given the Rebbe a seat on the Kastner train
The ones "blocking Jewish refugees looking to escape Hitler' from entering the then Palestine was none other than the British, who turned back boats to Germany.
The Satmar revisionists' history of blaming the Zionists for what the British did has been debunked many times over and no one is falling for this unadulterated crap not even the old Satmar Chassidim.
With DIN colored glasses there's no Zionist blame to see, not even when Zionist Kapo Kasztner lied to the Yidden to get on the trains to their cremation
Actually my great grandfather julius steinfeld who was very involved in saving jews during the war said never ever go near the tzoinim that said רק בדם יירשו את הארץ.
There is some truth to the story that the Zionists were wavering over whether or not to help European Jews. I studied Israeli history and the Labour Zionist teacher admitted that there was a debate in the New Yishuv. On one hand they did want to rescue the Jews of Europe. On the other hand there was barely half a million of them, they were beseiged by the Arabs and the British and were barely hanging on in Israel. What resources did they have to help in Europe? Didn't they have to concentrate on the Yishuv first?
In the end the decision was made to help the European Jews because most of the Zionists said "If we don't, what's the point of what we're doing?"
12:31
Yidden were forced to get on the trains no one went voluntarily. Except the Satmar Rebbe managed to get on the Zionist Kastner train, leaving his community to be gassed
Cut out your cover ups already, DIN! They could have ran to Romania where the deportations were lethargic or gone into hiding. They got on the trains obediently because your Tzioni home boy Rudolf Kastner told them it's safe. Seriously? You bash Friedlander who's about 1% as evil as your alter Tzioni chump!
5:33
Your great grandfather Julius Steinfeld was a fervent anti-Zionist; he also negotiated with Adolf Eichmann which I admire, actually, you need to negotiate with the devil to save Jews but Rudolf Kastner, however, was condemned for doing that exact same thing !
Julius was asked to testify at the Eichmann trial precisely because he was a fanatical anti-Zionist but he refused!
After doing a search about Steinfeld's reported statement that Zionists leader said :
רק בדם יירשו את הארץ.
I found the following:
"I searched for the exact phrase "רק בדם יירשו את הארץ" and no reliable source appears to attribute this quote to any known politician, or historical figure
It also does not appear in documented speeches or writings of mainstream Israeli leaders, past or present.
It does not match any well‑known Zionist slogan or statement.
It does not appear in extremist manifestos indexed by public search engines.
Based on the absence of any record, the quote is
Fabricated
Your Great grandfather, whom I actually met because he davened in the Viner Shul in Williamsburg was a hero that saved Jews from the Holocaust but was known to make up stuff,
This statement רק בדם יירשו את הארץ.
is a propaganda tool by Satmar revisionists that feel remorseful because their leaders encouraged their followers to remain in Europe only to be brutally murdered!
What's wrong if Julius Steinfeld told his mishpocho? Whatever, knock yourself out with your search engines
8:58
I see you are clueless and ignorant of basic history. Romania at this point was Hungary. There weren't any deportations in any part of Europe that were "lethargic "
You stupidly say they "could have gone into hiding"
500,000 Jews going into hiding? what a dumb statement!
Your Statement that "they got on the trains obediently because your Tzioni home boy Rudolf Kastner told them it's safe." could be true, but so did the Satmar Rebbe tell them that Hitler is never coming to Hungary and Romania!
BTW while the majority of my family from both my Father's side and Mother's side were being brutally murdered, your grandparents were barbecuing franks and hamburgers in the USA!
If Karl Richter knew what you'd devolve into, he'd have thrown you out of Viener shul
Your Grandfather Julious Steinfeld, who hated Israel, made that up as he was known to do about many stories; those who davened in Vien know that very well.
Stop bringing him up, he is no longer on this world, and he now knows better, let him rest in peace.
Just who is the ignorant (or lying?) one? Like you don't know that in Romanian cities like Temeshvar the Yidden didn't get past house arrest? Or that foreign diplomats kept shtupping more Yidden in protected buildings even in Budapest? Once the Nazis did show up the Ruv stopped imploring to sit around like ducks which is much better than can be said about Kastner & his Zionist masters
9:18
Karl Richter and your Grandfather should have known better than to establish a shul in Williamsburg after having witnessed their shul in Vienna burned down to the ground.
They should have had learned from history to establish the Shul in Israel, but because of their burning hate of the new State they settled in Chutz Le'arretz where these atrocities will happen again and again!
Many Yidden came to NY because they couldn't get into Palestine. But in DIN logic Richter is a bum, he should have left them in the streets instead of building them a beis medrash
Garnel
I mistakenly deleted your last comment, so if you wish you can repost
thanks
Pathological Liar 9:36
You are an ignorant fool yet you keep blabbering like the Williamsburg Bubbie from hell (on my sidebar)
Jews came to NY because they had family in the USA so they had sponsors its not because they couldn't get into Palestine, I had 4 Uncles that survived the Holocaust and they all made Aliya, my mother had family in the US so she preferred the US, to be with family!
From the DP camps, they could go wherever they wished!
9:27
It is true that in cities like Temeshvar the Jews didn't get deported, but how would Jews from neighboring cities know that?
In Temeshvar the Jewish population was all of 9,368 and that swelled to 11,788 because of the refugees; there is no way they could absorb 100, 000 Jews,
The "RUV" was a coward (read his behavior just before deportations on the sidebar) and should have had a smidgen of Hakoras Hatoiv to the Zionists that gave him a seat on a train.
He was up until the last moment refusing to cooperate with the Zionists who offered to take out and by procrastinating put many families in mortal danger. The Irony of all this is that he allowed the Zionists at the very end to save him, but he never acknowledged that.
I attended a Kinnus Tusha B'Av shiur in Scheiners given by Rav Eliezer Abish (for 3 1/2 hours straight!) It was fascinating!
He told if an episode of Rav Aaron Kotler ztl working belev venefesh trying to save Jews from the Nazis, saying he would speak with anyone in order to save Jews. He would even shake the Pope's hand if that would save sine Jews.
At one point he, together with Stephen Wise from the Reform movement, was negotiating with the Nazis to save a group of Jews for a considerable amount of money.
The Nazis agreed to release a tranload of Jews who had converted to Christianity. They figured they'll get the Jews' money and score points with the church.
Stephen Wise said no. They converted and aren't Jews.
Rav Aaron disagreed and said a Jew always remains a Jew. A Jew is precious independent of his mitzvah observance!
Stephen Wise said he will not allow their limited funds to be used for Jews who converted to Christianity. Rav Aaron replied he will use the money they collected, coin by coin, on shabbos, to save them.
Rav Aaron's actions teach us the Daas Torah approach to our fellow Yidden, frum or not. Always with care and concern, never with vile and vitriol.
Nebach, you're tryng so hard to fool everyone that you're a Zionist that you're willing to resort to referring to Jabotinsky the Kofer as a "Navi".
Face it, you're a discombobulated ex-Chassid trying to promote Zionist revisionist history (revisionist an appropriate name for Jabotinsky), when in reality, the Zionists were a bunch of Kofrim trying to create their own state and couldn't give a crap if millions of Jews were killed, as long as they got their way. The fct the Satmar Rav got on the Kastner train had NOTHING to do with Kastner's support for him; in fact, the Zionists didn't want him to get on board, he was simply placed there when a few well-connected Frum people got hold of Kastner's plan and raised the funds necessary for him to join. Get your facts straight (and read Perfidy in your abundance of spare time) DIN (Roshei Teivos Don't Invent News).
So the idf does great by defending all types of Jews from terrorists, right?
7:20
I see you never opened a Tanach, if you did you would see that even "koifrim" are called Neveeim.
וַיִּשְׁלַ֥ח אַחְאָ֖ב בְּכׇל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַיִּקְבֹּ֥ץ אֶת־הַנְּבִיאִ֖ים אֶל־הַ֥ר הַכַּרְמֶֽל׃
Though Binyomin Zev Jabotinsky z"l was not frum but no one except you and some ignorant Romanian peasants would call a hero like BZJ a "koifer"
The Zionists "didn't just TRY to make a State", they were successful in doing so B'H, a state that is now the home to close to 8 million Jews, a home for the greatest Gedoilim that ever lived in the past century.
Your cockamamie comment:
"The fct the Satmar Rav got on the Kastner train had NOTHING to do with Kastner's support for him; in fact, the Zionists didn't want him to get on board, he was simply placed there when a few well-connected Frum people got hold of Kastner's plan and raised the funds necessary for him to join. "
I see that you don't agree with the Satmar Bio that clearly states that the Zionists did in fact want him on board because of Kastner's father-in-law Fishcher! You just make up stuff, don't you?
You want me to read Perfidy?
Perfidy. the Satmar Bible, was written by Ben Hecht whose children were all goyim, who supported the Zionist Bergson group led by Hillel Kook, that campaigned to save European Jews from the Nazis (that part Satmar doesn't write, because it doesn't fit the agenda that there were Zionists that actually saved Jews from the Nazis)
The Bergson group were backers of Menachem Begin and hated Ben Gurion.
When a guy by the name of Gruenwald wrote in his pamphlet that Kastner collaborated with the Nazis, Kastner, under pressure of Ben Gurion sued him for libel. Perfidy is the cross-examination of Kasner at that trial.
So because Kastner was an embarrassment to R' Yoel Tetelbaum because he was on that Kastner train but refused to give him Hakoras Hatoiv (he refused to give Kastner an account of how he got on that train at the trial) they took a guy like Ben Hecht who hated Ben Gurion and wanted to topple the Mapai government and made him into a hero!
So Satmar when it suits them, support and idolize a staunch Zionist like Ben Hecht.
Absolutely!
Reading some of your commentary, you disgust me. What right do you have to criticize Julie Steinfeld who saved all the neshomos in the Kindertransport??!! If you are so obsessed with aliyah what took you so long yourself to saunter over there? BH Julie's relatives didn't heed your stinking Zionist Nazi Kapo Kasztner, like Julie's cousin Manzi Rechnitz who survived by hiding in a bunker in Pressburg. Readers bring up good points but you deny everything because you can't admit you are wrong. Absolutely the deportations were shvach in Roumania. As bad as the Romanisher were they still refused to cooperate with the Nazi demand to deport the Yidden to Belzec. The Mayor of Chernovitsi alone stopped 20,000 Yidden from going to even local lagers
Your views of zionist history in Europe are clouded by the fact that you think the fools in Hungary were the most important. There were numerous mizrachi rabbanim and many more sympathetic (they were apolitical and good with mizrachi rabbanim. There were limits to how many visas one could get to ey
https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/british-restrictions-on-jewish-immigration-to-palestine
If every jew would have tried to listen to jabitisky very little difference. The British were not letting in people for the most part.
Alter Kocker 6:55
You ask "What right do you have to criticize Julie Steinfeld ?"
I didn't criticize him at all I just wrote that, according to someone who claims he is a great grandchild, that he said that the Zionists said "רק בדם יירשו את הארץ."
I pointed out that Steinfield was a vicious anti-Zionist and he made that up!
You write:
"Julie's relatives didn't heed your stinking Zionist Nazi Kapo Kasztner,"
That is true, but all his other relatives heeded the wrong advice of the Satmar Rebbe R Yoel Teitelbaum that "there is nothing to fear, because Hitler wasn't coming to Hungary/Romania " and were annihilated!
You scribble with confidence:
"Absolutely the deportations were shvach in Roumania"
Are you calling from 280,000 to 380,000 Jews that were deported from Romania and then murdered, including most of my own family" ........."SHVACH"
You sick vile creature!
8:06
Did you ever listen to any of Jabotinsky's speeches or writings? Or do you just write for the sake of writing?
Jabotinsky warned Jews in Europe to get out of Europe, he wasn't necessarily talking about Aliya.
Yes its true that the British were worse than the Nazis, British antisemitism goes back hundreds of years.
Who turns back boatloads of Jews that escaped concentration camps?'" How cruel can people be.
Jabotinsky was warning Jews that a big catastrophe was coming while the Gedoilim were reassuring their followers that everything will be ok!
Just one remez about Zionist bad guys & DIN starts barking about the Satmar Rebbe. You need a new trick, man! Can’t you do anything except recycle your stale vendetta?
Pavlov's cat meow 1025:
I am not "recycling" anything I am just responding to the "recycled" Satmar/Romanian lying propaganda which continues to this day.
They keep writing about their war with the Zionists" which is a war that was over 75 years ago.
Which country was taking them in?
By 38 no country was taking in 99% of jews who didn't have money connections specific skill sets etc.
For example To get into America for a polish jew was next to impossible unless you could get a non quota visa. America allowed only 6,524 people (including goyim) from Poland a year. And the state department prioritized goyim. And America was one of the better countries.
Ps British worse than nazis is lechi propaganda and insane for a grandson on people murdered by the nazis.
Pps gedolim or rebbe? Most likely the leading gadol in eruope before the war was rav chaim ozer. I never heard any attack on him for that. The only thing he got wrong was he thought the Soviets would have not allowed jews to leave and sent the to a gulag or worse for getting exit visas (when he was basically on his death bed) do you have a single statement of his reassuring the jews everything will be ok.
9:04
The following countries allowed Jews within its quota system in 1938 when Jabotinski warned Jews to leave
1) the US 2) The UK , 3) Shanghai, 4) Palestine (it tightened later) 5) Cuba 6) some Latin American countries
You scribble:
"British worse than nazis is lechi propaganda and insane for a grandson on people murdered by the nazis."
British antisemitism goes back 1,000 years
After the Norman Conquest in 1066, Jews faced violence like the blood libel accusations in the 12th century and the massacre at York in 1190.
They were expelled in 1290 and not officially readmitted until the mid 1600s.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Britain did become a refuge for some Jews fleeing Eastern Europe, but antisemitic attitudes lingered.
By the 1930s, there were anti-Jewish sentiment, even though the UK also accepted some Jewish child refugees.
They later turned back thousands of Jews that managed to escape the camps and they sent them back, some boats that were sent back, sank immediately
The cruelest people after the Nazis were the British and Ukrainians.
Ok lets clear this up i am the original poster about my great grandfather r juliis steinfeld. What i said was that he hated the zionists so much because the zionist wanted the more desd jews the better. The quote רק בדם... was actually a response from nathan schwalb to r michoel ber weissmandl, when he was tryimg to get money to save yidden. I didnt say that julius said that, i said he hated them beacuse they wanted yidden dead as evidence from the response from nathan schwalb to r michoel ber.
9:04
You are full of nonsense.
If only ONE SINGLE JEW escaped because of Jabotinsky's warning, that itself would have been enough!
Just last week a single Holocaust Survivor celebrated her 101st birthday at the Kotel surrounded by over 800 descendants!
Why are you nitpicking and then sticking up for the British??
They knew the Mufti was planning massacres in 1929 and refused to protect their Jewish residents, there are no greater rashaim then these vermin
1. America allowed 6,524 people, there were way more than that trying to go to America. The US prioritized goyim over jews, farmers over non farmers etc. The world already shut the doors before this speech, Countries said no to German Jews who were more desirable to the world than poor Polish Jewish. The Evian Conference was a month before this speech (the world said no to accepting jews), many people already knew Poland was in danger for jews (and jabitinsky did not predict the holocaust he predicted that Poland would kill it's jews, but nothing even close to the holocaust), shechita was being banned, every week new laws were being pushed against jews. The problem was where to go, no one wanted them. The most likely spot to get into was the British mandate but they were shutting the doors before the white paper, ever since the arab revolt. If every single person would have listned to him they still would have been murdered at practiclly the same rates. If a person who is very well connected with rich relatives in America succeeded in getting a visa, someone else would have lost their visa.
2. did I say that the british were not antisemites, they weren't nazis and it wasn't even close. Also since you are going back to the Normans, the Germans murdered more Jews than the british empire before Hitler was born, from the crusades, to the Rintfleisch massacres (where 20,000 to 100,000 Jews were murdered) to the Black death massacres. this is not a positive competition where finishing second place is an honor, saying someone in not worse than the nazis is not "sticking up for the british" or any such nonsense, the british are no where near the nazis, and neither was anyone else ever. until you show me something the british did in the same galaxy as a place like Belzic (arguably the worst place on earth ever) this is just pure nonsense.) The british behavior during the hevron massacre was murderous, but to compare that to the nazis is insane
11:29
I am comparing the British to the Nazis because of their behavior during ww2, blocking access to Palestine when they knew that Jews were being murdered, and then turned back boats loaded with Jews that escaped Concentration camps... that is in fact, even crueler than the nazis, squashing people when they were actually finally tasting freedom, Shame on them and their apologists
Nazis squashed way more people who thought they were free, like all those Hungarians who belives the Belzer Rebbe's brothers assurances. Shame on nazi apologists.
“Absolutely the deportations were shvach in Roumania”
THIS IS THE DUMBEST STATEMENT I’VE EVER HEARD.
Tell that to my mother-in-law’s large family who were all sent to Auschwitz.
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