Thursday, July 17, 2014
Ayelet Shaked answers and exposes the self hating leftist Jews
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| Ayelet Sheked |
Israel is under attack. Since last week, Hamas terrorists have fired more than 1000 rockets at our civilian centers, launching those rockets from residential enclaves, kindergartens and hospitals, exposing their own children to harm as they try to kill our children.
There's no ambiguity among our allies as to Israel’s right to defend her citizens. In fact, many Arab voices, in Egypt and elsewhere, have condemned Hamas, blaming it for the tragedy it is bringing on the heads of its own people.
Sadly, the militant, leftist propaganda machine has not changed its tune, looking for every opportunity to make Israel the culprit in a war she did not desire and which she entered reluctantly, after days of increasing provocation. I refer specifically to "Daily Beast" writer Gideon Resnick, who so misrepresented the facts in one of my recent Facebook posts, one has to wonder if his hatred for my country hasn't rendered him outright useless to his website and his readers.
In a story headlined "Israeli Politician Declares War on the Palestinian People," Resnick actually suggested I compared Palestinian children to “little snakes,” and accused me of fomenting Palestinian genocide. This vilification was later picked up by several bloggers and reporters, all of whom were convinced of this frightening notion, without even a scrap of fact or truth.
Let's start with my July 1 Facebook post. It was written some 12 years ago, but never published, by a dear man, the recently departed journalist Uri Elitzur. The gist of his article was that once one side in a war attacks the other side's civilians, they can no longer morally claim a special status for their own civilians.
Go ahead, ask a Hebrew speaking friend to translate it for you, they'll confirm this is what my Facebook post was about. But you'll find not a trace of that in Resnick's account. Perhaps it's his own ignorance of the Hebrew language. After all, he got the text from Electronic Intifada, a website dedicated to daily and hourly vilification of my country.
All Resnick had to do to make Elitzur's sober, legally minded discussion sound like a speech made by Hitler himself, was to cherry pick words out of context. A call for the indiscriminate killing of children is a terrible thing. But what if the statement was that any time you kill our children, you're exposing your own children to the same fate? Still unsettling, but rational when you consider that they purposely use their kids as human shields. It's not a call for indiscriminate murder.
And then Resnick turned to character assassination. He cited an attack on me by Haaretz. They said I was “representative of an ideology unembarrassed by its racism.”
Haaretz, unfortunately, may look like The New York Times, but it is far from being a liberal, curious newspaper in the Anglo Saxon tradition. Expecting Haaretz to write about a political opponent like myself in an honest, informative—if critical—manner, is a little like expecting Gideon Resnick to offer an unbiased, honest citation from a pro-Zionist post.
And so, when Haaretz, read by a mere 30,000 Israelis, give or take, says I'm racist – I'd look for a more reliable source.
Then, in a second article, Resnick also sneaks in the dumb female bit: "the 38-year-old Shaked is also frequently the target of subtle sexism, at best referred to as 'a young and pretty secular woman.'” And the citation is from – you guessed it, Haaretz. In fact, Electronic Intifada and Haaretzare Resnick's only sources, other than his brutalization of the Elitzur piece.
Resnick's distortions aside, the fact is that international pressure on Israel has not yielded peace because Israel is not starting the wars.
1. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are engaged in terrorism, one overtly, the other in a supportive role. Money is being transferred from the PA to the families of suicide bombers and convicted murderers in Israeli jails. The pay is actually based on the number and severity of the murders committed. The more gruesome the murder, the larger the number of Israeli victims, the higher the monthly reward.
Can anyone deny it?
2. Palestinian education today is based on violence and incitement against Israelis and Jews. Palestinian textbooks and Palestinian media ceaselessly promote Jew hatred. They praise Jew murderers. Their heroes and celebrities are Jew killers. They name streets and traffic circles after killers of Jewish children.
Can anyone deny it?
At the same time, the murder of Jerusalem teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir was immediately condemned by all of Israel's society.
As a Knesset Member, I can assure you his murderers, once convicted for their terrible crime, will remain in prison for the rest of their lives.
We will certainly not name streets after them.
3. In Israel we protect our citizens from incoming Hamas missiles.
Hamas, on the other hand, positions its missile launchers in the midst of civilian enclaves, using women and children as human shields against Israeli raids.
Just the other day, the world watched a Hamas spokesman admitting they instructed civilians not to leave their Gaza homes during air strikes, in order to protect those arsenals of weapons.
Each Palestinian rocket coming out of Gaza represents two separate war crimes: one for purposely targeting a civilian population in Israel, the other for launching from within their own civilian population.
Not many journalists bother to share this information with their readers. It confuses the narrative, messes with the David and Goliath scenario.
Our residents in southern Israel have endured these missiles for more than 14 years. Many children and teens have known only life in a war zone. This past week, all our urban centers were targeted. How would you expect our government to react? How would you want your own government to deal with a similar onslaught on your neighborhood? What do you want us to do? Lie down and die?
The late Uri Elitzur wrote so eloquently in the article I cited on Facebook:
“The laws of war acknowledge that it is impossible to avoid hitting enemy civilians. Those laws did not condemn the British air force for firebombing and completely destroying the German city of Dresden, or US planes for wrecking the cities of Poland and half of Hungary's Budapest, whose residents had never done anything against America. Those sites had to be destroyed in order to win the war against evil.”
Israel's fight against Hamas terrorism is similar to NATO's war on Al-Qaeda terrorism. Moreover, Israel is the only state who is notifying civilians to leave their homes before an attack by texting them.
Israel has no agenda against Arab civilians in Gaza, just as the US has none against Arabs in any of the countries where it's conducting its now 13-year war to preserve civilization from violent barbarism.
We want a good life, with peace and prosperity for all the eight million plus people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Indeed, if the Arab society enjoys prosperity, so will Jewish society, and vice versa. let me be very clear I condemn any kind of assault against innocent civilians, whether they are Jews or Arabs.
But in order to get there, they must stop firing rockets at us.
The madness of Hamas continued yesterday, after Israel embraced an Egyptian call for a ceasefire. Hamas rejected the offer, and as of now has been shooting at all over Israel with renewed vigor.
Israelis are so used to the scene where we offer our hand in peace and the other side reacts by trying to cut it off, that we're not even surprised. What does surprise us, time and again, are the voices in the West, like Resnick's, which pin the blame for this madness on us. As in that famous quip: "It all started when Israel retaliated."
As an aside, I’ll point out that a week later The Daily Beast finally removed one blatant lie from Resnick’s original article, where he accused me of being the author of statements I never made.
But this correction is too little, too late, the damage has already been done. And so, you must ask yourselves, do you really want to continue getting your news reports about my country from writers who view the truth as little more than a needless inconvenience?
The author is a Member of Knesset for the Bayit Yehudi.
Moshe Yisroel Cohen killed by car in front of Monsey Satmar Shul
Moshe Yisroel Cohen of Edwin Lane, Monsey was killed last night after being struck by a car in front of Kahal V’Yoel Moshe D’Satmar.
Mr. Cohen was struck by a marroon Honda CR-V while he was crossing Monsey Boulevard just south of Maple Avenue at approximately 9:20 PM.
Witnesses said that Cohen was bleeding profusely.
One eyewitness said that after the initial impact, Cohen flew up on the car’s hood and struck the windshield before he was thrown approximately 50 feet.
Monsey Boulevard the site of the accident has streetlights which were operational at the time of the accident.
Onlookers gathered at the Satmar shul as Ramapo police continued investigating the accident scene, which was roped off by yellow police tape. Cohen was estimated to be in his early to mid seventies.
Ramapo police refused to comment on the ongoing investigation, saying that details would be officially released sometime early this morning.
Jon Stewart, self-hating Jewish comedian, bad mouths Israel
His real name is Leibowits but hates his own Jewish name and background.
The "yukel" asks, "Where are the Gazans, supposed to run?"
He was asking this question, because the IDF dropped leaflets to the Gazans to warn them to evacuate their homes, before the IDF comes in to clean the terrorists out!
My remark to Stewart
"We don't care where the Gazans run"
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Did R' Yoel Teitelbaum, 1st Satmar Rebbi perpetuate his anti-Zionist views because of his big mistake?
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| George Mandel-Mantello greets the Satmar Rebbe, Joel Teitelbaum, when he arrives in Switzerland on the Kasztner transport from Bergen-Belsen.(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Enrico Mandel-Mantello) |
From Tablet Magazine
[hat tip: mo]
The Satmar Rebbe and the Destruction of Hungarian Jewry: Part 1
The terrible cost of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum’s life and actions during the Holocaust, and his later extremism
In her book Be-Seter Ha-Madrega (In the Covert of the Cliff), Haredi Holocaust historian Esther Farbstein writes, “Rabbi Yoel (Yoelish) of Satmar was unquestionably chief among leaders [of Haredi Jews in Hungary].” If Farbstein is correct in her claim, Rabbi Yoel’s conduct before, during, and after the Holocaust may explain, albeit only partially, the extraordinary devastation suffered by the Hungarian Orthodox community, which had regarded him as “chief among leaders.”The first section of this article describes Rabbi Yoel’s life and actions during the Holocaust, both on personal and public levels, as reflected in his writings, the contemporary press, memoirs written by his Hasidim, and archival sources.
In many cases, researchers note that Rabbi Yoel’s position regarding the Holocaust was extreme and exceptional compared to views held by other rabbis and spokespeople of the Haredi community. Yet the worldview he cultivated, coupled with his theological explanations of the Holocaust and its mystical meaning, drew a growing number of followers, in whose eyes he was the last remnant of a dying ideology. His anti-Zionist worldview, representing as it did to them the Eastern European “Old Home,” expunged his failures during the Holocaust.
As his public stature grew, criticism from within diminished, while criticism from without was disregarded and dismissed as Zionist defamation.
Any fair examination of the historical record shows that Rabbi Yoel’s contribution to assisting Jewish refugees and to the rescue of Transylvanian Haredi Jews was negligible.
Prior to the Holocaust, he ignored the dangers threatening the Jews of Transylvania and failed to engage in the preparation of rescue and aid plans.
Although he became privy to reports on the extermination of the Jewish communities in Poland, given his position as a member of the Central Bureau and through his connections with the authorities, he refrained from calling on his followers to save or prepare themselves.
On the contrary, he warned any would-be immigrants to Palestine or other countries that they were in danger of severely harming their Haredi way of life.
Moreover, he refrained from cooperating with the Zionist—and even with the Haredi—leadership in addressing current issues or preparing for the impending threat and even opposed measures of a religious nature, such as prayer and fast days, which he feared would be perceived as a protest against the authorities.
When the danger of war became real and immediate, Rabbi Yoel did his best to equip himself and his closest circle with certificates or visas that would facilitate their escape to Palestine or the United States. At the same time, he thwarted all attempts at cooperation between the heads of the Orthodox communities and the Zionist organizations, which could have helped to rescue them. He failed to set a personal example and rejected his associates’ advice to prepare a hiding place or attempt to cross the border to Romania. Had he done so, some of his Hasidim may have done the same and thus survived.
When put to the test, he chose to save himself clandestinely after his own congregation had already been incarcerated in ghettos and to abandon his followers in the time of their harshest adversity. His conduct stands in stark contrast to that of other rabbis in his vicinity, many of whom rejected pleas to save themselves and accompanied their congregations to the transport trains, the extermination camps, and in some cases even into the gas chambers.
***
Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum (1887–1979) was the youngest son of Rabbi Hananya Yom-Tov Lipa Teitelbaum (1836–1904), chief rabbi of Sighet (Sighetul Marmaţiei, Máramarossziget), the seat of Maramures county in Hungary and rebbe of a large Hasidic court.
From a young age, he became known for his intellectual capacity, but the child Yoel was not destined to succeed his father as leader of the Hasidic movement, head of the yeshiva (rabbinical seminary), and chief rabbi of Sighet because these posts were designated for his elder brother.
Shortly after Rabbi Yoel’s marriage at the age of 17, his father died. In order to ensure that he would not interfere with the smooth transfer of power to his older brother, the destitute Rabbi Yoel was obliged to leave Sighet, settling in the nearby town of Satmar (Satu Mare). From then on, he worked persistently and determinedly to carve out a place for himself as a leader in the Hasidic community. Over the years, he became known for his relentlessly ambitious personality and his ultra-conservative, anti-modern and anti-Zionist views, which led him to fiercely oppose even the activities of the pan-Haredi Agudath Israel movement.
In 1934, Rabbi Yoel was appointed chief rabbi of Satmar, Romania. This appointment was preceded by six years of bitter public wrangling with adversaries who sought to prevent the appointment of the zealous rabbi.
In 1937, following numerous failed attempts, Rabbi Yoel achieved his ultimate goal and was appointed to the executive committee of the Central Bureau of the Orthodox Communities in Transylvania, the body that managed and oversaw the lives of some 150,000 observant and Haredi Jews. With this appointment, Rabbi Yoel fulfilled his lifelong ambition to become the chief rabbi of a major community, head of a yeshiva, and a rebbe of a Hasidic dynasty, thus becoming a key figure with considerable influence over the Haredi Jewry of Transylvania. These achievements, however, were overshadowed by news of the growing power of the Nazi regime in Germany.
The year 1933 witnessed restrictive measures that curtailed the ability of Romanian Jews to engage in the economy, government, and public education systems. In Satmar, these measures were reflected in anti-Semitic announcements published in the local press. By December, the numerus clausus was put into effect, and the entire Jewish press was placed under censorship. In 1937, the anti-Semitic propaganda intensified, and the Jewish public was subjected to additional restrictive measures, including restrictions on Zionist activity, a reduction of funds allocated to religious needs, and a curtailment of lawyers’ professional activities.
New anti-Semitic parties took part in the elections held that year, while the Jewish party failed to win even a single seat in parliament. The elected government, headed by Octavian Goga (1881–1938), was blatantly anti-Semitic, and during its 40 days in power, which ended in February 1938, it managed to pass a large number of anti-Jewish decrees and measures.
The most drastic of those was the requirement to review citizenship documents of Jews in the regions annexed to Romania after World War I, thus putting anyone who failed to prove the authenticity of said documents under threat of deportation.
These measures, which violated the treaties protecting the rights of minorities, triggered an incensed international reaction and drove King Carol II of Romania to overthrow the government and proclaim himself ruler of Romania. Yet despite the king’s declarations, most of the restrictive measures against Jews remained in place.
In spite of the numerous reports of anti-Semitic occurrences in Germany and Poland, the Central Bureau, of which Rabbi Yoel was a prominent leader, took no actions to prepare for the imminent threat to Romanian Jewry. Moreover, the Bureau did nothing to try to revoke the requirement to prove Romanian citizenship, nor did it offer aid and relief to the Polish refugees. The same passive policy was adopted by several other organizations, such as the Jewish Party and the Union of Romanian Jews (Uniunea Evreilor Români).
Other organizations, by contrast, undertook initiatives such as the formation of Jewish Self-Defense Brigades and a relief network for refugees, established by the Bureau of the Neolog Communities. (The Reform Movement in Hungary was called Neology.) Despite the prohibition and the risk involved, the Zionist youth movements maintained their activities, prepared for underground action, and at the same time trained pioneers for emigration to Palestine.
When the Goga government came to power in the late 1937, Rabbi Yoel decided to travel to Czechoslovakia. Fearing he may try to escape, leaders of his own community begged him not to abandon them at a time of crisis.
In response, he argued that a tzadik could only perform his work in safety and, ignoring their pleas, departed as scheduled.
A few weeks later, when the king dissolved the government, Rabbi Yoel returned to Satmar, and in his next sermon he justified having left his community. Although aware of the gravity of the situation, in his speech he offered no practical solutions and merely called upon his followers to put their trust in divine deliverance.
Through his involvement in rescue efforts and his connections with the Jewish leadership in Budapest, Rabbi Yoel was well aware of the danger to European Jewry in general and to the Hungarian Jews in particular. Nevertheless, he held that any initiative to revoke the anti-Jewish measures or protest against them was doomed to fail and could even exacerbate the situation. Thus, for instance, although aware of the violent activities initiated by the Romanian student organizations, some of which he experienced firsthand, he objected to the formation of the Jewish defense brigades.
Following the forming of Goga’s government and the harsh measures it passed, Rabbi Yoel rejected the suggestion of Rabbi Ya’akov Elimelech Panet (1899–1944) from Dès that the two rabbis consult with each other and collaborate on a joint response. He also rejected the Central Bureau’s initiative to set a Ta’anit (a day of fast), on Rosh Hodesh (the beginning of the new Hebrew month) of Adar Aleph (February 1939) to pray for the lifting of the harsh measures. He decreed that in Satmar, the fast day would be held two weeks later, on Ta’anit Esther Haqatan (the little Fast of Esther), so as not to be perceived as a protest against the authorities.
By the eve of the Jewish New Year (October 1939), the situation had become graver, and numerous refugees had arrived in the town. In his holiday sermon, Rabbi Yoel mentioned the dire circumstances of the Jewish communities in Poland, but offered his audience no practical solutions other than strict observance of the mitzvot. His own yeshiva was not spared the ravages of the worsening anti-Semitism and was attacked by Romanian soldiers.
In his January 1940 sermon, Rabbi Yoel once again addressed the severity of the circumstances, although there, too, he merely reiterated his calls for prayer and repentance. In August of the same year, the northern part of Transylvania was annexed to Hungary. Although at first, the Jews welcomed the return to the fold of the “Old Homeland,” it soon became apparent that the anti-Jewish measures in Hungary were even harsher than those in Romania.
Later that year Rabbi Yoel helped prevent the deportation of a number of rabbis who did not possess the required citizenship documents. He approved the Central Bureau’s collaboration with the Hungarian Jewish Aid Bureau (Magyar Izraeliták Pártfogó Irodája), which provided aid to Jewish war refugees, and encouraged fundraising in Satmar. He furthermore permitted the use of the funds of the Transylvanian branch of Kolel Shomrei Ha-Homot (the charity fund for Hungarian Orthodox settlers in Palestine), which he headed, as due to the war they could not be transferred to Palestine.
Since its establishment in the early twentieth century, the Central Bureau of Hungary avoided joining Agudath Israel. Following Transylvania’s annexation to Hungary, Agudath Israel exerted increasing pressure on the Bureau to join it, claiming that the joint movement would find it easier to raise funds for Hungarian Jews in the United States. Some of the rabbis in the Bureau, which now included representatives of the regions annexed to Hungary during the war, among them Rabbi Yoel, opposed any change to the historical ban. Several branches of the movement, which were established despite the objections of these rabbis, subsequently engaged in the rescue of many Haredi Jews, including Rabbi Yoel himself.
When the danger became graver, Rabbi Yoel consented to cooperate with some of the Agudah’s officials, and in particular with the head of the Orthodox congregation in Budapest, Philipp (also known as Fülöp or Pinchas) Von Freudiger (1900–1976). The cooperation between the organizations in aiding the refugees drew the Ha-Mizrahi (religious-Zionist) movement and the Haredi leadership in Budapest closer.
Ha-Mizrahi leaders suggested that Haredi Jews participate in the activities of the Zionist national funds and in return agreed that the religious organizations would coordinate their activities, increase the quota of certificates allocated to religious Jews, and facilitate their escape from the imminent threat of war. Following two meetings in late 1941, Rabbi Yoel ultimately decided to reject the proposed cooperation.
Rabbi Yoel helped raise funds to rescue the Jews of the Austrian region of Burgenland, who had been deported in 1943 to the Slovakian periphery. He also joined the attempts to rescue Rabbi Elhanan (Hone) Halberstam (1884–1942) of Koloshitz and Rabbi Yesh’aya Halberstam (1864–1943) of Czchów, who had been incarcerated in the Bochnia ghetto together with some 20 of their relatives. These efforts were jointly initiated by Haim Israel Eiss (1876–1943) and Ya’akov Griffel (1901–1961), representatives of the Rescue Committee (Vaad Ha-Hatsala) formed by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada (henceforth, “the Rescue Committee”) in Zurich and Istanbul, respectively.
That same year, Rabbi Yoel traveled to Budapest to attend a rabbinical gathering held to raise funds for an Orthodox aid organization for refugees. Since all the funds entrusted to Rabbi Yoel reached their destination, Eiss suggested that Rabbi Yoel establish an independent rescue organization. Griffel, too, gave his blessing and recommended that the newly formed organization also serve to transfer Jewish Agency funds to its activists throughout Hungary. Although the Jewish Agency accepted the proposal, it made its approval conditional on a signed contract with Rabbi Yoel. The rabbi’s refusal put an end to the scheme.
It was during this period that some 40 rabbis signed a memorandum by which Haredi Jews would be integrated into the Zionist organizations operating networks assisting in the escape and concealment of Jews.
When Rabbi Yoel found out about this, he appealed to the Central Bureau in Budapest, which demanded a nullification of the agreement.
***
During the war years Rabbi Yoel made several attempts to flee from danger. In September 1939, he applied for a tourist visa to visit Palestine for a few months, but his application was rejected. Rumors of his impending trip persisted during the following years. In 1942, Rabbi Yoel was offered a spot on a list of Zionist rabbis for whom Ha-Mizrahi would obtain certificates that would enable them to immigrate to Palestine, yet he refused. In late 1943, he sent his daughter Royze to Budapest to obtain certificates for himself and his family, but her mission failed. A short while later he traveled to Budapest to try and obtain certificates by himself. Having failed, he sought the help of Joseph Eiss, son of Haim Israel Eiss from Switzerland. Eiss approached Griffel, and the certificate was delivered to the offices of the Jewish Agency in Budapest.
Although issued by the British authorities, these certificates required the approval of the Zionist organizations, which were reluctant to provide them to anti-Zionist rabbis. Therefore, approval of Rabbi Yoel’s certificate was made conditional on his signing a document that recognized the authority of the Zionist organizations in Palestine and renounced the activity of Ha-Edah Ha-Haredit (the ultra-Orthodox community) in Jerusalem, which he refused to do.
Having failed in this attempt, he requested the help of Gyula Weiss, a Zionist and one of the leaders of the Neolog congregation in Cluj (Cluj-Napoca, Kolozsvár, Klausenburg). Weiss replied that in view of Rabbi Yoel’s recent anti-Zionist sermon in Oradea, he was unable to provide him with a certificate. He did, however, provide certificates for Rabbi Yoel’s daughter and son-in-law, who confirmed their repudiation of the rabbi’s anti-Zionist stance.
At the same time, his followers failed to obtain a visa for him to enter the United States. Rabbi Yoel’s attempts to leave Hungary were part of a broader general phenomenon, which attracted criticism, even then, of rabbis and other public figures fleeing the country.
On the other hand, there were many other rabbis, among them Rabbi Yoel’s own relatives, who refused to save themselves and to abandon their congregations to fate.
Rumors of the fate of Poland’s Jewry reached Satmar in 1943, and many Jews began to prepare by building concealed hideouts and locating people who would agree to hide them in return for payment. Offered these alternatives, Rabbi Yoel rejected both.
The principal route of escape for the Jews in northern Transylvania, then under Hungarian rule, was by crossing the border into Romania. The Zionist movements made preparations in advance to use this route and were thus able to save the lives of more than 10,000 Jews. In March 1944, a group of Hasidim from Oradea dispatched a vehicle to collect Rabbi Yoel so that he could join them in crossing the border. When he refused, the plan was aborted, dooming the entire group.
On March 19, 1944, the Nazis occupied Hungary, and shortly thereafter Adolf Eichmann began implementing the Final Solution plan for Hungary’s hundreds of thousands of Jews.
On April 27, the Jews of Satmar were given three days to move into a ghetto. Subsequently, the son of Rabbi Eliezer Fisch (1880–1944) from Bixad, a close friend of Rabbi Yoel’s, offered to smuggle Rabbi Yoel to Cluj, the place of residence of businessman Yirmiyahu Tessler, one of the leaders of the Hasidic congregation. Joseph Meir Glick, Tessler’s brother-in-law and a resident of Satmar, was also made privy to the scheme. As travel on intercity roads was forbidden to Jews, it was suggested that they travel by train using forged documents and gentiles’ clothing. Joseph Meir’s brother, sent as a vanguard, arrived safely in Cluj, thus proving that the plan was feasible. Refusing to shave off his beard and pass himself off as a gentile, Rabbi Yoel rejected this option as well.
As the date set for the move to the ghetto drew nearer, Rabbi Yoel’s closest associates sought a safer way to smuggle him out. Joseph Meir bribed two junior officers, drivers of a Red Cross ambulance, who agreed to drive Jews to Cluj in return for a handsome sum. Upon receiving the news that the first group of passengers had arrived safely at its destination and was about to cross the border, Rabbi Yoel consented to the escape plan.
The travelers included Rabbi Yoel, his wife, his personal assistant Joseph Dov Ashkenazi, his friend Rabbi Eliezer Fisch and his family, and several wealthy families who paid most of the costs.
On the appointed night, May 3, 1944, Rabbi Yoel, Rabbi Fisch and their families boarded the ambulance followed by other passengers, some of whom were not on the original list. The vehicle set out for Cluj, where the passengers were to be smuggled under cover of darkness to the town of Turda, on the Romanian side of the border.
Amid the chaos of the departure, Joseph Meir, the only person who knew the way to Tessler’s house, was left behind. When his absence was noticed, it was too late to turn back, and when they arrived in Cluj in the middle of the night, the passengers were unable to locate Tessler’s home. At dawn, the drivers ordered the passengers to disembark and left them to wander the streets, trying to locate Jewish homes. Suspected of being local Jews attempting to escape before incarceration in the ghetto, they were soon arrested by the police. When Tessler found out about their arrest he hired a lawyer, but to no avail, as the next day Rabbi Yoel and his entourage were sent to the ghetto.
Conditions in the Cluj ghetto, which was located in the courtyard of a brick factory, were harsh.
Despite the kosher kitchen, Rabbi Yoel asked that his food be prepared in separate vessels. He prayed in a separate minyan and refused to serve as cantor in the makeshift synagogue. He took care not to be seen in public and only conversed with a close circle of followers from the local Hasidic congregation.
During his stay in the ghetto, few of its residents were made aware of his presence, and it seems that he never approached any other rabbis, not even Rabbi Akiva Glasner (1886–1956), Cluj’s chief rabbi.
In view of the harsh living conditions, Rabbi Yoel asked his followers to try to transfer him to Budapest or back to the ghetto of Satmar, where Jews were housed in residential buildings, but they were unable to fulfill his requests.
Upon learning of his incarceration, his close associates managed to obtain a certificate for him, but by then it could no longer be used. The first transports to Auschwitz left on May 25, 1944, a few weeks after the rabbi’s incarceration in the ghetto.
The ghetto’s inmates included several Cluj residents who had been leaders of the Jewish community in Transylvania, among them Dr. Theodor Fischer, a Jewish Party representative in the Romanian Parliament; Dr. Joseph Fischer (unrelated), head of the Neolog congregation and president of the Jewish Party in Transylvania; and Hilel Danzig, son of the rabbi of the modern congregation in Sighet. Another member of this circle was Israel (also known as Rudolf or Rezső) Kasztner, a leader of the Zionist movement and a member of the Budapest Relief and Rescue Committee (Budapesti Segélyező és Mentőbizottság). Kasztner, Dr. Joseph Fischer’s son-in-law, a resident of Budapest, and a member of the Jewish Council, was negotiating a deal with German officials whereby a group of Jews would be put on a special train and taken to a country beyond the boundaries of Nazi occupation in exchange for a hefty bribe.
Toward the finalization of the deal, a list of the passengers, including some 300 inmates of the Cluj ghetto, was compiled, and Rabbi Yoel was offered a spot on the train together with his wife and his assistant, Joseph Ashkenazi. Overcoming his misgivings about the plan and the fact that the train would be under the supervision of Zionists, Rabbi Yoel decided to embark on the journey. He reached this decision with the knowledge that no other rabbis, including his friend Rabbi Eliezer Fisch, would be considered for the list, nor would the rest of his Satmar entourage.
On Friday, June 9, 1944, after the ghetto’s entire population had been transported to Poland, a train carrying 388 Jews left Cluj and arrived at its first stop, in Budapest.
***
Arriving in Budapest on Friday evening, the passengers were taken to a nearby compound, where over 1,000 other people were already waiting to board the train. Although observant passengers received food prepared in the kitchen of one of Budapest’s kosher hotels, Rabbi Yoel’s meals were delivered from the kitchen of Haim Roth, a wealthy member of the Orthodox congregation. During the waiting period, fearing what was in store, Rabbi Yoel slept with his shoes on, ready to flee at a moment’s notice. He was still deliberating about whether to board the train or remain in Budapest, but Freudiger and Roth, leaders of the Orthodox community, convinced him to travel on. They also made sure that several rabbis who were his colleagues at the Central Bureau, such as Jonathan Steiff (1877–1958), rabbi of the Orthodox congregation in Budapest, and Rabbi Shlomo Zvi Strasser (1863–1953) of Debrecen, were also added to the list of passengers.On Friday, June 30, 1944, once negotiations with the Germans had been concluded, the passengers boarded a freight train that did not leave Budapest until the following day. The plan was for the train to cross the border; continue on its way to Hanover, Germany; and then proceed to Spain via Western Europe. The first mishap occurred within a few hours, at a stop in the border town of Mosonmagyaróvár. The transport’s directors were informed that by order of the Gestapo, the train was to be diverted to Poland. Realizing the significance of the change, the anxious passengers dispatched two men to Budapest to seek help. When told of the change, Freudiger and Roth approached Kasztner, who met with Eichmann. The latter explained that this was a mistake and demanded more money. After several days of negotiations and following the payment of additional funds, some of which were raised specifically for the rescue of Rabbi Yoel, the train continued on its journey.
At the next stop, Bratislava in Slovakia, the town rabbi, Michael Dov Weissmandel (1903–1957), bribed the station workers to delay trains carrying Jews, so that food and drink could be provided for them. He also wrote to the United States and other countries requesting international supervision to ensure the train’s safe arrival.
On Thursday, July 6, 1944, the train left Bratislava for Vienna and then on to Linz. The passengers were able to disembark in Linz, where they bathed and washed their clothes. Throughout the journey, Rabbi Yoel dressed plainly, covered his bearded face with a kerchief and sat in a corner of the last car, hidden from view behind cloth sheets that hung from the ceiling. He shunned the company of the other passengers, including rabbis, and some of the passengers who knew him were impressed by his humility.
On Sunday, July 9, 1944, about a month after its departure from Cluj, the transport arrived at Bergen-Belsen, then a transit camp for Jewish and non-Jewish foreign nationals. Conditions in the camp were relatively comfortable because the detainees were to be exchanged for Germans from other countries or for collaborators and spies.
The “Hungarian Group” was held in a special section, in better conditions than those of other groups. Its members were allowed to keep their personal belongings and enjoyed relative freedom. Although the group included quite a number of notable figures, Rabbi Yoel was given special consideration. The group’s physician exempted him from roll calls, and volunteers performed the tasks imposed on him.
Rabbi Yoel refrained from associating with the other rabbis and spoke only to Rabbi Jonathan Steiff, with whom he studied Torah and Talmud. He did not pray in the camp’s makeshift synagogue, and only on the Sabbath did he join a minyan to hear the Torah reading. During his stay in the camp, he never shaved and refused to consume products such as medicines, tinned sardines, and condensed milk, fearing they may not be in adherence to Jewish dietary laws. Despite the difficult circumstances, he remained as strict as ever and even confronted one of the rabbis and accused him of being overly lenient in his rulings.
Negotiations regarding the release of the detainees dragged on, as fundraising efforts in Hungary were stalled due to the war, inner conflicts among the rescue organizations, particularly in Switzerland, and delays in approving the transfer of funds raised in the United States to Germany. Such approval was required under the regulations of the British and American treasuries, which prohibited the transfer of funds to countries with which they were at war.
About two months after the train’s arrival at Bergen-Belsen, a group of 318 passengers was released. When it was discovered that Rabbi Yoel was not among them, rescue activists in Switzerland asked Kasztner to make sure that he be included in the second group to be released.
At the same time, another unusable certificate was obtained for him, and rescue organizations in Switzerland appealed to Orthodox organizations in the United States on his behalf. George Mantello (1901–1992), the consul of El Salvador in Geneva, used his connections with Nazi officer Kurt Trumpi to send Rabbi Yoel medicine and other necessities.ation of the Jewish defense brigades.
On Dec. 3, 1944, the remaining passengers were released and transported by train to Bregenz, on the Swiss border. With the help of Kasztner and SS officer Herman Krumey, the final arrangements were made, and the passengers were transferred to another train, which crossed the Swiss border. Ultimately, the Swiss authorities agreed to accept the survivors and grant them refugee status, while restricting their place of residence and length of stay. The train stopped first at St. Gallen, where it was met by representatives of the various rescue organizations operating in Switzerland, who immediately recognized Rabbi Yoel’s bearded visage.
The chief rabbi of the Orthodox congregation in Zurich, Rabbi Mordechai Ya’akov Breisch (1895–1976), himself a Holocaust survivor, was the first to shake his hand and present him with a note (Kvitel in Yiddish) containing a request for a blessing, thereby symbolically restoring his status as a Hasidic rebbe.
News of the group’s release reached Jerusalem, where the rabbi’s daughter and son-in-law had settled after escaping Hungary across the Romanian border. The event was likewise publicized in the American Jewish press, where Rabbi Yoel’s name figured prominently. During the ensuing weeks, the story of his rescue spread to liberated Europe, and in Bucharest local rabbis held a thanksgiving meal in honor of the occasion.
Upon his arrival in Switzerland, Rabbi Yoel was accorded preferential treatment by the authorities. Since the train arrived in St. Gallen on a Friday, he was permitted to spend the Sabbath with a Jewish family, where he was provided with kosher food and elegant clothing while the rest of the group traveled on to the town of Caux.
That Sunday, Rabbi Yoel traveled to Caux, but when he reached Montreux, he asked to stop there so that he could light the Hanukkah candles at the appointed time and receive students from the local yeshiva who came to meet him.
The following day Rabbi Yoel rejoined the other passengers, but Mantello and Fischer intervened on his behalf, and he was permitted to stay with Moshe Gross in Geneva. By Passover, Rabbi Yoel had already rented his own apartment in Geneva, paid for with money raised by his followers in the United States. By then, he was answering queries on halakha, attending family events, and had visited the Montreux yeshiva and given a lesson to its students. On the festival of Shavu’ot, his last holiday in Switzerland, several dozens of guests attended the holiday service Rabbi Yoel led in his apartment.
Montello arranged for the publication of the rescue train affair in the Swiss press, with Rabbi Yoel’s name featured prominently. The rabbi subsequently met with the Swiss officials processing the refugees and became acquainted with the heads of local government. As he could speak neither any of the languages spoken in Switzerland nor English, a Jewish student assisted him, serving as his interpreter and conducting phone calls for him. Rabbi Yoel also met with other refugee rabbis, including Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandel, who complained bitterly about the ineffectiveness of the various Jewish rescue organizations, as well as with American government representatives, to whom he testified about conditions in the Bergen-Belsen camp.
Rabbi Yoel’s rescue efforts in Switzerland focused on tracking down Jewish children placed for adoption with Christian families and reclaiming them so they could be brought up as Haredim. To this end, he appealed to the Rescue Committee in the United States for help and tried to convince Swiss Haredi families to adopt these children.
He later joined Rabbi Tuvia Lewinstein (1863–1953), chief rabbi of the Adas Jeschurun congregation in Zurich, in raising funds for the establishment of a children’s home. Impressed by this vigorous activity, representatives of Agudath Israel in Switzerland suggested that he travel to the United States to promote fundraising for the Agudah. I
t soon became apparent, however, that Rabbi Yoel’s distaste for non-Haredi organizations impeded his participation in the rescue operations. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s representative was dismayed by his intention to bring up the children as Haredim, while Agudath Israel’s representatives were displeased by his unwillingness to cooperate with them. Consequently, Rabbi Yoel’s main rescue goal, the establishment of an independent home for Haredi children, came to nothing.
Rabbi Yoel tried to provide aid to adult refugees and to his Hasidim in the Displaced Persons (DP) camps in Germany as well, yet there too his problematic relations with the other organizations hampered his efforts to help even his own relatives and acquaintances. He also participated in fundraising efforts to supply aid to the Romanian Jews, and on this occasion he cooperated, remarkably, with the Zionist activists he had met on the Kasztner train.
When the war ended and the full scale of the destruction of Eastern European Jewry and the Jewish orthodox world, its rabbis, and institutions was revealed, doubt was cast on the entire future of the Haredi way of life.
Like other rabbis, Rabbi Yoel believed that Zionism was bound to grow stronger and restrict Haredi Jewry, especially after the establishment of the state of Israel, which now seemed closer than ever. On the other hand, he deemed life in the United States, or any of the other Diaspora communities, unsuitable for Haredi Jews.
At the end of the war, northern Transylvania had been returned to Romanian rule, and survivors left the DP camps and hiding places and returned to their former homes.
Among the returnees were rabbis such as Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum (1914–2006), Rabbi Yoel’s nephew, who sought to return to his congregation in Zenta, Yugoslavia. However, upon learning that his brother Rabbi Zalman Leib (1912–1944), former Rabbi of Sighet, had died in the Holocaust, he decided to take his place and restore religious life in that town.
Other rabbis re-established the Agudath Israel movement in Romania and founded the Orthodox Central Bureau in Cluj. Numerous survivors settled in Satmar, and in just a short period their numbers reached several thousands. Within a few months several synagogues re-opened, and the orphanage, the Jewish hospital, Hevra Kadisha (Jewish burial society), and the rabbinical court were reinstated. Simultaneously, a Hasidic congregation was established, and many of its members expected Rabbi Yoel to return and revive Hasidic life in the town.
Thus, although Rabbi Yoel may well have concluded that Romania was the only place in which the traditional Haredi way of life could be revived, he chose to remain in the safety of Switzerland until it was time to leave Europe.
His assertion that he was unable to return to Romania is unconvincing. He was, after all, a well-known public figure and a citizen of Romania. In fact, he had used his position and connections to request an extension of his stay in Switzerland. Presumably, had he wished to do so, he could have returned to Satmar, founded a Hasidic community, and re-established his Hasidic court.
Likewise, Rabbi Yoel refrained from joining rescue efforts in the DP camps, where other rabbis were engaged in restoring survivors’ religious life and reinforcing their faith in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
When his sojourn in Switzerland came to an end, Rabbi Yoel considered emigrating to the United States or to Palestine. Eventually, he decided to settle in Jerusalem, where he attempted to establish a Hasidic court.
Due to his extremist views and failure to understand post-Holocaust intra-Haredi politics, his entire venture came to naught, and he and his institutions became bankrupt.
Within a year, Rabbi Yoel packed his meager belongings and sailed, humiliated and penniless, to the United States.
The publication of this two-part article is taking place 70 years after the arrival of the Kasztner train at Bergen-Belsen on July 9, 1944.
Read part two of ‘The Satmar Rebbe’ tomorrow.
Menachem Keren-Kratz, a researcher of Hungarian Orthodoxy and of contemporary Haredi society in the State of Israel, is the author of Maramaros-Sziget: Extreme Orthodoxy and Secular Jewish Culture at the Foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.
Crazed Jewish American boy, for Palestine .....
Why is his political position different than Satmar?
The Blogger "The Partial View" attacks other Bloggers?
There is a blogger that calls himself "The Partial View"
In a July 14 post, he attacks other bloggers, who voice their opinion on Jewish matters. He only wants his opinon heard.
So I decided to copy and paste his article; my response is in red!
The interlopers- Churban of the internet part II
(DIN: "Churban of the Internet?" Aren't you on the Internet?)
A blogger from Chicago, a Rabbi out in the west coast, a open orthodoxy activist, would have never stuck their nose in matters and issues that are not local to them.
(DIN: Excuse me, haven't you ever heard of "Letters to the editor?" Jews always, from when Newspapers were invented wrote letters to the editor, with their own opinions, way before the Internet. They also wrote articles in The Jewish Press, The Jewish Observer, The Yated, the Hamodia etc etc
With your logic, why is it ok for R' Chaim Kanievsky and R' Shteinman to meddle in issues that "are not local to them?")
With your logic, why is it ok for R' Chaim Kanievsky and R' Shteinman to meddle in issues that "are not local to them?")
The Internet has deleted the word "local" out of the dictionary. Prior to the web, it was not found that an outsider would give his deah or say opinion on a matter or a minhag that does not pertain to him.
(DIN: What about the Ramah, who wrote the "Hagah" on the mechaber of the Shulchan Aruch.... didn't he give his opinion on a "minhag that didn't pertain to him?")
If one had a sichsuch with someone or if there was a community split over an issue, the parties involved were familiar with each other. You always knew who you were dealing with.
(DIN: I guess you never read Shaaleh U'Tshuvois" they were always dealing with "parties" that they were not involved with.)
That has changed with the interloping bloggers and clueless activists patrolling the world wide web for any issue they hashkaficaly oppose. Its long reached a point where you do not have to read their posts to know what type of silliness they are going to write they are so predictable.
(DIN: What exactly is "silly?"
That they wrote about a sexual molester who molested countless children in Lakewood, and then the Roshei Yeshivas of BMG threw out the father of the victim?
Or, that Bloggers commented on the Satmar Rebbe's cruel words about the parents of the murdered teens?
Maybe, they shouldn't have commented about Yisrael Weingaten who raped his own daughter, maybe they shouldn't have commented on Weberman who raped countless girls?
Or are you opposed to the "clueless activists" that are writing about the ungratefulness of the Yeshivas to their benefactors, the State of Israel?
Is reporting that Yeshivah boys are beating up frum soldiers an issue that you oppose "hashkafically"?)
The tzaros caused by these outsiders meddling on issues they know nothing about is beyond comprehension.
(DIN: What are the "tzaros" that these "outsiders" are causing?
Exposing the truth?)
A recent example, a Chovevei Torah activist penned a essay about the current situation with East Ramapo school district. His piece was riddled with factual errors and misrepresentations, he has been proven to know absolutely nothing about the goings on. He was ripped apart on the air by the current school Board members of the district. Yet the damage was done. All it did was fan the flames and make more tzaros for those looking to fix a broken system.
Same with the frum bloggers who look for any news article about yidden which in their small mind they cant understand and they put in their two cents.
(DIN:I want to ask you a dumb question? So who are the people that have large minds, that understand and would make you happy when they "put their two cents in?"
The Yated, The Hamodia, Ami magazine, Mishpacha? Der Yid, Der Blatt, Der Zeitung?
Aren't the people who write the articles, just people who write their own opinions? What makes their opinion more truthful than the bloggers?)
What gives a Modern orthodox blogger from Chicago or Rabbi with a small shul on the beach, the right to butt in on an issue that does not pertain to their own kehilla.
(DIN: Why not?
Didn't you learn in you Yeshivishe Yeshivah, "Kol Yisroel Areivim Zeh L'zeh"?
Every Jew is responsible for an other Jew even if he lives in Timbaktoo, certainly from Chicago!
And what's your problem with the "modern?" They wern't by Har Sinai? Only guys with 5" inch Brims, fancy eyeglass frames, sideburns and pleated pants stood there?
What do you mean "that does not pertain to their own kehilla?
With that twisted logic, we dont need the Rambam, and the Shulchan Aruch that were written for the Sefardim!
What gives people a right to question the minhagim and derech of Satmar or Lakewood or any chasidus that only pertains to these kehillos who follow their leaders.
(DIN: What gives Satmar the right to mussar the parents of the murdered teens, while they were sitting shiva? They were not from his "Kehillah!"
Every single Jew has a right to question, yes, the minhagim and the Derech of any one they wish.
I cannot question Satmar's derech of torturing the Kloizenberger Rebbe when the latter lived in williamsburg?
I cannot question the derech of Satmar beating up innocent Lubavitchers that came to Williamsburg to be samaich the souls of the Holocaust survivors, on Yom Tov?
I cannot question Lakewood, that started a false Chassidus that has a flase derech of not working for a living?)
The churban of these interlopers and yentas has created a huge chilul hashem by feeding their stories to the national media who in turn take the opportunity to make light or make fun of Frum yidden make fun of the Torah. Its time for these ignorant interlopers to go back to their natural habitat.
(DIN:If that's the case, what are you doing on the internet?)
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Meisels removed from his Seminaries! UPDATED
by Harry Marylis
Rabbi Elimelech Meisels is a tremendous Talmid Chochom, a co-author of Hashkafic works, and stemming from a distinguished family. He is an incredible Mechanech. Thousands of girls can testify to that. He has the respect and admiration of many thousands of former students and their parents for being there for their daughters. He has helped girls get through many things and actually saved lives. Where would they be today if not for him? He is a special man who helped Klal Yisroel in countless ways.
This is the problem with a serial sex offender like Meisels. They are often very accomplished and successful individuals that inspire many followers with their charisma. And yet he is a sexual predator who preys on the vulnerable. He knows how to ‘groom’ his victims. Most of whom are in their late teens. How talented this individual is. And how sick. Yes, it is unfortunately possible to be a talented Mechanech who has saved many lives and at the same time be a callous sexual predator that can ruin many others lives – all for his own personal sexual gratification.
It is difficult to understand how it is possible for someone like this to have been preying on the vulnerable for so long. At the same time, it’s easy to see how he can get away with it. The accolades in the first paragraph are based on comments many of his former students made defending him on Yerachmiel Lopin’s blog. He is a beloved figure. For the many he helped –which is no doubt the majority, he is an icon. It is therefore impossible to believe someone like this could ever do anything so egregiously wrong. Not only is he a great Mechanech - he is also a happily married man. How could anyone dare say anything so negative about him?
It is this kind of thinking that a motivates the defenders of people like Nechemya Weberman… or Baruch Lanner. It is also the kind of thinking that causes rabbis of good will to say that abuse must be first reported to them before going to the police. The thinking is that people with such great reputations and so many accomplishments cannot possibly have done what they have been accused of doing. They must be given the benefit of the doubt. Allowing the police to get involved would instantly ruin the man’s reputation. So of course the rabbis must be consulted… God forbid that this man, his wife, and children suffer needlessly at the hands of a false accuser. That’s what good reputations will do for the predator. Which of course allows them to continue their clandestine behavior while continuing to behave in an exemplary manner in public.
But at least in this case, justice seems to have prevailed so far. Victims of this guy have come forward and the rabbis believed them. A letter was published by the special Beis Din in Chicago created for exactly this purpose. Here it is their statement in its entirety:
The Special Beis Din of Chicago has convened to address allegations of improper conduct, including unwanted physical contact of a sexual nature, between Elimelech Meisels and students of the following seminaries with which he is affiliated: Pnimim, Binas Beis Yaakov, Chedvas Beis Yaakov, and Keser Chaya.
Based on the testimony and documents received by the Beis Din, including testimony by the claimants and by Elimelech Meiels, the Beis Din believes that students in these seminaries are at risk of harm and it does not recommend that prospective students attend these seminaries at this time.
Because these seminaries and Mr. Meisels are located in Israel and not in the United States, a distinguished Israeli Beis Din consisting of Rabbis Menachem Mendel Shafran, Chaim Malinowitz, and Tzvi Gartner has assumed for this matter.
Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz
Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst
Rabbi Zev Cohen
There are many people who have suggested that this letter is fake and the signatures are a forgery. I personally spoke to Rabbi Fuerst, one of the signatories. He told me it is real and that he signed it as did the others.
For those who don’t know, Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst is the Dayan for Agudath Israel of Illinois. A Posek that was mentored by Rav Moshe Feinstein, he is the ‘go to’ Rav for many people in here in Chicago (and beyond) for just about any Shaila in Halacha one might have. He is also the Posek for NCSY Midwest.
Rabbi Gedalia Schwartz is the Av Bet Din (chief judge) of the Rabbinical Council of America (Bet Din of America) and Rosh Bet Din (Emeritus chief judge) of the Chicago Rabbinical Council Bet Din.
Rabbi Zev Cohen is the Rav of Congregation Adas Yeshurun, a Dayan, Rosh Kollel of the Choshen Mishpat Kollel and one of the most trusted rabbis in Chicago.
These three people do not usually cross paths. But they have come together here as one to warn the community about this guy. They do not even refer to him as rabbi, refusing to give him the title he earned (and now dishonored). Which is pretty amazing since Rabbi Fuerst’s mentor, Rav Moshe Feinstein used the title ‘rabbi’ in his Teshuvos when referring to Reform rabbis. Imagine how undeserving this fellow is of that title.
On his blog, Yerachmiel said that people close to that Beis Din told him that among his pickup lines were “my wife is boring….”. Imagine your daughter hearing things like that from her charismatic seminary head. I’m told that many seminary girls will develop a crush on their seminary heads. That makes it easy for a dirtbag like Meisels to take advantage of them.
Yerachmiel was also told that the abuse involved many young women and was severe.
While this situation may or may not involved abuse of minors, there is no question in my mind that it involves some form of molestation or worse. If the students he abused were minors (usually defined in this country as under 18 if I understand correctly), he could be prosecuted for statutory rape if he had sex with any of them. I have no clue what the laws of the State of Israel are with respect to that. But my hope is that the distinguished rabbis in Israel who have accepted the task pursue that avenue if it is available to them.
The bottom line here is the following. If you have a daughter that will be studying in a seminary in Israel, stay far away from this man and any seminary with which he is connected.
Update
Elimelech Meisels has been removed as head of the above mentioned seminaries. For details, see here.
Update
Elimelech Meisels has been removed as head of the above mentioned seminaries. For details, see here.
UPDATED Sunday July 20
From frumfollies
Just to update readers, there have been several newer posts about the situation. to be absolutely clear, Meisels says he will not teach in the seminaries this coming year but he still owns them and other enabling staff have not been removed, or even, to the best of my knowledge reprimanded. That is why the Chicago Beis Din stands by its psak advising against sending students to those seminaries. Hebrew Theological College (HTC) and Touro College have suspended accreditation, pending a more substantial set of changes, thereby preventing students from getting US Government assistance with grants and loans.
All posts on Frum Follies about meisels can be found with the search URL: http://frumfollies.wordpress.com/?s=Elimelech+Meisels
Rabbi Yosef Blau, Mashgiach Ruchani of YU's RIETS wrote a comment to my most recent post worth passing along to students and alumni of the Meisels seminaries:
"This analysis correctly demonstrates that the Israeli Beis Din has no
interest in investigating Meisels and interviewing victims to find out
the role of others working for him in Pninim and the other seminaries.
However there is a great need for the graduates of these programs,
whether they were abused, or saw inappropriate behavior, or are
convinced that there was no abuse to speak with both therapists and
rabbinic figures who understand rabbinic abuse. Many of them are
traumatized and are profoundly shaken by these reports about a major
influence on their lives. In earlier cases this was at least partially
done for young men attending Yeshivot after they had been in an
environment where there was a teacher or rabbi who was an abuser. This
will be particularly difficult in this case because the women are
unlikely to be in educational settings where they can find people who
are qualified to meet with them."
All posts on Frum Follies about meisels can be found with the search URL: http://frumfollies.wordpress.com/?s=Elimelech+Meisels
Rabbi Yosef Blau, Mashgiach Ruchani of YU's RIETS wrote a comment to my most recent post worth passing along to students and alumni of the Meisels seminaries:
"This analysis correctly demonstrates that the Israeli Beis Din has no
interest in investigating Meisels and interviewing victims to find out
the role of others working for him in Pninim and the other seminaries.
However there is a great need for the graduates of these programs,
whether they were abused, or saw inappropriate behavior, or are
convinced that there was no abuse to speak with both therapists and
rabbinic figures who understand rabbinic abuse. Many of them are
traumatized and are profoundly shaken by these reports about a major
influence on their lives. In earlier cases this was at least partially
done for young men attending Yeshivot after they had been in an
environment where there was a teacher or rabbi who was an abuser. This
will be particularly difficult in this case because the women are
unlikely to be in educational settings where they can find people who
are qualified to meet with them."
Monday, July 14, 2014
Muslim Cleric: Israel Defends Us from Hamas Missiles
The Mukhtar (Islamic religious leader) of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher on Monday praised Israel for defending the city – and particularly the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount – from Hamas rockets.
Just days after wide-scale riots by Jerusalem Arabs over the murder of Arab youth Mohammed Al-Khder, Zuheir Hamadan said that Hamas, which claimed to be “defending” the Arabs of Jerusalem, was doing quite the opposite.
“Israel is the one defending Al-Aqsa from the missiles of Hamas,” Hamadan said. Speaking to Israel Radio's Arabic service, Hamadan said that Hamas' seemingly careless firing of missiles endangered Muslim holy places, as well as Arabs, who live and work in all parts of the country.
Red Color alert sirens have sounded several times over the past few days in Jerusalem and Gush Etzion. According to several reports, rockets have fallen in both Hevron and Ramallah.
Security officials confirmed that at least one rocket that was fired at Jerusalem missed and fell in a neighborhood in Arab-controlled Hevron. No one was reported killed, but several buildings were damaged, residents said. The Iron Dome system was not activated against that missile.
Meshugana Arabs knock out their own electric power
According to Arutz 7 Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has asked the IEC not to risk the lives of its employees in trying to restore power to the affected sector in Gaza, an operation that could take hours.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Ami Editorial tells its readers to continue battle with the Israeli Government, all this while rockets are flying
The Frankfurter,consumed with his hatred of Eretz Yisroel, doesn't care that over half of Israel's population will be sleeping in shelters tonight.
The Frank doesn't care that all Chareidim and their Gedoilim have now decided to stay quiet, while the IDF is in danger and needs all the prayers we have, to be successful and be safe.
Frankfurter rambles on and on, like an "alte bobbeh" in his editorial something about Pinchos, about not having "peace at any price," (isn't that what Hamas is now saying?) trying to compare himself to him and quotes Rav Shamshon Refhael Hirsch ....
The Frank, sitting on his plush sofa in Boro-Park, writes in his sick and perverted editorial
"while we all extol unity, that adulation should not be misconstrued as a suspension of our battle with the forces of evil,"
So this menuval wants the yeshiva students to continue to do battle while they are cowering in their shelters?'
And who is this lying animal, calling evil?
The soldiers protecting our yeshivos?
He tries to answer:
"particularly those who seek to undermine Torah study in the Holy Land"
Frank ..... arn't those the same ones who give Kollel guys money to learn? Arn't they the ones,even with the massive cuts, contributing millions of shekels to Torah institutions?
The well fed Yitzy quotes some un-named "Gedolie Yisroel"
"every yeshiva student must be ready to sacrifice his life in order to preserve the purity of Torah study without any manner of dilution "
Wasn't it Rav Shamshon Rafhael Hirsch who said "Torah Im Derech Eretz"?
That one needs to work for a living? The nerve of this crazed fanatic to quote RSFH ....to bolster his sick way of thinking!
Mr. Frank, you sound like Hamas, just substitute the words Torah and put in the words Koran!
Why don't you sacrifice your children? wiseguy?
I have children in Israel, learning Torah, I'm not ready for my child to sacrifice his life for some "Godol" who said so.
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