Satmar Yiddish newspaper Dee Zeitung says the biggest threat facing Judaism is ....... כוחי ועוצם ידי

The Satmar Rebbes are terrified that the Jewish World is looking at the IDF with admiration and respect, and are worried that their irrelevant "Shita" is now being looked upon by their own Chassidim with ridicule.

This week's edition of the Dee Zeitung, a Satmar Yiddish newspaper, writes that Rabbonim are "worried about the Hashkafa part of the situation now in Israel"

They are not worried that many people, may G-D Forbid, be killed by the thousands of rockets from  Hamas, Nooooooooooooooo, they are worried that after the war, thinking Jews will attribute the success of the campaign on the greatness of the Jewish Army proclaiming         כוחי ועוצם ידי    ,  and forget that there is a G-D up there doing all the work.

I would like to ask my fellow Satmars, don't all the biographies of the Satmar Rebbe , proclaim the same   כוחי ועוצם ידי
 Don't they attribute hundreds and thousands of miracles to the Rebbi?

Don't they say that this lady, and that lady, couldn't have children, and the Rebbi promised them children? Isn't that כוחי ועוצם ידי

Don't they say that the Rebbi gave them parnassah? Isn't that כוחי ועוצם ידי
What about their attribution to the founding of the town of Monroe to the Rebbe, isn't that כוחי ועוצם ידי?

Why is it ok for the Rebbi to have כוחי ועוצם ידי
and not the Zionists?

State of Israel a "Medina of Hell" writes Satmar News Der Blatt

We are now in midst of the "Three Weeks" and I was debating whether to post this.

People who know that I write this blog asked that I refrain from writing negative stories during these weeks. So I skipped reading the editorial in this week's Yiddish Satmar Newspaper Der Blatt, run by the Aronie faction of the Satmars, and decided to read an article in  an insert in Der Blatt, which featured a story  about the  historical city of Gaza.

I was totally blown away! Here, I thought I would read a parve story about the Jewish settlements in the ancient city of Gaza, and what I got, was the most disgusting Satmar anti-Zionist propaganda embedded in the article.
You would think that they would give the readers a bit of fresh air, but nooooooooooo, they insert Zionism even in an historical piece about the old Jewish settlement in Gaza.

I will loosely translate the introduction to this article.

"During these days, when the entire Jewish World is busy with the war that the evil Zionists, may they be obliterated, again forced upon the Jews, a war that happens again and again every couple of years, and even though there is a ceasefire, on and off , every Jew residing in Eretz Yisroel knows that this will not endure too long, since the Zionists will again start to tease and antagonize the Arab murderers and the war will continue.

Today, the city is an exclusive Arab city, a city that has absolutely no Jews. It is interesting to note, that just 80 years ago, there was a beautiful Jewish Community and that the reason there are no Jews there now, is because of the terrible "Hisgarous B'Umois" what the evil Zionists did 80 years ago way before the existence and founding of this Medina of Hell in Eretz Yisroel."

So they are blaming the Zionists for "teasing the Arabs" and blaming  the Judenrein Gaza on the Zionists , even though they themselves admit that there was no State of Israel then.

So, I ask you guys, should I let something so evil go, and ignore it, or did I do the right thing to let my readers know that we have the devil incarnate living amongst us, and  tell you why Moshiach isn't coming!

During this tragic time, when the Jewish people are under attack throughout the entire world; to have these ingrates take an innocent historical story and twist it into evil propaganda is beyond the pale of decency!

A Gutta Voch, Mama

Last Video of passengers on Flight MH-17 prior to take off in Amsterdam

IDF starts Gaza ground invasion

Netanyahu's office says purpose of mission is to destroy terror tunnels and seriously harm the infrastructure of Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.

IDF ground forces began to move into the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, the prime minister's office confirmed.

The purpose of the operation was  to destroy the Gazan terror tunnels leading to Israel, according to a statement released by the prime minister's office.  

"Israel is committed to act to protect its citizens. The operation will continue until its goals are reached: To bring quiet to the citizens of Israel for a long period of time, and to seriously harm Hamas and other terrorist organizations' infrastructure in the Gaza Strip," the statement read.

Prior to the commencement of the ground invasion, the IDF launched a massive wave of combined air and artillery strikes on Thursday night.

The ground invasion comes hours after a Hamas assault squad of thirteen highly armed terrorists attempted to carry out a massacre of civilians at Kibbutz Sufa, near the border, before being blocked by the IDF.

Infantry, Armored Corps, Engineering Corps, artillery, and intelligence units are taking over various areas in Gaza, and are all working with one another and the air force. They are operating in central, and southern Gaza, where Hamas has dug an extensive terrorist tunnel network.

The IDF's Southern Command is overseeing the ground offensive.
The units involved have undergone intensive training recently ahead of their missions, Brig.-Gen. Moti Almoz, IDF spokesman, said on Thursday night.
"The operation has reached its ground phase," Almoz said. "Large numbers of forces began a focused effort to destroy tunnels in Gaza.

We are in a new stage," he stated. At the same time, the air force is contintuing with air strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad around Gaza.

The Ground Forces are currently engaging terrorist infrastructure, and the operation "will be expanded as needed," Almoz said. "They're moving now in various areas of Gaza. We will continue to attack in every location we think needs to be struck," he warned.

The IDF is currently calling up more reserves, Almoz added.

Palestinian sources said strikes occurred up and down the Strip, adding that one strike targeted a motorcycle apparently carrying members of a rocket launching cell on their way to an attack on Israel.

At around 10:00 p.m. rocket sirens sounded in the Tel Aviv area, and in the Shfela. Iron Dome made a number of interceptions in the Tel Aviv area.

Hamas bombarded Israel on Thursday with rockets after the end of the humanitarian truce, firing over 100 projectiles after 3 p.m. Eighty one rockets landed in open areas, two fell inside villages, damaging two homes, and 20 were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.

Also on Thursday, a drone from Gaza was detected in Israeli airspace, over the Ashkelon area. The IAF fired a patriot surface-to-air missile at the aircraft, shooting it down. It was the second Hamas drone to be shot down in recent days.

The IDF on Thursday warned citizens of Gaza to evacuate their homes and make their way from less populated areas to the Strip's major cities.

Close to 100,000 leaflets containing the message were dropped over the territory and hundreds of thousands of citizens from all over Gaza received recorded phone messages warning them to vacate villages.

Air raid sirens sounded throughout southern and central areas during the day. Ashkelon and Ashdod were targeted by Hamas repeatedly in the evening, and were successfully defended by Iron Dome.

Iron Dome intercepted two rockets over central Israel and the Sharon district in the evening, and one over the city of Ashdod. Several rockets landed in open areas.

The Gaza-border region of Eshkol came under continuous rocket barrages. Some ten rockets in open areas, and one damaged a home.
Between 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., Hamas fired 40 rockets at Israel, and Iron Dome shot three down Two rockets were fired at Beersheba, with one falling in an open area and a second intercepted over the Negev city.

Within a minute of the ceasefire ending, rockets were fired from Gaza at the Ashkelon industrial area and Hof Ashkelon region. Most fell in open areas.

The humanitarian ceasefire was violated when Hamas fired 3 projectiles at the Eshkol region. The rockets exploded in open areas.

On Thursday morning, one rocket was intercepted over the greater Tel Aviv and Sharon district, and one rocket fell in an open area. In Beersheba, Iron Dome intercepted an incoming Gazan rocket.

Satmar Rebbe's Huge Mistake in WW2, Part 2

This is the second of a two-part investigation into the life of the Satmar Rebbe.

Here Read Part 1

 

***

During his stay in the Cluj ghetto, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum hid rather than position himself as a leader. On the rescue train, he avoided the other passengers, failed to encourage or to comfort them, and did not share the precious commodities provided by his followers with them. In Bergen-Belsen, too, despite the preferential treatment accorded him in the camp, he refrained from assuming a leadership role, even among the observant inmates.

After his release, Rabbi Yoel elected to run a rescue campaign from the safety of Switzerland. His efforts to rescue Jewish children raised by gentiles were restricted to fundraising, and even in that task he failed abysmally.

Once again, his conduct stands in stark contrast to that of other rabbis, who returned to their hometowns to lead their surviving flocks or worked relentlessly in the DP camps. All the sources describing the rescue activities of the Haredi community during the Holocaust, including archival sources, indicate that compared to other rabbis who survived the Holocaust, Rabbi Yoel’s contribution was negligible in both scope and significance.

After the Holocaust, Rabbi Yoel also turned his back on all those who had helped to rescue him. After settling in Palestine in 1946, he refrained from expressing any gratitude to the people and institutions that had been instrumental in his rescue and had endeavored to obtain certificates for him, among them Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog, Agudath Israel leaders Rabbi Yitzhak Meir Levin and Rabbi Moshe Porush, and Ha-Mizrahi’s Rabbi Joseph Yitzhak Rotenberg.

 He scathingly attacked the institutions they headed and, unlike other Hasidic rebbes they helped rescue, refused to make even the slightest symbolic gesture of gratitude. Moreover, it seems he repudiated his benefactors on a personal level, too. As far as we know, Rabbi Yoel never sent any letters of gratitude or appreciation to any of the people or institutions involved in his rescue.

Once settled in the United States, he spurned most of those who sought to assist him there, as well. He criticized Agudath Israel and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, whose leaders had headed the Rescue Committee that endeavored to rescue the Hungarian Jews, including him.

He treated Rabbi Elimelekh (Mike) Tress (1909–1967), leader of Tseirei Agudath Israel (the youth division of the Agudath Israel), and Rabbi Abraham Kalmanovich (1891–1964) somewhat more kindly, but then he ignored them when he no longer needed their assistance.

When asked to testify on Kasztner’s behalf during his trial, Rabbi Yoel, whose inclusion on the Kasztner train was raised during the proceedings, refused. Thus, Rabbi Yoel repaid with ingratitude even the man whose name became most closely associated with his rescue from the extermination camps.

Criticism concerning his flawed conduct hounded Rabbi Yoel during the Holocaust and persisted thereafter. Therefore, Rabbi Yoel found himself compelled to explain, to himself possibly as well as to others, his objection to emigration to the United States and Palestine, his flight from the town of Satmar, and his participation in the Zionist Kasztner transport.

His views on the Holocaust were never consolidated into a single contemplative text but rather were recorded in many of his works. The following are some examples:

• The Holocaust is God’s punishment of the Jewish people for its sins, and primarily for the sin of Zionism. The Zionist concept implied a denial of God’s ability to deliver his people and disrupted the natural place of the people of Israel, destined to remain exiled until the true deliverance.

• Zionism’s ultimate, undeclared goal was the spiritual annihilation of the people of Israel. Therefore, collaboration with those trying to cause the people of Israel to sin, that is, Zionist institutions, is strictly forbidden, even under threat of death.

• Zionists are the descendants of the Erev Rav (mixed multitude) and the Amalekites, so it is no wonder that they have caused the people of Israel such trouble.

• Any collaborators with Zionism, even the religious members of Ha-Mizrahi and Agudath Israel are also guilty of its sins. Therefore, the Zionist and the Haredi rabbis also bear part of the blame for the Holocaust.

• The Zionists bear the blame for the Holocaust not only because of their ideological concept, but also because of their actions, which included:

provoking Hitler and causing him to take revenge upon the people of Israel, obstructing emigration to other countries so as to force Jews to settle in Palestine, and the closure of their borders to immigrants following the demand to establish a Jewish state. Particular blame falls on the Zionists for deliberately preventing the Haredim from immigrating and thus saving themselves.

• The sin of Zionism was so grave that even its bitter opponents, Rabbi Yoel’s anti-Zionist followers were punished for it.

• The Holocaust was part of the redemption process. The Messiah’s advent, destined to occur during its course, was impeded by the Zionists’ actions and the intervention of Satan.

The author of the single, brief biography of Rabbi Yoel written during his lifetime completely ignored the Holocaust period. Several posthumous biographies, authored mostly by his Hasidim, were required to explain the rabbi’s conduct during the Holocaust. The subject was not dealt with in a coherent or deliberate way, and the various authors found different solutions to a number of issues. Over time, the coping modes changed, and in recent years, apologetic attempts to conceal or ignore difficulties have been replaced by a “counter-offensive,” designed to undermine what the authors perceived as “Zionist claims.”

The following are some of the modes and claims used in addressing Rabbi Yoel’s decisions and actions during the Holocaust:

• Rabbi Yoel merely opposed organized immigration to Palestine, not the immigration of individuals wishing to lead a Haredi lifestyle. Jewish settlement in Palestine prior to the Holocaust would not have prevented the danger, as the German army was already on its way and only by a miracle never reached it.

• The Zionists took advantage of the dire straits in which the Haredi Jews found themselves, forcing them to join their ranks and thus to corrupt their souls.

• Rabbi Yoel had never sought to flee and abandon his congregation, yet his capture by the Germans would have been disastrous for his followers. He encouraged many to flee the ghettos, and the purpose of his escape was to continue his rescue efforts outside of Hungary.

• Rabbi Yoel was among the initiators of the negotiations with the Germans, and his inclusion on the Kasztner train was the result of a demand made by Haredi leaders, rather than a generous offer by the Zionists.

• The Zionists collaborated with the Germans by failing to publicize the danger threatening the Jews in Hungary. Moreover, they impeded the implementation of rescue plans and discriminated against the Haredi population in the allocation of certificates by making the signed acceptance of Zionism a prerequisite for the granting of certificates.

• The Zionists covered up Haredi rescue initiatives and in particular their role in the rescue of Rabbi Yoel. They accused Rabbi Yoel of opposing settlement in Palestine, although they themselves permitted only selective immigration and blamed the Haredi leadership of endeavoring to save the rabbis alone.

Rabbi Yoel founded his congregation in Williamsburg, New York, shortly before the establishment of the State of Israel. His anti-Zionist attacks and delegitimization of Israel by blaming Zionism for the Holocaust served to consolidate the congregation’s unique identity.

Within a few years, it attracted hundreds of Hasidim and became known for its reclusive lifestyle and radical religious views. Unlike other Haredi communities in the United States, Rabbi Yoel supported the Edah Ha-Haredit of Jerusalem, whose institutions were on the verge of bankruptcy after donations from Eastern Europe dried up during the Holocaust. In gratitude, it appointed him its first president and subsequently ga’avad (chief rabbi of its Rabbinical Court).

In 1954 he founded the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada (Hit’ahdut Ha-Rabanim), uniting rabbis whose religious views were anti-Zionist. In the provocative demonstrations it held in New York and Washington, the organization vilified the State of Israel for “trampling religion” and accused its government of “Nazi” treatment of the Haredi community. Following the publication of Rabbi Yoel’s anti-Zionist polemic books, he emerged as Zionism’s bitterest ideological opponent.

The demonstrations triggered a public discussion of Rabbi Yoel’s conduct during the Holocaust. One of the criticisms leveled against him, both within the Haredi community and in the Israeli press and academic literature, focused on his rescue aboard the “Zionist” Kasztner train. This main argument was that at a time of crisis, with his own life at stake, Rabbi Yoel availed himself of the Zionists’ help to save himself.

Historical perspective suggests that Rabbi Yoel warrants even harsher criticism, beyond the issue of his escape on the Kasztner train. Toward the end of his stay in the Cluj ghetto, he probably assumed that he had already lost the majority of his Hasidim. He was not familiar to most of the ghetto’s inmates and had no moral obligation to them. Thus, the issue of his obligation to his congregation was no longer relevant, and the question of whether to save himself by any means possible was irrelevant, both morally and by halakhic ruling. In such circumstances, the halakhic principle of piku‘ah nefesh, the obligation to save a life in jeopardy, as well as his human instinct, left him with no other choice.

Yet the true moral issue regarding Rabbi Yoel’s conduct during the Holocaust pertained to his earlier escape attempts. When he first tried to obtain certificates, he was already aware that the lives of Hungarian Jews were in danger. At that point in time, the question of whether it was permissible, both from a halakhic and an ethical perspective, for a spiritual leader of a large congregation to abandon his flock in its hour of need to save his own life could have been considered sensibly and in a level-headed manner. With the passing of time, and as the danger became ever more palpable, it became easier to make excuses for Rabbi Yoel’s flight.

Another moral issue is presented by the fact that Rabbi Yoel, who forbade emigration to Palestine and all the more so through Zionist organizations, did not apply the same strict prohibition to himself even though his economic and public status enabled him to emigrate to other destinations.

Additionally, one cannot help but wonder why Rabbi Yoel did not alert the public about the dangers to which he became privy during the early 1940s. Moreover, he opposed all initiatives to prepare for the imminent danger and failed to set either a practical or moral example to his numerous followers.

Another moral issue concerns the fact that despite his fierce opposition to Agudath Israel, even during the Holocaust, he availed himself of the help of the Agudah’s members and supporters. After the Holocaust, ignoring his moral indebtedness, Rabbi Yoel turned his back on his benefactors of all camps.

The answers to these moral issues cannot be found in the explanations and excuses provided by Rabbi Yoel himself and his Hasidic biographers. Yet during other periods in his life, one can trace clues that may explain his behavior.

On previous occasions, such as World War I and during the Goga regime, Rabbi Yoel had abandoned his congregation and moved to a safer area, where he stayed until the danger passed. This conduct corresponds with other accounts that describe him as a fear-ridden, anxious individual. This fearfulness of his manifested itself during the war years, when he refused to cooperate with other rabbis’ and the Central Bureau’s attempts to set fast or prayer days. He likewise refrained from making any clear pronouncements on halakhic matters when he thought doing so could endanger him. Therefore, it appears that his conduct stems, at least in part, from his fearful nature, rather than from any pertinent or halakhic considerations, introduced post-factum to justify this conduct.

Rabbi Yoel’s personality may also serve to explain his treatment of his congregation, closest associates, and saviors. From an early age, his relations with his family were strained. He was angry with his brother for not allotting him a share in the inheritance left by their father, which consisted of the town’s rabbinate, management of the yeshiva, and leadership of the Hasidic court.

After his brother’s death, he considered his relatives traitors for not appointing him in his place and choosing his 14-year-old nephew instead. His life circumstances further hardened his character: His parents, brother, first wife, and two of his daughters died before the Holocaust. His wives failed to bear sons and his daughters, grandsons. His rigid, uncompromising character was well reflected in the bitter, relentless campaigns he waged against political opponents, against whom he schemed and whom he slandered both openly and surreptitiously.

Rabbi Yoel’s interpretation of the Holocaust and the accounts of that period of his life in posthumous Hasidic biographies have surrounded his character with numerous excuses and explanations, all of which seek to refute criticisms of him.

Upon examination, these arguments, many of which are based on the demonization of both Zionism and Zionists, show that the principal questions remain unanswered:

Why did Rabbi Yoel fail to warn his followers before the Holocaust?

Why did he try to immigrate to Israel after forbidding his followers to do so?

Why did he thwart attempts at cooperation, which could have saved so many lives?

Why did he not set a personal example for his Hasidim?

Why did he abandon his congregation, incarcerated in ghettos, and flee in the middle of the night?

How did he come to abandon his closest friends in the Cluj ghetto?

Why did he board the Kasztner train, which was organized by the abhorred Zionists?

Having survived, why did he never return to rebuild his congregation in Satmar?

Why did he refrain from assisting in the spiritual and religious rehabilitation of the Holocaust survivors in the DP camps?

 Why did he alienate himself from Agudath Israel and the Zionist organizations that had helped to extricate him from the Nazi horrors?

And why did he adopt such radical stances, such as blaming the Holocaust on the Zionists, to justify his actions and decisions during the Holocaust?

Apparently, these questions are fated to remain forever unanswered. Regardless, no postfactum claims and explanations can cover up Rabbi Yoel’s incompetence in leading his community during the early stages of the war, his escape efforts during the Holocaust, and his subsequent failure to assist those who survived it.
***
This article, the second of a two-part series, is adapted from an essay that appears in Dapim 28:2 (2014), available here, and in Menachem Keren-Kratz’s forthcoming biography, The Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum.

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.

 

Hillary Clinton tells off Jon Stewart on Israel, Video

The Daily Show
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Ayelet Shaked answers and exposes the self hating leftist Jews

Ayelet Sheked

by Ayelet Sheked in Jerusalem Post
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"

Did R' Yoel Teitelbaum, 1st Satmar Rebbi perpetuate his anti-Zionist views because of his big mistake?

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)

By Menachem Keren-Kratz
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.

As I argue in greater detail in the following, Rabbi Yoel’s life, activities, and decisions during the Holocaust and his pressing need to explain and justify them thereafter offer a possible explanation for the extremism of his later views.

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?