Haaretz
Kislev 25, 5767
NEW YORK - A half-dozen Neturei Karta followers who
attended a Holocaust denial conference in Iran have come under intense
criticism over the visit, with one of the world's largest Hasidic groups
denouncing them as "reckless outcasts."
The Jews who went to Iran
"trampled on the memory of their ancestors and
people. They embraced
the disciplines and followers of their murderers," said a statement from
the Satmar leaders of Congregation Yetev Lev in Brooklyn.
The Jews
who attended the conference are often confused with the Satmars, who also
are anti-Zionist but acknowledge that 6 million Jews died in the
Holocaust. Besides their shared anti-Zionism, Neturei Karta followers and
the Satmars both wear long, dark coats and wide-brimmed hats, and have
beards and sidelocks.
The Satmars say there is no connection
between them and Neturei Karta, a group that sent a half-dozen delegates
to this week's conference in Tehran under the banner Jews United Against
Zionism.
They were led by a rabbi from the New York area, Yisroel
Dovid Weiss. He said that, while his group does not entirely deny the
killing of Jews in World War II, figures for how many people who died in
the Holocaust are exaggerated. He said that "Zionists are using the
Holocaust to brazenly and offensively oppress a people."
The
Satmars from Congregation Yetev Lev responded, in their statement, that
"the unavenged blood of the millions of Jewish victims cries out in pain
and abhorrence, to these reckless outcasts, 'How can you sink so
low?"'
The position of the Jewish delegates, the Satmars said, "is
contrary to the teachings of our venerated Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum,
the founder and leader of the Satmar movement."
The Satmars, who
claim about 100,000 followers worldwide, were founded by the
Hungarian-born Teitelbaum, who died in New York in 1979. He was succeeded
by his nephew, Moses Teitelbaum, who died last April.
Teitelbaum
laid out the anti-Zionist belief that forbids a Jew from creating a Jewish
state until the Messiah comes and leads them to the promised
land.
Hamodia, an English-language Orthodox Jewish daily in New
York that is not affiliated with either the Satmars or Neturei Karta,
published an editorial this week that said: "While we are speaking of
insanity, it is impossible to report about this so-called conference
without making mention of the handful of deranged men in Jewish garb" who
attended. "These few individuals - who represent no one except themselves
- are playing into the hands of our nation's
archenemies."
Estimates of Neturei Karta followers range from
several hundred to thousands, with dozens living in Monsey, New York, a
community about 25 miles north of New York where some attend a house of
worship called
Yeshiva Beis Yahud.
There was no telephone
listing for it. Calls to Moshe Beck, another Neturei Karta leader, rang
busy for hours on Friday afternoon.
Another community of Satmars,
based in the village of Kiryas Joel, about 50 miles northwest of New York,
also has condemned Neturei Karta
members for attending the
conference.