Haaretz
Kislev 29, 5767
Documents
published in the United States and Israel over the past few days provide a
glimpse into the current debate in the ultra-Orthodox community following
last week's visit of a handful of Neturei Karta and Satmar Hasidim to
Iran.
The seven members of the Tehran delegation, all of them
citizens of the United States and Western Europe, wrote a letter defending
their decision to attend the conference of Holocaust deniers organized by
Iranian President Mahmoud Amhadinejad.
"The Iranians stand today at
the head of the war against the actions of the Zionists in the name of
'Israel'," they wrote. "It is our duty to reconcile with them and convince
them that the nation of Israel, the nation of the Torah, is a submissive
nation, a merciful nation, a nation that seeks peace, that seeks the
burden of exile with love."
The only solution to the Middle East
conflict, they said, is to "wipe out Zionism, and accept the burden of
exile [from the Land of Israel] as the will of God, Blessed be He."
The long document, titled "Ultra-Orthodox Among Holocaust
Deniers?!," was written in Hebrew, and does not mention the delegation's
members by name.
In Israel, the document was circulated in
Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and Beit Shemesh. Although a Jerusalem resident who
distributed the document told Haaretz that delegation members were
welcomed in their communities with "respect and admiration," the primary
motive behind the document was intense criticism the delegation received
within the zealous anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox community.
Anger ignored
The document almost entirely ignores
anger against the delegation that has been expressed in the Haredi
mainstream, and was written following a statement by the official Satmar
leadership distancing itself from the delegation, which appeared in the
sect's journal in the United States.
The Satmar court of justice in
Israel determined that the delegation "desecrated the name of God ... in
an awful manner," and while it did not call for them to be banished from
the community - a far-reaching step from the perspective of Jewish law -
it did call on members of the community to "keep a distance from them and
condemn their actions."
But the delegation's members are not
afraid to condemn the rabbis and leaders who, they claim, are giving their
blessing to Zionism.
Regarding the connection between Holocaust
denial and anti-Zionism, the delegation said: "The Holocaust is a source
of sustenance and vitality for Zionism." The Holocaust was not just the
punishment for Zionism, as the Amdor of Satmar wrote, but it is "well
known" that the Zionists "irritated the hateful Nazis, for those crazy,
cruel people boycotted him."
But the delegation members said they
do not deny the Holocaust, saying they clearly told the Tehran conference
there was a "horrible and bitter Holocaust against the nation of Israel,
and no one can deny it." But the Holocaust does not "permit anyone to use
the blood of the saints, may God avenge their blood, to rise up against
the nations."