Yisroel Dovid Weiss

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Yisroel Dovid Weiss

Yisroel Dovid Weiss
Born 1956
United States

Yisroel Dovid Weiss (born 1956), a United States Haredi Rabbi, is an activist and the spokesman for Neturei Karta International,[1] a anti-Zionist grouping of Haredi Jews. Based in Monsey, New York, he believes that observant Jews should peacefully oppose the existence of the Israeli state: "It would be forbidden for us to have a State, even if it would be in a land that is desolate and uninhabited."[2]

Contents

[edit] Background

Weiss is the son of Hungarian Jewish holocaust survivors. His father spent the period of Nazi occupation hiding in a cellar, and survived to immigrate to America. His grandparents and all of his aunts and uncles were lost in the war.[3] Weiss is also referred to as being a Rabbi in Neturei Karta International publications.[1]

[edit] Anti-Zionist campaigning

Weiss often speaks at rallies and conferences in the United States and internationally, criticising Israel and Zionism.[4][5][6] In 2001 he attended the UN-organized World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa as part of the Islamic Human Rights Commission delegation.[7] During the conference, US and Israeli delegates walked out over an unsuccessful attempt to condemn Israel for racism.[8]

In December 2006 Weiss spoke at the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, held by the Iranian government in Tehran which was described by media sources such as NPR as a gathering of Holocaust deniers.[9] In his five minute speech, Rabbi Weiss addressed the issue of holocaust denial as well:

Now maybe I can say that at the discussion of the holocaust, I may be the representative, the voice of the people who died in the holocaust because my grandparents died there. They were killed in Auschwitz. My parents were from Hungary. My father escaped and his parents remained. He wasn’t able to get them out of Hungary and they died in Auschwitz as were other relatives and all the communities that they knew. So to say that they didn’t die, to me you can not say that. I am the living remnant of the people who died in the holocaust and I am here, I believe sent by God, to humbly say, simply to speak to the people here and say, 'You should know that the Jewish people died, and do not try to say that it did not happen. They did die!' There are people throughout the Jewish communities, still alive in their seventies and eighties and every one of them will tell you their stories. It is something which you can not refute, but that being said, it doesn’t mean that the holocaust is a tool to use to oppress other people.[2]

Weiss states that though Israelis have used the Holocaust to gain sympathy and advantage, he does not believe the Holocaust toll is exaggerated.[10] Weiss said that "The Zionists use the Holocaust issue to their benefit. We, Jews who perished in the Holocaust, do not use it to advance our interests. We stress that there are hundreds of thousands Jews around the world who identify with our opposition to the Zionist ideology and who feel that Zionism is not Jewish, but a political agenda...What we want is not a withdrawal to the '67 borders, but to everything included in it, so the country can go back to the Palestinians and we could live with them..."[11][12]

[edit] Response from other Haredim

Both the anti-Zionist Edah HaChareidis,[13] and Satmar,[14] have condemned him and the other Haredim who went to Tehran. Shmuel Poppenheim, editor of Ha'edah, the newsletter of the Edah HaChareidis, stated that “That tiny group of weirdos is liable to incite hatred against haredim.”[13] He continued that “[t]hose people's distorted anti-Zionist zealotry, which is sanctified in their eyes above and beyond the opinion of our Torah sages, brought them to that conference…the very fact that they participated gave Ahmadinejad the justification to say: ‘Look, the haredim feel the same way we do about the Holocaust.’”[13] Poppenheim estimated that maybe there were 10 extremists in Israel, and a couple of dozen world-wide, who supported participating in the Holocaust conference.[13]

The Satmar movement published an official denounciation of “fanaticism, and those committing insane acts to walk hand in hand with the Arabs.”[14] This described conference participants as “attend[ing] a special conference of the nations of the world that despise [the people of] Israel (may the names of the evil rot), deny the Holocaust, and deny and belittle the immensity of the evil and murder of those killed for sanctifying the Lord; they desecrated the name of the heavens.”[14]

[edit] Israeli response

The Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yonah Metzger, called on world rabbis to reject Neturei Karta members who participated in the Holocaust denial conference, saying they “should not be allowed entrance to Temples [sic].”[15]

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, stated that the attendance of the group was “completely insane. If it’s possible that there is any Jew, who for some reason or another can support a Holocaust denier in a generation where people with numbers tattooed on their arms are still among us – it’s an insanity that has no justification and no explanation.”[16]

[edit] American response

American Jewish organisations including Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union, have also issued statements distancing themselves from Weiss.[17] The executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, has called the group ‘embarrassing’,[17] and Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, called Neturei Karta's public display of affection for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ‘graphic and disgusting.’[17]

Since returning to the U.S. from the conference, Weiss and other individuals who attended have been ostracized by synagogues, denied service at kosher stores, and have been the subject disparagement in some communities with strong Orthodox Jewish populations such as Brooklyn and Monsey.[18] A demonstration outside a Neturei Karta synagogue on the 7th of January was met by a counter demonstration attended by "a much smaller contingent" of supporters of Rabbi Weiss.[18]

[edit] Weiss explanation

Weiss states that the Jewish world has misunderstood the Neturei Karta actions. He said the organization did not appear at the conference to deny the Holocaust, but to draw a distinction between Zionists and Jews.[17] Weiss stated that Ahmadinejad is not an enemy of the Jews, but is a “God-fearing man [who] respects the Jewish people and he protects them in Iran.”[17]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Orthodox Rabbi Condemns Recent Israeli Atrocity in Gaza. Neturei Karta International (November 10, 2006). Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
  2. ^ a b Speech by Rabbi Y. D. Weiss, Tehran Conference , December 2006. Neturei Karta International (December 12, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
  3. ^ Weiss, Yisroel Dovid, Moshe Dov (Ber) Beck & Mordecai Weberman. video with Harold Hudson Channer. Recent AntiZionist Rabbis meeting with Ahmadienjad (YouTube). Conversations with Harold Hudson Channer. Time/Warner Cable NYC Ch. 34. January 11, 2007.
  4. ^ Maher, Ahmad (2003-08-26). Zionism, Israel Threat to Peace: Rabbi Weiss. IslamOnline.net. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  5. ^ UK Muslims present: Jews against Zionism. Ynetnews (2006-05-07). Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  6. ^ Against Zionism, Jewish Perspectives - 2 July 2006. Islamic Human Rights Commission (2006-07-02). Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  7. ^ The Race Against Racism: A report of IHRC's work at the UN World Conference Against Racism, 2001 (Islamic Human Rights Commission) November 1, 2001.
  8. ^ Racism summit seeks breakthrough (BBC) September 5, 2001.
  9. ^ Iran Hosts Large Meeting of Holocaust Deniers, All Things Considered, 11 December 2006.
  10. ^ Correction: Iran-Holocaust-Conference (Fox News) January 09, 2007
  11. ^ Neturei Karta in Iran: Zionists use Holocaust by Roee Nahmias, (YNetNews) 12 March 2006.
  12. ^ Neturei Karta sect pays visit to Iran by Michael Freund (Jerusalem Post) 8 March 2006.
  13. ^ a b c d Wagner, Matthew (December 14, 2006). Haredim slam fringe over Iran parley. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
  14. ^ a b c Sela, Neta (December 15, 2006). Satmar court slams Neturei Karta. Ynetnews. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
  15. ^ Sela, Neta (December 14, 2006). Rabbi Metzger: Boycott Neturei Karta participants of Iran conference. Ynetnews. Retrieved on 2007-03-07.
  16. ^ Cohen, Dudi; Neta Sela (December 14, 2006). Ahmadinejad, Neturei Karta: Zionists are criminals. Ynetnews. Retrieved on 2007-03-07.
  17. ^ a b c d e Berkman, Jacob (December 19, 2006). Orthodox furious at anti-Zionist sect. Jewish United Fund. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
  18. ^ a b Santos, Ferdinand (January 15, 2007, corrected January 17, 2007). New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.


Persondata
NAME Weiss, Yisroel Dovid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Anti-Zionist Haredi Rabbi from Monsey, New York
DATE OF BIRTH 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages