from Haaretz

Across the entire Gaza Strip, an estimated 70 percent of all buildings have been completely destroyed or damaged to the point where they are no longer habitable. This is in addition to the vast majority of public buildings, roads and infrastructure. The United Nations estimates that all the rubble in Gaza amounts to about 50 million tons, or 137 kilograms per square meter. Removing it will take at least 21 years, it predicts.

Gentiles can be very impressive

 

Rabbinic counseling and the decision to move to Israel

Rabbinic counseling and the decision to move to Israel

 

For years when I asked rabbis their opinion on whether I should move to Israel, I received two types of responses. The Modern Orthodox rabbis always excitedly said to go as if there were no factors in the decision. It could only be good. They wish they could go. Yeshivish rabbis would only ask, “Can you earn a parnassah there?” That seemed to be the only issue that they knew of.

But there are so many more. “Do you speak Hebrew?” would be a good question. You cannot function in a society whose language you don’t speak. If you are above the age of forty, you aren’t likely to learn conversational Hebrew, and you will not be able to earn a decent parnassah if you don’t speak Hebrew. Thus, the question about Hebrew goes with the question about parnassah. Many olim take essentially sweat shop level jobs, working American hours for minimum wage, sometimes at home on the Internet (in front of their children who get drawn into the Internet) because of their inability to speak Hebrew. The nerves wear thin when you can’t read leases, utility bills, or scary letters from the government, not to mention being unable to help children with their homework or have a conversation with 90% of the people you meet.

Another question is, can you deal with Israelis? Go to Queens and spend some time around Israelis and determine if you can handle their aggressiveness, argumentativeness, and extreme views. You can’t move to Latvia if you don’t like being around Latvians.

Can you deal with religious extremism? In Israel, the Dati Leumi or Modern Orthodox are to the left of Teaneck, and the Haredim are of the no-secular studies, no parnassah, no blue shirts variety. If you are a middle of the road kind of person, you can feel very lonely here.

Can you deal with militarism? There are soldiers everywhere. This can be an off-putting sight for a New Yorker or Californian. America has a big military, but it’s not part of daily life in Jewish parts of the country. In Israel, the military might close roads or declare a region off limits for the week. Clocks show military time, and people are militaristic, i.e. bossy. Fighter jets fly overhead every day. The news is full of articles about the army, war, and soldiers getting killed or maimed for life. Over the last one and a half years, over 850 soldiers have been killed and Zahal Disabled Veteran Organization is expecting 20,000 permanently disabled soldiers! (Times of Israel)

Are your kids above the age of 3? If they are, don’t go. It’s too late. The adjustment puts them at risk. Even those who learn to speak decent Hebrew often feel uncomfortable speaking it. Even children of Anglo families who are born in Israel oftentimes find interaction with Israelis to be unsettling and try to avoid them, as if that’s possible. Olim parents sit in their tiny Anglo ghettos and don’t have to deal with the general society nearly as much as their children do. The parents don’t sit in Israeli schools and deal with the bullying, not just of the other students but some of the teachers. Shouting is frequent. The schools like everything can be militaristic. Children who don’t grow up with that, aren’t likely to be able to adjust to it. It seems at times that every family of olim has a child who is struggling or off the derech. If your child is aidel (gentle), then all the more so, this is not the place for him or her.

Can you deal with the small size of the place? The country starts effectively in Beer Sheva. South of there is a desert. It’s a two-hour drive to Haifa, another hour to Lebanon. That’s the length of the country. The width is one-hour. And even within that limited space are all the dangerous parts that you must avoid. If you are Haredi you’ll probably want to avoid all the anti-Haredi parts which is most of the remainder. You will find yourself going to the same places over and over again, particularly if you don’t have a car. Will you feel boxed in? News alert: happiness is a factor in life. Sad-faced religious parents don’t inspire children to pursue Orthodox Judaism.

Can you deal with the huge drop in standard of living? In Israel, housing is three times the price of most of America, and that’s for small apartments. For equivalent housing, it’s more like six times the price. Cars are double the price as is gas. Yet, income is less than a third of what Jews typically earn. For olim it’s even less. Can you live in a small space, without a yard. Kids have no room to play and frequently get into fights. Can you manage without a car, riding the bus, and waiting for the bus in the heat. Can you deal with junky products and limited selection because that’s what you get in Israel.

Are you Yeshivish or Chassidish? Historically, your sons had two options, the military, which the gadolim tell them to stay clear from, and learning Talmud all day and night to maintain their draft exemption. Will they be productive? You can destroy a boy by putting him a situation that’s not appropriate for him. Is your son a learner or should he be working? The Israeli government won’t let him work.

But even that difficult choice is moot for officially there is no exemption anymore. The court nullified it. The government is coming after everybody, may HaShem save us. Can you handle that? Israelis are built like Brillo pads, so the strain and worry doesn’t bother them quite as much. If you are a nice law-abiding American, Canadian, or Englishman, the strain can kill you.

Do you have medical issues? The medical care in Israel is noticeably inferior to that of the USA. You can wait six months to see a surgeon here, four months for an MRI. Most procedures take place only in a hospital, yet many large cities lack hospitals. With medical care in particular, after you move to Israel you realize how good you used to have it.

Do you have family and friends in chutz? Being a world apart geographically puts tremendous strain on people. Ah, you are thinking that moving to Israel is “going home,” yet you might find yourself deeply homesick for the people you care about or simply can relate to. You aren’t likely to replace them in Israel. You’ll be lucky to get a Shabbos invitation now and again.

Can you handle all of the fighting between groups, even religious groups? In chutz, there is strain, but there is plenty of cordial intermingling and overlap. In Israel, it’s a war, and the war party with the most power is the anti-religious one. They run the country. No, you are not necessarily “coming home” when you move to Israel. As Rabbi Avigdor Miller said, it’s a “double-golus” in Israel.

These are some of the factors. There are many more. You want to say that this is all negative? There are positive aspects to the place that you have heard about in exaggerated fashion a thousand times. You don't need me to talk about them. If they don’t outweigh the negative ones for you, then you best stay where you are.

Rabbis Moshe Feinstein and Joseph Soloveitchik held that living in Israel is an optional mitzvah even according to the Ramban. It is not an obligation. Rabbi Soloveitchik explained that mitzvos are no better if done in Israel. Thus, the wearing of tefillin in Greenland, is just as effective as wearing them in Israel. So, the question is will you lose mitzvos by moving to Israel? Many people have less time for Torah study and less resources for chesed and find that their middos decline. Overall, they are less productive and happy. Many are miserable. For some, this is not the case. It depends on the person. Rabbi Soloveitchik and the Lubavitcher Rebbe counseled people to live where they can function best as a Jew. 

Rabbis need to know about all this to counsel people. Just as they need to know basic laws of kashrus, they need to know about specific issues in the huge decision of whether to move to Israel. It’s a decision that is difficult to reverse, so it must be made with extreme care and good counsel.

A kind act

 

Men and women are different

 Post from Quora

Why do people still debate whether women can play in men's leagues when women's sports are more visible and successful than ever?

This is Katie Ledecky

She might be the best female swimmer of all time. She has won 14 Olympic medals, 9 of them gold. In the 2024 Olympics, she won her signature event, the 1500m freestyle, by 10 seconds (an eternity in a sport where the margin of victory is often fractions of a second). In the 1500m, she owns the 20 fastest times ever swum by a woman. She is unquestionably the best ever at the 1500m freestyle.

But this amazing swimmer would never have been heard of if she swam against men. Because the top men swim the 1500m freestyle almost a full minute faster than she does. Even her world record time of 15:20 would have only been good for 12th place in the preliminary heats at the 2024 men’s US Olympic trials, when swimmers are not even going full out. Again, the world record time for a woman would not have been enough to even qualify for the finals at those trials. Not only would Ledecky have no Olympic medals if she had to compete against men, the only way she could have even gone to the Olympics would have been to buy a ticket.

We could go on. A team composed of current and former members of the US women’s national soccer team (best in the world) got obliterated 12–0 by what was essentially a minor league men’s team in a match. The top women’s college basketball teams sometimes practice (and lose) against male students from their schools (not the actual men’s team). Roger Bannister famously ran the mile in under 4 minutes in 1954, and the record is now 3:43. Seventy years after Bannister, no woman has ever run it in under 4:07. Serena Williams won a total of 23 Grand Slam singles titles in her career. She herself said that against a top male player she would lose “6‑0, 6‑0 in five to six minutes, maybe 10 minutes… I only want to play girls, because I don’t want to be embarrassed.”

And that’s why dedicated women’s sports exist. If the sport depends on strength, speed, coordination, or endurance (i.e. almost all of them), top women can’t compete with mediocre men, much less the top men. It turns out that there are, shockingly enough, actual biological differences between men and women that affect how good they are at sports. The NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and other sports leagues don't keep women out because they are sexist. They keep them out because they aren’t good enough to play there. If you put Paige Bueckers on an NBA roster tomorrow, she’d be the shortest, slowest, weakest player on the team. She would get all of her shots blocked and would be unable to defend anyone. She wouldn’t belong on the court at all. And that would be a shame, because there is a court she does belong on. Because conversely, women’s leagues keep men out because in most sports they have a competitive advantage.

So if you like watching women’s sports or are a current or aspiring female athlete yourself, celebrate things like the WNBA rather than lament that women don't play in the NBA against men.

apologies

 

“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.” - Benjamin Franklin

Rebbe Avraham Mordechai Gottlieb on Gaza

 

and another good yid:

Lee Elmer Handley

 

Lee Elmer Handley (July 13, 1913 – April 8, 1970) was an American professional baseball second baseman and third baseman.

Jackie Robinson named Handley, who played for the Phillies in 1947, as the first opposing player to wish him well,^[3] and stated that he even apologized for the behavior of his teammates, who were acting on instructions of Ben Chapman, their manager, who was racist.^[4]

Is Torah learning in Eretz Yisrael more valuable than Torah learning in Chutz La'aretz?

  Rav Avigdor Miller: Now, it's well known that the avirei Eretz Yisrael is machkim. However, you have to learn everything with perushim. If a person goes to Eretz Yisrael and doesn't learn, then the avirei Eretz Yisrael won't be machkim him. If he has the same opportunities there as here, then he'll succeed more over there. But if he has more opportunities here, he shouldn't go there.

Le'olam yadur adam bimkom rabbo. Man should always live where his rebbe is. Because Ezra never wanted to forsake Bavel as long as his Rebbe, Boruch ben Neriah was still in existence. And although Eretz Yisrael is waiting for him, Anshei Knesses Hagedolah, and binyan Beis Hamikdash, he didn't go. Because building yourself up is more important than building a Beis Hamikdash! Building yourself up. And he sat with his rebbe as long as his old rebbe was still alive. Only after Baruch ben Neriah passed away, then Ezra went to Eretz Yisrael.

And therefore, it's important not to make any mistakes. And people go to Eretz Yisrael just because of Eretz Yisrael. But to sacrifice opportunities that they have elsewhere, they have to ask and take counsel before they do anything like that.

I know cases where Gedolim said, "Do not go to Eretz Yisrael." Even Rav Yisrael Salanter, zichrono livracha, told people not to go. They have to understand where it is better for you in ruchniyus.

And therefore, a person shouldn't just pick himself up and go. He has to find out if that's a place where he's going to succeed in ruchniyus.

(September 1992)

not bound to or dependent on any particular place

 “The poles (of the Ark) shall remain in the rings of the ark. They shall not be removed from it.” (Exodus 25:15) 

“The constant presence of the בדים testifies that God’s Torah is not bound to or dependent on any particular place—testimony that is boldly underscored by the contrast between the Ark and the other furnishings of the Sanctuary, especially the Table and the Menorah, which do not have permanently attached בדים.” (The Hirsch Chumash, 2014, Exodus, 25:15 in the Hirsch Anthology, (New York, NY: Feldheim, 2017) p. 447).

Hirschian Humanism After the Holocaust: An Analysis of the Approach of Rabbi Shimon Schwab - Sefoirm

Hirschian Humanism After the Holocaust:

An Analysis of the Approach of Rabbi Shimon Schwab

By Rabbi Shmuel Lesher

In 1959, Rabbi Shimon Schwab[1] made a unique contribution to the way his community and others commemorate the Holocaust. Shortly after he joined the rabbinate of K’hal Adath Jeshurun in Washington Heights, Manhattan, R. Schwab was asked by R. Joseph Breuer[2] to compose a special Tisha B’av kinnah for their kehillah. Although it was originally written for the KAJ community, many other congregations have adopted the custom of reciting it on Tisha B’av.[3] To be sure, there have been others who authored kinnot to commemorate the Holocaust.[4] However, it appears that, especially in America, R. Schwab’s kinnah is perhaps one of the first written by a rabbinic figure to gain widespread popularity.

In addition to his innovative Holocaust kinnah, the events of the Holocaust played a significant role in how R. Schwab interpreted and perpetuated the Torah Im Derekh Eretz philosophy to which he was heir. According to R. Schwab, Torah Im Derekh Eretz was seen by R. Samson Raphael Hirsch as the ideal model. However, openness to secular culture has historically been the minority opinion among gedolei yisrael.[5]

continue

FRIEDMANN, DAVID BEN SAMUEL

FRIEDMANN, DAVID BEN SAMUEL (also called "Dovidel" Karliner; 1828–1917), Lithuanian rabbi and posek. Friedmann was born in Biala and lived for a time in Brest-Litovsk after 1836. On the advice of Leib Katzenellenbogen he moved to Kamenets-Litovsk where he studied under the supervision of his older brother Joseph until 1841. In that year he made the acquaintance of the philanthropist Shemariah Luria of Mohilev, who entrusted to him the education of his brother-in-law Zalman Rivlin of Shklov. Friedmann later married Luria's daughter. From 1846 to 1866 he devoted himself to concentrated study in the house of his father-in-law, where he compiled his Piskei Halakhot. After the death of his father-in-law in 1866 he accepted the rabbinate of Karlin near Pinsk (in 1868) where he remained until his death.

Friedmann's renown rests upon his Piskei Halakhot (pt. 1, 1898; pt. 2, 1901), an exposition and summary of matrimonial law, with a commentary entitled Yad David, an appendix entitled She'ilat David containing responsa on the laws of *mikva'ot ("ritual baths"). The text of the Piskei Halakhot follows that of Maimonides. In his comprehensive exposition, Friedmann endeavors to establish clear-cut decisions. His work is distinguished by the fact that he relies to an overwhelming extent on the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds and on the *rishonim, disregarding the *aḥaronim. He eschewed casuistry and tried to penetrate to the essence of the halakhah by a logical approach. Among the rabbis who turned to him with their problems were Menahem Mendel *Schneersohn, the head of the Lubavitch (Chabad) dynasty, and David *Luria. When religious extremists in Jerusalem excommunicated the bet midrash of his brother-in-law, Jehiel Michael *Pines, because he supported the establishment in Jerusalem of an orphanage "where they would also learn a foreign language," Friedmann attacked them in his Emek Berakhah (1881). It consists of four essays in which he discusses the question of a ban and the regulations and conditions under which it should be imposed, emphasizing that a handful of rabbis of Jerusalem had no right to impose such a ban. Pines wrote a long introduction to the book. Even though he tended to view with favor secular knowledge and the study of languages, Friedmann was opposed to compromise with regard to Torah education and the character of the traditional *ḥeder and in 1913 vehemently opposed the plan of the society Mefiẓei Haskalah be-Rusyah ("Disseminators of Secular Education in Russia") to change the accepted curriculum of the ḥeder.

During a certain period of his life, Friedmann participated actively in the Ḥibbat Zion movement. From 1863 he published articles in the Levanon which reflect his favorable attitude towards this movement, and he thus influenced many observant Jews to join it. He debated with Ẓ.H. *Kalischer on the problems of the movement and, together with L. *Pinsker and Samuel *Mohilever, participated in the *Kattowitz conference of 1885 as a delegate of the Pinsk branch of the Ḥovevei Zion. In a letter to A.J. Slucki he stressed that the noble idea of the nationalist movement deserves to become dear to "our brethren who are anxious for the word of God," and he testifies of himself that "the fire of love for our holy land burns in my heart" (ed. by A.J. Slucki, Shivat Ẓiyyon, 1 (1891), 18–19. In the course of time, however, he changed his attitude and following the decision of Zionist parties to include national secular education among their activities became an opponent of the Zionist idea. His grandson shmuel eliashiv (Friedmann, 1899–1955), jurist and author, served as first ambassador of the State of Israel to the U.S.S.R.

bibliography:

S.N. Gottlieb, Oholei Shem (1912), 172–4; Masliansky, in: Hadoar, 17 (1938), 455f.; Toyzent yor Pinsk (1941), 87, 93, 171, 269–71; Zinovitz, in: Ba-Mishor, 6 (1945), no. 255 p. 4f.; Yahadut Lita, 1 (1960), 250f., 344, 494, 513; 3 (1967), 79; S. Eliashiv, in: Sefer Biala-Podlaska (1961), 334–6.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/friedmann-david-ben-samuel

Rav Hirsch on Sefaria

 https://www.sefaria.org/topics/samson-raphael-hirsch?sort=Relevance&tab=notable-sources

Always at war

“When, during the reign of Hadrian, the uprising led by Bar Kochba proved a disastrous error, it became essential that the Jewish people be reminded for all times of another important fact; namely, that Israel must never again attempt to restore its national independence by its own power; it was to entrust its future as a nation solely to Divine Providence. Therefore when the nation, crushed by this new blow, had recovered its breath and hailed even the permission to give a decent burial to the hundreds of thousands who had fallen about Betar as the dawn of a better day, the sages who met at Yavneh added yet another blessing to the prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem. This fourth blessing is an acknowledgement that it has always been G-d and G-d alone Who has given us, and still gives us to this very day, that good in which we have had cause to rejoice; and that for future good, too, we may look to none other but G-d, and none besides Him." 

R' Samson Raphael Hirsch, Commentary to the Prayer Book, p. 703

Still at war 70 years later. For the last two years, Israel has dominated the world press with reporting on the conflict in Gaza. Now it's Iran. This country is always in some kind of military conflict. The country started with terrorism by the Zionist militia and then came the war of 'independence.' In other words, the Zionists took the land by force, which the Talmud tells us we are forbidden to do. So-called "Religious" Zionists (a term which shows that for them Zionism is primary and religion merely an adjective) engage in mental gymnastics to eradicate the Three Oaths which tell us of the prohibition to take the land by force. They are members of the Conservative Jewish sect where inconvenient parts of the Torah are ignored. They are like those who drive to synagogue on Shabbos or have mixed pews. They say that the formation of the state shows that it was Ha-Shem's will. I say that the constant military conflict shows that the state was formed in violence in disobedience to the Three Oaths. The state was formed because Ha-Shem leads you in the direction you want to go, even if it be a bad one. They were obsessed with founding a state so they got a state. But look at it. What kind of life is this?

Gertrude Hirschler

For 30 years I have been talking to the Creator of the universe via a translation of the Siddur and commentary on the Siddur by Rav Hirsch as translated to English by Gertrude Hirschler.

For 30 years I have been studying the Chumash largely through the translation and commentary of Rav Hirsch as translated to English by Gertrude Hirschler.

For 30 years I have absorbed the hashkafa of Rav Hirsch as expressed in his articles in the Collected Writings many of which were translated by Gertrude Hirschler. 

For many years, not quite 30, I have been studying Psalms via the commentary of Rav Hirsch via a translation by Gertrude Hirschler.

So that's a pretty important person in my life this Ms. Hirschler. And yet all these years I did not know what she looked like. Search her name on the web. You won't find a picture.

That is until now. For thanks a relative of hers I now have a photo of the incredible Gertrude Hirschler and will share it with you.

But first a few details on her life as collected from Gertrude Hirschler by Susan J. Lief Rotenberg, Jewish Women's Archive:

Gertrude Hirschler was born on August 11, 1929 in Vienna, Austria to Bernard Hirschler and Alice Dukes. She was the elder of daughters.

Her father was a successful businessman and the family lived comfortably until forced to flee the Nazis in 1939. They landed in Baltimore, Maryland.

Hirschler attended Baltimore Hebrew College, the Teachers Training School, and Johns Hopkins University night school from which she graduated with with a B.S. in 1952.

In addition to her translations of Hirsch, Hirschler translated numerous other works such as Rabbi Alexander Z. Friedman’s Wellsprings of Torah. She also penned numerous articles for encyclopedias and edited Ashkenaz: The German Jewish Heritage. 

Hirschler, who was Torah observant, passed away in 1994 and is buried in Baltimore.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo copyright 2017 Stengler

Rabbi Shimshon.R.Hirsch: Why Is childbirth associated with impurity?

Rabbi Shimshon.R.Hirsch: Why Is childbirth associated with impurity? | ערוץ 7 (israelnationalnews.com)

aided substantially in the destruction of the European Jews

    Zionist obsession for a state has been so maniacal, so out of bounds from Torah and basic human values, that Zionists actually contributed to Jewish death in the Holocaust. In the words of Rav Avigdor Miller, “The Zionist leaders together with the Reform ‘rabbis’ aided substantially in the destruction of the European Jews.”[1] The list of their diabolical actions is so long that we can only touch upon them here.  

In 1940, a ship of refugees sailed down the Danube River seeking to continue on to Eretz Yisroel. The ship’s captain requested more money to continue the trip. However, Henry Monitor, the head of the United Jewish Appeal in America, refused the request, saying, “Many of the passengers are old people and women, who are not suited for such difficult journeys. What are needed for the Land of Israel are young people who understand the meaning of the National Jewish Homeland. This represents the greatest threat, if the Land of Israel becomes filled with unproductive elements, and it will impede the efforts to achieve a state.”[2] A similar statement was uttered by Yitzhak Greenbaum of the Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency. He said, “When they asked me: Can you not release funds from the Keren Hayesod to save Jews in the Diaspora, I said no, and again I say: No. In my opinion, it is necessary to resist this wave that is pushing Zionist activities into the background.”[3] 

As Brisker Rav biographer Rav Shimon Yosef Meller points out, Greenbaum persisted in his shocking attitude as late as 1943 when the full extent of the catastrophe in Europe was known. Greenbaum said: 

 

We should devote only our surplus resources and our surplus efforts to saving the Diaspora. When two options are offered: the chance to save multitudes of Jews in Europe or redemption of the Land, I choose without a moment’s hesitation redemption of the Land. Speaking too much about the slaughter causes a weakening of our efforts to increase Hebrew might in Israel. If it were possible to buy food packages with funds from Keren Hayesod and send them by way of Lisbon, would we do so? No, no![4] 

 

In the 1930s American President Franklin D. Roosevelt extended an offer to accept refugees, 150,000 of them, and Great Britain planned to follow suit with similar numbers. Roosevelt’s emissary Morris L. Ernst came to England but was opposed by Zionist leaders there. He reported later that they told him, “This is treason. You are undermining the Zionist movement.” Roosevelt informed Great Britain that the project must be abandoned: “We cannot put it over because the dominant vocal Jewish leadership won’t stand for it.”[5]  

In 1938, President Roosevelt convened a conference on Jewish refugees at which conference the delegation from the Jewish Agency declined to influence the United States or the other participating nations to accept German Jews. At that time, the Nazis made an offer to release Jews at the price of $250 per person, but the Jewish Agency headed by Golda Meir ignored the offer. In 1942, Rav Solomon Schonfeld persuaded the British Colonial Office to allow Jews to find safe haven in the British colony of Mauritius, an island nation off of the coast of Africa.[6] A vote was put before the British Parliament, but a Zionist spokesman stated that Jews opposed the motion because it did not include Palestine.[7] The motion was defeated. 

In 1940, the Zionist paramilitary outfit the Haganah blew up an 11,885-ton ocean liner called the Patria as it sat in Haifa Harbor with 1,904 passengers on board. The passengers were Jewish refugees from Europe that the British were sending to Mauritius and Trinidad. The Haganah, claiming later that its intention was to disable the ship, planted a bomb that did not explode. So, it planted a larger bomb that blew a 3x2 meter hole in the ship, sinking it in 16 minutes. Over 200 Jewish refugees plus 50 crew members and British soldiers perished.[8] 

In 1943, New York newspapers publicized Romania’s offer to release 70,000 Jews at the price of $50 each. Rav Avigdor Miller explains what happened next: 

 

Stephen Wise the president of the American Jewish Congress and leader of U. S. Zionists publicly denied the authenticity of the offer and declared that no collection of funds “would seem justified.” The Jewish Agency in England also ridiculed the news of the Roumanian offer, but Undersecretary of State A. A. Berle affirmed privately that the Roumanian government had actually made such an offer to the State Department. Some time later, when all the Jews who could have been rescued had been annihilated, the facts of the offer were confirmed by Bartley Crum, an expert on affairs of the Near East, who declared that the 70,000 Jews could easily have been transported through Turkey by a few days’ travel in trucks, but the State Department had refrained from publicising the news of the offer due to Jewish (Zionist) pressure.[9] 

 

Stephen Wise again thwarted rescue efforts in 1944 when the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People called upon the United States to establish a War Refugee Beard. Stephen Wise opposed the proposal before Congressional committee.[10] 

The book Perfidy tells us one of the most shocking stories of them all, how Zionist leaders in Hungary, in particular Rudolf Kastner, deliberately withheld from 400,000 Jews in Hungary knowledge that Nazi trains were headed for death camps rather than safe haven. Moreover, Joel Brand, an emissary who went to meet Zionist leaders in Turkey and Palestine to plead for token funding to save Jews from annihilation was deceived by Zionist leaders and landed in a British prison, where he was held as the slaughter commenced.[11] After the war, Kastner testified on behalf of S.S. Lieutenant Kurt Becher, saving him from his war crimes. After his trial for his crimes, Kastner was assassinated. Some speculate that Israeli intelligence agents killed him to prevent the public from finding out how extensive the ties were between the Zionists and the Nazis.[12] 

After the war, President Harry Truman asked the State Department to apply visa quotas from the war years in order to allow 400,000 refugees from Europe into America. Congressman William Stratton put a bill before Congress as required for this measure, but the major Jewish organizations, controlled by Zionists, opposed it and the bill was not passed.[13]  

We have also many personal accounts of abuses of Holocaust survivors by Zionists. Maryla (née Husyt) Finkelstein grew up in Warsaw, survived the Warsaw Ghetto, the Majdanek concentration camp, and two slave labor camps. Here is what she had to say about her experiences with Zionism and Zionists: 

 

I was not a Zionist because I did not believe that this problem of a lot of Jews, of a congregation of so many Jews in the world, can be solved by a small country like Palestine. Naturally, I didn’t think that we should build our country over dead bodies. So, I did not believe that Zionism will solve the Jewish problem. 

After the Holocaust as I told you, there was more enlightenment. I started to think that maybe I am wrong. In my idiotic mind I thought that if we would have during the Second War a country like Israel and a representation in the League of Nations we would be saved. Well I started to think about Zionism. But the experience with the Judenrat. The experience with the leaders in the DP camp in Austria which had everything what they wanted. They had as much money for nothing as they wanted. And still there was pilferage, injustice, outright discrimination against the sick and the poor. They were so ruthless. I said to myself well I won’t be able to function under a Jewish rule. I cannot function in a society where the word protection is connected, not that they protect you but this is a door opening for the most plain job. I didn’t like them. I can give you millions of examples. 

Now coming here to this country and what happened to me with the money from Germany was an outright antidote to any Zionist thoughts I ever had. If you could take Jews after such a horrible tragedy to steal money from not only me, but like me, a handful like me, to steal money, and force us to go back to primitive situation and to start build ourselves up from scratch after a concentration camp, life in a ghetto, horrors of war. If they could take away what the damn Germans agreed to give me, you understand, on the way to the forum, the money on the way to the forum, I was robbed by Jews and not poor because after the first thievery they were already rich. But they wanted the most. I'm telling you, this was my antidote to any thought of Zionism. 

Oy Jewish people have to go through big and big and big indoctrination and cleansing to be able to stand up and ask and demand and show that we are a state, that we are capable of having a state. A state cannot exist on tanks because tanks kill, so what are you going to rule over dead bodies? We have to show that we can build. And the leadership must be brought up not from the scum. But from what is in the middle, the more human humans. What shall I tell you? 

The Pope once was told, asked to recognize Israel. And the Jewish argument was we are a state. So, he said if you are state so act like a state and we will recognize you. Now imagine my tzuris – I have to side with the Pope. But I agree with him. You cannot have even in this wild crazy world, you cannot have a state behaving so rowdily like Israel. And it’s not a state. Again, and again, it’s a garrison. It’s a garrison. And I dream and I feel that our salvation, our lives, just lives, flesh and blood and bones, depends on the behavior in Palestine, in Israel, on Israel and Palestine territory. I don’t know even how to call it. 

The leadership in Israel is the prolongation of the Judenrat and these commedists [?] in the DP camps and they finally arrived there to destroy and to really take our, get our mouths forever claiming that we have the right to live. And in order to live in today’s world you have to have a government. Whether you like it or not. I am not so fond of so many borders on the map. I wish we will be united all. Borders only create more wars. But be it as it may, we have to have representation, but not the kind we have.[14] 

 

This Zionist interference with the entry of Jewish refugees to lands other than Israel has continued long after the post-war years. In 1956, the Canadian minister of immigration, J.W. Pickersgill, was asked if Canada would admit Jewish refugees. He replied: “The government has made no progress in that direction, because the government of Israel.... does not wish us to do so.”[15] In 1971, Herman Weissman, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, successfully opposed a Congressional effort to admit tens of thousands of Russian refugees.[16] 

The Satmar Rebbe cautioned us all on Zionist interference with immigration. 

 

The Zionists constantly boast that the only place of refuge on earth for Jews is their state. However, anyone with a brain in his head can see that it was because of the Zionists that the doors of other countries were shut to the Jews. This is because the Zionists always exert every effort to prevent Jews from going anywhere else other than to their own state. Any person who takes even the slightest action of offering Jews the possibility of finding refuge in any other country to fulfil the statement of our Sages in the Talmud (Tractate Pesachim, p. 87) that “G-d did an act of charity to disperse the Jews among the nations” faces savage attacks of all kinds from the Zionists, who hurl all types of insults, slander and curses, claiming that such a person is a self-hating Jew who hates the Holy Land. 

 

Moreover, Zionist officials and ministers fan out all over the world, attending banquets with world officials to convince them to refuse to allow their nation to serve as lands of refuge for Jews, and on the contrary, implore them to coercively redirect these Jews to the Zionist state, in violation of the oath prohibiting mass immigration to the Holy Land as explained by the Talmudic sages. The Zionists coerce most of those Jews who have arrived in the Zionist State into heresy and apostasy, and the children of these Jews are defiled in dreadful ways. These “immigrants” continue to suffer poverty and enormous destitution. All the Zionists care about is that they should have a strong state with a huge pool of available soldiers for their army and other coercive organizations and activities. 

 

These Zionist evildoers used their G-d-given free will to choose evil, arrogance and heresy, and have been the cause of all the suffering and tribulations to the Jewish People, to assure that Jews find no peace and respite in any country, and work to assure that the doors of the nations are shut. Furthermore, nations can claim that they do not have to offer refuge to Jews because the Jews now have their own state where they can seek refuge. The Zionists, who are viewed by the nations as the leaders of the Jewish People, demand that Jews not go anywhere other than to their state.[17] 

 

Dr. Meir Margalit reports in his book Returning in Tears – Emigration During the British Mandate Period that Zionists also obstructed emigration from Palestine for people who wanted to leave during the mandate period. During the First and Second Aliyahs (1882-1903 and 1904-1914, respectively) more than half of new immigrants left the country. During the Mandate era, from 1923 to 1948, around 60,000 left, the rate of return being around 10% in 1948. After World War II, some Jews in Palestine approached the United Nations refugee agency, asking for inclusion on the lists of refugees entitled to return to their homeland. In 1947, a group called Organization of Returning German Immigrants submitted 485 requests for Austrian passports. The Polish consul in Tel Aviv referenced 14,500 Polish Jews requesting visas to return to Poland. However, the Zionist leadership worked to obstruct their return. Says Margalit, “There is evidence of a deal between the Jewish Agency and the Polish Consulate in Mandatory Palestine, whereby they would cause endless delays to the Jews who wanted to return so they would lose their desire to go back.” Margolit believes requests for emigration might have been even higher if not for the obstructions.[18] 

Margalit tell us that the Zionists also forced emigration of the chronically ill. Yehoshua Gordon, the director of the immigration office in Tel Aviv during the Mandate era, complained that many of the deported infirmed were not receiving necessary treatment in Europe and were even “dying in the streets from illnesses.” Nevertheless, deportation of such immigrants became an official policy in 1926.[19]  

In 1958, Foreign Minister Golda Meir expressed her interest in preventing handicapped and sick Polish Jews from immigrating to Israel. In a top-secret memo discovered a half-century later by the Israeli Foreign Ministry she wrote, “A proposal was raised in the coordination committee to inform the Polish government that we want to institute selection in aliyah, because we cannot continue accepting sick and handicapped people. Please give your opinion as to whether this can be explained to the Poles without hurting immigration.”[20] And so another crack appears in the image of the state being a haven for all Jews and Ahavas Yisroel being the prime motivation for the state’s founders.  

Is real AhavasYisroel even possible without Ahavas HaShem? As Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the 7^th Lubavitcher Rebbe, said, the Zohar says that HaShem, Torah, and Klal Yisroel are one. Therefore, love of HaShem, Torah, and Klal Yisroel are one.[21] So it should not be surprising to find that claims by atheistic Zionists of love of Jewry is not as advertised. Their real love is for a secular state. For that they need Jews, but only healthy ones as we have learned. However, it should be noted that most of the 800,000 Jews from Arab nations that the state absorbed were poor.[22]  

Zionists try to pass off their state as a refuge from anti-Semitism yet not only are its doors not opened to all Jews, but it pushes out ones it does not want. Not only does the state endanger Jews worldwide, but the Zionists in their deranged establishment of the state caused countless Jews to perish. Could this possibly be described as the ingathering of exiles?  

Perhaps even worse, on a spiritual level Zionism may have been the cause of the Holocaust. This was the view of the Satmar Rebbe, the Chazon Ish, Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandl, and others. We presented earlier the view of Rav Yaakov Emden that rebellion against Rome in an effort to force the end of exile was the spiritual cause of the massacre of the Jews in Beitar. Regarding the Holocaust, as Rav Dovid Shmidel reports, a visitor asked the Chazon Ish “How could it be that all the nations of the world stood by silently while the Germans killed millions of Jews?” The Chazon Ish responded, “Is it not an explicit Gemara in Kesubos that if the Jewish people violates the Three Oaths, Hashem will permit their flesh like the gazelles and the deer of the field?”[23] Ironically, or perhaps it is more accurate to say hypocritically, Zionist propagandists reference the Holocaust with regularity as a justification for the state even if it be secular, yet Zionism may have been the cause of the Holocaust in the first place. If persecution is the result of violation of the Three Oaths then how could more violation of the oaths be the cure for it? If persecution is the result of sin and secularity, then how could more sin and secularity be the cure for it? 

 

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[1] R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory (Brooklyn, NY: Beis Yisroel of Rugby, 5740), p. 232. 

[2] R’ Shimon Yosef Meller, The Brisker Rav, Volume III, p. 325. 

[3] R’ Shimon Yosef Meller, The Brisker Rav, Volume III, p. 325. 

[4] R’ Shimon Yosef Meller, The Brisker Rav, Volume III, pp. 325-6. 

[5] R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory, #761; “New Nixon Tapes Prove that Anti-Semitism and Zionism Go Hand in Hand,” Torah Jews, visited Jan. 8, 2018 <http://www.truetorahjews.org/nixon>.  

[6] Emma Youle, “Government honours Rabbi Dr Solomon Schonfeld for saving 3,500 lives in Holocaust,” Ham & High, April 11, 2013. “New Nixon Tapes Prove that Anti-Semitism and Zionism Go Hand in Hand,” Torah Jews. 

[7] R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory, #755 and #757. 

[8] R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory, #756; “Patria Disaster,” Wikipedia < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patria_disaster>. 

[9] R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory, #759. 

[10] R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory, #760. 

[11] R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory, #767; “Perfidy (book),” Wikipedia; Ben Hecht, Perfidy (Lynbrook, NY: Gefen Books, 1999). 

[12]  Ben Hecht, Perfidy, p. i. 

[13]  R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory, #762; “New Nixon Tapes Prove that Anti-Semitism and Zionism Go Hand in Hand,” Torah Jews <http://www.truetorahjews.org/nixon>. 

[14] Maryla (nee Husyt) Finkelstein, Interview on Democracy Now, youtube, transcription by the author of this work, visited Jan. 4, 2018 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUb61jengn0>. “Judenrat (plural: Judenräte; German for “Jewish council”) was a widely used administrative agency imposed by Nazi Ger-many during World War II, predominantly within the ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe, and the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland. The Nazi German administration required Jews to form a Judenrat in every community across the occupied territories.” Wikipedia. 

[15] R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory, #763. 

[16] R’ Avigdor Miller, Awake My Glory, #764. 

[17] R’ Yoel Teitelbaum, Vayoel Moshe 1:111. 

[18] Dr. Meir Margalit, Returning in Tears – Emigration During the British Mandate Period  in Nir Hasson, “The Untold Story of the Jews Who Left Mandatory Palestine,” Haaretz, Feb. 16, 2018. 

[19] Nir Hasson, “The Untold Story of the Jews Who Left Mandatory Palestine.” 

[20] Lily Galili, “Golda Meir Told Poland: Don't Send Sick or Disabled Jews to Israel,” Haaretz, September 9, 2009. 

[21] R’ Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Sefer HaSichos 5700, p. 2ff.; Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 2, p. 499 in Nissan Dovid Dubov, “The Connection Between Ahavas Yisrael and Ahavas HaShem” <https://www.chabad.org /library/article_cdo/aid/2312300/jewish/Chapter-2-Ahavas-Yisrael-and-Ahavas-HaShem-Loving-a-Fellow-Jew-and-Loving-G-d.htm>, visited Feb. 26, 2018. 

[22] “Benny Morris ─ The Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949,” Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. 

[23] Yirmiyahu Cohen, I Will Await Him, pp. 285-6.