Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

A haredi child wearing yellow star during an anti-government demonstration by haredim in Jerusalem Saturday night. The child was posed for the cameras with his arms raised to match a famous picture of a Jewish child surrendering to the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto.

People in my community ask me, “Who is Rabbi Dovid Weiss?” Well, he represents the baby-boom leadership of the infamous Neturei Karta (hence I shall refer to them as “NK”). When I was growing up, I remember reading stories about how the NK proclaimed, “We do not recognize the State of Israel.” As a thirteen year-old boy, I thought they were pretty weird.

Some things never change and in this case, the NK are now worse than ever!

His home is in Monsey, NY. Weiss has joined forces with some of the world’s worse anti-Semites. Palestinian and other sundry hate groups love bringing him as a speaker, where he condemns the “Zionist” State of Israel.

As Iran stands at the threshold of becoming a nuclear state, Weiss praises the thugocracy of Iran:

• The only reason the Zionists are able to hold the Jewish people in their grasp is because their propaganda machines are busy explaining to the Jews that it’s too late, even if you’re not a Zionist, the Arabs hate you so much today that if you return the land they will, God forbid, slaughter you, and that today is the strongest argument that they have to convince Jews to support their Zionist state. This is the trap the Zionists want people to fall into so it is important for the Muslim people to get out there and make it understood that it is not the danger that is being portrayed by the Zionists . . [1]

Weiss admits that his grandparents died in the Holocaust; he is proud of the fact his father escaped and that he is “ . . . a 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 cannot refute, but that being said, it doesn’t mean that the holocaust is a tool to use to oppress other people . . .”

Actually, Weiss is a living mockery to all the victims of the Holocaust.

Weiss’s hatred of Zionism and Israel derives in part from a Hassidic theology that blames the Holocaust on the Jews, for rejecting the Messiah and endorsing Zionism!

After WWII, the late Satmar leader Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum defined the position that has since been echoed by the Neturei Karta for over 60 years:

• Because of our sinfulness we have suffered greatly, suffering as bitter as wormwood, worse than any Israel has know since it became a people…In former times, whenever troubles befell Jacob, the matter was pondered and reasons sought–which sin had brought the troubles about–so that we could make amends and return to the Lord, may He be blessed…But in our generation one need not look far for the sin responsible for our calamity…The heretics have made all kinds of efforts to violate these oaths, to go up by force and to seize sovereignty and freedom by themselves, before the appointed time…[They] have lured the majority of the Jewish people into awful heresy, the like of which as not been seen since the world was created…And so it is no wonder that the Lord has lashed out in anger…And there were also righteous people who perished because of the iniquity of the sinners and corrupters, so great was the [divine] wrath . . .[2]

There are many scriptural statements about not associating with wicked men; yet, it never occurs to him that the Palestinians and the Iranian mullahs still celebrate Hitler’s birthday! The Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Europe sent on Jan. 5, 2012, a very important letter to the newly elected Spanish government’s Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, points to Spain’s continued funding of the Palestinian children’s magazine, Zayzafuna, which glorifies Hitler. Weiss is so driven by his ego, he cannot see what he is supporting.

About two weeks ago, the NK celebrated a wedding and a Shabbat with Hamas in Gaza-of all places! The Palestinians were probably salivating at the hope Rabbi Weiss would convert to Islam. Actually, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea; at least he’d stop embarrassing the Jewish people, who want nothing to do with him. (Eye witnesses say that after he returned from Iran, none of his Monsey friends wanted to be seen even near him.)

Although the late Satmar Rebbe was no friend of Israel, he at least knew about the importance of ahavat Yisrael—and he showed a love for his people. Many years ago, the Satmar and Neturei Karta were about to start an anti-Israel demonstration in Manhattan on the eve of the Six Day War. Then, the war broke out. The Satmar Rebbe immediately cancelled the gathering. When asked why, he replied, “We oppose the State of Israel on Halachic grounds; we oppose it with all our might. However, at this time when the lives of Jews are all at stake, we must not let anti-Semites see disunity in our ranks . . .”

Spoken like a real mentsch.

And now, Weiss makes an international mockery of the Holocaust by having small children dress up with the yellow Star of David, while their Haredi and fellow Hassidic buddies laugh at the cameras.

What can be more banal than desecrating the memories of the six million?

If the soul of the Satmar Rebbe could only see what his movement has spawned, even he would hold his head in shame . . .

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Notes:

[1] Open Question to Yisroel Dovid Weiss - Inminds.co.uk - March 2, 2003

[2] Aviezer Ravitzky, Messianism, Zionism and Jewish Religious Radicalism (Chicago: UP Chicago, 1996), 124.