The nutty Jews sucking up to Tehran

Rabbi Barry Gelman:

Last week the Chronicle ran a curious and disturbing picture of a Chassidic Jew embracing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a conference of Holocaust deniers.

The picture has outraged Jews all over the world. That embrace represents a betrayal of Jewish sensitivities and a disgrace to the victims of the Holocaust. As the rabbi in the picture appears to be ultraorthodox Jews, it is important to set the record straight as to what authentic Orthodox Judaism teaches on this issue.

The rabbi belongs to a group called Neturei Karta that believes that Zionism is a heresy. They base their views on various Talmudic statements and the warped theological view that the Holocaust was a punishment from God brought about by the advent of political Zionism. In this group's view, only God can create a Jewish commonwealth in the Land of Israel. Any human attempt to do so is viewed as a lack of faith in God. Furthermore, according to their view, the fact that Israel was established, in the main, by nonobservant Jews, forever taints the Zionist endeavor. As such, they believe that the state of Israel is illegitimate and should not exist.

According to them, Israel belongs to the Palestinians. They attended the conference to show "solidarity" with an individual who shares their views.

This view is a distortion of Jewish law as well as a misrepresentation of the sentiments of the vast majority of Orthodox and Ultraorthodox Jews.

Judaism is profoundly Zionist. The Bible, Talmud and the daily prayer service are filled with references to Israel and Jerusalem. For ages, Jews living in exile have longed to return to Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people.

In order to back their claim that Zionism is heresy, the Neturei Karta quote isolated sources and interpret them in ways contrary to most rabbinic authorities. It is a basic premise of Jewish legal theory that certain statements in the Talmud are legally binding (Jewish law) while others are categorized as aggadic (nonlegal) discussions. While important, the aggadic sections are not meant to be normative. This fringe group is so alone in its view that all classic codifiers of Jewish law ignore its arguments. It is important to note this so readers are aware that this group in no way represents Orthodox Judaism.

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There is more about this weird sect.

History as recorded in the Bible shows God's responsibility for genocide as a reoccurring theme starting with account of Noah building an ark so that his family and livestock he gathered would be the sole survivors. In Sodom, God used fire for his genocide. Saul, the first king of Israel is denied a successor because he failed to "utterly destroy" the Amalicites. His sin was in taking the king as a prisoner.

It seems to be a theme used to insure compliance that flows into Christianity where judgment day will result in eternal torture for the unbelievers. One of the aspects of Islam, is that many of its followers are not willing to leave this judgment up to God, but feel they must implement the policy. That is why the folks in Tehran are planning the next genocide for Israel. That is also why this sect is on the wrong side of history.

What is more strange about this episode is that embrace in Tehran is between a sect that believes the Holocaust occurred and was God's vengeance against the Jews and other weirdos who want to believe it did not happen in order to question the legitimacy of Israel. They only thing they have in common is the question of legitimacy which is entirely irrelevant. Israel exist and the main importance of the holocaust to Israel is the determination it gives it citizens to see that it does not happen again. By embracing those who want to perpetrate the next Holocaust, these men's belief become truly perverse.