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1971

The Ideology of the Neturei Karta According to the Satmarer Version (1971)

Zionism
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The Ideology of Religious Zionism (1969)

In a broad sense, Zionism has always been an integral part of Judaism. Although the majority of Jews were away from the Land of Israel throughout most of the 3,500 years of Jewish history, ארץ ישראל has always loomed large, indeed, indispensable, in Jewish religious thought. It began at the beginning — with the divine promise to Abraham, and the blessing, which centered about the relation of God, People, and Land. Thus, the Talmud considers the settlement in ארץ ישראל as a mitzvah or obligation, and the overwhelming majority of authorities hold that this obligation is in force today too. This relationship between Israel the People and Israel the Land transcends historical memory or religious ideal or legal obligation. It is all these and more—a long, painful, and glorious love story. In the (Lev. 26:32) we read: "And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished ( ) at it." means more than "astonished" some translate; "appalled." Even more accurate, according to Jewish tradition, would be "desolated" so the Land will be desolate that even the enemy will not be able to flourish in it. The Sages found a consoling element in this prediction of doom: "This represents a good quality for Israel that the enemies will find no satisfaction in the Land, for it will be desolate of its inhabitants." People of Israel and Land of Israel are like two lovers, husband and wife, who have had bitter arguments and left each other. But it is a lover's quarrel—they are angry with each other, they have separated, but neither will give its love to any other. The People will not transfer its ultimate commitment to any other Land—neither Uganda nor Birobidjan. And the Land will not yield its secrets nor offer itself up to any other lover. Only Jews have ever succeeded in settling the Land and making it flourish—not the Germans in days of the Kaiser, not the Turks or English or Arabs. Of course, with such a glorious history of mutual love, lon…
Zionism

Outline

The Ideology of the Neturei Karta (1969)

I. Introduction A. Thank you for giving me this assignment. Until now, I’ve opposed Neturei Karta (=NK) without ever having studied its major theoretician and analyzed its arguments. Now I have been forced to do so—and I remain unconvinced and as firmly opposed. If anything, I am even more opposed—but also more respectful. B. Had genesis in 1935 when a few hundred members of Agudat Israel considered Agudah too lenient to Zionist groups, generally too moderate, and under Amram Blau seceded and formed NK. They number today several hundred families in Israel, and followers and adherents in Brooklyn and several other centers throughout Diaspora. C. "NK" means "Guardians of the City." Term appears in J.T. (Hag. 1:7) that 3 Sages, under instruction from R. Judah the Prince, traveled through land to make sure every town had teachers—of Bible and Mishnah. Came upon one town that had none, and said to townsfolk: Show us your NK, i.e., guardians of the city. Thereupon they produced police. Rabbis: No—they are destroyers of city. Who then are NK? Answer: teachers and scribes—for without them a city is fated to destruction. NR, therefore, are teachers of Torah by virtue of whom the rest of the population survives. D. NK comes to our attention usually through acts of dramatic protest or minor violence, rarely serious. Its publication restricted largely to shrill posters, polemic pamphlets, strident banners. Only serious works of any real consequence are by aging Satmarer Rebbi, R. Yoel Moshe Teitelbaum, a Rumanian Hasidic leader in U.S.A, since end of World War II, in three volumes published in the last ten years: (V.M.) (Vol. 1-1959; 11-1961) and (G.T.) (1967). It is, in essence, the continuation of the strongly held views of the Hasidic dynasty of Muncacz and their Hungarian-Rumanian followers. E. These views, by any standards—extreme. Most Orthodox Jews—even non-Zionists or even anti-Zionists—reject them, find them often reprehensible. Yet they represent a consistent ideolog…
Zionism

Correspondence

Exchange with Ruth Weil about "The Ideology of the Neturei Karta" (1972)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I just got the latest issue of Tradition and read your article on the Ideology of the Neturei Karta. There are a few points I would like to raise and also ask you a few questions. I hope you do not mind! To begin with a general impression. To me your presentation of the ideology seems to be clothed in a sort of “sympathetic regret.” You agree, that fundamentally the basis of Neturei Karta stands on very shaky grounds. But one has a feeling “It could have been so nice, if it only could have been true.” Waiting in the Galuth anywhere as long as life was normal or bearable, then seek refuge in a more favourable place, until one day miraculously the Mashiach would appear and bring us all back to our land. We all have been brought up somehow on this idea, and may feel at times sort of nostalgic to realize our error. I also do think we never visualized this ingathering of our people in a concrete way, no one pondered much how this coming back would technically materialize, as it was to be miraculous. (Incidentally Chaim Hazaz once said something like: Jews always pray for the Mashiach to come, but deep in their hearts they pray, that the gentile should no be too bad towards them.) Convinced of our belief of the return to Eretz Israel, we rejected at a great majority Zionism at its very beginning, no one could conceive redemption initiated by the most secular and atheistic group of Jews. I am not challenging here the Neturei Karta, but would like to ask you, how can the Satmarer Rav pretend that the holocaust was a result and punishment of the Zionists challenging Hitler and declaring war on Germany? Hitler published his attitude towards the Jewish people and the Jews well before he came to power. If an affirmation is based on the very beginning on wrong facts, then of course all that happened later can be derived accordingly. Why do you find at times the logic of the Satmarer Rav piquant? (p. 51) The idea if God would have wanted our return to the old C…
Zionism