In addition to this essay, as to commentary and clarifying comments in
brackets [ ] only: © Mark Rosenblit
Note: Although I respectfully discuss the Talmud’s “Three Oaths” in the below email to Neturei Karta, I do not regard the Talmud as the Word of God. Rather, the Talmud is a compilation of Jewish wisdom, created over many centuries, reflecting the eras and circumstances which the human authors thereof experienced. As such, no Talmudic declaration should ever be viewed as being equivalent to -- let alone superior to -- the Directives and Prophecies of the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, as the Talmud was written during a time when the Jewish people were scattered among, and subject to the tyrannical rule of, Antisemitic gentile empires, it naturally prioritizes the self-preservation of the Jewish people in the Exile, which causes it to counsel passivity in the face of persecution, the logical outcome of which was the creation of the “Three Oaths”. However, while the “Three Oaths” certainly represented common sense when the Talmud was formulated and memorialized (from the 1st - 6th Centuries C.E.), this pacifist doctrine was rendered a dangerous anachronism by the aggregation of certain seminal events in the 20th Century C.E., including Great Britain’s seizure of the Land of Israel from the Ottoman Empire during World War I, the League of Nations’ issuance of its Mandate for Palestine (whose explicit purpose was the reestablishment of a “Jewish National Home” in the Land of Israel and whose implicit purpose was the creation of a sovereign Jewish State therein), the Holocaust during World War II, and the United Nations’ issuance of its Palestine Partition Plan (whose explicit purpose was the creation of a Jewish State in the Land of Israel). Obviously and unfortunately, for the tiny Neturei Karta cult, the ancient rabbinic declaration known as the “Three Oaths” supersedes even the Word and Will of God, which impels Neturei Karta to embrace Evil. Consequently, in the below email, I analyze the “Three Oaths” in an attempt to demonstrate to Neturei Karta (and, more importantly, to the many other Jews who regard the Talmud as being divinely inspired) that the creation of modern Israel does not violate the “Three Oaths”.
ANTI-ZIONIST JEWRY: THE NEW JUDENRAT
From: mark rosenblit <mark@rosenblit.com>
To: mail@JewsNotZionists.org
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2001
Subject: Anti-Zionist Jewry: The New Judenrat
To Neturei Karta, sponsor of www.jewsnotzionists.org:
There is a Muslim website known as the Islamic News And Information Network at www.inin.net which has a link to an article entitled "The Islamic Ruling On The Permissibility Of Martyrdom Operations" (http://www.inin.net/martyr.htm) which, by citing to both Koranic and extra-Koranic texts, extols the murder of Jews through the use of suicide bombers. In order to prove that hatred of, and jihad against, Jews residing in the modern State of Israel is sanctioned also by the Torah and, consequently, by normative Judaism, this Muslim website has a link to your anti-Zionist Jewish website. In other words, the Muslims who thirst for Jewish blood are using the Neturei Karta as the Nazis once used the Judenrat (a Nazi-organized system of "Jew Councils" staffed by local Jews and established for the purpose of liaising between the Nazis and the ghettoized Jewish population pending their deportation to the death camps) -- namely, to provide a Jewish veneer for the annihilation of the Jewish people. The doctrine of Pikuach Nefesh (avoiding danger to Jewish life) demands that you not permit your religious beliefs to be used to endanger Jews -- even Zionist Jews.
Now for your religious beliefs. You posit that the modern State of Israel was established in defiance of God's Will because the Jewish people have not yet atoned for the biblical sins which caused their expulsion from the Land of Israel. It follows from your beliefs that the God of Israel -- even now -- requires that the Jewish people continue to remain under the domination of the nations of the Exile until the advent of the Messiah.
Although your website does not offer any Halachic support for your beliefs, you are almost certainly relying upon the “Three Oaths” described in the Babylonian Talmud, namely, that: (1) the Jewish people must not ascend from the nations of the Exile to the Land of Israel, forcibly, en masse; (2) the Jewish people must not rebel against the nations of the Exile; and (3) the nations of the Exile must not overly persecute the Jewish people in their midst (see Ketubot 111a). However, in a messianic reference to the future ingathering of the Jewish people to, and the resurrection of a sovereign Jewish nation-state in, the Land of Israel, the Midrash warns that if the gentile nations should overly persecute the Jewish people in violation of the Three Oaths, then "they cause the End of Days to come prematurely" (Shir HaShirim Rabba, 2:7).
In other words, the Three Oaths constitute an interdependent bilateral contract between the gentile nations and the Jewish people -- meaning that, once the nations, including the Muslim countries, violated their part of the Three Oaths with their expulsions, Crusades, Inquisitions, fatwas, the farhoud (in Nazi-era Iraq), pogroms and, of course, HaShoah (the Holocaust), the Jewish people were thereby absolved of their part of the Three Oaths. Modern political Zionism and the modern State of Israel arose -- by the Hand of God -- as a direct result of the breach by the gentile nations of the Three Oaths.
And if you will, nevertheless, insist that the Three Oaths constitute an independent
bilateral contract between the gentile nations and the Jewish people -- meaning
that, despite the massive violations by the gentile nations of their
obligations thereunder, the Jewish people still remain bound by the
Three Oaths, then it is clear that the Jewish people have not violated
them. For, the
Moreover, although you believe and constantly declare that the establishment
and continued existence of the Zionist Entity is an abomination which
constitutes an enormous Chillul HaShem (desecration of God's Name), it is
nonetheless a fact that the State of Israel not only hosts but also provides
financial aid to more Torah institutions -- including those of
the non-Zionist religious movements -- than does any other nation
on the face of the Earth. (Even
For, in response to the great Chillul HaShem created when the gentile nations have, with impunity, throughout History, massacred their Jewish citizenry, and in fulfillment of Prophecy (see Deuteronomy 30:1-5; Isaiah 54:7; Ezekiel 36:18-38 & 39:28-29; and Amos 9:14-15), God has resurrected the Jewish polity of Israel within the borders of the biblical Land of Israel in our Time -- despite the fact that the Jewish people have not yet repented for their biblical Sins -- in order to hasten the End of Days, during which He will punish the gentile nations for their avodah zarah (idolatry and other deviant worship), their arrogance and their age-old persecution of the Jewish people (see Deuteronomy 32:43; Isaiah 45:14-23; Jeremiah 2:3; Ezekiel 38:1 - 39:8; Zechariah 14:1-21; and Joel 4:1-2), to the end that both they and the Jewish people will recognize and acknowledge His solitary Kingship over the Universe. Thus, the establishment and continued existence of the Zionist Entity constitutes, not Chillul HaShem, but rather Kiddush HaShem!
Especially revealing are the prophecies of the Prophet Zechariah concerning the apocalyptic War of Gog and Magog, during which the gentile nations and their Jewish allies will conspire to destroy Israel, but will, instead, be decimated by God's Wrath. Zechariah prophesies about the War, as follows:
"I will gather all of the nations to Jerusalem for the War; the City will be captured, the houses will be pillaged and the women will be violated; half of the City will go out into exile, but the rest of the people will not be eliminated from the City. HaShem will go out and wage War with those nations, as He waged War on the Day of Battle ... This will be the Plague with which HaShem will strike all the peoples that have organized against Jerusalem: Each one's flesh will melt away while he is standing on his feet, each one's eyes will melt away in their sockets; and each one's tongue will melt away in their mouths. It shall be on that Day that there will be a Great Panic of HaShem among them; each one will grab the hand of his fellow, and his hand will be raised up against the hand of his fellow. Also [many among] Judah will wage war against Jerusalem ..." (Zechariah 14:2-14).
The Prophet's latter reference is to those Jews, including the full spectrum
of anti-Zionist Jewry (especially a sect such as the Neturei Karta which claims
to be Torah-observant), who aid and abet
© Mark Rosenblit
[Note: The Neturei Karta is an evil cult whose rabid anti-Zionism leads it to endorse, in essence, the annihilation of the 40% of World Jewry that presently inhabits the State of Israel. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Neturei Karta pays solidarity visit to
By Michael Freund
(Jerusalem Post, March 13, 2006) A delegation from the anti-Zionist Neturei
Karta sect is currently visiting Teheran to meet with senior officials and
express their support for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his calls
to eliminate
In a statement to
They added that they were "upset about the recent ploys, propaganda and
tensions which have been created by the West regarding the statements of the
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about a World free of Zionism, since this
is nothing more than wishing for a better world dominated by peace and
calm."
On Sunday, members of the delegation, headed by Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, met
with Iranian Vice-President Ahmad Moussavi, who also chairs the Iranian
Committee in Support of the Palestinian Revolution.
At the meeting, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA, Weiss "praised
the enlightening statements of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about the
Holocaust, and said the establishment of a Zionist government and occupation of
The doctrine of Neturei Karta says Jews cannot use human force to establish a
Jewish state before the coming of the universally accepted messiah.
The group supports close ties with Arabs, particularly Palestinians, and
rejects Zionism.
Ahmadinejad has been widely condemned in the West for asserting that the
Holocaust is a myth.
This is not the first time that Neturei Karta has come to the defense of the
Iranian regime. On October 28 of last year, the group issued a statement
denying that Ahmadinejad was anti-Semitic after he called for the State of
Israel to be dismantled.
Neturei Karta's leader, Rabbi Moshe Hirsh, considers himself a Palestinian Jew.
The group has frequently participated in pro-Palestinian activities, including
a visit to the grave of Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat in
Ramallah in November.
(©) The
[Note: On October 26, 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, speaking at a government-sponsored conference held in
[Note: In furtherance of its goal to destroy modern Israel, the Neturei Karta also tries to demonize and thereby delegitimize the State of Israel among the nations by mendaciously and odiously claiming that the Jewish State’s very creation was the Zionists’ calculated reward for facilitating the Holocaust. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
UTJ [United Torah Judaism]: Anti-voting campaign hurt us
By Matthew Wagner
(Jerusalem Post, March 30, 2006) A color-print pamphlet distributed on the eve
of elections by the Edah Haredit to convince ultra-Orthodox residents not to
vote accuses the pre-state Zionist leadership of purposely allowing haredi Jews
to be massacred by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
United Torah Judaism chairman Ya'acov Litzman admitted that the anti-vote
campaign led by the Edah Haredit -- a group representing haredim who resist any
connection with the Zionist state -- hurt his party.
According to the pamphlet, written by Yoel Shwartz, an
American Edah Haredit activist, the Zionists maliciously refrained from using
money and other resources at their disposal to save Jews in order to compound
the atrocities of the Holocaust and to convince the world of the need for a
Jewish state.
"The Zionists had a saying that 'Only with blood shall we redeem our
Land,'" said Shmuel Popenheim, editor-in-chief of Ha'edah, Edah Haredit's
weekly mouthpiece. "What they meant was that the blood of those massacred
in the the Shoah [Holocaust] would get them a State."
The Edah Haredit printed the 16-page pamphlets and distributed 250,000 copies
in
The pamphlet, written in colloquial Hebrew, is a dialogue between a grandfather
and his young grandson. The old man uses the alleged despicable behavior of the
Zionists during the Holocaust to prove that any cooperation with them is
strictly prohibited.
In the days leading up to the elections the Edah Haredit campaigned
aggressively against voting. Nevertheless, UTJ, which is made up of two
political parties, the larger Hassidic Agudat Yisrael headed by Litzman and the
Lithuanian Degel Hatorah, managed to increase its mandates from five to six.
Litzman said he was pleased with the results but estimated that UTJ could have
done better if not for the Edah Haredit. "The fact that there were people
actively fighting to prevent our constituents from voting definitely hurt us.
But I don't know how much."
Popenheim, a resident of Beit Shemesh, said that in his city the Edah Haredit
was particularly successful.
"Even though about 1,700 new families moved there since the last
elections, UTJ grew by only about 120 votes compared to the previous
elections," he said.
(©) The
[Note: The main component of the Edah Haredit organization is the Neturei Karta. Its blood libel that the Holocaust-era Zionist leadership of Mandatory Palestine -- a non-sovereign territory which then hosted less than 17% of World Jewry and which was then under an oppressive British occupation -- could have prevented the Holocaust or, alternatively, could have influenced the Nazis in their selection of Jewish victims is simultaneously so evil and so ludicrous that its very utterance condemns its authors to the Hell which they so richly deserve. -- Mark Rosenblit]
[More “dancing with the Devil” by Neturei Karta. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Neturei Karta reps meet Haniyeh in Gaza
By Jerusalem Post staff
(Jerusalem Post, July 19, 2009) Neturei Karta representatives paid a brief
visit to the Gaza Strip on Thursday on a solidarity mission with [terrorist
organization] Hamas leaders.
It was the first time envoys from the anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox sect have
visited the territory since Hamas seized control in June 2007.
The sect denounces
Four sect representatives from the
"We feel your suffering, we cry your cry," said Rabbi Yisroel Weiss
upon arriving Wednesday night. "It is your land, it is occupied,
illegitimately and unjustly by people who stole it, kidnapped the name of
Judaism and our identity," said Weiss, wearing the black hat, black coat
and long side-curls typical of ultra-Orthodox Jews. His delegation left early
Thursday.
Hamas seeks the destruction of the state of
During their Thursday meeting, Haniyeh told them he held no grudge against
Jews, but against the state of
Neturei Karta, Aramaic for "Guardians of the City," was founded some
70 years ago in
Representatives of the sect had previously visited
One acted as Yasser Arafat's adviser on Jewish affairs, and a delegation
traveled to
(©) The
Eldad to A-G: Investigate Neturei Karta in Beirut
By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Members of the anti-Zionist group meet senior Hezbollah
official in Lebanon to support "Land Day" protests.
(Jerusalem Post, April 2, 2012) MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) called on Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein on Monday to investigate members of the Neturei Karta movement following reports that they met with senior [terrorist organization] Hezbollah officials in Beirut.
Eldad is seeking the prosecution of any Israelis who took part.
A fringe ultra-Orthodox sect established in Jerusalem in 1938, Neturei Karta (Aramaic for “Guardians of the City”) believes Israel can be reestablished only after the coming of the Messiah. The group therefore rejects Zionism and opposes the existence of the State of Israel.
The Arabic-language pro-Hezbollah radio station al-Nour [meaning: the Light] reported on Monday that senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Nabil al-Kauk received a delegation from Neturei Karta in the Lebanese capital.
American Neturei Karta leader Yisroel Dovid Weiss met with al-Kauk, the Hezbollah official in charge of southern Lebanon, as part of his group’s participation in Friday’s [Arab and Muslim] Global March to Jerusalem, al-Nour said.
The pro-Hezbollah station reported that Weiss used the visit to call for the “demise of the so-called State of Israel” and said Jewish identity had been “stolen by the global Zionists.”
According to al-Nour, Kauk called Weiss’ visit a “slap in the face for the Zionist apartheid entity in Israel” and called on Neturei Karta to “expose the usurping entity’s anti-Jewish, anti-Islam and anti-Christian [stance].”
Hezbollah said that Atallah Hamoud, deputy chief of its Palestinian department, had also been present during Weiss’s visit.
The terror group said in a statement that Weiss congratulated Hezbollah on its “resistance” to Israel.
According to Hezbollah, Weiss said the Jews had been “expelled from the Land of Israel because of their sins” and added that “no Israeli state should be established before the advent of the Messiah, and the Palestinian nation is fully entitled to establish a state on its own soil.”
Neturei Karta’s participation in Friday’s Global March is still being widely reported in the Arabic press, particularly in Jordan and Lebanon, with several news outlets featuring videos of the rabbis at the event.
On Sunday, the Lebanese newspaper as-Safir published a lengthy interview conducted in Beirut’s Golden Plaza Hotel with six Neturei Karta rabbis, citing the movement as saying Israel was “Zionist and not Jewish”, and that Jews should live in exile, including in a Palestinian state.
The rabbis told the paper that “Israel is doomed to extinction” and that their participation in the Global March had been a “message to the Arab world and the Palestinian people.”
In the past, Weiss has given interviews to Iran’s state-owned news agency IRNA in which he expressed his desire for Israel’s demise.
All rights reserved © 1995 - 2012 The Jerusalem Post.
Anti-Zionist haredi who attempted to spy for Iran to serve 4.5 years in plea deal
By Yonah Jeremy Bob, JPOST.COM STAFF
Yitzhak Bergil, from Naturei Karta sect, admits to
offering Iranian embassy in Berlin intel on Israel; Shin Bet: Confessed to
acting out of "hatred," in exchange for money.
(Jerusalem Post, January 28, 2014) A man from the anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox Natorei Karta sect who was charged with attempting to pass sensitive information about Israel to Iran in August will serve four-and-a-half years in prison, according to the terms of a plea bargain approved by the Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday.
Yitzhak Bergil, 47, who was arrested by the Shin Bet and Israel Police in July, reached the plea deal with the State Attorney's Office after confessing to the charges against him.
The Jerusalem State Attorney’s Office filed the indictment in August with the district court on charges of intent to commit treason and contacting a foreign agent.
The Jerusalem Post has learned that the classification of spying for which Bergil was charged is considered relatively low on the spectrum. The sentence of four-and-a-half years was equal to, or more severe than the punishment meted out for similar offenses in the past.
At an unknown date, Bergil decided to make contact with the Iranian government in order to collect intelligence on Israel and send it to them, the indictment alleges.
To do this, he went online to check where he could approach an Iranian embassy, said the indictment.
On January 16, 2011, he flew to Berlin, and two days later approached the embassy there to tell the Iranians that he was an Israeli and wanted to speak to them. At the time he was clothed in his regular haredi dress, including black and white clothes, and tzizit ritual fringes.
He was brought to Iranian representatives, including a man who introduced himself as Hagi Baba and two others, said the indictment.
He told Baba that he was against the Jewish state, wanted the state to be taken over by non-Jews, was ready to provide them intelligence and was even ready to “kill a Zionist,” if necessary, according to the indictment.
He baited the Iranians, asking them why they continued to fail to prevent sabotage and attacks by Israel within the Islamic Republic, said the indictment.
The Iranians responded with annoyance, noted the indictment, saying that he should be embarrassed to insult them when he was seeking asylum.
Bergil retorted that he was not seeking asylum, but wanted to help with spying, said the indictment.
He returned to Israel on January 20, 2011.
He kept up his connection with the Iranian officials by email, using Internet cafes, and via telephone calls made from public phones near his place of residence in Jerusalem, the Shin Bet and the indictment said.
The Shin Bet said that under questioning, the man confessed that he worked “out of a hatred for the State of Israel and in exchange for financial compensation.”
One place where he checked his email account for messages from the Iranians was the Vital Hotel at 141 Jaffa Road in the capital, said the indictment. Two spots where he used public telephone calls to contact the Iranians were on Straus Street and Kanfei Nesharim Street in the city.
A fringe ultra-Orthodox sect established in Jerusalem in 1938, Natorei Karta (Aramaic for “Guardians of the City”) believes Israel can be reestablished only after the coming of the Messiah. The group therefore rejects Zionism and opposes the existence of the state.
Members of the sect in Israel and the US are known to burn the Israeli flag and have sent representatives to attend conferences in Iran in the past.
Last year, Arabic media reported that members of the sect met with Hezbollah officials in Beirut.
All rights reserved © 1995 - 2014 The Jerusalem Post.
In addition to my essay, as to commentary and clarifying comments in brackets
[ ] only: © Mark Rosenblit