"What is WRONG with the Israelis?!?"
"Every American [& global citizen] Needs to know"
The title I chose is a rhetorical declaration by Roger Waters, after which he broke into tears. The subtitle belongs to Alison Weir, author of Against Our Better Judgment. These 3 articles from If Americans Knew answer that question. Racism and a Superiority Complex lead Israelis to commit heinous crimes against humanity. A funny meme I saw recently has Nut&Yahoo’s son whispering in daddy’s ear, “Dad, what is humanity?” Daddy answers, “I don’t know son. We’re Zionists.” The West Bank is under siege, yet even the most jaded people will see this applies to all Palestine. Zionism is Terrorism.
Understanding what motivates ultra-orthodox Jewish attacks on West Bank Palestinians
contact@ifamericansknew.org
3–4 minutes
The particular beliefs of Israel’s ultra-orthodox Jews explain their behavior toward their non-Jewish neighbors.
by Allan Brownfeld
Consider the widely quoted statement of Israel’s Sephardic Chief rabbi Ovadiah Joseph. He declared that the only reason for the existence of non-Jews is to serve Jews. His funeral in 2013 was considered the largest ever in Israel—-with crowd estimates reaching 800,000. He is commemorated on Israeli postage stamps and many streets bear his name.
Another rabbinical hero to West Bank settlers is Rabbi A.I. Kook. He said of Jews, “We are of a much higher and greater spiritual order.”
Most Americans, including Jewish Americans, are unaware of the narrowness and bigotry which characterizes Israel’s state-supported religious establishment.
Most Americans believe that Israel embraces religious freedom and separation of religion and state. Sadly, this is not the case. Israel has a taxpayer-supported religion, which is ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Most Jewish Americans are not Orthodox. Their Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and other rabbis cannot perform weddings or conduct funerals in Israel. Their conversions are not recognized.
For American taxpayers to support an enterprise which embraces religious bigotry is to turn our backs on our highest values.
For a different Jewish view about Israel, religious freedom and the treatment of Palestinians, see the website of the American Council for Judaism:
Allan C. Brownfeld is a nationally syndicated columnist and serves as Associate Editor of The Lincoln Review and editor of Issues. The author of five books, he has served on the staff of the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and the Office of the Vice President. a C-Span.
The American Council for Judaism was formed in 1942 by leading Reform rabbis, primarily in opposition to Zionism. ACJ’s Statement of Principle: “We view Judaism as a universal religious faith, rather than an ethnic or nationalist identity…[We seek to] build a world of justice, freedom, and peace…We believe that although Israel is the birthplace of our faith, it is not the place of our national affiliation…As American Jews, our ties to the State of Israel are spiritual, emotional and historical, not, however, political.”
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Trump, Obama proclaimed national day honoring racist rabbi, Menachem Schneerson
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Rabbi Zuckerman offers worshipful sermon to his Israeli son’s M16
contact@ifamericansknew.org
7–9 minutes
Rabbi Neil Zuckerman speaking at Park Avenue Synagogue, May 15, 2021. (Mondoweiss)
Park Avenue Synagogue’s Rabbi Neil Zuckerman expressed worshipful feelings about his Israeli soldier son’s M16 because it represents the “miracle” of Jewish power.
By Philip Weiss, reposted from Mondoweiss
Last Saturday a leading New York rabbi urged his conservative congregation to “loudly, vociferously, vehemently use every means we have to defend the right of Israel to defend herself” against celebrity critics in the United States.
And a dozen times in his sermon, Rabbi Neil Zuckerman expressed worshipful feelings about his Israeli soldier son’s M16 because it represents the “miracle” of Jewish power.
Zuckerman told his Park Avenue Synagogue congregation that he stared at his son’s gun as it lay on the floor of his Jerusalem hotel room two weeks ago when his son stayed with him.
“I headed to the patio. And there it was, his gun. His M16 on the floor. Now for Israeli parents this might not be such a big deal to see your child’s gun from the army. But I’m not used to having a gun in my hotel room. Nor am I used to seeing my son carry that gun all over Jerusalem… So I sat down for a few minutes and I just considered what I was looking at… I thought about an essay my teacher Rabbi Donniel Hartman wrote several years ago called My Gun and I where he describes the ambivalence he feels about having owning a gun. I thought about the pride I felt in my son choosing to defend the state of Israel and the Jewish people… Mostly I thought about being in the land of Israel and the tension, as I looked at my son and the gun, between power and powerlessness.”
Zuckerman concluded that the gun represents the “miracle” of Jewish power in our age, to prevent genocide.
You can count Zuckerman’s 12-gun salute here:
Here are some excerpts from the May 15 sermon.
Zuckerman said American media is filled with fake news about the latest hostilities, and he singled out a nine-minute “lecture” by Trevor Noah on the Daily Show that ignored the complications.
Of course we hear denunciations from the usual suspects condemning Israel as the colonial oppressor, as if there is no nuance to this devastatingly sad situation for the Israelis and for the Palestinians, who continue to suffer greatly under the rule of Hamas. And as if Hamas isn’t a terrorist organization whose goal is to destroy Israel, to wipe Israel off the map, it says so clearly in their charter…
Now if you happened to catch Trevor Noah on the Daily Show he exemplified the dangers of living, as David Harris says, in this post truth world where facts don’t seem to matter. A world where people obtain their news from celebrities and memes and opinions on Youtube and Instagram.
Noah had said that Israel needs to show greater “responsibility.” Zuckerman said Noah was showing indifference to the fact that Hamas is “a terrorist group” carrying out “genocidal acts against a civilian population.”
How much Jewish blood is enough that we would receive the blessing of a television comedian?… Jews– Noah is really saying, at least my read– I’m uncomfortable with your power and how you use it.
Zuckerman explained that Zionism was about using power “Jewishly”, including using force in a dangerous neighborhood.
Friends, Zionism is a response to the historical legacy of Jewish powerlessness. Zionism allows the Jewish people to reenter history, to control our own destiny, to shape our own society, to build cities, to shape the public square with Jewish values, to defend ourselves, and that means interrogating the proper way to exercise power.
Now in the messianic world, in a fully redeemed world, in a world when the lamb will lie with the lion, then there will be no need for armies, no need for the flags…no need for national entities. In that world, powerlessness is fine. But we live in the real world, and in the real world, in the incomplete, often dangerous neighborhood Israel lives in, Power is necessary, as we need to defend ourselves… We live in a world where genocide is possible.
Jews must heed two commands. One, not to be brutal. Second, not to be naive. Our “enemy… seeks to destroy us, without provocation.”
Bombs are falling in civilian populations, Israelis are sleeping in bomb shelters. We must loudly, vociferously, vehemently, use every means we have to defend the right of Israel to defend herself. We must dispel the myths of the moral comparisons or equivalency between the Israeli Defense Forces, the IDF, and Hamas. The IDF which seeks to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties. And Hamas which seeks to maximize Israeli civilian casualties.
Some in the Jewish community want to return to powerlessness, Zuckerman said, but in the time of a sovereign and powerful Jewish state, that is like going back to Egypt, and Jews must not do so.
Zuckerman returned at the end to staring at his son’s gun, and the “miracle” of doing so:
Friends, the days of turning back are over. What a miracle in our people’s history, a history filled with examples of powerlessness, that I can wake up in a hotel room in Jerusalem, watch my Israeli son sleep, and stare at his gun on the floor. I will continue to pray, we should all continue to pray for a time when swords are turned into ploughshares and he no longer needs to carry that gun. And I will pray that he and all of his fellow soldiers remember to not be cruel…
Let us all strive to live up to our highest ideals and aspirations as Jews and human beings. I will never give up on the dream of peace, but I’m not naive. We live in the real world. That gun– that gun is used to protect the Jewish people from those who wish to destroy us. And until redemption comes, I will continue to be thankful for that gun.
The rabbi’s comments will surely remind many readers of Marc Ellis’s famous formulation: he dreamed he was in the synagogue and when they opened the ark to take out the Torah an Apache helicopter flew out instead.
Zuckerman’s views are widely shared in the conservative Jewish community. Like Bari Weiss stating that the killing of “innocent children” is the “unavoidable burden” of Jewish self-determination. Like Ruth Wisse telling American Jews that they have it easy next to Jewish kids who must serve in the Israeli army and so American Jews need to serve two or three years in an information “army,” making Israel’s case in the media and on campuses. And many rabbis promote the rightwing Israel lobby group AIPAC from their pulpits.
P.S. Zuckerman related how his son went “home” to Israel a year back.
h/t Dave Reed and Adam Horowitz.
Philip Weiss is senior editor of Mondoweiss.net and founded the site in 2005-06. The site evolved within the progressive Jewish community and often focuses on Jewish aspects of the issue.
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Trump, Obama proclaimed national day honoring racist rabbi, Menachem Schneerson
Alison Weir
39–49 minutes
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as “The Rebbe.” Schneerson said: “The substance of all [divine] emanations was created only to serve the Jews.” (Photo:Wikipedia)
President Donald Trump recently proclaimed April 3rd “Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.” in honor of a man known as “The Rebbe.” Such a day has been proclaimed by every U.S. President for the past 42 years. [Update: Biden has now done the same]
But the Chabad leader that this national day celebrates disseminated some teachings that were profoundly problematic, especially for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories…
Among his teachings, Schneerson said that non-Jews have “satanic souls: and that non-Jews are “created to serve the Jews.” The schools he engendered have sometimes failed to teach science, history, math…”
The New York Times reports that Schneerson “was a major political force in Israel.”
By Alison Weir
President Donald Trump recently proclaimed April 3rd “Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A,” a national day to “celebrate Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe.”
The proclamation called upon “all government officials, educators, volunteers, and all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.”
This was not the first such proclamation. For 42 years presidents from both parties have proclaimed a national day to honor Rabbi Schneerson.
What they probably didn’t know is that some of Schneerson’s lesser-known teachings are extremely problematic on a number of levels. Among other things, they help fuel some of the most violent attacks against Palestinians by extremist Israeli settlers and soldiers. For example, Schneerson taught that non-Jews were “created to serve the Jews.”
It is particularly ironic that Schneerson is honored by national “Education” days, given that the elementary schools he created often fail to teach children basic reading, writing, spelling, math, science and history.
To learn about Schneerson and his teachings, read the following article that I wrote six years ago, when Barack Obama played his role in the yearly tribute.
Please note that the information in the article comes largely from Jewish and Israeli sources, many of whom found his views deeply objectionable. A list of the sources used in the article is provided below it.
The main source, Israel Shahak, was a respected Israeli professor who had been praised by Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Edward Said, Columbia Professor and public intellectual; and diverse others.
It is my feeling that all Americans should know the facts reported below.
Year after year after year, American citizens are being told to honor Rabbi Schneerson. We need to know what The Rebbe taught, consider the implications for us and for others, and decide for ourselves whether we agree with the annual decree that we celebrate his views. Perhaps it’s time to honor someone else.
The Extremist Origins of Education and Sharing Day: Why is the US Honoring a Racist Rabbi?
Alison Weir
CounterPunch
April 7, 2014
[See additional comment and information below article.]
If things proceed normally, the President will proclaim a day in April “Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.” Despite the innocuous name, this day honors the memory of a religious leader whose lesser-known teachings help fuel some of the most violent attacks against Palestinians by extremist Israeli settlers and soldiers.
The leader being honored on this day is Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, charismatic head of a mystical/fundamentalist version of Judaism. Every year since 1978, a Presidential Proclamation, often accompanied by a Congressional Resolution (the 1990 one had 219 sponsors), has declared Schneerson’s birthday an official national day of observance.
Congress first passed a Resolution honoring Schneerson in 1975. Three years later a Joint Congressional Resolution called on President Jimmy Carter to proclaim “Education Day, U.S.A.” on the anniversary of Schneerson’s birth. The idea was to set aside a day to honor both education and the alleged educational work of Schneerson and the religious sect he headed up.
Carter, like Congress, dutifully obeyed the Schneerson-initiated resolution, as has every president since. And some individual states are now enacting their own observances of Schneerson’s birthday, with Minnesota and Alabama leading the way.
Schneerson and his movement are an extremely mixed bag.
Schneerson has been praised widely for a public persona and organization that emphasized “deep compassion and insight,” worked to bring many secular Jews “back” into the fold, created numerous schools around the world, and had offered, in the words of the Jewish Virtual Library, “social-service programs and humanitarian aid to all people, regardless of religious affiliation or background.”
However, there is also a less attractive underside often at odds with such public perceptions. And some of the more extreme parts of Schneerson’s teachings – such as that Jews are a completely different species than non-Jews, and that non-Jews exist only to serve Jews – have been largely hidden, it appears, even from many who consider themselves his followers.
As we will see, such views profoundly impact the lives of Palestinians living – and dying – under Israeli occupation and military invasions.
Who was Rabbi Schneerson?
Schneerson lived from 1902 to 1994 and oversaw the growth of what some say is the largest Jewish organization in the world.* The religious movement he led is known as “Chabad-Lubavitch,” (sometimes just called “Lubavitch” or “Chabad,” the name of its organizational arm). Schneerson was the seventh and final Lubavitcher “Rebbe” (sacred leader). He is often simply called “the Rebbe.”
Founded in the late 1700s and originally based in the Polish-Russian town of Lubavitch, it is the largest of about a dozen forms of “Hasidism,” a version of Orthodox Judaism connected to mysticism, characterized by devotion to a dynastic leader, and whose adherents often wear distinctive clothing. (Spellings of these terms can vary; Hasid is also written as Hassid, Chasid, etc.)
There is an extreme cult of personality focused on Schneerson himself. Some followers consider him the Messiah, and Schneerson himself reportedly sometimes implied this was true. Some Lubavitch educators consider him divine, making such claims as, “the Rebbe is actually ‘the essence and being [of God] … he is without limits, capable of effecting anything, all-knowing and a proper object of worshipful prostration.”
While many secular Jews and Jews from other denominations disagree with its actions and theology, Chabad-Lubavitch is generally acknowledged to be a powerful force in Jewish life today. According to a 1994 New York Times report, it is “one of the most influential and controversial forces in world Jewry.”
There are approximately 3,600 Chabad institutions in over 1,000 cities in 70 countries, and 200,000 adherents. Up to a million people attend Chabad services at least once a year. Numerous campuses have such centers and the Chabad website states that hundreds of thousands of children attend Chabad summer camps.
According to the Times, Schneerson “presided over a religious empire that reached from the back streets of Brooklyn to the main streets of Israel and by 1990 was taking in an estimated $100 million a year in contributions.
In the U.S., the Times reports, Schneerson’s “‘mitzvah tanks’ – converted campers that are rolling recruiting stations whose purpose is to draw Jews to the Lubavitch way – roamed streets from midtown Manhattan to Crown Heights. And the Lubavitchers’ Brooklyn-based publishing house claimed to be the world’s largest distributor of Jewish books.”
Non-Jewish souls ‘satanic’
While Chabad sometimes openly teaches that “the soul of the Jew is different than the soul of the non-Jew,” Schneerson’s specific teachings on this subject are largely unknown to the general public.
Quite likely very few Americans, both Jews and non-Jews, are aware of Schneerson’s teachings about the alleged deep differences between them – and about how these teachings are applied in the West Bank and Gaza.
Let us look at Schneerson’s words, as quoted by two respected Jewish professors, Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, in their book Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel (text available online here). This book, praised by Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, and many others is essential reading for anyone who truly wishes to understand modern day Israel-Palestine. (Brackets in the quotes below are in the translations by Shahak and Mezvinsky.)
Some of Schneerson’s rarely reported teachings:
“The difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish person stems from the common expression: ‘Let us differentiate.’ Thus, we do not have a case of profound change in which a person is merely on a superior level. Rather, we have a case of ‘let us differentiate’ between totally different species.”
“This is what needs to be said about the body: the body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of [members] of all nations of the world … The difference in the inner quality between Jews and non-Jews is so great that the bodies should be considered as completely different species.”
“An even greater difference exists in regard to the soul. Two contrary types of soul exist, a non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness.”
“As has been explained, an embryo is called a human being, because it has both body and soul. Thus, the difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish embryo can be understood.”
“…the general difference between Jews and non-Jews: A Jew was not created as a means for some [other] purpose; he himself is the purpose, since the substance of all [divine] emanations was created only to serve the Jews.”
“The important things are the Jews, because they do not exist for any [other] aim; they themselves are [the divine] aim.”
“The entire creation [of a non-Jew] exists only for the sake of the Jews.”
Most people don’t know about this aspect of Schneerson’s teaching because, according to Shahak and Mezvinsky, such teachings are intentionally minimized, mistranslated, or hidden entirely.
For example, the quotes above were translated by the authors from a book of Schneerson’s recorded messages to followers that was published in Israel in 1965. Despite Schneerson’s global importance and the fact that his world headquarters is in the U.S., there has never been an English translation of this volume.
Shahak, an Israeli professor who was a survivor of the Nazi holocaust, writes that this lack of translation of an important work is not unusual, explaining that much critical information about Israel and some forms of Judaism is available only in Hebrew.
He and co-author Mezvinsky, who was a Connecticut Distinguished University Professor who taught at Central Connecticut State University, write, “The great majority of the books on Judaism and Israel, published in English especially, falsify their subject matter.”
According to Shahak and Mezvinsky, “Almost every moderately sophisticated Israeli Jew knows the facts about Israeli Jewish society that are described in this book. These facts, however, are unknown to most interested Jews and non-Jews outside Israel who do not know Hebrew and thus cannot read most of what Israeli Jews write about themselves in Hebrew.”
In Shahak’s earlier book, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, he provides a number of examples. In one, he describes a 1962 book published in Israel in a bilingual edition. The Hebrew text was on one page, with the English translation on the facing page.
Shahak describes one set of facing pages in which the Hebrew text of a major Jewish code of laws contained a command to exterminate Jewish infidels: “It is a duty to exterminate them with one’s own hands.” The English version on the facing page softened it to “It is a duty to take active measures to destroy them.’”
The Hebrew page then went on to name which “infidels” must be exterminated, adding “may the name of the wicked rot.” Among them was Jesus of Nazareth. The facing page with the English translation failed to tell any of this.
“Even more significant,” Shahak reports, “in spite of the wide circulation of this book among scholars in the English-speaking countries, not one of them has, as far as I know, protested against this glaring deception.”
Praised by Said, Chomsky, etc., Shahak is almost unknown today
This pattern of selective omission, it seems, applies to Shahak himself, whose work is largely unknown to Palestine activists today, even though he was considered a major figure in the struggle against Israeli oppression of Palestinians, and his work was praised by diverse writers.
While Shahak was alive, Noam Chomsky called him “an outstanding scholar,” and said he had “remarkable insight and depth of knowledge. His work is informed and penetrating, a contribution of great value.”
Edward Said wrote: “Shahak is a very brave man who should be honored for his services to humanity … One of the most remarkable individuals in the contemporary Middle East.” Said wrote a forward for Shahak’s Jewish History, Jewish Religion.
Catholic New Times said: ‘This is a remarkable book …[It] deserves a wide readership, not only among Jews, but among Christians who seek a fuller understanding both of historical Judaism and of modern-day Israel.”
Jewish Socialist stated: “Anyone who wants to change the Jewish community so that it stops siding with the forces of reaction should read this book.”
The London Review of Books called Shahak’s book “remarkable, powerful, and provocative.”
Yet, very few Americans today know of Shahak’s work and the information it contains.
American tax money & Jewish extremism in Palestine
If they did, it’s hard to believe that Americans would allow over $10 million per day of their tax money to be given to Israel, where such teachings underlie a powerful minority that is disproportionately influential in governmental actions.
Nor is it likely that a fully informed American public would allow donations to religious institutions in Israel that teach supremacist, sometimes violent doctrines to be tax-deductible in the U.S.
One organization raised over $10 million tax-deductible dollars in the U.S. in 2011 alone – removing money from the U.S. economy and enabling illegal, aggressive Israeli settlements in Palestine. And some of this money went to benefit individuals convicted of murder – including the murderer of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The New York Times obituary on Schneerson reported that Schneerson was “a major political force in Israel, both in the Knesset and among the electorate,” but failed to describe the nature of his impact.
One of a sprinkling of writers willing to publicly discuss Shahak and Mezvinsky’s findings is Allan Brownfeld, who is less reticent. Brownfeld is editor of the American Council for Judaism’s periodical Issues and contributor to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
In a review of Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel , Brownfeld describes Schneerson’s views on Israel:
“Rabbi Schneerson always supported Israeli wars and opposed any retreat. In 1974 he strongly opposed the Israeli withdrawal from the Suez area. He promised Israel divine favors if it persisted in occupying the land.”
Brownfeld reports that after Schneerson’s death, “[T]housands of his Israeli followers played an important role in the election victory of Binyamin Netanyahu. Among the religious settlers in the occupied territories, the Chabad Hassids constitute one of the most extreme groups. Baruch Goldstein, the mass murderer of Palestinians, was one of them.”
Another such Chabad Hassid is Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg (also sometimes written as “Ginzburg” and “Ginsburgh”), who studied under Schneerson in Crown Heights and who heads up a major Chabad institution in the West Bank.
Ginsburg praised Goldstein, the murderer of 29 Palestinians while they were praying, and considers all non-Jews subhuman.
According to author Motti Inbari, Ginsburg “gives prominence to Halachic and Kabbalistic approaches that emphasize the distinction between Jew and non-Jew (Gentile), imposing a clear separation and hierarchy in this respect.”
In his book Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount: Who Will Build the Third Temple? Inbari states, “[Ginsburg] claims that while the Jews are the Chosen People and were created in God’s image, the Gentiles do not have this status and are effectively considered subhuman.”
Professor Inbari, an Israeli academic who now teaches in the U.S., writes that Ginsburg’s theological approach continues “certain perceptions that were popular in medieval times.”
“For example,” Inbari writes, “the commandment ‘You shall not murder’ does not apply to the killing of a Gentile, since ‘you shall not murder’ relates to the murder of a human, while for him the Gentiles do not constitute humans.”
Inbari reports, “Similarly, Ginzburg stated that, on the theoretical level, if a Jew requires a liver transplant to survive, it would be permissible to seize a Gentile and take their liver forcefully.”
While the mainstream American press almost never reports this kind of information, an April 26, 1996 article in Jewish Week by Lawrence Cohler reported on Ginsburg’s teachings, including their problematic roots in Jewish texts.
Cohler reported that a professor of Bible at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Rabbi Moshe Greenberg, “called for radically revising Jewish thinking about some Jewish texts on the grounds that scholars such as Rabbi Ginsburgh are far from aberrant in their use of them.”
Cohler quoted Greenberg’s concerns: “‘There’ll be a statement in Talmud… made in circumstances where it’s purely theoretical, because Jews then never had the power to do it,’ he explained. And now, he said, ‘It’s carried over into circumstances where Jews have a state and are empowered.’”
A rabbi associated with Ginsburg coauthored a notorious Israeli book, The King’s Torah, which claims that Jewish law at times permits the killing of non-Jewish infants. American donations to the Chabad school Ginsburg heads up, and that published the above book, are tax-deductible in the U.S. Ginsburg, who endorses the book, teaches classes throughout Israel, the U.S. and France.
Such extremism is opposed by the majority of Israelis, and major Jewish religious authorities condemn it, a Chief Rabbi, for example, stating: “According to the Torah, every man is created in God’s image.”
Yet, such extremist views continue to exert a powerful influence.
Israeli military manuals echo extremist teachings: “kill even good civilians”
Israeli military manuals sometimes replicate extremist teachings. For example, a booklet authored by a Chief Chaplain stated, “In war, when our forces storm the enemy, they are allowed and even enjoined by the Halakhah to kill even good civilians…” Such teachings by the IDF rabbinate were prominent during Israel’s 2008-9 attack on Gaza that killed 1,400 Gazans, approximately half of them civilians. (The Palestinian resistance killed nine Israelis during this “war.”)
Chicago writer Stephen Lendman has described these teachings, giving a number of examples.
Lendman writes, “In 2007, Israel’s former chief rabbi, Mordechai Elyahu, called for the Israeli army to mass-murder Palestinians:
“If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill 1000. And if they don’t stop after 1000, then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop we must kill 100,000. Even a million.”
Lendman reports that some extremist Israeli rabbis teach that “the ten commandments don’t apply to non-Jews. So killing them in defending the homeland is acceptable, and according to the chairman of the Jewish Rabbinic Council:
“‘There is no such thing as enemy civilians in war time. The law of our Torah is to have mercy on our soldiers and to save them…. A thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew’s fingernail.’”
Lendman writes, “Rabbi David Batsri called Arabs ‘a blight, a devil, a disaster…. donkeys, and we have to ask ourselves why God didn’t create them to walk on all fours. Well, the answer is that they are needed to build and clean.’”
Manis Friedman: ‘Kill women & children’
Another such rabbi is Manis Friedman, a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi inspired by Schneerson who served as the simultaneous translator for a series of Schneerson’s talks. (Friedman is currently dean of a Jewish Studies institute in Minnesota.)
A 2009 article in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reports, “Like the best Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis, Manis Friedman has won the hearts of many unaffiliated Jews with his charismatic talks about love and God; it was Friedman who helped lead Bob Dylan into a relationship with Chabad.
“But Friedman, who today travels the country as a Chabad speaker, showed a less warm and cuddly side when he was asked how he thinks Jews should treat their Arab neighbors.”
In Moment magazine’s article, “Ask the Rabbis // How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors?” Friedman answered:
“I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral.
“The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).”
Lendman reports, “Views like these aren’t exceptions. Though a minority, they proliferate throughout Israeli society…”
They also, Lendman notes, work to prevent peace in Israel-Palestine.
Shahak and Mezvinsky note that when the book containing Schneerson’s statements quoted above about Jews and non-Jews was published in Israel, he was allied to the Labor Party and his movement had been provided “many important benefits” from the Israeli government.
In the mid-1970s Schneerson decided that the Labor Party was too moderate and shifted his support to the more right-wing parties in power today. The authors report, “Ariel Sharon was the Rebbe’s favorite Israeli senior politician. Sharon in turn praised the Rebbe publicly and delivered a moving speech about him in the Knesset after the Rebbe’s death.”
Roots in Some Early Texts
Brownfeld decries the fact that few Americans are properly informed about the fundamentalist movement in Israel “and the theology upon which it is based.”
He notes that Jewish Americans, in particular, are often unaware of the “narrow ethnocentrism which is promoted by the movement’s leading rabbis, or of the traditional Jewish sources they are able to call upon in drawing clear distinctions between the moral obligations owed to Jews and non-Jews.”
Teachings that Jews are superior and gentiles inferior were contained in some of the earliest Hassidic texts, including its classic text, “Tanya,” still taught today.
Brownfeld quotes statements by “the revered father of the messianic tendency of Jewish fundamentalism,” Rabbi Kook the Elder, and states that these were derived from earlier texts. [Kook, incidentally, was also an early Zionist, who helped push for the Balfour Declaration in England before moving to Palestine. He was the uncle of Hillel Kook, an agent who went by the name “Peter Bergson” and created front groups in the U.S. for a violent Zionist guerilla group that operated in 1930s and ’40s Palestine.]
Brownfeld quotes Kook: “The difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews—all of them in all different levels—is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle.”
Brownfeld explains that Kook’s teaching, which he says is followed by leaders of the settler movement in the occupied West Bank, “is based upon the Lurianic Cabbala, the school of Jewish mysticism that dominated Judaism from the late 16th to the early 19th century.”
Essential information – ‘Commandment of genocide’
Shahak and Mezvinsky state, “One of the basic tenets of the Lurianic Cabbala is the absolute superiority of the Jewish soul and body over the non-Jewish soul and body. According to the Lurianic Cabbala, the world was created solely for the sake of Jews; the existence of non-Jews was subsidiary.”
Again, Shahak and Mezvinsky report that this aspect is often covered up in English-language discussions. Scholarly authors of books about Jewish mysticism and the Lurianic Cabbala, they write, have frequently “willfully omitted reference to such ideas.”
Shahak and Mezvinsky write that it is essential to understand these beliefs in order to understand the current situation in the West Bank, where many of the most militant West Bank settlers are motivated by religious ideologies in which every non-Jew is seen as “the earthly embodiment” of Satan, and according to the Halacha (Jewish law), the term “human beings” refers solely to Jews.
Israeli author and former chief of Israeli military intelligence Yehoshafat Harkabi touches on this in his 1988 book Israel’s Fateful Hour.
Harkabi writes that while such extremist beliefs are not “widely dominant,” the reality is that “nationalistic religious extremists are by no means a lunatic fringe; many are respected men whose words are widely heeded.”
He reports that the campus rabbi of a major Israeli university published an article in the student newspaper entitled “The Commandment of Genocide in the Torah,” in which he implied that those who have a quarrel with Jews “ought to be destroyed, children and all.” Harkabi writes that a book by another rabbi “explained that the killing of a non-Jew is not considered murder.”
Brownfeld writes, “Although messianic fundamentalists constitute a relatively small portion of the Israeli population [most Israeli settlers are motivated by the subsidized lifestyle US tax money to Israel provides], their political influence has been growing. If they have contempt for non-Jews, their hatred for Jews who oppose their views is even greater.”
Brownfeld cites the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who had started to make peace with the Palestinians, writing that it was just one “in a long line of murders of Jews who followed a path different from that ordained by rabbinic authorities.” Brownfeld reports that Shahak and Mezvinsky “cite case after case, from the Middle Ages until the 19th century.”
The authors report, “It was usual in some Hasidic circles until the last quarter of the nineteenth century to attack and often to murder Jews who had reform religious tendencies…”
They quote a long article by Israeli writer Rami Rosen, “History of a Denial,” published by Ha’aretz Magazine in 1996. This article, which cannot be found online, at least in English, is also cited in the book Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination , by Israeli professor Ehud Sprinzak.
In his Ha’aretz article Rosen reported: “A check of main facts of the [Jewish] historiography of the last 1500 years shows that the picture is different from the one previously shown to us. It includes massacres of Christians; mock repetitions of the crucifixion of Jesus that usually took place on Purim; cruel murders within the family; liquidation of informers, often done for religious reasons by secret rabbinical courts, which issued a sentence of ‘pursuer’ and appointed secret executioners; assassinations of adulterous women in synagogues and/or the cutting of their noses by command of the rabbis.”
While Rosen’s article may seem shocking, in reality, it simply shows that members of the Jewish population, like members of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and diverse other populations, have at times committed atrocities, sometimes allegedly in the name of their religion. The difference, as Shahak and Mezvinsky point out, is that such information about Jewish extremism is largely covered up in the U.S. Such cover-ups, however, don’t make facts go away. They merely bury them, where they smolder and at times eventually lead to exaggerated perceptions.
U.S. media rarely report that some extremist Israeli settlers are intensely hostile to Christians, and in one instance threatened peace activists who came to the West Bank to participate in nonviolent demonstrations, “We killed Jesus and we’ll kill you, too.” There is also a record of official hostility. For example, a few years ago an Israeli mayor ordered all New Testaments to be rounded up and burned.
Schneerson’s “schools”
While Schneerson is honored on national “Education” days, the reality is that the elementary schools he created often failed to teach children “basic reading, writing, spelling, math, science and history,” according to a graduate.
In his article “National Education Day and the Education I Never Had,” Chaim Levin reports on his experience at the Chabad school “Oholei Torah” (Educational Institute Oholei Menachem) in Crown Heights, New York – the site of Chabad’s world headquarters:
“I have profound respect for the late Rebbe and his legacy. However, I remember very clearly those talks that [Schneerson] gave – the ones we studied every year in elementary school about the unimportance of ‘secular’ (non-religious, formal) education, and the great importance of only studying limmudei kodesh (holy studies). As a result of this attitude, thousands of students were not taught anything other than the Bible throughout our years attending Chabad institutions.”
The goal of such schools, Levin writes, was to produce “schluchim,” missionaries who would promote Chabad all over the world.
Meanwhile, he notes, “Failure to provide basic formal education cripples children within Chabad communities. We cannot ignore the harm done…” Levin writes, “Until this day, Oholei Torah and many other Chabad schools — particularly schools for boys and a few for girls in Crown Heights and in some other places — do not provide basic formal education.”
Education and Sharing Day 2014
In his 2000 article, Brownfeld writes that Shahak and Mezvinsky’s book should be “a wake-up call “to Americans, particularly Jewish supporters of Israel.”
Fourteen years later, however, very few people are aware of these books and their powerful information, and U.S. tax money continues to flow to Israel. The main author, Israel Shahak, is now dead, as is Edward Said; Noam Chomsky rarely, if ever, mentions him; and Shahak’s co-author, Norton Mezvinsky (uncle of Chelsea Clinton’s husband), is a member of a Lubavitch congregation in New York.
In many ways, little seems to have changed since 1994, when Congressmen Charles Schumer, Newt Gingrich, and others introduced legislation to bestow on Schneerson the Congressional Gold Medal. The bill passed both Houses by unanimous consent, honoring Schneerson for his “outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity.”
And in two weeks, Americans will be officially called on to observe a day that honors Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and the Lubavitcher movement.
That is, unless masses of people contact their Congressional representatives to demand a whole new direction: a “National Education and Sharing Day” that honors an individual who values education, and who believes that all people – in the words of the Declaration of Independence – are created equal.
See videos and related articles below list
Works Cited
“About Chabad-Lubavitch.” Judaism, Torah and Jewish Info – Chabad Lubavitch. N.p., n.d. Web.
Barillas, Martin. “US Court Finds That Chabad Can Sue for the Return of Precious Archives Held by Russia.” The Cutting Edge News. N.p., 23 June 2008. Web.
Blau, Uri. “From New York to Hebron: The American Treasury’s Support for Jewish Settlements in the West Bank.” Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. Harvard University, 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
Brownfeld, Allan C. “Book Review: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel.” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Mar. 2000: 105-06. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
“Chabad Worldwide Genealogy Project.” Geni_family_tree. Geni, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
Cohler, Lawrence. “Hero Or Racist? Are Jewish Lives Really More Valuable than Non-Jewish Ones?” Jewish Week [New York] 16 Apr. 1996: 12+. Print.
Cowell, Alan. “AN ISRAELI MAYOR IS UNDER SCRUTINY.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 June 1989. Web.
“David Hartman: The Rise of Extremism and the Decline of Reason.” YouTube. Shalom Hartman Institute, 09 Mar. 2009. Web. Apr.-May 2014.
“Ehud Sprinzak, 62; Studied Israel Far Right.” The New York Times. Associated Press, 12 Nov. 2002. Web.
Eldar, Akiva. “U.S. Tax Dollars Fund Rabbi Who Excused Killing Gentile Babies Read More: Http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/akiva-eldar-u-s-tax-dollars-fund-rabbi-who-excused-killing-gentile-babies-1.2137.” Ha’aretz [Israel] 15 Dec. 2009: n. pag. Web.
Estrin, Daniel. “The King’s Torah: A Rabbinic Text or a Call to Terror?” Haaretz.com. N.p., 22 Jan. 2010. Web.
Friedman, Manis. “Ask the Rabbis // How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors?” Moment Magazine. N.p., May-June 2009. Web.
Goldman, Ari L. “Rabbi Schneerson Led A Small Hasidic Sect To World Prominence.” New York Times 13 June 1994, US Edition ed., N.Y./Region sec.: n. pag. Print.
Group, ISM Media. “Swedish Human Rights Worker Viciously Attacked by Jewish Extremists in Hebron.” International Solidarity Movement. N.p., 18 Nov. 2006. Web.
Harkabi, Yehoshafat. Israel’s Fateful Hour. New York: Harper & Row, 1989. Print.
Heilman, Samuel C., and Menachem Friedman. The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2012. Print.
Inbari, Motti. Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount: Who Will Build the Third Temple? Albany: State U of New York, 2009. Print. Translated by Shaul Vardi
Lendman, Stephen. “Religious Fundamentalism in Israel.” OpEdNews. N.p., 12 Aug. 2009. Web.
Levin, Chaim. “National Education Day and the Education I Never Had.” The Huffington Post. N.p., 04 Apr. 2012. Web.
Likshin, Martin I. “Chabad Messianism.” My Jewish Learning. N.p., 17 Jan. 2002. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
Mezvinsky, Norton, and Israel Shahak. Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. London: Pluto, 2015. Print.
Novak, David. “The Man-Made Messiah.” First Things. InstituInstitute on Religion and Public Lifete on Religion and Public Life, 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
Odenheimer, Natan. “The Kabbalist Who Would Be King of a New Jewish Monarchy in Israel.” The Forward. N.p., 14 Oct. 2016. Web. 03 Mar. 2017. (Article on Rabbi Ginsburgh published in 2016)
“Orthodox Judaism.” Lubavitch and Chabad. Jewish Virtual Library, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
Popper, Nathaniel. “Popular Rabbi’s Comments on Treatment of Arabs Show a Different Side of Chabad.” The Forward. N.p., 03 June 2009. Web.
“Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.” Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson| Jewish Virtual Library. Jewish Virtual Library, 13 June 1994. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
“A Rabbinate Gone Wild.” Ha’aretz [Israel] 27 Jan. 2009: n. pag. Print. Ha’aretz Editorial
“Rabbis in the Caucus Room?” Lubavitch Archives | Article. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2017.
Shahak, IsraeÍÌl, and Gore Vidal. Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years. London: Pluto, 2008. Print.
Shahak, Israel, and Norton Mezvinsky. “Full Text of “Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel”.” Full Text of “Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel”. Archive.org, n.d. Web.
Sprinzak, Ehud. Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination. New York, NY: Free, 1999. Print.
The Tanya of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Elucidated by Rabbi Yosef WinebergPublished and Copyrighted by Kehot Publication Society. “The Tanya Chapter 1.” Chabad.org. N.p., n.d. Web.
Torossian, Ronn. “The First Jewish Start-Up Nation ? Chabad: Marketing Genius.” Jewocity.com. N.p., 07 June 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
“Vintage Satellite Footage Promotes Web Event.” Jewish Educational Media. N.p., 8 Apr. 2011. Web.
Wagner, Matthew. “Netanyahu’s UN Speech Inspired by The Rebbe.” Chabad Lubavitch of Alberta. Jerusalem Post, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
Weir, Alison. Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel. Charleston, NC: CreateSpace, 2014. Print.
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Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew and president of the Council for the National Interest. Her book, Against Our Better Judgment: How the U.S. was used to create Israel, contains additional information on Rabbi Kook’s family connection to American front groups for Israeli terrorists. (Kook was unusual in his support for political Zionism; most Jewish religious leaders at the time considered the movement heretical).
A copy of the original article is available in hard copy – it can be ordered here and downloaded here. Alternatively, you can email us at materials@ifamericansknew.org to order copies.
UPDATE: The title of this article was changed to make it clear that both Democrats and Republicans have been proclaiming this day. Trump was just the latest to do so.
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UPDATE: The following comments were sent to us by Rabbi David Mivasair. With his permission, we are sharing them with readers:
I am so glad to see you taking on the grotesquely deceptive (and so far successful) campaign to disguise the Lubavitcher Rebbe as a humanist and universalist. His teachings are deeply racist and demeaning to the very core.
I say this as a rabbi who for decades read and studied his teachings deeply. While much of what he wrote and talked about contains beautiful and expansive teachings about religious life, much of it also is savagely contrary to any humane, positive view of all people who are not Jews.
I have for years wished that someone, somewhere would oppose the cynical and self-serving attempts by Chabad to brand their organization in the garb of government approval and expose the deeply racist core of much of their teachings. I appreciate you taking this on and hope you will have some success with it.
Thank you,
Rabbi David Mivasair
* * *
I don’t believe that Chabad is the “largest Jewish organization in the world”. I think that is what Chabad wants to say about itself. However, for example, the Reform movement, a liberal religious organization in the US and many other countries, is probably larger. Chabad consistently inflates is own importance.
It is hard to judge how “large” an organization is when it doesn’t have any membership rolls.
The Union for Reform Judaism has hundreds of synagogues around the world and knows how many members each one actually has.
Chabad, on the other hand, raises millions upon millions of dollars from donors and uses that money to send out “emissaries” to communities everywhere. So, it is highly visible and nearly ubiquitous. However, I seriously doubt the number of people who consider themselves to be members is anywhere nearly as large as the Reform movement of liberal synagogues, rabbis, schools, publishing arm, summer camps, etc, etc.
I just looked up the number of members the Reform movement has. It’s website* says: More than 1 million Americans and Canadians are affiliated with Reform congregations, making Reform Judaism the largest Jewish denomination in North America. Further, it says: The Reform Jewish Movement comprises nearly 900 congregations in the U.S. and Canada, more than 1,200 congregations worldwide, and the organizations and institutions that support the lay leaders, clergy, and Jewish professionals among its ranks.
To say that a million Jews are “affiliated” in North America means they are members. And, that same organization extends beyond the US and Canada to Europe, Asia, South American, Africa and Australia and New Zealand as well, of course, as Israel. It clearly is larger in terms of membership than Chabad.
Chabad devotes great efforts to promoting itself. That is why they invest their resources in having governments on all levels declare special days and allow their distinctively-styled Hanukkah menorahs in prominent spots on public property. But, it certainly cannot claim a membership at all comparable to the Reform movement.
I am neither a member of the Reform movement nor an advocate for it. I wrote to you because I wanted you to be aware that the claim that the Lubavitcher Rebbe created the “largest” Jewish organization in the world is false. He didn’t.——
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Our operations are funded solely by generous individuals like you. Your contribution will help us continue shining a light on the Israel/Palestine situation and the U.S. connection.
Below are five videos:
A short video by author Alison Weir explaining the basics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A video by Defence for Children International about what it’s like for Palestinian children in villages attacked by Israeli extremist settlers
A look at the relationship between Rabbi Schneerson and diverse Israeli leaders
Schneerson and Ariel Sharon (known as the Butcher of Beirut)
A video of a rabbi explaining traditional orthodox Jewish beliefs.
I wonder if they realize how much contempt the rest of the world has for them as we watch them perform atrocities in Gaza and neighbouring countries. Israelis are not looking very superior these days.
And the hilarious thing is, they are not only not the master race, they are not a race at all.