Yisroel Dovid Weiss

Infobox Person
name = Yisroel Dovid Weiss


image_size = 200px
caption = Yisroel Dovid Weiss
birth_date = 1956
birth_place = United States

Yisroel Dovid Weiss (born 1956), a United States Haredi rabbi, is an activist and the spokesman for Neturei Karta International,cite web
url= http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Statements/2006Nov10.cfm
title= Orthodox Rabbi Condemns Recent Israeli Atrocity in Gaza
accessdate= 2008-04-23
date= November 10, 2006
publisher = [http://www.nkusa.org/index.cfm Neturei Karta International] ] a anti-Zionist grouping of Haredi Jews. Based in Monsey, New York, he believes that observant Jews should peacefully oppose the existence of the Israeli state: "It would be forbidden for us to have a State, even if it would be in a land that is desolate and uninhabited."cite web
url = http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Speeches/2006Iran-WeissSpeech.cfm
title = Speech by Rabbi Y. D. Weiss, Tehran Conference , December 2006
accessdate = 2007-03-06
date = December 12, 2006
publisher = [http://www.nkusa.org/index.cfm Neturei Karta International] ]

Background

Weiss is the son of Hungarian Jewish holocaust survivors. His father spent the period of Nazi occupation hiding in a cellar, and survived to immigrate to America. His grandparents and all of his aunts and uncles were lost in WW2.cite interview
last = Weiss
first =Yisroel Dovid
subjectlink = Yisroel Dovid Weiss
last2 = Beck
first2 = Moshe Dov (Ber)
last3 = Weberman
first3 = Mordecai
interviewer = Harold Hudson Channer
title = Recent AntiZionist Rabbis meeting with Ahmadienjad
type = video
url = http://youtube.com/watch?v=9GHPj8TaBAM
format = YouTube
program = Conversations with Harold Hudson Channer
callsign = Time/Warner Cable NYC Ch. 34
city =
date = January 11, 2007]

Anti-Zionist campaigning

Weiss often speaks at rallies and conferences in the United States and internationally, criticising Israel and Zionism. [cite web
last = Maher
first = Ahmad
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Zionism, Israel Threat to Peace: Rabbi Weiss
publisher = IslamOnline.net
date =2003-08-26
url = http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-08/26/article11.shtml
accessdate = 2007-03-15 ] [cite web
title = UK Muslims present: Jews against Zionism
publisher = Ynetnews
date =2006-05-07
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3271269,00.html
accessdate = 2007-03-15 ] [cite web
title = Against Zionism, Jewish Perspectives - 2 July 2006
publisher = Islamic Human Rights Commission
date = 2006-07-02
url = http://www.ihrc.org.uk/060702/
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-03-15 ] In 2001 he attended the UN-organized World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa as part of the Islamic Human Rights Commission delegation. [ [http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=151 The Race Against Racism: A report of IHRC's work at the UN World Conference Against Racism, 2001] (Islamic Human Rights Commission) November 1, 2001.] During the conference, US and Israeli delegates walked out over an unsuccessful attempt to condemn Israel for racism. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1525981.stm Racism summit seeks breakthrough] (BBC) September 5, 2001.]

In an interview with Inminds.co.uk, a pro-Palestinian Website, Weiss stated that "We are always a thorn on their(zionist) side... they are afraid of us..." Weiss also praised Iran, stating that:

"When we traveled to Iran, the humbleness we found ... it is a country where people are God fearing.. they believe in God and they serve God... you can see the difference between that society and the society here - depravation is so great, where you have television, immorality, immodesty and so forth. Your children grow up with they say democracy but democracy originally meant freedom to serve God...but unfortunately today many are preaching freedom to exclude God, in other words free from God..." [http://www.inminds.co.uk/qa-rabbi-weiss.html Open Question to Yisroel Dovid Weiss - Inminds.co.uk - March 2, 2003] ]

In the same interview, Weiss stated that:

"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 its 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 in to 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."

In November of 2006, Weiss stated at a protest in New York City that:

"Zionism is a fundamentally heretical movement which denies the Divine imperative that Jews remain in exile until the day when all mankind will be miraculously redeemed.” [ [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,238862,00.html Ahmadinejad Handshake Leaves Rabbi's Neighbors Crying Foul - Fox News - December 20, 2006]

In December 2006 Weiss spoke at the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, held by the Iranian government in Tehran which was described by media sources such as NPR as a gathering of Holocaust deniers. [ [http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=6610013 Iran Hosts Large Meeting of Holocaust Deniers] , "All Things Considered", 11 December 2006.] In his five minute speech, Rabbi Weiss addressed the issue of holocaust denial as well:

Now maybe I can say that at the discussion of the holocaust, I may be the representative, the voice of the people who died in the holocaust because my grandparents died there. They were killed in Auschwitz. My parents were from Hungary. My father escaped and his parents remained. He wasn’t able to get them out of Hungary and they died in Auschwitz as were other relatives and all the communities that they knew. So to say that they didn’t die, to me you can not say that. I am the 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 can not refute, but that being said, it doesn’t mean that the holocaust is a tool to use to oppress other people.

Weiss states that though Israelis have used the Holocaust to gain sympathy and advantage, he does not believe the Holocaust toll is exaggerated. [ [http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jan09/0,4670,IranHolocaustConferenceCORRECTIVE,00.html Correction: Iran-Holocaust-Conference] (Fox News) January 09, 2007] Weiss said that "The Zionists use the Holocaust issue to their benefit. We, Jews who perished in the Holocaust, do not use it to advance our interests. We stress that there are hundreds of thousands Jews around the world who identify with our opposition to the Zionist ideology and who feel that Zionism is not Jewish, but a political agenda...What we want is not a withdrawal to the '67 borders, but to everything included in it, so the country can go back to the Palestinians and we could live with them..." [ [http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3226600,00.html Neturei Karta in Iran: Zionists use Holocaust] by Roee Nahmias, ("YNetNews") 12 March, 2006.] [ [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395563055&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Neturei Karta sect pays visit to Iran] by Michael Freund ("Jerusalem Post") 8 March 2006.]

upport for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Weiss has defended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against accusations of Anti-Semitism. In March of 2006, Weiss released a statement to Iran’s official IRIB radio in which he stated that:

“it is dangerous deviation to pretend that the Iranian president is anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic. He is extremely friendly and he understands the difference between the Zionists and the Jews who do not embrace the state of Israel... We don’t look at him as an enemy.” [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/nyregion/15rabbi.html?ex=1326517200&en=bae6b9e1258c3aaf&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home - New York Times - January 15, 2007] ]

Response from other Haredim

Both the anti-Zionist Edah HaChareidis,cite web
url = http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881888875&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
title = Haredim slam fringe over Iran parley
accessdate = 2007-03-06
last = Wagner
first = Matthew
date = December 14, 2006
publisher = The Jerusalem Post
archiveurl =
archivedate = ] and Satmar,cite web
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3340592,00.html
title = Satmar court slams Neturei Karta
accessdate = 2007-03-06
last = Sela
first = Neta
date = December 15, 2006
publisher = Ynetnews
archiveurl =
archivedate = ] have condemned him and the other Haredim who went to Tehran. Shmuel Poppenheim, editor of "Ha'edah", the newsletter of the Edah HaChareidis, stated that “That tiny group of weirdos is liable to incite hatred against haredim.” He continued that “ [t] hose people's distorted anti-Zionist zealotry, which is sanctified in their eyes above and beyond the opinion of our Torah sages, brought them to that conference…the very fact that they participated gave Ahmadinejad the justification to say: ‘Look, the haredim feel the same way we do about the Holocaust.’” Poppenheim estimated that maybe there were 10 extremists in Israel, and a couple of dozen world-wide, who supported participating in the Holocaust conference.

The Satmar movement published an official denounciation of “fanaticism, and those committing insane acts to walk hand in hand with the Arabs.” This described conference participants as “attend [ing] a special conference of the nations of the world that despise [the people of] Israel (may the names of the evil rot), deny the Holocaust, and deny and belittle the immensity of the evil and murder of those killed for sanctifying the Lord; they desecrated the name of the heavens.”

Israeli response

The Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yonah Metzger, called on world rabbis to reject Neturei Karta members who participated in the Holocaust denial conference, saying they “should not be allowed entrance to Temples ["sic"] .”cite web
title = Rabbi Metzger: Boycott Neturei Karta participants of Iran conference
last = Sela
first = Neta
date = December 14, 2006
publisher = Ynetnews
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3339840,00.html
accessdate = 2007-03-07 ]

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, stated that the attendance of the group was “completely insane. If it’s possible that there is any Jew, who for some reason or another can support a Holocaust denier in a generation where people with numbers tattooed on their arms are still among us – it’s an insanity that has no justification and no explanation.”cite web
title = Ahmadinejad, Neturei Karta: Zionists are criminals
last = Cohen
first = Dudi
coauthors = Neta Sela
date = December 14, 2006
publisher = Ynetnews
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3340082,00.html
accessdate = 2007-03-07 ]

American response

American Jewish organisations including Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union, have also issued statements distancing themselves from Weiss.cite web
url = http://www.juf.org/news_public_affairs/article.asp?key=7684
title = Orthodox furious at anti-Zionist sect
accessdate = 2007-03-06
last = Berkman
first = Jacob
date = December 19, 2006
publisher = Jewish United Fund
archiveurl =
archivedate = ] The executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, has called the group ‘embarrassing’, and Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, called Neturei Karta's public display of affection for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ‘graphic and disgusting.’

Since returning to the U.S. from the conference, Weiss and other individuals who attended have been ostracized by synagogues, denied service at kosher stores, and have been the subject disparagement in some communities with strong Orthodox Jewish populations such as Brooklyn and Monsey.cite web
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/nyregion/15rabbi.html?ex=1173330000&en=44bf9e0f329043e5&ei=5070
title = New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home
accessdate = 2007-03-06
last = Santos
first = Ferdinand
date = January 15, 2007, corrected January 17, 2007
work =
publisher = The New York Times] A demonstration outside a Neturei Karta synagogue on the 7th of January was met by a counter demonstration attended by "a much smaller contingent" of supporters of Rabbi Weiss.

Weiss explanation

Weiss states that the Jewish world has misunderstood the Neturei Karta actions. He said the organization did not appear at the conference to deny the Holocaust, but to draw a distinction between Zionists and Jews. Weiss stated that Ahmadinejad is not an enemy of the Jews, but is a “God-fearing man [who] respects the Jewish people and he protects them in Iran.”

External links

* [http://www.nkusa.org Neturei Karta International]
* [http://www.indcjournal.com/archives/000276.html INDC Protests: ANSWER, MASSF and Jews United Against Zionism]
* [http://www.inminds.co.uk/qa-rabbi-weiss.html Open to Question: Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss]
* [http://www.themodernreligion.com/jihad/letter-bush.html An Open Letter to President George Bush, from Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss]
* [http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Browse.asp?hGuestID=ELk1V5 Online Forum with Rabbi Weiss]
* [http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Conferences/2006Dec12Iran.cfm Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss Speech to International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust] (Audio & transcript)
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/stories/s546322.htm Neturei Karta vs the Zionists] ABC Radio National

References

Persondata
NAME=Weiss, Yisroel Dovid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Anti-Zionist Haredi Rabbi from Monsey, New York
DATE OF BIRTH=1956
PLACE OF BIRTH=United States
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=