Silence as the Constitution is Shredded in New York State
The silence of Agudath Israel in the Face of the Tyranny imposed by Ed Day in Rockland county has been deafening.They are failing to learn the lesson of their own history.
The book review below published in the Jewish Star back in 2011 relates a sorry episode in which various Rabbinic leaders attempted to mollify Hitler may his memory be erased. I do not intend to disparage those leaders of Blessed memory who were only trying to do their best under the most horrible circumstances imaginable. However we have an obligation to look back with hindsight and learn from mistakes that were made in the past. Some may say they did not make a mistake, but rather it was a heroic attempt at helping a bad situation.
Others would say it was a mistake and we should learn from it and not repeat it. The general rule that most people seem to agree with is that if you do not stand up to a bully you are empowering and emboldening them.
We see all around us an erosion of civil rights, religious rights,educational freedom, parental rights, medical freedom, and freedom of speech, all at the hands of politicians,government officials, Internet companies, and unfortunately, leaders in our own community.
Ed Day of Rockland County is really not smart enough to deserve the title of a modern day Hitler.He is a just a petty little bully with a cadre of petty little power tripping medical bureaucrats bullying thousands of citizens and eviscerating the Constitution of the USA. He has been empowered to do this by his overlord, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Cuomo's Chief Medical Kappo Dr. Howard Zucker.
The buck stops in Albany!!!
This is not about the four, yes 4, active cases of Measles in Rockland county. This is about Governor Cuomo taking political revenge on Orthodox Jewish State Senator Simcha Felder and the entire Orthodox Jewish Community of New York State. It is also about the payoffs to politicians and the Nonprofit Industrial Medical and Social Service complex from the Pharmaceutical industry. It is also a direct attack on President Trump who has been attempting to strengthen Civil Rights protections for Vaccine Religious exemptions at the Federal level in the Department of Health and Human services. Yes, Cuomo and the Medical Industrial Complex are deliberately trying to undermine President Trump on the Vaccine and Religious freedom issue.
Two new Pro Vaccine propaganda NGOs that are pushing this agenda from inside the Orthodox Jewish community are JOWMA the Jewish Orthodox Women’s Medical Association, and OJNA the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association. Both of these "Non Profits" are likely funded by the CDC and the Pharmaceutical industry either directly or through other phony non profit Cut Outs designed to mask funding sources. Two women who have been particularly vocal,nasty, and deceptive, on behalf of OJNA are L’via Weisinger and Blima Marcus. I am told that not surprisingly, L'via Weisinger is a Trump Hater with various Facebook Postings antagonistic to President Trump. As we have noted elsewhere on this Blog, the Left Wing Trump haters have gotten together with the Vaccine industry to demolish Vaccine Choice, Medical Freedom, Religious Freedom, Parental Rights, and Family Values. It started a few years ago in California with Orthodox Jewish Non Profits Collaborating with Senator Richard Pan to gut Medical Freedom and Religious Exemptions there. I wonder how much money the Bikur Cholim of Los Angeles got for obsequiously collaborating with the EVIL and WICKED LEFT WING COMMUNIST Richard Pan. Shame on you Hershey Ten.
Lets learn from history so we are not condemned to repeat it.
Kosher Bookworm: Rabbi Jechiel Weinberg and the futile attempt to mollify Hitler
Posted
Imagine that you live in a country that has just elected Adolf Hitler as its head of state.
Your name is Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, rabbi, and a leading authority on Jewish law who is revered by many for your wisdom, knowledge and compassion.
Your destiny has placed you to be present at a time of utter chaos for you, your family and your people. You are part of an orthodox Jewish leadership coming to terms with a force that will prove to become more dangerous than the Jewish people have ever confronted.
Yet, a combination of optimism and denial is at play which impels you and others to attempt a path of soft appeasement of those, who, in the end will physically terminate the thousand year relationship between German Jews and their non-Jewish compatriots.
Dr. Marc Shapiro’s excellent study of the life’s work of Rabbi Weinberg is not just a biography of one man, it is a biography of an era and of events that serve to define a special place in history that in turn has defined a people’s destiny for all time.
Both events and ideas are given a reader’s front seat as one reads the gripping narrative alongside some of the most stellar footnotes and research. Surely, this is a scholar’s masterpiece, indeed.
It is the intent of this writer to focus on just one sad chapter of this book, and of Rabbi Weinberg’s life, that will serve as an example of what faced German Jewry in that era and of the shocking response of the Orthodox Jewish leadership to the Nazi challenge.
I do not envy Dr. Shapiro for the choices that he made in structuring the events about to be reviewed. To his everlasting credit, no attempt was made to cultivate myth or fantasy. Rabbinic rank and status was to have no impact as it concerned the chronicling the truth.
In Oct. 1933 “an amazing letter” was written to Hitler by the separatist Orthodox Jewish leaders of Germany seeking, in what they mistakenly thought was some honest attempt to explain to the newly elected German head of government the true nature of the Orthodox Jewish faith and its people.
Never before was the entire text of this letter published until the publication of this work.
In retrospect, it reads as a pathetic, naïve missive, pleading at times, fawning to the point of groveling in an attempt to persuade a hateful maniac as to the righteousness of their faith. It was a bold and somewhat eloquent attempt to be “mefayeis” a modern day Esau, when in reality, it served absolutely no purpose except to further self-humiliate those who signed it.
Among those signers were three whose names many of you will easily recognize:
Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Munk of Berlin, Rabbi Dr. Joseph Breuer of Frankfurt Am Main; and World President of Agudath Israel, Jacob Rosenheim, also of Frankfurt.
According to Dr. Shapiro, the text stressed the Jewish commitment to anti-communism, the many contributions that Jews have made to Germany, as well of their strong opposition to the economic boycott against Germany.
The authors, according to Dr. Shapiro, attempt to mollify Hitler by expressing their confidence that that do not believe it is his intention to destroy the German Jewish community, a community that loves the German soil and people and is bound to its culture.
Now consider the following from Dr. Shapiro’s narrative:
“In concluding the letter the authors stress that they are not requesting the immediate abolition of anti-Jewish restrictions, for they do not wish to create difficulties for the government. They are ready to accept certain restrictions for the present. Distancing themselves from Reform, in a manner which Weinberg strongly opposed, the authors stress the uniqueness of Orthodoxy. They point out that Orthodox Jews never intended to acquire excessive economic influence, since the Sabbath laws prevent this. Furthermore, Orthodox Judaism has always been strongly opposed to intermarriage and Jewish apostasy. What the Orthodox desire, they continue, is the ability to practice their religion freely and earn a living without threats or abuse.”
The letter concludes, “In accordance with our religious obligations we shall always remain loyal to the government of the country. As part of the German people, the German Jew will gladly help in the construction of the German nation, and do what he can to gain it friends outside the German borders.”
Dr. Shapiro goes to some length in describing the internal ramifications within the overall Jewish community that this letter had, and it wasn’t pretty. His analysis, given the events that were to follow over the next decade point to an unwarranted Orthodox self-centeredness. This, in turn, should serve as a lesson unto this day as it concerns Jewish unity in face of adversaries who are no less dangerous to us, after all Adolph Hitler never did live to have the atomic bomb, our adversaries in Pakistan, and possibly Iran do.
This book contains the full text of the “Letter to Hitler”, dated October 4,1933, in Appendix 2 [page 225-233]. Appendix 3, contains the full text of a letter, dated May 14, 1934, that World Agudath Israel president Jacob Rosenheim sent to Agudah’s head office in Vienna, with a copy marked to the Nazi Foreign Ministry in Berlin, boasting in detail the efforts to “stem the virulent boycott of German goods that is being mounted abroad…” This letter warrants your attention.
Not a day passes by when an anti-Semitic incident occurs somewhere in the world.
Our leaders must learn from the actions described above, to be firm in their resolve to defeat their schemes of those who wish us ill, as well as to maintain the best in our relations with all those who truly see in us genuine friendship
Your name is Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, rabbi, and a leading authority on Jewish law who is revered by many for your wisdom, knowledge and compassion.
Your destiny has placed you to be present at a time of utter chaos for you, your family and your people. You are part of an orthodox Jewish leadership coming to terms with a force that will prove to become more dangerous than the Jewish people have ever confronted.
Yet, a combination of optimism and denial is at play which impels you and others to attempt a path of soft appeasement of those, who, in the end will physically terminate the thousand year relationship between German Jews and their non-Jewish compatriots.
Dr. Marc Shapiro’s excellent study of the life’s work of Rabbi Weinberg is not just a biography of one man, it is a biography of an era and of events that serve to define a special place in history that in turn has defined a people’s destiny for all time.
Both events and ideas are given a reader’s front seat as one reads the gripping narrative alongside some of the most stellar footnotes and research. Surely, this is a scholar’s masterpiece, indeed.
It is the intent of this writer to focus on just one sad chapter of this book, and of Rabbi Weinberg’s life, that will serve as an example of what faced German Jewry in that era and of the shocking response of the Orthodox Jewish leadership to the Nazi challenge.
I do not envy Dr. Shapiro for the choices that he made in structuring the events about to be reviewed. To his everlasting credit, no attempt was made to cultivate myth or fantasy. Rabbinic rank and status was to have no impact as it concerned the chronicling the truth.
In Oct. 1933 “an amazing letter” was written to Hitler by the separatist Orthodox Jewish leaders of Germany seeking, in what they mistakenly thought was some honest attempt to explain to the newly elected German head of government the true nature of the Orthodox Jewish faith and its people.
Never before was the entire text of this letter published until the publication of this work.
In retrospect, it reads as a pathetic, naïve missive, pleading at times, fawning to the point of groveling in an attempt to persuade a hateful maniac as to the righteousness of their faith. It was a bold and somewhat eloquent attempt to be “mefayeis” a modern day Esau, when in reality, it served absolutely no purpose except to further self-humiliate those who signed it.
Among those signers were three whose names many of you will easily recognize:
Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Munk of Berlin, Rabbi Dr. Joseph Breuer of Frankfurt Am Main; and World President of Agudath Israel, Jacob Rosenheim, also of Frankfurt.
According to Dr. Shapiro, the text stressed the Jewish commitment to anti-communism, the many contributions that Jews have made to Germany, as well of their strong opposition to the economic boycott against Germany.
The authors, according to Dr. Shapiro, attempt to mollify Hitler by expressing their confidence that that do not believe it is his intention to destroy the German Jewish community, a community that loves the German soil and people and is bound to its culture.
Now consider the following from Dr. Shapiro’s narrative:
“In concluding the letter the authors stress that they are not requesting the immediate abolition of anti-Jewish restrictions, for they do not wish to create difficulties for the government. They are ready to accept certain restrictions for the present. Distancing themselves from Reform, in a manner which Weinberg strongly opposed, the authors stress the uniqueness of Orthodoxy. They point out that Orthodox Jews never intended to acquire excessive economic influence, since the Sabbath laws prevent this. Furthermore, Orthodox Judaism has always been strongly opposed to intermarriage and Jewish apostasy. What the Orthodox desire, they continue, is the ability to practice their religion freely and earn a living without threats or abuse.”
The letter concludes, “In accordance with our religious obligations we shall always remain loyal to the government of the country. As part of the German people, the German Jew will gladly help in the construction of the German nation, and do what he can to gain it friends outside the German borders.”
Dr. Shapiro goes to some length in describing the internal ramifications within the overall Jewish community that this letter had, and it wasn’t pretty. His analysis, given the events that were to follow over the next decade point to an unwarranted Orthodox self-centeredness. This, in turn, should serve as a lesson unto this day as it concerns Jewish unity in face of adversaries who are no less dangerous to us, after all Adolph Hitler never did live to have the atomic bomb, our adversaries in Pakistan, and possibly Iran do.
This book contains the full text of the “Letter to Hitler”, dated October 4,1933, in Appendix 2 [page 225-233]. Appendix 3, contains the full text of a letter, dated May 14, 1934, that World Agudath Israel president Jacob Rosenheim sent to Agudah’s head office in Vienna, with a copy marked to the Nazi Foreign Ministry in Berlin, boasting in detail the efforts to “stem the virulent boycott of German goods that is being mounted abroad…” This letter warrants your attention.
Not a day passes by when an anti-Semitic incident occurs somewhere in the world.
Our leaders must learn from the actions described above, to be firm in their resolve to defeat their schemes of those who wish us ill, as well as to maintain the best in our relations with all those who truly see in us genuine friendship
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