Posted on 04/19/2007 3:40:22 PM PDT by SJackson
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Thursday condemned as "hurtful" and "spurious" comments made by former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu that the victims of the Holocaust were made to suffer because of the sins of the Reform Movement.
In a letter to Steven M. Bauman and Rabbi Uri Regev, the chairman and president, respectively, of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, Olmert wrote: "We recently marked Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day here in Israel, and I was disturbed that it was precisely at this painful time that certain spurious comments were made regarding the cause of the horrors inflicted on our people, and unequivocally condemn any such hurtful expressions.
"Let me be clear," Olmert wrote, "the murder of more than six million of our brothers and sisters in the Holocaust was perpetrated by the evil and immoral Nazi regime and its collaborators. The only 'sin' committed by the victims was being born Jewish.
"The Reform Movement is a vital and vibrant part of modern Judaism, and the government and people of the State of Israel admire your contribution to Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora," Olmert concluded.
Other angry responses to Eliyahu's remarks continued to be heard.
"Removing our Reform brothers and sisters from the camp does not contribute to unity, but rather sows the seeds of division and baseless hatred," Jewish Agency chairman Ze'ev Bielski wrote to former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu this week.
"Rabbi Eliyahu should remember precisely that the victims of the Holocaust came from all Jewish denominations, the secular along with the religious," suggested the Anti-Defamation League's Israel Office in a statement Thursday.
Olmert and the organizations were reacting to an interview given on pirate haredi radio station Kol Ha'emet ("The Voice of Truth"), in which Eliyahu was asked for what sin the Holocaust victims were punished. He replied that the victims were not to blame, but rather were made to suffer because of the sins of the Reform Movement.
"The Reformers started in Germany," he explained. "Those redactors of the Jewish faith began in Germany. We learn from this that it is forbidden to attempt to change Judaism."
Bielski told Eliyahu he "was shocked to hear your words relating the Holocaust to the rise of the Reform movement in Germany," and insisted that "your words could be interpreted as removing from the Nazi tyrant the responsibility, passing it on to our Jewish brothers."
The Anti-Defamation League further noted that Eliyahu's "argumentative use of the Shoah" was a "travesty of the memory of its martyrs."
Reflecting on Eliyahu's statements, Rabbi Michael Marmur, dean of the Jerusalem campus of the Reform Movement's Hebrew Union College, said he believes "the problem here is the deep perversity of claiming to know what it is that has caused the greatest cataclysm of Jewish history. It's saying, 'I, Rabbi Eliyahu, read about the Shoah, and it turns out there's an identifiable group to blame.'"
A child of Holocaust survivors, Marmur insisted that "calling [Eliyahu's statements] insulting hardly does them justice.
"What is it that allows a man like Eliyahu to give himself the right to behave in this kind of way?" he asked. "I think here there are political explanations. It's been our experience for years as Reform Jews in Israel that whenever a religious political party needed a boost, a little bit of Reform-bashing went a long way."
Eliyahu, who rarely consents to be interviewed, could not be reached for comment by press time.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
----------------------------
A very disappointing statement given the source.
The Orthodox would be more credible if all of the able bodied would serve in the IDF.
On the behalf of Poles, Ukrainians, Brits, Latvians, etc - Welcome to the Club.
Not even close to the Rabbi’s comments.
Remember when Eric Yoffie compared Orthodox Jews (and also evangelical Christians) to the Taliban? And he refused to apologize.
FReepMail to be added or removed from this pro-Israel/Judaic/Russian Jewry ping list.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
Culpability for the deaths of 6 million people, whether Reform Jews are responsible for the Christian deaths or the entire war isn’t clear, goes a bit beyond mere “criticim”. This is out in the Gaza withdrawl caused Katrina country.
I was commenting on the double standards, that when Reform leaders also make off-the-wall offensive comments (such as Yoffie blasting those who oppose his pro-gay policy) there is no similar uproar.
Rabbi 'Eliyyahu (`ad me'ah ve`esrim shanah) is far from the only Orthodox Jew to make this claim about the connection of Reform's German origins and Churban 'Europa'. Many, many Orthodox rabbis ('Ashkenazim as well as Sefaradim) have made the same point.
I agree with Alouette that Reform doesn't practice what it preaches in the brotherhood department.
How do you know it didn't? Do you think "things just happen," that there isn't a reason for everything?
Rabbi Yosef wasn't the only one to make that connection either. Don Feder mentioned a connection found in the Torah codes.
The Orthodox Jews keep the Torah as given to Moses. Reform Jews not only don't do this, they promote deviancy and sin as the essence of Jewishness (G-d forbid!) and cause the name of G-d to be desecrated among non-Jews. This is an extremely serious sin. May all Jews be led back to the Torah speedily in our days.
No one can be blamed for the Holocaust but the people who did it.
But there is a kernel of truth in this. I have not read the offending comments, but it is true that some prominent reformed Jews were in the forefront of leftist movements during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Communism and its predecessors. They were active in the 1848 revolution, they were active in the 1917 revolution, they were responsible for the bloody Communist coup in Hungary in the 1930s, and they were among the Russian invaders who slaughtered assorted Poles and others during the Second World War. Middle Europe was a battleground between Nazis and Communists, and a lot of people were caught in the middle.
When Hitler came in, assorted nationalists went after the Jews, whom they blamed for the previous wave of persecutions. Unfortunately the easiest Jews to go after were the ones who wore characterist Jewish dress, although they were not Communists and had nothing to do with the earlier crimes.
The crimes of prominent Communist Jews did not cause the Holocaust, but they did add to the hatreds and misunderstandings that led to later persecutions of completely innocent Jews, only because they were Jews.
Whether it’s productive to say these things, I don’t know. But sometimes the sanctimoniousness of the extreme left makes it hard to resist.
Prediction of Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, decades before the Holocaust.
I fail to understand the reason for so much Robertson-bashing by so many FReepers.
You prefer maybe Fr. Coughlin?
Certainly can’t disagree with that. Most of the things Yoffe comments on are political in nature and shouldn’t be commented on at all in his capacity.
Rabbi 'Eliyyahu (`ad me'ah ve`esrim shanah) is far from the only Orthodox Jew to make this claim about the connection of Reform's German origins and Churban 'Europa'. Many, many Orthodox rabbis ('Ashkenazim as well as Sefaradim) have made the same point…I agree with Alouette that Reform doesn't practice what it preaches in the brotherhood department….How do you know it didn't? Do you think "things just happen," that there isn't a reason for everything?...Rabbi Yosef wasn't the only one to make that connection either. Don Feder mentioned a connection found in the Torah codes…The Orthodox Jews keep the Torah as given to Moses. Reform Jews not only don't do this, they promote deviancy and sin as the essence of Jewishness (G-d forbid!) and cause the name of G-d to be desecrated among non-Jews. This is an extremely serious sin. May all Jews be led back to the Torah speedily in our days.
Rabbi’s make all kinds of claims.
The burden of proof lies on the one making the statement.
Without proof, Gaza caused Katrina is simply humorous.
Neutra Karta’s contension that Jews shouldn’t live in Israel isn’t humorous, it’s harmful. It plays into the hands of antisemites worldwide.
I’d put Rabbi Eliyyahu’s in that category as well. Neonazis and Islamists everywhere tout the fact that if the Holocaust happened, the Jews brought in on themselves. Now there’s one authority they can rely on.
The Germany/observant issue is problematical as well.
While Reform Judaism was a German invention, by the 1930s the nexus was in the US.
European Jewry, which along with Israel was they heart of observant Judaism, was virtually wiped out, American Jewry unscathed.
If this was an act of Divine intervention in reaction to the Reform movement, it appears that on a relative basis, to be a rare occurrence where the Divine punished the observant and the less observant and secular were spared.
I’m not convinced, any more than I’ve convinced Jews shouldn’t return to Israel.
Prediction of Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, decades before the Holocaust.
Perceptive thouh it may have been, unless you’re suggesting that’s an actual act of prophecy, it’s irrelevant to Divine intent. Thoroughly secular Jews were saying the same thing, that’s how we got Zionism. Theodor Herzl wasn't a prophet, just politically astute.
No one can be blamed for the Holocaust but the people who did it...But there is a kernel of truth in this. I have not read the offending comments, but it is true that some prominent reformed Jews were in the forefront of leftist movements during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Communism and its predecessors. They were active in the 1848 revolution, they were active in the 1917 revolution, they were responsible for the bloody Communist coup in Hungary in the 1930s, and they were among the Russian invaders who slaughtered assorted Poles and others during the Second World War…Middle Europe was a battleground between Nazis and Communists, and a lot of people were caught in the middle.
Communism is an anti-religious movement, as was national socialism. Personally I find the religion of participants irrelevant, since religious ideology plays no role in either movement, I’d view the pagan Deutche Cristi, a political movement, since religious concepts motivates them not at all.
I know Jewish Communists is a popular phrase, even here on FR, but for consistency using it requires you accept Christian Communists and Christian Nazis as valid descriptions as well.
As to Jewish Communists vs. chr*stian Communists, "chr*stian" denotes a religion, not an ethnicity. Jews are an ethnicity--a nation with a special covenent with G-d. Jews remain Jews whether they live up to that covenant or not.
The fact that the Holocaust occurred in Europe rather than in America reflects the German origins of the Holocaust, and in an article by Rabbi Lapin which I posted earlier today the issue of the innocent suffering because of the guilty is discussed.
There is absolutely nothing that occurs that is not in some way governed by Divine Providence. To deny that anything has ever happened or ever could happen that is not in some way overseen by Divine Providence is utter heresy.
We must agree to disagree on this issue.
The true Gedolei-Yisra'el are the true rulers of humanity. May we all come to see this soon.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.