Yisroel Dovid Weiss

Yisroel Dovid Weiss (born 1956) is an activist and spokesman for a minority branch of Neturei Karta,^[1] a anti-Zionist group. 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."^[2]

Weiss was criticized in 2006 for his participation in the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, widely considered to be an event promoting Holocaust denial internationally,^[3] although claimed to speak as "the voice of the people who died in the Holocaust".^[2]

Anti-Zionist campaigning

Weiss often speaks at rallies and conferences in the United States and internationally, criticizing Israel and Zionism.^[4][5][6] In 2001 he attended the UN-organized World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, as part of the Islamic Human Rights Commission delegation.^[7] During the conference, US and Israeli delegates walked out in protest of alleged singling out of Israel.^[8]

In November 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.^[9]

Visit to Iran and stance on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

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.^[10] 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 cannot 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.^[2]

Weiss states that though Israelis have used the Holocaust to gain sympathy and advantage, he does not believe the Holocaust toll is exaggerated.^[11] 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..."^[12]

Weiss has defended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against accusations of anti-Semitism. In March 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."^[13]

American Jewish organisations, including Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union, issued statements distancing themselves from Weiss.^[14] The executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, has called the group "embarrassing",^[14] and Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, called Neturei Karta's public display of affection for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "graphic and disgusting."^[14]

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 of disparagement in some communities with strong Orthodox Jewish populations such as Brooklyn and Monsey.^[3] A demonstration outside a Neturei Karta synagogue on January 7, 2007, was met by a counter-demonstration attended by "a much smaller contingent" of supporters of Rabbi Weiss.^[3]

Weiss's reaction to critics

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.^[14] Weiss stated that he believes 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".^[14]

External links

• Neturei Karta International
• INDC Protests: ANSWER, MASSF and Jews United Against Zionism
• An Open Letter to President George Bush, from Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss
• Rabbi Weiss Speech at Islamic Center, 2007
• Neturei Karta vs the Zionists ABC Radio National
• Israel commits atrocities on the Palestinian people – Interview with Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss on Iranian TV, May 16, 2011
• Al Jazeera interview

References