The difference between a Jewish anti-Zionist and a non-Jewish anti-Zionist
Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld was the founder of the Eida Charedis, which is one of the centers of anti-Zionist activism in the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community to this day (NOTE - Most Haredim are NOT Neturei Karta and that includes the Eida). He was a student of Rabbi Samuel Benjamin Sofer (the Ksav Sofer), the son of Rabbi Moses Sofer (the Chasam Sofer). He was also a student of Rabbi Avraham Schag in Kobersdorf (who was himself a disciple of the Chasam Sofer); Sonnenfeld moved from the latter city to Jerusalem in 1873.Rabbi Benny Lau (the son of former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau) is on the noontime news magazine on Israel Radio every Friday (usually I am in the car then and cannot share his wisdom with you), and just told the following story about Rav Sonnenfeld:
He became an important figure in Jerusalem's Old City, serving as the right-hand man of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin and assisting the latter in communal activities, such as the founding of schools and the Diskin Orphanage, and the fight against secularism. He refused to meet with Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany who visited the Old City because he believed that the Emperor was a descendant of the nation of Amalek. Sonnenfeld sent a delegate, a former Dutch diplomat and writer who had become a baal teshuva, Dr. Jacob Israël de Haan, to Jordan with a peace proposal for King Abdullah.
Contrary to a number of distorted accounts, he had a warm relationship with and mutual respect for Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, although the two were vigorous opponents in many areas. Indeed, in 1913 the two traveled together to Northern Israel to try to return lapsed Jews to Torah Judaism.
The Mufti, Haj al-Amin al-Husseini (Arafat's uncle) visited Rav Sonnenfeld, and said, "You are anti-Zionists and we are anti-Zionists. Why don't we work together?"
Rav Sonnenfeld's response: "We cannot work together. We hate what is goyish (non-Jewish) about the Zionists, while you hate what is Jewish about them."
I think that's a great story that goes a long way toward explaining the sometimes conflicted feelings that much of the Haredi community (of which Rav Kook was also a part - his philosophy is widely admired in the National Religious community today) has toward the state.
Labels: anti-Zionism, Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, Neturei Karta, Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:34 PM
4 Comments:
Rabbi Sonnenfeld understood as the HaRav did, that all the atheist and pork-eating Jews cultivating and settling the land Zionists, may have been full of sin but in their hearts they were serving G-d. You have to look past the appearance of people to see them for who they really are. There is good in even the lowliest of Jews, a fact most Haredi Jews apart from the NK, appreciate today. Reprove your fellow man if he sins but approve of the good deeds he is doing and ask his children to serve G-d more. Sonnefeld would have agreed and in the end between Jews, its not really a question of whether there should be a Jewish State but what kind of a Jewish State it should be.
Amen!
I am a Zionist. but i definitely see the point of satmer and rav sonenfeld. my understanding of this issue is based on a idea of rebbi nachman that when a Jew goes to Israel that the evil side jumps in right away to wreak things up. I think this is a spiritual battle that cant be resolved by politics.
So he sees himself as a modern day prophet condemning the Ahab-like Jews and their Jezebel wives? Even a prophet would doom the people and not the land beneath their feet. Would that those biblical prophets condemned the existence of Israel there wouldn't have been a place for reformed men to live.
his philosophy is widely admired in the National Religious community today
Err I don't understand why, the national religious community are suckers for Christian Zionist money. I don't know how you can compare the two, as I don't belive teh Rav was a schnorrer.
The National Religous community are sick, demented, and think humanity and God owe them a living. Boy, are they in for a big shock.
Post a Comment
<< Home