hiver - Historical Revisionism by Vrij Historisch Onderzoek
hiver - Historical Revisionism by Vrij Historisch Onderzoek
hiver - Historical Revisionism by Vrij Historisch Onderzoek
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——————————————————————> Conseils de révisions / <strong>hiver</strong> winter 2007<br />
called the gathering a "conference of hate."<br />
"A lot of people that were there really want to destroy and kill Jews — from their agendas," Gisser said.<br />
'10 Minutes of Infamy'<br />
Rockland County is known for its rich Jewish diversity — members of every denomination, from the<br />
outwardly religious Hasidim to Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews, live here in the lower Hudson Valley.<br />
But residents say Neturei Karta, led <strong>by</strong> Weiss, is a fringe operation that espouses views held <strong>by</strong> virtually<br />
no one else in the community — namely that Israel must be destroyed and put into Arab hands before the coming<br />
of the Messiah.<br />
"He wants his 10 minutes of infamy," Greenberg said. "That's what it's about."<br />
Neturei Karta, Aramaic for "guardians of the city," was founded in Jerusalem in 1938 as a splinter group of<br />
Agudas Yisroel, an anti-Zionist cell of Orthodox Jews founded 26 years before, according to the Neturei Karta<br />
Web site.<br />
The group denies that they are "a small sect or an extremist group of 'ultra-orthodox' Jews," but rather are<br />
"fighting the changes and inroads made <strong>by</strong> political Zionism during the past 100 odd years," according to the site.<br />
"Zionism is a fundamentally heretical movement which denies the Divine imperative that Jews remain in<br />
exile until the day when all mankind will be miraculously redeemed,” Weiss told a gathering of protesters in New<br />
York City in November.<br />
The Neturei Karta's U.S. branch is based in a sprawling but dilapidated tenement in Monsey, a village<br />
ringed with strip malls boasting clothing bargains and fast-food shops that offer kosher pizza and falafel.<br />
It's Jewish small-town America.<br />
At a time when most Americans prepared to celebrate Christmas, menorahs twinkled from the tops of<br />
minivans as men dressed in black with long, curly side locks hitched rides home and bicyclists, their prayer-shawl<br />
tassels twisting in the wind, raced home for Hanukkah celebrations.<br />
Rafael, a nearly 20-year resident of the community, said Neturei Karta has only a handful of members. He,<br />
along with other residents interviewed <strong>by</strong> FOXNews.com last week, declined to give their full names, fearing<br />
reprisals within the community.<br />
"[Weiss] definitely does not represent any part of the Jewish community except for his little hole in the<br />
wall," Rafael said. "I really believe he should be considered a traitor to the country.<br />
"This is a very, very good country and I think that someone who goes ahead and does what he does —<br />
hugs and kisses the enemy of the world — should be considered a traitor. Revoke his citizenship."<br />
Weiss and his group have made headlines with protests in Washington and in photo opportunities with the<br />
Palestine Liberation Organization.<br />
"Nobody embraces him," said Simon, a 10-year resident of Monsey who declined to give his last name.<br />
"The blood pressure goes up."<br />
A woman who came to a door marked "Beck" at Neturei Karta headquarters Tuesday said Weiss did not<br />
live at the building. Other officials were not available for comment. Phone calls to Weiss were not returned.<br />
But there was no denying that Neturei Karta had been in Tehran.<br />
"We put effort into attending occasions such as this because we feel that we have both a religious and<br />
religion-based humanitarian duty to spread our message as much as possible," Rabbi Aharon Cohen said at the<br />
Holocaust conference, according to remarks published on the Neturei Karta Web site.<br />
"He's still my customer," Rafael said of Weiss. "I'll take his money, but I'll be happy to see him go."<br />
People Ask Questions<br />
Most worrisome to Jewish leaders is the publicity machine that seems to follow Neturei Karta; photos of<br />
Weiss embracing Ahmadinejad garnered headlines around the globe.<br />
"A rabbi kissing someone who considers himself the sworn enemy of Israel, which is the Jewish state,"<br />
Gisser said. "People ask questions."<br />
At Rockland County's Holocaust Museum — where photographs and artifacts from Auschwitz and other<br />
concentration camps are a poignant reminder of the dark depths of man's capacity for evil — the staff organized<br />
an evening rally Dec. 20 in support of the county's Holocaust survivors.<br />
"These survivors who have survived such horrible things, they're incensed," said Roberta Lieman, the<br />
museum's administrator. "I was infected <strong>by</strong> it. I'm incensed."<br />
Holocaust survivor Sonia Goldstein, 80, was one of several hundred people who attended the rally. She<br />
said she couldn't sleep the night she heard of the Iranian trip.<br />
"How those people could go to Iran to face that Iranian Hitler and all the rest of the Holocaust deniers, I<br />
cannot understand that," said Goldstein, who tearfully recounted the day a Nazi offered a young boy hidden in the<br />
women's section of a camp a candy and then shot him in the head.<br />
"This is up to the government and up to the Jewish organizations to do something against them," Goldstein<br />
said.<br />
Groups like the Jewish Defense Organization are planning protests of Neturei Karta outside the group's<br />
headquarters. But Gisser said positive action is key for his museum's response.<br />
"We have to teach our children for the next generation love and respect," he said, "and that will lead to<br />
peace."<br />
That said, it's still hard to have anything but "zero patience" for Neturei Karta, and harder still to apply the<br />
Golden Rule toward the group's members and Weiss.<br />
"Although I'm angry at him, I can't hate him either, because I don't believe that's a word that should be part<br />
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