Detailed
Description |
|
Polemic by Neturei Karta against R. Yizhak Meir Levin, son-in-law of the Gerer Rebbe, leader of Agudat Israel in Poland. R. Levin and the Gerer Rebbe arrived in Palestine in 1940 and began to actively participate in the life of the yishuv, thereby greatly increasing the influence of in Agudat Israel among Polish immigrants. When the state of Israel was founded in 1948, Agudat Israel became a political party and its leader, Rabbi Levi, became minister of social welfare from 1949 to 1952. He fought for the observance of the halakhah, particularly in the field of education, and later supported the organization of an independent school system and the exemption of religious girls and of yeshiva students from military service.
Le-Hasir ha-Masveh begins with an introduction stating, “It is not in fact necessary to dispute with R. Y. M. Levin, head of Agudah, for his way is not our way nor the deeds of his movement the acts of Haredi Jewry . . .”. Among the subjects addressed in Le-Hasir ha-Maveh are Neturei Karta’s disagreements with R. Aaron Kotler, Shabbat, military service, education, and R. Levin going after the casket of Herzel.
Neturei Karta (Ha-Edah ha-Haredit), group of ultrareligious extremists, mainly in Jerusalem, who regard the establishment of a secular Jewish state in Erez Israel as a sin and a denial of God, and therefore do not recognize the State of Israel. Their name, which is Aramaic for “guardians of the City,” derives from a passage in the Jerusalem Talmud (Hag. 76:3) stating that religious scholars are the guardians and defenders of the city. Neturei Karta broke away from Agudat Israel in 1935, when the latter attempted to restrain extremist demands for an independent ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem community completely separate from the rest of the Zionist community. The group first adopted the name Hevrat ha-Hayyim, after R. Joseph Hayyim Sonnenfeld. It aimed at creating “a circle free from the influence of the contemporary spirit and its fallacious opinions,” and a condition of membership was “the education of sons and daughters in the traditional Jewish manner, without any change (girls’ schools which teach Hebrew do not provide education in the traditional Jewish manner).” The last phrase alluded to Agudat Israel's Bet Ya’akov girls’ schools, where the language of instruction is Hebrew. |
