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OPEN TO QUESTION

 

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss is the spokesperson for the Neturei Karta International - Jews against Zionism. He attended the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban (2001) as part of the Islamic Human Rights Commission delegation and helped the NGO conference adopt the historic declaration condemning Zionism as racism and Israel for genocide which resulted in a US/Israel walkout.

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss is descended from Hungarian Jewry, his grandparents were exterminated by the Nazis at Auschwitz. He lives with his family in New York.

Interviewed on 2nd March 2003


Q1: People are sometimes confused between Zionism, Judaism and Jewishness. Can you please clarify?

 


[5:34min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (687Kb)

"Judaism is a religion of spirituality, to serve God...
Zionism is an apostasy, it is a rebellion against God, and a rebellion against the Torah, it is blasphemous..."

 

 

Q2: What is the Neturei Karta?

 


[2:41min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (332Kb)

"When the zionists decided to make their land, first they actually wanted to go to Uganda and other lands where ever they felt it was rich soils and so forth, but then they realised that they will have no backing from the Jewish people so they changed their plans and decided to go to Palestine.

In Palestine there was already a God fearing Jewish community (forming the minority of the inhabitants of Palestine). So when the zionists decided to go there they of course became a threat to the Palestinian Arabs, but they were also a tremendous threat for this Jewish community in Palestine. When the Jews living in Palestine saw this influx of zionists they realised that this is a tremendous threat for the whole of Judaism so they created in the 1920s the Aida Kreadus (congregation of God fearing) to fight this Zionist movement. Then later it transformed in the 1930s, the ones that were vocal were given the name Neturei Karta - the watchers or protectors of the city. These were the vocal people against zionism, they were there to fight this zionist movement and they fought it tooth and nail and people were killed in the fights. Till today they are beaten and thrown in jail, but the media doesn't go there....."

 

Q3: How many members do you have?

 


[2:37min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (324Kb)

"In 1947, the Chief Rabbi Deshinski wrote a letter to the United Nations where he pleaded with them , he said

'I have under me 60,000 constituents, we do not want to be included in this state of Israel that you are creating..'

You see how opposite Judaism is to Zionism that the chief Rabbi was asking to be included with the Arab people rather than the zionists...today there are 100s of 1000s of us..."

 


Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss (centre) burning the zionist flag during the Jewish Festival of Purim.

[ Purim is the commemoration of the destruction of Hayman from the tribe of Amalek whose aim was the destruction of the Jewish people. Jews throughout the world celebrate this festival and continue with the fight against Amalek in every generation. Today’s Amalek is Zionism and what it stands for, and annually on this day Jews throughout the world publicly burn the Zionist flag as a symbol of the destruction of evil. This takes place in New York, Brooklyn, Quebec (Canada), Monsey, and two places in occupied Palestine, and in here in England in London and Manchester. ]

Q4: How have the zionists reacted to your anti-zionist stance?

 


[3:15min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (403Kb)

"We are always a thorn on their(zionist) side... they are afraid of us..."

 

Q5: You reject the so-called "two state solution", what are your views on the Oslo Agreement?

 


[2:35min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (320Kb)

"At the time of the Oslo Agreement I personally with other Rabbis went to Washington and we had some of our members go to Madrid to deliver a letter and state that it will not be successful. We based that on a verse in the Torah which says 'Why are you transgressing the word of God - you will not be successful'..."

 

 

Q6: Your literature mentions the "dismantling of the zionist state". How should the zionist state be dismantled?

 


[1:52min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (232Kb)

"We hope and pray that it is done speedily and peacefully..."

 


Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss (centre) demonstrating
against Zionism in Duran, South Africa, 2001.

Q7: Oppressors tend not to give up power. Do you understand the need on the Palestinian side for armed struggle in order to liberate their land?

 


[1:08min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (142Kb)

"Of course, our Rabbi has said at the inception of Zionism that this (Zionism) will bring tremendous bloodshed, pain and suffering. So we understand things like this will happen..."

 

Q8: You have worked with Muslims and have visited the Islamic Republic of Iran. What are your views on Islam and Muslims?

 


[3:39min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (450Kb)

"When we traveled to Iran, the humbleness we found ... it is a country where people are God fearing.. they believe in God and they serve God... you can see the difference between that society and the society here - depravation is so great, where you have television, immorality, immodesty and so forth. Your children grow up with they say democracy but democracy originally meant freedom to serve God...but unfortunately today many are preaching freedom to exclude God, in other words free from God...

The propaganda against this (Islam and Muslims) comes from Zionism which is in opposition to this because they are busy trying to portray their problem with the Muslim people as a problem between two religions - Judaism and Islam. The fact is it is not a problem between Judaism and Islam because if it had been so then why did the Jewish people lived peacefully ... in harmony ... in all the Muslim countries before Zionism? Only in the last hundred years the problem has started and it grew as Zionism grew. Clearly Zionism is the problem.."

 

Q9: What advice do you have on how Muslims and Jews can best work together to defeat Zionism?

 


[3:45min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (463Kb)

"The portrayal that the zionist want is that it is a conflict between Islam and Judaism and they try to label anyone that stands against them as an anti-Semite. So the Muslim people have to clarify that we have nothing against Judaism and that we have nothing against the Jewish people which is very hard today after so much suffering from the hands of the zionists. But they should clarify that so that their words are listened to rather than being labeled anti-Jewish.

Also the last 10 years or so the zionists have realised that the dream of zionism has long died for many of the Jewish people. The only reason the zionists are able to hold the Jewish people in their grasp is because their propaganda machines are busy explaining to the Jews that its too late, even if you're not a zionist, the Arabs hate you so much today that if you return the land they will God forbid slaughter you, and that today is the strongest argument that they have to convince Jews to support their zionist state. This is the trap the zionists want people to fall in to so it is important for the Muslim people to get out there and make it understood that it is not the danger that is being portrayed by the zionists."

 

Closing comments.

 


[1:29min]

Download Answer (shift-click) (185Kb)

 

© Innovative Minds 2003

URL: http://www.inminds.co.uk/qa-rabbi-weiss.html

Related Resources

JUDAISM AND ZIONISM

Lecture by Rabbi Goldstein (Neturei Karta) in which he gives a historic overview of zionism and the creation of the zionist state, explaining its incompatibility with Judaism.

 

AMERICA, ISRAEL &
THE DURBAN CONFERENCE
AGAINST RACISM

Lecture by Massoud Shadjareh, IHRC, on the United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR)


Rabbi Dovid Feldman, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss & Massoud Shadjareh at WCAR

JUDAISM - AN ALTERNATIVE TO ZIONISM,
by Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss

PDF Document, 11pgs (145Kb) [source: IHRC]

 

NETUREI KARTA USA WEBSITE

Visit the official US website of Neturei Karta. Its well designed and an excellent resource on the activities and principles of the Neturei Karta.

 

 

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