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Thursday, November 29, 2007
OpinionWorld U.S. N.Y. / Region Business Technology Science Health Sports 
  Opinion Arts Style Travel Jobs Real Estate Autos From Zion, Not From Brooklyn 
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    Del.icio.usDiggFacebookNewsvinePermalinkBy ALLAN NADLER; ALLAN NADLER, WHO 
TEACHES JEWISH STUDIES AT MCGILL UNIVERSITY, IS RABBI OF CONGREGATION SHAAR 
NASHOMAYIM. 
Published: April 14, 1990
LEAD: A Hasidic rabbi in Brooklyn -one of the few New York City rabbis never to 
have set foot in the Holy Land -has again obstructed the formation of a 
government in Israel. 
A Hasidic rabbi in Brooklyn -one of the few New York City rabbis never to have 
set foot in the Holy Land -has again obstructed the formation of a government in 
Israel. 
Menachem Mendel Schneerson's latest intervention in the politics of the 
sovereign Jewish state is based on his conviction that the return of so much as 
one inch of ''holy territory'' to ''heathens'' violates rabbinic law. 
Rabbi Schneerson, who is known as the Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, feared that if 
Shimon Peres became prime minister, returning territory is precisely what he 
would do. 
Two of the rabbi's followers, citing his ruling, frustrated Mr. Peres's efforts 
to form a parliamentary majority by deciding not to support him. 
Once again, the parliament finds itself in the stranglehold of an Orthodox rabbi 
for whom the welfare of the state of Israel is entirely subordinate to parochial 
theological considerations. 
This is hardly the first time that Israelis have had to endure the insult of 
having their Government exploited by rabbis who are ideologically opposed to 
Zionism and cynical about the very existence of the Jewish state. 
Rabbi Schneerson's chief rabbinic antagonist, the 93-year-old anti-Hasidic sage 
Eleazar Menachem Shach, has also been a constant thorn in the side of Israel's 
political process. 
Just last week, Rabbi Shach prevented the two members of the Torah Flag Party, 
the religious party faithful to his doctrines, from joining with Mr. Peres. 
The massive demonstration for electoral reform in Tel Aviv on the eve of 
Passover was largely a manifestation of Israelis' anger and frustration with the 
intrusions and manipulative techniques of these ancient sages. 
Although the exploitative theocratic politics of the religious parties are 
nothing new in Israel, there is something particularly outrageous and galling 
about these most recent interventions. 
Though Rabbi Shach's tactics may be irritating and distasteful to many Israelis, 
he and his followers in B'nai Brak and Jerusalem are a legitimate part of 
Israel's political life. He may not be a Zionist, and his disciples may not all 
serve in the army, but they are citizens who pay taxes and vote. 
The same cannot be said of Rabbi Schneerson, who directs one of the most 
powerful Jewish organizations in the world from his headquarters in the Crown 
Heights section of Brooklyn. 
This is not his first foray into Israeli politics. Just over a year ago, Rabbi 
Schneerson created unprecedented antagonisms between diaspora Jews and Israel by 
instructing members of the religious Agudat Israel Party to make an Orthodox 
amendment to Israel's Law of Return the absolute condition for entering into a 
coalition with either Likud or Labor. The proposed amendment would have denied 
the Jewishness of converts to Conservative and Reform Judaism. 
It was the intense furor throughout the diaspora fomented by Rabbi Schneerson's 
insistence on that amendment that forced Likud and Labor away from the religious 
parties and back into a national unity coalition. 
There are painful ironies in this latest spectacle of rabbinical politics for 
religious Zionists like myself. The state of Israel was founded by visionaries 
whose goal was to normalize the Jewish people. A critical part of that 
normalization involved the emancipation of Jews not only from European 
anti-Semitism but also from the authority of a rabbinic oligarchy that had 
controlled the thinking and behavior of most Jews since the Middle Ages. 
In recent years, most of my Orthodox colleagues, among them many followers of 
Rabbi Schneerson, have admonished diaspora Jews against criticizing the Likud 
Government's policies. 
These admonitions were rooted in a moral argument: We who live outside of 
Israel, and do not have to face the consequences of our opinions, have no 
license to influence the Israeli Government on such fateful issues as borders 
and security. 
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