Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, Israel Opponent, Dies at 86
Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, a leader of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect that opposes the existence of the Israeli state and a longtime adviser to the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, died Sunday at his home in Jersusalem. He was 86.
His death was confirmed by Eida Haredit, an organization for ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups.
Rabbi Hirsch was the son-in-law of Rabbi Aharon Katzenelbogen, founder of the anti-Zionist sect Neturei Karta. Created in 1938 in what was then Palestine, Neturei Karta (“guardians of the city” in ancient Aramaic) has several thousand members in Israel, the United States and Canada. They believe that according to the Torah, Jews were exiled from Israel because they sinned and that God has forbidden the formation of a Jewish state until the Messiah arrives.
Even ultra-Orthodox Jews who share its theological views have distanced themselves from Neturei Karta because of its actions. In 2006, Neturei Karta leaders traveled to Tehran (it could not be determined whether Rabbi Hirsch was among them), where they posed for pictures with the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a conference where the Holocaust was denied....
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His death was confirmed by Eida Haredit, an organization for ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups.
Rabbi Hirsch was the son-in-law of Rabbi Aharon Katzenelbogen, founder of the anti-Zionist sect Neturei Karta. Created in 1938 in what was then Palestine, Neturei Karta (“guardians of the city” in ancient Aramaic) has several thousand members in Israel, the United States and Canada. They believe that according to the Torah, Jews were exiled from Israel because they sinned and that God has forbidden the formation of a Jewish state until the Messiah arrives.
Even ultra-Orthodox Jews who share its theological views have distanced themselves from Neturei Karta because of its actions. In 2006, Neturei Karta leaders traveled to Tehran (it could not be determined whether Rabbi Hirsch was among them), where they posed for pictures with the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a conference where the Holocaust was denied....