An Open Letter by Jewish Rabbis Regarding the New Polish Law
An Open Letter by Jewish Rabbis Regarding the New Polish Law Forbidding the Condemning of Poland for Nazi War Crimes
February 24, 2018
To:
His Excellency Mr. Andrzej Duda, President of Poland
His Excellency Mr. Mateusz Morawiecki, Prime Minister of Poland
With the help of the Almighty.
May the Almighty watch over and bless you with continual success in all your endeavors.
For many long years we, Jews true to Judaism, who categorically reject Zionism and the State of Israel, have observed with great frustration the continuing provocations by the world Zionist movement in general and that of the state of Israel in particular, towards Poland and the Polish people in various issues and especially in regard to the Holocaust of European Jewry. Recently the Zionist hubris has reached new heights in their vicious attacks against Poland, in regard to the Polish law forbidding the condemning of Poland as a nation with responsibility for Nazi war crimes. We hope that via this letter new voices of other Jews, besides that of the Zionists, will begin to be heard regarding the Jewish Holocaust in Europe, and a new dialogue will emerge.
It would appear that as the years pass, the Zionists and their government become more and more fierce and demanding towards the honorable country of Poland. They stand behind the mantras of “anti-Semitism” and “Commemorating the Holocaust” while in actuality they have transformed these issues into manipulating tools that have absolutely nothing to do with remembering the Holocaust.
We wish to express via this letter our frustration and grievance and to explicitly clarify before Your Excellencies, that this has never been the way of authentic Judaism throughout our entire history. Today as well, authentic religious Jews worldwide oppose this Zionist approach.
The ongoing demand of Zionist leaders from Poland and other European nations, to “apologize” to the state of Israel for the Holocaust, to erect another statue and another memorial, and of course in this manner, “help battle anti-Semitism”, is immoral and irresponsible behavior, totally non-aligned with authentic Jewish values.
Every year the state of Israel dispatches to Poland a delegation composed of teenagers with military and police figures, who perform pompous national ceremonies in Warsaw and Auschwitz. The Israeli students are made aware of the great tragedy that transpired, but in an extremely biased way. The message the Zionists wish to convey is loud and clear: all of this happened because the Jews did not have a strong State of their own.
It is important to note that according to the Jewish religion, the Jewish people are forbidden to have their own sovereignty and certainly are forbidden to steal from, or kill and oppress, another people.
The agenda of these delegations and their trips to Poland are to, via their biased demonstrations, legitimize the Zionist State of Israel and its actions, as well as cover up the facts that the state of Israel wishes to hide regarding the Holocaust - facts that have been proven and published widely: the collusion of the Zionist movement with the Nazis, and their impeding the saving of Jews when it interfered with their nationalistic project(1). This is not to mention that the Zionists have a long history of stirring up trouble for Jews in countries around the world in order to induce them to flee to their state for safety(2). It is clear that we are witnessing an educational dictatorship of the state of Israel, rather than a trip to remember innocent victims.
All their behavior is counter to the way of authentic Judaism which commands us to seek the peace and welfare of all nations and to behave towards them with honor. This includes Poland, may G-d watch over Her, which in our history provided a home for the Jewish people, as far back as a thousand years. The Zionists, with their self-righteous approach, are ignoring this basic religious Jewish principle.
Especially embarrassing is the fact that so-called religious “Rabbis” who are aligned with the Zionist state join in this charade and in lawsuits demanding money from European nations, while forgetting the authentic way of Judaism, all the ways of which are peace and just.
Question: Did it ever happen throughout our exilic history that the quiet and modest Jews requested from any government to make statues commemorating painful episodes in our history? Or did they ever in history demand that kings and leaders march in parades and join in loud, insulting ceremonies? Did they open museums and demand to hear apologies? This was never the way of authentic Jews in Poland or in any other country.
The Zionist demonstrations of military strength through Air Force exhibitions in the skies over Auschwitz, as well as other political ceremonies which are inherently not Jewish, that are performed by Israelis, prove that they are not at all interested in real commemoration, only arrogant behavior to demonstrate their national strength.
It is not a secret that State of Israel systematically used and continues to use the destruction of European Jewry, as well as anti-Semitism, for their selfish political needs, to legitimize their Zionist state and other endeavors. They intend to “prove” that only strong Jewish military power can prevent a Holocaust and resolve the problem of anti-Semitism. They also wish to prove that the existence of the Jewish state is the proper “reimbursement” to the Jewish people for their suffering in the Holocaust.
One does not have to be a rocket scientist to realize that all this is just one big falsehood. In reality, the state of Israel does not only escalate international anti-Semitism, but has never brought peace or security to Jews living in the Holy Land or in the Diaspora.
The Zionists are those who created a Jewish – Arab conflict through creating “a Jewish homeland” in Palestine. They lit the fire of hatred in the Arab countries towards Jews. They took part in crimes against the Arab populace in Palestine even during the days of the British mandate and especially in the year 1948 and afterward. In short, the Zionist movement destroyed the peaceful relationship that existed in Palestine and in all Arab states between Jews and their neighbors(3). All this in the name of creating a safe haven for the Jewish people, when in fact the Jews had lived safely and peacefully alongside Arabs for hundreds of years.
In the year 1948 immediately following the creation of the state of Israel, her founding fathers, through trickery and fear-tactics, were successful in importing over a million Jews from Arab countries to their new state. Many of these unfortunate individuals were incarcerated in closed camps and guarded meticulously twenty-four hours a day. Their property was taken away from them, and they were not allowed to contact the outside world. Their children were forcefully taken away to secular Zionist education and then into their Army. This was the case even though they were entirely religious Jews. Many of these children were kidnapped by the Zionist movement and scandalously sold for profit(4). If anybody dared to protest, they were imprisoned, found themselves without any rights or any source of livelihood and in many cases, they were murdered. Through these criminal acts and similar terror tactics, the State of Israel stifled the voice of opposition and falsely presented itself as the representative of Judaism and World Jewry. In truth it is self-evident that the state of Israel can in no way, shape or form represent world Jewry in general and the Jewish religion in particular. They falsely call themselves “Israel”, a “Jewish State”, while in actuality this state is 100% proudly secular. The name Israel always was synonymous with the keeping of the Jewish religion. Now it is an empty term representing only nationalism and secularism. The name has been hijacked by the Zionist movement, in order to transform Judaism from religion and subservience to the Almighty, into base materialism and political goals.
The majority of the victims of Auschwitz were not Zionists. Many of them were ultra-Orthodox Jews who strongly opposed Zionism. Therefore it is self-understood that the state of Israel has no right to adopt the memories of those unfortunate victims and to argue that she represents them and speaks in their name. And of course, the Zionists have no right to use their blood for political means such as to legitimize the existence of their state.
It is critical to us to convey through this letter the message that the Jewish Holocaust is in no way the property of any political entity and especially not of the state of Israel. The state of Israel has no monopoly on the memory of its victims.
This being so, for the state of Israel to stage national remembrance ceremonies every year in the Auschwitz concentration camp on the date that the State of Israel decided to call as the “Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Resistance” is extremely disturbing. The waving of Israeli flags in the Auschwitz concentration camp is a vicious blow to the feelings of hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews throughout the entire world whose voices are not heard.
We would be incredibly thankful to the Polish government if they would examine the possibility of forbidding the waving of Israeli flags at concentration camps, leaving Auschwitz a non-political, neutral area, and not giving in to pressure and threats of the state of Israel in regard to this subject.
Regarding our stand about the new law forbidding blaming Poland as a nation for Nazi war crimes, which has greatly excited the anger of the state of Israel, we express our formal stand, totally based on our holy Torah, that the Zionists have no right to mingle in the decisions of the Polish government and the Jewish people have no demands of the Polish government or other nations of the world.
It would be high time to designate memorials for Jews and others who have suffered and died because of and directly through the Zionist movement.
It would be high time for the world to hear the continuous cries of the religious Jews in the Holy Land, as well as the Palestinian people, who are constantly suffering under the State of Israel.
We pray for the day when the Almighty will reveal His glory throughout the world and all humanity will serve Him in peace and harmony. Amen.
We bow our heads before you in respect.
Neturei Karta International – Jews United Against Zionism
Rabbi Moshe Beck – New York
[Holocaust survivor]
Rabbi Meir Hirsh – Jerusalem
Rabbi Alter Hachhouser – London
For more information on the authentic Jewish opposition to Zionism, you may visit the Neturei Karta website at www.nkusa.org.
For video recordings of a press conference that took place in Berlin regarding a Holocaust memorial ceremony held at Auschwitz, including more information on the topic, visit http://www.nkusa.org/activities/press/20140127.cfm.
1) See 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis, by Lenni Brenner. The Holocaust Victims Accuse: Documents and Testimony on Jewish War Criminals, 1977, by Moshe Shonfeld. The unheeded cry, by Abraham Fuchs. Perfidy, by Ben Hecht. The Tragic Irony by Neturei Karta and many more.
2) See Ben-Gurion’s Scandals: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews, by Naeim Giladi
3) Interview With Rabbi Baruch Kaplan,http://www.nkusa.org/historical_documen…/KaplanInterview.cfm
4) Genocide in the Holy Land, 1980, by Moshe Shonfeld.
