Letter to the Australian Jewish News (printed 21/12/06)
David Travers (Letters, 15/12) tries to make the point that only the authentic traditional Judaism ensured the survival of the Jewish people. Really? Which kind of "authentic Judaism" does he advocate?
The Manchester Evening Guardian reports that a certain Rabbi Cohen from Manchester was attending the Tehran Holocaust deniers' conference. It reports:
"Mr (sic) Cohen, 83, is a member of a sect known as Neturei Karta, which believes that it is wrong for Jews to set up their own state and that the exile of Jews can only end with the arrival of the Messiah.
On arriving in Tehran, Mr Cohen was reported as saying he had come to put across the Orthodox Jewish viewpoint.
He told the Daily Mail: "We certainly say there was a Holocaust. But in no way can it be used as a justification for perpetrating unjust acts against the Palestinians."
Rabbi Yehuda Brodie, registrar of the Jewish Ecclesiastical Court for Greater Manchester, rejected Mr Cohen's claim he was speaking for Orthodox Jews.
He said: "His involvement is a stab in the heart of the Jewish community and of all decent law-abiding people. Coming from one who styles himself 'rabbi', it brings disgrace on our community and desecrates all that Judaism stands for." (end of quote).
The Holocaust is not the justification for Israel as these people believe, but had there been an independent Jewish State established by the time Hitler started his campaign of genocide against our people, (as the Balfour Declaration decreed) there would not have been a Holocaust.
I thank the Almighty that these days we have choices of ritual observances in our lives in this democratic, pluralist Jewish Diaspora community. At the same time, we should disavow these "anti-Jews" and anti-Zionists of all persuasions who still pretend to belong to our people while giving succor to our publicly avowed enemies.
(Miriam)
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