Amram Blau
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Rabbi Amram Blau (1894–1974) was an Haredi Rabbi from the Hungarian community of Jerusalem. He was one of the founders of the fiercely Anti-Zionist Neturei Karta.
Blau grew up in the Meah Shearim neighbourhood of Jerusalem a proponent of Torah observant Judaism. Like his brother Rabbi Moshe Blau he was active in the Aguda during the British Mandate era.[1] But when the Aguda began to lean towards a modus vivendi with the Zionist leaders he broke away and founded Neturei Karta with the equally uncompromising Rabbi Aaron Katzenellenbogen in 1937.[2]
In the 1940s he authored what became the anthem of Neturei Karta:
| “ | G-d is our King, We are his servants The holy Torah is our Law |
” |
After the establishment of the State of Israel he continued his staunch opposition to any Jewish state aligning Neturei Karta with the Satmarer Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, author of the anti-Zionist Vayoel Moshe. Prior to the Six-Day War he even went so far as to propose moving to Jordanian controlled East Jerusalem to avoid the secular temptations of modern Israel.[4]
He refused to use Israeli currency, and instead issued his own private currency to use for charity and barter, in the form of coupons redeemable for specified goods. These coupons were numbered on the back, and stated that they were redeemable every Monday and Thursday between 4 and 6 p.m. at the Kehal Yere'im Chassidim study hall.
Blau's first wife, Hinda, died in 1963. Because of damage he had sustained to his testicles, either from shrapnel during the siege of Jerusalem in 1948[5] or at the hands of Israeli police at a Shabbat demonstration in the 1950s,[2] he could not remarry a woman who had been born Jewish.[6] In 1965 he married Ruth Ben-David, a convert. Born Madeleine Feraille to a Catholic family in Calais, and educated at the Sorbonne, she had been a member of a French Resistance during WWII. After the war she went into the textile business and invested in real estate, but was cheated by a partner, lost her fortune, and spent a year in prison on charges related to French laws on foreign currency transactions. With the founding of Israel in 1948 she became interested in Zionism and then in Orthodox Judaism; within a few years she divorced her husband and converted to Judaism, but eventually abandoned her Zionist views in favour of the anti-Zionist views of Satmar.[7] The match was opposed by Blau's two adult sons[2] and by the Rabbinical Court of the Eda Haredit, so the couple moved to Bnei Brak,[5] but a year later they returned to Meah Shearim.[2]
Blau died in 1974. Ruth Blau continued to act as an independent wing of Neturei Karta; after the Iranian revolution she cultivated a relationship with the Ayatollah Khomeini.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Website of Neturei Karta International
- Petition to the United Nations
- Letter from Rabbi Amram Blau
- Where is Yossele? Ruth Ben-David before meeting Rabbi Blau
[edit] References
- ^ Uriel ZimmerThe Guardians of the Citry (Neturei Karta International) Accessed: January 22, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e Odenheimer, Micha. "We Do Not Believe We Will Not Follow", Guilt and Pleasure, Spring 2006.
- ^ Anthem of the Neturei Karta (Neturei Karta International) Accessed: January 22, 2007.
- ^ Fifty Years Ago in the Forward (The Forward) September 22, 2006 Accessed: January 22, 2007.
- ^ a b The Lost Leader (Time Magazine) September 10, 1965 Accessed: January 22, 2007.
- ^ Deuteronomy 23:2; Shulchan Aruch EH 5
- ^ Cashman, Greer Fay. "No stranger to controversy", 3 March 2000.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Blau, Amram |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Haredi Rabbi from the Hungarian community of Jerusalem, co-founder of the Anti-Zionist Neturei Karta |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Palestine |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1974 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Israel |
