April 25, 2010
To His Excellency,
The Honorable President Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to convey our support for you at this critical
time. Many Orthodox Jewish communities of
America are shocked and disturbed by the recent attacks against
your honor by various pro–Israeli
groups.
We have always been grateful to this great country, its governments
and its presidents for the freedom
of religion it grants the Jewish community and all its citizens.
The United States of America, with
freedoms and opportunities we never knew before, is a shining
light in our long, dark exile.
We are especially grateful to you, Your Excellency Mr. President,
for your resolve to strive for justice in
the Middle East, even in face of Zionist pressure in this country.
We pray for your welfare and the
welfare of all in your administration; therefore it pains us
greatly to see the Zionist groups' disrespectful
words and actions against you. The Zionists speak and do all
of this in the name of the entire Jewish
people, when in fact a large part of the Jewish people is opposed
to them.
As an ideology, Zionism does not represent Judaism. It is,
after all, a philosophy born only about 100
years ago, with the aim of transforming Judaism from a religion
to a nationalism. Unfortunately the
Zionist movement succeeded in capturing the hearts of many
Jews after WWII, at a time when most of
the rabbis of the world had just been killed, and Jews were
in a desperate situation.
By definition, a Jew is someone who is faithful to G–d, keeps
the Torah, accepts the yoke of exile and
obeys the commands of the Almighty. The Almighty has placed
us in exile, and commanded us not to
take any actions to oppose His decree. Jews are commanded to
remain in all lands where they live as
peaceful, loyal citizens of their countries. Furthermore, Judaism
teaches us to be kind and merciful, and
to respect the property and life of others. The ideology of
Zionism has come to uproot all of the above.
Our ultimate hope is for the revelation of G–d's glory, at
the time when, as we say in our prayers, "all of
mankind will join hands to do Your will with a full heart." And
in the words of Isaiah 2:4, "Nation shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war anymore."
It is important to know that the greatest rabbis among the
Jewish people vehemently opposed Zionism
from its inception, and especially when the state was founded
62 years ago. To this day, there are many
large Jewish communities that are strongly opposed to the philosophy
of Zionism, to the existence of
the State of Israel and to its long history of crimes against
humanity. However, their voices are seldom
heard, due to Zionist control over the media.
We thank you, Your Excellency Mr. President, for your efforts
to help the world in general and to the
Jewish people in particular. At the same time, we hope you
understand the distinction between Judaism
and Zionism, and that accordingly it is a mistake to think
that by helping the Zionist state, one helps
Jews. Since the Zionist state is forbidden according to Judaism,
and since its existence brings anti–
Semitism and danger upon the Jewish people worldwide, helping
it is doing no favor for the Jewish
people. The best way for Americans to help Jews is by following
the time–honored American tradition of
welcoming Jews to these shores, and granting us and all Americans
freedom so that we may continue
practicing our ancient religion.
Certainly, attempts at ending the bloodshed and suffering to
both the Jews and Arabs are to be lauded,
and in many cases embraced. Torah–true Jews are thankful for
every bit of land returned to the
Palestinian people. But we firmly believe that in order to
bring a true and lasting peace, the two–state
solution is not enough. We must accept the Almighty's peace
plan for Jews in this era: that Jews in the
Middle East should go back to living peacefully as citizens
of Arab governments, just as they lived for
hundreds of years prior to the Zionist movement.
We condemn in the strongest language all the provocations against
your honor, Mr. President. Our
communities are very saddened by this. We clearly state that
the State of Israel and its leaders do not
represent the Jewish people.
We pray that He who spreads His canopy of peace over the world
may spread it over Your Excellency
and your administration, granting you long life and good health,
and success in all your endeavors for
the good of the American people and the whole world. May He
who makes peace in His high heavens
make peace upon us all, amen.
Sincerely yours
Rabbi Moshe Dov Beck, senior Rabbi
(Holocaust survivor)
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, International spokesman
(Son of Holocaust survivor)
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