B"H
I am definitely not a Neturei Karta fan but for all of you who are interested (you do not have to be necessarily Neturei Karta:-), today was Rabbi Amram Blau's 33rd Yahrzeit.
In Israel, people still remember him. Religious or non - religious, it does not matter. Until his death in 1974, he used to be a very famous character in Mea Shearim / Jerusalem.
He was the famous head of the Mea Shearim Neturei Karta and demonstrated against anything. He was arrested, released, arrested, released...He had wild beatings with the police and eventually got married to the French convert Ruth.
His Neturei Karta group did not allow the wedding with a convert to Judaism but, nevertheless, nothing stopped him from marrying her. The result was that he had to live in the Bnei Brak exile for more than a year.
Last night he was remembered in the Mea Shearim neighbourhood. A Mishnayiot study took place in his honour.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
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It wasn't because she was a convert, it was because he was a cohein, and they are not allowed to marry converts. Her status had nothing to do with it. It was his status.
ReplyDeleteB"H
ReplyDeleteAre you serious ? I didn't know that he was a Cohen.
B"H
ReplyDeleteThis Shabbat I asked a few haredim and they told me that R. Amram Blau was not a Cohen. Everyone agreed that he was a religious person and would have never broken Halacha and married and convert.
He was not a Cohen, and the issue was not that his group did not allow marriage to converts, though that was how the story was told by the Times.
ReplyDeleteAll groups allow marriage of a non-Cohen to converts, and he was required to marry a convert if he wanted to be remarried as he had suffered a personal injury during a beating that required mariage to a convert.
The issue was that the Eidah Chareidis believed that a community leader should not marry a woman who had appeared in romanticly themed films that were still available for viewing. Ruth Ben David, the woman he married had been a French actress before the war.
(There is also a gemorah in Brakhos that is interpreted by many to say that a convert is not an ideal wife for a talmid chocham.)
Ruth Ben David was already famous in her own right as a "kanoy" because of her role in the "Where's Yossele," episode of Israeli history, and was suggested as a future wife for Amram Blau very soon after his wife Hinda passed away. Though their intitial meeting was delayed for some time, they were engaged after only one brief talk.
R' Amram Blau complied with the Eidah's decision by having the wedding and shonah rishonah in Bnei Brak which is outside of the Jerusalem Beis Din's area of authority. The Beis Din in Bnei Brak did not have a problem with the marriage.
B"H
ReplyDeleteI also couldn't have imagined that Rabbi Bloi was a Cohen and marrying a convert.
But who made the Shidduch at all and why did the Rabbi agree to marry Ruth Ben David ? After all her trouble with the Mossad and Yossele.
BS"D
ReplyDeleteA gutn Moed! Es freut mich, dass Sie sich so intensiv um die Historie von NK und speziell Amram Blau zt"l bemühen. Offenbar machen Sie auch Fortschritte bezüglich ihrer ursprünglich ablehnenden Haltung NK gegenüber und dies freut mich umso mehr. Gehen Sie auf diesem Weg weiter. Es wird Ihnen und dem Judentum gut tun!
Herzliche Grüße aus Antwerpen!
B"H
ReplyDeleteMir stellt sich allerdings immer noch die Frage, warum Rabbi Amram Bloi gerade jene Ruth heiratete, die in den Fall "Yossele" verwickelt war.:-)
Je mehr man ueber die Greunde des Antisemitismus lernt, desto mehr versteht man die NK oder andere Gruppierungen. Ich selbst habe oft mit den Toldot Aharon oder Dushinsky zu tun und nie hatten wir richtigen Krach wegen des derzeitigen Staates Israel. Jeder sagt halt seine Meinung und ansonsten beschraenken wir unsere Gespraeche auf andere Themen. Selbst bei der NK in Mea Shearim bin ich nie negativ angesprochen worden und ich mache anderen Leuten immer wieder klar, dass die NK nicht immer eine Gruppierung ist, sondern aus verschiedenen Richtungen besteht.
Jene, wie Friedman, lehne ich jedoch grundlegens ab. Auch wenn er nun vorgibt, dass ihm alles so furchtbar leid tut.
Moadim Le'Simcha nach Antwerpen (wo ich noch nie war, sondern "nur" in Bruessel).