Rav Lau: Shouts of ‘Nazi!’ Cause Me Nightmares

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rav-lauTel Aviv-Yafo Chief Rabbi Rav Yisrael Meir Lau says he was shocked to see a photograph of a Jewish boy wearing a yellow star in last week’s demonstration of some fanatics in Yerushalayim.

Rav Lau told the Hebrew-languagenewspaper Ma’ariv in an interview that the chareidi public feels “persecuted,” but that this feeling “in my opinion leads it to express itself in a way that borders on blasphemy. If you explain to secular Jews observance of the Shabbat through hurling rocks and shouts of ‘Nazi!’ then, first of all, they [themselves] are sinning by touching the rock — which itself is forbidden on the Shabbat — and you also destroy the tiniest chance that those who do not observe the Shabbat might begin to do so.

“The picture of the beautiful and innocent Orthodox child at a demonstration, raising his hands in surrender, wearing on his garment a yellow star, chased the sleep from my eyes that night,” Rav Lau continued. “I am afraid for him, even for his faith. When this child will grow up and will realize what they did to him in his community, how they exploited his innocence, how they used him, he is likely to kick away the traditions of his father’s house.

“For me, to stand a child up with his hands raised in surrender in imitation of that famous photograph from the Warsaw Ghetto distorts history and shows incomparable ingratitude to the Master of the Universe, who gave us the Jewish State that did not exist when that original photo was taken,” he added. “The significance of the act is simply to ignore the kindness of the Creator Who tells you, you aren’t standing today before Nazis who are coming to destroy you. Today you have a country, you have a home, and the police are coming to defend every Jew, even if he demonstrates in the streets of Yerushalayim.

“How can you compare Jews to a Nazi who was able to throw a baby into a frying pan on a burning Primus stove?” Rav Lau demanded. “And I am talking about things I saw with my own eyes. Or a Nazi who could take a child similar to the one who participated in that demonstration and tear him apart? Those who demonstrated “Nazis! Nazis!” — including the “price tag” demonstrators who attacked the IDF officers — don’t know what a Nazi monster is and to what depths he can reach.”

Rav Lau said he believes there should be deterrents and enforcement of the lawwhen anyone uses symbols of the Holocaust. “Shouts of ‘Nazi’ at Jews — not to mention photos of things like that child — cause us, the survivors, insomnia and nightmares,” he said.

{Arutz Sheva/Matzav.com Newscenter}


12 COMMENTS

  1. Oy veyy, Oy Vey!
    How can Moshiach come to rescue us if we, as a paople, are so, so polarized? When will we come to our senses? Didn’t Haman say that we ourselves were, “Mefuzar Umfoirad?” When will we, all segments of the Am Hanivchar, unite so that we can merit his arrival? How much more bitter must this galus get, chalila? Thank you Rabbi Lau for condemning the dastardly act perpetrated on us all by the few who portend to be and even dress like chareidim but do not conform to the dictates and descriptions of the word “chareidim” as described in the posuk? They’re actually putting us all in trouble!
    Sad, sad story!

  2. Rav Lau is one-hundred percent right, not that a talmid chacham of his stature needs our endorsements.

    We just need to take this one step further: that it is wrong for ANY Jew to call another Jew a Nazi. Included the Leftist Israeli media, which has used Nazi terminology – fascist, Nazi, Judeo-Nazi, etc. – to vilify Netanyahu and others for YEARS.

    There is only 1 thing I disagree with: it should not be illegal. Free speech should exist in Israel, for ALL segments of the population.

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