Bostoner Rebbe Leaves Boston for Israel

B"H

A very interesting story--especially for The Forward. Beautifully and sensitively told.

I guess this is the downside of the "Rebbe" system--that the rebbe of whatever hassidic sect needs to be present and close to his flock.

Deciding to pick up and move to Israel will, perhaps, encourage his flock to follow him--which wouldn't be a bad thing. Israel should be the center of all our desires. We should not think of anything above returning our Temple to Jerusalem, returning our people to Jerusalem, and returning G-d's presence to our Holy City.

M
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Leader of American Hasidic Dynasty Leaves the States
By Michael Casper
http://www.forward.com/articles/13176/

When most people think of Hasidic dynasties, what come to mind are the consonant-rich Ukrainian villages after which so many are named, like Vizhnitz, Munkacz and Skver.

American cities have also produced Hasidic lineages, the most famous of which has been based in Boston for a half-century and led by the charismatic Levi Yitzchak Horowitz. But due to poor health, the Bostoner rebbe, as Levi Yitzchak is commonly known, has relocated to Israel, leaving members of the community to speculate over the future of the group.

“It’s decided he’s going to remain there,” said a secretary from the rebbe’s office in Brookline, Mass. The rebbe’s last visit to the United States was in early February, when he attended the wedding of his grandson, Reb Avraham Horowitz. Avraham’s father, the rebbe’s eldest son, is the Chuster rebbe of Brooklyn’s Boro Park.

Levi Yitzchak was born in Boston in 1921. His father, the first Bostoner rebbe, immigrated to America in 1915 from Palestine and passed away in 1941 in New York. His eldest son, Reb Avrohom, acceded to the leadership of Brooklyn’s Bostoner community, while the younger Reb Levi Yitzchak returned to Massachusetts, establishing the New England Chassidic Center in 1944.

The Bostoner Hasidic sect is composed of about 200 families in Brookline; 300 in Har Nof, outside Jerusalem; 100 in the settlement town of Beitar, and scattered smaller communities in Brooklyn, making up a grand total of about 1,000 families worldwide. Its leader is known for having reached out to students at the Boston area’s many college campuses and for founding the charity organization Rofeh International, which acts as a liaison between the area’s medical centers and its religious patients.

The rebbe’s second son, Rabbi Meir Horowitz, told the Forward by phone from Boston that technically the rebbe could not lead his American adherents while living in Israel because for Hasidim, the spiritual leader must be physically present “to participate in prayers and teachings.” At the same time, the distance could “make the heart grow fonder,” Meir suggested. “In a sense, it could increase the contact.”

Although the Bostoner rebbe has spoken of Americanizing Hasidism for his followers in the United States, he has also encouraged Bostoner families to move to Israel if they are able. Meir said that his father has even gone so far as to give preference to his Israeli community over the one in Massachusetts.

The rebbe’s move is not a radical break. He has traditionally spent part of every year there and is an active member of the Council of Torah Sages, which determines halachic rulings for Israel’s Agudas Yisroel political party.

Reuven Jacobs, a New York lawyer who is close to the rebbe, said that Bostoner Hasidim in America would understand that the rebbe’s change of address was ultimately best for the rebbe himself. “He thrives over there even more than in Boston,” Jacobs said. “In spite of the fact that he’s feeling weak, he really comes to life [when he is in Israel]. That’s the benefit of the move.”

In relocating, the rebbe follows his nephew, Avrohom, the Bostoner rebbe of Boro Park, who moved to Israel in 2006.

Although sources close to the rebbe insist that he will remain in Israel because of health reasons, the New York-based Jewish Press newspaper has reported that “he is moving to Beitar, where land, homes, and living conditions are cheaper and more affordable, so that more of his Hasidim will follow him to Israel.”

Janet Belcove-Shalin, editor of a volume of ethnographic essays on American Hasidim titled “New World Hasidism,” did anthropological fieldwork in the Massachusetts Bostoner community while working toward a doctorate in anthropology at Cornell University. “I speculate that the move won’t be a dramatic change, insofar as the rebbe has spent time in Israel in the past and has able sons who have remained in the Boston community while he is gone,” she said. “From an administrative point of view, this is not a dramatic shift.”

The Bostoner Rebbe, May His Memory Be a Blessing!

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B"H

This is a beautiful write-up in the Jewish Week about the Bostoner Rebbe. I didn't know him myself, but I had friends in the Boston area who attended the colleges around Boston, and many of them owe their observance to this man's very grounded and loving view of Judaism.

In a time when Hassidim are increasingly attacked for their non-Zionist, judgemental ways, the Bostoner Rebbe reminded them all that you could be Hassidic, Zionist, and encouraging to non-religious Jews to up their observance level. He did it with a light touch (as recalled in this article), and he did it with humor and humanity.

He practiced Kiruv beautifully with a non-judgemental, open, welcoming, and firm view of what was right, wrong, and moving in the right direction (as recalled by my friends).

He was also not afraid to stand up for Israel. He knew Israel was important, and he made a great effort to perform the Mitzvah of Aliyah, finally completing his move last April (even though this reporter gets this one fact wrong it is still a great story).

I am sorry I never knew him.

M
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The Rebbe With A Common Touch
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c37_a17393/News/National.html by Steve Lipman
Staff Writer

A story has circulated in Orthodox circles for a long time about a chasidic rabbi who was invited to speak to an auditorium full of Jewish students at a major American university. The bearded rabbi, according to the story, stepped up to the lectern, outfitted in typical chasidic garb – shtreimel fur hat on his head, and long black coat — and began droning about the Talmud in Yiddish.

The uncomprehending students, most from secular backgrounds, looked at each other, totally confused — until the rabbi stopped after a minute and asked, in English, “Had you worried, didn’t I?”

Then he had a captive audience.

The story sounded apocryphal — until Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Horowitz, the chasidic figure in the story, confirmed it.

I had the opportunity to escort the rabbi between two New York wedding ceremonies where he was officiating two decades ago, and related what I had heard.

He smiled. All true, he said. He shrugged. “I knew I looked foreign to the students,” he explained. “I had to show them I understood.”

Rabbi Horowitz, better-known as the Bostoner Rebbe — the first American-born leader of a major chasidic group — died Dec. 5 at 88 in Jerusalem, where he had lived for a decade after splitting time for several years between Israel and his home in Brookline, a Boston suburb. He had been in ill health since suffering a heart attack this summer.

The rabbi, who won over the university students that day, was a pioneer in the kiruv, or outreach movement, in the United States, opening his home and his Beit Pinchos New England Chassidic Center synagogue to Jewish students from the Boston area’s universities, and to other members of the non-Orthodox community. In one-on-one encounters or in group settings, he proved false the stereotypes of a cloistered, unworldly chasidic leader. He was a serious Boston Red Sox fan, and he spoke English eloquently, albeit with a Boston accent. His shul, named for his late, European-born father, offered the same combination of personal warmth and erudite education that he did.

The rabbi was the scion of a chasidic dynasty that originated in Eastern Europe.

Upon becoming head of a small group of followers in 1944, after his father’s death, Rabbi Horowitz developed a chasidic community in the United States that featured a uniquely American flavor – rigorously observant, but open to the culture, sports and pastimes familiar to most American Jews. Under his leadership, branches of the Bostoner chasidim opened in Brooklyn, Long Island, New Jersey and Israel.

Rabbi Moshe Waldoks, spiritual leader of Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, called Rabbi Horowitz “a transition between the European model and the American model” of a chasidic leader.

The most visible sign of this was Rabbi Horowitz’ decision to be known as the Bostoner Rebbe, not to adopt the name of the European town whence came his forebears, as other chasidic communities have done.

Rabbi Horowitz had a significant influence in many Orthodox circles; he remained accessible to his congregants and students and members of the wider Jewish community, discouraging the type of cultish behavior found in some other chasidic groups.

Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb, who met the Bostoner Rebbe while studying in Boston four decades ago and became a prominent professor of philosophy and Jewish educator, said: “He told me once that being a rebbe meant that you were there when someone needed to make a big decision and needed spiritual guidance.

“There were times when I was motivated in my religious life by false piety and he always insisted on clear logic,” Rabbi Gottlieb told the Jerusalem Post.

Rabbi Horowitz was the founder of Rofeh International, a Brookline-based organization that offers free medical referrals, support services and home hospitality to the infirm and their families.

A member of Agudath Israel’s Council of Torah Sages, he held right-wing political views that sometimes deviated from many haredi leaders’ more apolitical positions. He served as a prominent Orthodox proponent of maintaining a Jewish presence in the West Bank, and took an outspoken position against Israel’s disengagement from Gaza three years ago.

A leading figure in the part of the Orthodox community that usually favors tacit, back-channel approaches to controversial political issues, he was a participant, as a recently married rabbinical student, in the 1943 White House march of 400 Orthodox rabbis, who urged President Roosevelt to rescue Jews from the Holocaust.

The demonstration took place three days before Yom Kippur. “Going to Washington that week certainly made it more difficult for everyone but we all understood how important it was to do something in that situation,” the rabbi said in an interview with Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

In 1967, after the outbreak of the Six-Day War, Rabbi Horowitz organized buses to bring Jews from Boston to Washington for a rally urging the U.S. government to support Israel.

Rabbi Horowitz maintained conciliatory relations with representatives of other Jewish denominations.
He and Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, the late spiritual head of the Modern Orthodox movement who also lived in the Boston area, were “part of the reason why there is very little political divisiveness among the Jewish groups in Boston,” said Rabbi Waldoks, whose “independent” congregation is not Orthodox. “They both were people who understood that there was nothing to gain by Jewish sectarianism.”

I got a glimpse of this while escorting Rabbi Horowitz that afternoon two decades ago. A clean-shaven, newly Orthodox stranger, I was made to feel immediately accepted. Sharing a ride for more than an hour, he asked about my life and my career. I didn’t hear a single negative word about my secular interests or my non-Orthodox writing assignments.

I understood how he had captivated those nervous university students.

ZOA Statement Supports Residents of Peace House. Now, It's Time To Support Them and Others Like Them

B"H

There are so many organizations that I am ashamed of in the aftermath of the Beit H'Shalom eviction--especially the US State Department . I am ashamed of the many Jewish organizations who supported the Israeli government against all proof that the ownership of the home is legal, the residence of that home is legal, and, of course, Jews living in Hebron is not only legal, but essential--among them, the American Jewish Committee, the ADL, and the American Jewish Congress. They should all be ashamed!

The ZOA promised a response, and here it is. Again, they show themselves to be an organization that stands with truth, stands with justice, and stands with the rights of Jews to live in the Land of Israel.

Please, if you are planning to make any donations this year before the end of the tax cutoff, consider ZOA and, another, even more worthy and less known organization: BETAR USA.

I went on a joint ZOA/Betar trip a few years back that literally changed my life. I was connected with Israel on a very personal level as we met Ruth and Nadia Matar from Women in Green, Daniella Wiess of Kedumim, and other important activists. We took classes about how to be advocates for Israel in our home colleges, and we donated time and effort to the settlement movement in Israel.

Betar and ZOA are the only organizations that I know of that take college students over the "green line" to speak with the leadership of Yesha, who learn, from the mouths of those who live there, what it is like to settle the land of Israel, and who volunteer all over Yesha to help the people that live there.

BETAR is very small in the US, with just one office in Cleveland that does so much! They could really really use your tax-deductable donations this year to help offset the costs of so many scholarships they give to college students to help them learn the facts and stand with the Zionist movement.

ZOA, likewise, does an incredible job of keeping the Zionist dream alive. They are an amazing group of dedicated individuals who could use your support.

Sincerely,

M

P.S. I do not work for Betar or ZOA. I have never recieved any money or any other favor from them. I simply love what they do. They are honest to goodness Zionist organizations run on a shoestring budget for the simple love of Eretz Yisrael.
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ZOA STATEMENT: THE FORCED EVICTION OF THE
JEWISH RESIDENTS OF HEBRON'S BEIT HASHALOM


The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is deeply disappointed with Defense Minister Ehud Barak's decision to unnecessarily and forcibly evict the Jewish residents of Beit Hashalom (Peace House). Beit Hashalom is a large building in Hebron strategically overlooking Worshippers Way, the access road to the Cave of the Patriarchs. It was apparently purchased by an American Jew from its Arab owner for close to $1,000,000 and transferred to the Jewish Community of Hebron in a legal transaction that is now being challenged in the Jerusalem District Court. Up until the last moment before the eviction, it was abundantly clear that Mr. Barak could have avoided last Thursday's violent confrontation by continuing to negotiate through the good offices of the local regional council.



To the best of our knowledge, there are legal documents, videotapes and audiotapes attesting to the legitimacy of the sale of Beit Hashalom by its former Arab owner to a Jewish owner. Having at first confirmed the sale, the former Arab owner has now recanted, for fear of Arab retribution. Remember, Palestinian Authority law calls for the death penalty for selling land to a Jew.



After refusing to consider the aforementioned video and audiotape evidence, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that "it will be possible to act in accordance with Squatters' Evacuation Law" and evict the residents. Therefore, until the Jerusalem District Court decides on the legal ownership of the structure, authorities may remove the tenants. This does not mean they are required to be removed, as was confirmed in no uncertain terms by former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Yaakov Turkel who said, "The ruling does not obligate the State to act to evacuate the Jews, but rather gives them the freedom to decide whether to do so or not."



It should also be noted that Israeli Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish unfairly "biased" the panel by unilaterally removing two justices, including Orthodox Justice Edmond Levy. Our understanding is that both of the removed justices might have been more sympathetic to the Jews of Hebron. Justice Beinish substituted two justices, Ayala Procaccia and Salim Joubran, who are known to be hostile to Jews in the territories. But even with these unsympathetic justices, they did not rule that the Jews of Beit Hashalom House are required to be moved but only authorized the removal if the government made that decision.



Approximately twenty-four hours prior to the violent eviction, ZOA's Israel Director, Jeff Daube, was in Beit Hashalom for the official opening of a ZOA branch office. The intended purpose of the office was to serve as a focal point for visits to Beit Hashalom; to raise public awareness about the strategic importance of the structure's location for access to the Cave of the Patriarchs; to express solidarity with the peaceful Jewish residents of Beit Hashalom; and to affirm the right of Jews to live in peace in Hebron. Hebron is the city of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs, and the first capital of the State of Israel during the reign of King David.



Due to the escalating crisis, even this short ceremony commemorating the opening of the ZOA's office had to be curtailed. When news broke about the forced evacuation of Beit Hashalom, Mr. Daube said, "I was hopeful earlier this morning – especially when I heard that negotiations were ongoing – that a nonviolent resolution could have been found to the Beit Hashalom dispute, so I planned another visit later in the day. I was obviously wrong. As an Israeli citizen, a proud Jew and a Zionist, I am deeply troubled by my government's behavior in forcibly uprooting the residents of Beit Hashalom before the Jerusalem District Court decision has been made as to the building's legal owners. Apparently those Arabs who are dancing on their rooftops and clapping gleefully at the sight of Jews being forcibly removed from Beit Hashalom understand the implications of this rash and misguided act far better than we." This act may send a message that the Jews are less committed to the Land than the Arabs; delegitimizes the Jews of Judea & Samaria; encourages more Arab intransigence; and sends a message that the Arabs are winning, which will only cause them to demand more concessions and could even promote more Arab violence.



The ZOA cannot help but question the motivation for this tragic action in light of Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai's denunciation of Barak's "strange and wretched" decision on the same day as the Labor Party primaries. Yishai had told Barak that he should wait for a court ruling on the evacuation before ordering the security forces to carry it out (Ha'aretz, December 4).



MK Arieh Eldad also lashed out at Barak, saying that he was responsible for all those wounded in the lightening-quick raid in Hebron: "Barak sent the IDF and police as part of the left-wing's election campaign and the blood of the casualties is on his hands."



MK Uri Ariel said: "Defense Minister Barak violated all the understandings with him, and he has provided proof that he cannot be trusted."



Yechiel Leiter, former Deputy Director General of Israel's Ministry of Education and former Chief of Staff to Benjamin Netanyahu, said that to evict the Jews was not judicial but rather political. "If it was a matter of law, then the law must be distributive, i.e, must be applied to all sectors alike. There are thousands of orders against illegal Arab structures that are not being implemented..."

Even a member of the Kadima party, MK Zev Elkin, called on Minister of Defense Ehud Barak to avoid a confrontation with Peace House activists in Hebron. Elkin said: "Barak is trying to get the Left to love him and save himself and his party on the back of the Jews of Hebron. We must negotiate with the settlers otherwise Barak and Olmert will be responsible for repeating the mistakes of Amona."

Many have also asked why Defense Minister Barak has flexed his muscles against innocent civilians in Beit Hashalom, while failing to defend the Western Negev communities from Gaza terrorist rocket attacks. Ashkelon's outgoing mayor, Roni Mahatzri, perhaps said it best on Saturday: "We saw that when the defense minister wishes to show determination and resolve, he knows how to do that; he did it while handling the case of the house in Hebron. I would like to see the same determination when it comes to the rocket fire."



While the ZOA is troubled by the fact that the defense minister chose to resort to what he surely knew would be a violent confrontation, the ZOA does not condone and, in fact, strongly criticizes the random and senseless acts of violence and vandalism committed by some Jewish youth, however few. Noam Arnon, the leader of the Jewish community of Hebron, expressed the same sentiments. It is the responsibility of parents, educators and community leaders to provide these often well-meaning young people with the proper guidance to channel their energies in a manner that allows their voices of protest to be heard, without compromising their potential to serve as ambassadors of a truly inspired Zionism.



Nevertheless, as Mr. Daube reported based on his observations and conversations, the overwhelming majority of young people at Beit Hashalom were there to make a non-violent, positive statement of support. Notwithstanding the few "hotheaded" young people, there was an overall sense of a desire to avoid confrontation. "I sat in on one meeting conducted by an adult leader, who instructed a large group of teens on exactly how to act with grace and dignity in the best tradition of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, should police forces enter to forcibly evict them. They were even given emergency phone numbers in the event that they were detained," recalled Mr. Daube.



ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: "We are also troubled that the forced violent eviction took place before the Jerusalem District Court determined the legal ownership of Beit Hashalom. Even if the District Court rules against Jewish ownership, the ZOA urges that every peaceful avenue be explored before there is ever again a forcible eviction.



"The ZOA sincerely hopes that ways could be found to avoid future Gush Katifs, Amonas, and Beit Hashaloms, so that we will never again witness Jews being dragged from their homes by force. This is not good for Israel. This is not good for the Jewish people."



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December 9, 2008
The Bostoner Rebbe Shlita, Rav Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, released the following statement this week regarding the expulsion of Jews from Chevron's Bet HaShalom and subsequent comments on the matter from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"I was shocked by the rumor that the prime minister attacked the Jews of Chevron, who exhibit mesirus nefesh for Eretz Yisrael, labeling them law-breakers and their actions a pogrom. Pogrom is used for those who have abandoned any semblance of humanity and exhibit animalistic behavior. We must daven that what occurred will not occur again in the future."
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)

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The Following Letter Was Faxed to Israel's Ambassador and Consul to Canada:

December 5, 2008
The Honorable Ambassador of Israel,
Her Excellency Miriam Ziv, Ottawa, ON
And The Honorable Amir R. Gissin,
Consul General of Israel, Toronto, ON
We are writing this letter on behalf of Toronto Zionist Council. We are appalled by the continued anti settler venom being spewed forth by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other ministers and the brutal attack that expelled the residents of Beit HaShalom, a building which was purchased 100% legally by Mr. Morris Abraham.
How dare Mr. Barak allow the forces under his command to use stun grenades and tear gas against Jews – men, women and children – who were living peacefully and legally in a building in the Jewish homeland! How dare he have the audacity to say that the state must enforce the High Court decision to evict them, when he knows very well that the High Court issued no such ruling!
Mr. Barak needs to be stripped of his position as Defense Minster at once, for his illegal and immoral actions against our brethren in Beit HaShalom . With Jewish blood being spilled like water in Mumbai at the hands of the very same terrorist murderers who threaten our brethren in the State of Israel every single day – and while Hamas missiles continue to terrorize southern Israel, it is hard to believe that Mr. Barak can waste precious Israeli soldiers and Israeli police – that are needed to safeguard the population everywhere – and sending them instead to Hevron to evict Jews who posed no threat anyone – from their home..
He has a sworn duty to protect the lives of all our brethren in Israel and not just those people who support him politically. We demand that Mr. Barak cease and desist from his war against the settlers in general, and the residents of Beit HaShalom in particular!
I am sure you are acquainted with the lethal ambush which resulted in the massacre of 12 Israeli soldiers – that the Arab friends of Barak perpetrated not that long ago – on the very same road, "Worshiper's Way" where Beit Hashalom is located and how pleased the IDF was when it was disclosed that the building was finally in Jewish hands, thus making easier their task of protecting the visitors going to Machpela Cave, the burial place of our Patriarchs.
We said it before, and we will say it again and again until this selective oppression STOPS! We will not stand idly by and watch the government of the State of Israel treat our brethren like this.
Our organization was the driving force in staging two very successful "Israel Malls" in Toronto during the worst times of the 'Intifada' when tourists were avoiding Israel and the merchants on Midrachov Ben Yehuda (and other shopping centers) were standing in front of their stores trying to entice the few pedestrians to come in and buy something.
Your government should wake up to the fact that Israel's only true friends in the world are the Zionist Jews of the diaspora. With the blatant lies that some government ministers spread about the residents of Yehuda and Shomron, the deliberate provocations against them, their labeling true Jewish patriots and pioneers as 'internal enemies of the state', and the illegal and brutal expulsions, all they will accomplish is alienating us and all other supporters of Israel.
If this persecution and abuse of our brethren won't stop, we will start a campaign to withhold all monetary support while this government is in power. Instead we will advise everyone to channel that money to help our brethren who are being made to suffer by Ehud Barak. He – and others of his ilk – see the handwriting on the wall; that their political careers will be over after the next elections – unless they manage to start a civil war before then.
Please use your positions to influence the few decent people still left in the government that this should not happen!
Sincerely,
Toronto Zionist Council, Yossi Winter, Pres. Izzy Kaplan Vice Pres.