Charedi Rabbis Rush To Disavow Anti-Gentile Book

Forward

December 19, 2003

Leaders of the country's most prominent ultra-Orthodox yeshiva are
scrambling to distance themselves from a book by one of their disciples,
which argues that gentiles are "completely evil" and Jews constitute a
separate, genetically superior species.

Written by Rabbi Saadya Grama - an alumnus of Beth Medrash Govoha, the
renowned yeshiva in Lakewood, N.J. - the self-published book attempts to
employ classical Jewish sources in defense of a race-based theory of
Jewish supremacy. Grama's book, published in Hebrew under the title
"Romemut Yisrael Ufarashat Hagalut," includes flowery endorsements from
the most revered religious scholars at the renowned Lakewood yeshiva,
including the institution's foremost religious leader, or rosh yeshiva,
Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler.

Yet, in a statement issued Tuesday in response to queries from the
Forward, Kotler rejected Grama's philosophy and said that he had not
carefully reviewed the text prior to endorsing it.

"We have seen the objectionable statements that allegedly appear in a
sefer [book] written by Rabbi Grama, a former student at our yeshivah,"
wrote Kotler, whose late grandfather Rabbi Aharon Kotler founded the
Lakewood yeshiva. "I did glance briefly at the book but did not read it
carefully - which is the general practice in providing approbations to
the many books by alumni that come across a desk like mine."

In his rare statement to the press, Kotler added: "In looking at the
specific points allegedly contained in the sefer, I can certainly tell
you that they are not reflective of normative Jewish thought and are
certainly not the philosophy of our yeshivah. Our philosophy asserts
that every human being is created in the image of the Lord and the
primacy of integrity and honesty in all dealings without exception. I
strongly repudiate any assertions in the name of Judaism that do not
represent and reflect this philosophy."

The statement Tuesday struck a dramatically different chord from
Kotler's earlier endorsement of the book, in which he said Grama has
written "on the subjects of the Exile, the Election of Israel and her
exaltation above and superiority to all of the other nations, all in
accordance with the viewpoint of the Torah, based on the solid
instruction he has received from his teachers."

Kotler's disavowal of the book on Tuesday came at the end of an intense,
day-long scramble during which the Anti-Defamation League and the
chancellor of Yeshiva University condemned the book, and several
ultra-Orthodox communal spokesmen tried to convince the Forward not to
report its existence. During the course of the day, a popular bookstore
in the heavily Orthodox Boro Park section of Brooklyn told the Forward
that it had just pulled the book off of the tables at the author's
request.

The controversy over Grama's book comes as the yeshiva is close to
securing $500,000 in federal funds for a Holocaust library (see
accompanying story on Page 4).

Coincidentally, in his book, Grama argues that the Holocaust was both a
divine punishment against the Jews for assimilation and also proof of
the "true nature and face" of the non-Jewish world. The book's title
could be translated in several ways, including "The Grandeur of Israel
and the Issue of Exile" and "Jewish Superiority and the Question of
Exile."

Grama did not return a call seeking clarification on this point and
other questions about his polemic.

In his book, Grama writes: "The difference between the people of Israel
and the nations of the world is an essential one. The Jew by his source
and in his very essence is entirely good. The goy, by his source and in
his very essence is completely evil. This is not simply a matter of
religious distinction, but rather of two completely different species."

Grama's explanation of the Holocaust, as well as his other theories,
drew harsh criticism from Rabbi Norman Lamm, chancellor of Yeshiva
University and the rosh hayeshiva of its affiliated seminary. Lamm said
that his only knowledge of the book came from passages provided to him
by the Forward, but that he rejected what he understood to be Grama's
arguments.

"It is a book by someone who has obviously taken leave of his senses and
adopted the kind of racism that was used against Jews since the
beginning of time," said Lamm, one of Modern Orthodoxy's most prominent
leaders. "I almost feel like offering a conjecture that it was written
by an antisemite posing as a rabbi."

Lamm added: "The passages that I have read managed to offend everyone -
the Torah, the martyrs of the Holocaust, the Jewish ideals of justice
and the essential divinity that inheres in every human being regardless
of religion, race or ethnic origin."

In an effort to back up his arguments, Grama draws on an array of racist
sources ranging from medieval theological tracts to the writings of
Friedrich Nietzsche to the works of Nazi figures. Among other things,
Grama argues:

. The differences between Jews and gentiles are not religious,
historical, cultural or political. They are, rather, racial, genetic and
scientifically unalterable. The one group is at its very root and by
natural constitution "totally evil" while the other is "totally good."

. Jewish successes in the world are completely contingent upon the
failure of all other peoples. Only when the gentiles face total
catastrophe do the Jews experience good fortune.

. The Jews themselves brought about their own destruction during the
Holocaust, since they arrogantly endeavored to overcome their very
essence, dictated by divine law, by leaving their ghettoes and trying to
assimilate into Christian European society. The confrontational approach
of the Zionists, their boycott of German products and anti-Nazi
demonstrations in particular, only exacerbated the peril to European
Jewry. For this they were massacred by Hitler who, while himself an evil
person, was acting as God's agent in punishing the Jews.

Grama also argues that in opposition to Zionism's advocacy of Jewish
national self-assertion and self-defense, which he views as an imitation
of "gentile ways," the Torah mandates that the Jews, while in exile,
should employ such means as appeasement, deception, duplicity and even
"bribery" in their dealing with gentiles, so as to avoid their wrath.

Grama's full-blown racialist theories appear to break new ground,
building on a handful of hints of national and racial chauvinism
occasionally found in the writings of a few earlier rabbinic figures,
but combining them into a racialist doctrine with no precedent in
rabbinic literature. To be sure, a minority stream exists in the
rabbinic tradition - from the 11th- and 12th-century Hebrew romantic
poet Yehuda Halevy to the 18th century chasidic sage Levi Yitzhak of
Berditchev - which sees the differences between Jew and gentile as
innate, rather than merely religious. Perhaps the most extreme version
of this view is found in the central text of Chabad chasidism, Tanya,
whose author, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyadi, Chabad's founder, maintained
that Jewish and gentile souls are fundamentally different, the former
"divine" and the latter "animalistic." That viewpoint has gained ground
in recent decades, particularly among charedi thinkers.

Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh, who is considered one of the leading ideologues
of the Israeli Chabad movement, has written and spoken widely on the
superiority of Jews and was briefly imprisoned in Israel for racial
incitement. Yated Ne'eman, an Orthodox weekly in upstate New York that
is affiliated with one of Israel's main charedi dailies, has published
essays on the question of whether medical research can be understood to
apply to Jews given the innate physiological differences between Jews
and gentiles.

Such arguments, however, have historically stood in tension with the
prevailing rabbinic view that the righteous gentiles of the world -
those who exhibit the basic ethical and moral behavior encapsulated in
the "Seven Laws of Noah" - had the same access to personal salvation as
fully observant Jews. This view was summed up in the 12th century by
Moses Maimonides, arguably the most important Jewish sage of the past
millennium, when he wrote in his code of Jewish law: "Anyone who accepts
the Seven Laws of Noah and is careful to observe them is one of the
righteous among the nations of the world and he has a portion in the
world to come."

Critics complained that Grama's racial theories also conflicts with
ancient and medieval rabbinic rules mandating equal treatment in all
realms for converts to Judaism.

Grama frequently quotes Biblical verses that advocate terribly harsh
treatment of the pagan inhabitants of ancient Canaan, implying that the
same standards ought to be applied to his non-Jewish neighbors in
America. By doing so, he appears to disregard extensive rabbinic
deliberations dating back to the early medieval period whose general
consensus was that Christianity and Islam are licit, monotheistic
faiths. The net result of these medieval rabbinic deliberations was to
limit the application of such Biblical laws to ancient pagans, and to
mandate that Muslims and Christians could not be classified together
with the idol-worshippers of earlier times.

When informed of Grama's arguments, the associate national director of
the Anti-Defamation League, Kenneth Jacobson, described them as "pure
racism."

"It shows that we in our community are quite capable of the same kind of
hatred that exists in other communities," Jacobson said. "We have an
obligation to reject hatred in our community, just as we do when it
comes out of other communities."


Allan Nadler is the Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Drew
University and Senior Advisor for Academic Affairs at the YIVO Institute
for Jewish Research.


Ami Eden and Steven I. Weiss contributed to this report.