More Rabbis To Receive Police Summons Over Racist Book

"I confess that before Rosh Hashanah I visited Yitzhar and said that it was a privilege to shake a hand that was handcuffed for speaking a rabbinic opinion.  I think it is a disgrace for Judaism to have a rabbi taken for questioning.”

More Rabbis to be Summoned for Questioning
Akiva Novick • Yedioth Ahronoth (p. 8)
Translation: Didi Remez • Coteret.com

After Rabbi Dov Lior and Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, it appears that the police wish to question additional rabbis on suspicion of supporting the book The King’s Torah.

The book, which was written by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira and Rabbi Yosef Elitzur of Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva in Yitzhar, details the conditions under which it is permissible for a Jew to kill innocent Gentiles.  Among other things, the book states that “one can consider harming children if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us.”

The writers of the book were arrested.  Rabbis Dov Lior and Yaakov Yosef, who recommended The King’s Torah, were summoned for questioning by the police but refused to appear.  Last night, the COL web site reported that Rabbi David Meir Druckman, the rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin, had received a surprising phone call.  The speaker identified himself as a policeman, and notified Druckman that a summons for questioning had been sent to him for October 5.

“He said that a complaint had been filed against me and a few other rabbis, and we would all be summoned for questioning,” Rabbi Druckman told Yedioth Ahronoth last night.  He said that the “policeman” did not say what the questioning would be about and which other rabbis would be questioned, but “it is pretty clear what they are after me for. I presume that it is against the backdrop of my right wing political opinions.  I recently wrote an article in the Our Land of Israel newsletter voicing support for Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira.”

Druckman is considered to have extreme opinions and during disengagement called upon soldiers to disobey orders.  In the past few months, he has signed a number of leaflets attacking the police due to the arrest of the writers of The King’s Torah.  Druckman announced that if the questioning was going to deal with the book, he too would not show up for it: “Since Prof. Asa Kasher is permitted to speak about military ethics, a rabbi is certainly permitted to do so. I confess that before Rosh Hashanah I visited Yitzhar and said that it was a privilege to shake a hand that was handcuffed for speaking a rabbinic opinion.  I think it is a disgrace for Judaism to have a rabbi taken for questioning.”