In a new letter published in Israeli haredi papers today, Rabbi Moshe Shternbach, the head of the Mea-Shearim-based haredi umbrella organization Eda Haredit’s rabbinical court, accused the haredi Atra Kadisha organization of fraudulently staging sometimes violent protests against construction in the city of Be’er Sheva that it believes may desecrate ancient Jewish graves.
Haredim At War With Each Other Over Graves
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
In a new letter published in Israeli haredi papers today, Rabbi Moshe Shternbach, the head of the Mea-Shearim-based haredi umbrella organization Eda Haredit’s rabbinical court, accused the haredi Atra Kadisha organization of fraudulently staging sometimes violent protests against construction in the city of Be’er Sheva that it believes may desecrate ancient Jewish graves.
Last year, the Chief Rabbi of Eda Haredit, Rabbi Yitzhak Tuviah Weiss, publicly supported Atra Kadisha even though Shternbach was a supporter of a competing haredi organization. Anyone interfering with Atra Kadisha was complicit in grave desecration, Weiss reportedly wrote then.
Shternbach reportedly responded by allowing public statements to be made in his name supporting Atara Kadisha's haredi rival, the Association for the Prevention of Grave Desecration, which was also backed at the time by the late haredi leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the current haredi leader Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, and senior haredi rabbinic leaders Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and Rabbi Nissim Karlitz.
Both groups specialize in blocking contsruction at sites they believe contain ancient Jewish graves.
In a number of cases, graves at these sites were proved not to exist at all, or the graves discovered turned out to be pagan or Christian. In both cases, haredi protests usually continued unabated anyway.
Atra Kadisha (and to a lesser extent, the Association for the Prevention of Grave Desecration) often continued to protest, sometimes violently, until rabbis of its own choosing were appointed – and paid by the government or the developer – to supervise the construction.
“The great Torah scholars Rabbi Nissim Karelitz and Rabbi Haim Kanievsky have confirmed that everything [in Be’er Sheva] is being done with rabbinic oversight, and the Karaso contractors should be praised for this,” Shternbach wrote in his letter.
But Shternbach also wrote that work being done by the Nesher cement near Ramle do not have the approval of senior haredi leader Rabbi Shmuel HaLevi Wosner, despite claims to the contrary by the Atra Kadisha – which also claims that it is supervising Nesher’s work under Wosner’s guidance.
“Regarding the Nesher works which they [Atra Kadisha] are busy with the whole time, as if they have the approval of Rabbi Shmuel Wosner, this is completely false and no [works] are permitted today, and many deceased Jews have been disturbed from their rest,” Shternboch reportedly wrote.
Atra Kadisha is most known for staging a long series of frequently violent protests against the construction of specially hardened emergency room at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon meant to allow doctors to treat sick and injured patients during missile attacks. The protests, violence and vandalism delayed construction for years.
Ashkelon is in a missile zone and comes under attack from missiles fired from Gaza.
[Hat tip for the letter: Burich.]