“…This is perhaps why we raise our glasses while saying Vehi Sheamdah, to express [the idea] that just as this cup stood by our forefathers to save them from trouble during the Holocaust, today as well, when the wicked in Israel want to subject Jews in our Holy Land to army enlistment, God will save us from them."
The Kiryas Joel Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum
KJ Satmar Rebbe Compares Israelis To Nazis, Holocaust To Haredi Draft
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The Kiryas Joel Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum compared Israeli members of Knesset who voted for the new draft law to the Nazis, Matzav reported.
“Just as we were saved from the Holocaust and the Nazis, so will we be saved from army service,” Teitelbaum reportedly said.
In reality, the vast majority of Satmar hasidim were not saved from the Nazis. Instead, they were murdered in Auschwitz or in forced labor camps.
Teitelbaum’s great uncle, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, was the Satmar Rebbe during the Holocaust. He was rescued by Zionists.
On the night of the first seder his great nephew Aharon Teitelbaum began reciting the paragraph of Vehi She’amda that says in part that in every generation people have risen up to destroy us, but God has always saved us from their from them. Teitelbaum chose that moment to pause to compare Israeli politicians and non-haredi Israelis to the Nazis.
“When my father was in a labor camp during the Holocaust, there was a Nazi guard who liked to get high and get drunk. Using a single bottle of wine, they could bribe him, and when he imbibed, the Jews had some respite. And not only when drinking wine…but even when they spoke to him about wine, he began to feel elated and they had relief. This is perhaps why we raise our glasses while saying Vehi Sheamdah, to express [the idea] that just as this cup stood by our forefathers to save them from trouble during the Holocaust, today as well, when the wicked in Israel want to subject Jews in our Holy Land to army enlistment, God will save us from them,” Teitelbaum reportedly said.