Moshe Hirsch | Anti-Zionist rabbi, 86
Moshe Hirsch, 86, an American-born anti-Zionist rabbi and close associate of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, died Sunday in Jerusalem, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group said.
Moshe Hirsch, 86, an American-born anti-Zionist rabbi and close associate of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, died Sunday in Jerusalem, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group said.
Rabbi Hirsch was a leading figure in Neturei Karta, a tiny ultra-Orthodox sect that opposes Israel's existence as a Jewish state and has embraced its enemies. He was born in New York and attended a rabbinic academy in New Jersey.
Arafat, who died in 2004, appointed Rabbi Hirsch his adviser on Jewish affairs. The group is known for its members' 2006 trip to Iran, where they embraced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a Holocaust-denying conference. It also supports Gaza's Hamas rulers and the Lebanese Hezbollah extremists.
These alliances have drawn criticism even from other anti-Zionist Jewish groups.
Neturei Karta, which is Aramaic for "Guardians of the City," was founded 70 years ago in Jerusalem by Jews who opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel.
- AP