Avira, when I say anti-Zionist yeshivas, I don’t mean Satmar or a yeshiva that had an official anti-Zionist policy. What I mean is a yeshivish yeshiva in which the rebbeim personally had anti-Zionist views AND proudly espoused said views. I prefer not to name any, lest I give too much information to remain anonymous.
The attitudes I was familiar with were of the nature that require a lot of assumptions and specific long-winded scenarios to be true. For example, it was claimed that Herzl would spit at a frum person if he saw them in the street. No one ever accused him of doing such to them or in their sight, and it would be downright false to claim that he never saw a frum person in his life.
Regarding Perfidy, I wasn’t sufficiently anti-Zionist in the views of the hanhala. Without mentioning any ideas such as not building a state before Moshiach, the first line of defense was that I should read Perfidy. There was barely any discussion of hashkafa regarding this anti-Zionism, only passing references to Herzl’s secular lifestyle. He certainly was secular and atheistic, but was on good terms with rabbanim who wouldn’t dismiss him. That’s why he corresponded with the first Chortkover Rebbe, Rav Dovid Moshe Friedman, even though the Rebbe was not a supporter. Of course, Herzl wanted support, but I don’t recall any source that he sought to force his lifestyle on others. Rav Kook and Rav Reines collaborated with Herzl, although acknowledging them as gedolim doesn’t fit a certain narrative. Rav Kalischer and Rav Alkalai predated Herzl, but very much supported practical Zionism.
By the way, Herzl was not the founder of Zionism, Leon Pinsker was. Herzl’s idea was more than a decade later, piggybacking off Pinsker, and certainly involved the “permission of the nations”. That’s why Herzl met Kaiser Wilhelm during the Kaiser’s visit to Eretz Yisrael in 1898; to attract support from the nations.
I have tremendous respect for certain anti-Zionist rabbanim, such as Rav Elchanan Wasserman, who opposed it as a concept when there was no state. I believe he would be more pragmatic (like Agudah) if he lived a few more years. Ditto for the Satmar Rebbe Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, who had tremendous Ahavas Yisrael and practiced the ideal of “hate the sin, love the sinner”.
I’m not going to debate this anymore, but I’m putting this out there because someone reading this who is otherwise unfamiliar should know there is another side to the story. Whoever wants the last word can have it.
