Zalman
Member
cantoresq,
I’m unfamiliar with R. Esriel Hildesheimer or the Sridei Eish. My apologies for my unfamiliarity with every Rabbi of past and present.
The Satmar Rebbe’s talmidim purchased a train ticket out of Hungary from Kastner ym’s (much like Rebi Yochanan ben Zakki saved the Rabbonim in Yavneh through Vesapian), after Kastner sold the lives of 600,000 Hungarian Jews to Adolf Eichmann in exchange for his train. (Who aside from the tickets he sold for his profit, Kastner mainly filled with his family and Zionist friends.)
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I suggest you familiarize yourself with those great sages. But to give you a small history lesson, R. Esriel Hildesheimer was the Rav in Eisenstadt in the 1860’s. He was close friend of the Maharam Schick and the K’sav Sofer. His was the first yeshiva in Hungary where secular subjects were taught along with Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh. He fell into disvafor with R. Hillel Lichenstein, the Rav of Szikszo, later “Zaddik” of Kolomea over his willingness to endorse a plan to build a kosher seminary. In other words he was against the chaluka between the Orthodox and the Neolog fomented by R. S.R. Hirsch and acted upon by R. Lichtenstein. During the congress of 1868 he became so disgusted with R. Lichtenstein’s terroristic tactics of religiously (almost psychotically, I’m convinced he suffered from mental illness) deligitimizing any Rav who dared disagree with him that he left Hungary for Berlin, and founded the Rabbinical Seminary there; the same type of Seminary he envisioned for Hungary. He was succeeded in Berlin by R. Dovid Zvi Hoffman, the author of Shu”t Melemd L’ho’il (I’m sure you never hear of him either), and then by R. Yechiel Weinberger, the Seridei Eish. R. Yechiel Yaacov Weinberger was a talmid muvhak of the Alter of Slabodka. He was a gaon atzum who toiled ferverently for Klal Yisroel. He was also a tremendous scholar and developed a system of synthesizing secular Jewish scholarship with traditional study. But I’m sure such things are of no interest someone like you.
What is your proof that Kastner made a profit off the train? He died impoverished and his widow struggled to support herself, running a newsppaer kiosk, for years as the Israeli government refused to give her a pension despite her husband’s Zionist activism before and during WWII. A text source for your assertion would be appreciated. Otherwise you would be wise to not slander the dead. As to the Satmer Rav’s travel on that train, I have no problem with it. He had a chance to get out alive and he took it, as did Pinchas Freudiger, the head of the Orthodox community of Budapest, who fled to Bucharest just before the Soviet onslaught (it seems he was forewarned of the Soviet invasion and times his departure to avoid it). No one can ever be blamed for saving themselves. Conversly however one does need to recognize and admire the valient sacrifice of Samu Stern, the head of Neolog community who chose to stay in Budapset for the duration rather then escape when he could. But again to someone like you, he was merely a “Jewish goy” unworthy of any accolade despite his choosing to stand with his brethern as opposed to his Orthodox counterpart, the Satmer Rav and the Belzer Rebbe (and we all know the famous speech his brother in law gave in the Rebbe’s name in the Kazincy schul before his departure as well as the Nitra Rav’s Daughter’s rejoinder to it). No the Satmer Rav did what everyone wanted to do; survive and that’s fine. He deserved to be piloried however for never being makir tov to the man who saved his life; Reszo Kasztner. Kasztner asked him for such a letter during the Grunwald trial, and the Satmer Rav said “G-d saved me, not any man.” David Hamelech gave Shlomo a tazva’ah to remember the B’nei Barzilai and be kind to them as they once did David Hamelech a favor and fed him when he was fleeing Avshalom. Why couldn’t R. Yoel zt”l have done similarly and simply acknowledged the one who saved him when that hero needed it most? Why did R. Yoel have such deep hatred for Zionists (i.e. Jews) that he ignored the truth?