Jewish Babylonian Aramaic ( Aramaic : ארמית Ārāmît ) was the form of Middle Aramaic employed by writers in Lower Mesopotamia between the fourth and eleventh centuries. It is most commonly identified with the language of the Babylonian Talmud (which was completed in the seventh century), the Targum Onqelos , and of post-Talmudic ( Gaonic ) literature, which are the most important cultural products of Babylonian Jews . The most important epigraphic sources for the dialect are the hundreds of inscriptions on incantation bowls .
59-736: Neturei Karta ( Aramaic : נָטוֹרֵי קַרְתָּא nāṭōrē qartāʾ , lit. ' Guardians of the City ' ) is a Haredi Jewish group. Founded in Jerusalem in 1937 by Amram Blau and Aharon Katzenelbogen , Neturei Karta was formed as an offshoot of the Aguda movement . Aguda, representing the most devout of the Haredi Jewish community in the Old Yishuv , was opposed to the secular orientation and nationalism of political Zionism , which
118-532: A terrorist group , along with Neturei Karta. Jewish Babylonian Aramaic The language was closely related to other Eastern Aramaic dialects such as Mandaic . Its original pronunciation is uncertain, and has to be reconstructed with the help of these kindred dialects and of the reading tradition of the Yemenite Jews , and where available those of the Iraqi , Syrian and Egyptian Jews . The value of
177-574: A "gutter religion" (Farrakhan says his words were misinterpreted). In addition, after meeting with the representatives from Neturei Karta, Farrakhan indicated he would be more cautious in his choice of words in the future. A radical breakaway faction called Sikrikim is based in Israel, mainly in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh . The group's engagement in acts of vandalism, " mafia -like intimidation" and violent protests caused several people, including authority figures, to push for officially labeling them as
236-713: A Hebrew school for girls established by the Hovevei Zion in Jaffa in 1909, and the Reali School in Haifa . Some of the new institutions received support from the " Kol Yisrael Chaverim " and "Ezra" societies. Hebrew education and education for national values also developed under the influence of Ahad Ha'Am and the Hovevei Zion. At the end of the "Language War" – the debate over the language of instruction following
295-627: A Jew and a person who joins another religion, a believer and a heretic." The leaflet also criticised the invitation of Israeli state officials to the funerals of the victims, claiming that they "uttered words of heresy and blasphemy." The leaflet concluded that "the road [Chabad] have taken is the road of death and it leads to doom, assimilation and the uprooting of the Torah." Jewish groups often accuse Neturei Karta of selling out their fellow Jews by allying with antisemitic groups and using their appearance at rallies as token Jews . Neturei Karta stress what
354-485: A Neturei Karta's faction visited Iran , where they met with Iranian leaders, including the vice-president, and praised Ahmadinejad for calling for the "Zionist regime" occupying Jerusalem to vanish from the pages of time. The spokesmen commented that they shared Ahmadinejad's aspiration for "a disintegration of the Israeli government". In an interview with Iranian television reporters, Rabbi Weiss remarked: "The Zionists use
413-605: A better economic situation which the majority found in the United States. The Palestine region on the other hand offered very limited economic incentives for new immigrants, because there was very little industry in the region. Thus, the majority of the Jewish immigrants found a livelihood through working the land. Many of the European Jewish immigrants during the late 19th-early 20th century period gave up after
472-567: A demonstration of their love for and connection to the Holy Land. In July 2013, the Shin Bet arrested a 46-year-old member of Neturei Karta for allegedly attempting to spy on Israel for Iran . As part of a plea deal , the man was sentenced to 4 1 ⁄ 2 years in prison. Neturei Karta has denied that he had ever been a member of their group. Neturei Karta's website states that its members "frequently participate[s] in public burning of
531-620: A few hundred idealists like Ben Gurion, totaling fewer than half the number of Templers living in Palestine at the time. The Second Aliyah is largely credited with the revival of the Hebrew language and establishing it as the standard language for Jews in Israel. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda contributed to the creation of the first modern Hebrew dictionary. Although he was an immigrant of the First Aliyah , his work mostly bore fruit during
590-537: A few months and went back to their country of origin, often suffering from hunger and disease. David Ben-Gurion estimated that 90% of the Second Aliyah “despaired of the country and left”. Many of the Second Aliyah immigrants were idealists inspired by the revolutionary ideals then sweeping the Russian Empire and sought to establish agricultural settlements ; others were evading conscription into
649-611: A force would be destructive and that Torah scholars are the true guards. Today, the Neturei Karta understand it to mean that they defend their interpretation of Halakha against that of other rabbis who support the State of Israel . In the Old Yishuv under the Ottoman Empire , the religious Jewish communities primarily concentrated in the Jewish holy cities of Jerusalem , Safed , Hebron , and Tiberias largely eschewed
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#1732780970425708-544: A pact consisting of three oaths was made between God, the Jewish people, and the nations of the world, when the Jews were sent into exile. One provision of the pact was that the Jews would not rebel against the non-Jewish world that gave them sanctuary; a second was that they would not immigrate en masse to the Land of Israel . In return, the gentile nations promised not to persecute the Jews. By rebelling against this pact, they argued,
767-424: A statement criticising Jewish attacks on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . Weiss wrote that Ahmadinejad's statements were not "indicative of anti-Jewish sentiments", but rather, "a yearning for a better, more peaceful world", and "re-stating the beliefs and statements of Ayatollah Khomeini , who always emphasized and practiced the respect and protection of Jews and Judaism." In March 2006, several members of
826-400: A substantial factor of influencing emigration to Ottoman Syria when looking at the greater context of Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe. The two major reasons for Jewish emigration were poverty and persecution, and Ottoman Syria did not offer a respite from either. Jews emigrating from Eastern Europe often experienced much hardship on their way to their destinations, especially those going to
885-442: A teacher or a scribe. They said, "Bring us the city guards," and the city watchmen were brought. They said, "These are the city ruiners, but those are the city guards." And who were the city guards? The scribes and the teachers, who guard the Torah day and night. The name thus reflects Neturei Karta's original mission to oppose efforts in the Old Yishuv to establish an armed force during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt , arguing that such
944-455: A terrible desecration of God's name to support murderers in the name of the holy Torah and God's name." Neturei Karta asserts that the mass media deliberately downplays their viewpoint and makes them out to be few in number. Their protests in America are usually attended by, at most, a few dozen people. In Israel, the group's protests typically attract several hundred participants, depending on
1003-509: A visit to the Jenin refugee camp . The Neturei Karta members also visited the home of Bassam al-Saadi, who was jailed by Israel for PIJ leadership activities. Upon their return to Israel, Israeli authorities arrested two of the Neturei Karta members for unlawful entry to Area A of the West Bank. The Satmar rebbe publicly denounced the group for their conduct, remarking in his speech that "It is
1062-443: Is Active Frequentative . The verbal pattern itpa'al is Passive Frequentative . The verbal pattern aphel is Active Causative . The verbal pattern itaphal is Passive Causative . The language has received considerable scholarly attention, as shown in the bibliography below. However, the majority of those who are familiar with it, namely Orthodox Jewish students of Talmud, are given no systematic instruction in
1121-523: Is not unique to Neturei Karta, but is also the style of other Jerusalem Litvaks, such as Rabbi Yosef Sholom Eliashiv and his followers. Furthermore, Shomer Emunim , a Hasidic group with a similar anti-Zionist ideology, is often bundled together with Neturei Karta. Typically, the Jerusalem Neturei Karta will keep the customs of the "Old Yishuv " of the city of Jerusalem even when living outside of Jerusalem or even when living abroad, as
1180-551: Is notoriously vague about its size, and there are no official population statistics available, in 1971, it was reported to consist of several hundred families in Israel and throughout the diaspora. As recently as 2007, the group was reported to have a few thousand members. Haaretz estimated in 2024 that the group had a membership in the low thousands, predominantly in Israel, but also in diaspora locations with large populations of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The group's strong anti-Zionist stance and controversial tactics place Neturei Karta on
1239-480: Is said in the mussaf Shemona Esrei ("The Standing Prayer") of Yom Tov , that because of their sins, the Jewish people went into exile from the Land of Israel (" umipnei chatoeinu golinu meiartzeinu " ). Additionally, they maintain the view that any form of forceful recapture of the Land of Israel is a violation of divine will. They believe that the restoration of the Land of Israel to the Jews should happen only with
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#17327809704251298-697: The Gaon of Vilna (known as Perushim ) who had settled in Jerusalem in the early nineteenth century. In the late nineteenth century, their ancestors participated in the creation of new neighborhoods outside the city walls to alleviate overcrowding in the Old City, and most are now concentrated in the neighborhood of Batei Ungarin and the larger Meah Shearim neighborhood. Members of the Malachim are also prominently represented within Neturei Karta. Neturei Karta
1357-773: The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust drew condemnation from other Orthodox Jewish movements. The name Neturei Karta means "city guards" in Aramaic and is derived from an aggadta recorded in several Talmudic texts, including y. Hagigah 1:7. There, it is related that: Judah the Prince sent rabbis to tour the cities of Israel and establish for them teachers and scribes. They came to one place and did not find
1416-599: The Satmar Hassidism court called on Jews "to keep away from them and condemn their actions". On 21 December, the Edah HaChareidis rabbinical council of Jerusalem also released a statement calling on the public to distance itself from those who went to Iran. The Edah's statement followed, in major lines, the Satmar statement released a few days earlier. In January 2007, a group of protesters stood outside
1475-635: The Tzarist Russian army. In 1906 there were 13 Jewish agricultural settlements established with financial support from the Jewish Colonisation Association , a philanthropic organization founded by Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1891. In 1907 it is estimated there were 550 active pioneers. The first kibbutz , Degania , was founded in 1909. Most of those arriving were married, many with children; 40% were women. Few had any resources and many remained destitute. Some of
1534-607: The Yemenite reading tradition has been challenged by Matthew Morgenstern . (The vocalized Aramaic texts with which Jews are familiar, from the Bible and the prayer book , are of limited usefulness for this purpose, as they are in different dialects.) Talmudic Aramaic bears all the marks of being a specialist language of study and legal argumentation, like Law French , rather than a vernacular mother tongue, and continued in use for these purposes long after Judeo-Arabic had become
1593-502: The "brutal treatment of the Palestinian people [...] is in violation of the Torah." They have rejected the claim that Israel is democratic, citing what they refer to as racist, genocidal treatment of Palestinians. They call for the return of all Palestinian refugees to "their rightful land" and attribute the degradation of Jewish-Muslim relations , as well as the bloodshed of both Arabs and Israeli Jews, to Zionism, claiming that before
1652-596: The British Mandatory Palestine government. The Haredi saw the rabbinate as a capitulation to the secular Zionists and their nationalist aspirations. The Aguda movement represented by the Haredi Council opposed the formation of a Jewish political state in the Land of Israel and discouraged its European members from immigrating to Palestine . However, in the 1930s, the movement adopted a more compromising and accommodationist approach to
1711-457: The Holocaust issue to their benefit. We, Jews who perished in the Holocaust, do not use it to advance our interests. We stress that there are hundreds of thousands Jews around the world who identify with our opposition to the Zionist ideology and who feel that Zionism is not Jewish, but a political agenda. ... What we want is not a withdrawal to the '67 borders, but to everything included in it, so
1770-472: The Israeli flag." On the Jewish holiday of Purim , Neturei Karta members have routinely burned Israeli flags in celebrations in cities such as London , Brooklyn and Jerusalem . While many in Neturei Karta chose to simply ignore the State of Israel , this has become more difficult. Some took steps to condemn Israel and bring about its eventual dismantling until the coming of the Messiah . Chief among these
1829-558: The Jewish immigration. Among the deportees were David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi . The idea that the Second Aliyah was a realization of the zionist movement does not take all the hardships endured by the immigrants into account. Because of this, the majority of Jewish emigrants went to the United States where there was much more economic opportunity. Between the years 1907-1914 almost 1.5 million Jews went through Ellis Island , while only about 20,000 immigrated to Palestine. One of Ben Gurion's biographers states that there were only
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1888-507: The Jewish people were engaging in rebellion against God. The Neturei Karta synagogues follow the customs of the Gaon of Vilna , due to Neturei Karta's origin within the Lithuanian rather than Hasidic branch of Haredi Judaism . Neturei Karta is not a Hasidic but a Litvish group; they are often mistaken for Hasidim because their style of dress (including a shtreimel on Shabbos ) is very similar to that of Hasidim. This style of dress
1947-684: The Nazi Holocaust was irrefutable and spoke about the murder of his own grandparents at Auschwitz, but claimed that Zionists had "collaborated with the Nazis" and "thwarted...efforts to save...Jews" and expressed solidarity with the Iranian position of anti-Zionism . Yonah Metzger , the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, immediately called for those who went to Tehran to be put into ' cherem ', a form of ex-communication. Subsequently,
2006-683: The Neturei Karta synagogue in Monsey, New York , demanding that they leave Monsey and move to Iran. Neturei Karta and their supporters from Monsey's Orthodox community responded with a counter-protest. In the United States , the Neturei Karta were led by Moshe Ber Beck of Monsey, New York until his death in 2021. They affiliate with the radical branch that was led by Moshe Hirsch. Beck had courted controversy by meeting with Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan , who has been accused of inciting antisemitism and of describing Judaism as
2065-531: The Palestine region. Ottoman government had been negative to the migration of Jews (" Yishuv ") to Palestine from late 19th century till the end of World War I. One of the reasons was that most of the Jews had foreign citizenship, which curtailed the Empire's ability to deal with them and enforce Ottoman law. Expulsions, deportations, arrests, denial of Ottoman nationality were some of the measures used to contain
2124-641: The Zionist movement in response to rising antisemitism in Europe. Aguda's leniency was too much for Rabbi Amram Blau , active in Aguda's Jerusalem chapter. Along with Rabbi Aharon Katzenelbogen, Blau split with the Aguda in 1937 and co-founded Chevrat HaChayim, quickly renamed Neturei Karta. After the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948, Neturei Karta refused to recognize the Israeli government or any of its institutions. The group began holding public protests that often turned violent over what they perceived as
2183-561: The coming of the Messiah, not by self-determination , and some believe that the introduction of less- observant Jews would cause problems in the sacred land as defined by the Torah . Neturei Karta believes that the Messiah will usher in a Jewish theocracy to rule over the Land of Israel. The messiah will bring about the resurrection of the dead , the ingathering of the exiles , and a complete return to Torah law. Neturei Karta believe that
2242-522: The country can go back to the Palestinians and we could live with them ...". In December 2006, members of Neturei Karta, including Yisroel Dovid Weiss, attended the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust , a controversial conference held in Tehran , Iran that attracted a number of high-profile Holocaust deniers . In his speech, Weiss explained that the occurrence of
2301-536: The creation of Israel, both peoples lived together in peace. Almost a year after the Gaza War , a group of Neturei Karta members crossed into Gaza as part of the Gaza Freedom March to celebrate Jewish Shabbos and show support for Palestinians. In January 2023, three members of Neturei Karta met with prominent Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) officials and families of Palestinian militants during
2360-530: The decision to teach in German at the Technion – Hebrew emerged victorious as the everyday spoken language, as well as the language of academia. As a result, a network of Hebrew education developed under the auspices of a public committee with national-Zionist values. In the struggle for the Hebrew language, the "Hebrew Union" was established, whose founders championed the principle of the "naturalness" of Hebrew in
2419-521: The exile of the Jews can end only with the arrival of the Messiah, and that human attempts to establish Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel are sinful. In Neturei Karta's view, Zionism is a presumptuous affront against God . Chief among their arguments against Zionism is the Talmudic concept of the so-called Three Oaths , extracted from the discussion of certain portions of the Bible. It states that
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2478-540: The form Aph'el (אַפְעֵל) “let do”, and the form Pa'el (פַּעֵל) “like to do”, are all in the active voice. But the form Itpe'el (אִתְפְּעֵל), the form Itaph'al (אִתַפְעַל) and the form Itpa'al (אִתְפַּעַל) are essentially reflexive and usually function in a passive sense. The Aramaic verb has two participles : an active participle with suffix and a passive participle with suffix : |} The verbal pattern (binyan) pa‘el are frequentative verbs showing repeated or intense action. The verbal pattern pa'el
2537-617: The fringe, even in Haredi , or ultra-Orthodox circles. Other movements, including anti-Zionist sects like the Satmar , have disavowed Neturei Karta and condemned its activities. The Satmar movement criticized Neturei Karta for attending the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust in Tehran in 2006. During the Israel-Hamas war, Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum , one of
2596-607: The growing antisemitism in Tzarist Russia and the Pale of Settlement . The manifestations of this antisemitism were various pogroms , notably the Kishinev pogrom and the pogroms that attended the 1905 Russian Revolution . The other major factor for emigration was economic hardship. The majority of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe was poor and they left in search of a better life. Jews left Eastern Europe in search of
2655-442: The immigrants, such as Akiva Aryeh Weiss , who preferred to settle in the new district created Ahuzat Bayit near Jaffa , which was later re named as Tel Aviv . In 1914 it had a Jewish population of 2,000. There is a large misconception that Zionism played a major role in the immigration of Jews to Ottoman Syria (later British Palestine) during The Second Aliyah. While Zionism may have had some influence, it cannot be viewed as
2714-546: The language, and are expected to "sink or swim" in the course of their Talmudic studies, with the help of some informal pointers showing similarities and differences with Hebrew. Second Aliyah The Second Aliyah ( Hebrew : העלייה השנייה , romanized : HaAliyah HaShniya ) was an aliyah (Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel ) that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 35,000 Jews, mostly from Russia , with some from Yemen , immigrated into Ottoman Palestine . The Second Aliyah
2773-806: The languages of daily life. It has developed a battery of technical logical terms, such as tiyuvta (conclusive refutation) and tiqu (undecidable moot point), which are still used in Jewish legal writings, including those in other languages, and have influenced modern Hebrew . Like the other Judeo-Aramaic languages , it was written in the Hebrew alphabet . May his great name shall be blessed (Kaddish Shalem, 8th century) ַ ני נַטְרַנִי he supervised me נֵיעָרְבִינְהוּ וְנִכְתְּבִינְהוּ There are six major verb stems or verbal patterns (binyanim) in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. The form pe‘al (פְּעַל) “to do”,
2832-484: The nature of the protest and its location. During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war , Neturei Karta regularly participated in pro-Palestinian protests, castigating Israel in harsh terms. The bulk of the group's statements at the protests do not reference its halakhic opposition to Israel, but publicly appear close to the views of left-wing American Jewish groups such as IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace . In October 2005, Neturei Karta leader Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss issued
2891-530: The precedent for future Jewish defense organizations such as the Haganah . The new Jewish settlement embarked on linguistic and cultural independence. The expansion of the Jewish settlement led to the development of the education system and changes in the curricula. New educational institutions were established, from kindergartens to a teachers ' seminary, the David Yellin Teachers' College ,
2950-410: The religiously devout members of Aguda believed represented a threat to their way of life and was a rejection of Torah law. However, Blau and Neturei Karta disagreed with Aguda's accommodationist stance to Zionism in the 1930s in response to European antisemitism . Neturei Karta believes that the Messiah will usher in a Jewish theocracy to rule over the Land of Israel . The messiah will bring about
3009-585: The resurrection of the dead, the ingathering of the exiles, and a complete return to Torah law . The group, numbering in the low thousands, does not recognize the modern State of Israel , and since the 1960s has pursued relationships with entities who seek the destruction of Israel , such as allies in the Arab world and Iran. It does not support a separate Palestinian state. The group's views are considered fringe, even within Haredi Jewish circles. Particularly, Neturei Karta relationships with Iran and its attendance at
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#17327809704253068-608: The second. Ya'acov Ben-Dov became the first filmmaker to work in Hebrew. The Second Aliyah also established the first Hebrew high school in Israel, the Herzliya Hebrew High School in Tel Aviv . Prior to the First World War it is estimated that more than 40,000 of the Jews in Palestine held Russian citizenship. The Second Aliyah created the security organization, HaShomer , which became
3127-628: The secular orientation of political Zionism , which they saw as a potential threat to their way of life. They resented the new arrivals, who were predominantly non-religious, while they asserted that Jewish redemption could be brought about only by the Jewish messiah. In 1921, some of the most devout of the Ashkenazi Old Yishuv formed the Haredi Council of Jerusalem as a counterpoint to the Chief Rabbinate , created by
3186-718: The secularization of Jerusalem, the violation of Shabbat in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, and public gender mixing. After the Six Day War , Neturei Karta began cultivating friendly relationships in the Arab world . In 1969, the group protested Israel outside the United Nations , then in 1970 held a similar protest with the new Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Then Neturei Karta leader Moshe Hirsch befriended PLO leader Yasir Arafat , who many Israelis viewed as their public enemy number one. Arafat appointed Hirsch to
3245-801: The symbolic position of Jewish affairs minister, receiving a $ 30,000 monthly salary. Two Neturei Karta members participated in a 2004 prayer vigil for Arafat outside the Percy Military Hospital in Paris , France , where he lay on his death bed, an act widely condemned by other Orthodox Jewish organizations, including many other anti-Zionist Haredi organizations, both in New York and Jerusalem. Hirsh attended Arafat's funeral in Ramallah. Generally, members of Neturei Karta are descendants of Hungarian Jews and Lithuanian Jews who were students of
3304-402: The two Grand Rebbes of Satmar, condemned Neturei Karta, calling the group's support for Hamas "a terrible desecration of God's name to support murderers in the name of the holy Torah and God's name." Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson , a leading Chabad rabbi condemned Neturei Karta and described their actions as "like somebody marching with Hitler ." One of the targets of the 2008 Mumbai attacks
3363-504: Was Moshe Hirsch , leader of an activist branch of Neturei Karta, who served in Yasser Arafat 's cabinet as Minister for Jewish Affairs. Neturei Karta supports a sovereign Palestinian state in the present, however, argues for complete Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land upon the arrival of the Messiah. In addition to halakhic opposition to the organization of a Jewish state in the Holy Land, Neturei Karta also criticizes Israeli policies of aggression towards Palestinian people, stating that
3422-460: Was a small part of the greater emigration of Jews from Eastern Europe which lasted from the 1870s until the 1920s. During this time, over two million Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe. The majority of these emigrants settled in the United States where there was the greatest economic opportunity. Others settled in South America , Australia , and South Africa . There are multiple reasons for this mass emigration from Eastern Europe, including
3481-500: Was the Nariman House , which was operated by the Jewish Chabad movement. Neturei Karta subsequently issued a leaflet criticising the Chabad movement for its relations with "the filthy, deplorable traitors – the cursed Zionists that are your friends." It added that the Chabad movement has been imbued with "false national sentiment" and criticised the organisation for allowing all Jews to stay in its centres, without differentiating "between good and evil, right and wrong, pure and impure,
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