HOME  DISINFORMATION  CHRC  60 MINUTES  PEOPLE  ABELLA  COTLER  DUNN  FARBER  MARTIN  MORGAN  RAMBAM  RONEN  KOSHER TAX  LVIV MASSACRE  LA JUSTICE
Moshe Ronen   Letter 13   09-Jun-2000   Rabbi Avraham Cohen poisoned in Lviv
"He is one of those Jewish sinners for which the Talmud says their blood is permitted." — Pro-kosher placard, 1848

June 09, 2000
Moshe Ronen
National President
Canadian Jewish Congress
100 Sparks Street, Suite 650
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 5B7

Telephone: (613) 233-8703
Fax:       (613) 233-8748


Moshe Ronen:

I bring to your attention the following excerpt from Allan C. Brownfeld's review of Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky's book, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel.  I remind you that "Lemberg" was the name given to the Ukrainian city of Lviv at the time when Western Ukraine was under Austrian rule:

Although messianic fundamentalists constitute a relatively small portion of the Israeli population, their political influence has been growing.  If they have contempt for non-Jews, their hatred for Jews who oppose their views is even greater.

The murder of Yitzhak Rabin, the authors show, is one in a long line of murders of Jews who followed a path different from that ordained by rabbinic authorities.  They cite case after case, from the Middle Ages until the 19th century.

One typical example was the assassination by poison of Rabbi Avraham Cohen in Lemberg, Austria on Sept. 6, 1848.

Assuming his rabbinical position in 1844, Cohen initiated changes in Jewish life.  His most important initiative was his attempt to abolish taxes on kosher meat and sabbath candles which Lemberg’s Jews paid to Austrian authorities.  These taxes were burdensome for poor Jews but were a source of income for many Orthodox Jewish notables.

The Austrian authorities accepted Cohen’s request and abolished the taxes in March 1848.  The five Jewish notables of the town began a total struggle against Rabbi Cohen.  Critics argued that the “law of the pursuer” applied to the rabbi.  One placard said: “He is one of those Jewish sinners for which the Talmud says their blood is permitted” (that is, every Jew can and should kill them).  On Sept. 6, a Jewish assassin successfully entered the rabbi’s home unseen, went to the kitchen and put arsenic poison in a pot of soup that was cooking.  Both Rabbi Cohen and his small daughter died.  The Hassids and their leaders did not attend the funeral, but celebrated.

It was precisely the same Talmudic laws that caused Rabbi Cohen’s death which were used to murder Yitzhak Rabin.  Yigal Amir, Rabin’s assassin, cited the “law of the pursuer” (din rodef) and the “Law of the informer” (din moser).  The first law commands every Jew to kill or to wound severely any Jew who is perceived as intending to kill another Jew.  According to halachic commentaries, it is not necessary to see such a person pursuing a Jewish victim.  It is enough if rabbinic authorities, or even competent scholars, announce that the law of the pursuer applies.  The second law commands every Jew to kill or wound severely any Jew who, without a decision of a competent rabbinic authority, has informed non-Jews about Jewish affairs or has given them information about Jewish property or who has delivered Jewish persons or property to their rule or authority.

The authors write: “The land of Israel has been and still is considered by all religious Jews as being the exclusive property of the Jews.  Granting Palestinians authority over any part of this land could be interpreted as informing.  Some religious Jews interpreted the relations that developed between Rabin and the Palestinian Authority as causing harm to the Jewish settlers.  In this sense, Rabin had informed.”

For the future, the authors fear the growth of such fundamentalism just as the prospects for peace have dramatically improved.  They note that, “It should not be forgotten that democracy and the rule of law were brought into Judaism from the outside.  Before the advent of the modern state, Jewish communities were mostly ruled by rabbis who employed arbitrary and cruel methods as bad as those employed by totalitarian regimes.  The dearest wish of the current Jewish fundamentalists is to restore this state of affairs.”
Excerpt from Allan C. Brownfeld's review of Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Pluto Press, London, 1999.  Brownfeld's complete review is available online on the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs web site.

With respect to the above passage, I wonder if you would be able to answer the following questions:

(1) Law of the Informer

In wondering why you have not answered my questions concerning kosher certification, I note in the above passage reference to the Jewish Law of the Informer that "commands every Jew to kill or wound severely any Jew who, without a decision of a competent rabbinic authority, has informed non-Jews about Jewish affairs."  Is your silence on the question of kosher certification, then, in obedience to this law to not divulge the nature of Jewish affairs to non-Jews, or is it simply a result of guilt at recognizing that the CJC has been implicated in a swindle?

(2) Law of the Pursuer

The poisoning of Rabbi Avraham Cohen and his daughter in Lviv in 1848, and as well the shooting of Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv in 1995, are said to be two instances in a long line of killings made possible by the application of the Jewish Law of the Pursuer.  Some Jews appear to view the Law of the Pursuer as applying to any target whom "rabbinic authorities, or even competent scholars, announce."  By way of further upgrading the Canadian Jewish Congress web site, I wonder if you would not be performing an invaluable service by dedicating a page to listing all those on whom open season had been declared under the Law of the Pursuer by some "rabbinic authority or competent scholar," and also the dates of each pronouncement of fatwah, and whether the targets were still alive, or else the date of their assassinations?  This information would be useful to at least three categories of CJC web site visitor: (1) those pious Jews who subscribed to the Law of the Pursuer and who would be benefitted by learning where their obligations lay, (2) those targets of Law of the Pursuer fatwahs who would be warned and so could take defensive precautions, and (3) those who were uninformed about the nature of Judaism, and sought to learn its defining characteristics.  I have no doubt that the utility and interest of such a page would be demonstrated in a visitor count that dwarfed that of any other page on the CJC web site.

(3) The Lviv poisonings

In the poisoning of Rabbi Avraham Cohen and his daughter in Lviv, we were presented with a case in which the kosher tax revenues were not distributed among Jews evenly, but rather were delivered to "five Jewish notables of the town."  The bulk of the Jewish people, then, were neither the implementers of the kosher tax, nor the beneficiaries — they were the resisting victims.  I wonder if you would care to comment on the possibility that the same applies to the kosher tax today — that is, that it benefits only a few "Jewish notables of the town," and that its chief victims are the Jewish people?



Lubomyr Prytulak


HOME  DISINFORMATION  CHRC  60 MINUTES  PEOPLE  ABELLA  COTLER  DUNN  FARBER  MARTIN  MORGAN  RAMBAM  RONEN  KOSHER TAX  LVIV MASSACRE  LA JUSTICE