Haredi Rabbi Retracts Statement Encouraging Yeshiva Students to Kill Israeli Politicians
A haredi Orthodox rabbi who encouraged assassination of Israeli politicians in a speech to yeshiva students has retracted his remarks.
In a recorded speech, Rabbi Nissan Kaplan of Jerusalem’s prominent Mir Yeshiva equated Israel’s current political leadership to Amalek, the biblical enemy Jewish law traditionally commands Jews to eradicate.
The comparison follows passage of a law in March that includes haredi men in Israel’s military draft, from which they were previously exempt. Haredi leaders have vehemently opposed the law and organized a protest against it that drew hundreds of thousands of people in March.
“We have today Haman and Amalek, all this government, and really the way is to take knives and to kill them,” Kaplan said, attributing the statement to leading haredi Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman. “So why are we not doing it? Because, he said, I don’t know yet who is the general who could run the war. But if I would know who’s the general, we’d go out with knives. This is what Rav Shteinman said.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, Kaplan retracted the remarks and said that he and Shteinman hadn’t met for six months.
“I am completely against such words,” Kaplan told the Post. “They’re disgusting. I regret what I said and I am deeply sorry for using such examples. I am also sorry for hurting people’s feelings and I hope they can forgive me.”
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
