A Maccabean Martyr

Our rabbis tell us that after a person dies we must be extremely careful as to what we say about the deceased.  Bearing this in mind, I am writing about Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the Jewish Defense League.

When I first met Rabbi Kahane, close to 25 years ago, I was a teenager. I read all his books, went to his rallies and had a strong feeling for what he had to say. In essence, I liked what he said, but had reservations about the way he said it.

I can remember the early years of Rabbi Kahane's growth: his angry excitement about Jewish people being forced out of their neighborhoods because of violence, about the Jewish elderly and poor being forgotten in their neighborhoods. The radically changed middle class white communities became poorer black or Hispanic ones.

Rabbi Kahane reacted strongly. He advocated Jewish pride asking Jewish people to remain in their communities and fight against the violence with violence. He proceeded to organize a defense league. This was in defiance of the police department, which he felt was doing a poor job of protecting its citizens.

He traveled from area to area, from house to house pounding on doors and telling the Jewish people to stay in their neighborhoods, to organize, to join a Jewish defense league. He told the people in the community that Jews should not run and sell their synagogues. He said Jewish people should stick together and fight. "Never again" became his slogan.

Years passed, and he became disenchanted with the way Jewish establishment was dealing with the problem of Russian Jewry. He felt that quiet and peaceful demonstrations were not getting enough done.

He organized; he reached out; he agitated. He felt that by making more vocal demonstrations and demands governments would listen and be embarrassed into letting the Jewish people go. Some of his co-workers went so far as to be involved in an investigation of fire bombings and other illegal activities.

As time progressed, he felt that his role as a community leader in a borough of New York was limiting him from getting the message out. He decided to make aliyah (immigration to Israel).

He would get stronger; he would then worry about the Jews in Eretz Yisroel (Land of Israel) and Russia. There he thought he could get the job done.

He was like a rabbi who set out to change the world, but when he realize he couldn't decided to change his country. Then, realizing he couldn't influence his country, he decided to change his city.

When he realized his impact on the city was slow, he decided to change his neighborhood. With that not working he decided to work on himself and maybe he would then begin to influence the surroundings: his communities, his town, his city, his state and then the country.

So Meir Kahane went to Israel. He worked to influence the government to pay attention to his way of thinking: that never again would Jewish people be in a weak position of being frightened of anti-Semitism.

In Israel his radical ideas took root as many of the Sephardic community of Jews had lived on the edge and knew exactly what he was talking about.

"The wait-and-see approach has always been detrimental to Jews," Meir Kahane said. "We must fight and rid ourselves of the Arabs who put Jewish people in a life and death position."

In striving for expression of his political views many of the Orthodox rabbinate became disenchanted with his preaching. Rabbi Kahane felt he was speaking of survival, of pikuach nefesh (matters of life and death) and, therefore, he preached militancy. He wanted everyone to understand what he was worried about. He became known as a fearless leader.

In the Bible we find there are two kinds of Kohanim (priests). One stayed home in the Bais HaMikdash temple area and became involved with the holiness and the sacrifices. The other Kohain went out to the fields and addressed the soldiers, charging them with a message of inspiration and victory.

This Kohain was called a "Kohain MaMessheach." In the story of Hanukkah we find the fighting Kohanim, the Maccabeans. Meir Kahane, in a way, was a Maccabee Kohain. He fought for his country. His concern for Israels safety was his primary message, and he did not worry what the world would say.

...I for one, never understood why some of our colleagues would allow him a chance to speak his mind in their congregations. All he ever wanted was the chance to express his feelings and then let the people make their own decisions.

Earlier this year, Meir Kahane suffered great losses. He realize that he did not have a political party seat in the Knesset. He had lost his citizenship and the ability to travel unrestricted to the United States.

...In the Talmud we are taught the following: Any person who is killed for being a Jew is a person who has merited a death known as Kiddush Hashem (sanctification of G‑d's name). Rabbi Meir Kahane was not a regular Jew, but a special Jew with a special message.

His untimely death drives home his message that "no Jew is safe outside the land of Israel." This message was probably the most important message he wanted people to remember. Over and over he stated that Israel is the only place for Jews.

"Why," he would say, "just by living in New York one exposes himself to all kinds of dangers." Ironically this message was tragically realized by his murder - a message written with his own blood.