Meir Kahane
Meir Kahane

Author: Shaul Magid

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-10-12

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 069121266X

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The life and politics of an American Jewish activist who preached radical and violent means to Jewish survival Meir Kahane came of age amid the radical politics of the counterculture, becoming a militant voice of protest against Jewish liberalism. Kahane founded the Jewish Defense League in 1968, declaring that Jews must protect themselves by any means necessary. He immigrated to Israel in 1971, where he founded KACH, an ultranationalist and racist political party. He would die by assassination in 1990. Shaul Magid provides an in-depth look at this controversial figure, showing how the postwar American experience shaped his life and political thought. Magid sheds new light on Kahane’s radical political views, his critique of liberalism, and his use of the “grammar of race” as a tool to promote Jewish pride. He discusses Kahane’s theory of violence as a mechanism to assure Jewish safety, and traces how his Zionism evolved from a fervent support of Israel to a belief that the Zionist project had failed. Magid examines how tradition and classical Jewish texts profoundly influenced Kahane’s thought later in life, and argues that Kahane’s enduring legacy lies not in his Israeli career but in the challenge he posed to the liberalism and assimilatory project of the postwar American Jewish establishment. This incisive book shows how Kahane was a quintessentially American figure, one who adopted the radicalism of the militant Left as a tenet of Jewish survival.

They Must Go
They Must Go

Author: Meir Kahane

Publisher:

Published: 2019-04-08

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9781478388913

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"Every day," writes Rabbi Meir Kahane, "the Arabs of Israel move closer to becoming a majority. Are we [Israel] committed to national suicide? Should we allow demography, geography, and democracy to push Israel closer to the abyss? According to Rabbi Kahane, Israel can only be sustained by a permanent Jewish majority and a small, insignificant, and placid Arab minority. But the Arab population continues to grown quantitatively and qualitatively. They feel no ties for a state that breathes Jewishness. They mockingly accept moneys from the National Insurance Institute for medical services, tuition, and social welfre; yet they pay little or no tax. Even worse, they openly vow to destroy the Jewish state - not with bullets or bombs, but with the democratic vote. Is there a solution? Rabbi Kahane insists, "Yes." In this explosive manifesto Rabbi Kahane sets forth the only plan to save Israel. Israeli Arabs would be given the options of accepting noncitizenship, leaving willingly with compensation, or being forcibly expelled without compensation. Controversial? Yes. Could the Arabs be convinced to leave? "We will not come to the Arabs to request, argue, or convince," says Kahane. "For Jews and Arabs in Israel there is only one answer - separation. Jews in their land, Arabs in theirs. Separation. Only separation." They Must Go was written in 1980 while Rabbi Meir Kahane was jailed in Ramle Prison by the Israeli government under an unprecedented administrative detention order that imprisoned him without a trial, without his being informed of any specific charge, and without opportunity to know or to question any alleged evidence or witness. His crime: his philosophy concerning the danger that exists to the state of Israel by the very presence of its large and growing Arab population. Rabbi Kahane's ideas were suppressed, twisted, defamed, and subjected to emotional and hysterical diatribes by people who were too frightened to consider them intelligently or to debate them intellectually. Is there a time bomb ticking away relentlessly in the Holy Land? Can Arabs and Jews ultimately coexist in a Jewish-Zionist state? Rabbi Kahane's only answer: "They Must Go."

Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews
Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews

Author: Meir Kahane

Publisher:

Published: 2021-04-07

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9781715882020

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Rabbi Meir Kahane is a member of the Israeli Knesset. According to public opinion polls, the movement he heads is gaining enormous power among Israelis, and particularly among the young. Kahane has long been a thorn in the buttocks of the wealthy and entrenched Jewish leadership. His founding of the Jewish Defense League, his demands for Jewish defense of poor and elderly Jews in the inner cities, his taking to the streets in the late '60s and his use of violence to draw international attention to the Soviet Jewish problem, have all gained him the hostility of so-called Jewish leaders. In Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews, Meir Kahane touches the most painful nerves and psyches of those Jewish liberals who would prefer to believe that Judaism and Zionism arc compatible with liberal concepts. He challenges us all with such agonizing questions as: If a Jewish and Zionist state was created in Israel to guarantee a homeland for Jews with a guaranteed permanent Jewish majority and Jewish sovereignty, will Arabs be allowed to peacefully and democratically become a majority and turn Israel into an Arab nation? - If the answer is "No," isn't that a contradiction of the western democratic thesis: "one person, one vote"'? - Is Zionism, which calls for a Jewish majority, not in total conflict with Western democracy, which insists on majority rule, no matter who constitutes the majority? - Can any Jewish leader or even an average Jew offer a young Jew any logical reason not to marry a non-Jew? Or even the slightest logical reason to insist on being a Jew rather than a "human being"? - Is Israel a Jewish state or is it a Hebrew-speaking gentilized one whose secular youth haven't the slightest idea of what Jewishness is and who dream of living in the fleshpots of the West? - How many Arabs will sit in the Knesset in ten years? In twenty years? Will they become a majority and vote Israel out of existence? - Does that matter? -

The Ideology of Kach
The Ideology of Kach

Author: Rabbi Meir Kahane

Publisher:

Published: 2021-04-07

Total Pages: 102

ISBN-13: 9781715851316

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Rabbi Meir Kahane (1932-1990) was the most controversial Jewish leader in the 20th century. He formed the Jewish Defense League in the USA and the KACH movement in Israel. Rabbi Meir Kahane wrote "The Ideology of Kach" in 1990 (just before his assassination). It is a summary of his political activism and its religious basis, as expressed in his major works such as They Must Go, Why Be Jewish?, and The Jewish Idea. "The Ideology of Kach," Rabbi Kahane's last finished work, is now, for the first time, available to the public. Rabbi Kahane gave his life for the ideas in this book.

Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought Volume One:1932-1975
Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought Volume One:1932-1975

Author: Libby Blum Kahane

Publisher:

Published: 2013-08-01

Total Pages: 808

ISBN-13: 9781491299890

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This is a gripping biography of Rabbi Kahane written by his wife Libby Kahane. Contrary to expectations this is not a hagiography, but rather an objective exposition of his activities.Her research combines with her first-hand knowledge of events to present a comprehensive survey of Rabbi Kahane's ideology and political strategy, beginning with the childhood experiences that shaped himThe religious nature of Jewish life was his passion, and it informed everything he did. He realized that assimilation was a very real danger, and worked in many capacities to promote Jewish observance, as teacher, community leader, Rabbi, and writer, with a column in the Jewish Press that ran for 30 years.It was his response to the wave of violence that swept America in the late 1960s that led him to found the Jewish Defense League. Soviet Jewry soon became the JDL's primary concern and the group's violent demonstrations resulted in publicity that brought world awareness to the plight of Soviet Jews and led to their freedom.The book traces Rabbi Kahane's involvement in Israeli politics, his efforts - still relevant - to preserve the country's Jewish character and to oppose appeasement, and quotes from his writings to to give the reasoning behind his various actvities. This combination of memoir and biography works well. The narrative is structured around a combination of interviews and careful archival research painstakingly footnoted, that lets readers draw their own conclusions.

The Terrorist's Son
The Terrorist's Son

Author: Zak Ebrahim

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-09-09

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 1476784817

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An extraordinary story, never before told: The intimate, behind-the-scenes life of an American boy raised by his terrorist father—the man who planned the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. What is it like to grow up with a terrorist in your home? Zak Ebrahim was only seven years old when, on November 5th, 1990, his father El-Sayyid Nosair shot and killed the leader of the Jewish Defense League. While in prison, Nosair helped plan the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. In one of his infamous video messages, Osama bin Laden urged the world to “Remember El-Sayyid Nosair.” For Zak Ebrahim, a childhood amongst terrorism was all he knew. After his father’s incarceration, his family moved often, and as the perpetual new kid in class, he faced constant teasing and exclusion. Yet, though his radicalized father and uncles modeled fanatical beliefs, to Ebrahim something never felt right. To the shy, awkward boy, something about the hateful feelings just felt unnatural. In this book, Ebrahim dispels the myth that terrorism is a foregone conclusion for people trained to hate. Based on his own remarkable journey, he shows that hate is always a choice—but so is tolerance. Though Ebrahim was subjected to a violent, intolerant ideology throughout his childhood, he did not become radicalized. Ebrahim argues that people conditioned to be terrorists are actually well positioned to combat terrorism, because of their ability to bring seemingly incompatible ideologies together in conversation and advocate in the fight for peace. Ebrahim argues that everyone, regardless of their upbringing or circumstances, can learn to tap into their inherent empathy and embrace tolerance over hatred. His original, urgent message is fresh, groundbreaking, and essential to the current discussion about terrorism.

Time To Go Home
Time To Go Home

Author: Rabbi Meir Kahane

Publisher:

Published: 2019-06-25

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9781684119196

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Rabbi Meir Kahane wrote an entire book, Time to Go Home, published in 1972, to persuade American Jews to make their homes in Israel. The book shows the reality of Jew hatred in America; the likelihood that the current social, economic, political and psychological crisis in America would set off another Holocaust; and the rise of hate groups and their motivations. Rabbi Kahane saw the danger signs in 1971: "Governments speak of huge layoffs and breadwinners are confronted with the unique prospect of unemployment.... The cities stand under massive, cross-country threat of bankruptcy.... And the sudden economic crisis is heightened by the psychological fact that for 25 years we have lived a relatively good life and have come to look upon [it] as that which is our due. ... And so, in this year of 1971, as unemployment and fear reach the highest peaks since 1938 and when ... many millions of white, blue-collar workers face bleak and painful economic futures, the Jew must once again consider what may lie before him. People who are frightened of their economic future are desperate people and desperate people are dangerous... and all their antagonism against minorities and racial groups; all their insecurities and their pent-up rage over a world they dislike and cannot understand; all these are thrown into the witches' brew from which comes forth an explosion. That explosion means the destruction of democratic civilization and the substitution of a brutal, tyrannical totalitarianism. America ... is in great danger and the Jew in the greatest of perils." Reviewer Reuben Gross wrote: "Anticipating the outcry his book is bound to stir, Rabbi Kahane points out that Jabotinsky was called a fool for crying out in the 30s 'Jews, get moving. There is no time. A fire is burning, get out.' Considerable patience is not required to read this book. Rabbi Kahane's writing combines first-rate journalistic fluency with a touch of rabbinic rhetoric and well-organized forensic persuasiveness." Time to Go Home concludes with a practical program for American aliya and ends with the words, "Home. It calls us. Let us return."