Jerusalem – Archive Belonging to Reb Amram Blau Sheds New Light On The Rabbi’s 1965 Marriage to a Convert

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    Rabbi Amram Blau, Ruth Ben DavidJerusalem – For the past 17 years, journalist Shmuel Chaim Pappenheim has been racking his brain, trying to figure out how to finish his biography of Rabbi Amram Blau (1894-1974 ), the legendary leader of the extremist, ultra-Orthodox group Neturei Karta.

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    “I have writer’s block; I simply do not know how to navigate through this narrative,” he laments.

    An ultra-Orthodox Jewish journalist, Pappenheim feels morally obligated to skirt around sensitive issues. However, in this particular instance, such maneuvering is virtually impossible: How can you write about Blau’s life without mentioning his scandalous marriage to a convert in the last decade of his life? Pappenheim, who is in his 40s, fears that even if he simply omits the episode from the biography, “someone might react and, in this way, I will inadvertently cause this matter to rise to the surface. Four different investors are pressing me to finish the book, but I just cannot solve this problem.”

    Read full story at Haaretz.com


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    84 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Well no need to worry now…the cat is out of the bag

    Cadd9
    Cadd9
    13 years ago

    What I find the most important take away from this is that we can’t elevate one facet of Jusdiasm over everything.
    Even if one is to believe in Kanoyis, what about the mitzvah of ahavas hageir the aveirah of being metzayer a geir.
    Every kat that obsseses about one mitzvah over the others the end result is they lose all balance and end up being poretz geder.
    We need to be very vigilant about new chumros and shitahs created by charismatic individuals that emphasize one issue out of the all encompassing Torah. We need to be sure it is real and not misogyny , OCD , narcissism etc.

    moshe
    moshe
    13 years ago

    whats wrong?!

    Shalom Koenig
    Shalom Koenig
    13 years ago

    What is so scandalous about marrying a convert? Is Judaism racist (Heaven forbid!) And what is so scandalous about marrying someone who is younger than you? Is this against Jewish Law?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Fascinating!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    What was wrong with him marrying a “geyores”? HELLO!!!!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Its a scandal that he married a ger? Doesn’t everyone already know this womanwas a ger and saved Jewish kids in France during the war?

    glatekup
    glatekup
    13 years ago

    i know of many cases where chidren messed up whole families because they mixex in to thier fathers personal life. sometimes it is important but other times it is a matter of jealousy.

    hear nur
    hear nur
    13 years ago

    What’s wrong?! She was a kosher geir, what’s the problem?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    I don’t understand the scandal. As much as I deplore neteurei karta, if halacha doesn’t forbid the marriage how can anyone prevent it based on how they feel about it?

    Chaim
    Chaim
    13 years ago

    Typical selective use of halacha – only listen to bais din when they agree with you.

    formally
    formally
    13 years ago

    i wonder if her conversion would be acceptable by today’s rebbies in Israel

    interesting how he found a heter for his needs and wants

    dovy
    dovy
    13 years ago

    nk of those days was not an “extremist” group. they were the mainstream orthodoxy which almost every religous jew believed in.

    Ma Rabbi
    Ma Rabbi
    13 years ago

    This event happened 45 years ago. At that time, I was a teenager. But as I remember:
    1 Rav Amram wrote to the Satmar Rebbe who agreed to the match.
    2 Ruth Ben David was Righteous convert who had saved Jewish children during the war. Her conversion came from the purest motives long before she met Rav Amram.
    Rav Amram was a great man who loved all Jews. He was respected by all segments even those who disagreed with his Anti-Zionist views. He never met with Arafat or the Iranians or other enemies of the Jewish people. He would have been appalled at the ridiculous behavior of the crazy Niturei Karta of today. May his memory be blessed.

    Tanna Kamma
    Tanna Kamma
    13 years ago

    Brings to mind 2 other ‘scandalous’ marriages to converts:
    Moses & Joshua.

    Babishka
    Member
    Babishka
    13 years ago

    I think it’s a lovely romantic story. They fell in love, and he defied his family in order to be with her. As far as the age difference, she wasn’t a teenager, she was in her 40’s! And she was a beautiful woman.

    SimchaB
    SimchaB
    13 years ago

    Reply to #11 :Bais Din had no business intervening in such a case. This was not a Din Torah between two parties. Why was he bound by it’s unsolicited (by him) opinion?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    I don’t understand why this is a scandal. Can someone explain?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    the gemarah in mesechta b’rachos says that one should not marry a gaioris.
    the mitzvah of loving a ger do not extend to marrying them. apparantly some comments here stem from modern liberalism.
    oh well

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    This is fascinating stuff…it just shows the history leading up to the irrational & violent behavior we keep reading about. I don’t agree with #14 , Rabbi Amram created a monster and they just took the ball and ran with it. True, it sounds like he didn’t encourage violence, but he did despise Zionism (although at least he wasn’t a hypocrite & took nothing from the State.)

    I don’t understand what ruling by the Eida Rabbi Amram broke (it’s unclear in the article.) His wife was a nice looking woman & by all accounts a good woman too. What’s the problem? Of course, his sons were afraid of undue influence (Yerusha??) & “shame” because of her gioress status, but that just piles on the hypocrisy.

    Nice to see that what happens in little people’s families also is in the elite. I wonder if 35 years later it would be such a scandal? Not when you consider the kissing (literally) of Arafat & the devotion these sick people have to Jew-killers. You can’t get more scandalous & appalling than that.

    Simcha
    Simcha
    13 years ago

    Thank you #14 for your comment. I was zoiche to meet R’ Amram Blau when I was young – his protests against the medina, against chillul shabbos, etc. came from a heart full of ahavas yisroel. He was a warm “old-style” yerushalmi yid. ZY’O.

    Jersey Yid
    Jersey Yid
    13 years ago

    Wow, let’s cont how many timesthe Torah and Neveim talk about how to treat a ger in comparions to other mitzvot. Looks like those who don;t see the big picture got a taste of their own.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    I remember the case. There was no scandal per se. It’s just that people in Neturei Karta as well as Rabbonim in that faction were vehemently opposed to his marriage to this convert, as was his family. They did not forgive him for this. To them it was a scandal but there was no scandal in the true sense of the word. as we think..

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    It sounds like the scandal was the fighting within his family over the marriage. But the truth is, adult children always cause trouble to their elderly parent when the parent wishes to remarry, regardless of who the new spouse is. Sad but true.

    Anti Zionist pro AUthentic Yiddishkeit
    Anti Zionist pro AUthentic Yiddishkeit
    13 years ago

    I was always under the impression that Rav Amram Blau ZT”L was a tzaddik and his wife albeit a geyoress, was a tzadekess, so why was it a scandal? The original NK had the purist motives, If the heilige Satmar Rov, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum ZT”L was in accord with them, then I have no reason to think otherwise.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    There’s nothing wrong with a convert/geyores, this marriage had a different story tied to it, as there were some of his friends and relatives that didn’t want this shiduch.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    I don’t understand why we just don’t let Artscroll take this over and do a little history re-writing. It’ll be a win-win situation.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Let’s see how all of you who are so pro this marriage react when your Mendy’s and Esti’s come home with a Ger. That will be the proof of the pudding.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Something smells fishy. I never heard an author publicly say before his book was published that he has writer’s block. Mr. Pappenheim obviouly is a PR genius. Very soon his mental block will melt and he’ll sell out his first edition. He’ll be laughing all the way to Bank Leumi. Writer’s block ,my foot ! ” I simply don’t know how to navigate…. blah….blah….blah…” Mr. Pappenheim , I’m calling you out on this. You think we’re all suckers.

    simple
    simple
    13 years ago

    Very simple! His kids were afraid that ppl today will say like 1 moron said here that he fell in love with her despite their age difference and its unusual for a famous Rabbi to marry a giyoret, therefore they went to badatz they should hold him back from doing it, side note Satmar rebbe zt”l was very angry at Batatz for fighting r’ amrom but he didn’t want to fight them publicly in order not to undermine their authority

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    This woman saved Jewish children in France as a righteous gentile and then decided to join the Jewish people and became an upstanding frum woman. Sounds like good people to me.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    I don’t think I’ll buy the book unless it only speaks favorably of Rav Blau, NK and Rebetzin Blau.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Well, his problem is not saying that R’ Blau married a convert, his problem is saying why he married her. He had been injured by shrapel, so he could not marry into the Jewish people…also because, before she became a tzadekes, she was a prostitute in Paris.

    TRUTH
    TRUTH
    13 years ago

    FACT: Rav Amrom Blau Zt’l is one of the great tzaddikim that has lived out his life with mesiras nefesh.

    FACT: Mr. Pappenheim is simply preparing the debut of his upcoming new book by using this lame excuse. It won’t surprise me in the least, would it be filled with much misinformation and fiction to stir controversy and make him the money he is seeking.

    FACT: There are people looking to include Geirim within their life, fore so many of them found TRUTH in Judaism, including the TRUTH that Zionism is anti-Judaism.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    if i’m not mistaken; Reb. Ruth Blau was the one that transported Yossele Shuemacher out of Isreal…

    Secular
    Secular
    13 years ago

    Some say he suffered an injury which made him A Kerus Shafcha, and therefore forbidden to mary into the Kahal, To be able to marry he had to marry one that is technically not Kahal hashem i.e a Gyores…

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Marrying a Geyoris is practically forbidden in those circles and when its done by a leader and respected Rov, to them its a massive scandal.
    I heard that Rabbi Blau had wound that he received during the War of Independence, that made it halachically assur for him to marry a Jewish woman after his wife died. So he had to marry a Geyoris.

    kul homoisif moisifin loy
    kul homoisif moisifin loy
    13 years ago

    We’re becoming talmidei chachomim from reading these posts. Maybe we can get a psak that reading VIN is considered learning.

    shlomo zalman
    shlomo zalman
    13 years ago

    This is not a halachic issue. Blau violated the taboos in his society. One, he married outside the inner circle, absolutely forbidden. Two, the concept of “marrying for love” as in between man and woman, does not exist in NK or any other chareidi community.

    actual Jew
    actual Jew
    13 years ago

    My grandfather (Z”L) was cheder and yeshiva educated. He told me that if someone is a hateful person in one way (NK), he is a degenerate in another (this).
    There is nothing wrong with marrying a ger. I am friends with several and my kids would be lucky to marry into their families (G-d willing).
    But this guy kidnapped a kid and she was his accomplice. He dedicated his life to the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. He had a heart full of malice and hatred.

    Israeli
    Israeli
    13 years ago

    That R’ Amram was a tzaddik who NK actions were l’shem shomayim is not disputed even by those who disagreed with his views.
    That he was not a godol hador is also obvious.
    Who he (or anyone) marries is his own private affair and nobody’s business, not yours, not mine and certainly not the business of his childrem from a previous marriage.
    Have we really fallen so far to the depths of the goyishe gutter press that we must publish details of peoples’ most private lives in order to titillate the feelongs of the lowest of the low. And of course only to sell papers, or in this case a book.
    Gevald!!