Od Yosef Chai

Od Yosef Chai, also known as Od Yosef Hai (Hebrew: עוד יוסף חי, Joseph still lives) is a yeshiva situated in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.[1] Od Yosef Chai includes several related institutions; a yeshiva high school, a yeshiva gedola (post-high school yeshiva), a kollel (yeshiva for married men) and the publishing house that released "The King's Torah", and other materials.[2][3]

The yeshiva was initially located at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, but was relocated to the settlement of Yitzhar after the original site was abandoned following the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada.[4] In April 2014 The IDF seized the yeshiva, which functioned as the headquarters from where violent attacks on both nearby Palestinian villages and Israeli security forces were launched, and Talmudic studies there were suspended.[5]

"The yeshiva occupies an unusual discursive space – neither mainstream religious Zionist (though some of its teaching staff were educated in this tradition) nor formally affiliated with the Hasidic movement, despite Ginsburgh’s own affiliation with Chabad and despite his teachings being steeped in its Kabbalistic inheritance".[6]

Leadership

In 2003 the president of the yeshiva Yitzhak Ginzburg was charged with incitement to racism for authoring a book calling Arabs a "cancer".[4][7] One of the yeshiva heads, Yitzhak Shapira, was investigated by Israeli police for his book, The King's Torah whose main focus is the halachic adjudications of killing non-Jews.[8][9] The book proved controversial in its declaration that the killing of gentile babies was permissible because of "the future danger that will arise if they are allowed to grow into evil people like their parents."[10][11][12][13] Shapira was arrested for direct involvement in an arson attack on a West Bank mosque.[8] He denied involvement and was later released due to lack of evidence.[14] Shapira was filmed accompanying some of his students to an Arab village where he watched them throwing stones.[3]

Yeshiva high school closure

In November 2011 the Israeli Education Ministry closed the religious school associated with the yeshiva. The closure was approved by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein following the recommendation of Shin Bet on the basis of student and staff involvement in violence against Palestinians and Israeli security services.[2][9] Over a period of years students had been arrested in connection with price tag attacks.[15]

Shimshon Shoshani, the Director General of the Education Ministry, stated that evidence showed the students were perpetrating violent acts against Arabs and Israeli security services with the active support of the Yeshiva Rabbis. He said that the Rabbis were both involved in the violence and the incitement of their students to commit violent acts. Shimshon stated that the violence even occurred during class time and that the school's activities were of minimal educational value.[2] In April 2014, following assaults by Yitzhar residents on an IDF unit sent to supervise the dismantlement of illegal outposts in the settlement, the Israeli government, under the approval of Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon, cracked down by setting up an army post in Yitzhar, and occupying the yeshiva. Major General Avi Mizrahi said to the press that, "This yeshiva doesn't teach Torah. It teaches evil that needs to be eliminated."[5] Yeshiva authorities denounced the precedent of a government closing a place of Torah study and branded the transformation of the yeshiva building into a military post as desecration of a holy place, according to the Jewish halacha.[5]

Funding

Prior to 2013, the yeshiva received government funding associated with four different line items of the Israeli state budget: As of 2009 it received NIS 468,000 from the Education Ministry for the yeshiva high school and NIS 847,000 for the yeshiva gedola (post-high school yeshiva); NIS 707,000 from the Social Affairs Ministry for an rehabilitation project for ultra-Orthodox drop-outs and plus NIS 156,000 for the running costs of a dormitory.[2]

Philip Weiss reported on the Mondoweiss website that payments to the New York-based Central Fund of Israel were directed to the yeshiva.[10][12] According to Weiss the yeshiva received $27,000 from the fund in 2007 and 2008.[10] The report, that the yeshiva was subsidized by funds from an office in a New York Textile company was confirmed by investigative reporter Uri Blau in 2015.[16]

As of 2013, the government had ceased funding the yeshiva, asserting that it would be "grossly unreasonable" to continue funding it in light of the yeshiva's encouragement of violent actions against Palestinians and the security services.[17]

References
  1. "Yitzhar yeshiva demolition planned". Jerusalem Post. 28 July 2010. Retrieved 2011-10-10.
  2. Levinson, Chaim (2012-11-02). "Ministry closes Yitzhar school over violent attacks". Haaretz. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  3. Harel, Amos (2011-09-27). "Shin Bet urges Israeli government to halt funding of West Bank yeshiva". Haretz. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  4. Inbari, Motti (2009). Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount. State University of New York Press. p. 132. ISBN 1438426240.
  5. Yoav Zitun, 'IDF takes over extremist yeshiva in Yitzhar,' Ynet, 11 April 2014.
  6. Satherley, Tessa (2013). "'The Simple Jew': The 'Price Tag' Phenomenon, Vigilantism, and Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh's Political Kabbalah" (PDF). Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies. Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester, United Kingdom. 10: 57–91. ISBN 978-1-4632-0282-8. ISSN 1759-1953. Retrieved 2015-06-10.
  7. Estrin, Daniel (2010-01-29). "Rabbinic Text or Call to Terror?". Forward. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  8. Mandel, Jonah (2010-07-26). "Yitzhar rabbi detained for book on laws of killing gentiles". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  9. Lazaroff, Tovah (1 Nov 2011). "Education Ministry closes part of West Bank yeshiva". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  10. E.B. Solomont (2010-01-08). "Beit Orot holds NY fundraising dinner". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2015-06-10.
  11. Beinart, Peter (2012). The Crisis of Zionism. Times Books. pp. 165–166. ISBN 0805094121.
  12. Akiva Eldar (2009-12-15). "U.S. tax dollars fund rabbi who excused killing gentile babies". Haaretz. Retrieved 2015-06-10.
  13. Eldar, Akiva (2009-11-17). "Who is funding the rabbi who endorses killing gentile babies?". Haaretz. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  14. Jim Rutenberg, Mike McIntire and Ethan Bronner (July 5, 2010). "Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-06-10.
  15. Altman, Yair (1 Nov 2012). "Government closes down Yitzhar yeshiva". Ynet. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  16. Uri Blau, Haaretz Investigation: U.S. Donors Gave Settlements More Than $220 Million in Tax-exempt Funds Over Five Years Haaretz 7 December 2015.
  17. Yonah Jeremy Bob, "State: No funds for yeshiva that incites violence", Jerusalem Post, 10 April 2013

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