Friday 2 September 2016

A general protest against Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi

We, the undersigned, protest the visit of the preacher Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi to the UK.

Rabbi Mizrachi is on record as expressing a variety of highly offensive, bigoted and hateful views

A.    That Downs Syndrome children and those with autism are being punished for their sins in a previous life for gossiping, "measure for measure" and are here to suffer.

B.     That due to not being correctly religious, secular Jewish women acted without concern for their modesty at the gas chambers during the Holocaust.

C.     Engaging in a [racist] form of Holocaust denial by challenging the Jewish status of five million souls who perished.

D.    That Sephardic Jews were spared much of the Holocaust because Reform started in Germany, a demonstrably false claim in view of the decimation of the Sephardic population of the Balkans.

E.     That children who are born with blindness are being punished for watching pornography in previous lives.

F.      That women contract breast and cervix cancers as a result of sexual licentiousness.

G.    That men contract prostate and brain cancers as a result of sexual licentiousness and what he calls "dirty thoughts".

H.    The racist accusation that crime has increased in America as the result of the emancipation of African-Americans.

I.       That homosexuals are being punished for having chosen to be gay in a previous life.

J.       That people cease to be religious because they are influenced by gay university professors.

K.    That totalitarian laws should be imposed as a result of terrorism.

L.     That the problem with the European far right is not their views, but that they detest Jews as well as Muslims.

M.   The racist view that all Chinese people look the same.

 

We consider these views to be cultish, divisive and contemptible.

When criticised, Rabbi Mizrachi attacks his critics personally in the most intemperate ad hominem language, likening them to wicked Biblical figures such as "Amalek", "Korach" and "Haman" or, sickeningly, as "worse than Hitler". Videos of his more controversial statements are routinely removed in order to enable claims that they were "taken out of context".

His remarks on the Holocaust and other matters provoked strong condemnation from the Novominsker Rebbe, the president of the ultra-orthodox Agudath Israel of America, resulting in a rare apology.

He was also forced to publicly disavow remarks he made about the Chabad movement, suggesting that they were hypocritical and greedy enough to praise a serious criminal, as long as they received a donation of $1,000.

Rabbi Mizrachi intends to visit the UK again on the 16th-19th of September. His last visit to the UK in 2014 was covered by the Jewish Chronicle and led to criticism of his views by two leading London rabbis, concerned at invitations to allow him to speak in a local synagogue and to school children.

The signatories of this petition condemn his views and, whether Jewish or non-Jewish, stand in solidarity with the Jewish community in its efforts to distance itself from extremism and condemn racism, ignorant bigotry and intolerance in whatever form it presents itself.

 

Rabbi Mizrachi's views referenced above can be checked from the list of sources below:

LINKS TO SOURCE MATERIAL:

Condemnation by the Novominsker Rebbe:


Down's syndrome and autism are punishment for the sins of a previous life:


"Down syndrome, autistic and any other problem is a punishment as a result of a previous life"

People born of a forbidden relationship (e.g. incest) and blind people are punished for their past life behaviours and deserve no sympathy:


Mixed dancing and women's clothes cause cancer:


Disrespect for the secular victims of the Holocaust:


"the secular (Jewish) women, (before being thrown into the gas chambers) they stand like this (opens arms) for photographers to take pictures of them, because they don't care"

Less than a million "real" Jews were killed in the Holocaust:


Going to college will turn you into a non-Jew (46:52) and this is why the Holocaust happened to the Ashkenazim, not to the Sephardim:


Misogyny: A non-virgin girl is "like an open bottle of Coke", a "used product":


The deaths of children (in respect of the Sassoon family tragedy in which a number of children died in a fire) are punishment for their past lives and that one's past lives can be examined through "regression therapy"


The spiritual taints of children whose parents were not observant of taharat ha-mishpachah, for instance an "uncontrollable desire for fornication":


"A soldier even in the IDF, if he's mekhallel Shabbat, he has no share in the world to come:


Racism: "Look what happened when US gave blacks rights"


Chabad are 'hypocritical money-grubbers':


His critics will receive punishment in hell:


"..she will get the biggest Auschwitz you can think of, Auschwitz is a picnic, she is gonna be there for eternity, she will never come out of there and all the people who are on her page, just as much, no different"

Crude lampooning of a homosexual university professor:


"the more they make fun of rabbis. Who got them to make fun of rabbis? The gay professor in the university (makes "mincing" gesture) ooo! You a rabbi! We are in the 21st century!"

Totalitarian views:


"If it was up to me, if I was the prime minister of Israel, I would change the laws totally"

"How long the French government would last? They going to lose now, do you know who is going to be the next government in France? The Nazis. They have Nazis there, do you know? The only problem is that they are against Jews also. They against Arabs, because Arabs made their country a nightmare."

"The only way to do something drastic is to cancel the democracy the way it is right now. You cannot have minorities torturing the majority of the people in the country, you must modify the laws."

Anti-Chinese racism (at 1:12):


"Chinese (people), it's one copy machine from 7/11 make 2 billion copies, all of them straight black hair, yellow skin, eyes like this... If I showed you I had in my computer, a picture of 20 Chinese, all of them twins!"

Sources referred to in the letter of condemnation:

Sources referred to in the letter of condemnation:


Condemnation by the Novominsker Rebbe:


Down's syndrome and autism are punishment for the sins of a previous life:


"Down syndrome, autistic and any other problem is a punishment as a result of a previous life"

 

Mamzers and blind people are punished for their past life behaviours and deserve no sympathy:


Mixed dancing and women's clothes cause cancer:


Disrespect for the secular victims of the Holocaust:


"the secular (Jewish) women, (before being thrown into the gas chambers) they stand like this (opens arms) for photographers to take pictures of them, because they don't care"

Less than a million "real" Jews were killed in the Holocaust:


Going to college will turn you into a non-Jew (46:52) and this is why the Holocaust happened to the Ashkenazim, not to the Sephardim:


Misogyny: A non-virgin girl is "like an open bottle of Coke", a "used product":


The deaths of children (in respect of the Sassoon family tragedy) are punishment for their past lives and that one's past lives can be examined through "regression therapy"


The spiritual taints of children whose parents were not observant of taharat ha-mishpachah, for instance an "uncontrollable desire for fornication":


"A soldier even in the IDF, if he's mekhallel Shabbat, he has no share in the world to come:


Racism: "Look what happened when US gave blacks rights"


Chabad are 'hypocritical money-grubbers':


His critics will receive punishment in hell:


"..she will get the biggest Auschwitz you can think of, Auschwitz is a picnic, she is gonna be there for eternity, she will never come out of there and all the people who are on her page, just as much, no different"

Crude lampooning of a homosexual university professor:


"the more they make fun of rabbis. Who got them to make fun of rabbis? The gay professor in the university (makes "mincing" gesture) ooo! You a rabbi! We are in the 21st century!"

Totalitarian views:


"If it was up to me, if I was the prime minister of Israel, I would change the laws totally"

"How long the French government would last? They going to lose now, do you know who is going to be the next government in France? The Nazis. They have Nazis there, do you know? The only problem is that they are against Jews also. They against Arabs, because Arabs made their country a nightmare."

"The only way to do something drastic is to cancel the democracy the way it is right now. You cannot have minorities torturing the majority of the people in the country, you must modify the laws."

Anti-Chinese racism (at 1:12):


"Chinese (people), it's one copy machine from 7/11 make 2 billion copies, all of them straight black hair, yellow skin, eyes like this... If I showed you I had in my computer, a picture of 20 Chinese, all of them twins!"

Orthodox Rabbis Condemn Yosef Mizrachi's Views

A protest against Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi
 
We are concerned that Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi is a practitioner of a cultish, disreputable and often racist variety of kiruv which seeks to scare people into becoming more observant, with threats of "hellfire", disease, natural disasters and the like, as well as traducing kabbalistic sources to attribute suffering to the sins of past lives. He claims a wide following, principally in the United States. His output is typically in the form of video lectures hosted on his divineinformation.com internet site.
Some documented examples of his views:
A.    That Downs Syndrome children and those with autism are being punished for their sins in a previous life for gossiping, "measure for measure" and are here to suffer.
B.     That due to not being correctly religious, secular Jewish women acted without concern for their modesty at the gas chambers during the Holocaust.
C.     Engaging in a [racist] form of Holocaust denial by challenging the Jewish status of five million souls who perished.
D.    That Sephardic Jews were spared much of the Holocaust because Reform started in Germany, a demonstrably false claim in view of the decimation of the Sephardic population of the Balkans.
E.     That children who are born with blindness are being punished for watching pornography in previous lives.
F.      That women contract breast and cervix cancers as a result of sexual licentiousness.
G.    That men contract prostate and brain cancers as a result of sexual licentiousness and what he calls "dirty thoughts".
H.    The racist accusation that crime has increased in America as the result of the emancipation of African-Americans.
I.       That homosexuals are being punished for having chosen to be gay in a previous life.
J.       That people cease to be religious because they are influenced by gay university professors.
K.    That totalitarian laws should be imposed as a result of terrorism.
L.     That the problem with the European far right is not their views, but that they detest Jews as well as Muslims.
M.   The racist view that all Chinese people look the same.
 
R. Mizrachi typically dismisses all criticism of his views in two ways:
 
1.     That his critics are Reform, gay, or otherwise some variety of heretics and sinners and, therefore, not worthy of answer.
2.     That any specific controversial statement that he is forced to justify in public was "taken out of context", due to an "ongoing campaign of lashon hara" against him, with "wicked people" supposedly editing his video clips.
 
He also personally attacks his critics in the most intemperate language, describing them as "Amalek", "Korach", "Haman", "worse than Hitler" or "evil wicked enem[y] of hashem and the torah" (sic). Videos of his more controversial statements are routinely removed in order to enable claims that they were "taken out of context".
His last visit to the UK in 2014 was covered by the JC and led to criticism of his views by two leading London rabbis, concerned at invitations to allow him to speak in a local synagogue and to school children.
His remarks on the Holocaust and other matters provoked strong condemnation from the Novominsker Rebbe, the president of Agudath Israel of America, resulting in a rare apology. This was reported in HaModia and Yeshiva World News.
He was also forced to publicly disavow remarks he made about the "hypocrisy" of Chabad, alleging that they would call a man a tzaddik if they donated $1,000, despite being thief, a murder, incestuous, a rapist and a drug dealer.
Rabbi Mizrachi intends to visit the UK again on the 16th-19th of September. This man's views are a gift to our enemies, to those who seek to ridicule us as backward and portray us as extremists, racists and criminals. With current controversies such as illegal schools, children needing to be rescued from danger on poorly organised trips and the ever-present threat to brit milah and shehitah, it is incumbent upon us to show that the observant Jewish community can distance itself from charlatans and those who bring Judaism and our holy Torah into disrepute.
 
 
We are contacting rabbis that are prepared to support the statement of protest.

Sources can be viewed here