Betar Elite Rabbis vs. Menachem Zeida • Claims: I did not receive a letter. It is fake

August 7, 2015   

The disgraceful actions of the Beitar Illit rabbis against Menachem Zeida: After a long period of restraint, the rabbis of Betar Illit decided to take public action against those who, in their words, "acted in depraved and despicable ways, false and repulsive slander, and in personal persecution against public representatives and Torah institutions in Betar Illit.". In a new letter circulated this week - sharp and unprecedented in its sharpness - signed by the rabbis of the communities in the city, the rabbis warn these people directly, for the first time with their names explicitly mentioned - Menachem Zeida, his assistant David Gottlieb, and their partner Pinchas Cohen: "Since we have seen letters and actions in which you are involved, which directly and indirectly cause damage to the Torah and educational institutions in our city, 'there is no punishment but warnings' and therefore we hereby come with a severe warning that you must immediately cease these serious acts." The letter is signed by seven important rabbis of the communities in Beitar Illit - Rabbi Meir Simcha Auerbach - Rabbi of the Dekel neighborhood, Rabbi Dov Rabinowitz - Rabbi of the Bayan Hasidim community, Rabbi Yehoshua Shimon Brizel - Rabbi of the Karlin Stolin Hasidim community, Rabbi Israel Berzovsky - Rabbi of the HaGefen neighborhood and Rabbi of the Slonim Hasidim community, Rabbi Yaakov Sofer - Rabbi of the Arlui Hasidim community, Rabbi Avraham Shraga Stieglitz – Rabbi of the Sanz Hasidim community, and Rabbi Moshe David Adler – Rabbi of the Bnei Torah communities in Giva B'. This letter from the city's rabbis joins the harsh letter from the Badatz Beitar, headed by the city's rabbi, Rabbi Ordentlich, which was published a few weeks ago. Under the title Torah Warning, the rabbi wrote: "Recently, heartless people have arisen in our city, who, due to personal interests, are acting against all educational institutions in our city, as well as against public figures in our city, in devious ways, by spreading lies, spreading blood libels, false and repulsive images, as the worst of the nations, which we have not heard or seen in Israel, and all the lies are fundamentally false, there is no truth in them, and they are generally giving Israel a bad name, and are generally persecutors of Israel with lies and falsehood. "And these people do not hesitate to bring educational institutions to the mouth of the mouth of the mouth, without any injustice on their part, and all for the sake of money and status, their hands are full of blood. And then the prophet Isaiah cries out, "We were like Sodom to Gomorrah, our blood is like that." Hence the warning of the Torah, that cleaning will not clean, and as long as things continue, we will act in this as decreed in the Shulchan, and this is enough for the wise, and the responsibility will fall solely on these people, and we will be clean." The city's rabbis explained this week the reason for their intervention now, reasoning that the current situation, in which a handful of people are trying to destroy the city, in their words, while destroying by sowing discord and gratuitous hatred, slander, and actual bloodshed, is in the sense of reaching the soul, and constitutes the destruction of education and the destruction of the basic foundations of morality, especially when it comes to a public that is observant of the Torah and mitzvot. "We hereby warn," the community rabbis wrote, "that as long as these serious actions that endanger the existence of Torah and educational institutions in our city continue, this constitutes a serious offense according to the law of our Torah, the Holy Scriptures, and the need to act according to the ruling in the Shulchan Arbiter arises." Menachem Zeida says in response: "I did not receive the letter, and it follows from this that it is a forgery. Otherwise, they would have sent the letter to me and not to the media.".