The post-1948 era will be remembered always as a low point in
Jewish religious history. Riding high after miraculously
defeating a pan-Arab military force comprised of seven
mechanized armies, Israel's atheist Zionist regime embarked
on a campaign to systematically secularize thousands of
Jewish immigrants streaming into the country from Arab
countries throughout North Africa and the Middle East.
It was the age of the infamous ma'abarot, decrepit
transit camps surrounded by barbed wire where new immigrants
were corralled and then indoctrinated in the beliefs of
secular Zionism. Here side locks of children were sheared and
religious parents were jeered for stubbornly adhering to
their "outdated" and "primitive" customs and beliefs.
Hundreds of Yemenite children mysteriously disappeared from
these camps and were later declared dead, when in fact they
were spirited into kibbutzim where they were taught to scorn
their heritage and tradition. Few people were aware of what
was taking place inside the camps because hardly any
outsiders were granted entry into them.
When news of the horrors taking place in the camps reached
HaRav Yechezkel Sarna, the venerable rosh yeshiva of
Yeshivas Chevron, he immediately contacted Dayan Yechezkel
Abramsky and Rav Eliyahu Lopian and summoned them to an
emergency meeting at his home. "We must do something," Rav
Sarna tearfully declared at the meeting. "It is our
obligation to help."
Following a lengthy discussion lasting well into the night,
the three rabbonim decided to establish a national
organization dedicated to extricating the children from the
camps and to provide them with a Torah-true education. They
named the fledgling organization Vaad Hatzala -- Committee
for the Rescue of Immigrant Children in Israel. Now all they
needed was someone to lead the organization and coordinate
its activities. But where would they find such a capable
leader?
Enter Rabbi Simcha Shapira, a young engineer, who ten years
earlier had fled from Russia after serving as an officer in
the Czar's anti-Bolshevik militia force. He was captured by
the Red Army and duly sentenced to death by execution, yet by
some miracle the officer in charge of the firing squad
pardoned him at the very last second.
In 1930 he escaped and made his way into Eretz Yisroel
through the arduous overland route, attended university in
Haifa, received a degree in architectural engineering,
married, and finally moved to Yerushalayim. Rabbi Shapira set
aside a substantial part of his day for Torah study, and he
earned a livelihood by designing religiously oriented
construction projects such as yeshivos, synagogues and
religious neighborhoods.
Although Rabbi Shapira solemnly accepted the task assigned to
him by the rabbinical committee, he did not realize what he
had gotten himself into until his first day on the job. At
the time the Vaad Hatzala was comprised of a few dozen well-
meaning activists operating on a shoestring budget. How would
this ad hoc organization manage to rescue thousands of
immigrants from government-funded encampments surrounded by
armed guards and barbed wire? And even if they could somehow
pull off such a feat, how would they then provide the
children with a Torah-true education? There were hardly any
religious educational institutions in Eretz Yisroel at the
time.
Furthermore, a new and even more lethal danger reared its
ugly head during the initial stages of Rabbi Shapira's tenure
-- the Christian missionary threat. Like beasts of prey
discerning the scent of blood, hordes of missionaries flocked
to Eretz Yisroel and preyed on vulnerable immigrants
desperate for a source of livelihood.
The deal offered by the missionaries was plain and simple --
food and cash in exchange for Jewish children. Often the
parents were fooled into believing that their children would
receive a Jewish education, when in fact the missionaries
placed them in monasteries and made good Christians out of
them. At one point, over 6,000 Israeli children were trapped
in the hands of the Church.
Rabbi Shapira was overawed by the challenges that his
organization faced. It seemed that theirs was an impossible
task.
At this point an historic alliance was forged between Vaad
Hatzala and the venerable P'eylim organization, which had
been formed by HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer, the head of the
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. P'eylim had even less funding at its
disposal than Vaad Hatzala, but it had the ability to recruit
and mobilize hundreds of volunteers from the religious
community. A committee of rabbinical leaders decided to make
the most of the two organizations by delegating different
tasks to each -- P'eylim would take care of the field work,
and Vaad Hatzala would assume the responsibility of
organizing and supporting the Torah community's struggle for
the soul of the Jewish People.
In 1951 Dayan Abramsky, the Brisker Rav and yblt'a
HaRav Avrohom Yaakov Zalasnick (rosh yeshivah of Eitz
Chaim and life member of Vaad Hatzala's executive committee)
urged Dr. Sam Kahn to travel to England to collect
desperately needed funds to support Vaad Hatzala's rescue
work.
Dr. Kahn, despite his extremely busy schedule and pressing
professional duties, agreed to undertake the task. Paying for
all of the expenses from his own pocket, he traveled to
England and remained there for three months. The funds he
managed to raise injected new life into the joint activities
of Vaad Hatzala and P'eylim. All 6,000 Jewish children were
rescued from the hands of the Church, and dozens of Torah
schools were established to accommodate the hundreds of
immigrant children who were reached by the activists in the
field.
Dr. Kahn returned to England yearly until shortly before his
petirah. A ladies' committee was started in 1958 and
has continued raising funds for the rescue work in Eretz
Yisroel ever since. The wife of Dr. Kahn's brother, Mrs. H.
Kahn, took charge of the ladies committee, and together with
Mrs. E. Levy, Mrs. M. Jung and Mrs. E. Bowden, organized
successful annual fundraising functions for over 40 years.
In 1994 the venerable P'eylim organization merged with Lev
L'Achim, a nationwide outreach organization founded by Maran
Harav Eliezer Menachem Shach and Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman.
The new and vastly expanded organization -- P'eylim / Lev
L'Achim -- maintains the long-standing partnership with Vaad
Hatzala and persists in the never-ending struggle against the
negative influences that threaten to engulf the Jews of Eretz
Yisroel.
Today the main focus of Vaad Hatzala's work is on combating
Christian missionary activity, contending with the rising
influence of cults and mysticism, and responding to the
escalating rate of intermarriage between Jews and Arabs.
Missionary activity in Israel has reached truly epic
proportions. Several missionary organizations are active in
Israel today, including Baptists, J's Witnesses and Mormons.
These groups reach out to members of all religions, Jew and
Gentile alike, and they have huge sums of money at their
disposal.
Messianic Jews (e.g., Jews for J.) pose by far the greatest
threat. Unlike Baptists and Mormons, messianic Jewish groups
exclusively target Jews as their victims. Some sects of
Messianic Jews market themselves as an alternative form of
Judaism, making them more dangerous than Baptists of Mormons,
for their victims often are unaware that they have been drawn
into an offshoot of Christianity. Messianic Jews are also
numerically superior to all other missionary groups combined,
with approximately 21,000 members (7,000 Jewish Israeli and
15,000 non-Jewish members). By comparison, all other
missionary groups have approximately 4,000 members. In all,
approximately 25,000 missionaries whose sole objective is to
convert Jews are currently operating in Israel.
And that brings us to the Year 2000 Pilgrimage. According to
a survey conducted by the Tourism Ministry in November 1997,
some 4.5 million Christian pilgrims are expected to visit
Israel between April 1999 and the end of the year. If the
Pope and other church leaders lead their followers on
pilgrimages to Israel, the number of pilgrims is expected to
reach 16 million. (Israel's entire current population is
about 5 million.)
Tourism Ministry officials are concerned that Ben Gurion
Airport will not be able to handle the massive influx of
pilgrims into the country. These highly stimulated and
spiritually excited evangelists openly talk of "flooding the
country and `saving' the Jews by showing them `the light.'"
Their plans include establishing permanent communities
throughout the Galil, especially along the shores of Lake
Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee).
Cults abound in Israel to such a degree that it is almost
impossible to keep updated records of all the various strains
and variants. Suffice it to say that a rudimentary
understanding of mystic beliefs such as Transcendental
Meditation, Hari Krishna, Guru Maharishi and Scientology has
become strictly de rigueur among members of society's
upper echelon. The media reinforces the rising popularity of
mysticism by dedicating weekly hour-long programs to this
topic. It is therefore not surprising that according to a
recent survey, approximately 30,000 Israelis identify
strongly with one form or another of mysticism.
Vaad Hatzala counters the missionary threat and the growing
interest in cults by: raising public awareness of the
problem; hindering attempts by missionaries and cult groups
to reach the Israeli public; issuing warnings to Jewish
residents in areas targeted by cults and missionaries;
infiltrating missionary groups and cults; and by lobbying
politicians to outlaw missionary activity. Much of the
fieldwork inherent in these efforts is carried out by P'eylim
/ Lev L'Achim.
As for intermarriage, it has become a frightening phenomenon
in Israel, one that is rapidly reaching epidemic proportions
in a country that built its reputation on national Jewish
identity.
Vaad Hatzala and P'eylim / Lev L'Achim operate an emergency
hotline that has received over 2,700 distress calls -- an
average of 900 calls per year -- since it was introduced in
1995. These calls come from Jewish women who became victims
of domestic violence in their relationships with Arab men.
Those who call Vaad Hatzala's hot line represent but a small
percentage of the victims. Many times this number are
suffering in silence. Conservative estimates place the number
of mixed marriages that result in grief for Jewish women at
well over 10,000.
The vanquished Jewish wife, essentially nothing more than a
hostage, often becomes a scapegoat for members of the
husband's family and their neighbors, who may take advantage
of the situation and add some blows and insults of their own.
Hatred for the Jewish Nation that has simmered and boiled
within them for so long finds an outlet, and they fear no
legal repercussions.
The Jewish wife dare not attempt escape, fearing that her
husband will murder her along with her children. In any case,
where would she go? Her friends have ostracized her and her
parents refuse even to acknowledge her existence.
In those rare instances when a woman does manage to escape
her husband's village, Israeli police officers and welfare
officials may treat her with indifference. Israeli law
officials entertain little sympathy for Jewish girls who have
married Arabs. Sometimes they merely berate her. "It's your
own fault," they may respond. "You deserve whatever you got;
go on back to your husband." (Ample documented proof of such
treatment is available on demand.) Finding no option, she
often returns submissively to her captor to endure more
vicious beatings.
The 10,000 women who are currently married to Arab men have
given birth to some 30,000 children -- Jews born of Jewish
mothers. These youngsters are raised as Arabs and are taught
by their society to hate the State of Israel as well as all
Jews. Yet they lead miserable lives, for they never fully
integrate into Arab society, as the son of a Jewish mother
bears a heavy social stigma.
Vaad Hatzala responds to this alarming social trend by:
funding public lectures, media releases and publication of
brochures and handbooks, all aimed at raising public
awareness of the disastrous social impact of intermarriage;
sponsoring an emergency intake hot line (177-022-6100) for
abused women; encouraging and helping women to terminate
relationships with Arab boyfriends and husbands; counselling
family members of women who have become involved with Arab
men; launching clandestine missions to rescue Jewish women
and children who are trapped in Arab villages; providing
emergency housing, food, transportation, clothing, school
supplies and other necessities for victims of domestic
violence and their children; and by providing women and
children with psychological treatment and counselling to help
them reintegrate into mainstream society and make a fresh
start.
This year "Vaad Hatzala-Committee for the Rescue of Immigrant
Children" will be holding its annual function in London on
February 23rd and 24th. From their lofty vantage point in Gan
Eden, Rabbi Simcha Shapira and Dr. Kahn will most certainly
enjoy seeing their descendants perpetuating the struggle for
Jewish continuity in the Holy Land.
