Monsey, NY – The head of a New York Jewish organization that will help to absorb some of the last Jews of Yemen has rejected accusations that the community he represents – Monsey, New York – is “anti-Zionist.”
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“It saddens me that the rumor mill has claimed they’re moving into an anti-Zionist community,” said Yisroel Schulman, a New York attorney who is involved in the resettlement. “Our community sends the largest delegation to the annual Israel Parade, over 1,000 people. Our community boasts some of the largest philanthropic supporters of institutions in Israel, hospitals, schools, social service organizations. It’s offensive to say we’re anti-Zionist.”
Some 113 Yemenite Jews, over a third of the Sunni Arab country’s isolated Jewish community, will be making their way to the United States in the coming weeks on special visas from the US State Department. They are to be settled in Monsey, which is located in Rockland County, north of New York City.
The move has garnered accusations from the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization that the Yemenites were being settled in an “anti-Zionist” community of Satmar hassidim, a haredi group that believes political Zionism is delaying the Messianic redemption of the world.
But according to Schulman, who is president of the New York Legal Assistance Group, which will be helping the incoming Jews with legal matters, the claims of the Israel-based Zionist institutions amount to “misinformation and disinformation.”
“This is not a Satmar initiative. It is a project of a broad base of Jewish organizations and Jews from various religious backgrounds and non-religious backgrounds,” he said.
These include FEGS, a refugee absorption agency of the UJA Federation of New York; Schulman’s own NYLAG; the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which holds the resettlement contract from the State Department; the Queens-based Yemenite Federation; the New York and Rockland County Jewish federations; and a large number of Rockland County Jewish community members “who are helping us find apartments and arrange for health care and educational services.”
It is even supported by a host of non-sectarian and even non-Jewish institutions, maintained Schulman, who sits on the board of the Rockland County federation.
“Our JCC is coming up with athletic programs; the president of our local community college is involved in helping to provide English and civics classes; the Monsey family health center will be providing the medical stuff; the New York State Department of Social Services, together with the Rockland County Department of Social Services, will expedite government benefits such as Medicaid, so that these immigrants will receive these immediately,” he said.
Furthermore, each incoming family “will have freedom of choice of education, whether public school or any number of day schools and yeshivas in Rockland County.”
These include a Conservative day school, as well as Modern Orthodox and haredi schools. “All these schools belong to a central Board of Jewish Education. That board has met, and each school said, ‘I can take five kids, I can take six kids.’ Remember, they’re taking the kids free or charge.”
The absorption in Monsey – instead of Israel – was the choice of the Yemenites themselves, Schulman insisted. “The State Department interviewed these families, and they chose to come to the US. Many of them have family connections or close personal contacts here.”
That’s because Monsey already boasts a small Yemenite community with a synagogue and a rabbi.
“Nobody went and convinced these people you shouldn’t go to Israel. I think all of us deep down have a preference that the entire community would go to Israel. However, these people have free choice and these families on their own decided they want to immigrate to the US,” he said.
Rejecting the Israelis’ fears that Satmar would take over the initiative, Schulman explained that Satmar was a partner in the project, but not a major one.
“Satmar has committed the ‘terrible act’ of raising funds for the communal Yemenite Settlement Project,” he said, “as has the rest of the community.”
Monsey, he noted, was not a center of Satmar life. “The Satmar community generally lives in Williamsburg [a neighborhood of Brooklyn] and Kiryas Joel [in Orange County], both of which are over an hour away. The Satmar community in Monsey is not a large segment of the 100,000 Jews in Rockland County.”
As for the percentage of funds coming from Satmar sources, Schulman says he neither knows nor cares. “I don’t have a way of determining if a check is from somebody from Satmar, but the fundraisers have been very broad-based.”
In a statement in response to Schulman’s comments, the Jewish Agency reiterated a previous statement that “we believe Israel is the preferred destination for Jews leaving countries of distress.”
According to a former Jewish Agency employee in North America, the agency’s concerns stem from past experience. “In the past, Jews from Yemen who opted to go to Monsey were absorbed into the Satmar community. There may be a few exceptions, but the vast majority are Satmar today. The intentions of this project and the final result are two very different things.”
“This is not a Satmar initiative. It is a project of a broad base of Jewish organizations and Jews from various religious backgrounds and non-religious backgrounds,” he said.”
How about naming the organizations that are involved? Monsey is a diversified neighborhood, where are they moving to? Forshay, Concord avenue, Spring Valley area–where? To vishnitz, kol torah, Rabbi Wein area or Rav Tendler seniors area. Where in Monsey?
mr’ scholman pls stop now you only working for money & u wana take the cradit?, satmar peaple working so hard for a half a year already they will only stay jewish by satmar
Until now the jewish agency was too busy bringing russian goyim and anti semites into israel. now that they’ve finished with the goyim, they’re searching desperately for anyone else
Ha ha ha!!! Don’t understand. What is the
Problem they know what the Zionist have
Done for them so what exactly is Schulman’s
Excuse!!!
Why should it surprise anyone that the Yemenites do not want to be in the sphere of influence of the Jewish Agency or the Israeli Government? Who can forget the frum refugees from Yemin who were literally forced to eat treif, dress un-tsnius, and desecrate Shabbos. Who can forget the men and boys who had their payos cut off against their will. Who can forget the children who were taken from their parents who were told their babies died but were never shown a grave!
The way the Zionists forcibly separated the Yemenite Jews from their heritage was despicable.
You do not have to be a Satmar Chassid to be totally revolted by the way the Jews of Yemen were treated by the Zionists.
If they chas vesholom become satmar, they will, g-d forbid, stay g-d fearing jews. Mr Schulman, let’s be mispallel to the borei olam, who listens to our tefillos, that it does not cholille happen! Theres only that much that klal yisroel can handle.
if it’s not an anti zionist initiative i am not donating to rescue anyone. why should they come here and be Coifer C”V in G-d? they should rather stay there and keep Tora and Mitzvas. beeing rescued to live like a goy is not an option to me.
The Lubavitcher spoke about the sheer chutzpah of the Zionists to demand that Jews from Russia be allowed to emigrate ONLY to Israel.
How dare they, the Rebbe said, tell a Jew where he or she can live?
There is a (non satmer) Yemenite community in monsey. The Rebbi that was murdered had been in Monsey for a few years.
It’s safe to assume that is why they are choosing Monsey and will live amongst them.
What the secular zionists did to the Yemenite community 50 years ago was tragic, but it is past history. What remains true is that Yemenites have a middle eastern (Jewish) culture and an historical attachment to Eretz Yisrael and a yearning for Zion. I am, therefore, extremely suspicious of the claim that these Yemenite families are choosing to go from one golus (in Yemen) to another golus (in Monsey). And to a Monsey community which is for the most part populated by the descendants of Yiddish speaking, European, Ashkenazi Jews no less? Very hard to believe that what’s happening is 100% kosher. Very hard to believe that either overt inducement and/or subtle persuasion didn’t play a role here, to divert these families away from Eretz Yisrael.
I don’t remember anywhere in the Torah where it teaches to only rescue frum Jews. I will gladly donate to get any Jewish person out of bondage or out of prison or out of Yemen, payos or not, yarmakule or not, kashrus or not. I will not ignore my brothers or sisters, no matter what their attitudes are and that means, frum or not, gay or not, young or old or sick or any at all. Also, they are all welcome to daven in the shul I daven in, if they feel like it.
Does the WZO realize that in davening (which we do 3 times a day!) we daven specificaly for TZION?? Do they even know what Davening means? I wonder. They are so messed up its not even funny. They stole the term “zionist” from the people who really yearn for EY and Moshiach only to kill it with their krum thoughts.
Mr. Schulman is a frum askan in the Monsey communitee. Anyon who ahs ever dealt with him would never write some of the comments above. All that he does is leshaim shomayim.
The abusrdities of this story never cease to amaze me.
1) The charges of Monsey being an anti-zionist Satmar community have been spread by Zionist organizations (specifically WZO and JAFI) to deligitimize the resettlement of these Jews in America. Why? Because one of the KEY arguments to legitimize the Zionist state is that Jews have no where else to go: nobody else wants them, therefore we MUST have Israel as a “port of last refuge.” IF Jews DO in fact have other places in the world where they find succor it undermines a key argument for support of the state.
2) Even if the rumor were true (it’s not, though the Satmar community DID play a key role in funding and arranging the emigration of the Teimani tp NY), so what?
Since when is Zionism one of the 13 ikkurim? Since when is being a Zionist the sine qua non of being a Jew? Besides, these Jews CHOSE to go to NY rather than Israel. It is nobody elses business where they choose to live. They are NOT the property of the Zionist state (as much as the state seems to think so) to do and go at the bidding and command of the nationalists.
3) The plight of the Teimani is hardly news. They have lived in a rather untenable situation for YEARS. If it is such a pressing matter to relocate these Jews to Israel, why have neither the Zionst organizations, with all their financial resources, nor the State done BUPKES for them for so long? Why is it NOW suddenly so urgent for them to make aliyah?
Is it possible that the only reason for Zionist concern now is because someone else “stole their thunder?” Is it possible that the state actually PREFERED them lingering in misery, using them as pawns to show the world (and Jews who are anything other than commited zionists) how miserable it is for a Jew in chutz l’aaretz and thus use these poor Jews as a justification to press for support of the state? If so, it wouldn’t be the first time Zionists aided and abetted in and used the suffering of Jews to advance their nationalist agenda.
send them to iran or to another arab state that wants to revive its jewish population (hezbollah wants to rebuild the shul in beruit, how about rebuilding its minyan?) these people are not ashkenazi our lifestyles differ greatly. why not stop being condescending with our ashkenazi culture and respect the fact that these souls are more comfortable around arabs than europeans?
Reply to 26:
Monsey has a sizeable Yemenite kehillah, with its own Rav. Yisroel Shulman must be commended for defending the Yemenite Jews’ right to choose where they want to live, for marshalling the resources to help them and for countering the overly simplistic generalizations about chareidim as anti-Zionist. Many chareidim love the land and people of Israel at least as much as card-carrying Zionists. The State of Israel’s history of absorption of Yemenite Jews is a very troubled one. Until Israeli leaders come to grips with the truth and take active corrective measures (like guarenteeing resettlement of Yemenites in their own communities where they can maintain their traditions and establish their own schools and institutions) the Yemenites will continue to opt for more secure religious environments.
I don’t believe the import of yeminite Jews to Monsey is a purely “anti-zionist” enterprise, but when the federation writes:
“the agency’s concerns stem from past experience. ‘In the past, Jews from Yemen who opted to go to Monsey were absorbed into the Satmar community. There may be a few exceptions, but the vast majority are Satmar today.'”
So it is a crime against humanity to be Satmar? That in and of itself shows what an anti-semitic organization the federation is. As if only they determine what Judaism is.
sorry,but putting yemenites in chasidisha homes is just as bad as taking them to isreal!!!!