What's the Deal with Neturei Karta?

At one point in our marriage, we lived in Geula (near Meah Shearim) for around 2 years (and I worked there too), so I met many different types of frum Jews whom I'd only read about until then.

And I met some wonderful women (including the warm & encouraging mikveh ladies) who seemed like they might be Neturei Karta (they had shaved heads, long black tichels, and black dresses), but I wasn't sure because I'm not always sure how to differentiate between Neturei Karta and other super-frum insulated groups. 

And just for knowing: Neturei Karta is a specific group within that Meah Shearim-Geula community of wonderfully traditional & insulated Yidden. In other words, not everyone from there is Neturei Karta. (Neturei Karta has also spread out to other cities too.)

But I don't recall meeting any of the men. (Or if I did, I didn't know it.) So despite living & working right there, I actually know surprisingly little about Neturei Karta, other than what appears on the (deplorably biased) news or other tidbits here and there.

​It also seems that other frum people don't know much about them either. There tends to be a lot of contradictory back-and-forth among frum people regarding Neturei Karta.

So imagine how pleased I was to run across a 2-minute 45-second video from Rav Zamir Cohen, which discusses Neturei Karta and who they really are. If you understand Hebrew, it's HERE.

(Note: A couple of females appear briefly in an ad — which you can skip — preceding the video. They're tsniusly dressed, but some people are shomer aynayim l'mehadrin — and more power to them. So the MP3 audio is on the lower right-hand side of the video screen for those who just want to listen, can't skip the ad, or whatever.) 

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What Rav Zamir Cohen Says about Neturei Karta

Anyway, a member of the audience asks Rav Zamir what's the deal with Neturei Karta, who appear to engage in behaviors that are offensive at best and deplorably forbidden at worst.

So Rav Zamir first acknowledges that when people claiming to be & dressing like Neturei Karta are photographed with the PLO and other particularly genocidal sonei Yisrael, this raises legitimate concerns.

Thus, Rav Zamir starts by explaining the Aramaic term Neturei Karta:
Neturei: Guardians of the
​Karta: City

He then explains that the authentic original Neturei Karta group believes that (0:47):

"...because the State educates the children of Israel on a path against the Torah; the laws of the State do not go according to the Torah — so they [Neturei Karta] say: 'We do not wish to participate in elections, we don't want to be partners in this whole enterprise. We'll manage our schools without the funding of the State."

​Even though it costs a lot of money to run schools on their own, they still refuse to accept any government funding. Why?

​" 'Because we don't want to be partners with a government that educates the Nation not according to the Torah'."

(1:09)

Rav Zamir adds, ​

"That, in essence, is Neturei Karta." ​

He goes on to explain that within this group is a splinter group of whom "there are those who say seven families, there are some who say twelve families —​ but according to all opinions, no more than twelve families" who have even more extreme opinions. "But there, they've completely lost themselves," says Rav Zamir.

(I had no idea about any of that.)

In Neturei Karta's newspaper (I didn't know they had one), Neturei Karta states regarding this splinter group: 

​"They do not represent us and obviously their attitude is warped, and they bring upon all of us a bad name."

Rav Zamir then states his opinion that all those who meet with the leader of Iran, terrorists, the PLO, and who are photographed with the Philistinian flag are "completely corrupt" and "apparently in need of hospitalization."

When someone has reached the point where they associate with such enmity, Rav Zamir declares: ​

​"Not only do they not represent the Torah, they don't even represent the Torah extremists."

​Then Rav Zamir cautions against making assumptions about people you see dressed like the nutters supporting sonei Yisrael. They look the same as the authentic Neturei Karta and they call themselves Neturei Karta, but they are not.

​This actually echoes what many frum Jews, regardless of our group association, deal with: We're always forced to defend ourselves against the actions (or misreported actions) of a disturbed few, protesting that "they don't represent us" or "they're a tiny minority; most of us aren't like that at all" or "the media got it wrong (again)," etc.

Again, Rav Zamir clarifies (2:15):

​"Even the extreme Neturei Karta, their war is in that they claim that the State educates and legislates laws against the Torah —​ 'We don't want anything from them, we don't want to participate in elections, we don't want to influence, we don't want to take even one cent from them. But not, God forbid, to befriend enemies of Israel. We are all Jews; we are all brothers'."

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This little clip contained a lot of new information for me, so I thought I'd share it because I suspect that I'm not the only one who didn't know all this.

It's not about whether you agree with the actual Neturei Karta or not.

​It's just knowing the truth about your fellow Jews and not being a victim of the distortions of media or impostors.

A courtyard in Meah Shearim

Kashering utensils in Meah Shearim (although the guy in the forefront isn't Neturei Karta, but looks Breslov to me)