Moshe Ber Beck, or Moshe Dov Beck ( he, משה דוב בעק; May 17, 1934 – April 15, 2021), was a Hungarian-born American rabbi and anti-Zionist campaigner. He was the leader of one of the Neturei Karta branches in the United States.

Biography

Moshe Ber Beck was born in Nyírbogát,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. His early childhood was spent hiding with his brother from Nazi persecution until 1945, when Soviet troops took Budapest. In 1948, he migrated to

Bnei Brak Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq ( he, בְּנֵי בְּרַק ) is a city located on the central Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean Israeli coastal plain, coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an are ...

, Israel, where he began

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

studies. In 1959, he married, and at that time joined Neturei Karta, leaving the Vizhnitz Hasidic movement of which he had formerly been a part. He left Israel in 1970 because, he said, of his strong

opposition to Zionism Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine ...

, and subsequently lived in Monsey, New York, where he worked as a

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

and anti-Zionist activist. Beck died from complications related to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

on 15 April 2021. He was 86 years old.

Anti-Zionist campaigning

Moshe Ber Beck, along with other rabbis such as Yisroel Dovid Weiss, was known as a Haredi opponent of Zionism, but like all of Neturei Karta, to an extent which leaves him far beyond the mainstream Haredi viewpoint. He was one of the leaders of Neturei Karta in the U.S. Among other activities, he participated in a visit to Iran in 2006, where he met with President

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),

to publicize Haredi opposition to Zionism. Beck denounced what he considered a political use of the Holocaust by what he called the Zionist establishment. In 2014, he appeared in a lengthy interview on the documentary, ''Judaism in the Era of Zionism'', in which he laid out his anti-Zionist viewpoint. Beck's opposition to Zionism is based, he said, upon the works of Joel Teitelbaum, especially ''

Vayoel Moshe ''Vayoel Moshe'' ( he, ויואל משה) is a Hebrew book written by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, founder of the Satmar Hasidic movement, in 1961. In it, Teitelbaum argues that Zionism is incompatible with Judaism. As Teitelbaum explains in the intr ...

'', a lengthy work which aims to demonstrate that Jews are commanded by the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

to remain in exile until redeemed by the messiah, and are therefore prohibited to establish an independent country.

References

External links

Judaism in the Era of Zionism (A documentary interview with Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss and Rabbi Moshe Dov Beck.)

Biographical speech by Senior Rabbi Moshe Dov Beck

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Moshe Bet 1934 births 2021 deaths American Haredi rabbis Anti-Zionist Haredi rabbis Jewish anti-Zionism in the United States Hungarian emigrants to Israel Israeli emigrants to the United States People from Monsey, New York 21st-century American Jews Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)