Maurice Chandler - October 3, 1993
Zionism
Were there any debates over Zionism between the Hasids?
The Hasidim were not Zionists.
None of them.
No, because they considered the Zionists as sort of smacked with revolt, you know, and that's what they ??? and they felt, you know, that it was against the Torah, you know, the uh, do you speak Hebrew?
Yeah.
They're saying in one of the prayers, it says, "???" meaning "If God will not build our home in Israel, for naught will be all the builders." Whatever they are going to try to do, it will not work out, and that was--this was their motto. Then come the Zionists, and they said we're going to do it our...ourself--financial ticket they have got. So the Hasidic Jews were not followers of Zionism except for later, you know, the Agudah came out, the Agudat Yisroel came out and they said, "We are going to be religious Jews and we're going to build a religious Israel," and they sort of tiptoed towards Zionism but very, very ???
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn