Rabbi Amram Blau, leader of the Neturei Karta, was buried at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery Friday afternoon. Police estimated that 5,000 mourners followed the bier on foot through the streets of Jerusalem, as is the custom when a famous rabbi dies. Rabbi Blau, who succumbed to a kidney ailment last Thursday at the age of 80 headed the tightly knit group of religious zealots who refused to recognize the State of Israel because they considered it a blasphemous creation against God’s word.
So strong was their antipathy toward the “Zionist State” that Rabbi Blau and his followers once asked the “protection” of King Hussein of Jordan. One of the Rabbi’s last acts was to petition President Nixon, on his visit to Israel. June 16-17. to make Israel the 51st state. So-called “Zionists”– persons who participated in Israeli elections –were barred from the funeral, though several religious MKs were seen in the throng. The funeral procession stopped at every yeshiva along its route for recitation of the kaddish — except the Gerrer Yeshiva. The Gerrer Hasidim are considered “Zionists” and therefore sinners by the Neturei Karta.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
