100 Orthodox rabbis want Mount of Olives cemetery to be protected against ongoing Arab vandalism

NEW YORK (Press Release) – More than 100 prominent Orthodox rabbis, including the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, Ha Rav Dovid Lau, have signed a petition urging action against the ongoing Arab attacks on the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem.

“The continuing Arab desecration of the Mount of Olives cemetery must no longer be swept under the rug,” said Martin Oliner, president of the Religious Zionists of America, which sponsored the petition. “Rabbinical leaders are demanding action against these attacks on a sacred Jewish site.”

The 3,000 year-old Mount of Olives (Har HaZeitim) cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world. It includes the gravesites of the biblical prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi; numerous Talmudic and medieval rabbinical sages; the first Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, and contemporary Jewish leaders such as Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold. The Mount of Olives is situated in a part of Jerusalem that Israel liberated in the 1967 war.

In addition to the chief rabbi of Israel, the signatories hail from throughout the United States, as well as France, Australia, and Canada.

The petition also expresses solidarity with the upcoming May 11 public meeting in Brooklyn on this issue, co-hosted by Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Menachem Lubinsky, leader of the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim [www.harhazeisim.org]. Speakers at the meeting will include Chief Rabbi Lau, Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, the Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, and many other important rabbinical leaders.

The petition was initiated by RZA board members Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn (who also head the Religious Zionists of America’s Philadelphia chapter), together with Rabbi Dov Fischer, Esq., spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Orange County in California.

The full petition:

A STATEMENT OF CONCERN ABOUT ATTACKS
ON JERUSALEM’S MOUNT OF OLIVES CEMETERY

We are deeply troubled by recent news reports that Arab extremists have been desecrating Jewish gravestones on the Mount of Olives (Har HaZeitim) in Jerusalem and attacking Jewish visitors to the site, which is the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world.

We are encouraged that this urgent issue will be addressed at the May 11 public meeting in Brooklyn, co-hosted by Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Menachem Lubinsky, leader of the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim.

We send warmest greetings to our rabbinical colleagues, Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff and Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, who will speak at the event.

We call on the Jewish community to press for immediate action by the appropriate authorities to safeguard this holy Jewish site and preserve the integrity of undivided Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital.

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Preceding provided by the Religious Zionists of America