A prominent Chabad rabbi is seeking to clarify remarks in which he renounced “Western morality” and seemed to call on Israel to massacre Palestinian civilians.
“The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way,” wrote Rabbi Manis Friedman in the current issue of Moment magazine. “Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).”
Friedman’s comments were a response to the question “How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors?” The question was posed to rabbis of several denominations, and the Friedman response was identified as “Chabad.”
Subsequently he said that the comments were solely his own and not those of any movement or organization. Chabad-Lubavitch issued a statement June 3 saying “we vehemently disagree” with such sentiments.
A noted author, speaker and educator, Friedman is among the country’s most prominent Chabad rabbis. He has appeared on CNN, PBS and the BBC, and been the subject of articles in major national publications, according to his biography.
Friedman, who lives in St. Paul, Minn., said that his published comments were “misleading” and were meant to address not how Jews should treat their neighbors but how they should act in a time of war.
“I attempted to briefly address some of the ethical issues related to forcing the military to withhold fire from certain people and places, at the unbearable cost of widespread bloodshed (on both sides!) — when one’s own family and nation is mercilessly targeted from those very people and places!” Friedman wrote in a clarification issued through a Chabad spokesperson. “I apologize for any misunderstanding the words printed in my name created.”
In response, Moment editor Nadine Epstein said nothing was taken out of Friedman’s comments save for some quotation marks and a short paragraph that did not alter the meaning of the controversial passage. She also said that Friedman was asked the same question as all the other rabbis and that he was invited to elaborate further on the magazine’s blog.
“The question did not include a reference to ‘during a time of war,’” Epstein said.
Interpreted as a call on Israel to carry out massive killings of Palestinians, bloggers seized on the Moment article, with some seeing it as a confirmation of what they view as Chabad’s extremism.