Zionism, after all, was initially a secular, socialist movement founded by the journalist Theodor Herzl; it explicitly rejected the passivity of religious Judaism. Orthodox Jews believed that exile was a punishment from God for their insufficient faith and that only God could end the exile and bring the Jews back to the Holy Land. According to this theology, to try to force the end of exile is both futile and sinful. Zionism traded the metaphysical for the material, attributing Jewish oppression to a lack of political and military power and claiming that the Jews could save themselves.

At the core of Orthodox anti-Zionism is an acceptance of suffering. Weiss explains: "Jewish people have gone through tremendous suffering through the years in exile, and there have been times when people have asked the rabbis, 'Do we have a right to try to leave exile? Do we have a right to form our own countries and take up arms against the nations?' This has been questioned through the generations, and the rabbinical authorities always came back to stating that the exile is from God and there is no way to fight the hand of God." He compares Jewish travails to "bitter medicine" meant to show the Jews where they've transgressed.

This once common view withered after the Holocaust, which created a psychic break in religious Judaism. Only the most single-minded could cleave tightly enough to the old doctrine to accept the slaughter of 6 million as God's chastisement. In the wake of World War II, "just sort of continuing on with the old theology is pretty hard to do," says Biale.

That's not to say that Zionism won religious legitimacy overnight or that that legitimacy is universal. Officially, Hassidic theology hasn't changed. Although members of Neturei Karta admit they're a minority in Monsey, most other residents are anti-Zionist to lesser degrees. Last July, when Netanyahu was invited to Monsey to speak, rabbis from 12 local synagogues and rabbinical schools signed a letter saying, "We were astonished to learn that one of the leaders of the Zionist State of Israel was invited to attend a party in our community, and gave a speech there. This entity, which our rabbis have taught us is in opposition to our Torah, and which uproots our religion under the banner of nationalism, is the source of mischief, and is the root cause of all types of suffering experienced by our brethren in the Holy Land, exactly as predicted by our ancient prophets and by our rabbis."

Despite doctrinal anti-Zionism, though, most individual ultra-Orthodox Jews have reached an accommodation with the Jewish state. Even the Satmars, under the leadership of Joel Teitelbaum's nephew Moshe Teitelbaum, have become far less belligerent toward Israel. "The bulk of the ultra-Orthodox community never accepted Zionism in an intellectual sense and still consider themselves non-Zionist," says Goldberg. "But within the ultra-Orthodox community, an overwhelming majority have come to accept Israel as a practical matter." He says they've even come to love it.

Indeed, a kind of cognitive dissonance prevails, with many orthodox Jews deeply attached to Israel even as their rabbis continue to oppose it spiritually. "At the emotional level, the ultra-Orthodox community has been Zionized, even if their leadership hasn't caught up," says Goldberg.

This has left Neturei Karta increasingly marginalized. "They've become a very minor force," Goldberg says. Still, he adds, "they've got some support at the rabbinical level because in a sense they do express a pure ideology of Satmar Hassidism."

Isolation has only increased Neturei Karta's desperate sense of itself as the embattled defender of uncorrupted Judaism. Says Sofer: "A time will come when evil plots will fall apart, and it should be written in history that within this chaos, there were Jews loyal to their faith and to their tradition, and loyal to humanity and justice, and they spoke openly against the mainstream, even though they were labeled self-hating Jews and accused of collaborating with terrorists. We are collaborating with faith, justice and humanity."

Cut off from mainstream Judaism, Neturei Karta has found an ally in the pro-Palestinian movement. The rabbis have had a relationship with the Palestinians for decades -- a member of Neturei Karta, Rabbi Moshe Hirsh, even serves as the official Jewish representative in the Palestinian Authority. In the past few years, as Palestinians and their supporters have become increasingly vocal in the West, Neturei Karta's profile has risen.

"Until now, the Palestinians didn't make any demonstrations," says Weiss. "We would make demonstrations that didn't get covered. When we go together with Palestinians, that may be why it gets covered a lot more. Lately Muslims are getting together more and growing in their power. When they started demonstrating, we went with them."

Initially, the association was one of convenience, based on a mutual antipathy for Israel. As they've grown closer to the Palestinians, though, the rabbis also have developed an intense sympathy for the suffering in the West Bank and Gaza. "Three or four generations already are growing up in this squalor," says Weiss. "If you're going to subjugate a people, sit on top of them for over 50 years, it's just a powder keg waiting to explode."

A human rights critique has thus blended with Neturei Karta's theological opposition to Israel. "It's against God to be non-compassionate," Weiss says. "It says in the Torah you have to emulate God. Just like he's compassionate, you must be compassionate. All the actions that the Zionists are doing, the oppression of the people, all in the name of Judaism, it's false."

Not surprisingly, the Palestinians are happy to support this version of Judaism. After all, the rabbis endorse the most radical of Palestinian demands while seeming to neutralize charges of anti-Semitism. Neturei Karta Rabbi Ahron Cohen was invited to Birmingham University on Feb. 26 by the school's Palestinian Society. He told the crowd of 120, "According to the Torah and Jewish faith, the present Palestinian Arab claim to rule in Palestine is right and just. The Zionist claim is wrong and criminal. Our attitude to Israel is that the whole concept is flawed and illegitimate  The Zionist state known as 'Israel' is a regime that has no right to exist. Its continuing existence is the underlying cause of the strife in Palestine."

Such attitudes, articulated by non-Jews, are often considered anti-Semitic. The Jews of Neturei Karta provide Israel's most vociferous critics with an easy rebuke to those who would challenge their obsessive and singular focus on Israeli human rights abuses. An article in Counterpunch uses Neturei Karta to slam those who accuse the Workers World Party and its front group, ANSWER, of anti-Semitism, saying, "Ask NK [Neturei Karta] if the WWP [Workers World Party] is anti-Semitic and they'll laugh in your face."

To many mainstream Jews, the embrace of these rabbis by Arabs and the anti-Zionist left is meaningless as an expression of tolerance. "People love to find Jews who agree with them, especially Jews who look like legitimate representatives of the Jewish people," says Goldberg. "But the idea that you invite [Neturei Karta] in and therefore you've somehow made an alliance with an element of Judaism  they don't represent much of anything. They don't even represent the Satmars anymore."

Yet Neturei Karta, buoyed by the antiwar movement, remains convinced that it can show the world that peace is possible between Jews and Arabs. Sofer says that at protests the rabbis have attended, Arabs have chanted, "Judaism yes, Zionism no."

"It's a direct outcome of our participation," he says proudly. "Our message is getting stronger and stronger."

Recent Stories