Shalom Dov Wolpo

Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo, also Sholom Ber Wolpe,^[1] (Hebrew: שלום דוב וולפא, born 1948) is a rabbi and an Israeli political activist. Wolpo is the author of more than forty books.

He has become associated in recent years with right-wing political causes, and has set up a campaign group—

Chabad messianism

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Chabad (Rebbes and Chasidim)
Rebbes of Chabad Shneur Zalman of Liadi (Alter Rebbe) Dovber Schneuri (Mitteler Rebbe) Menachem M. Schneersohn (Tzemach Tzedek) Shmuel Schneersohn (Rebbe Maharash) Sholom Dovber Schneersohn (Rebbe Rashab) Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (Rebbe Rayatz) Menachem M. Schneerson (the Rebbe)
Schneersohn family Chaim S. Z. of Liadi (1814–1880) Yitzchak Dovber of Liadi (1833–1910) Chana Schneerson (1880–1964) Chaya M. Schneersohn (d. 1860) Chaya M. Schneerson (1901–1988) Levi Y. Schneerson (1878–1944) Moshe Schneersohn (ca. 1784–before 1853) Sheina Horenstein (d. 1942) Shlomo Zalman Schneersohn (1830–1900) Shmaryahu Noah Schneersohn (1842–1924) Yehuda Leib Schneersohn (1808–1866)
Rabbonim Avraham Osdoba Chaim Gutnick Avraham Chaim Naeh Meir Ashkenazi Mordechai Ashkenazi Mordechai Gutnick Moshe Gutnick Pinhas Hirschprung Shneur Z. Fradkin Yaakov Schwei Yehuda K. Marlow Abraham Hecht Yitzchak Hendel Yosef Heller Yosef Y. Braun Zalman Dworkin Zelig Sharfstein Shmuel L. Medalia Shmarya Y. L. Medalia Sholom Rivkin
Mashpiim and scholars Aaron of Staroselye Herman Branover Yehuda Chitrik Manis Friedman Mendel Futerfas Yitzchak Ginsburgh Menachem Z. Greenglass Moshe Gutnick Moshe Havlin Zalman M. HaYitzchaki Aizel Homiler Simon Jacobson Yisroel Jacobson Yosef Y. Jacobson Yoel Kahn Abraham Y. Khein Yehoshua Mondshine Avraham C. Naeh Nissan Neminov Hillel Paritcher Ezra Schochet Adin Steinsaltz Shais Taub Shlomo Y. Zevin
Mazkirus and other leaders Leib Groner Jacob J. Hecht Chaim M. A. Hodakov Yehuda Krinsky Nissan Mindel Dovid Raskin Abraham Shemtov
Shluchim Menachem Brod Azriel Chaikin Shlomo Cunin Pinchus Feldman Gershon Garelik Yitzchok D. Groner Hanoch Hecht Gavriel Holtzberg Berel Lazar Shimon Lazaroff Chezki Lifshitz David Masinter Zalman I. Posner Menachem S. D. Raichik Aaron Raskin Arie Z. Raskin Shlomo Sawilowsky Mordechai Scheiner Abraham Shemtov Levi Shemtov Yehudah Teichtal Simcha Weinstein Manis Friedman
Other notable figures Shmuley Boteach Avraham Fried Benny Friedman Aharon Gurevich Joseph Gutnick Moshe Hecht Shea Hecht Bernard Levy Hendel Lieberman Michoel Muchnik Mendy Pellin Zvi Yair
Controversies Chabad messianism Chabad offshoot groups Barry Gurary Public menorah The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference
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Wolpo is one of the leaders of the group of Chabad Chasidim believing that the late

Following the disengagement, he published a book entitled "Between Light and Dark", in which he shows that Rabbi Schneerson was right about rejecting Zionism and the claim of religious Zionists that the founding of the State is the "beginning of the redemption".[11]

SOS Israel

He is the founder of the organization Ha'Matteh L'Hatzolat Ha'Am V'Ha'Aretz—SOS Israel—a militant^[12] Israeli Jewish political movement opposed to any agreement leading to land concessions to the Palestinians.^[13]

Another campaign run by his organization, under the slogan "There is Judgement, and there is a Judge" (referring to God), has generated considerable controversy in the Israeli press in March 2007.

On 11 November 2008, Wolpo founded a new party, Eretz Yisrael Shelanu. The party allied itself with the Jewish National Front, and ran in the 2009 Knesset elections as part of the National Union alliance. Eretz Yisrael Shelanu took one of the party's four seats, taken by Michael Ben-Ari.

Textbooks

In a

In February 2007, Wolpo appealed a decision that a political campaign under the slogan "If anyone comes to remove me from my home, I will chop off their hands" amounted to incitement to violence, since retired Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin vowed to defend the Supreme Court, which he said was dear to him, with all his strength, saying, "If someone raises a hand against my house, I will cut it off", and he wasn't accused of anything. The slogan was meant to protest the removal of Jewish settlers from their West Bank homes.[21]

Hananel Dayan

Wolpo arranged an elaborate award ceremony for Sergeant Hananel Dayan (son of Yosef Dayan), who was disciplined for refusing to shake the hand of Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz. The soldier was protesting the forced eviction of his grandparents from their Gaza home in 2005.^[22]

Rabbi David Druckman

In 2006, Wolpo defended Rabbi David Drukman, chief rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin, over charges that he had abused his position as a state employee to incite violence. Wolpo said: "Rabbi Drukman will go down in history as someone who stood up to a vile government fearlessly."^[23]

Second Lebanon War

During the 2006

In 2006, offered a free copy of one of his book "From Light to Darkness" to anyone that pledged to refrain from celebrating Independence Day.[25]

In 2007, he told a conference in Jerusalem that "the remedy for the disengagement is to understand that the State of Israel is a terrible thing. We should not bless or praise the state that was founded by criminals and heretics like

In December 2007, Wolpo stated that his followers will secede from Israel if the Israeli government withdraws from the West Bank.^[27] It is unclear which part of Israel Wolpo and his followers would claim, or how they would achieve autonomous status.

Wolpo, addressing a demonstration against the Olmert government's peace moves with the Palestinian Authority, said that the prime minister, Vice Premier Chaim Ramon, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak would be "hung from the gallows", were Israel run properly.

"The terrible traitor, Ehud Olmert, who gives these Nazis weapons, who gives money, who frees their murderous terrorists, this man, like Ariel Sharon, collaborates with the Nazis", Wolpo said in the speech.

Yoel Hasson, a lawmaker with Olmert's Kadima party, said he would ask Israel's attorney general to take legal steps against Wolpo. The U.S.-based Orthodox Union issued a statement condemning the remarks.^[28]

Rabbi Wolpo said that the comments he made at the conference were twisted and taken out of context. In calling for the execution of state leaders by legal means, he was not calling for vigilante violence, he explained, but rather calling on the police to implement the law. Rabbi Wolpo wrote that he believes violence against a fellow Jew is unacceptable, but that law enforcement has the right and responsibility to enforce the law.

One of Israel's laws prohibits providing assistance to Nazis, he explained, and Muslim terrorist groups are the Nazis of our day. If the government provides terrorists with aid, he reasoned, then the government has violated the law, and its members must suffer the consequences, which can include the death penalty.

Rabbi Wolpo emphasized that he was calling for any such punishments to be carried out in a legal manner.^[29]

References