AGUDAS YISRAEL: the beginning
(Agudat Yisra’el; Aguda[h]; Union of Israel) is a political movement of Orthodox Jewry, founded at a conference in Kattowitz (Upper Silesia; today Katowice, Poland) in May 1912. Subsequently, branches of the movement were established in most countries of Western and Eastern Europe, as well as in the United States and pre-state Israel. It was in interwar Eastern Europe, though, that Agudas Yisroel reached the pinnacle of its political achievement and institutional development. Hasidic rebbes in Poland and yeshiva heads in Lithuania legitimized the movement religiously, and their followers formed the bulk of its constituency.
Members of a hakhsharah (training farm that prepared young Jews for settlement in Palestine) affiliated with Agudas Yisroel, Mosty Wielkie, Poland (now Velikiye Mosty, Ukr.), 1930s. The Hebrew sign reads: “Kibbutz Hakhsharah of Agudas Yisroel in Poland, named after Maharam of Lublin [Rabbi Me’ir ben Gedalyah], Mosty Wielkie.” (YIVO)
WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS MOVEMENT TO SETTLE IN ISRAEL? WHY IS IT NOT STILL PART OF THE AGUDAH AGENDA?
TODAY THEY ARE ENTRENCHED IN GOLUS AMERICA
Theme: Forward Moving into the Future
SESSION: ANTI-SEMITISM REARS ITS UGLY HEAD... AGAIN: HALACHIC AND HASHKAFIC PERSPECTIVE
Some prophetic comments from the Opening Segment of this Session (Program):
(these are pulled from the speakers comments, because they reflect “Today’s World”)
“Too many people trying to claim ‘Victim’”
“Sensationalize Improprieties: Racism, Sexism, and even Antisemitism”
“Perhaps things are being exaggerated”
“Victimization is being weaponized …”
“Oftentimes the World wasn’t even aware of what was going on [before/during the War]”
“Antisemitism is Alive and Well r”l Very Real in Europe and in America.
To this I wish to express that we are hearing the same attitudes that were voiced before WWII. Pittsburgh was the “shot heard round the world”, and now we have violence and attacks constantly in the news. “We Don’t Want You Here!” shouted at Jews. Is anyone listening? Do you hear the voices from Shamayim, warning? This happens at the end of each Golus as it winds down. We are now in our last Golus. Do the Jews in America really want it to end like the others? Why aren’t more Jews waking up and making plans? Why wait for the attempt at Rescue? Bring your possessions with you now, before you will have to leave them behind.
Each Golus has the same pattern: From expulsion to rescue, settlement, prosperity, tragedy and finally dispersal and expulsion. Wikipedia and the Jewish Diaspora.
SESSION: ARE WE SUFFERING FROM A CONNECTION TO HASHEM DEFICIT?
Speaker: "Emunah is the basis and foundation of Yiddishkeit” (Program)
I will do my best to explain the following,
to address the gravity of the above topic:
To this I wish to recommend listening to Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi ybl’c who speaks from a Seminar held with the religious community in Boro Park/Monsey. He speaks about Yidden expressing a “fracture in their connection to Hashem”, a “confusion of basic understanding in Rambam’s 13 Ikkarim. Listen The Coming Hard Times
In his Shiurim, the Rabbi has spoken about frum children who are distancing themselves from their parents, family, community, out of desperation because they feel and think they no longer connect to yiddishkeit. chv”s Rabbi Mizrachi eloquently explains how these frum children are growing up with questions, and they are dismissed (to put it mildly) by their parents and instructors, which leads to frustration, doubt and disconnect.
Rabbi Mizrachi says this is the complete opposite of what they should to tole; these children are intelligent and bright thinking; they want to know more, more deeply, in order to increase their attachment to Hashem. Telling them that “that's what my father did, and what his father did, this is what we do” is not the proper approach for the children of this generation. Rabbi Mizrachi says so much more on this topic that is superbly relevant and ‘emesdig’ of the highest spirituality.
The 2018 Agudah Theme is actually Prophecy; its time to truly move into the future: The future is Eretz Yisrael.
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