Leading rabbi from ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionist group, served as PA 'minister'.
By JONAH MANDELHirsch Arafat 311(photo credit: Archive)
Moshe Hirsch, a leading rabbi from the tiny ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist Natorei Karta group, died on Sunday in his home in the capital’s Mea She’arim neighborhood. He was 86.The New York native, who was the son-in-law of the Natorei Kartafounder Rabbi Aharon Katzenellenbogen and studied at the LakewoodYeshiva in New Jersey before moving to Jerusalem, never became anIsraeli citizen.Hirsch was famous for his ties with some of Israel’s enemies, mostfamously Yasser Arafat, who appointed the rabbi minister for Jewishaffairs in the Palestinian Authority’s government.PA President Mahmoud Abbas said he would send a representative toHirsch’s funeral, which took place on Sunday evening at the Mount ofOlives cemetery in Jerusalem. Army Radio reported that during thefuneral, right-wing activists confronted the Natorei Karta people,heckling them and their deceased leader. The activists were eventuallyremoved from the scene.
