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Neturei Karta

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Also known as Guardians of the City'

religious group of Haredi Judaeans

Key facts

Formation
1938 ; 88 years ago ( 1938 )
Founded at
Jerusalem , British Mandate for Palestine
Legal status
INGO
Purpose
Anti-Zionism
Headquarters
Jerusalem ( Mea Shearim )
Origins
World Agudath Israel
Region served
Worldwide
Products
HaChoma
Members
Thousands (March 2024)
Official language
Yiddish , Hebrew , English, Aramaic
Spokesman
Yisroel Dovid Weiss
Key people
Moshe Ber Beck (d. 2021)
Affiliations
Haredi Judaism
Website
nkusa .org

via Wikipedia infobox

~22 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Neturei Karta ( Aramaic: נָטוֹרֵי קַרְתָּא, romanized: Nāṭōrē Qartāʾ, lit. 'Guardians of the City') is a Jewish anti-Zionist organization that was founded in Jerusalem in 1938 and is primarily active in parts of Israel and the Western world. It was established by Haredi Jews originally affiliated with World Agudath Israel, which represented the most devout members of the Haredi community of the Old Yishuv. The organization's members, who adhere to stringent interpretations of Jewish religious law, are known for their religious conservatism and insular lifestyles. Neturei Karta's international political activism is rooted in its opposition to Israel's existence, which, in turn, is rooted in its members' core religious belief that the Jewish exile is to be maintained until the coming of the Messiah.

Initially, World Agudath Israel largely disagreed with the secular orientation of political Zionism, believing that it did not place enough importance on Judaism and thus constituted a threat to Haredi communities globally. However, it eventually reneged to reach an understanding with Zionist aspirations in light of World War II and the Holocaust. The founders of Neturei Karta, Amram Blau and Aharon Katzenelbogen, disagreed with the Aguda's accommodationist stance and broke off from the movement.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Neturei Karta” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.