 | |
| Founded | 1922 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Rabbi Eliezer Silver |
| Headquarters | New York City ,United States |
Areas served | North America |
Key people |
|
| Revenue | 11,422,304 United States dollar (2017)  |
| Total assets | 26,166,707 United States dollar (2021) |
Number of employees | 345[1] (2016) |
| Website | agudah |
Agudath Israel of America (Hebrew:אגודת ישראל באמריקה; also called theAgudah) is an American organization that representsHaredi Orthodox Jews.[2][3] It is loosely affiliated with the internationalWorld Agudath Israel.[4][5] Agudah seeks to meet the needs of the Haredi community, advocates[6] for its religious[7] and civil rights, and services its constituents through charitable, educational, and social service projects acrossNorth America.
Agudah serves as a leadership and policyumbrella organization forHaredi Jews in the United States, representing the vast majority of members of theyeshiva world, sometimes known by the old label ofmisnagdim, as well as a large number of Hasidic groups. However, not all Hasidic groups are affiliated with Agudath Israel. For example, the Hasidic groupSatmar, which is vehementlyanti-Zionist, dislikes Agudah's relatively moderate stance towards the State ofIsrael.[8][9]
Agudah has ideological connections with bothAgudat Israel and withDegel HaTorah (Flag of the Torah), twoIsraeli Haredi political parties that have representation in theKnesset (Israel's parliament). In Israel, Degel and Agudah are in a political coalition calledUnited Torah Judaism (UTJ).[10]
The originalAgudath Israel movement was established[11][9] in Europe in 1912 by some of the most famousOrthodoxrabbis of the time, including RabbiYisroel Meir Kagen (theChafetz Chaim), RabbiChaim Ozer Grodzinski ofVilna, theRadziner Rebbe, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Elazar Leiner, theGerrer Rebbe (the Imrei Emes), and theChortkover Rebbe. It grew during the 1920s and 1930s to be the political,[12][13][14] communal, and cultural voice of those Orthodox Jews who were not part ofZionism's Orthodox JewishMizrachi party.[15]
RabbiEliezer Silver, an Eastern European-trained rabbi, established the first office of Agudath Israel in America during the 1930s, organizing its first conference in 1939. Some of the early rabbinic leaders of the organization includedRabbi Mordechai Shlomo Friedman,Rabbi Shlomo Heiman, Rabbi Leo Jung,[16] Rabbi Herbert Goldstein, Rabbi Joshua Bäumel, andRabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik. Afterthe Holocaust, some prominent rabbis who made their home in America established amoetzes ("supreme council") known as theMoetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and the movement began to grow rapidly, with the rise of theyeshiva-based and Hasidic Orthodox communities.[citation needed]
Mike Tress led the expansion of the movement during the early 1940s as its chief lay leader, until his death in 1967.[17] His cousin RabbiMoshe Sherer then took the reins as president,[18][19][20] and the organization flourished further in size and accomplishments. After his passing in May 1998,[18] he was succeeded by Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, as Executive Vice President. In 2008, RabbiChaim Dovid Zwiebel, having served Agudah as general counsel and director of government affairs,[21] took over as Executive Vice-President.[22][23] In 2016, his salary was $220,000.[1]
In April 2020, Agudath Israel of America head RabbiYaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, 89 years old, died after contractingCOVID-19, one month after he urged American Orthodox Jews to followsocial distancing and other precautionary guidelines in response to thecoronavirus outbreak, saying: "We cannot behave the way we did last week or two weeks ago. We're told that thehalakha (Jewish law) is that we must listen to doctors, whether it's about a sick person orYom Kippur".[24][25][26]
Agudah's policies and leadership are directed by itsMoetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages), composed primarily ofrosh yeshivas (the chief spiritual and scholarly authority in ayeshiva) and Hasidicrebbes (who head Hasidic dynasties and organizations). TheMoetzes sets all major policies and guides the organization according to its precepts ofDa'as torah (Hebrew:דעת תורה), generally translated as Torah knowledge/direction.[27] RabbiYaakov Perlow (deceased), who was theNovominskerRebbe and a member of theMoetzes, was appointed as theRosh Agudat Yisrael ("Head of Agudath Israel").[28]
The executive staff includes Rabbi Yitzchok Ehrman as COO,[29] Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel as the Executive Vice President, Rabbi Labish Becker as the Executive Director,[30] Rabbi Naftali Miller as CDO, Rabbi Moshe Danzger as CFO, Rabbi A.D. Motzen as the National Director for State Relations, and RabbiAbba Cohen as Vice President for Government Affairs.
There are close to one hundred Agudah-affiliatedsynagogues across the United States and Canada.[9]
The Agudah takes positions on many political, religious, and social issues, primarily guided by itsMoetzes Gedolei HaTorah. It uses these stances to advise its members, advocate for its constituency in the halls of government, and fileamicus briefs on behalf of the Haredi Orthodox Jewish community in the United States.
In 1956, for example, themoetzes issued a written ruling forbidding Orthodox rabbis to join with anyReform orConservative rabbis in rabbinical communal professional organizations that then united the various branches of America's Jews, such as theSynagogue Council of America.
This position was not endorsed by theModern Orthodox. RabbiJoseph Soloveitchik ofYeshiva University had initially aligned himself with Agudah, but later established his independent views on these matters and a host of other issues, such as attitudes towards college education and attitudes towards the secular-led Israeli governments. Rabbi Soloveitchik believed it important to nurture the more modern OrthodoxRabbinical Council of America (RCA).
In 2015 and 2017, Agudah denounced moves toordain women.[31] It went even further, declaringYeshivat Maharat,Open Orthodoxy,Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and other affiliated entities to be similar to other dissident movements throughout Jewish history in having rejected basic tenets of Judaism.[32][33][34] Avi Shafran, director of public affairs, wrote: "... women ... assuming positions of public leadership is ... antithetical to the concept oftzniut (modesty)."[35] Agudah forbade ordained Orthodox female clergy from being hired to lead congregations.[36] Dr. Noam Stadlan, a board member of theJewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, wrote: "On this issue, the Agudah is irrelevant to Modern Orthodoxy in the same waySatmar orNeturei Karta views are irrelevant on issues of Zionism."[37]
In 2019, commenting on abortion, Agudath Israel said: "Jewish tradition teaches that a human fetus has status and dignity, and that abortion is prohibited in the vast majority of pregnancies", with certain exceptions in which it is permitted and in others where it is required.[3] Other Orthodox New York rabbis offered opposing positions.[2]
Also in 2019, Agudathlobbied against a New Jersey bill that would have ended a policy allowing New Jersey parents to notimmunize their children—because of religious beliefs, but to still enroll them in school.[38] The bill included an exemption forprivate schools.[38] In the 2018-2019 school year, religious exemptions in New Jersey had grown to 2.6%.[39] Doctors and public health experts had said the bill was urgently needed to prevent the level ofmeasles outbreak that spread across the region in 2018 (the largest outbreak in three decades in the area emphasized that there is overwhelming scientific consensus thatvaccines are safe and effective.[39][40]
While Agudath was created as a bulwark to fight againstZionism, the Rabbinic leadership of Agudath did permit "with great reluctance"[41] participation in the government after the Israeli state was established in 1948.[42] The reason given was that "the parliament is not an ideological organization; its purpose is to perform the mundane task of running the everyday life of the citizens of the country. It was against our will that this parliament was formed, and it has the power to interfere with inyanei hadas [religious matters] and to prevent the religious community from living a life of Torah. Thus, we were forced to send representatives there to fight for our survival."[41] Agudah takes stances on issues affecting the Haredi sector in Israel; in contradistinction to the more stridentlyanti-Zionist Haredi communal organizations.[43]
Aside from its national branch in Manhattan, Agudah has active branches in the regions of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Missouri, New England, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Quebec, and Washington, D.C. The regional director of each branch lobbies the judicial and legislative branches of their state and local governments on any issue deemed morally or religiously important to their constituency (for example,abortion,physician-assisted suicide,same-sex marriage,school vouchers/school choice).[citation needed] Agudah's advocacy in New York state is led byRabbi Yeruchim Silber, Director of New York Government Affairs.
Agudath Israel's federal activities are coordinated by Rabbi Abba Cohen, the Director and Counsel of the organization's Washington, D.C. office. Agudah was the first Orthodox Jewish group to open an office in Washington, in 1988, and maintains ongoing relations with the White House and executive agencies, as well as with the U.S. Congress, on various domestic and foreign issues.[44][45] Agudath Israel World Organization also has a representative at theUnited Nations.[46]
Agudah filesamicus briefs in cases at all levels of the judiciary, often signing on as one of the organization signatories to a brief authored byNat Lewin or theNational Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs.
In 2023, Agudah'sNew Jersey state directorAvi Schnall was elected as a Democrat to theNew Jersey General Assembly from the otherwise solidly Republican30th District, in what political commentators called a "massive demonstration" of the Orthodox community's political power.[47]
Official spokesman[48][49] Rabbi Avi Shafran denied claims byThe Jewish Week that Aguda "is opposed to both the mandated reporting and fingerprinting, andbackground check legislation" then under consideration,[50] and cited a memorandum from 2 years prior[51] expressing strong support for the legislation. The difference is Aguda's 2006 support was for legislation that passed in 2007 permitting but not mandating fingerprinting/background checking.[52]
Agudah maintains a network of summer youth camps (including Camp Agudah, Machane Ephraim, Camp Bnos, Camp Chayl Miriam, and Camp Bnoseinu inthe Catskills in New York, as well as camps in the Midwest and California).
Sometimes referred to as "Pirchei / Zeirei",[53] this was part of the work by Mike Tress.[54]
"JEP" (Jewish Education Program) is known for itsrelease hour work, and was identified by Harav Yaakov Perlow as "the JEP operation of Zeirei Agudath Israel" in a 1977 interview, in which he spoke about "to take off a seder from yeshiva and go out and speak at a release hour at a public school."[55]
Agudah has a number of social service branches that cater to the elderly, poor, or disabled. It has a job training program called COPE, a job placement division, and a housing program. The Agudah is responsible for the founding of other national institutions and projects, including theBeis Yaakov girls' school system, and the nationalDaf Yomi Commission.[citation needed]
Agudah advocates its positions in several ways:
... Tress, the legendary Agudah leader who would transform Zeirei Agudath Israel ...
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