Zvi Yehuda Kook
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Zvi Yehuda Kook (1891-1982) was a rabbi, leader of the Religious Zionist, Mizrachi movement in Israel, and the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mercaz haRav yeshiva. He was the son of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and named in honor of his father's mentor, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, a.k.a. the Netziv.[1][2]
His teachings are partially responsible for the modern religious settlement movement in the disputed territories. Many of his ideological followers in the Religious Zionist movement settled in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Under the leadership of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, with its centre in the yeshiva founded by his father, Jerusalem's Mercaz haRav thousands of modern young religious Jews campaigned actively against territorial compromise, and established numerous settlements throughout the West Bank. Many of these settlements, though originally founded illegally, were subsequently granted official recognition by the Israeli government, especially under right-wing governments.
[edit] Ideology
Prominent Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook was the leader of the settler movement, Gush Emunim. Their beliefs are based heavily on the teachings of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda's father, Rabbi Abraham Kook. The two rabbis taught that secular Zionists, through their conquests of Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael), had unwittingly brought about the beginning of the "messianic age", which would end in the coming of the Jewish messiah. Gush Emunim supporters believe that the coming of the Messiah can be hastened through Jewish settlement on land God has allotted to the Jewish people as outlined in the Hebrew Bible. Rav Kook wrote a letter shortly before his death throwing his support behind Rabbi Meir Kahane zt'l for Knesset.
[edit] References
- ^ Alan Dowty (1997). The Jewish State: A Century Later. University of CaliforniaPress. ISBN 0520229118.
- ^ David Weisburd (1985). Jewish Settler Violence: Deviance as Social Reaction. Penn State Press. ISBN 0271026731.
