מאיר דוד כהנא‎

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Hello Bishop Manchester. I would just like to ask you what is your opinion of Rabbi Meir David Kahane? - Ruben

Meir David Kahane (1 August 1932 – 5 November 1990) was an American-Israeli rabbi and ultra-Zionist figure who founded both the Jewish Defence League in the USA and Kach ("This is the Way!"), an Israeli political party. In 1984 he became a member of the Knesset when Kach gained one seat in parliamentary elections, but in 1988, Kach was declared a racist party by the Israeli government and was banned from the Knesset. In 1994, following the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre perpetrated by a Kahane follower, Kach was outlawed. Kahane was assassinated in a Manhattan hotel in 1990 after concluding a speech warning American Jews to emigrate to Israel before it was "too late." He believed the imminent threat of a "second Holocaust" loomed. Kahane did not support equal rights for all people irrespective of racial or religious origins and proposed a Jewish state "according to the description given in the Bible."

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Following Kahane's death, no charismatic leader emerged to replace him in the movement, and Kahane's ideology declined in popularity among Israelis. Two small Kahanist factions later emerged; one under the name of Kach and the other Kahane chai (literally "Kahane lives"). The U.S. State Department added Kach and Kahane Chai to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations. Providing funds or material support to these organisations is a crime in both Israel and the USA.

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My opinion of the late Rabbi Meir David Kahane is that his way is quite obviously not The Way and that violence should play no part in the aspirations of a leader who claims to be a representative of his people's religion. Kahane argued that observance of the Torah was the only reason to be Jewish, and that "democracy and Judaism are not the same thing." While I agree that mainstream religions are not remotely democratic and that multiculturalism is inherently wrong, I cannot ever condone the extremely violent path embarked upon by Kahane and his followers and, therefore, must express my opposition to what he stood for in both politics and religion.

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"Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

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— Matthew 26: 52

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