Rabbi Zorach Warhaftig, Rescuer of Polish Jews -- Rest in Peace

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Subject: Rabbi Zorach Warhaftig, Rescuer of Polish Jews

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died September 26

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Date Posted: October 07, 2002 10:19:43 EDT

Zorach Warhaftig, a rabbi from Byelorussia who persuaded a Japanese diplomat to defy his government's orders and help save several thousand Jews during World War II, died on Sept. 26 in Jerusalem. He was 96.

Rabbi Warhaftig also became one of the 37 people who signed Israel's Declaration of Independence. With British rule in Palestine due to end at midnight on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion invited the members of the provisional Israeli parliament to sign the Declaration of Independence at 4 p.m. at his headquarters in Tel Aviv.

But Rabbi Warhaftig and nine other members of the parliament, who made up what was called the People's Council, were marooned in Jerusalem, cut off by the fighting already under way between Arabs and Jews. It was not until three weeks later that they were finally able to reach Tel Aviv. Rabbi Warhaftig recalled that Mr. Ben Gurion, by then the prime minister, handed him a pen with the curt order, "Sign it."

Zorach Warhaftig was born on Feb. 2, 1906, in Volkovysk, in Byelorussia. He studied at various religious schools and was ordained a rabbi. He then earned a doctorate in law from Warsaw University and practiced in Warsaw as a lawyer.

He was a delegate to the Zionist Congress from 1936 until the outbreak of World War II, when he escaped with his family from Warsaw the day before the German Army surrounded it. Moving to Kaunas, the second largest city in what was then the independent state of Lithuania, he set about encouraging the many Polish Jews studying there to emigrate to Palestine.

His fears that Lithuania could not keep out of the war and would eventually be captured by Germany increased when the Soviet Union annexed the country in June 1940. Germany invaded the next year.

At first Rabbi Warhaftig arranged for the Dutch consul to give Polish Jews visas for the Dutch Caribbean island of Cura�ao, and about 1,400 were issued before the Soviet authorities closed the consulate. Rabbi Warhaftig then asked the Japanese consul, Senpo Chinne Sugihara, to give them visas for Japan instead.

Mr. Sugihara cabled his government for instructions but received no reply. Even though Japan had been a military ally of Germany since 1936, on Aug. 11, 1940, Mr. Sugihara started issuing Japanese transit visas on his own authority, allowing Polish Jews to travel by way of the Soviet Union and Japan to Cura�ao and other destinations, including Palestine and the United States.

On Aug. 30, Mr. Sugihara received a cable from Tokyo telling him to stop issuing visas immediately, but he disobeyed the order and continued doing so until the end of the month, when the consulate was scheduled to close, giving visas to about 3,500 Jewish refugees in all.

In 1942, Rabbi Warhaftig moved to New York, where he sought to persuade Jews to emigrate to Israel. He was also elected to the executive board of the World Jewish Congress.

After the war he returned to Europe to search for Jewish children who had been hidden in monasteries or with Christian families, in order to bring them back to their original faith.

In early 1947, Rabbi Warhaftig moved to Palestine, which was still under British rule, settling in Jerusalem and becoming a member of the provisional Israeli parliament.

After Israel's independence, he was a member of the new Israeli Parliament, from 1949 to 1981, and in 1956 helped found the National Religious Party.

He was deputy minister of religious affairs from 1952 to 1962 and minister of religious affairs from 1962 to 1974.

He is survived by three sons and a daughter.

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