                     To Save One Jewish Life
                         June 10, 1991
                      by Gershon ben Shabtai

       "To save one Jewish life," our sages tell us, "is as if you saved the entire world." 
What extremes is a Jew permitted, nay required, to go in order to save a Jewish life which is in
danger?
If the danger takes place on Shabbat, and we would have to violate that most holy of days in
order to affect a rescue, then it is a requirement to violate our holiest of days to save a Jewish
life.
       One of Rabbi Kahane's bitterest complaints against his people was the genuine lack
of interest displayed during the bleakest era of Jewish history, the holocaust.  What did Jews
do for Jews when millions of lives hung in the balance?  How was it conceivable that a ship
with nine hundred Jews who had escaped from Germany was docked in Cuba, yet refused
asylum by that country and by the United States while Jews sunned themselves at nearby
Miami Beach?
       In our generation we saw Rabbis and Jewish freedom riders get beaten and hanged
for the rights of blacks to sit in the front of a bus in Alabama, yet who remembers hearing of
one Jew getting arrested in protest against the American policy not to bomb the railway lines
to Aushwitz?
       Rabbi Kahane channeled his anger, frustration, and disappointment with the
generation of the holocaust, by mounting a personal war against the Soviet Union to release
her Jews.  He became a legend in his own time by restoring the ancient image of a proud Jew. 
The world was stunned to see an orthodox rabbi going to jail for Soviet Jews, leading a
movement for Jewish self defense which called for Jews to fight back against anti-semites,
raising the cry "every Jew a twenty-two", and calling for violence against those who threaten
the lives of Jews.
       This lone rabbi became world famous for his "unorthodox" willingness to risk his
life and freedom to help his fellow Jew.  Yet this behavior is truly mandated by Jewish law.  It
was only because the two-thousand year exile found us Jews oppressed and downtrodden for
so long that we forgot how to stand up as proud Jews.  Rabbi Kahane gave us a refresher
course by personal example.
       In Israel too, he tried, desperately to instill Jewish pride and self respect in its
leadership.  Yet the fears which the exile made a part of our lives were not so easy to remove. 
Despite the very clear fact that Arabs are murdering Jews for ideological reasons and thus
must be removed from the state, Rabbi Kahane was attacked bitterly and even banned from
running for the Knesset simply for advocating that stance.  A Jewish court recently went so far
as to declare the right of a poet to call Rabbi Kahane a Nazi, and to fine his widow 7,500
shekels for having attempted to sue for libel!
       No, justice and Judaism are greatly lacking in the Jewish State.  Today we have
before us, once again, a very clear example of the duty of every Jew not to stand idly by his
neighbor's blood.
Yet, the Jewish State, in its fear of the gentile, is rushing to hand over a Jewish family to
hostile gentiles where they may very well perish!
       Robert and Rochelle Manning, who have been leading exemplary lives in Israel for
over ten years, and who have frequently returned to the United States since then, have been
arrested in Israel and imprisoned here since before Passover on an extradition request from
Secretary Baker.  On May 31, the judge in the Jerusalem district court ruled that the Mannings
must be extradited, despite the fact that the evidence against them is not conclusive; that
Rochelle already stood trial for the same charge for which no new evidence was introduced;
and that it is clear that Robert is a political prey wanted by the Arab American lobby.  
       The Mannings are good Jews who have committed no crimes.  But even had they
been guilty of a crime, it is the responsibility of the Jewish State to try and punish them here. 
Never should any Jew, guilty or not, be turned over to goyim.  Despite the insistence by
Justice Minister Dan Meridor that our extradition agreement includes a promise not to ask for
the death penalty, should they be found guilty, since when can we depend upon such
promises?  Aside from that, who can guarantee that the Mannings will ever reach a courtroom
alive?   Assassination has been developed into a fine art in the United States, not to mention
the  bestial treatment at the hands of anti-semitic FBI agents who have already threatened
Robert Manning.
       What may a Jew do in order to save a Jewish life?   What may he not do?!  The
lives of a Jewish couple and their two young daughters are in grave danger.  Were Israel truly
a Jewish State there would be no such thing as extradition.   But the tiny ghetto minds who
view our existence as dependent upon the whims of George Bush, rather than the miracles of
the Burning One, are willing to serve up the lives of two Jews rather than incur the displeasure
of the former even though they will guarantee the wrath of the latter.
       Every Jew, wherever he lives, has a stake in this enormous potential sin, which, if
perpetrated, will remain as a perpetual stain upon us all.  Stop whatever you are doing right
now and think how you can help.  If nothing else send a letter or telegram to the Ministry of
Justice in Jerusalem, and to the Prime Minister and demand that Justice Minister Meridor not
sign the extradition order.   That is not enough, but it is far better than doing nothing.  If you
are a big donor to Israel Bonds, threaten to stop giving if the Mannings are turned over to the
United States.  Be creative!  There is no limit to what is permitted when the life of a Jew, in
this case four Jews, is in danger.
       This is the kind of situation for which our sainted Rabbi Kahane, may G-d avenge
his blood, would have climbed the very rooftops and screamed out to his fellow Jews, "Do
something!  Do anything!  Do it now or tomorrow you will not be able to look at yourselves in
the mirror!"