Satmar Chassidim Picket the White House, 1958
Satmar chassidim in black hats walk a picket line in front of the White House.
About 38 seconds, silent. Washington, 19 June 1958. Atlanta’s WSB-TV newsfilm, Walter J. Brown Media Archives, University of Georgia.
Satmar chassidim walk the sidewalk across from the White House, holding signs. One reads “Unheard Brutality of Israeli Zionist Police against peaceful demonstrators.” Another says Jerusalem Jews are jailed for religious reasons. A third is to Ambassador Abba Eban: how long will he stand by while religious Jews in his country are tortured, jailed, and persecuted. A policeman walks with them.
It is 19 June 1958 / 1 Tamuz 5718, Rosh Chodesh. They came from New York. In Jerusalem a pool was being built where men and women would swim together. In April, police stopped a march that had started at the Satmar shul.
Rabbi Meir Amsel wrote about it that month in HaMaor, a Brooklyn Torah magazine. The mayor had approved the pool. Asking and protesting had not changed his mind. Some of the Jews went to Washington.
חלק מהיהודים התקדמו עד לפני שערי הממשלה בוושינגטון.
“Some of the Jews got as far as the government gates in Washington.”
Rabbi Amsel wrote of about fifty men in jail, and about 150 wives and children with no one to support them. He said the coverage was stirring up hatred against the demonstrators.
The day before, Tel Aviv’s daily Davar had announced the protest. On 22 June, Tel Aviv’s evening paper Maariv reported that the White House would not get involved.
The film and what followed
Mizrachi and the Rabbinical Council of America came out against the picket. On 2 July, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim wrote to the Satmar Rebbe, Reb Yoel Teitelbaum, that bringing non-Jews into a Jewish fight had gone too far. The pool opened at the end of July. On 1 August in Mea Shearim, Rabbi M. Epstein put the pool, its owners, and the swimmers in cherem. A sefer Torah wrapped in black was carried while he read it.
Timeline
- 18 April 1958
- A march against the Jerusalem pool leaves the Satmar shul. Police stop it and arrest people.
- 18 June 1958
- Tel Aviv’s daily Davar announces a pool protest in front of the White House.
- 19 June 1958 / 1 Tamuz 5718
- Rosh Chodesh. Satmar chassidim picket the White House.
- 22 June 1958
- Maariv reports that the White House would not get involved.
- Tammuz 5718
- Rabbi Meir Amsel, in HaMaor, writes that some of the Jews reached the government gates in Washington.
- 2 July 1958
- Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim writes to the Satmar Rebbe, Reb Yoel Teitelbaum, that bringing non-Jews into the fight had gone too far.
- 1 August 1958
- In Mea Shearim, Rabbi M. Epstein puts the pool in cherem. A sefer Torah wrapped in black is carried.