Thursday, February 17, 2011

Rebtzn Ruth Blau:No stranger to controversy


Jerusalem Post


 The son of Ruth Blau, one of the most colorful figures in Natorei Karta, breaks his silence after her death --

For some 40 years, Uriel Ben-David has lived in the shadow of notoriety while carefully guarding his privacy and that of his family, and stubbornly resisting all attempts by the media to interview him. Only after the death of his 80-year-old mother in January did Ben-David agree to lift the veil of silence.

His mother was Ruth Blau who became infamous worldwide in the early 1960s for her role in what become known as the "Yossele Affair." The story of Yossele Schuchmacher revolved around the kidnapping of the young son of Russian immigrants at the behest of his haredi grandfather, Nahman Shtarkes, who feared the boy's Communist-influenced parents would not provide the child with an adequate Jewish environment and education. It was Blau, at the behest of Shtarke's friend Rabbi Maisels, who spirited the six-year-old boy out of the country, dressed up as a little girl and traveling as her daughter on a false passport.

2 comments:

  1. Rav Blau was a tzadik yesod olam and Rebbetzin Blau was a tzadekes nistar.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for that! I couldn't stop reading it! What a remarkable woman.

    ReplyDelete

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