Far-right Rabbi Zvi Thau’s newest book, On Dealing with Postmodernism and Breaking Free From Its Shackles, is a 90-page collection of lectures Thau gave students at the Har Hamor yeshiva, a traditional Jewish educational institute that he heads. The book includes several anti-LGBTQ statements and has incited pushback from three LGBTQ Israeli groups. The Association For LGBTQ Equality in Israel (The Aguda), Havruta, and Bat Kol (two LGBTQ Jewish organizations) have filed police complaints against the rabbi for inciting violence against the LGBTQ community. According to Haaretz, Thau’s book describes the LGBTQ community as a “crime against humanity” and “a new culture of eliminating the family.”
“The blurring of the sexual identity of the child until he does not know whether he is a boy or a girl undermines his more elementary confidence in his identity, and hence the path to eliminating his Jewish identity is short, and since he is not sure of his national identity, he loses the power to stand against the national narrative, the power to protect the people, the faith in fulfilling the promises of the prophets, and desires a state that is nothing more than a mixed multitude,” Thau writes.
Meanwhile, The Aguda, a national grassroots, non-profit human rights organization states “We have filed a complaint with the police against Rabbi Zvi Thau for incitement to violence. It’s impossible to ignore a savage and extreme incitement written in black and white with the aim of harming LGBT people. The masks have fallen. This is just the beginning, and we will use all the legal tools at our disposal,” on August 7 via a statement on Instagram.
The Aguda and Thau have come head to head before. In 2022, Aguda called for a criminal investigation against the Noam party (a conservative, zionist, anti-LGBT political party based on the rabbi’s teachings) for creating a “blacklist” of LGBTQ, leftist, and pro-women’s rights organizations and individuals. Thau has also been accused of multiple sexual assaults and was released on bail following a police investigation in March of this year.
