15 January 2006
The board of the Jewish community of Vienna (IKG) has voted unanimously to excommunicate a man who attended the Holocaust conference in the Iranian capital Tehran in December. The move follows a criminal complaint by the community against Moishe Arye Friedman, an anti-Zionist American living in Vienna. The community has accused Friedman of Holocaust denial and promoting Nazism in connection with the conference. The IKG said in a statement that Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, had asked in December for a "cherem", or excommunication, against all Jews who took part in the Tehran gathering. In addition, the statement said that "Friedman, who has been trying to pose as 'chief rabbi' of a non-existent 'anti-Zionist Jewish community' in Charedi garb, was however seen taking part in anti-Semitic demonstrations on Shabbat, speaking into a microphone and herewith desecrating the Sabbath on various occasions."
The participation of six representatives of Friedman's Neturei Karta organization in the conference in Tehran continues to stir up emotions in the ultra-Orthodox community. Meanwhile, the "Ultra-Orthodox Voice" reported that when Friedman returned to Vienna from Tehran after staying there for three weeks, he found out that his wife, following her parents' advice, had fled to Williamsburg, New York, where she immediately approached rabbis and asked them to help her divorce her husband due to his misdeeds.
