A delegation led by Rabbi Chaim Boruch (Edgar) Gluck visited the Vatican on Monday, and received a 45 minute private meeting with the Pope.
Rabbi Gluck who resides in Boro Park and is known for his Askanus in Klal Yisroel for the past 50 years, also serves as the Chief Rabbi of Galicia. Around a year ago, the Pope visited Krakow, and Rabbi Gluck had a private meeting with him where he brought up the destruction of Jewish cemeteries around Europe and other places in the world. The Pope said he would get involved and try and help him, and invited Rabbi Gluck to continue their conversation in the Vatican.
Rabbi Gluck was joined by his son, Zvi, the founder and Director of Amudim – an organization dedicated to helping abuse victims and those suffering with addiction within the Jewish community, as well as another Rabbi and other people.
In an exclusive interview with YWN, Zvi said that most of the meeting focused on the desecration of the cemeteries – with the Pope pledging to enact stronger rules against destroying Jewish cemeteries to build roads or homes etc. Additionally, the group spoke about the need to create better unity between religious groups; and finally, the issue of abuse was brought up to which the Pope responded over and over “zero tolerance, zero tolerance”.
This isn’t the first Pope that had a relationship with Rabbi Gluck. The previous Pope did tremendous favors behind the scenes at the request of Rabbi Gluck. Speculation is that the previous Pope was Polish, and went out of his way to be nice to Jews in response to the atrocities of the Holocaust.
It is interesting to note, that in 2014 the Chief Rabbis of Israel met with the Pope, with haRav Yitzchak Yosef wearing a golden necklace around his neck that had the Luchos on it. At the time, YWN published the reason for this, and related that it was an inheritance from his father, Maran Hagaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZATZAL – who himself wore that golden Luchos when he met with previous Popes.
A further in depth article with additional details be published later.
“Zero tolerance" Said Pope Francis, “We need to keep kids safe" to myself, my father and members of delegation, at meeting in the Vatican pic.twitter.com/RWHlFIv7ob
— Zvi Gluck (@zgluck) May 8, 2017
(Charles Gross – YWN)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
20 Responses
Wow, mamesh toradik.
Do you really want this radical left wing pro gay marriage, pro abortion Pope to have arichas yomim?
“Speculation is that the previous Pope was Polish, and went out of his way to be nice to Jews in response to the atrocities of the Holocaust.”
The previous Pope (Benedict XVI) was German. The one before that (John Paul II) was Polish. Which one are you referring to?
Nothing like a little chanifa. Thanks for sharing.
who gave the heter to post pictures and videos of a bunch of yidden being machabed the head galach?
How appropriate to meet and give kovod to the head of the Catholic Church during the yimei haomer when the followers of this church butchered the inhabitants of Worms, Mainz and Speyer during the first Crusade.
Something is very, very wrong with this…. don’t even know where to start!
Wow, some real chachomim commenting here. Tannaim/Chazal went to Rome on behalf of Klal Yisroel. In case some of you are unaware, they destroyed the Bayis Shaini and butchered many more Jews. Frumkeit is flourishing, Yiddishkeit not so much.
RT: They went to Rome because Rome controlled the land that they lived in. I am sure that they would not pose for pictures and proudly publicize that they met with Ceaser. They definatly did not go out and publicize their meetings with leaders of other faiths, particularly a faith that preaches how it displaced the role of Klal Yisrael as the Am Hanivchar.
If one would proudly show off his meeting with the head of the Palestinian Authority people would be outraged because the PA stands for the denial of our connection to EY. Yet somehow people think that meeting with the head of the Catholic Church which denies the special connection of Klal Yisrael to the Ribbono Shel Oilam and denies our role in this world is something to be proud of.
One can only feel deep sorrow for the depth of sinas chinam and visceral hatred express by some of those posting above and their misplaced comments about such meetings between a group of ehrliche rabbonim and askanim and the spiritual leader of over a billion souls including a significant percentage of the population of EY. At a time we desperately need greater understanding and cooperation among yidden and Christian faiths to counter the Islamic extremists, your views really don’t warrant a response. Chazal bring down that those who spread such sinas chinam b’rabim are themselves likely to experience the consequences we have seen throughout our history in galus.
Meeting with the pope for a good purpose is one thing. But making a whole celebration about it doesn’t seem right at all.
The Romans at the time of Chazal were in matter of the fact anti-Christian. So that comparison has no place in this discussion.
Crazy: are you even allowed to assume Rabbi Gluck didn’t ask a shaila about going? You certainly don’t know that he didn’t. Are you a posek?
RT: If YWN is aware of a Rov who okayed the playing of music in the presence of the pope during sefira or a rov who advised them to excitedly report on this meeting (ie the pope said shema) they should publicize who gave the heter.
RT: Are you even allowed to assume that I am not a posek?
Some people are wowed by meeting the head galach of the religion that has been murdering us for 2000 years.
I cannot believe my eyes.
Is this what we have resorted to? How did our beautiful and proud nation, which has withstood centuries of prosecution and oppression at the hands of these “holy” people- crusades, pogroms, blood libels, the Inquisition, the holocaust (!)- reach such a low point?! How can it be that children of the same people who (literally!) bit off their own fingers so as not to play the precious Jewish melodies from the Beis HaMikdash to their oppressors on a foreign land take part in such a shameless and twisted display of flattery? How can you dance and sing Psukkim from our Torah in front of a man who represents a religion which your ancestors gave up their lives to stay away from?! The same Torah, by the way, warns us against exactly this situation- “Lo techunem”, “Lo tachanifu”… Our grandparents from Spira, Vermiza and Magenza, who sacrificed themselves in order to stay true to their religion and their god during this time period are probably rolling in their graves! Not to mention the fact that this is not all a story of the past- not at all! The man before whom you are dancing continues to represent all that is backwards and morally wrong and will admit proudly to an agenda of missionizing your fellow Jews.
How can you sleep at night knowing the great wrong you have done to your people and their history???
How many times do you need to report the same story? Why do we need to read it and see the pope dressed in all his “finery” with the cross in full view?? I am not interested in this at all. You wouldn’t display a cross on your site, so how have you got a right to do it now?! The pictures are sickening! Please delete asap!!!
If the Gluck’s and their fellow Jewish tourists to the Vatican that went with them had been meeting the Novominsker Rebbe or Rav Dovid Feinstein or the Skulener Rebbe or Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, the simcha radiating from their faces in the shaar hatumah shown in the above photographs would make sense. But to have such simcha from meeting the rosh hatumah?!?
What a shame! Happens to be that this Pope is corrupted in so many ways. He is part of the New World Order. He is really an anti christ, a satanist. In matter of fact there are people who are involved investigating him and say he is involved in pedophilia and sacrificing children. Look it all up. He part of illuminatis, Jesuit, He supports pedophilia and these guys go dance for him with psukim of holly Tehilim and with a shtreimel and chasidic kaften! How low can you go even reporting this!?!
From Rabbi Pinson: I write this in response to the many requests and to clarify the circumstances surrounding a video that has gone viral, and is a chilul Lubavitch and contrary to the rotzon Hameshalaich. Please know the following. Prior to this trip I consulted with Lubavitcher Rabonim who gave their haskomo. The meeting was to be private, without music & pomp. It didn’t quite turn out that way and for that I wish to express my regret. As a chasid of the Rebbe I understand my achrayus is to fulfil ratzon Hameshalaich and the Kavono Penimiyus.
Avremelk, (aka Rabbi Pinson), one of the rabbonim there should have gone over to the guitar players and told them it’s sefira and one doesn’t play music no matter who one is in the presence of. You write in your mea culpa “I found myself trapped between a duty to not make a chilul Hashem in the moment, and the spontaneous outburst of the group. Not wanting to offend created the wrongful impression that I was condoning this behavior.” Standing on principles is NEVER a chilul Hashem. Sorry, but your actions belie your words. Especially today in the modern hi-tech world, one must remember as Chazal said, that an eye sees, an ear hears, and all your deeds are recorded…!