The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition

Neturei Karta rabbi's kids expelled



The children of an Austrian rabbi who attended an Iranian conference that questioned the Holocaust have been expelled from their school and told no other Jewish school in Austria will take them, their father said Tuesday.

Moishe Arye Friedman said he has begun legal proceedings against the school. He said his four school-age children were told to leave Monday.

A letter shown by Friedman with the letterhead of the school said one of the reasons for the expulsions was his "outrageous behavior" in attending the Holocaust conference last month.

Friedman was among Jewish participants who hugged Iranian President Mahhmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a myth and called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Friedman is associated with, but not a member of Neturei Karta, a small, fiercely anti-Zionist sect that opposes the drive to establish the state of Israel, believing only the Messiah could do that.

Responding to criticism after the trip to Iran, Neturei Karta said it has never denied the Holocaust or its proportions. They believe Ahmadinejad has been unfairly vilified and that they should be praised for persuading him that his anger should be directed at Israel, not the Jewish people.