Benzi Gopstein, in an exclusive interview to Yemanim: “They’re afraid of the truth”
Yedidya Grossman, Yemanim, 4/7/20
I interviewed Benzi Gopstein – the chairman of Lehava. I asked him why he’s been banned on Facebook, about the pride parade he demonstrated at, about the organization he heads, and more. The full interview, with the man who does not stop on red.
Why did you demonstrate across from the pride parade? Isn’t it preferable to ignore it?
“The Torah teaches us that sometimes there are things that cannot be ignored. On the contrary, the moment there is something they do, then we must protest, and if we do not protest, we are partners to it. So with the abomination parade, there is no place for ignoring them and we must demonstrate and protest.”
Why do you use the term “LGBTQ terror”?
“Because today in the state, any one who dares to speak up against the LGBTQ community, the ‘gays’, so to speak, he’s beaten up, and when I posted a video on YouTube against the community, they banned my channel. They closed my Facebook page. Whoever dares to say something against them, will get smeared everywhere. To our sorrow, we saw that this year, too, they attacked a good Jew who came to protest against the parade, they attacked him and he was hurt.”
Each person has the right to live according to his beliefs – Western culture
There are those who say: “Each person has a right to live according to his beliefs – I’ll live my life and you live yours. Nobody will dictate to me what to do.”
“There’s no such concept in the Torah as ‘everybody has a right to live according to his beliefs’. The verse says ‘A just person shall live by his faith’. ‘Everybody according to his beliefs’, may be a nice thing, but that belongs to Western culture, not to the culture of the Jewish people. Each of us must help his fellow, both spiritually and materially.
“And if we see someone sinning, he is no longer sinning just to himself, he is sinning to everyone. Like the famous example of people traveling on a boat and one starts making a hole in his own room, and then says “What do you care, this is in my room’, but the one making the hole on the boat will capsize the whole boat.”
Why was the Lehava organization founded?
“The Lehava organization was founded to prevent assimilation in the Holy Land and to work towards a Jewish state in order to provide the medicine before the disease, not to wait for girls to fall, but to rescue them before they fall, and to speak on the subject of assimilation.”
How many Jewish women have you rescued from Arabs so far?
“Good question, we don’t have time to count, we are always busy with activity, but there are about 1000 calls per year and we try to rescue as many as we can, but you have to remember that even one girl we rescue is a whole world.”
They’re afraid of the truth
Does the judicial system need to undergo reform? If so, how?
“The judicial system must undergo one reform, and it’s called – ‘Restore our judges as at first, and our counselors as of old’. This is to sit down and return to the law of the Jewish people, to Torah law. This is the reform that the system should undergo.”
Why does Facebook ban you?
“That’s a question you should ask them. I’ve got a court case against Facebook for several years already. My name is forbidden to be mentioned, my photo is forbidden to be posted, they say it’s because of the Lehava organization. I claim that they’re doing this because they are afraid of the truth. This is a war taking place all over the world, and they’re fighting me on the front lines.”
