Word: blau
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...Jews of Mea She'arim were dumfounded with outrage-and none more than a lean, hawk-eyed man who has a fair claim to the title of the world's most orthodox Orthodox Jew. On occasion, he even shows up in sackcloth and ashes. He is Amram Blau, 63, leader of a fanatical Mea She'arim sect called the Neturei Karta (guardians of the city). Sabbath elapsed. Then Blau exhorted his disciples, in broad-brimmed black hats, to loose volleys of stones, pelting city buses, breaking windows and injuring some cops. Sixteen of his zealots are awaiting...
...Shabbos! Shabbos!" Blau and his partisans take their religion so seriously that they even refuse to recognize the state of Israel. To that end, Blau refuses to touch Israeli money. His weekly bulletin is the only publication in Israel without a license from the government. In Mea She'arim, Blau's word is law, and periodically he has also tried to enforce his views on the rest of Jerusalem. Before police could stop him, he often dashed onto the field at Saturday soccer games to steal the ball from the players and run off shouting "Shabbos! [Sabbath] Shabbos...
...Blau's followers in the Neturei Karta number about 350 families, but they can muster some 3,000 other Orthodox Jews from Mea She'arim for their periodic protests against Israeli secularism. Last year they picketed a public swimming pool that permitted mixed bathing, after Blau warned that "Jerusalem will be turned into a huge brothel...
...Blasphemy! Heresy!" Blau has been fighting Zionism since he was old enough to grow a beard. Grandson of a Hungarian immigrant who helped build Mea She'arim in the 19th century, Blau learned as an article of faith that the Jews had been dispersed from ancient Israel for their sins. Since only the Messiah could re-establish Israel, Blau naturally looked upon the efforts of Chaim Weizmann to set up a secular Jewish state as nothing less than blasphemy...
Still, the show is a triumph. In the main, this is due to Mr. Bradshaw as John the Witch Boy. Mr. Bradshaw's voice, his eloquent facial expressions, and his lithe and graceful movements make everyone forget the production's rough edges. He and Ronald Blau also contribute some excellent incidental music. Mr. Bradshaw's performance is as fine a one as Harvard is likely to see this year...