A Poster Against Recruitment of Girls to National Service, 1970's

A Poster Against Recruitment of Girls to National Service, 1970's

'You are being mocked daughter of Zion' - a strongly worded poster against the recruitment of girls to National Service. The poster appeals to both the leaders of the secular leadership and to the head of the religious parties not to negotiate about this sensitive topic. Late 1970's. 

'It is known that all the great Rabbis obligated our daughters to give up their lives in order not to be defiled in this terrible framework'. The poster relates the history of the leading Rabbis' struggle against the initiative to recruit girls to National Service: 'This clear and strict ruling was issued in 1948 by Rabbi Yosef Zvi Dushinsky and Rabbi Zelig Reuven Bengis, and the Chazon Ish felt passionately about it, the great leaders Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, the Rabbi of Tschebin, Rabbi Akiva Sofer of Pressburg and Rabbi Zvi Pesach Frank all felt extremely strongly about it... an attempt to coerce in this matter, is a heartrending decree, due to which the Torah scrolls the Rebbe of Belz, Rabbi Yitzchak Zev of Brisk and the Rabbi of Tschebin and the Beit Din of Jerusalem took to the streets on the tenth of Av 1953 to cry bitterly. This monster distressed lions, the Rebbe of Vizhnitz and Rabbi Aharon Kotler and the Rebbe of Satmar who left their dwelling places on a snowy day in the month of Tevet 1954, they went out to the streets of New York and did not hesitate to demonstrate against it before the non-Jews', the poster continues with strongly worded language: 'Because anyone who considers operating this stupid and cruel law, should not think of doing so without first establishing enormous concentration camps [such as Auschwitz and Treblinka] for the hundreds of thousands of Jewish girls who will give up their lives for the word of God as set forth by our Rabbis...'

The poster appeals to the prime Minister Menachem Begin not to consider carrying out the decree, and to the religious parties, 'Who stir this boiling pot with cold hands and began to bring this terrible topic into the miserable fields of bargaining...we warn those who claim to be saviors: remove your impure hands from this lofty matter and do not defile it with your bargaining...". 

The poster is by a public committee against recruitment of girls, Chorev printing press. 

Size: 100x70 cm. 

Tears in the margins, fold marks. Fine-moderate condition.