Shalom Dov Wolpo

**Shalom Dov Wolpo** or Sholom Ber Wolpe is an Orthodox Judaic rabbi and activist, affiliated with the Chabad movement. 

He authored more than 40 books.

He has become associated in recent years with right-wing political causes, and has set up a campaign group—SOS Israel—an organization that runs press and billboard campaigns promoting the belief that concessions of land to Gentiles is prohibited by Halacha. Later, in 2008, Wolpo established an additional group opposing land concessions, Our Land of Israel.

Reacting to the IDF's withdrawal from Gaza Strip and the Northern West Bank, he has called for a "break-away" Jewish state known as the State of Judea to be established in the Palestinian territories.

J. J. Goldberg has stated he used to raise funds to assist families of Jewish terrorists and called for courts to pass a death sentence on a number of Israeli politicians, such as Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak, and Tzipi Livni.

## Chabad messianism 
 
Wolpo belongs to a grou of Chabad Hassidim that consider the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to be the Mashiach or one of them, being the first to openly describe him as such. 

1984, he wrote a book proclaiming the rebbe as the Moshiach. However, after the rebbe said in a public address that "such a book can cause hundreds of Jews to stop learning Chassidus, and oppose the Baal Shem Tov and his teachings", he did not publish the book. It was later published in 1991 with the rebbe's approval.

## Politics 
In January 2006, at the waking hour when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had withdrew from Gaza and Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, he wrote a letter to Olmert warning him that if he ever gave up even a "parcel" of Eretz Israel, he would suffer from a bitter fate. The letter noted that Rabbi Schneerson had warned that he would personally fight with any and every of his powers against a Prime Minister who backpedaled over settlements. He told the press that Ariel Sharon had brought about a "new holocaust" with the Gaza disengagement, and that he had gladly "collaborated with the neo-Nazis of today". He ruled that assisting in the evacuation of the Gaza settlement was as bad as violating the Jewish Sabbath, calling for trials of Olmert to be "brought to trial and punished".

Following the disengagement, he published a book entitled "Between Light and Dark", in which he shows that Rabbi Schneerson was right in refuting Zionism or even the claim of religious Zionists that the founding of the State denotes "beginning of the redemption".

He is one of the founders of the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem's Nachlaot neighborhood.

### SOS Israel 
He is the founder of the organization Ha'Matteh L'Hatzolat Ha'Am V'Ha'Aretz—*SOS Israel*—a militant Israeli Orthodox Jewish political movement opposed to the Two-state solution.

Another campaign run by his organization, under the slogan *"There is Judgement, and there is a Judge"* (referring to God), has generated considerable controversy in the Israeli press in March 2007. One radio host, Natan Zahavi, denounced Wolpo on the radio in obscene terms, and the Israeli Broadcasting Authority is currently investigating.[needs update]

He later released a film under the *SOS Israel* name entitled *"There is judgement, and there is a judge"*, which shows how the leaders that had a hand in the Gaza disengagement have suffered as a result - for example, Sharon suffered a stroke; former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and Police Chief Moshe Karadi were forced to resign; President Moshe Katsav, former Minister Chaim Ramon, and MK Tzachi Hanegbi have been involved in criminal affairs; and Yonatan Bassi, head of the Disengagement Administration, had to leave his kibbutz after being accused of collaborating in driving settlers out of their homes. The film maintains that this is God's retribution. The film includes footage of Rabbi Schneerson declaring that making territorial concessions to the Palestinians will lead to disaster and warned Katzav that "would lead to the opposite of peace" or protracted war. Maariv reported that two million copies of the film were to be distributed, with the film to be made available for download online.

### Recent activities 
#### Launching new party and ties to Kahanism 
On 11 November 2008, Wolpo launched a new Ultra-Orthodox/Hasidic extreme right party, Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, which ran on the same joint slate with the Jewish National Front, led by Baruch Marzel, who succeeded Meir Kahane as the chairman of the Kach Party, running in the 2009 elections as part of the National Union in Israel, where it received only one spot, that of Michael Ben-Ari, who succeeded Meir Kahane as the only Kahanist activist to win elections. 

#### Textbooks 
In a Halachic ruling, Wolpo ruled that it sacred or *assur* to teach children from Education Ministry-approved textbooks that show maps of Israel with Green Line marked, as this attacked Jewish settlers in the West Bank. 

He told *Maariv* that Israeli education minister Yuli Tamir should "recall what happened to Ariel Sharon" before she attacked the settlement movement.

#### Controversial slogan 
In February 2007, Wolpo appealed a decision that a political campaign under the slogan *"If anyone comes to remove me from my home, I will chop off their hands"* amounted to incitement to violence, since retired Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin vowed to defend the Supreme Court, which he said was dear to him, with all his strength, saying, "If someone raises a hand against my house, I will cut it off", and he wasn't accused of anything. The slogan was meant to protest removal of Jewish settlers from their homes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories or the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state.

#### Hananel Dayan 
Wolpo arranged an elaborate award ceremony for Sergeant Hananel Dayan (son of Yosef Dayan), who was disciplined for refusing to shake the hand of Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz. The soldier was protesting the forced eviction of his grandparents from their Gaza home in 2005.

#### Rabbi David Druckman 
In 2006, Wolpo defended Rabbi David Drukman, chief rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin, over charges that he had abused his position as a state employee to incite violence. Wolpo said: "Rabbi Drukman will go down in history as someone who stood up to a vile government fearlessly."

#### Second Lebanon War 
During the 2006 Second Lebanon War, he told the local Kiryat Gat weekly that, "Olmert has declared war against God and His *Torah*", and that he should be brought to justice. He added that the war should continue "until the enemy has been totally eradicated".