May 17, 2012
The Frum Version Of The Kennedy Curse
Ynet has an article talking about the curse of the Kennedy family, but I don't think they are aware of the actual curse.
Mary Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., was found dead in a barn behind her home yesterday.
Mary Kennedy joins, in her death, a long list of tragedies in the extended Kennedy family.
While Ynet invokes the "Kennedy curse" in the headline of their article, they fail to mention what the curse actually was.
Legend has it, as believed by many in the "yeshivishe" world, that the curse began with Joe Kennedy. Supposedly Rav Aharon Kotler had asked Joe Kennedy for assistance in obtaining certificates for European Jews, and to help lobby the president to work on to save the Jews. Kennedy refused and was rude to the rabbi.
Supposedly, the legend goes, Rav Kotler (or name your favorite rabbi) was upset with him for his attitude, and wished him ill saying he should never have "nachas" from his descendants.
Was there actually such a curse? I have no idea. It sounds almost like the listing of tragedies that have befallen many of those involved in the Disengagement and saying that there is a curse on anybody who had their hand in that. That is the frum legend though.
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| Mary Kennedy - victim of Kennedy Curse? |
Mary Kennedy joins, in her death, a long list of tragedies in the extended Kennedy family.
While Ynet invokes the "Kennedy curse" in the headline of their article, they fail to mention what the curse actually was.
Legend has it, as believed by many in the "yeshivishe" world, that the curse began with Joe Kennedy. Supposedly Rav Aharon Kotler had asked Joe Kennedy for assistance in obtaining certificates for European Jews, and to help lobby the president to work on to save the Jews. Kennedy refused and was rude to the rabbi.
| Joseph Kennedy Sr. |
Supposedly, the legend goes, Rav Kotler (or name your favorite rabbi) was upset with him for his attitude, and wished him ill saying he should never have "nachas" from his descendants.
Was there actually such a curse? I have no idea. It sounds almost like the listing of tragedies that have befallen many of those involved in the Disengagement and saying that there is a curse on anybody who had their hand in that. That is the frum legend though.
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I've always wondered how the fact that Robert Kennedy was killed by a Palesintian who thought that he was too pro-Israel, or the fact that Ted Kennedy was one of the strongest and most consistent supporters of Israel in the Senate, fits into this so-called curse. I think if there's a Jewish curse involved here, it's the fact that so many of the Kennedys have married Jews, which must seem like to a curse to the family patriarch, wherever he may be.
ReplyDeleteOy. There are two frum legends. One attributes it to the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, and the other to the Ponovezher Rov. I wish they had cursed Hitler instead.
ReplyDeleteAn Irish Catholic once told me about their version of the Kennedy curse. In Ireland, Joe Kennedy got a young girl pregnant, and he and his father killer her (or had her killed). So a priest cursed them.
Irish and Jewish, a priest and a rabbi, few combinations are more powerful.
DeleteI knew a number of the Kennedys personally including Joe's namesake Congressman Joe II living in Boston when I worked for a government agency and he as founder and Director of a free for the poor home heating oil NGO. Joe and his wife were practicing Catholics. Joe also practiced with a paramour. He asked his wife for a divorce (they already had twins then), but she refused on religious grounds. He eventually plead to the Church for an annulment creating a huge scandal that kept him for running for public office until much later when he was elected to Congress. On the way, he was on a plane hijacked to Yemen, and later he was driving I believe a jeep that overturned seriously injuring David K and paralyzing his girlfriend. No end to it
ReplyDeleteThe Bostoner Rebbe ZT"L was on good terms with JFK and Teddy Kennedy. Possibly, he didn't buy into the legend.
ReplyDeleteRobert Caro's new book briefly discusses Joe Sr.'s anti-Semitism and makes it fairly clear that RFK himself, though in many ways similar to his father, was not an anti-Semite.
ReplyDelete(By the way, I am not personally interested in whether Robert Caro is descended from the Beis Yosef, but my husband would like to know).
A lot of their problems are from the same genetic nature. They are risk-takers, highly charasmatic and hyperactive.
ReplyDeleteSomeone mentioned to me that the Kennedy curse actually stems to one of their ancestors profiteering from the slave trade.
ReplyDeleteI know JFK is a "democrat saint" to a lot of folks; but can you really, wholeheartedly buy into Marilyn Monroe's "suicide"?
DeleteI OWNED THE ANTIQITY TORAH AND POINTER GIVEN TO TED KENNEDY BY GOLDA MEIR IN JERUSALEM 1971 HE WAS ALWAYS CLOSE WITH ISRAEL ALSO HAVE TED KENNEDY ADDRESS BOOK WHICH CONTAINS MORE JEWISH CHARITY FOUNDATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS THAN ANY OTHER CONTACTS
ReplyDelete