By Harvey Stein The Jewish Daily FORWARD
Published March 04, 2013.
Menachem Froman, Backed Coexistence With Muslim Fundamentalists, Dies at 68
Rabbi Menachem Froman, who died Monday at age 68, was an absolute original. He was a founding member of the hardline settler group Gush Emunim who lived as a settler himself in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; yet he was a man who cultivated contacts with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist organization designated as a terrorist group by Israel and the United States.
Froman, the longtime chief rabbi of the exclusively Jewish West Bank settlement Tekoa, maintained deep friendships with many Palestinians. He had a years-long friendship with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and met several times with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a founder of Hamas and its spiritual founder.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, Froman suffered from cancer of the large intestine and is survived by his wife, Hadassah, and 10 children.
Nahum Pachenik, one of Froman’s proteges, lives in a small outpost outside Neve Daniel settlement. Several years ago, he co-founded the organization Eretz Shalom, “a social movement which works toward the advancement of peace and dialogue between the Jewish and Arab inhabitants of Judea and Samaria.”
Nahum and Ziad S, a Palestinian villager who lives a 10-minute drive away but wishes not to be further identified, met through Rabbi Froman. Friends now for more than three years. Pachenik and Ziad meet often at Ziad’s home (although Nahum’s neighbors refuse to let Ziad come to visit his outpost).
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/172271/rabbi-menachem-fromans-unique-legacy-of-jewish-mus/#ixzz2My3TTqFX