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Ruth Blau: A Life of Paradox and Purpose
Ruth Blau: A Life of Paradox and Purpose explores the life of a curious, if not mysterious, character in modern Jewish history. Born a French Catholic, Ruth Blau (Ben-David) (1920-2000) lived a constantly twisting life. During World War II, Blau was active in the French Resistance, and under their command, she joined the Gestapo as a double agent. After the war, she studied philosophy as a PhD candidate at the Sorbonne during the 1950s.
After converting to Judaism and moving to Israel in 1960, Blau was involved in concealing Yossele Schumacher, a seven-year-old child, as part of a militant conflict between ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews in Israel. In 1965, despite a huge scandal, she married Amram Blau, head of the anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta. After the death of her husband in 1973, Blau took upon herself to travel to Arab countries to help the Jewish communities in distress in Lebanon and Iran, where she met Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and his deputy Abu Jihad. But the most significant connections she made were in Iran. In 1979, she met with the leader of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini.
Ruth Blau: A Life of Paradox and Purpose represents the first full-length biography of this remarkable woman. Drawing on a trove of archival materials and interviews with those who knew Ruth, Motti Inbari offers a complex, multifaceted portrait of a woman undertaking a remarkable and influential journey through modern European and Middle Eastern history.
After converting to Judaism and moving to Israel in 1960, Blau was involved in concealing Yossele Schumacher, a seven-year-old child, as part of a militant conflict between ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews in Israel. In 1965, despite a huge scandal, she married Amram Blau, head of the anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta. After the death of her husband in 1973, Blau took upon herself to travel to Arab countries to help the Jewish communities in distress in Lebanon and Iran, where she met Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and his deputy Abu Jihad. But the most significant connections she made were in Iran. In 1979, she met with the leader of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini.
Ruth Blau: A Life of Paradox and Purpose represents the first full-length biography of this remarkable woman. Drawing on a trove of archival materials and interviews with those who knew Ruth, Motti Inbari offers a complex, multifaceted portrait of a woman undertaking a remarkable and influential journey through modern European and Middle Eastern history.
- GenresBiography
278 pages, Paperback
Published May 30, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 30, 2024
This is everything you ever wanted to know about Ruth Blau in one book. The story of this woman's life is riveting. In other reviews I saw complaints that she was a villain and Inbari paints her with too flattering a brush. I disagree. The moral I took away from her life story is that one can't help the Jewish people by hurting Jewish people, even with the best intentions. As far as the writing style of the book, it felt like an academic essay but it's an easy read that moves along quickly. Read this one for the story of how this woman's crazy life created and intersected with international events.
August 8, 2023
One of the characteristics of the very brilliant Dr. Gregory House, the titular character of the medical drama television series House, M.D., was that he would only take on very interesting cases.
Run-of-the-mill diseases such as appendicitis, heart attacks, and anything related to a medical clinic were useless to him. As the best diagnostic physician in the country, he could only take on interesting cases. House said cancer is boring and instead focused on rare illnesses such as Erdheim-Chester disease, MERRF syndrome, and more.
In the world of Orthodox Jewry in general and the Charedi world specifically, there's no shortage of brilliant people. Spend a few minutes in Jerusalem or Bnei Brak, and you will encounter them. But the number of interesting people, really interesting ones, is debatably small. When numbering the heads of yeshivas, no one is more interesting than the late Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, former head of Brooklyn's Yeshiva Chaim Berlin. And it's not ironic that no biography has been written about him. And, likely, none will ever me.
While the Haredi world has produced interesting people, perhaps one of the most interesting and simultaneously enigmatic and controversial is Ruth Blau. Her personality and life story demands a biography. And Motti Inbari (Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina) has filled that void with Ruth Blau: A Life of Paradox and Purpose (Indiana University Press).
Born in 1920 into a French Catholic family as Madeleine Lucette, Ruth Blau died in 2000 as the widow of the head of the Neturei Karta. How Madeleine ended up as Ruth is a fascinating story that Inbari tells exceedingly well.
Part of it has to do with the fact that in the aftermath of the Shoah and the destruction of European Jewry, a new phenomenon emerged in Europe. As the dimensions of the Nazi destruction became apparent, a wave of European Christians seeking to convert to Judaism reached out to the Jewish communities.
About a quarter of the book details the infamous incident which she is most known for, the kidnapping of Yossele Schumacher. The Schumacher affair had the potential to wreak national havoc, which is why Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion had Mossad director Isser Harel make finding Yossele a priority.
In 1960, the 8-year-old Yossele was spending time with his religious grandparents in Jerusalem. Due to a combination of cultural differences, misinformation, generation gaps, and more, his grandparents thought that Yossele's parents wanted to send him to a non-religious school.
A plot was hatched to move Yossele out of the country where he could be in a religious environment, and that is where Ruth Blau got involved. While she has long been demonized as a child kidnapper, she didn't operate in a vacuum and was directed by prominent religious figures in the Haredi world.
The case dragged on for two years, ultimately involving the FBI. And Yossele was eventually found in New York City. Blau gave up information about Yossele's location and received immunity from prosecution and jail time.
It was not long afterward that Blau, a single mother looking to marry and start a Jewish family, was suggested as a shidduch to the most unlikely of partners, Rabbi Amram Blau, head of the Neturei Karta who was a widower with ten children and 25 years older than her.
This suggested union was considered so scandalous that the Edah HaChareidis issued a ban against it. In some ways, the rule by the Edah HaChareidis against their wedding was similar to the Slifkin episode decades later. In both cases, false information was fed to decision-makers, and none of the parties were called to testify. Both cases were highly politicized, with the adversaries looking to settle old scores.
And as a convert, one would think Ruth would be treated with kindness, sensitivity, and open arms, but her experience was far from it.
Amram Blau died in 1974, but Blau did not take on the role of a dowager widow. She played the role of diplomat and met people such as Ayatollah Khomeini in the hope of saving Jewish lives in Iran. She even got involved in trying to secure the remains of IDF soldiers Zvi Feldman, Yehuda Katz, and Zachary Baumel. While most of her work in those diplomatic areas was unsuccessful, she did not rest on her laurels and did her best to save Jewish lives.
As to the Yossele kidnapping, for which Blau is forever identified with and pilloried for, its source was based on miscalculations. Yossele's parents didn't want to put him in a non-religious school but rather a non-Haredi one. Had he not been kidnapped due to religious fervor and an irrational fear, a national scandal could have been avoided, and a child's life so traumatized that he needed years of therapy to recover.
Inbari writes that his book rehabilitates her image, to which some may resent this, especially Yossele and his family. He leaves the reader to judge.
Ruth Blau was as fascinating as she was controversial and complex. Her Achilles' heel will forever be the Yossele kidnapping. And for that, she was far from being the only one involved. Yet she was far from being a lone wolf, to which her co-conspirator's names have been long forgotten.
Inbari asks in the introduction if Ruth Blau was Satan or a saint. While her moral compass during the Yossele saga took her to dark places, she joined the most radical movement in modern Judaism because she sought the purest form of Judaism. To her astonishment, she discovered that even a society governed by flawless religious laws can be unjust, sectarian, and divided.
Run-of-the-mill diseases such as appendicitis, heart attacks, and anything related to a medical clinic were useless to him. As the best diagnostic physician in the country, he could only take on interesting cases. House said cancer is boring and instead focused on rare illnesses such as Erdheim-Chester disease, MERRF syndrome, and more.
In the world of Orthodox Jewry in general and the Charedi world specifically, there's no shortage of brilliant people. Spend a few minutes in Jerusalem or Bnei Brak, and you will encounter them. But the number of interesting people, really interesting ones, is debatably small. When numbering the heads of yeshivas, no one is more interesting than the late Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, former head of Brooklyn's Yeshiva Chaim Berlin. And it's not ironic that no biography has been written about him. And, likely, none will ever me.
While the Haredi world has produced interesting people, perhaps one of the most interesting and simultaneously enigmatic and controversial is Ruth Blau. Her personality and life story demands a biography. And Motti Inbari (Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina) has filled that void with Ruth Blau: A Life of Paradox and Purpose (Indiana University Press).
Born in 1920 into a French Catholic family as Madeleine Lucette, Ruth Blau died in 2000 as the widow of the head of the Neturei Karta. How Madeleine ended up as Ruth is a fascinating story that Inbari tells exceedingly well.
Part of it has to do with the fact that in the aftermath of the Shoah and the destruction of European Jewry, a new phenomenon emerged in Europe. As the dimensions of the Nazi destruction became apparent, a wave of European Christians seeking to convert to Judaism reached out to the Jewish communities.
About a quarter of the book details the infamous incident which she is most known for, the kidnapping of Yossele Schumacher. The Schumacher affair had the potential to wreak national havoc, which is why Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion had Mossad director Isser Harel make finding Yossele a priority.
In 1960, the 8-year-old Yossele was spending time with his religious grandparents in Jerusalem. Due to a combination of cultural differences, misinformation, generation gaps, and more, his grandparents thought that Yossele's parents wanted to send him to a non-religious school.
A plot was hatched to move Yossele out of the country where he could be in a religious environment, and that is where Ruth Blau got involved. While she has long been demonized as a child kidnapper, she didn't operate in a vacuum and was directed by prominent religious figures in the Haredi world.
The case dragged on for two years, ultimately involving the FBI. And Yossele was eventually found in New York City. Blau gave up information about Yossele's location and received immunity from prosecution and jail time.
It was not long afterward that Blau, a single mother looking to marry and start a Jewish family, was suggested as a shidduch to the most unlikely of partners, Rabbi Amram Blau, head of the Neturei Karta who was a widower with ten children and 25 years older than her.
This suggested union was considered so scandalous that the Edah HaChareidis issued a ban against it. In some ways, the rule by the Edah HaChareidis against their wedding was similar to the Slifkin episode decades later. In both cases, false information was fed to decision-makers, and none of the parties were called to testify. Both cases were highly politicized, with the adversaries looking to settle old scores.
And as a convert, one would think Ruth would be treated with kindness, sensitivity, and open arms, but her experience was far from it.
Amram Blau died in 1974, but Blau did not take on the role of a dowager widow. She played the role of diplomat and met people such as Ayatollah Khomeini in the hope of saving Jewish lives in Iran. She even got involved in trying to secure the remains of IDF soldiers Zvi Feldman, Yehuda Katz, and Zachary Baumel. While most of her work in those diplomatic areas was unsuccessful, she did not rest on her laurels and did her best to save Jewish lives.
As to the Yossele kidnapping, for which Blau is forever identified with and pilloried for, its source was based on miscalculations. Yossele's parents didn't want to put him in a non-religious school but rather a non-Haredi one. Had he not been kidnapped due to religious fervor and an irrational fear, a national scandal could have been avoided, and a child's life so traumatized that he needed years of therapy to recover.
Inbari writes that his book rehabilitates her image, to which some may resent this, especially Yossele and his family. He leaves the reader to judge.
Ruth Blau was as fascinating as she was controversial and complex. Her Achilles' heel will forever be the Yossele kidnapping. And for that, she was far from being the only one involved. Yet she was far from being a lone wolf, to which her co-conspirator's names have been long forgotten.
Inbari asks in the introduction if Ruth Blau was Satan or a saint. While her moral compass during the Yossele saga took her to dark places, she joined the most radical movement in modern Judaism because she sought the purest form of Judaism. To her astonishment, she discovered that even a society governed by flawless religious laws can be unjust, sectarian, and divided.
June 25, 2025
(Review written for the Jewish Press)
“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small.” I was excited to read Professor Motti Inbari’s new biography of Ruth Blau, knowing only that she was a convert who’d married the Neturei Karta leader R’ Amram Blau. Having made the reverse trip by growing up Chassidish, leaving that community and then marrying a convert, I was curious about her journey and what compelled her.
I knew she must be a fascinating person, and reading the biography only opened my eyes to just how complex and varied a life she led. I’d never guessed, however, the personal family connection we would have.
Inbari traces the path of Ruth’s life, from her childhood in France, resistance activities during WWII, winding religious journey, outsized role in the Yossele affair, controversial marriage to Amram Blau, and subsequent charity and advocacy work.
Her biography is an encounter with the major historical events of the 20th century, with major Jewish figures lining the pages. One of those figures is my great-great-grandfather, R’ Yisroel Yitzchak Reisman.
To pick one story out of the many fascinating epochs of Ruth’s life, after Ruth’s activities hiding Yossele Schumacher for about two years, a shidduch was proposed between her and Neturei Karta leader Amram Blau. They were both eager to marry, something Inbari analyzes, but the Eidah Chareidis beis din, of which my great-great-grandfather was a member, issued a psak that they could not marry on various grounds. (To this day, my grandfather has a copy of the original psak.) This was the beginning of a long and bitter battle involving the Satmar Rebbe and Rebetzin and Ruth’s other confidantes, a battle which damaged Amram and Ruth’s relationship. Despite widespread opposition and prejudice, the two did eventually marry, resulting in Amram Blau losing his position as leader of the Neturei Karta, and Ruth remaining an outsider in the ultra-Orthodox world. Reading that story vividly brought to the forefront the opposition my convert husband and I faced when we wanted to marry. I’d like to think that in some way, our marriage heals the rupture my great-great-grandfather was a part of so many decades ago.
Summarizing Ruth’s life would be doing a disservice. Inbari packs so much riveting detail into his 224 page book that I will only drop tantalizing hints of a Gestapo infiltration, spy missions in Morocco, religious identity crises, multiple failed relationships, questionable business activities, Mossad interrogations, Iranian rescue missions, and of course, kidnapping and hiding Yossele Schmacher for ideological purposes. (Cat lovers will be pleased to know that the cats of Jerusalem were well cared for by Ruth and accompanied her shopping.)
It is difficult to either love or hate Ruth Blau. A strong personality with evolving ideological convictions, she fought for what she believed in, ignoring anyone who would stand in her way. Her personal relationships were fraught with questionable decisions and tension, and it is easy to question some of her choices. Motti Inbari’s book does a thorough job of investigating Ruth’s life and separating fact from fiction while still maintaining a critical look at her words and actions.
There were many aspects about Professor Inbari’s writing that I appreciated.
He digs into archives from disparate places to uncover information behind rumors and either confirm or dispel them.
He conducted interviews with many people close to Ruth, including her son, granddaughter, and others who interacted with her in various stages of her life.
He analyzes both her published and unpublished biographies, using a critical lens to dig deeper into how Ruth presented herself; what she omitted and what she included.
He utilizes sociology and psychology to place Ruth in a larger context and analyze her personality and motivations.
He discusses personality and mental health, neither minimizing nor blowing out of proportion personality issues.
He is even-handed and tries to explain the motivations of all sides. He does not engage in hate-mongering and does not castigate or blame, but presents everyone’s reasoning.
He provides historical context for each section of Ruth’s life, ranging from France during WWII, conversion in post-war Europe, Old Jerusalem culture, and Middle Eastern politics.
For a book that packs so much, "Ruth Blau: A Life of Paradox and Purpose" is pleasant reading, and easy to finish over one Shabbos. I am grateful to Professor Inbari for capturing her life so comprehensively and impartially.
October 3, 2025
I really enjoyed the smooth and engaging read. Being familiar with many of the characters and settings in the book, it was refreshing to encounter the story from a different perspective. The narrative is accessible and well-researched, making it a highly recommended read.
That said, I felt the author pushed his agenda a bit too strongly. He repeatedly emphasized Ruth’s loss of moral compass and her involvement in the kidnapping incident. While these points are historically accurate, they seemed to overshadow other dimensions of Ruth’s life and contributions, which I don’t believe define her entirely.
That said, I felt the author pushed his agenda a bit too strongly. He repeatedly emphasized Ruth’s loss of moral compass and her involvement in the kidnapping incident. While these points are historically accurate, they seemed to overshadow other dimensions of Ruth’s life and contributions, which I don’t believe define her entirely.
June 16, 2023
Actually is a 4.5, very interesting unique information. Only had some issues with the argumentation sometimes.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews