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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Part II
R' Dovid Guttman, R' Yoel Moshe Solomon, R' Yehoshua
Shtampfer and R' Zerach Barnet, four Yerushalmi Jews, founded
Petach Tikva 125 years ago. They were true Torah Jews, whose
aspiration was to establish a settlement in which all of the
mitzvos, and especially the mitzvos hateluyos
ba'Aretz, would be observed. This was a daring, pioneering
act in those days, and they met with many difficulties. The
four were also joined by R' Yehuda Rabb who had arrived in
Eretz Yisroel from Hungary in 1876. (Last week Yated
erroneously listed him as a fifth founder. While he joined in
the early stages, he was not part of the group of four.)
The location of the settlement, not far from Yaffo and
later Tel Aviv, brought it into conflict with the anti-
religious Zionist immigrants who wanted to live and work
there. Though he died young, R' Yehoshua Shtampfer kept the
community firmly on the Torah path as long as he
lived.
However there were cultural battles all the time. It is
interesting and memorable to note that a labor conference
that was held in Petach Tikva in 1910 drew waves of protest
because it was held with chillul Shabbos. Times have
changed.
The Informers
As in all of the settlements, the battle over chinuch
also reached Petach Tikva, where the nationalistic and
secular chalutzim waged war against the talmudei
Torah of the city, in an original and arrogant way.
In 5662 (1902), the settlers of Petach Tikva began to build a
beautiful edifice for their talmud Torah. R' Zerach
Braverman, who devoted himself to this effort with much
mesirus nefesh, wandered from place to place
collecting funds for the building.
However, when construction work actually began there was an
unexpected turn of events, described by Mordechai Diskin, a
Petach Tikva agricultural worker in his book Maamar
Mordechai (pp.54-5):
"As soon as the opponents of the Torah saw that our plans to
build a permanent edifice for Hashem's Torah in Petach Tikva
were succeeding, they filed a complaint against us to the
authorities, who ruled that the building must be
destroyed."
From this we learn that even the cruel Turkish authorities
did not feel that it was necessary to destroy the talmud
Torah, and did so only upon the urging of the "opponents
of Torah."
Nevertheless, sweet emerges from pungent, and as a result of
the disgraceful behavior of the nationalists, R' Zerach
Braverman set out for Yerushalayim in order to arouse public
opinion against their behavior. A large assembly led by R'
Shmuel Salant was convened. At this assembly, it was decided
to found a federation called Shomrei Torah whose purpose was
to counteract the plots of the opponents of Torah-true
education.
Every one of the participants pledged twenty francs a year.
This money was then used to establish talmudei Torah
throughout the Land. The members of the assembly received
a telegram from R' Chaim Ozer Grodzensky from Vilna who
blessed their endeavors. (Petach Tikva's main street is named
after R' Chaim Ozer.) As a result of this initiative, the
Jews of Petach Tikva were able to complete the building of
their talmud Torah. It was dedicated on Tu BeShevat
5664 (1904).
With Hashem's help the talmud Torah grew and
flourished, and in 5673 (1913) four hundred pupils were
already studying within its walls, while only 150 had
registered in the regular school system.
The rapid development of the talmud Torah annoyed the
members of the "new yishuv." They were displeased by
the growth of the vibrant Torah settlement of Petach
Tikva.
Professor Yosef Klausner, who visited the settlement at that
time, recorded his impressions of the talmud Torah in
his book Olam Mithaveh. In it, he complained that many
hours of the curriculum were devoted to the study of
dinim. In his opinion, this "was a burden for the
children, and robbed them of their joie de vivre while
they were still young."
He continued, expressing his disappointment with chareidi
education, adding: "Regarding Hebrew studies, we want to see
the Jews of Eretz Yisroel educated according to the spirit of
new Israeli culture, which is based on general, humanistic
foundations. We cannot be happy with [the chareidi form of
schooling] . . . "
However, as indicated by the rest of his remarks: "Even
though, Orthodoxy in Petach Tikva is so great that the
talmudei Torah have far more students than the public
school . . . " the main reason for his disappointment was not
the details of the Torah education but the simple fact that
the parents had chosen such a form of education for their
children.
Why was Professor Klausner so pained and disturbed by this?
He should have been happy that chareidi Jewry was also
participating in the "Zionist dream" by settling the Land.
What is Zionism?
In the continuation of his words, Professor Klausner provides
an answer to these questions:
"The following idea flashed across my mind, involuntarily. I
thought to myself: Petach Tikva is a Litvische city. This
thought became more firmly entrenched in my heart, when I
entered a synagogue there, and found simple Jews learning
Nedorim with Ran, swaying back and forth over open
gemoras and chanting Tonnu Rabbonon with the
well- known, sad niggun, as they did in the Lithuanian
towns thirty years ago. Here, spiritual life has remained
static . . . "
And if one asks what is wrong with a Jewish farmer's studying
Torah, Professor Klausner `enlightens' us: "I left the
synagogue with the sad thought that the value change for
whose sake the entire Jewish settlement was established [in
Israel], is simply not found here!"
Now all has become clear. If until now, you thought that the
purpose of the yishuv hachadash was "the settlement of
Eretz Yisroel" or at least "a place of refuge for the Jewish
Nation," then know that you were mistaken. It was established
for one purpose: to develop a new value system. Yes, the
entire settlement came into being for the sake of this new
value system, as the gedolim saw.
It is known that R' Chaim of Brisk repeatedly claimed that
the foremost aim of the Zionist movement wasn't the settling
of Eretz Yisroel, but the detachment of Am Yisroel from the
Torah (just like the haskalah movement, in its
time.)
The idea of "Eretz Yisroel" which was bandied by the leaders
of the movement, was essentially a sophisticated publicity
stunt, a successful public relations trick, which managed to
sweep many innocent Jews who became entangled in its web.
Torah-true Jewry, which refused to join the Zionist movement
on the basis of this determination, was attacked for her
opinion, especially by those who thought that a "religious
Jew" is considered half a Jew if he does not affix the title
"National," to his name. These people claimed that Torah
Jewry "accused the innocent" and that the true purpose of the
movement was manifested by the burning love of its leaders
for the mitzvah of yishuv Eretz Yisroel. The view of
gedolei Yisroel doesn't require proof or reinforcement
from one like Klausner or his ilk. Nonetheless, his words
might open the eyes of those innocent people who looked for
kedushoh in a place where the sacred was defiled.
Who Was First?
Such an attitude, which accuses the founders of Petach Tikva
of not having fulfilled the "nationalistic idea," appears in
an additional place.
Historians dispute which settlement deserves the title
"Mother of the Settlements" (Eim Hamoshavot). Most of
us assume that Petach Tikva deserves this name because it was
the first settlement established in Eretz Yisroel. Yet there
were those who begrudged her that title.
What did those historians have against Petach Tikva? The
founding of Petach Tikva caused a serious problem for the
yishuv hachadash, referring to the settlement outside
of Yerushalayim. As is known, the old yishuv was
constantly accused of "despising the settlement idea." Many
bottles of ink were spilled in Hebrew antisemitic literature
on that point.
The reason the new yishuv regarded Petach Tikva as a
sore thumb, was that its very existence proved that the old
yishuv was not opposed to settling the Land. Indeed,
how could one accuse those very settlers who had sacrificed
their lives for settling the Land, of despising
the settlement idea?
But they contrived a way to distort the truth. "If we call
Rishon LeTzion the `Mother of the Settlements'," they said,
"Petach Tikva's role will be forgotten in a few years."
And if you wonder how it is possible to perpetrate such a
historical crime, especially when Petach Tikva was founded in
5638 (1878), and Rishon in 5642 (1882), then know that
another solution was found, which claimed that what counted
was not the act of settling the Land, but the "spiritual"
content of the settlement.
In a letter written to Mordechai ben Hillel Hachohen, Z.D.
Levontin (one of the founders of Rishon) claims that Rishon
has the right to go down in history as the first settlement
in Eretz Yisroel. He writes:
"Without trying to sound boastful, I can say that until now,
no such `colony' was founded by Jews. [Of course, there
was Petach Tikva]. However, its founders were
chaluka Jews, who worked the land only in order to
fulfill the mitzvos hateluyos ba'aretz" ((Druyaov,
Writings on the History of Chibat Tzion, volume three
p.485).
M. Lilienblum (one of the leaders of Chovevei Tzion) went
even further. He simply said that the founders of Petach
Tikva had absolutely no part in the history of the
yishuv, claiming that the claim that the founders of
Petach Tikva established the first settlement is part of a
"calculated lie" maliciously fabricated by the old
yishuv!
Such startling and brazen things could only have been written
by "echod sheshonoh uporash" (one who once studied
Torah and then left the Torah true-camp) such as Lilienblum.
They were also written black on white and in Hebrew letters
by one of the heads of the movement:
"The enemies of the new generation, [attempt to] attribute
the nationalistic idea, in practice, to the old generation,
... to the founders of Petach Tikva, and then to laud them as
pioneers of an idea of which they had absolutely no
conception" (Derech Lavor Golim, Warsaw 5659, p.
6).
Lilienblum did not realize how ridiculous and absurd it was
to preach to R' Yehoshua Shtampfer, who had made aliya to
Eretz Yisroel on foot and had with great mesirus
nefesh established a flourishing settlement there, while
he himself was seated in Odessa, and had never set foot in
Eretz Yisroel.
All this did not prevent him from writing the following
points which are really a contrived, four-stage
pilpul:
a. The chareidim are "anti-Zionists" who despise the Jewish
settlement in Eretz Yisroel.
b. There is a serious "problem" with the founders of Petach
Tikva.
3. We must determine that they are "un-Zionistic." (After
all, they want to observe the mitzvos.)
4. Those liars claim that they were the founders of the
yishuv.
And so, "the Zionists of Odessa" preached Zionism to the anti-
Zionist founders of Petach Tikva.
Indeed, you were right, Lilienblum. The founders of Petach
Tikva really "have no conception of the nationalistic idea" -
- that very idea which presumes that the Jewish Nation must
be "like all the nations of the world" and must assimilate
with them, cast off its Torah, and exchange it for the very
destructive idea which they do not understand.
Those religious Jews, who are sometimes made to appear like
"loyal Zionists" in the eyes of the leaders of secular
Zionism (and sometimes in the most degrading manner possible)
should contemplate this: As long as you continue to observe
the mitzvos of the Torah, you cannot be called Zionists,
because you still have absolutely no understanding of the
"nationalistic idea." By the same token, even if you do
acquire such an understanding, history's re-writers will deny
you your due credit.
At the time of its founding and for many years thereafter,
Petach Tikva was known as one of Eretz Yisroel's Torah
citadels. In 5686 (1926), HaRav Eliezer Shulevitz settled
there along with a group of forty students who established
the Yeshiva of Lomzhe -- a yeshiva which raised many of our
generation's marbitzei Torah.
In those years, the Chofetz Chaim wanted to move to Eretz
Yisroel and he planned to settle in Petach Tikva, as an
established Torah community. A house was even built for him
near the yeshiva. However, in the end he was unable to move
to Eretz Yisroel and the house became the city's beis
mussar. (The letters of the Chofetz Chaim on the matter,
were published in the Torah journal Nehora, which was
published in Petach Tikva by Rabbi Meir Weissberger in Tammuz
5735). The yishuv's first kollel -- Beis Medrash
LeToras Eretz Yisroel -- as well as many other yeshivos,
among them Ohr Yisroel and Nachlas Dovid, were also founded
in Petach Tikva.
Many wonder how this city, whose first mayor was a chareidi
Jew and which from the time of its founding was occupied by a
sizable religious community, became a Mapai fortress for many
years.
In order to understand this, we must recall some very
unpleasant episodes, which transpired forty-five years
ago.
In Teves 5711 (1951), Petach Tikva chose the members of its
municipal council. But who would be its mayor? One candidate
was a man named Schwalb who was supported by the right and by
the religious parties. The other candidate, Rashish, was
irreligious, and was a left-wing secularist and the
representative of Mapai, the very same party which in those
years worked to uproot Torah from the many new immigrants who
arrived in Eretz Yisroel, with such verve.
The choice of mayor (who was then elected by the municipal
council and not by direct popular vote as now) turned on one
vote -- that of the representative of a dati-chareidi
party. On the surface, there seemed to be no problem for the
religious community, for why should a religious
representative choose a non-religious mayor? However, rumors
spread that for various and strange reasons that
representative had other plans for his vote.
When this became known, Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah decided to
send a letter (written on the 22nd of Teves 5711) to that
religious representative on the municipal council, to make
him aware of the seriousness of the issue: "Under no
circumstances are you permitted to vote for a secular
candidate when it is possible to elect a Torah observant one.
All of the stumbling blocks which, chas vesholom, will
be caused by the secular mayor, will be attributed to those
who vote for him."
The concern was not only for that term of office, because in
those days once Mapai managed to get in, it was impossible to
budge them for many years afterward.
However, the religious representative refused to obey the
psak of the gedolei hador (and claimed that he
had received his instructions from the heads of his party) or
to the personal letters which were sent to him by Admorim and
many gedolei Torah.
On the 15th of Teves, 5711, the secular, Mapai candidate was
chosen. He received nine votes and his opponent eight.
The entire religious public in Eretz Yisroel was shocked.
Such an outrageous act, especially since it involved a
blatant rebellion against the express wishes of gedolei
Yisroel, was unprecedented. HaRav Meir Karelitz, who
until then had been the rov and spiritual leader of that
dati- chareidi party, announced his resignation the
very next morning. He said: "Since you have ceased to abide
by my counsel and rulings, I am submitting my
resignation."
The Admor of Rizhnitz wrote that representative: "I have
always stood by your side, both orally and in writing, and
now you have slapped me in the face in a shocking manner.
Where shall I flee in my shame?"
Of course, the leftist camp was delighted by the turn of
events, and loudly expressed its joy that "even a `religious'
representative understands that there are more important
things [Rachmono litzlan] than daas Torah."
Mapai's newspaper quoted from the speech delivered by the
mayor, Rashish, at his inauguration: "The threats, the
letters of rabbonim, and even the letter of the Admor of Gur
could not sway our colleague from his position. He remains
staunch in his position, since our joint partnership is based
on the foundation of mutual understanding" (Davar, 3
Shevat, 5711).
And so, Mapai gained control of Petach Tikva. In the ensuing
years, it devoted all of its energies to distributing
political positions and benefits in accordance with the well-
known "method." At last, Mapai became so rooted in the city,
that no one could budge it for forty years, until about ten
years ago.
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