Page 39 - HaMizrachi Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot 5782 USA

went to Rabbi Dovid Lifshitz to get a birkat preidah, and he says:
ֹ
?ד ֵח ַפ ְמ אל ה ָּ ת ַא, “are you not afraid?” I responded, “I’m relying on
Hashem – and the IDF!”
I never thought I’d go back to America; by 1977 I had done basic
training and time in the army, and I really felt like an Israeli. But
then the Jewish Agency decided to send me on a trip to the US to
speak at the RCA convention and other events. I wrote to the Rav
to let him know that I was coming, and when we saw each other
at the RCA convention he embraced me and said “I hear wonderful
things about you, what you’re doing in Israel!” I was so thankful
he didn’t ask me about how I was making a living, because believe
me – I was far from making a living, if you know what was going
on here in 1977 with the crazy taxes and the terrible economy!
But baruch Hashem, I didn’t disappoint my Rebbe, and he gave me
a lot of positive feedback about what I was doing in Israel.
How did you become involved with Nativ, the clandestine
Israeli governmental organization that secretly worked with
Soviet Jewry to strengthen Jewish identity and encourage Teaching at Michlalah, 1975
Aliyah? Can you tell us about your missions to the Soviet
Union in the 1980s?
I can tell you everything I know about my work with Nativ
because the security clause that I signed at the time was knocked
out in 2002. But the truth is, I don’t know how Mossad decided to
approach me; they would never tell me.
In May of 1980 I got a call. The lady on the phone says in Hebrew:
“Rabbi Rakeffet, are you prepared to have a conversation but not
to reveal the details of the conversation?” I assumed it was a call
from a student, as I’ve gotten calls like this from students over
the years who have committed some sort of serious sin, and they
confess to me like I’m like a priest, hoping I’ll tell them to say a
few ‘Hail Marys’ and absolve the sin. I figured that’s what it was!
But then the woman put the call through to a man who said:
“Rabbi Rakeffet, this is Aryeh. I understand that you know how
to teach Gemara. Are you prepared to teach Gemara in Moscow?”
Now I understood; a few of my students from America had gone
to Russia on one of these operations, and before they left they
visited me and left me their last will and testament. My wife had Rabbi Rakeffet in basic training, 1976
teased me then: “You would never have the guts to go!” So when
I got this call, I said “yes!” But then he asked me: “Who will you
take with you?” I said “My wife.” He responded: “What will you
do with your daughters?” and proceeded to list all their names
and ages. I started to shake and realized that this was no joke;
this was real.
This was Aryeh Kroll zt”l, who later received the Israel Prize for
his work. He came from a Litvishe family, his uncle was a rosh
yeshivah in Slobodka, his father was a shochet and he was a real
crazy Bnei Akiva-nik! He was a founder of Kibbutz Sa’ad. After
25 years, in 1965, he was entitled to go on a trip overseas, and he
chose to go to Russia; he had two sisters there who survived the
Holocaust whom he hadn’t seen since 1937. The trip changed
Aryeh’s life. People ran after him: “Give us a memento! Give us
your tallit, your tefillin!” He gave his tallit to a Jew there who said
“now I can die, I have a tallit to be buried in.” Aryeh came back
to Israel; he didn’t know what to do, but had to do something.
He went to speak to Ben-Gurion, whose kibbutz was nearby in
the Negev, and said “we have to do something!” Aryeh didn’t Teaching for the Chevrat Aliyah Toranit at Lincoln Square Synagogue, 1978

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