Page 46 - HaMizrachi # 22 Rosh HahHana - Yom Kippur 2020 USA

THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND RELIGIOUS ZIONIST LEADERS

OUR SERIES ON LEADERS WHO HAVE SHAPED RELIGIOUS ZIONISM OVER THE LAST 150 YEARS

Rav Yeshayahu Shapira

orn in Grodzisk, Poland, Rav Headquarters in Jerusalem. In this of his energies were devoted to estab-
Shapira was the youngest son of capacity, he initiated the building of lishing Religious Zionist Labor com-
Bthe Chasidic Rebbe, Elimelech the Rosh Pina-Tangah Road and the munities, he continued to serve on the
of Grodzisk. His father died when he cleaning of Solomon’s Pools outside of board of the Mizrachi Party. When
was just a year old and he was taken Bethlehem. Personally participating in HaPoel HaMizrachi became embroiled
and educated by his grandfather. In these efforts, he soon became known in its first identity crisis, Rav Shapira
his house, Yeshayahu received an edu- as the Pioneer Rebbe. In addition, he supported the faction which desired
cation deeply rooted in Chasidism, began a movement to help people who to enter the general Labor Movement,
being groomed to take over his father’s couldn’t find work, thereby combating i.e., the Histadrut. After the crisis had
rather substantial following. Part of his problems of unemployment. passed, he devoted his time to buying
education included the nurturing of a land for settlement. However, he con-
deep love for Eretz Yisrael (if not for tinued to represent HaPoel HaMiz-
Zionism) and when the time came to rachi at inter-governmental meetings
become Rebbe, Rav Shapira decided and in public forums.
to go to Eretz Yisrael instead. Upon
arriving in Jaffa, he met with Rav In 1924, Rav Shapira traveled back
Kook, who had a tremendous influ- to Poland to try and influence some
ence on the young Chasid. Unfortu- of the Chasidic community to come
nately, World War I broke out and Rav to Eretz Yisrael. To this end, he was
Shapira decided he should be with the largely successful in convincing two
family he had left behind in Poland. fairly young rebbes, Rabbi Yehezkel
Taub and Rabbi Israel Hoffstein, to
There, Rav Shapira began to teach move to Israel with their chassidim.
the ideas of Religious Zionism among They bought land with the help of
the various Chasidic communities Rav Shapira and founded the settle-
and he began his involvement in Miz- ments of Nachalat Ya’akov and Avodat
rachi. He joined the First Mizrachi Yisrael, which later merged into Kfar
Convention of 1917 and called upon Chasidim. He went on to found Kfar
all Orthodox Jews to sell their busi- Ata.
nesses and possessions and go and
live in Eretz Yisrael. He became con- In 1921, he took part in what was to For 10 years, from 1933-43, Rav Sha-
vinced that agriculture and farming become the foundation meeting of pira managed Zerubavel, a cooperative
were the surest ways to reclaim the HaPoel HaMizrachi. He was one of the bank in Yerushalayim. But desiring to
Land of Israel and to bring about the chief instigators behind the creation reenter agriculture, he settled in Kfar
Redemption. In 1919, he spoke to the of a Religious Zionist Labor move- Pines, where his home served as a
Congress in Hebrew and reiterated the ment to answer the needs of religious spiritual center for HaPoel HaMizra-
Religious Zionist stance, concentrating youth who wished to fuse their lives chi until his death in 1945. He wrote
on the need to establish agricultural (which were dedicated to Torah) with many articles on economic and agri-
settlements. the Labor ideology. At the first HaPoel cultural problems, often foreseeing the
HaMizrachi Congress in 1922, Rav problematic halachic issues to emerge
In 1920, Rav Shapira came on aliyah Shapira was the keynote speaker and with the new State. Synagogues in
and immediately took over as head soon became one of the Movement’s Kfar Pines, Kfar Ata and Tel Aviv were
of the Immigration and Labor three directors, as well as head of its named after him, as well as a forest in
Department at the World Mizrachi Settlement Division. Although most the Galilee. 

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