Page 13 - HaMizrachi Chanukah 2021 - USA

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1920 1921 1922 1923
The Tachkemoni rabbinic college is founded Mizrachi elementary and secondary schools Hapoel HaMizrachi, Bank Mizrachi is
in Warsaw, with Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik are founded in Krakow; its graduates include the Torah va'Avodah founded by the
as Head ofTalmudic Studies many of the founders of Kfar Etzion movement, is founded Mizrachi movement

community of Tzfat dramatically In Lida, Rabbi Reines first promoted Rabbi Reines passed away in 1915 at
declined. On the advice of friends, the idea of embracing political Zion- the age of 76, but his legacy is broad
Rabbi Shlomo Naftali remained in ism, a movement led by secular Jewish and deep. Orthodox Judaism was only
Europe and settled in the city of Pinsk- nationalists actively working towards able to participate in the Zionist project
Karlin. The following year he remar- creating a sovereign Jewish state for due to his deep commitment to polit-
ried, and in 1839 had a son, whom the first time in almost 2,000 years. ical Zionism. His visionary leadership
he named Yitzchak Yaakov. This boy Rabbi Reines had previously been ensured that at every stage leading up
would be an outstanding educator and involved with the Chovevei Tzion move- to and then after the creation of the
leader, paving the way for Orthodoxy ment, which promoted Jewish settle- State of Israel, as a direct result of the
in modernity, as a trailblazing leader ment in Palestine. But with the advent Mizrachi movement he created, Israel
in Jewish education and Religious of Zionism in the mid-1890s, many would be a "Jewish" state rather than
Zionism. rabbis who had eagerly supported just a state for Jews.
Chovevei Tzion became horrified by the
Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines studied
prospect of an irreligious Jewish state
in the yeshivot of Volozhin and Eish-
and openly criticized Zionism and its Rabbi Pini Dunner, Senior Rabbi at Beverly
ishok, where he excelled as a Talmu- Hills Synagogue, hails from a prominent
secular leadership.
dic scholar. He married the daughter of German rabbinic dynasty that miraculously
Rabbi Yosef Reizin, the rabbi ofTelz and Initially, Rabbi Reines remained neu- survived the Holocaust and reestablished
later Slonim, and in 1867 was appointed tral, and he did not attend the first two itself in London, England. He is an expert on
the Rabbi ofSaukenai (Shukian) in Lith- Zionist Congresses of 1897 and 1898. But antiquarian Hebrew books and manuscripts,
uania and soon afterward the Rabbi in 1899, Rabbi Reines decided that the and is frequently consulted by libraries, aca-
of Svencionys (Shvintzian). There he issue of Jewish hegemony over Eretz demics, and private collectors.
began to write and publicize a highly Yisrael was too important to be set
original approach to the study of aside for any other considerations. He
traditional Jewish texts. This curric- attended the Third Zionist Congress in
ulum included general-knowledge Basel. Overwhelmed by the experience,
topics extrapolated from Talmudic he became a devoted and determined
material and other rabbinic sources. proponent of the Zionist cause.
But although many of his colleagues
welcomed this original approach, He later wrote that after returning
some opposed it because it crossed the home, a group of his anti-Zionist col-
self-imposed red lines of traditional leagues came to see him to persuade
Orthodoxy. him to leave the Zionist movement.
But Rabbi Reines firmly believed that
Undeterred, in 1884, Rabbi Reines
Zionism was the only way forward for
opened a yeshivah based on his inno- Torah-observant Jews. He was deter-
vative system. He called the yeshivah mined to lead an Orthodox group
Torah VeDaat ("Torah and Knowledge"),
within the Zionist movement that
and introduced a groundbreaking
would become a beacon of Religious
integrated curriculum which included
Zionism. Even the Chafetz Chaim - one
Tanach, Talmud, halacha and general
of his closest friends - was unable to
studies - all aimed at training rabbis
change his mind, and in 1902 Rabbi
who would be firmly rooted in tradition
Reines formally launched the Mizrachi
while also able to operate in the rapidly
movement. With Rabbi Reines at the
assimilating Russian-Jewish commu-
helm, Mizrachi immediately became
nity. But vigorous opposition forced the
the exclusive organizational home for
yeshivah's closure after four years, and
Religious Zionists and one of the stron-
it wasn't until 1905 that Rabbi Reines
gest membership groups within
was able to reopen his yeshivah, this
the Zionist movement.
time in Lida.