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Who Murdered

Chaim Arlozorov?

Rav Kook’s Fight for Justice

for the Falsely Accused

Moshe Nachmani

inety years ago, on Friday night, June 16, 1933, Chaim from all of humanity, must
Arlozorov, head of the political department of the Jewish protest against this terri-
Agency, was murdered on a beach in Tel Aviv. Two right- ble sin of shedding clean
N wing Jewish activists, Avraham Stavsky and Zvi Rosenblatt, and righteous blood, and
were suspected of the murder. Their ten-month trial caused a do everything in his power
storm of controversy in the Jewish community in Israel, and at to correct the perversion of
the end of the trial, Stavsky was sentenced to death by hanging.
the law and restore to the
One of the most prominent figures in the story of Stavsky’s rescue pure victim his complete
from execution was the Chief Rabbi, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKo- freedom.”
hen Kook. Rav Kook came to Stavsky’s defense on the grounds
that there was no actual evidence that he committed the murder, When Rav Kook was asked
arguing that it was forbidden to execute a suspect under such if he was sure that Stavsky
circumstances. was not the murderer, he
replied: “I am not 100%
Rav Kook’s argument was not based on ruach hakodesh, nor on the
assumption that a Jew is incapable of killing, as some respected sure; I am 120% sure!” In
researchers claim, but on confidential information he received an assembly attended by Stamp in honor of Avraham Stavsky.
that exonerated Stavsky. The decisive information was given to fifty people, including the
him by Bechor Sheetrit, the prosecutor in the murder case. Sheet- leaders of the Yishuv, he
rit had interrogated two Arabs who were suspected of the murder said: “I am ready to swear on Erev Yom Kippur in front of an
and became convinced that they were, indeed, the culprits. After open aron kodesh that Stavsky is innocent.”
Rav Kook swore that he would keep the matter a secret, Sheetrit Interestingly, though Rav Kook was one of the leaders of those
revealed his conclusions to him.
who worked for the acquittal and release of Stavsky, to this day
An action committee was established to save the accused, and no comprehensive study has been written that describes all of his
Rav Kook won the public campaign to save Stavsky. He published efforts. Much has been written about the Arlozorov murder, but
announcements and urged distinguished public figures to join the the experts have, for some reason, purposely concealed Rav Kook’s
rescue attempts. He did all this despite the heavy public pressure role. For example, in the book The Murder of Arlozorov by Shabtai
directed towards him and accusations that he was protecting a Tevet, Rav Kook’s name is mentioned only twice incidentally.
murderer. Left-wing extremists hung posters on the walls of his
house: “Woe to the generation whose kohanim protect murderers.” After Stavsky was acquitted in court, Beitar leader Ze’ev Jabotin-
For many weeks, the left-wing press published a slew of hateful sky sent an emotional letter to the Religious Zionist rabbi Natan
articles against Rav Kook. Milikovsky (Benjamin Netanyahu’s grandfather), and among
Rav Kook was not frightened by the propaganda campaign. In one other things he wrote: “Overnight, Rav Kook’s name became a
of his proclamations, he wrote: “We can all testify that [Stavsky] sublime symbol in the hearts of countless multitudes… If I were
is completely free of guilt. We must not stand idly by! Anyone not a boor completely ignorant of the Torah and afraid to open
who has a spark of G-dliness in his heart, from all of Israel and my mouth on a religious matter, I would call publicly at this

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