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moment for something I have dreamed about since my youth:
to renew in our days the title of kohen gadol!”
Upon his release from detention, Stavsky ran to Rav Kook’s house
to thank him for saving him from death. When he arrived at the
Rav’s house, he realized that Rav Kook was at a resort on Mount
Carmel. Rav Kook’s assistant, Rabbi Avraham Chechik, came to
his aid and handed him the phone. Stavsky called the rabbi with
great excitement, and when he heard the rabbi’s voice he began
to cry with great emotion, and Rav Kook also cried for some time.
Only after a few minutes was Stavsky able to stop crying and
thank Rav Kook for saving his life.
“The next Sunday, he went to Haifa to see our late rabbi face-
to-face. It was like a father meeting with his son after a long
separation. They kissed and hugged with special warmth and
love,” Chechik later said (Bimchitzato, Rabbi Avraham Chechik).
Chechik added: “The Stavsky trial unleashed a storm of anger
and fighting within the Jewish community. Who knows how
we would have morally deteriorated had G-d not infused our
holy teacher and rabbi, whom G-d blessed with love for Israel
without measure, with His holy spirit. G-d knew his pure soul Davar newspaper headline the day after Arlozorovʼs Murder.
and directed its path so that it would hear a higher command.
When the righteousness of the late accused Stavsky became clear genius and righteous man of the generation. With a pain that
to him beyond all doubt, he set out to stand in the breach to save burns to the depths of our souls, we mourn his passing. Today his
a soul of Israel.” absence is even more deeply felt. In front of everyone and as the
But if Stavsky did not murder Arlozorov, who did? As I men- British government watches and does nothing, shocking atrocities
tioned above, the murderers were two Arabs, Abdul Majid and and murders are carried out [against the Jewish community]. The
Issa Darwish, and this became clear as the years passed, with Yishuv is wallowing in blood and there is no one to encourage the
the disclosure of publicly published evidence. Yishuv and unite it to properly respond to the injustice that cries
out to the heavens. Only you, Rav Kook, could have protested
A few years ago, I heard from the late Esther Bazak the testimony when our rights were violated at the Western Wall in 1929; only
of her father, Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Shereshevsky, about what hap- you knew how to encourage us and awaken us… When the decree
pened that night at the beach. Shereshevsky immigrated to Israel prohibiting the blowing of a shofar by the Western Wall was
with his three children from Germany shortly before the murder. published, you publicly called upon the Yishuv to protest the
The night of the murder, he was sitting with some friends on the decree and fight for our rights. And in 1933, in those days when
beach, where they organized a birthday party for him. Suddenly class war and the desire to divide our people raged in the Yishuv
they saw two Arabs running on the beach towards Jaffa. A few and destroyed everything good in us, when a part of the Yishuv
minutes later, British policemen arrived and shouted at the group consumed by hatred wanted to destroy a tribe from Israel and
of celebrating Jews to leave. plotted to have three innocent Jews hanged – you knew how to
The next day, Shereshevsky and his friends heard that Chaim stand in battle against evil and fought for the honor of the Yishuv.
Arlozorov had been murdered on the beach where they were sit- You knew how to respond with the necessary sharpness, and you
ting the night before. “My father went to Jerusalem on Sunday to understood how to navigate the authorities and the police. You
see Rav Kook and told him that he saw the Arabs fleeing and that called out and awakened the conscience of the community and
the British kicked them out of the beach,” Esther said, “and later brought a victory of justice over lies.”
it turned out that Arlozorov was indeed murdered by two Arabs.” Rosenblatt ended his article with an emotional personal cry:
Since many on the left did not accept the ruling of the Mandate “Silently, we stand at your grave. An orphaned and poor nation
authorities acquitting the accused and believed that Stavsky and yearns to unite with your memory, to continue the path you
Rosenblatt were guilty of murder and were acquitted for technical forged for the freedom fighters of Israel.”
reasons only, the left continued for many years to accuse the Revi-
sionists of murder. This is why Menachem Begin established the
Bechor Committee in 1982 to investigate the murder of Arlozorov,
and it concluded that the Jewish defendants, Avraham Stavsky
and Zvi Rosenblatt, were innocent of any guilt.
In a new book recently released about Rav Kook, ה ָב ֲה ַא ָה ל ַכי ֵה, fas-
cinating material was published about Rav Kook’s involvement in
the rescue of Stavsky and Rosenblatt, including an article written
by Rosenblatt on the first anniversary of Rav Kook’s death: Moshe Nachmani
“Only a year ago, Rav Kook was alive among us. He fought and is a writer for Olam Katan specializing in Religious Zionist history.
rallied us all around him. He was the father of the Yishuv, the

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