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lemonade with ice. Surprised, Rav Nissenbaum asked his Rav Nissenbaum rebuked the religious Jews of Petach Tikva
host where the ice had come from. “Do you have a machine for not embracing the workers and hiring Arabs at cheaper
that makes ice?” Laughing, his host explained that the “ice” prices, passionately quoting the Talmud Yerushalmi’s pro-
was actually packed snow from Mount Hermon, which an hibition: “Do not hire gentile workers [when Jewish labor is
enterprising worker carried in a sack to the settlements available]!” Infuriated by Rav Nissenbaum’s speech, Rabbi
in the area. Yehoshua Stampfer, the head of Petach Tikvah’s va’ad, ran
up to the bimah to refute him. While staring at Rav Nissen-
Many of the Jewish pioneers struggled to make ends meet,
and some lived in appalling conditions of poverty. But Rav baum, he yelled: “You want us to welcome these workers
Nissenbaum was farsighted enough to envision a future far – these sinners! – into our homes and give them work in
brighter than what he saw in 1905. Visiting Ein Zeitim, a our orchards, while they violate everything holy before
struggling settlement just north of Tzfat with land ill-suited our eyes and corrupt our children!” The workers in the
for agriculture, he noted its refreshing breeze and beauti- audience, deeply insulted, stormed out of the shul in protest.
ful weather. One day, he imagined, this would become a Afterwards, Rav Nissenbaum spoke with the workers in
beautiful vacation destination! their barracks all through the night, asking them not to
blame all of the religious farmers for the painful words of
Traveling through the Galil, Rav Nissenbaum was struck Rabbi Stampfer. Most of the religious farmers did care for
by the sheer emptiness of the Land. “I’ve been traveling for the workers, and if the workers could show a little more
over five hours… and I haven’t seen one home, one planted respect for Judaism and tradition, he believed the rift could
tree, one seeded field or any living thing! Was the Land like be healed.
this when our forefathers lived in this place? The Galil in
those days was crowded with habitation; if I was traveling Founding editor of HaMizrachi
in ancient times, how many villages and cities would I have
encountered! And yet there, in the exile, there are anti-Zi- Though Rav Nissenbaum was one of the earliest members
onists who claim that this entire Land is already settled of Mizrachi after its founding in 1902, he temporarily left
by strangers and there is no room here for the children of the movement during the Uganda controversy in 1903,
the Land!” I often think of Rav Nissenbaum’s insight on my when many of Mizrachi’s leaders supported the plan to
commute from Gush Etzion to Beit Shemesh. Looking out make Uganda a temporary “safe haven” for the Jewish
the window of the bus, all I can see are empty hills, waiting people. But after his visit to the Land in 1905, he more
for their children to return home. deeply appreciated Mizrachi’s efforts to establish religious
schools in the new Yishuv, and soon rejoined the movement.
In Petach Tikvah, Rav Nissenbaum witnessed the new
Yishuv’s growing secular/religious divide firsthand. Founded In 1918, shortly after the conclusion of World War I and
in 1878 by religious Jews from the old Yishuv, tensions ran the issuing of the Balfour Declaration, Rav Nissenbaum
high between Petach Tikvah’s religious founders and their was appointed the founding editor of HaMizrachi, a criti-
primarily secular workers. As the guest speaker on Shabbat, cally important role that would place him at the epicenter
of Religious Zionism. Published in Warsaw, the original
HaMizrachi was a weekly Hebrew-language newspaper that
regularly featured contributions from the leading Religious
Zionist thinkers of the era, including Rav Moshe Avigdor
Amiel, Rav Shmuel Halevi Brot, Rav Yitzhak Yehuda Trunk
of Kutno and, of course, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook. The
mainstay of the publication, however, was Rav Nissenbaum
himself. In addition to regularly writing feature articles, he
also contributed hundreds of Torah essays over the years
in a regular column entitled Resisim, “Fragments”, in which
he masterfully interpreted Biblical and aggadic sources
through a modern, Religious Zionist lens.
Rav Nissenbaum repeatedly turned down positions of
leadership in the Mizrachi movement, saying “I am of the
sganim (the deputies)”, the people who generally act and do
more than those in charge. But in 1937, when Rav Shmuel
Halevi Brot moved to Antwerp, Rav Nissenbaum was forced
against his will to serve as the President of Mizrachi in
Poland, a position he would fill with honor and dedication
as the dark clouds of the Holocaust descended upon Eastern
European Jewry.
Rabbi Yehoshua Stampfer

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