Yankel Plitnick 1923 - 2020

If it were possible for someone to choose the time they’d like to leave this world at a ripe old age, and be taken for burial in the land they loved, Yankel Plitnick might well have chosen this weekend of parshat Chayei Sarah. 

Because in better times he would have flown to Israel last Thursday to join the tens of thousands who come annually to liberated Chevron to stand at the very spot that the Torah reading of the week describes.

Instead dear Yankel z’l passed away in London on Thursday afternoon at the age of 97.  He leaves behind a legacy of charitable endowments across Israel which helped build schools, orphanages and community centres from Netanya to Zichron Yaakov, and Yokneam to Kiryat Arba.

Brought up in England, the son of Liverpool’s chief rabbi, his mother hailed from the esteemed Landinsky family which had roots in the Yeshiva of the Chafetz Chaim in Radin and branches in the founding of the English yeshiva town of Gateshead.

Yankel became a successful businessman and, after the 1973 war, became a staunch supporter of Jewish settlement in Judea & Samaria. He later partnered Bet El founder ‘Ketzaleh’ Katz in the formation of Gush Emunim and the financing of Arutz Sheva’s pirate radio ship in the late ‘80s.

At that time, Israel’s Left-wing establishment had all three major Hebrew newspapers in their hands, as well as the two main television channels and almost all of the radio stations. The only dissenting voice for the Right and the promotion of ‘greater Israel’ was being broadcast from the ‘MV Eretz Hatzvi’ anchored just outside Israel’s territorial waters. From such choppy beginnings Arutz Sheva grew into the formidable media presence it is today.

Yankel lived and worked all his life in England, using his business success to provide support to local causes as well as promoting the ideology of Jabotinsky and Begin in pro-Israel activism and advocacy in the UK. Although never married with children of his own, Yankel built up an extended family of many hundreds of young people through his founding and leadership of the Hendon Adath youth minyan near his home in northwest London. To them he was their ‘Uncle Yankel’ - now sorely missed but with many fond memories.

Yankel is survived by his sister in Lakewood and will be laid to rest today, Sunday,in Beit Shemesh. 

יהי זכרו ברוך 

Yankel greets the legendary Rabbi Moshe Levinger, builder of Chevron.

[This article first appeared in Arutz Sheva]

A Persistence of Savagery

The cry went up: “Al Aksa is in danger … kill all the Jews wherever you see them!”  

And so they came with axes and meat cleavers and hacked the Jews to death.

I speak not of this week, but of August 1929 when 67 Jews were hacked to death in Chevron in response to the same Al Aksa war cry based on the same blood libels of Arabs being killed by Jews.

It seems bizarre that just last week, in Chevron for Shabbat Chayei Sarah, I walked along Rechov Tarpat (1929) talking about that massacre which came so close to repeating itself this week in Jerusalem. 

I was walking with Arieh Kiselstein whose father (pictured here with his injured father and sister) was 4 years old when rescued from under a heap of slain Jewish bodies.  At the time of the Chevron massacre, there was only one British policeman in charge of the whole town.  Fortunately this time our own police responded quickly enough to prevent many more deaths.

The lesson is that however much our people have progressed in 85 years – from hapless refugees to citizens of the most powerful and successful state in the region – our enemies have not changed one iota from the bloodthirsty automatons of jihadi incitement they’ve always been.

Before the 1929 massacre, Jews and Arabs had an almost idyllic coexistence in Chevron.  Jewish doctors treated Arab patients and Arab kids babysat for Jewish families in complete trust and harmony. This is the kind of co-existence the current-day Osloists and peaceniks still dream of as part of their Two-State Solution.  But Chevron 1929 was a wake-up call to our people just as shrill as last Tuesday should be.

This was not about Abbas. He is a man of straw.  This is way above his pay-grade.

This is being orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood with dreams of re-creating the Ottoman Empire as a Sharia caliphate with its capital in Jerusalem.

Having been unceremoniously turfed out of Egypt within an inch of reaching ultimate presidential power, the Brotherhood now seeks new relevance in the region and has chosen Jerusalem as its new powerbase.  Its tentacles are everywhere, including the White House which regularly entertains the leaders of its American chapter, known as CAIR; the Council on American Islamic Relations.  And the Brotherhood now has the patronage of Qatar, the world’s new spigot of terror funding and sponsors of Hamas.

In 1929 the Arabs offered Chevron's Sephardi community leader Rabbi Slonim a deal: hand over the local yeshiva boys and we will let your families live. The rabbi refused and was shot dead. 

In the end 55 of the 67 killed were yeshiva boys.

Just as 1929 was not a massacre of kibbutzniks, Tuesday’s attack was not against a secular target or any ‘symbol of the Zionist occupation’.  And as we all know, Har Nof is hardly an IDF recruitment centre. Think of Mercaz Harav, and the school in Toulouse and you will realize that these were not attacks on Zionism, but on Judaism itself.

The lesson of 1929 was that co-existence is an illusion which will only last as long as the next imam’s cry of Itbah al-Yahud.  We need to separate ourselves from the Arabs and to stop employing them in our stores, restaurants and building sites. There are hordes of peace-loving Filipinos and Eastern Europeans who will be only too pleased to take their places and their jobs in our land of milk and honey without lusting daily for Jewish blood.

Here is a sobering video account of the Chevron massacre.

ה' ינקום דמם

Child of Chevron

Snapped last week - a settler child picks flowers in the hills of Chevron.

Chevron (Hebron) is the site of the oldest Jewish community in the world, which dates back to Biblical times. The Book of Genesis relates that Abraham purchased the field where the Tomb of the Patriarchs is located as a burial place for his wife Sarah. According to Jewish tradition, the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah are buried in the Tomb.

Hebron has a long and rich Jewish history. It was one of the first places where the Patriarch Abraham resided after his arrival in Canaan. King David was anointed in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years. One thousand years later, during the first Jewish revolt against the Romans, the city was the scene of extensive fighting. Jews lived in Hebron almost continuously throughout the Byzantine, Arab, Mameluke, and Ottoman periods. It was only in 1929 — as a result of a murderous Arab pogrom in which 67 Jews were murdered and the remainder were forced to flee — that the city became temporarily "free" of Jews. After the 1967 Six-Day War, the Jewish community of Hebron was re-established. It has grown to include a range of religious and educational institutions.

Hebron contains many sites of Jewish religious and historical significance, in addition to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. These include the Tombs of Othniel Ben Kenaz (the first Judge of Israel) and Avner Ben Ner (general and confidante to Kings Saul and David), and Ruth and Jesse (great-grandmother and father, respectively, of King David). Victims of the 1929 pogrom, as well as prominent rabbinical sages and community figures, are buried in Hebron's ancient Jewish cemetery.

[Source: Jewish Virtual Library]

Rabbis Launching Mortars?

I snapped this unusual scene when arriving in Chevron Thursday, on the eve of the last day of Pesach.

Rabbi Uzi Sharbaf and his young student are hammering down poles to support the protest tent they have located opposite the house legally acquired across the road (pictured below).

However legal the purchase may have been - and the contract signing was even videotaped - it was too much for the politicians to risk upsetting the 'peace negotiations' with Mr Abbas and his partners in Hamas.

Rabbi Sharbaf is a son-in-law of the legendary Rabbi Moshe Levinger, without whom the bustling town of Kiryat Arba would never have existed.And with that, the opening of Chevron to new Jewish settlement as the original site of the establishment of King David's reign.

More about Rabbi Levinger can be seen in my archived blog HERE.

Rabbi Sharbaf is indeed launching mortars of a different kind.

The mortar of Jewish building and national revival.

Moses of Mamre

"And the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kiryat-arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. And Abraham buried Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan ."

It's hard to imagine a scene as joyous and religiously charged as Machpela on the Friday night of Parshat Chayei Sarah. Every year, many thousands of Jews from all over Israel, and hundreds more from Europe and America, flock to the tomb of our patriarchs, which Abraham purchased for Sarah's burial nearly 4,000 years ago.

The traditional burial plots of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Leah are now enclosed within one of the region's only fully surviving Herodian structures, secure behind 6-inch-thick stone walls which have withstood countless sieges over the centuries.

The property may have changed hands many times - from Romans to Muslims and Persians to Crusaders and Marmelukes - but on this night it belongs undeniably to the Jewish people. Until its recapture during the Six-Day War, the ruling Muslims only allowed Jewish pilgrims as far as the seventh step along an outer wall to stand and pray. On this night, the structure is filled to bursting point with hundreds of Jews of all denominations singing Lecha Dodi as one, with a fervor and passion that's simply unforgettable.

Flashback to a previous visit: The heat and crush soon become too much to bear, so I squeeze myself through the throng to find a way out and finish Maariv in the coolness of the night air. Outside I encounter a heaving sea of humanity. During the past hour, every section of courtyard and grass verges has filled with hundreds of youngsters - yeshiva boys and seminary girls in separate sections - dancing to Lecha Dodi as if it were Simchat Torah all over again.
It's a heartwarming scene of Jewish renaissance, oblivious to the hostile surroundings of bombed-out and battle-scarred Arab streets hidden in the shadows of a cold winter evening.

As I peer across one of the dancing groups, a familiar figure catches my eye. With his trademark large black yarmulke and wispy white beard, the man stands back from the crowd, clutching a small siddur to his chest as he watches the excitement going on around him. Not a single one of those kids paid him the slightest attention. Why should they? How could they know that, without this man, none of this would be taking place?

"Good Shabbos, Rav Moshe," I say. He returns my greeting with a handshake and a winning smile. Turning back to watch the youngsters dancing before us, I say: "See, Rav Moshe - these are kol bonayich [all your children]."

It was in 1968 that a small ad appeared in an Israeli newspaper. It read: "Wanted: Families or singles interested in resettling the ancient city of Hebron. For details contact Rabbi M. Levinger." It was close to Pesach - the first Pesach after the Six-Day War - and this relatively unknown rabbi from Petach Tikva had the idea of holding a Seder in the newly liberated Hebron, final resting place of our patriarchs and first capital city of King David.

War is always bad for business and the owner of Hebron's Park Hotel was only too pleased to welcome the 60 "Swiss tourists" who booked in for Passover. He allowed them to kosher-up the kitchens and provided for all their special festival needs.

But at the conclusion of the Pesach week, Rabbi Levinger and his followers announced that they were refusing to leave. The police were called. The army was called. The government was called. They even sent the legendary defense minister Moshe Dayan to try and persuade them to leave. But Moshe the general was no match for Moshe the rabbi, and the standoff continued.

In the end a compromise was finally reached. If he agreed to vacate the hotel, Rabbi Levinger and his followers would be allowed safe passage to move into an abandoned army base on a nearby hilltop.

Forty years later, that hilltop has become the bustling town of Kiryat Arba, home to 7,000 Jews, complete with schools, synagogues and shopping centers. It is linked to Hebron and the Cave of Machpela by a short road, best known as The Worshippers' Way.

This is the road along which tens of thousands of Chayei Sarah pilgrims have marched for this most important Friday night of the year,

Thus Rabbi Moshe Levinger's 1968 Seder "sit-in" became the first settler foray into the liberated bible lands of Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank. Under the guidance of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, Rabbi Levinger later formed Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) which went on to establish dozens of Religious Zionist communities in Judea and Samaria which now boasts a Jewish population of more than a quarter of a million souls.

During the year since my last visit, Rabbi Levinger suffered a stroke from which he has, thank God, been gradually recovering. I am flying out from England to be there again this year. While I may not find him in the crowd again this Friday night, Rav Moshe will not fail to hear the sounds of Jewish awakening echoing across the plains of ancient Mamre from wherever he is sitting.

For just as Moses once led the Jewish people to their Promised Land, this modern-day Moses, with true grit and determination, has shown our people the way back home.

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This article first appeared in The Jewish Press
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