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Rabbinical Leaders

Rav Yesha'ayahu Shapira

1891-1945

If Hayyim Landau began the idea of 'Torah Va'Avodah', Yeshayahu Shapira was the one to bring it into reality. Not surprisingly, both came from similar backgrounds, and both were actual rebels against their immediate surroundings. Born in Grodzisk, Poland, Shapira was the youngest son of the Hasidic Rebbe, Elimelech of Grodzisk. His father died when he was one year old and he was taken and educated by his grandfather. In his house, Yeshayahu received an education deeply rooted in Hasidism, being groomed to take over for his father the rather substantial following that existed. But part of his education included the instillment of a deep love for Eretz Yisrael (if not for Zionism) and when the time came to become Rebbe, Shapira decided to go to Eretz Yisrael instead. Upon arriving in Jaffa, he met with Rabbi A.I. Kook who had a tremendous influence on the young hasid. Unfortunately, World War I broke out and Shapira decided that his place was with the family he had left behind in Poland.

Here Shapira began to teach the ideas of Religious Zionism among the various hasidic communities, and began his involvement in Mizrachi. He joined the First Mizrachi Convention of 1917 and there called upon all Orthodox Jews to sell their businesses and possessions and go and live in Eretz Yisrael. He became convinced that agriculture and farming were the surest of ways to reclaim the land of Israel and to bring about the redemption. In 1919 he spoke to the Congress in Hebrew and reiterated the Religious Zionist stance, concentrating on the need to establish agricultural settlements.

In 1920, Shapira came on Aliya and immediately took over as head of the Immigration and Labor Department at the World Mizrachi Headquarters in Jerusalem. In this capacity, he initiated the building of the Rosh Pina - Tangah Road and the cleaning of Solomon's Pools outside of Bethlehem. Personally participating in these efforts, he soon became known as the Pioneer Rebbe. In addition, he began a movement to help those people who could find no other work, thereby combating problems of unemployment.

In 1921, he took part in what was to become the foundation meeting of Ha'Poel Ha'Mizrachi. He was one of the chief instigators behind the creation of a Religious Zionist Labor movement to answer the needs of those religious youth who wished to fuse their lives which were dedicated to Torah with the ideology of Labor. At the first Ha'Poel Ha'Mizrachi Congress of 1922, Shapira was the keynote speaker and soon became one of the three directors of the movement, as well as head of the settlement division for Ha'Poel Ha'Mizrachi. Though most of his energies were devoted to establishing Religious Zionist Labor communities, he continued to serve on the board of the Mizrachi Party. When Ha'Poel Ha'Mizrachi became embroiled in its first identity crisis, Shapira supported the faction which desired to enter the general Labor movement of Israel, i.e., the Histadrut. After the crisis had passed, he devoted his time to buying land for settlement. However, he continued to represent Ha'Poel Ha'Mizrachi at inter-governmental meetings and in public forums.

In 1924, Shapira traveled back to Poland to try and influence some of the Hasidic community to come to Eretz Yisrael. To the end he was largely successful in convincing two fairly young rebbes, Rabbi Yehezkel Taub and Rabbi Israel Hoffstein, to move to Israel with their hasidim. They bought land with the help of Shapira and founded the settlements of Nahalat Ya'akov and Avodat Yisrael, which later merged into Kfar Hasidim. He went on to found Kfat Ata.

For ten years, from 1933-43, Shapira managed 'Zerubbavel', a cooperative bank in Yerushalayim. But desiring to reenter agriculture, he settled in Kfar Pines and there his house served as a spiritual center for the Ha'Poel Ha'Mizrachi movement until his death in 1945. He wrote many articles on economic and agricultural problems, foreseeing in many ways the problematic halacha issues to emerge with the new State. Synagogues in Kfar Pines, Kfar Ata, and Tel Aviv, as well as a forest in the Galilee, were named after him.