Ze'ev Yavetz, A Significant Figure In Early Zionism

Ze'ev Yavetz (1847-1924), my great-great-grandfather, was a significant figure in early Zionism. His life and work bridged the gap between religious and secular Jewry, as crucial an issue in the 19th century as it is today. He was a writer, a journalist, a poet, a novelist, an activist, a short story writer and a teacher, one might even say an influencer. The 100th anniversary of his death is a good opportunity to rediscover him.

His death in London in 1924 left an indelible mark on our family. My father, who was only four at the time, remembered the day vividly. "There was a great deal of weeping and wailing", he told me. Ze'ev Yavetz's name came up at big family events, but I have to admit, I didn't pay attention. I grew more interested in my antecedent when I made aliyah, twenty years ago, and discovered how revered he was in Zichron Ya'akov. There is a school and a street named after him, and his image appears painted on a wall in the center of town, along with Zichron founders and heroes. Indeed, his contributions to education, literature, and the Hebrew language continue to influence Jewish life and thought today.

Born in Kolno, Poland, in 1847, to a wealthy and religious family, he received a comprehensive education in both Jewish and European literature, fostering a lifelong appreciation for both. He married Golda, the sister of his close friend Yechiel Michel Pines, who shared his intellectual and religious interests. They had four children.

Unfortunately, Yavetz suffered from ill health and failed in a number of business ventures, some even funded by his father. Eventually he regained his pride and confidence, with the encouragement of Golda, by dedicating himself to writing and research. His literary career blossomed with the publication of his Talmudic legends and a novel about settling in the Land of Israel.

However, in the 1880s the anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe forced many Jews to emigrate. The obvious choices at the time were America or Ottoman Palestine. Inspired by his strong association with the Hibbat Zion movement, in 1886 Ze'ev, Golda and their children left for Jaffa. It was magic, he wrote. He was overcome by what he saw and described in a letter that his personality had been transformed. An introduction to the powerful Baron Rothschild, who had acquired from the Ottomans huge tracts of land along the coast, led to the post of headmaster of the school in newly built Zichron Ya'akov. Despite initial concerns about his religiosity, Yavetz became active in the community. He was able to understand the viewpoints of both the orthodox and moderates and smooth over tensions. He became popular. His innovative teaching methods included writing the first children's educational book in Hebrew reflecting his own orthodox perspective. It was the first of many books he wrote in Hebrew for children.

He is best known today for initiating the tradition of planting trees on Tu B'Shvat. Visitors to the park opposite the site of the original school (now the Museum of the Aliyah) in Zichron Ya'akov, will see a small sign by a towering eucalyptus tree, planted by Yavetz and his pupils in 1890. The idea caught on and was adopted by the Jewish Teachers Union, and in later years by the Jewish National Fund.

Unfortunately, Yavetz's tenure in Zichron Ya'akov was marked by conflicts with Baron de Rothschild's emissaries, particularly Eliyahu Scheid. Despite Scheid's efforts to undermine him, Yavetz remained dedicated to his educational and communal duties. Later in 1890, after a brief visit to Jerusalem, he was horrified to find that Scheid had replaced him with a young woman, recently arrived from Paris. Dr. Hillel Yaffe, in his diary, referred to this humiliation as a scandal and suspected, as did many, that Scheid had been having an affair with the woman, and had promised her the post. This period was particularly painful for Yavetz; he felt betrayed by the educational authorities and the Western influences they promoted. He moved to Jerusalem, returning to his life as a writer and a journalist. Here Yavetz joined the newly formed Hebrew Language Committee. Despite frequent disagreements with the notoriously disputatious Eliezer Ben Yehuda, he enriched the Hebrew lexicon with forty new words.

Ze'ev Yavetz continued to write prolifically in Jerusalem, and promoted new educational methods. His dried flower albums, designed for Christian tourists, included poetry from both Jewish and secular sources, reflecting his broad intellectual interests. However, life was hard for a freelance writer and journalist in a small Jewish community. There were fewer new arrivals from Eastern Europe, and the younger generation had started to leave for an education and better opportunities abroad. Ze'ev and Golda remained in Jerusalem for another 10 years, but by the time the three older children had grown up and left home, the Yavetzes decided to join their newly married daughter in Vilna.

By this time, Theodore Herzl had launched a hugely successful Zionist Congress in Basel and was planning the second. Ze'ev Yavetz became a founder member of the Mizrachi Religious Zionist movement. Herzl was clearly a secular Jew, addressing the liberal modern Jewish communities, but the numbers were a great deal smaller than the millions of religious Jews in the towns and shtetls throughout Poland and the Pale of Settlement. The Mizrachi Religious Zionist movement was founded to bring the religious community into the Zionist fold, and Yavetz was asked to write the first Mizrachi manifesto. Here he drew together the two opposing strands of Zionist thinking, the secular and the religious. "Zion and Torah are two holy vessels which complement and need one another… There is no other force that can protect and strengthen the Zionist ideal except for the observance of true Judaism in all its aspects and in all its purity."

Pogroms were starting to spread again, and Vilna had become unsafe. The couple moved on to Berlin, with its flourishing Jewish community and intellectual life. When Golda died a couple of years later, Yavetz, who was still researching, writing and publishing, moved to Antwerp to live with his daughter. Antwerp was not a success for any of them, and they settled in London, where Yavetz developed deep friendships with many religious leaders, including the venerable Rabbi Kook. He was still worried about the religious future of the Jewish homeland. On the one hand he battled against the extreme orthodox Agudath Israel, and on the other he worried about the growing secularity.

Ze'ev Yavetz died in January 1924 and was buried in the Willesden Cemetery in London. His fourteen-volume history had taken twenty-seven years to complete, cementing his legacy as a pivotal figure in Jewish historiography. It was published posthumously by his son.

Goldie (9) Nava (8) and Dar (6) Bonck, direct descendants of the first headmaster, are now pupils at the Yavetz School in Zichron Ya'akov.

Dr. Assaf Yedidya's biography of Ze'ev Yavetz, "Nurturing a Hebrew Culture," has been translated into English. Inquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.