The Last Jew of the Week: Samuel the Prince

Dear Friends,

After nearly 14 years of Jew of the Week, I’ve decided to hang up the skates and focus on other projects. It’s been a wonderful journey, and I thank all of you for the kind support, feedback, and suggestions – whether you’ve been subscribed from the very beginning or just joined recently. I will continue posting on my other blog, and YouTube channel. In the coming months, I hope to put together an anthology of some of the best and most inspiring Jew of the Week posts in book form. The website www.JewOfTheWeek.com will remain online as a valuable database of some 800 short biographies of great Jewish figures in history. Best wishes and please keep in touch!

Sincerely,
Efraim Palvanov

The “Prince” of Spanish Jewry

Shmuel haLevi ben Yosef, aka Ismail ibn Naghrillah (993-1056) was born in Merida, Spain which was then under Muslim Arab rule. He studied to become a rabbi and was fluent in multiple languages including Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin. To make a living he became a spice merchant, and eventually moved to Granada and set up shop near the palace of the king. One of his customers there was the king’s chief secretary, Abu al-Kasim ibn al-Arif. Eventually, he hired Shmuel as an advisor, and later promoted him to tax collector. Shmuel showed his genius quickly and became very influential in the royal court. When the king passed away, Shmuel helped Badis ibn Habus ascend to the throne. In turn, Badis appointed Shmuel grand vizier and commander of the military. This made Shmuel the highest-ranking Jew in all of Spain. (He was a rare exception to the Pact of Umar which forbid a non-Muslim from holding office.) Shmuel served as grand vizier and prime minister for the rest of his life, holding the office for some three decades. He was the military commander for seventeen years, and his greatest moment came when he commanded the victory against the combined armies of Seville, Malaga, and the Berbers in 1047. He became known as Shmuel haNagid, “the Prince” or “the Ruler”. At the same time, he was the chief rabbi and leading authority on Jewish law for all of Spain. He established a prestigious yeshiva which would train many great Sephardic rabbis, including the father of the Rambam. He was a prolific writer and poet, uniquely combing Arabic poetic styles with Biblical Hebrew. Among his many works are a textbook on Hebrew grammar, and a primer on Talmud study called Mevo haTalmud. When he passed away, his son Joseph took over his position. (Tragically, jealous rivals assassinated him, then launched a pogrom slaughtering many Jews in what became known as the Granada Massacre of 1066.) Shmuel haNagid is regarded as a key figure in the “Golden Age” of Spanish Jewry, the most influential Jew in Spanish history, as well as a model for peaceful coexistence between Jews and Muslims. Kfar haNagid in Israel is named after him.

The Very First Jew of the Week: Haym Solomon

Some Final Inspiring Jewish Words of the Week

In any situation, I ask myself what can be done. Whatever can be done, I do. What cannot be done, I do not worry about.
– Rabbi Simcha Wasserman (1898-1992)

Even in the smallest of insects, God’s unfathomable wisdom is apparent.
– Rabbi Yehuda haLevi (1075-1141), Kuzari 

Humour is the Jewish way of defeating hate. What you can laugh at, you cannot be held captive by.
– Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020)

To be a miracle worker is no big deal—anybody of standing can overturn heaven and earth. But to be a Jew—now that’s difficult!
– Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak of Peshischa (“The Holy Yid”, 1766-1813)

In faith, we firmly believe that what seems impossible is indeed possible.
– Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh (b. 1944) 

Get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)

Sometimes things happen about which the leaders of the generation remain silent. This does not mean that nothing is to be done… On the contrary: when aware that you are able to do something about it, you are obligated to do so.
– Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (“The Lubavitcher Rebbe”, 1902-1994)

Jew of the Week: Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer

The Rabbi Who Launched Zionism

Zvi Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874) was born in what was then Prussia (now Poland) to a long line of rabbis. After receiving his own rabbinic ordination and getting married, he moved to the city of Thorn and there served as the rabbi for over forty years. Incredibly, he never took a salary for this role, and instead made a living running a small business with his wife. He wrote commentaries on the Torah, Talmud, Passover Haggadah, and a wide range of topics in Jewish law. Meanwhile, Rabbi Kalischer was deeply concerned about the state of Jewry, both in Europe and in the Holy Land. He worried about the pogroms, persecutions, and poverty experienced by Jews in Eastern Europe, and equally worried about the mass-assimilation, secularism, and rise of Reform Judaism in Western Europe. Meanwhile, he wanted to make existing Jewish communities in places like Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Tzfat flourish and become self-sufficient, instead of relying heavily on donations from abroad. For Rabbi Kalischer, the solution to all of these problems was Jewish nationalism, and he began writing on these issues in the Hebrew magazine HaLevanon. In 1862, he put his ideas together in a book titled Derishat Zion, and followed it up with Rishon L’Zion in 1864. He argued that Jews should come together to purchase land in Israel, build agricultural schools to teach farming and land management, and to establish a Jewish military force to protect the Jews of the Holy Land. He also hoped to re-establish the sacrifices and offerings in Jerusalem as specified in the Torah. Rabbi Kalischer argued that Jews should stop waiting for God to solve their problems: “One should not think that the Blessed One will suddenly descend from the Heavens to tell his people – ‘leave!’ – or that he will send His messenger any moment to call us on the trumpet…” While many critiqued this approach, Rabbi Kalischer defended his position with citations from all across Jewish holy texts. He went on speaking tours around Europe to spread the message, and convinced countless people to join the cause. Rabbi Kalischer was a key inspiration for prominent figures like Sir Moses Montefiore, Adolphe Crémieux, and Edmond de Rothschild. His work led directly to the establishment of the first agricultural school in the Holy Land in 1870, called Mikveh Israel. He even donated his own savings of 12,000 francs towards purchasing more land in Israel. Rabbi Kalischer is widely regarded as one of the early founders of Zionism.

Torah Simulation Theory (Video)

Words of the Week

If whites are successful, it’s “white privilege”; if minorities are successful, it’s “empowerment”; if Jews are successful, it’s a conspiracy.
– Jon Stewart 

Jew of the Week: Betty Friedan

The Feminine Mystique

Bettye Naomi Goldstein (1921-2006) was born in Illinois to Jewish parents of Russian and Hungarian heritage. She experienced a great deal of antisemitism in her youth which, she would later explain, fueled her “passion against injustice”. She became a writer in high school, and later penned award-winning poems. She graduated with a degree in psychology from the all-women’s Smith College in 1942, then did research at UC Berkeley. Shortly after, she dropped out of school, moved to New York, married Carl Friedan, and became a housewife, while doing some freelance writing on the side. It was at her high school’s fifteenth reunion that she saw an underlying unhappiness in the lives of her former classmates. The discussions, research, and study that came out of this eventually crystallized in a 1963 book called The Feminine Mystique. Friedan wrote about the problem “with no name”, of the “depressed suburban housewife” who was not given the opportunity to fulfil “the basic human need to grow”. The book was an instant bestseller, and is credited with launching the second wave of feminism. In 1966, Friedan co-founded the National Organization of Women (NOW), of which she was the first president. The organization was founded in her hotel room, with its purpose written on a napkin: to ensure legal equality and employment equality for all. The organization also worked to establish subsidized child care. In 1970, Friedan led and organized the Women’s Strike for Equality, with marches in over 40 cities, and 50,000 in New York City alone. Friedan supported many other women in important leadership roles, including Shirley Chisholm, America’s first black congresswoman. (Chisholm had an incredible encounter with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and credited him with inspiring much of her good work). Friedan worked hard to ensure that feminism not be equated with homosexuality (calling lesbian feminists “the lavender menace”), or with hating men, or with abortion (she did support a woman’s right to choose, but called it a “secondary” issue). She would say: “The women’s movement was not about sex, but about equal opportunity in jobs and all the rest of it.” She maintained the supreme value of a traditional family unit, and that children should “ideally come from mother and father”. Though originally self-described as “agnostic”, in her later years she saw the value in religion and started to regularly attend prayer services at her local synagogue. Friedan had also cofounded the First Women’s Bank in 1973 and Women Against Gun Violence in 1994. Among her many awards are Humanist of the Year (1975), the Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Award (1989), induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and multiple honorary degrees.

Gentiles Becoming Jews

Words of the Week

A rabbi who is an optimist taught me that what you may think is a challenge is a gift from God, and if poor babies have milk, and poor children have food, it’s because this rabbi in Crown Heights had vision.
– Shirley Chisholm, American’s first black congresswoman, on the Lubavitcher Rebbe