Shimon Yaakov Gliksberg
Encyclopedia
Miedzyrzec Podlaski
Międzyrzec Podlaski is a city in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, with the population of 17,162 inhabitants as of 2006. The total area of the city is 20.03 km2...
– died in 1950 in Tel-Aviv) was a scholar, preacher, historian and one of the founding members of the Mizrachi Zionist movement
Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)
The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...
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Biography
Born to a Hassidic family, Rabbi Gliksberg studied in a yeshivaYeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
in Miedzyrzec Podlaski and later in the Tomchei Torah institution of Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, founded by The Great One of Minsk.
He was ordained as a rabbi by the esteemed Rabbi Yosef Hacohen Ravitz, the rabbi of Rastovich, by Rabbi Haim Yehuda of Smorgan and Rabbi Moshe Shaul Shapira of Bobruysk. For several years, he assisted his father-in-law, Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Alpert
Mordechai Dovid Alpert
Mordechai Dovid Alpert was born into the family of Rabbi Chaim Shabtai Alpert known as "Chaim Matmid" and who was a gggrandson of Aryeh Leib Epstein of Königsberg....
, the head of a rabbinical court in the district of Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
who was known as "Yad Mordechai," the name of his most important book. In Minsk, Rabbi Gliksberg was one of the leaders of the Shlomei Emunei Zion group, which later became the Mizrachi movement
Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)
The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...
. He was among the delegates to the movement's founding meeting in Vilna
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
in the winter of 1902 representing his home town of Miedzyrzec Podlaski
Miedzyrzec Podlaski
Międzyrzec Podlaski is a city in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, with the population of 17,162 inhabitants as of 2006. The total area of the city is 20.03 km2...
. He became a member of the Central Committee and was chosen together with Rabbi Ze'ev Yavetz to draft an organizational plan, to choose a name for the movement and to outline a platform for the new Zionist religious party. From that moment on, he continued to act as an advocate for the Mizrahi. When Rabbi Gliksberg came back to Miedzyrzec Podlaski to present his report on the conference, an audience of thousands assembled to hear him in the large Beis Midrash, where he had studied as a youth.
Rabbi Gliksberg accepted a position of a rabbi in Pinsk
Pinsk
Pinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region was known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...
in 1902. He was a delegate to the Russian Zionist Conference in Minsk and to the Sixth Zionist Congress in Basel in 1903. After the death of Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl , born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl was an Ashkenazi Jew Austro-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.-Early life:...
he traveled to various large cities as a representative of Mizrahi to eulogize the visionary of the Jewish state.
In 1906 Rabbi Gliksberg became a rabbi in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
. He devoted himself more than ever to Zionist activities and became the chair of the Mizrahi movement. He was also an active member of the Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion , also known as Hibbat Zion , refers to organizations that are now considered the forerunners and foundation-builders of modern Zionism....
organization. He was renowned for his extensive knowledge of Judaism and Jewish literature, and for being a brilliant interpreter and preacher. His sermons at the city's main synagogue and at the Zionist synagogue Yavneh drew crowds of young men who listened attentively to his every word as he spoke in a deeply convincing and captivating manner that had much popular appeal.
In addition to his official duties as a rabbi he was active in the domains of education and social work. He was one of the founders of the Shomrei Torah yeshiva, and his efforts led to the establishment of public schools for impoverished Jewish children in affiliation with various synagogues. He was also a founder of the Ezrat Holim charitable organization. He published a pamphlet in Yiddish and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
called Ezrat Holim about concepts of charity and about support for ailing members of the community. The pamphlet was distributed in thousands of copies.
In 1917 Rabbi Gliksberg was a delegate to the National Congress of Ukrainian Jews. That same year he became a member of the Odessa City Council and was officially appointed as the city's chief rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
. He continued to serve as Odessa's chief rabbi until 1937.
In the 1920s Rabbi Gliksberg came to prominence in the course of seven “religious debates” with Anatoly Lunacharsky, members of Yevsektsiya
Yevsektsiya
Yevsektsiya , , the abbreviation of the phrase "Еврейская секция" was the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist party. Yevsektsiya was established to popularize Marxism and encourage loyalty to the Soviet regime among Russian Jews. The founding conference of Yevsektsiya took place on October 20,...
, Russian religious leaders such as Alexander Vvedensky
Alexander Vvedensky (religious leader)
Alexandr Ivanovich Vvedensky was one of the leaders of the Living Church movement , a movement of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1922-1946 to reform the Russian Church life; he is considered the person...
and others. The debates took place in stadiums and theaters of Odessa with thousands of people present. During one of the debates Anatoli Lunacharsky, the Commissar of Culture and Education, said, "My faith in collective redemption gives me such power in the future as cannot be given by any religion." Rabbi Gliksberg replied, "The faith you have is precisely of the religious kind."
During the debates Rabbi Gliksberg impressed the crowds with his erect posture, rhetorical talent, religious enthusiasm and apt remarks, as well as with his wide-ranging knowledge of philosophy, science and literature. Indeed, his power of conviction made him into what one of his opponents called a "dangerous debater."
In 1937 Rabbi Gliksberg moved to Eretz Israel where he was the head of the Rabbinical court of Tel-Aviv. A great scholar and virtuous man, pure in spirit and thought, he ruled the religious court in a moderate, considerate, and pleasant manner. He was also a member of the Mizrahi's court of honoraries. For several years he served as one of the judges who awarded the Rabbi Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...
Prize.
After Rabbi Gliksberg's death a street in Tel-Aviv was named after him and his son, artist Chaim Gliksberg
Chaim Gliksberg
Chaim Gliksberg was born to Rabbi Shimon Yaakov Gliksberg and Cypa Mejta, daughter of Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Alpert.When he was 2 years old his family moved to Odessa. He attended cheder and the Odessa yeshiva....
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Personal life
Rabbi Gliksberg married Cypa Mejta Alpert, daughter of Rabbi Mordechai Dovid AlpertMordechai Dovid Alpert
Mordechai Dovid Alpert was born into the family of Rabbi Chaim Shabtai Alpert known as "Chaim Matmid" and who was a gggrandson of Aryeh Leib Epstein of Königsberg....
, A.B.D. Svisloch, who was a grandson of Aryeh Leib Epstein
Aryeh Leib Epstein
Aryeh Löb ben Mordecai Ha-Levi Epstein was a Polish rabbi born in Grodno. At first he refused to become a rabbi, preferring to devote himself entirely to study, but in 1739 he was forced by poverty to accept the rabbinate of Brestovech, Lithuania, and in 1745 he became rabbi of Königsberg,...
(Ba'al ha-Pardes) of Königsberg
Königsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
. They had 7 children, 4 daughters and 3 sons. His son Chaim Gliksberg
Chaim Gliksberg
Chaim Gliksberg was born to Rabbi Shimon Yaakov Gliksberg and Cypa Mejta, daughter of Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Alpert.When he was 2 years old his family moved to Odessa. He attended cheder and the Odessa yeshiva....
moved to Eretz Israel in 1925 and became a renowned artist and author. The rest of Rabbi Gliksberg’s children lived in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
until the day they died. The oldest daughter Eneta became a teacher and taught at Yevrabmol
Yevrabmol
"Yevrabmol" was an experimental trade school that operated in Odessa from 1921 to 1937...
experimental school in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
. Daughter Eugenia became a well-known physician and medical researcher who published an impressive volume of work and received a Doctoral degree based on those publications. She served in the medical corps during World War II becoming a Major of Medical Corps and earning two Orders of the Red Star
Order of the Red Star
Established on 6 April 1930, the Order of the Red Star was an order of the Soviet Union, given to Red Army and Soviet Navy personnel for "exceptional service in the cause of the defense of the Soviet Union in both war and peace". It was established by Resolution of the Presidium of the CEC of the...
for bravery. Daughter Judith became a prominent child care specialist and daughter Sulamith was an infectious disease specialist. Rabbi’s son Shmuel died when he was 7 years old from scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
. The youngest son Benjamin, an engineer educated in Strelitz, Germany, was arrested in 1936 and spent 20 years of his life in Stalin camps. Later, after Stalin’s death he was still not allowed to live in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
with his family.
Works
- Ha-Derashah be-Yisrael (a history of Jewish preaching), Be-Suye Mosad Ha-Rav Kuk Tel Aviv 1940
- Musage ha-Hayyim,Be-Suye Mosad Ha-Rav Kuk Tel Aviv 1945
- There are several unpublished manuscripts held in an archive in Jerusalem