{"id":186203,"date":"2026-02-02T13:33:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/?p=186203"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:33:11","slug":"zerach_warhaftig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/en\/zerach_warhaftig\/","title":{"rendered":"Zerach Warhaftig: A Name to Remember and a Resume That\u2019s Hard to Beat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the election in 1947 for the board of the Jewish Agency, Israel\u2019s pre-state government, Zerach Warhaftig lost by one vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was because the ballot he cast wasn\u2019t for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But had he won, his son Jacob pointed out in a recent phone conversation, Warhaftig might not have been elected the following year to Israel\u2019s Provisional State Council, which governed the country following Great Britain\u2019s withdrawal. Nor would he have won election in 1949 to the first Knesset, beginning a parliamentary tenure extending 29 of the next 33 years, until his retirement in 1981; it is among the longest Knesset tenures in Israel’s history. At various points along the way, Warhaftig, a rabbi, represented the United Religious Front, Hapoel Hamizrachi and the National Religious Party (Mafdal<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"08862
Zerach Warhaftig, 1973, photo<\/a> by IPPA staff, the Dan Hadani Archive, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Knesset\u2019s consisting of 120 seats, in fact, is thanks to Warhaftig\u2019s drawing on the number who served in the \u00a0Knesset HaGedolah<\/em>, the Great Assembly, during the Second Temple period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warhaftig, who died at age 96 in 2002, was born 120 years ago. His life was among the most full and admirable of any Israeli public official. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Russian
Minister of Religious Affairs Zerach Warhaftig meets with Russian Patriarch Pimen I, who was visiting Israel at the time, 1972, photo<\/a> by IPPA staff, the Dan Hadani Archive, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Warhaftig was one of 37 signatories to Israel\u2019s declaration of independence, although he was trapped then in besieged Jerusalem and couldn\u2019t reach Tel Aviv for three weeks to make his mark official. The document\u2019s employing the term \u201cRock of Israel,\u201d (Tzur Yisrael<\/em>, \u05e6\u05d5\u05e8 \u05d9\u05e9\u05e8\u05d0\u05dc) rather than \u201cGod,\u201d was a Warhaftig-brokered compromise between secular and religious factions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was someone with great insight, who understood people,\u201d Jacob said of his father\u2019s role in the compromise.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"990039347480205171\"
Zerach Warhaftig (far left) meets with journalist Uri Avneri (second from left), 1961, photo from the Uri Avneri Archive<\/a>, the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Zerach Warhaftig \u2014 he also was called Zorach, the Ashkenazi pronunciation \u2014 earned two law degrees. He served for 13 years as minister of religious affairs. He helped to found Israel\u2019s religious courts imbued with the authority of national courts. He authored the Law of Return, 1950 legislation that defined who could immigrate to Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of that came after Warhaftig, a native of Belarus, was a vital cog in the rescue of thousands of Jews \u2014 including himself, his wife Naomi and their eldest child Emanuel \u2014 from the Nazis\u2019 claws in Lithuania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"11969
Dr. Yosef Burg speaking with Zerach Warhaftig at a conference of the National Religious Party, 1981, photo<\/a> by Rivka Freiwald, the Dan Hadani Archive, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That occurred while Warhaftig was based in Vilna and then in Kovno (Kaunas), where he enlisted the aid of three diplomats: Jan Zwartendijk of the Netherlands, Chiune Sugihara of Japan and Great Britain\u2019s Thomas Hildebrand Preston. Zwartendijk and Sugihara issued visas for Jewish refugees to enter Curacao and Japan, respectively, while Preston provided visas to pre-state Israel, then under the British Mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Standard
Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, photographed in 1945. Sugihara enabled thousands of Jews to flee to safety by providing visas, his help was enlisted by Zerach Warhaftig.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Warhaftig also obtained the consent of Soviet authorities for fleeing Jews to travel through the U.S.S.R., usually on trains heading east to the Russian port city of Vladivostok, from where they sailed to Kobe, Japan. Warhaftig warned Kovno\u2019s leading rabbis, including the heads of yeshivot<\/em>, of the dire situation and urged them and their students to evacuate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 1998 documentary, Zorach<\/em>, by Israeli filmmaker Adir Zik, followed Warhaftig, by then in his 90s, as he retraced his steps in Poland, Lithuania and Japan. Warhaftig had originally met Naomi at the Jewish Agency\u2019s office in Warsaw, where they worked to advance the aliyah <\/em>(immigration to Israel) of Zionist youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after reaching Japan in 1940, Warhaftig travelled to Tokyo and Shanghai, China, to lobby diplomats for help in rescuing more endangered Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warhaftig could have escaped Europe earlier than he did, \u201cbut didn\u2019t leave because he felt an obligation\u201d to save people, Avraham Melamed, a Lithuania native who worked alongside Warhaftig in Kaunas and later served with him in Knesset, said in the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warhaftig \u201cplayed an important role\u201d in persuading Kovno Jewry to avail themselves of the Curacao-Japan option, Nathan Lewin said in an e-mail. Mr. Lewin is a noted Washington, D.C., lawyer who as a boy was rescued with his parents, grandmother and uncle thanks to Sugihara-issued visas.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"990044822890205171\"
Zerach Warhaftig (center-left, facing the camera) peers over the shoulder of Israeli President Zalman Shazar. Abba Eban can be seen on the far left. On the right, Shimon Peres peers over the head of Prime Minster Golda Meir. Photo<\/a> by IPPA staff, taken during the International Bible Contest, 1972, the Dan Hadani Archive, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Another lawyer, Zalli Jaffe, remembers Warhaftig best as the leader of a Talmud class held every Shabbat afternoon at Jerusalem\u2019s Great Synagogue, which both attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warhaftig\u2019s occasionally asking Jaffe to substitute as the class\u2019s leader \u201cwas a great compliment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warhaftig \u201ccarried on his shoulders a massive amount of history,\u201d Jaffe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His father so enjoyed studying, Jacob Warhaftig said, that during the synagogue choir\u2019s sometimes-lengthy crooning, he\u2019d open his shtender<\/em> (book holder) and examine a Talmud, Five Books of Moses or Maimonides commentary that he kept on hand, including in his car, for idle times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaffe said Warhaftig was \u201can extremely humble man\u201d who never sought honors in the synagogue. Jacob called his father honest as can be, someone who always returned unused travel funds from his meetings abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Folklore
Minister of Religious Affairs Zerach Warhaftig meets with Druze Leader Amin Tarif, 1970, photo<\/a> by IPPA staff, the Dan Hadani Archive, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Warhaftig the private man was so busy that he rarely played with his four children at home. But every Friday afternoon, he reliably executed his domestic responsibilities: polishing everyone\u2019s shoes, preparing tea concentrate, inserting Shabbat candles for ritual lighting and tearing toilet paper for bathroom use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacob recalled his father consistently wearing a suit, tie and hat when going outside, even to fetch the morning\u2019s newspaper. When they walked together on the street, Naomi insisted on carrying all purchases and trailing her husband in an apparent show of respect, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey had a great love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warhaftig was awarded the Israel Prize in 1983 for lifetime achievement. He lectured on the Talmud, even for small groups of neighbors, until the onset of eye problems at age 95.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His children all have grandchildren named Zerach or, in one case, an offshoot of the word. Two of Warhaftig\u2019s great-grandsons fought Hamas in Gaza in the ongoing war. When their units met there, the cousins were photographed with an Israeli flag on which was taped a question once asked of their great-grandfather, who\u2019d helped to found their homeland, and his response:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think about the country?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s less than I hoped for and more than I expected.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Writer-editor Hillel Kuttler may be reached at <\/strong><\/em>hk@HillelTheScribeCommunications.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born 120 years ago, Warhaftig signed Israel\u2019s declaration of independence, brokered a key compromise in the document\u2019s wording, spent nearly three decades in Knesset, wrote the Law of Return, was a longtime cabinet minister and knew the Talmud inside and out. Oh, and he helped to save thousands of Jews during the Shoah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":450,"featured_media":186242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[1232,1829],"tags2":[3067,2656,2779],"class_list":["post-186203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-land-of-israel","tag-history-of-israel","tag-israeli-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nZerach Warhaftig: A Name to Remember and a Resume That\u2019s Hard to Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Born 120 years ago, Warhaftig signed Israel\u2019s declaration of independence, brokered a key compromise in the document\u2019s wording, spent nearly three decades in Knesset, wrote the Law of Return, was a longtime cabinet minister and knew the Talmud inside and out. 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