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553-2196
he street named for
Aharon David Gordon
in lel Aviv is one of the
city's most fashionable tho-
roughfares. It stretches in-
land from the sea-front pro-
menade - with its high-rise
hotels, to the spacious square
outside city hall and Gan
Ha'Ir, a reSplendent newly
opened shopping mall. Apart-
ments along Rehov Gordon
command extremely high
prices.
Yet Mr. Gordon would have
been neither flattered nor
honored by the street bearing
his name. He was an austere
man who worshipped nature,
espoused the importance of
physical labor, and sought to
create rural Jewish
communities.
Often known as the prophet
of the 2nd and 3rd aliyah, and
considered one of the Jewish
state's founding fathers, Mr.
Gordon remains an important
influence in Israeli life,
despite the initial impression
that his aims are anachronis-
tic. As Gershon Weiner writes
in his book The Founding
Fathers of Israel, A..D. Gordon
is "the man who, more than
any other individual, is iden-
tified with the social and
spiritual foundation of
modern Israel . . ."
But Mr. Gordon came to
Zionism late in life. He was
born in Troyanov, Russia, in
1856 into an eminent family
of noted rabbinical scholars.
Through family connections
he gained a senior post in the
financial management of the
estates of Baron Guensberg
and held the position for 23
years. During this period he
was always interested in and
supportive of the idea of set-
tling Eretz Israel but as a
traditionalist he was deeply
suspicious of many Zionists
whom he felt had too
rebellious an attitude towards
Judaism.
There was no indication
that Mr. Gordon, a seeming-
ly straightforward family
man in a settled job, would
suddenly pack his bags at the
age of 48 and set sail for
Palestine. The crisis that
brought on Mr_ Gordon's
unexpected change of lifestyle
came about in 1903 when he
found himself without a job
.after Baron Guensberg sold
the lands that he managed.
Mr. Gordon's decision to im-
migrate to Palestine was bit-
terly opposed by his family
and it was not until 1909 that
Photo by WZPS
Harvard Row Mall
11 Mile & Lahser
SIMON GRIVER
Special to The Jewish News
Aharon David Gordon
his wife and children joined
him in Eretz Israel.
Arriving in Palestine, Mr.
Gordon worked as a casual
farm laborer in the citrus
groves of Petah Tikvah and
Rishon Le Zion before moving
north to the Galilee. In 1909
he became a founder member
of Degania — located on the
River Jordan near the
southern tip of Lake Kinneret
— the first kibbutz to be
established.
Mr. Gordon won the respect
of his fellow farming pioneers
through his fanatical ap-
proach to work. Moshe
Smilansky in his book
Aharon David Gordon —
Sound the Great Trumpet,
Arriving in
Palestine,_ Mr.
Gordon worked as
a casual farm
laborer in the
citrus groves.
quotes one of Mr. Gordon's
fellow workers: "When his ef-
forts to work at digging dit-
ches in a grove proved beyond
his strength — he managed to
dig three a day while some of
the others did 50 — the young
farmers of the settlement of-
fered him the position of
assistant to the' settlement
clerk, but he refused."
In this manner, Mr. Gordon
began to exert an odd in-
fluence over the Jewish
pioneers who were resettling
the ancestral homeland. This
strange man, balding with a
bushy grey beard and fiery
eyes, captivated the imagina-
tion of those around him with
,his biblical appearance and
dedication to hard work. Even
more fascinating, Mr. Gordon
was an intellectual and