I LOOKING BACK Marvin Stoloff And All The Gals At hilsum A.D. Gordon: A New Kind Of Jew misses & misses petites -contemporary fashions Wish Their Customers and Friends A Very Healthy and Happy New Year 354-4650 Wishing All Our Friends and Clients A HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR Our Best Wishes For A Happy New Year! IMO IAN IG MASTER OF kir 61 f 74 DEW 26571 West Twelve Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48034 CLOSED MONDAYS T 352-7030 Vlithiliattl 71e, SOlgileit I 540 543-3115 Contemporary Women's Fashions CLEANING V AND TAILORING Wishes All Their Customers A Very Happy and-Healthy_ New Year y Wishing all our friends & relatives a healthy and happy New Year. CREATE VIDEO PRODUCTIONS Audrey and Steve Lorber 557-4010 Wishing All Our Friends A Happy, Healthy and Prosperous - New Year FLORENCE ABEL & JUDY STEIN 855-9100 RED CARPET KEIM W. BLOOMFIELD REAL ESTATE 72 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991 HAM' NEW YEAR! 855-4464 Hunters Square • Farmington Hills Best Wishes for a Happy & Healthy New Year BrenT FURNITURE 1914Telegraph • Bloomfield Hills 338-7716 Happy New Year To All Our Customers and Friends MARK SHOPNKK JEWELERS 28859 Orchard Lake Road Farmington Hills Market Place Plaza 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