By Rabbi Yehuda Meir Abramowitz, z’l
This article first appeared in the Algemeiner Journal of March 2, 1990. Rabbi Yehuda Meir Abramowitz was president of the World Agudah Movement. It was translated from the original Yiddish by P. Samuels.
The same day that the Hamodia, the newspaper of the Agudah in Israel published the sad news of the demise of my dear beloved friend, Reb Nison Gordon, a’h, I was sick in bed with severe pneumonia. I was just able to lament and mourn by myself about the loss of a true good friend, and to think about the terrible sorrow of his beautiful family, his wife, his children, and brothers who lost their crown. I thought of the great loss the religious Judaism in Israel and America has suffered with his sudden demise, and what a severe blow it was for the many Torah and educational institutions for whom Reb Nison was, for tens of years, their loyal defender—through his blessed pen and the hundreds of articles and write-ups in which he always described the greatness and importance of the Torah institutions which he always depicted as assuring the spiritual future of the Jewish nation.
Now, when I recuperated from my illness, and b’H I am feeling better, I have the strength to openly express my sad feelings and thoughts about the demise of Reb Nison Gordon, a’h.
It was during my last year as member of the Knesset, when I served as vice chairman of the Knesset, when I first met Reb Nison Gordon. I was chairing a session and apparently Reb Nison was in the gallery and was listening to the discussion. Before the session ended, one of the guards of the Knesset handed me a note in which it was written that Reb Nison Gordon from New York wants to talk to me as soon as the session will be over.
We met after the session. It was the first time in my life that I saw him, but with the ahavas Yisrael (love of a fellow Jew) that was embedded in his heart, he embraced me and said, “As an Agudist from my youth, I sat in the gallery with a heart full of joy and pride, watching how an Agudist is sanctifying Hashem’s name and how, with honor and skill, he is leading a session of the Knesset, in which the leaders of the land of Israel, and many members of the Knesset took part, most of whom are worldly Jews.”
Reb Nison then asked me, “Where and when did you learn how to chair such difficult sessions?”
I told him that over the course of many years I merited to lead meetings and mass gatherings at conferences for Agudath Israel and I also led sessions at the Knessia Gedolah of the Agudah, and these were the best lessons. I let Reb Nison in on a secret that before every Knesset session that I have to lead, I utter a prayer to Hashem that I should not, chas v’shalom embarrass the Agudah movement, whom I represent in the Knesset.
Since that first meeting, we became true friends. Every year, when Reb Nison visited Israel, even after I left my position in the Knesset, Reb Nison would telephone me and ask to meet.
For many years, I had long conversations with Reb Nison, some which took hours. He also conducted a few interviews with me for the Algemeiner Journal.
I knew Reb Nison very well. I was always amazed at his talents, at his clear understanding and his wide horizons with which he observed and gauged the problems of the Jewish nation, and the problems of Israel, especially those that affect the religious Jews of Israel.
I would be able to write a lot about Reb Nison, the chassidic Jew of sterling character, whose name would not be forgotten among religious Jews but I am still not in the best of health, so therefore I will only mention a few points about his great talent as a writer and journalist who served and represented religious Judaism in such a loyal and proud manner.
It is hard for me to find the proper words to describe Reb Nison’s great and loyal love of the Land of Israel, and his deep and serious concern for its welfare—its spiritual situation as well as its political and economic status.
Whenever we used to meet, Reb Nison would say to me: “You live in the Land of Israel more than 50 years, and because of your important positions you are probably familiar with all kinds of factions, and you know the country very well, so tell me, please, where should I travel and which institutions should I visit so that I should have what to report and what to write about for my readers of the Algemeiner Journal?
After Reb Nison returned to America after each visit to Israel, I would read, in the Algemeiner Journal, his articles and reports. Then I saw his unusual talent, both in the amazing way in which he described what he saw and how he knew what to see and what to write about. He personified “Tocho ochal v’klipaso zarak” (He ate the good part and threw out the peel).
If his family or friends are thinking about gathering Reb Nison’s many articles and publishing his work in book form, I would suggest to first publish his articles and reports about his visits to Israel. From those articles we would see how great and deep was his love for the Land of Israel and for its Torah institutions, and with what admiration he wrote about the Jews of Israel in general and especially the religious Jews.
Reb Nison embodied the statement, “U’r’ei b’tuv Yerushalayim” (and see the good of Jerusalem). He always only saw the nice and good things, and even when he wrote articles criticizing factions in Israel from whom he was idealistically distant, he did it with respect and in a noble manner.
The past four years, the discussions between me and Reb Nison were concentrated on one subject—the internal fights in the Agudah and the fight between chassidim and misnagdim. Reb Nison was, as is well-known, a loyal Lubavitcher chassid. I can’t forget the pain with which he spoke about the fighting inside the Agudah. It was clear that the situation in the Agudah affected his health.
I once asked him, “Reb Nison, my dear friend, you talk about the infighting in the Agudah with such sadness and hurt; yet, if I am not mistaken, according to what I heard, you are not so close to the Agudah today.”
Reb Nison answered me, ‘With my heart and soul I remained loyal to the holy ideal of Agudas Yisroel, which united under one roof G-d-fearing Jews, chassidim and misnagdim, and therefore it hurts me so much to see the tragedy that befell the holy movement.”
Many times there were debates between Reb Nison and me. He did not agree with my ideas and I did not agree with his. But in those discussions I was able to see and appreciate his fine character and respect.
As mentioned, in the past few years we spoke a lot about the condition of the Agudah movement. He used to tell me, “I read a lot about your activities and your attempts to bring about peace in the Agudah. I want to encourage your work in that respect, and I beg of you not to become tired and not to give up trying to bring peace to Agudath Yisroel. It’s good that there is at least one person who wants to change the situation and is working to bring all sides to sit around one table,” Reb Nison said to me.
He also assured me that in his articles in the Algemeiner he would help me and encourage my peace-making efforts, and he did write several times about my peace initiatives. He liked peace—peace among Jews in general, and especially among religious Jews.
“Ha’tzvi Yisrael al bamosecha chalal” (Shmuel II). [This pasuk is a lament on how the land of Israel fell to its enemies. The writer is using a play on words, comparing Reb Nison Gordon to a deer (tzvi) that wanders all over the world, and with his blessed pen serves the cause of world Jewry. He continues the play on words using “bamosecha,” a platform (original translation is “its heights”), to lament that the Algemeiner Journal now has a major gap in its platform with the loss of such a prolific writer as Reb Nison Gordon, z’l.]
The pain is still fresh, and we still cannot measure how great is the loss of the cherished vessel that Reb Nison Gordon was.
Editor’s Note
My brother uncovered this article the other day and I forwarded it to Mrs. Samuels to quickly translate so that I could publish the piece this week, the week of my father’s yahrzeit.
It is amazing to me how after more than three decades I learn more things about my dad that I was not aware of or just never knew. The words of former MK Abramowitz left me sobbing momentarily at my computer screen, but with tears of joy and satisfaction that I had the opportunity to reminisce, if only for a minute or two, about what it was like to be my father’s son. Frankly, so many years have passed to the point it is easy to forget sometimes. But this brought me back and emotionally revived me, for which I am grateful.
May the neshamah of R’ Nison ben R’ Yochanan continue to watch over his family, and may we be a continuous source of nachas for him.