A Man of Spirit, Few Words

By Dovid Zaklikowski, Chabad.org
Photos courtesy of Lubavitch Archives

Yitzchak Shamir, the former Israeli prime minister who passed away Saturday in Tel Aviv at the age of 96, shepherded his country through its young and tumultuous history, first behind the scenes as an intelligence officer and then as a politician with a steely resolve. A man of few words, according to those who knew him, he possessed a great faith in G-d, a respect for Judaism and a love of the worldwide Jewish nation.

“He wholeheartedly believed that we are not the ones protecting the Land of Israel,” said Rabbi Yosef Gerlitzky, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Tel Aviv, who developed a friendship with Shamir after his retirement from politics. “Rather, it is in the merit of G-d and the Land that we are protected.”

Born in Poland in 1915, Shamir moved to British Mandatory Palestine in 1935 and quickly joined the underground cause to protect Jewish residents. He was arrested twice by the authorities in the 1940s and was once sent to Africa as punishment. He escaped both incarcerations and returned to the newly-established State of Israel shortly after its independence in 1948.

After a stint in the business world, Shamir was recruited by Isser Harel, the legendary director of the Mossad intelligence agency. He worked on several classified cases, hunting Nazi war criminals and blending in with local populations throughout Europe.

In the 1960s, he devoted himself to the plight of Jews living in the Soviet Union, consequently becoming acquainted with the work of Chabad-Lubavitch.

“I decided, with several of my friends, to dedicate ourselves to the Jews living in Russia,” he related in a 1999 interview. But he soon learned that “the Lubavitcher Rebbe preceded us [in this] by many years.”

What impressed Shamir was the clandestine network of schools, synagogues and communal institutions all operating in contravention of Soviet law. The network began under the direction of the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory, and was maintained and aided from New York by his son-in-law and successor, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

In his dealings, Shamir encountered individuals who with tremendous self-sacrifice, followed the Rebbe’s guidance in continuing to provide kosher food to local Jews, conduct marriages, circumcise their infants and educate their children.

Behind the Iron Curtain

“I was astonished [by] how entrenched and encompassing their activities were,” recalled Shamir. “They supplied matzah for Passover, religious books, ritual items, kosher slaughtering and every single other thing that the Jews needed there.”

He was especially impressed by a seminar that took place under the eyes of the Soviets.

“They organized a group to join a seminar on how to perform ritual circumcision,” said Shamir. “The underground seminar educated them [about] this holy work and afterwards, they travelled across the land to perform circumcisions that were so needed to save Jews from assimilation.”

The Rebbe was among the few who “saw that the saving of Russian Jewry was a great deed and a must for the survival of the Jewish nation,” he added.

Shamir described the Rebbe another time as, from his headquarters in the United States, “the general [who] assists any Jew in need.”

“Wherever there is a Jew in need,” he said, “he sees it as his personal issue.”

Shamir’s activities on behalf of Soviet Jewry took him into politics, and he rose through the ranks of the Likud Party. When Menachem Begin resigned as prime minister in 1984, Shamir took his place.

He would become one of Israel’s longest-sitting prime ministers.

Shamir took a strong stance against the concept of trading land in exchange for peace from the Arabs, contending that doing so would not only not bring peace, but would place millions of Jews in danger. From his seat in the Knesset, he vocally objected to Begin’s accord with Egypt, a peace deal now up in the air because of internal Egyptian politics.

The Rebbe, who felt strongly that giving land away to the Arabs would actually encourage future terrorist attacks and result in a loss of life on both sides, praised the rising politician for standing strong.

“You will definitely be remembered for your courageous spirit and strong stance to openly vote against the Camp David treaty,” the Rebbe wrote Shamir in a 1983 letter.

Miracles in the Middle East

Typical of many Israeli leaders, Shamir’s political fortunes rose and fell. His most difficult time came during the 1991 Gulf War, when he decided not to bomb Iraq even as its scud missiles rained down over Israel’s cities.

Throughout the crisis, the Rebbe counseled people to remain in Israel, famously telling American students by way of their parents not to leave the country and that Israel would be safe.

“What the nation remembers are the miracles,” Shamir said, referring to the low casualty rate due to the attacks. “During the Gulf War, we saw miracles.”

“I am obligated to note that the Rebbe’s approach to the situation in Israel strengthened and encouraged me personally, on all levels,” he revealed in another interview. “The Rebbe saw the situation in Israel with open eyes and knew everything that was going on. I was [communicating] with the Rebbe throughout the war.”

According to Gerlitzky, although Shamir knew little of Judaism’s principles and practices, “what he did know, he cherished. He was always glad to do another mitzvah.”

Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries traditionally visited prime ministers and other leaders during the joyous holiday of Purim, bringing the characteristic gifts of food known as mishloach manot and reading the Scroll of Esther.

Shamir looked forward to these visits and actively participated in the celebrations.

Once he moved back to Tel Aviv in the early 1990’s, Gerlitzky regularly visited him on Jewish holidays. It became a tradition for the rabbi to go to Shamir for his birthday with a cake and a pair of Jewish prayer boxes known as tefillin.

Shamir would don the tefillin on his arm and head with great emotion, said Gerlitzky, his “tears rolling down his cheeks.”