We did not talk “politics”. For the past years the participation of Poale Agudat Israel in the Mapai-led Israel cabinet and PAI’s relations with Agudat Israel, its parent body, have been the subject of much debate and controversy. We did not feel like ruminating.
When we visited him in his suite at the Marcy Hotel in Manhattan, it was for the prime purpose of getting a more intimate glimpse of the man, who is now the head of the world movement of PAI.
Tall, bespectacled and bearded, Kalman Kahane was born fifty-three years ago in Brody, Galicia. When he was six years old, the family moved to Lvov, where his father Benjamin Zeev, scion of a famous rabbinic family and great Lamdan, established himself as a prosperous coal merchant. Kalman was only fourteen when his father died, but he remembers vividly the many hours he had spent studying with him.
“Father went early in the morning to the railway station to be present at the unloading of the coal. At dawn, before he left the house, he would study with me the books of the prophets.”
Young Kalman did not go to school, but was privately tutored in Jewish and in general subjects. He attended only the last classes of high school, after the graduation of which in 1928, he went to Germany to continue his studies.
In 1932 he received a Ph.D. from Wuerzburg University and a year later Semichah from the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. For the next six years he resided in Fulda directing and teaching in a Yeshiva.
“While still very young I took a great interest in communal affairs and had a penchant for Askonus.” Rabbi Kahane told us. In Lvov he was active in the “Pirche.” In Germany he played a leading role in the Agudist Youth movement. One of the first to advocate in the Agudat Israel a pro-Eretz Israel orientation, he participated in the founding of Noar Agudati, an Agudist Halutz organization.
In 1938 he emigrated to Palestine joining Kibbutz Chafezt Chaim which had been formed by members of Noar Agudati. For six months the former Rosh Yeshiva was tending vegetables and picking oranges.”I was a favorite with orange grove owners. I climbed to the top of the trees to pick their fruit,” Kahane continued his story. In 1939, the first Youth Aliya group of Agudat Israel arrived in Chafetz Chaim. Kahane climbed down from the trees to become their instructor.
At that time he became a frequent visitor to the home of the Chazon Ish in Bnei Brak.While still in Germany, Kahane had turned to Reb Chayim Ozer Grodzinksi of Vilna for guidance in problems which confronted Agudist Halutzei youth “Seek the advice of the Chazon Ish in Bnei Brak,” Reb Chaim Ozer had replied. On his frequent travels from Kfar Saba, where at that time the members of Chafetz Chaim had established themselves, to Tel Aviv, Kahane would stop at Bnei Brak and visit the Chazon Ish. He spent many hours in the company of the sage, learning and listening to his views on a variety of subjects. Once he stayed for a whole week in the house of the Chazon Ish studying with him the tractate Menahot.
“Rabbi S. Greineman, a brother-in-law of the Chazon Ish and I were sitting at the table looking into the Gemara. The Chazon Ish was moving about in the room reciting the text by heart. We studied together for two hours. The rest of the day I spent digesting what I had learned,” Rabbi Kahane reminisced.
In 1944 he began working full time for Polae Agudat Israel, remaining at the same time with Kibbutz Chafetz Chaim as its spiritual leader. Playing an ever increasing role in the political life of the Jewish community of Palestine, Kahane served in the months preceding the establishment of Israel as Agudist representative on the Vaad Bitachon (Security Committee). This body directed the defense of the Yishuv against the Arab attacks and planned the proclamation of the state. In his capacity as a member of the committee, Kahane was instrumental in securing the exemption of Yeshiva students from service in the armed forces.
He was one of the signatories of Israel’s declaration of Independence and a member of the Provisional State Council, the state’s first legislative body. Subsequently elected to the first Knesset, he has served in Israel’s parliament ever since. In 1961, he was appointed to his present position as Deputy Minister of Education, a post he held also in 1952.
During all his years of political activity, Kahane has been literary active. He has written numerous poliyical and ideological articles. He has also authored scholarly books., including Halachic compilations and studies, annotated editions of the writings of early rabbinic authorities and a collection of essays on the Chazon Ish. Written in a precise and concise style, Kahan’s articles and studies are heavy with contents.” He has something to say!
Deputy Minister Kahane has remained the same austere Kibbutznik he was twenty-five years ago, when he picked oranges in the pardesim in Kfar Saba. He and his wife, the former Hanna Kunstadt with their large family live in a modest apartment in Chafetz Chaim. At the end of each month, the deputy minister hands his salary to the treasurers of the Kibbutz like all other members of the communal settlement. Despite his many responsible positions, Kahane has continued to serve as rabbi of the Kibbutz. “I conduct several shiurim a week,” Rabbi Kahane told us. “Several shiurim,” he stressed. Needless to say that he also delivers Droshos.
He has served as president of the world organization of PAI since the sudden death of Benjamin Mintz some three years ago. When he was elected to this post, some doubted whether he would prove an efficient leader.
“He is a great Lamdan, a great theoretician,” but will he be a good chief executive? they asked.
“Political leadership is a very practical and tough business. A fellow who spends every free minute poring over books and in-between Knesset sessions runs to a library to look into a Sefer, cannot be much of a practical man.” Those who had thought so were proven wrong. The past years have shown that Kahane was shoin gornisht kein Batlen. He successfully steered his movement through difficult times.
He has come here to participate in the annual convention of PAI of America. He will speak at the conference on problems which agitate religious Jewry and will report on the work and projects of PAI in Israel and on its organizational activities in Europe.
The Jewish Press, Friday, February 7, 1964