Rabbi Simha Kook is the scion of well-known Jerusalem families.
His grandfather Rabbi Dov Kook, was a brother of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Modern Palestine. His father, Rabbi Raphael Kook is rabbi of the city of Tiberias.
On his mother’s side, he is a grandson of Reb Simha Mandelbaum. Simha Mandelbaum, who had come as a child to Jerusalem from Poland, established in Palestine the first factory for the manufacture of threads and stockings. For many, many years he lived in the Old City of Jerusalem. When he decided to move his large family to more spacious living quarters, he was determined to establish himself in a section of the city which was not yet populated by Jews. He made his home near the Sheik Jarrah quarter.
He resided there until his death, surrounded by children and grandchildren. In his house he maintained a “Beth HaMidrash” of his own.
Situated on the border between the Jewish and Arab quarters, Mandelbaum’s house also served as an outpost for the Hagana.
Rabbi Simha Kook was born in that house. He was still very young during the Arab riots of 1936-1939. The picture of his father and mother preparing sandwiches for the Hagana patrols stands out in his childhood memories.
During the War of Independence that areas was the scene of fierce fighting between Jew and Arab. The house was destroyed by the Arab Legion in the summer of 1948. Luckily its inhabitants had evacuated it a short time before.
When the War came to an end, the armistice line between Israel and Jordan, ran past the site of the house.
The famous “Mandelbaum Gate,” until the Six Day War – the border crossing point between Jewish Jerusalem and the Arab-held part of the city – was named so for the house Reb Simha Mandelbaum had built nearby.
Rabbi Simha Kook attended Jerusalem schools and the Bne Akiva Yeshiva of Kfar HaRoeh. During the War of Independence he returned to besieged Jerusalem and participated in its defense. He remained in the city, continuing his studies at the Hevron Yeshiva.
He subsequently taught at Jerusalem’s Boy’s Town. In 1962 he set out to establish a Bne Akiva Yeshiva high school in Netanya.
He started with 25 students. Things were extremely difficult. There were no adequate facilities, no dormitory worthy of the name. Parents who came to register their children and had a close look at the Yeshiva’s premises, asked Rabbi Kook in bewilderment where he expected to quarter the students.
Over the years the Yeshiva has made remarkable progress. It now has a student body of 250 and a country-wide reputation for excellence in both religious and secular studies. In last year’s matriculation examinations, the Yeshiva achieved the highest marks of all Netanya high schools.
Rabbi Simha Kook is held in great esteem in Netanya. In the recent elections, he was chosen a municipal councilor. He was offered the post of deputy-mayor, but he declined. He was unwilling to give up his work at the Yeshiva.
He maintains contact with the Yeshiva’s graduates, many of whom serve in the army and in the para-military settlements in the “new territories.” A short time ago, he visited some of his former students at the three Bne Akiva settlements on the West Bank. On his return from the visit, he suggested to the Netanya municipality that it present the three settlements with new sets of the Talmud.
He is now on a brief visit to this country. He has come here on a twofold mission: To raise funds for his Yeshiva high school and to promote a high school program for American students sponsored by the leadership of the Bne Akiva Yeshiva high school in Israel.
“We are in desperate need of funds. We need larger facilities. We need modern equipment for our science laboratories,” Rabbi Kook told us. “We have many applications for admission, and we do not want to be in a situation of being forced to refuse applicants because of a lack of funds.”
The network of Bne Akiva Yeshiva high schools in Israel embraces twenty institutions. Under its new high school program for American students, students from this country will attend religious studies with the Israeli student body, but have classes of their own in secular subjects, which will be taught for the most part in English.
The program will commence this coming July with guided tours throughout the country and an intensive Hebrew-language course. Formal studies will start at the end of the summer and last until June of next year.
Tall, handsome and soft-spoken, Rabbi Kook is forty years of age. He and his wife Nehama, have eight children.
The Jewish Press
March 27, 1970