He forcefully voices religious Jewry’s views on current affairs and problems of the State, and in a brilliant manner, he sets forth their attitudes and demands.
He writes with much knowledge and deep understanding; knowledge of the people’s past, tradition and culture and understanding of its needs and destiny. He writes with dignity, with warmth and with vigor.
Shabbatai Don Yehiya editor of HaTsofe, Israel’s largest religious daily is one of the country’s foremost publicists.
Since the establishment of the State, leading personalities of Israel’s religious parties, have been frequent visitors to this country. Don-Yehiya was not among them. He could not leave the editor’s chair for a lengthy journey. At long last, he too has come here. He arrived last week on the SS Shalom.
We visited him at the friendly home of his brother-in-law Emile Wolfe in Manhattan. The fifty-five year old editor is a well built man of medium height, greyish hair adorning his high forehead and strong facial features. He greeted us with friendliness and cordiality.
Don-Yehiya’s modesty is proverbial in Israel, and his first contact with the air of the country of ballyhoo does not seem to have affected him. Open shirt, open heart and open arms- this is the man we met.
During our long talk, the phone did not cease ringing. Don Yehiya has many friends and admirers and the news of his arrival electrified them all.
He is a scion of the illustrious Ibn-Yahya family of Spain and Portugal. After the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian peninsula, members of the family became prominently active in the Sefardic communities of the Mediterranean countries. More than two hundred years ago a branch of the Ibn Yahyas settled among the Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe. Its descendants were subsequently spiritual leaders of Russian Jewish communities. Shabbati Don-Yehiya’s father, Ben Zion, author of Likkute Megadim, a compilation of Poskim on Shulhan Arukh Hayim, as well as his grandfather Eliezer were rabbis of Lucin in Latvia.
Shabbetai left his native country for Palestine in 1932. For a lengthy period he studied at the Yeshiva of Rav Kook in Jerusalem and at the Hebrew University. Rav Kook has been the paramount influence in his life and his books and personality have guided him throughout his career as a writer.
“I have met many outstanding men in my life. Some were greater than others Yet all belonged to the same category, they were all ‘normal human beings.’,” Don Yehiya told us. “Rav Kook was different. Here was a man, who at times could detach himself completely from his terrestrial surroundings and communicate with higher spheres.”
“If you should ask me: What is Ruach HaKodesh, I would not be able to answer you. But in the presence of Rav Kook, I saw what Ruach HaKodesh must be like. Particularly during the moment I saw him pacing his room in ecstacy, his soul agitated and aglow. Rav Kook was a visionary…. he was a prophet.”
“He wrote many books, great books, but these convey only a very faint idea of his towering personality.”
After leaving Yeshiva, Don Yehiya worked as a laborer in Kfar Hasidim. In 1936 he was appointed general secretary of Hapoel Hamizrachi and in this capacity, edited “Netiva” the party’s organ. Towards the end of 1937 with the establishment of HaTzofe,” he joined its staff. Eleven years later he became editor of the daily.
In addition to the editorials, Don-Yehiya, who is better known by his pen name Shin Daniel, contributes to his paper equally brilliant articles on a variety of subjects; pointed criticism and subtle observations on Israeli life, as well as interviews and book reviews. His “hobby” is the writing of biographies of outstanding rabbis and leaders of religious Zionism. Among others, he has written biographies of Rabbi Kook, Yaakov Moshe Charlap and his grandfather, Eliezer Don-Yehiya.
“My grandfather, author of ‘Even Shetiya’ was a great Posek. He was equally well known for his outstanding physical strength.”
“Rav Kook was a disciple of his,” continued Don Yehiya. “On Purim the Rav would speak to us, his pupils, of Jewish strength and valor. He would invariably mention grandfather and his feats. Rabbi Kook would sing in Russian “Al Tira Avdi Yaakov” and then tell how grandfather defended his community against the Cossack.”
“Wen di Kosaken zenen gekumen, hot Reb Eliezer Lutshiner genumen zein steken..” Don Yehiay imitated the Niggun of Rav Kook.
“Before the first world war, grandfather spent some time in London. Once while on a visit to the zoo, he felt like starting up with a lion. If not for the intervention of those who were with him, he would have done so. When he died in 1926, the Latvia papers wrote at great length about his extraordinary physical strength.”
In recent year Don Yehiya has authored much praised monographs of Chief Rabbi Uziel, on Haim Shmuel Landau, great ideologist of Hapoel Hamizrachi and on the rabbi-Halutz Yeshaya Shapira. At present he is working a a biography of the late Rabbi Meshullam Roth.
Though he has been editor of “Hatzofeh” for sixteen years, Don Yehiya has not permitted himself to limit his activities to writing editorials and other articles and the general supervision of the paper. He still puts in long hours of work, scanning carefully all material sent to press.
“My husband has never known how to make things easy for himself, ” Lily the editor’s wife told us. Though she may grumble sometimes about his late and long working hours, Lily is proud that their daughter Ruth has taken after her husband.
Ruth too, has never known how to make things easy for herself. As a religious girl, she could have asked for exemption from military service, but she chose to enlist. She underwent training as an officer and graduated with distinction. On the occasion of her graduation, the well known New York scholar, Dr. Isaac Rivkind sent Ruth a beautifully designed family tree of the Ibn Yahyas- to serve as a steady reminder of her great Yichus. While in the army she managed to complete her studies at a teachers’ seminary. She continues her education in London.
“Does she write too?” we asked.
“Oh, she sends us beautiful articles from London,” the editor’s wife answered. “And this is an impartial view,” she added.
The Don Yehiyas have also a son. Ben Zion is a talented and diligent high school student, active in Bnei Akiva, and to quote his mother, resembles his father in many ways.
On Shabbetai Don Yehiya’s arrival, he was met by a delegation of the Mizrachi. They had “fixed” his “schedule” in advance without having consulted him. “Monday you will speak here. Tuesday you will give a talk there. Wednesday, you will address….”
“How would I be able to do all this,” uttered the editor who had thought of his journey as a study trip and not as a lecture tour.
“Now, we cannot do anything about it. It’s already in the papers,” said the people at the Mizrachi.
Good natured and modest Don Yehiya could not help but gracefully accept this verdict.
The Jewish Press, Friday, May 3, 1964