For over forty years, R’ Yaakov (Yankele) Gloiberman has been at the forefront of Chabad askanus in Eretz Yisroel. He is in contact with Admurim and rabbanim as well as businessmen and corporate giants, with the elite of Israel’s security apparatus and the leaders of the national sports teams. He never misses an opportunity to convey messages of Judaism. When asked for the key to getting through to these exclusive people, he said one word, heart.
Throughout the series of interviews that preceded the writing of this article, when R’ Gloiberman mentioned the Rebbe, his tone of voice turned emotional, passionate, excited or moved. “Not a day goes by without my writing a detailed report to the Rebbe. That is the secret to success! Today too. I see miracles. The Rebbe is the one who is always before my eyes and he gives me the strength to go on and do and not be fazed by anyone.”
R’ Gloiberman can be written about from many angles. He is active in nearly every area you can imagine. In forty years of communal work he has forged ties with an incredible range of people of power and status in Israeli society. He is the close friend of sports trainers and commissioners of sports leagues and has good connections with those in charge of the police, the army, and various branches of security. These connections are both open and behind the scenes, although for the most part they are hidden from the public eye and the media, but during times of crisis he has proven his effectiveness.
He started a chesed organization in 5760 called Yad B’Yad. Partners and donors include business leaders, chairmen and directors of the largest and most powerful corporations along with mayors, city councils and welfare departments throughout the country who assist the organization. R’ Gloiberman is also a longtime good friend of ministers, Knesset members and department heads of government offices of the past and present. R’ Gloiberman also maintains strong connections with Chassidic courts who turn to him for help.
How can he maintain relationships with so many people, we wondered. R’ Gloiberman assures us that this is not about packages of shmura matza for Pesach or jars of honey before Rosh HaShana, but strong friendships which are of help, nearly daily, in Chabad’s work.
“When you work with every neshama, as waters reflect a face, those people know that even when they finish their job, I won’t forget them. The relationship is deep and real. I tell them not what they want to hear, but what I, as a Chassid, think they should hear.”
GROWING UP IN MEA SH’ARIM
Let’s go back in time to the Mea Sh’arim neighborhood in the early years of the State. Yankele was born in 5713/1953. His father, R’ Asher Alter, was a second generation dweller in the Holy Land who belonged to the Pinsk-Karlin Chassidus. His mother, Pessia, was Hungarian. She emigrated to Eretz Yisroel after surviving the Holocaust. His paternal grandmother was descended from the renowned Chaimson family whose sons served as gabbaim of the Tzemach Tzedek.
“I was born in Yerushalayim, a Yerushalayim completely different than it is today. The city was tiny and everyone knew everyone. The border was the Mandelbaum Gate where the Breslov yeshiva, run by Rabbi Sholom Arush, is located today, and it ended where the Jerusalem municipality is today. In the Yerushalayim of yesteryear lived great tzaddikim, Jews who did miracles, people who were greatly elevated individuals as well as humble and out of the limelight.
“When they wanted to announce a funeral or a happy event they did so in less than two hours.” One of R’ Gloiberman’s strong memories from that time was of the “announcer” of Yerushalayim. R’ Noach der Klepper was his name. He was a talmid chacham and his job was to hang posters. “He would walk around with people following him to catch up on the latest important announcement. He had something personal to say about whoever died, far more than merely announcing his passing. The Klepper seemed to us children to be one of the thirty-six hidden tzaddikim.
“Pashkivilim were one of the fascinating parts of our day. Today, one barely glances at the signs on the walls, but back then those posters were the center of our lives, mamash the nerve center. There was no religious radio or even public phone lines for updates. Some families subscribed to Hamodia, while many others wouldn’t allow a newspaper cross their threshold. The main source of information was the signs on the street. They were the ‘bread and meat’ of our conversations. The subjects written about on them became the central topic in our lives.”
In Yerushalayim of those days there was terrible poverty. Nothing today compares to the poverty then. The State intentionally neglected the religious neighborhoods and did not develop them as they did other neighborhoods. R’ Gloiberman remembers hundreds of broken souls who were alone in the world who regularly slept under trees, in shuls and in stairwells. “Thousands of Jews came to the country at that time, war survivors, people who lost their families and possessions in the war and who suffered emotional problems as a result.
“The State put hundreds of them on buses and let them off in religious neighborhoods, knowing someone would look out for them. Mea Sh’arim was a neighborhood that symbolized genuine hospitality. Every family happily hosted some of these Jews. I remember that when I would enter the stairwell at night and there was no electricity, I might inadvertently step on those who were sleeping there. We knew what they had been through and felt great compassion for them.”
Along with the tremendous poverty, R’ Gloiberman told about flourishing Jewish life filled with life building experiences. “We had a rich life in every respect except the financial. Spiritual life flourished and there was also an active social life. Although there wasn’t much room for games in the small, crowded homes, nor in the alleyways, we always found space. A great part of our childhood experiences consisted of battles over the religious character of the religious neighborhoods.”
When he finished elementary school, he went to learn in the Litvishe Yeshivas Chevron and knew the greats of that generation: R’ Meir Chodosh, R’ Nachum Partzovitz, etc. Then, he spent two years in Yeshivas Neturei Karta.
He attended youth demonstrations against the police and the establishment of those years, always making sure he had a carefully constructed alibi in place. There was no lack of reasons to demonstrate against back then: the digging up of graves, Shabbos desecration, drafting girls, drafting boys. It is hard to believe but until a few decades ago, just a little distance away from the religious neighborhoods, Rechov Shivtei Yisroel for example, people lived irreligious lives. Restaurants and cafes were open on Shabbos and the battles waged today for Shabbos pale in comparison to what was going on back then.
“The battle to close Shivtei Yisroel was like suggesting that the Yerushalayim-Tel Aviv highway be closed today. It was a main artery. The road connected Yerushalayim with the outlying neighborhoods. It connected Israel and Jordan. It was the last road before the border. The battle to close it seemed hopeless. In the end, it happened. Until it did, we kids were very busy with the battles to close the road.”
R’ Gloiberman paused and thought, and then shared something he never told before.
“When I was already a Chassid of the Rebbe and worked together with R’ Berke Wolf, the Chabad spokesman, I was sent by him many times into the lion’s den of Neturei Karta in order to find out what material they planned on putting out to besmirch Chabad and the Rebbe. They knew I was a Chassid but also knew that you don’t play around with me. Not once and not twice, this was an effective tool for nipping negative propaganda campaigns against Lubavitch in the bud.”
R’ Gloiberman’s involvement in demonstrations and battles came to an end when he joined Chabad and became mekushar to the Rebbe.
“The one who brought me to Chabad was my uncle on my father’s side, R’ Fishel Henig, who was the head madrich at Tomchei T’mimim in Lud.”
R’ Gloiberman was captivated by the Chassidim and their ways. Through R’ Henig he got to know his neighbor, the mashpia, R’ Moshe Weber, and he was thoroughly amazed.
“R’ Weber, who lived in Battei Ungarin, was one of the great Chabad Chassidim in Yerushalayim, a real tzaddik and outstanding host. Every day, dozens of people ate in his home, from all backgrounds. If there was place in his home for fifty people, he brought in a hundred, and he received them all graciously.”
All this affected R’ Gloiberman tremendously and he began visiting the Chabad shul – Baal HaTanya. At sixteen, his uncle asked him to help with some of his supervisory work in Tomchei T’mimim in Lud. At the same time, he learned in the yeshiva and later on switched to Tomchei T’mimim in Kfar Chabad.
ENTERING THE WORLD OF ASKANUS
In 5729, R’ Gloiberman began working at the yeshiva in Lud; he was all of seventeen. The Yerushalmi young man quickly became beloved by the menahel of the mosdos, R’ Efraim Wolf, who enlisted him in the yeshiva office.
In 5735, R’ Wolf appointed him as director of Agudas Chassidei Chabad, Chairman of the mosdos, and General Secretary of the educational system, which included the vocational school as well as the yeshivos in Lud and Kfar Chabad. He became R’ Wolf’s right-hand man. R’ Wolf relied on him and sent him to meetings with high level people.
“Working alongside R’ Wolf wasn’t easy. He demanded exactitude and diligence that were beyond the norm. I had to know hundreds of phone numbers by heart. When he wanted to call someone, I had to do so immediately. Until today, there are phone numbers that are still in my head. You have to understand that in those days, the yeshiva in Lud was the nerve center of Chabad in Eretz Yisroel. The headquarters was in our office and the general chairman was R’ Wolf who was utterly devoted to the Rebbe. He conducted everything with the utmost secrecy. It was clear that nothing said inside those walls was to get out.”
In addition to R’ Wolf’s great success in askanus, R’ Gloiberman considered him a Chassid from whom much could be learned.
“He represented the Chassidic aphorism, ‘There sleeps a Chassid, there rises a Chassid, there goes a Chassid.’ Even when he had high fever, he would not forgo the mikva or davening with a minyan. His devotion to the mosdos was all encompassing. And yet, he had no hint of pomposity. I would see him going to the dining room after the talmidim finished eating, and eating the bread that was left over on the tables. He had a good relationship with the askan and legendary communal activist R’ Shlomo Maidanchek. We would go around together to government offices, our goal being to work with mesirus nefesh to carry out the Rebbe’s wishes and develop the mosdos.
“People knew that we represented the Rebbe. Until today, I am in touch with many of them who are still with us. The relationship was warm and very personal. They knew that our relationship with them was not self-serving. Even after a minister or department chair was no longer in that position, we did not forget him. Quite a few of them or their descendants grew closer to tradition through our visits.”
Public figures of those days would compete over who would visit Kfar Chabad. The one who led them around the main hall of Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim and around the vocational school, was R’ Gloiberman.
“It was a period of great development for Chabad mosdos. In the vocational school alone there were about six hundred students. New Chabad communities were built and mosdos began to grow all over the country. And still, someone who wanted to see Chabad mosdos would come visit Kfar Chabad. Holders of high positions from the Education, Welfare, Treasury and Defense Ministries were regular guests and were always amazed by the atmosphere and the beauty of Chabad mosdos.”
Many of them began keeping mitzvos to one degree or another. The love and great affection between them and R’ Gloiberman was unusual. They felt that they were truly appreciated and not just for appearances’ sake, and tried to reciprocate the love whether with keeping Shabbos, putting on t’fillin, or attending Torah classes. This is R’ Gloiberman’s pride and joy.
The fruits of those connections stripped of all formal etiquette can be found till today. Looking back, R’ Gloiberman recalls the ministers, Knesset members, and department heads, who made significant strides in Yiddishkait after visiting the vocational school. The grandson of Motke Tzipori, who was the assistant of former Israeli president, Ezer Weizman and later deputy defense minister, eventually became a Lubavitcher. Likewise, the grandson of the Treasury Minister, Yigal Horowitz, went to learn in a Chabad yeshiva. The grandchildren, of course, did not join the visits the grandfathers made, but the grandfathers’ exposure to a life of Torah and mitzvos illuminated by Chassidus contributed greatly to their homes and provided the grandchildren with a supportive environment for their new paths.
R’ Gloiberman relates that many of those visitors called him afterward and thanked him for reviving their Jewish spark. He recalls his friend, the minister Gideon Ezra, who took giant steps forward toward a life of Torah and mitzvos and his daughter, who became a baalas t’shuva. So too, the mayor of Lud, Moshe Efrat, who was in close touch with the Rebbe and became a baal t’shuva along with one of his sons, and the mayors Tzvi Itzkowitz and Maxim Levy.
When we asked for stories that were somewhat more personal about connections with ministers and Knesset members, R’ Gloiberman chose his words carefully. Not everything need be told, even after many years. Still, he agreed to tell us two short episodes:
“A few years ago, I was on a flight with R’ Leibel Groner of New York to Eretz Yisroel. R’ Groner told me he had a CD with him containing ninety minutes of scenes of the Rebbe from Tishrei. He asked me whether I could speak to the steward and ask him to show it instead of the movie.
“It seemed outrageous to make this request, but I decided to act with kabbalas ol and passed on the request to the steward who got the second-in-command involved. When the latter did not agree, as expected, I asked to see the man in charge. When he arrived and saw me, he exclaimed, ‘Hello, Rabbi Gloiberman!’ I had no idea who he was. He then told me he was the son of the manager of Bank Leumi in Lud. ‘For years, you would bring us matzos before Pesach and we ate them Pesach night in awe. My father considered this extremely important. So, how could I not accede to your request?!’ Sure enough, a few minutes later the Rebbe was on the screens.”
R’ Gloiberman recalls his meetings with the General Chairman of the Education Ministry, the legendary Eliezer Shmueli. “Today, Shmueli is 88. When I visited him recently, he told me that when the previous Israeli president, Zalman Shazar, was on his deathbed, he called Shmueli to come urgently to the hospital and said he had one personal request and asked that he promise to keep it. ‘Watch over Chabad for me.’ Indeed, for those in the know, that General Secretary was a big help to Chabad.
“He also told me that one time, after the Six Day War, the deputy prime minister, Yigal Alon, was sent to the Rebbe on behalf of the government. His request was that the Rebbe give his approval for tens of thousands of young men to live in Chevron while the government guaranteed to build them homes. He had yechidus and presented the idea but the Rebbe dismissed it, saying that first all the Arabs should leave. Yigal Alon said that was clearly impossible since the American government would be angry. The Rebbe was not convinced and he said emotionally, [quoting the verse] ‘Did you murder and then inherit? If you can’t deal with the Arabs now, who will guarantee that when something happens, the government will stand by the Jews?’ The request was denied and we see the results till this very day.”
To be continued, G-d willing