Baruch Dayan haEmes

 

Bibi's father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu has died. May Hashem comfort the family among all those who mourn for Zion and Jerusalem.

 

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Ben-Zion Netanyahu, a noted Jewish historian and Zionist thinker, and father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has died.

Netanyahu died early Monday morning at his home in Jerusalem. He was 102.

Benjamin Netanyahu visited his father for the last time on Sunday evening, a statement issued Monday from the Prime Minister's Office said.

Netanyahu was born Ben-Zion Mileikowsky in Warsaw in 1910, and immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1920.

Netanyahu studied at the David Yellin Teachers’ College and later at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  His research focused on the history of the medieval Spanish Jewish community and the history of Zionism. Among his books are a biography of Don Isaac Abravanel; a history of the Spanish Marranos; and his major work, "The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain."

He also authored "The Founding Fathers of Zionism," about the lives of the founders of political Zionism – Leon Pinsker, Theodor Herzl, Max Nordau, Israel Zangwill and Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

Netanyahu was the editor-in-chief of the Hebrew Encyclopedia for over a decade beginning in the 1950s. He served as Professor of Jewish Studies at various universities in the United States and concluded his academic career as professor emeritus at Cornell University.

From his time as a student in Jerusalem, he was involved in public Zionist activities. He was a supporter of Ze'ev Jabotinsky and edited a newspaper that also featured Prof. Joseph Klausner and poet Uri Tzvi Greenberg on its staff.

In 1939, Netanyahu traveled to London and persuaded Jabotinsky to relocate to the United States and from there mobilize support for the Jewish state. Jabotinsky died shortly after their arrival in the U.S.; Netanyahu continued to raise support for the Jewish state throughout the war and afterward.

In this context, he met with many U.S. Jewish leaders of the period, as well as with senators, congressmen, authors, poets and leaders. Upon the establishment of the State of Israel, he returned from the United States and moved with his young family to Jerusalem's Talpiot neighborhood. 

He was married to his wife Tzila, who died in 2000, for over 50 years. He was predeceased by son Yonatan, who was killed during Operation Yonatan at Entebbe, Uganda,  and is survived by Benjamin, the prime minister of Israel, and Ido, a doctor, author and playwright.

 

Benzion Netanyahu, center, with his sons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Ido Netanyahu. Photo by: Olivier Fitoussi

 

 

The haters on the Left have gone right to work. Without an ounce of respect, they cannot wait even until the man is buried to start defaming him.

The New York Times relishes the opportunity: "Benzion Netanyahu, Hawkish Scholar, Dies at 102."  But MJ Rosenberg is even further beneath contempt. He (and his tweets) should burn in hell, whereupon his name should be erased for all eternity.

 

Netanyahu's father, a horrific racist, has left the building. 102 years old. Nice run!

— MJ Rosenberg (@MJayRosenberg) April 30, 2012

 

With Bibi's father's death at 102, Bibi no longer has to bomb Iran to please old rightist.

— MJ Rosenberg (@MJayRosenberg) April 30, 2012

 

Netanyahu's far far right father dies at 102. As Billy Joel taught us: only the good die young.

— MJ Rosenberg (@MJayRosenberg) April 30, 2012

Yisrael Medad calls this display "pornigratification" - at My Right Word.

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

In "Gulliver's Travels" -- the finest work of satire in the English language -- Gulliver, a man of normal size, is shipwrecked on an island populated by the Lilliputians, all of whom are shorter than six inches. They treat him well until he displeases them, and then they sentence him to be blinded. He luckily escapes. The rancid little people -- the Jewish Lilliputians -- who are now defaming one of the great Jewish intellectuals of modern times, consider him a blind man only because they are themselves blind to what real scholarship and invincible truth-telling look like. Benzion Netanyahu and his towering reputation will escape the slings and arrows of the heinous homunculi who are now attacking him. If a history of modern Jewish culture is someday written, it may well be named "Benzion's Travels." It will surely not be named "MJay's Travels." It should be noted that men like Joseph Klausner and Uri Tzvi Greenberg rank, alongside such people as Bialik and Ahad Ha'am and Gershom Scholem. among the aristocracy of modern Jewish thinkers and writers. Benzion Netanyahu was one of their number -- one of a nobility of unabashedly proud Jews who bequeathed to the State of Israel and to Western Culture at large a cultural foundation that will endure as long as freethinking people are around to appreciate it.

[Tom Glennon]

Notwithstanding his own accomplishments, the fact that Ben-Zion Netanyahu raised two sons named Benjamin and Yonatan should endear him to all right thinking peoples. As a father and grandfather, I have immense respect for anyone who can raise children with the character of those two men. It speaks volumes as to the kind of person that the senior Mr. Netanyahu was. Would that we had more like him.

[Laser Stafford VA]

Interesting post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting.