The Brash Diplomat
Rabbi Zushe Greenberg
Special to the CJN
Posted Jul 3, 2024 at 4: 00 PM
David Levy, left, meets the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi M.M. Schneerson, in 1990.
David Levy, who passed away on June 2, was an Israeli politician for over 40 years.
He was the Foreign Minister of Israel when James Baker served as U.S. Secretary of State during the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Baker was not exactly friendly to Israel and he forced Israel to agree to concessions that seriously jeopardized its security.
In 1990, Levy, the newly-appointed Foreign Minister of Israel arrived in Washington for the first time, along with his entire entourage, to meet the American Secretary of State.
A few days before, at a public gathering, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi M.M. Schneerson, mentioned that a top official from the Israeli government is coming to meet with the U.S. government, and he should defend the security of the land of Israel, stand strong and not give in.
Two Chabad rabbis who had a personal relationship with the foreign minister decided to deliver the Rebbe’s message to him. When he came down to the hotel lobby, they were waiting for him. The minister recognized them and greeted them warmly and they were able to share the Rebbe’s message.
When the Israeli delegation entered the meeting, Baker presented his counterpart with a list of written American demands regarding the halting of all kinds of activity in the West Bank and Gaza.
Levy replied as follows. “As you know, I represent an independent nation-state … and as a general rule, if you had wanted to send me such a letter, you should have faxed it – not summon me all the way here.” The minister then stood up in a fury and told his group, “We’re leaving!”
Baker jumped up and followed him, apologized and offered to serve him a drink. From that point on, he knew who he was dealing with – and ultimately, they became friends. Once when Baker was in Israel, he made a point to visit Levy even though he was not foreign minister anymore.
Years later, Levy commented that the Rebbe’s message that was delivered to him, gave him the strength to stand up to Baker.
Levy was born in Morocco in 1937. In 1957, at the age of 19, he made aliyah to Israel along with his parents and entire family. They were settled in Beit Shean, Cleveland’s sister city, then a refugee camp and now a flourishing Israeli city.
But back then, life in Beit Shean was very hard. They could not find steady work, and David worked at whatever job was available. He married and shortly after had his first child, a girl – but then had no success finding any work at all. Once, feeling frustrated after a long period of unemployment, he broke the door of the local employment office. The cops arrested him and he sat in a holding cell for 12 days.
He later would relate that all through his short “prison sentence,” he refused to shave – he wanted a mourner’s face, and when he looked in the mirror in his cell’s restroom, tears flowed from his eyes. He wept for the cruelty of life; everything came back before him in one image – the day they had left Morocco with so much love for the Land of Israel in their hearts, with so much faith and hope. Before his eyes he also saw the days before their departure from Morocco – he recalled their Passover seders, the days when his father walked tall and proud, the days when they just felt happy about life.
But then, Levy suddenly found himself not crying. He stopped feeling sorry for himself. He thought, “What can I do to change my situation – and also the situation of those whose lot in life is like my family’s lot in life?”He realized that turning over tables at the employment office is not the way to go – it was a path to prison. Instead, it was incumbent upon him to find a path that would lead him forward to a position of influence, from which he could change things at their very root.
That was the turning point of his life. Levy walked out of that holding cell a new man.
He soon found work as a construction worker, and later ran for election on the Beit Shean City Council. He won. He shortly was appointed as vice chairman of the council, and from there, his political career took off – leading him to 40 years in the Knesset, including 29 years as a minister in Israel’s national government. But what was even more significant than that was that he became the face of “the second-class Israel” –
that of all the immigrants who never quite acclimated to Israeli society, who lived in neighborhoods plagued by deprivation and poverty. He became the voice of all those who had no voice.
In fact, Levy became a warrior for the poor and downtrodden. It was Levy who pioneered one of Israel’s neighborhood rehab projects, working to improve deprived areas that had become hotbeds of crime, poverty and suffering.
Throughout all those years, even when Levy was serving as foreign minister, he never forgot who he really was. He never abandoned Beit Shean – he came back home whenever he had the chance. In his extensive travels abroad, he didn’t look for a high-class hotel; his one and only concern was making sure there was kosher food there.
He was a man accustomed to going to shul to pray every Shabbos. Once while serving as Foreign Minister, he was walking out of shul on a Shabbos afternoon with his nephew as his entire security entourage and a police car tagged along. He turned to his nephew, who had just completed his mandatory military service, and said, “You see this entire entourage behind me? These are the security guards for the Foreign Minister of Israel – not Levy.Never forget where you come from.”
I was in New York in 1990 and remember the excitement when we, the Israeli boys, heard that Foreign Minister Levy was coming to see the Rebbe at the famous “Sunday Dollars.” When Levy arrived, the Rebbe received him very warmly. Levy commented to the Rebbe that the aliyah of 20,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union was a miracle that only believing Jews could possibly understand, because it seemed impossible just a short time earlier. “It was the finger of G‑d,” he told the Rebbe.
The Rebbe responded, “It wasn’t just the finger, it was a full hand – five times over.” Before he left, the Rebbe gave him a blessing for long leadership.
The 30th yahrtzeit of the Rebbe will be commemorated on July 9. This message is as relevant now as it was 30 years ago. If we open our eyes, we will see that when it comes to Israel and the Jewish people, it’s not just a finger – it’s a full hand – five times over.