Windfall doesn’t fall far from the tree

By Paul Haist

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When Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, emeritus rabbi at Congregation Neveh Shalom, was a very young man studying in his native Jerusalem, he attended a conference of rabbis on the occasion when David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s then retired first prime minister, was the featured speaker.

At one point, said Stampfer, Ben-Gurion asked his audience, “Who do you think was the first Zionist? Herzl? Netter?”

Ben-Gurion was referring to Theodor Herzl, widely regarded as the founder of Zionism, which vision he articulated in his 1896 book “The Jewish State;” and Charles Netter, founder in 1870 of Mikveh Israel, the first modern Jewish agricultural settlement in the land of Israel.

Ben-Gurion answered his own question.

“No,” he said. “It was Yehoshua Stampfer.”

“Everyone turned around and looked at me,” said Stampfer. They recognized their colleague’s name.

Ben-Gurion was referring to Stampfer’s great-grandfather, one of three men who founded Petak Tikvah, the first all-Jewish village to be built in relatively modern times in what was then called Palestine. Land for the village north of what is now Tel Aviv was first purchased in 1830.

“Ben-Gurion,” said Stampfer, “considered the first Zionist to be the one who settled the land.”

Stampfer’s grandfather developed an orange grove on land at Petak Tikvah. Eventually, in subsequent generations, the grove fell into disuse and neglect. The land was sold about four years ago for commercial development, according to the rabbi.

The proceeds from the land sale were distributed recently among Yehoshua Stampfer’s heirs. Rabbi Stampfer’s share was $10,000.

It was a windfall that the rabbi was content to leave where it was.

“I wanted to leave my share in Israel,” he said, “to enable my descendants to come to Israel to study there or visit.”

It’s already working.

His grandson Zev, son of Carol and the late Noam Stampfer, was in Israel in March with his Portland Jewish Academy class.

“His costs are being covered by that fund,” said the rabbi.

The fund, invested with a bank in Israel, is administered by the rabbi’s son Shaul, a professor of Jewish history at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.