Israeli culture has suffered a great loss with the passing of Esther Shapiro Rafaeli. The scion of a great rabbinic dynasty, Mrs. Rafaeli was one of those rare personalities whose understated demeanor spoke of rare inner strength and amazing individual attainment. Journalist, educator, museum docent, linguist and family chronicler par excellence, Esther Shapiro Rafaeli simply defined herself as “primarily a wife and a mother.”
I met Esther fifteen years ago in her magnificent Jerusalem home when I visited her distinguished husband, Dr. Alexander Rafaeli, war-time activist for the rescue of European Jewry and one of the prominent figures in Jabotinsky’s Revisionist movement. The perfect “helpmate,” Esther’s striking individuality was at once evident.
Esther was a direct descendant of Reb Aisel Harif (Rabbi Yehoshua Isaac Shapiro) of Slonim, a renowned Talmudist whose history and collection of wise sayings she published in 1991. The Shapiro family, originally from Belorussia, lived in Poland where most perished during the Holocaust. Esther was born in Tel Aviv as her parents, Zeev-Wolf, descendant of a long line of rabbis, and Frymet Schultz, of a chassidic family in Lodz, pursued their Zionist aspirations and came to Eretz Yisrael in 1922. Five years later economic hardship compelled them to immigrate to Melbourne, Australia where Esther grew up. After graduating from college, she worked as an editor with the Melbourne Jewish Herald until the birth of the Jewish State compelled her to return. Her parents agreed on condition that her brother goes along. So in August 1948, sister and brother embarked on a six-week journey to the Holy Land. En route, the ship made several stops, providing Esther with some of the most unforgettable adventures of her life. These included emotional meetings with Jews in Bombay, India dreaming of the day when they would be permitted to leave for Israel, with Jews in Aden who confided their plight after recent anti-Semitic attacks by local mobs and with Yemenite Jews awaiting aliyah to Eretz Yisrael in transit camps, which they reached after weeks of trekking on foot through mountains and desert from their homes.
Shortly after arriving in Israel, Esther Shapiro met Dr. Alex Rafaeli. An economist and journalist, Dr. Rafaeli gave up his professional career for the sake of Am Yisrael, repeatedly risking his life in order to help create a home for persecuted Jewry. Tragically, he was unable to save his own beloved parents and younger brother from the Holocaust. Yearning for the warmth of family, Alex Rafaeli decided to retire from public life and build a home after the establishment of the State. After a short courtship, Esther and Alex were married; Rabbi Isaac Herzog, the Chief Rabbi of Israel was their misader kedushin.
“I felt secure about my future with Esther,” Dr. Rafaeli wrote about his wife in his memoir, Dream and Action (Jerusalem, 1993). “She was the girl I wanted as my wife and as the mother of my children.”
Within a year Esther had a son, Asya Dov, named, in Alex Rafaeli’s words, “after my martyred brother and my father.” In 1953 a second son, Aylon Yehoshua, was born, “named after the Biblical Judge” and Esther’s illustrious forebear, Reb Yehoshua Aisel. Esther’s two daughters, Varda Leah and Karni-Ayla, were born in Bikkur Holim Hospital in Jerusalem, which Esther’s father had helped build.
“Esther was a wonderful mother,” her husband testified. “She devoted all her time and love to the children, but also knew how to be strong and set limits when necessary.” The circle was closed when Esther’s parents followed their children to Eretz Yisrael.
Zeev-Wolf Shapiro reprinted his great-grandfather’s eleven Talmudic studies for use in yeshivot the world over and inspired Esther to write her illustrious family’s chronicle, entitledThe Modest Genius: Reb Aisel Harif.
“Now I am totally devoted to my seven grandchildren,” said Mrs. Rafaeli, the remarkable reporter of history at the conclusion of our talk.