Recently, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, has returned to public discussion. Former MK Tehila Friedman, in a featured Times of Israel blog post, invoked Rabbi Kook in her call for the emergence of an inclusive, moderate religious Zionism. She was promptly rebuked by Prof. Allan Nadler, who declared that such a call was totally misguided: Rabbi Kook, in his opinion, was a conservative Haredi nationalist rabbi – the father of the current Israeli religious hard right. Other writers joined the debate, correcting some of Nadler’s assertions.
This, of course, is not the first time that controversy has emerged regarding Rabbi Kook. It has been a staple of scholarly and public discourse, especially in religious Zionist circles, since his death 90 years ago.
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