Aharon David Gordon

  • Issue: December 2003
  • Designer: Ruth Beckman-Malka
  • Stamp Size: 40 mm x 25.7 mm
  • Plate no.: 536 (no phosphor bar)
  • Sheet of 15 stamps Tabs: 5
  • Printers: E. Lewin-Epstein Ltd.
  • Method of printing: Offset

Little is known of A.D.Gordon's life before he immigrated to Eretz Yisrael from Ukraine. He was an accounts manager for forestland belonging to his relative Baron Ginzburg. He also was a youth leader. In 1904, at the age of 48, Gordon immigrated to Eretz Yisrael leaving his family in the Diaspora. Gordon joined a group of young laborers and he would sign his letters "the old laborer" - he immediately came known as "hazaken - the old one". He made sure that he was not granted special rights as an elder and leader. Gordon worked in the fields, discussed, sang and danced with the pioneers who lived between despair and hope. He was known amongst the young workers as their teacher and was the subject of many literary works written at the time.

Gordon kept and respected the Jewish traditions but believed in the necessity to renew the people and the nation.
Gordon believed in renewing man's relationship with nature by working the land, dialog, creation and ethical criticism. His main book was called "Man and Nature". According to Gordon, the connection with nature results in the growth of a society based on family circles, free communities and humane responsibility.

The renewal of the Jewish people in the land and nature of Eretz Yisrael and the Hebrew language is an opportunity to begin this process. Gordon pioneered the concept of moral ecology. He believed in self-education and objected to the idea of systems, ways of life and constitution. He was against Zionism if it involved fighting and war.

His wife and daughter joined him five years after he arrived in Eretz Yisrael.
He tried to settle in Ein Ganim near Petach Tikva, but the death of his wife shortly after she arrived, made him move on. Gordon's son did not come to Eretz Yisrael and was killed in the pogroms in Ukraine in 1920. Gordon lived the last years of his life in Degania Alef and there he died.

Muki Tzur
Kibbutz Ein-Gev

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Aharon David Gordon (1856-1922)