Rav Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook הרב אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק
first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, thinker of national renewal
Rav Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook was born in Latvia in 5625, studied at Volozhin, served as a rabbi in Lithuania, and in 5664 came to Jaffa — into the world of the Second Aliyah, where young socialists were draining swamps and not keeping the Sabbath.
He saw in them something other than enemies. His thought: the people's return to the land is part of redemption even when those enacting it speak the language of atheism, and there is holiness in their self-sacrifice that they themselves do not know. «The old shall be renewed and the new shall be sanctified.» This enraged both sides — the Haredim of Jerusalem never forgave his recognition of the Zionists, and the secular regarded him as a stranger.
Stranded in Europe by the First World War, he spent it in London and was present around the Balfour Declaration. In 5680 he returned as rabbi of Jerusalem, and in 5681 became the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, founding the country's rabbinate and the yeshiva Mercaz HaRav.