Jewish Billionaire

WE need Judaization
By Anshel Pfeffer
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961664.html
Tags: Israel, London, Tycoon

Mike Ghouse: I can relate with this story, as an immigrant, as an Indian, as a Muslim and also from a Hindu view point.

MOSCOW - Two weeks ago oligarch Boris Spiegel, a senator and an influential figure in Russian politics, who is also the president of the World Congress of Russian Jewry, celebrated his 55th birthday at a well-attended party in a luxurious venue in this city. In honor of Lev Leviev's arrival, the organizers arranged for a special table with kosher food only.

Leviev claims that Jews have to demonstrate their Judaism proudly, and is convinced that most Israelis are ashamed of their Jewishness. He even attributes the rise in anti-Semitism to that.

"We're ashamed of what we are," he says. "That's why we feel that we have to get rid of the values of our glorious history and run to learn from other, new nations. Don't I look to you like a man of the world? Don't I speak to the leading businessmen in the world? And it's no problem that I'm a Jew, and a proud Jew who wears a skullcap everywhere, and that's my symbol and my identity. There were Jews who told people here [in Russia]: Don't wear a tallit (prayer shawl), don't walk around like Jews, keep quiet. But that's what brings anti-Semitism: when a Jew tries to resemble a goy. When a Jew behaves like what he is - a Jew - a goy begins to respect him, too. When he is not ashamed, then he is respected. I come to eat with very important people in the world, and I say 'only kosher,' and always with a skullcap. I don't recall that my business ever suffered from that."
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Two months ago the Israeli media were full of reports about Leviev leaving the country. He did, in fact, buy a palace in London for 35 million pounds sterling, and moved his wife Olga and his three youngest children (out of nine) there. But for over a decade it has been hard to say that Leviev was truly living in Israel. At most he's there on weekends. The main "victims" of his family's move to London are a handful of Israeli aides who traveled around the world with him. Now on their way home on Fridays they are forced to fly on scheduled flights instead of in the boss' private plane. For Leviev business is business, and now he has to supervise at first hand the huge Africa-Israel stock issue on the London Stock Exchange.

How did you feel about the media preoccupation with your move to London?

Leviev: "I don't feel anything. I know that I have my own mission and I know that life, unfortunately, is short: I have a limited time and we have to get as much done as possible, and that's that. And we have to preserve our health."

The media have bestowed on Leviev the title of the richest man in Israel: On the Forbes magazine list of billionaires he is located, with $1.4 billion, after Shari Arison and Stef Wertheimer, but that list refers only to his public holdings, in the context of Africa-Israel; the diamond and gold businesses he controls further increase his wealth, which TheMarker estimates at $5.6 billion.

Leviev is not satisfied with just being wealthy, he also has a public role: president of the Association of Jewish Communities in Russia. The offices of the association are located in a place that is still an important center of his life, and where a large part of this interview was conducted: the Moscow headquarters of the educational organization Or Avner, named after his father. At a time when the new Israeli billionaires are discovering philanthropy and are starting to donate money to Israeli society, Leviev focuses his donations and his time on Russia and other countries that have arisen on the ruins of the Soviet Union.

Don't you feel that you are swimming against the tide?

"Our worldview is mistaken. First of all, it is written that 'All Jews are responsible for one another,' and a Jew who lives in Siberia or in Kamchatka is just as good as a Jew who had the good fortune to be born in Jerusalem. The person who was born and grew up in Kamchatka, because Stalin didn't like his father and sent him there, grew up as a child who didn't know he was Jewish. We as Jews are obligated to take care of every one of our own, including him. It is written that all of Israel is part of God above, we are part of the Holy One, blessed be he - so for me there's no difference between a Jew in Israel and a Jew abroad. I give money for which I work very hard, and I believe that as a Jew I am obligated to do so. We have dozens of institutions, associations, areas in which we are active, and it costs us hundreds of millions of shekels of our own money. We did not take public money."

Covering a wall in the room where the interview is taking place, which senior staff at Or Avner call the "war room," is a map of the former Soviet Union. With the pressing of a switch hundreds of green bulbs light up, extending from the island of Sakhalin in the Far East, near Japan: Each represents a place where representatives of the organization live. Red bulbs symbolize the 75 Jewish schools that have already been built. Leviev, a reserved person, has difficulty concealing a smile of satisfaction.

Is it possible that because of your large investment the lives of Jews here are so comfortable now that they have no desire to come to Israel?

"That question reflects a mistaken worldview, because the moment a Jew's Jewish soul is poor, of course he won't come to Israel. We want to give him content. My dream is for that to be the job of the Israeli Education Ministry. If not, we have to call it the Ministry of Knowledge. Because there's a big difference between education and knowledge: The moment we don't invest in educating Jewish children according to the roots that were the basis of our education for thousands of years, we are knowledge-givers rather than educators. My vision is that we will live in a Jewish state where 'the Jewish state' won't be written only on the flag, because soon they'll be saying that we have an Arab majority and it won't be nice to write that we're a Jewish state. Just as a Muslim studies Islam, the Jew has to study Judaism. Everyone has to learn the heritage of his family and the history that dates back thousands of years.

"Arik [former prime minister Ariel] Sharon said to me: 'You're giving the Jews a good life and they won't come to Israel.' I was very surprised. I said to him: 'I didn't come to get a medal for my investment in Diaspora Jewry, when I'm actually doing your job, but at least you should express your gratitude rather than criticizing us.' The fact that he spoke that way shows that Arik Sharon didn't receive a Jewish education either."

But in the 1990s millions of immigrants came here, without any of the Jewish education that you're talking about.

"They came because the gates were closed, and then they opened. And the State of Israel missed the opportunity and didn't absorb them properly, and then they stopped coming even when the gates remained open. There is almost no Jew here who hasn't visited Israel; they saw that the absorption is not good, that there's no work, etc. When the aliyah stopped 10 years ago, and they made such a major effort to bring over non-Jews from here, too, I was opposed."

Don't 300,000 Jews who are not Jews according to halakha [Jewish law] deserve to have a solution found for them?

"Prime minister Sharon asked us at the time to set up conversion institutes. I told him, what are we, a factory? Go to the rabbis. If you need a donation I'm here. But to decide who is a Jew and who isn't a Jew - I'm not qualified for that. Just as I'm not qualified to fly the plane to Russia, even if I think I may have the ability. Who is a Jew? Neither a prime minister nor a president can determine that; for that there are experts in the rabbinate."

In the business world Leviev is described as a creative person, a revolutionary. The man who turned the international diamond industry on its head when he made alliances with the Russian government and with African countries for the mining and polishing of diamonds, to break the monopoly of the De Beers corporation. This is how he made the billions that enabled him to acquire the Africa-Israel company and through it establish an intercontinental real-estate empire. He thinks that we are all losing because we don't follow his Jewish path: "Why aren't we in the State of Israel living in peace? Why do we have problems and wars, and all this mess? If we were to live as Jews, according to the Torah, we would be the wealthiest, the most peaceful people, in the safest country," he says.

And why doesn't that happen?

"Because of our behavior, our assimilation, our denial of our Judaism. Every Jew in Israel or in the Diaspora has to know what our roots are, what his ancestors' tradition is, and anyone who thinks otherwise - I say he's simply unfortunate."

But Jews have always tried to be part of a wider world. You in effect want to combat globalization.

"We have become completely confused. We are discussing something that we don't have to discuss - globalization, democratization. We need Judaization. First of all to know that we're Jews and that Jews have to live. And the moment we understand what our internal values are, everything will work out for us."

But who decides what Jewish values are?

"What do you mean? We have our sacred books. We have our history and our tradition."

And what about secular Jewish culture?

"What is secular Judaism? Are you familiar with such a thing?"

An entire encyclopedia, "Zman yehudi hadash" ("New Jewish Time," in Hebrew) has recently been published, about secular Jewish culture.

"As far as I'm concerned, what was now published and what was published in Cuba are the same thing. There a writer wrote and here a writer wrote, I don't pay any attention to it."

Is there a future for the secular version of Zionism?

"The moment you ask a child in Israel what Yom Kippur means to him, and he answers the Yom Kippur War, or a fun day on a bicycle - then I don't know if that is Zionism or whatever you call it, but it has certainly become bankrupt. And for that we are to blame, first and foremost, the moment we try to import the new American religion, and concentrate only on the new things that are being invented in our generation, and shrug off our Judaism."

What is your opinion of the Zionist attempt to create a new Jew who will not arouse anti-Semitism?

"The books left to us by our ancestors tell us exactly how a Jew should live and behave, what kind of insurance we should prepare for ourselves and our families. It says 'And Esau hated Jacob.' The nations of the world don't need a reason. Even if we walk around with a skullcap, without a skullcap, with long hair, if we paint ourselves in different colors - we are Jews, and Esau hated Jacob, that is apparently the way of the world. We're talented, we're good-looking, we're diligent, we're pioneers in everything - and they don't like us, that's a fact. Everywhere in the world Jews arrived last and they are always the first in economics, in education and in everything; it's our genes. We have to understand where these things come from, we don't have to be ashamed. The same younger generation that thinks it will change the face of Judaism - you have to understand that it is destroying Judaism: Anyone who denies faith will not remain a Jew in the coming generations."

Lev Leviev, who considers himself a man of the world, was never involved in the Israeli business community, and expresses uncomplimentary opinions of his colleagues-rivals only after announcing "this is off the record." In London he is not involved either, not even in the Jewish community. The neighborhood of Hampstead, where he lives, is full of synagogues, but he prefers to pray in one that he built inside his new house. Even in Moscow, where he fits into the business community in the most natural way, he does not behave like an oligarch.

Two weeks ago, a bar-mitzvah ceremony was held in the Jewish community center in Moscow, for the son of Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar. One after another, Rolls Royces, Bentleys and Maybachs crowded into the narrow street, each of them accompanied by a black security jeep. One by one, the oligarchs and the "minigarchs" - those worth only a few hundred million dollars - got out, carrying presents in elegant wooden crates, surrounded by black-clad bodyguards. Although Rabbi Lazar is considered his protege, Leviev did not arrive early to rub shoulders. He wears conservative suits and travels on the city streets in a black Mercedes; he also has a pair of bodyguards, but they don't wear dark suits and they manage to blend into the crowd.

He refuses to disclose how much money he has invested to date in his philanthropic activity, or the annual operating cost of his 75 schools in the former Soviet Union, to which additional institutions have been added in recent years in Israel, Eastern Europe, Germany and even in areas in which Russian Jews live in the United States.

"I'm not asking the country to join me," smiles Leviev when asked about it. "I'm not asking for money. Thank God, every year it grows and I'm very happy."

For Leviev, Judaism has one meaning: Chabad. Before he began to develop his diamond business in Russia in the late 1980s, he traveled to New York to ask for the blessing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The rebbe gave his blessing, but told him that he also had to take care of the Jews. Since then he sees his business and his philanthropy as intertwined. His most loyal aides are hundreds of Chabad emissaries who are scattered today all over the former Soviet Union, and who operate the educational institutions he funds.

In the ultra-Orthodox community they say that not a single yeshiva student has emerged from all your schools.

"You are confusing two things: You are used to the ultra-Orthodox man in Israel, who never works and studies in yeshiva all the time, and says that one needs only study, from childhood. There is no religious Jew abroad who doesn't work. I support professional training for the ultra-Orthodox, I've given a lot of money for that and I will continue to help establish such programs and to provide work, because in my opinion a Jew has to make a good living and not be in need of donations."

But the ultra-Orthodox rabbis are opposed to letting the yeshiva students go out to work.

"It's not all the rabbis, it's a certain segment; these are not mainly Hasidim, they're Lithuanians. If a Jew thinks that a good Jew can only be an ultra-Orthodox Jew, then he has to repent: He has wasted his time all his life in vain if he hasn't understood that. If a Jew who calls himself ultra-Orthodox thinks that a Jew who is not ultra-Orthodox is not a Jew, then he has to be reborn, because in my opinion he is a damaged Jew."

Does the ultra-Orthodox public bear part of the blame for the fact that many Israelis take no interest in their Judaism?

"There are closed Hasidic courts, which have decided to isolate themselves and to concern themselves with the internal growth of their own population. They marry one another, they have their own institutions. That is exactly the opposite of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who said that we are not permitted to take care only of ourselves, but are responsible for all the Jews everywhere in the world. That's why he sent his finest sons around the world, the young guys that you meet everywhere, who run around and work for the sake of heaven."

Do you feel that you are an emissary of Chabad?

"I feel like a Jew who is obligated to do this and I thank the Lubavitcher Rebbe who told me to do what I'm doing. I didn't believe that it would grow to such dimensions, all the businesses. I'm a very big believer in the idea that if a Jew lives like a Jew and, as it is written, sets aside tithes or a fifth of his income - then the Holy One, blessed be he pays him back. I know that from my personal experience. The more I give every year, the more I have. I give charity, the Holy One blessed be he pays me back. I give 100, I get back 1,000."

Leviev was born in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. His father, a Chabad Hasid, was a mohel (ritual circumciser) in secret. He himself immigrated to Israel at the age of 15. "It's true that Eretz Israel is acquired through suffering, as it is written. My father of blessed memory used to say that you have to perspire a lot. When they threw us into Kiryat Malakhi, on the fourth floor, and we had to live 11 people in 60 meters, my father would sit and kiss the floor tiles and say, 'Eretz Israel, the holy land.' But that's because he was a devout Jew all his life. What will a professor from Novosibirsk who lands in Israel think, when he has no work and he has to sweep streets?"

The Association of Jewish Communities in Russia, of which Leviev is president, was established 10 years ago and is considered very close to the administration, and particularly to former president and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The chief rabbi of the association, Berel Lazar, has been criticized for this in Jewish circles all over the world. This week presidential elections were conducted in Russia. The success of Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's candidate, was guaranteed in advance.

You have excellent relations with outgoing president Putin, although he is seen in the West as a kind of dictator. How would you sum up his term in office?

"I think that Putin was a wonderful leader when it comes to faith and freedom of religion, for all the nations here. He encouraged Islam and Judaism and Buddhism, and in every statement always said that every nation has to respect its values and its roots, and if it doesn't, that's a sign that it doesn't respect itself. I think we should be happy that the leader of such a big country thinks and speaks in such a way. After all, let's not forget that Putin is a product of a Soviet school, and in spite of the education he received, he speaks like that, and everyone follows his example and helps the Jewish communities."

What is your opinion of his designated successor Medvedev?

"Just as Putin was a wonderful president for the Jews, I think that Medvedev will be one, too. On his own initiative he asked to visit the Jewish center, spent two and a half hours there and showed great interest. And because he was raised on the ideal of democracy, I don't think that we'll feel any difference in attitude, but will continue in the same way."

What do you think of the rumors that he's Jewish?

"If you weren't recording me, I would give you an answer. But he is a creature of God, a wonderful man. By the way, Putin always says: I'm proud of the fact that I have so many Jewish acquaintances. I wish the Jews themselves would appreciate the Jews the way Putin knows how to appreciate them. That's our problem in Israel."

As an Israeli citizen, do you accept with equanimity the way in which elections in Russia are run?

"I don't live in equanimity with the fact that in Israel we don't have a prime minister, because he's under investigation all the time. Not this prime minister, not the previous one and not the next one. That's a result of the fact that we have become somewhat confused in our democracy, we've forgotten that in order to have a prime minister in the country, we have to let him lead the country. When he finishes his term, investigate and try him, he's not running away anywhere. He's a prime minister, you elected him, the people elected him, for good or for ill you have to respect that. He's a king, you have to let him work and not drink his blood day and night in investigations."

If you're so concerned about the way in which the government in Israel is run, why don't you enter the political arena, or contribute to one of the parties or to a candidate who will promote your ideas?

"If I even try to do that, I'll immediately be called in for an investigation for giving bribes to get some business, or some falafel stand. That's why I don't plan to be there."

You have solid political opinions, but you have always refused to spell them out.

"I still refuse. I have no political opinions about how to run a city, or how to run some ministry or other. I'm talking about matters of principle for the Jewish people."

You are accused of making all kinds of deals with local leaders to promote your Jewish education network in the former Soviet Union.

"Of course, if a Jew in any country has a problem, I'm proud to help and to be at the forefront, why not? In Israel you don't have to make deals? Besides, I have long since stopped getting upset about what people say. I know that we have a goal, that our deeds have to be for the sake of heaven, and I don't do it to get a prize. I don't intend, as opposed to what they wrote about me, to be a prime minister or a mayor or a member of the local council in some city or other. It doesn't interest me. I don't want any position, and I don't want any honor. I do what I do and invest a great deal in it, thank God, because I believe that is the right way, that a Jew has to do justice with his money - that's tzedakah (charity). They're always searching for reasons [and asking] why does he help? Why does he act?"

Leviev's anger, among other things, stems from Education Minister Yuli Tamir's refusal to implement an agreement he says was made about introducing into dozens of secular elementary schools a curriculum, developed by his foundation and that of his wife Olga, called Zman Masa (Travel Time). The program includes explanations of prayers and of Jewish history and values, from an Orthodox point of view. The chair of the Education Ministry's pedagogical secretariat, Prof. Anat Zohar, decided that the program is not suitable for state schools, because it does not include pluralistic views of Judaism that are appropriate for students who come from nonobservant homes. In spite of the opposition, the program is being used in state schools in Givatayim and Petah Tikva, and is taught by religious women who are studying to be teachers.

Leviev claims that he has not encountered any opposition to the program. "I saw that 99 percent, even more, of the students and the parents are all happy," he says. "Everything continues to operate as usual. Why reject an act of patriotism? Because we are proud Jews, we didn't ask to introduce Buddhism into the school. Had I asked for that, they would have welcomed it. Nor is it a religious program at all. The goal is to teach each child concepts in Judaism. To make him proud of the fact that he's a Jew, to understand our tradition. To know what to say when they ask what a Jew is. Some people think that our ancestral tradition is like dangerous drugs for a child; there are parents who are simply unfortunate, who think that if a child studies [Jewish] tradition, it drives him crazy. That if the child comes home and says, Mom, let's recite kiddush on Shabbat, let's wash our hands before meals - they're shocked and begin to send letters everywhere, and the journalists encourage them and say that something bad has happened: A child washed his hands before meals."

As a person who considers the Jews in Jerusalem and those in Kamchatka equal, what is your opinion of the proposal by the president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor, to give every Jew in the world the right to vote in Israel?

"In my opinion, a Jew who doesn't live in Israel has no right to decide its future. Only Jews who live in Israel do, for good or for ill."

Recently several leading Jewish personalities said that a discussion of basic issues such as the future of Jerusalem is a matter for all the Jews in the world.

The prime minister apparently thinks otherwise.

"Then he has a problem. It's a betrayal of the Jewish people if the prime minister thinks so."

In recent weeks there have been pro-Palestinian demonstrations in New York and London, calling to boycott Leviev's jewelry stores because of the construction being done on the other side of the Green Line by the Danya Sibus firm, which is owned by Africa-Israel. Leviev suspects that financial interests are behind the demonstrations. "I don't know what this is - after all, if they want to demonstrate, why against us? After all Dor Alon, in which Africa-Israel owns 26 percent, is the only company that sells fuel to the Palestinians. I think that it's more groups that are funded by business competitors."

Do you have a problem with building in the territories?

"Not if the State of Israel grants permits legally. But Danya Sibus is only a subcontractor; I didn't even know it was building there."W