For over a decade I was privileged to spend many hours with renowned United Nations correspondent and United Israel World Union founder David Horowitz. We engaged in lengthy discussions about his foundational views drawn from his experience and unique vantage point in the two world bodies. The Book of David is the result of my personal notes, extensive archival records and reflections from these conversations.
Recently, I found an old filed away copy of a letter I wrote to James Tabor dated January 7, 1996, the day I knew he was on his way back from Israel. It was a note to welcome him home and to report on my own recent visit to New York. Like catching time in a bottle, I’m happy to share the personal memories of one such unforgettable visit with the United Nations legendary figure.
Rebecca and I arrived in New York City on Thursday, December 28, 1995. I spoke with David Horowitz as soon as we arrived. We had an early dinner with friend and United Israel World Union board member Dr. Gene Lavers. Gene was a professor at New York University and was active in the affairs of United Israel. Following dinner we took Gene to Hineni Heritage Center, a Jewish outreach organization centered in New York.
There, we introduced Gene to Barbara Janov and Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis who we had come to know from previous visits. Rebbetzin Jungreis, a Hungarian Jew and a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a child, was a gifted speaker and spoke to a congregational gathering each Thursday evening. We remained over for refreshments and a time of fellowship and informal questions. Warmly welcomed, we enjoyed a delightful evening.
On Friday morning, I had a business appointment and Rebecca went to the UN. I arrived at the UN in time for the three of us to have lunch together at the Secretariat Building cafeteria. David told us of James’s visit with him the day before he left for Israel and his intent to visit the Sanhedrin cave at the beginning of Shabbat while he was there.
Together, the three of us lit candles in David’s little UN office at the very time of the beginning of the Sabbath in Israel. Our candles were lit at the same time we believed James was also kindling a candle at the cave in Jerusalem to commemorate a special occasion in David’s life so long ago. It was a special moment for David and for all of us-a sense of Joseph drawing near to Judah.
Becky left mid-afternoon to do some shopping for David. She bought food for our Shabbat meal along with a few special items for him, things he rarely bought for himself, including lox, rugelach, and a good bottle of maple syrup. At about four in the afternoon David and I took a cab from the UN to his apartment on the upper east side of Manhattan.
Sabbath with David Horowitz at his Manhattan apartment (1995). David loved candles.
It was a wonderful and special evening together. Candles were lit and blessings were said over wine and challah at the beginning of the Sabbath. Though we frequently spent time with David on our New York visits and always called him each and every Sabbath eve, this particular visit seemed somehow special. David was in a good mood, and energized as it seemed, by the recent visit by James Tabor and now carried over to our time together.
We discussed a myriad of subjects both during the Shabbat meal and into the night.
David talked openly about his life, his family, and his relentless pursuit of the Holy, all with an unvarnished openness. We talked about Nan, his beloved wife of forty-three years, who had passed away on Christmas Day just one year earlier, quite literally in his arms in this very apartment. Nan was eighty-four years of age.
For one special evening it was like a family gathering, a time of openness and reflection. Though the blessings were ours, I sensed David needed this as well. It had been a difficult year for him. He had bonded deeply with James Tabor and this little emerging group that he now considered family and heirs to his vision of a United Israel. It wasn’t the first time he referred to it as an answer to prayer.
Becky and I remained in New York through the weekend. We attended a symphony by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. David was thrilled to hear about it. He loved concerts and the opera especially. Few people know that David as a young lad had worked at the “Old Met,” the famous Metropolitan Opera House on 39th Street, now a vanished venue. He had met many of the renowned opera stars including the famous Enrico Caruso, who by the time of his death had sung more performances with the Met than with all the world’s other opera companies combined.
We flew home on the secular New Year’s Day 1996. Fittingly, yet not anticipated, the Torah portion for the Sabbath weekend affair was Genesis Vayyegash, the accounting of Joseph drawing near to Judah and of Jacob’s declaration that “My son Joseph is yet alive.”
I wrote it all down at the time and filed it away; a time capsule now retrieved 27 years later.
Ralph Buntyn is executive vice president and associate editor of United Israel World Union. An author, historian and researcher, his many articles and essays have appeared in various media outlets.