Rav Avraham Kook Becomes Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Palestine

Known for being a bridge builder between religious Zionism and secular Zionism, Rav Kook is born in Latvia in 1865, making aliyah in 1904. Going against the grain of many orthodox Jewish thinkers of the time, Kook interprets the secular nature of the Zionist movement as religiously legitimate, seeing the work of Zionist Jews building Eretz Israel as a mitzvah, or good deed, and a means to strengthening the international Jewish community.