Eugen Gluck z"l, Bet El's Benefactor

by Yaakov "Ketzaleh" Katz

Ketzaleh and Eugen at Annual Bet El Dinner

This week we lost a man who, in my opinion, was the greatest Jewish donor and benefactor in the United States: Mr. Eugen Gluck. Eugen and his wife Jean, who passed away a year ago, were both Holocaust survivors.


I merited to meet him 40 years ago, when we were just at the very beginning of starting to build Bet El. He was young then, around 50 years old, and our souls became intertwined. He was a man not only of great personal wealth, but also with amazing qualities of leadership and of generosity.

We stood together during the drive to build Yehuda and Shomron in general, and Bet El in particular – with the Yeshivat Bet El Institutions and its 1,200 students in total, at the center of the town. These included, of course, the Yeshiva of Higher Learning, the Jeanie Gluck High School Academy for Girls, the IDF Preparatory Academy, the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School for Boys, Arutz Sheva Israel National News, and the BeSheva newspaper.

Together, we also worked on all the other projects with which I was involved when I served as assistant to then-Housing Minister Arik Sharon in 1990-92, responsible for settlement affairs. This was when the great Aliyah wave from Russia was beginning, and we were able to build in Yesha [Judea and Samaria], eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights some 65,000 housing units. At my side helping were also Zambish, Moshe Merchavya, and Uri Ariel, and we did it all with the support of Eugen. Even afterwards, during my four years in the Knesset, I knew that he was always behind me.

The great annual dinners that Eugen Gluck ran in America for Bet El and its institutions became known far and wide. Thousands of people participated, including Prime Ministers and important politicians, both American and Israeli, who honored the occasion every year with their presence. As time passed, the Bet El Dinner became the largest Zionist, Torah-oriented, and pro-settlement dinner in the United States.

Eugen Gluck speaking at Annual Bet El Dinner

Forty full years we walked together with Eugen and Jean. As is written, "I remembered the kindness of your youth when you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown." Just recently, when his end appeared quite near, I came to visit Eugen, with whom I had been so close in every fiber of my soul, and embraced and kissed him.

Eugen's major life missions were: the preservation of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria under Israeli sovereignty, and the robust development of Bet El and its Yeshiva Center. He has now passed on to the next world, where waiting for him in Heaven he will find his family, which was wiped out in the Holocaust; his beloved wife; and his friends from both before and after he arrived in America. They are all ready to greet him with song and dance, chanting, "A tzaddik has arrived!"

There was no leader like him in the past 40 years, a wise leader who knew how to read the future map of the State of Israel. This merited him with a large and central role in the fact that Judea and Samaria will remain forever in the hands of the Jewish Nation, together with the eastern parts of Jerusalem. The day will come when millions of Jews will be living in Judea and Samaria, and they will remember what Eugen and Jean did for Klal Yisrael.
We truly participate in the sorrow of his son, daughters, and grandchildren, and we send them our heartfelt condolences. May they be comforted from Heaven; all of Israel must ask for Divine mercy and comfort when a tzaddik is taken – the captain of our ship.

Ketzaleh is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arutz-7 Group, and former Chairman of the National Union Party.

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