Diplomacy, the art of navigating international relations, used to be practiced primarily by trained professionals. However, in recent years, there have been increasing reports of academic diplomacy, sports diplomacy, and cultural diplomacy – all of which help to strengthen bilateral and multilateral ties.
Now it appears that there has also been rabbinic diplomacy between Israel and the US for more than a century.
Part of the tale of that diplomacy was revealed on Sunday at the President’s Residence, at the unveiling of an exhibition under the title of Chief Rabbis at the White House, which was conceived by the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy, a research center dedicated to the sovereignty, security, prosperity, and international standing of Jerusalem.
According to JCAP founder and President Chaim Silberstein, it was realized in 2024 that it was the 100th anniversary year of the meeting at the White House between President Calvin Coolidge and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, who was Chief Rabbi of Palestine.
The meeting had taken place on April 15, 1924.
Silverstein and his 20-member team thought this was something to celebrate and met with President Isaac Herzog to sound him out.
Herzog was in favor and recalled that his grandfather, Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog, the first Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel, had twice been to the White House to meet with presidents of the United States.
The first time was in 1941, when Israel was still under the administration of the British Mandate, and the second was in May 1949. At the first meeting, Herzog begged President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to do something to save the Jews of Europe from the Nazi death machine. At the second meeting, Herzog thanked President Harry S. Truman for what he had done to enable the Jewish People to return to their ancestral homeland.
Anniversary year of American independence
In 2024, Israel was campaigning for the release of hostages who were still in captivity in Gaza. It was agreed that this was an inappropriate year for a celebration. But with this year being the 250th anniversary year of American independence, it was considered a good time to take the exhibition to Washington and to thank President Donald Trump for all that he has done for Israel and the Jewish People.
Before that, the exhibition will be shown at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav on Jerusalem Day, and also at the Rabbi Kook Museum, which was previously Rabbi Kook’s home.
No date has yet been set for the exhibition to be shown in Washington, but when the White House sets a date, it will be coordinated with Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, and the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Chief Rabbis of Israel, Kalman Ber and David Yosef.
At the unveiling ceremony, President Herzog, who is a history buff, particularly when it comes to his own family, which includes several iconic personalities, appeared to know more than the JCAP person who was explaining the background to each of the items on display, and simply took over. He also pointed out that at dinners organized for the rabbis by the Jewish community, men and women sat together, as shown in one of the photographs. To which Yaakov Hagoel, the Chairman of the Executive of the World Zionist Organization, added: “They were also together at the Western Wall.”
The Third Chief Rabbi to visit the White House was Rabbi Avraham Shapira, whose son, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, the head of Mercas HaRav, said that at his father’s March 1992 meeting with President George H.W. Bush, the two men discussed the importance of faith not only in spiritual leaders but also in heads of state. They also spoke of American assistance in enabling the exodus of Soviet Jews.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber, in speaking of the strong bond between the Chief Rabbinate and the State of Israel with the Presidents of the US, voiced the belief that President Donald Trump has a special mission to help the Jewish People and the State of Israel. “He just continues helping again and again,” said Ber.
David Brownstein, the Deputy Head of Mission at the US Embassy, noted that there are many miracles taking place in contemporary Israel.
The exhibition includes communication exchanges between the offices of the Chief Rabbis and the White House. The technological advances in communications that are taken for granted these days did not exist till three quarters of the way through the last century. Letters and telegrams were the essence of long-distance communication. Copies of the originals were reproduced for the exhibition.
Herzog took time out from preparations for a busy week before departing on an official visit to Kazakhstan, which is a member of the Abraham Accords and the Board of President Trump’s Peace Council. During his stay there, Herzog will attend an Israel Independence Day reception hosted by the Israeli Embassy. Accompanying the president on his visit will be representatives of several Israeli authorities and organizations, in particular those whose focus is innovation and technology.
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