Page 8 - HaMizrachi Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot 5782 USA

A Single Moment

Sivan
Rahav-Meir

single moment can some-
times influence our entire
lives. A fascinating moment
A of this kind was revealed
during a meeting on Pesach between
Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, and
Rabbi Berel Wein.
Herzog came to the home of the
88-year-old rabbi who made Aliyah
after many years as a writer, lecturer
and American Jewish leader. Rabbi
Wein has led many congregations
as a rabbi and rosh yeshivah, helping
hundreds of students prepare for
rabbinical leadership roles across the
globe. During their meeting, Rabbi
Wein shared the following story with
the President, who is named after his
grandfather, Rabbi Yitzchak Herzog
zt”l, who served as the Ashkenazi President Isaac Herzog and Rabbi Berel Wein
Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine and is baptized into Christianity and must “The words I heard that day changed
the State of Israel from 1936–1959:
remain a Christian forever.’ my life. They changed the lives of
“I was a twelve-year-old child in 1946 “Rabbi Herzog finished quoting the many who were there. Many among
when my father woke me early one that group of children established
morning and said: ‘We are going to Pope, paused for a moment, and then educational institutions and large
burst into tears. I never saw anyone
the airport. Rabbi Herzog is arriving Jewish organizations, and many also
in Chicago!’ The entire community cry like that. He bent his head over the made Aliyah. Over the years, the young
podium, and all two thousand years of
waited in anticipation of the eminent our exile and persecution poured out Americans in that lecture hall edu-
rabbi’s arrival. cated tens of thousands of Jews to be
of him. All the young Americans stood active members of the Jewish nation.
“The rabbi came to our school and told in stunned amazement. All because of one speech, and because
us about his recent encounter with the of one person’s tears.”
Pope: ‘I just returned from Rome after “But then the rabbi stood up straight,
looked at us intently and said: ‘I cannot
meeting with the Pope. I presented
him with a list of thousands of Jewish do anything more for these children.
But you, what do you intend to do for
children who were sent to Catholic the Jewish nation? What do you intend
monasteries by their parents in order Sivan Rahav-Meir is a media personality
to save them from the Germans. I told to do to revitalize our people?’ and lecturer. She lives in Jerusalem with her
husband, Yedidya, and their five children,
the Pope: ‘I am giving you this list as “Afterwards, we all approached him to and serves as World Mizrachi’s Scholar-in-
A member of a representative of the Jewish people. shake his hand, and he repeated this Residence. She is a primetime anchor on
the Mizrachi I am requesting that you return these message to each of us personally. He Channel 2 News, has a column in Israel’s
Speakers Bureau children to us.’ The Pope did not agree looked at me, still a boy, and said to largest newspaper, Yediot Achronot, and has
mizrachi.org/ to this request. He explained that each me: ‘Did you hear what I said? Do not a weekly radio show on Galei Tzahal (Army
speakers child who enters a Catholic institution forget what I said!’ Radio).

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