Group Visits at Crucial Time

Dozens of Russian Jewish community leaders and businessmen spent 4 days in Israel for a solidarity visit led by Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar.

The delegation included community leaders and business people from across the Russian Federation, and included Lev Leviev, the billionaire president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Israeli-Georgian billionaire and philanthropist Mikhael Mirilashvili.

The group visited Mearas Hamachpela in Hebron, Kever Rochel in Bet Lechem and the Western Wall tunnels in Jerusalem.

Sunday, the group met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him that they had “come to deliver a message that terrorism must not win.”

The Prime Minister addressed the current security situation and said that, “The struggle here is not about any type of political border, as some of our naïve friends say, as well as our enemies. That is indeed not the case. It’s not about territory, not about the settlements, not about the borders and not even about their struggle for a state – the struggle here is about the denial of the state of Israel. It is about the denial of any Jewish sovereignty over any part of the land of Israel, pure and simple. This is what the struggle is all about and nothing more.”

The group had continued their trip according to plan, even though some thought they should reschedule in light of the situation, Rabbi Lazar said, referring to dozens of terror attacks which occurred in the last two weeks.

During the meeting, Leviev told the Prime Minister that they came specifically during this time to spread the message to the world that “precisely now is the time to come and visit the land of Israel, the safest place in the world.”

Photos: Yechezkel Itkin
Event production: Fleishman & Peles VIP