By COLlive reporter
Israeli Minister of Tourism Haim Katz, who was appointed this week to also serve as interim Minister of Construction and Housing, paid a visit to the Rebbe‘s Ohel in New York this week.
Katz, 77, was in the United States as Israel launched Operation Rising Lion to eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapons and missiles capabilities threatening Israel.
He went to the Ohel for the first time to pay for Israel’s success in Iran, Gaza and elsewhere, and for the return of the remaining Israeli hostages being held by Hamas terrorists.
These are difficult days for the Jewish people,” he said. “But this is our opportunity to defeat our enemies and destroy those who seek to harm us.”
Katz was greeted at the Ohel by Lubavitcher industrialist Meir Zeiler from Kiryat Malachi and Rabbi Levi Wolowik of Ohr Avner Educational Institutions in Queens.
Later in the day, Katz visited the Manhattan office of Chagit Leviev, daughter of Lev Leviev, President of the World Bukharian Jewish Congress, where he put on Tefillin for the first time since his Bar Mitzvah—64 years ago.
Meeting him there were Rabbi Wolowik, Rabbi Zalman Zvulonov, along with Gabriel Sufiov, Vice President of the Bukharian Congress. They also gifted the minister a dollar that had been received from the Rebbe.
Following the Tefillin ceremony, Minister Katz was given a tour of the Or Avner institutions in Queens, a dynamic network that reaches and inspires tens of thousands of Bukharian families across the region.
These people do amazing work at Ohr Avner!