By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Executive Vice President of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) was invited to sign the VIP condolence book at the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Washington, DC.
The book is presented to the Emirati leadership, who are mourning after the recent passing of His Excellency Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, President of the UAE.
He is succeeded by the former Crown Prince, His Excellency Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.
The UAE was a pioneer of the Abraham Accords, which brought great change to the region with “people to people” peace, as opposed to mere exchange of land for (possible) peace, which has not yet proven to be successful.
Rabbi Shemtov’s relationships with Arab leaders go back many years, and his continued and diligent efforts have brought interesting results.
Particularly, these interactions have famously enhanced the development within the diplomatic community of the deep connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel being considered in the context of millennia as opposed to one of less than a century.
The first public Jewish event attended by an Emirati official was when HE Yousef al-Otaiba, Minister of State and Ambassador of the UAE to the US, attended the Lamplighter Awards Dinner of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in 2017, even before the Abraham Accords were underway.
The UAE has seen an amazing development of Jewish life and free practice of faith in recent years, punctuated by the many Chabad-Lubavitch institutions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, headed by the dynamic shliach, Rabbi Levi Duchman.
