A new book about the four years that changed the face of Israeli politics, how did Begin seek to resolve the conversion crisis with the help of the rabbis of the Conservative movement, and how did he recruit the Lubavitcher Rebbe for the move? How Begin persuaded the ultra-Orthodox parties to join his coalition, while fundamentally changing the political power structure for decades to come
Everyone knows Menachem Begin as the first Israeli prime minister to bring an end to the hegemony of the workers’ parties, with the upheaval in the 1977 election. The place Israel reached in 2022.
Dr. Moshe Foxman-Sha’al, an expert on the history of the Israeli right and senior Begin researchers, set out on a journey following the upheaval and returned with the secret of the leader’s charm that to this day politicians from the right and left try to associate him with their camp.
Why did Begin invent the idea of Palestinian autonomy – and how did he influence the architects of Oslo?
How did he seek to resolve the conversion crisis with the help of the rabbis of the Conservative movement, and how did he recruit the Lubavitcher Rebbe for the move?
How did Begin persuade the ultra-Orthodox parties to join his coalition, while fundamentally changing the political power structure for decades to come?
How did Begin relate to the ethnic demon, and why did he insist on appointing the chief of staff and the president of the Eastern sects, which mechanism he created through the settlement division in order to settle Judea and Samaria in dozens of new settlements.
The new book.
In honor of the thirtieth anniversary of Begin’s death, the fascinating Time.news of the upheaval for the Israeli public is described for the first time, spiced with countless anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories about Menachem Begin and the new political reality he created in Israel.
A book published by Sela Meir – Shibulat describes a meeting between Prime Minister Menachem Begin on Friday, July 15, 1977, with rabbis in the United States. Begin began the agenda of the visit with what was called by journalists as “Rabbinical Day” in order to receive the blessing of the three leading rabbis in the Orthodox stream in American Jewry.
In the morning, the Prime Minister met at his hotel with Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, who was one of the leaders of the Mizrahi movement in the United States and came from Boston, at the invitation of the Prime Minister. Begin then got into the ministry car and drove in the state convoy to visit Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, head of the Council of Torah Scholars in the United States, and the Rebbe of Lubavitch, at his home in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Upon his return to Israel, Begin reported on his visit to the United States to the Knesset and included the meetings with the rabbis as part of the official visit. Begin wanted to thank the rabbis for the meeting with him. “I received a blessing from them for the mission, for the path I was about to follow. And I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart for the encouragement I received from them and for their blessing that accompanied me.”
This step taken by the Prime Minister, who chose as the leader of the State of Israel to visit the leaders of the Orthodox sect in their homes and to ask for their blessing for his political journey, also sent an important message. Begin showed by this that the religious tradition faithful to him is the traditional halakhic tradition of religious Orthodoxy and not in its new interpretation by the Conservative and Reform currents to which most of the Jews of the United States belonged.