For Bennett, a friendly crowd at a New York shul

• Published date: 29 September 2021
• Author: HALEY COHEN

Bennett returned to the Modern Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East Side where he attended in the early 2000s when he lived in New York during his time founding a hi-tech start-up.

Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun – packed with a crowd of nearly 200 select members – welcomed back Bennett, who marked 100 days in office last week, and his staff.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

>

"This is an amazing thing, but it's not unique," Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who served as the leader of KJ from 1958 through 2015, told The Jerusalem Post as he was walking into services. "[Prime minister Menachem] Begin came a month after his election in 1977 to see [US] president [Jimmy] Carter and spent Shabbat in New York davening in our shul with a thousand people there," Lookstein recalled.

"Times are different now, of course, and the crowd we can let in is limited because of security. It's a shame because seeing Prime Minister Bennett deserves a crowd of one thousand people."

At services, Bennett addressed the congregation with a Dvar Torah, sharing that as a young couple living in New York, he and his then-secular wife Gilat were drawn to KJ because of its "beginner's minyan" and promise of a post-service free kiddush buffet.

Tzvi, a 35-year-old member of KJ who was in attendance, told the Post that Bennett is "just what Israel needs at this time" and said he is a supporter of the premier.

"I was very satisfied with his UN address today," Tzvi continued. "He's all about unity and compromise. I think it's a point of pride for all American Jews that the prime minister took his time to address the UN and also to stay in New York to observe the holiday. It's a great move for US-Israel relations."

He expressed belief that Bennett is a sharp contrast from his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The last prime minister just wanted to grab power and not let go. Maybe Bennett has that element, but it's not his guiding factor. He's here to achieve things. Personality-wise it's a change," he said.

Entrance to the synagogue, and surrounding streets, during Bennett and his...