Reporter's Notebook: Bennett went to KJ, a shul with a special place in his heart, for the holiday

• Published date: 30 September 2021
• Author: LAHAV HARKOV

KJ is also the synagogue that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attended while in New York for Shmini Atzeret on Monday night and a congregation that holds a special place in his heart.

With the High Holy Days and Sukkot festival days of the past month falling on weekdays, it was difficult finding a time for Bennett, who is observant and does not travel on Shabbat or festival days, to give an address to the UN General Assembly. In the end, he spoke on Monday morning, about nine hours before Shmini Atzeret began.

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Unlike on his recent trip to Washington, when delays meant he and the entire delegation with him had to unexpectedly remain in the city over Shabbat, the UN trip was planned to include the festival.

Bennett stayed in a hotel within close walking distance of several synagogues, including many that are Orthodox, as he is. But there was no question that, security permitting, KJ would be his shul of choice.

Speaking to journalists on his delegation hours before he attended services, Bennett spoke of his five years living on Manhattan's Upper East Side when he was the CEO of an Israeli-American cybersecurity start-up.

"I love New York a lot," he effused, waxing poetic about taking the bus down Fifth Avenue.

Bennett recalled: "Gilat, my wife, was from a secular family in Israel, and I tried to bring her to shul there, but she didn't like it. When we came to New York in 1999, 2000, we walked on the street one Saturday and saw a sign saying that if you're bored in shul, you should try the 'beginners' minyan.'"

Gilat was intrigued, and the free food was an added bonus, he said. The Bennetts started attending every week, and Gilat started to embrace Jewish tradition.

Bennett retold that story at KJ later, according to a source in the sanctuary.

Bennett was the second Israeli prime minister to attend Kehilath Jeshurun; the first was Menachem Begin on Tisha Be'av. President Isaac Herzog is a Ramaz graduate, and his family went to KJ when he was a teen and his father, Chaim Herzog, was ambassador to the UN.

Journalists weren't allowed into the synagogue; members had to preregister and arrive early, and the prime minister's staff mysteriously forgot to tell us those conditions. But every good reporter has sources, and a good Ramaz graduate has eyes and ears in KJ.

Bennett also repeated a message he relayed at an event hosted by...