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

• Author: LAHAV HARKOV
• Published date: 29 September 2021

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

With the many Jewish holidays of the past month falling out on weekdays, it was difficult finding a time for Bennett, who is observant and does not travel on the Sabbath or holidays, to give an address to the UN General Assembly. In the end, he spoke on Monday morning, about nine hours before Shemini Atzeret began. 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 holiday.

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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 startup.

"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-ever Israeli prime minister to attend Kehillat Jeshurun; the first was Menachem Begin on Tisha B'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 in to the synagogue; members had to pre-register 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 had relayed at an event...