Promises kept

For the Trump administration, this was a week of delivering on commitments.

Monday’s opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem was the fulfillment of the President’s promise and was a reflection of the will of the American people, as strongly expressed by a bipartisan Congress. The festivities were attended by many American Jewish leaders including Agudath Israel’s chairman of the board, Mr. Sol Werdiger. Agudath Israel’s vice president for federal affairs Rabbi Abba Cohen attended a ceremony at the White House and  later issued this statement.

Later in the week, Betsy Devos, made history by being the first  US Secretary of Education to visit a yeshiva. Facilitated by Agudath Israel, the visits to two Orthodox school in New York City gave the Secretary a better understanding of Jewish education. In these schools, she saw commitment, innovation, inclusion, and values.

The Secretary’s visit highlighted why it is so critical for our community to increase its engagement in the political and legislative process. Our relationship with Secretary DeVos goes back more than a decade and was formed through working together on school choice initiatives in many states.

I was proud to see two examples of successful grassroots and professional engagement recently among my colleagues. The Yated newspaper featured our New Jersey director Rabbi Avi Schnall this week, while in Illinois, Agudah recently organized a nearly 50 person mission to the statehouse in Springfield.  The Illinois Agudah will be celebrating its annual dinner on May 27th and will be highlighting how the next generation has stepped up to assume leadership positions throughout the community.

Two days later, our national dinner will pay tribute to Mendy Klein (see the very moving and inspiring obituary by Rabbi Yitz Frank here) and honor our chairman Mr. Shlomo “Sol” Werdiger.

The ad deadline for both dinners has been extended so there is still time to RSVP or submit your ads for the tribute journals.