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Last week, my wife and I had the amazing experience of spending half a day at the White House where my 104-year-old father received the National Medal of Arts from President Bush. I say “amazing experience” because I believe that we were able to perform a kiddush Hashem.
There is a feeling of malchus in the White House. It is beautifully kept and tastefully decorated. The soldiers and Secret Service personnel in evidence every few feet were extremely courteous and treated a Jew in a big yarmulke with great honor and respect. But the outstanding event was our encounter with the president of the United States.
During the awards ceremony in the East Room, at which twenty people received medals for service in the “arts” and “humanities” and hundreds more were in attendance, I could see on President Bush’s face the strain of being on the receiving end of constant ridicule and attack. He looks fit and strong, and his manner is friendly and kind, but he appeared to be under inward strain.
I felt that I wanted to give him a blessing. Whatever one may think of his policies, it is clear that he believes in G-d and tries to uphold standards of morality. He respects the people and the State of Israel. I planned to try to speak to him to praise his belief in G-d, to demonstrate to him that the Jewish people are attached to G-d, and to encourage him to stand firm against those who advocate giving away any part of the Holy Land.
But at the time, it all seemed impossible. Immediately after the awards ceremony, the president disappeared with the honorees to a photo session in another room. At the reception in the State Dining Room, which was to follow the awards, it seemed clear that he would be gone, on to his next appointment. My wife and I lingered in the thronged corridor between the East Room and the State Dining Room. Suddenly, I saw a door open and the president emerge, surrounded by Secret Service men. He was rushing through our corridor, headed toward another door. It just “happened” that my wife and I were standing exactly at that door!
About one foot from me, the president stopped and spoke with someone. When he finished, I said quietly, “Mr. President, I would like to give you a blessing.”
He turned, and instantly he was completely receptive to me. It was amazing—I would say min haShamayim. And so I spoke to him from my heart, and this is what I said:
“Mr. President, you are a great man because you believe in G-d, and you are not afraid to say so in public. You uphold morality. One reason you receive flak is that people who do not believe in G-d try to pull you down to their level. I want to give you the blessing that G-d should always give you the right words and that your actions should be in accord with His will. He should guard you and protect you and your family and always be with you.”
I had more to say to the president, but I thought the best way to get that additional message to him was in writing, so I handed him a copy of my book, From Central Park To Sinai: How I Found My Jewish Soul, with a message inscribed on the front flap. This message had been worked out carefully, in consultation with respected rabbis and rashei yeshiva.
When I tried to hand the book to the president, a Secret Service man grabbed it.
“Do you want to give that to the president?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
And then they were off.
I thank G-d for my few moments with the president of the United States. I wanted him to know that a Jew speaks in the name of G-d.
This is the inscription I wrote in the front flap of the book:
To the Esteemed President of the United States,
The Honorable George W. Bush
Dear Mr. President:
I know that you are great in the eyes of G-d because you have the courage to express your belief in Him and your adherence to a Biblical code of morality. Even against criticism, you have the courage to maintain these beliefs; therefore you have achieved eternal greatness.
In our lifetime, we have seen the miracle of the Children of Israel, after 2,000 years of Exile, returning to the Holy Land. As it says in Isaiah 11:22, “He will … assemble the castaways of Israel … and gather the dispersed ones of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
Esteemed President, you have been granted the awesome power to assist in the fulfillment of prophecy and directly influence the borders of the Holy Land. With the greatest respect, may I point out that giving away even the smallest piece of the Holy Land would mortally endanger the Children of Israel and impede the G-d-given plan by which those Children are returning to their Land.
May G-d give you heroic strength to ignore and overrule those who advocate giving away the Land that G-d has returned to the Children of Israel. May your name live forever in honor!
With great respect,
Roy S. Neuberger
May Hashem help that our friends among the nations and the leaders of those nations should recognize the sanctity of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael and that we should soon see the geulah sheleimah and the coming of Mashiach ben Dovid!
(Written by: Roy Neuberger for the 5 Town Jewish Times)
Devarim hayotzim min halev, nichnasim lalev!!
You and I may not agree with President Bush, however as a yid, I am very inspired to see a goy who’s steadfast in his beliefs and WON’T BEND to pressure against his moral fiber!! To illustrate this, we must not forget how President Bush NEVER allowed Arafat YM”S to step into the Whitehouse!! He withstood ALL Arab and American pressures, and wouldn’t lower himself to shake that mans hand, and certainly not in the Whitehouse!! Kudos Mr. President!! On the other hand (just the opposite!).. It so unfortunate to see FRUM yiddin EMBRACE a ‘machasheyfa’ namely Hillary and bring her into an IR SHEL TORAH!! A person who is such a ‘low life’ and a liar – and does everything KNEGGED hashkofos of Torah, to bring this scoundrel into a frum community, embraced by a representative of the yeshiva, amongst other frum ‘askonim’ just shows how low we have fallen!! We have no morals! We bend to pressure and money, BEFORE our Yiddishkiet!!! Yet Bush, a aiyno yehudi, showed us so much more strength and leadership then what we witness and learn from OUR leaders!
Comment by frumblogger — November 22, 2007 @ 10:37 am
What a Kiddush Hashem and a beautiful story too.
Comment by Flatbush Bubby — November 22, 2007 @ 11:09 am
great how you can make anything a Kidush Hashem
and…
#1 great how you can make anything an opportunity for knocking askanim.
Comment by tzvika — November 22, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
while we may be so very impressed and inspired by our president, and there is what to be inspired by, yisroel Neuberger is a gem of a man.
He is an eloquent spokesman with a varme hartz, hard to find. He has an incredible simchas hachaim and a compassionate human being. He truly personifies a person who through his work and talk wants to see kiddush hashem.
Comment by 1nefesh — November 22, 2007 @ 12:09 pm
I’m sure it was an ‘amazing experience’ to meet the president of the U.S. and bless him but never forget that when you say he believes in G-d and you believe in G-d you are using the same terminology for two(or three)different meanings.
Comment by kol hoadam kozev — November 22, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
Lechvod R’ Yisrael Shlit’a,
You indeed fulfilled the Mitzvah to be Mekadesh HKB’H Birabim. Very inspirational.
Dovid Malin
Comment by Dovid Malin — November 22, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
#5
We all believe in the same G-d. They believe that Moshiach came!
Comment by yitzchokm — November 22, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
Great story and may his father continue to have Arechias Yomim.
I wonder if he took the opportunity to make the Bracha on seeing a king? While Bush is not royalty, he’s certainly the most powerful head of state in the world.
Comment by NeveAliza — November 22, 2007 @ 3:18 pm
What an amazing Kiddush Hashem! May R’Neuberger be zocheh to continue doing the amazing things he does day in day out ad meah v’esrim!
Comment by happyjew — November 22, 2007 @ 3:44 pm
I wrote this long letter of encouragement to President Bush on 12/13/2006, when things were going very badly in Iraq.
Dear President Bush,
Please stop blaming yourself for the situation in Iraq. There is no way
you could have known the depth of the barbarism of the Islamists. We
don’t need to defend our decision to go into Iraq. We were attacked on
9/11, not the other way around. We need to justify going to war? Why do
we even waste our time arguing the point? By rights we should have gone
into every single Arab/Islamic country and taught them a lesson they’ll
never forget. Our war is with the Islamists, pure and simple. We need
justification for why we only went into two countries, not the other
way around.
At this point we need to engage in brutal psychological warfare to
humiliate the Islamists to the point of enormous pain. As you know,
neither the Sunnis or the Shiites are innocent. The Sunnis comprise Al
Qaeeda, and the Shiites make up Hezbollah, who killed hundreds of US
servicemen in Lebanon with a suicide truck bomb.
You need to get on the air and announce a contest as to which side, the
Sunnis or Shiites is the most barbaric. Points will be given to the
side that kills the most of the other. Extra points will be given to
killing women and children, in accordance with the teachings of Islam.
If you can’t kill a member of the opposite side, then you are
encouraged to kill members of your own side. Using ludicrous sarcasm,
you need to wake up the world to which side really failed.
You need to repeat over and over that the backwardness of the Arab world
is due to the primitiveness and ruthlessness of their leaders and
population. Until they allow themselves to become civilized, nobody can
help them. There are medical conditions in which people mutilate
themselves. If the patient refuses the help of doctors, then one can
only stand by in pity as the patient destroys himself. This is the
condition of the Arab world, as a whole. We tried to help them, but
they rejected the chance to become civilized and to progress forward in
the manner of the Western world.
We need to seize the oil fields of Iraq. Establish an appropriate cordon,
1 mile, 2 miles, 5 miles, whatever. Move all our troops inside this
radius to defend the refineries. Let the Arabs continue to slaughter
each other to their hearts content. It is no longer our responsibility.
We will operate the oil facilities, and send money to the Iraqi
government if an effective one exists. If not, we hold the revenue
indefinitely, until there is a fair way to disburse these funds.
We are the USA. We have everything to be proud of. Our great nation does
not suffer from total chaos and brutality. We are proud that we help
each other and the less fortunate. We are the leaders in technology and
medicine and art and industry. We need to mock the Arab world and to
shock them into developing some rudimentary civil behavior. Possibly
only complete humiliation will help them cure themselves, but it is not
our business whether they do or do not learn to behave.
A final point. The Arab-Israeli conflict has nothing to do with a few
slivers of land in a tiny country. It has to do with the fact that
Islam teaches that the Jews are a cursed, second class people who are
destined to be subordinate to the Islamists. The fact that Israel is a
successful country with a robust economy and much success in advancing
and progressing in the fields of science and medicine, and has a
vibrant, functioning democratic government is a source of
uncontrollable rage for the Arab world. Why are we so backwards, when
the Jewish nation that our Islamic religion teaches descends from apes
and pigs is so far ahead of us, along with the rest of the Western
world? This is a thorn in their eye. There is no way they can come to
grips with this contradiction. No matter how much land Israel would
cede, and no matter how small Israel would become, the mere fact that
it exists, and is not subordinate to Arab rule is intolerable to them.
The USA needs to hold its head high, and to extol our wonderful virtues,
and to denigrate the backwardness of the Arab world, and continue to rub
their noses in their own dirt. Possibly by a program of extreme and
continued humiliation, the Arabs will eventually learn to change their
thinking, which thus far has gotten them no where.
May G-d bless you and the leaders of this great country, the USA, and
may we see continued success in everything that we do. We deserve the
greatest sense of pride in what we have accomplished in our illustrious
history, and may we continue to do great things. Other countries and
peoples will have to make their own choices of how they want to run
their lives. If they want our help on the road to success, leave them
our card, and tell them they can feel free to call. We are always ready
to help any people or nation, but they must first sincerely want our
help.
Sincerely,
Comment by Pashuteh Yid — November 22, 2007 @ 3:51 pm
I know a few people who were zoche to see this president and they all say that he is very humbled when it comes to brochos from unzir people. He even knows the brocha we say upon seeing a melech and responds AMAYN after hearing it. (Let’s not start a dialog on whether or not one makes the brocha of she’nosan M’chivodo over a US President.)
Comment by mark levin — November 22, 2007 @ 6:23 pm
Mr Neuberger,
Truly a wonderful story and It was probably a experience you will never forget. It’s to bad you didn’t have a chance to ask the president to free Jonathan Pollard.
Comment by Moshe Pipik — November 22, 2007 @ 6:58 pm
Imagine meeting the Melech Malchei haM’lochim! The awe at meeting the President,kal vochomer Hashem (whom we meet each time we daven)
Let’s dress properly,behave properly and fulfill His wishes,especially in Shul!!!
Comment by Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy — November 22, 2007 @ 10:47 pm
#7 they belive the same g-d exists but they definatly dont worship the same one
Comment by sack — November 23, 2007 @ 5:53 am
Yasher Koach!!
Comment by Straitthinker — November 23, 2007 @ 9:50 am
Knowing Yisroel Neuberger is an honor itself. He and his wife, may they be well until 120 and continue their great work, have shown how much one person can do for the klal. They are an inspiration to all who know them. May they continue to have only nachas from their children and grandchildren.
Comment by mferber — November 23, 2007 @ 10:26 am
#5, #7, #14 I don’t think that TheYeshivaWorld should degenerate to explaining x-tian theology. But the concept of shutfus is more or less the domain of the catholics. President Bush, of the evengelicals, is not one of those. Although their belief in Y-Pondrek is obviously a major component of what they do, Gedolei Doros for generations have paskened that those strains are not really Avoda Zara. Hence G-d Bless that Bush says, does refer to the same One we have.
Comment by midwesterner — November 23, 2007 @ 12:29 pm