Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered a heartfelt tribute to Rabbi Haim Druckman, venerated spiritual leader of the religious Zionist stream, at an evening Sunday honoring Rabbi Druckman upon reaching the age of 80.
Netanyahu tore up the speech he had prepared and delivered an improvised version of it instead. “You know,” he quipped, “in my family, reaching the age of 80 is not something to write home about… and you have a long road full of great deeds ahead of you.”
“I would like to speak of your courageous virtues,” he said, “three of them, and the first is here in the hall and outside it.”
The second courageous virtue Netanyahu spoke of was Rabbi Druckman’s successful conversion of 50,000 people into Judaism, in the time when he headed the Conversion Authority.
Living In CIS, (11/3/13)
How many of those 50,000 observe Torah and mitzvos? Those I know who took the tests and passed do not keep anything. It was just “wish me luck on the test!” and then nothing. Being m’ga’er the Russian immigrants who believe in another religion does not stop anti-semitism, and just makes a Fifth Column within Judaism, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe warned, over 30 years ago!