The Rebbe as Statesman

Veteran Israeli diplomat Yehuda Avner, who served as an advisor to Prime Ministers Golda Meir, Yitzchak Rabin, Menachem Begin and Shimon Peres, spoke at length about the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, during an appearance at the concluding banquet of the 25th annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries.

“I want to speak about an epic [figure], the Rebbe, of blessed memory,” said Avner, a former ambassador to the United Kingdom and Australia, explaining that the Rebbe was the ultimate statesman.

Calling the Rebbe, whom Avner met on numerous occasions, “the Jewish people’s most-extraordinary visionary in living memory, an immortal,” the former ambassador credited the Rebbe with sparking “a torch of Jewish renewal across all continents.”

Avner’s speech covered a period of Israeli history when successive governments sought the advice of the Rebbe, “who never [himself] journeyed to Israel.”

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