For pro-Israel evangelical Mike Huckabee, there was no better shiur than Slabodka’s roshei yeshivah

Photos: Elazar Feinstein

In a remarkable encounter last week, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee visited the modest homes of Slabodka roshei yeshivah Rav Dov Landau and Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch to discuss the Iran war, the draft controversy, and the rise of evangelical anti-Semitism. No clips and quotes do justice to the impression from an exclusive vantage point inside the room that this was an encounter for the ages

When an American ambassador comes to town — especially a densely populated, politically savvy town like Bnei Brak — everybody knows about it. The panoply of an official visit from Uncle Sam draws a crowd: streets blocked off by black SUVs with diplomatic plates; burly bodyguards with earpieces; advisors and other outriders.

Last Wednesday, much to the intrigue of a crowd of bystanders, the motorcade of US Ambassador Mike Huckabee swept into Givat Rokach, the gentle knoll on which Yeshivas Slabodka sits. Destination: the exceedingly humble apartments of two roshei yeshivah who now jointly head much of Israel’s Torah world.

Adding to the unusual optics of the event was the presence of Dirshu founder Rav Dovid Hofstedter, a longtime friend of the former Arkansas governor, and the one who had facilitated the encounter.

Outside the yeshivah, a group of sharp-witted American bochurim puzzled over the unusual pairing. Did Rav Hofstedter bring Ambassador Huckabee or vice versa? Was it to mark the launch of a new Dirshu program? one wit wondered.

Inside the homes of both Rav Dov Landau and Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch was a fascinating parley as a Christian Zionist talked Trump’s attack on Iran, waning evangelical support for Israel, and the yeshivah draft furor.

The exclusive view from inside the room was of an extraordinary encounter. Both gedolim were aware that the man sitting in front of them was a genuine friend of the Jewish People — and even more, the representative of President Trump, the leader of the “malchus shel chesed” who has done more to demonstrate friendship to Israel than any of his predecessors.

While ambassadors of all stripes seem to view a visit to Ponevezh or ingesting cholent in Bnei Brak as rites of passage, lengthy sit-downs with multiple gedolim are unusual. Like an echo of historic encounters such as the 1927 meeting of Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld and the Czech president in Yerushalayim, this visit was significant.

The visit also felt different because Mike Huckabee himself is an anomaly. A quick scan shows that Huckabee’s predecessors as US ambassador to Israel fall into three baskets: from 1948, a mixture of foreign service veterans and political appointees; after Martin Indyk’s appointment as the first Jewish ambassador to Israel in 1995, both Jews and non-Jews, political appointees and professional diplomats served in the post; and from 2011 onward, under Jewish ambassadors Shapiro, Friedman, Nides, and Lew — all have been personal emissaries of their respective presidents.

Mike Huckabee is different in that he’s neither Jewish, nor a career diplomat, nor an establishment political appointee. Instead, he’s a relentlessly pro-Israel evangelical, comfortable making statements such as “Without the Torah, there is no way forward to justice and peace.”

The tenor of the meetings was perhaps best expressed by Rebbetzin Avigayil Hirsch, wife of the rosh yeshivah Rav Moshe Hillel. As the advisors and bodyguards blocked her view into her own small dining room, she was heard to ask: “Please move aside to let me see — this is a historic occasion!”