Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevitch has reached out to the humble United Arab Emirate Jewish community of 1,500 people, just days after the historic UAE-Israel deal was struck.
Cooperation between the Jewish community and the Diaspora Ministry was agreed upon in a Zoom meeting in which community members and leaders spoke with Yankelevitch, whose role as Diaspora Minister is to manage Israel's relations with Jewish communities abroad. The goal of the meeting was to promote relations between the Jewish State and the Jewish community, and find ways to offer support to the isolated community. The members of the community also requested that the minister come to visit them as soon as possible in order to get to know the community and its various needs.
"The political agreement is big news for Israel, but also for the local Jewish community there, which has for many years been isolated and detached from the State of Israel and the global Jewish activities of the Ministry of Diaspora," Yankelevitch wrote in a letter to the community following the Zoom meeting.
"Together we will be able to leverage our capabilities in the Diaspora Ministry and involve the Jews from the United Arab Emirates in the ministry's many projects, as part of our international activities to strengthen Jewish identity and ties with the State of Israel."
During the meeting, Yankelevitch held a professional dialogue on educational and community issues and answered questions from community members, including Rudy and Anna Liss Benhion and their two children, who collectively moved from France to the UAE several years ago amid fear of living as a Jew in France.
According to the Jewish couple, they feel safer openly living a Jewish life in the UAE on account of the tolerance from surrounding authorities and citizens.
Also participating in the meeting was president of the community, Mr. Solly Wolfe, and the UAE's religious leader, Rabbi Levi Duchman.
"I was very excited to hear about Mr. Wolfe and Rabbi Levy's activities and traditions which preserve the Jewish identity and the continued studying of the Talmud in the area," Yankelevitch wrote.
She added that she was also happy to see the "personal care that the Jews receive from the leaders of their community."