Came to greet - and came out confused: President Biden participated last Thursday in a video call with senior rabbis from across the United States on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah. After the 2018 massacre, in which 11 worshipers were murdered - a visit that never took place.
"I remember I was, you know, visiting the Tree of Life Synagogue," Biden said in a conversation as he addressed the scourge of anti-Semitism in the U.S. The White House issued a clarification, emphasizing that Biden did not attend the synagogue. "He meant a conversation he had with the community rabbi in 2019," the administration said in a statement.
The scene of the incident at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
2018. // Photo: IP,
The rabbi of the community, Jeffrey Myers, confirmed the conversation and in an interview with the New York Post stressed that he has no anger towards the president because of his mistake.
"We had a cordial conversation then, he expressed his condolences and asked how we were," Myers recalled.
"We talked about the challenges of anti-Semitism, and he promised to fight it as president."
However, Biden still described a visit that never happened, and had it not been for a press check, this would have been accepted as a fait accompli, rather false.
However, the fight against anti-Semitism seems to be of great concern to Biden.
"I once thought it would be possible to defeat hatred," the president told rabbis.
"But I realized some time ago that it is impossible. It just hides, and when you give it oxygen it bursts out. In recent years it has received too much oxygen."
The president also recounted his first meeting with Prime Minister Bennett and called him a "gentleman," expressing hope that "next year not only in Jerusalem, but here in the White House."
He ended with an anecdote about his daughter's marriage to a Jewish man.
"You know, every Catholic father's dream is for his daughter to marry a Jewish doctor," he joked.
"Now I know I will not like it all of you, but the wedding of my daughter was co-hosted by a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi."