Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, head, of the yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, met Monday with former President Ronald Reagan and presented him with the yeshiva’s Blessing of Abraham Award and a letter from Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
Waldman, a former Knesset member of the nationalistic Tehiya party, thanked Reagan for his leadership in opposing international terrorism and for his profound friendship for the Jewish people. The rabbi invited the former president to visit Hebron as his personal guest.
Israel Consul Ilan Mor, who participated in the meeting at Reagan’s office in Century City, said Reagan illustrated his family’s longstanding repugnance to anti-Semitism with an anecdote.
He recalled that his father, who worked as a traveling salesman, sought a night’s lodging at a small hotel, while a storm raged outside. The clerk assured the senior Reagan that he could sleep safely since the hotel did not cater to Jews.
“In that case,” the former chief executive quoted his father as saying, “there is no place for me here either.” H/s father spent the night in his car.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
