Ambassador David Friedman Mentions 2 Chabad Rabbis in Book

By COLlive and LIherald

Attorney David Friedman was an outside candidate when President Donald Trump appointed him U.S. ambassador to Israel. He took office to find U.S.-Israel policy stuck in a stalemate. For years, the accepted wisdom was that extensive experience and detailed knowledge of Middle Eastern history and culture were necessary to negotiate treaties.

In truth, Friedman realized, all parties played on that accepted wisdom to stall—expecting to get a better deal further down the road.

Tossing the State Department playbook aside and incorporating insights from his many years as a negotiator in the American private sector, Friedman and a small team with no prior diplomatic experience revamped American diplomacy to project “peace through strength.”

He emphasized the importance of leverage, the key to any good negotiation. After painstaking, behind-the-scenes work, the Abraham Accords were signed: a historic series of peace deals between Israel and the five Muslim nations.

In his new memoir titled “Sledgehammer,” Friedman tells the true story of how the Abraham Accords came about. He takes readers from the Oval Office to the highest echelons of power in the Middle East, putting us at the table during the intense negotiations that led to this historic breakthrough.

In the book, Friedman tells how his nomination became the lightning rod that galvanized pent-up sentiments on both sides of the Jewish aisle.

“Left-wing organizations like Peace Now, Ameinu, Truah, the Reform movement, and especially I Street, came out against me with guns blazing. An equal number of right-wing groups, from the Zionist Organization of America to the Orthodox Union, National Council of Young Israel, and others, provided full-throated support,” he wrote.

“In the middle, Organizations like the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Federations of North America also came out to support my nomination, generating a fair amount of internal criticism within each organization.”

Friedman added, “At this challenging time, I drew enormous comfort from my rabbi, Zalman Wolowik, from the Chabad movement, perhaps the most dynamic and influential Jewish force in modern times. I was privileged to honor Rabbi Zalman Wolowik with the opening prayer at the dedication of our embassy in Jerusalem some seventeen months later.”

Rabbi Wolowik, together with his wife Chanie Wolowik, directs Chabad of the Five Towns in Lond Island, where Friedman lives. This coming week, Friedman and his wife Tammy Friedman will be honored as “Ambassadors of Light” at Chabad’s 27th annual gala dinner.

Rabbi Wolowik called the Friedmans “true embodiments of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s concept of lamplighters. The Rebbe encouraged everyone to spread light, because when one torch lights another, the first light does not diminish — both lights grow.”

Another Chabad figure mentioned in the book is Rabbi Shlomo Peles, a resident of Kfar Chabad known for assisting the Chabad network in the former Soviet Union, as well as other countries.

In the book, Friedman recalled how after Trump recognized Israel’s right to the Golan Heights, he rushed to the airport to catch a flight to attend the official declaration at the White House.

“That night was Purim and by the time dinner was over I needed to rush to catch a flight back to New York,” he writes. “I prevailed upon my friend Rabbi Peles of Chabad to read the text (the Megillah) to me as I prepared to depart. My staff called ahead to hold the plane and I managed to board just before takeoff.”

Chairpersons of the dinner of Chabad of the Five Towns are Yosef Yitzchak and Penina Batsheva Popack; Gidon and Alla Shema; Gary and Suzanne Wallin; Jeff and Shira Eisenberg; Israel and Sharon Garber; Sholom and Pessy Jacobs; and Shalom and Iris Maidenbaum.

The gala takes place at the Sephardic Temple, 775 Branch Blvd., Cedarhurst. Purim Katan 5782 at 6 p.m. VIP reception at 7 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom. Tickets are $770 per couple. VIP Reception: minimum donation of $10,000 to receive a personalized signed copy of “Sledgehammer,” the new book written by David.

Raffle tickets are available for as little as $36 each. Options include an Orlando Getaway, Enhance Your Table, Beautiful Megillah, $1,000 Visa Gift Card, or $1,000 to Gourmet Glatt.
To RSVP for the dinner, or purchase a journal ad or raffle tickets, go to https://fivetownsgala.com