Former British chief rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks defends his role in helping US Vice President Mike Pence write the speech he delivered in the Knesset this week, as first reported by The Times of Israel.
US Vice President Mike Pence gives a speech at the Knesset in Jerusalem on January 22, 2018. (AFP Photo/Pool/Ariel Schalit)
Sacks told the UK’s Jewish Chronicle that it was “a great tribute to the Jewish people” that Pence had sought his guidance for the speech.
White House officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that Sacks played a major role in drafting the speech, which was laden with passages bearing a clear resemblance to his own public speeches and published works.
“Rabbi Sacks was an instrumental part of crafting the vice president’s speech,” a source with knowledge of the speech-writing process said, adding that the vice president had met with Sacks in New York for 90 minutes, in November. “Rabbi Sacks provided input and editorial suggestions on various drafts throughout the writing process.”
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks speaks on the power of religious texts to shape lives, at The Center for Jewish History in New York, April 5, 2016. (Cathryn J. Prince/The Times of Israel)
Dan Sacker, Sacks’s spokesman, said the New York meeting “centered around how best to frame elements of the speech — in particular the biblical and historic connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, and the American and Jewish stories.”
“It was these, and only these, elements of the speech that Rabbi Sacks assisted with. He considered it a great tribute to the Jewish people that someone like Vice President Pence would turn to a Jewish source for guidance on such matters.”
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From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
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