{"id":76873,"date":"2023-10-03T17:37:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T22:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=76873"},"modified":"2023-10-04T07:45:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T12:45:12","slug":"israeli-minister-holds-succot-prayer-service-in-saudi-arabia-amid-warming-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/israeli-minister-holds-succot-prayer-service-in-saudi-arabia-amid-warming-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli minister holds Succot prayer service in Saudi Arabia amid warming ties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By BEN SALES<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi held a Succot prayer service in Riyadh on Tuesday, a sign of warming ties as Israel and Saudi Arabia move toward establishing diplomatic relations.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_76874\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-76874\" class=\"wp-image-76874 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-300x167.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-300x167.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-1024x569.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-768x427.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-1536x853.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-2048x1138.webp 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-76874\" class=\"wp-image-76874 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-300x167.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-300x167.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-1024x569.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-768x427.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-1536x853.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-03-at-9.34.11-AM-2048x1138.webp 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-76874\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Succot prayer service, organized by Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 3. 2023. (Screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A video&nbsp;and photos of the Orthodox morning service on social media showed a small group of men engaging in the fall festival\u2019s rituals: They held a procession with the lulav and etrog, a collection of four kinds of plants used in the holiday\u2019s prayers, and read from a Torah scroll.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018He had windows made facing Jerusalem, and three times a day he knelt down, prayed, and made confession to his God,&#8217;\u201d Karhi wrote on the social media platform X on Tuesday morning, quoting from the biblical Book of Daniel. \u201cDaniel\u2019s windows were opened toward Jerusalem for prayer, and here in Riyadh we merited to pray with windows opened toward Jerusalem. Happy holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A photo of the Torah scroll\u2019s velvet cover, shared by Israeli journalist Shirit Avitan Cohen, showed that it bore an embroidered inscription in English, Hebrew and Arabic. Many torah scrolls are dedicated in someone\u2019s honor or memory, and the inscription on this scroll read, \u201cThe Jewish Congregation, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In honor of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and all of their ministers and advisers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Torah scroll was adorned according to Ashkenazi custom although Karhi is of Tunisian descent, perhaps indicating that the scroll had been in Saudi Arabia prior to his visit. The kingdom has no organized Jewish community, though Jews have traveled there for business.<\/p>\n<p>Karhi is in Riyadh to participate in the Extraordinary Congress of the Universal Postal Union and is the second Israeli minister to attend a conference in the Saudi capital in as many weeks, following Tourism Minister Haim Katz\u2019s participation in a United Nations tourism conference there last week. The visits come as Israel and Saudi Arabia move toward signing a U.S.-brokered agreement that would see the countries normalize relations. The agreement, which has yet to be finalized, would also include an American defense treaty with Saudi Arabia as well as Israeli concessions to the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Israeli%20minister%20holds%20Succot%20prayer%20service%20in%20Saudi%20Arabia%20amid%20warming%20ties\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,27,643],"tags":[8781,8790,8795,8788,3096],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76875,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76873\/revisions\/76875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}