On the road to peace: Israeli minister reads Torah scroll in Saudi Arabia

As a sign of movement on the road to peace with Saudi Arabia, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi read from a Torah Scroll and prayed the morning service at his hotel in Riyadh together with others in his 14-member delegation.

“Here in Riyadh we prayed with the windows open to Jerusalem,” said Karhi, who also had the Four Species with him for the blessings recited during the Sukkot holiday.

The new Torah mantle bears the dedication “The Jewish Congregation, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” It was also dedicated in Hebrew to King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, their ministers and advisers.

The site of a Jewish minyan in Saudi Arabia, a country with few Jews and where Israelis have historically been banned from visiting, was the emotional and symbolic highlight of Karhi’s first day in the kingdom.

Rabbi Marc Schneier of The Hampton Synagogue in New York, who has been a friend to the royal family since 2007, reflected on the significance of the moment in a phone call with The Jerusalem Post.

To have such a public religious prayer service in Riyadh “is not only unusual, it’s historic and this is one more significant step in the process not only of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia but between Judaism and Islam in the Kingdom,” he said.

Israel and the Saudi Arabian government are normalizing ties, but the rapprochement between conservative Islam and Judaism has already been occurring, he added.

Karhi arrived in Riyadh on Monday night together with Knesset Economic Committee chairman MK David Bitan to attend the Universal Postal Union’s Fourth Extraordinary Congress.

“Shalom Israel,” Bitan said just after his arrival.

Karhi added, “Happy holiday, we just landed now in the capital of Saudi Arabia as part of an official delegation authorized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

“Our faces are to peace,” he said.

Here “we will meet with representatives from around the globe and we will bring peace closer between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” Kahri stressed.

Bitan said, “everything begins with small steps.”