President Itzhak Herzog on Sunday announced his initiative, “Kol Ha’am – Voice of the People – The President’s Initiative for Worldwide Jewish Dialogue.”
Just an aside, Kol Ha’am used to be the newspaper of the Communist Party in Israel. Established in 1937, it went out of business in 1975. Why would President Herzog pick this loaded name for his initiative? Who knows, maybe it was a Freudian slip.
In any event, the new Kol Ha’am’s mission is to foster open dialogue with Jewish communities abroad who will advise the president on the challenges facing the Jewish people. Does this make him the president of all the Jews? Maybe. He will have an advisory council to advance collaborative projects and foster future leadership around the Jewish world.
I checked: we’ll have President Herzog around through July 7, 2026. He gets bored easily, itches for action, and did I say he gets bored easily? He’s also working on resurrecting his political career once this one is over. He used to be the Chairman of the Labor Party, until his devastating loss in 2015, when he only brought in 24 Knesset Mandates. Good news, Mr. President: with Labor dropping below the threshold vote in all the polls, you’ll get a chance to start from scratch.
Herzog unveiled his latest projects at an event with the Jewish Federations of North America, the Jewish Agency for Israel (his old shop), the World Zionist Organization, and Keren Ha’Yessod.
“The fact is that between our Jewish communities, and between them and the State of Israel, we are growing at times more distant from one another. The gaps between us are growing wider. On some of the most essential questions, we are unable to agree. But, more concerning, often, we are unable even to discuss,” he announced, explaining: “That critical web of connectedness—the sense of shared purpose and destiny that has sustained our people for millennia—seems to be loosening. I am convinced that there is no greater existential threat to our people than the one that comes from within: our own polarization and alienation from one another.”
So, first, sure, Israeli Jews are as torn up as they haven’t been since the 1950s when the country came close to a civil war over the reparations from Germany. But is the best way to settle disputes among a bunch of Jews to bring in more Jews? I don’t know.
For sure, a lot of Jews will buy plenty of challah and fish for Shabbat with the money dedicated to Herzog’s latest mishigas: he invited global Jewish communities to become “eitzas gibbers,” or consultants, in 14 major Jewish centers on six continents. There will be “strategic labs,” facilitated by Deloitte, the largest professional services network by revenue and the number of professionals in the world, and one of the Big Four accounting firms. So, funds will be lavished, we will spare no expense to bring the Jews of the planet together.
When Emperor Nero was bored, he burned down Rome; thank God, President Herzog only burns through money. But couldn’t someone at the presidential residence introduce him to Wordle? I’m sure he could spend hours solving those little challenges we once called “Mastermind.” Please, people, get this president a hobby!
