(Vosiznies).Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right at home at a bris whose honored guests included Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and several sidelock-sporting Orthodox men.
After all, it was the bris of Netanyahu’s newest grandson, Shmuel, son of his daughter Noa, who became religious along with her husband Danny in recent years.
Though not strictly Orthodox, Netanyahu is known to be respectful of Orthodox tradition. He follows in the footsteps of Israeli leaders like Ariel Sharon who paid reverential homage to Jewish Torah tradition by attending the circumcisions of their grandchildren. Before his devastating stroke, Sharon served as sandek at the bris of his son’s twin boys at his Shikmim Ranch homestead in the country’s south.
The blessings were recited by Rabbi Lau; the sandek honor was conferred upon Prof. Ben-Tzion Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s father and the baby’s proud great-grandfather. A visibly moved Netanyahu later spoke at the seudah, offering blessings to his daughter and son-in-law for a worthy son, to his father for long life and health, to all the guests and all Jews everywhere for a safe, secure and successful year—and “to myself,” he quipped, “that I have many more grandchildren.”