When Rabbi Kook met with the US President – and opened a door for Israel at the White House

Twenty-four years before the State of Israel would be established, driven by a sense of mission, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook entered the gates of the White House, with no foreign ministry, embassy, or state to represent. And yet, Rabbi Kook arrived to meet US President Calvin Coolidge as a representative of a people returning to its land, and as someone who sought to voice the sound of Jewish revival in Eretz Yisrael before one of the most important powers in the world.

At the meeting, Rabbi Kook expressed gratitude for the United States' support for the Jewish people's right to a national home in Eretz Yisrael, and presented to the President the significance of the Jewish people's return to their land. He sought to connect the emerging national revival with its Jewish and spiritual roots, and to present Zionism as part of a much broader and deeper story.

The meeting itself was an extraordinary sight: a rabbi from Jerusalem, decades before the establishment of the state, sitting across from the President of the United States and speaking to him passionately about the future of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael. In many ways, this was a diplomatic mission that left a mark for generations, as it also paved the way for other Chief Rabbis who later entered the White House and met with US Presidents.

A rare documentation also remains from the visit; in the photo, Rabbi Kook is seen in his elegant attire, holding his cane, with a US government car behind him. The photo illustrates the magnitude of the occasion: a rabbi from Eretz Yisrael, proudly carrying his teachings and his vision, in the heart of American power, more than two decades before the establishment of the state.