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President Rivlin calls for leaders who accept all segments of Israeli society

“Anyone aspiring to be a leader” must be “able to listen, accept, and hear,” said President Rivlin.

By World Israel News Staff 

As Israel approaches its September 17 Knesset election, President Reuven Rivlin said Thursday that “anyone aspiring to be a leader” must be “able to listen, accept, and hear” the people of all of Israel’s sectors.

Referring to them as “the four tribes,” Rivlin spoke of the “ultra-Orthodox, Arabs, religious, and secular” Israelis who must all be served.

The president was speaking at a conference at the Presidential Residence in Jerusalem with the participation of heads of religious Zionist institutions and organizations, according to his office.

He praised the “flagship program” of the Presidential Residence, called Israeli Hope, which “brings the tribes together” through meetings and discussions, said Rivlin.

“We believe that we have no other country and no other citizens. None of the tribes is going to disappear from here and no one is going to erase their identity,” the President added.

Hailing the efforts of the Religious Zionist movement in providing leadership, Rivlin spoke of the impact of Jewish life even on non-Jews.

“I just returned from a visit to South Korea, a country that invests vast sums of money, thinking, and strategic planning in the field of education. In South Korea, they look at Jewish learning with great appreciation,” the president told the conference attendees.

“The prime minister of South Korea studied Talmud here in Israel. In my meeting with the Korean president, I gave him a tractate of Baba Kama,” said Rivlin.

The president, 79, spoke of his own school days when Talmud was studied “without fear of religion. We were not afraid of Judaism, we wanted to learn it, each according to his own beliefs, each according to his customs.”

Rivlin told the audience that “we have nothing to be ashamed of in our educational tradition, in our educational institutions. We should be proud of them and nurture them.”