Israeli President Celebrates Hanukkah at David Friedman’s Favorite Settlement

Image by Haim Zach/ Israeli Government Press Office
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin marked the third night of Hanukkah by lighting a menorah in Beit El, the West Bank settlement that is supported by Donald Trump’s Israel envoy pick David Friedman.
Friedman, Trump’s lawyer, is the president of American Friends of Beit El Institutions, which raises about $2 million a year from U.S. donors to benefit the settlement near Ramallah, according to Haaretz.
The Trump Foundation gave $10,000 to the foundation in 2003, reported the Jerusalem Post. And the family foundation of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, has given money to the organization.
Rivlin’s Hanukkah appearance at Beit El was to inaugurate a new study hall at the yeshiva there. In photographs of the event, he is joined by Zalman Baruch Melamed, the head of the yeshiva who has stated that certain Arab citizens of Israel should be stripped of their rights.
Rivlin doesn’t share that view, often saying that Arabs and Jews are “destined to live together.” The president advocates a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the Palestinian territory under Israel’s control.
Rivlin took a nationalistic tone at the Hanukkah event, calling the settlers the “pioneers” and referring to the West Bank, where Palestinians hope to build a future state, as “our land.”
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
- 4
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jewish students, alumni decry ‘weaponization of antisemitism’ across country
-
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.