Friday, October 22, 2021
Elder of Ziyon
Rabbi Yaakov Herzog calls himself the Chief Rabbi of Saudi Arabia. He has been traveling to the kingdom for well over a year now but he became famous in April when Jewish media started covering his intention to represent Judaism to the Saudis and provide services to any Jews traveling there, either in the US Army or on business.
Every time he posts photos or videos of himself in front of various Saudi landmarks, he gets a lot of response.
On Thursday, he posted a video of him dancing with a Saudi friend. One response was that "Riyadh must be washed with water and dirt after [his] stepping on its land." But another responded to critics of him visiting by saying "America exploded a nuclear bomb on Japan and today they are friends and allies.. In the same way you think, we have to be hostile to France, Italy and Britain because they colonized all our countries."
One said, "You will not be happy, O you who wish to destroy the first of the two Qiblahs and the third of the Two Holy Mosques."
Arab media also picked up on the videos and photos of Herzog. One theorized that he entered the kingdom with an Emirati passport (he has an American accent and almost certainly used that passport.)
A video where Herzog blesses the Saudi king and citizens gained a comment that the Saudis arrest people for tweets, why is this rabbi allowed to run around freely?
For another tweet of his, one Arab responds with a video of a Hitler speech dubbed into Arabic that is translated as being explicitly antisemitic.
Even so, the number of positive reactions is nothing short of amazing, considering that any public support for Jews was unheard of in Saudi Arabia only a few years ago.
