This week I saw the movie Golda. The movie focuses on Golda Meir during the course of the Yom Kippur War. (For more on Golda Meir’s life, be sure to get the new book Golda Meir by our fellow congregant Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt.) I did not know a great deal about the Yom Kippur War, other than the many lives which were lost and that Israel came close, God forbid, to its undoing. Though some Israelis express negative views of Golda Meir for the tragic loss of life in the war, this movie portrays her as a scapegoat at the mercy of military commanders, particularly Moshe Dayan.

Naphtali Lau-Lavie, a longtime Israeli politician and political advisor to Moshe Dayan and Shimon Perez, tells the story differently in his memoir, Balaam’s Prophecy. Lau-Levine wrote that Dayan was the one who realized war was coming and warned of the need to call up more troops. It was not until war actually broke out that the military heads of the IDF were convinced; by then, it was too late. 

Wherever the truth lies, we do know that the war took an enormous emotional toll on Moshe Dayan. But emerging from the war, Dayan went on to become the main architect of the Camp David Accords, the 1978 peace negotiation between Egypt and Israel which still stands to this day.

Moshe Dayan was not a religious person and only attended a synagogue service twice in his life. The first time was on Yom Kippur in 1977, when visiting New York to meet with American politicians. The second was on Kol Nidrei night on October 10, 1978, at Kesher Israel during the Camp David accords. He sat in the front row along with Israeli President Ezer Weizman, Israeli Supreme Court Justice Elyaḳim Rubinshṭain, and Israeli politician Naphtali Lau-Lavie.

A few months ago after davening at Kesher, Justice Rubinshṭain recalled that Yom Kippur to me and the profound, palpable impact the experience had on Moshe Dayan. He told it much the way it is recorded in Lau-Lavie’s book: “At the end of the Camp David summit, President Carter sent congratulatory letters to Sadat and Begin and suggested that the practical discussions of a peace treaty based on the principles of the Camp David accords should begin on October 12 at Blair House in Washington. This was the day after Yom Kippur.”

Though Moshe Dayan was unfamiliar with the service, he was asked by long time Kesher Israel leader Harry Meyers to open the ark. As Lau-Lavie tells it, Dayan was honored though unsure of what to do. He removed his leather shoes and with some guidance opened the ark and closed it following the prayer.

At the end of the service, Rabbi Philip Rabinowitz rose to bless “the important visitors from Israel and wish them success in their endeavor to bring peace to the Jewish people and their land.” According to Lau-Lavie, “The congregation was visibly moved, and so were we, the Israeli guests.” The plan was for Moshe Dayan, who was not religious, to ride in the limo back to the hotel and for Rubinshṭain and Lau-Lavie, who were religious, to walk. But, when the door to the limousine was opened for Moshe Dayan he exclaimed, “Yom Kippur obligates me too.” And he walked the long way back with them to Blair House. 

I have often said that Kesher Israel, in addition to being a place for prayer, study and community, is also more than this. Due to its history, its constituency, and its location, it plays an outsized role in the life of the Jewish people and our nation. Due to Kesher, many upon whose shoulders lie the responsibility for nations and our world, also have a place to be inspired Jewishly. We do not always know the impact we have but we can be assured that Kesher’s existence in some ways impacts the course of history writ large. Did the profound and novel experience for Moshe Dayan of spiritual awe and participation have some impact the next day on his ability to see the big picture and to help to usher in an era of peace between Israel and its neighbors? A peace which, according to Maimonides, is one of the signs of the messianic era? 

Let us not underestimate the impact that a friendly shabbat shalom, a thoughtful Torah insight, or an inspiring Shacharit has at Kesher, not only on each person as an individual in our shul, but perhaps, at times through those attending, also on nations and upon our world.