Ready, Willing, and Able   

Israel’s US ambassador Yechiel Leiter relives his knock on history’s door 

Ever since he was a young boy growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Yechiel Leiter felt drawn to the Jewish People’s G-d-given land. Decades later, as Israel’s new ambassador to the United States, Leiter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help influence history. Through his close contact with White House advisors and the State Department, he’s a power-player in cementing the relationship between Israel and its most important global strategic ally during these challenging and harrowing times

Yechiel Leiter was the first ambassador from a foreign country to present his letter of credentials to President Trump, just four days after Trump was inaugurated for a second term. While the text of such letters is usually formulaic, introducing the new ambassador and authorizing him to represent his home country, Leiter chose to exercise some literary license.

“I was given a very nice letter, but I decided to rewrite it,” Leiter said. “The first sentence I wrote was that I represent the people indigenous to the land of Israel. I wanted that to be my first remark upon arriving here in Washington.

“We are not interlopers. We are not colonizers. We are not strangers to the land of Israel. The land of Israel and the people of Israel stand together. It’s part of the same equation, and they can’t be separated.”

President Trump understands this, but during his first 100 days as Israel’s new ambassador to the United States, Dr. Yechiel Leiter aims to ensure that the message resonates clearly with the diverse range of American public officials he interacts with.