Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, delivered an emotional address Sunday at the annual Chabad World Shluchim Conference, warning that the Jewish state faces an existential threat and urging thousands of Chabad emissaries to confront antisemitism while strengthening their commitment to the Jewish people.
Leiter spoke about the personal tragedy his family has endured, including the loss of his eldest son, Moshe Yedidyah, in combat and the hospitalization of another son, Neria.
"I thank you, I thank you for your prayers, on behalf of my son, Neria ben Hanna, I come to you directly from Shaare Zedek. I landed this morning, I spent the last week at his bedside. And I can see, I can see in reality, the prayers beginning to work. So please continue."
"It was a difficult week, I had to plan the memorial for my eldest, Moshe Yedidyah, while I was nursing my second son."
The Ambassador recalled advice his fallen son had given soldiers preparing to enter Gaza, emphasizing the importance of maintaining their bearings amid the confusion of battle.
"He said the most important thing you have to do when you go into the field of battle, is to keep asking yourself, where am I, where are my friends, and where is the enemy?"
Leiter said the same principle should guide the Jewish people in confronting the challenges they face today.
"In our present circumstance, we have to ask constantly, who we are, who are our friends, and who are our enemies? But the plague of our generation right now is that we have forgotten how to identify the enemy."
He warned that antisemitism continues to evolve, taking different forms across generations.
"Antisemitism is not singular. It's not made of one ingredient. It's a virus that mutates."
Leiter also recounted the circumstances surrounding his first official visit to the White House after assuming his position as Israel's Ambassador to the United States on January 27, 2025.
On his first day at the embassy, he received an unexpected telephone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who informed him that President Donald Trump had invited him to Washington the following week.
"The Prime Minister called. He said, 'I just got off the phone with President Trump. He invited me to the White House. I'm coming next week.' I said, 'Is this some kind of joke? I just got here.'"
Leiter explained that an ambassador ordinarily cannot participate in an Oval Office meeting before formally presenting his diplomatic credentials, a process that typically takes approximately two months.
With Netanyahu's arrival approaching, Leiter contacted Secretary of State Marco Rubio to arrange an expedited presentation.
"So I called Secretary of State Rubio, and I said, 'We've got to do something. The Prime Minister's coming.' The Secretary said, 'No problem. Prepare a letter for me. And we'll arrange to expedite your visit to the Oval Office. You'll come in in the morning. The Prime Minister's coming in in the afternoon, and then you'll come with him.'"
Leiter said his staff prepared a letter for the Secretary of State, but he was dissatisfied with its presentation. Although the document was unlikely to attract public attention, he felt that the occasion demanded something more meaningful.
He explained that the moment carried particular significance because of his family's history. His father had fled Vienna in 1938, arriving in the United States as an eight-year-old refugee with little more than a piece of bread and a quarter.
Leiter decided that the letter should reflect the Jewish people's historical connection to their homeland.
"I said, 'I want the letter to be meaningful.' So I thought, and I asked for Siata Deshmaya (help from God -ed.). And I began the letter with one sentence: I represent the people indigenous to the Land of Israel, period."
Leiter used the story to underscore his conviction that Israel's diplomatic representatives must speak unapologetically about the Jewish people's historical rights to the Land of Israel. He then connected that principle to his warning that the current threats against Israel concern the Jewish state's very existence, rather than individual territorial disputes.
"The issue today is not Judea and Samaria. The issue today is not the Golan, the issue today is not Gaza, the issue today is not Jerusalem. What is at stake at the present time is the very existence of Israel. Not any less than that. This is not an issue today of territorial compromise."
Leiter pointed to anti-Israel demonstrations that erupted in the United States immediately after the October 7 massacre, arguing that their slogans reflected a desire to eliminate Israel rather than achieve territorial concessions.
"When on October 8, tens of thousands of people in the United States of America, not in the Middle East, not in Europe, but right here, streamed into the streets, on campuses, in state capitals, they screamed from the river to the sea. That doesn't mean to give up Hebron. That means to exterminate the Jewish people in the Land of Israel."
He also questioned whether decades of Holocaust education had succeeded in preventing the resurgence of antisemitism.
"Teaching that Jews are victims is not what's going to keep us alive."
Leiter recounted a contentious meeting with the editorial board of The New York Times, during which he challenged accusations that Israel had committed genocide or deliberately starved civilians in Gaza.
"And I gave them facts. I told them how many trucks of humanitarian aid were coming in every day. I told them how we're risking our own soldiers' lives in order not to take the lives of non-combatants on the other side. I gave them facts, and they gave me feelings."
The Ambassador said he confronted the newspaper's editors over a front-page photograph of an emaciated Palestinian Arab child, accusing the publication of failing to provide crucial medical context and presenting a misleading impression of conditions in Gaza.
"I said, no. That's not a misappropriation. That's a blood libel."
He warned that accusations against Israel could have consequences extending far beyond public opinion.
"Please understand, this is a blood libel. And a blood libel will cost lives. And the reason why they are accusing us of genocide is to prepare the next genocide. Against us."
Leiter urged the emissaries to recognize and confront efforts to delegitimize Israel and the Jewish people.
"We fight it by knowing who we are. We fight it by knowing who our friends are. And we fight it by knowing who the enemy is and by identifying them as the enemy and calling them out as the enemy."
Concluding his address, Leiter returned to the memory of his fallen son, recalling a conversation after Moshe completed an exhausting military training exercise involving a lengthy march while carrying a heavy backpack.
When Leiter asked how his son managed to endure the physical burden, Moshe explained that he imagined carrying the hopes and prayers of previous generations.
"I add the hopes and prayers and dreams of my grandparents on my shoulders. And then I can bear any weight on my back."
Drawing on his son's example and the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Leiter called on the thousands of emissaries to increase their efforts on behalf of the Jewish people.
"And so now I ask of all of the ambassadors in this room, your excellencies, add more. Add a little more. You're caring for all the generations that have waited for this day and that are now facing threats once again as we have throughout our history."