Stephen Wise Temple’s Rabbi David Woznica is part of a diplomatic delegation of American rabbis traveling in the Middle East to celebrate the Abraham Accords between the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Israel. Rabbi Woznica and 11 other rabbis (representing Reform, Orthodox, and Conservative communities) were brought to the UAE last week on a trip sponsored by the UAE and Bahrain, both of which are Muslim-majority countries.
During the trip, which began on June 20, Rabbi Woznica and the rest of the delegation have been meeting with government officials and other leaders, including the Israeli Consul General to the UAE and the chair of the UAE’s Manara Center. The trip will conclude in Israel.
On his third day in the UAE last week, Rabbi Woznica paid a visit to the home of former United States Ambassador to Oman, Marc J. Sievers. Sievers is now the director of the American Jewish Committee office in Abu Dhabi. Amb. Sievers’ wife, as it happens, was a Wise member in the mid-1990s. You can watch video of the visit HERE.
The delegation’s trip is in celebration of the Abraham Accords, a series of joint normalization statements mediated by the United States in 2020. The Accords helped establish diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain. A game-changer in Middle East diplomacy, the Accords marked the first instance of Arab-Israeli normalization since the Israel-Jordan peace treaty was signed in 1994 by King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin (Z”L).
As Rabbi Woznica continues his trip, he looks forward to sharing his experience and observations with our Stephen Wise Temple community.