CFI was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty’s service to our country during her 70-year reign saw us through some challenging as well as happy times. We offer our deepest condolences to the Royal Family.
CFI mourns the loss of an extraordinary woman who has been a constant beacon of hope, stability and duty during all our lives.
Yehi zichra baruch. May her memory be for a blessing.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog extended his “deepest sympathies to the British people and all nations of the Commonwealth, who have lost their matriarch”. “Throughout her long and momentous reign, the world changed dramatically, while the Queen remained an icon of stable, responsible leadership, and a beacon of morality, humanity and patriotism”, he added.
President Herzog paid his respects to Her Majesty on Sunday, passing by her coffin in Westminster Hall at the Lying-In-State. After the visit, he said that “the Queen was a true ‘woman of valour’, as we say in the Jewish tradition, a beacon of stability and a historic figure”. The Israeli President joined world leaders and the Royal Family at Her Majesty’s funeral on Monday
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid visited the residence of the British Ambassador to Israel H.E Neil Wigan OBE in Tel Aviv where he left a message of remembrance in the condolence book. He said of the Queen’s passing: “On behalf of the Government and people of Israel, I send my condolences to the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom on the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She leaves behind an unparalleled legacy of leadership and service. May her memory be for a blessing”.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, H.E. Tzipi Hotovely, described Queen Elizabeth as “a great friend of the Jewish community”, adding that she was “very sensitive and respectful to Holocaust survivors, and always listened to them beyond [the] protocol time [allotted] and shared moments with them”.
In the House of Lords, CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE noted “how Her Majesty touched the lives of so many, even just for a fleeting moment, and that will forever be etched on the memory of those people”.
He reflected on a conversation he had had with the Princess Royal in which they agreed that it was “sad that the Queen, as someone who was deeply religious and God-fearing, never walked down the Via Dolorosa into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem or experienced the peace and tranquillity on the shores of the Sea of Galilee” due to being “prohibited by the Foreign Office from visiting Israel”.
Lord Polak added in an article for the Jewish Chronicle that it was “a sad loss to the people of Israel that they were never graced with Her Majesty’s presence”.
His Majesty King Charles III conducted his first official visit to Israel in 2020, after previously visiting the country for the funerals of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. The King is the most senior member of the Royal Family to visit Israel since its establishment, following His Royal Highness Prince William’s first-ever official royal visit in 2018.
In November 2021, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met King Charles on an official visit to the UK. During the visit, President Herzog announced a nursing scholarship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem dedicated to King Charles’ grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg. Princess Alice is recognised by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations for saving a Jewish family in Greece during the Holocaust; she is buried at the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
