Senior Advisor Breaks Silence with Emotional Tribute to the Rebbe

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s strategic advisor and former spokesperson, Yonatan Urich, broke his silence today by sharing a heartfelt post expressing his deep yearning for the Rebbe, the Rebbe’s message to him during his time in prison, and the Rebbe’s lasting influence on the Prime Minister.

By Anash.org reporter

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s strategic advisor, close confidant, and former spokesperson, Yonatan Urich, broke his silence today by sharing a heartfelt post expressing his deep yearning for the Rebbe on Gimmel Tammuz.

Urich, who has been at the center of the Qatargate scandal involving alleged foreign influence, was arrested earlier this year and released last month under conditions that barred him from contacting Netanyahu. Until now, he had remained silent about the matter on all public platforms.

In a post that was widely shared across social media and Israeli news outlets, Urich asked, “How do you miss someone you never met?” He described his deep yearning for the Rebbe- who he met through watching YouTube videos of the Rebbe’s farbrengens, studying his sichos, and participating in farbrengens with the Rebbe’s shliach to Katamon, Yerushalayim, Rabbi Ohr Ziv. “ I understand how we are all his children – precisely he, who had no children of his own”.

Reflecting on his time in prison, he wrote:
“He sent me a message when I was in prison. He responded to me before I entered. He prepared me. He knew how to say the right words, the good words. He was with me.”

As a senior advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Urich also spoke about the Rebbe’s influence on the Prime Minister:
“He guided, touched, spoke, and continues to influence Prime Minister Netanyahu in a way that no one else in the world understands.”

He concluded:
“There’s still so much more to say, and the time will come. In the meantime, the candle burns, the heart yearns, and the emptiness must be filled at every moment. And it is so empty.”

Topaz Luk, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson and a close friend of Urich – who is also barred from contact with him due to the ongoing investigation—responded to the post, writing:
“My dear and beloved brother, you moved me. The deep state is preventing us from speaking, but not for much longer. The truth will come to light.”

The full post of Yonatan Urich:

Tonight is Gimmel Tammuz.

A night when the Rebbe may have disappeared from view — but never from the heart.

I never had the merit to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe face to face.
But I see him on YouTube.

I sit in front of the screen, and I’m pulled in.
Into the gaze.
Into the silence.
Sometimes a smile.
Into a truth that has no substitute.

I have the privilege of learning his Sichos — Dvar Malchus. Words that are not just Torah, but life.

They open up new paths in thought,
and remind me who I am — and why.

And I farbreng with Rabbi Or Ziv, his faithful shliach, a light in the darkness.
And there, around the table, on the night of Gimmel Tammuz,
I understand how we are all his children —
precisely he, who had no children of his own.

How much love one person can carry.
How much responsibility he took upon himself, in all our names.
How much pain he bore — without showing it.
And how much hope and action he instilled — in every soul he touched.

I miss a Rebbe I never met.

He sent me a message when I was in prison.
He responded to me before I entered. He prepared me.
He knew how to say the right words, the good words.
He was with me.

He guided, touched, spoke, and continues to influence Prime Minister Netanyahu in a way that no one else in the world understands.

He understood.
He saw far beyond.

There’s still much to tell, much to reveal — and the time will come.

In the meantime, the candle burns, the heart yearns,
and the emptiness must be filled at every moment.

And it is so empty.