כ״ז טבת ה׳תשפ״ו | January 16, 2026
When the Rebbe Said No to Israel’s Highest Honor
When Reb Adin Even Yisroel (Steinsaltz) was awarded the Israel Prize on the creation of the Steinzaltz Talmud, he asked the Rebbe if he should accept it. When the ceremony began on Israel’s Independence Day, Reb Adin was nowhere to be found.
The Pras Yisrael award of 5748 was awarded to Reb Adin Even Yisroel (Steinsaltz), on the accomplishment of the Steinzaltz Talmud, for making Gemara study accessible to the masses for the first time in history.
This honorary, as well as monetary, prize is bestowed by the State of Israel on Israel’s Independence Day, in a state ceremony in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Knesset, and the Supreme Court President, and is considered the state’s highest cultural honor.
Being a loyal chossid, Reb Adin asked the Rebbe whether he should accept the award.
Upon the Rebbe’s guidance, when the ceremony began, Reb Adin was nowhere to be found. He had left the country and could not be reached.
The organizers fumed, and the media erupted, but the Rebbe’s approach was made plain for all to see. As the Maariv newspaper reported at the time, the reason the honorary winner did not appear was that he is a Chabadnik, “which as a movement opposes the state, and considers the state to be established illegitimately…”
COMMENTS
Unfortunately, many people in this generation aren’t aware, and see no problem waving the Israeli flag.
יהדות התורה והמדינה should be a required reading of every Chossid.
Several biographical sources note that in April 1988, instead of appearing at the Israel Prize ceremony, Reb Adin was in England delivering a lecture at the “Global Forum” in Oxford, a high‑profile gathering of political, academic, and religious leaders modeled on the Davos forum.��The Oxford trip that week was not a last‑minute technicality: it became the springboard for his entry into the Soviet Union later that year, where he lectured at the Soviet Academy of Sciences and negotiated opening a Jewish study center in Moscow under official Soviet auspices
He was instructed to disappear? Or not to accept? Couldn’t he just tell them in advance that he is not accepting?
Is the disappearance also part of the hora’ah
It seems that if he would decline, it would create an uproar. So he made himself busy at that time…
Rabbi Steinzaltz’s son Meni says that this never happened, his father was not able to accept the award due to having other responsibilities at the time regarding Russian Jewry which he prioritized.
If he came back and said he didn’t want the prize, that would defeat the purpose. But as chassidim, we should know the back story.