Overview
- A delegation from the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States led by Rabbi Mendy Chitrik visited Lusail Palace Monday to offer condolences on the death of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
- The group included Rabbi Eliyahu Chitrik, who serves Jewish visitors in Qatar, and Iran’s chief rabbi Yehuda Gerami, and the meeting was attended by Qatar’s prime minister and the Amiri Diwan chief.
- Qatar’s emir publicized the audience on the palace’s official social channels, a rare public acknowledgment of ties with Jewish communal leaders that palace sources presented as an act of interfaith respect.
- ARIS says it represents rabbis serving roughly 110,000 Jews across about 18 Muslim-majority countries and has recently held coordinated outreach meetings in Brussels with international envoys.
- Participants described the visit as support for Jewish life in Qatar and a sign of soft diplomacy that could strengthen on-the-ground community ties without amounting to formal state-to-state normalization with Israel.