Roger Hertog, Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, Ruthie Blum at the Jewish Leadership Conference of The Tikvah Fund in New York, Nov. 10, 2019 (photo by Rick Richman).
At the conference, Norman Podhoretz received Tikvah's Herzl Award, and Roger Hertog held a one-hour conversation with Henry Kissinger. His opening question asked Kissinger to reflect on his negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and Kissinger began by saying, "Let me say two things before answering this question":
The first is, I am here because Roger asked me [audience applause]. And Roger has been a mentor and an inspiration for all the decades I’ve been here in New York.
Second, I want to congratulate this organization for giving an award, the Herzl Award, to Norman Podhoretz. Nobody has tormented me more [audience laughter], from so many directions, than Norman, through many years of my public life. But nobody has been a better friend — and more importantly, nobody I respect more, whether we agree or not, for his courage, for his inspiration, for what he has done for the American and the Jewish people, so [audience applause].
Videos from many of the presentations at the Conference will be available shortly at its website.