Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday alongside her father, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, at the start of her working tour of the Jewish state.
The Huckabees’ visit to the Western Wall—Judaism’s second-holiest site after the Temple Mount—fell on Tisha b’Av, the Jewish national day of mourning for the destruction of both Temples and other tragedies.
Incredible first stop on our trip at the Western Wall with my parents to pray for Israel, the United States and my family. Arkansas stands with you! pic.twitter.com/0gj2Wlbhw4
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) August 4, 2025
They were welcomed by Shmuel Rabinowitz, the Western Wall’s rabbi, who shared with them “an overview of the site’s spiritual and historical significance as a place of prayer, hope and longing for the Jewish people throughout generations,” the Western Wall Heritage Foundation stated.
At the end of the visit, the governor wrote a personal note with “heartfelt prayers” and placed it between the stones.
Sanders also signed the guestbook expressing “her deep emotion and the meaningful connection she felt to the heritage and eternal values represented by this sacred place,” the foundation’s statement noted.
The governor is visiting the Jewish state as part of a regional trade mission, which also includes a stop in the United Arab Emirates.
The Israel leg “will include cultural visits, with a trip to the Western Wall and Judea and Samaria, as well as meetings with senior Israeli government officials,” according to a July 31 Arkansas statement.
In the UAE, Sanders will sit down with companies as part of efforts to develop Arkansas’s aerospace and defense industry.
The Jewish state “is a hub for innovation, especially in agriculture and manufacturing, and as my dad likes to say, is the one place in the world you visit for the first time and it feels like coming home,” Sanders said.
Mike Huckabee has long been a staunch advocate for Israel’s rights to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. In May, he became the first U.S. ambassador to pray at the Ancient Shiloh biblical site in Samaria.
“I have never used any term other than Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee declared during his visit to the site. “It would be a historical injustice and a denial of the Bible to use other terms.”
