Listen to the ‘High Holidays’ Teleconference with President Donald Trump

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President Donald Trump talks on the phone aboard Air Force One, Jan. 26, 2017. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

The Orthodox Union, the Coalition for Jewish Values, Chabad-Lubavitch, the Union for Reform Judaism and the National Council of Young Israel had representatives on the call.

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Amid the divide between the Trump administration and left-wing Jewish religious organizations, at least a few major ones participated in the annual call ahead of Rosh Hashanah between rabbis and U.S. President Donald Trump.

This tension has stemmed from Trump’s controversial rhetoric, such as accusing Jews who support Democrats as “disloyal” to Israel and the Jewish community, policies on immigration, gun violence and what at times seemed like a soft response to white nationalism, despite being hailed by the pro-Israel community as the friendliest U.S. president yet towards the State of Israel.

Those actions include, but aren’t limited to, recognizing Jerusalem and moving the U.S. embassy there; withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, reimposing sanctions lifted under it, along with enacting new financial penalties against the regime; recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights; and designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group.

In 2017, leaders from the left-wing Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements boycotted the annual call over Trump blaming “both sides” in the violent scrimmage between alt-right and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., over the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, in which a white nationalist rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a woman and injuring dozens others.

The Reform and Conservative movements, the two largest Jewish denominations in America, had traditionally organized the annual call, which dates back to the Eisenhower administration, the newspaper reported. But they and the smaller Reconstructionist movement decided not to participate in 2017 shortly after President Donald Trump said there were “very fine people” on both sides of a conflict in Charlottesville, Virginia, that featured deadly violence and racist behavior by far-right nationalists.


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