The fact that U.S. President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Hasidic communities at the White House on September 3 for a private meeting on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) this year was regarded as an important message to Israel and Zionists. A similarly high-level delegation of Hasidic leaders had last been hosted at the White House in December 1979 (47 years ago), during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.
In this article, we will discuss the Hasidic community received in the Oval Office and the message conveyed.
Since 1922, U.S. presidents have issued messages congratulating the American Jewish community on its New Year. Previous presidents Obama and Biden used to hold large-scale teleconferences with Jewish leaders on the eve of Rosh Hashanah; there were generally around a thousand rabbis, organizational leaders, donors, and activists on the other end of the line. The tradition of holding a large-scale official reception at the White House began in 2022, during the Joe Biden administration. Community representatives, representatives of Jewish lobbying groups such as AIPAC, the Conference of Presidents, and the ADL, as well as Jewish members of Congress and bureaucrats, are among the regular guests at these invitations.
Why Was Donald Trump’s Invitation This Year Different?
During his first presidency (January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021) and after assuming the presidency for a second time in 2025, Donald Trump invited representatives of broad-based, mainstream, and pro-Israel (Zionist) institutions to the White House in accordance with traditional White House protocols. The participants included Reform, Conservative, and Modern Orthodox community leaders, rabbis and civil society activists, as well as representatives of Zionist lobbying organizations such as AIPAC, ADL, and CoP.
However, the Jewish community representatives invited this year were quite different from those invited previously. Rather than holding a large-scale reception, the President invited the spiritual leaders and representatives known as Rebbes of the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Satmar, Bobov, Skver, and Vizhnitz communities, as well as the non-Hasidic Litvish (Lithuanian) community, to the White House for the celebration. All of these communities except the Litvish (Lithuanian) community are anti-Zionist; the Bobov and Vizhnitz communities have relations with Israel.
It was highly noteworthy that, for the first time since 1979 (after 47 years), anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Hasidic communities were invited as interlocutors for the celebration of the Jewish New Year. Six Hasidic American rabbis, led by Satmar Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, held a private meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Republican Representative from New York Mike Lawler also participated in the meeting.
The Agenda of the Oval Office Meeting
The U.S. President demonstrated the importance he attached to this meeting by postponing its scheduled time to compensate for delays experienced by the private jets that brought the delegation to Washington. According to the program arranged by White House officials, the Rebbes and rabbinical leaders arrived at the White House complex in secure convoys.
One of the notable aspects of this meeting was that Trump reconciled the brothers Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum, Rabbi of the Satmar Ahronim community, and Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, Rabbi of the Satmar Zalis community, who had been estranged because of a dispute over community leadership. The ice between them melted at the White House thanks to the President.
Jewish media reported that during the meeting the rabbis would ask Trump for federal funding for yeshivas, kosher food in prisons, and public housing assistance; express concerns about the destruction of Jewish cemeteries in Europe; and use his influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent the implementation of a law imposing mandatory military service on yeshiva students in Israel.
However, it was learned that, apart from the last request, the rabbis did not raise the other issues. The reason may be presumed to have been concern that these demands would overshadow the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist message.
One of the Satmar rabbis who attended the meeting recited a prayer for the President and then presented Trump with a leather-bound copy of the prayer.
The Letter Presented to Trump by the Satmar Community
At the meeting, Satmar leader Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum presented Trump with a two-page letter. Reflecting the views of the Satmar community, which does not consider the state established before the arrival of the Messiah legitimate, the letter emphasized the following points:
- The fundamental element connecting Jews to one another is not political citizenship or national affiliation, but solely the Torah and the religion of Judaism.
- The State of Israel cannot represent world Jewry or the Jewish religion, and decisions taken by the Israeli government cannot automatically be regarded as the “Jewish position.”
- The political home of anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews is the United States of America.
- Opposing or criticizing the State of Israel or Zionism cannot be equated with “antisemitism.”
- It is wrong to hold all Jews around the world responsible for the actions of the State of Israel or to establish a direct political connection between them and Israel.
President Trump accepted the letter, which explicitly rejected Israel’s and major Zionist organizations’ claim to be the “sole voice of the Jews,” and said that he would “review it with his team.”
Zionist Reactions to the Invitation and Acceptance of the Letter
Pro-Israel conservative Jewish groups and Republican donors in the United States, many of whom are among Trump’s strongest supporters, reacted to Trump’s decision to bypass traditional institutions and engage directly with anti-Zionists. The invitation reportedly disturbed major Zionist lobbying organizations such as AIPAC, which traditionally organize or influence Jewish gatherings at the White House. Publications such as The New York Jewish Week and The Jerusalem Post reported that many pro-Israel figures who support Trump strongly criticized the inclusion of Satmar Rebbes on the guest list.
These circles argued that Trump had provided an “marginal and anti-Zionist group” with legitimacy and a political platform they did not deserve. Zionist elites described the recognition of anti-Zionist and anti-Israel Jews as interlocutors for the Rosh Hashanah holiday as a “major Washington anomaly.”
Israeli media and Zionist lobbies in the United States strongly criticized Trump for accepting the letter presented by Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum at the White House. They interpreted his statement that he would “review it with his team” as a blow to the State of Israel’s patronage and representative authority in the global Jewish world. In mainstream Israeli media, the situation was criticized as Trump taking his personal dispute with Netanyahu to a point that would undermine Israel’s institutional legitimacy.
Israel and Zionist circles viewed this summit as a dangerous precedent demonstrating that Trump is not a purely ideological ally and that, driven entirely by “America First” pragmatism and his own local electoral interests, he could shake hands even with Israel’s greatest ideological opponents if necessary (and could even reconcile two enemy brothers).
Trump’s hosting of the anti-Zionist Satmar leaders at the White House after 47 years can be interpreted as an attempt to distance himself from relations with Israel—which has increasingly lost sympathy in American society and has become a burden for the United States—and from the “Israel First” line, as well as an attempt to redefine relations with the diaspora. The emphasis on “America is our home” in Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum’s letter points in this direction and is consistent with the President’s “America First” policy.
Evaluating the Invitation from Trump’s Perspective
The serious tensions and deepening crisis of confidence that Donald Trump has recently experienced with Benjamin Netanyahu and the current Israeli government have given this historic Oval Office summit a much more strategic meaning. With his patience toward the Israeli Prime Minister running out, Trump demonstrated that he also recognizes a different, non-Zionist religious leadership within the American diaspora by receiving Jews who are non-Zionist and declare their allegiance to America at the White House. In this way, he signaled that he could pursue the traditional U.S.-Israel policy, which has been shaped under the influence of the Zionist lobby, independently.
Alongside all this, some right-wing analysts in Israel preferred to interpret Trump’s move not as an ideological rupture, but as a completely pragmatic political investment made to secure a bloc of votes. The fact that the meeting took place eight weeks before the U.S. midterm elections lends some support to this assessment. The total number of followers of the Satmar community worldwide is estimated to be between 120,000 and 150,000, with more than 80% living in the United States (particularly in New York State).
Conclusion
Washington’s policy of unconditionally supporting Israel’s wars is being met with a reaction from U.S. citizens whose economy is in crisis; to date, between $310 billion and $330 billion, in current prices, has been transferred to Israel from the taxes paid by the American people. Recent polls show that sympathy for Israel is rapidly declining in American society, including among Evangelical Christians, and U.S. President Donald Trump, who is preparing for the midterm elections, is aware of this situation.
The continuous undermining by Israel of the broad regional alliance strategy that the United States has sought to implement in the Middle East during President Trump’s second term, serious disagreements and deadlocks with the Benjamin Netanyahu government over Trump’s peace plan and roadmap for ending the Gaza war, Israel’s failure to provide timely information about some critical regional operations, and its occasional manipulation of the White House with false information have led to tensions between the two governments.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s private meeting this year with Jewish community leaders known for their anti-Israel and anti-Zionist characteristics at the White House, ahead of Rosh Hashanah, is a harbinger of a serious transformation in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, which since 1967 has been shaped under the strong influence of the Zionist lobby and has centered Israel in the region.
In Section IV, “Strategy 1. Principles,” of the United States’ 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), a statement was made that lobbying and influence operations aimed at allowing foreign powers or entities to direct U.S. policies or drag the country into foreign conflicts, as well as the creation within the country of voting blocs loyal to foreign interests, would be prevented. Israel and Jewish lobbying groups were meant by this statement. Trump’s most recent meeting, in which he recognized Jews who oppose Israel and regard America as their own home as representatives of American Jews, is consistent with the United States’ 2025 National Security Strategy.
Rather than issuing an official response to the acceptance of Jewish communities that reject Israel and to the letter they presented to the President, the State of Israel chose to remain silent and avoid keeping the issue on the agenda. Both those writing in the Israeli media and American Zionist elites chose to belittle the Jewish community representatives invited to the meeting by describing them as representatives of marginal groups. They preferred a narrative that diminished the meeting as a political maneuver by Trump aimed at the November elections. Israel’s and Zionist circles’ attempts to weaken and ignore Trump’s message are understandable.
As for Turkey, this strategic move by Trump toward Israel and the Zionists has not received sufficient attention. Instead, it has remained overshadowed by discussions surrounding a video by the famous YouTuber Ruhi Çenet about the pro-Israel Hasidic Chabad Jews and has therefore not been assessed with the importance it deserves.
[i] Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum’s Letter to President Trump:
https://www.voiceofrabbis.org/blog/rabbi-aron-teitelbaums-letter-to-president-trump/
Sources
https://matzav.com/historic-white-house-summit-brings-rebbes-together-with-trump/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/432737
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dcygk9zhU-h
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc3RoMxD3Au
*This article was published on sde.org.tr on September 11, 2026.