White House convenes meeting with Jewish leaders over anti-Semitic attacks

• Date: 26 May 2021
• Published date: 26 May 2021
• Author: Ron Kampeas/JTA
• Publication title: Israel National News (Israel)

By 8 a.m. Monday, Biden was at his Twitter bully pulpit, saying "the recent attacks on the Jewish community are despicable, and they must stop."

At 4 p.m. the same day, representatives of all five organizations were on a video conference call with top staffers at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security.

The participants were knocked back by the immediacy of the response.

"You know, the next business day after the letter was sent, they brought a good group of key officials together who are really substantive," said Elana Broitman, the director of the Jewish Federations of North America's Washington office, who attended the meeting.

The White House would not comment and the three Jewish officials who returned the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's calls did not feel comfortable describing what the White House officials said, or naming on the record who was present. The White House did not return a request for comment.

The groups that sent the letter and which were represented at the meeting in addition to the JFNA are the Orthodox Union, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and Hadassah.

The participants said that each of the five requests they made was addressed during the meeting. These included nominating an anti-Semitism monitor at the State Department, naming a Jewish liaison, convening a summit on anti-Semitism, adding funds to secure nonprofits and keeping in place an executive order by President Donald Trump that combats anti-Semitism on campuses.

The last request, having to do with...