If it had happened under different circumstances, it would have barely registered as a newsworthy event: Jewish leaders from around the world holding yet another discussion about the terrible rise in antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks.

Yet the gathering yesterday evening at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem served as a subtle rebuke of Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and the Israeli government after their decision to invite far-right European leaders to address today’s “International Conference on Combating Antisemitism.”

Their inclusion, along with the fact that Israel invited them without first consulting the Jewish communities from the countries they represent, prompted most of the Jewish leaders scheduled to speak and attend to drop out in protest, including Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, British antisemitism scholar David Hirsh and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, as well as German antisemitism envoy Felix Klein and head of the Germany-Israel Friendship Association, German Volker Beck.

In their remarks, many of the speakers at the gathering organized by Israeli President Isaac Herzog highlighted the need to combat antisemitism from both the left and the right — a nod to the fact that Chikli’s conference focuses solely on progressive and Islamist antisemitism and anti-Zionism, which the minister in his speech described as the “essence of antisemitism today.”

In his remarks at the President’s Residence, Chikli — who has defended his decision to invite far-right figures to his antisemitism conference — said: “We don’t need a diplomatic struggle against antisemitism; we need a full-scale war. To fight antisemitism, we need courageous leadership and resolute action.”

Former minister and Jewish Agency Chair Natan Sharansky, who had initially said he would still participate in the government conference before dropping out to speak at Herzog’s gathering, stressed the need not only to combat both left-wing and right-wing antisemitism but for each of those camps to take responsibility for ridding antisemitism from its midst.

“We are seeing again and again, how very strong voices of our friends on the right are attacking — correctly — progressive, ‘woke’ antisemites. And we can see how many people, liberals… are attacking antisemitism on the right…  which has also raised its head,” Sharansky said. “Please, please, dear friends on the right, fight antisemitism on the right, and our friends on the left, please fight this awful anti-Zionism, which is happening now on the left. And that is the only way that we can defeat it.”

In his speech, William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, stressed the risks of polarization and partisan politics in addressing both antisemitism and the current turmoil in Israel over the government’s advancement of its judicial overhaul plans.

“The moment we politicize the issue [of antisemitism], it becomes infinitely harder to address,” Daroff said. “The same fact is true here in Israel. When we draw lines between one another or disregard the concerns of our brothers and sisters, we deepen the divisions and make it harder to confront those common challenges. But by prioritizing unity over division and dialogue over politicization, we can work together towards a more cohesive and resilient campaign to combat antisemitism, as well as to create a stronger and more cohesive world.”

As Chikli did, Herzog stressed the antisemitic nature of anti-Zionism. “To invalidate the existence of the singular Jewish national home, is to declare the world has no place for Jews,” he said.

But contrasting with the Diaspora affairs minister, the president also acknowledged the concerns of Diaspora Jewry. “To my Jewish brothers and sisters I say: I understand your concern for the safety of your communities, and for the future of your children. I understand your pain and outrage,” he said. “I understand your concern for Jewish life, period. I also understand- and I share your worries in this urgent battle. The State of Israel is your full partner, and we are all in this battle.”

In addition to offering a forum for the Jewish leaders who were already scheduled to attend this week’s conference —including Israel’s antisemitism envoy Michal Cotler-Wunsh and Rabbi? Menachem Margolin, the head of the European Jewish Association, in addition to Daroff and Sharansky — to still discuss antisemitism without sharing a stage with problematic figures on Europe’s far right, Herzog’s gathering drew additional global Jewish figures who were not initially on the conference guest list. They included Wendy Kahn, the national director of the South African Board of Jewish Deputies; Alon Cassuto, CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia; and Muriel Ouaknine-Melki, the head of France’s Organisation Juive Européenne, who participated in an onstage panel, as well as Conference of European Rabbis’ Pinchas Goldschmidt and Phil Rosenberg, president of the British Board of Deputies, among others.