When the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations visited Israel on its annual mission last year, some four months after the Oct. 7 terror attacks as the war against Hamas in Gaza was at its peak, the attendees were unified in their message to the Israeli leaders they encountered: We are with you, no questions asked.

Conference of Presidents CEO William Daroff told eJP at the time that the participating leaders — like everyone — wanted to know how the Israeli military had failed to prevent or at least adequately respond to the massacres. “But I have not heard any second-guessing of Israel’s war policies, security policies or how they’re conducting the war at all,” he said.

One year later, during the weeklong mission underway now, there is no shortage of second-guessing Israel’s policies, particularly as it relates to the current hostage-release and cease-fire agreement and President Donald Trump’s longer-term proposal for the United States to “take control” of Gaza and relocate all of its inhabitants — a notion that most Israeli leaders have wholeheartedly embraced, at least as a jumping-off point, while most American Jews are far warier of the idea. These issues represent sources of division both within the American Jewish community and within Israeli society, as well as between American Jewry and Israel. 

Yet participants did not describe the debates taking place, however serious, as antagonistic or harsh, but rather as critical tools for the different sides to better understand one another, even if they do not end up agreeing.

“We’re here at a very precarious and important moment…which will see a combination of both the good and the bad where we’re [going to see] the body bags that are going to come back on Thursday [with slain captives] and hopefully the hostages who are still alive that will be returned on Saturday. So we’re seeing both sides of the emotional spectrum,” Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told eJP on the sidelines of the conference yesterday. “I think we’re also seeing how that’s playing out in Israeli politics and in both the unity in the Jewish community.”

These differences were perhaps most evident on the first night of the mission, which featured a speech from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he described Trump’s plan as “right on the dot.” Before the prime minister’s speech, Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for Diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, told the crowd that he opposed the current, limited stage of the hostage-release deal and said he would work to prevent further stages of the agreement that would secure the release of all of the remaining captives, on the grounds that the cost in terms of the number of Palestinian terrorists who would be released was too high a price to pay. 

“We just heard in a session that people [in Israel] are not taking Trump’s proposal literally,” said Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. “The impression I think we’ve received throughout is that the plan itself is not workable. It seems more like an idea than a plan, but any idea that forces the relocation of hundreds of thousands of people, if not 2 million, goes contrary to Jewish values. That said, it has started a discussion in the region about what could come next, and that’s an important conversation.”

Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, said Chikli’s views were at odds with those of most American Jews and that she had tried to better understand how he had reached his decision on the hostage-release agreement. “The majority of American Jews agreed with that deal and want the hostages to be prioritized and believe that Judaism makes a compelling case for the redeeming of captives as one of the highest [priorities],” she said.

Chikli also blamed Muslim migration for rising antisemitism in Europe and singled out far-right political leaders on the continent for praise in addressing it, particularly in Hungary — drawing criticism from progressive U.S. Jewish leaders.

“We have been outspoken on — and this included in the meeting with Minister Chikli — our deep concerns around the normalization of anti-democratic far-right extremism in the form of the far-right European parties like in Hungary,” Spitalnick said. “We know that Jewish safety and democracy are inextricably linked and even if we are not the ones being targeted in the first rounds of attacks under anti-democratic extremism, we are often being targeted under the second or third.”

Mort Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, was one of the lone voices in the conference who supported both of Chikli’s points, telling eJP that he too opposes the hostage-release deal under the belief that it incentivizes further attacks on Jews and believes that Muslim immigration is to blame for antisemitism in Europe. Klein also said he generally backs Trump’s proposal, though he opposes the U.S. retaining control of the Strip and favors it being handed over to Israel. 

He acknowledged that he represents the minority of American Jews in these matters. “At the Conference of Presidents, [the representatives] are Jews, and they really reflect American Jewry. So most people here are liberals, most people here are Democrats. I am not one of them.”

After hearing the speakers on the opening night of the mission, the attendees traveled south to visit several communities that were hit in the Oct. 7 attacks and heard about the damage caused to agriculture in the Western Negev region, which is sometimes referred to as Israel’s breadbasket. 

On Tuesday, the group visited the Knesset, attending both the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, which is now headed by Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv, who stressed the importance of freeing the remaining hostages and said he hoped that the “great tragedy we are now experiencing will represent an opportunity to strengthen the connection between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.” Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, one of the parliament’s most vocal supporters of the Israel-American Jewry relationship, hailed the work of the Conference of Presidents. “You deserve an enormous amount of credit for helping usher in a golden age in Israel-American relations. This conference has always been a driver of support for Israel, a strong voice for the shared values between us and the U.S.,” he said. 

On Wednesday, the group is heading to Israel’s northern border to meet with local leaders and military officers and better understand the security and civil situation there. And on Thursday, the group will hear from current and former Israeli officials about the country’s diplomatic and economic state of affairs. 

Stephanie Hausner, the chief operating officer of the Conference of Presidents, said this type of debate, even if pointed, between American Jewish leaders and Israeli leaders is precisely the point of the trip. 

“Minister Chikli took a lot of time for questions. Eight or so people asked questions, and they were very directed at the hostage situation, why he didn’t vote for it. And there are a few different questions related to that and some of the comments he made also regarding Islamophobia,” she said. “I think people were given the opportunity to express themselves.”

This was less so the case with Netanyahu, who left the conference after his address; this comes after the premier did not meet with American Jewish leaders during his visit to Washington last month.

While Katz said her disagreements with speakers and participants on the trip were helpful for her to hone her own opinions on different topics. “It helps me better articulate what I stand for when I listen with people who come from [different] backgrounds and ask questions and learn and engage,” she said. 

Herbert Block, executive director of the American Zionist Movement umbrella group, agreed that the discussion was the most important aspect of the meetings, not that anyone necessarily changed their mind. “It’s important to have that conversation and to have that dialogue regardless of whether any particular organization agrees with the particular minister or government officials speaking. So being here and showing that the American Jewish community is engaged and listening and respectful and having a dialogue and sharing viewpoints is important,” he said.

Katz added that in addition to the benefits of being in Israel and interacting with Israeli officials and thinkers, the mission also offers an opportunity for the American Jewish leaders to speak more deeply with one another. “Among the most meaningful conversations I’m having are not actually in the rooms with the panels. They’re in the hallways. They’re with other CEOs and presidents that are here. So often we’re emailing, asking if people want to sign on to a statement. But here we’re having real conversations about where we’re coming from,” she said.

Block stressed that while there are differences of opinion among the Conference of Presidents members, they are unified in their ultimate goals: return of the hostages returned, the defeat of Hamas in Gaza and peace.

“There’s unanimity among organizations of the prioritization of getting the hostages out.  That’s top of mind for everybody,” he said. “There are differing views on the Trump plan. But everyone wants to defeat Hamas. Everyone wants peace for the southern border.”