The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is holding its 50th annual mission this week at a time of transition, with a new Trump administration in Washington and an Israeli government and Jewish community representatives trying to find the right way to work with the president and his appointees.

Among those appointees is Elbridge Colby, the Trump administration’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy, whose accommodationist approach to a nuclear Iran and ties to isolationist figures recently hired at the Pentagon have caused consternation among many of the Conference’s member groups.

In an interview with eJewishPhilanthropy, Conference of Presidents CEO William Daroff said that the group “does not opine on nominations for public office — that’s a long-standing policy. That being said, we do engage with nominees and talk to them to try to ensure that they understand the interests of the American Jewish community. We also try to speak to public officials when there are concerns or we have information to share.”

In a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the committee’s ranking member, leaked to Semafor last week, Daroff suggested questions to ask in Colby’s confirmation hearing, including about Colby’s view that the U.S. should try to contain a nuclear Iran rather than strike it militarily, and that trying to stop the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons did not have a “clear connection to American interests.” 

Daroff also expressed concern about Michael DiMino, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, who suggested that American policy against Iran is unduly influenced by Israel and Saudi Arabia and has described the Abraham Accords as a “massive mistake.”

At least one member organization, the right-wing Zionist Organization of America, opposed the letter, and sent its dissenting position to the Senate Armed Services Committee, noting that Colby has said the U.S. should continue to provide Israel with military aid to counter the Iranian threat. 

Daroff characterized his letter to Wicker and Reed as “private,” meant to be “providing counsel,” and said it is not the first time he has suggested questions to ask congressional witnesses.

“The letter speaks for itself,” he said. “It relates that there are concerns that have been raised about Mr. Colby and it lists a number of pretty straightforward questions for him to address. I’m hopeful he can address them in a satisfactory way that will relieve concerns.”

Asked if he has similar concerns about other Trump administration nominees, Daroff said that “it’s important for the Conference to be engaged in the public policy process and, when there’s a need, to speak out, ask questions and engage.”

At the same time, Daroff expressed discomfort with the letter having been leaked, saying that “much of what the Conference does, in general, we do behind closed doors … Things tend to be more effective when you’re writing not for the newspapers or for clickbait or donors, but rather when you’re really focused on the issue.”

Asked if the Conference of Presidents and some of its larger member organizations need to change their approach in a time when social media activism often gets more attention than the Jewish establishment, Daroff said that “it’s important for legacy organizations to adapt to the times … [to] engage in different ways to try to ensure messages are being heard and remain relevant … Legacy organizations should and will adapt, and if they don’t, they will die.” 

“By definition, there will always be non-institutional new forces that come and look at issues from a new angle or a different ideological bent. If what they have to sell works, the marketplace will bring them in and accept them,” he said. “There are organizations started 25 years or longer ago as upstarts that are now very much part of the mainstream. I think it’s healthy.” 

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel — about which Daroff repeatedly emphasized “nothing good can come from it” — many more Jews have been engaged in Jewish life, attending synagogue and going to local Jewish Community Centers, he noted.

“Major Jewish organizations are seeing more people coming through their doors and clicking on their websites and being engaged because more Jews in general are engaged due to the crisis and concomitant increase in antisemitism,” he said. “I think a lot of Jews have come home, and coming home by definition means coming into big communal institutions that have the capacity and wherewithal to welcome them.” 

Daroff argued that major Jewish organizations have changed their tactics since Oct. 7 to combat new strains of antisemitism, and are working with new groups and efforts to ensure that the community is using all of the tools at its disposal.

He pointed to successes in universities, where focusing on administrators has been effective.

“We have been educating them about what antisemitism is and the [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working] definition … and ensuring they know the world is watching, whether through alumni donations and other forms of engagement. We are watching them as they are not enforcing their rules and regulations and in fact creating an environment that incentivized antisemitism, agitation, hate and violation of university rules,” he said.

Daroff said that the combination of alumni engagement and efforts by Jewish organizations and the Conference of Presidents has been effective and part of the reason the Department of Education began investigating universities for antisemitism.

“I believe [the efforts] resulted in a much better environment for Jewish students on campuses this year, as opposed to last year. We were hitting in all directions, and that is among the reasons that we have been so successful, but there is still much work to be done,” he said.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the federal government, and corporations have pared down their own DEI efforts in recent months, reflecting a cultural shift as well as legal concerns.

Some Jewish organizations have also taken a more strident position against DEI since the Oct. 7 attacks, and Daroff said he believed there were “excesses and abuses” in such departments.

“Students have gone to DEI offices and been told it’s not there for the Jews,” Daroff said. “DEI-type instruction has posited Jews as being oppressors rather than as potential victims or the oppressed … The pendulum seems to be swinging back away from those extremes.”

“It’s important that in these discussions Jews are treated fairly and that we’re not put up there as some sort of scapegoat or piñata representing the oppressor class,” he added.

In that vein, Daroff spoke to the sense of betrayal many Jews felt from communities they previously thought were allies in advocacy and activism.

“On Oct. 7, we in America received a punch in the gut because of the tragedy [in Israel] and then shortly thereafter another punch in the gut because of the reaction of our erstwhile friends, neighbors and allies. We looked left and right and they were not there for us,” he said. “They were minimizing, denying and rationalizing the attacks, and it was shocking that these people and organizations who we had marched with, lobbied with, were our friends and neighbors were not there for us, were not willing to give the benefit of the doubt at all and look at what seemed so self-evident.” 

Daroff said that dynamic has “in part been responsible for awakening the resurgence of [Jewish] activism in America. At the end of the day, when there are fellow Jews who are in need of our aid, we will come to their aid.” 

He cited antisemitic incidents from Australia to Brooklyn, saying that they “affect all of us … That connectivity is as strong now as it has been in my lifetime, and that’s positive.”

Asked if the Conference of Presidents has a position on Trump’s proposal to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza and for America to rebuild the enclave, Daroff said the views are diverse.

“Our members are clear in wanting a show of unity between” Israel and the U.S., he said. “But as far as the specifics of any given plan, we need to wait and see how these plans develop … At this point we are cautiously optimistic that the primary goals of releasing hostages and vanquishing Hamas are heading in the right direction, and we celebrate that.”

Asked if those two goals are in tension, as the current hostage release deal involves concessions to Hamas, Daroff acknowledged that they are often presented as a binary choice in Israel, but said he rejects that view.

“I think that there can be twin goals of releasing the hostages and ending the war … with Hamas being vanquished,” he said. 

The Conference of Presidents has worked with hostage families since their loved ones were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, helping them set up meetings on Capitol Hill and at the White House and working to keep the hostages on the public agenda. Daroff said that hundreds of members of Congress have met with hostage families.

“I think that we all in American Jewry feel for the hostages and hostage families, as well as for the [Israeli] military families, and recognize that our role in large part is to try to ensure that Israelis don’t feel alone, and to let you know that we’re here for you and we care for you,” Daroff said. “That piece is distinct from the political piece, where the Conference can find consensus and be impactful in ensuring Israelis know we are standing here with them.” 

This year’s Conference of Presidents’ annual mission to Israel is the 50th, and will include addresses from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. The leaders of major Jewish organizations will visit areas of Israel’s south and north impacted by the war, and Daroff will be speaking at meetings of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee.

The writer of this article will be moderating a session for the Conference of President’s mission this week.