All eyes will be watching the United Nations General Assembly this morning as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the plenum. He is expected to discuss the growing number of Western countries recognizing Palestinian statehood, the mounting criticism of Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, which is increasingly being referred to internationally as a “genocide,” as well as calls within his government to annex portions of the West Bank. This will also be his first speech since Israel’s war with Iran this summer and comes as Israel is reportedly nearing a security agreement with Syria. 

Netanyahu’s speech — and the policies that it represents — will have profound significance on the American Jewish communal world as it supports Israel through its advocacy work and philanthropy.

The prime minister is not scheduled to meet with American Jewish leaders during this trip, which runs through Monday, according to William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which normally organizes such gatherings. This will be the fifth time that Netanyahu will forgo a sit-down discussion with U.S. Jewish officials. The last such meeting was held last September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, though it was cut short as the Israeli military conducted an airstrike killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during its war last year with the Lebanese terrorist organization.

Such meetings between Israeli premiers and American Jewish leaders were once routine, but they have grown rare under Netanyahu, who maintains a strained relationship with the American Jewish establishment.

While Jewish leaders will not meet with Netanyahu, they have been meeting extensively with other world leaders, discussing issues related to combating antisemitism and the Jewish community, as well as Israel. (Perhaps controversialy, some of these meetings took place during the Rosh Hashanah holiday, which is meant to be a work-free time, according to Jewish law.) 

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, met with French President Emmanuel Macron during the General Assembly. Macron, who helped lead the push to recognize Palestinian statehood, has been deemed persona non grata by many American Jewish leaders, who took exception to his foreign minister’s offer to meet them only after the decision was announced this summer. 

The American Jewish Committee’s Jared Isaacson also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York.

Not on Rosh Hashanah, Daroff met with a number of world leaders, including the presidents of Paraguay and Poland and the Serbian foreign minister.