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The Jewish leaders around the table at today’s Senate Dems meeting

Twitter/Nathan Diament

On Capitol Hill: Jewish leaders met with Senate Democrats today.

“I wish it had been longer,” Sen. Coons (D-DE) told Jewish Insider. “We had so many members of the Senate and leaders of the Jewish community from around our country and there are so many topics to discuss. It was a very productive hour, I only wish we had a second hour… There was a vigorous discussion about how we all need to fight bigotry and antisemitism in all its forms and finding a positive shared path.”

According to a source at the meeting, J Street’s Jeremy Ben Ami raised how there must be space left for critics of Israel’s policies without being defined as anti-Israel or antisemitic. Susie Gelman, of the Israel Policy Forum, spoke out against Israeli annexation, and AIPAC’s chief executive, Howard Kohr, discussed the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Israel.

AROUND THE TABLE — As with last year, the meeting was chaired by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and included Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Ed Markey (D-MA), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tom Carper (D-DE), Bob Casey (PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-CT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Tom Udall (D-NM), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Jewish leaders attending the meeting included AIPAC’s Howard Kohr, J Street’s Jeremy Ben Ami, ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt, JNFA’s Mark Wilf, Conference of President’s Arthur Stark, Democratic Majority for Israel’s Mark Mellman, Jewish Democratic Council of America’s Ron Klein, Israel Policy Forum’s Susie Gelman, Bend the Arc’s Stosh Cotler, The Rabbinical Assembly’s Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, Union for Reform Judaism’s Rabbi Rick Jacobs, Orthodox Union’s Avi Katz, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society’s Mark Hetfield, National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry’s Mark B. Levin, Jewish Women International’s Loribeth Weinstein, and Jewish Council for Public Affairs’ David Bernstein.

OF NOTE: As has become the tradition of this annual meeting, AIPAC’s Kohr and J Street’s Ben-Ami were sitting next to each other across the table from Klobuchar and Schumer.

This post was updated at 2:14 pm

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