Think of the just-launched and first-ever House Jewish Caucus as a family — a big, noisy, opinionated Jewish family.

Brad Schneider (D-IL), one of the caucus’ co-chairs, emphasized his interest in keeping the caucus as a place where Jewish members “can have family conversations in a safe place that stays within the family.”

Given the fraught political time the Jewish House members find themselves, and with some of the thorny issues at play, Schneider said, “There may be moments where the moment allows or demands a unified voice from the Jewish members, and we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. But on a day-to-day basis, and the vast majority of conversations we’re going to have we’re not going to have unanimity, and that’s the point. We’ll be able to help inform each other, which I think is a good thing.”

The caucus, announced earlier this month, came together following more than a year of behind-the-scenes discussions and negotiations between key leaders and other members, some of whom began as opponents of the idea of having such a group.

Every Jewish Democratic member has joined or plans to join the caucus, which will be chaired by Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Schneider. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) was a founder of the group alongside Nadler, but isn’t taking a leadership position now that it has been created. No Republican Jewish members are expected to join at this point.

The formalized caucus comes after a tradition of Jewish Democratic lawmakers meeting privately in an informal caucus to discuss issues of concern and meet with key officials and experts, organized by the senior-most Jewish lawmaker in the House, which has been Nadler since former Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) retired.

But some members, including Wasserman Schultz, have wanted for years to create a formal caucus.

“We’ve always agreed that we need to find a way to amplify our voices rather than having them watered down,” Wasserman Schultz said in a joint interview with Nadler with Jewish Insider. “As the House continues to consider legislation that impacts the American Jewish community, we really needed a caucus to ensure that Jewish members’ voices were at the table.”

Nadler said he didn’t see the need for a caucus until the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which precipitated rising antisemitism at home, and President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, accompanied by Elon Musk, whom he described as having a history of antisemitic activity.

“It’s obviously a very much more fraught or hostile environment, and that persuaded me that we have to get more formal and have a caucus,” Nadler said.

The moment that most spurred Schneider’s interest, he told JI in a separate interview, was a Democratic leadership press conference following the Colleyville, Texas, synagogue hostage situation in 2022, where the Black, Hispanic and Asian Pacific American caucuses were represented alongside House Democratic leaders, but there was no Jewish leader.

“We’re talking about an antisemitic event and there’s no Jewish representation,” Schneider recounted. “It wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t excluding the Jewish groups. It was that we have [other] organized groups who all were speaking out against hate and there was only the informal Jewish group.”

He said that, in response to antisemitic incidents, especially since Oct. 7, he felt the Jewish community needs “an address [in Congress] so that when people say, ‘we should include the Jewish members in this,’ they know who to go to. And we need a voice who can speak out about these issues.”

Addressing the motivations for forming the caucus, Wasserman Schultz also highlighted recent surveys showing the Jewish community overwhelmingly feels less safe, while Nadler noted that there are potential threats to federal nonprofit security funding as the Trump administration pursues wide-ranging federal budget cuts. 

Wasserman Schultz said that the caucus will seek to promote other Jewish community values like education and tikkun olam, which could bring it into broader fights over the Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal spending.

While Nadler and Wasserman Schultz said the group is open to any member who identifies as Jewish and agrees with its mission statement, none of the three Jewish Republicans in the House are currently members. After the anticipated election of Florida state Sen. Randy Fine, there will be four Jewish Republicans in the House, the largest group in years.

Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN) does not join any caucuses, as a rule, and Wasserman Schultz said she had yet to connect with freshman Rep. Craig Goldman (R-TX). Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), who had expressed interest in joining the caucus, attended one of its earlier meetings but “for some reason has declared this to be the Democratic Jewish Caucus, which it certainly is not,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Miller did not respond to a request for comment.

Nadler and Wasserman Schulz said that their collaboration, as well as that of their staff, was key to bringing the caucus to life. They and other Jewish members began having discussions in late 2023, and Wasserman Schultz officially registered the caucus. 

In the intervening year, they and their offices negotiated on issues where they disagreed, and each consulted with like-minded colleagues, a process Wasserman Schultz said was made easier by the preexisting informal caucus. 

Wasserman Schultz said that the main disagreements between herself and Nadler revolved around the “mechanics” of how the caucus would make decisions, whether it would limit the topics it will focus on and how it will handle major differences on issues. 

Nadler said they resolved those issues through bylaws that the caucus plans to pass, which will govern how and when the caucus will take a position on issues and ensure that no one leader is speaking for the entire group.

“I think we’ll make sure that there’s a consensus on anything, on any position we take,” Nadler said.

Wasserman Schultz said that the Jewish members “overwhelmingly agree on most things” but there are “a few things that we have a harder time agreeing on but that’s because the community itself has a harder time agreeing and speaking with one voice.” 

And she said the members “all have a sense that we’re not going to take positions on every issue, or even very often.”

Schneider added that having two leaders would ensure that no specific member’s voice or opinions would be viewed as speaking for the entire caucus, which “run[s] a pretty wide spectrum of opinions.”

“Having two members, you get a balance,” Schneider said. “Having the two leaders creates the ability to more broadly and more effectively represent the full breadth of opinions.”

Israel and Middle East policy are among the most notable issues where the caucus’s members have strikingly different opinions: some are among the most vocal supporters of Israel in the House, while others voted against supplemental aid last year. There are also differences among caucus members on antisemitism policy, such as the Antisemitism Awareness Act.

The caucus still needs to negotiate with Democratic House leaders about formalizing their role alongside other Democratic affinity caucuses — which meet regularly with Democratic leadership — among other steps.

Wasserman Schultz, despite her central role in bringing the group together, said she wasn’t interested in a formal leadership position given that she already leads a series of other caucuses and groups relating to Jewish issues.

“I do not have to have a title for everything connected to the Jewish community,” she said, while adding that she felt strongly that Nadler should be one of the co-chairs. “I’m very proud and thankful that I was able to be a part of launching it and now I will happily be a rank-and-file member.”

Schneider said that colleagues came to look at him as a potential chair after he put forward a “clear vision” and “working framework” for how the caucus could operate during last year’s negotiations.