Jewish advocacy groups are celebrating a new set of wonky tax guidelines released last week by the Treasury Department that offer clarity into a new federal education tax credit that they hope will help more Jewish families access day school education. 

Education-focused nonprofits have been awaiting guidance from the federal government about the program, which provides a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for people who donate up to $1,700 to organizations that fund certain approved education expenses, like private school tuition and tutoring costs. 

Final guidance on the tax credit regarding regulations for the organizations, and where and how they can operate, as well as who will be able to receive the scholarship funds, are not expected to be issued until September. But last week, Kevin Salinger, the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for tax policy, did a whirlwind tour of virtual briefings with nonprofits to preview the forthcoming new guidance. Treasury also hosted an in-person briefing for stakeholders that included representatives from the Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel.

“The substance of the preview was very positive, and it was very positive for parents, for all families, for people who send their kids to public schools, to Jewish day schools and to private schools,” Sheila Katz, chief Jewish life officer at the Jewish Federations of North America, told Jewish Insider on Friday.

Passed as part of Republicans’ 2025 spending package, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by President Donald Trump, the federal education tax credit will formally get off the ground in 2027.

JFNA is working with its network of local Jewish federations to prepare for when the new scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs) are allowed to begin operating. The group wants people to know about the tax break they could be able to receive if they support SGOs operating within the Jewish community. Jewish organizations believe that the bump in giving prompted by the tax credit will substantially increase the amount of scholarship funds available to help Jewish children attend day schools. 

Most of the conversation about the program is happening among philanthropists, educators and administrators; it is too early for all but the most plugged-in community members to be tracking the latest developments. Still, Jewish professionals working to advance the program say that the new messaging from the Treasury Department allows them to better communicate with stakeholders ahead of the program’s official launch.

“We’ve been making sure that everyone is updated, so school leaders, parents, donors, people interested in starting SGOs — really, we want to make sure that every single person, no matter what role they play as a donor, as a scholarship recipient, as a school, have all the information needed to make this the success that it can be,” said Sydney Altfield, CEO of Teach Coalition, the Orthodox Union’s advocacy arm that supports Jewish day schools. 

One open question for Jewish organizations is whether each separate SGOs needs to be created in each state, or if those organizations could operate across state lines. The new guidance clarifies that SGOs can fund scholarships in multiple states. 

“There is opportunity for a larger-scale SGO to help minimize community resources, and open up so many different operations,” said Altfield. “There could be a national Jewish SGO that helps every single Jewish day school, Orthodox, not Orthodox, whatever it may be.”

One of the biggest question marks has been which states will participate in the program, which requires states to opt in. Many Democratic governors have been hesitant to do so, wary that they will be seen as promoting school choice programs and undermining public schools. 

The Treasury Department clarified last week that the SGOs can support public school students, which had previously been uncertain. Public schools are tuition-free, but the SGOs will be able to fund tutoring programs for public school students or support for disability inclusion. 

“We were really, really pleased to hear their commitment to making this work for public schools,” said Katz. 

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was the first Democrat to pledge to opt into the program. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said last month that she will opt the Empire State into the tax initiative. Many other states with large Jewish communities, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California, have not yet weighed in. Altfield said that Teach Coalition’s focus for the rest of this year will be to convince Democratic governors to get on board.

“We are laser focused in making sure that other governors really understand it the way that [Hochul] understands it, of leaving money on the table for public school students,” said Altfield. 

In the closing days of his House reelection campaign against Trump-endorsed Navy veteran Ed Gallrein — which will conclude with Tuesday’s primary — Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has focused his ire on pro-Israel and Jewish advocacy groups, claiming that his opponent is a “puppet” of such interests. 

At a rally on Saturday, the congressman joked that Gallrein’s phone number had a Tel Aviv area code, part of a narrative by Massie that Gallrein is working on behalf of Israeli interests.

“After months of beating around the bush, one reporter finally writes the true story of my race and when asked, the lobbyists brag about it,” Massie said on X on Sunday, referring to a story in Politico about pro-Israel groups’ spending to defeat him. “A coalition of Israel’s lobbyists and donors is spending tens of millions of dollars in a blatant attempt to buy a KY congressional seat.”

The congressman also asserted that Gallrein is a “puppet” of the Republican Jewish Coalition and that “they are running his race.”

The RJC’s national political director, Sam Markstein, responded, “I am speaking for ALL Republicans who want to see you lose tomorrow — including President Donald Trump.”

On Friday, Massie called his primary, which has become the most expensive intraparty congressional contest in U.S. history, “a referendum on whether Israel gets to buy seats in Congress.”

“I’ve never seen Great Britain, Australia or even Germany play in our elections here in the United States. But Israel gets so much from the United States. It’s a one-sided relationship,” Massie said. “They get us to be their proxies in wars they want against their enemies. They get our military assistance. They get our technology. They get our bombs. They get our tax dollars. And I think it’s a very one-sided relationship. At least with NATO, we pretend that they would come to our aid someday if we needed it — and even that’s a ruse.”

Massie also reportedly hosted at least two antisemitic social media figures at his home for an event over the weekend. Some of the attendees said online that Massie brought a group of several dozen influencers into his home for the event. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the event or on the individuals invited.

One of the individuals pictured at the event was Ryan Matta, a Holocaust denier who was pictured with Massie at a separate event wearing an “American Reich” sweatshirt. Another was David Reilly, a self-described antisemite who also has a history of racist and otherwise offensive comments.

Various figures with records of antisemitism including Tucker Carlson, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Carrie Prejean Boller, who was booted from the White House Religious Liberty Commission over her antisemitic views, Alex Jones, Nick Fuentes and Ian Carroll have all declared their support for Massie, framing his race as a battle between him and Israel and its supporters.

He’s also picked up support from a variety of anti-Israel and Israel-critical figures on the left.

In the final days of the campaign last week, Massie also introduced the “AIPAC Act,” demanding that the pro-Israel group, and other interest groups supporting other countries, register as foreign agents — a longtime talking point by the congressman that leans into antisemitic dual loyalty tropes.

As 2,000 Jewish philanthropists, activists and professionals prepared to leave Washington on Tuesday as the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly wrapped up, they heard a stern warning from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Americans must confront antisemitism on both sides, including the right; if they don’t, the nation will face an “existential crisis.” 

“I do not want to wake up in five years and find that both major parties in America have embraced hatred of Israel and have tolerated, if not embraced, antisemitism,” Cruz said.

Cruz has become the most prominent Republican elected official speaking out against a rising tide of right-wing antisemitism. But the weeks following podcaster Tucker Carlson’s interview with neo-Nazi provocateur Nick Fuentes have sparked a reckoning for Republicans, including some who until recently considered antisemitism to be primarily a left-wing phenomenon.

That internal tension was on full display at a Tuesday afternoon conference hosted by the conservative National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. The group was until recently affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, until the conservative think tank’s president came to Carlson’s defense. Earlier this month the task force members voted to cut ties with Heritage.  

The NTFCA gathering, arranged in less than two weeks after the group’s split from Heritage, took place in a basement ballroom at The Line Hotel in Washington. About 100 people were in attendance, among them representatives from Jewish advocacy groups including the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federations of North America and Combat Antisemitism Movement.

The event’s organizers — NTFCA co-chairs Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy antisemitism special envoy in the first Trump administration; Mario Bramnick, a Florida pastor and president of the Latino Coalition for Israel; and Luke Moon, a pastor and executive director of the Philos Project — took the opportunity to forcefully reject Carlson and other far-right media figures who are gaining clout among conservatives by attacking Israel and its backers, and to issue a call for conservatives to join them in calling out growing animosity toward Jews. They don’t think enough people are doing so. 

“I remember Luke, early on, said, ‘Mario, keep your eye on the right.’ I said, ‘Well, look, that’s a fringe. It’s not really important,’” Bramnick said. “But now we’re seeing a very troubling development during President Trump’s second administration within the MAGA movement: antisemitic acts coming from MAGA movement leaders.” The Project Esther report that the task force developed with Heritage last year was focused solely on left-wing antisemitism. 

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee delivered remarks via video. “There is so much antisemitism around the world today. But what perhaps is most troubling to me is that it is not just rising up on the far left,” Huckabee said. 

Two other Trump administration officials also spoke: Justice Department senior counsel Leo Terrell, who said combating antisemitism “is the American thing to do,” and former Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC), Trump’s nominee for international religious freedom ambassador. 

Trump, meanwhile, defended Carlson this week when he was asked about the right-wing podcaster’s interview with Fuentes. 

The convening was a launchpad for a new movement of conservative activists willing to take on antisemitism within their own party. It saw staunch partisans stake out surprising positions, like when Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein said he was “disappointed” that Trump claimed not to know much about Fuentes.

“The fight on the left is still happening. That is not done. That is a work that still has to go on. But we now have an emergent threat on the right,” Moon said. “It’s the early days of this war. I don’t feel like we did win the last battle, but we didn’t lose yet either.”