President Donald Trump met with several Hasidic rabbis at the White House on Thursday ahead of Rosh Hashanah, a gathering his office called the first of its kind in nearly 50 years.

The rabbis, many of whom were pictured in photos that circulated on social media ahead of the meeting flying to Washington on private jets, hailed from a range of leading Hasidic communities in New York — including the two rival Satmar sects in Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel; the Bobov sect in Brooklyn; the Vizhnitz sect in Monsey; and the Skver sect in New Square. 

The 85-year-old Skver rebbe, David Twersky, whose endorsements in congressional races have long been highly coveted, sent one of his sons to the meeting in his place. Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, dean of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., the largest yeshiva in the United States, also joined.

The meeting, according to sources, was attended by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and key outside advisor, who is Jewish; Vice President JD Vance; and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who is among the most vulnerable House Republicans running this cycle. The congressman — whose district includes the Hasidic village of New Square — has depended on the politically powerful Skver endorsement in past races.

Vance paid a visit to the Roosevelt Room during the gathering, according to two sources familiar with the matter granted anonymity because they had not been authorized to discuss the private reception. He joked to the attendees that the “Hasidim are the only ones who have larger families than him,” the sources told Jewish Insider afterward. 

A spokesperson for Vance, who welcomed his fourth child in July, did not dispute that account but told JI it might have been “a joke one of the rabbis made to” the vice president.

Beforehand, sources familiar with the meeting framed it as a chance for Trump to convey Rosh Hashanah greetings ahead of the Jewish new year marking the beginning of the High Holy Days next week — in a demonstration of mutual respect for a community whose rank and file have shown strong support for his campaigns.

But some more substantive issues were also raised, according to the sources, including topics like “large families” as well as housing concerns, prison reform and “expanding earned income tax credits” for those with more than three children.

One source who attended the meeting also said that Trump, for his part, talked “about pardoning Jewish prisoners” including Sholom Rubashkin — the kosher meatpacking executive convicted of financial fraud in 2009. His 27-year prison sentence was commuted by Trump in 2017.

The president also spoke privately with Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, the Satmar leader in Kiryas Joel, another person informed of their exclusive discussion told JI.

A White House official told JI the president and top administration officials “met with the leading Hasidic Rabbis in the United States,” saying it was the first of such gatherings “at the White House since 1979.”

The Hasidic leaders “thanked the president for all he had done in combatting antisemitism, advocating for school choice with the middle-class tax credit and for fighting for peoples of faith,” the White House official added. 

In recognition of Rosh Hashanah, the delegation of rabbis “said blessings to the president, and thanked the entire administration for all they had done for all Americans,” according to the official.

The meeting had faced some resistance from a few far-right Trump allies over its inclusion of the Satmar community, an anti-Zionist Hasidic sect that believes only the messiah is supposed to bring about a Jewish state. 

But the Trump administration indicated that it was unmoved by such protestations, proceeding with the scheduled meeting on Thursday.

Broadly speaking, the rabbis who joined the meeting “focused on issues important to the community,” one source said of the visit. “It mostly went as planned.”

President Donald Trump is expected to meet with several Hasidic Jewish rabbis at the White House on Thursday ahead of Rosh Hashanah, according to people familiar with the matter.

The planned Oval Office meeting was initiated by Martin Marks, the White House Jewish liaison, one source told Jewish Insider, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private outreach. Marks did not respond to a text message seeking comment Monday. 

A White House official confirmed the meeting to JI. “Before the Rosh Hashanah holidays, President Trump looks forward to greeting rabbis representing some of the largest Hasidic communities in the United States,” the official said. “President Trump has consistently won nearly 100% of the votes in these Hassidic enclaves, and the last time they were gathered at the White House was in 1979.”

The White House has not publicly announced the gathering, which has drawn some resistance from a few Trump allies over reports the meeting will include members of the Satmar community, an anti-Zionist Hasidic sect that believes only the messiah is supposed to bring about a Jewish state.

According to two sources, several leaders from Hasidic communities in New York confirmed their attendance at the meeting, including the two rival Satmar sects in Brooklyn as well as Kiryas Joel; the Bobov sect in Brooklyn; the Vizhnitz sect in Monsey; and the Skver sect in New Square.

The 85-year-old Skver Rebbe, David Twersky, whose endorsements in House elections are highly coveted, will send his son to the meeting in his place, according to a Satmar source.

“As of now it is happening,” one Bobov leader told JI on Monday, but added a caveat that with the Trump administration “things move very quickly” and could change.

Shlomo Schorr, the director of legislative affairs at Agudath Israel of America’s New Jersey office, said he also heard that Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, a dean of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., the largest yeshiva in the United States, had been invited to the meeting and planned to attend. 

Schorr’s understanding, he told JI, was that the meeting would be “a quick photo op” and provide Trump a chance to wish the Jewish leaders a happy Rosh Hashanah in advance of the Jewish new year next week that marks the start of the High Holy Days.

The Satmar source said that the meeting had “no purpose” aside from a broad recognition of mutual respect. “The president knows this community was strongly supportive of him,” he explained to JI.

Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, who leads the Satmar community in Kiryas Joel, reportedly told followers on Saturday night he planned to ask for Trump’s help opposing the politically divisive Israeli military draft for yeshiva students.

Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who is a close ally of Trump, cited such comments on social media over the weekend while raising her objections to the meeting.

“These are anti-Israel pro-Mamdani rabbis who are being hosted with open arms in the Oval Office,” she said of the Satmar leaders, arguing that the meeting “is going to severely piss off the Jewish Republicans in the MAGA base who voted for President Trump.”

While neither of the Satmar rebbes endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor, a prominent representative of one sect backed his general election campaign. Leaders of the Satmar community, which frequently endorses Democrats, have also met privately with Mamdani, and Zalman Teitelbaum, the Satmar rebbe in Williamsburg, recently defended the mayor amid accusations of promoting antisemitism.  

Sid Rosenberg, a conservative radio host in New York, agreed with Loomer, calling the meeting a “huge mistake” and criticizing the Kiryas Joel Satmar leader as “a terrible guy” who “has no right being anywhere near” the president.

The Satmar source clarified that he would not raise the draft in the meeting. “He doesn’t plan to bring it up,” he told JI, noting that the rabbi “always shoots from the hip.”

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, attended his first Rosh Hashanah service on Monday night at a Brooklyn synagogue well-known for its anti-Zionist activism.

The visit to Kolot Chayeinu, a nondenominational synagogue in Park Slope that has drawn controversy over its anti-Zionist orientation, comes as Mamdani is seeking to engage in increased outreach to Jewish voters ahead of the November election.

But the venue choice also underscores his polarizing position in the broader Jewish community — where many Jewish leaders have continued to raise alarms over his anti-Israel policies and refusal to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada,” among other issues.

Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel who has identified as anti-Zionist, was warmly received at the Monday service, where he sat in the front row in a mask and a yarmulke beside Brad Lander, the city comptroller who is a member of Kolot Chayeinu.

Lander, a close ally of Mamdani, recently described the congregation, which was one of the first to call for an early ceasefire in October 2023, as a meeting point for anti-Zionist Jews and progressive Zionists like himself.

The synagogue, which maintains an “open tent” policy on Israel and Palestine, has faced criticism for promoting anti-Israel views in its Hebrew school curriculum in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. 

In one particularly controversial  lesson, students were instructed to write a letter of apology rebuking their Jewish “ancestors” for taking Palestinian land, fueling concerns among parents who objected to the politicized assignment.

A rabbi at Kolot Chayeinu, Abby Stein, who is a member of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, also drew scrutiny for attending a meeting in New York City last year with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, days before the Islamic Republic launched a missile attack against Israel.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and assemblyman from Queens, did not deliver remarks at the Monday evening service. During his sermon, the rabbi accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, a claim that Mamdani has frequently made.

Mamdani is now expected to appear at other Jewish institutions during the High Holidays, including a mainstream congregation on Manhattan’s Upper West Side — where he could face a less welcoming audience skeptical of his hostile views toward Israel.

A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment about his planned outreach to the Jewish community.

Former British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was a towering figure in Jewish life whose unique blend of Torah and Western wisdom attracted adherents around the world for many years before his death in 2020.

Now, with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, approaching later this month, and the restarting of the cycle of reading the weekly Torah portion a few weeks later, Rabbi Sacks’ longtime Jerusalem-based publisher, Koren, is releasing a posthumously completed Koren Shalem Humash, with a new translation and insights to encourage deeper understanding of the Five Books of Moses.

Each spread features the words of the Humash in Hebrew — written in the clear Koren font, recognizable to users of the publisher’s popular prayer books — on one side. On the other side there is a new, modern English translation that Sacks completed in 2018. Below there are two of the standard commentaries: from the 11th-century French rabbi Rashi and second-century sage Onkelos, who translated the Torah into Aramaic. 

On the bottom half of the pages is Sacks’ own commentary, which he began writing before his death, after which The Rabbi Sacks Legacy continued his work based on his writings and speeches.

The story of the Koren Shalem Humash begins in 2006, Joanna Benarroch, president of The Rabbi Sacks Legacy, told Jewish Insider last week. At that time, Sacks began working on his popular series of books about the weekly Torah portion, Covenant and Conversation.

“He started writing it online every week,” Benarroch recalled. “He was the chief rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, based in London, but he started to build a global audience.” 

Sacks’ goals for Covenant and Conversation were “to make Torah relevant to us today, so it’s not just wisdom from 2,000-3,000 years ago today, but wisdom we can also take with us. It was very important to him for us to be proud, knowledgeable Jews and to share that with the next generation … to create new leaders who were proud, knowledgeable Jews. These were the things permeating his mind when he was writing,” Benarroch said.

After Rabbi Sacks’ death, Koren brought scholars, including the rabbi’s niece, Jessica Sacks, to compile elements of Covenant and Conversation, his many other books, his BBC Radio “Thought for the Day” segments and other essays and speeches to complete Sacks’ commentary on the Humash.

“The scholars beautifully weaved his ideas from each parasha [Torah portion] into detailed commentary,” Benarroch said. “It’s his words, very carefully crafted to give a whole picture of each parasha. The ideas are woven together in a way they had never before been [presented]. You have 15 years of writing and speaking on Bereishit [Genesis] crafted in this way.”

In his Passover Haggadah, quoted in the editor’s note of the Humash, Sacks wrote that “traditional commentaries are usually close readings of individual words and phrases rather than reflections on the meaning of the whole. That is a classic Jewish response and I have not hesitated to do likewise … But it is the great themes, the overarching principles, that are often neglected or taken for granted.” 

Sacks’ commentary combines both, in some places referring to specific words and phrases, and in others sharing insights on broader stories and ideas, which gives, Benarroch said, “an overview of what you can learn from the parasha. You’re coming out with a clear understanding of what it is about, with relevant ideas for today.”

Benarroch recounted recently being in synagogue and sitting near a non-Jewish visitor who was reading along to the Torah portion in English.

“I was mortified, because it was a parasha that was quite difficult, with a lot of blood and gore,” Benarroch said. “I wished at that point that the Rabbi Sacks Humash was available, because he would have given her a sense of what is going on and an understanding of the battles in the time of the Humash … He wanted people to understand the whole picture, to read it as a narrative.” 

She paid tribute to Sacks’ ability to “make very complicated things accessible.” 

In addition, the Humash features detailed references, such that if there is an idea a reader seeks to explore further, he or she can find the full essay, book or radio program it came from.

Benarroch worked for Sacks for 24 years, as executive director of the Office of the Chief Rabbi and then of his private office, and was key to establishing The Rabbi Sacks Legacy after his death. She said that the greatest lesson she’s taken from him is the importance of listening to and learning from one another. 

“He felt active listening was absolutely imperative for all of us. We talk a lot, but we don’t listen enough,” she said. “When he was writing his Humash, he felt he was connecting to God through it, and that for us to listen to the words and the messages, we must also listen closely to one another. Judaism is a religion of listening … in terms of unity, community, being part of the Jewish people.”

In a Rosh Hashanah statement first obtained by Jewish Insider, former Vice President Joe Biden reaffirmed his “unshakable commitment to the Jewish and democratic State of Israel.”

The former vice president had a strong pro-Israel voting record during his 36-year tenure in the Senate and served as an emissary from the Obama Administration to the pro-Israel community during the lead up to the Iran deal.

In the holiday greeting, Biden also made note of the antisemitic attacks at synagogues in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Poway, California. “This last year was marked by horrific tragedies, but it was defined by the strength and resilience of the Jewish community,” said the former vice president.

The Democratic presidential hopeful, whose campaign has centered around what he sees as the unique threat to American values posed by Donald Trump’s presidency, tied Jewish values to that basic theme.  

“As our first president declared unequivocally to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island: ‘the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.’ At a moment when that basic premise is being questioned by too many here at home and around the world, when we are in a battle for the very soul of this nation, the mission of Tikkun Olam bears renewed urgency,” wrote Biden.

The full statement is below:

On behalf of Jill and myself and the entire Biden family, Shanah Tovah to all celebrating the Jewish High Holidays. This time of year offers a moment to pause and reflect on all that has passed, to consider the new year of possibilities that lies ahead, and to reaffirm the values that unite family, friends, and all who strive to spark justice in the world.

This last year was marked by horrific tragedies, but it was defined by the strength and resilience of the Jewish community. In the wake of Pittsburgh and Poway, Americans across the country–Jewish and non-Jewish alike–challenged ourselves to reach for our highest ideals and recommit to fighting hatred wherever in the world we find it.

As our first president declared unequivocally to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island: “the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

At a moment when that basic premise is being questioned by too many here at home and around the world, when we are in a battle for the very soul of this nation, the mission of Tikkun Olam bears renewed urgency. This is a time to reawaken to our moral responsibilities, change our ways, and renew our commitments to our faith and fundamental values. We must come together and care for one another. In the year ahead, we must reconfirm our deepest-held democratic values and the idea that the American Dream is big enough for all of us.

Those shared values are also what unite us with the people of Israel and ground our unshakable commitment to the Jewish and democratic State of Israel–and to a future that is both peaceful and secure.

To everyone in the Jewish community, We wish you a very happy, healthy, and sweet New Year. May the sound of the shofar call each of us to do justice, impart kindness, and walk humbly with our God in the year ahead.