Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) laid out a vision for the Democratic Party’s path out of the political wilderness at a Jewish Democratic Council of America conference in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, outlining what they see as the party’s weaknesses and missteps, and the ways that Democrats can most effectively stake out and message positions in the second Trump era.

Both men are viewed as aspiring leaders of the Democratic Party: Schatz is making a bid for the No. 2 slot in the Senate Democratic Caucus and is widely believed to have ambitions to become Democratic leader, and Murphy, also a member of Democratic leadership, has long been seen as having presidential or Senate leadership aspirations.

Ken Martin, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said on Thursday that the Democratic Party needs to stand up for the Jewish community and for Israel.

“It is so important right now for our party to stand up with the Jewish community, to continue to stand up for Israel, to continue to stand up for humanity and to not forget who we are as Americans,” Martin said in remarks to a Jewish Democratic Council of America conference in Washington, calling the Jewish community “really, really an important part of our coalition.”

Martin Marks, who oversaw President Donald Trump’s efforts to win over Jewish voters in the 2024 election, has recently begun serving as the White House liaison to the Jewish community, a White House spokesperson confirmed to Jewish Insider on Thursday. 

Marks’ appointment to the role is a shift for Trump, who did not appoint a Jewish liaison in his first term, instead opting for son-in-law Jared Kushner to informally serve in that role, alongside former antisemitism special envoy Elan Carr. 

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was nominating Mike Waltz, his national security advisor, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, while removing him from his current position.

“From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first,” Trump said in a post to his Truth Social platform. “I know he will do the same in his new role.”

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) warned that some on the left are focusing too heavily on individuals who have espoused antisemitic views and are being targeted by the Trump administration for deportation, and that Democrats should be directing more attention towards the Americans still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

“We are seeing, because of Donald Trump’s overreach, that people who have espoused antisemitism are becoming martyrs, and that scares me,” Goldman said at a Jewish Democratic Council of America conference in Washington on Thursday. “Because we should be talking about the five American hostages in Gaza who have been there for a year and a half, who were abducted by a terrorist group and are deceased in four of the cases, unfortunately, but one, Edan Alexander, remains alive.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Thursday urging him to reverse course on his decision to remove multiple members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council appointed by former President Joe Biden.

Blumenthal wrote in the letter, first obtained by Jewish Insider, that the move “reveals a stunning contempt for the apolitical nature of Holocaust remembrance and a disturbing willingness to exploit even the memory of genocide for partisan gain.”

As he works to repair his standing with some members of Georgia’s Jewish community, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) on Thursday highlighted the plight of the remaining hostages in Gaza and the rise of antisemitism at home, while also condemning what he described as the Trump administration’s use of antisemitism as a weapon to attack civil liberties. The Georgia Democrat was speaking at a Jewish Democratic Council of America summit in Washington.

The JDCA crowd appeared largely friendly to Ossoff, who has faced significant backlash from prominent Jewish supporters in his home state over his votes last year to block some weapons sales to Israel, including some Georgians who say he still has more work to do to win back their trust before he’s up for reelection in 2026.

A bipartisan group of 23 members of Congress sent a letter on Thursday to the foundation that oversees Wikipedia, expressing concern about antisemitism and anti-Israel bias on the platform and seeking answers about how the influential online encyclopedia will work to combat prejudice and abuse by editors. 

The letter, authored by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Don Bacon (R-NE), comes after the Anti-Defamation League published a report in March detailing allegations of Wikipedia editors conspiring to impose an anti-Israel bias across the site.