The White House plans to hold a Jewish American Heritage Month celebration, part of a “national Sabbath” for which U.S. President Donald Trump called, just before Shabbat begins on a Friday night, according to multiple copies of the invite that JNS viewed.
The event is slated for the Indian Treaty Room, part of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, per the invite.
“This Shabbat is part of an initiative to promote Sabbath observance,” one invitee, who asked not to be named, told JNS. “It’s a sad oversight that attending this event would cause someone to violate it.” (JNS sought comment from the White House.)
“It’s a rare misstep from the Trump administration that is usually better about including Orthodox Jews at their events,” the invitee said.
Observant Jews who don’t live within walking distance of the White House would have difficult attending the hour-and-a-half event, which is slated to end less than half an hour before Shabbat begins.
Ezra Friedlander, who runs an eponymous public relations firm, told JNS that the scheduling “could actually be transformed into a genuine Shabbat event.”
Friedlander, who said that he has coordinated Jewish Heritage Month and Capitol Hill Jewish heritage celebrations, told JNS that the event “hopefully will bring Jews close to Shabbat, which the president’s proclamation will do and which we are very grateful for.”
