This week’s Republican National Convention is set to feature a number of Jewish speakers and events, with the eyes of the world on Milwaukee following Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
While groups like AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League are staying away—at least officially—from this year’s convention, the American Jewish Committee and Republican Jewish Coalition will both be present.
On Tuesday morning, the AJC will host an event called “Israel and the Path to Peace” on the sidelines of the convention. The panel discussion will include remarks from Eliav Benjamin, the Israeli Embassy to Washington’s deputy chief of mission.
The AJC will also host a diplomatic reception on Wednesday afternoon. The AJC is led by former Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch.
The Republican Jewish Coalition is sponsoring a “Salute to Pro-Israel Elected Officials” on Thursday afternoon hours, before Trump formerly accepts the party’s nomination. The RJC says that key Republican leaders are set to attend, though a speakers’ list is not available as of this publication.
The Trump 47 Committee’s Jewish Leadership Coalition’s kickoff brunch is slated for Wednesday morning, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rep. David Kustoff and former Rep. Lee Zeldin headlining. Both Kustoff and Zeldin are Jewish, and Kustoff is only one of two Jewish Republicans in the Capitol, together with Rep. Max Miller.
A number of Jewish and Israel-connected speakers dot the list of guests set to take the dais throughout the week.
RJC CEO Matt Brooks will address the convention on Tuesday. The RJC has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Trump, embracing his pro-Israel positions while criticizing Trump’s positioning with the far right and some of his more controversial criticisms of Jews and Israel.
Zeldin, who ran an unexpectedly close gubernatorial campaign in New York in 2022, setting the stage for a Republican surge in the state, will also address the convention.
Steven Witkoff and his son Zach are also on the speakers’ list. The older Witkoff, born to Jewish parents in the Bronx, is a real estate investor and landlord and major donor to Trump’s political action groups. Trump was among his early clients during his time in the legal industry and he has long standing ties to the Trump Organization. The younger Witkoff is a tech investor.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent graduate of Harvard University and lifelong Democrat, has filed a lawsuit against his alma mater for failing to protect Jewish students following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre and the resulting pro-Hamas protests and encampments on Harvard’s grounds.
A group of students and fraternity brothers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have also been invited to speak. The students responded to an anti-Israel and anti-American campus protest by showing up to protect the American flag, which had been removed from its pole in the center of campus by Hamas supporters. There were several Jewish students among the group, though it is not yet clear if they are among those invited.
U.S. Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Brian Mast of Florida are also scheduled to take the stage.
Stefanik became well-known through her drilling of elite university presidents in a congressional hearing on antisemitism, putting into motion the forced resignations of the presidents of Harvard and Pennsylvania.
Mast, a former volunteer for the Israel Defense Forces, has consistently and vociferously challenged anti-Israel protestors who have confronted him in the Capitol.
The Republican National Committee will vote on Monday on the party’s updated platform. Approved last week by the party’s platform committee, the platform includes an emphasis to “Deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”
The document says that “Republicans condemn antisemitism and support revoking visas of foreign nationals, who support terrorism and jihadism,” the document adds. “We will hold accountable those who perpetrate violence against Jewish people.”
The thin platform makes no mention of Iran and just one of Israel in its foreign policy section, which says that Republicans “will stand with Israel and seek peace in the Middle East.”