Dozens of diplomats, senior Trump administration officials, and Jewish community leaders gathered Friday evening at the Donald J. Trump Peace Institute in Washington for a Shabbat dinner hosted by Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, President Trump's special envoy to combat antisemitism.
On Thursday, the same venue hosted the founding session of the Gaza Board of Peace, which focused on Gaza's rehabilitation. The gathering brought together a select circle of senior Washington figures, including Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, and Yousef Al-Otaiba, the UAE's ambassador to the United States – even though the two Gulf states have experienced tensions in their bilateral relations in recent months.
Kaploun, who began his role at the State Department in December after Senate confirmation, addressed the gathering. "I wanted to give ambassadors from many countries and State Department officials the experience of Shabbat, and for them to understand its importance," he said.
Thank you to UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh @ABZayed and his team for a very productive meeting. It takes courage to lead, and we see the benefits of peace with the Abraham Accords.
Looking forward to working together to implement even more programs for… https://t.co/JytypWEWdD
— Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun (@StateSEAS) February 23, 2026
The Saudi ambassador spoke after him and addressed the question of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Kaploun said the ambassador "noted how close Saudi Arabia and Israel had come to normalization before October 7, that the issue was personally important to her, and that she has many regrets that the efforts did not succeed." He added that she said "leadership requires courage, and that we must aspire to a culture of mutual respect."
Among the 40 to 45 attendees were primarily diplomats and official representatives, alongside American Jewish leaders and Israel Hayom publisher Dr. Miriam Adelson. Kaploun said the success of the event has led him to plan additional official Shabbat dinners in the future.
Earlier in the week, Kaplan continued his Gulf outreach with a meeting with UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed. It was his second meeting with a Gulf foreign minister, following a similar meeting roughly a week earlier with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, held on the sidelines of the Munich Conference.
"We talked about how to create an atmosphere that builds on the Abraham Accords, based on the premise that peace builds prosperity and that extremism must be stopped," Kaploun said. "We talked about how hate rhetoric must be condemned by everyone, and that more must be done to condemn hatred around the world." He described the meeting as very positive.
Asked whether there were common threads between his meetings with the two foreign ministers, he replied, "Both foreign ministers agreed that the efforts the president and the State Department are making to advance peace are the best initiative the United States can take, and they acknowledged the contribution of the president's peace envoys." Kaploun noted that he intends to continue meeting with regional leaders to advance President Trump's policy.
