Efforts are underway to arrange a White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and prominent Hasidic rebbes and yeshiva heads from the American haredi community, with the issue of drafting yeshiva students in Israel expected to come up during the talks.
According to reports in US haredi media, Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, one of the most prominent leaders of the anti-Zionist haredi movement, told his followers Saturday night that he intended to ask Trump to assist in the campaign against the Israeli draft. The meeting is scheduled for this coming Thursday.
However, a source familiar with the matter told Israel Hayom that the meeting's official purpose was to offer the president Rosh Hashanah greetings, as has been done in the past, and that neither the draft nor education was formally on the agenda, although the issues could be raised during the conversation.
According to the source, efforts have been underway for some time to arrange the meeting, but it has yet to materialize and could still be canceled for various reasons. The source said it would be "strange" for the Israeli draft issue to become the centerpiece of a meeting with the US president.
According to the American haredi news site Belaaz, the meeting is scheduled to take place in the Oval Office at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Alongside Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, his brother Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda (Zalman Leib) Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe in Williamsburg, has also been invited, as have other Hasidic rebbes and yeshiva heads, including Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, a senior head of Beth Medrash Govoha, the prominent Lakewood yeshiva in New Jersey.
The Yeshiva World News reported that logistical preparations for the visit had been completed in recent days, while the White House has yet to issue an official announcement confirming the meeting.
No official agenda has been released, but according to haredi sources, the meeting is expected to focus on opposition to oversight requirements and mandatory secular studies in haredi schools in New York, preserving the independence of haredi education and broader questions of religious freedom. The source who spoke with Israel Hayom said this was the real issue on the table and that participants were seeking a measure of protection from the federal government against steps being taken by New York State.
According to another source familiar with the matter, the idea for the meeting originated earlier as a gesture of appreciation toward rabbis who had helped Trump during his election campaign. It was repeatedly postponed and eventually dropped from the agenda, only to be revived recently at the initiative of the president's office.
The difficulty, the source said, was not only finding a suitable date but also forging a common position on federal involvement in haredi education. Some believe the community should work with the administration, while others oppose any government involvement in the field. The source also indicated that the participation of the senior rebbes was contingent on there being a substantive meeting rather than merely an Oval Office photo opportunity.
According to the report, the Satmar Rebbe told his students: "Last Sunday, I received an invitation from the White House to meet with the president this coming Thursday, together with other rabbis and community representatives. At first, I thought I would not confirm my participation. We are in the middle of the month of Elul, and we need to prepare for the High Holy Days."
He continued: "Even now, tens of thousands of Jews in the Land of Israel are in distress because of the decree to draft yeshiva students. We hope that we will be able to appeal to the president to help with this situation."
Satmar, one of the largest Hasidic movements in the haredi world, is a leading force within the anti-Zionist camp and one of the most outspoken opponents of the State of Israel and its very existence. Accordingly, Satmar institutions refuse Israeli government funding on ideological grounds, members of the community generally abstain from voting in Israeli elections, and its rebbes frequently direct fierce criticism at haredi political parties over their cooperation with the state.
Meetings between US presidents and Jewish representatives are generally held with figures from the American Jewish mainstream, with discussions typically focusing on security for Jewish institutions, combating antisemitism and support for Israel. That was also the case when Trump held a White House Passover gathering in April this year attended by senior Jewish communal figures and freed Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander. Representatives of anti-Zionist Hasidic communities do attend such events, but they are generally not the ones setting the agenda in discussions with the administration.
A Satmar source told Israel Hayom that, as of now, the meeting was indeed expected to take place Thursday. If it is postponed, the source said, it is expected to be held within the following two weeks.
