(JTA) — President Donald Trump will be the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Israeli-American Council.
Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a Trump supporter and mega donor to Republican candidates, is one of the council’s major supporters.
The council said in a statement that it will be Trump’s first appearance to a non-political Jewish organization. Since Trump took office, the only Jewish group he has spoken to is the Republican Jewish Coalition.
The summit will take place on Dec. 5-8 in Florida and is expecting nearly 4,000 attendees from around the world. The theme of the conference this year is “Israel, Together.”
“This is great news not only for our organization but for the entire pro-Israel community in America, which supports unwavering ties between the United States and Israel,” Shoham Nicolet, co-founder and CEO of the Israeli-American Council, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The council’s mission, according to its website, is “to build an engaged and united Israeli-American community that strengthens the Israeli and Jewish identity of our next generation, the American Jewish community, and the bond between the peoples of the United States and the State of Israel.” Israeli Americans reportedly number in the hundreds of thousands.
Other speakers at the event include Stanley Fischer, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and former governor of the Bank of Israel; Isaac Herzog, the chairman of The Jewish Agency for Israel; Ambassador Dani Dayan, consul general of Israel in New York; and Netta Barzilai, winner of the 2018 Eurovision song contest.
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