U.S. President Donald Trump will be the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Israeli-American Council.
Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a supporter of Trump’s who regularly funds Republican candidates, is one of the major funders of the council.
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 south Florida, and is expecting nearly 4,000 attendees from around the world. The theme of the conference this year is “Israel, Together.”
“It is an honour for us to host the President of the United States, who is addressing a non-political Jewish organization for the first time. 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.
Israeli Americans reportedly number in the hundreds of thousands.
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.”
Other speakers at the event include Dr. Stanley Fischer, former vice chairman of The Federal Reserve and former governor of the Bank of Israel; Yonatan Winetraub, co-Founder, Space IL; Isaac Herzog, chairman of The Jewish Agency for Israel; Ambassador Dani Dayan, consul general of Israel in New York; and Netta Barzilai, singer and winner of the 2018 Eurovision song contest.
