U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin welcomes then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to the Pentagon during a June visit to Washington, D.C. Photo by Getty Images

By Arno Rosenfeld December 9, 2024

Adas Israel, Washington, D.C.’s most prominent synagogue, abruptly canceled a Monday evening event with former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant following objections from congregants.

People who had registered to attend the moderated conversation with Gallant, which was announced on Thursday as an “exclusive conversation on Israel’s multi-front security challenges,” received an email Sunday evening announcing that it would no longer take place.

“We regret to inform you that the Monday night event with Yoav Gallant must be canceled,” the synagogue wrote in a brief email.

Protesters gathered outside Gallant’s New York City hotel last week and Beth Heifetz, president of the synagogue, said in a statement Monday afternoon that the event was canceled “due to specific security concerns” and not due to “the event’s subject matter.”

“Open dialogue is key to our commitment to Jewish values,” Heifetz said. “While we regret this cancellation, safety remains our highest priority.”

Multiple congregants said that the event had originally been organized by Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and that it would now take place at the pro-Israel think tank’s downtown offices. WINEP did not respond to a request for comment.

Adas Israel, which is affiliated with the Conservative movement, is one of the largest synagogues in D.C. and regularly hosts presidents and Supreme Court justices for services and speeches.

Benjamin Temchine, a member of Adas Israel, said that he met with one of the synagogue’s rabbis on Friday to object to the event with Gallant, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes related to Israel’s attacks on Hamas in Gaza, which have killed at least 44,000 Palestinians. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November.

“I don’t see Adas opening the door to Smotrich, I don’t see them opening the door to Ben-Gvir,” Temchine said in an interview Friday, referring to two far-right Israeli ministers. “How is Gallant different?”

Temchine, 50, said that he knew of at least 10 other members who had also complained to the synagogue’s leadership.

Gallant directed the Israeli military’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, sometimes clashing with Netanyahu over strategy after the two had previously split over the planned judicial overhaul announced before the current war.

Reaction to the event’s cancelation was mixed. Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said on the social platform X (formerly Twitter) that he was “appalled.”

“Yoav has spent his entire life fighting tirelessly for Israel and the Jewish people,” Oren wrote. “The Adas leadership should be deeply ashamed of this ungrateful decision and reverse it immediately.”

Netanyahu fired Gallant in November, but the former defense minister has continued to defend Israel’s activity in Gaza. Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, Gallant announced a “complete siege” of Gaza, including a ban on electricity, food and fuel. “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” he said.

Those comments were later used as evidence that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza by both South Africa, in a filing with the International Court of Justice, and Amnesty International, which accused Israel of genocide in a report last week.

IfNotNow, a group that is opposed to the Israeli occupation, planned to project the “human animals” quote on the facade of Adas Israel on Sunday night but called off the action after the event was canceled.

“The way this played out says a lot about where the center of gravity within the mainstream Jewish community is,” said Josh Burg, an organizer with IfNotNow’s local chapter. “A conservative faction in the shul thought they could host this event with Yoav Gallant, but the internal pushback was so intense that just wasn’t possible.”

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