Amid crises in Diaspora ties, Rivlin shifts schedule to speak at major LA event

President Reuven Rivlin is to attend the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly in Los Angeles next month, his office announced Friday.

The GA, a central event of America’s organized Jewish community, is to take place from November 12-14.

“In what is set to be his first major address outside of Israel to a North American Jewish audience, President Rivlin will deliver the keynote address to the GA on Monday afternoon, 13 November,” his office said.

Rivlin’s GA speech was added to the president’s schedule at short notice against the background of a rise in global anti-Semitism and other threats to Diaspora Jews, a source in the president’s office told The Times of Israel.

“This was not a scheduled visit, and the president will have only just returned from Spain, but the president considers this an important opportunity to show the deep significance he attaches to the relationship between Israel and the Jewish communities around the world,” the source said.

Israeli-Diaspora relations have been rocked by disagreements in recent months, notably over the Israeli government’s cancellation of an agreement to establish a permanent pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Western Wall.

The US-based Anti-Defamation League will next week hold its first ever major conference in Israel, with a key session devoted to the role of Diaspora Jewry. In a poll of Israelis released Thursday to coincide with the event, 51% said they believe that Diaspora Jews should have “little” or “very little” say in the decision-making process in Israel. And about a fifth of Israelis (21%) blamed Jews in the Diaspora for contributing to social division in the country.