Conservative US Jewish groups hail Stephen Miller’s ascension to White House chief of staff

JTA — Right-leaning pro-Israel groups hailed US President Donald Trump’s appointment of Stephen Miller as the next White House chief of staff, welcoming the Jewish aide’s appointment as a safeguard against antisemitism in an era marked by an increase in attacks on Jews and Israel. Liberal Jewish groups expressed alarm, saying his hardline politics endangered the community.

In a letter congratulating Miller, groups including the Combat Antisemitism Movement, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the Zionist Organization of America expressed an interest in working with Miller to “hold institutions accountable when they fail to protect Jewish Americans from discrimination and harassment.”

The writers, who also included the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, the Coalition for Jewish Values and the Israeli-American Civic Action Network, described Miller’s appointment as “a meaningful reflection of the longstanding contributions of Jewish Americans to public service.”

Just days after the Republican Party incurred massive losses in the midterm elections, Trump announced that he was replacing former chief of staff Susie Wiles with Miller, who had previously served as her deputy. In a Truth Social post, he described Miller as one of his “most trusted advisors.”

The chief of staff holds one of the most powerful White House positions, acting as a gatekeeper to the president and helping to shape his daily agenda.

Liberal Jewish voices warned that Trump’s promotion of Stephen Miller to the role of White House chief of staff could make Jewish communities more vulnerable.

“We expect this appointment to only reinforce some of the most dangerous ways the administration has normalized antisemitism and broader extremism,” Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, noting Miller’s embrace of anti-immigrant rhetoric popular on the far right.

Spitalnick said there is a throughline between the hard-line immigration policies Miller has shaped as a longtime confidant to Trump and the flourishing of antisemitism in recent years.

“At the core of the anti-immigrant agenda Miller has spearheaded are deeply antisemitic conspiracy theories about ‘replacement’ and ‘invasion’ that have already fueled a cycle of deadly violence targeting Jews and others,” she said.

The dueling sentiments from across the Jewish political spectrum were a signal of how divided the community has become during the second Trump term over the best means of combating antisemitism: Through aggressive policing of elite institutions, which Trump favors, or through opposition to what liberal groups say is the president’s systematic corrosion of civil rights protections.

The groups on the right that welcomed Miller’s appointment have generally been pleased by the steps Trump has taken to counter antisemitism on the left. In January 2025, Trump issued an executive order requiring new measures for combatting antisemitism. The Justice Department then launched a multi-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. This past May, the department announced the formation of an Advisory Committee on Anti-Semitism, while emphasizing a “commitment to protecting Americans from unlawful discrimination and antisemitic threats.” Much of the focus has been on allegations of antisemitic harassment on university campuses.

While it’s unclear what Miller will do on these specific issues, his supporters see his key role as likely to strengthen such efforts.

Miller has longstanding links to Trump, including on a personal level. Miller’s wedding officiant at the Trump DC hotel was Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, who was involved with the administration’s Abraham Accords to establish peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab neighbors.

But Miller’s critics have pointed out that he, along with Trump and other top Republicans have embraced troubling conspiracy theories that can be linked to Jews. Namely, that Democrats want to flood America with immigrants who are likely to vote against Republicans. At Trump’s October 2024 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Miller declared, “America is for Americans and Americans only.”

A more extreme version of the conspiracy theory, which blames Jews for organizing an “invasion” of people of color to replace whites, fueled a number of deadly attacks over the past decade, including the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

The White House press office, which fields media communications for the chief of staff, did not respond to requests for comment.

Spitalnick also slammed the current administration for failing to “protect the civil rights of Jewish – and all – people,” by rolling back programs aimed at countering hate, including at the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education and extremism prevention programs at the Department of Homeland Security.

Spitalnick also referred to a 2019 letter sent by Jewish Democratic members of Congress urging Trump to dismiss Miller, who was his senior adviser at the time. The lawmakers argued that his “support for white nationalist and virulently anti-immigrant tropes is wholly unacceptable and disqualifying for a government employee.”

Regarding the current appointment, Spitalnick warned that Miller’s role could “make Jewish and so many other vulnerable communities less safe, instead of advancing the civil rights and pro-democracy policies we know are inherent to our security.”

“As the president and vice president are now seemingly pinning the US election results on Israel, we should be concerned about further scapegoating of the Jewish and Israeli American communities,” she added.

The liberal pro-Israel lobby J Street, meanwhile, posted a Haaretz analysis that likened Miller to Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition known for his extreme nationalistic rhetoric.

“Stephen Miller and Itamar Ben-Gvir both owe their prominence and access to power to their enablers – Trump and Netanyahu – and both traffic in racism and nativism to attempt to build power and incite fear,” the J Street post stated.

Robert Reich, US secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, wrote in a Facebook post that Miller’s appointment was “not a positive development for anyone interested in mending our government or healing our nation.” Reich, who is Jewish and also served in the Ford and Carter administrations, expressed concern that Miller would have outsized influence on the president’s decisions.

“Miller is bigoted, xenophobic, and vicious — the architect and chief advocate of Trump’s loathsome immigration policy,” Reich stated, accusing him of conducting a “brutal Kristallnacht against undocumented immigrants.” Kristallnacht refers to the wave of deadly anti-Jewish violence in parts of Nazi-occupied Europe in 1938.

Katie Miller, who is also Jewish and married to Stephen Miller, defended her husband this weekend, after Michigan Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed called him a “broken man” on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

“Stephen has contributed far more to America at 41 than Abdul El-Sayed will in a lifetime,” she wrote on X, alongside a photo of Miller running around with their children.