By Karen Klein in Los Angeles
More than 200 attendees gathered in West Los Angeles on Sunday, Aug. 30, for the 2026 Jewish American Summit, a full-day program of interviews, panel discussions and presentations addressing Israel, antisemitism, Jewish identity, political engagement and advocacy.
The event began with check-in and airport-style security at 8 a.m. and continued until approximately 5 p.m. Inside the event space, ordinarily the setting for weddings and bar and bat mitzvah celebrations, rows of chairs faced a single main stage prepared for an ambitious succession of speakers.
Organizers describe the Jewish American Summit as neither a religious conference nor a political convention, but as an apolitical gathering intended to inspire and unite the Jewish community.
Mike, one of the Summit’s organizers, said the event was created to reach “Jews of all stripes,” including young and old, religious and secular, liberal and conservative attendees, as well as non-Jewish allies.
Its purpose, he said, was to provide a “unifying, inspiring, solution-oriented event that doesn’t add to the division within our Jewish world.”
The program covered international geopolitics, local elections, anti-Zionism and antisemitism, Jewish religious practice and the changing face of Israel advocacy. The day also included appearances by former Arkansas governor and current U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, author and evolutionary behavioral scientist Gad Saad, and Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas co-founder who became an Israeli intelligence informant and outspoken critic of Islam.
Huckabee appeared live by Zoom for an interview that included questions submitted and delivered by preselected audience members. He unequivocally reaffirmed his support for Israel, drawing an enthusiastic response from the audience.
Another panel, titled “The New Face of Advocacy,” brought together participants from a range of professional and personal backgrounds.
Filmmaker and social media personality Zach Sage Fox used the discussion to introduce a newly launched production company focused on creating professional-quality digital content to combat antisemitism. The panel also included Melanie Shiraz, who was crowned Miss Israel 2025 and represented the country at the Miss Universe competition that year.
Religious content was interspersed throughout the broader program, including presentations by rabbinical leaders and a segment about the Tefillin Project. Organizers characterized these portions of the day as “Living Jewishly,” intended to offer attendees practical ways of bringing Judaism into their lives. The tefillin presentation, however, was directed primarily toward men, leaving the program without an evident parallel offering for women.
Political subjects were also prominent. California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton was interviewed onstage, although no opposing candidate appeared.
While the Summit describes itself as apolitical, organizers acknowledge that the 2026 speaker roster leaned conservative. Mike said the Summit’s goal is to provide equal representation from the political left and right, but that securing that balance is not always possible.
He explained that “apolitical” does not mean avoiding political subjects. Rather, organizers seek to remain unaffiliated with either major American political party while promoting bipartisan support for Jewish and Israeli interests. He noted that the ideological composition of the program changes from year to year, citing appearances by Sen. John Fetterman and Bill Maher in 2025.
Still, the absence of liberal or left-of-center voices was noticeable at an event that sought to reach Jews across the political spectrum.
There was also a visible difference between the audience organizers hoped to attract and the audience present during the day. By this reporter’s estimate, more than 80 percent of those attending the primary program were over the age of 65.
A separate “Layla Lavan” celebration for young professionals between the ages of 21 and 40 followed the Summit. The ticketed white party featured a DJ and appearances by several younger influencers who had participated in the daytime panels.
Near the end of the main program, Saad spoke about what he calls “suicidal empathy” and recounted his family’s flight from Lebanon amid rising antisemitism and sectarian violence.
But the day’s most memorable and consequential appearance came from Mosab Hassan Yousef.
What began as a seated interview with “Being Jewish” podcast host Jonah Platt quickly departed from a conventional question-and-answer format. Yousef repeatedly moved beyond Platt’s questions and addressed an audience extending far beyond the room, raising his voice and delivering a series of forceful declarations about Islam, Muslim immigration and the security of the United States.
“The United States is not in a good position,” Yousef warned.
In his most inflammatory statement, Yousef declared that, as an American and a taxpayer, he did not want Muslims in the United States. He then used profanity while telling Muslims to leave the country, return to the nations from which they came and reform those countries.
His delivery was so forceful that Platt appeared at times unable to redirect or contain the interview. Portions of the audience responded with applause.
Within hours, video clips from the appearance began circulating widely online. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and its Los Angeles chapter subsequently issued a statement condemning Yousef’s comments and calling on the Summit and supporting organizations to apologize and denounce what CAIR characterized as anti-Muslim hate.
JAS organizers were asked to respond to CAIR’s criticism and demands but declined to comment.
The episode created a striking contrast with the Summit’s stated aspiration to serve as a beacon of “realistic optimism, strength and unity.” Its most powerful and widely circulated moment came not from a discussion of Jewish unity, but from a non-Jewish speaker delivering a dire warning about Islam and the future of the United States.
Nevertheless, organizers described the overall response to the Summit as extraordinarily positive. Throughout the day, speakers received standing ovations, laughter and emotional reactions. Attendees also had opportunities to interact with prominent figures they had previously encountered primarily through books, podcasts, television and social media.
Mike said he hopes attendees left feeling “reinvigorated and proud” during a period when many Jews feel besieged online, in public life and in the political arena.
“The information shared by speakers about how we’re progressing as a people across business, global diplomacy, local politics, religion, media, activism and culture is more than just a single-day thing,” he said. “It’s real, substantive information that should fuel our community to stay positive and to take on more actions themselves to further our collective interests.”
Whether the Summit ultimately achieved its goal of representing Jews across religious, generational and political lines remains an open question. What it unquestionably produced was a day of impassioned discussion about Jewish strength, identity and security, followed by a closing performance that ensured the conversation would continue far beyond the walls of the venue.
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Karen Klein is a Los Angeles correspondent for San Diego Jewish World.