A triumphant ceasefire this is not.
On Tuesday evening, April 7, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. and Israel had agreed to a two-week ceasefire in their conflict with Iran. Trump explained the ceasefire as a chance to end hostilities while negotiating toward a broader solution. He said the U.S. and Israel would end their bombing campaign while Iran would open up the Strait of Hormuz, the closure of which has upended global markets.
It was, essentially, a declaration that the two sides would talk about it. Unlike in the last ceasefire that halted an Israel-related conflict — the one in Gaza in the fall — nothing was really accomplished. (That one included an agreement to return the remaining hostages held by Hamas.)
The lack of clarity on the path forward left Jewish groups either critical or unwilling to comment at this time.
The criticism actually focused on Trump’s Truth Social post on the day leading up to the ceasefire that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran didn’t agree.
In an April 7 Jewish Telegraphic Agency report, the American Jewish Committee said it was “alarmed” by Trump’s rhetoric. Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, called the threat “horrific.” J Street described it as a “searing violation of Jewish and American values.” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt referred to it as “genocidal rhetoric.”
Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, who lives on the Main Line, criticized the ceasefire from a strategic standpoint. In a round of interviews after Trump’s announcement, Klein called the proposal a “worthless, dangerous delaying tactic.”
He also explained that the Iranian regime had a history of exploiting such tactics to rebuild its nuclear capabilities.
“The only way to stop Iran is militarily. History has shown us that not responding to an illegal serious action brings war, not peace. I’m very worried that they’re going to make some sort of deal because Iran will not fulfill their obligations under any deal they sign,”
Klein said in a statement after Trump’s announcement.
Locally, Jewish groups deferred comment. The Jewish Federations of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey both said they didn’t have a comment “at this time.”
Seth Katzen, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Delaware, said the organization “prays for a peaceful resolution.” He also reaffirmed the Federation’s stance on Israel.
“We continue to support three undeniable truths,” he wrote in an email.
Those are “Israel’s right to exist,” “Israel’s right to defend itself” and “Israel’s right to remain a democracy.”
Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor and a Montgomery County native, used the opportunity of the ceasefire to come out against the conflict, labeling it a “war of choice” for Trump. In an April 8 conversation with Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network Convention in New York, Shapiro said the war had “wreaked havoc across the globe,” described it as “the latest example of the kind of chaos Donald Trump brings to everything he touches,” criticized the lack of an exit plan for making Americans “less safe” and criticized the administration for leaving the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian control during the negotiations.
“If you don’t know why you went in, you sure as heck don’t know when it’s time to come out or how to get out,” Shapiro said. “Even if we disagree on health care policy or tax policy … we should at least, at a baseline, have an honorable president of the United States. We do not have that right now.”
Shapiro is running for reelection in Pennsylvania in 2026 and is considered a potential contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.
The Trump administration held talks with the Iranian regime in Islamabad, Pakistan, over the weekend of April 11 and 12. Vice President JD Vance took the lead on the Trump team, alongside Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Vance emerged from the negotiations saying that the Iranians had ‘chosen not to accept our terms,’ which he described as conditions aimed at ending Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, halting uranium enrichment, and securing unrestricted access through the Strait of Hormuz, along with broader U.S. demands that Iran cease support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.