Conservative Jewish groups welcome Stephen Miller as Trump's chief of staff

A coalition of right-leaning American Jewish and pro-Israel organisations has welcomed US President Donald Trump's decision to make Stephen Miller his next chief of staff at the White House. The Times of Israel, publishing a report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), said the groups presented Miller, who is Jewish, as a safeguard against antisemitism at a time of rising attacks on Jews and on Israel.

The reaction was not uniform. According to the same report, liberal Jewish groups responded with alarm, arguing that Miller's hardline politics put the Jewish community in danger. The Jerusalem Post also reported that conservative Jewish groups had hailed the appointment, identifying Miller in its coverage as the serving White House deputy chief of staff.

Who signed the letter

The supportive response took the form of a letter congratulating Miller. The Times of Israel listed six signatories. Among them were the Zionist Organization of America, the Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Louis D. Brandeis Center. The Israeli-American Civic Action Network also signed, as did the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. The sixth was the Coalition for Jewish Values.

In the letter, the groups said they wanted to work with Miller to "hold institutions accountable" when those institutions do not protect Jewish Americans from discrimination or harassment. The framing places the appointment within a wider argument these organisations have been making: that the federal government should press bodies such as universities and other public institutions to act when Jewish people face hostility.

The signatories span several kinds of organisation. Some, such as the Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Brandeis Center, present themselves chiefly as campaigners against antisemitism, the latter with a focus on legal advocacy and civil rights law. Others, such as the Zionist Organization of America and the Israeli-American Civic Action Network, are primarily pro-Israel advocacy bodies. The Coalition for Jewish Values describes itself as a voice for traditional Jewish positions in public policy.

What the chief of staff does

The White House chief of staff is the most senior appointed official on the president's personal staff. The role is not a cabinet department and does not require confirmation by the US Senate. The holder typically manages the flow of people and information to the president, oversees the White House staff and plays a central part in setting the administration's priorities day to day. That gatekeeping position is a large part of why advocacy groups pay close attention to who fills it.

Miller is not new to the building. The Jerusalem Post's coverage identified him as deputy chief of staff and showed him in a photograph taken on October 29, 2026, at a Halloween gathering that Melania Trump, the first lady, held at the White House. The Times of Israel ran an image of Miller, described as the incoming chief of staff, returning to the White House on November 8, 2026, after spending a weekend in Florida with Trump.

A divided Jewish response

The split described in the reports reflects a familiar pattern in American Jewish public life, where organisations aligned with the political right and those aligned with the left often read the same Washington development in opposite ways. For the signatories of the letter, a Jewish official at the top of the White House staff is a reassurance at a moment they describe as dangerous for Jews. For the liberal groups cited by JTA, the substance of Miller's politics is the concern, and they argued it makes the community less safe rather than more.

Both sides frame their position around the security of American Jews. That shared starting point, and the opposite conclusions drawn from it, is the core of the disagreement the reports describe. Neither report presents evidence for either side's assessment beyond the groups' own statements.

What the reports do not say

The available reports do not name the liberal Jewish organisations that criticised the appointment or quote their statements directly. They do not report any response from Miller or the White House to the letter, and they do not give a date on which Miller will formally take up the post or say who he is succeeding. The full text of the congratulatory letter has not been published in the material available to us.