A Ceasefire Forged in Resolve: Jewish Leaders Praise Trump-Brokered Israel-Iran Truce as a Historic Turning Point

By: Fern Sidman

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s dramatic announcement of a brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran—after nearly two weeks of perilous escalation and unprecedented military strikes—Jewish communal leaders across the ideological spectrum have offered unqualified praise for what many are hailing as a pivotal moment in modern Middle Eastern history.

Among the most prominent voices was Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), who lauded the agreement as a potential watershed in U.S.-brokered diplomacy and Jewish security. In a carefully crafted statement released shortly after President Trump’s address, Lauder declared: “The ceasefire between Israel and Iran announced and brokered by President Trump and Qatar is nothing short of heroic. If both parties agree and the calm holds, it will be truly historic.”

Lauder, who has long advocated for a united front against Iranian nuclear ambitions, emphasized the ancient bond between the peoples of Israel and Iran—an allusion to a shared civilizational past now eclipsed by decades of antagonism under the Islamic Republic’s theocratic regime. “This ceasefire must mark the end of Iran’s ability to threaten Israel, America, and the wider world,” he stated, calling for an end not just to Tehran’s nuclear weapons development but to its “support for terror and regional destabilization.”

Across the Orthodox Jewish world, religious leaders issued a series of pointed and passionate endorsements of President Trump’s military intervention, which included precision strikes on Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz. These actions were taken in response to Iran’s violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, as formally declared by the International Atomic Energy Agency, ending decades of diplomatic restraint.

The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), the largest Orthodox rabbinical body in North America, released a letter to President Trump praising what it described as “bold and decisive action.” Rabbi Zvi Engel, President of the RCA, remarked that “President Trump’s bold and decisive action denied the malign Iranian regime the ability to fulfill its most dangerous ambitions. He stood as a bulwark against barbarism, and history will record that he acted before it was too late.”

Speaking to the significance of the moment, RCA First Vice President Rabbi Etan Tokayer drew a historical arc of Iranian hostility against Jewish and Western interests: “For nearly half a century, the Iranian regime has openly declared its aim to destroy Israel and the United States, translating death threats into global acts of terror from Buenos Aires to Beirut to Baghdad to Tel Aviv.”

He continued, “This action demonstrates President Trump’s unwavering commitment to the security of both nations and our shared values of freedom and human dignity.”

The Rabbinical Alliance of America (Igud HaRabbonim), representing over 950 Orthodox rabbis across the United States and Canada, expressed not only support but profound moral appreciation for what they described as a world-saving act of justice.

“This action, taken in close partnership with the State of Israel, marks a pivotal step in advancing global peace and restoring stability to the Middle East,” the Alliance stated. Rabbi Ya’akov Klass, Chairman of the Presidium, invoked Psalm 34:15 in a message framed by faith and gratitude: “Seek peace and pursue it. True peace is built on clarity, courage, and the will to confront danger before it erupts into catastrophe.”

Rabbi Klass went on to praise President Trump’s leadership in terms rarely seen in modern political discourse. “We are deeply grateful to President Trump for his unwavering moral clarity in the face of evil and terror. His partnership with Israel in this courageous operation represents the highest ideals of international cooperation.”

He concluded with a message emblematic of the alliance’s traditional values: “This is a moment of strength, of justice and of moral leadership. Together, the United States and Israel have shown that they will not stand idly by in the face of existential threats.”

As details of the ceasefire agreement continue to emerge, international observers have echoed the hopeful, if cautious, tone struck by Jewish leaders. The truce, reportedly brokered with the help of Qatari intermediaries, followed a 12-day campaign during which Israel, backed by U.S. airpower, launched what analysts have called the most comprehensive attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure in its history.

The ceasefire was declared just hours after President Trump confirmed the success of the strikes, which he said “neutralized Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons.” Trump’s statements, broadcast across global media, emphasized the moral imperative behind the operation: “A lot of people were dying, and it was only going to get worse. It would have brought the whole Middle East down.”

For Jewish organizations and Israeli officials alike, the truce is more than a pause in violence — it represents the culmination of years of warnings and the vindication of a military strategy that many in the international community had once feared would only escalate tensions.

Now, with global markets stabilizing, oil prices retreating, and the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem emerging from days of sirens and sheltering, the mood is shifting — not toward complacency, but toward solemn gratitude.

While no one among the Jewish community’s leadership is naïve about the durability of peace with a regime long committed to Israel’s destruction, there is a shared recognition that the events of the past week may have reshaped the strategic equation in the region.

In Ambassador Lauder’s words: “If peace is truly within reach, we must seize it — and ensure that tyranny and terror never again stand in the way of a more hopeful future.”

As the ceasefire holds, at least for now, that hopeful future — long deferred and often darkened by the specter of nuclear confrontation — appears once again to be in view.