Orthodox Union President Simcha Katz joined with more than forty national American Jewish leaders, under the aegis of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, for a meeting yesterday with President Barack Obama.

The White House has released its own “read out” of the meeting, along with a photo.

This is the first “sit down” of this sort the President has done since mid-2009. That meeting, coming just a few weeks after the President’s major speech to the Muslim and Arab world in Cairo, received considerable media attention and sparked considerable discussion with regard to Mr. Obama’s policies toward Israel and relationship with the Jewish community. This meeting seems to have received less attention in the media…too soon to tell about the Jewish community. Why is that?

Is it because it is just seen, as Politico has suggested, as basic constituency “box checking”?

Is it because, as Dennis Ross seemed to suggest to J Street, there is no room or appetite now to push ahead on the peace process?

Whether the media provides it for us or not, President Obama laid out his case for his policies that our community cares about and we should talk to our respective community leaders about what they heard and what their impressions are. It is important, especially at the dawn of new election season.

Posted by Nathan J. Diament