The White House Religious Liberty Commission held a hearing on antisemitism on Monday in Washington. What unfolded was a bitter irony: a meeting designed to combat Jew-hatred became a platform for it, as one commissioner wearing what appeared to be a Palestinian flag pin spent the session attacking Jewish witnesses for supporting Israel.
Carrie Prejean Boller, a Catholic conservative activist and former Miss California, transformed what should have been a forum for Jewish Americans to testify about their experiences with antisemitism into an interrogation. After former UCLA law student Yitzy Frankel, Yeshiva University President Ari Berman, Harvard alum Shabbos Kestenbaum, and former Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl described facing hatred following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks, Prejean Boller revealed she had been tallying their words.
“Since we’ve mentioned Israel a total of 17 times, are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza?” she demanded of the Jewish witnesses. “You won’t condemn that? Just on the record.”
The absurdity was unmistakable. Jewish Americans invited to testify about antisemitism were being hectored to denounce the Jewish state as a condition of being heard. Prejean Boller insisted her hostility toward Israel stems from Catholic doctrine. “Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know. So are all Catholics antisemites?” she asked, drawing boos from the audience. “I want to be clear on what the definition of antisemitism is. If I don’t support the political state of Israel, am I an antisemite, yes or no?”
Prejean Boller also mounted an aggressive defense of Candace Owens, the right-wing influencer who was dropped from a Trump campaign event in 2024 after backlash over her regular antisemitic commentary on social media and her podcast. “I listen to her daily,” Prejean Boller said. “I haven’t heard one thing out of her mouth that I would say is antisemitic.” She demanded the witnesses stop calling Owens an antisemite, claiming “She just doesn’t support Zionism, and that really has to stop.”
The spectacle reached its nadir when a commissioner appointed to combat antisemitism used her position to defend one of America’s most prominent antisemitic voices while berating Jewish victims of hatred for mentioning Israel too many times. The audience member removed for outbursts during Prejean Boller’s remarks was responding to what many in attendance recognized as an ambush.
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, the commission’s sole Jewish member and rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York, responded with restraint. “This is an incredibly diverse country, and the one thing we should be careful about is speaking on behalf of all members of a religious community, even if one is a member of that religious community,” he said. He then quoted Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “who also happens to be a very devout Catholic,” and who affirmed the Jewish people’s connection to the Land of Israel during a visit to Jerusalem.
The hearing took place the same day the commission was sued by Interfaith Alliance, Muslims for Progressive Values, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Hindus for Human Rights for violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The lawsuit charges that the commission lacks “viewpoint balance” required by federal law because it includes Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish members but no Muslims or members of other minority religious groups. The irony deepens: while critics claim the commission excludes certain religious perspectives, Monday’s hearing revealed it includes at least one member actively hostile to Jewish concerns.
President Trump established the Religious Liberty Commission through executive order on May 1, 2025, tasking the body with advising the White House Faith Office and Domestic Policy Council on religious liberty policies. Chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick with Dr. Ben Carson as Vice Chair, the commission operates under the Department of Justice. Members’ terms end July 4, 2026—the 250th anniversary of American independence—unless Trump extends them.
Other commissioners include Cardinal Timothy Dolan, former Archbishop of New York; Pastor Paula White, a senior advisor to the White House Faith Office; and Pastor Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse. Prejean Boller’s biography on the commission website lists only her beauty pageant title and a book she authored about it. A White House spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Other witnesses at Monday’s hearing included Liat Cohen-Reeis, founder of Jewish Christian Alliance, who testified that antisemitic incidents are happening “all over the country,” and Moshe Glick, pardoned in January for charges stemming from a pro-Palestinian protest that turned violent at a New Jersey synagogue in 2024. Glick had been accused of hitting a protester in the head with a flashlight. He attributed America’s “extraordinary success” to its embrace of Judeo-Christian values and warned that societies prosper or fall based on how they treat Jewish people.
Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney who heads the Department of Justice’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, described antisemitism as primarily a local matter given “tremendous” federal protections for religious liberty. He insisted antisemitism should not be seen as a “Jewish issue.” “This is an issue of right versus wrong, and it’s wrong to have antisemitism in this country,” he said.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner opened the hearing at the Museum of the Bible by framing the discussion within Trump’s religious freedom agenda. “It’s a battle that President Trump will continue to wage for Jewish Americans, for Christians, and for all Americans of all faiths whose First Amendment freedoms are under attack,” Turner said.
The meeting’s stated purpose was to gather testimony from Jewish Americans who have faced antisemitism and to draft recommendations for President Trump on promoting religious liberty. Instead, it became a case study in how antisemitism operates: Jewish victims called to share their experiences were attacked for caring about Israel, while a prominent antisemitic influencer was defended from scrutiny. The hearing demonstrated that when fighting antisemitism becomes conditioned on Jews renouncing their connection to Israel, the fight has already been lost. A commission that tolerates this hostility within its own ranks cannot credibly address the problem it was created to solve.
