The Jewish Federations of North America has canceled the in-person portion of its signature annual event, the General Assembly, citing the coronavirus, JTA reported on Wednesday.
The umbrella group for local federations had planned to combine online and in-person events, but told participants this week that it was canceling the latter for the expected 500 participants.
Events last year were held online only, but Jewish Federations until the recent spike in coronavirus cases had hoped to re-emerge into in-person events. Instead, the events October 4-5 will take place online.
“The health and safety of our participants is of the utmost importance to us, and we believe canceling the in-person component of the GA is the best and most prudent decision at this time,” said an email sent this week to participants, pledging reimbursements to those who had already paid.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) also recently announced the cancellation of its 2022 annual policy conference, citing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022 is the second year in a row in which AIPAC has cancelled its annual conference due to concerns regarding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The AIPAC affiliate that organizes trips to Israel for members of Congress has rescheduled several that were to take place in August until early 2022, citing the COVID-19 resurgence in the country attributed to the delta variant.