President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear at a campaign event Friday alongside Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) at the Eugene Levy Fieldhouse at Rockland Community College in Suffern – on the first day of Shavuos.

Lawler’s office confirmed to Belaaz that there will be a frum presence at the event, which is open to the public. A number of those offered VIP seating declined due to Yom Tov complications, as attendees will need to go through metal detectors and other security screening procedures. A source indicated to Belaaz that Rabbi Shmuel Gancz of Suffern, who was invited to speak, reportedly stated that if he were permitted to read the Aseres Hadibros, he would participate, but when this request was rejected he declined to attend.

The event will begin at 3PM on Friday.

The White House framed the visit as an opportunity for the President to tout his economic agenda, highlighting what it described as the largest middle-class tax cuts in history, including an expansion of the SALT deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000.

But the timing of the visit – falling on Yom Tov Shavuos – has drawn notice in the heavily Jewish county, where frum residents will be celebrating the Yom Tov and will be unable to attend.

Images shared with Belaaz on Thursday show Jewish Rockland residents displaying welcome signs for the president.

Lawler’s district, New York’s 17th Congressional District, which encompasses Rockland and Putnam counties along with parts of Westchester and Dutchess, is considered one of the nation’s key House battleground seats and the only New York congressional district currently rated a toss-up. Control of the narrowly divided U.S. House could hinge on races like Lawler’s in November.

The scheduling has raised eyebrows in the local frum community. Rockland County’s Orthodox Jewish population – concentrated in Monsey, Spring Valley, New Square, and surrounding areas – represents a major bloc of the district’s electorate, one that Lawler has cultivated carefully throughout his tenure in Congress. A slew of Trump administration officials have visited Lawler’s district to hold events with him in recent weeks as the second-term Republican gears up for his re-election campaign.

Some observers have noted the apparent incongruity of a presidential visit designed in part to shore up Jewish community support being scheduled on a day when virtually the entire observant Jewish community is unavailable. Whether the date was an oversight or reflects a calculation that Lawler’s Jewish support is sufficiently secure regardless, is a matter of speculation among community members.