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WHITE HOUSE SCENE — U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Elan Carr, Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer and Rabbi Levi Shemtov addressed a group of American Jewish leaders at a pre-Passover reception in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. [Pic; Pic]

TOP QUOTE — “I know a lot of people are concerned that the peace plan is going to be coming out soon. But I have to say, as Israel’s ambassador, I am confident that this administration — given its support for Israel — will take Israel’s vital concerns into account in any plan they will put forward,” Dermer said in remarks obtained by Jewish Insider.

Addressing Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Mideast envoy, Dermer quipped, “They say that the key to peace is low expectations. So I think you are well underway.” The comment drew laughter from the crowd.

Dermer added: “I think that you have in Jared [Kushner], in Jason [Greenblatt], in Avi [Berkowitz], in David [Friedman], in this whole team — you have the best chance to take advantage of this historic moment of opportunity that exists, because everybody that speaks to them knows that they speak for the president of the United States… I know that you all join me in wishing the best for the initiative that will come in the weeks and months ahead.”

Dermer also thanked President Trump for giving Israel the backing “both in words and deeds” to defend itself from Iran in Syria. “You saw it in the decision recently by the U.S. that it would make it clear that it would stay in this important base within Syria, in al-Tanf,” he said, and by Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Dermer said about Trump, “It is true that in every generation they rise up against us (Sheb’chol Dor VaDor…). But it is a rare thing — a very rare thing — a president like President Trump and an administration like the Trump administration — that doesn’t happen every generation. It may happen once in many, many, many generations. And Israel, the Jewish state, and I believe, the Jewish people are blessed to have a real friendly administration.” Read the full excerpts of Dermer’s remarks here [JewishInsider]

ON THE MENU — Attendees were treated to gefilte fish, potato kugel, baba ganoush, Israeli salad and matzah crackers. [Pic]

SPOTTED: Jason Greenblatt, Avi Berkowitz, Paul Teller, Jennifer Korn, Norm Coleman, Nathan Diament, Jerry Silverman, Malcolm Hoenlein, Arthur Stark, William Daroff, Mark Wilf, Jason Isaacson, Andy Borans, Jay Feldman, Aryeh Spero, Jeff Ballabon, Eric Fusfeld, Allen Fagin, Sarah Stern, Col. Allan Barall, Karen Barall, Ellen Hershkin, Nechama Shemtov, Richard Heideman, Dr. Joe Frager, Ezra Friedlander, Jim Kaplan, Sol Werdiger, Abba Cohen, Chaim Dovid Zweibel, Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, Ben Chouake, Tevi Troy, Dan Pollak, Joel Kassiday, Cliff May, Ken Weinstein, Farley Weiss, David Eisner, Yitz Tendler, Duvi Honig, Duvid Katz, Ariel Wolf, Joseph Stamm, Gary Schlesinger, Tzili Charney, Bukharian Chief Rabbi Itzhak Yehoshua, Betty Ehrenberg, Meir Melnick, Maurice Bortz, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Benjamin Rogers, Julie Rayman, Andrei Iancu, Chesky Blau, Ben Kochman, Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Yechezkel Moskowitz, Nachman Mostofsky, and Michael Elman.

ULTIMATE DEAL WATCH ― Mideast peace envoy Jason Greenblatt posted on Twitter: “Jared, Ambassador David Friedman & I sincerely appreciate all of the interest in our peace efforts over the past two years. But, we’re not going to reveal details of the plan ahead of time. Continued speculation doesn’t help anyone and harms the effort. We kindly suggest a stop to the guessing games.”

Greenblatt also posted a screenshot of “our international maps system” showing the Golan Heights as part of Israel following Trump’s recognition of Israel’s rule over the Golan. Responding to AP reporter Matt Lee’s observation that the Golan is still listed as Syrian territory by the State Department, the White House aide wrote, “Following the Golan announcement POTUS instructed all agencies to take action to implement his decision. It’s a large process to update everything. The USG is working on this but it takes time. As the saying goes, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.’”

Flashback — The State Department is treating President Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights differently than his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. [JewishInsider]

Newly-sworn-in Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday that Trump’s peace plan will be “born dead” if rolled out in the near future. “There are no partners in Palestine for Trump. There are no Arab partners for Trump and there are no European partners for Trump,” Shtayyeh said

Shtayyeh suggested that after all of the U.S. moves in favor of Israel, there is nothing left to negotiate. “Where are we going to have the Palestinian state?” he asked. “We are not looking for an entity. We are looking for a sovereign state. Palestinians are not interested in economic peace. We are interested in ending occupation.” 

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told a group of Israeli journalists in Ramallah, “As long as Jerusalem is off the table, then Trump is off the table as well.”

REPORT — The Trump administration recently submitted a request to lease an area in Jerusalem known as the Allenby Compound for the construction of the permanent building of the Jerusalem embassy, Channel 12’s Yaron Avraham reported.  The complex is located in the Baka neighborhood and has already been leased by the U.S. administration since the Reagan era. According to the report, the administration intends to begin construction of the permanent building during Trump’s 2nd term, if he is elected.

JI PROFILE —  Meet Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) — by JI‘s Laura Kelly: It’s been over a year and a half since Representative Susan Wild started her journey to represent Pennsylvania’s 7th district — the Lehigh Valley — in the halls of Congress. She calls the pace of her new job, “fast and furious.”

The long-time civil litigator had been looking for an opportunity to make a bigger difference in people’s lives, more than the one she could in the courtroom. When the Republican incumbent of her district, Charlie Dent, announced his resignation in May 2018, she found her opening. “I would not have run against [Rep. Dent] if he decided to stay in. He was a good congressman, very strong on Israel issues, but just in general was well-liked in our district,” she said. “But when he announced [his resignation], I very quickly decided that this was a time for me to take the skills that I had developed as lawyer and bring them to this venue.”

Wild on her Jewish faith and Israel — Her son and daughter were born and raised in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, and reared in the Jewish community. Rep. Wild underwent conversion to Judaism, but said it only occurred after seeing her son’s early excitement for his bar mitzvah. “I had felt as though I was Jewish even before that — that was just the way I lived my life.” Despite being surrounded by the Jewish community, she wanted to deepen her knowledge and understanding. “So I just embarked on a process of studying and learning over the time where my son was also studying and learning but learning different things – I didn’t have to learn a Torah portion and all of that,” she confides.

She first traveled to Israel in July 2008, which she describes as a “wonderful, eye-opening, educational experience,” joined by her two children and their Jewish Federation. Security and safety for her own family was at the top of her mind on this trip, particularly because of her young children. But, “when we got there — and I had spent less than a day there – I felt a sense of unbelievable security and safety in a way that I don’t know that we always match in this country,” she explains.

Issues surrounding Israel and American Jews have dominated discourse over the past few months in the 116th Congress. At times, it’s been partisan: Republicans have seized on the perception that Democrats are divided over support for Israel by focusing on comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — who criticized U.S. support for Israel as based on financial incentive and accused American supporters of Israel as having “allegiance to a foreign country.”

“I find it upsetting that they [Republicans] continually are using Israel and our relationship with Israel as a basis for [Motions to Recommit] and amendments because I have not seen any sign of division in the Democratic caucus about support for Israel,” she says. “But, I think that’s what they’re trying to create an appearance of division.” Read the full profile here [JewishInsider]

Seth Mandel profiled Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) for the Washington Examiner magazine. “In this political climate, bipartisan cooperation is an unforgivable sin, and Sinema is repeatedly guilty of it, Mandel writes. “Perhaps most significant, however, was Sinema’s reaction to the controversy over Rep. Ilhan Omar… The day of Omar’s tweet about [AIPAC], Sinema was at its regional dinner… She also spoke at the group’s national conference on March 25. With Democrats increasingly souring on the alliance with Israel, Sinema is determined to stand athwart history shouting ‘Stop.’”

HEARD YESTERDAY — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to President Trump’s repeated attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar and the Democratic Party, rejecting the charges of antisemitism against her during an interview with CNN International while overseas on Tuesday.

“I don’t think that the congresswoman is antisemitic. I wouldn’t even put those in the same category,” Pelosi declared. “We have no taint of that in the Democratic Party. Just because they want to accuse somebody of that doesn’t mean that we take that bait.”

In an interview with KSTP TV, Trump continued assailing the Minnesota representative. “Look, she’s been very disrespectful to this country,” the president said. “She’s been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel… It’s unfortunate. She’s got a way about her that’s very, very bad, I think, for our country. I think she’s extremely unpatriotic and extremely disrespectful to our country.”

Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports on how centrist Democrats are struggling to defend Omar: “Centrist Democrats have a more complex relationship with Ms. Omar. Her leftist brand of politics does not go over well in the swing districts that delivered Democrats the House majority. Her views on Israel make many Jews — an important component of the Democratic base — deeply uneasy… So while Ms. Omar’s more moderate colleagues have denounced the threats against her, they have been tepid in their remarks.” [NYTimes]

The Associated Press: “Rep. Ilhan Omar has raised nearly $830,000 in the first quarter for her re-election, a period when she attracted nationwide attention for polarizing remarks on Israel… Omar represents a reliably liberal Minneapolis-area seat, but her remarks on Israel prompted speculation that she might face a primary challenge.”

INTERVIEW ― The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner recently spoke with former Senator Norm Coleman, who now serves as national Chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), about Trump and the Jewish vote in 2020 ― On President Trump calling Omar an ‘antisemite’: “She is an anti-Semite, but I am not going to parse or critique every word. Anyone who deals in the anti-Semitic tropes of Jews and dual loyalty, Jews buying loyalty with their money, that person is an anti-Semite.” [NewYorker]

2020 WATCH ― Silicon Valley Democrats aren’t sure who they want as their nominee… Bernie Sanders is the Howard Schultz of the left, writes New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz… We appreciate the people who have reached out to educate us on this, the Pete Buttigieg campaign assured Jewish Americans they will not use the offensive word “Pharisee” going forward… Michael Grynbaum reports from the gathering convened by Dem strategist David Axelrod last week, advising journalists how to cover the 2020 campaign.

The Stop Sanders Movement ― The prospect of Sen. Bernie Sanders becoming the Democratic nominee for president in 2020 “is spooking establishment-aligned Democrats, some of whom are worried that his nomination could lure a third-party centrist into the field,” the New York Times’s Jonathan Martin reports. According to Howard Wolfson, a Mike Bloomberg confidant, Democrats underestimate the possibility of Sanders becoming the nominee “at their own peril.”

Steven Rattner, a donor who served as lead adviser to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry in 2009 for the Obama administration, told Martin that the prospects of Sanders ending up at the party’s nominee is discussed “endlessly” in his orbit, and among Democratic leaders it is becoming hard to block out.. 

The Bernie Sanders campaign used the Times piece for a grassroots fundraising appeal. “In the next 48 hours, we are launching a fundraising drive that I hope will send an unmistakable message to the political establishment about the strength of our political revolution,” the email to supporters on Tuesday read.

In the Washington Post, Dave Weigel observes: “The thing that Dems fear the most about a Sanders nomination is the thing they can’t really say: Howard Schultz would charge in and hand the election to Trump.”

HEARD ON THE TRAIL ― Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) discussed his support for Israel and the peace process in a gaggle with reporters in Sioux City, Iowa.

Reporter: How does America under a President Booker return to its status as an honest broker for Middle East peace?

Booker: “Well, we do just that. We become a very honest broker. We support [the] state of Israel, our ally, the only democracy in that region. We support their right to exist, we support their right to defend themselves, but we also support, strongly, the basic human rights of Palestinians, and support the ideas of a two state solution because they should have self determination as well. This is nothing new. Republican and Democratic presidents in the past have all supported this idea… Not what this administration is doing, pulling away some of the most basic human rights resources to help nonprofits. Even American-led nonprofits have to get access to clean water and more.”

Would you challenge Israel annexing the West Bank?

Booker: “I do not support annexing portions of the West Bank. That should be part of a negotiated settlement toward a two-state solution.” [Video]

DONOR CIRCUIT ― Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and PayPal CEO Dan Schulman donated to Booker’s presidential campaign in the first quarter, according to Recode.

Sen. Kamala Harris’s donors include: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Brian Grazer, Jenni Konner, Eli Broad, Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne, and Sam Altman.

Top donors to Take Back the House, a PAC affiliated with GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy, include: Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and his wife Billi ($1.5M), Paul Singer ($253,500), Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman ($161,800), John Paulson ($100K) and Daniel Loeb ($100K).

— Avram Glazer, owner of Manchester United and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, gave the Nancy Pelosi victory fund $200K, according to Politico Playbook.

ON THE HILL ― The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to vote on the confirmation of David Schenker as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs at its next meeting following the two-week congressional recess, according to a report by Al-Monitor’s Jack Detsch.

Schenker, a former Pentagon official in the George W. Bush administration and a director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was nominated by President Trump for the post on April 9, 2018. His confirmation was held upby Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) since September as leverage to get the president to turn over the legal memo that authorized U.S. airstrikes on Syria in April of 2017.

The Wilson Center’s Aaron David Miller tells JI, “Happy for David Schenker that he’s no longer wandering in the cruel Bermuda Triangle of confirmation indecision. The real question will be impact and influence. Is there room at the Inn? The Arab-Israeli issue is taken by Kushner, the Pentagon is running three wars, Jim Jeffrey is doing Syria and Iraq, Iran is being handled by Brian Hook, and White House is handling Saudi Arabia. Sec. Pompeo could use a second guesser on [the] Middle East to challenge his entrenched views. But even if Schenker were willing to play that role it’s an Rx for being exiled to the Gulag. Still NEA has got a big garden with a lot of weeds to pull, and it definitely needs to be tended.”

VETO POWER — President Trump used the power of the pen for the second time since taking office. On Tuesday, Trump vetoed a resolution that directs the removal of all U.S. troops from hostilities in Yemen unless authorized by Congress.

TALK OF THE REGION — Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak met with White House adviser Jared Kushner on Monday. Albayrak, who is Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law, told American and Turkish business leaders in Washington, D.C. said he “had fruitful talks” in his meetings with administration officials, without giving further details. But according to the Sunday Times, his closed-door meetings with hundreds of U.S. investors were described by attendees as “disastrous,” some calling it their worst encounter with an economy minister.

Responding to Michelle Goldberg’s New York Times op-ed on Omar Barghouti, Noah Pollak writes in Commentary Magazine… “Michelle Goldberg’s Free Speech Martyr: The reason Barghouti was barred from entering the U.S. is not because he advocates BDS or Israel’s destruction. There is no speech issue here at all. The reason he was barred is because the group Barghouti runs includes five U.S.-designated terrorist organizations in its membership: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP,  the Popular Front – General Command, and the Palestine Liberation Front.” [CommentaryMagazine]

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt posted, “We don’t know why Barghouti’s entry was denied, but suggesting BDS advocates lack free speech simply belies reality — it’s among the most hotly debated topics on college campuses and in the media.”

KAFE KNESSET ― Bibi’s Options To Avoid Prosecution — Interview with Legal Expert Amir Fuchs — by Neri Zilber: Netanyahu will officially receive the mandate to form the next government from President Reuven Rivlin later today, kicking off an intensive 42-day negotiation period with his potential coalition partners. Speculation is rife that the PM will try to extract commitments from his coalition partners to (at least) remain with him even after the hearing and (at most) pass legislation shielding him from prosecution. To get a sense of the two legal/political options possibly available to Netanyahu and the state of play for the hearing, Kafe Knesset spoke with Dr. Amir Fuchs, head of the Defending Democratic Values Program at the Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan Jerusalem-based think tank. 

Bibi’s two options, according to Fuchs — Passing the French Law — saying you can’t investigate a sitting prime minister. “I’m skeptical regarding passing something like this because even within the Likud there was in the past opposition to such legislation. But if they wanted to all they would need to do is amend the Basic Law, which is very easy considering that it’s like amending a ‘constitution’: 61 MKs is all that is required, and they could, in theory, do it even in one day. It’s a shameful process.” 

The second option is invoking parliamentary immunity. “The question in Netanyahu’s case is will his coalition members agree to provide immunity. All the talk now about changing the law back to what it was before 2005 isn’t really needed: he (potentially) has a Knesset majority either way. There is also a clause in the updated 2005 law that says, basically, the Knesset is allowed to provide immunity in order to safeguard the smooth functioning of government. Netanyahu and his people will probably point to this as their reasoning, especially after he was just re-elected.” Read the full interview and today’s entire Kafe Knesset newsletter by subscribing here[KafeKnesset]

** Good Wednesday Morning! Enjoying the Daily Kickoff? Please share us with your friends & tell them to sign up at [JI]. Have a tip? We’d love to hear from you. Anything from hard news and punditry to the lighter stuff, including event coverage, job transitions, or even special birthdays, is much appreciated. Email [email protected] **

BUSINESS BRIEFS: Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone in Heated Battle With Italian Mogul Over Milan Property [WSJ] • How I Get It Done: Audrey Gelman, Co-Founder and CEO of The Wing [TheCut] • Stealth pay fattening Steven Roth’s wallet [CrainsNewYork]

SPOTLIGHT — The Most Measured Person in Tech Is Running the Most Chaotic Place on the Internet — by Daisuke Wakabayashi: “When she got the job [as C.E.O. of YouTube], in 2014, Susan Wojcicki was hailed straightforwardly as the most powerful woman in advertising, someone who’d helped turn on the cash spigots in her time at Google and would presumably repeat the trick at YouTube. In the five years since, Ms. Wojcicki has introduced new forms of ads as well as subscription offerings for music, original content and the cord-cutting service YouTube TV. But somewhere along the line, her job became less about growth and more about toxic containment. Political figures and tech luminaries alike are castigating YouTube for not doing enough to rein in the crooks, crackpots, racists, Russian agents and charlatans who call the platform home.”

“The growing backlash against YouTube has complicated some personal relationships. Marc Benioff, the chairman of Salesforce, said last year that social media was potentially as harmful as cigarettes and needed to be regulated. Ms. Wojcicki has been a Salesforce board director since 2014, and Mr. Benioff is a longtime acquaintance. For this article, YouTube arranged for an interview with Mr. Benioff to provide insight about her. But on the morning of a scheduled call, Mr. Benioff was feuding on Twitter with its C.E.O. about a proposed tax to pay for services for the homeless in San Francisco. He joined the call 40 minutes late, saying he only had five minutes to spare. When I asked how Ms. Wojcicki reacted to his comments about social media, Mr. Benioff became upset. He said he wasn’t ‘prepared to answer’ the question and had expected to speak about her leadership style. Then he ended the call.” [NYTimes]

DROP OFF — Israel dropped a replica of all of Wikipedia on the moon — by Tim Collins and Annie Palmer: “Space IL’s Beresheet spacecraft was carrying a library containing all of Wikipedia as well as 30,000 books and guides to 5,000 languages. Alongside the Bible and an Israeli time capsule, some of the quirkier items aboard were David Copperfield’s magic secrets and a recipe for queso — a cheese based Tex-Mex appetizer — provided by a cafe in Texas.  The craft itself was destroyed in the attempt, but the creators of the Lunar Library — which was designed to be indestructible — say it might have survived. They are calling on the public to help them track down the possible impact site of the library after the aborted landing.” [DailyMail]

ENTERTAINMENT — Jennifer Lopez heading for Tel Aviv in August —by Amy Spiro: “Lopez will take the stage for one concert in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park on August 1. The singer and actress, known in tabloids as J.Lo, will be embarking on her first concert tour in seven years – titled ‘It’s My Party’ — this summer. The Tel Aviv show is Lopez’s first announcement this year of a tour date outside of North America. The show is being organized by producer Marcel Abraham, who was behind Justin Bieber’s 2017 show in Tel Aviv and Maluma’s 2018 appearance.” [JPost]

WATCH — Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor of the NBC News morning show Today, took a scenic helicopter tour of some of Israel’s most sacred sights. [Video]

TALK OF THE TOWN — Unaware he had measles, a man traveled from N.Y. to Michigan, infecting 39 people — by Lena H. Sun: “Last month, a traveler raising money for charity in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community drove through the night to Detroit — his next fundraising stop. He felt sick en route and saw a doctor when he got there. But the doctor, who had never seen measles, misdiagnosed the man’s fever and cough as bronchitis. During the next two weeks, the traveler would become Michigan’s Patient Zero, spreading the highly contagious respiratory virus to 39 people as he stayed in private homes, attended synagogue daily and shopped in kosher markets.” [WashPost] • Israeli flight attendant in coma after getting measles [CNN]

GW Hillel offers free kosher lunches during Passover — by Paige Morse: “For the first time, GW Hillel will prepare free lunch in its townhouse on 21st and F streets in Washington, D.C. April 21 to 27 for students celebrating Passover, an eight-day-long Jewish holiday. Students said the initiative will assuage student concerns about the cost and availability of kosher meals, making the holiday more accessible for students.” [GWHatchet]

BOOK REVIEW — Is Seltzer Jewish? And 99 Other Argument-Starters — by Julia Moskin: “The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List” is a new book from Alana Newhouse and Tablet, the innovative and occasionally irreverent online magazine about Jewish culture. Ms. Newhouse, Tablet’s founder and editor in chief, said that she and a team of editors initially assembled this quirky collection of essays as a web feature, starting with a call-out to all the writers on food, Jewish identity or both that they could think of.” [NYTimes]

DESSERT — Old world vs. new school: Making matzo the Brooklyn way — by Raanan Geberer: “The Matzo Project, formed in 2017 and located in Gowanus, takes a ‘culturally based’ approach to matzo-making. The company was created by former co-camp counselors and friends Ashley Albert and Kevin Rodriguez.” [BrooklynEagle]

Manischewitz unveils new look, new products — by Gabrielle Saulsbery: “Legacy brand The Manischewitz Co. is serving up some new options, and a new look, in the kosher aisle… Its line of traditional macaroons has a new cousin with birthday cake macaroons, gluten-free as always and available for Passover.” [NJBiz]

The hottest kosher wines right now are coming out of Israel and … Texas? — “Queen’s Winery in Garland attests to be the first kosher winery in Texas. Father and son Ray and Joe Southwell make three wines that are kosher-certified by the Orthodox Union, made of honey from nearby Waxahachie.”[DallasNews]

BIRTHDAYS: Cynthia Kugler turns 83… Retired Los Angeles cardiologist and active Yiddish enthusiast, Martin Bobrowsky, MD turns 79… NYU professor and noted legal scholar, he spent 38 years on the faculty of University of Chicago Law School, Richard Allen Epstein turns 76… Barry Schreiberturns 76… Sports historian, author, publisher and cultural commentator, he has been the official baseball historian for Major League Baseball since 2011, John Thorn turns 72… Talk radio host best known for his work on NYC’s sports radio station WFAN, his nickname is “The Schmoozer,” Steve Somers turns 72… CEO and EVP of B’nai B’rith International, Daniel S. Mariaschin turns 70… Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, NJ, one of the largest yeshivas in the world with more than 6,700 students, Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler turns 68…

French billionaire, based in Geneva, he and his brother own the House of Chanel perfume company as well holdings in vineyards and a thoroughbred horse racing stable, Gérard Wertheimer turns 68… Actress, screenwriter and film director, Daphna Kastner turns 58… Winner of two Super Bowl rings during his career with the San Francisco 49ers (1984–1988), he is now a physician and an inductee in the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Dr. John E. Frank turns 57… Director of Rutgers University Press since 2016, following 15 years at Temple University Press, Micah Kleit turns 49… Professor of politics and Russian studies at New York University and co-author of The Monkey Cage, a politics and policy blog at The Washington Post, Joshua A. Tucker turns 48… Congressional correspondent at The New York Times, she is also a political analyst for CNN, Julie Hirschfeld Davis turns 44…

Reporter for Bloomberg, she covers technology in Asia with a focus on China, she was previously a reporter at Quartz and the Wall Street Journal, Shelly Banjo turns 35… Southern California-based regional director at The Washington Institute For Near East Policy, Miri Belsky turns 35… Communications manager at the Center for Responsible Lending, Matt Kravitz turns 34… Managing director at Bully Pulpit Interactive, Alex Kellner turns 33… Founder and principal of DKL Strategies, he was previously a spokesman at the State Department, the Senate and the National Security Council, Dean Lieberman turns 30… Councilman for the Baltimore City Council 5th District seat, Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer turns 30… Brian T. Earllturns 27…