Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Friday morning!
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent JI stories, including: The best friends introducing Middle Eastern date syrup to the wider world; Accounting for childhood hunger in Baltimore; The Israeli startup CEO who wants to make American government work; Deborah Copaken uses her ‘Ladyparts’ to talk gender, money and Judaism; and Ashlee Bond is show-jumping for joy. Print the latest edition here.
At least 19 rockets were launched into Israel from Southern Lebanon overnight, with Hezbollah saying the rockets were in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that was responding to an earlier barrage of rockets from Lebanon.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) said at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on domestic terrorism and violent extremism on Thursday that the FBI data on domestic terrorism has been “late and woefully inadequate,” and urged better data-sharing efforts from federal agencies.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, echoed Peters’s call for greater federal transparency, as well as cooperation with outside groups like ADL, and urged more transparency from social media companies about hate content.
Regarding social media, Greenblatt said, “The failure of the companies… particularly Facebook, to provide any transparency into their data is unconscionable. No other industry, literally no other industry, behaves this way. We don’t even know about the content that gets taken down. There is no independent verification of their data.”
Expert witnesses also debated the necessity of new domestic terrorism statutes and counter-extremisim efforts, in addition to the history of counterterrorism programs of targeting minority communities in a discriminatory manner.
New Gig
White House taps Chanan Weissman to serve as Jewish liaison

Chanan Weissman
The White House announced on Thursday that it has appointed Chanan Weissman, director of technology and democracy at the National Security Council, to serve as the Biden administration’s liaison to the Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. The move came a week after President Joe Biden made several high-level nominations to positions related to religious communities, including the selection of Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt as the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
White House weighs in: “We are thrilled to have Chanan Weissman serve as the White House’s liaison to the Jewish community,” a White House official told JI. “Chanan will provide strong leadership in the administration’s efforts to partner with Jewish leaders, organizations, and community members to combat antisemitism and hate; serve people in need; support the US-Israel relationship; and promote dignity, equality, and opportunity for all.”
Repeat performance: Weissman also served as Jewish liaison during the final year of former President Barack Obama’s administration, which coincided with two major events: the death of former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres, in September 2016, and the Obama administration’s decision to abstain from a December 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s settlements in the West Bank. During the Trump administration, Weissman continued to work at the State Department, serving as section lead for internet freedom and business and human rights until April 2021.
Very Joe Biden: The pick is “very Joe Biden in that Chanan is very even-keeled, eyes-on-the-prize, not going to get rattled, not going to take the bait, and has very established chops in the community because he’s done it once before,” said Jarrod Bernstein, who served as White House liaison earlier in the Obama administration. (Bernstein is the co-host of Jewish Insider’s “Limited Liability Podcast.”)
Two-way street: In a 2016 interview with Hillel International, Weissman explained what serving as a liaison to the Jewish community entails. “I liken the position to a bridge with lanes operating in both directions,” said Weissman. “I need to, at once, convey the president’s policies and positions to the Jewish community but also need to fully capture and convey the wide (and growing) range of perspectives from the Jewish community back to the decision-makers at the White House.” A highlight for Weissman when he held the position five years ago, he recalled, was “briefing the president in the Oval Office moments before his pre-Rosh Hashanah phone call with hundreds of rabbis nationwide.”
Read more here.