Daily Kickoff
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White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is in Israel this week for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leadership.
Sullivan will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Isaac Herzog and other senior Israeli government officials “to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and consult on a range of issues of strategic importance to the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship, including the threat posed by Iran,” according to a statement by NSC spokesperson Emily Horne.
Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart, Eyal Hulata, are expected to co-lead the fourth Strategic Consultative Group meeting during the trip.
In Ramallah, Sullivan will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss efforts to strengthen U.S.-Palestinian ties and advance peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.
Joining him on the visit are Brett McGurk, deputy assistant to the president and Middle East and North Africa coordinator, and Yael Lempert, State Department acting assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs.
The Illinois Investment Policy Board (IIPB) is expected to vote on Wednesday whether to divest state funds from Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever, following a decision by the ice cream company earlier this year to stop sales in what it referred to as “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” IIPB began looking into whether the company had run afoul of state law over the summer, shortly after the Ben & Jerry’s announcement.
An individual familiar with the state’s efforts told JI, “Illinois had previously given Unilever 90 days to reverse its boycott of Israel. Now the 90 days are up and Unilever will face yet another significant state pension divestment and blacklisting. At some point the board of directors needs to acknowledge this boycott is harming the shareholders and the corporation. They need to find a ladder down from this tree.”
enchanted path
Leger Fernandez charts uniquely New Mexican course in Jewish community relations

Representative Teresa Leger-Fernandez (D-NM) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill.
With the exception of a event with the progressive pro-Israel group Heart of a Nation earlier this month, first-term Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) — behind whom the Santa Fe-area Jewish community rallied in last year’s Democratic primary — has not been particularly outspoken on Israel issues during her first year in office. But she has carved out a niche deeply connected to New Mexico’s history as a vocal advocate for restored Spanish citizenship for descendants of Jews and conversos expelled from Spain during the Inquisition, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Strong foundation: Local Jewish leaders said their relationship with the new congresswoman has remained solid in the year since she took office. Ron Duncan Hart, the former president of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, told JI that Leger Fernandez “identifies with the Jewish community” and “has close contacts within the Jewish community.” He added that she has “expressed her support for Israel very clearly.”
U-turn: Leger Fernandez has carved out a niche deeply connected to New Mexico’s history as a vocal advocate for restored Spanish citizenship for descendants of Jews and conversos expelled from Spain during the Inquisition. Spain’s government announced in 2015 that it would grant citizenship to people of Sephardic Jewish descent, but rejections for citizenship applications have skyrocketed since a new socialist government took office in 2019, leading applicants and advocates to believe that the new government is attempting to backtrack on the citizenship policy.
Taking action: Leger Fernandez’s ancestors include Jews who fled Spain, and one relative was burned at the stake in Mexico City due to his religion. In October, Leger Fernandez organized a letter to the president of Spain raising concerns about the rejections, joined by members of both the House and Senate. She has also raised the issue with the White House and the State Department and spoke at a rally in October outside the Spanish consulate in New York.
Quotable: “When Spain offered the right of return, it meant a lot to my community. My friends, my community, they all applied,” she said in her speech. “The broken promise of the noble gesture of reparation hurts more than if Spain had never made the offer of return in the first place. It’s time for Spain to live up its promise to the many Sephardi Jews who have held onto the love of country and of people for centuries, despite unimaginable hardship.”
Close to home: Activists who have worked with Leger Fernandez on this issue say she’s personally passionate about it, and that it has become an important political issue in her district. “Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez showed [an] incredible amount of leadership and interest in the issue,” Sarah Koplik, who leads the Sephardic Heritage Program at the Jewish Federations of New Mexico, said. “She really cares about this issue. She really cares about the converso experience throughout the world… Why it’s a political issue for her is because of her community and because of her constituents — so many of them have this heritage.”