Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
The Senate confirmed Deborah Lipstadt to serve as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism by a voice vote at 1o:19 p.m. ET last night, exactly eight months after the Biden administration announced her nomination.
The move to confirm Lipstadt by voice vote required the unanimous consent of the full Senate — meaning any single senator, including some Republicans who have opposed her nomination — could have come to the floor to block this fast-tracked process.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who is Jewish and represents Lipstadt’s home state, came to the Senate floor Wednesday evening to request the voice vote. “It’s time for the Senate, at long last, to confirm this nominee,” Ossoff said. “Right now as we speak the scourge of antisemitism is rising again in this country and around the world. If we mean the words ‘never again,’ then at long last, Madam President, let’s confirm Deborah Lipstadt to fight antisemitism.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told JI, “She’s eminently qualified. This was long overdue and I’m glad we got her confirmed tonight.” Read the full story here.
The late-night confirmation caps off a quagmire that left Lipstadt stuck in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — which cleared her nomination on Tuesday — for months. Republicans on the committee objected to a tweet by Lipstadt accusing committee member Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) of trafficking in “white supremacy/nationalism” and blocked her for months from receiving a confirmation hearing and subsequently delayed a committee vote.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog traveled to Jordan yesterday to meet with King Abdullah II in Amman. The meeting, on the heels of a terror attack on Tuesday in Bnei Brak that left five Israelis dead, was the most recent effort to calm tensions ahead of next month, which will see Passover, Easter and Ramadan occur nearly simultaneously.
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett by phone yesterday in the wake of the attacks. According to a readout of the call released by the White House, the president “emphasized that the United States stands firmly and resolutely with Israel in the face of this terrorist threat and all threats to the state of Israel.”
The Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions against businesses assisting in procuring supplies for Iran’s ballistic missile program. Treasury Undersecretary of Terrorism Brian Nelson said the U.S. “will not hesitate to target those who support Iran’s ballistic missile program” and “will also work with other partners in the region to hold Iran accountable for its actions, including gross violations of the sovereignty of its neighbors.”
scene yesterday
D.C.’s Jewish conference scene returns with Chabad gathering

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks at Chabad’s Living Legacy conference in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 2022.
Just days after the Capitol officially reopened to tours, some 250 members of the global Chabad community gathered Wednesday in a stately caucus room in the Russell Senate Office Building to kick off a daylong conference honoring the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The Living Legacy conference, which had not been held in several years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrated Chabad’s political muscle in Washington and the movement’s global reach, with high-profile appearances from members of Congress, Biden administration officials and foreign ambassadors, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and Marc Rod report.
Eyes on Ukraine: Instead of focusing on a single legislative agenda or policy objective, most speakers throughout the gathering spoke passionately — and, at times, personally — about the crisis in Ukraine, a country that is home to a significant Jewish community and many Chabad emissaries, who have been active in humanitarian efforts in the war-torn nation. “I want, like we all want, peace, quiet and success,” Rabbi Jonathan Markovitch, the chief rabbi of Kyiv, told attendees at a lunch reception at the St. Regis hotel near the White House. Markovitch and his wife left Kyiv in the early days of the Russian invasion but returned to help with relief efforts.
Read Gabby Deutch’s full dispatch from the Living Legacy conference here.
Situational awareness: Among the notable speakers throughout the day were Soviet refusenik and former head of The Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky, former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), State Department Special Advisor on Holocaust issues Stu Eizenstat and Justice Marcus Solomon of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, a Chabad-trained rabbi.
Welcome to all: “Not many gatherings have Jan Schakowsky and Madison Cawthorn,” said Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), after both the progressive Illinois Democrat and the conservative North Carolina Republican, under fire this week for recent comments he made about illicit parties in Washington, spoke at the breakfast. Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), whose chief of staff is a Chabad member, conversed with the Chabad rabbis from Japan and South Korea — in Japanese and Korean, respectively.
Faithfulness: A parade of lawmakers sounded off on issues from the separation of church and state to the Iran deal. In his remarks, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) argued for a role for religion in governance. “A lot of people think this country’s about separating church or religion from government. I say no,” Booker remarked. “I say this is a time more than ever that we need our faithfulness. We need to understand that God has a calling for us. And if we do that I promise you we will heal. We will have a better day not just for America but for the whole world.”
Spotted on Capitol Hill: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Lee Zeldin (R-NY) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) all delivered remarks. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) attended, but left before he was able to speak at the event.