Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Friday morning!
Ed. note: In honor of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, the next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Wednesday, Sept. 28. Shana tovah, and happy new year!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover Rep. Ted Deutch’s final House address and take a look at a new exhibit on the Samaritans at the Museum of the Bible, the museum’s first partnership with Yeshiva University. Also in today’s newsletter: Ari Wallach, Roya Hakakian and the latest Democrats to speak out against Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s comments about Israel and progressivism.
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: Masih Alinejad saw this coming; For Israel’s ambassador to Germany, strengthening ties is both professional and personal; The U.N.’s unlikely campaigner against antisemitism; UAE rabbi weds before 1,500 as Abraham Accords enter third year; This Israeli nonprofit is trying to create spaces where Ukrainian refugee children can be themselves; In Utah Senate campaign, Evan McMullin’s independent views on foreign policy; and Pandemic’s aftermath and economic crisis have some synagogues rethinking their membership fees. Print the latest edition here.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid made his United Nations General Assembly debut yesterday afternoon, calling for a two-state solution — and in doing so, marking the first time in several years that an Israeli premier has explicitly pushed the policy on the world stage.
“An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children,” Lapid said. “Peace is not a compromise. It is the most courageous decision we can make. Peace is not weakness. It embodies within it the entire might of human spirit. War is surrender to all that is bad within us. Peace is the victory of all that is good.”
Unlike the speeches given by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at past General Assemblies, Lapid used no props or imagery as he warned of the threat posed by Iran. “Iran has declared time and time again that it is interested in the ‘total destruction’ of the State of Israel. And this building is silent. What are you afraid of?” Lapid said. “Has there ever been a time in human history where silence stopped violence? The country that wants to destroy us, is also the country that founded the largest terrorist organization in the world, Hezbollah. Iran funds Hamas and Islamic Jihad and is behind mass terrorist attacks from Bulgaria to Buenos Aires. It is a murderous dictatorship that is making every effort to get a nuclear weapon. If the Iranian regime gets a nuclear weapon, they will use it.”
Netanyahu, for his part, slammed Lapid before the address had concluded. The opposition leader, who was speaking at a campaign event in Ramat Gan yesterday evening, released a statement accusing Lapid of “bringing the Palestinians back to the forefront of the world stage.”
on display
In new museum exhibit, a rare journey into Samaritan life and religious practice

Samaritan exhibition at the Museum of the Bible
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a good Samaritan as “one who voluntarily renders aid to another in distress although under no duty to do so,” and suicide-prevention charities around the world bear the name “Samaritans.” But the notion of a good Samaritan comes from a parable in the Book of Luke, in the New Testament. “Everyone’s heard of the ‘good Samaritan,’ of course,” Jesse Abelman, the curator of Hebraica and Judaica at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch last week on an exclusive tour previewing the museum’s newest exhibit, “Samaritans: A Biblical People.” But the Samaritans “go back farther than that. They see themselves as the descendants of the biblical tribes of Ephraim and Menashe, and so they’ve been continuing their tradition sort of beside, parallel, to Jews.”
Unique artifacts: Abelman pointed out some of the unique artifacts on display, like a centuries-old mosaic from a Samaritan synagogue and a stone with an inscription of the Samaritans’ Ten Commandments, on loan from Israeli President Isaac Herzog. A replica of a Samaritan sukkah, the makeshift hut erected in the fall harvest festival Sukkot, showcases their unique tradition of building a roof out of fruit: More than 1,800 pieces of plastic fruit sit atop the structure in a rainbow array of concentric circles.
New partnership: The exhibit, which runs through the end of the year, is meant to educate visitors about Samaritans and their encounters with other monotheistic religions over the past 2,000 years. It is the museum’s first partnership with Yeshiva University, which helped curate the exhibit through its Center for Israel Studies. The museum, which opened in 2017, has close ties to the evangelical Christian community through its founder and board chair Steve Green, the president of Hobby Lobby. But it has made efforts in recent years to broaden its reach into other religious communities.
Religious tradition: Like Jews, the Samaritans are descended from the Israelites. Their religion is similar to Judaism — they also read a version of the Torah, and use a form of ancient Hebrew with different letters — but one of the biggest differences is that they still conduct animal sacrifices, a ritual that is explained in videos and photographs at the museum. The exhibit also makes other comparisons between the faiths, such as one display case where a Samaritan Torah and a Jewish Torah are placed next to each other to show the difference in calligraphy and style.