Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight a call from Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to continue pressure on Iran, and interview memoirist Dani Shapiro about her return to fiction writing. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Howard Wolfson, Barbara Leaf and Rabbi A. James Rudin.
The Milken Institute’s Middle East and Africa Summitkicked off today in Abu Dhabi. Speakers today included LionTree’s Aryeh Bourkoff and Marjan Keypour Greenblatt. Tomorrow, Israeli Ambassador to the UAE Amir Hayek, MizMaa Venture’s Yitz Applbaum and OurCrowd’s Jon Medved will take the stage to discuss regional cooperation and innovative finance solutions.
On a panel about the state of the entertainment industry,Bourkoff shared what he’s watching in the region: “I think probably the biggest dynamic here is the Abu Dhabi [Securities] Exchange. I mean, they’re listing companies here as a very good alternative to New York and China, as a middle ground, which I think is a regional dynamic with Tel Aviv and Saudi [Arabia], and Abu Dhabi, I think as a real commerce hub as well.”
On a panel about women driving changearound the world, Greenblatt spoke upregarding the current protests in Iran: “It is the young girls who are leading this movement… when [female genital mutilation] was practiced in Iran, people did not say a word. When honor killings are happening, one a day in Iran, nobody is saying a word. When education has to be approved by the father or the man of the family, when travel of the woman has to be approved by her father. When riding a bicycle became taboo, or eating ice cream in public became taboo, nobody said anything. But now, right now, there is this movement happening, and it is really a sin to be quiet about it and not to reflect their voices.”
On Capitol Hill,the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing today on threats to the homeland, including testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray, days after the two testified before the House Homeland Security Committee. Ahead of the hearing, committee Chair Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) released a report alleging that the two agencies “have failed to effectively track and report data on the domestic terrorism threat.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) won reelection to his leadership post over Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), by a vote of 37 to 10, with one senator voting “present.”
The Senate voted 62 to 37 yesterday on a procedural motion in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act, indicating that the bill codifying same-sex marriage into federal law will be approved when it comes up for a full Senate vote.
Ahead of the vote, the Orthodox Union sent a letter to Senate negotiators stating that while the Orthodox umbrella group “cannot endorse the main purpose” of the bill, amendments to the bill “appropriately address the array of religious liberty concerns” the proposal raised. Agudath Israel of America’s Vice President for Government Affairs Rabbi Abba Cohen told JI that the group remains opposed to the bill, but that the religious liberty amendments “make some positive changes.”
The amendment added language stating that religious nonprofits cannot be forced to recognize, officiate or host same-sex marriages, and that declining to do so would not impact their tax-exempt status or federal grants.
committee call
‘Maintain pressure’ on Iran, House Democrats urge

Seventeen House Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a joint statement on Wednesday urging the U.S. and its allies to “maintain pressure” on Iran in response to the ongoing crackdowns against protesters, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Keep pushing: “We are committed to continuing to work alongside the Administration, as well as our partners and allies around the world, to maintain pressure on the regime and to demand justice and accountability for the brave Iranians who already lost their lives at the hands of state authorities and for those who, despite the brutalities and danger, continue to protest every day,” the lawmakers, led by Foreign Affairs Chair Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY) and Middle East, North Africa and Global Counterterrorism Chair Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), said in the statement.
Condemned: “The Iranian regime has continued to act with impunity – violently cracking down on its own citizens, holding sham trials, and now issuing a death sentence to a protest[e]r,” the statement reads. “The brutality of the Iranian regime is unacceptable and cannot be ignored.”
From the left: The statement comes amid increasingly explicit calls among some House Democrats for additional punitive action against the Iranian regime. In a tweet on Monday, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) said that she “echo[es] calls for the Biden administration to tighten sanctions and hold the regime accountable.”
Read more here.