Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Democrat Adam Frisch about his effort to oust Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) in Colorado, and look at how the House’s passage of the NDAA affects Jewish communal priorities. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Amb. Enrique Mora, Bari Weiss and Stephen Sondheim.
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 and eJP stories, including: National strategy and campus antisemitism feature at White House roundtable; The Pennsylvania Democrat hoping to succeed Summer Lee in the Statehouse; Jared Moskowitz eyes Foreign Affairs, Judiciary committees; At J Street confab, attendees grapple with what it means to be ‘pro-Israel’; A small rabbinical school that caters to Deaf students is growing, with help from a Jewish coworking space; A Jewish-funded mobile clinic in Ukraine will focus on women’s health; and PJ Library launches fellowship for artists in bid to attract adolescent readers. Print the latest edition here.
The Senate Democrats’ anticipated incoming 51-49 majority was dealt a blow with the news this morning that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) is switching her party affiliation to Independent. “Nothing will change about my values or my behavior,” Sinema told Politico’s Burgess Everett.
A bipartisan group of 40 House lawmakers signed onto a resolution “condemning antisemitism by public figures,” Jewish Insider has learned. The resolution is being led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Don Bacon (R-NE).
The resolution asserts that “with increasing frequency, influential public figures, celebrities, and foreign government officials use social media platforms to spread their antisemitic, hateful views, including Holocaust denial and praise for Adolf Hitler” and that “there has been a marked increase in prominent public figures using hate speech online.”
The resolution goes on to condemn rising antisemitism and “calls on national faith leaders of all denominations and Americans of influence to join with current and former elected leaders to use their platforms to speak out against antisemitism.” Read more here and view the full text of the resolution here.
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Adam Frisch weighs rematch with Boebert as House recount nears conclusion

For the past few weeks, Adam Frisch, a Democrat who came close to unseating Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) last month in a Colorado House race, has occupied something of a curious position. Even as he conceded defeat on Nov. 18, saying he was unlikely to overcome a tantalizingly slim deficit of around 500 votes, the matchup remains too close to call amid a mandatory recount that is expected to conclude by Tuesday. Frisch, however, has no expectations that the updated tally will deliver the result he needs to best his Republican opponent, an incendiary freshman lawmaker who proved surprisingly vulnerable. “We’re the only race that hasn’t been decided, but it’s pretty much decided,” Frisch, 55, said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Thursday. “Unless there’s a 500-vote county, nothing’s going to happen.”
Staying Zen: Fixed in a sort of electoral limbo until next week, the former Aspen city councilman has resisted temptations to second-guess his first campaign for federal office. “I try to stay pretty Zen throughout my life,” Frisch noted. “There’s not much I can do about it now.” In the meantime, Frisch has been actively weighing a rematch, particularly after a robust showing that catapulted his campaign onto the national stage. “I’ve just got to check in with, a, my body, b, the family, and listening to those who were involved before to make sure they agree that we still think there’s a path,” he explained. “I only want to go if we think there’s a path.”
Listening and learning: With the election now all but behind him, Frisch said he has been traveling the state in recent weeks, meeting with donors, county leaders and other supporters to assess his prospects in 2024. “I spent some time in Denver with some of the people proactive in the business community who were either small supporters, big supporters or not supporting and kicking themselves that they didn’t support more,” he said. The purpose of such conversations, Frisch clarified, has not been to engage in an “‘I told you so’ tour” or to point fingers at those who snubbed him. “Holding grudges,” he said, “ is just not a way to go.” “I’m going to listen, and mostly what we’re hearing is people are very confident that we could make another go of it,” he claimed. “We’re going to digest all of that stuff. It’s not even 2023, so I think we have some time.”
Opponent’s strategy: Frisch, who is Jewish, had also expressed personal reservations over Boebert’s conduct amid an uptick in antisemitic hate crimes. Still, Frisch emphasized that he had not experienced any anti-Jewish prejudice from Boebert’s campaign or from voters on the campaign trail. “I think there was this view beating me up about being from a mountain town, let alone from Aspen,” Frisch added, noting that Boebert had aggressively sought to cast him as an out-of-touch elite in a predominantly rural district populated by ranchers and farmers. “My takeaway,” he said, “is our opponents spent so much time focusing on the whole ‘being from Aspen’ thing that there was enough there for them to run with.” “That was the focus,” he said, “not that I was a Jew.”