Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to the Jewish leaders who met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Washington yesterday, and report on the just-opened Department of Education investigation into whether U.C. Berkeley’s law school violated the civil rights of Jewish students. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: David Saranga, Bari Weiss and Wes Moore.
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 Jewish Insider, eJewishPhilanthropy and The Circuit stories, including: Kevin Warren’s big tent; Ned Price leans into his Jewish values; Katie Hobbs warns of ‘toxic’ political climate as she prepares to lead Arizona; Arab fashion struts into Saudi Arabia; This Berlin-based group is reexamining Jewish texts through art; University of Haifa awards honorary doctorates to Bill Clinton and John Sexton; and Jewish camps, challenged by inflation and staffing shortages, hope to get back to normal. Print the latest edition here.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who recently returned from the World Cup in Qatar, raised eyebrows earlier this week with his comment that Qatar is “in many ways… our best partner in the region.” Murphy’s team subsequently clarified that he was referring to the Persian Gulf, rather than the Middle East as a whole.
Speaking to JI this week, Murphy downplayed concerns about Qatar and its influence-peddling in Washington and elsewhere. “It’s a pretty well-practiced technique for foreign governments to fund think tanks here. We should talk about it, but it’s a lot of countries,” Murphy told JI’s Marc Rod. He said he “[did] not know much about” recent allegations that Qatar had bribed high-level European Union officials to secure support for hosting the World Cup. (For more on that, The New York Timestook a deeper look at Qatar’s courting of European officials.)
Responding to Murphy and Omar’s recent trip, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) told JI this week, “I personally wouldn’t party with the Qatari government, but we need to have diplomatic conversations with some countries with problematic human rights records. Qatar does have an important U.S. airbase. However, they are all too close to the Muslim Brotherhood, are not helpful in the Abraham Accords process, and have a terrible record with their so-called guest workers.”
The Senate passed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense and national security policy bill, last night, sending it to the president for his signature. The Senate also passed a one-week funding bill to keep the government open for the coming week, giving lawmakers until the end of next week to finalize the 2023 budget.
The Tel Aviv Hilton was the site of Bahrain’s National Day celebrations last night, where guests dined on kosher lamb biryani and chicken machboos and sipped non-alcoholic beverages. Attendees heard speeches from Bahraini Ambassador to Israel Khaled Yousif Al-Jalahma, Israeli Minister of Cooperation Issawi Frej and a video address from Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.
This morning, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace will host an event with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in conversation with Carnegie President Tino Cuéllar to discuss President Joe Biden’s foreign policy during the first two years of his administration.
Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt will be speaking with White House Jewish Liaison Shelley Greenspan during a pre-Shabbat Zoom briefing for the Jewish community at noon today.
Hanukkah begins on Sunday evening, and with it comes celebrations across Washington. On Sunday night, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff are hosting a Hanukkah gathering at their residence, while the National Menorah Lighting will take place on the White House Ellipse. On Monday evening, the White House will host its annual Hanukkah reception.
sissi sit-down
U.S. Jewish, pro-Israel groups meet with Egyptian president

Leaders of American Jewish and pro-Israel groups met on Thursday for more than an hour and a half with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on the heels of this week’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Trilateral ties: The meeting, attended by representatives of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League, AIPAC, B’nai B’rith and J Street, was “an opportunity for President Sissi to underscore the importance” of both the U.S.-Egypt relationship and the trilateral U.S.-Egypt-Israel relationship, according to ADL Senior Vice President for National Affairs George Selim, who represented his organization at the meeting.
Thanking Sissi: Conference of Presidents CEO William Daroff said the meeting was “very productive.” “We stated our unequivocal appreciation to President Sissi for his leadership in ensuring a safe, secure, and [stable] region,” Daroff said. “We also thanked him for safeguarding and enhancing the peace and security cooperation between Egypt and Israel.” In addition to the trilateral relationship and regional security issues, Daroff said he had raised the cases of Israeli prisoners and the bodies of Israeli soldiers being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
Egyptian education: Selim told JI he raised the issue of rising global antisemitism, highlighting an ADL survey that showed that a third of Egyptians were unfamiliar with the Holocaust, asking “about his commitment to condemning antisemitism and also working to ensure that any type of antisemitic content in the curricula and taught in schools is roundly addressed by his administration.”