🔥 The Provocateur: In The New Yorker, Ruth Margalit chronicles the rise of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, from teenage activist to high-profile government official. “Ben-Gvir made an early career of stoking that kind of hatred. As a young Kahanist, he heckled stage actors known for leftist views, and handed out eggs to throw at marchers in gay-pride parades. For Purim, he would dress up as Baruch Goldstein, the Hebron mass murderer. In 2011, he invited the press to a public pool in Tel Aviv, where he appeared with forty Sudanese migrant workers. He bought them all tickets to enter the pool, and, while cameras rolled, handed them swimsuits. ‘I want all the pampered Tel Avivians to understand that if we give human rights to the Sudanese they will come here,’ he told reporters. Laughing, he called out to the migrants, in English, ‘Swim! Swim!’” [NewYorker]

🇮🇷 Inside Iran: In The Atlantic, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly explains why she and a crew recently traveled to Iran as part of NPR’s coverage of the ongoing anti-government protests. “For an assignment like Iran, the necessary effort involves being on the ground. I acknowledge the inherent limitations of any foreign correspondent, the impossibility of an outsider grasping the complexity of a place with anything close to the insight of a local reporter. But there is value to fresh eyes and ears, and to the resources and international platform that a major news outlet can bring to a story. In Iran, things seem quiet. But when you get there, a truth becomes apparent: Iranians with differing views will always find ways for their stories to be told. On the eve of Revolution Day, the government put on a fireworks show, and as the explosions crackled across the night sky, my producer suddenly cocked her head. ‘What are they saying?’ she asked. We threw open our hotel windows to hear cries of ‘Death to the dictator!’ and ‘Freedom!’ echoing from the apartment buildings around us.” [TheAtlantic]

🤐 Dangerous Journey: French-born Jewish writer, Catherine Perez-Shakdam, tells the Jewish Chronicle how she infiltrated the Iranian regime and came to meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other leaders of the Islamic Republic. “Despite this, on that trip, in February 2017, she had already met several senior regime officials, and been told of a secret IRGC plan to ‘map’ key Jewish figures around the world for Iran’s assassination squads. ‘The idea was to identify all the prominent NGOs run by Jews, who was doing what in each business sector, the important rabbis,’ Perez-Shakdam, 41, told the JC. ‘They wanted to figure out their influence and where they lived with their families in order to target them. ‘They wanted to have a better understanding so they would know how to strike and where, so that if Israel ever dared to attack Iran, the diaspora would have a very nasty surprise.’” [JC]

💸 Culture Wars: The Washington Post’s Duncan Mavin looks at the debate playing out over corporations’ efforts to shift toward ESG — environmental, social and governance — investing. “But many of the solutions to perceived ESG problems actually risk making things worse. On the right are those who seek to disenfranchise the big asset management firms, either by refusing to invest in them or by curbing their ability to vote on issues at the corporations where they own shares. Several conservative state legislatures last year pulled their money from asset managers in protest… On the left, meanwhile, publicly castigating the big asset managers on ESG, including calling for senior executives to resign, risks creating a bunker mentality that could lead the firms to disengage from the broader debate. It also generates heat that fuels ESG backlash.” [WashPost]

👫🏻 A Couple’s Courage: The New York Times’ Jeffrey Gettleman spotlights a Ukrainian couple who died on the frontlines in a firefight with Russian forces. “Taras and Olha met when they were 8 years old, part of Kropyvnytskyi’s tiny Jewish community, the remnants of what was once a vibrant group massacred during World War II. They went to the same Jewish school before it closed because there weren’t enough students and later joined environmental protests together. In one picture of them as teenagers, Taras flashes an easy smile with a green scarf cinched around his neck; Olha stares at the camera with dark eyes radiating intensity.” [NYTimes]

🎧 Podcast Playback: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides appeared on David Axelrod’s podcast, “The Axe Files,” to discuss Israel’s new government, the recent uptick in violence in the region and prospects for a two-state solution.

🇺🇳 PA at U.N.: Israel panned a “one-sided statement” by the U.N. Security Council after the body condemned an Israeli decision to legalize West Bank outposts and approve the construction of some 10,000 settlement homes. The move followed an effort by the U.S. to persuade the Palestinian Authority to suspend a push for a vote on a stronger resolution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a rare public criticism of the Biden administration, saying, “the statement should never have been made and the United States should never have joined it.”

🗳️ Special Election: Virginia state Sen. Jennifer McClellan is the favorite in today’s special election in Virginia’s heavily blue 4th Congressional District, which had been represented by Rep. Don McEachin (D-VA) until his death in November. 

📄 Hill Hustle: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and 23 co-sponsors from both parties reintroduced a resolution condemning Iran’s persecution of the Baha’i minority. The legislation passed the House last year but did not advance in the Senate. Twenty-three Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) reintroduced a bill declaring that any nuclear deal with Iran should be considered a treaty and subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) previewed plans to reintroduce the Stop Iranian Drones Act. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) reintroduced legislation to cut funding to UNRWA, joined by 13 Senate colleagues and 24 House Republicans.

🏀 Back in the Game: Former NBA player Meyers Leonard, who was suspended in March 2021 for an antisemitic slur, has reportedly signed a 10-day contract with the Milwaukee Bucks.

👨 Rolling with Rudd: Rolling Stoneinterviews actor Paul Rudd about the revival of the show “Party Down,” which he co-created, and his DJing days in L.A.

👩‍🎓 Campus Beat: Hillel International convened its Israel Summit East at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., over the weekend; Patriots owner Robert Kraft spoke at the event’s opening session.

🎵 On the Stage: The New Yorker spotlights a new opera by composer Tobias Picker based on the book Awakening by his friend, the late neurologist Oliver Sacks.

📗 Book Shelf: Smithsonian Magazinehighlights the story of Muriel Gardiner, who helped hundreds of Jews and Resistance members escape pre-World War II Austria, which is being revived by a recent issue of her memoir Code Name “Mary.”

🇺🇸🇮🇱 Troubled Ties? Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen gives a gloomy forecast on the U.S.-Israel relationship as the influence of the Israeli right grows.

👁️ Inner Vision: Writer Roger Rosenblatt details the effort of creating his latest book, Cataract Blues, alongside cartoonist Jules Feiffer as Feiffer lost his vision.

🍲 Food for Thought: The Jerusalem Post interviews Jewish Food Society founder Na’ama Shefi about her nonprofit work and the creation of Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel.

📛 Summit Saga: A senior Israeli diplomat on Saturday was removed from the African Union’s annual summit in Ethiopia, with Israel blaming South Africa and Algeria for the move amid a dispute over Israel’s observer status.

✋ Knesset Chaos: The Knesset passed the first reading of the first bill of the judicial system reforms late last night, after tens of thousands of Israelis protested the contentious reforms outside the building and several protestors were removed from the plenum observation gallery after entering it illegally and banging against the glass dividers. Several opposition lawmakers were also removed from the plenum after they wrapped themselves in Israeli flags and protested the reforms.

📞 Clandestine Conversation: Senior aides of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been holding secret talks for almost two months in an effort to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports.

🙅‍♂️ Wasn’t Me: Iran rejected Israeli accusations that it was responsible for an attack on an oil tanker linked to Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer last week.

☢️ Nuke Inspection: The International Atomic Energy Agency is conducting a probe into Iran’s nuclear enrichment, after monitors indicated that Tehran has enriched uranium to just below the threshold for a nuclear weapon.

🇮🇷 Rushdie Reward: An Iranian foundation has offered a plot of agricultural land to the man accused of seriously wounding novelist Salman Rushdie in an attack last year.

🕯️ Remembering: Richard Belzer, who was best known for his role as Detective John Munch on “Law & Order: SVU” and several other shows, died at 78. Dancer and choreographer Rena Gluck, who as a founding member of the Batsheva Dance Company was instrumental in bringing modern dance to Israel, died at 89. Nobel laureate biochemist Paul Berg, biotech pioneer who first spliced DNA, died at 96.

Helen Mirren, who stars in “Golda,” attends the premiere of the film at the 73rd Berlinale International Film Festival Berlin yesterday. Mirren told Reuters that playing Israel’s only female prime minister was “a bit like playing Elizabeth I of England,” which she did in the 2006 film “The Queen.”

French actress, she starred as Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 war film “Inglourious Basterds,” Mélanie Laurent turns 40… 

Holocaust survivor and author of a book on systemic hate, he was the developer of the L’Ermitage Beverly Hills in 1976, Severyn Ashkenazy turns 87… Co-founder of Dreamworks and noted collector of American artists’ work, David Geffen turns 80… Dean of Yeshiva Bais Yosef Novarodok, Rabbi Mordechai Jofen turns 73… Monica Agor… Vice-chairman of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, previously a sports agent for basketball and baseball players, Arn Herschel Tellem turns 69… Director of a fiscal and monetary policy group at the Brookings Institution, David Meyer Wessel turns 69… Chairman of the KABR Group, a New Jersey-based real estate investment firm, Kenneth D. Pasternak turns 69… President of Yale University since 2013, Peter Salovey (family name was Soloveitchik) turns 65… Fitness personality, he develops businesses through the “Body by Jake” brand, Jake Steinfeld turns 65… Former owner of the Cleveland Browns of the NFL and Aston Villa F.C. of the English Premier League, Randolph David “Randy” Lerner turns 61… Former member of the Knesset for the Kadima and Hatnuah parties, Orit Zuaretz turns 56… Executive director of former VPOTUS Mike Pence’s advocacy organization, Advancing American Freedom, Paul Teller turns 52… Reality television star, Jonathan Cheban turns 49… NYT best-selling novelist, writer-in-residence in the graduate creative writing program at NYU, Jonathan Safran Foer turns 46… Former Chicago Cubs player, Adam Greenberg turns 42… Emergency medical physician at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Dr. Miriam Fischer Wachter… Former member of the Florida House of Representatives for six years, now in private law practice, Katie Edwards-Walpole turns 42… Rochester, N.Y., resident, Joshua Futerman… Pitcher for the Israeli team at the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifier, he is now a sales associate at Stryker, Brad Goldberg turns 33… Israeli judoka, she won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Shira Rishony turns 32… Israeli rhythmic gymnast who competed in the 2012 Olympics, Polina Zakaluzny turns 31… Monsey, N.Y., resident, Efrayim Katz… Former professional tennis player, now playing pickleball, Noah Rubin turns 27… Law clerk for a USDC judge in Chicago, Jay S. Schaefer…