Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about his recent trip to Israel, and interview Na’ama Schultz, the former director general of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, Amos Hochstein and Rabbi Harold Kushner.
Who killed Kesher’s rabbi? For the past two weeks, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch has been sharing the story of a beloved Washington rabbi and reexamining his brutal 1984 murder in a five-part investigation.
How does a community go on when their spiritual leader has been taken from them? And what does it mean for a religious institution to open its doors and fulfill the Jewish value of welcoming guests in a world where constant vigilance is now a requisite security consideration for houses of worship? Today, we are releasing the final installment in this five-part investigative series, which attempts to take stock of these difficult questions. Read more below, and catch up on the entire series here.
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Iranian crown prince and the son of the last shah of Iran, delivered remarks last night before a crowd of 600 at the Capitol Hilton at the Anti-Defamation League’s National Leadership Summit.
Invoking Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem “First They Came,” Pahlavi said, “After the Islamic revolution in Iran, and in many other places, it is indeed the case that first they come for the Jews, and then they come for the others. So that is why we must speak out, that is why I am here this evening and that is why I went to Israel. I went to stand up against the Islamic republic’s antisemitism and to stand in solidarity with victims of the Holocaust in the face of the regime’s Holocaust denial. I went to mourn with the victims of the regime’s sponsored terrorism, but I also went to Israel to stand up for my people so that there will be no further victims of hate and bigotry.” See more below.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) landed in Israel yesterday with a delegation of House members for several days of meetings with Israeli officials. Members of the delegation include former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Reps. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Garret Graves (R-LA), Erin Houchin (R-IN), Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-NJ), Nick LaLota (R-NY), Michael Lawler (R-NY), Julia Letlow (R-LA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Max Miller (R-OH), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Bruce Westerman (R-AR).
McCarthy was greeted at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who, accompanied by Israeli musician Kfir Ochaion, performed a guitar rendition of The Eagles’ “Hotel California” for the Bakersfield, Calif., native later in the evening.
Today, McCarthy met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem for a one-on-one meeting, which was followed by a wider lunch meeting with the rest of the U.S. delegation. McCarthy will address the Knesset today at 4 p.m. local time, becoming only the second House speaker in history to address the Knesset, 25 years after then-Speaker Newt Gingrich addressed the body on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Israel’s founding.
McCarthy also met Israeli President Isaac Herzog today for a private working meeting, followed by a wider diplomatic meeting which included the rest of the delegation as well as Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog.
The House speaker’s visit comes days after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis traveled to Israel to speak at a conference and meet Israeli leaders. DeSantis’ office released a statement on Friday with a photo of the governor meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Netanyahu’s office has yet to acknowledge the meeting, which was reportedly also attended by Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi. While meeting with McCarthy this morning, Netanyahu did tweet out a photo of the two.
McCarthy told Israel Hayom over the weekend that if the White House doesn’t soon extend an invite to Netanyahu, the Israeli leader will be invited to address Congress. “He’s a dear friend, as a prime minister of a country that we have our closest ties with,” McCarthy said.
On Saturday in Washington, more than 2,600 guests attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday. It’s Washington’s buzziest gathering, bringing together media personalities, political leaders and celebrities (and not just the Washington variety).
Attendees at Saturday’s soiree included Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, comedian Billy Eichner, actor Bradley Whitford, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, and dozens of notable public officials, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), Secretary of State Tony Blinken and more (including two intrepid Jewish Insider correspondents).
President Joe Biden began his speech by calling for the release of American journalists who are wrongfully detained abroad, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in Russia, and freelance journalist Austin Tice, who has been held captive in Syria for more than a decade. He also mentioned WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was at the dinner after being detained in Russia for several months last year.
Biden issued a presidential proclamationon Friday, ahead of Jewish American Heritage Month, which begins today. “For generations, the story of the Jewish people — one of resilience, faith, and hope in the face of adversity, prejudice and persecution — has been woven into the fabric of our Nation’s story,” the statement reads.
“Jewish Americans continue to enrich every part of American life as educators and entrepreneurs, athletes and artists, scientists and entertainers, public officials and activists, labor and community leaders, diplomats and military service members, public health heroes, and more,” Biden wrote.
The president noted that his administration is “developing the first national strategy to counter antisemitism that outlines comprehensive actions the Federal Government will undertake” to “help combat antisemitism online and offline, including in schools and on campuses; improve security to prevent antisemitic incidents and attacks; and build cross-community solidarity against antisemitism and other forms of hate.”
The Milken Institute Global Conference kicked off yesterday in Los Angeles. Among those slated to speak at the multi-day gathering are former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Saudi Minister of Economy Faisal Alibrahim, Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih, UAE Minister of State for Public Education Sarah Al Amiri, David Rubenstein, David McCormick, Oren Eisner, Rabbi David Wolpe, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Reps. Seth Moulton (D-MA), Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Pete Aguilar (D-CA) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC); former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Laura Lauder, The Washington Institute’s Zohar Palti, outgoing World Bank President David Malpass, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
trip talk
House Democrats will ‘lean in on our strong support’ for Israel, Jeffries says following Israel trip
House Democrats emphasized while in Israel that they “are going to continue to lean in to our strong support for a Jewish and democratic state,” newly appointed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod after leading a group of Democratic leaders on a delegation to the Jewish state last week.
Key members: In addition to the new Democratic leader, the delegation included the ranking members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and its Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia subcommittee, the chairs of the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses, several members of the Democratic leadership team and the co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus — a group that Jeffries said “reflected the broad diversity of the House Democratic Caucus, but spoke with one voice, that we valued the special relationship between the United States and Israel.”
Judicial conversation: Jeffries said that the discussion with Israeli leaders on Israeli judicial reform proposals was “anchored in… our shared democratic values” and that Israeli leaders understood “why the subject was raised and why there were significant concerns that had been expressed by many within the Jewish community in the United States.” The House minority leader said he had also “made clear that the protests that were taking place in Israel are a sign of a vibrant democracy, and the fact that principles such as freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the right to petition your government to demand change were being respected in Israeli society and by the Israeli government. That is a hallmark of a democratic state.”
Palestinian transition: The group also discussed the long-term stability of the Palestinian Authority, particularly the possible transition of power from 87-year-old Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has ruled the PA since 2005, to new Palestinian leadership. “There was real concern with respect to the uncertainty as to what that transition could look like,” Jeffries said. “But a clear understanding that in no circumstances can a transition to Hamas occur.” Jeffries said that there was “widespread recognition” that the PA’s ability to maintain day-to-day services for the Palestinian people “would be essential.” He also said the group discussed “figuring out a way for some of the Gulf states to be able to increase their support for the Palestinian people… was a possible path toward stabilizing the political situation in the West Bank and foreclosing the possibility that a bad actor like Hamas could step into the vacuum.”
In the region this week: Barbara Leaf, the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, is in Jordan and Iraq this week and has met with Jordan’s prime minister, deputy prime minister, foreign minister and minister of defense.
Who Killed Kesher’s Rabbi?
What Remains
This is the final installment of a five-part investigative series. Read the whole series here.
Two days after Rabbi Philip Rabinowitz’s packed funeral at Kesher Israel Congregation in March 1984, Shabbat arrived at the Georgetown synagogue, just as it did every Friday evening. The weekly observance of rest and ritual would begin as soon as the sun set on Friday, only this time, the synagogue’s longtime rabbi would not be there to greet it.
It is said in the Shabbat liturgy that we welcome the Sabbath in much the same way as a groom welcomes his bride when she walks down the aisle. In the Lecha Dodi prayer (literally, “Come, my beloved”), worshippers stand and turn toward the entrance of the room, as if they are wedding guests rising up to welcome the bride.
For the first time in more than three decades, the little Georgetown synagogue would be without its beloved spiritual leader, like a forlorn spouse who has lost a life partner. One month later it would be Passover, and then Shavuot, and eventually, in the fall, a new year, as sure a promise as the falling of the leaves. Kesher would need to figure out how to keep the ship from capsizing without its captain.
Within three months, a search committee was formed to look for a new rabbi.
This is not to say that congregants simply moved on from Rabinowitz’s murder. A few weeks after he died, the synagogue sent a group of prominent Kesher members and other local Jewish leaders to visit Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry to convey “the urgency of solving this crime,” according to notes from a synagogue board meeting.
Kesher members also began to think anew about security. Two months before Rabinowitz was killed, one synagogue member presented a proposal for securing the building, but the plan was never discussed.
It would not have saved the rabbi. Still, police now felt that the need to secure the building was urgent.
The question of who should be allowed in has haunted Kesher ever since Rabinowitz was murdered.
Read the rest of Part Five, ‘What Remains,’ here. And we’d love to hear what you thought of the series, or if you have any stories about Rabbi Rabinowitz that you want to share with JI’s Gabby Deutch, feel free to get in touch.
the female voice
The Israeli opposition official fighting for more women at the table
When she was director general of the Prime Minister’s Office, Na’ama Schultz, a longtime senior aide to former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, was driven both by her feminist beliefs and the goal of creating a better future for her three young daughters. Now, Schultz told Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash in a recent interview, it is those two factors that are pushing her to continue the quest to reach a compromise with representatives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on its controversial plan to reform the country’s judicial system.
Following the signs: “I had a lot of signs that pushed me to the public area,” she explained. “I went through a process and in the end, it was clear to me that I wanted to do something significant, something that will ensure my daughters have a good, safe and quiet life in Israel.” At the time, Schultz did not really know what exact path she would take, but not long after she’d made up her mind about finding work in the public sector, Lapid, a well-known media personality, announced he was entering political life. It was 2012, and Schultz had been reading his columns closely.
Linking up with Lapid: “I really identified with many of the things he wrote, and the values he represented,” she told JI. “I thought, maybe this is my opportunity.” In true Israeli style, she put out feelers to try to get in touch with the future prime minister, and thanks to “Israel being a very small country,” Schultz snagged a meeting with him. “Quickly, I found myself becoming a partner in establishing Yesh Atid, a party that has changed the fate of Israel politics, and the rest is history,” she continued. “I never imagined this would be the route I would take when I first started.”
Creating harmony: In the year and a half that Schultz headed the Prime Minister’s Office, she says that her main achievement was creating an environment of harmony among the various government offices. “It was the first time that all the director generals of government ministries worked together as a close group,” Schultz described. “We had a very good communication working to solve problems. There were no egos, only a deep belief that this is how you are meant to work together.”
cross-border conversation
Lawmakers from 19 countries discuss energy security, sustainability implications of Abraham Accords
Lawmakers from 19 countries gathered virtually on Thursday to discuss the possibilities for energy security and sustainability cooperation from the Abraham Accords, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
In attendance: The event marked the second installment of an inter-parliamentary dialogue on the Abraham Accords hosted by the House and Senate Abraham Accords Caucus, AIPAC and the American Israel Education Foundation. Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK), Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a senior Israeli ministerial official and lawmakers from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Austria, Hungary, Portugal, Canada, Germany, Singapore, France, Japan, Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Greece, Serbia, Estonia and Lithuania participated in the dialogue, according to an individual involved in organizing the event.
Energy security: The session focused on how the Accords can help address energy security issues around the world, with a particular focus on the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a source of such instability, the organizer said. The goal of the session was to inform the parliamentarians about the opportunities the Abraham Accords have generated and how they can be better integrated into larger global conversations.
Russia response: The event, which included a briefing from an energy security specialist from the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, included discussion of how the Abraham Accords allow Israel and the region to be more integrated with Europe and Asia, and how Israeli natural gas could help address some of Europe’s energy needs. Russia’s invasion, the individual said, has accelerated long-standing discussions on these issues. “These are huge opportunities to help educate decision-makers… about the importance [of the Abraham Accords] and how it will eventually help them,” the individual said.
Worthy Reads
🕵️ Spy Games:The New York Times’ Ronen Bergman and Farnaz Fassihi do a deep dive into the arrest and execution of former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Alireza Akbari, believed to have revealed intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program to the U.K. “Mr. Akbari had long lived a double life. To the public, he was a religious zealot and political hawk, a senior military commander of the Revolutionary Guards and a deputy defense minister who later moved to London and went into the private sector but never lost the trust of Iran’s leaders. But in 2004, according to the officials, he began sharing Iran’s nuclear secrets with British intelligence. He appeared to get away with it until 2019, when Iran discovered with the assistance of Russian intelligence officials that he had revealed the existence of a clandestine Iranian nuclear weapons program deep in the mountains near Tehran, according to two Iranian sources with links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. In addition to accusing Mr. Akbari of revealing its nuclear and military secrets, Iran has also said he disclosed the identity and activities of over 100 officials, most significantly Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the chief nuclear scientist whom Israel assassinated in 2020.” [NYTimes]
🍎 Mamdani’s Moment:City & State’s Rebecca C. Lewis interviews New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who ran and won in his Queens district as a socialist. “Mamdani’s career path may appear to an onlooker as unusual, until one takes into account his parents. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a prominent Marxist scholar at Columbia University, and his mother, Mira Nair, is an Academy Award-nominated film director. Part of his childhood was spent on movie sets, and Mamdani curated and produced the soundtrack for his mother’s 2016 movie, ‘Queen of Katwe.’ Under his rap alter ego ‘Young Cardamom,’ he contributed a rap to one of the songs featured in the film. ‘It’s truly a wild thing when your mother happens to be one of your favorite filmmakers,’ Mamdani said. But her success didn’t come easily as an Indian woman looking to make movies in Hollywood about issues facing the South Asian diaspora. ‘She has this mantra of, if we don’t tell our own stories, no one else will,’ Mamdani said.” [City&State]
👑 Across the Pond: The Washington Post’s William Booth looks at how Saturday’s royal coronation will incorporate different faiths, including Judaism, and how the break from custom reflects King Charles’ outreach to different religious groups. “At the coronation, the king will vow to serve as Defender of the Faith, the Protestant faith, as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. But before Charles takes his coronation oath, the Archbishop of Canterbury will insert newly written language, in which the king will pledge ‘to seek to foster an environment in which people of all faiths and beliefs may live freely.’ Ian Bradley, an emeritus professor of spiritual history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said these new moments in the coronation appear to get things right — the service remains true to tradition, to the church, but moves things forward. ‘It shouldn’t bother anyone too much,’ he said. Bradley is the author of God Save The King: The Sacred Nature of the Monarchy. He has spent a lifetime eyeballing Charles and believes that while the new king is more of a ‘spiritual seeker’ than his mother, ‘he is following her lead,’ as Elizabeth often spoke of what the different faiths can learn from one another.” [WashPost]
👩🏫 Teacher Talk: The New York Times Magazine’s Jonathan Mahler explores how American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and her organization have become a conversation fixture among Republicans considering a 2024 presidential bid, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who last year called Weingarten the “most dangerous person in the world.” “Weingarten is 65 and just over five feet tall. She is Jewish and openly gay — she’s married to a rabbi — and lives in Upper Manhattan. She is the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, which is not even the country’s biggest union of public-school educators. (The A.F.T. has 1.7 million members; the National Education Association has three million.) The A.F.T. did give in excess of $26 million to Democratic candidates and causes in the 2022 election cycle, but the Carpenters and Joiners union gave more than twice as much. Pompeo, whose remarks appeared in a widely quoted interview with the online news site Semafor, had nevertheless put his finger on something: The pandemic and the ongoing culture wars over race and gender had shifted America’s educational landscape, and with it the political landscape. ‘It’s not a close call,’ Pompeo elaborated. ‘If you ask, “Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?” It would be the teachers’ unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing.’” [NYTimes]
Around the Web
🏅 Righteous Gentile: Eighteen lawmakers, led by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) introduced legislation seeking to award a congressional gold medal to Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a WWII soldier who helped protect Jewish prisoners of war in a POW camp. Edmonds is one of just five Americans honored among the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
🗳️ Kirsten’s Alley: A spokesperson for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the New York legislator is not planning a 2024 primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
🏃♂️ Tim’s Tease: Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) teased an announcement widely speculated to be his entry into the 2024 Republican presidential primary later this month.
🗳️ Behind the Ballot: Vox looks at how the Republican Party selects its convention delegates ahead of the 2024 presidential primaries.
🌐 Regional Roles: Speaking on Fox Business, former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) called the recent high-level talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran a “real wake-up call” and a “warning” to the U.S. regarding its role in the region.
⬇️ Pay Grade: Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel’s 2021 salary dropped to $19.1 million, a year after receiving a $308 million package the year the company went public.
🏦 Bank Buy: JPMorgan Chase purchased First Republic Bank early this morning after the latter was seized by regulators.
🛬 Private Jet Probe: New York magazine’s “Intelligencer” column spotlights concerns about safety and maintenance issues around private jet use and looks closely at the March death of former Clinton administration official Dana Hyde, who died from injuries sustained in turbulence on a small plane.
🎭 Theater Scene: Barry Manilow’s “Harmony,” the true story of a pre-WWII German sextet that ran afoul of Nazi laws, will premiere on Broadway this fall.
📺 Preview: Adam Brody will star as a rabbi in an upcoming Netflix comedy series also starring Kristen Bell.
🌭 Take Me Out to the Food Stand: Washington Post food reporter Tim Carman visited Char Bar’s food stall at Nationals Park.
🥪 Deli Delights: Tasting Table ranked the top 14 Jewish delis in New York City.
🥩 Manhattan Munchies: Sammy’s Roumanian, which closed its Lower East Side location in January 2021, is working to reopen on Orchard Street in the Bowery.
🪧 Auction Angst: The New York Times looked at the debate over the upcoming auction of jewelry belonging to the wife of a German businessman whose early successes came from the purchases of businesses from Jewish owners forced to sell their companies below market value in the lead-up to WWII.
🖼️ Restitution Battle: The descendants of a group of Jewish WWII-era art dealers who are seeking restitution for the forced sales of their relatives’ art collection are arguing in a D.C. appeals court that the dealers were stripped of their citizenship before the sales were made, in a potential violation of international law regarding expropriation.
💜 Hero of History: The New York Times interviewed a WWII veteran who received two Purple Hearts in the span of a week and a half while flying missions over Italy.
🌞 The Son Also Rises…in Miami: Yair Netanyahu has spent the last several weeks in Miami — and off of Twitter.
🗞️ Media Matters: The Guardian apologized to the U.K. Jewish community and former BBC chair Richard Sharp for publishing a cartoon that employed a number of antisemitic tropes and which the newspaper pulled after the backlash.
🚁 Show of Appreciation: A delegation from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, which was in Israel last week, honored the Israeli rescue team that assisted in recovery efforts at a collapsed apartment complex in Surfside, Fla., two years ago.
⚖️ Judicial Debate: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is committed to continuing negotiations and reaching an agreement between the government and the opposition over proposed judicial reform legislation. Netanyahu told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that the months of protests across Israel are “a sign of the robustness of the public debate which I am working to resolve with as broad a consensus as I can.”
💡 Startup Nation: A group of several dozen startups is working together to build a commercial fusion reactor in central Israel.
🇱🇧 On the Border: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian visited Lebanon’s border with Israel, where he announced Tehran’s support for “the resistance in Lebanon against the Zionist entity.”
💣 Arms in the Air: In a first, the U.S. is putting “bunker-busting” bombs on attack aircraft being deployed to the Middle East, in an effort to deter Iran.
🚢 Tanker Seized: Iranian state television aired footage of Iranian commandos conducting a helicopter raid on a U.S.-bound oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman.
🇮🇷 IRGC Category: British-Iranian activists are calling on the U.K. government to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
🇹🇷 Ankara Operation: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish troops killed Islamic State leader Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi in Syria.
➡️ Transition: Energy Envoy Amos Hochstein is moving from the State Department to the White House, where he will serve as senior adviser for energy and investment.
🕯️ Remembering: Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of 14 books including When Bad Things Happen to Good People and When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough, died at 88. Ad man Jerry Mander, who was behind advertising campaigns for groups including the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood, died at 86.
Pic of the Day
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Iranian crown prince and the son of the last shah of Iran, addresses the Anti-Defamation League’s three-day National Leadership Summit, which kicked off on Sunday in Washington, D.C.
“In a future secular and democratic Iran, the rule of law, based not only on the international declaration of human rights, but on Cyrus the Great’s first ever declaration, will establish and guarantee freedom of religion as a fundamental right, so that Iran can return to its roots as a nation where people of different faiths live and worship freely alongside each other,” Pahlavi said during his speech. “In such an Iran, this will extend our relations with all of our neighbors based on the principle of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. That is the Iran I envision. That is the Iran my compatriots are fighting for. My friends, just as Cyrus helped free the Jewish people from Babylon and aided them in rebuilding the temple, today my people are in captivity and in need of solidarity and support. There is a temple that needs to be rebuilt. Iran is that temple. Stand with us.” Watch his full remarks here.
Birthdays
Retired national director of the Anti-Defamation League, now national director emeritus, Abraham Henry Foxman turns 83…
Progressive activist Larry Bensky turns 86… Associate executive vice president and general counsel for the World Jewish Congress, Menachem Z. Rosensaft turns 75… Assistant professor at Yeshiva University and editor emeritus of Tradition theological journal, Rabbi Shalom Carmy turns 74… Deborah Chin… Boston-area actor David Alan Ross… Brigadier-General (reserves) and former chief medical officer of the IDF, he was also a member of the Knesset for 10 years, Aryeh Eldad turns 73… Of counsel at D.C.-based Sandler Reiff where he specializes in redistricting law, Jeffrey M. Wice… Former president of the American Jewish Committee, E. Robert Goodkind… Longtime congressman from Colorado until earlier this year, Ed Perlmutter turns 70… Founder and CEO of Conduit, Israel’s first billion-dollar internet company, Ronen Shilo turns 65… Austrian-Israeli singer-songwriter, Timna Brauer turns 62… Real estate entrepreneur, he is a co-founder of the Israeli American Leadership Council (IAC) and supporter of FIDF, Eli Tene turns 60… Member of the board of governors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, Rina F. Chessin… Member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David R. Karger turns 56… Israeli judoka, she was the first Israeli to win an Olympic medal when she won Silver at Barcelona, she is the head of the merchandise division of Paramount Israel, Yael Arad turns 56… Majority leader of the Washington State Senate, he is a co-owner of minor league baseball’s Spokane Indians, Andrew Swire “Andy” Billig turns 55… Senior attorney in the Newark office of Eckert Seamans, Laura E. Fein… Political columnist at New York magazine, Jonathan Chait turns 51… Attorney and co-founder of I Am a Voter, Mandana Rebecca Dayani turns 41… Former director of responsible innovation at Meta / Facebook, Zvika Krieger… D.C.-based political reporter, Ben C. Jacobs turns 39… Senior video journalist covering investigative and national news for the Washington Post, Jonathan Gerberg… Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Marina Tauber turns 37… Principal at Avisa Partners, Omri Rahmil… Sam Zieve Cohen turns 26… Community manager at GrowthSpace, Jenny Feuer…
