Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the State Department’s outgoing chief diversity and inclusion officer, and look at the state of play in Montana’s Senate race following the entry of businessman Tim Sheehy. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Armin Rosen, Amb. Nikki Haley and Elliot Ackerman.
The growing likelihood of a Montana Senate primary clash — between Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) and businessman Tim Sheehy, who launched his bid this morning — is shaping up to be the marquee congressional test pitting the Republican Party’s establishment forces against its grassroots right wing.
Sheehy, a political outsider and decorated military veteran, is preferred by national Republican officials at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, including committee Chairman Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who endorsed Sheehy. Rosendale is the sitting congressman who represents the eastern half of the state, and thanks to his higher name recognition, holds an early advantage in primary polling.
Rosendale’s record doesn’t fit into simple characterizations. On foreign policy, he’s an isolationist who introduced legislation barring American support for Ukraine until the U.S.-Mexico border is secure. But he also has a largely pro-Israel voting record and was endorsed by AIPAC’s PAC in 2022.
Rosendale was endorsed by former President Donald Trump in 2022, but refused to take his call on the House floor when the former president was lobbying for Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to become speaker. He’s championed by the anti-tax Club for Growth, which is currently opposing Trump’s presidential campaign and has feuded with the former president.
And for a member of Congress, Rosendale only raised $127,000 in the last fundraising quarter — a pittance for someone planning a statewide campaign. (He banked $1.2 million in his account at the end of March.) Sheehy, meanwhile, has the ability to self-finance a campaign.
The Montana Senate race is one of the most consequential races in the country. If Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) wins reelection, it would give Senate Democrats a fighting chance to hold their narrow majority despite facing a difficult map. A loss would likely lock in GOP Senate control. Tester has won tough races before, and already defeated Rosendale in 2018.
The Aspen Ideas Festival continues today in Colorado, against a somber backdrop following the death on Sunday of Aspen Institute Chair Emeritus James Crown, who died in a racing accident in Aspen on his 70th birthday.
Crown was eulogized at the festival, with Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson praising Crown’s “deep sense of values.” eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross spoke to Jewish leaders in Crown’s hometown of Chicago about his impact on the community. Read more here.
Coming up today in Aspen: Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will speak on a panel this morning, “The Resurgence of the ‘Oldest Hatred’: The Effort to Combat Antisemitism,” moderated by Katie Couric. Speaking alongside Emhoff are White House Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and Race Forward’s Eric Ward. Following the panel, Emhoff and Sherwood-Randall will participate in a roundtable discussion about the Biden administration’s National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism.
A separate panel this morning will explore the arguments for and against affirmative action, ahead of the Supreme Court’s anticipated rulings this week — which could come as soon as this morning — on cases at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that will determine the future of racial preferences in college admissions.
Given the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, the justices are likely to roll back — if not outlaw completely — affirmative action policies, where schools heavily weigh race as a determinative factor in whether a student gets admitted.
Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiff, is accusing both schools of discriminating against Asian-American students, who need significantly higher test scores than other non-white groups to get into these top schools.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) submitted an amicus brief on the universities’ behalf, outlining its past opposition to racial quotas but support for using race as one among many factors determining admissions.
“ADL’s longstanding position has been that affirmative action programs are invalid when they impose quotas, use race as a determinative factor in making admissions decisions, or act in a manner that assigns persons to categories based on their race,” the ADL wrote. “ADL also believes, however, that those concerns are not implicated when a university considers race as just one factor among many others as part of a holistic review of applicants.”
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law sided with the plaintiff in an amicus brief that accused Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants the same way Jews were discriminated against in the early 20th century.
“We must not let Harvard do it all over again to new generations of college applicants – Asian-American applicants – who, too, deserve an equal opportunity to be considered without regard to their race,” the Brandeis Center wrote in its brief.
exit interview
State Dept. diversity chief: First Amendment protects diplomat with racist, antisemitic blog
How far do free speech protections go for federal employees? That’s a question top leaders at the U.S. State Department are mulling over as they consider how to handle the case of Fritz Berggren, a Foreign Service officer who operates a racist and antisemitic blog that promotes white nationalism, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
‘Painful situation’: In an interview with JI last week, Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, whose job is to promote inclusion in her role as the department’s first chief diversity and inclusion officer, argued that First Amendment free speech principles are what keep Berggren employed. “It is a painful, painful situation to have one among our number who is willing to voice statements as he has made,” Abercrombie-Winstanley said of Berggren. “But the law is the law, and freedom of speech — the First Amendment — is what governs all of this.”
Open question: Berggren remains a Foreign Service officer more than two years after his connection to the website was first revealed. His case has frustrated his fellow diplomats, many of whom want to see Berggren fired for his continued use of hateful language that has been viewed as threatening.
Over the hurdle: As civil servants, Foreign Service officers cannot be fired without cause, and the due process protections of federal employees mean any termination must clear a high bar. Earlier this month, Ambassador Eric Rubin, the president of the Foreign Service union, said that Berggren’s actions are so egregious that they would warrant his firing.
rocky mountain red lines
ADL’s Greenblatt debates Meta executive over content moderation
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt debated with co-panelists on stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Monday over Meta’s content moderation policies and antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Diverging views:
Meta’s Vice President of Civil Rights and Deputy General Counsel Roy Austin — speaking alongside Greenblatt and First Amendment law experts on a panel about free speech and social media — argued that Facebook must resist coordinated campaigns calling for content to be taken down.
“The NAACP, ADL, civil rights organizations have done coordinated campaigns forever… you can have a coordinated campaign where you rile up all of your believers and do whatever you want to on your platform but you… people from the Koch family are not allowed to rile up people who have your beliefs?” Austin questioned. “Are we the ones to make that decision? We can’t be there picking and choosing winners and losers in this discussion.” The ADL CEO alleged Austin drew false equivalencies between civil rights groups calling for content to be removed from Facebook and “the organizing by violent white supremacists or raging anti-Zionists or horrible QAnon enthusiasts” calling the idea “really offensive.”
Back and forth: Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute and Columbia University said later in the event that he was “nodding my head” with Greenblatt until he listed off “free Palestine.” “I don’t want to debate that issue, but the point is that people are going to disagree,” Jaffer continued. Greenblatt shot back, “saying free Palestine to a Jewish person out of context is antisemitism, plain and simple. Just like a Muslim person saying ‘free Kashmir out of context’ is also [hateful].”
Also heard at Aspen: On a panel on Monday morning, former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain reflected on his mother’s death, shortly after the end of his term in the White House, and the lessons he took from it. “The worst place to be if you’re sick is in the hospital. In the end, my mom had liver problems but mostly died from being hospitalized,” Klain said “It’s a funny thing, I was home for Thanksgiving, my mom cooked dinner for all of us. And was so robust and so alive, and a few months later she was dead. And so these things happen quickly sometimes; you just have to cling to every moment you can.” Read the full story here.
welcome the stranger
From Kabul to a Denver shul, HIAS program helps synagogues sponsor refugees
Zia Saberi had worked for the U.S. military in Afghanistan for nine years in the mid-2010s, so when the Taliban took control of his country in August 2021, he and his family had to go into hiding. That December, they were granted Special Immigrant Visas, and they made their way to America, first living on a military base in New Jersey, and then finally arriving in Denver, their new home, in February 2022, where they were greeted by a crowd of friendly faces, reports Jay Deitcher for eJewishPhilanthropy. The group waiting for them was their Welcome Circle, formed through local congregation Rodef Shalom under the guidance of HIAS. “They gave us dishes, mattresses, pillows, television, dining chairs, dining table, whatever we need,” Saberi told eJP.
One of many: The Welcome Circle lined up housing for the Saberi family, and over the next several months, members of the congregation took the family to medical appointments, enrolled Saberi’s wife in English courses and his sister in high school, and helped with finances and legal issues. This is just one story of refugees being helped by the Welcome Corps, the first U.S. government private refugee sponsorship program in almost 40 years, under whose auspices the Welcome Circles operate.
Formal recognition: Although Welcome Corps programs have been running in different capacities for two years, the U.S. government formalized the program on June 13, and HIAS was announced as one of 12 partner organizations. Under the program, HIAS guides the formation of the Welcome Circles, groups of five or more people, often formed through synagogues, to help refugees settle into their new lives. Currently, HIAS has 114 circles in 26 states serving nearly 400 refugees.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJP’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
survey says
Jewish voters remain overwhelmingly liberal, annual survey finds
The newly released Jewish Electorate Institute’s annual survey of Jewish political attitudes found that Jewish voters remain overwhelmingly liberal — 72% favor President Joe Biden, versus 22% favoring former President Donald Trump, with only Orthodox Jewish voters favoring Trump over Biden. The institute surveyed 800 Jewish registered voters earlier this month.
Approval ratings: Biden maintained a 67% job approval rating among Jewish voters, significantly higher than his overall approval. Trump maintained an 80% disapproval rating, marginally worse than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 76% disapproval rating and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) 68% disapproval rating.
Priority issues: The top issue for Jewish voters was the future of democracy, followed by the economy, climate change, gun violence and abortion (which 88% of Jews believe should be legal in most or all cases) as second-tier issues.
On Israel: Jewish voters also identify strongly with Israel — 72% said they have an emotional attachment to Israel, and 33% said they’re very emotionally attached to Israel. Years of polling have found that support for Israel remains high, and is consistent among Jews of all ages, genders and denominations. But Israel ranks low on the list of political priorities for Jewish voters, with just 6% saying it’s a top issue. Notably, only 20% of American Jews have a favorable opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 62% have an unfavorable opinion. More than six in 10 believe Israel’s proposed judicial reforms would weaken Israeli democracy.
The good fight: Fifty-seven percent said they trust Democrats more than Republicans to fight antisemitism, compared to 22% who trust Republicans more; the number trusting Democrats has grown steadily in the past year.
Worthy Reads
🔍 CAIR Package: Tablet magazine’s Armin Rosen examines how the inclusion of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in a fact sheet distributed by the White House alongside its national strategy to combat antisemitism has affected the Jewish community’s perception of the strategy. “CAIR isn’t always a team player from the center-left’s perspective — the organization recently came to the defense of Muslim parents who oppose LGBT-related materials being taught to their children in public schools without their consent. The persistence of CAIR’s mainstream credibility hints at how coalition politics now work within the Democratic Party: A single nonprofit or activist group will often be treated as the sole major representative of a certain demographic category, based on either an appearance of authenticity or the organization’s demonstrated usefulness to those in charge. The nonprofit sector often operates as a kind of junior-level government, receiving federal grants to promote and implement public policy, exerting activist and legal pressure on the business community and the rest of the private sector in support of coalition objectives, and providing status, income, and professional development for past and future public officials. In turn, these groups maintain message discipline within the coalition — anyone who opposes CAIR risks being criticized as an Islamophobe, or as a general impediment to progress.” [Tablet]
🪖 Wagner Woes: In The Atlantic, Elliot Ackerman observes the fallout from the recent attempt by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group to seize control from Russian President Vladimir Putin after being empowered by Moscow for more than a year in its invasion of Ukraine. “Wagner’s potency was derived both from its experience as a fighting organization and from its status as a private entity, one that has operated apart from the state. The grief of a mother mourning the death of her mercenary son doesn’t resonate politically the same as the grief of a mother mourning the death of her conscripted son. One is an employee in a private enterprise; the other is the responsibility of the nation. Outsourcing dirty wars to mercenaries is a practice as old as war itself. If it checks political costs at home in the short term, it increases long-term political risk. When loyalty to a commander eclipses loyalty to the side for which the soldiers are fighting, the result is a mercenary army that marches on its capital — as Putin has just seen.” [TheAtlantic]
🗳️ Gunning for Rosen’s Seat:The Daily Beast’s Sam Brodey spotlights former U.S. Ambassador to Iceland Jeffrey Gunter, who is mulling a bid to challenge Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) in Nevada. “It’s unclear when exactly Gunter might launch a campaign, but there’s already a world in which Gunter has spun his disastrous tenure in Reykjavik as a smashing success: a webpage he created to list his “triumphs” as ambassador. All 122 of them, to be exact. The first accomplishment is a legitimate one: Gunter oversaw the completion of a new U.S. embassy in Reykjavik during his tenure. But from there, he often measures his diplomatic success more in retweets from Donald Trump and social media view counts than anything else. On his website, Gunter’s sixth-rated accomplishment is posting a ‘congratulatory tweet on President Trump’s historic brokering of the Abraham Accords,’ which drew ‘unprecedented engagement’ and ‘stands as Ambassador Gunter and Embassy Reykjavik’s most reacted-to tweet.’ ‘It was retweeted,’ the website notes, ‘by the President of the United States.’” [DailyBeast]
📚 Jünger’s Years: The New Yorker’s Alex Ross does a deep dive into the life and writings of German writer Ernst Jünger, following the recent release of a new translation by The New York Review of Books of his 1939 book On the Marble Cliffs. “Nevertheless, Jünger stopped short of direct involvement with the Hitler movement. In his eyes, the Nazis were idiot vulgarians, useful mainly as cannon fodder in the wider assault on democracy. Antisemitism surfaces in his writings, yet Nazi race theory held no interest for him. As Kiesel points out, Jünger rejected the stab-in-the-back legend that blamed Germany’s collapse in 1918 on the skullduggery of leftist, Jewish politicians; he readily admitted that his country had lost to superior forces. You could classify him as a cosmopolitan fascist, one who saw war as essential to the development of any national culture. All the bloodshed served no real political purpose; its ultimate virtue lay in making men into supermen. During the First World War, Jünger had enjoyed occasional courtly chats with English officers, whom he considered equals.” [NewYorker]
🏠 A House Divided: In New Lines Magazine, Neri Zilber looks at the fight between Israeli authorities and 77-year-old Nissim Kahlon, who for decades has carved out and decorated his seaside home in the limestone caves in Herzliya Pituach. “His neighbors, local municipal officials and a small group of supporters appear to agree, pushing for Nissim’s house to be declared a national heritage or even a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The authorities, led by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, insist the house must be sealed and destroyed. Nissim’s fate, and that of his longtime home, will be decided by the courts. For some, it’s simply a referendum on a unique structure that should be preserved; for others, a case of hypocritical enforcement by the Israeli government against an aged and politically powerless man. But more than anything, the case is a meditation on modernity itself, and how one person, for decades, decided to refrain from playing the game.” [NewLines]
Around the Web
🎧 Roll the Tape: CNN obtained a 2021 audio recording of former President Donald Trump acknowledging possession of documents related to a potential strike on Iran that had not been declassified.
🇨🇳 China Concern: In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, who announced her presidential bid earlier this year, lays out her strategy for addressing threats from Beijing.
🛫 Bibi to Beijing: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a visiting delegation of American legislators that he is planning to travel to China, and had notified U.S. officials of the plans last month.
🛃 Test Run: The U.S. will run a pilot program next month to test the ability of Palestinian Americans to travel into Israel through Ben Gurion Airport and West Bank checkpoints, as Israel works to qualify for the U.S.’ Visa Waiver Program.
✋ Barring Batteries: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said that Israel is blocking U.S. efforts to send Iron Dome batteries to Ukraine.
🏃♀️ First in the Nation: Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride announced that she will seek the state’s sole House seat following Rep. Lisa Blunt-Rochester’s (D-DE) entry into the Senate race. If elected, McBride would be the first openly transgender member of Congress.
⚖️ Crime and Punishment: Attorneys for the gunman convicted on 63 federal charges related to the 2018 Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh are arguing against the death penalty for their client, saying his mental deficiencies make him ineligible for capital punishment.
✡️ New Jew Crew: New York City Mayor Eric Adams is launching a 37-member Jewish Advisory Council, chaired by Joel Eisdorfer, a senior advisor in the mayor’s office.
🕍 Peach State Politics: The mayor of Marietta, Ga., called on state lawmakers to pass antisemitism legislation, following two incidents over the weekend in which synagogues were targeted by neo-Nazi protesters.
⛳ Putt-ing it Together: The New York Timesobtained the five-page framework agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, which indicates that many of the details of the deal are not finalized and expected to be worked out by the end of the year.
🌊 Crisis Cautious: Investor Jay Bloom and his son Sean were slated to travel on the doomed Titan submersible that imploded in the North Atlantic last week, before relinquishing their seats on the vessel over concerns about its safety.
⚾ Mets Mess: The New York Timeslooks at the challenges facing the struggling New York Mets — currently the most expensive team in Major League Baseball — this season, suggesting owner Steve Cohen engage in a series of trades.
👩⚕️ Doctors’ Revolt: Three hundred Israeli reservist doctors told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant they will not report for duty if the government moves forward with its judicial reform plan.
🌟 Star Power: Gal Gadot will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, becoming the first Israeli actor to receive the accolade.
🔥 West Bank Situation: Americans for Peace Now’s Ori Nir penned an op-ed in The New York Times about the recent uptick in violence in the West Bank.
🕯️ Remembering: Former N.Y. Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch, who led New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority and helped New York City stave off bankruptcy, died at 89.
Pic of the Day
Author and translator Alexander Kaganovsky (left) and Shlomo Bistritzky, the state rabbi of Hamburg, Germany, study the first pages of the first Ukrainian translation of the Torah, a project of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine (FJC) that was presented in Hamburg today. The translation is being carried out by Jewish Ukrainians who have fled and live in Hamburg, and the book is scheduled to be printed in September of this year.
Birthdays
Author of fiction and non-fiction books, she is the founding president of the Mayyim Hayyim mikvah in Newton, Mass., Anita Diamant turns 72…
Co-founder of Taglit Birthright, the first chairman of the United Jewish Communities and former owner of MLB’s Montreal Expos, Charles Bronfman turns 92… Brooklyn resident, Meyer Roth… Former member of both houses of the Pennsylvania legislature, Constance Hess “Connie” Williams turns 79… Former commander of the Israeli Navy, head of the Shin Bet and member of Knesset, Amihai “Ami” Ayalon turns 78… First-ever woman ordained as a rabbi by HUC-JIR, Sally Jane Priesand turns 77… New Jersey resident, Kenneth R. Blankfein… Democratic member of the Florida Senate, Lori Berman turns 65… Managing director at Osprey Foundation, Louis Boorstin… and his twin brother, senior advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group, Robert O. Boorstin, both turn 64… British historian and award-winning author, he is a great-great-nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, Simon Sebag Montefiore turns 58… Woodland Hills, Calif.-based accountant, Susan M. Feldman… Creator of multiple TV series including “Felicity,” “Alias,” “Lost” and “Fringe,” and director and producer of many films, Jeffrey Jacob (J.J.) Abrams turns 57… South Florida resident, Gordon M. Gerstein… Reporter for The New York Times on the climate desk, Lisa Friedman… Member of the Knesset for the United Torah Judaism alliance, Yoel Yaakov Tessler turns 50… Senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, Ilya Shapiro… Israeli judoka, Ehud Vaks turns 44… Director of stakeholder advocacy at Ford Motor, Caroline Elisabeth Adler Morales… Executive talent partner at Greylock Partners, Holly Rose Faith… Senior associate and deputy director of research and analytics at The Asia Group, Charles Dunst…
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