Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Israeli students about their experiences on American college campuses, and report on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s trip to Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Kathy Manning, Matti Friedman and Omer Adam.
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: Pro-Israel progressives begin to crack down on growing far-left extremism toward Israel; As death toll rises, Israelis fuming at government’s failures; Biden’s visit: A loving embrace or a bear hug? Print the latest edition here.
President Joe Biden drew a direct comparison between the terrorist group Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Thursday night Oval Office address, the first time he has linked the recent attacks in Israel with the nearly two-year-old war in Ukraine, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Biden used his 15-minute prime-time speech to make the argument that Hamas and Putin have similarly sinister goals — and that stopping both of them is not just a moral imperative, but is in the national security interest of the United States.
“Let me share with you why making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed is vital for America’s national security,” said Biden. “History has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction.”
In the speech, which took place a day after he traveled to Israel, Biden announced that he will send a budget request to Congress that includes funding for both Israel and Ukraine, which he described as “our critical partners.”
“It’s a smart investment that is going to pay dividends for American security for generations,” Biden stated. He did not say how much funding he would request, but Politico reported this week that Biden will seek the passage of a $100 billion supplemental budget package that will fund military aid for Israel and Ukraine, and include funding for some domestic priorities, including border security. Biden has also pledged to increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
For the first time since the war between Israel and Hamas began, Biden spoke about Iran’s involvement in the conflict. “Iran is supporting Russia in Ukraine, and it’s supporting Hamas and other terrorist groups in the region. We’ll continue to hold them accountable,” Biden said. Read more here.
The New York Times’ David Sanger writes that in his address, Biden “made his most explicit case yet for why Americans, and the world, should rally behind four major goals. The first is to keep the aid flowing into Ukraine, so that Mr. Putin cannot wait out the West and strangle the country. The second goal for Mr. Biden is killing off Hamas. The third is to keep both wars from spreading. And the final objective is to accomplish all this without bringing more death and misery to noncombatants caught in a world once again on fire.”
The Senate yesterday unanimously passed a resolution expressing support for Israel and condemning Hamas by a 97-0 vote; Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the only senator who did not co-sponsor the resolution, also voted in favor of it. The three non-voting senators were absent from Washington.
New York Solidarity Network, an organization dedicated to promoting pro-Israel positions in state and local races, is unveiling a new website today called the “Wall of Shame,” accusing several elected officials and advocacy groups of issuing recent statements “justifying Hamas terrorism.”
“We created this resource to shine a light on elected leaders and organizations who failed to meet the moment in response to one of the darkest days for Jews since the Holocaust,” Sara Forman, NYSN’s executive director, told JI. “Denouncing terrorism shouldn’t be hard. But for this group, it was. That’s wrong — and we’re letting them know.”
gaza war: day 14
Israel begins mass evacuation of residents of Kiryat Shmona
Israel evacuated more than 20,000 residents of the northern city of Kiryat Shmona on Friday, following a barrage of some 30 rockets fired by the Iran-backed Shiite terror group Hezbollah, as well as Hamas, from southern Lebanon into Israeli territory on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports. According to an announcement by the National Emergency Authority, a department in the Ministry of Defense, buses were already operating early Friday morning to help the population of the city to leave the area. Those being evacuated will be housed in state-funded hotels and guest houses, the statement said.
Northern front: Tensions have been rising on Israel’s northern border since Hamas carried out a mass terrorist attack in the country’s south on Oct. 7, with ongoing artillery fire, anti-tank missiles and rockets shot from southern Lebanon into Israel. The army also reported several infiltration attempts, killing four members of a terrorist cell earlier in the week. On Thursday, Hezbollah appeared to be ramping up its attacks, firing an estimated 30 rockets into northern communities across the Upper Galilee region, sending residents of Shlomi, Rosh Pina, Kiryat Shmona, Nahariya, Hanita, Shomera, Even Menachem and Betzet into shelters. Light injuries were reported.
U.S. action: In addition to the rocket fire from Lebanon, the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday that its forces in the northern Red Sea had shot down three land-attack cruise missiles and several drones launched by Houthi forces in Yemen, potentially targeting Israel. The Pentagon’s press secretary, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, said in a televised statement that the U.S. response “was a demonstration of the integrated air and missile defense architecture that we have built in the Middle East and that we are prepared to utilize whenever necessary to protect our partners and our interests in this important region.”
campus concerns
For Israeli students, it’s fear and loathing on American campuses
When choosing a college, Joseph Rasamat picked Indiana University in part because he wanted to avoid the politics of liberal arts schools in New England, where he grew up. Born in Tel Aviv, Rasamat and his family moved to Newton, Mass., when he was a child. The events of the past two weeks have tested that theory. Rasamat, a senior, was stunned to read a bland statement from the Big Ten university’s leadership that only came three days after the attack. (IU President Pamela Whitten later followed up with a stronger statement condemning Hamas.) Recently, Rasamat has taken to placing hundreds of miniature Israeli flags around the Bloomington, Ind., campus. Most of them are torn out of the ground within hours. One, hung up next to a “Free Palestine” poster in an academic building, was thrown in the trash. In conversations this week with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch, Israeli students, faculty and staff at American universities echoed Rasamat’s experiences.
Hard to reconcile: “I grew up in a pretty left-wing community, and I myself feel very liberal,” Rasamat said. “I was surprised that it turns out that it’s actually pretty hard to be liberal and Israeli sometimes on a college campus.”
In shock: In the nearly two weeks since Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel, Israelis living and working on American college campuses expressed shock at the extent to which anti-Israel sentiment has grown among their campus communities.
No humanity: “There needs to be a reckoning,” said Barak Sella, an Israeli master’s degree student at the Harvard Kennedy School. “I think the anti-Israel sentiment has been prevalent for so long, that even in this moment, it was hard to just recognize the humanity needed. Very simple humanity.”
Not safe: The hurt felt by Israeli students is coupled with a lingering sense of fear that they did not anticipate when they came to study in the United States. Many told JI that they did not go to their campuses last Friday due to concerns about Hamas’ calls for an international “day of rage” and the pro-Palestinian rallies that took place that day on some campuses. Others pointed to pro-Hamas and antisemitic posts by professors that have led them to feel unsafe in class.
More on the campus beat: Jewish students are feeling a deep sense of unease on campus in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel nearly two weeks ago, a panel of students from the U.S. and South Africa agreed, during a webinar hosted by the American Jewish Committee and Hillel International on Thursday, JI’s Tori Bergel reports.
on the hill
Van Hollen blocks Hawley resolution condemning antisemitic campus protests
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) on Thursday blocked an effort by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) to request the immediate passage of a resolution condemning as antisemitic student groups and protests on college campuses that criticized Israel and supported Hamas, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Hawley introduced the resolution a day prior, with Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Ted Budd (R-NC) co-sponsoring. He came to the Senate floor on Thursday to request that the bill be passed by unanimous consent, immediately without further consideration by the Senate or a formal vote.
Hawley’s case: “Maybe almost as disturbing as the facts of these terrible attacks themselves is the response of some people in this country, on our college campuses in this country, who promptly took to the streets, to the courtyards of these campuses, to the airwaves to broadcast their support for this genocide against the people of Israel,” Hawley said on the Senate floor yesterday in introducing the resolution. “And in the wake of this, campus leaders have been silent. They have refused to condemn this violent, virulent, genocidal, antisemitic rhetoric for what it is.”
Response: In a statement to JI, Van Hollen countered, saying, “There is no room for hate, antisemitism, or violence of any kind in our nation. We must stand up and speak out forcefully anytime we see it. That’s why I have wholly condemned the horrific attacks by Hamas and throughout my time in Congress, have always spoken out against antisemitism, including on the floor today. Senator Hawley’s resolution was not about that. His resolution aimed to take advantage of this moment to make politically motivated attacks against colleges — and students writ large — with a broad brush that undermines any true condemnation of hateful speech.”
Letter writing: Highlighting that many of Hamas’ actions had been documented and shared on social media, 11 Republican senators on the Senate Commerce Committee, led by Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-TX), wrote letters, obtained by JI, to the heads of X, TikTok, Meta and Alphabet Friday morning requesting that the companies not permanently delete any content showing the attack. “While steps should be taken to curb attempts by Hamas to weaponize social media for its own ends, it is indisputable that social media platforms have already played a critical role in exposing the international community to the genocidal atrocities committed against Israel,” the letters read.
Whip update: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has considered voting against Biden administration nominees in the past over Iran policy disputes, told JI yesterday that “we’re working on” his vote on Jack Lew, the nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Israel. “We need a person in place. We need a person there,” he continued.
hochul in the holy land
New York governor grieves personal loss alongside Israelis
When New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced earlier this week that she would be traveling to Israel for a solidarity mission, she could not have imagined that the show of solidarity would go both ways. But on Thursday afternoon, in a hotel conference room in Jerusalem, Hochul received hugs and words of consolation from American Jewish leaders, in Israel for their own solidarity mission, over the sudden death of her father, John Courtney, who died on Wednesday evening, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.
Kotel trip: On Thursday morning, Hochul visited the Western Wall, where, per tradition, she left a note in a wall crevice. “I pray for my father,” she wrote, “who cherished his visit to this Holy Land, and who passed during the night.” Courtney, who died of a sudden brain hemorrhage, had encouraged Hochul to make the trip to Israel, her first international trip since assuming the governorship two years ago, and her first to Israel. “It is with a heavy heart that I am here,” Hochul, clad in black, told the delegation convened by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “Not for my personal loss, but to see and hear and so deeply feel the pain of the Israeli people. It’s profound.”
On the ground: The governor spent Thursday morning at Kfar Aza, a kibbutz that sustained heavy losses on Oct. 7. Nearly a quarter of the kibbutz’s 400 residents were killed or taken hostage in the attack. “What I saw there — the horrors innocent people had to endure at the hands of terrorists — is something that I will never forget,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter. Calling Oct. 7 “the most deadly, horrific, disgusting attack that the 75-year-old State of Israel has ever felt,” Hochul noted that the carnage “harkens back to images of the Holocaust.” But, she said, “the images of the Holocaust are ones where people saw and knew what was going on, and too many were silent. That silence cannot define our time right now. What we see, and I came here to bear witness. I must speak about, I will talk about and I will help fortify the efforts and rally the world around the people of Israel at this time.”
heated floor
House Committee advances strongly bipartisan Hamas, Iran legislation, but not without an explosive argument
Two weeks after Hamas’ assault on Israel, the House Foreign Affairs Committee came together on Thursday to pass, with strong bipartisan support, a slate of legislation aimed at cracking down on Hamas, as well as its sponsors in Tehran and other Iranian affiliates, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
In the ring: But despite the general bipartisan agreement on the legislation debated, the hours-long committee meeting descended into a verbal sparring match between Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) and a number of Democrats on the committee, most prominently Ranking Member Greg Meeks (D-NY). Mast argued that Hamas is representative of and functionally indistinguishable from the Palestinian people at large, eliciting an angry response from Meeks, who shouted, “Mr. Mast, are you Ku Klux Klan? … All Palestinians don’t belong to Hamas, just like all white people don’t belong to the Ku Klux Klan.”
All in favor: The committee unanimously approved a bill asking the administration to present a strategy for preventing Western technology from being used In Iranian drones, a bill requiring annual reports on antisemitic and anti-Israel content in U.S.-backed Palestinian school curricula and a resolution calling on the European Union to fully designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
Most in favor: With strong bipartisan support, the committee advanced a sanctions bill targeting China and others involved in the Iranian oil trade, a bill promoting Abraham Accords naval cooperation, a bill sanctioning international supporters of Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups, a bill seeking to deter Iranian hostage-taking and blocking U.S. citizen travel to Iran and a resolution declaring that it is U.S. policy to oppose a nuclear-armed Iran by “all means necessary” and supporting Israel’s “freedom of action” to stop Iran’s nuclear program.
Genocide accusation: Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) wrote to the administration yesterday asserting that Hamas’ attack on Israel constituted genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Israel and the Jewish people, and requested that the State Department formally determine and declare as much.
Worthy Reads
Biden’s Moment:Haaretz’s Amir Tibon, who survived the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, reflects on the meeting between President Joe Biden and individuals affected by the attacks, including Tibon himself. “Each member of the group received from the president a penetrating personal look, an expression of pain and identification, and above all, an ear. He stood there, shared with us his personal life experience, and listened very intently to ours. The conversation wandered to other subjects. Biden related how as a child, he heard from his father stories about the horrors of the Holocaust, and how he felt obligated as a father himself to teach his own children this history. The similarity to the stories that commanded our news coverage for the past few days, about parents who hid their children and who explained to their toddlers that now they need to be quiet because dangerous people are outside, hovered constantly in the background. It was an incomprehensible situation: the president of the United States standing in front of a group of Israeli citizens and helping them process the horrible experience they’d just had, giving it historical context, and thinking together how to overcome it. Most Israelis heard over the last few years derogatory things about Biden due to his advanced age. Those who had the honor of meeting him Wednesday afternoon saw his age from another perspective, one of life experience and wisdom.” [Haaretz]
Cairo’s Challenge: In The New York Times, Daniel Kurtzer, who has served as the U.S. ambassador to both Egypt and Israel, considers Cairo’s options ahead of an escalation of the Israel-Hamas war. “Why has Egypt appeared hesitant to relieve the humanitarian distress affecting Palestinian civilians on the other side of its eight -mile border with Gaza, especially since there really is no alternative to Cairo helping deal with the crisis? Finding an answer lies in Egypt’s own challenges, and whether a nation with its own serious security problems and economic problems can be enough of a safe haven for others. Egypt has, along with Israel, blockaded Gaza on and off for 16 years, containing the enclave’s largely Muslim population while Cairo deals with its own insurgent threat in the area. It must worry about the political complications that could come from a large influx of Palestinians. Inevitably, Egypt will in some sense have to pivot, now, and treat those living a few miles away as neighbors in crisis, rather than a problem to be penned in.” [NYTimes]
Wartime Dilemma: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board explains the conundrum Israel faces in the midst of a Hamas disinformation campaign as it remains bound by the laws of war. “There are two bedrock principles in war that civilized nations developed over centuries. The first is that you can’t target civilians. On that standard every Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel is a war crime. They are aimed at cities with the hope of falling on an unlucky cafe or home. The second principle is proportionality, which is that incidental casualties have to be balanced against the war aims. This is based on the expectation that in any war there will be some innocents killed, but that they must be related to the goals of self-defense. The standard isn’t zero casualties, which is impossible. It’s as few as possible consistent with defeating the enemy. Yet the Western left has been moving to a standard that any civilian casualties in war are too many. If that is the law of war, then Israel would be denied the right of self-defense to destroy an enemy embedded in schools, mosques or dense urban neighborhoods. Under that standard, no Western nation, including the U.S., would be able to strike back against terrorists if civilians might be killed.” [WSJ]
What Winning Looks Like: In the Washington Post, Yuval Noah Harari contemplates how Hamas’ end game is reconcilable with the realities on the ground. “The link between the radical left and fundamentalist organizations such as Hamas is the belief in absolute justice, which leads to a refusal to acknowledge the complexity of realities in this world. Justice is a noble cause, but the demand for absolute justice leads inevitably to endless war. In the history of the world, no peace treaty has ever been reached that didn’t require compromise or that provided absolute justice. If Hamas’s war aims are indeed to derail the Israeli-Saudi peace treaty and to destroy all chance for normalization and peace, it is winning this war by a knockout. And Israel is helping Hamas, largely because Netanyahu’s government seems to be conducting this war without clear political goals of its own. Israel says it wants to disarm Hamas, and it has every right to do so in protecting its citizens. Disarming Hamas is vital also for any chance of future peace, because as long as Hamas remains armed, it will continue to derail any such efforts. But even if Israel succeeds in disarming Hamas, that’s just a military achievement, not a political plan. In the short term, does Israel have any plan to rescue the Israeli-Saudi peace deal? In the long term, does Israel have any plan to reach a comprehensive peace with the Palestinians and normalize its relations with the Arab world?” [WashPost]
Around the Web
Internal Affairs: In a memo to State Department employees, Secretary of State Tony Blinken acknowledged the emotional toll the war in Israel and Gaza has taken on staffers.
Temporary Role: Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) will not run for a full term in 2024, weeks after being sworn in to fill the vacancy left by Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) death.
Map Mess for Manning: New congressional maps proposed by North Carolina Republicans would likely shift the balance in the state’s congressional delegation, imperiling several Democrats, including Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC).
On Leave: A staffer in the Department of Homeland Security who posted anti-Israel content in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks was placed on leave after it was revealed that she had previously worked as a spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Cornell Controversy: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) called for the firing of a Cornell professor who said the Hamas terror attack was “exhilarating.”
Targeted Attack: A woman who was assaulted by a stranger at a New York subway stop said the assailant told her he hit her because she was Jewish.
Offline: The Pittsburgh Jewish Federation deleted its X account after hackers broke into it and posted pro-Palestinian content.
X-ed Out: X removedThe New York Times’ verification badge on the platform this week.
Echoes of History: In the Free Press, Matti Friedman draws comparisons between the current war and Israel’s 1948 war for independence.
Hunt for Hostages: The Washington Post spotlights efforts by Israeli security experts to use AI, geotagging and internet sleuthing to search for clues as to the Israeli hostages’ identities and whereabouts.
Delayed Deployment: Hamas is believed to be holding onto advanced weaponry not deployed in prior military confrontations with Israel, for use upon a potential ground invasion.
Schneider Says: Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said that Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) refusal to retract accusations that Israel attacked a Gazan hospital — and her doubling down on the topic — are “endangering our servicemen and women, our diplomats, and other Americans at home and around the world.”
Media Frenzy: The New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg reflects on the rush by media organizations to publish unconfirmed — and counterfactual — claims that Israel was responsible for the hospital explosion in Gaza.
Truth on Social: A new report on internet misinformation found that paid, verified accounts on X, formerly Twitter, are responsible for the mass dissemination of misinformation about the Israel-Gaza war.
Sunak + MBS: A readout from U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that the two agreed that the “loss of innocent lives in Israel and Gaza over the last two weeks has been horrific.”
Remembering: TV executive Edward Bleier, the driving force behind the creation of cable news, died at 94.
Pic of the Day
Hundreds of entertainment professionals gathered at the 1 Hotel West Hollywood to discuss antisemitism and the entertainment industry in a daylong summit created and hosted by Variety magazine, which was held in the shadow of last week’s brutal terror attacks in southern Israel in which the largest number of Jews were murdered in a single day since the Holocaust, Esther D. Kustanowitz reports for eJewishPhilanthropy from Los Angeles.
“Sometimes people say to me, ‘I’m basically Jewish, I love bagels,’” said comedian Alex Edelman, whose limited-run show “Just for Us” just closed in New York and will be traveling to Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco over the next few months. “Judaism has to be something deeper: holding two complex emotions at once. That’s Jewish. To understand the tension between the collective and the individual, that’s Jewish. To understand the need for keeping your traditions whole, and also being part of the secular world that we live in, that’s Jewish,” he said.
Birthdays
Israeli singer, Omer Adam turns 30 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Economist who earned the nickname “Dr. Doom” during his tenure as the chief economist at Salomon Brothers, Henry Kaufman, Ph.D. turns 96… Former Poet Laureate of the U.S., he is a professor at Boston University, Robert Pinsky turns 83… Professor emerita at Ben-Gurion University, she is the daughter of former PM and President Shimon Peres, Tsvia Walden turns 77… One of two grand rebbes of Satmar, Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum turns 76… Miami Beach-based real estate developer, Russell W. Galbut turns 71… Actress and director of film and television, Melanie Mayron turns 71… Music composer for many films, winner of six Grammys and an Emmy Award, Thomas Newman turns 68… Former longtime House Budget Committee staff director, now an adjunct professorial lecturer at American University, Thomas Kahn… U.S. senator (D-RI), Sheldon Whitehouse turns 68… Managing director and partner at Beacon Pointe Advisors, Jordan Heller… Former rabbi of the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem’s Katamon area and a leading figure at the Israel Democracy Institute, Rabbi Binyamin (Benny) Lau turns 62… Russian TV and radio journalist, Vladimir Solovyov turns 60… Vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris turns 59… U.S. senator (D-HI), Brian Schatz… and his identical twin brother, the executive director of the University of Hawaii’s P-20 programs, Stephen Schatz, both turn 51… Israeli actress, Hilla Vidor turns 48… Classical violinist and a 2008 winner of a MacArthur genius fellowship, Leila Josefowicz turns 46… Film and television writer, David Caspe turns 45… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA), Mike Levin turns 45… Long Island regional director at AJC Global, Eric Post… Israeli born actress, she is a recurring character on CBS’s Seal Team, Alona Tal turns 40… Fashion designer, best known for her eponymous line of women’s ready-to-wear, Misha Nonoo turns 36… Manager at AIPAC’s political action committee, Michael Clark… Associate in the NYC office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Evan G. Zuckerman… Twins from Raanana and avid JI readers, Avi and Rafi Granoff turn 19…
SATURDAY: Emmy Award-winning reality courtroom personality, “Judge Judy,” Judith Sheindlin turns 81… News anchor who worked for 36 years in Philadelphia, and author of three books on the Beatles, Larry Kane turns 81… Professor of Hebrew literature and philosophy at Harvard University, Shaye J. D. Cohen turns 75… National executive committee member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Terri Smooke… Prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu turns 74… Novelist, screenwriter, journalist and film producer, Amy Laura Ephron turns 71… Cardiologist and medical director at the Center for Women’s Health at the NYU Langone Medical Center, Nieca Goldberg, MD turns 66… Legislative director for Massachusetts state senator Jo Comerford, Brian Rosman… Managing principal and chief investment officer at Penso Advisors, Ari Bergmann, Ph.D. turns 62… Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla turns 62… Austin-based commercial insurance consultant, Mitchell B. Davis… President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, David L. Bernstein turns 57… Emmy Award-winning television producer best known for her work on “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock,” Marci Klein turns 56… Folk and folk-rock musician, he serves as the treasurer of The William Davidson Foundation, Ethan Daniel Davidson turns 54… EVP and editorial director at U.S. News & World Report, Dafna Linzer turns 53… U.S. senator (R-NC), Ted Budd turns 52… Classical composer and pianist, Lera Auerbach turns 50… Acting administrator and assistant secretary for aging at HHS’s Administration for Community Living, Alison Barkoff… Mayor of Phoenix, Ariz., Kate Widland Gallego turns 42… Israeli musician, model and actress, Ninet Tayeb turns 40… Joshua Sayles… Dori Tenenbaum… Chief information officer at Aish Global, Dan Hazony… Manager of marketing and communications at the Union for Reform Judaism, Eliana Rudee… Actress, model and writer, Hari Nef turns 31… Graduate of the University of Tel Aviv medical school, Stuart “Shimmy” Jesin… Occupational therapist, Yael Applebaum…
SUNDAY: Long-time chairman of Westfield Corporation, Frank Lowy turns 93… Pioneer of the venture capital and private equity industries, Alan Patricof turns 89… Retired EVP of the Orthodox Union, he was previously chairman of NYC-based law firm Proskauer Rose, Allen Fagin… Actor who starred in many high-grossing films such as Jurassic Park, Independence Day and sequels of both of those, Jeff Goldblum turns 71… Agent for artists, sculptors and photographers, David Hochberg… Retired vice-chair of SKDK, she was the long-time CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, Hilary Rosen turns 65… Composer and lyricist, he has won a Grammy, an Emmy and a Tony, and been nominated for seven Oscars, Marc Shaiman turns 64… Author of two novels and three other books, Susan Jane Gilman… Bethesda, Md., resident, Eric Matthew Fingerhut… Chief of staff of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, Michelle Gordon… Actor best known for playing D.J. Conner on the long-running series “Roseanne” and its spin-off show, “The Conners,” Michael Fishman turns 42… Partner at West End Strategy Team, Samantha Friedman Kupferman… Dana Tarley Sicherman… Psychotherapist with a private practice in White Plains, Maayan Tregerman, LCSW-R… Journalist and author, Ross Barkan turns 34… Actor and producer, Jonathan Lipnicki turns 33… Freelance reporter, Ryan Torok…
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