Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on how the British Jewish community is faring amid a spike in antisemitism in the U.K., and look at how pro-Israel groups are mobilizing against Squad members ahead of next year’s elections. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden and Sheryl Sandberg.
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: Campus safety now a top priority for Jewish students choosing colleges; Israel learns the hard way that Russia, China are not its friends; Former Israeli national security advisor: ‘Israel doesn’t have the time it thinks it has to fight this war.’Print the latest edition here.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken arrived in Israel this morning — his third trip to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks — for meetings with top officials, including President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. Among the issues Blinken is expected to raise is concern over eroding support for Israel as the civilian death toll in Gaza increases, reflecting broader Biden administration concerns over public support for Israel.
Blinken’s trip comes as a growing number of congressional Democrats come out in support for a humanitarian pause or pauses in Israel’s war against Hamas, Jewish Insider Capitol Hill reporter Marc Rod reports.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) became the first senator to explicitly call for a cease-fire yesterday, joining around 20 House lawmakers, but he said that should be contingent on Hamas’ immediate release of all hostages. “An effort should be made to engage in conversation between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” he said. Durbin later said that he’s supporting a “humanitarian pause which is equivalent to a temporary ceasefire.”
Support for brief humanitarian pauses, to free hostages, evacuate civilians and provide aid, has been the position of the administration for around a week, and was endorsed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, ahead of Blinken’s trip to Israel. The push represents a call for Israeli restraint that stops short of an explicit call for a cease-fire.
This proposal has been endorsed by almost 20 Democratic senators and more than three dozen House members — mostly progressives like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) who have been more critical of Israeli policy in the past.
But they’ve been joined by some more mainstream pro-Israel members like Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA). J Street has also endorsed a humanitarian pause.
The details of what humanitarian pauses should entail appear to be different for different lawmakers. Some are calling for a unilateral halt to Israel’s operations, while others are advocating for both Israel and Hamas to halt attacks. Some support broad-scale stops to violence across Gaza, while others are, like the Biden administration, supporting more localized and time-limited pauses.
Republicans have argued that the calls for humanitarian pauses are nothing more than a thinly veiled call for a cease-fire that will only empower and embolden Hamas.
AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann did not reject the concept, but told JI pauses “must be coordinated closely with Israel, be limited in time and location, and include protections to ensure aid is distributed exclusively and effectively to civilians and not stolen by Hamas.”
Most of the supporters of humanitarian pauses say they support Israel’s right to respond to the Hamas attack, but criticisms of Israel’s tactics are also growing, particularly following the strikes on Jabalya earlier this week.
Murphy said in a statement yesterday that Israel needs to “immediately reconsider” its tactics in Gaza to pursue a “more deliberate and proportionate counterterrorism campaign.” He said that the current tactics are resulting in “an unacceptable and unsustainable” level of civilian deaths that will not ultimately eliminate Hamas.
On the diplomatic front, Bahrain’s parliament announced that the country — one of the original signatories to the Abraham Accords — was downgrading relations with Israel on Thursday, while the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem firmly denied it, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Bahrain’s Council of Representatives posted a statement to its website that “the Israeli ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain has left Bahrain, and the Kingdom of Bahrain decided to return the Bahraini ambassador from Israel to the country. Economic relations with Israel have also been halted.” The move affirmed Bahrain’s “position in support of the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that it “received no message or decision from the government of Bahrain and the government of Israel to recall the countries’ ambassadors. The relations between Israel and Bahrain are stable.”
An Israeli diplomatic source said that the statement from the parliament in Manama was a non-binding resolution, and that the legislature never supported the Abraham Accords. Israel’s ambassador to Bahrain, Eitan Na’eh, did leave for Israel last week, but out of security concerns and not because of any diplomatic shifts.
Bahraini Finance Minister Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifasaid last week that the war between Israel and Hamas would not stop his country and the UAE from pursuing Israel’s economic integration into the region via the Abraham Accords.
A test of those ties may come later this month, with the IISS Manama Dialogue, in which policymakers across the region gather in Bahrain to discuss foreign policy and security issues. Israeli officials and experts spoke at the conference in recent years.
gaza war: day 28
Israeli ground troops advance, encircling Gaza City
As Israel – and the wider region – anticipate the content and tone of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s speech slated for Friday afternoon, IDF troops continued their advance into Hamas’ stronghold of Gaza City overnight, encircling the Palestinian enclave’s most populous area and reporting fierce battles in which hundreds of Hamas terrorists were killed. The Israeli military reported on Friday that a further four IDF soldiers were killed in battles in the northern Gaza Strip, bringing the total of soldiers killed since Israel began its ground operation a week ago to 24. A reserve soldier, Elhanan Ariel Klein, was also killed in a terror attack in the West Bank on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Death toll: In total, since Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel’s south, the families of some 338 soldiers have been notified of their deaths, with 241 families informed that their relatives are being held in Gaza by Hamas. The Israel Police said on Friday that the civilian death toll from the attack, which continues to fluctuate, stands at 828 identified victims – 734 of whom have been buried – and at least 100 more still missing.
Northern Front: IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Friday that the IDF was also on high alert along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon after nearly 20 rockets and missiles were launched from the territory into Israel on Thursday evening, injuring two Israeli soldiers in the Har Dov region and striking in the heart of Israel’s northernmost city, Kiryat Shmona.
postcard from london
In London, Jews hiding in plain sight
In the nearly four weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, Amy’s teenage son has been going to school in the loosest version of his school uniform. It is not just his yarmulke that he no longer wears, but his sweater, blazer and anything connecting him to the Jewish secondary school where he is a pupil. Amy’s younger children, meanwhile, now barely bat an eyelid at the increased security and occasional police presence outside their primary school. Games of “sleeping lions” — where pupils stay perfectly still under their desks while hiding from “burglars” — are now a regular occurrence. “Personally, I’ve never felt so scared,” said Amy, who asked not to give her full name to protect her children’s privacy. As Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza intensifies, antisemitism in the U.K. capital is soaring, Lianne Kolirin reports for Jewish Insider.
Numbers: The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity protecting British Jews, has recorded at least 805 antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7 — a 689% increase from the same period last year. The incidents include assaults, desecration of Jewish property, online abuse and mass production of antisemitic literature.
Regular protests: Liverpool Street Station, a key transport hub — and where Jewish children escaping Nazi Germany arrived on the Kindertransport in the late 1930s — was brought to a standstill at rush hour on Tuesday night as hundreds of protestors staged a sit-in, waving Palestinian flags and chanting, “From the river to the sea” while police looked on. The protest came days after an estimated 100,000 people descended on London for the third consecutive weekend of pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Once again, they came waving flags and brandishing hate-filled banners supporting Hamas, which have sent shockwaves through the city’s Jewish community.
Police position: Many, including Amy, feel the authorities have been slow to act. “The amount of people at that march made me feel sick,” she said. “How can it be allowed for people to stand there and chant about killing all Jews and nothing be done? I’m scared for our kids and have lost all faith in humanity.”
Bonus: In the U.K.’s Jewish News, a Guardian staffer who is Jewish explains their discomfort with the newspaper’s coverage of the war in Israel and attitudes of its staffers toward Jewish people.
legal options
To file federal discrimination complaints, Jewish students must navigate legal and bureaucratic jargon
In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, Jewish students at many American universities don’t feel safe on campus anymore. In cases when university efforts to address antisemitism fall short, or when Jewish students face persistent discrimination, students have a number of legal options. Jewish students have a right to an educational environment free from harassment, as do all students. They and their parents have avenues for relief through federal civil rights statutes. Here’s how they apply in cases of anti-Jewish discrimination, reports Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch.
Original text: In most cases, Jewish students alleging that their civil rights have been violated will turn to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — frequently referred to by university administrators and the Jewish professionals who work on these issues as, simply, “Title VI.” The clause says that no one in the United States shall, “on the ground of race, color or national origin,” face discrimination in programs that receive federal funding. This includes educational institutions, because even private universities receive federal funding.
How-to-file: Filing a Title VI complaint “can be an appropriate form of relief for individuals who are concerned that the university itself or the college itself is not taking sufficient steps to address the hostile environment,” said Amy Feinman, interim vice president of civil rights at the Anti-Defamation League. A Jewish student who wants to allege discrimination under this statute can file a Title VI complaint with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) online, via mail or via email.
Time is of the essence: “You don’t need a lawyer for that. You can just write it out, although it helps to have a lawyer to write out the complaint in a way that will satisfy the jurisdictional prerequisites and so forth,” said Mark Rotenberg, vice president for university initiatives and general counsel at Hillel International. Still, filing a complaint does not mean the Education Department will respond to it in a timely manner. The Education Department “is actually very slow in processing these and investigating them,” said Rotenberg.
Over at Oberlin: OCR opened an investigation into Oberlin College in response to a complaint filed by a former student alleging a pattern of antisemitism among students and faculty that went unaddressed by university administrators.
primary pivot
In change from past, pro-Israel groups rally to oust left-wing lawmakers
As far-left House members face primary competition over their polarizing stances on Israel’s war with Hamas, newly emboldened pro-Israel groups are indicating that they are now preparing to invest significantly in the upcoming election cycle, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
New signal: In one notable development, a major Democratic fundraiser with ties to a moderate political action committee that backs pro-Israel candidates is signaling that top donors are eager to fund credible primary challenges to Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Cori Bush (D-MO) — who have drawn backlash for equivocating over Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack.
The mainstream majority: Their reactions to the massacre have created “a lot of energy among donors and activists in the center,” Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political advisor to the billionaire entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, who largely funds the Mainstream Democrats PAC, said in an interview with JI on Thursday. “One of the very, very small silver linings of this horrible moment is that it does modestly increase the likelihood that we can remove some of these members of Congress.”
bookshelf
Dan Senor talks about his new book about Israeli grit in a fraught time
Less than a month after Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing more than 1,400 people in a horrific massacre, the Jewish state is in mourning. But despite the national grief, Israeli society has shown the world a remarkable degree of resilience, unity and social solidarity in the aftermath of the terrorist attack — particularly as Israel mobilizes to fight Hamas. That Israeli grit is the theme of Dan Senor’s new book, co-authored with Saul Singer, The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World, which was written before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and hits bookshelves on Tuesday. Now, amid one of the darkest periods in the Jewish state’s history, Senor sat down with eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen to talk about The Genius of Israel.
Crisis impact: “We lay out in the book all of the building blocks in Israeli society that we think prevent it from coming apart,” Senor said. “We are seeing that right now. We didn’t anticipate the Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, but what we are seeing as a result of the Hamas invasion is those building blocks at work. Those societal shock absorbers clicked in right away. The story of Oct. 7 is obviously horrific and Israel’s security will likely never be the same again, but in terms of Israeli society, we are seeing the best – the solidarity, the coming together, the sense of the country as one big family. You’re seeing this incredible flourishing over the last few weeks.”
U.S. role: “I would look at major American tech companies with a major presence in Israel. They are in Israel because it’s in their interest, they’re not doing it out of love of Zionism,” Senor said. “They are in Israel because in order to be competitive in the world they need to be partnering with Israeli tech, they need that edge. But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t thank them and encourage them. Many of these companies have made very strong statements standing with Israel. Any American who has any relationship with big multinational companies based in the U.S., tech or non-tech, with venture capital investors, constantly hearing from Americans that it is in America’s interest to stand by their Israeli colleagues, that’s the most important thing in terms of the tech community.”
on the hill
Republican Israel aid bill passes with backing from 12 pro-Israel Democrats
A dozen Democratic House members crossed the aisle yesterday evening to vote in favor of Republicans’ Israel aid bill, which also cut billions in funding from the Internal Revenue Service, while most Democrats opposed the legislation, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Who voted yes: Reps. Angie Craig (D-MN), Don Davis (D-NC), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Jared Golden (D-ME), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Darren Soto (D-FL), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL) voted for the bill. Most of them are stalwart supporters of Israel and many are Jewish.
Opposed but voting yes: Schultz said in a statement following the vote that she had personally urged other Democrats to oppose the bill “because of the horrendous precedent it set and the urgent need to pass the full emergency supplemental proposed by President Biden,” decrying the “gross politicization of this critical funding and an unprecedented conditioning of emergency aid to Israel.” She continued, “For me, as a Jew, as a Zionist and as the representative of a large Jewish community, I personally needed to cast my vote to stand by Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, in this moment of crisis.”
Senate’s view: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) confirmed yesterday that the the body will not take up the House’s bill and will instead send back its own package including Ukraine and Taiwan aid, and the White House has threatened to veto the Republican legislation. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that any aid package “must include” humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.
Also yesterday: The House voted 396-23 for a resolution condemning support for Hamas and other terrorist groups on college campuses. Twenty-two Democrats and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted against the bill. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) told Jewish Insider afterward that he voted no by mistake.
New bill: Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Wasserman Schultz introduced a separate bipartisan resolution, with more than 50 co-sponsors, condemning antisemitism on college campuses yesterday. The resolution is backed by a range of Jewish groups and endorses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism as a “helpful tool for education administrators and faculty to identify antisemitism.”
Bonus: As Senate Republicans press ahead with efforts to redesignate the Houthis as a terrorist organization, some Senate Democrats say they’re open to considering the proposal, although most indicated they haven’t given it much thought. “They seem to have been much more active as a malign group and as an Iranian proxy since [the designation] was removed, so I think it’s certainly something that we should look into,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) told JI.
Worthy Reads
Court of Public Opinion: In The Hill, The Washington Institute’s Dennis Ross and Robert Satloff argue that Israel is losing the public relations war, and suggest what it can do to more clearly make its case in the court of public opinion. “For the antisemites, Israel can do no right. They attack Israel when its people are butchered and attack Israel again when it rises to its people’s defense. They are a lost cause who deserve nothing but condemnation and contempt. But that alone does not fully explain why so much of the world turned on the Jewish state. Indeed, in the court of public opinion, Israel appears to have lost millions who aren’t antisemites — people of goodwill who saw what happened on October 7, watched what happened since, and believe Israel bears a good measure of responsibility for the human misery they see each night on TV or social media. To be sure, there is a structural imbalance to the battle of narratives. The butchery of October 7 was so heinous that Israel has refrained from releasing the raw footage Hamas attackers took on their own GoPro cameras out of sensitivity to the victims and their families. Hamas, on the other hand, has no compunction inviting media to film children injured in the fighting, glossing over the inconvenient question of whether they are victims of Israeli bombs or Hamas rockets gone awry.” [TheHill]
Free Speech Trap: In The New York Times, Jewish students at Yale, Cornell and Brown write that the intimidation and threats they’ve faced on campus are not protected by the First Amendment and need to be addressed by their universities. “All students have sacred rights to hold events, teach-ins and protests. And university faculty members must present arguments that make students uncomfortable. University campuses are unique hubs of intellectual discovery and debate, designed to teach students how to act within a free society. But free inquiry is not possible in an environment of intimidation. Harassment and intimidation fly in the face of the purpose of a university. The codes of ethics of universities across the country condemn intimidation and hold students and faculty to standards of dignity and respect for others. Campuses are at a crossroads: The leadership can either enforce these ethics, or these places of learning will succumb to mob rule by their most radical voices, risking the continuation of actual violence. Simply affirming that taunts and intimidation have no place on campus isn’t enough. Professors violating these rules should be disciplined or dismissed. Student groups that incite or justify violence should not be given university funds to conduct activity on campus.” [NYTimes]
Left Behind: In the Liberal Patriot, Ruy Teixeira suggests that the activist left is a “paper tiger” that is not reflective of how young Democrats feel about key issues. “Start with the fundamental fact that the progressive or intersectional left, for whom issues from ending fossil fuels to open borders to decriminalizing and decolonizing everything (free Palestine!) are inseparably linked moral commitments, is actually a pretty small slice of voters — six percent in the Pew typology, eight percent in the More in Common typology. So we should ask whether and to what extent their commitments are reflected in the views of the voter groups in whose name they claim to speak. Probably the most important of these is young voters, lately lionized as Democrats’ best hope — but also perhaps their downfall, if not appropriately catered to. And it is true that young voters generally lean more left than older voters, including in expressing more sympathy for the Palestinians and more opposition to sending weapons to Israel. But that does not mean young voters’ views are therefore in sync with those of the intersectional left and likely to take their cues from activists’ fury at the Biden administration.” [LiberalPatriot]
Around the Web
Teaming Up: Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Jim Banks (R-IN) jointly wrote a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken raising concerns about the Biden administration’s “lack of accountability” over Iran’s nuclear efforts.
In the Courts: The Department of Justice charged a California man with making death threats to the Anti-Defamation League and its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt.
Towson Talk: Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden met with a group of Jewish college students at Towson University earlier this week to discuss antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
Firm Response: More than two dozen top-tier law firms signed on to a letter to university deans calling on them to address antisemitism on campus, saying there is “no room for antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism or any other form of violence, hatred or bigotry on your campuses, in our workplaces or our communities.”
Cornell Crisis: Cornell University canceled Friday classes, citing the “extraordinary stress” facing those on campus following the arrest of a student for making threats against the school’s Jewish community.
UPenn Pressure: Some members of the University of Pennsylvania’s board of trustees are pushing for a no-confidence vote over chairman Scott Bok’s handling of the fallout from the administration’s response to pro-Hamas activity on campus.
Haniyeh’s Luxe Life: The Washington Postreports on the sprawling financial empire dominated by Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh from Qatar, where he has been based for years.
Hoarding Fuel: NBC News reports that Hamas is hoarding more than 200,000 gallons of fuel, as hospitals in Gaza say they are running low.
Telegram Chatter: A New York Times analysis of Telegram channels found that an antisemitic riot at a Dagestani airport earlier this week had been fomented by weeks of activity on the messaging platform warning that Israeli refugees would be arriving in the Russian republic.
Adams’ Aide Raid: Federal agents raided the home of a top fundraiser for New York City Mayor Eric Adams as part of an investigation into whether Adams illegally received donations for his 2021 campaign from Turkey.
SBF Guilty: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven charges related to fraud and money laundering following a five-week trial.
Sandberg’s Shop: Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg and her husband established their new VC fund, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners.
Wine of the Week
JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Ramat Negev Exodus Reserve 2020:
“I spent this past month hanging out with my 10-month-old grandson and his wonderful parents in Tel Aviv. Of course, I loved and cherished every minute of that. But the joy I felt being with them was not enough to overcome my despair over the horrors perpetrated on Israel. This made writing about the joys of wine impossible for me until I realized it might be the best way for me to lend my support and bring attention to the emerging wine industry in the south of Israel. What better than for me to sing the praises of beautiful wines produced there and encourage their purchase. To that end I will focus my upcoming columns on the wonderful wines from the region so recently pillaged. The Ramat Negev Exodus Reserve is an exquisite blend of malbec, cab franc and petit verdot. I love each of these varietals individually and when blended together they make for a defining moment. The opening has strong notes of blackberry currant, the mid-palate bathes you in rich dark chocolate fondue and the finish is powerful. This wine was aged in new French oak barrels for 24 months, which will help it last for at least 10 years. Am Yisrael Chai!”
Pic of the Day
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan swears in U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, a day after Lew was confirmed by the Senate. Lew arrived in Israel alongside Secretary of State Tony Blinken this morning to begin his posting.
Birthdays
Former chief of the general staff of the IDF, then minister of defense and member of Knesset for Kadima, Shaul Mofaz turns 75 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary where he also served as a professor of Jewish history, Ismar Schorsch, Ph.D. turns 88… Senior U.S. district judge in California, he is the younger brother of retired SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer, Judge Charles Breyer turns 82… MLB pitcher with more career victories (174) than any other Jewish pitcher (Koufax included with 165), Ken Holtzman turns 78… U.S. senator (D-HI), Mazie K. Hirono turns 76… Resident of Great Barrington, Mass., and a part-time researcher at UC Berkeley, Barbara Zheutlin… Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Medicine, professor at Yale University, James Rothman turns 73… Rabbi emeritus at Temple Anshe Sholom in Olympia Fields, Ill., Paul Caplan turns 71… Actress, comedian, writer and television producer, Roseanne Barr turns 71… Comedian, talk show host and commentator, Dennis Miller turns 70… Manuscript editor and lecturer, author of books on the stigma of childlessness and on the Balfour Declaration, Elliot Jager turns 69… Award-winning Israeli photographer, Naomi Leshem turns 60… Regional director of development for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jeanne Epstein… Co-founder and former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, now CEO of Dreamhaven, Michael Morhaime turns 56… Entrepreneur-in-residence at Loeb Enterprises II, Edward Stelzer… VP for federal affairs at CVS Health, Amy Rosenbaum turns 52… Founder of AKM Consulting, Amie Kershner… Partner at political consulting firm GDA Wins, Gabby Adler… Agent at Creative Artists Agency, Rachel Elizabeth Adler… Actress who won three Daytime Emmy Awards for her role on ABC’s “General Hospital,” Julie Berman turns 40… Director of corporate responsibility, communications and engagement at Southern Company Gas, Robin Levy Gray… Managing director at Guggenheim Partners, Rowan Morris… General manager of NJ/NY Gotham FC, Yael Averbuch West turns 37… Former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, he is a co-founder of D.C.-based Compass Coffee, Michael Haft turns 37… New York state senator, Michelle Hinchey turns 36… Director for China on the White House’s National Security Council, Julian Baird Gewirtz turns 34… MBA candidate in the 2024 class at The Wharton School, Ben Kirshner turns 31… MBA candidate in the 2024 class at The Wharton School, Caroline Michelman turns 31… Founder of NSA Creatives, Noy Assraf Arzan turns 28… Actress and model, Diana Silvers turns 26… Stu Rosenberg…
SATURDAY: Vice-chairman emeritus of AllianceBernstein, he is a former chairman of the Tikvah Fund, Roger Hertog turns 82… Political scientist who has published works on grand strategy, military history and international relations, Edward Luttwak turns 81… Member of Congress and chair of the House Budget Committee until earlier this year, he was Kentucky’s first Jewish congressman, John Yarmuth turns 76… Uruguayan biologist, he served as mayor of Montevideo and then as a national cabinet minister, Ricardo Ehrlich turns 75… Professor of medicine at England’s University of Birmingham and a leading British authority on organ donation and transplantation, James M. Neuberger turns 74… Board member of Jewish Funders Network and a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, Dorothy Tananbaum… Marketing and communications consultant focused on Israel advocacy and the Jewish community, Robert L. Kern… Professor at UCSF and winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine, David Jay Julius turns 68… U.K. politician who served as a Conservative party MP and cabinet minister, he was chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel, Baron Richard Irwin Harrington turns 66… Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 2013, Kenneth I. Gordon turns 64… Retired president and CEO of the Hudson Institute where he is now the Japan Chair, Kenneth R. “Ken” Weinstein turns 62… Author of five books, comedic actress and television host, Annabelle Gurwitch turns 62… Professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, Claire Elise Katz turns 59… Israeli screenwriter and film director, Eran Kolirin turns 50… Partner at Paragon Strategic Insights, Jeremy Chwat… Co-founder of Semafor, Benjamin Eli “Ben” Smith turns 47… Global director of strategic communications at McKinsey & Company, Max Gleischman… Opinion columnist at the Washington Post, she is also a commentator for CNN and a correspondent for “PBS NewsHour,” Catherine Rampell turns 39… Founder and CEO at Denver-based Fresh Tape Media, Jared Kleinstein… Founder and CEO of a health organization working for early detection and prevention of cancer, Yael Cohen Braun turns 37… Deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Addar Weintraub Levi… Former White House special representative for international negotiations, Avraham (“Avi”) Berkowitz turns 35… Recording artist, songwriter and entertainer known as Yoni Z, his YouTube channel has 10.4 million views, Yoni Zigelboum turns 32… Israeli professional stock car racing driver, he is the first Israeli to compete in one of NASCAR’s top three touring series, Alon Day turns 32… Founding editor of Healthcare Brew, Amanda E. Eisenberg… Bob Rubin…
SUNDAY: Former governor, legislator and supreme court justice, all in the Oregon state government, Ted Kulongoski turns 83… Singer, poet and actor, best known as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, Art Garfunkel turns 82… Co-founder and chairman of Rexford Industrial Realty, Richard Ziman turns 81… Television and film critic, Jeffrey Lyons turns 79… French public intellectual, media personality and author, Bernard-Henri Lévy turns 75… Economist and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University where he remains a University professor, Jeffrey Sachs turns 69… Israeli ceramic artist and sculptor, Daniela Yaniv-Richter turns 67… Psychologist and wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sara Netanyahu turns 65… Director at The Gottesman Fund, she is co-director of the development committee at the Chatham Synagogue Netivot Torah, Diane Bennett Eidman… Music producer and entertainment attorney, Kevon Glickman… Former prime minister of Israel, now leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid turns 60… Former regional director of AJC New York, now CEO at Healthcare Foundation of NJ, Michael Schmidt… Senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, Benjamin Wittes turns 54… Host, anchor and correspondent for CBS News and CBS Sports, Dana Jacobson turns 52… General counsel of The Jewish Theological Seminary, Keath Blatt… Jerusalem-born pianist, she has performed with major orchestras world-wide, Orli Shaham turns 48… Executive director of Chaya Community, a non-profit focused on the Jewish Iranian community, Tara Khoshbin… Legal correspondent at Business Insider, Jacob Shamsian… Talia Katz…
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