Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to political and Jewish communal leaders who share their remembrances of Sen. Joe Lieberman, and report on Israeli security warnings for travelers ahead of Passover and the Eurovision song contest. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Ben Cardin, Josh Kushner andAnn Lewis.
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: Joe Lieberman, Conn. senator and first Jewish VP nominee, dead at 82; Honoring survivors who gave testimonies, Steven Spielberg warns Jews again have to fight for ‘the very right to be Jewish’; Traditionally quiet campuses now face widespread anti-Israel activity. Print the latest edition here.
Speaking at a fundraiser in New York City last night, President Joe Biden said that some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, “are prepared to fully recognize Israel.” The fundraiser, which raised $25 million for the president’s reelection campaign, also featured appearances by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
“But there has to be a post-Gaza plan,” the president added, “and there has to be a train to a two-state solution. It doesn’t have to occur today, but there has to be a progression, and I think we can do that. I think we can do that. That’s why we’re seeing more avenues open into Israel — excuse me, into Gaza — to bring food and medicine and there’s much more we can do. But I’m confident it can be done and Israel’s integrity, Israel’s security, where Israel can be preserved.”
The president was at points interrupted by anti-Israel protesters — who also gathered outside of Radio City Music Hall. “There’s a lot of people who are very, very — there are too many innocent victims, Israeli and Palestinian,” Biden said in response to hecklers in the crowd. “We’ve got to get more food and medicine, supplies into the Palestinians. But we can’t forget, Israel is in a position where its very existence is at stake. You have to have all those people. They weren’t killed. They were massacred. They were massacred. And imagine if that had happened in the United States, and tying a mom and her daughter together, pouring kerosene on them, burning them to death. It’s understandable Israel has such a profound anger and Hamas is still there. But we must, in fact, stop the effort that is resulting in significant deaths of innocent civilians, particularly children.”
Earlier this week, hundreds of demonstrators clad in Batman costumes descended on New York’s Central Park for a rally calling for the release of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity.
The sight of hundreds of Batmen and Batwomen — paying homage to the Bibas brothers’ Purim costume last year, the only year that Kfir Bibas, who turned 1 year old in captivity in January, has celebrated the holiday — would normally spur widespread media coverage.
But coverage was limited to the Jewish press, increasingly the only silo of journalism to continue steadily reporting on the hostages since a deal that freed nearly half of the more than 240 people taken by Hamas and other terror groups on Oct. 7. Several dozen of the remaining hostages are confirmed dead, but the fates of many are still unclear, and their families and loved ones hold onto hope that they are still alive.
A New York Times interview with released hostage Amit Soussana shone a spotlight, briefly, on the plight of the 134 people — among them, a handful of Americans — still being held hostage in the enclave, and the sexual violence that some of the female hostages have been — and are likely still being — subjected to.
Aside from Soussana, the Israeli hostage to get the most media attention this week has been Shani Louk, a Nova music festival partygoer whose lifeless body was photographed on the back of a truck, surrounded by Hamas terrorists celebrating their prize. The photo, taken by a freelance photographer in Gaza who entered Israel in the early hours of Oct. 7 alongside the thousands of Hamas terrorists who breached the border with Israel to conduct their massacre, was part of a series of photographs from the Associated Press that won a top prize from the University of Missouri’s prestigious Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gurslammed the photo’s defenders, saying, “Joining a group at the group’s behest that’s heading to commit an atrocity in order to chronicle the atrocity, without using that foreknowledge to try to warn victims or authorities ahead of time, is not ‘taking risks to expose atrocities.’ It’s participating in atrocities.” There is no evidence that any of the journalists who documented Oct. 7 knew what was planned in advance.
Perhaps the only place the hostages remain front of mind in the collective consciousness is in Tel Aviv, where stickers and posters of the remaining hostages dot benches and lampposts, and where thousands continue to gather, nearly six months in, every Saturday night at Hostage Square to rally for their release.
Also this week was Hamas’ rejection — again, and after nearly two weeks of negotiations — of a proposal that would release some 40 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel — including some who have faced murder charges for attacks against Israelis.
Hamas’ rejection of the deal came days after Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-led U.N. Security Council resolution that linked a cease-fire with the release of the remaining hostages. A different resolution, which called for both a cease-fire and the release of the hostage but did not make the former contingent on the latter, passed through the body on Monday after the U.S. declined to use its veto power.
Hamas celebrated the passage of that resolution.
rafah rift
From ‘bear hug’ to barbs, how the U.S. and Israel differ on taking Rafah
Less than two weeks after Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terror attacks on southern Israel, President Joe Biden became the first American leader to visit Israel during wartime, touching down at Ben Gurion Airport for meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to give the Israeli people a symbolic “bear hug.” Yet even back then, some Israelis warned that the public display of support by the self-proclaimed Zionist president would, at some point, wane as other U.S. priorities replaced the “hug,” putting the administration at odds with the Jewish state’s war goals. This week, that prediction seemed to be coming true. Not only did the U.S. abstain from using its veto power to stop a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, but the administration appeared to ramp up its pressure on Israel to refrain from a major military operation in Hamas’ final stronghold of Rafah, prioritizing the safety of Palestinian civilians, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Conflicting priorities: On Tuesday, a senior defense official told reporters that while the Biden administration still supported Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas, it was now urging the Israelis to find an alternative approach and that the protection of Palestinian civilians was now more of a priority. “From the beginning of the war, Israel and the U.S. had different positions on this,” Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Misgav Institute, told JI. “Israel was determined to destroy Hamas and get the hostages released, while the Americans, right from the beginning, said they did not want the Palestinian population to be harmed, and now they have put the well-being of the Palestinian population above anything else.”
Politics at play: “It’s a real shame how the administration is acting right now,” Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), told JI. “I don’t think it’s military strategy that’s driving this, it’s politics,” he continued, pointing out that the administration sent a senior foreign policy official to Dearborn, Mich., home to the country’s largest Palestinian-American population. “That was the pivot, that same week, we saw [Secretary of State Tony] Blinken talking about needing a Palestinian state,” Makovsky said.
Elsewhere: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a delegation of visiting Democratic legislators that “victory” is “a few weeks away” and that Israel has “no choice” but to enter Rafah.
an appreciation
‘Spine of steel, heart of gold’: Remembering Joe Lieberman
As the first Jewish person on a major party presidential ticket, Joe Lieberman made history for American Jews, and for America, when Al Gore tapped him as his running mate in 2000. The announcement sparked widespread excitement and emotion within the Jewish community. The universal pride in Lieberman mirrors the widespread outpouring of grief for the longtime Connecticut senator after his death, at 82, on Wednesday from a fall. Now, American Jews old and young, left and right, have joined together to honor the memory of a man who maintained his Shabbat observance through decades of service in public office and who stood firmly by his beliefs, even when they made him an outcast in a changing Democratic Party. Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch asked community leaders and those close to Lieberman to share reflections on his legacy and stories of his life.
Dan Gerstein, former speechwriter to Lieberman: “He had a classic Borscht Belt style of humor. He was a very good joke teller. … He actually got invited to participate in the “Funniest Celebrity in Washington” contest [in 1999], which was kind of a long-running charitable fundraising event. And the gag of it was they would typically invite a series of prominent public figures in Washington who are not known for being funny and have them do stand-up, and it was a competition. Lieberman was very happy to do it. He had a competitive side to him.”
Marshall Wittmann, AIPAC spokesperson and former communications director for Lieberman: “No one could match his commitment to a just cause and no one could match his decency in pursuing it. And along with his deep love for America, he was a lover of Zion and his fellow Jews. Indeed, the hottest journalistic ticket in town was to try to walk with the senator from his Georgetown home to the Capitol when there was a vote on Shabbos. As his communications director, I had to break many reporters’ hearts by informing them the senator would walk alone.”
Ann Lewis, White House communications director for President Bill Clinton: “In recent years, I would see Joe Lieberman mostly at social or organizational events. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word: always a pleasure to talk with him, even briefly. But what I remember most vividly today is how excited I was in 2000, when I learned he had been named by Al Gore as his vice presidential nominee. That an American Jew should be chosen for this honor said so much about our country — that it was Joe Lieberman meant there was no question he would make us all proud. He did. He was an effective, popular advocate for the campaign, with a huge number of requests for his appearance. On and off the campaign trail, he represented our community with grace and honor (and a bissel of humor.)”
Bonus: Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, who served as Lieberman’s 2000 vice-presidential campaign manager, spoke to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell about Lieberman’s life and legacy.
travel warning
Israelis, Jews in terrorists’ sights at Eurovision and Olympics, Israeli official warns
Israelis and Jews attending the Eurovision competition and the Summer Olympics are in terrorists’ “crosshairs,” a diplomatic source who deals with foreign terrorism threats warned on Thursday. The Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place in Malmö, Sweden, on May 7-11, and the Summer Games in Paris will kick off on July 26. The diplomatic source also highlighted the European Football Championship, known as the Euro games, set to take place in Germany in June. He briefed reporters in conjunction with a National Security Council travel warning issued to Israelis going abroad for Passover, which begins on the evening of April 22, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Behavior abroad: “Malmö is a city with many hostile areas,” the source said. “Whoever goes there should not display their Zionism. Don’t walk around with Israeli flags. That could cause problems — like street fights.” At the same time, the source said he did not know of any specific terrorist threats against Israelis in Sweden. With tens of thousands of Israelis expected to attend the Euro games and the Olympics, the source said “the major concern is about global jihadist factors who have Israelis and Jews in their crosshairs.” More broadly, the Israeli official said, Israelis traveling abroad should try not to stand out. ”You can speak Hebrew to each other, but don’t shout to family members or friends on the other side of the street,” he said.
Tip of the iceberg: Dozens of terrorist attacks against Jews and Israelis have been thwarted since the start of the war in Gaza in October, the source said. “At any given moment there are efforts around the world to attack Israelis and Jews. Along with local law enforcement, the Israeli defense establishment takes endless preventative actions…The parts made public are the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
on the hill
In reversal, Senate Foreign Relations to take up MAHSA Act Iran sanctions
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced on Thursday that it plans to take up the MAHSA Act alongside other Iran, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad sanctions measures, a reversal from previous plans by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the committee’s chair, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Original plans: Cardin’s office had told Iranian-American activists who had been advocating aggressively for the MAHSA Act, a sanctions bill targeting Iranian leadership, that he did not plan to take up the bill. He suggested to reporters that the committee would be putting together its own package of Iran sanctions legislation rather than taking up any of the various House-passed bills.
On the docket: But the Foreign Relations Committee announced an April 16 business meeting during which the committee will consider a slew of sanctions measures including the MAHSA Act; the SHIP Act, which places new sanctions on those purchasing and processing Iranian oil, targeting China; the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad International Terrorism Support Prevention Act, which sanctions foreign supporters of the Palestinian terrorist groups; and the MISSILES Act, which aims to respond to the sunset of U.N. sanctions on Iran’s missile and drone programs by codifying the sanctions in U.S. law and demands an administration strategy on preventing proliferation.
Other measures: The committee is also set to consider a resolution condemning Hamas’ use of sexual violence and a resolution calling for the immediate release of Evan Gershkovich, the Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter who has been detained in Russia for a year.
pier protection
Senate Republicans have ‘strong reservations’ about Biden’s Gaza pier plan
The dozen Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee expressed “strong reservations” about the Biden administration’s plan to build a humanitarian pier in Gaza, warning that it may endanger U.S. troops and may not address the key hurdles for humanitarian aid, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Security concerns: The lawmakers, in a letter to President Joe Biden sent on March 21 and released Thursday, said that the plan “appears to ignore force protection issues entirely, against an enemy that tries to kill Americans every day.” They continued, “We are gravely concerned that the Department of Defense has given too little consideration to the likelihood that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other U.S.-designated terrorist organizations operating in Gaza would attempt to attack the U.S. personnel that will be deployed to this mission.”
Same issues: They also said that the pier would not address the key problems relating to security and distribution of aid inside Gaza. “Your decision to build a pier for Gaza merely creates another port of entry that will be backlogged,” they wrote. “There is no apparent plan to secure distribution, to keep aid in civilians’ hands and out of Hamas’. The latter would provide Hamas sustenance to continue fighting rather than force it to return the hostages and end the war.”
Core problem: The lawmakers further argued that the plan “ignores the most basic cause” of the humanitarian crisis — Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. They said that the humanitarian challenges would end if Hamas released the hostages and surrendered.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill: Reps. Betty McCollum (D-MN), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) urged the administration to “reassess how our assistance is provided to Israel,” outside of defensive weaponry, “unless and until the Netanyahu government allows the free flow of sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza” and if it launches any “significant military operation in Rafah.”
scoop
Lawmakers urge sanctions on International Court of Justice president
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers urged the State Department on Thursday to consider placing sanctions on the recently elected president of the International Court of Justice over his alleged anti-Israel bias if he does not recuse himself from the two Israel-related cases before the court, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Quotable: “Judge [Nawaf] Salam’s clear and well-documented record of bias against the Jewish state and persistent violations of the ICJ charter make it abundantly clear that he will not be a fair and neutral arbiter in these cases,” nine lawmakers said in a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Thursday, calling the Lebanese jurist “wholly unfit” to hear the cases.
Background: The lawmakers said Salam is violating the charter by refusing to recuse himself from the Israel-related cases. They said his continued participation in ICJ rulings on Israel “underscor[es] the need for further action to secure Judge Salam’s recusal in compliance with the ICJ charter.” They called on the administration to restrict his travel to the U.S. and explore other sanctions if he does not recuse himself.
Read the full story here.
Bonus: The International Court of Justice on Thursday ordered Israel to improve humanitarian conditions on the ground in Gaza.
Worthy Reads
Biden’s Bind: In Foreign Policy, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Aaron David Miller suggests that President Joe Biden is unlikely to significantly alter his Israel policy, despite mounting pressure from the left flank of his party. “In the end, other than Biden’s emotional bond with Israel, the greatest constraint on his bringing significant pressure on Israel either to preempt an Israeli policy or impose costs on Israel for carrying one out that runs against U.S. interests is the stunningly obvious fact that Biden cannot deescalate the war in Gaza, let alone end it, without Israel’s cooperation. In very simple terms, does Biden want to make a point — or a difference? And while he’s dealing with an Israeli prime minister who may well have a stake in prolonging the war and opposing U.S. interests in the process, unless he can change the government of Israel (which he can’t), he has few good options other than to try to deal with it. He needs Israel for a hostage deal — the only pathway that offers any hope of buying a temporary cease-fire and deescalating. He needs Israel to facilitate humanitarian assistance into Gaza.” [ForeignPolicy]
Progressive Problems: New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait spotlights the dichotomy between efforts to frame far-left voices and policies as critical to Democratic wins in November while simultaneously playing down the extreme elements among those voices. “There are two popular notions on the progressive left that seem intellectually irreconcilable. The first is that the media should stop scrutinizing radical left-wing ideas by progressive college students and political activists. The second is that the Democratic Party must heed the demands of progressive college students and political activists. … No serious person is proposing that Biden go all the way to denouncing Israel as an illegitimate settler-colonist entity. There is room to debate degrees of movement within his stance. The point is that the amount of attention that’s been devoted to presenting left-wing pro-Palestinian activists as a powerful and even potentially decisive faction in national politics implies the need for a proportionate level of scrutiny of their ideas. To insist these activists only matter when you are touting their influence, and then to deny their power when they receive scrutiny, is a tactic posing as an ideal.” [NYMag]
Easter Rebellion: In the Washington Post, Paula Fredriksen cautions against efforts to label Jesus as a Palestinian ahead of Easter, which falls on Sunday. “Why rehearse this well-known history? Because now, in the current crisis, even Jesus is being enlisted for attacks on Israel. Calling Jesus a ‘Palestinian’ or even a ‘Palestinian Jew’ is all about modern politics. Besides being historically false, the claim is inflammatory. For two millennia, Jews have been blamed for Jesus’ execution by the Romans; casting him as a Palestinian just stokes the fires of hate, using Jesus against Jews once again. It is, further, an act of cultural and political appropriation — and a clever rhetorical move. It rips Jesus out of his Jewish context. And it rips 1st-century Jews — and 21st-century Israeli Jews — out of their ancestral homeland, turning them into interlopers. This is polemic masquerading as history.” [WashPost]
Origin Story: In Teen Vogue, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt looks at the origins of International Women’s Day, which was founded by Russian-Jewish immigrant and socialist activist Theresa Serber Malkiel. “Malkiel continued to be active in the party until 1920, when she ran a failed campaign for a seat in the New York State Assembly. It was then that she withdrew from the party and turned her attention to immigrant women’s education, her focus until the end of her life in 1949. It is unclear what pushed Malkiel to withdraw from the party, as the records of her life are rather hazy. Perhaps, as someone who had experienced both antisemitism and misogyny and witnessed racism, Malkiel could no longer identify with a cause that practiced political exceptionalism, in which all women’s rights were not seen as essential, and in which only some identities were deemed worthy of protection, and not others. Her memory asks hard questions of American women who call themselves progressive yet practice political exceptionalism — those who refuse to do the hard work of undoing their own unconscious biases, including deeply buried antisemitism.” [TeenVogue]
Around the Web
The Day After: The Department of Defense is engaging in preliminary conversations about potentially funding an international or Palestinian peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip at the conclusion of the Israel-Hamas war.
Mysterious Mustafa: The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Gaza Now founder Mustafa Ayash, whom the U.N. Human Rights Office in the Occupied Territories said in December had been killed in an Israeli airstrike; Ayash’s own outlet announced via Telegram this week that the self-proclaimed journalist was recently arrested in Austria.
Plot Twist: GOP fundraiser Eric Levine, a Nikki Haley supporter who had previously pledged not to back former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, said he will vote for Trump in November, citing “a dramatic change in circumstances.”
Backing Bowman: The top three Democrats in the House released a joint statement backing Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) for reelection; House Democratic leadership had previously pledged to support all incumbents.
Sue’s Supporters: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is adding New Jersey congressional candidate Sue Altman to its “Red to Blue” list, as the Democrat prepares to take on freshman Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-NJ).
California Case: California legislators are working on a new bipartisan effort to push through legislation that would help the descendants of Jews whose art was looted during the Holocaust recover their families’ property.
Back to Life: Josh Kushner and Karlie Kloss are revivingLife magazine, following a deal between Kushner and Barry Diller’s IAC.
Court Case: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Press Pivot: The Wall Street Journal looks at how The Atlantic turned around its business model to turn a profit three years after an eight-figure deficit and wide-ranging newsroom layoffs.
Streaming Now:Timereviews “We Were the Lucky Ones,” a new Hulu miniseries about a Jewish family in wartime Poland.
Pacific Power: The boards of two Oregon Jewish federations — one in Eugene and one in Portland — voted to divest their investments from fossil fuels, the first federations in the country to make such a move.
Full-court Press: In The Free Press, Eli Lake considers the efficacy of lawsuits and complaints against university administrations over their handling of antisemitism on campus.
New Faces: The Palestinian Authority announced the formation of a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, who will also serve as foreign minister.
Paris Pledge: France said it will resume its funding to the embattled U.N. agency tasked with working with Palestinians, two months after the U.S. and most Western countries cut their support for UNRWA over its staffers’ ties to terror groups and direct involvement in the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
Camera Confession: A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist captured by Israeli forces in Khan Younis this month confessed to having raped a woman in a kibbutz during the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
Payments on Pause: Israel’s High Court of Justice issued a temporary order halting funds to the country’s yeshivas effective April 1, following the expiration of a government resolution that kept the IDF from drafting Haredi men.
Slippery Sales: Western intelligence suggests that Beijing’s purchasing of Iranian oil in violation of U.S. sanctions is helping to fund Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
Remembering: Painter Robert Moskowitz, whose subjects often included New York’s skyscrapers, died at 88. Diplomat and Democratic fundraiser Esther Coopersmith, who took credit for introducing the wives of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat ahead of the Camp David Accords, died at 94.
Song of the Day
Birthdays
Actor, known for his role as Steve Sanders on the television series “Beverly Hills, 90210,” Ian Ziering turns 60 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Chemist, professor at both Hebrew University and UCLA, winner of the 1974 Israel Prize, Raphael David Levine turns 86… Organizer of annual morning minyan services since 1983 for runners in the NYC Marathon, Peter Berkowsky turns 82… Attorney, NYT best-selling author, sports agent, Ronald M. Shapiro turns 81… Houston-based labor law, employment law and personal injury attorney, Carol Cohen Nelkin… Orthopedic surgeon, he is a former professional boxer, Harold “Hackie” Stuart Reitman, MD turns 74… University of Chicago professor and winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for economics, Roger Myerson turns 73… Computer scientist and founder of D. E. Shaw & Co., David Elliot Shaw turns 73… Economist and chairman of consulting firm Roubini Macro Associates and professor emeritus at NYU, Nouriel Roubini turns 66… Miami businesswoman, JoAnne Papir… Co-founder and co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, Stephen Andrew Feinberg turns 64… Co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor, Ariel Zev “Ari” Emanuel turns 63… U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) turns 60… Director of the Mossad, David “Dadi” Barnea turns 59… French film director and writer, best known for his 2011 film “The Artist” which won five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Michel Hazanavicius turns 57… Deputy chief of staff at The Rockefeller Foundation and adjunct fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Eric Pelofsky… Founder of Leopard Strategies, Liz Jaff… Former assistant U.S. attorney and kosher MRE connoisseur, now a candidate for attorney general of Missouri, Will Scharf turns 38… Communications director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, David A. Bergstein… Senior associate at Strategy&, Annie Rosen Pai… Director of business development at Logical Buildings, Alexander Zafran…
SATURDAY: Partner of Rose Associates, Elihu Rose turns 91… Professor of international trade at Harvard and winner of the Israel Prize in 1991, Elhanan Helpman turns 78… Cherry Hill, N.J., resident, Zelda Greenberg… Film and television director, Michael Stephen Lehmann turns 67… Comedian, actor, television personality, screenwriter, author and musician, Paul Reiser turns 67… Host of Public Radio Exchange’s “The World,” Marco Werman turns 63… District attorney of Philadelphia since 2017, he was previously a civil liberties attorney and sued the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times, Larry Krasner turns 63… U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria under Presidents Obama and Trump, he is the immediate past-president of the American Foreign Service Association, Eric Seth Rubin turns 63… Owner and founder of DC area’s Ark Contracting, Noah Blumberg… Actress, director, producer and ballerina, Juliet Landau turns 59… Former U.S. special representative for international negotiations in the Trump administration, now at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jason Dov Greenblatt turns 57… Regional director in the Washington office at AJC: Global Jewish Advocacy, Alan Ronkin… Associate dean of students at Bard College, Danna Harman… Tel Aviv-born actress, Mili Avital turns 52… Mexican-American chef, she won a James Beard Award for her PBS television series “Pati’s Mexican Table,” Patricia “Pati” Jinich turns 52… Former treasurer of Oakland County, Mich., Andy Meisner turns 51… Iranian-born LA-based retired actress, Bahar Soomekh turns 49… Communications consultant, Gabriela Schneider… Jerusalem-born documentary photographer for the Associated Press, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2007, Oded Balilty turns 45… Detroit-area Jewish leader and founder at Multifaith Life, Alicia Chandler… Best-selling author of The Oracle of Stamboul and The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, Michael David Lukas turns 45… Former senior advisor to then Ambassador David Friedman at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, Aryeh Lightstone turns 44… Author, composer and playwright, market development director of Sh’ma Journal, Robert J. Saferstein… Innovation lead at Avoq, Zach Silber… Senior reporter at the Huffington Post, Jessica Schulberg… Third baseman for MLB’s Houston Astros, Alex Bregman turns 30… JD candidate at NYU Law, Leora Einleger…
SUNDAY: Music producer, band leader of the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert turns 89… NYT best-selling novelist, poet and social activist, Marge Piercy turns 88… Democratic congressman from Massachusetts for 32 years, Barnett “Barney” Frank turns 84… U.S. senator (D-VT) for 48 years until last year, Patrick Leahy turns 84… Former syndicated talk radio host under the name Michael Savage, he is also a best-selling author and nutritionist under his real name, Michael Alan Weiner turns 82… U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) turns 80… Comedian, actor and professional poker player, Gabe Kaplan turns 79… Retired professor of special education at Long Island University, Joel E. Mittler… Emmy Award-winning actress, known for her role in the sitcom “Cheers” for 11 seasons, Rhea Jo Perlman turns 76… Russian ice dancing coach and former competitive ice dancer, now living in Stamford, Conn., Natalia Dubova turns 76… Chairman of Apple, Inc. since 2011 and CEO of Calico (an Alphabet R&D biotech venture), Arthur D. Levinson turns 74… New Jersey attorney, Steven L. Sacks-Wilner… Scottsdale resident, David L. Freedman… Chairman of Danaher Corporation, Steven M. Rales turns 73… Israeli singer and songwriter, Ehud Banai turns 71… Former vice-chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, David Breakstone, Ph.D. turns 71… Author and advertising executive, Joseph Alden Reiman turns 71… President at the Detroit-based Nemer Property Group, Larry Nemer… Rabbi of Kehillas Ohr Somayach and lecturer at Ohr Somayach Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz turns 70… Show jumping equestrian and 10-time American Grand Prix Association Rider of the Year, she is a 2009 inductee into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Margie Goldstein-Engle turns 66… Founding director of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and current Los Angeles director of American Jewish Committee, Richard Hirschhaut turns 64… Emmy Award-winning writer and producer (“24,” “Homeland” and “Tyrant”), Howard Gordon turns 63… Consultant for synagogues, Judah E. Isaacs… Two-term mayor of Chattanooga, Tenn., he is now a special representative for broadband in the U.S. Commerce Department, Andy Berke turns 56… Chief economic correspondent for Politico and co-author of its “Morning Money” column, Ben White turns 52… Rabbi of the Ashkenazi Jewish community of Turkey, Menachem Mendel Chitrik turns 47… Chief legal correspondent at MSNBC, Ari Naftali Melber turns 44… Footballer for Beitar Jerusalem, Tal Ben Haim turns 42… Internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and former CMO of Tinder, Justin Mateen turns 38… British-French journalist, author of This Is London and Fragile Empire, Ben Judah turns 36… A 2010 contestant on “America’s Next Top Model,” she went on to join the IDF, Esther Petrack turns 32… Senior agency lead at Google, Howie Keenan… John Jacobson…
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