Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at worsening antisemitism on college campuses, from threats at Berkeley to a congressional roundtable in Washington featuring firsthand testimony of campus antisemitism yesterday. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gov. Kathy Hochul, Bari Weiss and Justin Amash.
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: John Avlon pivots from punditry to politics; After four months of war, how much of Gaza’s terror tunnel network remains?; Jordan’s queen downplays role of Oct. 7 as cause of the war in Gaza. Print the latest edition here.
More than 100 people were killed when a crowd converged on an aid convoy in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and in a nearby confrontation between IDF soldiers and Palestinian men, in what an Israeli official with knowledge of the incidents described as a “completely unprecedented” set of events. “We’ve seen big groups of people running toward aid convoys, but nothing on this scale,” the official told Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss.
The convoy that came under the swarm of people was, the official described, “a very properly coordinated aid convoy with local contacts.” As the convoy passed through Gaza City early Thursday morning, thousands of people began to converge on the convoy.
“They literally physically trampled each other and ran over each other and beat each other,” the official continued. “And then Hamas started shooting at them.” The terror group aims to resell some of the convoy’s goods at a high markup, the official said.
“We did not fire at the humanitarian convoy, we secured it,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari emphasized in a briefing yesterday evening. “The tanks that were there to secure the convoy saw the Gazans being trampled and cautiously tried to disperse the mob with a few warning shots,” Hagari said. “You can see [in a video released by the IDF] how cautious they were when they were backing up. They were backing up securely, risking their own lives, not shooting at the mob.”
Nearby, a group of IDF soldiers guarding the convoy opened fire on a group of men approaching the battalion. First, the official said, the IDF troops fired in the air to warn the men off, but the men continued running toward the battalion.
An estimated 10 Palestinians were killed in the confrontation with Israeli troops, according to the IDF, and the rest of the casualties were caused by the stampede and confrontation near the convoy.
The State Department said it was working to determine exactly what happened. “I don’t want to draw any conclusions about what appears [to have] happened, because I think it’s too early to say. Oftentimes, the early accounts in these situations have turned out to be incorrect,” department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday. Several mainstream international news outlets attributed responsibility for the over 100 deaths in the incident to Israel, citing Palestinian accounts alleging that the chaos ensued after the IDF opened fire on the food line.
“There are conflicting accounts and we don’t know the ground truth of what happened,” said Miller. “We have been in touch with the Israeli government since early this morning and understand that an investigation is underway. We will be monitoring that investigation closely and pressing for answers.”
President Joe Biden said on Thursday that the incident will complicate efforts to reach a cease-fire, which was already looking increasingly unlikely despite his optimistic comments earlier in the week that a deal could be reached.
The incident underscores the dire situation in Gaza, where Hamas, despite facing significant military defeats, continues to disrupt efforts to deliver aid. A Wall Street Journal report published this week said that Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, believed to be hiding in a Hamas tunnel surrounded by Israeli hostages being used as human shields, had the ultimate goal “for Hamas to emerge from the rubble of Gaza after the war, declare a historic victory by outlasting Israel’s firepower, and claim the leadership of the Palestinian national cause.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. blocked a U.N. Security Council resolution introduced by Algeria hours after the attack that sought to blame Israel for the incidents in Gaza City earlier Thursday.
committee credibility
University antisemitism task forces feature much talk, minimal action so far
In the aftermath of a surge in antisemitism that erupted following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, top universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern announced the creation of new bodies tasked with studying antisemitism on campus and identifying how to address it. But nearly five months after the environment for Jewish students on these campuses began to rapidly deteriorate, questions remain over the efficacy and mandate of such groups. They will also face the thorny issue of campus free speech as they delve into questions about what, exactly, constitutes antisemitism on campus, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen report.
All talk: At Columbia University, Shai Davidai, an assistant professor in the business school, said he doesn’t have confidence that a newly created antisemitism task force can succeed unless the faculty on the committee changes to include more Zionist and Israeli voices. “At universities, if you want to make sure something doesn’t happen, you set up a task force,” Davidai continued. “The task force at Columbia has done absolutely nothing. They just talk.”
Critics on board: After Northwestern University announced in November that it would create an antisemitism task force, 163 faculty and staff members at the university wrote a letter to President Michael Schill saying they were “seriously dismayed and concerned” by the announcement, raising concerns that the task force’s work would challenge “rigorous, open debate.” Three of the signatories of that letter — including Jessica Winegar, a Middle Eastern studies professor and vocal proponent of boycotts of Israel — were then named to the task force, which will also focus on addressing Islamophobia.
Red tape task force: “If you really want to fix the problem, why conflate it with other issues that are going to prolong trying to find a solution to it?” Mike Teplitsky, a Northwestern alum and the president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, said of the joint Islamophobia focus. “I would call it a bureaucratic distraction from trying to fix the problem.”
california chaos
‘It’s unspeakable’: UC Berkeley Jewish leaders decry university’s response to antisemitic mob
The day after an antisemitic mob at the University of California, Berkeley forced the evacuation of Jewish students from an event where an Israel Defense Forces reservist was speaking, the university’s two top leaders sent an email to the entire Berkeley community. “Upholding our values,” its subject line read. The email from the school’s chancellor described the incident as an attack on the “fundamental values of the university, which are also essential to maintain and nurture open inquiry and an inclusive civil society, the bedrock of a genuinely democratic nation.” The failure to mention “antisemitism” in the university’s official condemnation of the protest reflects what several Jewish community leaders at Berkeley and in the Bay Area have long identified as a blind spot for antisemitism at the prestigious university, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Antisemitism sidelined: “The entire email didn’t even mention antisemitism,” said Danielle Sobkin, a third-year student and the co-president of the pro-Israel student group that had organized the event. “Not one word of it,” Sobkin told JI on Thursday. “I think the entire response is a huge failure on the part of the administration, on the part of the chancellor. And I think students are just really disappointed that fear and the Jewish hate that was so blatantly perpetuated on Monday night has been essentially sidelined, not being recognized, nor has anything been done about it.”
On the scene: Roughly 200 protestors surrounded the building where the event took place on Monday and tried to push their way in, shattering a door and several windows while chanting “Intifada!” Three Jewish students were injured. A junior told J. The Jewish News of Northern California he was called a “dirty Jew” and a Nazi.
Changing language: In a Wednesday conversation with JI, Dan Mogulof, Berkeley’s assistant vice chancellor for executive communications, did not mention antisemitism when discussing the incident or how the university would respond to it. In a follow-up conversation on Thursday, Mogulof acknowledged that the Monday incident had, in fact, been “informed by antisemitism, but that’s different than saying that everybody there was motivated by that or engaged in that.”
Investigating hate: When asked if the event constituted a security failure for the university, Mogulof demurred. “Well, I don’t know. You’ve heard me speak. Would you?” he asked. “The fact that we were able to safely evacuate the building and get people away from the mob with what so far are two reports of minor injuries, I’m thankful that happened.” The university has opened disciplinary investigations into the students involved, and campus police have begun investigations, including a hate crimes probe, Mogulof said.
campus concerns
Jewish students recount a series of campus horror stories at congressional roundtable
For two hours on Wednesday, lawmakers heard from a parade of Jewish students, each delivering the same message: They do not feel safe on their college campuses, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Speaking to a roundtable organized by the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, Jewish students from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia, Rutgers, Stanford, Tulane, Cooper Union and University of California, Berkeley spoke about about the harassment, threats and violence they’ve faced on their campuses since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Crossover: The students’ accounts were all remarkably similar, despite coming from a range of locations and school types, including openly antisemitic taunts and harassment, angry mobs rampaging through campus and overtaking campus buildings, vandalism and in some cases threats of or actual incidents of violence, all going largely or completely unaddressed ignored by university administrators and campus police, despite repeated and sustained pleas from the students for help and support.
Call to action: The students, saying they felt abandoned by their universities and had no faith in them to act to protect them, pleaded for action from Congress. They said that they hoped their testimony could serve as a wake-up call to both Congress and the American public. “As my friends from Harvard and UPenn can tell you, it doesn’t end simply because presidents are replaced. Systemic change is needed,” Kevin Feigelis, a Stanford student, said. “Universities have proven they have no intention of fixing themselves. It must be you, and it must be now.”
Next steps: Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee’s chair, vowed that she and her colleagues would not stop their efforts to tackle antisemitism on campus. Foxx told JI that the committee’s antisemitism investigation is proceeding deliberately, but that the schools will be held to account. The committee has already requested documents from Harvard, Penn and Columbia and has now subpoenaed Harvard. Foxx suggested that other schools whose students had appeared Thursday could be next.
Read the full story here.
Bonus: A University of Virginia art history professor canceled her class on Monday in solidarity with a walkout on campus held two days before students voted overwhelmingly to call on the school to divest from companies with ties to Israel, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
the day after
Task Force proposes plan for internationally financed Gaza reconstruction
A new task force of former national security officials and business leaders released a proposal on Thursday to facilitate the rehabilitation of Gaza, eschewing some of the most common proposals for a postwar Gaza. Its centerpiece is a proposal for a new Arab-backed international trust that would lead the effort to rebuild Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
A new entity: The report concludes that most of the proposals floated for postwar Gaza — including prompt movement toward a two-state solution, near-term Palestinian Authority control, a United Nations mission, an on-the-ground Arab state mission or long-term Israeli control — are likely infeasible in the short term or practically or politically untenable. It argues instead for a new private entity supported by several Arab states to be established to both oversee and facilitate humanitarian aid and assist with efforts to establish new Palestinian governance in Gaza.
Task Force members: The Gaza Futures Task Force, which issued the report, is operating through the Jewish Institute for the National Security of America and the Vandenberg Coalition, and includes John Hannah, Elliott Abrams, Eric Edelman, Gary Ginsberg, Emily Harding, Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Steven Price.
Swift action: The report proposes that the trust could begin reconstruction operations in areas that Israel has cleared of terrorist activity while Israeli operations elsewhere in Gaza continue. It would, per the proposal, be funded by Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, with the backing of the U.S., blessing of the Palestinian Authority and cooperation with Israel.
Read the full story here.
Elsewhere in Washington: Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Ted Budd (R-NC) Ted Cruz (R-TX), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), Katie Britt (R-AL) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding he immediately rescind new sanctions authority targeting settler violence and new conditions on U.S. foreign military aid. “Both documents undercut our most valuable alliance in the Middle East,” they said. “We call on you to rescind both documents and to sanction terrorists and their supporters instead of their victims.” They demanded information on the processes that will be used for determining sanctions on Israelis.
aid proposal
Fitzpatrick says he’ll pursue bipartisan workaround measure for slimmed-down foreign aid bill
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) said on Thursday that he is pursuing a bipartisan procedural mechanism, known as a discharge petition, to try to force a vote on the House floor on his slimmed-down version of a bill to provide aid to Israel and other U.S. allies, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Caveat: Democratic leadership, however is maintaining its support for the larger, Senate-passed aid bill, making it unlikely that Fitzpatrick’s legislation — which would provide less military aid for Israel and no humanitarian aid for Palestinians or security grants for domestic nonprofits and religious institutions — will come to the floor.
Pressure tactic: Fitzpatrick said that the bill and the discharge petition are primarily meant “to apply a pressure point to get something done soon.” He explained, “We just want some Ukraine funding bill to pass the House — whether that’s ours [or another bill].” He said he’s personally supportive of the Senate-passed bill but is not sure that it can muster 218 votes because it doesn’t include border security provisions.
No roadmap: House Republicans remain publicly vague on their plans going forward, largely reiterating their view that the House can’t consider foreign aid until after passing 2024 government funding — now set to expire on March 22 — and without addressing border security. “The Senate took four months to try to put a bill together… We’ve had their bill for a week and a half. The House is actively considering options on a path forward,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said at a press conference. “But our first responsibility is to fund the government and our primary, overriding responsibility — has been for the last three years — is to secure the border. And so we’re getting the government funding done and then we’re going to turn to these other priorities.”
Elsewhere in the House: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and other committee leaders again pressed United Nations Relief and Works Agency chief Philippe Lazzarini to testify publicly before the committee. Lazzarini, in response to a previous request, agreed to testify privately, but has previously testified publicly before the European Parliament. Based on U.N. privileges and protections, Lazzarini cannot be subpoenaed to testify.
baltic delegation
Lawmakers from Baltics: Washington needs to ‘wake up’ and fund Ukraine, Israel’s fights
With aid to Israel and Ukraine still held up on the Hill, some in the Baltic states — NATO members bordering on Russia — have watched the proceedings in recent weeks with great concern. Latvian MP Rihards Kols, chairman of his parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and a member of the conservative National Alliance party, called on the West to stop “drawing red lines limiting ourselves” concerning aid for Ukraine, pointing out that at the beginning of the war, leaders thought Russia would not tolerate the West sending various kinds of weapons – such as tanks – and then eventually sent them anyway, helping Ukraine without negative repercussions for the rest of the West, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Sharing knowledge: In fact, Kols argued, it is not when the West aids democracies that Russia is provoked: “Nothing provokes authoritarian regimes more than the hesitance of free people.” The lawmaker was part of a delegation of 10 lawmakers from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that visited Israel this week with the pro-Israel group ELNET: European Leadership Network to learn from Israel’s knowledge and experience in the wake of the Russian threat, two years after the invasion of Ukraine. ELNET gathered the group, along with two concurrent delegations of lawmakers from France and Germany, for lunch at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem on Wednesday, where two of them implored the U.S. to support Israel and Ukraine’s fights.
Migration matters: MP Dovile Sakaliene, Lithuania’s shadow defense minister and a member of the Social Democratic Party, said that “the M.O. of Hamas and Russia is the same: Rape, kidnapping and genocide.” Kols lamented “pointless discussions going on for weeks” in Washington. “To my American colleagues,” he said. “I know you have challenges. Migration is a challenge.” Kols noted that Belarus has used “targeted migration,” flying in refugees from Syria and Afghanistan and busing them to the borders of Baltic and other European states, and called it “a different way of waging war on democracies, using our values against us.” However, Kols said, if the U.S. needs help on its southern border, it can ask for it: “It’s not only your border; it’s a NATO border. If there’s a need we’ll send soldiers.”
Worthy Reads
Weiss’ Words: The Free Press published founder Bari Weiss’ recent speech on the state of world Jewry at the 92Y. “I knew people still hated Jews and that that hate was deadly. I knew that intimately. I stood inside Tree of Life as the chevra kadisha worked alongside the FBI to pick up the pieces of the 11 Jews who were murdered there that morning. So I knew that this evil existed but I could not imagine how mainstream and shameless — even proud — that hate would become. I thought America was almost a different kind of diaspora. One where Jew-hatred surely existed, just as other forms of bigotry unfortunately do wherever humans live. But where it could never fully take root, as it did throughout history everywhere else. … What made us immune wasn’t something permanent. It wasn’t the soil or the pedigree of our pioneers or our proximity to power. What made America immune were our ideas. The rule of law and equality under it. A God who made us all equal. Rights not granted to us by a king or a government but rights that were self-evident and endowed by our creator. What made and makes this country exceptional are our ideas and our fealty to those ideas.” [FreePress]
A Sister’s Anguish: In CNN, Ofri Bibas Levy, the sister of Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas, writes about her family’s plight amid ongoing negotiations to free her brother and his family, including her nephews Ariel and Kfir, the youngest hostages. “From one day to the next, it’s harder to remain optimistic. Every morning, I wake up worried that I will hear more horrifying news. My four-year-old daughter asks me constantly when her best friend Ariel will come home. ‘Why can’t anybody find him?’, she asks me. I don’t know how to respond because I don’t know the answer myself. I go to bed every night with the same question on my mind. Why are world leaders signaling to terrorists everywhere that it is okay to take children hostage? How do they not see that they are doing Hamas’s work by insisting that Israel agree to a ceasefire when 134 hostages remain in captivity? Releasing the hostages should have been the cry heard around the world since October 7th. Instead, the cry heard around the world is for a ceasefire, as if the lives of the hostages are an afterthought.” [CNN]
A Fortress is Not a Home: In The New York Times, David Grossman reflects on the blow dealt to the Jewish psyche during and after the Oct. 7 terror attacks. “For those of you who live in countries in which the concept of home is taken for granted, I should explain that for me, through my Israeli lens, the word ‘home’ means a feeling of security, defense and belonging that envelops one’s mind in warmth. Home is a place where I can exist with ease. And it is a place whose borders are acknowledged by everyone — in particular, by my neighbors. But all these, for me, are still engulfed in a yearning for something that has never been fully achieved. At present, I fear that Israel is more fortress than home. It offers neither security nor ease, and my neighbors harbor many doubts and demands of its rooms and its walls and, in some cases, of its very existence. On that awful black Saturday, it turned out that not only is Israel still far from being a home in the full sense of the word, it also does not even know how to be a true fortress.” [NYTimes]
Guardians of the Sites: In The Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Laurence suggests a Vatican-style solution to the question of who guards Islamic holy sites. “The Gaza war is a reminder that the Europeans left behind an unstable status quo a century ago. Absent a Sunni consensus, Iran is making an indirect power play. Iran’s weakness is also a strength: As non-Arab, Shiite Muslims, Iran’s leaders can’t trace their ancestry to the prophet Muhammad’s qureysh tribe — as can Jordan’s and Morocco’s monarchs, and as ISIS’s Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claimed. Though around 85% of Muslims are Sunni, the demography of global Islam has long favored much larger non-Arab populations. The dynamic might be resolved with a Vatican City-style solution for Al Aqsa. Those responsible for overseeing the complex would include Saudi Arabia and Jordan but also Muslims from Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Pakistan, Nigeria and Muslim-minority countries. Free from Western government interference, the arrangement would have to retain Jewish rights to visit and pray at the Temple Mount. Israeli soldiers’ presence could be defused by cooperative patrols alongside the soldiers of countries with which the Jewish state has built thick relations.” [WSJ]
Around the Web
Pentagon Pivot: The Pentagon walked back Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s claim that 25,000 women and children have died in Gaza, saying that Austin had been referring to the total number of people killed, including Hamas terrorists, and had been citing the numbers provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Rafah Warning: Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) called on the administration to cut off aid to Israel and cease the use of the U.S.’ U.N. Security Council veto in order to prevent any further Israeli operations in Rafah. They also requested a meeting with President Joe Biden, and blamed Israel for blocking cease-fire efforts, despite multiple rejections by Hamas of proposed deals.
Congressional Call: A group of House Democrats led by Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) are calling for “a temporary pause in fighting” in order to release the remaining hostages in Gaza.
Michigan Matchup: Justin Amash, the former Michigan congressman who left the Republican Party and voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, is entering the GOP primary in the race to succeed Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
IHRA Bill: Florida’s state Senate unanimously passed a bill codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
Plagiarism Claim: The head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Columbia Medical School is being accused of having plagiarized significant portions of his dissertation, including sections that were taken near-verbatim from Wikipedia.
Hochul Event Targeted: Hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators protested outside Cipriani, where New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was speaking at an event.
Leak Probe: The New York Timesis conducting an internal investigation into the leak of information to The Intercept, which reported on a still-unreleased episode of the Times’ podcast “The Daily” that focused on sexual violence on Oct. 7.
Sounds of Jewish Shanghai: NPR spotlights “Émigré,” a new musical work about the Jewish refugee experience in Shanghai during and after WWII that premiered yesterday at the New York Philharmonic.
High Anxiety: The New York Times’ critic-at-large considers Richard Lewis’ contributions to comedy following his death this week.
Across the Pond: U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the allocation of £54 million ($68 million) for a four-year effort to protect the country’s Jewish communities.
Guess Who’s Back: Anti-Israel former British Labour MP George Galloway is back in parliament after winning the Rochdale by-election, taking a seat in the House of Commons for the Workers Party of Britain, after a campaign largely focused on Gaza.
Princely Pronouncement: Prince William, meeting with Jewish community members at London’s Western Marble Arch Synagogue, decried the recent increase in antisemitism, saying it “has no place in society.”
From War to Politics:The New York Timesspotlights the IDF reservists who, upon returning from active duty, are reengaging in political activism as the country looks beyond the Israel-Hamas war.
Doha Deal: Qatar’s Government Communications Office inked a memorandum of understanding with TikTok under which the social media company will open a creative studio and develop creative workshops in the Gulf nation.
Added Acres: Israel’s civil administration announced the appropriation of roughly 650 acres near the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim.
Happy Anniversary: The Abrahamic Family House interfaith complex in Abu Dhabi is marking its first anniversary since opening its doors to Christian, Muslim and Jewish worshippers.
Drones to Sudan: Iran is sending attack drones to the Sudanese Armed Forces for use in its year-long conflict against the rebel Rapid Support Forces.
Song of the Day
Yaakov Shwekey’s new single “Guf Uneshama” (body and soul) was released on YouTube this week, ahead of a broader album release in a few weeks. The goal of the song, Shwekey says, “is to make sure that there is no Jewish child anywhere in the world who does not know how to say ‘Shema Yisrael.’ With this idea we started this project, and the challenging times that the Jewish people are going through now only strengthened the importance of this message.”
Birthdays
Former justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, Dalia Dorner turns 90 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: President of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in NYC since 2001, he served for 30 years on the Los Angeles City Council, Joel Wachs turns 85… Real estate developer, he was part owner of MLB’s Kansas City Royals and three sports franchises in Memphis, Tulane’s basketball arena is named in his honor, Avron B. Fogelman turns 84… Professor emeritus of Jewish studies at Los Angeles Valley College and the former editor of Shofar, Zev Garber turns 83… CEO of Mandalay Entertainment and a co-owner of both the LA Dodgers and Golden State Warriors, Peter Guber turns 82… Former chairman and CEO of IBM until 2002, Lou Gerstner turns 82… Former member of the Knesset for the New Hope party, Ze’ev Binyamin (“Benny”) Begin turns 81… Librarian at the Anti-Defamation League’s NYC HQ, Marianne Benjamin… Israeli historian, author and journalist, Tom Segev turns 79… Israeli journalist, author, and political commentator, Ehud Yaari turns 79… Industrialist, magazine publisher, film producer and art collector, Peter M. Brant turns 77… Cantor at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus / Congregation Beth Tikvah, Sam Weiss… U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) turns 73… Former executive of Viacom, Philippe Dauman turns 70… President of Emory University, he is the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors, Gregory L. Fenves turns 67… Author and former U.S. military intelligence officer, she is now a human rights activist focused on Eastern Europe, Nina Willner turns 63… Chairman and president of Berexco, Adam E. Beren… Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist, Andrey Adamovskiy turns 62… Satirist, novelist, short story writer and journalist, he is also a three-time “Jeopardy!” champion, Neal Pollack turns 54… AVP of corporate and community relations at Baltimore’s Kennedy Krieger Institute, Dara Schapiro Schnee… Television writer, director and producer, Brad Falchuk turns 53… Television journalist at CBS News, Dave Malkoff turns 48… Founder and principal at narrative/change, Jonathan Lipman… Israeli journalist and the former chairman of the Union of Journalists in Israel, Yair Tarchitsky turns 44… Principal at Mosaic Realty Partners and a director of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, Isaac Pretter… CEO of eToro, Yoni Assia… Former member of the U.S. national soccer team, now head of scouting at Atlanta United FC, Jonathan Spector turns 38… Co-founder of Synonym Biotechnologies, Joshua Lachter… Senior political data reporter and the host of the “Margins of Error” podcast for CNN, Harry Enten turns 36… Litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Hannah Klain turns 33… Shortstop for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, now playing for the New York Boulders of the Frontier League, Assaf Lowengart turns 26… Kevin Golden…
SATURDAY: Restaurateur, lawyer, financier and former owner of Braniff International Airlines, Jeffrey Chodorow turns 74… Comedian, actress and writer, she was part of the original cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” Laraine Newman turns 72… Former U.S. senator from Wisconsin for 18 years, Russ Feingold turns 71… Member of the Knesset for the National Unity Party, Alon Natan Schuster turns 67… Anesthesiologist in Skokie, Ill., who graduated from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine, Samuel M. Parnass, M.D.… Member of the New York State Assembly, Alec Brook-Krasny turns 66… Senior advisor at Brunswick Group, Mitch Bainwol turns 65… Author and reporter for The New York Times, Katherine “Katie” Rosman turns 52… Executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, she is a board member of the Washington JCRC, Daphne Lazar-Price… Editor and director of communications at Twin Cities, Minnesota’s TC Jewfolk, Lonny Goldsmith… Israeli hip hop singer and rapper better known as Mooki, Daniel Neyburger turns 49… Former culture reporter for The New York Times, he is the author of a biography of Robin Williams, David L. Itzkoff turns 48… Former member of the Knesset for the Kadima party, Yuval Zellner turns 46… Director of marketing at Window Nation, Eric Goldscher… Chief of staff for Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Yuri Beckelman… Israeli physician, she is also a television and radio newscaster, Dr. Hila Chaya Korach turns 40… VP at This Machine Filmworks in Los Angeles, Sally Rosen Phillips… Founding member of CoS Mastermind Network, a vetted community of chiefs of staff, Kaylee Berger Porco… Project manager at Halo Development, Donni Lurman…
SUNDAY: Australian residential property developer, colloquially known as “High-Rise Harry,” builder of more than 77,000 residential units, Harry Triguboff turns 91… Professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, author of 32 books and the editor emeritus of Dissent magazine, Michael Laban Walzer turns 89… Researcher in Yiddish language at Sweden’s Lund University’s Centre for Languages and Literature, Henrik Lewis-Guttermann turns 75… Best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of financiers and politicians, Ron Chernow turns 75… Former president of CBS News, currently president of See It Now Studios, Susan Zirinsky turns 72… Retired chief investment officer of Neuberger Berman, he served as president of AIPAC, Michael Kassen… Fashion designer and businessman, Steve Madden turns 66… NPR personality and the host of “This American Life,” Ira Jeffrey Glass turns 65… Former director of policy for New York State under Andrew Cuomo, David Yassky turns 60… MLB pitcher until 2001, then a pitching coach, his 557 appearances rank second in career games pitched by a Jewish pitcher, Scott David Radinsky turns 56… Co-founder and co-president of Clarity Capital, David Steinhardt turns 55… EVP and general counsel at Eli Lilly and Company, Anat Hakim… Founder of Bunk1 and co-owner of the Miami Marlins, Ari Jack Ackerman… Assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine focused on autism-related genetics, Brett S. Abrahams, Ph.D turns 51… Screenwriter and columnist at Globes, Efrat Abramov turns 44… British rabbi who has run for mayor of London and mayor of Manchester, Shneur Zalman Odze turns 43… Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle R. Sassoon… Vocalist for indie-pop band Lucius, Jess Wolfe turns 38… Communications manager for Uber, Freddi Goldstein… Member of AJR, an indie pop multi-instrumentalist trio, together with his two brothers, Ryan Metzger turns 30…
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