Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the White House’s warnings to Israel over humanitarian aid, and explore what Israel’s military withdrawal from parts of Gaza means for its broader war objectives. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Josh Gottheimer, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Bradley Tusk.
Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to meet today in D.C. with the family members of some of the remaining 133 hostages; the group met yesterday with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Brian Nelson, the under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, as top American, Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials work toward an agreement that would secure the release of some of the hostages.
Harris’ meeting comes amid a noticeable shift among Democratic officials away from full-fledged support for Israel and its prosecution of the war against Hamas, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
First, the Biden administration has been putting increased pressure on Israel over the last month, a subtle shift that began around the president’s March State of the Union address, which in its Middle East section focused extensively on criticizing Israel’s war conduct. The administration abstained, instead of vetoing, a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza without making the cease-fire contingent on Hamas releasing Israeli hostages — a clear policy shift.
And after Israel’s accidental attack against a World Central Kitchen convoy, which killed seven humanitarian aid workers, the Biden administration further amped up the pressure on the Jewish state — leading Israel to open up additional humanitarian corridors, followed by a troop withdrawal from southern Gaza. These days, it’s much more common to hear Biden administration officials express their frustrations publicly with Israel — and less common to hear any public pressure from the U.S. on Hamas or its benefactors.
On Monday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller made clear that the Biden administration is ruling out an Israeli invasion of Rafah under any circumstances, raising doubts whether the U.S. still supports Hamas’ removal from power. “We have made clear to Israel that we think a full-scale military invasion of Rafah would have an enormously harmful effect on the civilians and then it would ultimately hurt Israel security. So it’s not just a question of Israel presenting a plan to us,” Miller said.
Second, a number of generally pro-Israel lawmakers have rolled back their once-solid support for the Jewish state.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) is now calling on the U.S. to “withhold bombs and other offensive weapons that can kill and wound civilians and humanitarian aid workers.” It’s a move that constrains Israel, even as it faces a growing threat from Iran and its Hezbollah proxy in the north.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), a once-reliable ally of Israel, joined several dozen progressive House Democrats calling for a halt to arms transfers to Israel in a letter to Biden and Secretary of State Tony Blinken. Among the other 55 signatories to the letter: Squad-affiliated lawmakers including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). The group also includes Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD).
Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA), facing a competitive reelection, said that the U.S. must directly investigate the WCK attack and seek accountability before she can support any further arms transfers to Israel.
Even Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), one of the most stalwart supporters of Israel in the House and a potential New Jersey gubernatorial candidate in 2025, expressed concern last week of Israel over the WCK strike (while also praising the steps Israel has taken to pursue accountability for those involved). New Jersey’s likely future senator, Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), called for a permanent cease-fire after securing the Democratic nomination for the state’s Senate seat.
In a subsequent conversation with JI yesterday, Gottheimer pushed back on the shift in his own party, saying that the push to suspend and condition aid to Israel, which is supported by Pelosi, “emboldens Hamas.” More below.
The shift comes as U.S. officials — from the Biden administration to members of Congress — appear eager to engage with elements of the Israeli opposition. Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, in the U.S. this week, met with Blinken and Sullivan, as well as Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) yesterday, and will meet today with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — who last month called for new elections in Israel. Lapid will also meet with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who flew to Israel to appear at Netanyahu’s side after Schumer’s remarks.
Meanwhile, progressive critics of Israel, emboldened by the softening Democratic support, have gone even further in their condemnations. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), speaking at a Boston-area mosque last week, said said she thinks the International Court of Justice will determine Israel’s actions in Gaza legally constitute genocide. Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) anti-Israel posture has gotten so strident that the editorial board of Baltimore’s leading Jewish newspaper wrote the “time when we counted Van Hollen as a challenging but reliable friend of the Jewish community and the state of Israel” is “gone,” adding, “we face the uncomfortable reality that Chris Van Hollen is not our friend.”
Much of this movement is about internal Democratic politics. Nearly all Republicans remain strongly behind Israel, while plenty of leading Democrats — from Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) to Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) to Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Gottheimer — remain rock-solid supporters of Israel. Most Democrats in competitive congressional races are reliably pro-Israel, a sign that overall public opinion remains behind the Jewish state.
But just as support for Ukraine gradually flagged among Republicans, amid unrest among the GOP base, we’re seeing a similar dynamic emerging among Democrats. And if Biden doesn’t maintain his own clear and principled defense of Israel that was evident in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, he risks giving the activist left outsized control of his administration’s foreign policy in the run-up to the 2024 election.
u.s. demands
Biden White House not satisfied with Israeli changes on Gaza: ‘We want to see much more’
Days after the White House warned Israel to change course on its policy in Gaza or face consequences from the United States, senior Biden administration officials reiterated that the threat still stands — and that early steps Israel took to remedy the humanitarian crisis are not enough to quell U.S. dissatisfaction, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Still watching: “We’ve seen them take initial steps here over the past few days, but we want to see much more,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing on Monday. “We are going to be watching them over the coming days, the coming weeks, to see that the steps they have announced actually lead to improved results, and we will make assessments and make determinations of our policy based on those results.”
Early actions: Responding to the White House threat, which President Joe Biden relayed to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in a call last Thursday, Israel announced several changes. Over the weekend, Israel agreed to open the northern Erez Crossing into Gaza and the Ashdod port to facilitate delivery of humanitarian aid, and to allow additional aid to enter through Jordan. On Sunday, over 300 aid trucks entered Gaza — the most of any single day since the war started — and on Monday, more than 400 trucks entered Gaza.
Good start: White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the 300 aid trucks that entered Gaza a “good start” but told reporters on Monday that “what matters is how it can be sustained over time.”
aid arguments
Democrats focus on humanitarian aid to Gaza amid growing calls to cut aid to Israel
Facing calls from progressive Democrats to suspend or condition U.S. aid to Israel, many rank-and-file lawmakers in the party said they’re focused on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, while sidestepping questions on whether they support taking punitive measures against the Jewish state, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Priority: Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), one of the most stalwart supporters of Israel in the Senate, told JI yesterday that “the priority right now for us is to deal with the humanitarian crisis” and to “understand…better” Israel’s military strategy and planning. He brushed off a question about attempts to cut off or condition aid as not “really current issues,” again emphasizing the “most important thing now is to deal with the humanitarian needs — so that’s the focal point, rather than looking at some of the issues you’re talking about.” He noted that an upcoming sale of F-15 jets that some lawmakers may try to block in the coming weeks is not set to arrive in Israel for years.
Pushing Israel: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) told JI that increasing humanitarian aid “has really been more of my focus” when asked about future aid, emphasizing the need to “push” Israel on this issue. Pressed on whether he agrees with some colleagues that imposing punitive pressure on Israel via arms sales is necessary, Bennet restated that the U.S. focus “really should be [on] trying to get as much humanitarian aid as possible to the Palestinian civilians while we’re able to continue to support Israel in defending itself against the attack by a death cult.”
Read the full story with additional quotes from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
military moves
Israelis divided on merits of Gaza military pullback after six months of war
Reports that the IDF withdrew one of its top commando divisions from the Gaza Strip on Sunday sent shockwaves through some parts of Israeli society, which viewed the pullback as a capitulation to U.S. diplomatic pressure on Israel to start winding down the war, now entering its seventh month. Others, particularly those in the military and defense establishment, are insisting, however, that the move is purely tactical, with the army planning to fight Hamas in a more strategic way using intelligence and smaller, specialized units. Israel’s leaders from both the political and military spheres have also asserted that their plans to tackle and eliminate the terror group’s remaining six battalions – said to be in central and southern Gaza – will most definitely go ahead, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Context: The conflicting analysis of this clear shift in Israel’s military strategy – vastly cutting back on the number of boots on the ground before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vowed “total victory” has been achieved – comes amid reports on Monday from Cairo of progress in mediated talks for a cease-fire and a hostage release. They also come after a tense phone call last Thursday between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden, the latter of whom reportedly put pressure on the Israeli leader to increase the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, open up more land crossings into the Strip and allow Israeli mediators more leeway in cease-fire negotiations.
Pressure: Eyal Pinko, a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, told JI on Monday that the cutting back of troops inside an active combat zone was “unexpected” and “not a reasonable war principle. It doesn’t make sense from a tactical, strategic or operational point of view,” Pinko, a retired Israeli navy commander who also served in the country’s intelligence agency for more than 30 years, said. He also attributed the move to international pressure. “Israel is really feeling the pressure from Biden,” Pinko said, adding, however, that “it cannot not allow itself to do something in Rafah.”
Tactical shift: IDF spokesman Lt. Col. (res.) Peter Lerner told JI that the situation on the ground had changed in recent weeks, that the forces withdrawn over the weekend had completed their mission in Gaza and the army was now regrouping in preparation for future operations. “When you’ve degraded the capability of Hamas to operate as an organized force, then the type of operations you need to carry out are different and the operation shifts to a lower-intensity, more intelligence-guided operation with limited forces but with maximum impact,” Lerner said.
turnpike talk
Push to suspend or condition aid to Israel ‘emboldens Hamas,’ Gottheimer says
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), speaking to Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on Monday, said that that he “strongly disagree[s]” with calls from fellow Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), to suspend or condition aid to Israel and warned that “it emboldens Hamas.”
Speak carefully: Gottheimer more broadly warned that lawmakers and the administration need to be cautious about rhetoric and actions that could signal to Hamas that the U.S. is not standing with Israel. “We have to be very careful — whether that’s as you saw with the U.N. resolution, or comments coming from the former speaker or others that actually encourages Hamas to walk away from the table,” he said. “You don’t want to ever undermine peace and strengthen Hamas’ hand, where they feel that they have the upper hand.”
Standing firm: “They have to be very careful with all comments to make sure we don’t don’t send signals to Hamas, that America doesn’t, A, stand by their key ally, Israel and, B, never loses sight that on Oct. 7, Hamas, attacked, beheaded, burned, raped 1,200 people, killed 40 Americans and have five hostage still today,” he continued, addressing lawmakers and U.S. officials generally.
On message: In response to trends inside the Democratic caucus, the New Jersey congressman said that it’s important to “make sure that people don’t lose sight” of the events of Oct. 7 and the ongoing hostage situation, including that Americans remain hostage in Gaza — including one of his constituents — and to emphasize that Iran and its proxies continue to directly threaten and attack the U.S. and its forces.
Elsewhere in Washington: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) threatened to subpoena the Department of Justice over an inquiry into allegations that Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned media outlet, is violating foreign agent registration requirements.
special collections
The effort to document the events of Oct. 7 for posterity — and against the deniers
If journalists are writing, as Washington Post publisher Philip Graham once put it, “the first rough draft of history” about Oct. 7, the foundations for the later drafts are being prepared by historians, archivists, librarians and others — many of whom attended a conference at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem on Sunday, the six-month anniversary of Hamas’ invasion of southwestern Israel. The topic of “Telling War: The conference for documenting Oct. 7 and the war that broke out in its wake” focused on initiatives to collect testimony and preserve artifacts. But the topic of authenticating the massive collection amassed by the library’s staff and representatives of over 180 documentation initiatives loomed large amid the wave of atrocity denial that has grown online and in some corners of the news media, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Documentation challenges: Former IDF spokesman Ronen Manelis, who was involved in creating and screening a compilation of footage of Oct. 7 atrocities, lamented onstage that “there were Israeli spokespeople who spoke about events for which we do not have documentation, and that hurt our legitimacy. That created difficulties.” As of this week, over 15,000 people have seen the footage in 650 screenings in 60 countries. Some people who see the 47-minute film that the IDF and Israeli embassies abroad have screened for limited, influential audiences such as members of Congress and figures in Hollywood, ask why specific crimes or situations are not shown, Manelis said. “When it comes to sexual violence, we have more stories than solid proof, and that is part of the difficulty,” he said.
High standards:Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the founder of the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children and recipient of this year’s Israel Prize for Solidarity, has been dogged by accusations made by those who deny Hamas’ sexual violence. Speaking at the conference, she said that from the outset, she “warned to reach the highest standards of documentation. At the time, I didn’t know what it meant, but I’m glad I aimed for that standard.” Elkayam-Levy said that in addition to attacks on her credibility, anti-Israel elements abroad have tried to cyberattack the Civil Commission, and she is working with former Shin Bet officers on securing her systems.
Worthy Reads
Lasting Legacies: In The New York Times, Jamie Kirchick reflects on the legacies of former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and gay rights activist David Mixner, both of whom died last month. “Though Mr. Mixner was a pacifist who got his political start in the movement against the Vietnam War and Mr. Lieberman personified the liberal hawk, both men were inspired by the two forces that most captured the imaginations of young people in the 1960s: John F. Kennedy and the civil rights movement. The 35th president’s appeal that Americans ‘ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,’ and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s insistence that that country live up to its founding principles, motivated Mr. Mixner and Mr. Lieberman to pursue lives devoted to public service. Theirs would be careers guided by idealism. Mr. Mixner and Mr. Lieberman were also members of minority groups that, in different ways and to varying degrees, had been excluded from the promise of equal American citizenship. This experience of being outsiders deeply affected their political worldviews and caused them to embrace the struggles of other excluded Americans as their own. … Mr. Mixner and Mr. Lieberman lived their lives openly and proudly — one as a gay man, the other as an observant Jew — serving as role models for their communities and, indeed, for all Americans.” [NYTimes]
Targeting Tehran: The Washington Post’s Max Boot considers the implications of the Biden administration’s February strike on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities in response to the deaths of three American servicemembers in Jordan by an Iranian proxy group. “There is no lasting solution to the Iranian problem as long as that country continues to have a fundamentalist regime hostile to the United States and its allies — and there is no way for Washington to overthrow the Iranian regime without risking becoming embroiled in another Iraq- or Afghanistan-style quagmire. Indeed, in many ways, Iran is becoming more dangerous: It is ramping up its nuclear program to near weapons-grade levels of enrichment, and it is supplying Russia with drones, artillery shells and missiles for its war against Ukraine. But recent events make clear that the mullahs are too cautious to be drawn into a direct war with the United States or even with Israel. Iran prefers to keep hostilities at a low simmer. Even after an Israeli airstrike last week demolished the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, killing two Iranian generals and five other officers, Iran has not ordered Hezbollah to mount an all-out assault on Israel with its estimated arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles.” [WashPost]
Press Problem: In The Free Press, Uri Berliner, a senior business editor at NPR, raises concerns about the news organization’s shift toward activist journalism. “There’s an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed. It’s frictionless — one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line. … More recently, we have approached the Israel-Hamas war and its spillover onto streets and campuses through the ‘intersectional’ lens that has jumped from the faculty lounge to newsrooms. Oppressor versus oppressed. That’s meant highlighting the suffering of Palestinians at almost every turn while downplaying the atrocities of October 7, overlooking how Hamas intentionally puts Palestinian civilians in peril, and giving little weight to the explosion of antisemitic hate around the world.” [FreePress]
Hamas As Harbinger: In The Wall Street Journal, Gerard Baker suggests that Israel’s ability to win its war against Hamas is a harbinger of how the West would handle future threats to democracy. “Every Islamist terrorist Israel kills is one fewer threat to the rest of us. Every setback Israel can deal to the Iranian puppet masters of Hamas, Hezbollah and others inflicts a loss on the regime that is sworn to eliminate us, the ‘Great Satan,’ and our allies. There is no historical evidence that appeasing enemies committed to our extinction ever keeps us safe. But there’s a second sense in which the future of democracy is at stake in the bloody streets of Gaza. If Israel can somehow be bullied into forgoing victory over this enemy, our own capacity to wage wars inflicted on us will be dramatically diminished. We will have allowed a coalition of armchair media critics, far-left agitators and Islamist-sympathizing activists and governments to hold Israel to a standard no nation taking necessary measures to protect itself would ever be able to meet, a standard to which our enemies will certainly never hold themselves.” [WSJ]
The Jewish Cookbook Queen: The New Yorker’s Hannah Goldfield spotlights cookbook author Joan Nathan, whose new book, My Life in Recipes, hits bookshelves today, “If Nathan had stumbled into her career in food, she became more than sure-footed over the decades, travelling widely to gather and develop recipes for newspapers, magazines, and cookbooks. She has catalogued the Jewish culinary diaspora and often explored beyond it: one of my favorites of her recipes is for a dish of collard greens in oyster sauce, which she learned from a Chinese American chef in the Mississippi Delta. In the nineties, she made ‘Jewish Cooking in America’ into a show of the same name on PBS, sponsored by Hebrew National and Lender’s Bagels. One episode featured Mandy Patinkin and his mother making vegetarian ‘chopped liver’ out of peas, walnuts, and egg whites; another, called ‘What Is Kosher?,’ guest-starred her friend Julia. ‘She’s the blueprint,’ Jake Cohen, a thirty-year-old Jewish American cookbook author, told me. ‘You couldn’t get Seinfeld to say the word “Jewish,” and she was dragging Julia Child through a supermarket looking for kosher food!’” [NewYorker]
Around the Web
Cease-fire Call: In a Washington Post op-ed, King Abdullah II of Jordan, French President Emmanuel Macron and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi call for a cease-fire and posit that a two-state solution is “the only credible path to guaranteeing peace and security for all, and ensuring that neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis ever have to relive the horrors that have befallen them since the Oct. 7 attack.”
Trump Take: Former President Donald Trump said in an interview that any Jewish Democrat who votes for President Joe Biden “does not love Israel and frankly, should be spoken to.”
Mar-a-Lago Meeting: Trump met in Florida earlier this week with U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron, ahead of Cameron’s trip to Washington today; Cameron was planning to discuss Ukraine with the former president in an effort to drum up support among Republicans for continued aid.
Allied Assistance: In The Hill, Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) called on Congress to act to support Taiwan, Israel and Ukraine.
Happening Tonight: Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and other House members are set to speak on the floor this evening to mark six months since Oct. 7 and the ongoing hostage crisis. American hostage family members, who met with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier in the day, will be in attendance.
Rightward Drift: NBC News looks at Rep. Ruben Gallego’s (D-AZ) move to the center — including letting his Congressional Progressive Caucus membership lapse last month — as he mounts his Senate campaign in Arizona.
Rosen’s Haul: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) announced she raised $5 million in the first quarter of 2024, more than double the amount raised by her GOP challenger, Sam Brown, setting a new fundraising record in the state.
Latimer Launch: Westchester County Executive George Latimer released his first ad against Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), part of a seven-figure ad buy in one of the most closely watched primaries in the country.
Pressure on Baghdad: A group of 16 House Democrats led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is calling on the Biden administration to use the upcoming visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani to exert pressure on Baghdad to help secure the release of a Russian-Israeli Princeton academic who has been held hostage by an Iran-backed Iraqi militia group for more than a year.
Cosgrave’s Comeback: Web Summit co-founder Paddy Cosgrave, who stepped down as CEO in October over comments he made regarding the Israel-Hamas war that angered Israeli and Jewish tech and VC executives, is returning to his role; the company hosted a Web Summit in Qatar last month.
Merger Moves: Bloomberglooks at David Ellison’s efforts to merge his Skydance Media with Paramount and Shari Redstone’s National Amusements.
Campus Beat: Administrators at American University placed the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine on disciplinary probation, after the group organized a march through campus buildings in violation of university rules.
Brad’s Bookstore: The New York Jewish Weekspotlights P&T Knitwear, the Lower East Side bookstore and coffee shop owned by political consultant and venture capitalist Bradley Tusk and his father, Gabe.
Cue from Jerusalem: The Financial Timeslooks at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s efforts to overhaul the country’s constitution and electoral system, noting that Meloni’s concept has only been tried before in Israel, in 1992; at the time, it was done in an effort “to boost stability and reduce political horse-trading in an electoral system in which it was difficult for any one party to secure a clear majority.”
Glimpsing a Gazelle: A rare six-legged gazelle was spotted in Israel’s Nahal HaBasor nature reserve in the Negev.
Pared-down Projection: Officials in Saudi Arabia are scaling back plans for its Neom project, aiming to have 300,000 people living in the futuristic city by 2030, down from its initial projection of 1.5 million.
Damascus Strike: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian accused the U.S. of green-lighting a strike in Damascus that killed seven Iranian military officials; Tehran has attributed the strike to Israel.
Drone Doctrine: Bloombergexplores how Iran’s advancing drone program is reshaping conflicts around the world.
Turkey Tensions: Ankara announced it will restrict its exports to Israel after officials in Jerusalem rejected Turkish attempts to participate in Gaza aid drops; Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he plans to raise the issue with American legislators in states with anti-boycott laws.
Transition: Quincy Henderson joined Rep. Ritchie Torres’ (D-NY) office as a legislative assistant. He was previously a legislative assistant for the House Homeland Security Committee and a staff assistant for the Jan. 6 Committee.
Pic of the Day
New York City Mayor Eric Adams hosted a Jewish media roundtable at City Hall yesterday to discuss his office’s engagement with the Jewish community in advance of Passover.
Birthdays
Dean at Reichman University in Herzliya and emeritus professor at Tel Aviv University, Zvi Eckstein turns 75…
Retired singer-songwriter, satirist and mathematician, Thomas Andrew “Tom” Lehrer turns 96… Board certified internist, he is a consultant at the Disney Family Cancer Center at St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank, Calif., Lester Simon Garfinkel, MD turns 89… Retired fighter pilot and brigadier general in the Israeli Air Force, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest-ever and longest serving combat pilot, Uri Gil turns 81… EVP at nationwide homebuilder KB Home, former chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Albert Zane Praw… Gail Kritz… Rabbi, author, and environmental activist, Nina Beth Cardin turns 71… Fashion designer for his own worldwide chain of eponymous stores, Marc Jacobs turns 61… CEO of the RedBird IMI and an Operating Partner at RedBird Capital Partners, Jeff Zucker turns 59… Visual artist, performance artist and co-founder of Processional Arts Workshop, Alex Kahn turns 57… Attorney, author, political commentator, movie critic and blogger, Debbie Schlussel turns 55… Clinical psychologist in Boca Raton, Dr. Lori Gutmann Fineman… Former senior program manager in marketing operations at Freddie Mac, Jill Gershenson-Cohen… Founder and CEO at NYC-based Wall to Wall Communications, Ross M. Wallenstein… Actress and writer, Rachel Sarah Specter turns 44… Israeli actress, Moran Atias turns 43… Owner of D.C.’s Baked by Yael, Yael Krigman… Actress, Lili Mirojnick turns 40… Founder and managing partner of Kesher Capital Management, Soraya Hoberman… Figure skater, she competed for Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, Paige Conners turns 24… Zurich resident, Jonathan Bollag… Herbert Levine… Executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, Asaf Romirowsky… Chairman and CEO of Interwoven and creator of the Israeli documentary series “The New Jew,” Moshe Samuels…
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