Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning. Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the ideological split between Young Democrats of America and the Democratic National Committee on Israel, and interview Holocaust survivors who decades later survived the Oct. 7 terror attacks. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Daniel Lubetzky, Joe Kahn and Jerry Seinfeld.
Israelbegan evacuating Gazans from parts of Rafah today ahead of an expected incursion, hours after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Hamas’ repeated rejections of efforts to reach a cease-fire gave Israel no alternative to a Rafah operation. An Egyptian official told Axios’ Barak Ravid that a weekend rocket attack on the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza that killed four Israeli soldiers sabotaged the hostage negotiations; Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack.
After days of negotiations that failed to bring about an agreement, Hamas’ delegation returned to Qatar last night to consult with the terror group’s Doha-based leadership. Meanwhile, the U.S. is putting pressure on Qatar to evict top Hamas officials from the Gulf country if Hamas continues to reject efforts to reach a cease-fire and hostage release. French President Emmanuel Macron cautioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against a Rafah invasion, pushing him to focus on reaching a hostage deal. Netanyahu is expected to meet later this week in Jerusalem with CIA Director Bill Burns, who is in Doha today after spending the weekend in Cairo for talks.
The ongoing efforts to secure the release of some 33 hostages come at a somber time for Israel, as the country marked Holocaust Remembrance Day. The ceremonies and events held throughout the country last night drew parallels between the genocide of 6 million Jews during World War II and Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, as well as the the ongoing war in Gaza and the world’s reaction to it.
At Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, in Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu and other top political figures, religious leaders and dignitaries – along with some Holocaust survivors – gathered on Sunday evening in memory of those who perished eight decades ago.
The ceremony’s host, Israeli TV presenter Doria Lampel, drew attention to a chair left purposely empty to represent the 132 people being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. She also highlighted that the focus of this year’s Remembrance Day was on the Jewish communities destroyed by the Nazis.
In his speech, Herzog pointed out that this year’s annual “Days of Awe” – beginning with Holocaust Remembrance Day and ending with Independence Day next week – are taking place under the shadow of war. He drew a direct line between the Holocaust and events of the past seven months, describing his meeting with a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor and his grandson, a reserve soldier deployed during this war. He also recalled multiple individuals who survived the Holocaust and rebuilt their lives in Israel, only to see children and grandchildren brutally murdered or kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7.
“Throughout the decades that have passed since the Holocaust, we assured time after time: ‘Never again,’ and we swore that the Jewish people would never again stand defenseless and unprotected,” Herzog said. “Despite all that, the horrors of the Holocaust shook us all during the October massacres, echoing in all our hearts.”
Netanyahu spoke about the response of the international community towards Israel’s war against Hamas, saying that the antisemitic tropes were different today but the meaning was the same. He criticized the anti-Israel protests on U.S. university campuses and efforts to label Israel’s actions as war crimes and genocide in international forums.
“As the prime minister of Israel, the one and only Jewish state, I pledge here, today, from Jerusalem on this Holocaust Remembrance Day that if Israel is forced to stand alone in the world, it will stand alone,” he said. “But I know we’re not alone because there are countless decent people from around the world that support our just cause and I say to you, we will defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is now.”
A few miles away, outside the Prime Minister’s Office, families whose loved ones are still being held hostage in Gaza held an emotional protest calling on the government to reach an immediate deal with the Iranian-backed terror group to free their relatives. “For 76 years, the government of Israel promised ‘Never again,’” said Albert Ariev, father of hostage Karina Ariev. “Now it’s up to you. Through your actions, you must prove it.”
While the war is front of mind in Israel today, it is also part of the conversation this week in Los Angeles, where a who’s who of business leaders, philanthropists and politicians have descended on Beverly Hills to attend the annual Milken Institute Global Conference.
The Israel-Hamas war and the broader tensions in the Middle East are not a major focus on the forum’s agenda. Still, amid dozens of panels about current events, corporate leadership and higher education — including keynote speeches by former President Bill Clinton, Argentinian President Javier Milei and Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk — talk of what’s happening 7,500 miles to the east will likely be unavoidable. A diverse mix of executives from Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations will be mingling at the Beverly Hilton as their leaders attempt to negotiate a hostage and cease-fire deal.
Attendees at a panel this afternoon about how to address antisemitism after Oct. 7 will hear from CNN host Van Jones, KIND snacks founder Daniel Lubetzky, Rabbi David Wolpe and The Free Press’ Bari Weiss. (Jewish Insider senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch, who’s at Milken this week, caught up with Lubetzky on Sunday. Read the interview here.)
Later, Queen Rania of Jordan, who has been sharply critical of Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, will speak about global humanitarianism. On the East Coast, her husband, King Abdullah II, is slated to have lunch with President Joe Biden this afternoon.
At Milken, we’ll also be watching whether a morning conversation about the utility of a college degree, which includes University of Florida President Ben Sasse and Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, touches on the widespread campus protests. The behind-the-scenes dealmaking at Milken, including the numerous Israeli investors who will be there, stands in contrast to students’ calls to divest from Israeli businesses.
If you’re in Beverly Hills this week, send a note to [email protected] — we are always excited to meet JI readers.
surviving twice
An Israeli survivor of the Holocaust and Oct. 7 says after the recent atrocities, we ‘held our heads high’
Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel took on a new resonance on Monday, nearly seven months to the day after the greatest atrocity against the Jewish people since the ones perpetrated by the Nazis. There are currently 132,826 Holocaust survivors living in Israel, according to the Israeli Welfare Ministry. The events of Oct. 7 are estimated to have impacted 2,500 Holocaust survivors, including 1,894 who were evacuated from their homes, 554 of whom come from Israel’s south. Of the evacuees, 238 have returned to their homes, mostly in Israel’s south; 86 of the survivors who were evacuated have died since Oct. 7. Penina Ben Yosef is one of those who escaped the Nazis and lived through Hamas’ attack on Southern Israel. She spoke with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Fleeing Poland: Ben Yosef was born on Aug. 1, 1940 in Kovel, Poland – which is today in Ukraine – after the German invasion of Poland. Her father, a locomotive engineer, was forced to bring supplies to the war front and bring wounded soldiers back to Poland. “My father knew what was happening to the Jews,” Ben Yosef said, “and one time, when he was able to stop in our city, he called the whole family together, his parents and brothers, and told them to run away. They didn’t believe anything would happen. They said that they had been in Poland for hundreds of years and had a lot of trouble with the goyim [non-Jews] and nothing particularly bad would happen now. When my father insisted, they said ‘take your wife and daughter and go,’ so he did. They stayed, and they were all killed,” she said.
Arriving in the Holy Land: Ben Yosef and her parents made their way to Mandatory Palestine illegally on a freight ship in April 1948, one month before David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence. Ben Yosef was one of the early residents of Kfar Maimon, one of several agricultural communities near the Gaza border established by alumni of the religious Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva. She arrived as a teacher in the fledgling moshav in 1960, a year after Kfar Maimon’s establishment, and raised two daughters there. She has 11 grandchildren, including two soldiers who fought in the war in the past seven months.
On Oct. 7: Ben Yosef had a broken leg in a cast and was unable to go to synagogue for Simchat Torah. She had heard the rocket sirens at 6:30 a.m. — “We’re used to that,” she said — but when they stopped, she sat by her window. As the morning progressed, she did not understand why she did not see the other residents of her religious village walking to synagogue. “Then my daughter who lives [in Kfar Maimon] and a grandson who was a soldier on leave, but was back in uniform, came here to put me in the safe room because I couldn’t walk on my leg,” she said.
dem disagreement
Young Democrats of America slam Biden for condemning violent campus protests
Days after President Joe Biden delivered a White House address condemning violence at campus protests, the Young Democrats of America issued a sharply worded denunciation of Biden and asserted its support for the protesters, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Risking support: The statement from Young Democrats, an organization that claims a membership of 20,000 Democrats under the age of 36, warned Biden that his stance on the Israel-Hamas war and his criticism of the protests risk the support of a key demographic in a major election year.
Disorder on campus: The group pledged to continue to support Biden in his election year, but stated that its members are “disheartened by the lack of urgency shown by the administration’s handling of the conflict, and its inability to heed the concerns of young people.” The Young Democrats took particular issue with Biden’s characterization of the protests as violent and disorderly, arguing that “disorder” is sometimes necessary in political movements.
Break with Biden: The group also diverged from Biden on his support for Israel in its war against Hamas after the Oct. 7 terror attacks, urging the president to “rethink the disastrous policy of unfettered support for the Israeli government, which has led to unthinkable bloodshed and suffering for the Palestinian people.”
‘Trivializes’ antisemitism: Zach Shartiag, the chair of Young Democrats’ Jewish caucus and a member of the group’s 12-person national board, denounced the statement in a comment to JI. “It is very disappointing for YDA to kick off Jewish American Heritage Month with a statement that both trivializes the seriousness of campus antisemitism and undermines support for Joe Biden,” Shartiag said. “It’s very frustrating for the entire Jewish caucus to be excluded from input when a statement is rushed out on Shabbat.”
Deep dive: Politico looks at the decision-making process that led Biden to deliver an address on campus antisemitism nearly a week before a slated Yom HaShoah address.
primary preview
Indiana House primary featuring anti-Israel ex-congressman coming down to the wire
Tuesday’s Republican primary in Indiana’s 8th Congressional District is likely to come down to the wire, after pro-Israel groups injected millions in outside spending in a bid to block a former congressman who voted repeatedly against Israel from returning to Washington, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
In the running: The race is largely down to former GOP Rep. John Hostettler and state Sen. Mark Messmer, according to political operatives tracking the race. Hostettler, while in office in the late ’90s and early 2000s, voted repeatedly against funding for Israel and other pro-Israel legislation, as well as claimed in a self-published book that a primary motivation — driven by prominent Jewish officials — for the Iraq War was protecting Israel.
Outside spending: The AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project has spent close to $1.3 million on advertisements in the race, while the Republican Jewish Coalition’s super PAC has spent nearly $1 million. AIPAC and RJC have both endorsed Messmer. Other outside groups have pumped additional millions into the race, mostly to Messmer’s benefit, although Hostettler has seen some outside help.
State of play: Cam Savage, an Indiana Republican political strategist unaffiliated with any campaign, said that Messmer’s campaign generally feels comfortable about where it stands going into primary day, but the election is likely to be close. There has not been public polling on the race. “I hear people in both camps say they expect it to be close,” Savage told JI. “If anyone tells you they know, they’re probably lying.” Another individual familiar with the race echoed the view that Messmer is in a strong position, but said it will be a race to the finish line on Tuesday.
fight for the suburbs
Bowman’s break with Biden on campus antisemitism isn’t helping him back home
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) has been trying to ingratiate himself with President Joe Biden even as his left-wing, anti-Israel record in Congress has alienated moderate Democratic voters to the point where he could lose a hotly contested primary against Westchester County Executive George Latimer next month, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Campus daylight: In a sign of the Squad-aligned lawmaker’s ideological commitments undermining his political prospects, his support of the anti-Israel campus protesters have underscored how far his views are from Biden’s. In the same week that Bowman defended Columbia University protesters taking over and occupying a building on campus and decried “heavy-handed repression” from the NYPD, Biden condemned the violent protests that have swept college campuses in a White House address.
Presidential ties: The prominence of antisemitism as a major political issue across the country couldn’t come at a worse time for Bowman, who faces a heated Democratic primary against Latimer on June 25. Notably, in recent weeks, Bowman had been trying to showcase his support of the president, with his campaign even touting the fact that the left-wing congressman voted for Biden in the New York presidential primary over an “uncommitted” option to protest the Biden administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war. Bowman’s spokesman said he voted for the president because the two “are close allies in combating gun violence and climate change.”
aid arguments
Ahead of military aid assessment, 86 House Dems say Israel is violating U.S. law
Democratic critics of Israel’s military operations in Gaza are laying the groundwork for a renewed fight over U.S. aid to Israel ahead of the issuance of a Biden administration report on Israel’s compliance with U.S. law and humanitarian aid this week, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Background: Under the military aid memorandum known as NSM-20 the administration released earlier this year, the administration is required to submit to Congress by May 8 and release publicly a report on whether it believes Israel and other aid recipients are in compliance with international law and U.S. humanitarian aid efforts. If the administration finds Israel not in compliance, it would face sanctions up to the suspension of aid. A sizable group of Democrats signaled this week they believe that report must find Israel to be in violation of the law.
Objection: On Friday, a group of 86 House Democrats, led by Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO) and Chris Deluzio (D-PA), said they believe Israel is violating U.S. aid law through “the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid.” Despite recent Israeli moves to increase aid, the lawmakers said that there is “sufficient evidence that Israel’s restrictions on the delivery of US-backed humanitarian aid violate” U.S. law and must consider measures “from refreshing the assurances to withholding specific arms transfers.”
Signatories: Notable signatories include Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY), traditionally pro-Israel Jewish Democrats; Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee; Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), the likely next senator from New Jersey; and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), an influential progressive Jewish Democrat.
From the Senate: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), the driving force behind NSM-20, said in an interview last week that he’s told the administration that an assessment Israel is complying with the law would be unacceptable. “God help us if this report somehow says that the delivery of humanitarian assistance has been compliant with international standards — God help us because anybody with eyes to see and ears to hear knows that’s just not true,” Van Hollen told Politico.
scoop
Lawmakers push for additional funding for nonprofit security grants, antisemitism envoy
Large bipartisan groups of House lawmakers requested in letters to committee leaders last week that the House Appropriations Committee substantially increase funding in 2025 for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, the State Department’s Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism and the Holocaust Survivor Assistance Program, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Security funding: A group of 120 House members requested that funding be boosted to $385 million in 2025, surpassing the $360 million request level lawmakers had maintained for years prior to Oct. 7. “The NSGP program is a critical component to the nation’s response to domestic and international threats targeting the nonprofit sector, but the program is significantly over-subscribed,” the request letter argues. The NSGP funding letter was organized by Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) and Michael McCaul (R-TX), both longtime advocates for the program.
Special envoy: The request for the special envoy’s office, signed by 76 House members, asks for $3 million in funding for the office, as well as that the appropriations bill include language urging the State Department to ensure continuity in work and staffing in the event of a change in administrations in November, which would vacate the special envoy post. The special envoy’s office was funded at $1.75 million for 2024, up from $1.5 million for 2023.
Holocaust survivors: A third request from 107 bipartisan members calls for increasing funding for the Holocaust Survivor Assistance Program from $8.5 million in 2023 and 2024 to $10 million for 2025. The letter was led by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Troy Balderson (R-OH).
Worthy Reads
A New Holocaust Education: In the Times of Israel, Yossi Klein Halevi proposes a rethinking of education around Holocaust, antisemitism and Jewish history. “We are losing a generation, but we haven’t yet lost. Like other radical movements, anti-Zionism could go too far in its righteous rage, potentially alienating the majority. Perhaps that process has already begun. The challenge of our generation is to defend the story we inherited from the survivor generation. We need to tell that story with moral credibility, in all its complexity, frankly owning our flaws even as we celebrate our successes, acknowledging the Palestinian narrative even as we insist on the integrity of our own. We desperately need new strategies to counter the anti-Zionist assault. A good beginning would be the creation of a brain trust, composed of community activists, rabbis, journalists, historians, public relations experts, that would devise both immediate responses to the current crisis and a long-term strategy, emulating the decades-long patient work of the anti-Zionists.” [TOI]
Risk Factor: The Wall Street Journal’s Barton Swaim interviews author Mark Helprin, whose recently released novel looks at a fictitious war between Iran and the West, about American preparedness for a global confrontation. “As we sit down, Mr. Helprin doesn’t wait for me to ask a question. ‘It might not be a gracious thing to do, but let me begin with an “I told you so,”’ he says. … Any discussion of U.S. leadership abroad has to start, as ours does, with America’s humiliating 2021 retreat from Afghanistan, a colossal exhibition of weakness and confusion and almost certainly a catalyst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’s attack on Israel. Our faltering in Europe and the Middle East is the reason, Mr. Helprin says, we need to adopt a ‘bastion strategy.’ Meaning what? ‘No, we’re not going to give up on a forward defense in Europe and Asia. But as an emergency measure, as a reserve, in case the forward defenses fail — and they are under tremendous pressure now both because of our isolationism and our disintegration and the world situation externally — if those should fail, we have a bastion.’” [WSJ]
Writers’ Block: The Atlantic’s George Packer reflects on the cancelation of the PEN America literary conference, after a number of speakers backed out over the group’s failure to accuse Israel of genocide. “We like to think of writers as courageous individuals who believe in free expression without fetters. In practice, they turn out to be no more able to resist the authoritarian spirit than most other people — maybe less. In the Soviet Union, many writers denounced their imprisoned friends without being told to. Here, they check their social-media traffic first. … This turn was perhaps inevitable, because authoritarianism is the spirit of the times, around the world and in this country, where it animates both the right and the left. The two sides have vastly different values and goals, and they use different language — the left’s is academic and specialized (decolonization, imperialism, marginalization) while the right’s is crude and abusive (libtard, groomer, hoax). But in both cases, the words aren’t meant to invite a reply or open a dialogue; they shut discussion down. The two sides reflect and require each other, driving each other to greater extremes, while between them the center of Never Trump conservatives and traditional liberals, with their creaky institutions and halting appeals to reason, collapses.” [TheAtlantic]
When Protests Go Wrong: In The New York Times, Columbia professor John McWhorter posits that the campus anti-Israel protests are making the same errors as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. “After the concrete victories of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, a conflict arose within the movement between those who sought to keep the focus on changing laws and institutions and those who cherished more symbolic confrontations as a chance to speak truth to power. … Beyond a certain point, however, we must ask whether the escalating protests are helping to change those circumstances. Columbia’s administration agreed to review proposals about divestment, shareholder activism and other issues and to create health and education programs in Gaza and the West Bank. But the protesters were unmoved and a subgroup of them, apparently, further enraged.” [NYTimes]
Hashtags Can’t Change the World: In New Lines Magazine, Arash Azizi contemplates why the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran failed to make lasting change in the Islamic republic. “The 2022 movement offered a golden opportunity for the opposition abroad. Millions of Iranians have left the country in recent years, now forming a diaspora across the world, representing a huge pool of talent, wealth and potential organizational capacity. The Woman, Life, Freedom movement inspired tens of thousands of such Iranians, who came out in rallies across the world. … Instead of engaging in organized politics, large numbers of Iranians abroad took part in performative actions on social media. Mimicking an ancient Iranian rite of mourning, they cut their hair and posted videos online. They organized symbolic bike rides and posted numerous pictures with solidarity T-shirts. But while these actions signaled pride in their identity, they were politically useless. Many were under the influence of widespread notions that celebrated the ‘horizontalism’ of the protests and eschewed the need for political organizations. That is, some seemed to believe that hashtags alone could change the world. Even when politically themed events or rallies were organized, they were never followed up with serious, durable, organized political work.” [NewLines]
Around the Web
Happening Today: Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is meeting with a group of Jewish students — all grandchildren of Holocaust survivors — at the White House today to discuss antisemitism on campus.
Holding Fire: The U.S. put a hold on an ammunition shipment bound for Israel, the first time since the war broke out nearly seven months ago that such a hold has been placed.
Saudi Deal: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed on Saturday that a U.S.-Saudi defense deal will not happen in the absence of normalization between Riyadh and Jerusalem; days before, legislators on Capitol Hill dismissed the possibility of an agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that doesn’t include Israeli normalization.
Al Jazeera Ousted: Israel’s cabinet voted to shutter the local offices of Al Jazeera; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the outlet a “Hamas mouthpiece” shortly after the vote.
Day-After Discussion: Arab nations are softening to the idea of the creation of a multinational peacekeeping force in Gaza as Western nations, the Arab world and Israel consider a day-after plan for the enclave.
Nadler’s No: In an interview with Politico, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) explained his vote last week against the Antisemitism Awareness Act.
Pompeo Talk: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is slated to speak at a retreat for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) this morning; venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale spoke at the retreat’s dinner last night.
In and Out: Republican National Committee chief counsel Charlie Spies resigned after two months in the role, amid concern over his previous ties to previous political rivals of former President Donald Trump.
Meeting Mess: Several mainstream Jewish groups pulled out of a meeting on Friday with high-level Biden administration officials about campus antisemitism after learning that the Department of Education had also included a number of left-wing groups not usually included in White House convenings, including one organization that is closely aligned with the far-left Jewish activist group IfNotNow, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and Marc Rod report.
JDCA Chief: The Washington Posttalks to Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer about President Joe Biden’s handling of campus anti-Israel protests, the organization’s decision to endorse challengers in Democratic primaries and the recent House vote on the Antisemitism Awareness Act.
Keeping the Faith: Two prominent Christian conservative leaders pushed back against a growing narrative on the right that the House-passed Antisemitism Awareness Act contradicts Christian scripture or would limit freedom of speech.
Bomb Threats: The NYPD is investigating a series of bomb threats made over the weekend to synagogues in New York City, as well as the Brooklyn Museum.
State of The Times:Semafor’s Ben Smith interviews New York Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn about the state of the newsroom and covering hot-button issues in an increasingly polarized media environment.
Live From Morningside Heights: “Saturday Night Live” parodied the reaction of parents to their children taking part in campus anti-Israel protests.
Money Trail X Campaign Trail: Politicolooks at the sources of funding for the campus anti-Israel protests — and found that some of the organizations bankrolling the demonstrations have ties to prominent Biden donors.
Eye on November:New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait argues that the ongoing protests on campuses are lending credit to a narrative of chaos and disarray that is affecting President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign more than the White House’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war.
View from Campus: In The Atlantic, an Israeli Ph.D. student at Columbia University reflects on the efficacy of the protests taking place on his campus and across the country.
Lacking Linkage: A Washington Post review of university endowments found few direct ties to investments in Israel, despite a core demand of most student protests that their universities divest from holdings in Israel.
Commencement Complaint: Harvard is facing criticism for tapping Filipino-American journalist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa, who in the months after the Oct. 7 terror attack compared Israel’s actions to those of Nazi Germany, as the school’s commencement speaker.
His Post-Nothing Period: The New York Timesspotlights comic Jerry Seinfeld’s support for Israel since the Oct. 7 terror attacks and onset of the Israel-Hamas war.
New Position: UCLA tapped former Sacramento police chief Rick Braziel to oversee campus security operations, following clashes on campus between pro- and anti-Israel protesters.
French Connection: Prosecutors in France are increasingly cracking down on pro-Hamas rhetoric among left-wing politicians, unions and activist groups, following a court decision criminalizing speech that celebrates the Oct. 7 terror attacks and refers to Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement.
No Direction Home:eJewishPhilanthropytraveled to Kiryat Shmona, Israel, which since the fall has been a ghost town after tens of thousands of residents evacuated the northern Israeli city due to ongoing Hezbollah attacks.
Political Pardon: Bahrain issued a mass royal pardon to more than 1,500 political prisoners, many of whom were jailed after joining pro-democracy protests more than a decade ago.
Timeline Talk: A new United Nations report suggested that the rebuilding of homes in Gaza could take at least 16 years.
L’Chaim: New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft and former head coach Bill Belichick took shots onstage at a roast of former QB Tom Brady. “Having Tom Brady and him was the greatest honor the Good Lord gave me. So, cheers,” Kraft added.
Remembering: Poet and anthologist Jerome Rothenberg died at 92.
Pic of the Day
Holocaust survivor Smil Bercu Sacagiu, 87, participates in a Torah inscription ceremony on Sunday evening in Krakow, Poland. Sacagiu’s home in Ashkelon, Israel, was damaged during the barrage of rockets from Gaza during the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. Sacagiu was part of a delegation of hostages, hostage families and survivors of the Nova music festival who joined this year’s March of The Living.
Birthdays
Actor and singer, Noah Egidi Galvin turns 30…
Former U.S. senator (R-AL) from 1987 until 2023, Richard Shelby turns 90… Senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, previously a U.S. District Court judge and a State Department legal adviser, Abraham David Sofaer turns 86… Novelist, playwright and human rights activist, Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman turns 82… Professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago, Martha Nussbaum turns 77… Israeli theoretical physicist and astrophysicist, he is best known for his work on gamma-ray bursts and on numerical relativity, Tsvi Piran turns 75… Partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, she is a former deputy attorney general of the U.S., Jamie S. Gorelick turns 74… Former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair turns 71… President emeritus of the Jerusalem College of Technology / Lev Academic Center, Noah Dana-Picard turns 70… Director of the Jewish studies program at Northeastern University, Lori Hope Lefkovitz turns 68… Co-founder of Boston-based HighVista Strategies, Daniel Jick turns 67… Former member of the Knesset for Likud between 2003 and 2006, Daniel Benlulu turns 66… President and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, Eric David Fingerhut turns 65… Member of the board of trustees of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, Sheri Goldberg… Los Angeles-based attorney and real estate entrepreneur, Daniel Todd Gryczman… Israel’s minister of national security since 2022, he is the leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir turns 48… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Shelly Tal Meron turns 45… Los Angeles-based television personality, actress, writer and video blogger, Shira Lazar turns 41… Chief communications officer and head of investor relations at aMoon Fund, Brachie Sprung… Conductor, pianist, clarinetist, and composer, he is currently music director of The Louisville Orchestra and Britt Festival Orchestra, Edward “Teddy” Paul Maxwell Abrams turns 37… Founder at ALC Hospitality, Alyse Cohen… VP on BlackRock’s climate infrastructure investment team, Benjamin Levine… Partner at Courtside Ventures and advisor to the board of directors of the Atlanta Hawks, Oliver Ressler…
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