Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover yesterday’s Capitol Hill hearing on campus antisemitism, report on a speech by Sen. J.D. Vance to the Quincy Institute and look at the delicate balancing act Egypt is navigating as it attempts to act as a mediator in the Israel-Hamas war. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: House Speaker Mike Johnson, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Yarden Gross and Dor Raviv.
Ed. note: In observance of Memorial Day, the next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Tuesday, May 28.
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 and eJewishPhilanthropy, including: Lehrhaus, Boston’s popular Jewish tavern, to open in D.C. in 2025; For a group of Jewish 2nd grade girls, a lesson in advocacy — and a life-changing trip to Washington; What the top U.S. Nazi hunter thinks of claims that Israel is committing genocide. Print the latest edition here.
The mood at the Israeli Embassy’s 76th anniversary event last night at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., reflected that of the mood in Israel a week prior on Yom Haatzmaut: something between celebratory and mournful, Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports.
Attendees who packed the venue were confronted with the realities on the ground in Israel throughout the evening: portraits taken in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Israeli photographer Avishag Shaar-Yahuv; artwork by Kibbutz Be’eri resident Ziva Jelin, including pieces that were damaged by bullets fired through Jelin’s studio; a food spread that used recipes from Israel’s border communities.
In the middle of the room, in front of the dais, 128 yellow chairs — each representing one of the remaining hostages — were positioned, each with a photograph of a hostage. That number dropped to 125 hours after the event concluded, after Israel announced the repatriation of the bodies of three hostages — Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez Radoux — from Jabaliya, Gaza, overnight. According to Israeli intelligence, all three men were killed in the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog addressed the evening’s theme, “United in Hope,” asking rhetorically, “What gives us hope in these dark days? We should not let the traumatic events of recent months blur the reality, for the State of Israel truly is a modern miracle.”
Herzog’s wife, Shirin, sang along with musician David Broza, who performed in between speeches. Broza led the crowd in the “Hatikvah” national anthem, while “The Voice” season 17 winner Jake Hoot sang the “Star Spangled Banner.”
As is unofficial custom at many such gatherings, at least one speaker made a (pretty decent) attempt to sprinkle some Hebrew into their speech. “Thank you all so much, and good evening, or erev tov,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in his opening remarks.
Johnson said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would soon speak to a joint session of Congress, an invitation he’s been teasing for months, in an apparent bid to pressure Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) after Schumer called for Netanyahu’s ouster, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
The speaker publicly pressed Schumer — who has said from the outset that he’s open to a Netanyahu speech — to finalize the invitation earlier this week, and the expected address is already dividing Democrats, some of whom preemptively pledged to boycott the speech.
Johnson also made a coded, but clear, dig at President Joe Biden. “Some leaders who have previously been proud to stand with Israel and and even some who have made statements of solidarity following Oct. 7, and suddenly began to backpedal on that support,” Johnson said. “On one day, they tell us that we can give no safe harbor to hate, but on the next they demand that Israel must give safe harbor to Hamas. They tell us they support Israel but they give cover to antisemitism.”
Addressing the campus hearing that took place on Capitol Hill earlier in the day, Johnson said that he is supporting House committee efforts to investigate universities accused of not addressing antisemitism on campus. “You’re probably aware that these universities get billions of taxpayer dollars on an annual basis, and I don’t believe they deserve it if they can’t stand for the basic fundamental freedoms of their students,” Johnson said to applause. “You know, what we’re also investigating is the student visa program. Let me just say this simply: Young man and young woman, if you’re an aspiring terrorist who is coming here to study and prey upon your fellow Jewish students, you don’t belong in the United States.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the No. 3 House Democrat, delivered brief remarks in which he emphasized Democratic and bipartisan support for Israel. “The U.S.-Israel relationship has been marked here at home by strong bipartisanship,” he said. “I’m pleased that we heard from the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, to make clear that the safety and security of Israel is paramount to both Democrats and Republicans. Together, Democrats and Republicans have delivered critical assistance and aid to Israel that will help Israel defend itself against those who seek destruction, and prosecute its war against Hamas.” Read more here.
Among the officials spotted: Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Bill Foster (D-IL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Brandon Williams (R-NY), Virginia Foxx (R-NC); Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt; Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Aaron Keyak; and Mira Resnick, deputy assistant secretary of state for regional security in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
Unlike most previous years, the White House did not send a representative to address the convening. Down Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House was hosting a state dinner in honor of Kenyan President William Ruto.
Attendees from the administration included: Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Cabinet secretary Evan Ryan; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.; CIA Director Bill Burns; Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard; former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer; Attorney General Merrick Garland; Rufus Gifford; national security advisor to the vice president, Philip Gordon; Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines; White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre; Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies, and Yehuda Neuberger; USAID Administrator Samantha Power; National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Maggie Goodlander; U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield; and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients. Former President Barack Obama also made a brief cameo at the dinner.
Also in attendance: Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA); House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY); Reps. Steven Horsford (D-NV), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Greg Meeks (D-NY), Richard Neal (D-MA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN); Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego; NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver; Sheryl Sandberg and Tom Bernthal; Daniel Lubetzky and Dr. Michelle Lubetzky; Alexander Soros and Huma Abedin; Ruth Porat; Audrey Azoulay and Eliot Minchenberg; Hildy Kuryk Bernstein and Jarrod Bernstein.
grilling on the hill
Northwestern President Michael Schill defends deal with protesters in House antisemitism hearing
Northwestern University President Michael Schill found himself on the defensive throughout a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on Thursday on campus antisemitism, repeatedly providing nonspecific answers, in some cases refusing to answer specific questions and occasionally becoming combative, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Deal defense: Schill said that he had made a deal with an anti-Israel encampment — which he acknowledged was dangerous and engaged in antisemitic activity — in the interest of protecting Jewish students. By the end of the hearing, he faced calls from Republicans for his resignation or ouster.
Declining to comment: He declined to answer various specific questions about incidents on campus, including whether Jewish students were assaulted, harassed, stalked or spat on, citing ongoing investigations; when those investigations might be completed; whether it was acceptable for faculty to obstruct police officers; and whether he would have made a similar deal with an encampment of Ku Klux Klan members.
Question time: Asked whether it’s acceptable for students or faculty to express support for terrorism, Schill responded, “are you saying, OK meaning, is it something that I would do?… Our professors and our faculty have all of the rights of free speech.” He said that there have so far been no students suspended or expelled in connection with antisemitic activity but that investigations are ongoing and that some staff had been fired.
veepstakes vision
Vance puts pro-Israel spin on America First worldview in Quincy Institute speech
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) delivered an address at an event co-hosted by the isolationist Quincy Institute on Thursday defending U.S. support for Israel as a critical component of a foreign policy agenda otherwise at odds with his more-hawkish Senate GOP colleagues. Vance, who is among the contenders to be former President Donald Trump’s running mate, spoke at a conference convened by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank opposed to U.S. intervention in foreign conflicts. The conference, co-sponsored by The American Conservative, was promoted as an event highlighting “realism and restraint amid global conflict,” Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
‘Separate buckets’: Vance used his speech to differentiate his opposition to Ukraine aid from his steadfast commitment to Israel. “I’m supportive of Israel and their war against Hamas. I certainly admire the Ukrainians who are fighting against Russia, but I do not think that it is in America’s interest to continue to fund an effectively never-ending war in Ukraine,” Vance said. “It’s sort of weird that this town assumes that Israel and Ukraine are exactly the same. They’re not, of course, and I think it’s important to analyze them in separate buckets.” While Vance has distinguished himself as a leading voice against U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, he has held firm in his support for Israel.
American interests: Vance criticized President Joe Biden for delaying offensive weapons transfers and potential sales to Israel while trying to avert a full-scale Rafah invasion earlier this month, and dug in during Thursday’s address on why the America First platform he aligns himself with requires a strong relationship with Israel. “If we’re going to support Israel, as I think that we should, we have to articulate a reason why it’s in our best interest,” Vance said. “Israel is one of the most dynamic, certainly on a per capita basis, one of the most dynamic and technologically advanced countries in the world,” Vance went on, citing work done on Israel’s end to “actually give us missile-defense parity. That’s a very important national security objective of the United States of America, and that’s something we’re working with one of the most innovative economies in the world to accomplish.”
tightrope walk
Egypt’s delicate balancing act as a mediator in the Israel-Hamas war
Since October, Egypt, a country that neighbors both Israel and the Gaza Strip, has vied to be among those helping to mediate an end to the hostilities sparked on Oct. 7 when Hamas infiltrated southern Israel. Yet the most populous Arab state, which signed a peace treaty with Israel more than 40 years ago, seems to be playing a duplicitous game, with reports of dozens of Hamas tunnels snaking beneath its border with the Palestinian enclave, rocket launch sites found only meters from its territory and even officials undermining the cease-fire negotiations to pressure Israel into ending the war, analysts tell Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash.
Conflict of interests: “It’s all a balancing act for Egypt right now,” Joe Truzman, a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI. “Egypt is in a difficult position and is nervous about what may come out of this conflict,” he continued. “On the one hand, it has a sizeable pro-Palestinian population, and does not want to see massive protests on the streets against the inaction of the Egyptian government; on the other, Egypt wants to maintain ties with Israel because it was instrumental in assisting the Egyptians in defeating the Islamic State in the northern Sinai and because Egypt’s relationship with Israel improves its standing with Washington.”
Rafah concerns: Truzman said the leadership in Cairo may also be worried about “what Israel will find in Rafah,” Gaza’s southernmost town, which runs along the Egypt border and the place where Hamas’ remaining battalions are said to be dug in among more than a million displaced civilians. Israel also believes that some 128 hostages, taken by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack, are being held captive there. “It could potentially be embarrassing for Egypt,” said Truzman. “I believe this is one of the big reasons why it has been so vocal against Israeli operations in the southern city.”
Tunnel vision: Last Friday, responding to a South African petition in the International Court of Justice in The Hague calling for Israel to immediately halt its ground assault in Rafah, Israel’s deputy attorney general for international law, Gilad Noam, described an intricate tunnel system built in Rafah – and estimated that some 50 passageways connected it to Egypt.
Cairo complicity?: Khaled Hassan, an Egyptian-born political risk and intelligence analyst, told JI that it was unlikely the Egyptian government was aware of the tunnels or that it was “indifferent or complicit” in building them. “It is important to remember that in December, the Israeli military discovered a large tunnel in Gaza with an entryway just a few hundred meters from its heavily guarded and fortified Erez crossing,” he noted, adding that widely accepted conspiracy theories in the Arab world suggest that Israel and its highly capable intelligence community must have known about that, and other tunnels. “This is the same argument we hear from Egypt’s critics who are suggesting that Egypt must have known about those tunnels,” Hassan said.
graduation confrontation
Hundreds of student and faculty demonstrators disrupt Harvard’s graduation ceremony
Hundreds of students and faculty members walked out of Harvard University’s commencement ceremony on Thursday in solidarity with 13 anti-Israel student protesters who were denied degrees as a result of their involvement in the school’s illegal campus encampment, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Sums it up: Shabbos Kestenbaum, who in March spoke to a roundtable organized by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about the antisemitism he experienced on Harvard’s campus, said he was “shocked but not surprised.” Kestenbaum, who graduated with a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School, said the unrest at graduation — which included several students rushing the stage with signs reading “Harvard funds genocide” — “summed up” months of antisemitic protests, culminating in the encampment, that took over campus after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. “This has been building for months and is a natural outcome of failed leadership,” Kestenbaum told JI, calling the protests that engulfed Harvard Yard “degrading and frustrating,” while noting that it “ruined graduation for everyone else.”
Backing the protests: The commencement speaker, Maria Ressa, the CEO of the Philippines-based news site Rappler and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, supported the student protests in her address. “Harvard, you are being tested,” she said. “The campus protests are testing everyone in America. Protests give voice; they shouldn’t be silenced.” Ressa, whose publication wrote an editorial comparing Israel with Nazi Germany after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, went on to say that “money and power” called her an antisemite for speaking at Harvard.
Crimson criticism: The two student speakers at the ceremony, an undergraduate and a graduate speaker, also criticized the Harvard Corporation, the school’s top governing body, for its decision not to let some of the encampment demonstrators graduate. “This semester, our freedom of speech and expressions of solidarity became punishable, leaving our graduation uncertain,” Shruthi Kumar, the undergraduate student speaker, said to resounding applause. (There was no applause when other crises, including Sudan and Ukraine, were briefly mentioned.)
campus beat
Brandeis University to cut 60 positions, restructure schools as its faces ‘financial challenges’
Brandeis University is laying off dozens of employees, restructuring its business and social policy schools and cutting back its doctoral programs, among other steps, as it contends with significant “financial challenges,” the university’s leadership told employees in an email this week. The staffing cuts and restructuring come as Brandeis University is looking to position itself as a viable alternative for Jewish students concerned about antisemitism and antipathy toward Israel at other universities, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports.
Calculated cuts: One area that the university did not plan to cut — or at least try to cut minimally — was its undergraduate programs, whose tuitions generate significant revenue for the school. To that end, Brandeis was pressing ahead with the construction of a new undergraduate residence hall, the university leadership noted.
Layoffs and reductions: In the letter, Brandeis’ president, Ronald Liebowitz; its provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Carol Fierke; and executive vice president for finance and administration, Stewart Uretsky, told staff that they would be eliminating approximately 60 full- or part-time staff positions across the university. They clarified that these layoffs and reductions would not be made uniformly across all departments but would be based on what they contributed to the university, financially and in terms of mission. Julie Jette, Brandeis’ interim senior vice president of communications told eJP that the layoffs would not affect faculty, but would likely include adjunct faculty.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Worthy Reads
Mind the Gap: In Foreign Affairs, Dahlia Scheindlin contemplates the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship amid diverging political views among young Israelis and Americans. “It should be noted that continued divergence of American and Israeli public opinion is not the only possible near-term outcome of the current situation. If Trump succeeds in defeating Biden, and continues policies that favor the Israeli right, the current rift between the two countries, at least at the government level, may shift to a populist right-wing alignment. But it seems likely that in the years to come, the shifts that have already taken place among younger voters in both countries will continue, presenting a significant challenge for the two allies as they seek to agree on a common policy agenda. The basis of the U.S.-Israeli relationship was once grounded in shared interests, but with a much-prized sense of values. In terms of interests, the geopolitics of the Cold War are long gone. But the two countries still have overlapping regional concerns. The question of shared values, however, is more complicated: do both countries continue to share a commitment to democracy, especially liberal democracy?” [ForeignAffairs]
Crushing Collection: Tabletpublishes a collection of reflections from Jewish American college students about the year that was. “On Sunday, Oct. 8, I found out that Hersh Goldberg-Polin was abducted by Hamas,” wrote Mimi Gewirtz, who is graduating from New York University. “Though he lost half his left arm to a grenade while protecting a bomb shelter packed with other civilians, there was some evidence he was being kept alive in the tunnels beneath Gaza. Hersh was my classmate for the two years I attended school in Jerusalem during my parents’ sabbatical. Hersh had moved to Israel with his family from Virginia around a year before I met him. On Oct. 9, I posted Hersh’s picture, asking for information, on my Instagram Story along with a picture of his bedroom with a ‘Jerusalem for Al’” poster plastered on his wall. Within a few hours, I had lost 50 followers. Posters of Hersh and the other hostages started to appear on campus walls and windows. A week later they were being torn down.” [Tablet]
The Meaning of ‘Ironclad’: In the National Review, Doug Feith and Ze’ev Jabotinsky reflect on the meaning of “ironclad” support for Israel as international backing for Israel’s goal of dismantling Gaza has waned. “There is a State of Israel now because Zionists grasped that no other country in the world would or could assign top priority to the safety of the Jewish people. That was true when the other country was Britain, and it’s true even when it is the United States, as singularly hospitable and friendly to its own Jewish citizens as America has been. This is not because of antisemitism but human nature. Sovereign states take care, first and foremost, of their own people. And sometimes, as President Biden is showing by catering to pro-Palestinian sentiment in ways that benefit Iran, they do not succeed even in rightly identifying and protecting their own national interests. For 2,000 years, Jews had no choice but to depend on others for refuge, tolerance, and security. As a result, they suffered centuries of maltreatment, including murders and massacres, expropriation, and expulsion. Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880–1940), the namesake grandfather of one of us, was an influential advocate for a Zionist remedy to this long-running humanitarian disaster known as ‘the Jewish question’: sovereignty in the Land of Israel for a democratic Jewish-majority state that would enjoy the dignity of defending itself.” [NationalReview]
Presence and Absence: In the Washington Post, Howard Mansfield considers the meaning of Memorial Day, using as an example an “invisible” Holocaust memorial in Germany in which the names of thousands of Jewish cemeteries were inscribed on cobblestones that were then placed upside down outside a former Gestapo regional headquarters. “The students returned in darkness and installed the inscribed cobblestones face down. When word first spread about the Holocaust project, upset residents rushed to the square to see what had been illegally done, but there was nothing to be seen. ‘[Artist Jochen] Gerz hoped they would realize that such memory was already in them,’ James E. Young, a leading scholar of [H]olocaust history, said in a talk at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. ‘The visitors would become the memorials for which they searched.’ The Holocaust left an absence, and only by absence can we approach this vast loss, Gerz said. The absence is the monument. Visitors don’t stand before a great object that strains to seize their attention: ‘That same absence also allows each person to become the author of his own commemorative work.’” [WashPost]
Around the Web
The Ball’s In the U.N. Court: The International Court of Justice will rule today on a request by South Africa to order Israel to stop its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
ICC Cuts: A bipartisan group of senators is considering decreasing U.S. support from some International Criminal Court programs, as Democrats remain divided over whether to sanction the court.
Hostage Talks: CIA Director Bill Burns is set to meet with Mossad chief David Barnea and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Europe in the coming days to attempt to revive negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
The Pain in Spain: Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that Israel will sever the the connection between Spain’s representation in Israel and the Palestinians, and prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians from the West Bank, in response to Spain’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state and the Spanish deputy prime minister’s statement that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Gaza Czar: The Biden administration is mulling tapping a U.S. official to act as the top civilian adviser to a predominantly Palestinian force in Gaza when the war between Hamas and Israel ends.
Obama ‘Obstruction’: Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) accused the Obama administration of having interfered in more than half a dozen attempts by the FBI to arrest individuals with links to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Dems Getting Along: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that reports of intraparty divisions among Democrats over Israel policy are “overstated.”
Qatari Payments: On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer conceded that the Israeli government’s support of Qatari payments to Hamas prior to Oct. 7 was “not the right policy.”
Bronx Cheer: Former President Donald Trump held his first-ever rally in the Bronx, in the district represented by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
Campus Walkout: UCLA and University of California, Davis staffers will hold a walkout next Tuesday to protest the schools’ responses to and clashes with anti-Israel demonstrators on campus.
Stop the Presses: A high school in the Chicago suburbs halted its distribution of yearbooks after an outcry over the inclusion of a photo of a Muslim student group holding a poster reading “From the river to the sea” — a contentious phrase widely understood to mean the destruction of the State of Israel.
Love Has No Age: Centenarians Marjorie Fiterman and Bernie Littman were married on Sunday in a ceremony officiated by Rabbi Adam Wohlberg in Philadelphia.
Across the Pond: British screenwriters Ken Loach and Mike Leigh resigned as patrons of London’s Phoenix theater over the venue’s hosting of an Israeli film festival.
Too Far Right: The Alternative for Germany party was expelled from a far-right pan-European group over a series of incidents; the tipping point was a recent interview with an Italian newspaper in which a senior AfD leader equivocated on whether members of the Nazi SS were criminals.
Mysticism and Machine Guns: The New York Times spotlights the citizens of the religious city of Safed, Israel, where residents of the city known for being the heart of Jewish mysticism have increasingly procured guns and protective equipment in an effort to prepare for an Oct. 7-style terror attack from Lebanon.
A Whale of a Haul: Yarden Gross and Dor Raviv’s Orca AI added $23 million in new funding, led by OCV Partners and MizMaa Ventures.
Jenin Clashes: Twelve Palestinians, including at least eight terrorists, were killed in clashes with the IDF in a two-day operation in Jenin in the West Bank.
What Victory Looks Like: In Tablet, former British Army officer Andrew Fox posits that Israel is succeeding in its efforts to dismantle Hamas.
Laid to Rest: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was buried in the Islamic holy city of Mashhad after days of funeral-related events after he was killed in a Sunday plane crash while returning from Azerbaijan.
Nuke Talks: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Raisi’s sudden death had delayed talks between Tehran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Chappelle Weighs In: Performing in Abu Dhabi, comic Dave Chappelle said that the Gaza Strip is facing a “genocide” and suggested that addressing antisemitism in the U.S. would encourage Jews against considering Israel as a protector.
Remembering: Painter Joe Zucker died at 82.
Pic of the Day
One hundred and twenty-eight yellow chairs — each with a photo of a hostage who remained in Gaza, including three hostages whose bodies were recovered from the enclave yesterday — were placed in the center of the Israeli Embassy’s 76th anniversary event last night at the National Building Museum in Washington.
Birthdays
Olympic Gold medalist in gymnastics at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Alexandra Rose “Aly” Raisman turns 30 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Co-founder of the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, he is discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, Herbert Wachtell turns 92… Professor emeritus of statistics and biomedical data science at Stanford, Bradley Efron turns 86… Biographer of religious, business and political figures, including Elizabeth II, the Dalai Lama, Nixon, JFK, Billy Graham and Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, Deborah Hart Strober turns 84… Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, his Hebrew name is Shabsi Zissel, he is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of his generation, Bob Dylan turns 83… Social media and internet marketing consultant, Israel Sushman turns 76… Member of Congress since 2007 (D-TN), his district includes almost three-fourths of Memphis, he is Tennessee’s first Jewish congressman, Steve Cohen turns 75… Former director of planned giving at American Society for Yad Vashem, Robert Christopher Morton turns 73… Former Mexican secretary of foreign affairs, he is the author of more than a dozen books, Jorge Castañeda Gutman turns 71… President of the Israel ParaSport Center in Ramat Gan and vice chair of Birthright Israel Foundation, Lori Ann Komisar… First-ever Jewish member of the parliament in Finland, he was elected in 1979 and continues to serve, Ben Zyskowicz turns 70… Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer, one of his novels is The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon turns 61… U.S. ambassador to Singapore during the Obama administration, he is now general counsel of KraneShares, David Adelman turns 60… Senior advisor at the MIT Center for Constructive Communication and VP at Cortico, Debby Goldberg… Ukrainian businessman, patron of the Jewish community in Ukraine, collector of modern and contemporary art, Gennadii Korban turns 54… Film director, in 2019 he became the second Israeli to win an Academy Award, Guy Nattiv turns 51… Swedish criminal defense lawyer, author and fashion model, Jens Jacob Lapidus turns 50… Actor who starred in the HBO original series “How to Make It in America,” Bryan Greenberg turns 46… Host of “Serving Up Science” at PBS Digital Studios, Sheril Kirshenbaum turns 44… Chief of staff at The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Benjamin E. Milakofsky… Synchronized swimmer who represented Israel at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Anastasia Gloushkov Leventhal turns 39… Travel blogger who has visited 197 countries, Drew “Binsky” Goldberg turns 33… Member of the Iowa House of Representatives since 2023, Adam Zabner turns 25… Social media influencer, Emily Austin turns 23…
SATURDAY: Academy Award-winning film producer and director, responsible for 58 major motion pictures, Irwin Winkler turns 93… Holocaust survivor as a young child, he is now a professor of physics and chemistry at both Brooklyn College and the City University of New York, Micha Tomkiewicz turns 85… Co-founder of the clothing manufacturer, Calvin Klein Inc., which he formed with his childhood friend Calvin Klein, he is also a former horse racing industry executive, Barry K. Schwartz turns 82… Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1986, he is now on senior status, Douglas H. Ginsburg turns 78… British journalist, editor and author, he is a past VP of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Alex Brummer turns 75… Of counsel in the Chicago office of Saul Ewing, Joel M. Hurwitz turns 73… Screenwriter, producer and film director, best known for his work on the “Back to the Future” franchise, Bob Gale turns 73… Los Angeles area resident, Robin Myrne Kramer… Retired CEO of Denver’s Rose Medical Center after 21 years, he is now the CEO of Velocity Healthcare Consultants, Kenneth Feiler… Israeli actress, Rachel “Chelli” Goldenberg turns 70… Actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian sometimes referred to as “Yid Vicious,” Bobby Slayton turns 69… Professor of history at Fordham University, Doron Ben-Atar turns 67… U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) turns 64… Senior government relations counsel in the D.C. office of Kelley Drye & Warren, Laurie Rubiner… Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania since 2020, Yossi Avni-Levy turns 62… Actor, producer, director and writer, Joseph D. Reitman turns 56… Cape Town native, tech entrepreneur and investor, he was the original COO of PayPal and founder/CEO of Yammer, David Oliver Sacks turns 52… Member of the Australian Parliament since 2016, Julian Leeser turns 48… Former Israeli minister of Diaspora affairs, Omer Yankelevich turns 46… Senior political reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greg Bluestein… COO at Maryland-based HealthSource Distributors, Marc D. Loeb… Comedian, actor and writer, Barry Rothbart turns 41… Senior communications manager at Kaplan, Inc., Alison Kurtzman… Former MLB pitcher, he had two effective appearances for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifiers, Ryan Sherriff turns 34… Laura Goldman…
SUNDAY: Public speaker, teacher and author of more than 30 books on the English language, he writes the weekly column “Looking at Language” that is syndicated in newspapers throughout the U.S., Richard Lederer turns 86… Journalist and educator, the mother of Susan (retired CEO of YouTube), Janet (a Fulbright-winning anthropologist) and Anne (co-founder of 23andMe), Esther Hochman Wojcicki turns 83… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-IL) since 1999, Janice Danoff “Jan” Schakowsky turns 80… Former SVP of News at NPR, Michael Oreskes turns 70… Co-founder and CEO of Mobileye, he became an SVP of Intel after Intel acquired Mobileye in 2017, Amnon Shashua turns 64… NYC real estate developer, board member of The Charles H. Revson Foundation and a former commissioner on the NYC Planning Commission, Cheryl Cohen Effron… Former brigadier general in the IDF, she has been a member of the Knesset for the Likud party since 2009, Miriam “Miri” Regev turns 59… Counsel in the government affairs practice in the D.C. office of Paul Hastings, Dina Ellis Rochkind… Photographer, her work has appeared in galleries and been published in books, Naomi Harris turns 51… South Florida entrepreneur, Sholom Zeines… Program officer for media and communications at Maimonides Fund, Rebecca Friedman… Former minor league baseball player, he has become one of the leading agents for NBA players, with five contracts of over $100 million each, Jason Glushon turns 39… Freelance journalist, Yardena Schwartz… CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Mark Goldfeder… Former deputy Washington director of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, Arielle Gingold… Visiting assistant professor of law at Villanova University’s law school, Benjamin L. Cavataro… Toronto-born Israeli actress and singer, Melissa Amit Farkash turns 35… Federal practice engagement manager at U.S. Pharmacopeia, Morgan A. Jacobs… Catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Garrett Patrick Stubbs turns 31… Eytan Merkin…
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