Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we break down last night’s presidential debate. We talk to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer about efforts to enact legislation to combat antisemitism, cover the House’s passage of an amendment blocking the use of Gaza Ministry of Health statistics and report on the White House’s edit to a fact sheet on sexual violence that initially omitted references to Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Greg Landsman, Larry Summers and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
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 stories, including: Inside the war over Israel at Wikipedia; The hawkish departing IDF officer that right-wing parties are competing to recruit; After cutting ties with his alma mater Columbia, Kraft gives $1 million to Yeshiva University. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on the fallout from last night’s presidential debate. More below.
- This afternoon at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Tina Brown is slated to interview Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel. Later, Michael Eisner and Brian Glazer will sit in conversation to discuss storytelling in film. Former CIA Director David Petraeus will speak at the confab’s closing session tomorrow.
- Voters in Iran head to the polls today to cast their ballots in the race to succeed President Ebrahim Raisi, who died last month in a helicopter crash.
What You Should Know
With a low-energy, rambling and unfocused performance at the first presidential debate, President Joe Biden panicked Democrats across the country over his ability to defeat former President Donald Trump, not to mention whether he’d be able to serve for another four years in office, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
Alarmed Democratic lawmakers, nervous operatives and stunned cable news commentators began speculating about whether Biden could be replaced on the Democratic ticket at this late date. That’s unlikely to happen — and surrogates including California Gov. Gavin Newsom gamely defended the president’s record in post-debate spin — but the fact that these conversations are happening is a sign of the rough shape Biden’s campaign is in.
Questions about Biden’s age and mental acuity have dominated the political conversation since he began running for a second term. The public is clearly worried: A whopping 70% of respondents in this week’s New York Times/Siena poll said they agree that Biden is too old to be president — and those numbers could get even worse after Biden’s debate performance.
In the past, the president has managed to quell concerns with an energetic State of the Union address or some well-timed campaign travel. But the debate was one of the last chances for Biden to reassure skeptical voters he has what it takes to serve. His campaign took the lead in calling for a debate in the first place, and secured what seemed like favorable ground rules for the program.
And in the biggest high-stakes moment of the campaign, Biden confirmed the skeptical public’s worst fears about his fitness for office — for 90 straight minutes, with tens of millions of Americans watching.
The debate will not be remembered for its policy discussions, to put it mildly. Trump offered little clarity on his views towards Israel in his answer about the Middle East, while Biden gave a familiar defense of his support for Israel’s war against Hamas. Trump offered an odd line about Biden over his policy towards Israel: “He has become like a Palestinian. But, they don’t like him because he is a very bad Palestinian. He is a weak one.”
To our surprise, there were no questions about antisemitism during the 90-minute debate.
Hours after the debate, calls for the president to drop out of the race began to circulate, including from stalwart Biden defenders such as The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof and Tom Friedman. The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich wrote that “Biden needs to step aside, for the sake of his own dignity, for the good of his party, for the future of the country.”
Before tonight’s debate, Biden was already in a precarious political position, with low job approval ratings amid a pessimistic American public. His best hope was that voters would view an unpopular and criminally convicted Trump as an unacceptable alternative, especially after being reminded of the former president’s vitriol on the national stage.
Instead, it was Biden that looked badly exposed on Thursday night. Now all eyes will be on Democrats to see if the private panicking will turn into public calls for action.
legislation lag
Schumer under mounting pressure to advance major antisemitism bill
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is facing mounting pressure from Jewish leaders and Democratic colleagues who have privately voiced frustration with the continued delay in moving to advance a major bill aimed at addressing a recent surge in antisemitic activity on college campuses, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel and Marc Rod report.
Tick tock: Schumer, who has been outspoken against rising antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, had endorsed prior versions of the legislation, called the Antisemitism Awareness Act. But after an initial effort to unanimously fast-track the bill failed last month in the Senate, Schumer has since delayed for weeks in bringing the bill up for a floor vote, even as it is expected to pass comfortably with bipartisan support and has won backing from a large number of Jewish groups. In a brief interview with JI on Thursday afternoon, Schumer, who has rarely addressed the matter publicly, stressed that he is now “looking at every single option to try and get strong, bipartisan legislation passed,” but he did not share a timeline for approving the bill.
straight talk
Fetterman says progressives need ‘reckoning’ over tepid antisemitism response
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) vowed to remain a steadfast ally of Israel during his first-ever visit this week, warning that those in his party who didn’t support the country should face a “reckoning” at the ballot box, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Questions on the left: “There is a reckoning necessary in the political left with antisemitism and [how] certain factions have responded after Oct. 7, whether it’s some somebody in a pup tent on a campus or blocking worshippers in Los Angeles getting into their synagogue. It’s vile, and I don’t hear a lot of people on that side really [focused on condemning that],” Fetterman told reporters in Jerusalem at the conclusion of his three-day visit on Thursday.
about-face
White House adds 10/7 reference to sexual violence fact sheet after criticism from Jewish Dems
Under pressure from Jewish lawmakers, the White House on Thursday updated a fact sheet about the Biden administration’s work countering conflict-related sexual violence to include detailed references to Hamas and Oct. 7 after the initial document failed to mention the Palestinian terror group, a source familiar with the White House’s process told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch.
About-face: “The fact sheet was updated today in order to make clear that the president and vice president have repeatedly condemned — and will continue condemning — Hamas’ heinous use of sexual violence on Oct. 7,” said the source. Now, a reference to Oct. 7 appears in the first paragraph of the document and is referenced at length throughout. The move came a day after Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) wrote to Biden to express their “deepest concern” that Hamas was omitted from the fact sheet.
trip talk
Rep. Greg Landsman, after trip to Israel, reiterates call for release of hostages
Amid escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, and as the U.S., Qatar and others apply pressure on Hamas to accept a cease-fire agreement that would free the remaining 120 hostages being held in Gaza, a bipartisan delegation of nine legislators traveled to Israel last week. It was against that backdrop that the House members, led by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), met with Israeli officials and traveled to the southern Israeli communities devastated by the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) spoke to Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss shortly after returning to Ohio following the four-day mission.
Looking north: “The situation in the north obviously has gotten worse since my trip in February. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated,” Landsman said. “They have not been able to go back to their homes, and as you’re watching not just rockets, but anti-tank explosives hitting and destroying homes, Israeli homes, you understand why the evacuation [has] happened. The international community, the United States, everyone is going to have to turn its focus to Hezbollah and Iran and say, ‘Enough. Stand down. Stop with the attacks. Stop with the provocation of war.’ A war [with Hezbollah in the north] would be catastrophic for everyone. And it’s very straightforward [and] less complicated than Gaza.”
on the hill
House passes bipartisan amendment to block use of Gaza health ministry data
The House voted on a bipartisan basis on Thursday in favor of an amendment to the 2025 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations bill that would block the State Department from citing statistics provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Across the aisle: Sixty-two Democrats — mostly moderates, including all four Democrats running for the Senate — voted for the amendment barring the State Department from using the disputed statistics. A handful of Democrats also voted for amendments to effectively fire Iran envoy Rob Malley, who remains suspended and under investigation, and bar the State Department from implementing the administration’s policy adding new conditions on foreign arms sales.
Elsewhere on the Hill: The race for the top GOP seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee next term is heating up. The sitting chair, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), is seeking a waiver to remain in his post beyond term limits set out by the GOP. Reps. Ann Wagner (R-MO) and Joe Wilson (R-SC) are also seeking the slot. All three are strong supporters of Israel. Wagner is a co-chair of the Abraham Accords Caucus. Wilson broke with GOP leadership multiple times to push for votes on Israel and Ukraine aid.
heard at aspen
‘They have failed’: Harvard’s Larry Summers calls out university leaders’ approach to antisemitism
Between mini-lectures on monetary policy and the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence in a Thursday talk at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Larry Summers, the former Harvard president and Treasury secretary, offered a sweeping denunciation of higher education’s failure to take moral stances, particularly as antisemitism on American campuses has become widespread. Summers offered this rebuke amid a monologue about the role of universities in taking positions on controversial issues, arguing that academics should be allowed to say what they want — even “offensively antisemitic things” — but that university leaders and their boards similarly have an obligation to respond, making clear that they reject such extreme views, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Abdication of responsibility: “I look at the dialogues that take place on many of these campuses, I see things like the virulent antisemitism professed by people who are really eminent scholars. I don’t agree with the Bill Ackman world that tends to think that because they’ve said some offensively antisemitic things they shouldn’t get to be great scholars. But I sure think universities should make clear that it, as an institution, doesn’t approve of what they’re saying, and it certainly isn’t going to allow them to speak for it,” said Summers. “I think there’s been an abdication of responsibility pretty universally on the part of university trustees to meet this responsibility, and I think ultimately they are the ultimate fiduciaries of these institutions, and I think for the most part they have failed,” said Summers.
Worthy Reads
The Year of Living Dangerously, at Harvard: In the Jewish Journal, Rabbi David Wolpe reflects on the year he spent as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Divinity School, several months of which he spent as a member of the university’s antisemitism advisory committee before resigning. “Antisemitism on campus is not a new phenomenon. When the crisis first erupted President Gay in her speech to Harvard Hillel spoke about ‘Harvard’s long history of antisemitism.’ That is entirely correct. … Even before Oct. 7, there was widespread feeling among the Jewish students and faculty that current policies of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion were weighted against Jewish students, and ideological antisemitism that embraced a rejection of Israel had been growing on campus for decades. As several students said to me when I expressed dismay, ‘Welcome to my world.’ They explained that the slights and subtle disparagements of their Jewish identity had been a long-time complaint and usually ignored. At the same time, many of the leaders and administrators with whom I met and spoke were people of both good will and genuine perplexity about how to address the problem. But as is often the case, they were the voices that remained quiet, or ‘worked behind the scenes’ which here is a synonym for avoiding the whiplash of public positions. They were afraid of, or in thrall to, the very students whom they were supposed to teach.” [JewishJournal]
Forgetting Oct. 7:The Wall Street Journal’s Elliot Kaufman, visiting Israel, writes about the “global amnesia” that has emerged in the nine months since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. “There’s a story the West tells itself: After the massacre, Israel had the world’s sympathy and support. But Israel went too far, and the world turned against it. Right-thinking Westerners like this story because right-thinking Westerners are its stars. They are moved by the plight of Kfar Aza and the Nova festivalgoers to denounce Hamas, but not so much that, like those vengeful Israelis, they lose their impartiality and humanitarian instinct. The truth is darker. Much, perhaps most, of the world didn’t condemn Oct. 7 or repudiate Hamas. Qatar and Egypt, the mediators, both blamed Israel on Oct. 7. On Oct. 8, China called on Israel to “immediately end the hostilities.” Russia still hosts Hamas delegations. None of Hamas’s patrons have abandoned it or been seriously pressured to do so.” [WSJ]
Rivals Circling: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius suggests that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing increasing pressure to end the war in Gaza, as his current and former political rivals begin to plan a “day-after” strategy. “‘The pieces are all there’ for ending the war in Gaza and averting one in Lebanon, the U.S. official told me. The two wild cards are the Israeli and Hamas leaders, Netanyahu and Yehiya Sinwar. The Hamas chief, hidden in his network of tunnels, might prefer to die underground than to compromise. But Netanyahu sees the growing political pressure to move toward an endgame in Gaza. His gambit to blame Biden for major arms delays appeared to have failed this week, and his political rivals are gathering.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
The U.S. plans to release part of a shipment of weapons to Israel that was delayed in April; the shipment of 1,700 500-pound bombs will be delivered after Israel wraps up its operations in Rafah…
The U.S., Israel and Ukraine are in negotiations to send more than half a dozen Patriot batteries to Kyiv…
U.S. intelligence is cautioning that a war between Israel and Hezbollah in the coming weeks is becoming increasingly likely in the event that Israel and Hamas do not reach a cease-fire agreement…
Nineteen Palestinian children in need of medical care were evacuated from Gaza along with their guardians in a multinational effort involving Israel, the U.S. and Egypt…
The internal watchdogs of both the Pentagon and USAID are launching probes into the U.S.-constructed humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza…
The Treasury Department announced new sanctions on three United Arab Emirates-based companies believed to be involved in the distribution of Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products…
Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared visibly emotional at a Justice Department press conference while discussing the rise of antisemitism in the U.S., saying he is “part of a contemporary community that has a widespread and well-founded fear of antisemitic hatred”…
Reps. Tim Burchett(R-TN), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Mike Lawler(R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced a resolution condemning the United Nations for saying Israel has not adequately protected children and calling on the Biden administration to fully implement sanctions for Hamas’ use of human shields…
House Armed Services Committee Chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) urged the administration to immediately shut down the Gaza pier and find alternative means of aid delivery. “The operation has been riddled with setbacks, sidelined more often than operational, and can only be classified as a gross waste of taxpayer dollars,” Rogers said…
The New Jersey Globe interviewed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) about the Israel-Hamas war; the New Jersey Democrat, who noted that Eden Alexander, one of the remaining hostages, hails from his district, called Israel “a great partner” to the U.S. and “a key in fighting terror in the region”…
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) will not run on the Working Families Party line in the November election after losing the Democratic primary to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, saying that “the only goal in November is beating Republicans”…
The impact of the Marty Baron-to-Sally Buzbee succession at the Washington Post: The Atlantic reports that the Post’s total profit was about $60 million in 2021, the final year Baron was leading the paper. In 2022, Buzbee’s first year, the paper began to dip into the red…
Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group laid off nearly 20% of its investing team amid a revamp of the hedge fund’s strategy…
Paul Singer’s Elliott Investment Management is in talks to move to a new location on New York’s Park Avenue…
Northwestern University hired lobbyists from Harbinger Strategies two weeks before the school’s president testified on Capitol Hill about antisemitism at the Illinois school…
Camden Yards security booted anti-Israel protesters at Wednesday night’s Orioles game against the Cleveland Guardians; the team cited its policy against political signage as the reason for the protesters’ removal…
Germany’s new citizenship law, which went into effect yesterday, now requires individuals applying for naturalization to attest to Israel’s right to exist.
Rome’s Jewish community is calling on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to punish members of her party’s youth movement after the youths were caught on camera making antisemitic and pro-fascist remarks…
The Associated Press spotlights the antisemitism facing a Jewish candidate in France’s upcoming legislative elections, part of a broader wave of antisemitism sweeping the country…
As Iranians head to the polls, the Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian suggests that a resounding victory by a hard-line presidential candidate would signal that many in the country, who historically have voted for the less-extreme candidates, did not turn out, dealing a blow to the legitimacy of the regime…
Singer-songwriter Kinky Friedman, whose quirky country music band, the Texas Jewboys, took aim at mainstream culture, died at 79…
Educator Elaine Schwartz, a co-founder of and longtime principal at New York’s Center School, died at 92…
Wine of the Week
JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the 2023 Sacha Lechine Whispering Angel:
It is rare to meet a wine icon from the non-kosher wine world who is also a giant in the kosher world. Encountering Sacha Lichine, the renowned “Architect of the Rosé Renaissance,” at the Château d’Esclans estate in Provence, France, was a truly magical experience. With his larger-than-life personality, Lichine has brought about a transformative shift in the kosher world, inspiring a new generation of wine enthusiasts. His exceptional kosher rosé wines are a testament to his influence, and I look forward to discussing them in the coming weeks.
The 2023 Whispering Angel is a sensory delight. It blends grenache, cinsault and rolle (Vermentino) in a way that opens with a peach cobbler extravaganza. The mid-palate is then adorned with red rose petals, and the finish leads you into the mid-afternoon lethargy that you will feel after drinking the whole bottle for lunch. Enjoy this bottle now, preferably at the Chateau, and definitely with mushroom-filled risotto.
Pic of the Day
Families of victims and survivors of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks at the Nova music festival gathered in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on Thursday night for a solidarity concert honoring the 364 people killed at the festival.
Birthdays
Chairman of Carnival Corporation and owner of the NBA’s Miami Heat, Micky Arison turns 75 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Award-winning actor, movie director, composer and comedian, born Melvin James Kaminsky, Mel Brooks turns 98… Laguna Woods, Calif., resident, she is a retired hospital administrator, Saretta Platt Berlin… Owner of NYC’s United Equities Companies and retired chairman of Berkshire Bank, Moses M. Marx turns 89… Former member of Congress for 16 years and now a distinguished fellow and president emerita of the Wilson Center, Jane Harman turns 79… Political consultant, community organizer and author, he is married to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Robert Creamer turns 77… Writer and senior fellow of the Claremont Institute, Mark Helprin turns 77… Author of crime fiction for both adults and children, Peter Abrahams turns 77… Documentary producer and adjunct associate professor at USC, James Ruxin turns 76… Professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, Kenneth Alan Ribet turns 76… Shareholder in the Tampa law office of Carlton Fields, Nathaniel Doliner turns 75… Rabbi and historian, he is the author of a 2017 book Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan, David G. Dalin turns 75… Former member of the California State Senate following two terms in the State Assembly, Martin Jeffrey “Marty” Block turns 74… Retired partner at Chicago-based accounting firm of Morrison & Morrison, Mark Zivin… Founding partner of NYC law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres, Marc Kasowitz turns 72… Israeli journalist for Haaretz who lives in Ramallah, Amira Hass turns 68… Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation, Brian L. Roberts turns 65… Rabbi of the Har Bracha community, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed turns 63… U.S. special envoy for Holocaust issues at the State Department, Ellen J. Germain turns 62… Principal of GPS Investment Partners, Marc Spilker turns 60… Actress and singer, Jessica Hecht turns 59… Journalist, Laura Rozen… Novelist and short story writer, Aimee Bender turns 55… Israeli actress residing in Los Angeles, Ayelet Zurer turns 55… CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, owner of X, Elon Musk turns 53… Former member of Knesset as a member of the Labor Party / Zionist Union, Michal Biran turns 46… Toltzy Kornbluh… and her twin sister, Chany Stark… Founder and CEO of NY Koen Group, Naum Koen turns 43… Associate at Latham & Watkins, Molly Rosen… Mark Winkler…
SATURDAY: Baltimore area gastroenterologist, he is an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Marshall Bedine, M.D…. Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Brisk in Jerusalem, Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Soloveitchik turns 75… Resident of both D.C. and Arizona, Helene Carol Resnick Kahan… Former assistant surgeon general of the U.S. and deputy assistant secretary of HHS for women’s health, Susan Jane Blumenthal, M.D. turns 72… Former SVP and counsel at Columbus, Ohio-based L Brands, Bruce A. Soll… CEO of four firms including BH Solar, Joshua Karlin… Israeli actress, screenwriter, playwright and film director, Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari turns 64… Attorney general of Israel from 2016 to 2022, Avichai Mandelblit turns 61… Founder and president of Medallion Financial Corp., Andrew Murstein turns 60… Screenwriter, director and producer, he has won nine Emmy Awards for his work on AMC’s “Mad Men” and HBO’s “The Sopranos,” Matthew Hoffman Weiner turns 59… Senior rabbi of Toronto’s Beth Tzedec Congregation, Rabbi Steven C. Wernick turns 57… Theater, film and television screenwriter, his credits include the 2017 film “Wonder Woman,” Allan Heinberg turns 57… Israeli political consultant and former chief of staff to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ari Harow turns 51… Consultant, facilitator, trainer and coach, Nanette Rochelle Fridman… Rabbi of The Young Israel of Bal Harbour, Gidon Moskovitz… Director and writer, Gillian Robespierre turns 46… Former member of the U.K. Parliament for the Labour party, she is now a member of the House of Lords, Baroness Ruth Smeeth turns 45… Israeli actor and model, Yehuda Levi turns 45… President and dean of Phoenix-based Valley Beit Midrash, he is also the founder and president of Uri L’Tzedek, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz… Partner at FGS Global, Andrew Duberstein… Pitcher for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, now playing in the Mexican League, Charles Irvin “Bubby” Rossman turns 32… Campaign finance consultant, David Wolf… Steven Kohn… Sara Sansone… Fred Gruber…SUNDAY: Rapid City, S.D., resident, Leedel Chittim Williamson… Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., resident, podiatrist, Dr. David Peter Bartos… Executive coach to nonprofit leaders, he was the founding director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Dr. David Altshuler… Former New York State assemblyman for 36 years, his district included Borough Park, Dov Hikind turns 74… Former Harvard professor and author of books on the Holocaust and antisemitism, Daniel Goldhagen turns 65… Staff writer at The Atlantic, author of 10 books and former Bush 43 speechwriter, David Frum turns 64… Chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Stuart Jeff Rabner turns 64… Professor of astrophysics at McGill University, Victoria Michelle Kaspi turns 57… Founding executive director and now a senior adviser at JOIN for Justice: the Jewish Organizing Institute and Network, Karla Van Praag… Professor of Jewish studies at the University of Georgia, Aaron David Rubin turns 48… Columnist, author, poet and screenwriter, Matthew “Matthue” Roth turns 46… Sports business analyst and reporter who works for The Action Network, Darren Rovell turns 46… Reggae and alternative rock musician, known by his stage name Matisyahu, Matthew Paul Miller turns 45… Partner in OnMessage Public Strategies, Kyle Justin Plotkin… Actress, Elizabeth Anne (“Lizzy”) Caplan turns 42… Senior software engineer at Bloomberg LP, Noam Lustiger… Chief operating officer at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Stephanie Hausner… Head coach of the men’s lacrosse program at Long Island University, Jordan Levine turns 38… Rhythmic gymnast who represented the U.S. at the 2012 Olympic Games, Julie Ashley Zetlin turns 34… English teacher in Tel Aviv, Michal Adar… Area director for the North Shore of Long Island at AIPAC, Abbey Taub…
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