Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Jewish Democrats about the significance of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro potentially appearing on a presidential ticket, cover comments made by Salam Fayyad and Amos Yadlin at the Aspen Security Forum yesterday and report on the interfaith roundtable hosted by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff at the White House. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Condoleezza Rice, Don Samuels and Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
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 Wesley Bell’s Jewish turnout operation; If Deif is dead, what comes next for Hamas?; Virginia judge rules pro-Palestinian group required to disclose donor documents. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on an early morning attack by an explosives-laden drone near the U.S. Embassy Branch Office in Tel Aviv that rocked portions of the city. Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss was at the scene shortly after the attack, which occurred shortly after 3 a.m. local time. One person was killed and 10 wounded in the attack. The Houthis in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack, which did not activate any sirens and was not shot down; the IDF has attributed its failure to identify the drone as a threat to human error. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesperson, said a preliminary investigation indicated that the drone was an Iranian UAV, upgraded to fly from Yemen to Israel.
- Secretary of State Tony Blinken kicks off a packed morning on the final day of the Aspen Security Forum. Blinken, who will be in conversation with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly, is expected to touch on a number of issues, including the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and Washington’s part in efforts to broker a cease-fire and hostage-release.
- Following Blinken’s session, Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and John Cornyn (R-TX) will participate in a panel on “The View from the Senate.” Following that, Anne Neuberger, the deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, will join a panel titled “Securing Trust in the Global Digital Economy: Cyber, Fraud, and Emerging Threat.” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will also sit for separate fireside chats on the confab’s last day.
What You Should Know
Former President Donald Trump’s 90-minute acceptance speech last night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — which ended just after midnight on the East Coast — began on an uplifting note as he called for unity days after surviving an attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports from the final night of the GOP confab.
But in his first public remarks since the shooting, Trump soon went off message in a subdued and largely meandering address that showed the former president returning to more abrasive rhetoric and improvised riffs — including an extended encomium to Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister and strongman — that fell flat with the crowd.
He invoked a well-worn epithet to criticize Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), calling her “crazy Nancy Pelosi,” and attacked Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) as “a lightweight” while plugging her GOP challenger, Sam Brown, who was present at the convention. And he laid into President Joe Biden, who is facing growing calls from his party to step away from the race, even as Trump’s team had reportedly vowed that he would not use his opponent’s name in his speech.
One high point came near the end of the address, which was the longest convention speech in history, as Trump called for the American hostages now held by Hamas in Gaza to be returned — a theme of the previous night. “To the entire world, I tell you this, we want our hostages back,” Trump said to applause — as well as what sounded like a shofar blowing from the floor of the convention. “And they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price.”
Trump otherwise fell short of advancing substantive proposals for addressing the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and Ukraine — aside from a promise to “end every single international crisis that the current administration has created.”
In an earlier speech on Thursday evening, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chairman of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, also dinged the Biden administration for its handling of the Israel-Hamas war. “An America First majority is going to stand with Israel,” he pledged.
And Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state under Trump, accused Biden as well as Vice President Kamala Harris of “providing appeasement to” what he called “the pro-Hamas radicals on our streets.”
In a nod to the isolationist wing of the Republican Party, meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, the incendiary right-wing commentator who lobbied Trump to pick Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate, used his speaking slot to inveigh against U.S. funding to Ukraine, which he said has come at the expense of countering the fentanyl crisis at home. “You don’t see our commander-in-chief suggesting that we use our military to protect our country or the lives of its citizens,” he said to cheers from the crowd. “No. That’s for Ukraine.”
On a warmer note near the end of Trump’s speech, he thanked his family members for joining him at the convention as it concluded on Thursday night, including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner — who have publicly distanced themselves from the former president in recent years. The pro-Israel megadonor Miriam Adelson, who is bankrolling a super PAC to boost Trump, was also seated in a box further up in the hall.
sights on shapiro
Jewish Democrats cautiously cheer a potential Josh Shapiro ticket
As pressure mounts for President Joe Biden to step aside, Pennsylvanians and pundits have their attention focused on the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro: Could the popular Democrat be elevated to serve as a running mate to Kamala Harris, or even to top the ticket? Jewish Democrats regard the possibility of Shapiro, a proudly Jewish politician who ran a TV ad showing his family celebrating Shabbat, serving as president or vice president with excitement — and a dash of trepidation, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Bigger meaning: “Jews are always split between being both proud and concerned,” said Larry Ceisler, a public affairs executive in Pennsylvania. The hype surrounding Shapiro, who won by a landslide in 2022, is not new. For years, discussing whether Shapiro might be the first Jewish president has been something of a parlor game in Jewish political circles. But now that the hypothetical is becoming slightly closer to a realistic situation, American Jews are considering what it would mean for a Jewish politician to be on the ballot for president or vice president, especially given today’s charged climate of rising antisemitism in the wake of Oct. 7 and the Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
friends of cori
Linda Sarsour and Marc Lamont Hill speak at ‘Jews for Cori’ Bush fundraiser
Linda Sarsour and Marc Lamont Hill, two controversial far-left activists with histories of antisemitism and strident anti-Israel stances, headlined a virtual fundraiser on Wednesday night for Rep. Cori Bush’s (D-MO) reelection campaign organized by far-left groups including Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Also involved: Other organizers and speakers on the call, convened by a group calling itself “Jews for Cori,” included Beth Miller, political director of JVP Action; INN spokesperson Eva Borgwardt; Abbas Alawieh, Bush’s former congressional chief of staff and a spokesperson for the Uncommitted campaign; and anti-Zionist Jewish activist Naomi Klein, a longtime member of JVP.
Read the full story here.
Bonus: AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC announced an additional $1 million in spending in Bush’s congressional district yesterday, bringing it up to $5.8 million so far, with nearly three weeks to go until the primary.
Minneapolis rematch
Pro-Israel groups steering clear of Ilhan Omar, to her rival’s frustration
Following Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY) landslide defeat last month, leading pro-Israel groups that spent heavily to help unseat him have now turned their focus to the next vulnerable Squad member on the primary calendar, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who is also seeking to fend off a well-funded challenger. Some pro-Israel activists, however, are also wondering why those groups haven’t engaged in what has so far remained a more low-profile House race in Minneapolis, where Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is preparing for a rematch against Don Samuels, a former city councilman who almost pulled off a surprise upset last election cycle against one of the most outspoken Israel critics in the House, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Samuels says: With early voting already underway in the Aug. 13 primary, a week after Bush’s race concludes, the matchup has yet to draw outside spending from national pro-Israel groups, which at this stage have announced plans to target only a small handful of Democratic incumbents in the current election cycle. “I think it’s a mistake for anybody who sees the direction the country is going in, who sees Ilhan’s role in it in terms of the divisiveness in general and, in this specific case, the challenges in the Middle East that are so fraught,” Samuels, now 75, said in an interview with JI last week, accusing Omar’s rhetoric toward Israel of “exacerbating those tensions.”
Read the full story here.
Heard at aspen
In Middle East session, regional figures lay out prospects for peace
At the Aspen Security Forum yesterday, Middle Eastern officials and former leaders laid out their visions for a path forward in Gaza, Israel and the wider region, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports from the convention.
Strategy session: Amos Yadlin, the former head of the IDF’s military intelligence directorate, said that Israel needs to “redefine the goals of the war” in Gaza against Hamas, while offering strong criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This is the time to say enough is enough with Gaza, bring back these people — it’s important to our national unity and sense of security — and start to solve the strategic problem that this war created,” Yadlin said. Read more here.
Palestinian perspective: Salam Fayyad, the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority seen as a reformist, argued that Hamas should be brought into the Palestine Liberation Organization and that the U.S. should support a United Nations Security Council resolution backing Palestinians’ right to statehood. “Hamas is a political movement and ideology,” Fayyad said. “The only way you can deal with the political ideology is to have a competitive ideology that is seen as competitive by the people.” Read more here.
Firm friends: Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s national security advisor, said his country remains committed to the Abraham Accords despite regional backlash toward Israel and is “proud” to be part of U.S. and Israeli cooperative military efforts. Asked why his country remains committed to the Abraham Accords despite intense anger in the Arab world over Israel’s operations in Gaza, Al Khalifa described the normalization agreement as “one of the most important milestones that we have achieved.” Read more here.
Also at Aspen: Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state during the Bush administration, said that the Republican Party has shifted away from the Reaganite views on foreign policy that dominated the Bush years. Rice said that conservative internationalists need to “start to think, what of the international position do we need to preserve in order to play the role that we always have, which is providing a balance of power.” Read more here.
thirty years on
Cardin: U.S. ‘could do more’ to seek justice for victims of AMIA bombing
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) vowed on Thursday that the United States remained committed to supporting Argentina in ensuring accountability for the bombings in the 1990s of the Associación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) and the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. Cardin, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led a delegation to Buenos Aires this week to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, in which 29 people were killed, and the 30th anniversary of the AMIA bombing, the latter of which left 85 people dead. Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Steve Cohen (D-TN) joined Cardin on the delegation,Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Pressure push: Maryland’s senior senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, told JI in an interview that victims cannot have closure without justice being served, and that the U.S. “could do more” to ensure that outcome. “The[Interpol] Red Notices need to be complied with and they need to be extended. I think we can help in making that a reality because they expire shortly. We need to put pressure on other governments to enforce the Red Notice. We need to have timely interactions so that people who are accountable, who are responsible, can be actually apprehended and held for their crimes. So yes, I think the United States could do more,” Cardin said.
Read the full story here.
State Department statement: U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s statement condemning antisemitism on the 30th anniversary of the AMIA attack included a mention of Islamophobia and hate crimes against Muslims.
roundtable reflections
Emhoff says WH will ‘soon’ release new guidance on combating Islamophobia
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff said on Thursday that the Biden administration plans to soon release new guidance on best practices for combating Islamophobia. Emhoff revealed the news while kicking off a roundtable on “interfaith coalition building” he convened with a group of religious leaders at the White House, after noting that many of those participating in Thursday’s meeting are “part of the interagency group that the president stood up to counter antisemitism and also Islamophobia,” Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Coming soon: “The first deliverable, in May of 2023, was the first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism. We are now getting into year two with additional actions. There will be an Islamophobia plan coming out soon as well, and making sure we are fighting hate wherever it exists,” Emhoff said after touting the administration’s efforts to “counter hate and restore unity.”
Worthy Reads
Tucker’s World Tour: The Wall Street Journal’s Bojan Pancevski conducts an in-depth, wide-ranging interview with Tucker Carlson in the former Fox News host’s home in Maine. “Carlson is trying to expand his reach outside the U.S. He says he’s negotiating an interview with Xi Jinping of China and will soon visit Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. He has repeatedly requested an interview with Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine but wants to conduct it in a third country because he believes (without offering any evidence) that Ukrainian intelligence is trying to kill him. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, hugely popular at home for eradicating rampant gang crime but widely criticized for alleged human-rights abuses, visited Carlson in Maine for bird hunting in November 2022.” [WSJ]
A Spy’s Secrets: In Tablet, Martin Sivak spotlights José Pérez, a spy from Argentina’s Federal Police who infiltrated the country’s Jewish community and likely played a role in the AMIA bombing 30 years ago. “From the AMIA bombing on, according to his version of events, he has felt an unbearable guilt for having funneled material that might have served in planning the attack or in the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in March 1992, which resulted in 22 people killed and more than 240 wounded. In both cases — the embassy and the AMIA bombings — Pérez delivered building characteristics, access points, hours, schedules, security systems, weak points, and methods for entering and exiting without detection. He himself entered both buildings several times before and after the attacks.” [Tablet]
Word on the Street
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) called on President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid, while Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wrote a letter to the president imploring him to drop out of the race…
Biden allies in Michigan blocked Rep. Hilary Scholten (D-MI) from campaign operations after she called for Biden to end his reelection campaign; the vulnerable Michigan Democrat was reinstated after Politico contacted officials in the state for comment…
The New York Times looks at how Elon Musk came to be a prominent backer of former President Donald Trump, going behind the scenes of a meeting earlier this year at the Florida home of Nelson Peltz…
Democratic Majority for Israel is running digital ads on social media criticizing the Republican Party for elevating speakers who have spread antisemitic rhetoric to prime-time roles during its convention this week, including Charlie Kirk, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina. Mark Mellman, DMFI’s president, told JI it was “unconscionable” that the GOP “made no effort to disassociate” itself from “three widely known antisemites.”…
The U.S. announced sanctions on two individuals and five entities alleged to have a “multifaceted illicit operations network” that provides funds from Iran to its Houthi proxies in Yemen…
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said there are “increasing signs” that Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’ military wing, was killed by Israel on Saturday…
University of Florida PresidentBen Sasseannounced he will step down as the school’s leader at the end of July to care for his wife Melissa, who has epilepsy and is struggling with memory issues. Sasse’s forceful condemnation of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against Israel and leadership against antisemitism earned him widespread accolades in the Jewish and pro-Israel community…
Police at Northwestern University arrested four faculty members for allegedly obstructing law enforcement at anti-Israel protests on the campus in April…
The National Teachers Union is slated to vote on a series of anti-Israel resolutions at its conference in Houston next week…
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is considering a plan to break apart the company’s digital streaming and studio businesses from its TV networks…
FIFA is delaying a decision on suspending Israel from international soccer matches, saying that it needs “more time” to conduct its investigation, which was prompted by a Palestinian proposal in May; the delay means that Israel will be able to participate in the upcoming Olympics later this month…
After Adidas came under criticism for an ad campaign relaunching its 1972 Munich sneakers that featured model Bella Hadid, the athletic brand announced it was “revising the remainder of the campaign” and apologized for “any upset or distress caused” by the inclusion of Hadid, who frequently criticizes Israel on social media…
The Wall Street Journal looks at how Israeli hospitals and municipalities in the country’s north are preparing for a potential escalation with Hezbollah…
Israel said it killed a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in a Thursday strike…
Larry Light, the McDonald’s executive behind the “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign, died at 83…
Pic of the Day
The World Jewish Congress marked the 30th anniversary of the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires with multiple events this week in the Argentinean city. Pictured from left: Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress; Argentinian President Javier Milei; Jorge Knoblovits, president of Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA); and Amos Linetzky, president of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina.
Birthdays
Co-author of Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame, he is a staff writer at The Atlantic, Franklin Foer turns 50 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Retired Israeli airline pilot, he successfully thwarted an in-flight hijacking by Leila Khaled in 1970, Uri Bar-Lev turns 93… Johannesburg resident, Monty Lasovsky… Interactive designer, author and artist, in 1986 he married Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late JFK, Edwin Arthur “Ed” Schlossberg turns 79… Retired professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University, he served in the Dutch Senate and then as the minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands, Uriel “Uri” Rosenthal turns 79… Hotelier and real estate developer, Ian Schrager turns 78… Co-founder of Limmud FSU, she co-founded UJA-Federation of New York’s Women’s Executive Circle, Sandra F. Cahn… Former co-chairman of the Federation for Jewish Philanthropy of Upper Fairfield County, Conn., Linda Meyer Russ… Sportswriter for The Athletic and author of three books on baseball, Jayson Stark turns 73… Former CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, Howard Schultz turns 71… Retired judicial assistant at the Montgomery County (PA) Court of Common Pleas, Deenie Silow… Rabbi of Congregation Beth Abraham in Bergenfield, N.J., and rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University, Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger turns 69… Head of the Kollel at Baltimore’s Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Rabbi Ezra D. Neuberger turns 67… Former chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings, Edward Scott “Eddie” Lampert turns 62… Israel’s ambassador to Canada until last August, Ronen Pinchas Hoffman turns 61… Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and author of The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men, Eric Lichtblau turns 59… Israeli actress, model and film producer, Yael Abecassis turns 57… Spokesperson to the Arab media in the Israel Prime Minister’s Office, Ofir Gendelman turns 53… Co-chairman and CEO of CheckAlt, Shai Stern… Senior writer and NBA Insider for ESPN, Ramona Leor Shelburne turns 45… Former soccer star at the University of Virginia, he is now a director of administrative operations at Hopscotch Health, Chad Prince turns 45… Former deputy mayor of the city of Haifa, now a real estate developer, Shai Abuhatsira turns 44… Ultra-marathon runner, he performs as a mentalist and magician, Oz Pearlman turns 42… Associate partner at McKinsey & Company, Alexis Blair Wolfer… President of Brightside Academy Ohio, Ezra David Beren… Director of operations at Tide Realty Capital, Yanky Schorr… Jewish Insider editor Tamara Zieve turns 39… National political reporter for the Washington Post, Isaac Arnsdorf… Project coordinator for Israeli nonprofits operating in East Africa, Caroline Mendelsohn… First-ever Orthodox Jewish player selected in the MLB Draft, picked number 77 overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2021, Jacob Steinmetz turns 21… Former EVP and CEO of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, Dr. George Ban… Zach Houghton…
SATURDAY: Retired U.S. Sen. (D-MD), Barbara Mikulski turns 88… Retired president of the National Endowment for Democracy, Carl Gershman turns 81… Longtime Israeli diplomat, he served as Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Yoram Ben-Zeev turns 80… Former commissioner on the Civil Rights Commission, assistant secretary of HUD in the Clinton administration, presently vice chair of the Bank of San Francisco, Roberta Achtenberg turns 74… U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts, Judge Patti B. Saris turns 73… New York Times weekly columnist and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Thomas Loren Friedman turns 71… Molecular geneticist at NYC-based Rockefeller University and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Jeffrey M. Friedman turns 70… Broadcast and digital media executive, Farrell Meisel… Professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Barbara Risman turns 68… Past president of the Women’s Department at the Jewish Federation of Detroit, Marcie Hermelin Orley… Los Angeles-based wardrobe consultant, Linleigh Ayn Richker… Public policy expert and author, Jane S. Hoffman turns 60… Former member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, she is a brigadier general in the IDF (res.), Nira Shpak turns 58… Member of the Knesset for the United Torah Judaism party, Yitzhak Ze’ev Pindros turns 53… Attorney, Jack Achiezer Guggenheim… VP and political director of CNN, David Marc Chalian turns 51… Southern states director at AIPAC, David Fox… Singer who burst on the scene as a finalist on the fifth season of “American Idol,” Efraym Elliott Yamin turns 46… Commissioner of the community affairs unit for NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Fred Kreizman… Co-founder and managing partner of Main & Rose, Beth Doane… Co-founder and co-executive director of the Indivisible movement, Ezra Levin turns 39… Former MLB player, he was a third baseman for Team Israel in 2023, Ty Kelly turns 36… Comedian and regular player on “Saturday Night Live,” Chloe Fineman turns 36… Software engineer at Home Chef, Ashley Abramowicz Gibbs… Anesthesiologist, Dr. Sheila Ganjian Navi… Recent MBA graduate at Harvard Business School, Etan Raskas… SVP and head of investor relations at Vintage Investment Partners, Jonathan Tamir Alden… Actor and comedian, Joey Bragg turns 28… Associate at Ballard Spahr, Goldie Fields…
SUNDAY: President at Admar Group, Henry Dean Ostberg turns 96… Retired CEO of Sony/ATV, a large music publishing firm, Martin Bandier turns 83… Professor emeritus in the Department of Physics at Bar-Ilan University, he won the Israel Prize in 2018, Shlomo Havlin turns 82… Director of the Center for the Political Future at USC, Robert Shrum turns 81… Criminal defense attorney, Benjamin Brafman turns 76… Former member of the U.K.’s House of Commons, now in the House of Lords, Baroness Susan Veronica Kramer turns 74… U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) turns 72… Chairman and CEO at Quantitative Financial Strategies, Sanford “Sandy” Jay Grossman turns 71… Endocrinologist and professor at Columbia University’s medical school, she is the honorary president of NYC’s Central Synagogue, Shonni Joy Silverberg, MD… Professor at Columbia Law School and daughter of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jane Carol Ginsburg turns 69… Irene Ostrovsky… Comedian and actor, best known for his five seasons on “Saturday Night Live” ending in 1990, Jon Lovitz turns 67… Former chief rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt turns 61… Literary agent at the William Morris Endeavor book department, Eric Matthew Simonoff turns 57… Actress and producer, Alysia Reiner turns 54… Professor of astronomy at MIT and winner of a 2013 MacArthur genius award, Sara Seager turns 53… Brazilian fashion designer, Alexandre Herchcovitch turns 53… CEO of Fanatics, Michael G. Rubin turns 52… Founder, president and CEO of Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) and the Electrification Coalition, Raphael “Robbie” Diamond… Rabbi of Congregation Bais Naftali in Los Angeles, his YouTube channel has over 4.3 million views, Rabbi Yoel Gold… Online media personality and director of product management at Electronic Arts (EA) in Vancouver, Veronica Belmont turns 42… Clinical social worker, Aniko Gomory-Pink… Entrepreneur and political activist, Chloé Simone Valdary turns 31… Policy analyst at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Zachary A. Marshall… Recruiter at Tines, Rachel Elizabeth Nieves… Attorney in Madrid and secretary general of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain until 2021, Elias Cohen…