Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we continue our reporting from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff took the stage last night. We also look at how universities are preparing for students’ return to campus amid the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, cover efforts by hostage families to generate support at the DNC and report on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s comments on anti-Israel protesters at the convention. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ryan Breslow, Yassamin Ansari and Joshua Leifer.
What We’re Watching
- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will be the headliner tonight on the third night of the Democratic National Convention. Former President Bill Clinton and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will also be featured speakers.
- Earlier in the day, Democratic Majority for Israel is holding a luncheon honoring pro-Israel elected officials, including Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog is also expected to be in attendance.
- This morning, the only official Jewish event on the “Dempalooza” schedule is taking place — but given security concerns, it will be held at a separate location, away from the rest of the Democratic Party hoopla at McCormick Place. Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami and Democratic Majority for Israel board chair Ann Lewis will speak on a panel about the American Jewish community and Israel after Oct. 7. The conversation will be moderated by former Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) and Alan Solomont, a J Street lay leader and former U.S. ambassador to Spain.
- Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) is bringing his “bagel caucus” to Chicago, and hosting a breakfast this morning.
- At night, after Walz’s speech concludes, J Street will host a foreign policy-themed after-party alongside several other progressive groups, including the Truman National Security Project, the Center for International Policy, Foreign Policy for America and the League of Conservation Voters.
- And on the Republican campaign trail, former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) are slated to speak at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame in Asheboro at 2 p.m. ET, where they’ll deliver remarks on national security.
What You Should Know
Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention was the gathering’s most Jewish so far. Counting Los Angeles Rabbi Sharon Brous, who delivered the invocation, Jewish speakers were halfway to making a minyan, Jewish Insider’s senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch reports from Chicago.
Prime-time speakers included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Emhoff was introduced by his son, Cole, and after the two embraced onstage, Emhoff introduced himself to America as a man who happily put his career on hold to support the ambitions of his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris.
If Harris wins, Emhoff would become the first first gentleman, a fact cheered by Jewish Democrats in the audience who held signs that read “First Mensch.” They devoured Emhoff’s descriptions of his Jewish faith — stories that many American Jews would surely recognize from his speeches and interviews at Jewish White House events, but that are now becoming something even bigger: the lore of a future president. Jewish Democrats fell in love with Emhoff when he stepped into his unexpected role as a prominent advocate against antisemitism more than two years ago, but now they have to share him with the rest of the country. They couldn’t be happier to do so.
“I had a typical Jersey suburban childhood,” Emhoff said. “I biked around the neighborhood. I took the bus to Hebrew school. And I rode to Little League practice in the way back of my coach’s wood-paneled station wagon.” When the Hebrew school line sunk in, a small but spunky group of delegates whooped loudly.
Later, Emhoff spoke with pride about his and Harris’ “blended family,” of different faiths and stepchildren and Emhoff’s continued friendship with his ex-wife.
“Over the last decade, Kamala has connected me more deeply to my faith, even though it’s not the same as hers. She comes to synagogue with me for High Holiday services, and I go to church with her for Easter,” Emhoff shared. “She makes a mean brisket for Passover. It brings me right back to my grandmother’s apartment in Brooklyn, you know, the one with the plastic covered couches.”
“Kamala has fought against antisemitism and all forms of hate her whole career. She is the one who encouraged me as second gentleman to take up that fight which is so personal to me,” Emhoff added.
Earlier in the night, after a speech touting Senate Democrats’ achievements, Schumer said he wanted to “close on a personal note.”
“As the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history, I want my grandkids and all grandkids to never, never face discrimination because of who they are. But Donald Trump — this is a guy who peddles antisemitic stereotypes. He even invited a white supremacist to Mar-a-Lago, and unfortunately his prejudice goes in all directions. He fuels Islamophobia and issued a Muslim ban as president,” Schumer said. Earlier in the day, Schumer said that author Robert Caro had given him a copy of his biography of President Lyndon Johnson with the inscription “To the Jewish LBJ.”
Then, Schumer veered from his prepared remarks: “Tonight, folks, I am wearing this blue square to stand up to antisemitism, to stand up to all hate,” Schumer said, noting the blue pin promoted by Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. “Our children, our grandchildren, no matter their race, no matter their creed, their gender or family, deserve better than Donald Trump’s American carnage.”
None of the Jewish speakers mentioned Israel. Only Sanders, who attended the same Brooklyn high school as Schumer, alluded to the Middle East: “We must end this horrific war in Gaza, bring home the hostages and demand an immediate cease-fire,” said Sanders.
back to school
Jewish students brace for more disruption upon returning to school in fall

As Jewish students began their summer vacations, many had hoped that a year marked by turmoil over the Israel-Hamas war was behind them. But as fall semesters commence throughout August and September, Israel’s war in Gaza shows no signs of slowing down and Jewish students say they have been given little indication that campus will feel safer than it did in the spring as colleges struggle to balance students’ right to express political speech with protecting Jewish students from intimidation, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Issue of enforcement: Despite some new regulations in place at schools throughout the country, experts remain skeptical that elite colleges will enforce their own rules. Mark Yudof, chair of the Academic Engagement Network, told JI that he expects “the encampments, disruptions and other antisemitic or anti-Zionist behaviors will return on many campuses.” Adam Lehman, CEO of Hillel International, told JI that he “unfortunately anticipates continued drumbeat of disruptions on campuses this fall. That is a simple function of reality. There remain pockets of students, and non-students, who are committed to using and abusing campus spaces.”