Daily Kickoff: The Goldberg-Polins take center stage at DNC
Add JewishInsider on GoogleGood Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview Rachel Goldberg-Polin about the address she and her husband gave on the Democratic National Convention main stage last night, look at the efforts Jewish groups at the DNC are taking to protect their events from protesters and violence and report on the issuance by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce of half a dozen subpoenas to Columbia University. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Robert Kraft, Rep. Bill Pascrell and Richard Nephew.
What We’re Watching
- Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver her acceptance speech tonight in Chicago. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) will be among the other featured speakers on the final night of the convention.
- Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will provide opening remarks at a Jewish Democratic Council of America event on antisemitism, extremism and the 2024 election, JDCA shared exclusively with Jewish Insider. The 3 p.m. event, which will also feature Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), antisemitism experts Alan Solow and Sharon Nazarian, Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick and Christian nationalism expert Amanda Tyler, is Emhoff’s only public speaking event in Chicago this week besides his prime-time convention address on Tuesday. Afterward, JDCA will host a reception with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
- Earlier in the day, JDCA will host another event about Democratic values and domestic policy, featuring Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Spitalnick, New York Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and author and former Obama speechwriter David Litt. This event is part of the Democratic National Convention’s official “Dempalooza” programming.
- Also this morning: Zioness is hosting a breakfast reception titled “Antisemitism in the Academy: A Deep Dive on Free Speech, Academic Freedom and Campus Climate.” Speakers include Catherine Lhamon, the assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education; Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law; and Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY).
What You Should Know
All week long, as Democrats gathered in Chicago, Jewish Democrats whispered about whether family members of the American hostages in Gaza would speak on the Democratic National Convention main stage, as Orna and Ronen Neutra, parents of 22-year-old hostage Omer Neutra, did at the Republican National Convention in July. Spokespeople working with the families and convention organizers wouldn’t share any information about their plans, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. The first two nights of the convention included brief references to a cease-fire and hostage deal, but most speakers had avoided Israel and Gaza.
On Wednesday afternoon, the DNC press team sent an email about 45 minutes in advance announcing that Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, parents of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, would address the convention. But given the avoidance of Israel, it was anyone’s guess how audience members would react.
When Jon and Rachel walked out on stage, they were greeted by a standing ovation and unexpected chants of “Bring them home” that so moved Rachel that she put her head down on the lectern and sobbed. Their speech, a heartfelt ode to Hersh and a plea for a cease-fire and hostage deal, offered a moment of profound catharsis for many Jewish Democrats who didn’t even realize they had been holding their breath all week.
“The actions of our party, not the speakers on the stage, by chanting ‘bring them home,’ made me feel seen as a member of this party for the first time since October 7. Our *delegates* showed there is room for Jews in our party tonight,” University of Michigan Board of Regents member Jordan Acker tweeted. More on the Goldberg-Polins’ speech — and an interview with Jon and Rachel — below.
The universal show of support and strength for the Goldberg-Polins fit neatly with the message of unity Democrats want to project from this week’s convention. Soon after Jon and Rachel left the stage, the small group of delegates affiliated with the Uncommitted National Movement called a press conference: Despite weeks of pressure, they had just been told by the Harris campaign that they would not be permitted a speaking slot for a Palestinian American at the convention.
Those delegates, who voted “Uncommitted” rather than supporting President Joe Biden in the primaries over his support for Israel, pledged to stage a sit-in until they received a speaking spot. But it was attended by just a few dozen people, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). As Democrats left the arena after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s acceptance speech as the party’s vice-presidential nominee, most walked right by them.
Meanwhile, Wednesday night’s star-studded schedule featured A-list celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, the actress Mindy Kaling, comedian Kenan Thompson and musical performances by John Legend, Stevie Wonder and Maren Morris. The prominent speakers on Wednesday pulled from the party’s rising stars — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — before Walz closed out the night.
Shapiro energized the crowd as he delivered a speech about what he characterized as the “real freedom” Democrats support. “Real freedom … comes when she can join a union, marry who she loves, start a family on her own terms, breathe clean air, drink pure water, worship how she wants and live a life of purpose where she is respected for who she is,” said Shapiro. He closed his remarks with a call-and-response: “Are you ready to protect our rights? Are you ready to secure our freedoms? Are you ready to defend our democracy?”
Inside the United Center, Shapiro — a finalist to be Harris’ running mate who faced an antisemitic campaign against him from the far left — wowed the massive audience, though he did not refer to that in his speech. But online, former President Donald Trump decided to target Shapiro soon after his speech.
“The highly overrated Jewish Governor of the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, made a really bad and poorly delivered speech talking about freedom and fighting for comrade Kamala Harris for President, yet she hates Israel and will do nothing but make its journey through the complexities of survival as difficult as possible,” Trump wrote. “Shapiro, for strictly political reasons, refused to acknowledge that I am the best friend that Israel, and the Jewish people, ever had.”
center stage
When Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin stepped onto the stage Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, where they planned to speak about their son Hersh, an American-Israeli hostage in Gaza, they were nervous about how the crowd would react. After organizers of the DNC approached them about speaking, the couple were asked to keep the invitation quiet due to security concerns. Their appearance on the schedule was not publicly confirmed until Wednesday afternoon. “Everything has been so quiet, I think, as part of the precaution, of the anticipation that we were not going to be well received, and so for our own safety and protection, they were telling us not to do certain things. We were very prepared to come out to a neutral to negative environment,” Rachel told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch after the speech.
Crowd concern: Before walking out, Rachel took a moment to breathe. “First, I kept saying, for a minute or so, ‘I love you, stay strong and survive. I love you, stay strong and survive,’ to Hersh,” said Rachel, who was wearing a piece of tape that said “320,” marking the number of days since Oct. 7, 2023, when 23-year-old Hersh was wounded and kidnapped at the Nova music festival in southern Israel. “Then I started to just say, Adoshem li v’lo ira” — God is with me and I am not afraid. Then they walked onstage, and their fears were proven wrong. Thousands of Democrats in the United Center greeted Jon and Rachel with a standing ovation and an organic “Bring them home” chant, which so moved Rachel that she put her head down on the lectern and sobbed.
security situation
On Wednesday afternoon, a line stretched around the block at a restaurant in Chicago’s Fulton Market district. These were people waiting to be let into a celebratory lunch hosted by Democratic Majority for Israel, and security guards were allowing just three people inside at a time, screening them to ensure every person who entered was pre-registered and approved. By Wednesday, the third day of the Democratic National Convention, this was a familiar routine for the attendees who are spending their days going between the many Jewish and Israel-related events happening on the sidelines of the convention. At receptions and panel discussions, lunches and after-parties, Jewish Democrats have faced the same intense security, rooted in fear of antisemitic protests and loud disruptions at their programs, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Safety precaution: The situation reflects an uncomfortable reality: that Jewish Democrats would rather gather on their own, miles from the convention center where day-to-day convention programming is happening, rather than risk leaving communal events open, with the possibility of disruption or violence. The concerns have not been without merit. A small group of protesters showed up outside the DMFI event on Wednesday. As Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) walked inside, a protester asked: “Are you OK with the genocide that’s happening in Palestine?” One day earlier, at a lunch reception hosted by the Orthodox group Agudath Israel, several protesters found the event and loudly called for the destruction of Zionism.
book ban
Liberal Brooklyn Rabbi Andy Bachman has faced “a couple of bruising experiences” in progressive spaces since Oct. 7, but even he was shocked on Tuesday night when an independent bookstore in the borough abruptly canceled a conversation he was slated to have with author Joshua Leifer. The stated reason for the cancellation: Employees of the bookstore, PowerHouse Arena, told Leifer they were “unwilling to host the conversation with Andy because they would not permit a Zionist on the premises,” eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Mis-managed: Bachman said about 30 attendees, all of whom had pre-bought copies of Leifer’s new book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, had arrived at the event ahead of him. (Attendees were refunded for the book when the event was canceled.) “The manager said, ‘I can’t get into it with you’ and told me to call Josh. Josh said the reason they had canceled was because they did some research during the day and discovered that I was a ‘Zionist,’” Bachman told JI.
capitol to campus
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce issued six subpoenas to Columbia University officials on Wednesday for documents related to the committee’s investigation into campus antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. This is the second round of subpoenas issued by the committee in its antisemitism investigation, coming just days before Columbia begins classes for its fall semester, and as the campus prepares for renewed anti-Israel protests.
What they asked for: The subpoenas demand that Columbia provide, by noon on Sept. 4, all communications between the school’s leaders about antisemitism and the anti-Israel encampment since Oct. 7, all records of Board of Trustees meetings since April 17, all records of Board of Trustees meetings since Oct. 7 relating to antisemitism or Israel and any documents relating to allegations of antisemitism on Columbia’s campus since Oct. 7.
Bonus: Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the chair of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the Education Committee chair, also threatened to subpoena the Treasury Department for reports relating to several groups sponsoring and leading antisemitic and anti-Israel protests across the country. They said that Treasury had failed to provide any of the documents it had requested or even a timeline for providing those files.
jersey slate
The death of Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) on Wednesday, after an extended hospitalization, will set off a frantic scramble among those interested in filling Pascrell’s seat in Congress to win the favor of party leaders who will, effectively, pick the district’s next member of Congress, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: Pascrell held close relationships with the Jewish community in the area, and was a champion in the House for increased funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. His support for Israel alienated some in the large Palestinian community in his district. Now, local party leaders have until Aug. 29 to pick a candidate to replace Pascrell on the ballot in the safely Democratic district. A number of rising stars in Passaic and Bergen counties are seen as possible or likely contenders.
national stage
When Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took the stage on Tuesday evening at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to make the case for Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president, observant viewers quickly noticed the senator donned a blue square pin on his suit. The pin, created by Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism as a symbol of solidarity with the Jewish community and to raise awareness of antisemitism, was given to Schumer directly by Kraft during a recent meeting, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Personal touch: Schumer and Kraft recently met to discuss antisemitism and the New England Patriots owner “personally thanked [Schumer] for the work he was doing,” Angelo Roefaro, Schumer’s press secretary, told JI on Wednesday. According to Roefaro, Schumer has “not taken the pin off” since his DNC speech.
Worthy Reads
Freed, But Hounded: In the Washington Post, freed Israeli hostage Agam Goldstein-Almog, whose father and sister were killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, reflects on the online hate she has received since being released from captivity in November. “In captivity, I had often filled the long, silent hours by fantasizing, trying to keep the dread and terrible memories at bay. One of my fantasies was that we would be freed and the world would embrace us. But the world I came back to was deeply divided and seething with anger. The hatred that I thought I had left behind in Gaza was waiting for me online. My social media feeds were flooded with trolls, falsehoods and conspiracy theories, all with seemingly one objective: driving hate. The comment sections of news articles mentioning my name were battlefields, as hatred from one side was met with hatred from the other. I have watched as the movement in the West for a Gaza cease-fire sometimes devolves into full-throated support for Hamas and the hounding of Jews in public spaces. I’m sure my kidnappers still hate me, but when American students call for ‘intifada’ or chant in praise of Hamas terrorists ‘Al-Qassam, you make us proud,’ I’m reminded that many other people do, too.” [WashPost]
Counter Point:The Free Press’ Eli Lake counters President Joe Biden’s comments earlier this week that anti-Israel protesters outside the Democratic National Convention “have a point.” “In their more than hour-long confrontation with the police, the protesters told at least three entities to ‘go to hell’: Israel, the DNC, and the Chicago Police Department. They burned an American flag in the street. As rows of police stood about twenty feet away, their batons at the ready, activists were told to take to the microphone and ‘speak your bitter, speak your venom.’ A man in yellow latex gloves, with his entire face concealed, told the cops: ‘Fuck every single one of you until you quit your jobs.’ They called this a march for Gaza, but this could hardly be a march for anything — only against. Against the Republicans, against the Democrats, and against America. If they have one point, Mr. President, it’s that they are not worth listening to.” [FreePress]
Lessons Learned:Tablet’s Vladislav Davidzon suggests that Ukraine is observing Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas to help inform its own military efforts against Russia. “Kyiv observed carefully how Israel conducted its strikes immediately after Prime Minister Netanyahu returned from a triumphant speech before the U.S. Congress. In fact, earlier this week the chair of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense, Roman Kostenko, explicitly referenced the Israeli example in a televised interview. ‘So Israel announced that they would take the advice of their partners very seriously but would afterward make their own decisions in the best interest of their own national security. I think that we can simply mirror that approach in our own case.’ There are limits to the analogy with Israel, which is fighting a much weaker terror group in an infinitely smaller territory the borders of which Jerusalem controls entirely. Nevertheless, Ukraine seeks to leverage the optics of turning the tables on the Russians to force the Americans to back a fait accompli on the battlefield.” [Tablet]
What Settler Colonialism?: In The Atlantic, Adam Kirsch examines why Israel is frequently — and falsely — attacked as being a settler-colonial state. “Although Israel fails in obvious ways to fit the model of settler colonialism, it has become the standard reference point because it offers theorists and activists something that the United States does not: a plausible target. It is hard to imagine America or Canada being truly decolonized, with the descendants of the original settlers returning to the countries from which they came and Native peoples reclaiming the land. But armed struggle against Israel has been ongoing since it was founded, and Hamas and its allies still hope to abolish the Jewish state ‘between the river and the sea.’ In the contemporary world, only in Israel can the fight against settler colonialism move from theory to practice.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
President Joe Biden “stressed the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure” in a call on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, days after Secretary of State Blinken called on Hamas to accept the U.S.’ “bridging proposal” that Israel had already signed onto. The Washington Post‘s David Ignatius wrote that Netanyahu was “offering some concessions in [the] phone call…including a map showing where Israel proposes to deploy forces in the ‘Philadelphi Corridor’ along the Egypt- Gaza border.” However, an Israeli diplomatic source told Jewish Insider senior diplomatic correspondent Lahav Harkov that “Netanyahu did not change his stance about the need for Israeli control and presence” along the corridor…
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was heckled by anti-Israel agitators at a live taping of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which was filming from Chicago for the duration of the Democratic National Convention…
The Washington Postspotlights the Hostage Square set up near the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to draw attention to the plight of the remaining 109 hostages in Gaza…
Edgar Bronfman Jr.raised his bid to purchase Shari Redstone’s National Amusements to $6 billion, up from $4.3 billion earlier this week…
Pucklooks at the C-suite reshuffling taking place at EstéeLauder Companies, with Chief Data Officer Jane Lauder being mulled as a replacement for Fabrizio Freda, whose departure at the end of this year was announced on Monday…
An Oregon man arrested for his role in making bomb threats to New York-area Jewish hospitalsis facing up to 155 in prison…
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating after more than 100 Jewish institutions across Canadareceived identical bomb threats…
The families of some of the six Israeli hostages who were killed by Hamas in Gaza held funerals for their loved ones, after the Israeli Defense Forces retrieved their bodies from the enclave…
Hezbollahfired more than 100 rockets at northern Israel following an Israeli strike on a weapons depot in Lebanon…
The Washington Institute for Near East Policyannounced that Richard Nephew is joining the institute as an adjunct fellow; Nephew, a State Department, Department of Energy and National Security Council veteran, is an expert on Iran and sanctions…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Minister of Aliyah and Integration Ophir Sofer welcomes the more than 200 North American olim who arrived in Israel earlier today. The group set the record for most immigrants in a single day since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
Birthdays
Founder, president, co-CEO and co-chief investment officer of Elliott Management Corporation, Paul Elliott Singer turns 80…
Emmy Award-winning television news journalist, Morton Dean turns 89… Former director of Prozdor, the high school program of the Hebrew College in Newton, Mass., Margie Tarmy Berkowitz… Professor emeritus of Bible and Hebrew literature at both Bar Ilan University and Harvard, James L. Kugel turns 79… Dermatologist in Beverly Hills, Joyce Naness Fox, MD… President of the University of Kentucky since 2011, he traces his heritage to a small Sephardic community on the Island of Rhodes, Eli Capilouto turns 75… Founder of the magazine American Lawyer and the cable channel Court TV (now TruTV), he also co-founded NewsGuard, Steven Brill turns 74… Former chief of staff to VPOTUS Dick Cheney, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby (family name was Liebovitz) turns 74… Former chairman of Israel Military Industries, he was a member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Yitzhak Aharonovich turns 74… Robin Zetzel Elcott… Former MLB outfielder, then investment banker, he was the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and has served as President of B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Ambassador Mark Gilbert turns 68… Former investment banker who left his job to run a Los Angeles-based homeless service provider, he is now a professor at USC, Adlai W. Wertman turns 65… Chairwoman of Israel’s Strauss Group, Ofra Strauss turns 64… Co-founder of Marquis Jet and part owner of the Atlanta Hawks, Jesse Itzler turns 56… Director of political information and education at AIPAC, Ed Miller… Director of strategic partnerships at The Paul E. Singer Foundation, Deborah Hochberg… Partner in Ducat Investment Group, Michael A. Fragin… Mayor of Louisville, Ky., since the start of 2023, Craig Greenberg turns 51… Director of operations at the University of Pennsylvania Hillel, Rachel Saifer Goldman… Partner in the Century City office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Stuart A. Graiwer… Co-executive director of Christians United for Israel, Shari Dollinger Magnus… Attorney and author, best known for her NYT bestselling book, Notorious R.B.G.: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Shana Knizhnik turns 36… Principal at CSR Operations LLC, an HR consultancy, Claire Stein-Ross… Actor known for his role as statistical genius Sylvester Dodd in the television series “Scorpion,” Ari Stidham turns 32… Professional baseball player for nine years, he now manages a foundation for families affected by Alzheimer’s, Braden Adam Bishop turns 31…
Please log in if you already have a subscription, or subscribe to access the latest updates.
Continue with Google
Continue with Apple