Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report from the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Jerusalem yesterday, and break down the debate inside Israel over hostage-release and cease-fire talks, including regarding the strategic Philadelphi Corridor. We also have the scoop on a letter from Rep. Marc Molinaro to the head of the FAA demanding the agency explain its communications with U.S. airlines over their refusal to fly to Israel and a report on the University of Maryland’s decision to cancel a Students for Justice in Palestine event on Oct. 7. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Colin Allred, Nikki Haley and Angela Alsobrooks and Larry Hogan.
What We’re Watching
- Washington’s Adas Israel Congregation is holding a vigil at 8 p.m. ET for the hostages who were killed by Hamas last week.
- Israeli tennis player Guy Sasson will compete today against the Netherlands’ Sam Schröder at the quad singles semifinal at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Israeli swimmer Ami Omer Dadaon will compete at the Paralympics today in the men’s 200-meter freestyle final S4, after taking the gold on Friday in the men’s 100-meter freestyle S4.
What You Should Know
On Thursday, Rachel Goldberg-Polin stood near Israel’s border with Gaza, speaking through a megaphone to her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
“I love you, stay strong, survive,” Goldberg-Polin said, a mantra that had become a daily repetition since her son was taken hostage by Hamas nearly 11 months ago.
On Monday afternoon in Jerusalem, Goldberg-Polin stood and addressed her son again, this time at his funeral: “Hersh, I need you to do one last thing for us. I need you to help us to stay strong. And I need you to help us to survive.”
The Israeli-American citizen was executed by Hamas terrorists last week along with five other hostages — Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Eden Yerushalmi — as the IDF closed in on their location in Hamas’ elaborate tunnel system underneath Rafah, Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports.
Thousands attended the funeral of the Oakland, Calif.-born Jerusalemite in the parking lot of Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot cemetery. The crowd swelled in the afternoon sun and pockets of song broke out across the lot. Supporters of Hapoel Jerusalem, Goldberg-Polin’s favorite basketball team, waved flags and softly sang as mourners packed the cemetery. A man in a red shirt with an image of Goldberg-Polin stood near the family’s seats; underneath the image on the front of the shirt was the Hebrew word “סליחה” — “sorry.” Under a mostly clear blue sky, Goldberg-Polin’s parents, sisters and friends eulogized the 23-year-old, an avid traveler, cartophile and music lover whose only crime on Oct. 7 was being at a festival with his friends.
Goldberg-Polin’s father, Jon Polin, praised his son as a “dreamer” and an “expansive thinker” whose murder at the hands of Hamas, Polin hoped, would free the hostages who remain in Gaza. “For 330 days, mama and I sought the proverbial stone that we could turn over to save you,” Polin said. “Maybe, just maybe, your death is the stone, the fuel that will bring home the remaining 101 hostages.” Polin said he received a message from one well-wisher that said, “May his memory be a revolution.”
“Hersh, we failed you,” his father continued. “We all failed you. You would not have failed you. You would’ve pushed harder for justice. You would’ve worked to understand the other, to bridge differences. You would have challenged more people to challenge their own thinking.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who attended at the request of the Goldberg-Polins, gave the first of the afternoon’s eulogies. “As a human being, as a father, and as the president of the State of Israel, I want to say how sorry I am,” he said. “How sorry I am that we didn’t protect Hersh on that dark day. How sorry I am that we failed to bring him home.”
Herzog and his wife, First Lady Michal Herzog, sat next to Goldberg-Polin’s grandparents for the duration of the funeral, after exchanging emotional hugs and handshakes with Goldberg-Polin’s aunts, uncles and cousins. Seated with the family was Aviva Siegel, a Kibbutz Kfar Aza resident who was taken hostage and released in November; her husband, Israeli-American Keith Siegel, remains in captivity. Near Siegel sat Ziv Abud, a Nova music festival survivor whose boyfriend, Eliya Cohen, is still being held hostage. Cohen had appeared in footage from Oct. 7 being taken to Gaza alongside Goldberg-Polin.
As family and friends remembered Goldberg-Polin, his mother sat stoically, looking straight ahead, occasionally holding the hands of her daughters and husband. When she spoke, she reflected on the good fortune she had to have been Hersh’s mother. “What must I have done in a past life to deserve such a beautiful gift?” she asked. “It must have been glorious.” She said she hoped her son’s “death will be a turning point in this horrible situation in which we are all entangled,” echoing her husband’s hope that the remaining hostages would be returned. The family wore tape marking the days — 332 yesterday — that the remaining hostages have been in captivity.
To a chorus of sobs, Goldberg-Polin said a final goodbye to her son: “My sweet boy, go now on your journey, I hope it’s as good as the trips you dreamed about, because finally, my sweet sweet boy, finally, finally, finally, finally you are free.”
What we’re reading: “Hamas’s Devastating Murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” by The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer… “Among the Mourners of Zion and Jerusalem” by The Free Press’ Matti Friedman… “On Day 330, Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s Long Fight to Free Her Son Ended in Tragedy” by The Wall Street Journal’s Elizabeth Bernstein… “Hersh Goldberg-Polin and ‘The Hope’” by Commentary’s Seth Mandel… “Will Our Hostage Son Be Next?” by Adi and Yael Alexander in The New York Times…
scoop
Rep. Molinaro demands answers from FAA over its guidance on flights to Israel
Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) is demanding answers from the Federal Aviation Administration on what guidance it has given to U.S. airlines amid their ongoing refusal to fly to Israel. Molinaro, a member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, wrote to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker on Friday asking if the agency had in any way instructed or encouraged U.S. airlines to suspend flights to the Jewish state, either temporarily or indefinitely, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Asking for answers: The letter, obtained exclusively by JI, asks for the FAA to provide its official and unofficial communications with the airlines and the International Civil Aviation Organization “in the past two months.” It also asks how the agency works “to ensure that political matters do not influence the decision-making process of the FAA.”
Elsewhere: Lufthansa, which had shut down operations briefly but has resumed service on and off, announced on Sunday that it would resume flights to Tel Aviv starting Thursday.
baruch dayan emet
Jewish communities remember Hersh Goldberg-Polin as a symbol of the hostages and as a boy who davened with his dad
From Richmond, Va., to the hills of northern Georgia to Columbus Circle in New York City, the killing of Israeli-American dual citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who emerged over 11 months of Hamas captivity as a kind of native son, has touched a deep nerve in Jewish communities across the U.S. That hurt is especially felt in ones where the family’s roots were planted, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports.
A congregation mourning: “They have a lot of close friends in the shul and people here are grieving tremendously,” said Rabbi Dovid Asher, who leads Keneseth Beth Israel in Richmond, the Modern Orthodox congregation that the Goldberg-Polins attended for five years before making aliyah in 2008. Asher pointed to a video of the synagogue theater production that Hersh performed in as a child alongside his father on Purim. “It’s very touching,” he told eJP. “I hope to bring the congregation together tomorrow night to help people process and grieve together. They have a lot of friends here that have been davening every day.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
kamala’s call
Harris calls for Hamas’ ouster after hostages murdered, going further than Biden
As Vice President Kamala Harris hits the campaign trail with two months until Election Day, she has only rarely discussed the Middle East — such as a brief speech following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, and in a small section of her speech at the Democratic National Convention in August. In the aftermath of the discovery of six hostages’ bodies by Israeli forces in Gaza on Saturday, Harris and President Joe Biden each released forceful statements condemning Hamas’ brutal actions and pledging to work harder than ever to free the remaining hostages. But Harris’ statement went one step further than Biden’s. She stated plainly: “Hamas cannot control Gaza.” Biden did not say the same, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Rhetorical shift: Harris’ language mirrors the rhetoric employed by the Biden administration earlier in the war. But in recent months, both she and Biden have shifted away from calling for an end to Hamas rule in Gaza. In May, when Biden announced the latest push for a cease-fire-and-hostage deal, he stopped short of calling for the terror group to be removed from power. So far, the White House is choosing to let her statement about Hamas rule stand on its own. A spokesperson for Harris declined to comment when asked if it represented a new direction in cease-fire talks. On Monday, in a tweet urging a cease-fire-and-hostage deal, Harris did not reiterate her call for Hamas’ ouster.
border debate
Philadelphi Corridor ‘cardinal’ to Israel’s security, Netanyahu says amid criticism
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against claims that his government’s decision that the IDF will remain along the Gaza-Egypt border put hostages’ lives in danger, in a press conference on Monday night. “The Philadelphi Corridor is cardinal to bringing back the hostages and crushing Hamas so that Gaza will not be a threat to us again. What message does [conceding] send to Hamas? If you murder hostages, you’ll get your demands? … Gaza will not be a threat to us again,” Netanyahu argued. “I say to [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar — forget about it. It won’t happen.” Following Hamas’ murder of six hostages, the Philadelphi Corridor has been the subject of heated public debate in Israel in recent days, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Opposition argument: “The Philadelphi Corridor is Netanyahu’s new excuse,” Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, said on Saturday. “Eleven months of stories and excuses. The time is up and we have to reach a deal. The Philadelphi Corridor waited 20 years. The hostages can’t wait.”
Concessions conversation: Responding to charges that he is not doing enough for the release of the hostages, Netanyahu referred to a recent comment by Secretary of State Tony Blinken that Israel had made an “extraordinarily generous” offer and another made by Deputy CIA Director David Cohen on Aug. 28 that Israel had shown seriousness in the negotiations. “I want to ask you something. What has changed in the last five days? One thing … these murderers executed six of our hostages. They shot them in the back of the head … and now after this we are asked to show seriousness? We’re asked to make concessions?”
deal deliberations
Does the path to a hostage deal go through Israel’s religious Zionists?
In the weeks before the bodies of six murdered hostages were recovered from Gaza over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was already struggling to win widespread support from within his government for a deal that would release hostages in exchange for a cease-fire and Palestinian terrorists. Some hostage families made a concerted effort to reach out to religious Zionists to help solve the impasse, viewing them as the key constituency to bringing a deal closer, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Key constituency: That hostages’ families seem to view outreach to religious Zionists as an essential element of their advocacy “shows how people view the power of religious Zionists today,” Yair Ettinger, a religion reporter for Israel’s national broadcaster KAN told JI. “I think they’re right.” The parents of the tatzpitaniyot [female IDF lookouts] taken hostage by Hamas, sought the advice of prominent Orthodox journalist Yair Sherki on “how they can reach the hearts of religious Zionists,” Sherki wrote in his most recent column in the major national religious weekly Makor Rishon. “There is one nut [the hostage families] have not succeeded in cracking: Religious Zionism,” Sherki wrote. “They feel that every discussion with leaders of the sector starts with the Shalit deal,” in which over 1,000 Palestinian terrorists were released in exchange for one captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, in 2011.
maryland mea culpa
University of Maryland reverses decision to allow Oct. 7 anti-Israel protest on campus
Following pressure from Jewish groups at the University of Maryland, the administration reversed course on Sunday and canceled an anti-Israel rally slated for the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. But the policy reversal was met with mixed reactions from Jewish leaders on the College Park campus, who simultaneously applauded the decision while also “requesting a more complete response” from the university — especially a better understanding of “how to identify antisemitism,” eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen and Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs report.
Maryland leaders: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who’s running for the Senate, was the most prominent Maryland leader to release a statement urging for the Oct. 7 event to be called off. Hogan called for “more to be done to ensure Jewish students can feel safe on their own campuses.” Angela Alsobrooks, Hogan’s Democratic opponent in the Senate race, initially didn’t provide a comment when JI reached out to her spokesperson, but after the story’s publication, reached out to JI with a statement in support of UMD’s decision to cancel the anti-Israel protest. “I’m the mother of a 19-year-old daughter, so I can tell you that I agree with the parents and families who want nothing more than for all of our kids to be safe on college campuses; to feel safe and to actually be safe,” Alsobrooks said.
Read the full story here.
Bonus: Alsobrooks is on a whirlwind of events with the Jewish community, working to shore up her support with a constituency that could prove crucial to her prospects in November’s Senate race, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.
Worthy Reads
DEI Discussion: In The New York Times, former Stanford Law School Dean Paul Brest and Stanford professor Emily Levine propose a new approach to standard Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. “At the core of pluralistic approaches are facilitated conversations among participants with diverse identities, religious beliefs and political ideologies, but without a predetermined list of favored identities or a preconceived framework of power, privilege and oppression. Students are taught the complementary skills of telling stories about their own identities, values and experiences and listening with curiosity and interest to the stories of others, acknowledging differences and looking for commonalities. Success would be an academic community of equally respected learners who possess critical thinking skills and are actively engaged in navigating challenging questions throughout the curriculum — an approach that teaches students how to think rather than what to think.” [NYTimes]
Academia Alarm: In The Wall Street Journal, former Rutgers professor Rebecca Cypess, who recently joined Yeshiva University as dean of the Undergraduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences, considers the recent decision by the American Association of University Professors to reverse a long-standing opposition to academic boycotts. “Even if some who profess anti-Zionist sentiments believe they aren’t antisemitic, their words and actions have antisemitic consequences. In implicitly denying that academic boycotts of Israel constitute a religious litmus test, the AAUP makes academia more hostile to Jews. Academics would be outraged if anyone tried to dictate to any other religion what its beliefs should be. Academic boycotts of Israel curtail the free exchange of ideas with Israeli scholars and institutions, and they seek to undermine the connection between diaspora Jews and the Jewish homeland in Israel. By giving its imprimatur to such anti-Israel boycotts, the AAUP has done a disservice to the principles of inclusion and academic freedom that it purports to champion.” [WSJ]
Lessons From a Fellow Hostage: In Time, Marc Marginedas reflects on his friendship with Steven Sotloff, whom he met while both were in ISIS captivity, on the 10-year anniversary of Sotloff’s execution. “He knew very well what to do in such situations and had learnt the lesson that as a hostage, you shouldn’t even share controversial details of your private life with colleagues who could eventually be put under pressure. And indeed he did. He only told me that he was Jewish, holding an Israeli passport as well as an American one, when it was safe for him — when it was clear that I was going to be the first one to be released after a few days. Later on, I learnt that those times when he told us that he was too sick to eat [were] the days that he was observing Jewish fasting dates, and that he used to pray subtly, without us noticing it. I now know where Steven’s sense of justice and faith came from. He got it from his parents, Arthur and Shirley, who gave — and are still giving — back to journalism despite their 10 years of grief. He got it from being the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Auschwitz, in particular being inspired by his grandmother’s Holocaust stories. Through his family, he was encouraged to be the voice for the weaker who had none.” [Time]
Word on the Street
The Harris-Walz campaigntapped Presbyterian Rev. Jen Butler as its national faith engagement director…
The New York Times looks at efforts by Democrats to woo swing-state supporters of formerU.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who are split between casting ballots for former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in November…
A Republican PAC is running digital ads targeted at Arab-American voters in battleground Michigan, claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris “stands with Israel”…
Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) argued that Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza cannot achieve any further practical goal and that the U.S. should consider withholding some aid to pressure Israel to finalize a cease-fire and hostage-release deal, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Iowa’s attorney general subpoenaed documents from the New York-based MSCI Inc., alleging that the financial institution participated in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel…
Forty-three percent of applications for Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding were fulfilled in the 2024 grant cycle, in spite of an injection of additional funding from the national security supplemental bill passed earlier this year, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
A 52-year-old man was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and other charges after attacking two Jewish University of Pittsburgh students with a glass bottle while wearing a keffiyeh; the FBI is investigating the attack as a possible hate crime…
Columbia University’s antisemitism task force issued a report that found a pattern of behavior toward Jewish and Israeli students that was “troubling and violates norms of behavior and speech that are central to the values of our university”…
The University of Michigan student government is refusing to allocate student activity fees to campus groups; the ticket that won a majority of seats on the school’s Central Student Government last spring ran on a platform that pledged to hold more than $1 million in student funding until the university divests from companies that operate in Israel…
A Florida man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a 2022 attack on a Jewish teenager during the Sukkot holiday…
The U.K. announced the suspension of 30 of its 350 arms exports licenses to Israel…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights the professional pipeline from the IDF’s elite 8200 unit to Silicon Valley…
The New York Times reports on a recently discovered 2019 Hamas handbook providing detailed instructions on how to engage in underground combat…
The IDF confirmed the death of Nukhba commander Ahmed Fozi Nasser Muhammad Wadiya, who was filmed on Oct. 7 in the Netiv Ha’asara home of a man he had just killed, drinking soda in front of the man’s children…
Hamas released a prerecorded video of hostage Eden Yerushalmi, who was killed by the terror group late last week…
An official Iranian investigation into the May helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi found that the accident was caused by adverse weather conditions…
Iran sentenced writer and regime critic Hossein Shanbehzadeh to 12 years in prison for responding to a tweet from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with a period…
Archeologists working in Jerusalem’s City of David site discovered a rare black stone seal dating back 2,700 years, to the time of the First Temple…
Author Steve Silberman, whose books covered topics ranging from autism to the Grateful Dead, died at 66…
Pic of the Day
Israel-based diplomats from more than two dozen countries attended a solidarity vigil in Tel Aviv on Sunday following the announcement that the IDF had retrieved the bodies of six recently executed hostages.
Birthdays
Executive chairman of Time magazine, Edward Felsenthal turns 58…
London-based advice columnist for the U.K.’s Cosmopolitan magazine for over 40 years, Irma Kurtz turns 89… Past chair of the Anti-Defamation League and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Robert G. Sugarman turns 85… NYC resident, Betty Lederman… Media personality, psychologist and socialite, also known as Dr. Estella, Estella Sneider, Psy.D. turns 74… Retired software engineer at IBM for 39 years, he persevered after many years to locate and inter the remains of the crew of a crashed WWII American B-24 in the Indian Himalayas, succeeding in 2008, Gary Zaetz turns 70… Actor best known for portraying Bobby Baccalieri on “The Sopranos,” Steve Schirripa turns 67… Chair of the global climate council at Apollo Global Management, Jonathan Silver… Offensive lineman for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints from 1982 to 1989, now a professional photographer, Brad M. Edelman turns 64… Producer and reporter at NBC and MSNBC, Adam Reiss turns 59… Historian and journalist who has written four books on the rise of the American conservative movement (focused on Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan), Eric S. “Rick” Perlstein turns 55… Mayor of Haifa until earlier this year, she was the first woman to lead that city, Einat Kalisch-Rotem turns 54… Executive director at the Michael Reese Research & Education Foundation, Jason Rothstein… VP of data visualization at Moody’s Corporation, Todd Lindeman… CEO of PR and communications firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis, Shawn Sachs… Founder of the Silverstein Group, Rustin Silverstein… Rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue, Avraham Bronstein turns 44… Chief advancement officer of Honeymoon Israel, Avital Ingber… Director of public affairs marketing at Meta / Facebook, Joel Martín Kliksberg… Former chief media correspondent for CNN, now a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Brian Stelter turns 39… South Florida-based attorney, she served as the co-chair of JFNA’s national young leadership cabinet, Lindsey Tania Glantz… Comedy writer, producer and performer, Megan Amram turns 37… Fashion model and actress, Kaia Jordan Gerber turns 23…
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