Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover the House Committee on Education and the Workforce‘s report on its yearlong probe of antisemitism on U.S. college campuses and report on the resignation of the Chicago education board president after Jewish Insider exposed his history of antisemitic social media posts. We also have an interview with former Democratic congressman-turned Trump backer Peter Deutsch, and highlight which California leaders spoke out — and which didn’t — against an antisemitic incident at a coffee shop in Oakland. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Mike Lawler, Bernard Henri-Lévy and Nikki Fried.
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: In new book, Lee Yaron tells Israel’s story through intimate accounts of Oct. 7 victims; JNF-USA pledges $250,000 to Stephen Wise Free Synagogue to connect young American Jewish to Israel; Trump sends mixed messages on Mideast policy in final days of campaign. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will be campaigning in Milwaukee today. Trump will be holding a rally at the Fiserv Forum in the evening. Around the same time, Harris will be headlining a campaign event in the city featuring rapper Cardi B.
- More than 150 runners participating in the New York City Marathon on Sunday will dedicate their race to five hostages who have themselves completed marathons and triathlons in the past: Naama Levy, Doron Steinbacher, Evyatar David, Ohad Yahalomi and Edan Alexander. The NY Hostages and Missing Family Forum, led by Alexander’s family, has organized hundreds of supporters to gather at Columbus Circle at 12 p.m. ET to cheer on the runners.
- The Yeshiva Beth Yehuda Annual Dinner will be held at the Detroit Marriott on Sunday evening, with Matt Lester as the Outstanding Leadership Awardee and former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the guest speaker.
What You Should Know
One of the narratives being advanced by anti-Israel activists, preemptively looking to point fingers if Vice President Kamala Harris loses, is that the Biden-Harris administration’s overall support for Israel is what could cost her the election, if she falls short in Michigan.
The one complication to that narrative: Harris is performing the strongest in Michigan of all seven battleground states, according to polling averages and leading forecasters’ probabilities, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
To be sure, the race in Michigan is on a razor’s edge, with polling averages ranging from a tie to a two-point advantage for Harris. One new poll, from the Washington Post, even shows former President Donald Trump with a small advantage. But compared to her concerns in other battlegrounds, Harris has reason to be cautiously optimistic of her chances in Michigan — as long as she remains competitive elsewhere.
We’ve offered a corrective to the activist conventional wisdom on Michigan politics in these pages: 1) While Muslim support for Democrats has certainly declined since the last election, Jewish voters made up twice as much of the Michigan electorate as Muslim voters, according to the 2020 AP/Fox News voter analysis; 2) the broader electorate is far more pro-Israel than not, and swing voters would be turned off if Harris embraced terrorist-sympathizing activists; 3) the bigger worry for Harris in the state is sagging enthusiasm among Black men and declining support among blue-collar union workers.
And judging from the recent Democratic rhetoric in the state, it looks like leading elected officials view things the same way. Former President Bill Clinton, stumping for Harris on Wednesday, offered a full-throated defense of Israel’s actions against Hamas and other terrorist groups in a speech in Muskegon Heights, Mich.
“The people there were the most pro-friendship with Palestine, the most pro-two-state solution of any of the Israeli community, were the ones right next to Gaza, and Hamas butchered them,” Clinton said. “What would you do if it was your family? And you hadn’t done anything but support the homeland for the Palestinians and, one night, they come for you and slaughter the people in your village.”
Clinton, going through the history of the Middle East, added: “Hamas did not care about a homeland for the Palestinians, they wanted to kill Israelis and make Israel uninhabitable. Well, I got news for them. They [Jews] were there first before their faith existed.”
Clinton’s candid comments are reflective of a recent trend we’ve seen, where Democrats have subtly shifted their rhetoric to avoid pandering to the most hard-line anti-Israel activists. Democratic Senate nominee Elissa Slotkin said at her last debate she’s “as hawkish as anyone” when it comes to challenging Iran. (Her GOP challenger, Mike Rogers, has campaigned as a stalwart backer of Israel and touts the fact that he tells Arab American audiences the truth about where he stands, even if it’s uncomfortable.)
The Harris campaign has also dispatched Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and pro-Israel stalwart, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), to represent the campaign’s Jewish outreach in recent Michigan campaign stops.
As The New York Times reports, “Democrats are somewhat resigned about their weakness among Michigan’s Arab American voters” — and are more pragmatically focused on winning over the mainstream middle instead of the anti-Israel crowd in the final weeks.
All this is another reminder for Harris about the path not traveled: picking Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a running mate, a bona fide moderate who could have more effectively promoted Harris’ record on Israel. Pennsylvania, not Michigan, is increasingly looking like the “tipping point” state that will determine who wins the election, and the latest polling shows Harris losing ground there.
Jewish voters make up a key constituency in Pennsylvania — to the point where there are now dueling ads from both parties courting Jewish voters, who could make a difference in the very close race.
If this election ends up being as close as the polls suggest — and the election comes down to Pennsylvania — it’s going to be hard to avoid wondering what would have happened if Shapiro was on the presidential ticket. That, more than the shift in Michigan’s Arab American voting preferences, is what could have made the difference in this nail-biter of a race.
campus craziness
House Education Committee: University leaders ‘turned their backs’ on Jewish students
Two days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Harvard administrators had drafted a statement condemning the terror group and expressing condolences for those taken hostage. Those key elements of the statement were softened or removed. At Columbia, the current and past board chairs said in private messages that they hoped that Democrats would win back the House of Representatives to avoid continued investigations. And at Northwestern University, a professor told a colleague he was hoping to secure “some amazing wins” for the student demonstrators in his role as a negotiator for Northwestern. The above examples, culled from the just-released House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s more than 100-page report on its yearlong probe of antisemitism on U.S. college campuses, paint a vivid portrait of missteps at some of the country’s leading universities as antisemitism and anti-Zionism mounted, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Bigger picture: The report comes after months of hearings, transcribed interviews, document requests and unprecedented subpoenas targeting some of the country’s most prestigious colleges and universities. The committee said that the incidents investigated reflect “a broader environment on these campuses that is hostile to Jewish students,” in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. “Instead of fulfilling these legal obligations, in numerous cases, university leaders turned their backs on their campuses’ Jewish communities, intentionally withholding support in a time of need,” the report states.
stepping down
Chicago education board president resigns amid backlash to antisemitic social media
Rev. Mitchell Johnson, the newly appointed Chicago Board of Education president under fire for antisemitic, misogynistic and conspiratorial social media posts, has resigned from the position, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Thursday. His decision to leave the post came at the request of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who said in a statement that Rev. Johnson’s posts “were not only hurtful but deeply disturbing. I want to be clear: antisemitic, misogynistic, and conspiratorial statements are unacceptable,” Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Chain of events: Rev. Johnson’s appointment came after the Board of Education’s entire previous membership stepped down at the start of the month to protest policies proposed by Mayor Johnson. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker also called for Rev. Johnson’s resignation on Thursday afternoon, saying Rev. Johnson’s inflammatory posts disqualify him from educational leadership. A day earlier, Mayor Johnson had defended Rev. Johnson (no relation), saying Rev. Johnson “has expressed sorrow and is seeking atonement.” The resignation comes two days after JI revealed Rev. Johnson’s history of antisemitic posts on Facebook, including saying that his “Jewish colleagues appear drunk with the Israeli power and will live to see their payment.” On Thursday, NBC5 Chicago reported on other posts that delved into misogyny and conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Read the full story here.
Q&A
Peter Deutsch, from Democratic brawler to Trump backer
Peter Deutsch, a former Democratic congressman from South Florida, was once seen as an outspoken party loyalist who rose to national prominence as a fierce defender of former Vice President Al Gore amid the contentious recount of 2000 centered in his home district. So, it may have come as something of a surprise when — on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks last month — Deutsch, now 67, announced his full-throated endorsement of former President Donald Trump. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel this week, Deutsch discussed his ongoing outreach to Jewish voters, his decision to switch sides and — echoing a controversial line frequently repeated by Trump — why he believes that Jewish Democrats like himself should “have their head examined” if they vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, among other issues.
Pennsylvania push: For the past month, Deutsch has been working as a Trump campaign surrogate in Pennsylvania, where he is now seeking to reach Jewish swing voters who could be decisive in a must-win battleground state. “I have had the experience of talking to people one-on-one at people’s houses, which I’ve done a couple of times — and I feel I’ve changed minds,” Deutsch said. “ The short argument is, you have one candidate who is literally giving money to people who are killing your family, and you have another candidate who kept your family safe for four years, really kept the world safe and didn’t have any wars again. That’s the reality. I really believe, if I were able to spend 45 minutes with every Jew in Pennsylvania, President Trump would get 100% of the votes. But it’s physically impossible to do.”
Read the full interview here.
seal of approval
New Square set to endorse Rep. Mike Lawler
A politically powerful Hasidic voting bloc in New York’s Hudson Valley is set to endorse Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), according to two people familiar with the matter, lending a last-minute boost to his campaign in the final stretch of a closely contested race. The Hasidic village of New Square, home to some 3,000 votes that typically back candidates as a bloc, will throw its support behind Lawler, a vulnerable freshman Republican who is seeking a second term in his race against former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), sources informed of the matter confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Thursday.
Outreach effort: Lawler paid a visit to New Square on Thursday alongside House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — where they met with Rabbi David Twersky, known as the Skverer rebbe, and other Jewish leaders, in an effort to lock up an endorsement that had been elusive last election cycle. Even as he won strong backing from Orthodox communities during his first House race in 2022, Lawler lost the New Square endorsement to former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), thanks in large part to private lobbying from former President Bill Clinton and President Joe Biden.
coffee shop condemnation
California leaders speak out against antisemitic discrimination in Oakland
California lawmakers are condemning news that a Jewish resident of Oakland, Calif., and his 5-year-old son were harassed and forcibly removed from a local cafe by its anti-Israel owner for wearing a hat that brandished a Star of David. Reached for comment on the incident, a spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs that, “No one should be discriminated against for their religious beliefs. Businesses in California are prohibited from discriminating on the basis of religious identity or beliefs. Hate has no place in our state.”
Those who spoke and those who didn’t: Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who represents the Oakland area, said in a statement posted to X on Thursday that, “Displays of hate and antisemitism should not be tolerated in Oakland or anywhere. We must unequivocally condemn antisemitism and continue to fight against all forms of bigotry and division.” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told JI that, “I strongly condemn this vile act of antisemitism against Jonathan Hirsch and his son, who were refused service simply because they are Jewish. Acts of hatred and discrimination are never acceptable.” Meanwhile, both Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) remained silent on the matter, with neither office responding to JI’s request for comment or releasing statements on the incident.
Read the full story here.
bookish boycott
Literary icons fight back against growing antisemitism in their midst
The latest chapter in the emerging story of the literary world’s boycott of Israeli cultural institutions took a new twist this week with high-profile Jewish writers like Bernard Henri-Lévy, Howard Jacobson and David Mamet punching back. They and more than 1,000 other authors, musicians and actors signed a sharply worded counterpetition, launched by the Creative Community For Peace on Tuesday, that argues “the instincts and motivations behind cultural boycotts, in practice and throughout history, are directly in opposition to the liberal values most writers hold sacred.” The signatories include notable writers such as Simon Schama, Lee Child and Simon Sebag Montefiore, along with Julianna Margulies, Mayim Bialik, Ozzie Osbourne and The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Counteraction: The petition comes in response to one organized by The Palestinian Festival of Literature, signed by Irish author Sally Rooney and more than 1,000 others, which states that “We have a role to play. We cannot in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement.” Several of its signatories are Jewish authors, including Rachel Kushner and Naomi Klein. (Neither Kushner nor Klein responded to request for comment from JI).
Worthy Reads
ABCs of Indoctrination: Abigail Shrier writes in the Free Press about the growing anti-Israel radicalism in K-12 education: “Demonization of Israel in American primary and secondary schools is no passing fad … Especially in the year since the Hamas massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023, the anti-Israel materials have become pervasive. It’s not surprising that they are found in world history and current events lessons. But demonization of Israel is now taught in art, English, math, physics, and social-emotional learning classes. Anti-Israel activism spreads through online curricula that are password protected, eluding parental oversight. It is pushed by teachers unions, furnished by activist organizations, and communicated to children through deception” [FreePress]
Trump and the Gaza War: In The New York Times, David Sanger analyzes what foreign policymaking would look like in a second Trump term. “If Ms. Harris loses on Tuesday, one reason may be that she has lost the support of Arab Americans and young voters who believe the Biden administration failed to use its leverage to limit Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza following last year’s Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Most estimates put the loss of life from the Israeli military action at more than 40,000, including Hamas terrorists. There are few more complex issues on the diplomatic agenda than how to balance Israel’s self-defense with the creation of a new dynamic in the Middle East and alleviate the humanitarian crises worsened by multiple wars. Mr. Trump has largely steered clear of both the political and moral complexities. His strongest argument has centered on the optics of the bombing campaign. In April he said Israel was ‘absolutely losing the PR war,’ and added, ‘Let’s get back to peace and stop killing people. And that’s a very simple statement.’ But he has offered no cease-fire plan and no ideas for winning the release of hostages held by Hamas. When he spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Israel killed the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, he expressed his admiration for the skill of the operations and then told him: ‘Do what you have to do.’” [NYT]
Armed But Not Dangerous: The Wall Street Journal’s Omar Abdel-Baqui and Adam Chamseddine report on the shortcomings of the Lebanese army in its potential to stabilize the country and stand up to Hezbollah. “Lebanon’s military is outmanned and outgunned. It has roughly 70,000 to 80,000 active-duty soldiers, compared with estimates of up to 100,000 for Hezbollah. It lacks advanced air-defense systems and possesses only around five operational jet fighters and limited missile capabilities, according to the Lebanese Armed Forces, while Hezbollah has tens of thousands of rockets, missiles and drones. ‘It is one of the weakest armies in the Middle East,’ said Amal Saad, a politics lecturer at Cardiff University and an expert on Lebanese affairs. ‘That is part of the reason Hezbollah emerged in the 1980s — the Lebanese army wasn’t able to stand up to Israel,’ Saad said, referring to an earlier Israeli invasion of Lebanon that helped trigger Hezbollah’s creation as an opposition force. Lebanon’s military was supposed to have disarmed Hezbollah with the help of a United Nations peacekeeping force, part of a 2006 U.N. agreement that ended an earlier war between Israel and Hezbollah. Instead, Hezbollah imported more weapons through Syria in violation of the resolution.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
Israel is at a “high level of readiness” for a potential Iranian attack, an Israeli military source told CNN this morning. Two Israeli sources told Axios that an Iranian attack, consisting of a large number of drones and ballistic missiles, is likely to be launched from Iraqi territory before the U.S. presidential election…
A bipartisan group of senators wrote to Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Thursday pressing him to redesignate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Their letter suggests growing frustration on Capitol Hill over the administration’s refusal to take the step after a year of Houthi attacks on U.S. forces, Israel and commercial shipping lanes, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
The Chicago Police Department announced that it will add felony terrorism and hate crimes charges to the counts that Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi is facing for shooting an Orthodox Jew walking to synagogue in Chicago…
Four law enforcement sources told Fox News that Abdallahi, a Mauritanian national, was apprehended in Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector in March 2023 and was released into the U.S. Law enforcement sources told Fox that “sanctuary” policies in Cook County, Ill., prohibited local authorities from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
Two men, one of whom referred to himself as a “Hamas operative,” were charged with vandalizing the exterior of Pittsburgh’s Chabad of Squirrel Hill over the summer…
Former President Donald Trump called former GOP congresswoman and Vice President Kamala Harris supporter Liz Cheney a “war hawk” who should be fired upon in a conversation with Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Ariz., last night. “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”…
Trump later added: “You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building.”…
Nikki Fried, the Jewish chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, told Jewish canvassers on a Zoom call that Democrats were losing Jewish voters because of the strong Republican response to anti-Israel protests on college campuses…
Participants in a pre-rally meeting between Vice President Kamala Harris and a small group of Jewish leaders shared their takeaways from the gathering with The Jerusalem Post.Jill Zipin, founder and chair of Democratic Jewish Outreach PA, told the Post, “She also said, ‘I will never ask you to vote for me because my husband is Jewish. I ask that you vote for me because I care about the Jewish community, the Jewish people and the safety and security of Israel.’”…
Rona Kaufman, a law professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and registered Democrat, wrote an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle touting her support for Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee Dave McCormick. “McCormick is a strong supporter of Israel, a defender of American values and a patriot who understands the threat Islamism poses both here and abroad,” she wrote…
Democratic Majority for Israel PAC is up with a new digital ad in the seven battleground states and Nebraska’s 2nd District warning voters about the concerns of former high-level national security officials who worked under former President Donald Trump……
Top Democratic donor Alex Soros attended more than 30 meetings and events at the White House in the past three years, according to The Wall Street Journal, including state dinners and a nine-person meeting with Harris in August 2023…
The University of California San Francisco suspended Rupa Marya, a professor of internal medicine who has been outspoken against Israel since Oct. 7, including accusing Israel of “genocide” three weeks after its war with Hamas began. In an essay, Marya said that the suspension was a “coordinated” campaign by Jewish pro-Israel donors…
Arc magazine editor Mark Oppenheimer spotlights antisemitic and homophobic texts published by Paul Coates as he examines the National Book Foundation’s decision to award the founder of Black Classic Press a lifetime achievement award …
Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, who oversees the U.S. Central Command, is under investigation for allegedly shoving an airman on a flight in September, according to Military.com…
Hezbollah rocket barrages into northern Israel killed four Thai workers and three Israelis on Thursday, in the deadliest day in months for northern Israel…
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud described Israeli actions in northern Gaza as a form a genocide and noted that some bilateral agreements Saudi Arabia has been brokering with Washington are “not that tied” to normalization of its relations with Israel…
Rabbi Kalman Ber, who has served as the Ashkenazi rabbi of Netanya, was elected on Thursday as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel…
Pic of the Day
Pope Francis blesses Alon Kaminer, who is recuperating at Sheba Medical Center’s rehabilitation hospital after suffering serious injuries in Gaza, during a meeting on Wednesday at the Vatican.
The pope also met with Sheba Medical Center Director General Yitshak Kreiss and Yoel Har-Even, director of Sheba Global.
Birthdays
Former NASA astronaut who made five flights in the space shuttle and is currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, Jeffrey A. Hoffman turns 80…
FRIDAY: French economic and social theorist, he is the author of The Economic History of the Jewish People, Jacques Attali turns 81… Rabbi-in-residence of Baltimore’s Beth Tfiloh Congregation, Mitchell Wohlberg turns 80… Pioneering investor in the personal computing industry, founder of Lotus and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mitch Kapor turns 74… Founding rabbi, now emeritus, at Beit T’Shuvah, a nonprofit Jewish addiction treatment center and synagogue community in Los Angeles, Mark Borovitz turns 73… Retired management analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy, Les Novitsky… Serial entrepreneur, Warren B. Kanders turns 67… Real estate developer and philanthropist, Sylvan Adams turns 66… Special assistant to NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, Pinchus Hikind… President of an eponymous auctioneering firm specializing in the appraisal and sale of antique Judaica, Jonathan Greenstein turns 57… The next CEO at AIPAC, Elliot Brandt… Actress, best known for her roles on All My Children and General Hospital, Alla Korot turns 54… Principal at Calabasas, Calif.-based CRC-Commercial Realty Consultants, he is a vice-chair of the real estate and construction division of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, Brian Weisberg… Israeli director, screenwriter and actress, Dikla Elkaslassy turns 45… member of the Knesset, she is the first Ethiopian-born woman to hold a Knesset seat and the first to serve as a government minister, Pnina Tamano-Shata turns 43… Associate in the DC office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Clare F. Steinberg… Israeli video blogger, journalist and business executive, Idan Matalon turns 36… Chief advancement officer at The Leffell School in Westchester County (N.Y.), Annie Peck Watman… Reporter for CNN, Marshall J. Cohen… Associate at Katten Muchin Rosenman, Mitchell Caminer… Pitcher for Team Israel, Gabe Cramer turns 30… Derek Brody… Actor since childhood, Max Burkholder turns 27…
SATURDAY: County Executive of Montgomery County, Md., Marc Elrich turns 75… Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink turns 72… Former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and vice chair of the DNC, Susan Wolf Turnbull… Professor emerita of Jewish studies at the University of Virginia, Vanessa L. Ochs turns 71… Research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Alan D. Abbey… CNN special correspondent, Jamie Sue Gangel turns 69… Former head of school for 29 years at Weizmann Day School in Los Angeles, Lisa Feldman… Professor of Jewish history at UCLA and immediate past president of the board of the New Israel Fund, David N. Myers turns 64… Deputy commissioner of Maine’s Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, Joan F. Cohen turns 62… Financial planner at Grant Arthur & Associates Wealth Services, he is the author of a book on the complicity of Lithuania in the Holocaust, Grant Arthur Gochin… President of global content at Viva Creative, Thomas Joseph (Joe) Talbott… Marc Solomon… Head of U.S. public policy at Workday, John Sampson turns 58… Actor, director and producer, best known for playing Ross Geller in the sitcom “Friends,” David Schwimmer turns 58… Assistant attorney general for Antitrust at USDOJ during the Trump administration, now a partner at Latham & Watkins, Makan Delrahim turns 55… Professor of economics at MIT, she won a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship in 2018, Amy Nadya Finkelstein turns 51… Founder and CEO of Spring Hills Senior Communities, Alexander C. Markowits… Journalist and bestselling author, he is the publisher of The Lever and a columnist at The Guardian, David Sirota turns 49… Eastern director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Michael Cohen… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Alexander Kushnir turns 46… Deputy editor of The Morning Newsletter at The New York Times, Adam B. Kushner turns 44… President and CEO of Birthright Israel Foundation, Elias Saratovsky turns 44… Marc B. Rosen… Former director of government relations at the Israel Policy Forum, now a staffer on Capitol Hill, Aaron Weinberg… Two-time Emmy award-winning video producer, now working as a messaging editor for The New York Times, Celeste B. Lavin turns 34… Major gifts officer at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, Rebecca Rose…
SUNDAY: Chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary where he also served as a professor of Jewish history, Ismar Schorsch, Ph.D. turns 89… Senior U.S. district judge in California, he is the younger brother of retired SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer, Judge Charles Breyer turns 83… U.S. senator (D-Hawaii), Mazie K. Hirono turns 77… Resident of Great Barrington, Massachusetts and a part-time researcher at UC Berkeley, Barbara Zheutlin… Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine, professor at Yale University, James Rothman turns 74… Rabbi emeritus at Temple Anshe Sholom in Olympia Fields, Ill., Paul Caplan turns 72… Actress, comedian, writer and television producer, Roseanne Barr turns 72… Comedian, talk show host, political and sports commentator, Dennis Miller turns 71… Manuscript editor and lecturer, author of books on the stigma of childlessness and on the Balfour Declaration, Elliot Jager turns 70… Award-winning Israeli photographer, Naomi Leshem turns 61… Regional director of development for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jeanne Epstein… Clinical professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, Scott Galloway turns 60… Co-founder and former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, now CEO of Dreamhaven, Michael Morhaime turns 57… Entrepreneur-in-residence at Loeb Enterprises, Edward Stelzer… VP for federal affairs at CVS Health, Amy Rosenbaum turns 53… Director of development for States United Democracy Center, Amie Kershner… Partner at political consulting firm GDA Wins, Gabby Adler… Agent at Creative Artists Agency focused on talent working in television news, Rachel Elizabeth Adler… Actress who won three Daytime Emmy Awards for her role on ABC’s General Hospital, Julie Berman turns 41… Director of corporate responsibility, communications and engagement at Southern Company Gas, Robin Levy Gray… Senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities, Rowan Morris… General manager of NJ/NY Gotham FC, a women’s soccer team based in Harrison, NJ, Yael Averbuch West turns 38… Former Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, he is a co-founder of D.C.-based Compass Coffee, Michael Haft turns 38… New York State senator, Michelle Hinchey turns 37… Deputy coordinator for global China affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Julian Baird Gewirtz turns 35… Recent MBA graduate at The Wharton School, Ben Kirshner turns 32… Marketing manager at American Express, Caroline Michelman turns 32… Founder and CEO of Noyse Publicity Management, Noy Assraf turns 29… Actress and model, Diana Silvers turns 27… Stu Rosenberg…
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