Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the C-suite reshuffle at the Center for American Progress that restored Neera Tanden to the think tank’s top job, and talk to author Dara Horn about her newest book, a graphic novel about the Passover Seder. We also cover the IDF’s probe into the intelligence failures that preceded the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, and look at efforts by Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and the city’s controller to push back against an anti-Israel referendum. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Yehonatan Indursky, Dan Elbaum and Eli Sharabi.
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: With Dermer, Netanyahu seeks a negotiator he can trust; Trump’s embattled Pentagon pick Colby holds close ties to Obama’s foreign policy advisors; and Kraft explains Snoop Dogg-Tom Brady Super Bowl ad. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington this morning, where he’ll meet with President Donald Trump. The meeting comes days after the U.S. voted against a U.N. resolution condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and a day after Trump walked back his criticism of Zelensky as a “dictator.”
- The first stage of the hostage-release and cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas ends tomorrow. Negotiations began in Cairo last night aimed at reaching an agreement on the second stage. Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, could head to the region as soon as Sunday if progress is made in the negotiations.
What You Should Know
At the beginning of the week, Barnard College was being praised by Jewish leaders and students for expelling two students who disrupted an Israeli history class at Barnard’s sister school, Columbia.
But on Wednesday night, dozens of anti-Israel demonstrators broke into the school’s main administrative building and refused to leave for hours, during which time a Barnard employee was assaulted by masked protesters. (The Wednesday demonstration was itself a response to the school’s expulsion of the students earlier in the week.)
The display at Barnard on Wednesday raises concerns about the level of anti-Israel activity that threatens to reemerge on college campuses this semester — the first semester of the second Trump administration.
President Donald Trump has pledged to crack down on campus antisemitism,signing an executive order days after taking office that the White House described as an effort to “marshal all federal resources” to “combat the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and in our streets since Oct. 7, 2023.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) condemned the “inappropriate and unacceptable” scene at Barnard College, saying it “must stand firm against this behavior and take prompt action to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for all its students,” Schumer said in a statement to Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs. Read more here.
Some campuses have taken swift action to address anti-Israel activity that could invite scrutiny from Capitol Hill and the White House, as some of the more egregious incidents on campus did last year.
Their efforts include newly created task forces to address antisemitism, the cancellation of events featuring antisemitic speakers and the banning of some Students for Justice in Palestine chapters. In recent days, American University and Georgetown University administrators canceled or postponed anti-Israel events due to extremist speakers and content.
While some administrators may be shifting their approach to the debate over Israel on campus, there is less of a shift among students.
Campus professionals JI spoke to last summer had indicated hope that the summer break, coupled with the upcoming presidential election, would redirect activist efforts on campus away from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, dialing down the tensions around pro- and anti-Israel organizing.
But that hope did not materialize — according to year-over-year data from the Israel on Campus Coalition, the fall 2024 semester saw more than 2,400 anti-Israel events on American college campuses, a spike from the fall 2023 semester — when the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks occurred — which saw approximately 1,550 anti-Israel campus events.
Those statistics reflect data from an ICC survey released yesterday that found that the Israel-Hamas war was one of two top issues for college students (the other being “costs and inflation”) — ranking above health care and immigration.
There is one glimmer of hope: The period beginning in January of this year and running through yesterday saw a drop in year-over-year anti-Israel campus organizing, from more than 800 events during January-February of 2024 to upwards of 650 in the last two months. That drop can likely be attributed to a mix of factors, among them the new Trump administration’s crackdown on college antisemitism and the first phase of a cease-fire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas, which went into effect as many students were returning to campus.
Last year, the protests at Barnard and its sister school, Columbia, served as the catalyst for the explosion of anti-Israel activity that spread across college campuses over the course of the spring semester. How seriously university administrators at Barnard choose to respond to this week’s violent incident — and how much leeway student protesters feel they have — could set up the campus space for another disruptive, protest-filled semester.
changing course?
Center for American Progress pushes aside Israel critic Patrick Gaspard from leadership
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In returning to the Center for American Progress last week as president and chief executive, Neera Tanden landed just where she had left off when she departed the influential liberal think tank four years ago to join the Biden administration as a top domestic policy advisor. But while her homecoming was heralded by the center as crucial to developing a new Democratic agenda to help counter President Donald Trump, it also came as a tacit rebuke of Patrick Gaspard, who led the organization in Tanden’s absence and is now serving as a distinguished senior fellow. The center made no mention of Gaspard in its announcement of the leadership change. But two people familiar with the situation confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel that his move to a largely titular role was not voluntary. Instead, he was pushed aside to make room for Tanden, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
‘Unsustainable path’: The demotion comes as Gaspard’s stewardship of CAP, which consistently failed to fundraise sufficiently to meet its roughly $50 million annual budget throughout his tenure, had fueled what one source with knowledge of the matter called a growing sense of “discomfort” among board members as well as “discontent” from donors about a lack of attention to fundraising. “The kindest thing I can say about him is he was not putting basic time and attention into his fundraising responsibilities,” the person told JI, noting that CAP “was on a very unsustainable path” when it chose to replace Gaspard. In a brief phone conversation with JI on Thursday, Gaspard denied he had been forced to relinquish his position leading the nonprofit. “This is categorically false information,” a CAP spokesperson added in a statement. “Patrick is an important part of the CAP family, and we are thrilled to continue our important work with him.”