Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on podcaster Joe Rogan’s platforming of antisemitic conspiracy theorists and talk to legislators about the Pentagon’s hiring of a deputy press secretary who has espoused blood libels. We report on a new bipartisan effort to designate Turkeyas a Middle Eastern country, and look at what funding cuts to USAID mean for grant recipients in the Middle East. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Dennis Ross, Daniel Hagari and Larry Page.
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: Dara Horn returns to history — and literature — after Oct. 7; Leading American pro-Israel groups diverge from Israel on Syria; and Shifting priorities at the FBI raise concerns about U.S. counterterror capabilities. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on escalating pressure on Hamas amid a stalemate in cease-fire and hostage-release talks. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff threatened joint U.S.-Israel action against Hamas if the remaining 59 hostages are not freed, a day after President Donald Trump made a threat of his own against the group following a meeting with recently released Israeli hostages.
- The Trump administration faces a deadline this weekend to renew, modify or cancel a long-standing sanctions waiver to allow Iraq to buy energy from Iran, which became increasingly controversial among Republicans during the Biden administration in the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023.
- The Yeshiva University men’s basketball team takes on Tufts this afternoon in Medford, Mass., in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament.
- The annual SXSW conference kicks off today in Austin, Texas.
What You Should Know
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin bided his time until he could revisit his plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary. He waited over a year from the start of the war to present a more moderate judicial reform scheme — written alongside an opponent of the old one.
Yet now, given the divisive nature of any judicial reform plans, which sought to curb the judiciary’s ability to overturn government decisions and laws passed by the Knesset, the deep divisions exposed in early 2023 could well return, Jewish Insider senior political reporter Lahav Harkov reports.
Levin took initial steps on Wednesday to remove Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from office after two years of tensions between the government and its chief legal advisor. He accused Baharav-Miara of “act[ing] as the long arm of the government’s opponents and spar[ing] no effort to block the will of the voter.” As evidence of her obstructionism, he listed the many cases in which Baharav-Miara moved to block government policies, including deporting the former mufti of Jerusalem on grounds of incitement, continuing the Haredi exemption from IDF service and privatizing public broadcaster Kan, among others.
The justice minister has broad support in the governing coalition for dismissing the attorney general, including from Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who appointed Baharav-Miara when he was Levin’s predecessor in the Justice Ministry. Sa’ar said on Wednesday that he had made a mistake and that the attorney general “turned into a totally political player who systematically acts against the government with a transparent goal of overturning it.”
Opponents of the judicial overhaul argue that it created divisions in Israeli society that Israel’s enemies exploited in the Oct. 7 attacks. By contrast, the government’s supporters say that it was the protesters who behaved irresponsibly, highlighting those who said they would refuse to perform their IDF reserve duty in response.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid argued that Levin is “one of the top people responsible for the Oct. 7 disaster and has learned nothing.”
Protest leaders — many of whom pivoted to advocating for the release of hostages from Gaza — said that they are on alert. “If a hair on the attorney-general’s head is touched, the country will burn. You’ve been warned,” The Movement for Quality Government, an anti-corruption group, said in a statement.
The process of firing Baharav-Miara may take months, and will likely face challenges in Israel’s Supreme Court. But it suggests that despite the many calls for political unity in the aftermath of Oct. 7, Israel may soon be reverting to the political fights of the pre-Oct. 7 world, even as the IDF prepares to return to combat in Gaza and 59 hostages remain in the enclave. Read more here.
platform problems
Joe Rogan invites antisemitic conspiracy theorists into the mainstream
Joe Rogan’s controversial decision to invite a prominent antisemitic conspiracy theorist onto his show earlier this week underscored how the popular podcast host is increasingly handing his megaphone to extremists while failing to challenge their claims, lending legitimacy to a range of false and incendiary views. Rogan, whose lucrative podcast has more than 14 million subscribers, faced backlash on Wednesday for hosting a friendly discussion with Ian Carroll, a self-described journalist with a sizable following who has frequently spread antisemitic conspiracy theories — claiming that “Israel did 9/11” and that the U.S. is controlled by a “Zionist mafia,” among other baseless assertions, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Speaking out: Several leading Jewish and pro-Israel groups spoke out against the podcast on Thursday, raising alarms over Rogan’s behavior amid a surge in antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel. Holly Huffnagle, the American Jewish Committee’s U.S. director for combating antisemitism, said in a statement to JI that “now is the time to decry antisemitism, not platform those who spread it.” Oren Segal, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior vice president for counter-extremism and intelligence, said, “Ian Carroll has a troubling history of spreading toxic conspiracy theories and disinformation, especially related to the Jewish community and Israel. It is difficult to understand why Joe Rogan would offer his platform to further disseminate these ideas at a time when the Jewish community is facing increased vulnerability due to rising incidents targeting them.”
hate watch
Democrats condemn antisemitic Pentagon press secretary, as Republicans remain mum
Congressional Democrats lambasted the Trump administration for hiring Kingsley Wilson, who has a lengthy history of posting antisemitic conspiracy theories, as a deputy press secretary at the Pentagon. Republicans have largely remained silent on the issue, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
What they’re saying: “As antisemitism continues to surge around the world since October 7th: The Trump administration hired a top Pentagon official with a history of antisemitic conspiracy theories and extremism,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement. “It’s outrageous, and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth must fire her now.” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), the co-chair of the Senate antisemitism task force, told JI that Wilson’s “appalling comments and conspiracy theories paint a disturbing pattern of behavior. No one who engages in this antisemitic rhetoric should ever hold a position in the U.S. government, and it is alarming that the Trump administration hired her in the first place.”
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
Vile attack on Torres: Prominent Palestinian-American DJ and producer Farid Karam Nassar, who goes by the stage name Fredwreck, targeted Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) earlier this week with a series of explicit racial slurs, citing Torres’ support for Israel, JI’s Marc Rod reports. Nassar has worked with artists including Eminem, Britney Spears, Ice Cube, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
terror tag
How Senate Dems view the redesignation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
Some Senate Democrats are warming to the Trump administration’s decision to reimpose a Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group in Yemen — a move that the Biden administration refused to make after it delisted the group in 2021 — while other Democrats remain skeptical,Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
What they’re saying: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a longtime supporter of redesignating the group, offered his full endorsement of the move. “I support that,” Fetterman told JI. “And if his next Truth Social post is about wasting them, I’d support that too.” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who opposed the designation when the first Trump administration issued it in 2021, said the Houthis deserve the designation and, “That doesn’t trouble me.” But Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that he found the timing of the move to be “kind of interesting, because the Houthis have stopped firing on U.S. shipping in the Red Sea, which they said they would do if there was a cease-fire, which has been great.”
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Jim Risch (R-ID), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
funding cuts
Canceled USAID grants include Israel-Gulf scientific cooperation program
The Middle East Regional Cooperation Program, a long-standing grant program supporting scientific collaboration between Israel and Arab states, was among those terminated when the Trump administration abruptly shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier this year, according to new whistleblower documents released by Senate Democrats, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Going deeper: According to a spreadsheet of terminated programs and awards shared by a whistleblower with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and released by Punchbowl News, more than $32 million in MERC grant programs have been canceled by the Trump administration. The MERC program dates back to 1979, when it was created by Congress to contribute to Israeli-Egyptian relations following the Camp David Accords. The program grew to include Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.
Read the full story here.
scoop
House members seek to redesignate Turkey as Middle Eastern country
A bipartisan group of House members introduced legislation this week to redesignate Turkey at the State Department as a Middle Eastern country, rather than a European country, describing the move as a message to Turkey about its turn away from its relationships with Europe and the United States and shift toward U.S. adversaries, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The goal: The bill is designed “to send a clear message to Ankara: The United States recognizes Turkey’s turn to the Middle East and no longer sees Turkey prioritizing its relationship with Europe,” according to a statement from the bill’s lead sponsors, Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL). The statement says that the move is consistent with Turkey’s growing ties with Russia, China and Iran, its backing of Hamas and its hostile military actions toward Greece and Cyprus, which “are fundamentally at odds with Western security interests”; its “increasingly anti-Western posture, turning away from its European aspirations”; and its “growing authoritarianism and continued hostility toward NATO allies.”
Elsewhere on the Hill: Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced legislation this week directing the federal government to assess Hezbollah’s ability to conduct terrorist activities in Latin America and determine ways to counter its influence in the region, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
words of advice
Dennis Ross says Israelis suffered ‘groupthink’ leading up to Oct. 7
Ambassador Dennis Ross, a distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Israelis “clearly” had “groupthink” prior to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and suggested that everything Israel “needed to know to avoid the surprise was available,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports. Speaking at a Washington Institute event on Thursday to promote his new book, Statecraft 2.0: What America Needs to Lead in a Multipolar World, the former senior policy advisor in the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations, said: “Groupthink … is the most destructive thing to good statecraft. … The Israelis clearly had it prior to Oct. 7.”
Identifying failures: “Any time you suffer strategic surprise, it’s never a function of lacking information. Everything that you needed to know to avoid the surprise was available. But a prism is created by groupthink, and everything you interpret through that prism,” Ross said. In the war that followed, Ross asserted that Israel failed to properly identify its objectives. “Oftentimes we end up picking the wrong objective, and it’s because we don’t understand the situation, or we have a set of political pressures,” he said. “[Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu established very quickly ‘total victory’ as his objective. … Total victory is a slogan. It’s not an objective.”
Worthy Reads
Homeland Security: Bloomberg’s Ethan Bronner reports on Israel’s new defense policies, formulated after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. “Under the new policy, military deterrence now outweighs assessments of enemy capability and intent. The Israel Defense Forces is stationing troops beyond national borders and preemptively bombing suspicious installations and movements to cripple adversaries away from home. It’s a high-risk policy that could embolden militants in the wider region and spark further wars, especially if Iran enters the fray. It makes a Palestinian state far less likely, making it difficult for Israel to forge new alliances with regional states. But Israel says the 2023 failure forced this approach upon it. … Eyal Tsir-Cohen, who retired from Israel’s intelligence agencies last August after 35 years, said, ‘We didn’t understand how deeply Hamas is rooted in the social fabric of Gaza and how connected it is to the people.’ It was assumed that Palestinians would welcome being freed of Hamas, Tsir-Cohen said. That turned out to be incorrect. As a result, intelligence assessments now matter less. The new policy relies more on deterrence, with soldiers, tanks, drones and jets preventing any possible risk to Israelis living in border areas.” [Bloomberg]
The Disabled and the Divine: In The Wall Street Journal, Mark Oppenheimer reflects on the recent death of his friend and fellow congregant Rich, who lived with special needs. “The Jewish tradition is conflicted about the place of adults with special needs. A shoteh, or one who is mentally ill, isn’t obligated to fulfill commandments. Nor is he counted in a prayer quorum. But some rabbinic authorities, including the great Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895-1986), distinguished between a shoteh and a peti, an intellectually disabled person. The latter, he said, should be counted. The idea was that the deranged aren’t capable of communicating with the Divine, while people with limited intellect are. I’d go further and question the importance of intellect altogether. Judaism runs the risk of employing a form of intellectual snobbery. … Those who lack the capacity for sharp judgment are to be pitied. But what Rich and some of his fellow adults with special needs proved to me, time and again, is that they are sometimes more capable of understanding religious obligation than fellow congregants with supercharged IQs. Book learning is one part of the world of Jewish obligation and not necessarily the most important. It may be overvalued.” [WSJ]
Art of the Steal: In The Washington Post, Spanish journalist David Jiménez calls on his country to restitute a Pissarro work that has been caught in a yearslong legal fight to the descendants of the Jewish owner it belonged to prior to WWII. “A dangerous precedent is set every time a country, a museum or a private collector refuses to return a piece of art taken from victims of war, persecution or genocide. … Returning the painting to Lilly Cassirer’s last living descendant would be an act of justice and would send a clear message that Spain takes the memory of the victims of the Holocaust seriously. A Eurobarometer survey revealed in 2019 that 66 percent of Spaniards do not believe that denying the Holocaust is a problem, way above the European average of 38 percent. Centuries-old prejudices against Jewish people and lack of proper education regarding the Holocaust are contributing to a rise in antisemitism. By returning the Pissarro, the Spanish government would set the right example.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
Israel and Saudi Arabia are reportedly among a group of U.S. allies that are said to be considering pulling back on the amount of intelligence they share with the U.S., amid concerns that warming relations between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could jeopardize intelligence assets…
Addressing the direct talks between U.S. and Hamas officials, Trump told reporters yesterday, “We are having discussions with Hamas. We are helping Israel in those discussions, because we’re talking about Israeli hostages, and we’re not doing anything in terms of Hamas. We’re not giving cash.” The president added, “You do have to negotiate. There’s a difference between negotiating and paying. We want to get these people out” …
White House officials said Trump would not sign an executive order on Thursday dissolving the Department of Education, a day after a draft text of the directive was leaked to The Wall Street Journal…
The State Department is planning to use AI as part of a new “Catch and Revoke” effort to identify U.S. visa holders who are supporters of Hamas and other terror groups and deport them…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are slated to meet next Wednesday with senior Ukrainian officials, including Andrei Yermak, the chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia…
The Trump administration is considering a plan to intercept Iranian shipping vessels and conduct inspections in an attempt to clamp down on the Islamic Republic’s oil exports that violate existing sanctions…
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. was prepared to collapse Iran’s economy as part of its “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against the Islamic Republic…
Fierce clashes overnight between Syrian government forces and supporters of the deposed Assad regime are reigniting tensions across the country…
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesman, will retire from the army in the coming weeks, after 30 years of service; the announcement of the decision comes two days after Eyal Zamir entered the role of IDF chief of staff and, according to Israeli media, following his decision not to promote Hagari…
The Associated Press looks at Columbia University’s crackdown on anti-Israel student activism and investigations by a newly created disciplinary committee amid threats from the Trump administration to cut tens of millions of dollars in federal funding over the university’s handling of antisemitism…
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the Anti-Defamation League and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP filed lawsuits on behalf of students at Scripps College,Cal Poly Humboldt and the Etiwanda School District, all in California, alleging that the claimants faced incidents of antisemitism that violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act…
Google co-founder Larry Page is building Dynatomics, a new company focused on coupling AI with product manufacturing…
An Arizona man was arrested and charged with arson following a fire at a Casa Grande Jewish community center that caused extensive damage to the building…
MSNBC is planning to hire upwards of 100 journalists following the hiring of Scott Matthews as the media company’s senior vice president of newsgathering; MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said that with Matthews’ hiring, the network “plans to build out MSNBC’s domestic, Washington and international newsgathering operations and expand our presence in the field”…
Author and journalist Selwyn Raab, whose book about the Mafia was adapted to TV as “Kojak,” died at 90…
Pic of the Day
The Israeli Air Force and the U.S. Air Force conducted joint exercises this week, amid speculation that Israel could strike Iran in the coming months.
Birthdays
Former chair and CEO of MGM, he is now vice chair of DraftKings, Harry Evans Sloan turns 75 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Nationally syndicated columnist for The Washington Times from 1984 to 2019, author and social observer, Suzanne Bregman Fields, Ph.D. turns 89… President emeritus of the California Institute of Technology, he is the 1975 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, David Baltimore turns 87… Former bureau chief for the Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi, London and Tokyo, now a journalism educator at The George Washington University, Myron Belkind turns 85… Former chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 to 2005, Michael Eisner turns 83… Geneticist and 2017 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, his father was the cantor of Boston’s Temple Ohabei Shalom, Michael Rosbash turns 81… Member of the Knesset for the Meretz party between 1992 and 1996, Binyamin “Benny” Temkin turns 80… Retired media executive, Ruth Barbara Jarmul… Chairman emeritus and retired general trust counsel of Fiduciary Trust International, Gail Ehrlich Cohen… Award-winning freelance journalist, author and adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Anne Farris Rosen turns 69… British barrister and a member of the House of Lords, he is the longtime chair of the British Legal Friends of Hebrew University, Lord David Philip Pannick turns 69… Executive director of Academic Exchange, Rabbi Nachum Braverman turns 67… Democratic political strategist, now the director of finance at Four Directions, Lewis H. Cohen… Professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and the author or editor of several books about Baruch Spinoza, Yitzhak Yohanan Melamed turns 57… Academy Award-winning actress, Rachel Weisz turns 55… News director for DC’s NBC4 News and an adjunct professor of journalism at American U, Matt Glassman… Executive director of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, Rabbi Ellen Wolintz-Fields… Brooklyn-based political consultant and attorney, Michael Tobman… Director of the Congressional Affairs Department for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Elad Strohmayer turns 44… Television news anchor and author of five best-selling finance guides, Nicole Lapin turns 41… Israeli actress and singer, Ester Rada turns 40… Author, popular science writer, spaceflight historian, YouTuber and podcaster, Amy Shira Teitel turns 39… Climate deals reporter at Axios Pro, Alan Neuhauser… Attorney in Reno, Nevada, Sasha Ahuva Farahi… President of Every Minute Communications, Rachel Zuckerman… Director of communications at AIPAC, Cory Meyer… Comedian, actress, and screenwriter, Sarah Sherman turns 32… Jake Hirth… Yaakov Spira…
SATURDAY: Jazz pianist, composer, organist, arranger and music director, Dick Hyman turns 98… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA) from 2013 until 2023, Alan Stuart Lowenthal turns 84… Chair of the U.K.’s Office of Communications, Baron Michael Grade (family name Winogradsky) turns 82… Judaism and science blogger, he is a retired attorney at Seyfarth Shaw, Roger L. Price turns 81… Lyricist, singer, songwriter and New York Times best-selling author, Carole Bayer Sager turns 78… Licensed clinical psychologist and past director of couple therapy training at the Chicago Center for Family Health, Dr. Mona Fishbane… Senior fellow on national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, Alan Makovsky turns 75… Brenda Krantz… Public affairs producer and weekend assignment editor at KDKA News in Pittsburgh, Aviva Jayne Radbord… Former governor of Virginia and later U.S. senator, his mother was from a Sephardic Jewish family in Tunisia, George Allen turns 73… Retired in 2016 after 29 years as the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, N.Y., Larry Fine… Host and managing editor of the WNYC radio program “On the Media,” Brooke Gladstone turns 70… Director of training and operations at Consilium Group, Bunny Silverman Fisher… President of the World Bank Group until 2023, he served as undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury in the Trump 45 administration, David Malpass turns 69… DC-based labor and employment attorney at Bredhoff & Kaiser, he clerked for Justice Brennan at the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1983 term, Bruce R. Lerner… Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning actress, Camryn Manheim turns 64… Founder and CEO of 32 Advisors, LLC, Robert Wolf turns 63… VP of talent acquisition at Sageview Consulting, Carin Maher… VP for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Evan A. Feigenbaum turns 56… Director of external affairs at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, Zack Fink… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017 (D-NJ), he is running for governor of New Jersey this year, Joshua S. Gottheimer turns 50… Former marketing and communications director at the Center for Open Science, Alexis C. Rice… Executive director of Masbia, a soup kitchen based in Brooklyn and Queens that serves over 2 million meals per year, Alexander Rapaport turns 47… Co-founder of Funcoach, he was an early designer at Facebook and co-created the “Like” button, Jared Morgenstern turns 44… Director at PJT CamberView, Eric Louis Sumberg… Founder and CEO of Delta Flow Solutions and GlueLetter newsletter analytics, Jeff Sonderman… Actress known as the store manager Lily Adams in AT&T commercials, she starred in the 2019 film short “The Shabbos Goy,” Milana Vayntrub turns 38… Manager of health policy at the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, David Streeter… Five-time BMI Songwriter of the Year award winner, known professionally as Benny Blanco, Benjamin Joseph Levin turns 37… Associate attorney at NYC’s Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello, Nathaniel Jacob Sobel… Program analyst at Mathematica Policy Research, Karen Katz… Director of government affairs and corporate citizenship in the Washington office of PepsiCo, Taylor Jaye Lustig… Social media manager at PragerU, Amanda Helen Botfeld… Tennis player, she has won 11 singles and 17 doubles titles on the ITF Women’s Circuit, Jamie Loeb turns 30… Strategy and operations for integrated marketing communications at Ford Motor Company, Alexa (Lexi) Chavin… Associate at 25madison, Miriam Applbaum…
SUNDAY: President at Adelson Family Foundation and a board member of Prizmah, Michael Bohnen turns 78… Sag Harbor-based painter, sculptor and printmaker, Eric Fischl turns 77… Host of Public Radio International’s Science Friday, Ira Flatow turns 76… Rhodes Scholar, Harvard Law graduate, author and political journalist, Michael Kinsley turns 74… Member of the Knesset from 1989 to 2021, then chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries until this past November, Amir Peretz turns 73… President and CEO of NYC’s flagship public TV station WNET, Neal Shapiro turns 67… Professor emeritus of economics at NYU, nicknamed “Dr. Doom,” Nouriel Roubini turns 67… Susan Liebman… NYC-based attorney, Gordon Platt… Private equity and venture capital investor, Howie Fialkov… Founder and head of the Chabad house at Harvard University, he is also the official Jewish chaplain for students and alumni of Harvard, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi… Member of the Canadian House of Commons, she serves as the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Ya’ara Saks turns 52… VP and head of global communications and public affairs for Meta/Facebook, David I. Ginsberg… Senior fellow at Harvard University’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Matthew Vogel… Former CEO of the Trevor Project, now an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the International Rescue Committee, Amit Paley… Co-founder and CEO at ImpactTechNation, he is also a co-founder of the political party Wake-Up Jerusalem (Hitorerut B’Yerushalayim), Hanan Rubin… Israeli-born singer, now one-half of the world music duo Shlomit & RebbeSoul, Shlomit Levi turns 42… News editor in the U.S. bureau of JNS, Menachem Wecker… Partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Bocarsly Emden, Rachel Rosner… Political strategist for the Democratic Party, she is a co-host of “The Five” on the Fox News Channel, Jessica Tarlov turns 41… Communications director for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Alissa “Sadie” Weiner… CEO at New Orleans-based QED Hospitality, Emery Whalen… Pitcher for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, he now plays in the Mexican League, Jared Lakind turns 33… Founding partner of Mothership Strategies, Jacob “Jake” Austin Lipsett… Director of adult education and Israel engagement at the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County (Fla.) until this past January, Marla Topiol… First-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, now playing for the NHL’s Nashville Predators, Ozzy Wiesblatt turns 23… Stephen Lent…
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