Norway’s fund cuts Israeli stakes, courts pro-Israel execs
The Brooklynites headed to the Blue Ridge Mountains
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover concerns from a bipartisan group of legislators that the Trump administration is withholding information about Nonprofit Security Grant Program allocations, and report on the decision by Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to divest from nearly a dozen Israeli companies even as it continues to court top American pro-Israel executives. We cover the University of Washington’s pursuit of criminal charges against anti-Israel student vandals on the campus, and spotlight an initiative to create a new thriving Orthodox Jewish community in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Eric Goldstein, Larry Ellison and Tzvika Mor.
What We’re Watching
- A delegation of freshman House Democrats are in Israel this week with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation while the House is in August recess. Read more on the trip from Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod here.
- Iranian senior security official Ali Larijani is in Lebanon today as part of his first trip abroad since being named head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council earlier this month. Larijani traveled to Beirut after a stop in Iraq. He’s spending three days in Lebanon as the government in Beirut pushes for the disarmament of Iranian proxy Hezbollah.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
Seven months into the second Trump term, it’s clear that many of the country’s top universities are scared of President Donald Trump.
The schools rely on federal funding to power much of the research that has made them into academic powerhouses, so if that funding dries up — a punishment, the Trump administration says, for universities’ failure to deal with antisemitism — their work will be imperiled.
As a result, some universities have taken proactive steps to address antisemitism in the hopes of fending off the ire of the Trump administration. But the White House does not view these actions as good-faith gestures. Instead, the administration is increasingly taking advantage of schools’ acknowledgments of past failings as an admission of guilt — and it is responding in a correspondingly punitive way.
The new chancellor of UCLA took office this year with the stated mission of fighting antisemitism and improving the campus climate following the disastrous 2023-2024 school year that saw violent clashes on the campus. Last month, the university agreed to pay $6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Jewish students and faculty members who alleged that UCLA permitted antisemitic conduct during the spring 2024 anti-Israel encampment. The chair of the University of California Board of Regents said the settlement was an important step toward fostering “a safe, secure and inclusive environment.”
Yet on the same day UCLA announced the settlement, the Justice Department found UCLA to be in violation of federal civil rights law, stating the school “failed to adequately respond to complaints of severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment and abuse” by Jewish and Israeli students after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. And last week, the Trump administration reportedly demanded that UCLA pay an eye-popping $1 billion to settle federal investigations into its handling of antisemitism, race-based admissions policies and transgender issues.
Dividends and Divisions
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund cuts Israeli holdings, while courting top American pro-Israel execs
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund said on Monday that it was divesting from 11 Israeli companies and had terminated its contracts with external fund managers in Israel over concerns regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Background: The decision follows a review initiated last week by Norway’s finance minister amid media reports that the fund had in recent years increased its holdings in an Israeli jet engine company that provides services to the Israeli military. Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, has worked to build relationships with American business leaders who are supportive of Israel whom he has hosted on his podcast in recent years, including Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and Jonathan Gray of Blackstone — who among others have prominently engaged in philanthropic efforts to support Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks.
Blue Ridge Bayit
Mountain minyan: An unorthodox experiment in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains
Yudi Gross is the CEO of Shefa Living, a company that is developing a 350-home gated community catering toward religious Jews. He knows his pitch is somewhat unorthodox: Move to the mountains. In North Carolina. To a tiny town with no synagogue and few other Jews for miles. But what he’s pitching is a radical vision of what observant Judaism could look like if not bound to the geographical constraints that have kept Orthodox communities from rural living. Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports on the effort to build a brand-new Orthodox community from the ground up, in a Bible Belt town 90 miles from the nearest airport.
No limits: Glossy marketing materials on Shefa Living’s website call it a “new Torah-centric community in the Blue Ridge Mountains.” Buyers have put down deposits on 60 homes, Gross said. Starting in September, they’ll choose their lots, and work with developers on selecting upgrades and finishes in the new homes. More than 150 people have visited North Carolina to tour the site. “This is not just 25-30 people who want to have a nice place in the summer. This is a dream for so many people,” Gross said. “I hope this transforms the way Orthodox families can choose to live geographically.”
campus beat
University of Washington pursues criminal charges for anti-Israel student vandals
More than 30 anti-Israel demonstrators who occupied a University of Washington engineering building at the end of the spring semester — causing more than $1 million worth of damage — are now being investigated by the university and local attorney’s office for potential criminal charges, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned.
Terror ties: The investigation comes after a recent report put a spotlight on a link between the radical student group that led the takeover and the U.S. designated terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. “We have taken this incident very seriously, including having issued emergency suspensions for all students who were arrested in the building and working with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on potential criminal charges,” a University of Washington spokesperson told JI on Wednesday, referring to the demonstration in May in which masked demonstrators blocked entrances and exits to the building and ignited fires in two dumpsters on a street outside.
Massachusetts move: Jewish leaders in Massachusetts praised a new report and set of recommendations by a state body that called for K-12 schools to implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
on the hilL
House lawmakers say administration is withholding information about security grant allocations
A bipartisan group of more than 70 House lawmakers pressed the Trump administration last week about the supplemental round of Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding awarded to more than 500 Jewish groups in June, saying that the administration is withholding information from Congress about which institutions are receiving funding, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Some nonprofits that applied for grants have not, themselves, been told whether their applications have been accepted either, two sources familiar with the situation told JI, complicating their efforts to submit complete and accurate applications for 2025 funding.
State of play: The lawmakers said they have “sincere concern” that they have not been provided with the list of institutions receiving funding under the $94 million funding round, as has been standard practice — with the administration allegedly citing an unspecified “security concern.” They added that the absence of that information could impact institutions’ ability to apply for funding from the 2025 NSGP allocation. A Senate aide told JI that at least some lawmakers in the upper chamber have similarly been left in the dark about the grant awards, as have some of the applicant institutions themselves.
DIVERGENT VOICE
Hostage families protest Gaza offensive — but this father says it doesn’t go far enough
The day after Israel’s Security Cabinet voted to seize control of Gaza City, the Hostages Families Forum organized a major protest in Tel Aviv against the decision, warning it would put their loved ones’ lives in danger. But Tzvika Mor, father of hostage Eitan Mor, has been speaking out against the Cabinet decision for a different reason — he thinks the IDF should be pushing even more aggressively to take over the rest of Gaza. Since his son was kidnapped from the Nova festival on Oct. 7, 2023, Mor has not wavered from his position that defeating Hamas must be Israel’s top priority in the war in Gaza. As chairman of the Tikvah Forum, a hawkish minority group of hostage families, Mor and several other hostages’ relatives argue that only sustained military pressure will bring all of the hostages home. Mor spoke out against the Israeli Security Cabinet’s recent decision in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on Sunday.
Mor’s mindset: “The question isn’t what they’re going to do, but what is the goal. If the goal is to lead Hamas to negotiate, it will fail, just like in Gideon’s Chariots, which took five months and didn’t bring back the hostages and didn’t destroy Hamas,” Mor said, referring to the IDF operation that began earlier this year. “The goal cannot be to bring [Hamas] to talks; it must be to destroy them.” Hamas, he said, is not motivated to return the hostages, because they have the food, fuel and water that they need to survive, but if they feared for their survival, the situation would be different.
Worthy Reads
A Performer’s Plea: In The Atlantic, singer Bono makes a plea for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in which he criticizes the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks as well as the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. “Yahya Sinwar didn’t mind if he lost the battle or even the war if he could destroy Israel as both a moral and an economic force. Over the months that followed, as Israel’s revenge for the Hamas attack appeared more and more disproportionate and disinterested in the equally innocent civilian lives in Gaza, I felt as nauseous as anyone but reminded myself that Hamas had deliberately positioned itself under civilian targets, having tunneled its way from school to mosque to hospital. When did a just war to defend the country turn into an unjust land grab? I hoped Israel would return to reason. I was making excuses for a people seared and shaped by the experience of Holocaust, who understood the threat of extermination not simply as a fear but as a fact. I reread Hamas’s charter of 1988; it’s an evil read. (Article Seven!)” [TheAtlantic]
Addressing Aid: In The Wall Street Journal, Hebrew University law professor Netta Barak-Corren calls on the U.S. and other global aid donors to commit to condition future humanitarian assistance on recipient countries hitting established benchmarks meant to address aid diversion. “Against the immediate risk of human suffering, donors must consider that allowing aid diversion could extend that risk for years. A cross-country analysis of 621 leaders in 123 countries from 1960 to 1999 showed that large, unconditional aid inflows help autocrats survive. World Bank data show that unconditional aid correlates with higher corruption and weaker rule of law. Nothing obligates donors to bankroll the fighters causing the suffering. Setting conditions on aid to prevent diversion aligns humanitarian spending with humanitarian intent.” [WSJ]
School Strategist: The New York Times’ Michael Bender spotlights May Mailman, who as the Trump administration’s senior adviser for special projects is “the most important, least-known person behind the administration’s relentless pursuit” of the country’s top universities. “She is credited as an animating force behind a strategy that has intimidated independent institutions and undercut years of medical and scientific research. … ‘There are a lot of good ideas floating around this building, but somebody has to capture those ideas, make sure that the right people are involved and that there is a process to put them into action,’ Ms. Mailman said in a recent interview at the White House. ‘So I’m the catcher of floating ideas.’” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), one of the most strident critics of the Israeli government in the Senate, is set to deliver the keynote speech next month at an Iowa Democratic Party fundraiser that’s a frequent stop for high-profile Democrats and presidential hopefuls; should Van Hollen make a presidential bid in 2028, such a campaign would give him a larger platform for his views, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
President Donald Trump told Axios that Hamas “can’t stay” in Gaza in the long term, but stopped short of backing Israel’s plans to take over portions of the enclave…
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), responding to Tucker Carlson’s criticism of himself and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee over their positions on Israel, said that the former Fox News host “now routinely attacks Trump, shills for Iran & doesn’t bother to hide his all-consuming hatred for Israel”…
xAI’s Grok chatbot posted that it was temporarily suspended after accusing Israel of genocide, weeks after the feature came under fire for a series of antisemitic and violent postings…
Virginia state Del. Sam Rasoul dismissed recent concerns over his social media posts that referred to Zionism as “evil” as being part of “silly season” politics…
City & State NY put out its annual Manhattan Power 100 list; Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine tops the list, which also includes NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Dan Goldman (D-NY), ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, Sid Davidoff, Steven Rubenstein, James Tisch and Merryl Tisch, Brad Tusk, Nancy Cantor, Seth Pinsky, Eva Moskowitz and Columbia University President Claire Shipman…
The Israeli-American Council said its Los Angeles headquarters were vandalized with swastikas and other Nazi symbols over the weekend…
eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross interviews IsraAid CEO Yotam Polizer about the humanitarian group’s previously under-the-radar work to assist in Gaza aid distribution efforts…
UJA-Federation of New York pledged $1 million to IsraAid’s Gaza effort; UJA CEO Eric Goldstein said, “We must hold tight to what has always anchored the Jewish people: the belief that all human life is sacred”…
The New York Times looks at how Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison — the second richest person in the world — is working to create a self-funded, profitable research institute to focus on his philanthropist interest areas, including climate change and global health…
Authorities in Montreal arrested a man in connection with a weekend attack on an Orthodox Jewish man in the city’s Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension neighborhood…
The New York Times reviews Giaime Alonge’s novel The Feeling of Iron, about two Holocaust survivors who track down their Nazi tormentor decades after the Holocaust…
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “in denial about the consequences that are occurring” as a result of the humanitarian situation in the enclave; the two spoke on Thursday, when the Australian leader informed Netanyahu of Canberra’s intention to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state…
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is reportedly considering resigning from the Israeli government in the coming months…
Bloomberg looks at the challenge facing Lebanon’s new government and its president, Joseph Aoun, as Beirut faces American and Gulf pressure to force Hezbollah to disarm, while the Iran-backed terror group refuses to acquiesce to the government’s effort…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday at the opening ceremony of the Knesset Museum in Jerusalem.
Birthdays
Award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction and the author of several novels and a novella, Rachel Kadish turns 56…
Hungarian-American investor, currency trader and political activist, born György Schwartz, George Soros turns 95… Retired Beverly Hills attorney, Sheldon Stanford Ellis… Emmy Award-winning television screenwriter, television producer and author, Gail Parent turns 85… Professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of many self-help books, Martin Elias Peter Seligman turns 83… Attorney in Ontario, Canada, who served as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Lester Scheininger turns 78… Co-founder and chairman of the film and television company Beacon Pictures, Barry “Armyan” Bernstein turns 78… U.S. diplomat, Karyn Allison Posner-Mullen turns 74… Trustee at Houston’s Congregation Emanu El, she worked for more than 40 years at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Fredi Bleeker Franks… Sales manager of Illi Commercial Real Estate in Sherman Oaks, Calif., Stuart Steinberg… Israel’s former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Albania, Noah Gal Gendler turns 68… Former member of Knesset from the Yesh Atid party, Haim Jelin turns 67… Founding editor of The Times of Israel, David Horovitz turns 63… Chairman of Goldman Sachs International, Sir Bradley Fried turns 60… Senior rabbi at Brookline’s Temple Beth Zion, Claudia Kreiman… Chief strategy officer at NYC’s Educational Alliance, Anya Hoerburger… Scottsdale-based real estate Investor, Jay Chernikoff… Co-founder at Understory, David Fine… CEO and co-founder of Forsight, a prop tech AI and machine learning company, Ariel Applbaum…
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