The fake AI rabbi pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories
Plus, McMorrow slams politicians palling around with Piker
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on an AI-generated Instagram account of an Orthodox-looking rabbi that is pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories, and look at the discrepancy between Israeli estimates of Iran’s remaining ballistic missile launchers and ongoing fire from the Islamic Republic. We report on Michigan Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow’s condemnation of rival Abdul El-Sayed for campaigning with far-left activist Hasan Piker, and look at what the diversion of global attention and resources to Iran has meant for Hamas’ control in Gaza. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: David Sacks, Sheryl Sandberg and Nadav Lapid.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump will give the closing speech this afternoon at FII PRIORITY in Miami. The president’s address caps off the final day of panels and speakers at the three-day, Saudi-backed confab, and will be preceded by separate sessions with White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Paramount Skydance’s David Ellison, as well as a speech by FIFA head Gianni Infantino.
- Trump’s appearance in Miami comes a day after he announced a 10-day delay in potential plans to strike Iran’s energy infrastructure to allow for continued talks. More below.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading to France today for a G7 meeting. One person who will be absent from the Paris gathering is South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was uninvited from the summit following pressure from the U.S. Speaking to reporters before departing for France, Rubio said that “countries that care about international law … should be doing something about” Iran’s efforts to disrupt shipping routes.
- UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council-New York are holding a rally this morning in Manhattan to celebrate the City Council’s passage yesterday of two pieces of legislation establishing buffer zones around schools and places of worship.
- The two bills now head to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his signature. Mamdani has not indicated if he will sign either bill, one of which — the legislation mandating a perimeter around synagogues — passed with a veto-proof majority. Read more from JI’s Will Bredderman here.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
Days after launching the war against Iran last month, Israel and the U.S. began signaling that they were quickly degrading the Iranian ballistic missile threat. Two weeks into the war, the White House posted on X that “Iran’s entire ballistic missile capacity [was] functionally destroyed.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press conference last week that “Iran’s missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and will be destroyed.” The IDF has repeatedly sent updates over the past month about having destroyed the majority of Iran’s ballistic missiles and launchers.
So why are missile barrages and rushing to the bomb shelters still a part of most Israelis’ daily lives?
Sirens sounded 10 times in Israel’s center on Thursday. In the last week, about 1,000 alerts were sent out to different parts of Israel due to Iranian missiles. Israelis from Eilat to the Golan have spent many hours in shelters since the war began. Two fatalities were reported in recent days, but nearly 300 people have been injured since the beginning of this week, according to the spokesperson for Magen David Adom emergency services.
Jonathan Schanzer, executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Jewish Insider that “this is a war, and wars have tides that come in and out … [they] require a certain amount of adjustment and patience. You’re not going to get everything you want in a linear fashion.”
Yaakov Katz, a military expert and author of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, argued to JI that missile launcher destruction is the wrong way of looking at the war, meant to “create a narrative of accomplishment,” when there is still much work to be done.
While Katz said that he doesn’t “diminish from the value of taking a threat, degrading it and having more time to live in a place of security,” he does not view that as a victory, because the threat will return. He pointed to how rapidly Iran was able to produce new ballistic missiles after last year’s 12-day war: “They’re going to rebuild everything.”
“Just saying they destroyed 70-80% of missile launchers … If that’s your measure of success, you’re basically confirming there will be another war in the future,” he added.
SCOOP
McMorrow slams El-Sayed for campaigning with Hasan Piker, compares Piker to Nick Fuentes
Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who is running in a tight three-way Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, slammed one of her opponents, Abdul El-Sayed, for his decision to campaign with the far-left political streamer Hasan Piker, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports from Royal Oak, Mich. Piker, who has a history of antisemitic and pro-Hamas remarks, is slated to appear at two campaign rallies with El-Sayed and Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) in April.
What she said: “It is somebody who says extremely offensive things in order to generate clicks and views and followers, which is not entirely different from somebody like Nick Fuentes,” McMorrow told JI in an interview Thursday, referring to the neo-Nazi podcaster. “[Piker] is a provocateur, to put it lightly, who says things that are misogynistic and antisemitic, and said that the United States deserved 9/11. That is not somebody that you should be campaigning with at a moment when there is clearly a lot of pain and trauma across our state.”
TOXIC TECHNOLOGY
New report highlights fake AI rabbis spreading antisemitism on Instagram
An AI-generated Instagram account portraying an Orthodox-looking rabbi is pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories to its more than 1.4 million followers, and it’s not the only one, a study published this week about antisemitic content on the social media platform has found, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Findings: An account called “Rabbi Goldman” “uses fake, AI-created authority figures to spread hate” in “a troubling and growing tactic,” according to the report, published on Wednesday by the Combat Antisemitism Movement. The 12-page report documents 100 posts that researchers described as antisemitic, pushed directly to Instagram accounts over a 96-hour period from March 19-22. These posts, actively suggested by the platform’s recommendation systems, generated more than 5.3 million likes and 3.8 million shares, with an estimated reach of 150 to 280 million users, according to the report.
EXCLUSIVE
Social media is the main source of current antisemitic wave, AJC concludes
A new report by the American Jewish Committee, released on Friday, found that 73% of American Jews saw or heard antisemitism online in the last year and 21% said that the antisemitism they witnessed made them feel physically threatened, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Getting to the root: Top officials at the group say that this pervasive antisemitism online is the fundamental root of the current wave of antisemitic sentiment society-wide, including violent extremist attacks on Jewish communities in the U.S. and globally, and that protecting the Jewish community requires making real progress in tackling that problem. The group’s CEO, Ted Deutch, told JI in an interview on Thursday that the report further finds that those pushing antisemitic content have found an “alarming number of ways” to avoid rules on various platforms to safeguard against hate.
Piker problem: Deutch also said that Democratic lawmakers and candidates should not associate with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has a record of antisemitism and support for terrorism, drawing parallels between Piker on the far left and white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes on the far right. “In both cases, each party should make clear that voices that aren’t representative of their parties have no place in an official campaign setting — shouldn’t be welcomed, shouldn’t be welcomed in to share their views,” Deutch said.
RIPPLE EFFECT?
As the Iran war rages, who’s watching Gaza?
As the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran nears the one-month mark, experts say the war has diverted diplomatic and military attention away from Gaza, creating a mixed picture: Hamas has used the pause in sustained Israeli military pressure to reassert control in areas it still governs, while the degradation of Iran’s capabilities could ultimately leave the group weaker and more isolated once the conflict subsides, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
State of play: Matthew Levitt, director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s program on counterterrorism and intelligence, said that while Hamas’ retrenchment in the enclave may cause concern, “the reality is [Hamas is] not able to expand beyond the less than half [of the enclave] that it controls.” He also noted that the current conflict in Iran may actually create the conditions to further weaken, pressure and isolate the terrorist group when the war subsides.
Fog of war: President Donald Trump announced on Thursday afternoon that he would extend his pause on plans to strike Iran’s energy infrastructure, “per Iranian government request,” for an additional 10 days amid ongoing diplomatic negotiations to end the war, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports.
GOP GAPS
Signs of GOP friction over Iran war are slowly growing
Republican lawmakers are growing frustrated with the war in Iran and with the administration’s frequently shifting rhetoric about it — including from some otherwise-hawkish lawmakers, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who previously called for an end to the war, told Bloomberg on Thursday that she’s working on a potential authorization for use of military force in Iran, to limit the scope of the U.S. operation and prevent the deployment of ground troops.
Cracks showing: “I don’t know what else to do,” Murkowski told the outlet. “I’m worried we get out of town and the president goes in with ground troops aiming for a full takeover.” The Senate is scheduled to be in recess for the next two weeks. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who has generally been supportive of the war effort, told NOTUS on Thursday after a House Armed Services Committee briefing the day prior that he was unclear on the U.S.’ plans and goals in the war. “What is the end-state goal? What is the mission? I think clarity there would be helpful,” Bacon said.
Read the full story here for additional comments from Reps. Rob Wittmann (R-VA), Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Nancy Mace (R-SC).
Tehran talks: Jared Kushner, an informal Middle East envoy to the White House, said Thursday that Iran had not been serious about reaching a nuclear deal with the United States before President Donald Trump, his father-in-law, chose to attack the country in a joint military operation with Israel, JI’s Matthew Kassel reports.
PLAYING DEFENSE
After backlash, Janeese Lewis George vows to both combat antisemitism, back Palestinians
After Janeese Lewis George met last week with Washington rabbis and other local Jewish leaders who were concerned about her views on Israel and antisemitism, the Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate released a statement pledging to stand firm in both her opposition to antisemitism and her support for the Palestinian cause, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Statement: “Those two things are not in conflict,” Lewis George, who is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, wrote in a statement that was posted to her campaign website on Wednesday. “To the Jewish community in DC: I will not be a mayor who includes or excludes you based on your opinions or feelings on matters here and across the world. I will always protect your freedom, safety, and sense of belonging,” Lewis George, a D.C. councilmember, wrote in the statement. Lewis George also noted that she was one of the first councilmembers in the District to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and that she met with students at George Washington University who were advocating for a ceasefire.
Worthy Reads
Blind Spot on Hate: In The Free Press, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair examines what he considers to be the unwillingness of Western leaders to fight the ideologies that breed antisemitism. “The problem is that, under pressure from party activists and parts of the Muslim community, many progressive politicians who do sincerely reject antisemitism are not making these arguments, and failing to take head-on this literally ‘unholy alliance’ between parts of the left and Islamists in our own societies whose ideology leads inexorably to antisemitism. Because failure to do so creates the climate in which, even if antisemitism is not explicitly condoned, it flourishes.” [FreePress]
The 1930s Redux: The Wall Street Journal’s Natasha Dangoor looks at Jewish communal concerns about rising antisemitism in the West as “Jews the world over” become targets amid increasingly violent antisemitism tied to Israel’s wars in Gaza and Iran. “While the attacks gain global media attention, it is daily life that has gotten less comfortable for many Jews who participate in communal life. Outside synagogues and Jewish schools, concrete barriers, high walls and security personnel are a constant reminder of the threats they face. … ‘It feels like the 1930s,’ said Ralph Pais, a 45-year-old real-estate investor who splits his time between Antwerp and Brussels.” [WSJ]
The Brotherhood’s New Turf: In The Washington Post, Tareq Alotaiba, a fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University, considers why the Muslim Brotherhood has proliferated across Europe. “The modus operandi of the Brotherhood is patience — it waits until it is confident in its strength, then moves against the established state structure. … One challenge in addressing the threat lies in the group’s approach to its Islamist agenda. Although its ideology has inspired much terrorism, its methods have seldom been violent. The Brotherhood’s strategy is to slowly indoctrinate youth until the organization can leverage its societal influence into political control.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
Vice President JD Vance, who Axios reports is increasingly taking on the Trump administration’s Iran negotiation efforts, met yesterday in Washington with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani…
The Pentagon is mulling sending an additional 10,000 troops to the Middle East, after calling up thousands of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division earlier this week…
The potential move comes as Israel, reportedly concerned that the U.S. could potentially wind down the war against Iran, increasingly targets the Islamic Republic’s military infrastructure in an effort to hobble the regime’s arms-production abilities…
Iran is indicating to the U.N. that it will enforce a kind of “toll” for vessels to access the Strait of Hormuz, as it maintains control of the vital waterway…
The New York Times does a deep dive into Binance’s failure to stop the transmission of $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency to Iran-linked groups in violation of U.S. sanctions…
David Sacks departed his role as the White House’s AI and crypto czar after hitting the 130-day limit as a special government employee; Sacks will continue to serve as co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology…
The State Department is sending $1.25 billion to the Board of Peace, the majority of which was taken from funds ear marked for international disaster assistance…
The Senate approved by unanimous consent a proposal to fund most of the programs under the Department of Homeland Security; Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol were omitted from the late-night deal…
Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) introduced the Abraham Accords Defense Cooperation Act, which requires the administration to establish a cooperation initiative with Abraham Accords countries and creates a funding avenue for such cooperative efforts…
The selection committee in Columbia University’s history department recommended the school hire Rosie Bsheer, who was removed from her leadership role at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies over the center’s imbalanced programming on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for the New York school’s next Edward Said Professorship in Modern Arab Studies and Literature…
The Free Press spotlights the political trajectory of far-left activist Calla Walsh, the former Democratic organizer who interned for Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) before becoming more aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, serving jail time for anti-Israel vandalism and eventually relocating to a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon, where the 21-year-old now lives…
The Jewish Federation of Detroit condemned “recent remarks from prominent individuals praising U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah and downplaying the attack on Temple Israel,” following Detroit News interviews with prominent Arab American activists in the Detroit area, including the publisher of the Arab American News, expressing support for the terror group…
Lean In, the nonprofit founded by Sheryl Sandberg, has lost approximately a quarter of its staff as the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation scales up its efforts to combat the “manosphere” and “tradwife” movements gaining traction among young people…
The New York Times reviews “Yes,” writer-director Nadav Lapid’s latest satirical film, which takes place in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and spotlights a fictional couple who tries to ingratiate themselves with the country’s powerbrokers…
A judge in Montreal dropped charges against a woman who made a Nazi salute at pro-Israel demonstrators and repeatedly threatened that they would be targeted with a “final solution”…
Authorities in London announced charges against a Palestinian British doctor with a history of making antisemitic comments online of having invited support for Hamas on multiple occasions…
Two British men arrested in connection with an arson attack on Hatzola ambulances in London’s Golders Green suburb were released on bail…
Israeli-born professor Edna Foa, who pioneered the use of prolonged exposure therapy to treat PTSD, died at 88…
Pic of the Day
Former Israeli hostage Bar Kupershtein released the music video for his song, “The Last War,” which recounts his time in captivity in Gaza and recovery after his release in October. The music video includes clips of Kupershtein with his father, Tal, who relearned to talk after surviving a stroke in order to advocate for his son’s release.
Birthdays
Hollywood mogul, CEO of Endeavor and CEO and executive chairman of TKO Group Holdings, which owns the UFC and WWE, Ariel Zev “Ari” Emanuel turns 65 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Composer and violinist, he has been active in the presentation of new music and dance since the early 1960s, Malcolm Goldstein turns 90… President for 28 years at the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, he is now its executive vice chairman, Steven B. Nasatir turns 81… Principal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal until 2013, then the executive editor of The Verge and editor-at-large of Recode, he is now retired, Walter S. Mossberg turns 79… Executive director at Milwaukee’s Grand Avenue Club (a mental health center), Rachel Forman… Chairman and CEO of First International Resources in Fort Lee, N.J., Zev Furst turns 78… Sports agent who has represented the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft eight times, he is the real-life inspiration of the sports agent in the film “Jerry Maguire” in 1996, Leigh Steinberg turns 77… Retired host of the “Matty in the Morning Show,” which ran for 41 years in Massachusetts on KISS 108, Matt Siegel turns 76… Deputy director of leadership giving at Baruch College, Linda Altshuler… Former member of the Knesset, he resigned in January 2026 to become deputy communications minister, Yisrael Eichler turns 71… Moral philosopher, she is the director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany, Susan Neiman turns 71… Former NFL linebacker, now president of Performance Coaching (training real estate agents), he was a captain of the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII (1983), Steven Mark Shull turns 68… Economist and banker in Latvia, Valerijs Kargins turns 65… Smooth jazz saxophonist, he has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Dave Koz turns 63… Actress and producer, now serving as senior VP at the Youth Renewal Fund, Sabrina Wachtel Kurzman turns 62… Managing director of Maimonides Fund, he is a 1994 graduate of Columbia Law School, Daniel Gamulka… CEO since 2004 of BBYO, an organization launched almost 100 years ago (formerly B’nai B’rith Youth Organization), Matthew Grossman turns 55… President of NYC’s Tenement Museum, Dr. Annie Polland… Founder and CEO of the Movement Vision Lab, a grassroots think tank, she is a political commentator and community organizer, Sally Kohn turns 49… Associate professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, she is the author of six full-length collections of poetry, Dorothea Lasky turns 48… Human rights attorney and head of the Sydney office of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, Arsen Ostrovsky turns 46… Senior political reporter at MS NOW, Jacob Hirsch Soboroff turns 43… Hitting coach in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, he played for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic and the 2020 Olympics, Blake Shane Gailen turns 41… Former professional ice hockey player, he played on Israel’s national team and in the U.S., Canada and Japan, now a partner at McKinsey & Company, Oren Eizenman turns 41… VP at SignalFlare.ai, he is a former associate director in the NYC area for AIPAC, Adam B. Engel… Assistant principal at Snowden Farm Elementary School in Clarksburg, Md., Kayla Brameyer… Communications and social media specialist, Daniella Greenbaum Davis… Son of Jared and Ivanka, Theodore James Kushner turns 10…
SATURDAY: Professor emeritus of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in physics, Jerome Isaac Friedman turns 96… Chairman and CEO of the Hartz Group and Hartz Mountain Corporation, a leading seller of pet supplies, Leonard Norman Stern turns 88… Israeli electrical engineer and business executive, he was the founder and first general manager of Intel Israel and the inventor of the EPROM chip, Dov Frohman turns 87… Expert on the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, and wife of the late U.S. Sen. and VPOTUS candidate Joe Lieberman, Hadassah Lieberman turns 78… Glenview, Ill., resident, Genie Kutchins… Iranian-born CEO of Los Angeles-based toy company MGA Entertainment (maker of Little Tikes and Bratz and Lalaloopsy dolls), Isaac Larian turns 72… Former member of the Knesset for 13 years, she served as the leader of the Israeli Labor Party, Shelly Yachimovich turns 66… Special envoy and coordinator for the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center during the Biden administration, James Phillip Rubin turns 66… One of four hostages held at gunpoint for 11 hours at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, in January 2022, Jeffrey R. Cohen… Former rhythmic gymnast, now teaching yoga in Connecticut, she represented the U.S. at the 1984 Summer Olympics, Valerie Le Zimring-Schneiderman turns 61… “Lexington” columnist at The Economist, he is the younger brother of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), James Douglas Bennet turns 60… Presidential historian and Jewish liaison in the Bush 43 administration, he is now a senior scholar at Yeshiva University and a senior fellow at the Ronald Reagan Institute, Tevi Troy turns 59… President and CEO of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, Adam Lehman turns 59… Film producer, entertainment executive and director of movies, music videos and television programs, Brett Ratner turns 57… Journalist, crime writer and blogger who has spent most of his career in Japan, he assisted the U.S. State Department’s investigation into human trafficking in Japan, Jake Adelstein turns 57… Israeli journalist, she is both a television and radio news presenter, Keren Neubach turns 56… Novelist, television producer and journalist, one of her novels was made into a major motion picture, Jennifer Weiner turns 56… U.S. senator (R-FL), she was appointed last year to the seat vacated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ashley Moody turns 51… Author of eight best-selling novels including in 2003 The Devil Wears Prada, based upon the author’s time as an assistant to Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, Lauren Weisberger turns 49… Member of the Knesset since 2015 for the Likud party, now serving as the minister of culture and sports, Makhlouf “Miki” Zohar turns 46… Benjy Spiro… Los Angeles-based, Israeli-born fashion designer, Yotam Solomon turns 39… Retired MLB outfielder for the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, now a real estate developer in Bali, Indonesia, Ryan Kalish turns 38… VP at Tradepoint Atlantic, a 3,300-acre global logistics center near Baltimore, Michael Hurwitz… SVP of asset management at Hackman Capital Partners, Zachary David Sokoloff… Quarterback for the Tulane University Green Wave football team, Jake Retzlaff turns 24…
SUNDAY: Israeli chemist, professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at UCLA, winner of the 1974 Israel Prize and the 1988 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, Raphael David Levine turns 88… Organizer of the annual morning minyan services since 1983 for runners in the NYC Marathon, Peter Berkowsky turns 84… Attorney, New York Times best-selling author and sports agent for many athletes including Cal Ripken, Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Kirby Puckett and Eddie Murray, Ronald M. Shapiro turns 83… Houston-based labor law, employment law and personal injury attorney, active in Jewish organizations, Carol Cohen Nelkin… University of Chicago professor and winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in economics, Roger Myerson turns 75… Investor, computer scientist and founder of D. E. Shaw & Co., a hedge fund based upon high-speed quantitative trading, David Elliot Shaw turns 75… Economist, professor emeritus at NYU and chairman and CEO of consulting firm Roubini Macro Associates, Nouriel Roubini turns 68… Miami businesswoman, JoAnne Papir… U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, he was the co-founder and co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, Stephen Andrew Feinberg turns 66… U.S. senator (D-NV), Catherine Cortez Masto turns 62… Director of the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, David Barnea turns 61… French film director and writer, best known for his 2011 film “The Artist,” which won five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Michel Hazanavicius turns 59… Budget secretary for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Uri Z. Monson turns 57… Vice president and senior advisor at The Rockefeller Foundation and adjunct fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Eric Pelofsky… Founder of Leopard Strategies, Liz Jaff… White House staff secretary in the Trump administration, Will Scharf turns 40… Communications director for Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), David A. Bergstein… Associate director at Power Insights, Annie Rosen Pai… Director of business development at Logical Buildings, Alex Zafran…
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