Vance’s Shabbos Shuva
Plus, Tisch's Turtle Bay test
Add JewishInsider on GoogleGood Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how the NYPD is preparing for “multiple” daily protests around the U.N. General Assembly next week, talk to lawmakers about their concerns following a classified briefing with the Pentagon’s Elbridge Colby on the Trump administration’s National Defense Strategy and interview Deborah Lipstadt about the launch of her new institute at Emory University to train the next generation of policymakers fighting antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: David Bashevkin, Amos Hochstein and Hanan Ben-Ari.
Ed. note: The next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Wednesday, Sept. 23 in observance of Yom Kippur. Become a premium Jewish Insider subscriber to receive our Daily Overtime newsletter as well as updates throughout the weekend and as the Yom Kippur holiday concludes, including regular updates on our in-app live briefing.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
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: Erielle Reshef’s journey from Israeli TV to MS NOW; Houthi gains leave Saudi Arabia short on options and looking to Washington; and Supreme Court to hear case of man blocked from holding minyan in his home. Print the latest edition here.
Today’s Agenda
Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance are set to host a Shabbat dinner at the vice president’s residence tonight. The gathering comes as Vance continues to work to burnish his relationship with Republican Jews — including a meeting on Thursday with conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg, which Rosenberg said “went well.”
Axios released its full interview with far-left streamer Hasan Piker this morning, after releasing brief clips from the conversation yesterday. On the topic of Israel, Piker told Axios he believes “Zionism is fascism” and compared holding Zionist beliefs to being a “rabid neo-Nazi” — but said he was “not worried that [my listeners are] going to be violent against Zionists.”
Students from The Ramaz School and SAR High School in Riverdale, N.Y., will hold services today outside New York’s Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence. Mayor Zohran Mamdani noted earlier this week that he was unlikely to be at the residence during the event, but said, “Whatever it is intended to be, they have the room and space to do so outside of Gracie Mansion.”
The Atlantic Festival continues today in New York. Speakers today include New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).
The U.N. General Assembly’s high-level week — which will see heads of state and senior officials from around the world travel to New York for speeches, events and sideline meetings — kicks off on Tuesday. President Donald Trump is slated to convene Gulf leaders on Tuesday to discuss postwar scenarios in Iran.
A State Department spokesperson said that senior Iranian officials had been granted visas to attend the UNGA, but will be under some restrictions that include a prohibition on purchasing luxury items while in the U.S.
Ahead of the start of the official UNGA proceedings, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and Anwar Gargash, an advisor to United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed, will speak on Sunday at an Al-Monitor Live event in New York.
One Thing To Know
ON ALERT
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters on Thursday that her department expects a wave of protests around the U.N. General Assembly next week, set to feature President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Tisch and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined officials from the Secret Service and State Department at One Police Plaza to brief the press on security measures and what the mayor described as a “whole-of-department response” to head off any risks to the international gathering. This will include “full deployment” of patrolmen and elite police units, as well as restrictions on traffic, flight patterns and pedestrian access in the area around the U.N. headquarters.
But both emphasized that, despite ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran — and despite Mamdani’s since-abandoned threat to arrest Netanyahu if he visited the city — these precautions were largely the same as those the city always takes around the annual geopolitical conference.
The Big Reads
taking heat
Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s under secretary for policy, is once again facing criticism from senators who said he was evasive, unresponsive and even disrespectful at a classified briefing on Thursday regarding the implementation of the National Defense Strategy, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Senators said that, among other issues, Colby had failed to provide clear answers regarding the war in Iran. “The most telling thing I can tell you is that he didn’t have an opening statement, and he’s there to give us an update,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told reporters. “That seemed weird. You’re the policy under secretary and you come before the Armed Services Committee and you don’t have an opening statement? That seemed contemptuous.”
crossing the aisle
Amos Hochstein, a senior Middle East negotiator in the Biden administration, on Thursday argued in favor of the Trump administration’s nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, which opens the path for nuclear enrichment inside the kingdom, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. “Do I want to do this? No. Do I feel the American national security interest is that we must do this deal? One hundred percent, because the alternative is a lot worse,” Hochstein said during a conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations, organized by the nonprofit Open to Debate. He added that during the Biden administration’s negotiations, other countries, including U.S. allies, actively tried to coax the Saudis away from the U.S. by promising lower verification standards. The deal, he argued, would help keep Saudi Arabia, a critical ally, in the U.S.’s corner.
policy pipeline
When Deborah Lipstadt returned to academia last year after nearly three years navigating the State Department as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, she had a new mission: to turn what she learned in government into a training ground for the next generation of policymakers confronting antisemitism. Lipstadt, a longtime Emory University historian, announced last week the launch of the Emory Policy Institute on Countering Antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. “In academia, professors think they’re right more often than not. Very often they are right in their assessments. But in diplomacy, you want to be effective. Sometimes you’ve got to compromise, narrow your view and adapt without losing sight of what you want to do,” Lipstadt told JI in an interview on Thursday.
The Rundown
NUCLEAR NEWS
RIPPING ON RIYADH
CAMPUS BEAT
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh said the FBI thwarted an intended mass casualty attack following the arrest last weekend of a Pennsylvania man who had been inspired by the Islamic State…
The State Department approved the sale of 48 F-35 fighter jets, worth $24.3 billion, to Saudi Arabia, a prospect that has raised concerns for some supporters of Israel; the State Department assessed that the deal would “not alter the military balance in the region.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she is “still considering” whether to support the Trump administration’s planned $2.8 billion arms sale to Israel…
Automaker General Motors has begun building missile parts for Lockheed Martin’s Patriot missiles, in an effort to boost production of the critical interceptor whose stockpiles have been depleted by the Iran war and heavy demand from allies…
Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution put forward by the U.S. that would have renewed the mandate of U.N. experts tasked with monitoring nuclear sanctions against Tehran…
Mahan Air announced the suspension of flights to Turkey and Oman, a week after the Treasury Department issued additional sanctions targeting one of Iran’s largest commercial carriers…
Pakistan’s army chief called on Tehran to make an effort to stop attacks by its Houthi proxies in Yemen on Saudi Arabia; the call from Field Marshal Asim Munir comes a year after Islamabad entered into a defense agreement with Riyadh…
Israel issued a tender for more than 2,000 new housing units to be built in the West Bank under its E1 settlement plan, on top of a tender for 1,234 units issued in late August…
The IDF said it killed two Hamas terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in separate strikes earlier this week…
eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Jay Deitcher spotlights the newly launched Talmud Daily, a free 40-week, daily video breakdown of the Talmud from Rabbi David Bashevkin that offers an introduction to the central text of Rabbinic law…
The Criterion Collection is rereleasing Claude Lanzmann’s 1985 “Shoah” film; the new release will include three additional Lanzmann films and interviews…
RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster, said it would boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest for the second year in a row, citing Israel’s participation in the annual competition…
i24NEWS’ Mike Wagenheim was named the next president of the White House Foreign Correspondents’ Association…
Former NBA player Michael Sweetney, who played for the Knicks and Bulls before becoming an assistant coach for the Yeshiva University Maccabees and The Ramaz School, died at 43…
Conservative writer Dovie Eisner died at 35…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Never Forget, Especially Now: In Moment Magazine, Menachem Z. Rosensaft considers the obligations of the children of Holocaust survivors in a time of increasing Holocaust denial and revisionism. “Our parents survived to bear witness. We, who grew up with them, who know or knew them better than anyone else, who listened to and internalized their stories, their memories, their silences and their nightmares, are more than their witnesses. We must be their attestors. … We are the guardians of their memories.” [Moment]
Influence Peddling: In Sapir, Aaron Kaplowitz raises concerns about the rise of an “influencer” class among Jewish and pro-Israel activists. “At the exact moment when Jews around the world need moral seriousness, parts of the communal establishment have fallen for the most opportunistic actors on the least serious platform. We are confusing visibility with leadership, and follower numbers with wisdom. The influencer economy now shapes how some of our institutions raise money and decide who speaks in the name of the community.” [Sapir]
Next-Gen Rising: In eJewishPhilanthropy, William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO and board chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, call on the Jewish communal world to make space for next-generation leadership. “If we believe these young men and women belong in Jewish leadership now, our community has to find more ways to trust them with real responsibility. That means moving beyond encouragement, conferences, fellowships and invitations to observe.” [eJP]
Picture of the Day
Israeli singer-songwriter Hanan Ben-Ari posted a clip of his live performance of “Hashivenu” — which he released in October 2025 to celebrate the release of the hostages from Gaza — from his recent “Hindikim 360°” show. “Everything that has been happening with this song under the radar over the past year is completely crazy,” Ben-Ari wrote on Instagram. “Jews from all over the world are singing and praying it everywhere, as though it were an ancient melody hundreds of years old!!”
Birthdays
Billy Eichner, comedian, actor, producer and screenwriter, turns 48 on Friday
FRIDAY
Kathy Levinson Wolf, Marina Del Rey, Calif., resident
Dr. Ben Carson, retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, he is currently the national advisor for nutrition, health and housing at the Department of Agriculture and previously served as U.S. secretary of housing and urban development, turns 75
Léo Apotheker, business executive who served as co-CEO of SAP and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, turns 73
Steven Pinker, Harvard professor of psychology, specializing in visual cognition and psycholinguistics, turns 72
Tommy Tuberville, U.S. senator (R-AL), he is the Republican nominee for governor of Alabama, he had a career prior to politics as a collegiate football coach, turns 72
Howard Tevlowitz, former CEO of the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee (Fla.)
Brian Greene, former executive director of the Los Angeles Westside Jewish Community Center, now The J Los Angeles
Gali Baharav-Miara, attorney general of Israel, turns 67
Mark Lee Romanek, winner of three Grammy Awards for music videos, he is also a filmmaker and photographer, turns 67
Joshua Angrist, professor of economics at MIT and a 2021 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, turns 66
Yanki Margalit, one of the earliest Israeli tech entrepreneurs, he is best known for starting Aladdin Knowledge Systems in 1985, turns 64
Ezra Uzi Yemin, founder of Delek US, turns 58
Simone Dinnerstein, classical pianist, turns 54
Karen Paikin Barall, chief policy officer at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law
Tali Farhadian Weinstein, NBC legal analyst, she was a 2021 candidate for Manhattan district attorney, turns 51
Justin Ishbia, founding partner of Shore Capital Partners, he is a part-owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury along with his brother Mat Ishbia, turns 49
Jason Horowitz, Madrid bureau chief of The New York Times
Robin Anderson, director of operations at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin
Lisa Abramowicz, co-host of Bloomberg Surveillance on “Bloomberg Television,” turns 47
Bakari Sellers, author, CNN analyst and an ardent supporter of Israel within the Black community, he was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, turns 42
Avi Mayer, founder of the “Jerusalem Journal” Substack following a stint as editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post
Nick Schulman, professional poker player whose total career live tournament winnings exceed $24.5 million, turns 42
Dan Kolko, baseball broadcaster for the Washington Nationals
Shoshana Bush, television and film actor, turns 38
Zak Sawyer, senior director at TLG Communications
Rabbi Joshua B. Cohen, West Coast regional director at Leket Israel
SATURDAY
Rabbi Haym Soloveitchik, professor of Jewish history and literature at Yeshiva University, he is the only son of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, turns 89
Jeffrey Salloway, member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives until 2022, he has served as synagogue president, turns 85
Barry Scheck, professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law and co-founder of the Innocence Project, turns 77
Harold Rhode, distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, after a 28-year Pentagon career as a Middle East expert, turns 77
David Elliot Hoberman, producer of over 40 films in his career and executive producer of the television series “Monk,” turns 74
Bruce Alpert, freelance reporter, he was a writing instructor at Montana State University Billings
Jodi Magness, archaeologist and professor of early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, turns 70
Ronald Kass, Stockton, Calif.-based physician at the Pacific Sleep Disorders Center
Rabbi David J. Wolpe, rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, he is the inaugural rabbinic fellow for the ADL, turns 68
John Nathan “Janno” Lieber, chairman and CEO of NYC’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, turns 65
Ken Rosenthal, bow tie-clad field reporter for Fox Major League Baseball since 2005, he is also a senior baseball writer for The Athletic, turns 64
Michael Evan Horowitz, inspector general of the Federal Reserve Board and the CFPB, turns 64
Tim Scott, U.S. senator (R-SC), he chairs the Senate Banking Committee, turns 61
Ronald Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington
Mike Michalowicz, author of nine popular business books, former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal
John Harthorne, founder and managing director at Two Lanterns Venture Capital, he is also the founder of MassChallenge (a startup accelerator)
Jillian Schwartz, pole vaulter, she competed for the U.S. in the 2004 Olympics and for Israel in the 2012 Olympics, now an associate brand manager at Kraft Heinz, turns 47
Neal Urwitz, CEO of Enduring Cause Strategies
Danny Valencia, former MLB player for nine seasons, he was on Team Israel for the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2023 World Baseball Classic, turns 42
Joseph Kristol, senior public affairs director at Elliott Investment Management
Charlie Burg, singer-songwriter and producer, he frequently wears a Magen David pendant when performing, turns 30
Sam Sloman, former NFL placekicker, his college teammates nicknamed him the “Kosher Cannon,” turns 29
SUNDAY
Candy Spelling, author, theater producer, television personality and philanthropist, turns 81
Curt Randy Grossman, wealth management advisor, he won four Super Bowls with the Steelers during his eight-year career as a tight end, turns 74
Rav Ahron Lopiansky, rosh yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington, turns 73
Lloyd Blankfein, senior chairman of Goldman Sachs since 2019, prior to which he served as its CEO for 13 years, turns 72
Henry Samueli, co-founder of Broadcom and owner of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, turns 72
Yosef Elron, former justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, turns 71
Lawrence Schreier, insurance agent in Tulsa, Okla.
Marc Roberts, real estate developer, sports agent and boxing promoter, turns 67
Rabbi Tovia Singer, former rabbi of Congregation Beit Torat Chaim of Jakarta, Indonesia, turns 66
Randolph Lipscher, emergency medicine physician in Austin, Texas, he was the goalkeeper for the U.S. field hockey team at the 1984 Summer Olympics, turns 66
Lisa Bloom, civil rights attorney, author and legal analyst, turns 65
Deborah Gavin Shemony, chief marketing and brand officer at BBYO
Keren Barak, former member of the Knesset for the Likud party, turns 54
Melissa Kronfeld, founder of PFAP (Passion for a Purpose) Consulting and COO of PizzaIDF
James Mazol, deputy under secretary of defense for research and engineering
Drew Singer, deputy news team lead at Bloomberg Law
Emily Grunewald, principal at Blue Laurel Advisors
Carter Lavin, climate activist in Oakland, Calif.
Alison Bogdonoff, senior director of strategic initiatives at Sony Music Entertainment
Zoe Plotsky, director of integrated marketing at Rent the Runway
Isabel Tsesarsky, Manhattan resident
Gabriel LaBelle, actor, best known for his leading role as young aspiring filmmaker Sammy Fabelman in Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” turns 24
Jason Ian Drucker, theatre, film and television actor, turns 21
Lauren Ackerman
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