Longhorns lock horns over Piker
Plus, the rabbi who lost his voice at Ground Zero
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the reaction of Jewish community leaders to Norm Eisen’s alliances with critics of Israel, and cover the blowback from University of Texas College Dems’ invitation to Hasan Piker to speak on campus. We report on a new poll that finds low support among Jewish voters for Vice President JD Vance, and ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we interview, through written correspondence, Rabbi Ronald Kaplan, whose service as a spiritual first responder at Ground Zero during the aftermath of the attacks ultimately cost him his voice. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Rep. Brad Knott and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Curated by JI Israel Editor Tamara Zieve and U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik with an assist from Marc Rod.
Ed note: In observance of Rosh Hashanah, the next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Monday, Sept. 14. Chag sameach and shana tovah. We will be publishing stories and updates throughout the weekend on our Live Briefing, which you can access via our app and website.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition — a curated PDF of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: › Rep. Jared Moskowitz: Pro-Israel Democrats are being ‘ostracized’ in the Democratic Party; After son’s remains returned from Gaza, Ruby Chen continues his fight in Washington and beyond; Birthright launches Global Business Summit, connecting Diaspora donors, Israeli financial figures.
Today’s Agenda
We’re monitoring developments in the Middle East after Iran reportedly damaged multiple U.S. military aircraft in overnight strikes at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, according to CBS reporter Jennifer Jacobs. The strikes took off the wing of an A-10 Thunderbolt II, known as the Warthog, while eight F-15s sustained light damage and were placed back into service, sources told CBS.
The Iran-backed Houthis have reportedly seized the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Mocha, Yemeni government sources told Reuters. Witnesses told AFP the rebel forces chanted “Death to America, death to Israel,” as they entered the city.
The GOP midterm convention concludes this evening with a keynote address from Vice President JD Vance and closing remarks from President Donald Trump. Also set to address the convening today are Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Donald Trump Jr.
Targeting Vance’s speech, Democratic Majority for Israel is running digital ads across mobile devices and websites in Dallas, raising questions about the vice president’s alliance with Tucker Carlson and what it described in a statement as his “conditional support” for Israel.
In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is displaying 40 artifacts from the three sites — New York, the Pentagon and the Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville, Pa. — through Saturday. The museum is also screening the 2011 Smithsonian Channel documentary, “9/11: Stories in Fragments,” hourly, through Friday, and the Udvar-Hazy Center is hosting a panel this evening with first responders and aviation personnel.
On Friday, Trump will attend the Pentagon memorial ceremony, while Vance will represent the White House in attending the memorial ceremony at Ground Zero.
One Thing To Know
Norm-alizing?
Norm Eisen’s alliances with Israel critics raise eyebrows within Jewish community
Norm Eisen, a former Obama White House lawyer and U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, has in recent months emerged as one of the Trump administration’s most prominent legal antagonists.
Through a nonprofit group he founded, Democracy Defenders Fund, Eisen has helped to wage a series of key court battles challenging the administration over issues like birthright citizenship, the Federal Reserve and the Kennedy Center, claiming some victories in a fight against what he calls President Donald Trump’s executive overreach.
But Eisen’s recent work with two vocal critics of Israel who have faced accusations of antisemitism has raised some eyebrows in the Jewish community, owing to his identification as a liberal Zionist whose record includes combating anti-Jewish prejudice at home and abroad.
The Big Reads
PIKER PUSHBACK
University of Texas College Dems invitation to Hasan Piker sparks campus outrage
The University of Texas’ College Democrats chapter invited antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker to speak on campus at the end of the month, sparking outrage from Jewish leaders and students on campus and generating a potential political firestorm in a red state hosting consequential elections in November’s midterms, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. The event is scheduled to be held on Sept. 30, amid the final stretch of Texas’ highly competitive Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico and a competitive gubernatorial contest between GOP Gov. Greg Abbott and Democrat Gina Hinojosa. “Hasan Piker said America deserved 9/11 and praised the brutal terrorist organization Hamas. University Democrats at UT Austin are choosing to amplify that disgusting rhetoric. Terrorist sympathizers have no place in Texas,” an Abbott spokesperson told JI.
BEYOND WORDS
A rabbi answered the call at Ground Zero. Two decades later, it cost him his voice
For more than four decades, Rabbi Ronald Kaplan’s primary tool for his work was his voice. It was the instrument he relied on every Shabbat and holiday on the bimah, in the classroom, under the chuppah, at the cemetery and in the hospital — guiding congregants through both moments of celebration and grief. As he puts it, a rabbi’s task is to “pray, to teach, to inspire, to counsel and to lead” — and the voice is the means to do it, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. But this year, as the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — a commemoration that falls as the major Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins on Friday night — that work of speaking and remembering holds particular resonance for Kaplan, whose service as a spiritual first responder at Ground Zero during the aftermath of the attacks ultimately cost him his “greatest sacrifice” — his voice.
SURVEY SAYS
New poll shows Vance with very low support among Jewish voters
A new poll of Jewish American voters commissioned by the nonpartisan Jewish Voters Resource Center found that Vice President JD Vance is viewed negatively by more than 80% of Jewish voters, including a sizable number of Jewish Republicans, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. The poll finds Vance’s favorability rating at only 14% among Jewish voters overall, with 82% viewing him unfavorably. Only 61% of Jewish Republicans view Vance favorably, compared to the 89% of those who view President Donald Trump favorably, and the 93% of Jewish Republicans who hold a favorable view of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The Rundown
SENSE OF SECURITY
Mamdani and Tisch unveil safety plans for 9/11 memorial, Rosh Hashanah
BACKUP PLAN
Buffer zone bill aims to protect worshipers when prosecutors fail to act, lead GOP sponsor, Rep. Brad Knott, says
Doha Dealings
CNN’s ties with Qatar deepen with October summit in Doha
FLAGGING FICTION
Blinken denies report he delayed Hamas offer to free hostages
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.
President Donald Trump predicted on Wednesday that the Iran war “will end immediately after” the midterm elections because the Iranian regime is “desperate to affect the election,” though his top advisors are reportedly privately discussing the possibility that the war could run through the rest of his term…
Trump has begun tapping his super PAC’s $400 million war chest through a new group, No Going Back PAC — financially backed by his main super PAC, MAGA Inc. — which has reserved at least $47 million in ads across six contested Senate races and one House race, led by nearly $15 million in Michigan, $11 million in Ohio and $9.6 million in New Hampshire, The New York Times reports…
J Street is spending $3 million against five AIPAC-backed Republicans in the midterm races, Axios reports, naming Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins; Reps. Max Miller (OH), Derrick Van Orden (WI), Ryan Mackenzie (PA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA) as targets of the J Street Action Fund. (Collins was endorsed by AIPAC as a House Republican running in a safe district; he hasn’t been backed by AIPAC in the Georgia Senate race)…
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) made a video appearance at the GOP midterm convention on Wednesday evening where he praised President Donald Trump and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) for their work protecting the steel industry, Axios reports. While Fetterman is still not expected to announce he is switching parties, the move, made just weeks ahead of the midterm elections, is likely to further antagonize Democrats with whom the Pennsylvania senator has become increasingly estranged…
New CNN polls of the Maine and Michigan Senate races found the Democratic candidates holding narrow leads over their Republican opponents, though both were within the margin of error. In Maine, the survey found Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) trailing Democrat Troy Jackson, 48%-45%. In Michigan, the CNN poll found Democrat Abdul El-Sayed up 47%-44% over Republican Mike Rogers. Two-thirds of voters in each state view President Donald Trump unfavorably, according to the surveys…
The Congressional Black Caucus PAC endorsed El-Sayed on Wednesday. “CBCPAC will fight alongside Abdul to build a coalition to beat Mike Rogers and get a majority in the United States Senate that can bring down costs for all Michiganders,” said the PAC’s chair, Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY)…
Elon Musk’s America PAC has spent more than $1 million in the last week on digital ads and mailers to boost Rogers and attack El-Sayed…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has privately told at least one person in recent months that he has “no plans at this time” to run for president in 2028, according to NBC News…
Jeff Miller, a Republican Jewish Coalition board member, wrote on X that while he wants Republicans to hold the House and Senate, he has no interest in “tearing down” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), whom he described as “one of the few Democrats left willing to stand unapologetically with America and Israel.” Moskowitz is locked in a competitive reelection campaign against Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, a Republican who is endorsed by the RJC…
Rhode Island state Rep. David Morales, a democratic socialist backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), unseated Providence, R.I., Mayor Brett Smiley in the mayoral Democratic primary on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Issues of Israel policy and antisemitism had dominated the race, as Morales has backed an anti-Israel ballot initiative and criticized Smiley, who is Jewish, for attending a Combat Antisemitism Movement conference…
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee became the first U.S. governor since 2014 not to win renomination, losing to businesswoman Helena Foulkes by 24 points in the Democratic gubernatorial primary…
The Office of Congressional Conduct, a nonpartisan investigative entity, cleared Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) of wrongdoing in connection with documents she submitted to Congress that dramatically overstated her wealth, The Wall Street Journal reports. A disclosure filed last year showed Omar and her husband had assets of between $6 million and $30 million, indicating a massive jump in personal wealth over a short period of time, but the investigation concluded the numbers were inflated because of an accounting error…
Asked about the U.K., France and Canada enacting sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon on his way to Dallas for the GOP midterm convention that he’ll be “speaking to Israel” about the issue. “I understand exactly what’s going on, but I want to find out why all of a sudden does that happen,” he added…
Maryland state Sen. Cheryl Kagan and West Virginia state Sen. Jay Taylor, as well as Nevo Barchad, deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., spoke at the embassy’s Rosh Hashanah celebration on Wednesday night. Under Secretary of State Sarah Rogers, Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun and Department of Justice Senior Counsel Leo Terrell were among those in attendance…
Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Craig Goldman (R-TX), Ann Wagner (R-MO), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take steps to ensure Hamas cannot “exploit” the economic instability in the West Bank, raising concerns about Israel’s decision to withhold tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority…
Israelis are divided on the importance of U.S.-Israel relations as a factor in their decision of which party to vote for in the October elections, with 55% of Jewish Israelis and 26.5% of Arab Israelis seeing it as an important issue, according to a poll published on Wednesday by the Israel Democracy Institute…
An Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday morning reportedly killed a family of four, including two children, health officials said. The IDF told The Times of Israel it was looking into the reports…
Joel Lion, Israel’s former ambassador to Ukraine, Moldova and Armenia, has been appointed as the acting chargé d’affaires to Turkey and presented his credentials to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced…
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors voted on Wednesday for the first time in two decades to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for violating its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, diplomats told Reuters. The move marks an escalation that opens Iran to possible U.N. sanctions, though Russia and China’s vetoes on the UNSC make actual punitive action unlikely…
DreamWorks Animation co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, Bill Peebles, the former head of OpenAI’s Sora app, and former Dropbox CFO Sujay Jaswa are planning to launch a new AI video startup that would train its own models for filmmakers, and are in talks with potential investors including Andreessen Horowitz to raise funding, The Information reports…
The world-famous Carnegie Deli is reopening in Manhattan, and will be located in the space of the former Stage Deli, which closed in 2012…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The Blame Game: Wall Street Journal columnist Barton Swaim reflects on the tendency for anti-American activists to blame Israel as a stand-in for their antipathy of the United States: “In the years after 9/11, blaming America for the activities of Islamic terrorists became a mania among left-tilting scribblers the world over. When they couldn’t reasonably attach culpability to America — because the attack happened in France or Spain, which consistently oppose U.S. interventions — the enlightened blamed America’s stand-in, Israel. Somehow the jihadists always lacked agency. A corollary belief, equally resistant to evidence, holds that violent criminals commit their offenses because some societal inequity drove them to it.” [WSJ]
Some Things Are Nonnegotiable: Shalom Hartman Institute President Yehuda Kurtzer writes on his Substack about the need for Jewish leaders to set clear red lines for politicians who want to win their support: “When voters fail to use their leverage, they relinquish power to those who have not earned it, they forfeit the responsibilities of the citizen who is meant to be sovereign, and they allow politicians to be static when they should always be bendable. This exercise of power is best expressed through transparency… I see many Jews doing the opposite, searching for signs of what is in a politician’s heart, parsing their rhetoric, standing on the side to wait which way the wind is blowing, and lamenting their chosen condition of ultimately having to choose between imperfect choices.” [Substack]
Picture of the Day
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (left) inaugurated the first Israeli Embassy in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana on Wednesday, alongside his Slovenian counterpart, Tone Kajzer. The two ministers also signed a multi-sector cooperation agreement ahead of a joint business forum, as their countries move to strengthen ties. Gideon Sa’ar/X
Birthdays
Eric Kaplan, television writer and producer whose work includes “The Big Bang Theory,” turns 55
Stanley Gold, chairman of Shamrock Holdings, Roy Disney’s private investment company, turns 84
Dianne Varon, retired realtor in Southern California
Gerald Fishman, former EVP and general counsel at Chicago’s futures broker Rosenthal Collins Group
Howard Penner, past president of Congregation Ahavas Israel in Passaic, N.J.
Henri Goettel, retired coordinator at Truman Heartland Community Foundation, she was a Hebrew teacher at Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kan.
Gary M. Polland, Houston attorney and Republican Party activist, turns 76
Joel Judd, Denver attorney and politician, he served in the Colorado House of Representatives for eight years, turns 74
Nancy Finkel, executive assistant to the office managing partner of the E&Y office in Tampa
Cynthia Lummis, U.S. senator (R-WY), turns 72
Matthew Fried, retired VP at Goldman Sachs, now a part-time elementary school teacher
Steven Greenspan, real estate attorney in South Florida
Amity Ruth Shlaes, writer, columnist and author of three NYT bestsellers, turns 66
Richard Behar, award-winning journalist and author, he wrote a 2024 book on Bernie Madoff
Charles Rosenberg, former acting administrator of the DEA, now a senior counsel at D.C.’s Crowell & Moring, turns 66
Andrew Shapiro, founder and managing director at Beacon Global Strategies, he serves on the New Leadership Council of the Jewish Democratic Council of America
Lawrence Garbuz, NYC trusts and estates attorney
Jonathan Soros, co-founder and partner of One Madison Group, he is a son of George Soros, turns 56
Ariel Sadwin, executive director of the Maryland / Mid-Atlantic region of Agudath Israel
Sarah Schneider, writer, actor and comedian, she was a writer for “Saturday Night Live,” turns 43
Charles Szold, principal at Blue Zone Partners and managing partner at Precision Infrastructure Management
Joshua A. Nass, PR strategist, crisis manager and media analyst
Trey Yingst, chief foreign correspondent for Fox News, his 2024 book, Black Saturday, covers the events of Oct. 7 and the war that followed, turns 33
Jennifer Meyer
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