• Senior Israeli and Lebanese officials will reconvene today at the State Department to continue peace talks, a State Department official said, after the parties concluded the first day of negotiations in the third round of the U.S.-led talks on Thursday with no further agreements secured. Read more here.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins a five-country tour today in the United Arab Emirates. From the UAE, Modi will travel on to the Netherlands, ⁠Sweden, Norway and Italy.
• President Donald Trump’s “National Sabbath” begins tonight at sundown. The White House’s official Shabbat 250 reception is slated to take place at 6 p.m. ET in the Indian Treaty Room. Read more here about the events taking place in Washington this weekend.
• The Lennart Meri Conference kicks off this afternoon in Tallinn, Estonia. Speakers include E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas; Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama; Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi; former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata; Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was held hostage for more than two years by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq; Thomas DiNanno, under secretary of state for arms control and international security; and MENA2050 CEO Eli Bar-On. 
• The inaugural World Symposium Against Antizionism will take place on Sunday in Toronto. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro is set to keynote the conference, which will also include Mark Goldfeder, Casey Babb and Loay Alshareef.
• Also Sunday, Jewish California, a statewide coalition of Jewish organizations, is holding a forum for candidates for superintendent of public instruction.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Marc Rod

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) will enter Tuesday’s closely watched primary against Ed Gallrein, a Navy veteran and farmer backed by President Donald Trump, politically damaged — but it remains to be seen whether he’s taken enough hits to end his career in Congress.

Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based GOP strategist and CNN political analyst, said that he’s spoken to operatives on both sides of the race who are very confident in victory. “Based on some of the polling I’ve personally seen and heard about, it feels like Massie’s image has been severely degraded by the sustained campaign that’s been run against him,” Jennings told Jewish Insider.

The question is whether Massie’s image has been tarnished enough to cause his defeat, or if he’ll emerge wounded but still standing. Jennings said that Massie has built a “popular brand” in the district during his seven terms in office, but also hasn’t before faced a full-frontal assault from Trump and the associated avalanche of spending.

Al Cross, a professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and a political columnist, said he’s “loath to make predictions about that race, but Gallrein clearly has the momentum.”

He explained that Gallrein has received significant positive coverage in pro-Trump media, has stronger support among older voters, who are more likely to turn out, has a significant advantage in outside spending and has Trump’s influential endorsement. 

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Conspiracy Nation: Tablet Magazine’s Izabella Tabarovsky writes about the growing conspiracism in American politics, on both the far left and far right: “It should be clear by now that what is taking shape in American public discourse is in no way a conventional political disagreement over the rightness or real-world effectiveness or this or that Israeli policy. It is the normalization of a way of thinking that flattens reality into a single, self-confirming narrative that has always led to the same place: the mental and political unraveling of the societies that embrace it.” [Tablet]

UAEasy Does It: The Wall Street Journal’s Anat Peled and Stephen Kalin consider the limits of Israel’s relationship with the United Arab Emirates, following the latter’s denial that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had visited the country during the war with Iran. “Such disagreements are extremely unusual in the world of high-level international diplomacy. The prickly back-and-forth shows that while Israel has proven a valuable security partner for the U.A.E., there are still political considerations that need to be managed in the relationship … The Gulf monarchy had likely wanted to keep the meeting quiet and continued with quieter and unpublicized coordination, analysts said. The U.A.E. was displeased with the Israeli announcement and saw it as embarrassing, according to a person close to Emirati officials.” [WSJ]

The Abbas Paradox: In Commentary, Seth Mandel analyzes the complex intersection of Israeli domestic politics, Arab-Israeli civic integration and the strategic calculus of Middle Eastern governance through his profile of Ra’am party head Mansour Abbas. “A leader can’t get too far in front of his constituents, I suppose. The problem is that Abbas is arguably a once-in-a-generation figure in Arab politics, someone who has legitimacy within the Islamic movement and among working-class Arabs alike and can retain that legitimacy while integrating his party into mainstream Israeli politics. So there isn’t really time for incrementalism. He isn’t just working within a brief window; he is the window.” [Commentary]

President Donald Trump departed Beijing following his three-day trip to China. The White House said Trump had a “good meeting” with Chinese President Xi Jinping, highlighting that “the two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open,” that Xi “made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use” and that “both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon”…

Xi, according to the Chinese readout, flagged Taiwan as the “the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” warning that it could lead to “clashes and even conflicts” between the two countries if not “handled properly”…

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other Israeli military officials visited the United Arab Emirates during the war with Iran, Israeli broadcaster Kan reported on Friday, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s revelation earlier this week that he had visited the UAE during the war in late March…

The UAE was left frustrated after it tried in vain to convince some of its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to participate in a joint military response to Iran’s strikes, Bloomberg reports…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights efforts by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to clean house following the removal of his predecessor, Kristi Noem, from the post, firing officials linked to her and reviewing her spending decisions…

Vice President JD Vance, speaking at a rally in Maine, praised Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — despite her strained relationship with the president — as she heads to a competitive general election against presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner…

The New York Times looks under the hood of the campaign of Jack Schlossberg, running in New York’s 12th Congressional District Democratic primary, which sources described as “so erratic and plagued by turnover that it raises questions about how he might handle himself as a member of Congress”…

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is at risk of finishing in third place in Saturday’s Louisiana GOP primary, with the senator trailing Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) and state Treasurer John Fleming, according to Punchbowl News… 

Tune Inn, the D.C. bar where William Paul, son of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), accosted Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) with an antisemitic rant, announced that the younger Paul would be barred from the establishment going forward. The elder Paul hasn’t made any statement on the confrontation…

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, received the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Charles Eisenman Award for Exceptional Civic Contributions at the Federation’s 122nd Annual Meeting on Tuesday…

Highlighting Spain‘s efforts to hamper U.S. operations against Iran, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) urged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to “reconsider existing arrangements with Spanish entities, especially major government contracts benefitting Spanish companies at the expense of the American taxpayer.” Gooden’s letter focused on ACS Group, Spain’s largest construction company and a U.S. military contractor…

The Israeli government said it is initiating a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times following the publication of an opinion column by Nicholas Kristof alleging widespread Israeli sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners, which critics said used dubious sourcing and elevated conspiracy theories, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…

The Times dismissed Israel’s stated intention to sue “as part of a well-worn political playbook that aims to undermine independent reporting and stifle journalism that does not fit a specific narrative”…

More than 200 people demonstrated outside the Times headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday, demanding a retraction of the article, an event organized by pro-Israel groups…

The U.S. government is suing a Chick-fil-A franchisee for religious discrimination over the employer’s alleged refusal for a Christian employee to take Saturdays off to observe the Sabbath, as her denomination observes…

Saudi Arabia has begun to consider a nonaggression pact between Middle East countries and Iran for when the war against the Islamic Republic ends, according to the Financial Times, fearing that the conflict will leave Iran weaker but more hard-line and conflict-prone. Several European countries are reportedly supporting the effort…

Iraq voted on Thursday — six months after its election — to approve a new government, led by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi alongside 14 ministers, though parliament failed to reach consensus on several key posts including interior and defense…

Scandal-plagued filmmaker Brett Ratner, who moved to Israel after being accused of sexual misconduct, joined Trump’s delegation to China this week to scout out locations for the newest “Rush Hour” movie, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Richard Attias, a Moroccan-born consultant and longtime advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also reportedly joined the delegation…

The Financial Times spotlights tensions surrounding Israel’s participation in Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest, over which the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Iceland have pulled out of this year’s event…

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who has previously been mired in antisemitism scandals, is set to perform in Tbilisi, Georgia, at a June concert produced by Live Nation Israel…

King Charles III met with Michael Shine, a victim of a stabbing attack, and his sister Doreen, during a visit on Thursday to the Jewish Care charity in Golders Green, two weeks after the antisemitic attack in the London suburb.

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Yonatan Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot:

Thirty-two years ago, I celebrated the cutting of my son’s hair on Lag B’Omer in Meron, Israel. A memorable moment in life. I still recall the bottle we opened the following Friday night, a 1984 Yarden Cabernet, and I can taste it to this day. These days, in the current situation, we did not have the opportunity to make the pilgrimage to Mount Meron on Lag B’Omer, and so we marked my my 3-year-old grandson’s first haircut in Tel Aviv, over a new bottle of wine. G-d willing, I shall be present for my great-grandson’s in turn.

Charley Winery in the Judean Hills is a new discovery for me, and I suspect it will feature regularly in my reviews in the months to come. The Yonatan Cabernet, lifted by a whisper of petit verdot, awakened a passion in me that had been dormant for some time. The opening was unmistakably Judean Hills, generous in fruit, with tannins of considerable poise; the mid-palate offered a sumptuous course of blackberry; and the finish revealed something altogether unexpected: a serene, earthen, fleshy register more often encountered in Bordeaux. The wine held me in contemplation from first sip to last. Pair it with bison, or with a cut of meat worthy of the occasion. This is a wine built to age for many years to come.

First lady of Israel, Michal Herzog turns 65 today…

FRIDAY: Chairman of Queens-based Muss Development, a major real estate development company founded by his grandfather Isaac in 1906, Joshua Lawrence Muss turns 85… Chairman emeritus of The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States, a human rights organization in NYC, Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim turns 83… Chairman of the Religious Zionists of America, he was born in a DP camp as a child of Holocaust survivors, Martin Oliner turns 79… Retired major general in the IDF, he served as Israel’s national security advisor and is now a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, Yaakov Amidror turns 78… Israeli diplomat who served as Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy turns 78… CEO of Emigrant Bank, real estate developer, financier and philanthropist, he has co-chaired the annual campaign for the UJA-Federation of New York, Howard Philip Milstein turns 75… Professor of pathology and genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he is the author of Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People, Harry Ostrer turns 75… Professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College who is serving as visiting professor at Harvard for the 2025-26 academic year, she is the daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Susannah Heschel turns 70… Owner of Midnight Music Management and one of the founders of The Happy Minyan in Los Angeles, Stuart Wax… Former editor and columnist at The Washington Post, Ruth Allyn Marcus turns 68… Five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, producer, filmmaker and Latin media marketing entrepreneur, Giselle Fernandez turns 65… Founding rabbi of The Shtiebel in NYC and a member of the Talmud faculty at Yeshivat Maharat, Adam Mintz turns 65… Owner/president of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, he is the chairman of the Board of Governors of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Mark Wilf turns 64… Former member of the Nevada Assembly, she served as secretary of the National Association of Jewish Legislators, Ellen Barre Spiegel turns 64… Director, screenwriter and former film critic, Rod Lurie turns 64… Actor and filmmaker known for his collaborations with George Clooney, Grant Heslov turns 63… Vice chancellor of Brown University, she is the founder of Reeves Advisory, Pamela Ress Reeves… Actor and comedian, David Krumholtz turns 48… Executive director in the Office of Crime Victim Services at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Shira Rosenthal Phelps… Noam Finger turns 48… Director of the center for civics, education and opportunity at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, Daniel M. Rothschild… Actor best known for her role as Tony Soprano’s daughter, Meadow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler turns 45… Pulitzer Prize-winning writer-at-large for The New York Times, Eli Eric Saslow turns 44… Senior editor at Vogue, Chloe F. Schama turns 43… Director of career services at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, Lisa Dubler turns 39… Rochelle Wilner… Ofir Richman… 

SATURDAY: Scholar, author and rabbi, he is the founding president of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Irving “Yitz” Greenberg turns 93… Retired judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, she has served as president and chair of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Ellen Moses Heller turns 85… Senior official in the Carter, Bush 41, Clinton and Obama administrations, Bernard W. Aronson turns 80… Member of the New York state Assembly for 52 years (longest tenure ever), his term ended in 2022, Richard N. Gottfried turns 79… Chairman of NBC News and MSNBC from 2015 to 2020, Andrew Lack turns 79… Member of the House of Representatives since 2013 (D-FL), she was previously the mayor of West Palm Beach, Lois Frankel turns 78… Harvard history professor, a member of the Rothschild banking family of England, Emma Georgina Rothschild turns 78… Proto-punk singer, songwriter and guitarist, Jonathan Richman turns 75… Radio voice of the Texas Rangers baseball organization since 1979, Eric Nadel turns 75… Rochester, N.Y., resident and advisor to NYC-based Ezras Nashim volunteer ambulance service, Michael E. Pollock… U.S. ambassador to France and machatunim of President Trump, Charles Kushner turns 72… Managing partner at Accretive LLC, a private equity firm, he served as executive chairman of Fubo TV until its October 2025 merger with Disney, Edgar Bronfman Jr. turns 71… Film and stage actor, noted for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “Terms of Endearment,” Debra Winger turns 71… President of Tribe Media, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Journal, David Suissa… Real estate mogul and collector of modern and contemporary art, Aby J. Rosen turns 66… Executive assistant at Los Angeles-based FaceCake Marketing Technologies, Esther Bushey… U.S. ambassador to the European Union in the Obama administration, he had a bar mitzvah-like ceremony in Venice in 2017, Anthony Luzzatto Gardner turns 63… Social entrepreneur, Jonathan Shawn Landres turns 54… Actor, television personality and author, Victoria Davey “Tori” Spelling turns 53… Host of programs on the Travel Channel and the History Channel, Adam Richman turns 52… VP and associate general counsel at CNN, Drew Shenkman… Managing director at FTI Consulting, Jeff Bechdel… Chef and food blogger, her husband Ryan played baseball for Team Israel, Jamie Neistat Lavarnway… Composer, conductor and music producer known for his film and television scores, Daniel Alexander Slatkin turns 32… 

SUNDAY: Founder of the Philadelphia-based Honickman Foundation, her family owns one of the largest soft drink bottlers in the U.S., Lynne Korman Honickman turns 90… Annapolis, Md., attorney, Robert M. Pollock… News anchor for 46 years at WPVI-TV (ABC Channel 6) in Philadelphia until he retired in 2022, known professionally as Jim Gardner, James Goldman turns 78… Canadian philanthropist and the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, Myra Ava Freeman turns 77… Corporate and securities attorney at NYC’s Eilenberg & Krause, he serves as counsel for Israeli technology companies doing business in the U.S., Sheldon Krause turns 71… Comedian, puppeteer and actor, Marc Weiner turns 71… Founder and president of ENS Resources, a D.C.-based consulting and lobbying firm focused on natural resources and sustainable energy, Eric Sapirstein turns 70… Special correspondent for Marketplace by American Public Media, David Brancaccio turns 66… Author of the 2005 book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish and a 2017 book about Jewish holidays, she is an honorary president of NYC’s Central Synagogue, Abigail Pogrebin… and her identical twin sister, Robin Pogrebin, reporter on the culture desk for The New York Times, both turn 61… Formerly the general manager for corporate strategy at Microsoft and an EVP at Hillel, she is mounting a bid for Washington’s congressional delegate seat, Kinney Zalesne turns 60… Retired CPA and founder of the Baltimore Hunger Project, it provides food packs for the weekend that are discretely slipped into poverty-stricken public-school children’s backpacks each Friday, Lynne Berkowitz Kahn… Israeli author and playwright, Sarah Blau turns 53… Reporter for The New York Times covering politics, campaigns and elections, Reid J. Epstein… Former member of Knesset, when elected in 2013 she became the youngest female Knesset member in Israel’s history, Stav Shaffir turns 41… Founder of Sound Strategies and digital strategy advisor to Democratic organizations and candidates, Jenna Ruth Lowenstein… Social media and content integration brand strategist at AARP, Sarah Sonies… Senior writer at Microsoft’s AI at Work group, Rebecca Rose Nelson Kay… Retired Israeli judoka, he was the 2019 World Champion and won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics, Sagi Aharon Muki turns 34… Director of congregational engagement at Mount Zion Hebrew Congregation in St. Paul, Minn., Heather Renetzky… Senior communications manager at Rystad Energy, she was an assistant area director in the Houston office of AIPAC, Katherine “Katie” Keenan… 

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

UJA-Federation of New York has tapped longtime Jewish educator Michael Kay as its next CEO, the country’s largest Jewish federation shared exclusively with Nira Dayanim for Jewish Insider, marking a generational change that signals the growing importance of day schools on the Jewish communal agenda.

Kay, 46, currently serves as head of school at The Leffell School in Westchester County, N.Y., and will step into his new role on Oct. 5, succeeding Eric Goldstein, 66, a former Wall Street lawyer who will step down after 12 years in the role…

President Donald Trump continued to hedge today on resuming military action in Iran while keeping open diplomatic options: “We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated,” he said of Iran while departing for his state visit to China. “So one way or the other, we win.”

Earlier in the day, Trump told the “Sid & Friends in the Morning” radio show that he’s anticipating Iran’s economic collapse due to the U.S. blockade of its ports. “It’s just a question of time, we don’t have to rush anything,” the president said…

Kuwait accused Iran of attempting to invade its Bubiyan Island today, claiming six members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps attacked soldiers on the strategic piece of Kuwaiti territory where the Gulf state, with assistance from China, is building a large port…

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed frustration with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing as they declined to comment on a report that Pakistan harbored Iranian military aircraft from U.S. strikes.

Asked, if the report were to be accurate, if the U.S. should reconsider Pakistan’s role as mediator between the U.S. and Iran, Hegseth and Caine said they “didn’t want to get in the middle of ongoing negotiations.” Graham replied, “Well I do! I want to get in the middle of these negotiations. I don’t trust Pakistan as far as I can throw them … No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere”…

Jay Hurst, the Pentagon’s comptroller, testified that the cost of the war has risen to $29 billion — up from the $25 billion figure the Pentagon cited just two weeks ago…

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem wrote in a letter to terror group operatives that a deal between the U.S. and Iran is “the strongest card” for “stopping [Israel’s] aggression” in Lebanon, while slamming the Lebanese government for engaging in direct talks with Jerusalem, the third round of which are slated to take place this week in Washington…

Asked at the Politico Security Summit in Washington if she still calls herself a Zionist, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said, “I believe in a Jewish State of Israel, yes. And that to me isn’t a radical thing to say and I always have. I can say that in the same breath that I criticize the military policy of Bibi Netanyahu.”

Slotkin said that “as someone who served three tours in Iraq” she has “concerns with the way the Israelis are organizing military policy right now. … What I can’t accept, though, is collective punishment that comes from saying, ‘well, I don’t like Bibi Netanyahu’s military policy so Jews in America’s synagogues should be attacked,’” she continued…

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner he’s open to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to wind down U.S. aid to Israel over the next decade: The proposal “has been sort of a given, I think, in our foreign aid budget” for “a long time,” he said, “but if that’s how the Israeli leader feels about it — feels like they’re able to deal with their national security threats with their own resources — then I guess I would listen to what he has to say”…

Two weeks ahead of the Texas Senate Republican primary runoff, Thune said he “still [doesn’t] know where [Trump] is headed” in his intent to endorse either Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) or Attorney General Ken Paxton, but “someone would clearly benefit from it.”

Cornyn, meanwhile, told reporters he doesn’t expect Trump to make an endorsement at all. “We can’t wait, and we’re not waiting. We’re getting prepared, and we are optimistic,” he said. (Still, in what may be a last-ditch effort to secure the president’s support, Cornyn introduced a bill yesterday to rename U.S. Route 287 as Interstate 47 in honor of Trump, the country’s 47th president)…

Politico cast doubt on Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s claim and campaign talking point that he is a practicing physician, finding that “there’s overwhelming evidence that he’s had no experience as a licensed medical doctor.”

While El-Sayed did attend prestigious medical schools and served as executive director of the Detroit Health Department, he was never granted a medical license in either Michigan or New York, where he says he has practiced, and appears not to have treated patients since his schooling days, despite claiming repeatedly in campaign pitches that he is a physician…

AIPAC denied accusations by El-Sayed and others that it is behind the Center for Democratic Priorities super PAC, a new group supporting Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary, and also noted it “isn’t funding any group’s efforts” in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, where critics have alleged the pro-Israel group is behind efforts to support candidate Ala Stanford…

Speaking on a webinar with other Washington-area Jewish leaders today, Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, excoriated the Democratic Socialists of America as an “evil” organization committed to driving Jews out of society, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

“I think they’re a fringe, radical, antisemitic organization,” Halber said, adding that the group wants to make Jews feel “isolated” and force them to “renounce Zionism” and their connection to Israel in order to participate in the political process…

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released his city budget proposal this afternoon, which includes $26 million annually for the Office to Prevent Hate Crimes, a significant increase from its current budget of around $3 million…

Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg hosted a lunch at the State Department with officials from Gulf Cooperation Council countries as well as Jordan to discuss technology supply chains and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for coverage of tonight’s forum of New York 12th Congressional District Democratic candidates moderated by JI Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington will host its belated Yom Ha’Atzmaut reception.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America’s conference in Washington continues, with speakers including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, diplomat Dennis Ross, The Washington Institute’s Dana Stroul and former national security officials Jake Sullivan, Jeremy Bash and Jon Finer.

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are both slated to testify this morning at back-to-back House and Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearings. In the afternoon, FBI Director Kash Patel will testify before Senate Appropriations.
• The Anti-Defamation League is holding a Jewish American Heritage Month reception this evening on Capitol Hill.
• Elsewhere in Washington, the Jewish Democratic Council of America is kicking off its annual summit tonight with a reception at the Watergate Hotel. The group will honor Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and will hear from Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jason Crow (D-CO), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA).
• The funeral for former Anti-Defamation League head Abe Foxman, who died on Sunday, will take place this morning at Park Avenue Synagogue.
• In New York City tonight, three of the top candidates in the open congressional race in NY-12 — George Conway and Assemblymembers Alex Bores and Micah Lasher — will participate in a forum at the West Side Institutional Synagogue moderated by Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar.
• Elsewhere in New York, the American Jewish Committee will present Cardinal Timothy Dolan with the group’s Nostra Aetate at Sixty Award, honoring Dolan’s interfaith efforts on the 60th anniversary of the groundbreaking Vatican declaration.
• Across the Hudson, the New Jersey Globe is hosting a primary debate for the Democrats running in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. ER physician and former government official Tina Shah, former Navy pilot Rebecca Bennett and businessmen Brian Varela and Michael Roth will participate in tonight’s debate, which starts at 7 p.m. ET.
• Israeli Eurovision entrant Noam Battan will perform tonight when the contest’s semifinals kick off in Vienna.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

Over the last two years, the second semester of the academic year at American universities coincided with crisis and chaos. In 2024, it was anti-Israel encampments overtaking campus quads across the country; last year, it was threats from the Trump administration to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and ban foreign students. 

By comparison, the spring of 2026 has been relatively smooth sailing for research universities, even with a bit of hubbub over graduation speakers scrutinized for their stance on Israel and Gaza at a few schools, including the University of Michigan and Georgetown Law. 

But it’s not that things have gone back to the pre-Oct. 7, pre-Donald Trump normal. University administrators have just gotten better at managing an ambient sense of friction: Conflict between university leaders and activist faculty and students is still bubbling under the surface, and the threat of funding cuts at the federal level lingers. 

According to several university presidents who gathered last week at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, the task before universities is to win back the trust of skeptical Americans. 

“The world of higher education, I think, is still in turmoil,” Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier told Jewish Insider in an interview at the Milken confab. “I think the time when a university does say that’s all overblown and everything is great, that’s over. At least the vast majority of university presidents know that there are challenges, and they want to take them on.” 

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Abe as Mentor: In eJewishPhilanthropy, William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, eulogizes former Anti-Defamation League head Abe Foxman, who died on Sunday. “He combined toughness and warmth in a way few leaders can. He expected seriousness. He spoke with moral clarity. He pushed younger Jewish leaders to think bigger about our responsibility to the Jewish people and the broader democratic society in which we live. He also challenged me, usually in private, though occasionally in the public pages of newspapers. Abe Foxman knew exactly when to make a point, and exactly how to make it land.” [eJP]

Miller Lite: The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer and Nick Miroff spotlight the waning influence of Stephen Miller in the second Trump administration. “White House insiders said that Miller remains a top adviser to the president, that he has a singular relationship to Trump built over the past decade, and that his job is not in jeopardy. Immigration enforcement remains a central theme of the administration and is expected to feature prominently in Trump’s midterm-election messaging. … But Trump, who has previously joked that Miller’s ‘truest feelings’ are so extreme that they should not be aired publicly, has also told others in recent weeks that he understands Miller sometimes goes too far, advisers told us.” [TheAtlantic]

President Donald Trump said that the ceasefire with Iran was on “life support” following Washington’s rejection of Tehran’s latest response to the U.S. proposal to end the war, Jewish Insider‘s Emily Jacobs reports…

CNN looks at efforts by Iran to recruit operatives in Europe to carry out attacks on Jewish targets…

The United Arab Emirates reportedly carried out strikes on Iran during the active military campaign launched by the U.S. and Israel, targeting among other things an oil refinery on the Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf…

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, speaking at the Tel Aviv Conference today,confirmed that Israel sent missile-defense batteries and operating personnel to the UAE during the war with Iran…

The Financial Times spotlights Iran’s “mosquito fleet” of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fast-attack boats that are engaging commercial and military vessels in the Strait of Hormuz…

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) and 17 other Democrats introduced a bill to ban further funding for military operations against Iran…

Trump nominated Cameron Hamilton to head FEMA, a year after Hamilton, who mounted a failed 2024 bid for Congress, was fired as the interim head of the agency…

Kevin Warsh is expected to be confirmed as the next head of the Federal Reserve as early as tomorrow…

Trump invited several business leaders to join him on his trip later this week to China, including Elon Musk, outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Citi’s Jane Fraser and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, among others…

Trump announced the nominations of Kari Lake, the former head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, and Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano to be, respectively, the ambassadors to Jamaica and Slovakia…

Former Rep. Billy Long (R-MO), who has been nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Iceland, shared a three-minute clip of a speech by neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes on X on Sunday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The New York Times spotlights the work of Fuentes’ acolytes to build on the antisemitic conspiracy theorist’s political movement, an effort that coalesced around a conference of influencers and fringe candidates from both parties in a sparsely attended summit; the low turnout was attributed in part to the absence of Fuentes, who distanced himself from the gathering…

Puck News does a deep dive into the recent layoffs at Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, finding that the recent decision to cut approximately 20% of the company’s staff was fueled by a combination of internal business disagreements and the “‘vibe shift’ among the MAGA base” that has divided conservatives in recent years…

A judge in Santa Clara County, Calif., ordered a Jewish prosecutor to recuse himself from a case against anti-Israel student protesters at Stanford University after the prosecutor described the incident as antisemitic in campaign literature, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The Wall Street Journal’s Shira Kaplan reflects on the sanctity of Shabbat following President Donald Trump’s call for the American Jewish community to observe a “national Sabbath” this weekend…

Daniel Septimus is departing Sefaria after 13 years atop the organization, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…

Australian Jewish musicians testifying on Tuesday before the country’s royal commission into antisemitism in the country detailed the yearslong ostracization they experienced from the arts community for their support for Israel…

Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur breaks down the “obvious propaganda” in a recent New York Times opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof about alleged Israeli abuses of Palestinian prisoners…

Former Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, who was one of the last hostages to be freed after spending more than 700 days in Hamas captivity, called for the resignation of all members of the current Israeli government, whom he called “miserable cowards”…

Israel’s Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes Against Women and Children released its comprehensive report on sexual violence during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and during hostages’ time in captivity…

The Knesset passed, with the support of 93 of the body’s 120 lawmakers, a law establishing a military tribunal to try terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7 attacks…

E.U. member states unanimously voted to sanction Hamas leaders as well as Israeli settlers in a bid to target extremism; the vote came after Hungary, no longer under the leadership of Viktor Orbán, removed its longstanding opposition to the measure…

Israel denied entry to YouTuber Tyler Oliveira, who in recent months has posted videos suggesting that Jews were “invading” communities in New York and New Jersey…

The Israeli soldier photographed desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in a southern Lebanese village was sentenced to three weeks in a military prison, while the soldier who took the photo received a sentence of two weeks…

Iran executed a graduate student convicted of spying on behalf of the CIA and Mossad; Erfan Shakourzadeh, who attended the prestigious Iran University of Science and Technology, denied the charges in a letter written before his execution…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) met in Kyiv earlier today with Palantir CEO Alex Karp.

Acclaimed architect and master planner for the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, he also designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Daniel Libeskind turns 80…

Israeli agribusiness entrepreneur and real estate investor, he was chairman and owner of Carmel Agrexco, Gideon Bickel turns 82… Former member of the California state Senate for eight years, following six years as a member of the state Assembly, Lois Wolk turns 80… Chairman of the Israel Paralympic Committee, he served for four years as a member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Moshe “Mutz” Matalon turns 73… Former Washington correspondent for McClatchy and then the Miami Herald covering the Pentagon, James Martin Rosen turns 71… SVP and deputy general counsel at Delta Air Lines until 2024, now chief legal officer at private aviation firm Wheels Up, Matthew Knopf turns 70… Professor at Emory University School of Law, he has published over 200 articles on law, religion and Jewish law, Michael Jay Broyde turns 62… Actress known for her role as Lexi Sterling on “Melrose Place,” she also had the lead role in many Lifetime movies, Jamie Michelle Luner turns 55… Founder of strategic communications and consulting firm Hiltzik Strategies, Matthew Hiltzik turns 54… Communications officer in the D.C. office of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations until last year, Jonathan E. Kaplan… First-ever Jewish governor of Colorado, he was a successful serial entrepreneur before entering politics, Jared Polis turns 51… Professor of mathematics at Bar-Ilan University and a scientific advisor at the Y-Data school of data science in Israel, Elena Bunina turns 50… Italian politician, she is the first-ever Jewish mayor of Florence, Sara Funaro turns 50… Israeli pastry chef and parenting counselor, she is married to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Gilat Ethel Bennett turns 49… Author, blogger and public speaker, Michael Ellsberg turns 49… Senior advisor at Accelerator for America Action, Joshua Cohen… Technology and social media reporter at Bloomberg, Alexandra Sophie Levine… Executive director of government affairs at BridgeBio, Amanda Schechter Malakoff… A government affairs and public policy manager for YouTube, Erica Arbetter… Haifa-born actress and model, she is known for her lead roles in seven films since 2014, Odeya Rush turns 29…

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

President Donald Trump sounded a pessimistic note today about the state of the ceasefire with Iran, telling reporters in the Oval Office it’s “unbelievably weak” and on “massive life support” while calling Iran’s proposal to end the war, which he rejected yesterday, a “piece of garbage.”

The president was set to meet this afternoon with his national security team to discuss next steps with Iran, including a potential return to military action and resumption of Project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Axios.

A number of hawkish Republican lawmakers are encouraging the president to resume military operations, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI)…

The UAE has secretly carried out military attacks on Iran during the course of the war, The Wall Street Journal reports, after being on the receiving end of the majority of Iran’s ballistic missile and drone attacks. Abu Dhabi’s targets have included an Iranian oil refinery, struck in early April as Trump was announcing the ceasefire…

Graham called for a potential “complete reevaluation” of Pakistan’s role as mediator between the U.S. and Iran following a CBS News report that Islamabad had permitted Iran to shelter some of its military aircraft from U.S. strikes in Iran. “Given some of the prior statements by Pakistani defense officials towards Israel, I would not be shocked if this were true,” Graham said…

Democratic Majority for Israel PAC is mounting a six-figure mail campaign to boost Bexar County sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia in his Democratic primary runoff against activist and conspiracy theorist Maureen Galindo. The campaign is slated to start tomorrow, exactly two weeks from primary day in Texas’ newly redrawn 35th Congressional District…

Axios spotlights the increasingly heated primary between Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Navy veteran Ed Gallrein, who is backed by Trump. The race, scheduled for May 19, has already seen $25.6 million in outside spending — including an ad from a pro-Massie group featuring antisemitic tropes targeting Jewish GOP donor Paul Singer — making it the most expensive U.S. House primary in history…

The New York Times highlights Nebraska’s contentious Senate race, where several candidates have been accused of acting as “plants” intending to siphon votes for the other party (and one candidate isn’t intending to run for Senate at all), as Democrats largely line up behind independent Dan Osborn, realizing their party brand has been tainted in the Midwest…

A new poll by New Jersey congressional candidate Adam Hamawy, who has made criticism of Israel a centerpiece of his campaign, found him leading the crowded Democratic primary field for the 12th District with 19% of likely voters, up from a March poll by his campaign that found him winning just 5%. His surge coincided with a spending blitz by the anti-Israel super PAC American Priorities, which poured $1 million into pro-Hamawy ads in the district…

New York state Assemblymember Alex Bores released his first ad of the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th Congressional District, highlighting his advocacy for AI regulation and involvement in workers’ rights as positioning him to take on Trump. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), citing Bores’ AI focus, endorsed the former Palantir employee today…

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht announced today that he is changing his party registration from Democrat to independent, citing increasing antisemitism in the Democratic Party. In his statement, Wecht said Democrats have changed since he served as vice chair of the state party 25 years ago: “Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored, and even coddled,” he said.

“Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party. I can no longer abide this. So, I won’t,” he wrote…

Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chickli prohibited anti-Israel influencer Tyler Oliveira from entering the country as he landed in Ben Gurion Airport today; Chikli told right-wing influencer Laura Loomer that Israel “has strong immigration policies, and if you come to Israel with the intent on inciting violence and hatred against Jewish people, you will not be allowed entry into our country.”

Oliveira has recently released videos purporting to expose welfare fraud among ultra-Orthodox communities in Kiryas Joel, N.Y., and Lakewood, N.J., widely denounced as antisemitic, which he discussed at length on Tucker Carlson’s podcast last week while again invoking antisemitic conspiracy theories…

Trump tapped Kari Lake, former far-right Arizona gubernatorial candidate and short-lived head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, as ambassador to Jamaica, seen as a step down for the one-time close Trump ally. He also named far-right Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano as ambassador to Slovakia…

Trump has invited several business leaders to join him on his trip later this week to China, including Elon Musk, outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Citi’s Jane Fraser and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, among others…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at the race to succeed Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), where state Sen. Scott Wiener is testing whether progressive Jews can still win among the Democratic left.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine will testify before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee as well as the Senate Appropriations Committee for Pentagon budget hearings. Later, FBI Director Kash Patel is also scheduled to appear before Senate Appropriations for a separate budget hearing.

Politico will host its Security Summit in Washington — speakers at the confab will include exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi; former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; Sens. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA), Jim Himes (D-CT) and Mike Turner (R-OH).

Elsewhere in Washington, the Anti-Defamation League will hold a reception to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month.

In New York, the funeral for longtime ADL head and storied Jewish leader Abe Foxman, who died on Sunday at 86, will be held at Park Avenue Synagogue.

Democratic primary candidates for New York’s 12th Congressional District including Bores, George Conway and Micah Lasher will take part in a forum at West Side Institutional Synagogue moderated by JI Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar.

Across the river, Democratic candidates seeking to unseat Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District — including Rebecca Bennett, Michael Roth, Tina Shah and Brian Varela — will participate in a debate moderated by the New Jersey Globe.

Israeli singer Noam Bettan will represent the Jewish state in Vienna for the first semifinal of the international singing competition Eurovision; Israel’s participation in the contest has been marked by protests and boycotts of several European countries, as well as accusations of Israel’s meddling in voting processes that have been dismissed by Eurovision organizers.

• The White House rejected Iran’s latest response to the U.S.-proposed peace plan given to negotiators earlier this month, with President Donald Trump calling Tehran’s response “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.” The latest rejection comes days before Trump is set to travel to China to meet with President Xi Jinping — a trip that was initially postponed due to the Iran war.
• Jewish California, formerly the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, is kicking off its annual two-day Capitol Summit today in Sacramento. Speakers at the gathering include former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff (who will be making his first advocacy address in the state since departing Washington) and Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman. 
• The World Jewish Congress is convening in Geneva as the group marks its 90th anniversary. Read more about the conference from eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross here.
• The 30th Annual Webby Awards will take place tonight in Manhattan. “Borrowed Spotlight,” the exhibit that paired A-list celebrities with Holocaust survivors, will be honored for its photography and design. Read our interview with “Borrowed Spotlight” creator Bryce Thompson here.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

A mentor. A friend. A compass. A “professional’s professional.”

Those were just some of the descriptors that friends and former colleagues of Abe Foxman used as they reflected on the life and legacy of the longtime former head of the Anti-Defamation League following his death yesterday at age 86.

Foxman was born to Polish Jewish parents in present-day Belarus in 1940. As a toddler, his parents placed him in the care of his Catholic nanny, who had him baptized and raised him in the church. After being reunited with his parents at the end of World War II (following a legal battle in which his nanny attempted to keep custody of Foxman), the family moved into a displaced persons camp in Austria. In 1950, when he was 10 years old, the family immigrated to the U.S. 

His early childhood experiences shaped the trajectory of his life. Foxman joined the ADL in 1965 as a legal assistant, becoming the organization’s national director in 1987, a post he held until his retirement in 2015. He built the ADL into a $60 million organization with more than two dozen offices around the country. 

As the head of the ADL and in his retirement, Foxman was one of the nation’s foremost authorities on antisemitism. He met with presidents and popes, college students and celebrities — and everyone in between. He maintained close relationships over the years with those who had fallen under his tutelage.

“He was invaluable to me as a resource all those years, and he had a lot to offer,” Jay Kaiman, the president of the Marcus Foundation who was hired by Foxman to be the ADL’s Southeast regional director in 1996, told JI.

In 1987, Foxman was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s board, an honor that Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden would also bestow upon him. In a 2022 conversation with JI, Foxman said he had recently learned that he was the only Holocaust survivor to sit on the board. Many others, he said, were the children and grandchildren of survivors. But he was the only one to experience the horrors of Nazi Europe firsthand.

Deborah Lipstadt, the former State Department envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, told JI that Foxman “bridged that gap” — linking the devastating realities of the Holocaust to rising antisemitism in the present.

Read Foxman’s obituary in full here.

Giving Hate a Pass: In The New York Times, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) warns that the Democratic Party has developed a double standard on antisemitism, citing its embrace of far-left antisemites and leftward shift on Israel. “I’ve spoken to congressional colleagues who have privately told me that many things [Hasan] Piker has said are disgusting. Yet they’ll say nothing about it in public, even as they rightly rush to condemn President Trump for his unending barrage of offensive comments and social media posts. … Democrats have justly denounced the Trump administration for its broadsides — in some cases, threats — toward some of America’s closest allies. But many increasingly excuse, or join, feverish denunciations of Israel, our longstanding, democratic and strategic ally.” [NYTimes]

Habit-Forming: In The Wall Street Journal, former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) reflects on the good habits that can be adopted amid what he calls a “civilization-warping crisis of institutional decline,” naming among the good habits the institution of “tech Sabbaths” to disconnect from the internet. “Character, whether of an individual or of a nation, is molded by habits and by time. This republic requires men and women to do long-form deliberation, serious thinking, honest humility and daily striving. What good is it to gain the whole world if we forfeit the souls that we’re supposed to form? We can’t expect to remain free without being virtuous, we can’t be bold without being rooted, we can’t be great without aiming first to be good.” [WSJ]

No Layup for Silver: The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta looks at the challenges facing NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as the league enters “a moment of institutional crisis” amid a series of betting and corruption scandals. “The quality of the product has diminished. Narratives surrounding the league are prevailingly negative. Things once taken for granted — commercial satisfaction, cultural prestige, national relevance — no longer seem guaranteed. Peacetime is a thing of the past; for the foreseeable future, the commissioner will be at war — with fans, with media critics, with players and coaches, with the game itself.” [TheAtlantic]

In response to an op-ed by Saudi Ambassador to Washington Turki al-Faisal that alleged that Israel attempted to ignite a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, analyst Hussain Abdul-Hussain slammed al-Faisal and Riyadh’s “cowardice and abandoning of responsibility” over its decision not to respond to Iran’s attacks across the Middle East…

The FBI said that a man who was wearing a T-shirt with the flag of Iran when he killed three people outside an Austin, Texas, bar in early March had acted alone and without foreign influence, but “admired” slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been killed the previous day…

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced a bill to ban certain federal funding to schools that operate branch campuses in Iran, Turkey, Qatar and other adversary states, a companion to legislation introduced recently in the House…

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) introduced a bill to prohibit U.S. exports of oil and gasoline until hostilities with Iran cease, in a bid to lower energy prices spiking as a result of the war…

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed to Jewish leaders on Thursday that she will opt into a new federal education tax initiative, a move promoted by community advocates to help fund Jewish day schools and yeshivas, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The Jewish Journal published the commencement address that former Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro had been slated to deliver at Georgetown University Law Center’s graduation ceremony; Schapiro withdrew as the school’s commencement speaker following backlash from anti-Israel student activists…

Despite being banned from campus, UCLA’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter is actively lobbying candidates to influence upcoming student government elections, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned… 

A former Cornell student convicted of making threats against the school’s Jewish community in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks was sentenced to 21 months in prison; a lawyer for Patrick Dai said the posts were a “misguided attempt to highlight Hamas’ genocidal beliefs and garner support for Israel”…

Artist Paul Klee’s “Angelus Novus” sketch, which had been owned by German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin, who died in Nazi Europe in 1940, will go on display today at New York’s Jewish Museum after its transport from Jerusalem was delayed by the Iran war…

The New York Post covers Jeffrey Katzenberg’s exclusive gathering of CEOs in Montecito, Calif., that took place last week…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the “golden age of bagels” as restaurants across the country put their own spins on the classic Ashkenazi Jewish breakfast carb…

The New York Times reports on a decades-old screenplay written by Larry David that has found new life after being purchased by a fan on eBay and published online in full…

Authorities in north London charged a British man with religiously aggravated assault in an attack on three members of the Enfield Jewish community over the weekend… 

The family of a deceased Palestinian man in the West Bank was forced by Israeli settlers to exhume and rebury the man after the settlers claimed the cemetery was too close to a newly established settlement; the family had been granted a permit for the burial by Israeli officials and coordinated with Israeli security forces, who did not intervene in the forced exhumation…

ZoomInfo announced plans to close its R&D center in Israel and lay off some 300 employees; the decision comes five years after the software company was acquired by Chorus.ai for $575 million…

Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi was transferred to a hospital in Tehran and had her sentence suspended after collapsing last week in prison…

The Wall Street Journal profiles Iraqi banking tycoon and Prime Minister-designate Ali Al Zaidi, the preferred candidate of President Donald Trump whose bank had in 2024 been penalized for its ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…

U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis spoke on Sunday at a rally against antisemitism in London organized by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jenni Frazer reports for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Mirvis gave the opening address at the rally, which also included speeches from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and senior Reform U.K. Party official Richard Tice.

Filmmaker and podcast host, Dan Trachtenberg turns 45…

Israeli optical and kinetic artist and sculptor, he was just awarded the Israel Prize, Yaacov Agam turns 98… Sociologist and author of numerous books, magazines and website columns on the subject of love, relationships and intimacy, Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D. turns 81… Israeli social activist focused on issues of women’s and human rights, Iris Stern Levi turns 73… Treasurer and receiver-general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Deborah Beth Goldberg turns 72… Past president and then chairman of AIPAC, Morton Zvi Fridman, MD turns 68… Copy chief at Random House until 2023 and the author of Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer turns 68… Brian Mullen… Howard M. Pollack… CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, William Albert “Bill” Ackman turns 60… Former senior fellow and a Middle East analyst at the Hudson Institute, now a consultant, Michael Pregent turns 58… Member of the California state Senate since 2016, now running for Congress, Scott Wiener turns 56… Co-founder and president of Omaha Productions, which he started with Peyton Manning, Jamie Horowitz… Deputy chief of staff in the Office of the President at Carnegie Mellon University, Pamela Eichenbaum… Senior cost analyst at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Michael Jeremy Alexander… PR and brand manager for overseas resource development at Leket Israel, Shira Woolf… Founder and CEO of the digital asset technology company Architect Financial Technologies, Brett Harrison turns 38… Staff writer at Time magazine, Olivia B. Waxman… Supervisor of commerce strategy at Zenith, James Frichner… Israeli actress, she appeared in “Shtisel,” “Unorthodox” and “Captain America: Brave New World,” Shira Haas turns 31… Paralympic track and field athlete, he is also a motivational speaker and disability rights advocate, Ezra Frech turns 21… 

• The next round of U.S.-Iran talks could take place as soon as this weekend, President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday, adding that “Iran wants to make a deal, and we’re dealing very nicely with them.” The president suggested earlier in the day that he could travel to Islamabad, Pakistan, for a signing ceremony if an agreement with Tehran is reached.
• We’re keeping an eye on the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that went into effect last evening. More below on the ceasefire and the Trump administration’s efforts to convene a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
• U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are co-chairing a virtual meeting today aimed at developing a postwar plan to deploy a multinational force to ensure secure transit through the Strait of Hormuz once the U.S. blockade of the waterway lifts.
• The Michigan Democratic Party is holding its endorsement convention on Sunday, where the party will nominate a number of candidates, including its choices for the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents. Read our recent reporting on the regent race, in which Dearborn lawyer Amir Makled is seeking to unseat Jordan Acker, who is Jewish, over his support for Israel.
• On Sunday night, Rachel Goldberg-Polin will be interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CBS’s “60 Minutes” ahead of the release on Tuesday of her new book, When We See You Again, about grieving the death of her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, in Hamas captivity.
• Elsewhere on Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is slated to campaign with Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who earlier this week was revealed to have praised a deadly 2014 Hamas attack on an Israeli military base.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

The Democratic shift on Israel policy was on full, dramatic display on the Senate floor on Wednesday night as 40 of 47 Senate Democrats voted for at least one of two resolutions to block U.S. shipments of bulldozers and bombs to Israel.

The votes left many pro-Israel Democrats shocked and disillusioned — exemplified in the muted statements, if any, on the vote from key pro-Israel groups — and is being seen by some as the marker of a new era of Democratic policy on Israel, in which critics of Israel are firmly in the party mainstream.

“It’s yet another data point that the bipartisan consensus [in support of Israel] is, at least at the moment, no longer,” a former Biden administration official told Jewish Insider on Thursday. “Democrats think it’s politically advantageous to take these votes that would have been completely out-of-bounds just two-and-a-half years ago. … It’s deeply concerning if you care about the relationship, if you care about the security of [Israel]. But that’s the state of play at the moment, I think until or unless there’s an event that changes the trajectory.”

Abe Foxman, the former head of the Anti-Defamation League, said the vote highlights the “progressive socialist wing” of the Democratic Party’s increasing takeover. “This is a calamity for the Democratic Party, if it will not be contained and stopped,” Foxman told JI. “What’s also disturbing to me is that this litmus test is being first administered to every Jewish candidate.”

He added that the votes send a terrible message to U.S. allies beyond Israel that the U.S. can’t be relied upon.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Let’s Do the Time Warp Again: The Atlantic’s David Brooks opines that modernism has unintentionally caused a “reversion to authoritarian strongmen,” rather than a move toward liberal democracy and expanded personal choice. “Maybe you’ve seen photos of Tehran in the 1970s, just before the Islamic Revolution: images of young women going to work in miniskirts, of couples making out in parks while wearing bell-bottoms, of people at pools in bikinis. It looks like Paris or Milan or Los Angeles. But in 1979 the revolution happened, and now Tehran looks like something from an earlier century. Sometimes I think that our whole world has become kind of like that — going backwards in time. The religious movements thriving in today’s secularized age are the traditionalist ones that dissent from large parts of contemporary culture — not only the Shiite Islam of post-revolution Iran, but Orthodox Judaism and conservative Catholicism.” [TheAtlantic]

Raw Deal: In The Washington Post, RedBird Capital partner Hamid Biglari, who left Iran in 1976, suggests that the Trump administration is making three rectifiable errors in its approach to talks with Iran: negotiating with the wrong representative, ignoring the Iranian public and misgauging Iran’s strategy of slow-walking conflict resolution. “Require a single reconciled text — English and Persian — before any point is treated as agreed upon. Embed automatic escalation triggers in the ceasefire agreement itself, removing the deliberation window that managed irresolution depends on. And make the Iranian population a formal variable: Tie sanctions relief to measurable civilian benchmarks, including restored internet access and a moratorium on political executions. And have reconstruction funds monitored by international bodies rather than IRGC-controlled banks.” [WashPost]

Kennedy Center Calamity: In The Atlantic, Josef Palermo, who until last month served as the Kennedy Center’s first curator of visual arts, reflects on the decisions made by the Trump administration and Ric Grenell, the center’s former acting director, to reform and restructure the institution, including doing away with its Israel Lounge. “Speaking at the opening reception [of an Oct. 7 commemoration event last fall], Grenell warned the mostly Jewish audience that unless donors came forward to sponsor the space and pay for renovation costs, the lounge would be given away to a new donor. ‘It certainly would be a shame if we lost this room to a corporation or an individual and it was no longer the [Israeli] lounge,’ he said. Such a strong-armed fundraising pitch, at an event commemorating a pogrom, struck many of us in the room as inappropriate. I was mortified.”[TheAtlantic]

Not Doing Israel’s Bidding: The Jerusalem Journal’s Avi Mayer posits that claims that Israel pulled the U.S. into war with Iran are factually inaccurate and play into antisemitic tropes. “The reality is that President Trump’s decision to launch the military campaign in Iran was driven by far more than any single ally’s wishes, and claiming otherwise betrays, at best, a lack of familiarity with either the facts or how consequential decisions are made by American presidents. … To focus on Israel’s role while ignoring all other factors and considerations is to ascribe to the Jewish state outsized, almost mystical influence over American policy — a modern echo of dark tropes from bygone eras.” [JerusalemJournal]

Progressive organizer Analilia Mejia, an outspoken critic of Israel, easily defeated Republican Joe Hathaway in the special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District on Thursday. With most of the vote counted, Mejia is leading Hathaway by 20 points (60-40%), a sizable margin that’s larger than Kamala Harris’ eight-point win in 2024 and Joe Biden’s 17-point win in 2020. But heavily Jewish precincts in Livingston and Millburn swung dramatically to Hathaway, an indication Mejia’s anti-Israel politics led to a Jewish voter backlash… 

President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he had initially tapped Joe Kent, the former head of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned last month over the Iran war, to the position because he was “feeling sorry” for Kent, a failed two-time congressional candidate whose first wife had died in a 2019 Islamic State attack in Syria…

Trump is set to renominate Cameron Hamilton to serve as head of FEMA, a year after Hamilton was ousted from the role amid clashes with then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, who served as a top advisor to Noem…

Trump announced the nomination of Dr. Erica Schwartz to be the next head of the Centers for Disease Control…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on Thursday that U.S. forces are “maximally postured” to resume military operations in Iran, and specifically target energy infrastructure, should the country’s current leaders not agree to a negotiated settlement to end the war, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…

The New York Times looks at Vice President JD Vance’s efforts to build up donor support — including from Paul Singer and Dr. Miriam Adelson — ahead of a likely 2028 presidential run, as he serves as finance chair of the Republican National Committee — the first sitting vice president in the role… 

The Wall Street Journal profiles Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, the former head of private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, as he works to shore up congressional support for the Trump administration’s proposed $1.5 trillion military budget…

The House narrowly voted to block a Democratic resolution to force an end to the war in Iran by a vote of 214-213-1, with all but one of the four Democrats who opposed a similar effort in March changing their votes to support it on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait argues that the only way the Democratic establishment can defend itself against the extremist Hasan Piker wing of the partyis to end American financial support for Israel; “If a Democratic president is going to succeed Donald Trump, not only must he or she emerge from a primary electorate that is likely to be highly skeptical of Israel, but the candidate must also win over a November electorate that is highly skeptical of foreign aid of any kind,” Chait writes…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Factory co-founder and CEO Matan Grinberg, whose AI coding startup is in talks to raise $150 million in a funding round led by Khosla Ventures with backing from Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners and Blackstone… 

Empire State Realty Trust Chairman and CEO Anthony Malkin met on Thursday in Doha with Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al-Thani, the governor of Qatar Central Bank… 

Patrick Drahi’s Sotheby’s made $53 million in pretax profits in 2025, after two years of losses, amid growth in the art market…

The Wall Street Journal looks at the new private schools being established in South Florida by business, tech and real estate titans, including Jeff Greene, Stephen Ross and Adam Neumann, as the area’s existing private schools struggle to meet growing demand…

Playbill announced the 2027 premiere of “Unorthodox,” a musical co-written by Benj Pasek, Shaina Taub and Joshua Harmon, which will debut in Boston next spring; the show follows the trajectories of a 17-year-old Haredi girl in Brooklyn and her grandmother 60 years earlier at approximately the same age…

A senior official in the U.K.’s Foreign Office resigned amid an investigation that found that the government allowed Peter Mandelson to serve as U.K. ambassador to the U.S. despite having failed the vetting process; a government spokesperson said this week that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was unaware recommendations against Mandelson by the U.K.’s security vetting team had been overruled…

Israel’s “Uvda” news program shared never-released footage of residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza reuniting in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…

The Palestinian Authority extradited to France a man accused of coordinating a deadly 1982 terror attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris’ Le Marais district; Hicham Harb was one of four individuals sought in the aftermath of the attack, in which six people were killed…

Israeli Ambassador to France Joshua Zarka reportedly met this week with Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party…

CNN spotlights Iranian cyberattacks on the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which skyrocketed following the onset of the war in February… 

Former longtime New York City Councilmember Carol Greitzer, who spent her years in office working to protect Greenwich Village from gentrification and development, died at 101…

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the La Citadelle de Diamant Marius:

“To experience this mind-boggling Israeli wine, one whose roots run deep in French winemaking tradition, I traveled to Heckfield Place in Hook, England: a 5-star hotel, owned by my dear friend Dr. Gerold. The hotel is a world leader in farm-to-table dining, and its freshness and vitality mirrored the wine perfectly.

“La Citadelle de Diamant Marius is a blend of cabernet, merlot and shiraz, with grapes sourced from Moshav Nov, an angelic moshav in the Golan Heights. The opening bruises the palate with powerful tannins, a sign this wine has a long road ahead. The mid-palate reveals the deep earthiness of a true Bordeaux blend, and the finish is as elegant as the packaging is beautiful. It pairs brilliantly with grilled ChalkStream trout and has at least another seven years of life ahead of it.”

Former Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski (right), with Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, took part in the annual International Jerusalem Winner Marathon in the Israeli capital this morning. Braslavski, who was freed from Hamas captivity in October, kicked off the marathon’s 10K race.

Former college basketball coach for 34 years, he is now an ESPN analyst, Seth Greenberg turns 70 on Saturday… 

FRIDAY: Short story writer, novelist and essayist, Cynthia Ozick turns 98… Retired Los Angeles cardiologist and active Yiddish enthusiast, Dr. Martin Bobrowsky turns 86… NYU professor and noted legal scholar, he spent 38 years on the faculty of University of Chicago Law School, Richard Allen Epstein turns 83… Affiliate of Tel Aviv law firm Guy, Bachar & Co., Barry Schreiber… Official historian for Major League Baseball since 2011, he was born in a DP camp in Germany following WWII, John Abraham Thorn turns 79… Talk radio host best known for his work on NYC’s sports radio station WFAN, his nickname is “The Schmoozer,” Steve Somers turns 79… Rebbe and leader of the Pupa Hasidic group, Rabbi Yaakov Yechezkiya Greenwald turns 78… CEO of B’nai B’rith International, retiring at the end of June, Daniel S. Mariaschin turns 77… Dean of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., one of the largest yeshivas in the world with more than 9,000 students, Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler turns 75… French businessman, based in Geneva, he and his brother own the House of Chanel perfume company as well as holdings in vineyards and a thoroughbred horse racing stable, Gérard Wertheimer turns 75… Former member of the Rhode Island Senate, Joshua Miller turns 72… Elizabeth H. Scheuer… Israeli journalist for the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Ben-Dror Yemini turns 72… Rabbi emerita, after 39 years, of Beth Hillel Temple in Kenosha, Wis., her brother is the former U.S. senator from Wisconsin, Russ Feingold, Dena Feingold… Co-founder and former CEO, now board member, of United Talent Agency (UTA), Jeremy Zimmer turns 68… Actress, screenwriter and film director, Daphna Kastner turns 65… Winner of two Super Bowl rings during his career with the San Francisco 49ers, he is now a physician and an inductee in the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Dr. John E. Frank turns 64… Director of Rutgers University Press since 2016, following 15 years at Temple University Press, Micah Kleit turns 56… Professor of politics at NYU and longtime co-author of “The Monkey Cage,” a politics and policy blog at The Washington Post, Joshua A. Tucker turns 55… Congressional editor for The New York Times, she is also a political analyst for CNN, Julie Hirschfeld Davis turns 51… Member of the Alaska Legislature, first in the Assembly and then in the state Senate, Jesse Kiehl turns 50… Israeli actor, musician, director and television presenter, Ido Mosseri turns 48… Executive director at Morgan Stanley, Nadya Belenkiy… Deputy editor-in-chief at Semafor, Shelly Banjo… Southern California-based regional director at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Ora Miriam “Miri” Katz Belsky… Press secretary for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Angelo Roefaro… Wikipedia editor since 2004, having made at least one edit to one-third of all English Wikipedia articles, Steven Pruitt turns 42… Senior communications manager at the Center for Responsible Lending, Matt Kravitz… Partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, Alex Kellner… Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, Avriel “Avi” Benjamin Kaplan turns 37… Former deputy national security advisor for strategic communications and speechwriting for then-VPOTUS Kamala Harris, Dean Lieberman… Member of the Baltimore City Council, Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer turns 37… Deputy general counsel at the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Brian T. Earll turns 34… Offensive lineman for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers for seven seasons, he retired in 2022 and is now pursuing a doctorate in psychology, Alexander “Ali” Marpet turns 33… Associate at Covington & Burling, Ahuva Neuberger…

SATURDAY: Chief rabbi of the Old City of Jerusalem until 2008, Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl turns 91… Senior counsel in the intellectual property law firm of Adwar Ivko, Philip Furgang turns 89… Former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union for 23 years until 2001, Ira Saul Glasser turns 88… Biochemist, geneticist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1985, Joseph Leonard Goldstein turns 86… Partner and managing director of fundraising consulting firm Mirsky, Jaffe & Associates, Michael Jaffe turns 86… English barrister and arbitrator, his clients have included the British chief rabbi in a case which held that the rulings of the beit nin were not subject to judicial review, Michael Jacob Beloff turns 84… Corporate turnaround expert and mergers & acquisitions specialist, Jerry W. Levin turns 82… Los Angeles resident, Saul Bernstein… Former member of the Vermont state Senate and co-founder of Jogbra, the original sports bra, Hinda Miller turns 76… Former mayor of Phoenix for eight years after two terms on the Phoenix City Council, Phil Gordon turns 75… Composer, pianist and musicologist, Robert M. Greenberg turns 72… Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and director of the Northeastern University School of Journalism, Jonathan Kaufman turns 70… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of four acclaimed books, Susan Faludi turns 67… Community leader in Detroit and former president of AIPAC, David Victor… Editor of Commentary magazine, John Mordecai Podhoretz turns 65… President and dean of Ohr Torah Stone institutions in Israel since 2018, prior to making aliyah he was a VP at Yeshiva University and rabbi of the Boca Raton (Fla.) Synagogue, Rabbi Dr. Kenneth R. Brander turns 64… VP and deputy general counsel at Scholastic Inc, he is a past president of Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, N.Y., Mark Seidenfeld… Executive director of the American Zionist Movement, Herbert Block… Emmy Award-winning actress known for her work on daytime television, Tamara Braun turns 55… Film director and producer associated with the horror genre, Eli Roth turns 54… Chabad rabbi, founder and executive director of the Aspen Chabad Jewish Community Center, Mendel Mintz turns 51… Poet, critic, translator and professor, Ilya Kaminsky turns 49… Under secretary of homeland security for strategy, policy and plans during most of the Biden administration, now partner at Ropes & Gray, Robert P. Silvers turns 46… VP for political campaigns and strategy for AIPAC’s Florida region, Evan Philipson… Dov Maimon…SUNDAY: A co-founder of Judea Reform Congregation, in Durham, N.C., Nancy Jean Warner Laszlo turns 90… Jocelyn’s father, Robert Brotman turns 89… Legal scholar and public intellectual, now a visiting professor at Cardozo School of Law, Stanley Fish turns 88… Prominent Israeli criminal defense attorney who also served as the attorney general of Israel, Yehuda Weinstein turns 82… Rebbi of the Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasty based in Bnei Brak, Israel, Rabbi Yisroel Hager turns 81… Head of strategic human resources at Elliott Investment Management, prominent philanthropist on the board of The Paul E. Singer Foundation, Tikvah Fund, Jewish Food Society and Startup Nation Central, Terry Kassel… Comedian, actress and mental health campaigner in the U.K., Ruby Wax turns 73… Investor and hedge fund manager, Jacob Ezra Merkin turns 73… VP of GEM Commercial Flooring Company in Kansas, Gloria Elyachar… Angel investment fund manager, he won three Super Bowls during his 12-year NFL career, Harris Barton turns 62… Law professor at Arizona State University and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Orde Félix Kittrie turns 62… Historian, author, screenwriter, political commentator and senior lecturer at the Hebrew University, Gadi Taub turns 61… Board chair of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, Laurie Hasten… Israeli entrepreneur best known as the founder and former CEO of Better Place, an electric car company that raised $850 million yet was liquidated in a 2013 bankruptcy, Shai Agassi turns 58… Attorney general of Michigan, Dana Nessel turns 57… French stand-up comedian and actor, during 2019 he starred in “Huge in France,” an American comedy series on Netflix, Gad Elmaleh turns 55… Author of five books and a frequent columnist in The New Yorker, Rivka Galchen turns 50… Veteran journalist, Gil Hoffman turns 49… Award-winning film, television and theater actor, his official bar mitzvah was in 2015 at age 37, James Franco turns 48… Toronto-based entrepreneur, philanthropist, CEO and co-founder of Klick Health (a digital marketing firm in the medical field), Leerom Segal turns 47… Actress, author and fashion entrepreneur, she co-founded Fabletics (a fitness brand and membership program), Kate Hudson turns 47… Chief development officer at NYC’s Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, Brian Tregerman… Rabbi, philosopher, poet, coach and entrepreneur, he writes a weekly Torah commentary on Substack, Zohar Atkins turns 38… Senior program officer at Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Seffi Kogen… Jake Gerber…

• Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud is slated to meet today with Jewish leaders as he concludes a two-day trip to Washington. More below.
• The Saudi defense minister’s meetings with senior Trump administration officials are expected to focus on ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Iran as President Donald Trump continues to mull military action against the Islamic Republic. The U.S. sent a sixth warship to the Gulf this week as it shores up its military assets in the region.
• Trump is expected to announce his pick for Fed chair today, with advisors to the president saying he plans to nominate former Fed governor Kevin Warsh.
• The Alfalfa Club is holding its annual dinner in Washington tomorrow night. In a personal first, Trump, who skipped the dinners during his first term as well as last year, will attend the black-tie dinner.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

Jewish and pro-Israel organizations that have celebrated the Abraham Accords in recent years appear slow to recognize the role they could be playing within the Abrahamic coalition — particularly by leveraging their Washington clout and decades of experience engaging Congress — as countries in the accords face increasing criticism for their participation in the normalization framework.

In recent weeks, prominent Saudi social media figures and media outlets have amplified sharply critical and often inflammatory rhetoric aimed at countries that joined the Abraham Accords, particularly the United Arab Emirates, portraying normalization with Israel as a betrayal of regional interests and casting Abu Dhabi as a proxy for Israeli power.

Countries that joined the Abraham Accords do not have comparable grassroots advocacy in Washington, making the role of established Jewish and pro-Israel organizations potentially consequential to the broader normalization effort. Yet despite those long-standing relationships, the groups have mounted little effort to inform the conversation in Washington as the Abraham Accords and their signatories face growing attacks. This was evident from Jewish Insider’s reporting earlier in January, when pro-Israel lawmakers from both parties largely downplayed concerns about Saudi Arabia’s shift when asked for comment.

Several of the groups have voiced growing discomfort with the kingdom’s pivot away from what was perceived as its moderating force in the region. But their relatively cautious responses, particularly around Riyadh’s increasingly hostile posture toward Israel and traditional alliances, have also highlighted an awkward tension as they seek to maintain support for the long-sought but elusive goal of bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords.

That dynamic has come into sharper focus as a few major Jewish and pro-Israel organizations prepare to attend a sensitive meeting in Washington on Friday with Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, raising questions about how — or whether — the groups will more forcefully confront the growing rhetoric against the Abraham Accords.

Among the groups invited to the meeting were the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Zionist Organization of America, multiple sources familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider on Thursday, though it remains unclear which will attend. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies confirmed it would be attending a separate sit-down with the defense minister in the morning.

Notably, representatives from the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC weren’t set to attend, according to some sources familiar with the dynamics, hinting at some possible internal debate in the community regarding the wisdom of engaging with Saudi Arabia in spite of its troubling recent behavior. AIPAC declined to comment on the meeting when reached by JI on Thursday afternoon.

The AJC and ADL also declined to comment, and the Conference of Presidents did not respond to a request for comment. The Republican Jewish Coalition was invited to the meeting, one informed source told JI, but the group would not confirm its involvement.

The varying approaches suggest that Jewish organizations are strategically sensitive to alienating Saudi Arabia — as they hope for a change of heart on normalization with Israel. In turn, many groups haven’t directly confronted the antisemitic vitriol among influential figures in the kingdom.

Still, Abe Foxman, the former longtime national director of the ADL, stressed that efforts to court Saudi involvement in a diplomatic agreement with Israel need not obscure a broader commitment to strenuously denouncing the kingdom’s “anti-Israel expressions and antisemitism.” 

“As much as we may want Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, that hope and desire should not inhibit our ability to criticize” its recent policies, Foxman told JI on Tuesday. “I recall that during the years we pursued peace between Israel and Egypt and Israel and Jordan, we did not refrain from being critical of their anti-Israel policies or their embrace of antisemitism.”

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Technocrats in Gaza: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius expresses optimism about the ability of President Donald Trump’s newly created Board of Peace and the Palestinian technocratic committee that will oversee the reconstruction of Gaza to effect positive change in the enclave. “The Board of Peace event looked to some like a Trump stunt, with its pay-to-play board and its AI renderings of a futuristic ‘New Gaza’ meant to invoke the wonders of Doha and Dubai. But there’s a real plan here, anchored in a U.N. resolution and backed by a burgeoning ‘Civil-Military Coordination Center,’ based just east of Gaza in Kiryat Gat and run by U.S. Central Command, that now includes troops from 20 countries. … What’s interesting about Trump’s plans for Gaza is that Israel doesn’t play a big role. The key partners are Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. That’s one reason right-wing Israelis have blasted the plan. But the premise of the plan is that Gaza isn’t Israel’s problem anymore, but Trump’s and the international community’s.” [WashPost]

The Haredi Way: Amid a wave of scrutiny following YouTuber Tyler Oliveira’s hostile video targeting the Hasidic town of Kiryas Joel, N.Y., Shtetl founder Naftuli Moster, who previously led a push calling for reforms in the Haredi yeshiva system, explains in The Wall Street Journal why he chose to send his children to a Jewish day school. “Education isn’t only about math and reading. It’s about belonging to a community that draws its strength from shared beliefs. This is something the Haredi world understands deeply — and something our broader culture has largely forgotten. While outliers in many respects, the Haredim and towns like Kiryas Joel reflect how humans have lived for thousands of years: having children, building families, forming larger tight-knit communities, passing on values, and caring for one another. Few groups in the U.S. have figured out how to build stable families and vibrant communal life better than the Haredi community has. … Few Haredim would oppose any group of Americans trying to build a community around shared values, traditions and faith. Most would applaud such an effort — and gladly offer advice.” [WSJ]

After the USAID Cuts: eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher does a deep dive into the ripple effects of the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID a year after funding was first frozen. “For Jewish organizations in the humanitarian aid and international development field, the past year has been particularly challenging, according to [OLAM CEO Dyonna] Ginsburg. ‘This is a compounding crisis, because many of these organizations…experienced funding cuts due to philanthropic shifts, Jewish philanthropy moving towards Israel or combating antisemitism and non-Jewish philanthropy distancing itself from Jewish or Israeli organizations doing this work,’ Ginsburg said. … Still, the international aid workers and organizations on the ground are resilient and adapting to the current landscape, [American Jewish World Service’ Shari] Turitz said. No AJWS partners have shuttered due to the cuts. ‘We are already seeing organizations coming together and saying, “What did we do before we had all this money? We need to go back to those first principles,”’ she said. [eJP]

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) officially launched her campaign for governor in Minnesota, aiming to succeed Gov. Tim Walz, who opted against a third bid for the seat amid a federal investigation into alleged widescale fraud in the state’s Somali community…

A new Emerson College poll found Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow leading the Democratic primary field in the state’s open Senate race; McMorrow, at 22%, is ahead of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), with 17%, followed by Abdul El-Sayed with 16%…

An Alabama man described by the Justice Department as a “Free Palestine radical” is facing federal charges of interstate stalking for allegedly planning to assassinate then-President Joe Biden during a 2024 presidential debate in Atlanta…

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced the launch of a bipartisan task force to combat antisemitism; the body will be led by Councilmembers Eric Dinowitz and Inna Vernikov…

A group of Jewish artists is spearheading an effort to keep the government’s Wilbur J. Cohen Building, which contains frescos and other works by Jewish artists, from sale and potential demolition…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher previews a new four-part PBS docuseries from Henry Louis Gates Jr. on the history of Black-Jewish relations in America…

The University of Texas is launching its Ackerman Program on Jewish and Western Civilization and Rosenthal-Levy Scholars program housed in the school’s School of Civic Leadership, beginning in the fall…

Apple acquired Aviad Maizels’ Q.ai facial-recognition startup in a valuation estimated to be $2 billion…

Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians following the repatriation of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili’s remains earlier this week, marking the end of the exchange of bodies between Israel and Hamas in accordance with the October 2024 ceasefire agreement…

David Brooks is joining The Atlantic as a staff writer after 22 years at The New York Times; Brooks will also host a weekly video podcast for the publication…

President Donald Trump and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft greeted attendees from the presidential box at the Kennedy Center last night during a screening of Brett Ratner’s new documentary “Melania.”

Israeli singer, songwriter and music producer, Assaf Amdursky turns 55… 

FRIDAY: Chairman of The Cordish Companies, David S. Cordish turns 86… Artist, she paints brightly colored biblical narratives based upon her Torah study, Barbara “Willy” Mendes turns 78… Professor at the school of pharmacy of The Hebrew University, Meir Bialer turns 78… Teacher and communal leader, Judith Friedman Rosen turns 74… Broadcaster for MLB’s Oakland Athletics and author, Kenneth Louis Korach turns 74… Upton, Wyo., resident, Heather Graf… Former VP of corporate engagement at the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in New Hyde Park, NY, Lina Scacco… CEO of the Jewish National Fund, Russell F. Robinson turns 70… Member of the California state Senate from 2014-2019, now a member of the Nevada state Senate, Jeffrey Earle Stone turns 70… Philadelphia-area psychologist, Dr. Rachel Ginzberg… Managing partner of lobbying and law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Richard B. Benenson… Director of public relations for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Zalman Shmotkin turns 57… Associate professor in the electrical engineering department at Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Guy Gilboa turns 55… Publicist, manager and socialite, she runs an eponymous NYC PR and management firm, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Grubman turns 55… Special projects editor at The Week Junior, Bari Nan Cohen Rothchild… At-large member of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council, Evan M. Glass turns 49… Dallas resident, Gisele Marie Rogers… Managing director at Westbrook Global Advisory, Joshua M. Kram… Administrator of the EPA in the Trump 47 administration, Lee Zeldin turns 46… National correspondent for ABC News Radio, Steven Portnoy turns 45… Israeli actor, director and author, he is known for starring in “Shtisel” and as the host of the popular reality TV show, “The Voice Israel,” Michael Aloni turns 42… CEO at Harvesting Media and host of the “Kosher Money” podcast, Eli Langer… Media professional and communications strategist, Alyona Minkovski turns 40… Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives since 2019, he is the eldest son of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Matthew S. Blumenthal turns 40… Partner in Avalanche VC and strategic advisor at Array Education, Eric Scott Lavin… Deputy national security advisor to then VPOTUS Kamala Harris for her last three years in office, Rebecca Friedman Lissner turns 39… Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, Kate Lynne Bock Love turns 38… Senior principal at Publicis Sapient, Max Delahanty… Professional ice hockey defenseman, he played on Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics and recently left EHC Red Bull München, Jonathon Blum turns 37… Principal at Blue Wolf Capital Partners, Jared Isenstein… Ice hockey forward for four seasons at Northeastern University, she is now playing in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, Chelsey Goldberg turns 33… Digital marketing manager in South Florida, Alexa Smith…

SATURDAY: Israeli nuclear physicist and professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Igal Talmi turns 101… Scion of a leading rabbinic family in pre-World War II Poland, former assistant U.S. solicitor general, now a private attorney with an active Supreme Court practice focused on religious liberty issues, Nathan Lewin turns 90… Classical music composer as well as acclaimed movie score composer, Philip Glass turns 89… Associate professor emeritus of Talmud and rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary, Mayer Elya Rabinowitz turns 87… Senior partner at Trombly & Singer, PLLC and an advisory board member of Tzedek DC, Kenneth M. Trombly turns 76… Chair emeritus of global management consultancy Bain & Company, Orit Gadiesh turns 75… Chief rabbi of Norway while also serving as a member of Knesset from 1999-2009, Michael Melchior turns 72… Founder and CEO of MikeWorldWide, a PR firm headquartered in East Rutherford, N.J., Michael W. Kempner turns 68… Former member of the Tennessee House of Representatives for 20 years, Matt Kisber turns 66… Founder and CEO of Oneg, Jeanie Milbauer… CEO at Gracie Capital, Daniel L. Nir… Dermatologist who served as the U.S. ambassador to Iceland from 2019-2021, he was a candidate for U.S. Senate from Nevada in the 2024 election, Jeffrey Ross Gunter turns 65… Co-founder and senior chairman of Meridian Capital Group, Ralph Herzka turns 64… Organization of American States commissioner to monitor and combat antisemitism, Fernando Lottenberg turns 64… Neurosurgeon and chairman of the Rockland County (NY) Board of Health, Jeffrey Sable Oppenheim turns 64… Fourth-generation real estate developer, he is a founding partner of Redbrick LMD, Louis Myerberg Dubin turns 63… Classical cellist, her debut in Carnegie Hall was at 17, Ofra Harnoy turns 61… Host of NPR’s news quiz “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!,” his older brother is a rabbi, Peter Sagal turns 61… Canadian-born businessman, best known for founding American Apparel, Dov Charney turns 57… CEO of Tel Aviv’s Anu Museum of the Jewish People and former mayor of Efrat, Oded Revivi turns 57… CEO of City Cast, he was previously CEO of Atlas Obscura and Slate, David Plotz turns 56… Actress best known for her role in the Showcase series “Lost Girl,” Anna Silk turns 52… CEO at Affiliated Monitoring, Daniel J. Oppenheim… Senior advisor at Orchestra, Michael Rabinowitz-Gold… SVP of insights and measurement at NBC Universal Media, Matthew Gottlieb… Film producer and founder of Annapurna Pictures, Megan Ellison turns 40… Singer, who won Israel’s “Kokhav Nolad” (A Star is Born) song contest in 2008, Israel Bar-On turns 37… General partner at NYC’s 25madison, Grant Silow… Israeli singer, songwriter and television actor, Eliad Nachum turns 36… Director of programs and strategy at the Kraft Group and affiliates, Clara Scheinmann… Associate at Covington & Burling, Eli Nachmany…

SUNDAY: Retired Israeli educator, she is the only sibling of Yitzhak Rabin, Rachel Rabin turns 101… Executive vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm I. Hoenlein turns 82… Mediator and arbitrator, he is a past president of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Howard S. Fredman turns 82… Academy Award-winning producer and motion picture executive, Zvi Howard Rosenman turns 81… Midtown Manhattan physician, affiliated with Lenox Hill Hospital, specializing in nephrology and internal medicine, Mark H. Gardenswartz, MD… Laureate conductor of Orchestra 914 from 2002-2018, and author in 1994 of The Jewish 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of All Time, Michael Jeffrey Shapiro turns 75… Far Rockaway, N.Y., resident, Maurice Lazar… President and part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he was previously president of the Atlanta Braves and then the Washington Nationals, Stan Kasten turns 74… Publisher of Baltimore Jewish Life, Jeff Cohn… Recently retired after 18 years as the CEO of the Charleston (S.C.) Jewish Federation, Judi Corsaro… Born in Derbent in southern Russia, now living in Albany, N.Y., he is an artist whose oil on canvas paintings have many Jewish themes, Israel Tsvaygenbaum turns 65… Director for policy and government affairs at AIPAC, David Gillette… 25-year veteran of the Israeli foreign service, now a scholar-in-residence at American University in Washington, Dan Arbell… EVP and chief program officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Becky Sobelman-Stern… One of Israel’s top soccer players of all time, successful on both Israeli and European teams, Eli Ohana turns 62… Co-founder of Brilliant Detroit (helping children out of poverty), Carolyn Bellinson… Actor, comedian, director, writer and producer, Pauly Shore turns 58… Voting rights and election law attorney, he advises the DNC, DSCC, DCCC and the DGA, Marc E. Elias turns 57… CEO of Momentum, Tara Brown… Managing director of Pickwick Capital Partners, Ari Raskas… Canadian actress, her stepfather is a rabbi, Rachelle Lefevre turns 47… Experimental jazz guitarist, bassist, oud player and composer, Yoshie Fruchter turns 44… Venezuelan journalist, writer and TV and radio presenter, Shirley Varnagy Bronfenmajer turns 44… Libertarian political activist, radio host and author, Adam Charles Kokesh turns 44… Comedian, writer, actress and illustrator, best known for co-creating and co-starring in the Comedy Central series “Broad City,” Abbi Jacobson turns 42… General manager and head of public affairs at Semafor, Andrew Friedman… Sportscaster and sports reporter who covers the New York Mets for SNY, Steven N. Gelbs turns 39… VP of government and industry relations at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, Stephanie Beth Cohen… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA-51) since 2021, Sara Josephine Jacobs turns 37… Ob-Gyn physician in Atlanta, she is married to U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Alisha Sara Kramer turns 36… Israel-based director of growth marketing at SchoolStatus, David Aryeh Leshaw… Television and movie actress and model, Julia Garner turns 32…

• Israeli negotiators, led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, are meeting with representatives of Hamas today in Cairo for discussions centered around President Donald Trump’s peace proposal. More below.
  
• We’re keeping an eye on the situation in the U.K., following a deadly terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur in which two members of the city’s Jewish community were killed.
  
• We’re also tracking developments in Paris, where French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his government resigned weeks into his role and less than a day after the Cabinet was appointed.
  
• Around the world, events marking the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks are being held this week. In Washington this morning, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is convening a conversation marking the anniversary and the impact of the attacks and ensuing war on Israel, the Middle East and U.S. policy. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Dana Stroul, former White House official Dennis Ross, counter-terror expert Dr. Ali al-Nuaimi and author Yossi Klein Halevi are slated to speak.
  
• In New York tomorrow night, former hostage Eli Sharabi will speak at Manhattan’s Temple Emanu-El. The English-language version of Sharabi’s new autobiography, Hostage, will be released tomorrow.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

When the world woke up two years ago to news of a vicious, wide-scale terror attack taking place across southern Israel, it was immediately clear that this was different from previous bursts of violence near the Gaza Strip. But we could not yet fathom the massive changes that would soon reverberate around the world. 

As negotiators now appear close to a deal to release the hostages and end the war, it’s clear the Middle East will not return to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo. Nor will American society. The changes wrought by the events of that day will linger long after the last bullet is fired. 

On Oct. 7, 2023, terrorists killed 1,200 people, took more than 250 hostages and launched a war that has upended the Middle East, fundamentally altered global politics and culture and reshaped the Jewish community. 

Anti-Israel activists descended into the streets of Manhattan one day after the attacks, celebrating with chants of “resistance is justified when people are occupied.” Students at America’s top universities signed onto letters blaming Israel for the bloodshed. Jews looked on with alarm: At our moment of greatest need, this is the response? 

Two years later, Jewish Insider is reflecting on all that has changed since the Oct. 7 attacks. 

Iran has been weakened and Hezbollah decapitated, while a degraded Hamas, not yet defeated, fights on in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed and a humanitarian crisis persists. The U.S.-Israel alliance has come under strain from growing forces on the far left and right who wish to see an end to American military support for Israel. A vast anti-Israel protest movement swept across college campuses, presenting university leaders with a test — how to balance freedom of expression with protecting Jewish students — that many failed. 

Yet despite the myriad challenges that have emerged from this war, Jews around the world were instilled with a new sense of pride in defense of Jewish peoplehood. More people are going to synagogue and celebrating Jewish holidays now than before Oct. 7. Judaica sales spiked as people yearned to represent their faith proudly, even as antisemitism surged around the world.

To mark the second anniversary of that solemn day, we are publishing a special project examining five key areas that have been utterly transformed by Oct. 7 and its aftermath: American politics, the U.S.-Israel relationship, higher education, Jewish advocacy and Israel’s relations with the world. We asked dozens of leading thinkers and practitioners to offer their thoughts on the biggest changes that have taken place in Jewish life over the last two years. 

You’ll hear from Democratic and Republican lawmakers; officials who served under Presidents Trump, Biden, Obama and Bush; rabbis and writers; Europeans, Americans and Israelis; and activists and philanthropists. You’ll find optimism, frustration and everything in between. We are all still experiencing the ripple effects left in the wake of that indescribable day, even as an end to the war may yet be in sight. We hope these insights help you reflect on the world in which we now live.

How the War Was Won: In his “Clarity” Substack, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren posits that the conclusion of the Israel-Hamas war is likely to be decided in the diplomatic arena, rather than on the battlefield. “The terrorists want to negotiate an arrangement in which, in return for freeing the hostages, they can remain in Gaza and keep their guns. Achieving those goals means, in essence, Hamas will win the war. In response, the president ordered the IDF to halt its Gaza City offensive and instructed his diplomatic team to enter into talks — albeit indirectly, through Qatar — with Hamas. Rather than strengthening the twenty points, these negotiations could result in watering them down. Hamas could conclude that Trump wants the Nobel Prize and will make serious concessions to secure it. But Trump, the master dealmaker, may be counting on Hamas to overplay its hand and provide him — and Israel — the justification for delivering it the coup de grâce.” [Clarity]

London’s Lapse: The Jewish News’ Daniel Sugarman suggests that the Yom Kippur terror attack on a Manchester synagogue was inevitable given U.K. leaders’ approach to antisemitism, the country’s Jewish community and Israel. “​​What do you think is going to be the end result when people receive absolutely no censure or comeuppance for openly ranting about how ‘Jewish supremacists’ control this country and stating that there are no anti-Zionist synagogues or schools in the UK? What do you think is going to be the end result when a band which called for ‘death to the IDF’ at the U.K.’s most celebrated music festival this summer follows that up at a performance two weeks ago by saying ‘F**k the Zionists! Get out there and fight them! Get out there and meet them in the street. Get out there and let them know that you do not stand by them’? … What do you think is going to be the end result? We all knew. Jews have two thousand years of experience of what such words and sentiments inevitably lead to.” [JewishNews]

Lessons from History: In the Washington Jewish Week, Karen Paikin Barall, the chief policy officer at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law,, considers the lessons that can be learned from the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank as “Parade,” which sets Frank’s story to music, closes at the Kennedy Center in Washington. “When university presidents claim ‘neutrality’ as students chant for the destruction of Israel, they abdicate their responsibility. Courage is calling out that hate, ensuring Jewish students are safe and making it clear that intimidation has no place on campus. When CEOs dismiss antisemitic remarks in the boardroom or excuse bias in the workplace, they signal tolerance for hate. Courage is setting a zero-tolerance standard and backing it up with action.  And when health-care leaders allow Jewish doctors, nurses or patients to be singled out or harassed because of their faith, they betray their mission of care. Courage is making sure that hospitals and medical institutions remain safe places for everyone, and where bigotry has no place. Leo Frank’s story shows what happens when hatred and silence prevail.” [WJW]

FBI Director Kash Patel called the Anti-Defamation League “an extreme group functioning like a terrorist organization,” saying in an announcement hours before Yom Kippur that the FBI had cut all formal ties with the anti-hate group, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…

The Information reports on speculation that TikTok’s Adam Presser, who was recently named the head of the company’s U.S. Data Security unit, will be tapped to head the new joint venture, established by a recent executive order, that would oversee TikTok’s U.S. operations…

David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is expected to name Bari Weiss the editor-in-chief of CBS News this week as part of the acquisition of Weiss’ Free Press for $150 million…

Leaders at a Brookline, Mass., synagogue said an incident last week in which a Harvard Law School visiting professor shot a pellet gun near the synagogue was not fueled by antisemitism; the professor said he was shooting at rats near his home, which he was unaware was in close proximity to a synagogue…

The Maryland Legislative Jewish Caucus slammed the decision by student government officials at the University of Maryland to hold a vote on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel on Yom Kippur…

In The Wall Street Journal, Yeshiva University’s Stuart Halpern reviews Michael Hoberman’s Imagining Early American Jews, which dives into the Jewish American experience in the first decades following the establishment of the United States…

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the country would withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is banned from the competition; France, Austria and Australia have voiced opposition to the effort to ban Israel from participating, which participating countries will vote on next month…

Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli clashed with the U.K.’s Board of Deputies of British Jews over the Diaspora Ministry’s hosting of far-right U.K. activist Tommy Robinson in Israel this week…

The Daily Mail interviewed former Israeli hostages Daniella Gilboa and Karina Ariev about their experiences during the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and ensuing 15 months in captivity…

The Washington Post talks to Israeli reservists and mental health professionals about the rise in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the Oct. 7 attacks and ensuing war in Gaza…

Israel is deporting dozens of activists, including Greta Thunberg who attempted to illegally enter Gaza by sea on a 45-vessel flotilla last week…

Israeli journalist Amit Segal reports from his Channel 12 colleague Ehud Yaari that Qatar reached an understanding with the United States to “reduce the amount of incitement” that state-owned Al Jazeera spreads in its coverage; one Israeli intelligence official told Segal that “if this is a real shift, it’s a huge game changer”…

The Wall Street Journal reports on efforts by China to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran through a series of conduits that allow Beijing to receive oil from Tehran in exchange for the building of Chinese infrastructure in the Islamic Republic…

Iran executed six prisoners accused of spying on behalf of Israel, part of a broader effort in the country to crackdown on alleged spies following the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June…

Iran’s parliament approved a measure that would deduct several zeros from the country’s currency as it faces rising inflation and days after the Iranian rial hit a record low…

Time does a deep dive into the water-scarcity issues facing Iran amid record-breaking temperatures and economic instability…

Czech writer Ivan Klima, whose writings recounted his childhood experiences in the Treblinka death camp, died at 94…

Players from Manchester City and Brentford FC observed a moment of silence on Sunday in memory of the two Jewish men killed in a terrorist attack at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur ahead of the teams’ Premier League match in Brentford, U.K.

Awarded a Ph.D. at UCSD in space science, consultant to NASA and author of many science fiction novels, David Brin turns 75…

Owner of Lancaster, Pa.-based industrial supplier Samuel Miller & Son, she is a past president of Women of Reform Judaism, Rosanne Selfon… Former chairman and CEO of CBS, he is a great-nephew of David Ben-Gurion, Leslie Moonves turns 76… Retired justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, Uzi Vogelman turns 71… Director of philanthropy at Temple Emanu-El of Westfield (N.J.), Elliot B. Karp… Bexley, Ohio-based real estate agent, Jan Kanas… Correspondent on the networks of NBC and author of best-selling books on Presidents Obama, FDR and Jimmy Carter, Jonathan Alter turns 68… Spiritual leader emeritus of Congregation Ner Tamid in the Las Vegas suburbs since 1988, Rabbi Sanford Akselrad… Former member of the New Jersey General Assembly, he is now the managing director of Quest Associates, Joel M. Weingarten turns 66… Mayor of Jerusalem since 2018, Moshe Lion turns 64… Founder and CEO of Coalition Strategy Group and community relations specialist at JFNA, Jeffrey Mendelsohn… Attorney in Lakewood, N.J., where he is active on the boards of many local businesses, civic organizations and charitable institutions, Samuel Zev Brown… Member of the New York City Council representing Yorkville, Lenox Hill and Roosevelt Island, Julie Menin turns 58… Member of the Florida Senate until 2020, now an insurance agent in Boca Raton, Kevin J.G. Rader turns 57… Former member of the Arizona House of Representatives, now founder and CEO of Buzze, Aaron Lieberman turns 54… Director of sales at Convergence Workforce, Sean “Shmop” Weisbord… VP of community relations at JFNA, following a stint as CEO of Community Security Service, Evan R. Bernstein turns 51… Actor and comedian, Brett Gelman turns 49… SVP of community strategy and external relations at UJA-Federation of New York, Hindy Poupko… Senior advisor for Israel Strategies at the William Davidson Foundation, Deena Eisenberg Pulitzer… and her twin sister, global event planner, Elisheva Eisenberg Goldman… Actress best known for her role in “Dredd” and more recently in “Oppenheimer,” Olivia Thirlby turns 39… Legislative director for the governor of Nevada, Madeline S. Burak…