With summer break offering teachers a chance to level up their skills for the year ahead, Illinois educators will be able to spend three days in Chicago this month learning about “the dangers of the ADL’s influence in our schools” — and earn credit toward the professional development needed to renew their teaching licenses. 

In a description for the six-hour course — held over three days — titled “Why We Need to #DropTheADL From Schools,” the Anti-Defamation League is described as a “right-wing and white supremacist organization” that perpetrates “academic repression, and the punishment of educators teaching the truth about the genocide in Palestine and Lebanon.” 

Educators will leave the course “with an understanding of how to counter false accusations of antisemitism” and with “curricula and strategies to address real antisemitism in their school communities,” the description vows.

The Illinois State Board of Education mandates that all licensed educators must complete 120 hours of professional development training from state-approved providers every five years. Educators seeking professional development hours can also turn to the ADL, which offers its own courses giving professional development credit. One six-hour ADL course, offered in October, is called “Breaking Down Antisemitism.” Another is about helping teachers adopt a critical lens toward artificial intelligence so they can identify antisemitism and Holocaust inversion in AI tools. 

The anti-ADL course will be facilitated by members of Chicago Educators for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago and the local Drop the ADL From Schools campaign. It is organized by a social justice-focused institute called Be the Change Collaborative, which is one of more than 300 organizations approved by ISBE to offer professional development credit to licensed educators in the state. 

The ADL is an approved provider, as is Echoes and Reflections, a Holocaust education initiative of the ADL, Yad Vashem and the Shoah Foundation. Other Jewish organizations — including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Solomon Schechter Day School — are on the list, too. 

“All fair-minded teachers should reject calls to boycott educational programs that benefit Chicago’s students,” ADL’s Midwest regional director, Rebecca Weininger, told Jewish Insider. “We look forward to working with the Illinois State Board of Education to make sure that there is better oversight of approved providers to ensure that advocacy groups are not empowered to weaponize continuing education for teachers.”

The state education board did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. 

The course pledges to “teach about antisemitism from a collective liberation lens.” The alternative antisemitism framework taught in the course, called PARCEO, was drafted by anti-Zionist activists, including former executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, Rebecca Vilkomerson. 

Daniel Goldwin, the chief public affairs officer at Jewish United Fund, Chicago’s Jewish federation, said he did not want to weigh in on “exactly what should and shouldn’t be allowed when it comes to First Amendment issues, and state restricting speech.” But he said the program’s targeting of a major Jewish organization that does a lot of work in schools raises concerns.

“Not only do they want to teach a very particular view of antisemitism, they want to say that a leading organization that has been around for well over 100 years, that is focused on civil rights and combating antisemitism, is not welcome,” Goldwin told JI. “That to me is not what I think we’re looking for in continuing ed.” 

It is not clear how many educators signed up for the course. But it follows years of activists working to bring anti-Israel lessons to K-12 schools, a trend that followed similar efforts at universities. Organizers from the same organizations — JVP Chicago, Chicago Educators for Palestine and the Drop the ADL campaign — led a workshop for Chicago high school teachers in March.

Additional details about the course were reported by the North American Values Institute. 

Major Jewish organizations expressed “reason for optimism” that the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, is taking meaningful steps to address rising antisemitism following its annual Representative Assembly, which concluded in Denver on Tuesday.

The organizations credited NEA’s Jewish Affairs Caucus (JAC) with pushing through three amendments to the NEA Constitution and a resolution on Jewish education at this year’s RA. 

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs said in a statement that it “welcomed the implementation of new rules and policies that better protected the safety and First Amendment rights of Jewish and all members during the National Education Association’s annual meeting.” JCPA said it worked with the JAC to lobby the NEA for the rule changes.

The Jewish groups noted a safer and more inclusive environment for Jewish members at this year’s gathering, marking a stark contrast from last year, when delegates voted to boycott Anti-Defamation League materials in a measure Jewish groups condemned as antisemitic, among other disruptive events. The changes also come following the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission opening an investigation into NEA in June over alleged failure to address antisemitism.

“We commend the important steps the NEA took to foster a more inclusive Representative Assembly this year. Those efforts reflect the union’s stated commitment to the core values of solidarity and belonging for all,” the ADL, American Jewish Committee, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Hadassah and StandWithUs said Wednesday in a joint statement. 

Ahead of the gathering, aiming to avoid the misconduct seen at the 2025 RA, the NEA adopted several new rules, including stricter conduct enforcement for delegates, electronic voting to prevent shouting on the floor, de-escalation training for staff and regular public reminders of assembly rules.

The 2026 RA — attended by some 6,000 educators — was “night and day” compared to last year’s, the chair of the JAC, Alyson Brauning, told Jewish Insider, recalling that she called security at last year’s convention when some Jewish delegates were allegedly being harassed by other attendees. 

After last year’s controversies, Brauning said she spent “six months working with NEA [leadership] on delegate safety and participation protections.”

“The reality was that NEA came through. Building relationships is, to me, the absolute key to making sure we as Jewish delegates can, and did, participate fully at RAs … and I believe our relationships we were able to build with Jewish organizations and the support that they were able to give us is also extremely important,” she continued.  

Out of 88 business items for the convention, Brauning viewed two as potentially concerning to Jewish educators, but said this marked an improvement over years past. 

“Did they write some things that I as a Jewish person know their intent was probably antisemitic? Sure. Does the body understand that? Probably not. They didn’t outright say [anything antisemitic] which is a win because in the past they would literally say it,” she said.  

One of those items mentioned war and genocide — “I’m sure that was about the genocide that they think was in [Gaza], but that’s up to the interpretation of all 6,000 delegates. That one was completely defeated on the floor,” she said.

A second business item called for NEA to add resources on its website including some from Jewish Voice for Peace. “[The majority] of the delegates had no idea who JVP is,” said Brauning. “It was referred to the executive committee because NEA has a policy that they must vet any curriculum before they can use it or recommend it as a resource. That gives us the opportunity to write to NEA and explain why it might be harmful or anti-Jewish hate. 

The convention was held one month before a leadership change at JAC, a caucus established five decades ago as a social group that began taking on advocacy work following Oct. 7. Naomi Rodriguez, a Pennsylvania math teacher and first-time delegate who helped organize this year’s RA, will succeed Brauning as the caucus’ chair.

“Going into it, I was intimidated,” Rodriguez told JI of the convention. “I didn’t know how I would be received. Many issues are important to me but I came to this RA with an agenda, to protect Jewish students and teachers. I found myself speaking up about that a lot. It was the most amazing and heartwarming experience. I received so much support from my own state caucus. I felt so loved. 

“Our union is simply a reflection of society. Whatever problems we’re having in society, you’re going to see in our union, too, because there are so many members and our union is a place where people exchange ideas,” she continued.

Among the most helpful new policies, Rodriguez said, was the implementation of clickers to vote. “One of the problems last year was voting was done standing up and down or holding a card in the air so everyone in your caucus could see how you vote, so sometimes you could get pushback from the people you’re working with. We could vote more confidentially with the clickers — that made a huge difference,” she said. 

Although Rodriguez declined to share the specifics of the three new amendments JAC helped pass, she said the purpose of each “was to ensure that the values of our union are accurately reflected in NEA’s governing documents. The amendments included language to address discrimination and ensure equal participation access for all member communities.”

Jay Goldfischer, a teacher in Los Angeles County who has been an NEA member for 26 years, told JI that it was “overall a very positive and effective RA for Jewish teachers,” where “allies from across America stood up with the Jewish community on the floor of the RA when it counted.” 

Though Goldfischer applauded the new guidelines, he noted that the improvements could have also stemmed from the majority of delegates growing “tired of the divisive and distracting issues related to Israel and things unrelated to education.” 

Alongside JAC, several Jewish leaders pushed for NEA to adopt new guidelines after last year’s RA. 

“Everything we’ve heard from Jewish delegates and educators has been reflective of them feeling that this was a safer and more inclusive convention and that these rules had an impact,” said JCPA CEO Amy Spitalnick, who led a presentation titled “How Educators Can Confront Antisemitism & Hate and Defend Democracy” at the convening. 

“There is obviously a lot more to do,” she told JI. “We’ll continue to work with NEA on workshops, programs and trainings to address antisemitism and ensure the union and our schools are as inclusive and safe as possible. But this is definitely an important step in the right direction.” 

To support JAC, the ADL and Conference of Presidents also deployed representatives to be on the ground at this year’s convention. 

“I was so proud to see Naomi [Rodriguez] use her voice and play such a critical role in shaping a very different narrative at this year’s RA,” Sara Colb, ADL’s director of advocacy, told JI. “Empowering Naomi and teachers like her was ADL’s very purpose for doing this work.  Watching these teachers advocate for themselves, their students and the Jewish community is truly inspiring.”

“We started working with JAC after last year to help make [the RA] better for the year ahead,” Stephanie Hausner, chief operating officer of the Conference of Presidents, who attended for the first time on behalf of the organization, told JI. 

“Some of that included rules changes, multiple organizations talking to the NEA about helping the tenor of the conference. For sure there was more security [this year]. The overall vibe of the conference was much calmer than we heard from last year. Jewish delegates weren’t afraid to be present and speak, which was also an improvement. They were able to get a lot done.”

Hausner continued, “Some of the resolutions that were put forward that would have done harm to the Jewish community didn’t pass, which says a lot about the body as a whole.”

The focus this year, said Hausner, was “on education and issues of importance for teachers.” 

Major AI chatbots consistently fail to reject antisemitic inquiries in Persian as effectively as they do in English, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League. The group argues the safety flaw has broad implications as millions rely on these platforms to understand conflicts such as the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. 

The report, “Lost in Translation: How AI Chatbots Fail Persian Speakers on Antisemitism,” looked at responses by the most widely-used chatbots — OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini and xAI’s Grok — over several weeks in March, amid the Iran war.

After assessing eight prompts and 800 total responses, researchers identified a “systemic” bias in how AI models process sensitive topics, heavily dependent on the language used. Across the tested chatbots, English responses proved superior to ones in Persian — a major language with over 110 million speakers primarily in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan — in identifying and rejecting antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Persian-language responses frequently hedged or avoided direct answers where English responses were unequivocal, the ADL found. For instance, Gemini’s English answers consistently acknowledged Iran’s role in spreading antisemitism, while its Persian responses softened or deflected the same claims. Several models also failed to recognize antisemitic framing when questions were posed in Persian. Asked whether U.S. behavior toward Iran had been “Jewlike” — a normalized derogatory term in Persian —- models largely engaged with the question as a neutral political inquiry rather than flagging its antisemitic premise.

The report also identified gaps in depth and sourcing between languages. English responses were generally longer, more thoroughly cited and more up-to-date. Gemini’s English answers referenced the 2026 Iran war and U.S. casualties by name, for example, while its Persian responses only described hypothetical future conflicts. Citations were similarly not consistent. ChatGPT supplied close to 300 links in English responses but none in Persian, and even where other models did cite sources, reliability was inconsistent. Grok cited X accounts including a “Star Trek” fan page and one apparently impersonating Ali Khamenei, the late Iranian supreme leader. 

“The gaps we found are not minor inconsistencies, they are systemic failures,” said Daniel Kelley, senior director of the ADL Center for Technology and Society. “When a platform tells a Persian speaker that antisemitism is a matter of ‘blurred boundaries’ while telling an English speaker it is state policy, those are not the same product.”

Kelley called on AI companies “to invest the research and resources necessary to ensure their guardrails work for every person, in every language, and that means starting now.”

While English responses were found to be more conscientious than those in Persian, the ADL raised concerns last year with leading AI developers like Meta and Google regarding antisemitic and anti-Israel biases in English as well. At the time, Meta claimed ADL was using an older model for its study, and not the most current version. 

An ADL spokesperson told Jewish Insider that the study on Persian chatbots used the most recent models at the time of the research. 

Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) is facing a serious primary threat from state Rep. Donavan McKinney, a left-wing challenger backed by several anti-Israel groups including Justice Democrats and TrackAIPAC.

Those groups are riding high, coming off of a recent wave of congressional primary victories in New York City and, most recently, Colorado, which they say point to a desire for a leftward shift in the Democratic Party and, in particular, rejection of support for Israel and pro-Israel groups among the Democratic base. Thanedar is one of their next top targets.

Thanedar is one of the few Democrats who has gotten more supportive of Israel during his tenure in Congress, even as the party has become more hostile to the Jewish state. As a state legislator in 2021, he co-sponsored a resolution calling for a halt in U.S. aid to Israel, which described Israel as an “apartheid state” and accused it of “countless human rights violations.”   

Thanedar sought to walk back his support for the resolution during his 2022 primary, but the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project backed his opponent, then-state Sen. Adam Hollier, in that race. The independently wealthy Thanedar was able to counter with millions in his own spending.

After comfortably winning the contested 2022 primary, Thanedar met with supporters of Israel and traveled to the Jewish state, ultimately reinventing himself as a strong pro-Israel voice and picking up support from the Jewish community. That stance has since cost him support among progressives.

McKinney was the first challenger to an incumbent endorsed by Justice Democrats this cycle, and is also supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and former Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) — all anti-Israel voices. (Former Rep. Brenda Lawrence, who was strongly pro-Israel during her time in office, is also endorsing McKinney’s campaign.)

Thanedar may be particularly vulnerable, given that he represents a district with a large Black population in and around Detroit with a history of Black representation. He’s also built something of an odd public persona in Washington, including an effort to force a vote on impeaching President Donald Trump earlier this year, which he ultimately walked back after pressure from House Democratic leadership.

“We haven’t seen any publicly available polling in this race yet in this primary, but Shri has to be feeling at least somewhat vulnerable here in that today he’s been able to avoid a heads-up primary against a Black Detroiter and now he’s got a heads up primary against a Black Detroiter,” Adrian Hemond, a Michigan political strategist, told Jewish Insider.

Given his district is in an “overwhelmingly majority Black city,” which had at least one Black member of Congress since the 1960s and now has none, “Congressman Thanedar is going to have some work ahead of him to get those folks to pull the lever for him and not to have Black representation in Congress.”

Hemond — who has been publicly critical of Thanedar as ideologically flexible — said that Thanedar isn’t necessarily disliked at home, but has a “reputation as being odd,” and has faced criticism over poor constituent services — often an Achilles heel for Democratic lawmakers who’ve lost primaries in recent years — in part because he has struggled to maintain staff in his office.

But, Hemond argued, McKinney — who has gone on the road visiting other states and districts to stump for fellow progressive candidates — shouldn’t be “confident at all” in victory because “Shri’s got a lot of money, and it’s not like this hasn’t been attempted before.”

McKinney, Hemond said, may be somewhat to the left of the district as a whole, but his views are largely aligned with the Democratic primary voter base, more so than Thanedar’s own. In order to win the district, he continued, McKinney will need to out-organize Thanedar on the ground, particularly in ensuring his supporters return their absentee ballots, which are set to go out at the end of the week.

“If you have a better absentee program than Shri Thanedar does, you should win this election,” Hemond continued, adding that “it looks like they’ve got the pieces in place to be able to run a really strong absentee chase effort, and if they do, it’s going to bode real well for him come 9 o’clock on election night.”

Texas Democrats adopted several anti-Israel amendments into their party platform at a state party convention last weekend — a significant move to the left on Israel policy in a generally conservative state with marquee Senate and gubernatorial races this November.

That said, much of the anti-Israel language was toned down from the original amendments as introduced — and the party also adopted some pro-Israel language in the platform.

The platform also supports the right of Israel to “exist in safe and secure borders” and condemns the “genocidal actions and goals of Hamas” and supports its removal from leadership in the Gaza Strip and the terror group’s disarmament.

At the same time, it offers support for the right of return for Palestinian refugees as well as for Palestine becoming a U.N. member state “when qualified under the U.N. Charter” and the International Court of Justice’s interim judgement in the genocide case against Israel — though it acknowledges that the ICJ has not ruled that Israel committed genocide — and recognizes the Palestinian “Nakba.”

“Israelis and Palestinians alike have the inalienable right to pursue self-determination, be it a unified political structure or separate sovereign states,” the platform reads.

The platform urges Texas Democratic members of Congress to support the Block the Bombs Act and the end of U.S. offensive weapons sales to Israel, as well as legislation calling for a war crimes investigation into certain Israeli actions in the West Bank. 

It states that Texas Democrats support the repeal of Texas’ anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions law and “greater accountability in campaign finance and eliminate and reject the influence and contributions of foreign-interest PACs and lobbying organizations, including AIPAC, on campaigns.”

The wording of several of the anti-Israel resolutions is slightly toned down from some proposed resolutions, including language describing pro-Israel groups as “foreign interference” in American elections and as compromising U.S. institutions.

One proposed resolution also specifically condemned Democratic Majority for Israel in addition to AIPAC, and called for investigations of the groups as unregistered foreign agents, but that language does not appear in the final platform.

Other proposed resolutions also explicitly accused Israel of apartheid and genocide, and called for a complete arms embargo on Israel and a cessation of all U.S. logistical support to Israel.

Still other proposed resolutions called for a statewide adoption of BDS policies, and stated that the repeal of anti-BDS legislation should be a “top legislative priority,” language that was also softened in the final platform.

The platform also calls for dismantling illegal settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem “while recognizing historical origins of multiple cultures in the area” and for displaced civilians from Gaza to have a right to return to the territory.

In addition to the anti-Israel language in the platform, the convention’s exhibit hall also included a display that downplayed and attempted to justify the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, including denying allegations of mass rape and pointing blame for the attacks toward Israel and its settlement policies.

The 29,000-member California Faculty Association, California State University’s teachers’ union, is spearheading a backdoor legislative push to repeal the time, place and manner restrictions implemented across the state’s university system following its 2024 anti-Israel encampments. 

The California Faculty Association, which represents faculty across the 23 campuses of the California State University system, announced it would sponsor AB 2551, authored by Assemblymember Sade Elhawary. AB 2551 would repeal SB 1287 — California’s landmark campus safety and civil rights law — in its entirety by Jan. 1, 2029.

Under SB 1287, which was introduced in August 2024, California’s public universities and colleges must adopt and enforce rules against violence, harassment, intimidation and discrimination. 

It mandates the establishment of clear, content-neutral protest guidelines and requires schools to provide mandatory student training on free speech limits. The legislation bars tent encampments, overnight demonstrations and in some cases wearing masks, signatures of the spring 2024 anti-Israel protest movements both within the Cal State schools and across universities nationwide. Cal State LA played host to a  40-day encampment in 2024, in which protesters barricaded and trashed an administration building. 

“SB 1287 was the product of a public and transparent year-long negotiation process — hearings, testimony, amendments, and ultimately an overwhelming bipartisan vote,” said David Bocarsly, CEO of Jewish California, a coalition of local Jewish organizations formerly known as JPAC. “Jewish students across California are safer because of it. AB 2551 uses a backroom maneuver to fully erase that progress — without public process and without consulting the communities this law was designed to protect. Other communities wouldn’t stand for that, and we won’t either.” 

According to Jewish California, AB 2551 bypassed the normal legislative process through a “gut-and-amend” maneuver. This tactic replaces a bill’s existing language with entirely new provisions late in the session, effectively avoiding the rigorous public hearings and committee scrutiny that landmark measures like SB 1287 undergo. Consequently, the July 1 Senate Education Committee hearing will likely be both the first and last policy committee vote the bill receives.

Ahead of the hearing, dozens of local Jewish organizations are leading a coordinated push against the bill. The executive directors of every CSU and University of California campus Hillel, joined by Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman and Senior Vice President Mark Rotenberg, submitted a joint opposition letter. 

“The serious disruptions that had made parts of their campuses inaccessible quickly dissipated,” they wrote. “Jewish students who had withdrawn from campus life began returning. Importantly, the law did not silence free speech — it established a clear line between constitutionally protected expression and conduct that violates university rules and Jewish students’ civil rights by shutting them out of their own university.”

The bill was also opposed on Monday by the University of California in a letter to Senate Education Committee Chair Sasha Renée Pérez, warning that AB 2551 would “repeal important provisions of the University’s TPM framework that were recently implemented to strengthen campus safety, protect civil rights, combat antisemitism, and support the consistent administration of content-neutral conduct standards,” and that repeal “could complicate these ongoing efforts and diminish the effectiveness” of campus safety tools the university has invested significant resources to build.

Furthermore, the Jewish community and the California Legislative Jewish Caucus were reportedly not consulted before the maneuver, despite SB 1287 being one of the Jewish community’s top legislative priorities two years ago. 

CFA previously targeted the Jewish community last October when its candidate endorsement questionnaire singled out Jewish California — alongside the oil, tobacco, and police industries —- as a group that “harms working families,” asking political candidates to refuse to engage with the body. 

In March, CFA sponsored AB 2159, an attempt to gut AB 715, California’s landmark K-12 antisemitism prevention law. That bill was defeated following advocacy from Jewish groups. 

“CFA singled out our community for boycott. Then they sponsored legislation to gut our K-12,” said Bocarsly. “We said last time that CFA has an antisemitism problem. Three strikes confirms it. This is not a policy disagreement — it is a sustained campaign targeting Jewish students and the community that advocates for them.”

2026 has been the year of the democratic socialist, with numerous far-left, anti-Israel candidates winning mayoralties and congressional primaries in cities up and down the Northeast corridor, from New York to Washington, D.C — and beyond. 

Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor who proved that radicalism can win hearts and minds among voters in deep-blue jurisdictions, is now trying to utilize valuable political capital by electing three like-minded congressional candidates in primaries in the Big Apple on Tuesday — backing two challengers running against well-funded incumbents, and a third against a well-established progressive borough president.

The outcomes of these three races will go a long way in determining whether Democratic Party voters still draw any red lines around candidates holding views and values that fall outside the party mainstream. 

Let’s be clear: The main difference between the three candidates backed by most Democratic leaders and Mamdani’s favored challengers is the challengers’ hostility to Israel. 

Mamdani handpicked Darializa Avila Chevalier, a doctoral student with no obvious congressional credentials who protested against Israel the day after it suffered the worst terror attack in its history, to run against Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a progressive supporter of the Jewish state. 

Avila Chevalier has a laundry list of recent social media posts in which she called for abolishing the police and voiced anti-American and pro-Russian sentiments, while sharing a post saying “Israel doesn’t exist.” That hasn’t disqualified her, in the eyes of a critical mass of the district’s voters. 

Mamdani recruited state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez to challenge Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, despite the latter’s backing from party leaders. Valdez, a sculptor, has made her opposition to Israel a central part of the race, even falsely accusing AIPAC of being involved in the race when the outside spending against her came from a major teachers’ union. Reynoso, who has been a vocal critic of Israel, hasn’t made the Middle East a central part of his candidacy.

And Mamdani convinced former City Comptroller Brad Lander to run against pro-Israel Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), even working to clear the field of other challengers who threatened to split the anti-Israel vote against Goldman. Despite calling himself a progressive Zionist, Lander spent his final debate attacking the congressman for not calling Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza a genocide and for supporting aid to the Jewish state. 

As JI’s Will Bredderman has documented, all three of Mamdani’s picks have made their opposition to Israel a major part of their closing messages. And while polls show Goldman as the underdog in a progressive district, the other two races are highly competitive. Outside groups representing mainstream forces have mobilized on behalf of Espaillat and Reynoso in the final weeks of the race, giving them a fighting chance to prevail. 

There’s no doubt that pro-Israel forces within the Democratic Party are facing uphill challenges, especially in deeply progressive districts where voters are increasingly open to far-left candidates. The outcome in New York’s primaries this week will indicate whether the establishment has the ability to slow down the radicals’ momentum. 

Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, suggested at an event on Friday that the Trump administration had indicted a group of anti-Israel demonstrators at the University of Michigan for their beliefs, rather than their actions.

The eight defendants, including a former staffer on El-Sayed’s campaign, who were indicted Friday have been accused of a campaign of intimidation against university officials they saw as pro-Israel and vandalism of local Jewish organizations.

“It’s a lot more about what you’re advocating for that gets you indicted or not indicted, rather than what you did,” El-Sayed said, at a Friday campaign event, according to The Detroit News.

Speaking to reporters after the event, El-Sayed said that it’s “just wrong, full stop” to target families, businesses and property as the indicted individuals alleged did, but also drew a contrast between the treatment of the eight indicted individuals and the Trump administration’s mass pardon of those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“I believe in justice, because I believe that when you break the law, you should be held accountable, but I don’t love watching our justice system treat people differently based on what it is that they were advocating for,” El-Sayed said. “Targeting people, families, properties, businesses is wrong, of course it’s wrong, but it’s also wrong when Jan. 6 terrorists do it. To watch the same Trump administration use these terms in certain ways — I think we all need to be asking the questions.”

El-Sayed previously faced criticism for his response to the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., which some saw as excusing or rationalizing the attack.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) on X condemned El-Sayed for his “equivocation.”

“The reported planned violence and intimidation at the University of Michigan is wrong. This is simple and any leader should be able to say so,” she said. “The fact my opponent cannot bring himself to say that is concerning.”

In remarks to reporters, she said that she was “concerned about [El-Sayed’s] repeated patterns of embracing political violence and being out of step with Michigan voters,” pointing also to his decision to rally with far-left influencer Hasan Piker at the University of Michigan.

“We need leaders who are going to showcase leadership and be the leaders that we deserve, not continue to divide us and compensate for when people commit violence or threaten violence for political purposes,” she said.

Her comments have prompted scorn from El-Sayed’s campaign and allies.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) responded to Stevens’ X post by copying Stevens’ wording to criticize Stevens for refusing to describe the war in Gaza as a genocide.

Roxie Richner, El-Sayed’s communications director, accused Stevens on X of “sid[ing] with the Trump administration” and said she “can’t string two coherent sentences together.”

“Leadership requires that you have moral clarity and can say words that make sense when put in order,” Richner continued.

The far left is gaining traction in its electoral battle against the mainstream pro-Israel political community, notching a recent string of victories in high-profile Democratic primaries as it now finds itself on stronger financial footing compared to past campaign cycles.

Thanks in part to a range of new super PACs created to counter AIPAC’s political spending, the far left has elevated several anti-Israel Democrats in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California to the nomination in key congressional primaries, with its sights set on closely contested upcoming matchups in New York City and Michigan.

In some cases, the anti-Israel left — buoyed by public opinion that has swung against the Jewish state in the wake of the war in Gaza — has been at parity or outspending pro-Israel groups, marking a significant change.

The most prominent vehicle for such spending is the recently launched American Priorities super PAC — which has pledged to spend at least $10 million during the midterms. The group most recently helped lift Randy Villegas, a progressive vying to unseat Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), in California. He claimed victory in the primary over Jasmeet Bains — a state lawmaker supported by pro-Israel activists and national Democatic leaders. American Priorities had invested heavily on behalf of Villegas, going toe to toe with Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm — whose $500,000 for Bains failed to help her advance to the November election.

The anti-Israel PAC also played a role in securing wins for Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, who faced scrutiny for pushing an antisemitic conspiracy theory before his House primary in Philadelphia last month, and Adam Hamawy, a retired Army surgeon who claimed the Democratic nomination in a central New Jersey district despite past controversial links to a convicted terrorist. American Priorities spent over $1.5 million in the crowded race to bolster Hamawy’s campaign.

Notably, AIPAC’s well-funded super PAC, United Democracy Project, chose to stay on the sidelines in all three of those races, as the far left has capitalized on the pro-Israel group’s unpopularity within the Democratic Party, particularly in heavily progressive districts where American Priorities is engaging most significantly.

AIPAC’s relatively cautious approach to Democratic races this cycle reflects a changing political landscape for the formidable pro-Israel group, which has flexed its financial resources in consequential primaries that meaningfully shaped the House Democratic caucus.

Just two years ago, UDP and DMFI PAC had both engaged in a well-resourced effort to defeat two of the most prominent Israel critics in the House, Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO), who were ousted by pro-Israel Democrats currently sitting in Congress.

By contrast, UDP has now been absent from major primaries where AIPAC-endorsed incumbents are facing serious challenges from the far left. In New York City’s June 23 primary, Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) are preparing to defend their seats in tough reelection fights against outspoken critics of Israel, backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who have highlighted their ties to AIPAC as a top vulnerability.

American Priorities, in a joint effort with Justice Democrats — the far-left, incumbent-challenging group that helped propel the Squad to Congress in 2018 — is now investing aggressively in Espaillat’s race to help Darializa Avila Chevalier, a community organizer and anti-Israel activist whose past deleted extremist online posts have recently fueled attacks against her from super PACs backing the incumbent. 

Justice Democrats, which had struggled to raise money last cycle as it found itself on the defensive in primaries against UDP, has rebounded and become a driving force behind far-left candidates in the current election cycle — powered in part by a major donation from an anti-Israel dark money group also connected to American Priorities.

The super PAC, led by a progressive strategist who was previously the independent expenditure director for Justice Democrats, has raised about $5.4 million primarily through a small network of Arab American donors who have contributed significant amounts. It entered June with $1.2 million on hand, according to its latest filing — a total that is greatly overshadowed by UDP’s nearly $95 million war chest.

But even critics of American Priorities and affiliated groups in its loose fundraising network acknowledge that the super PAC is spending wisely in races where it believes it can have a potential impact — especially as AIPAC has ceded some ground to its opponents by staying out of contested primaries in places including New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

“They took a page out of the AIPAC playbook over the past 30 years, in terms of recruiting and maintaining relationships with members of Congress,” Sara Forman, a longtime Democratic operative and Jewish community activist, told Jewish Insider on Thursday. “They understood that this was all about funding.”

In many ways, American Priorities in particular has imitated UDP in both style and strategy, down to its vaguely patriotic-sounding name. The group has also accepted contributions from several donors who have given to Republicans, even as it has criticized AIPAC, which is bipartisan, as a Trojan horse advancing GOP interests in Democratic strongholds.

One donor, Hussein Mahrouq, a Texas businessman who has contributed $625,000 while also supporting far-right Republicans, told JI that he is “not affiliated with any political party,” and believes that “decisions affecting our country should be made based on what is best for the United States, independent of pressure from any foreign government, foreign interest group or partisan agenda.”

American Priorities is also involved with a new super PAC called Fighting for Michigan, which vowed this week to invest in “a multimillion-dollar” campaign to boost Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left Israel critic gaining momentum in the state’s three-way Senate primary set for Aug. 4.

“We know big-money groups representing the Israel lobby, corporate interests and AI billionaires are going to spend heavily against Abdul in the coming days,” Connor Farrell, a progressive strategist who is working with the super PAC, told Axios of its effort.

While AIPAC is viewed as a lightning rod in Michigan’s competitive Democratic Senate primary, UDP notably jumped into the race this week with an initial ad buy of around $2 million to help Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a pro-Israel moderate also favored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). 

It remains to be seen if AIPAC and other pro-Israel organizations will be matched or outnumbered by opposing groups amid a surge of new spending in the race, which is among the most closely watched in the country.

With the anti-Israel left emboldened by a growing Democratic skepticism of the U.S. relationship with Israel and a national political environment favorable to anti-establishment views, some Jewish and pro-Israel Democrats are raising concerns that their community is not meeting the moment in response.

“This should be a wake-up call to the Jewish community,” said Kenneth Baer, a former Obama administration staffer who leads a communications firm.

Sam Lauter, a veteran pro-Israel strategist in the San Francisco Bay Area and a DMFI board member, said simply that the “playing field has gotten bigger” over the past several years.

But he also attributed the left’s ascendance to a strategic miscalculation in the pro-Israel activist community that had long been a dominant force in elections.

“Where our community failed is seeing that our opposition has been building and preparing and getting ready for the moment where they could take the fight to us, and our community neglected to pay close attention to that,” Lauter told JI.

One of the eight anti-Israel activists indicted on Wednesday over allegedly threatening University of Michigan officials seen as pro-Israel and vandalizing local Jewish organizations was on the staff of far-left U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as recently as April.

The federal indictment lists Mariam Odeh, 24, of Dearborn, Mich., as one of the defendants who allegedly carried out a series of coordinated actions targeting university leaders or organizations with connections to Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks. 

On the one-year anniversary of the attacks, they vandalized Detroit’s Jewish federation building and spray-painted businesses, with words including “intifada,” according to the indictment.  

The defendants also forcibly entered and occupied university buildings, defaced property and disrupted campus events — and placed fake bloody corpses outside the homes of multiple university leaders, including then-President Santa Ono, over their perceived support for Israel. 

According to a statement in the indictment from Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, the perpetrators — while masked and hooded — “allegedly threw noxious chemicals through the windows of families’ homes and taped demand letters to their front doors” and also “discussed methods by which to harm the targets and their families, including poison, bombs, and psychological torture.”  

Odeh, who is listed in the indictment as president of the organization Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, was paid $154 by El-Sayed’s campaign on March 3 and $593 on March 13, according to fundraising disclosures first obtained by The Detroit News, which reported that the payments were described as salary disbursements. 

El-Sayed’s spokesperson, Roxie Richner, told the paper that Odeh was an hourly employee on the campaign for two weeks and has not been affiliated with it since April 15. Odeh was charged with one count of conspiracy to transmit threats in interstate and foreign commerce, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. 

El-Sayed is one of three candidates in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, alongside Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.

Seen as the most progressive candidate in the race, El-Sayed told Jewish supporters last month that he struggles to answer whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. He said in an interview with CNN in April that he believes the Israeli government is just as evil as Hamas.

A spokesperson for Rep. Stevens’ campaign, Arik Wolk, told JI on Thursday, “Haley condemns all forms of hate and political violence…antisemitism and political intimidation — especially violence that seeks to silence the voices of others — has no place in Michigan.”

Neither El-Sayed’s nor McMorrow’s campaigns responded to requests for comment from JI about the indictment or about Odeh’s employment on the campaign.

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s draft of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision based on the FUTURES Act, establishing a U.S.-Israel Defense Cooperation Initiative, according to an executive summary released on Thursday by the committee and congressional officials.

A similar provision in the House version of the bill attracted significant controversy in anti-Israel circles — with critics falsely claiming that the measure would irrevocably merge the U.S. and Israeli militaries or undermine U.S. sovereignty — with multiple House members vowing to try to strip the provision from the bill. Top lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have defended the provision.

A congressional official said that the Senate provision has some adjustments from the House bill and the original FUTURES Act, with a focus on medium- and long-term threats; the original bill encompasses numerous areas of cooperation that already exist between the U.S. and Israel.

The official also emphasized that the idea that the legislation would integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries is a “misconception” and a “fallacy.”

The precise text of the Senate bill, which was amended in a closed session, will not be available for a few days.

Critics have also begun attacking a provision of the Senate’s draft of the 2027 Intelligence Authorization Act, titled, “United States-Israel Intelligence Sharing Enhancement,” which aims to increase intelligence collaboration and sharing with Israel to counter shared threats from Iran and other adversaries.

The legislation directs the administration, “subject to applicable law and the protection of intelligence sources and methods” to expand intelligence sharing with Israel, and limits the ability of this or a future administration to suspend or reduce intelligence sharing unless the administration documents and notifies Congress of a “specific and identifiable national security concern” raised by such collaboration.

It also calls for  expanded intelligence sharing with other Abraham Accords countries, except in cases in which the administration finds that a recipient of such intelligence cooperation maintains any intelligence, defense or technology cooperation with a U.S. adversary.

According to the executive summary released on Thursday, the Senate NDAA also authorizes increased funding for existing U.S.-Israel cooperative programs in countering drones and subterranean warfare and maintains support for cooperative missile-defense programs.

The NDAA also includes an “initiative to bolster defense cooperation among the United States and signatories of the Abraham Accords,” according to the executive summary. A source familiar with the legislation said the provision parallels the OASIS in the Middle East Act, which directs the Pentagon to develop a coordinated air and missile defense acquisition strategy with Israel, Abraham Accords members and other Middle East allies, further building on current air-defense integration efforts.

The bill would additionally condition funding to the Lebanese Armed Forces on its actions to counter Hezbollah — similar to a provision in the House bill — and to the Syrian government on its actions to disarm foreign fighters and jihadists in the country.

The Senate draft of the NDAA would also provide congressional authorization for the Civil Military Coordination Center — established by U.S. Central Command, alongside Israel, other U.S. partners and international organizations, to oversee ceasefire and stabilization efforts in Gaza — “as a subsidiary of the Board of Peace to oversee the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire in pursuit of Hamas’ complete and permanent disarmament,” according to the executive summary.

Federal prosecutors indicted eight anti-Israel activists affiliated with the University of Michigan on Wednesday, accusing them of conspiring to run a campaign intimidating university officials seen as pro-Israel — and vandalizing local Jewish organizations.  

Following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, the defendants carried out a series of coordinated actions targeting University of Michigan leaders or organizations with connections to Israel, according to the indictment. On the one-year anniversary of the attacks, they vandalized Detroit’s Jewish Federation building and two other businesses, spray-painting words including “intifada.”   

They also forcibly entered and occupied university buildings, defaced property and disrupted campus events — and placed fake bloody corpses outside the homes of multiple university leaders, including then-President Santa Ono, over their perceived support for Israel. According to Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, the defendants — while masked and hooded — “allegedly threw noxious chemicals through the windows of families’ homes and taped demand letters to their front doors” and also “discussed methods by which to harm the targets and their families, including poison, bombs, and psychological torture.”  

“In America, we rule by law not by fear. These alleged threats and attempts to terrorize government officials, businesses, and the Jewish Federation are anti-American. We will counter intimidation with justice,” said Jerome Gorgon Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.

If convicted, the individuals could face charges including conspiracy to transmit a threat, conspiracy to tamper with a witness and destruction of property — which carry penalties ranging from five to twenty years in prison. 

The University of Michigan was an epicenter of antisemitic activity in the years following Oct. 7. In 2024, the campus was host to an anti-Israel protest encampment that lasted for nearly four weeks and was ultimately broken up by police. That same year, a Jewish student at the university was attacked —  resulting in minor injuries — in what the Ann Arbor Police Department described as “a bias-motivated assault.” The exterior of Jewish University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker’s law office and home were vandalized multiple times. 

All of the candidates in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary — Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Abdul El-Sayed — did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Jewish Insider about the indictment.  

The Republican candidate, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), wrote on X, “Atrocious. And clearly an organized criminal operation. We cannot let terror campaigns like this run rampant on our universities, where they spread antisemitism, poison the minds of our youth, and threaten families’ safety.  We must do better. And when I’m elected in November, I’ll make sure of it.” 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told JI, “Michigan has been a place where people from all backgrounds, religions, and cultures have lived together peacefully for decades. Violence, vandalism, threats, and intimidation are unacceptable. We must remain united in calling out hatred of any kind and continue working together toward peace in Michigan.”

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), who serves as the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, told JI, “The horrific behavior displayed by eight pro-terrorist individuals at the University of Michigan is completely unacceptable. Those who threaten and use intimidation against officials must be held accountable.”

Elyssa Schmier, regional director of Anti-Defamation League Michigan, said the allegations “paint a disturbing picture of individuals who sought to use fear, harassment and threats of violence to advance their cause.” 

“The right to protest and lobby university officials does not extend to threats, property destruction, harassment, or efforts to terrorize individuals and communities,” said Schmier. “We commend federal, state and local law enforcement for their work investigating these allegations and protecting those who were targeted.”  

Jewish Insider senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod contributed reporting. 

Darializa Avila Chevalier, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidate to unseat Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), on Friday defended her attendance at an anti-Israel rally one day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, denied knowledge regarding her own history of posting anti-U.S. and pro-Russian sentiments online and maintained she owed nothing to the Texas tycoon underwriting a PAC backing her campaign.

The Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed congressional contender faced a battery of questions from reporters following a press conference, including over her decision to participate in an anti-Israel protest organized by pro-China, pro-Iran groups on Oct. 8, 2023, that even Mamdani and then-city Comptroller Brad Lander condemned at the time. Chevalier maintained that she had consistently opposed Hamas and “the celebration of the loss of life,” but refused to speak to the taking of hostages or to whether she had denounced the attack from the outset.

She also showed no regret for joining the demonstration.

“I was at this rally because I have always, as someone who has followed the issues that happened in the region, I have seen a pattern in which whenever there is an incident, the State of Israel engages in a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life,” she said. “And that is what I was there to stand against.”

The candidate also asserted she had learned of GOP-leaning Dallas-area businessman Hussein “Sam” Mahrouq’s support for her candidacy via the anti-Israel American Priorities PAC from news reports. She insisted that she is in no way indebted to her financial backers, even though she has accused Espaillat of being “bought by the Israeli lobby” for support he has received from AIPAC and its supporters.

She also professed ignorance of why she had called the U.S. “a f***ing disgrace” on X and accused the country of having “bullied” Russia into attacking Ukraine.

“I’m not sure what the context of those comments was coming from,” she said.

Democrats nominated a mix of pro-Israel moderates and anti-Israel ideologues in Tuesday’s primaries across the country, but the biggest red flag for the party is the emergence of a New Jersey nominee with past terror ties prevailing in a closely watched congressional contest. 

Plastic surgeon Adam Hamawy prevailed with 28% of the vote in a crowded Democratic primary field in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ). 

Hamawy was a former associate of Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the Blind Sheikh, who was convicted of inspiring the terrorists who engineered the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Hamawy later served as a defense witness during Abdel Rahman’s 1995 trial, and volunteered around the same time in Bosnia with a group later shuttered as a front for al-Qaida. 

Hamawy, with the support of left-wing groups, some progressive lawmakers and the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC, defeated his opponents with regional bases but limited support outside their local communities. No pro-Israel groups or other moderate-minded outside PACs decided to spend money on anti-Hamawy attack ads, allowing him to consolidate enough backing from his base to prevail with a relatively small plurality. 

Despite his baggage, Hamawy is expected to win election to Congress in November, given the central New Jersey district’s heavily Democratic electorate. 

In more favorable news for pro-Israel moderate voters, Democrats nominated former Navy pilot Rebecca Bennett, who flew missions over the Straits of Hormuz, to run against Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) in a major battleground district.

“I just feel very strongly that Israel has a right to defend itself and has a right to exist, and that the United States needs to be able to support Israel, and it shouldn’t be partisan,” Bennett told Jewish Insider last August. “I think we should be supporting Israel as an ally, regardless of political party.” She also told JI she supports continuing U.S. aid to Israel without restrictions or conditions.

Kean, who has represented the 7th Congressional District since 2022, has been missing from Congress for the last several months with an undisclosed illness. His uncertain personal circumstances have made Democrats bullish about their prospects in the swing district, which Kean only won by five points in 2024.

Democratic voters in the neighboring 11th Congressional District overwhelmingly renominated left-wing Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-NJ), who was the surprise winner in a special election primary earlier this year after AIPAC’s super PAC spent money attacking the more moderate former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ).

But while Mejia won a whopping 82% of the Democratic vote against her long-shot opposition, there was a significant protest vote against her in the towns with a large Jewish constituency: Livingston and Millburn.

Meanwhile, Rep. Robert Menendez Jr. (D-NJ), a pro-Israel Democrat, comfortably brushed back a challenge from far-left, anti-Israel candidate Mussab Ali, winning 70% of the primary vote. 

New Jersey wasn’t the only state holding consequential primaries. In Iowa, the high-stakes Senate race is all set after Democrats nominated the more moderate state lawmaker Josh Turek, the favorite of the party establishment, over progressive state Sen. Zach Wahls. 

Turek will face Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA). Iowa has lately been a reliably Republican state, but given President Donald Trump’s depressed approval ratings, Democrats are optimistic they can put the seat in play.

In California, the first wave of results suggest the likelihood of a general election matchup between Democratic former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, a Republican who was backed by President Donald Trump, though there are many ballots remaining to be counted. Former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, a Democrat, lags behind the top two vote-getters in third place.

In the Los Angeles mayor’s race, it’s looking likely that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, will be facing Republican former reality show star Spencer Pratt in the general election. DSA-aligned City Councilmember Nithya Raman so far is trailing Pratt in third place. 

In the race to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), state Sen. Scott Wiener will face Connie Chan, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — with the virulently anti-Israel Saikat Chakrabarti lagging far behind Chan.

Meanwhile, at least one of the two Democrats endorsed by the pro-Israel Democratic group DMFI is heading into a general election. The DMFI-backed San Diego Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert is comfortably ahead of Ammar Campa-Najjar, who was viewed as a less reliable supporter of the U.S.-Israel alliance. Von Wilpert will face Republican Jim Desmond, a San Diego County supervisor, in the swing district. 

But in the battleground district of Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), the DMFI-endorsed candidate, state Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, is narrowly trailing her left-wing, anti-Israel challenger Randy Villegas.

New Jersey, the state with one of the largest Jewish populations in the country, has become something of a political nightmare for Jewish voters who have seen Democrats turn to far-left, virulently anti-Israel candidates in this year’s primaries. 

That trend continued Tuesday night as Democratic voters in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District nominated plastic surgeon Adam Hamawy, despite his past affiliations with Islamist extremists, who prevailed with about 28% of the vote in a crowded Democratic primary field. 

Hamawy, with the support of left-wing groups, some progressive lawmakers and the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC, prevailed over his opponents with regional bases but limited support outside their local communities. No pro-Israel groups or other moderate-minded outside PACs decided to spend money on anti-Hamawy attack ads, allowing him to consolidate enough backing from his base to prevail with a relatively small plurality. 

Hamawy was a former associate of Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the Blind Sheikh, who was convicted of inspiring the terrorists who engineered the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Hamawy later served as a defense witness during Abdel Rahman’s 1995 trial, and volunteered around the same time in Bosnia with a group later shuttered as a front for Al-Qaida. 

Despite his baggage, Hamawy is expected to win election to Congress in the November general election, given the central New Jersey district’s heavily Democratic electorate. 

Democratic voters in the neighboring 11th Congressional District also overwhelmingly renominated left-wing Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-NJ), who was the surprise winner in a special election primary earlier this year after AIPAC’s super PAC spent money attacking the more moderate former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ)

But while Mejia won a whopping 82% of the Democratic vote against her long-shot opposition, there was a significant protest vote against her in the towns with a large Jewish constituency: Livingston and Millburn.

In more favorable news for pro-Israel moderate voters, Democrats nominated former Navy pilot Rebecca Bennett, who flew missions over the Straits of Hormuz, to run against Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) in a major battleground district.

“I just feel very strongly that Israel has a right to defend itself and has a right to exist, and that the United States needs to be able to support Israel, and it shouldn’t be partisan,” Bennett told Jewish Insider last August. “I think we should be supporting Israel as an ally, regardless of political party.”

She also told JI she supports continuing U.S. aid to Israel without restrictions or conditions.

Kean, who has represented the 7th Congressional District since 2022, has been missing from Congress for the last several months with an undisclosed illness. His uncertain personal circumstances have made Democrats bullish of their prospects in the swing district, which Kean only won by five points in 2024.

Meanwhile, Rep. Robert Menendez Jr. (D-NJ), a pro-Israel Democrat, comfortably brushed back a challenge from far-left, anti-Israel candidate Mussab Ali, winning 70% of the primary vote. 

A recently launched super PAC positioning itself as a progressive counterweight to AIPAC’s involvement in Democratic primary elections has accepted financial contributions from a number of individuals who have also donated to Republicans, campaign filings show.

The financial support for American Priorities PAC, created in February, has come even as AIPAC and its super PAC have faced backlash from critics on the left who accuse it of meddling in Democratic primaries as a sort of front group for GOP-funded attacks against anti-Israel candidates in safely blue districts.

AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, has taken far more from GOP-linked donors than its new rival, American Priorities — now funded largely by a handful of deep-pocketed contributors. UDP supports both Democrats and Republicans.

But American Priorities, which has thus far only supported Democrats and pledged to spend at least $10 million during the midterms, has not acknowledged that the source of some of its funding is from donors who have at the same time given to GOP candidates and groups — and more extensively than previously reported.  

A spokesperson for American Priorities did not respond to a request for comment about whether the group is comfortable with such financial support and how it views the donations in relation to AIPAC’s own pro-Israel fundraising.

American Priorities, which has raised $5.4 million thus far, has sought to mimic AIPAC’s playbook of spending aggressively in progressive congressional districts to elect its preferred primary candidates. The new group is investing significantly in New Jersey’s 12th District race on Tuesday on behalf of Adam Hamawy — a plastic surgeon who opposes all U.S. aid to Israel and whose past ties to a convicted terrorist mastermind as well as a now-shuttered al-Qaida-linked group in Bosnia have drawn scrutiny in the final weeks of the election. 

The super PAC has vowed to spend around $2 million by the end of the crowded primary — where Hamawy has been surging — and it recently reached $500,000 in another race in California boosting Randy Villegas, a progressive critic of Israel running for a red-leaning seat held by Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), who is endorsed by AIPAC.

Those investments have been fueled, most notably, by at least $525,000 from Hussein Mahrouq, a Texas businessman who has backed far-right Republicans including the recently ousted Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), both of whom have been accused of using antisemitic tropes about Jews and Israel.

In 2024, Mahrouq, one of the top contributors to American Priorities, also gave $100,000 to boost Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and donated $25,000 to Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, state filings show.

Meanwhile, American Priorities accepted a $5,000 contribution from Omar Khawaja, a personal injury lawyer in Houston, who in March donated to a super PAC supporting hard-right Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who won last week’s GOP primary run-off in the state’s closely watched Senate race. Khawaja has also contributed to a Republican House candidate in Texas as well as Massie, who is among the most vocal critics of Israel in the GOP congressional caucus, according to filings.

Moiz Ali, an entrepreneur and investor in Texas who gave $150,000 to American Priorities in March, also donated to Massie last fall — shortly before he drew a challenger, Ed Gallrein, who defeated the libertarian congressman earlier this month with the backing of President Donald Trump. AIPAC also spent heavily against Massie, a top target of the group this cycle. 

Another American Priorities donor, Nadeem Baig, a gastroenterologist in New Jersey who gave $50,000, has previously contributed to former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), former Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), all of whom have been known as staunch supporters of Israel. LaHood is backed by AIPAC, while Lance served as a co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus before he was unseated in 2018.

In a statement shared with Jewish Insider by a spokesperson for Mahrouq, he called himself “an independent businessman, not affiliated with any political party,” and said that his “support has always been guided by what I believe is in the best interest of the United States, its economic strength, security and long-term prosperity.”

“I have supported individuals and organizations across the political spectrum when their positions align with those priorities,” he continued. “My focus is not partisan politics, but rather promoting policies that strengthen America, encourage opportunity, and serve the interests of American citizens. I believe decisions affecting our country should be made based on what is best for the United States, independent of pressure from any foreign government, foreign interest group or partisan agenda.”

Mahrouq was the only American Priorities donor reached for comment by JI who shared a response.

The contributions to Massie and Greene in particular suggest anti-Israel sentiment can transcend partisan boundaries, in the way pro-Israel advocacy has been seen as a bipartisan effort connecting Democrats and Republicans.

Still, American Priorities has only backed Democrats, while AIPAC has championed bipartisan advocacy — even as it has stirred controversy over its engagement in Democratic races that show the group is navigating mounting hostility toward Israel from candidates and elected officials.

American Priorities is led by Hannah Fertig, a strategist with ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the far-left group Justice Democrats, which also gave to the super PAC and is likewise backing Hamawy in his primary on Tuesday. “We want our foreign policy views to reflect where the Democratic base has moved, particularly on Gaza, and on unconditional U.S. military to Israel,” Fertig told Semafor in March following the group’s launch. “We’re seeing this as a generational inflection point, and we launched because there’s a huge gap in the progressive spending ecosystem.”

The latest revelations that Graham Platner, the Democrats’ anti-establishment, far-left standard-bearer in the Maine Senate race, was sending sexually explicit texts to as many as a dozen women while he was married — an issue his wife raised to campaign staff as a potential liability — is another sign that the candidate’s extensive baggage may be too much for the party to handle. (As commentator Haviv Rettig Gur posted on X: “I’m starting to think that SS tattoo might have been a red flag.”)

Meanwhile, a New York Times interview, published over the weekend, with leading New Jersey Democratic congressional candidate Adam Hamawy about his past affiliations with Islamist extremists is going to raise more red flags for Democrats.   

Asked about his travels with Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” who was connected to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Hamawy downplayed the spiritual leader’s jihadist sermons. “He wasn’t preaching death and destruction all the time,” Hamawy said. “He had certain views that he spoke in certain forums, but that’s not what he did every single day.”

With the calendar now approaching June, it’s yet another reminder that Democrats are on the verge of nominating some truly radical and damaged candidates for congressional office as a critical mass of primaries take place this month.

Many of the races are taking place in safely blue seats, so Democrats haven’t raised that much concern over candidates such as Hamawy, whose terror ties (including volunteer work for what was later revealed as an al-Qaida front group) at the very least, raise questions about suitability for public office.

But others, such as Platner, are running in battleground Senate seats where the stakes couldn’t be higher. In California and Montana, candidates are running in swing districts where the battle for the House majority will be fought. 

If May was the month that tested President Donald Trump’s power over the Republican Party (lesson: he’s still firmly in control of GOP voters), June will be the month that determines whether the Democratic Party is going to abandon its moderate moorings and nominate a roster of radicals.

The stakes couldn’t be higher — especially for Jewish Democrats, who have been among the leading voices alarmed by the rise of these candidates, who, not surprisingly, often hold virulently anti-Israel views and don’t have a problem mainlining antisemitic rhetoric. 

While Platner’s expected nomination and Hamawy’s potential one are generating the most attention, several under-the-radar races will have a direct bearing on the Democrats’ midterm prospects. 

In California’s congressional races, the pro-Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel has been involved in two swing-district races where the group fears left-wing candidates could jeopardize the party’s chances of a pickup. In the seat held by Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), the group endorsed Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains and has been airing ads on her behalf in the Central Valley-based district. 

Bains is facing a Democratic challenge from school board trustee Randy Villegas, who has landed endorsements from many of the leading anti-Israel lawmakers in Congress and who many Democrats fear could cost the Democrats a seat if he’s the nominee against the battle-tested Valadao. 

In the race to succeed retiring Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) in a San Diego-area district, the pro-Israel group has endorsed San Diego Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert, who is running against Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is of mixed Palestinian and Mexican American descent and has twice unsuccessfully run for Congress. The district was redrawn to elect a Democrat, but it still remains a competitive battleground. 

In Iowa, Democrats will be choosing whether to nominate the party-favored state Rep. Josh Turek, the more moderate candidate, or go with a true-blue progressive in state Sen. Zach Wahls. The nominee is expected to face Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) in a state that Democrats hope will become competitive, given the rough national environment for Republicans.

And in Montana’s 1st District, in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), Jewish leaders are alarmed by several candidates in the Democratic primary field over their anti-Israel rhetoric and online antisemitic activity. Army veteran Matt Rains appears to be the most mainstream Democratic candidate of the four in the race, but lags behind in fundraising. 

The district has been solidly Republican since its creation, but in a Democratic wave, it’s competitive enough that it could flip. Given the extreme rhetoric of some of the Democratic candidates, however, that prospect would be less likely. 

Also of note: Los Angeles voters will be determining which two candidates will square off in a runoff for mayor. Assuming embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass finishes in the top two, her opponent will either be running further to her left (Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman) or to her right (reality star Spencer Pratt). The matchup will determine whether the campaign focuses more on catering to progressive voters or moderates disenchanted with the direction of the city. 

In the contentious Democratic primary in Montana’s 1st Congressional District, Israel and antisemitism have become flashpoints in ways that members of the local Jewish community say they find concerning and potentially dangerous.

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who currently represents the seat, is retiring at the end of his current term, and Democrats view it as a potential pickup opportunity in a favorable midterm climate. Former Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) narrowly won the district in 2024, despite losing statewide. However, the Cook Political Report rates the district as “Likely Republican,” and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hasn’t put the district on its target list at this point.

Though the district leans Republican, that hasn’t stopped a majority of Democrats in the field from racing to the left on Israel policy, a dynamic that was on clear display at a recent debate. 

Ryan Busse, a businessman and author who is the top fundraiser among the Democratic candidates, declared that the U.S. has been “forced into a war by another country,” alleging that Israel dragged the U.S. in its military campaign against Iran.

“This war that we’re fighting, that you’re funding, that your tax dollars are funding, is largely a war propagated by Israel,” Busse said. “I’m not taking any AIPAC dollars, wouldn’t dream of it. I think we should be really wide-eyed about the degree to which Israel has too much influence over our foreign policy. “

He also declared that Israel is not a “functioning democracy” and said that Israel is committing war crimes with American tax dollars and that he would fight to stop that aid in Congress.

Russell Cleveland, a Navy veteran and entrepreneur, said that Israel “has a right to exist without fear, but that doesn’t mean that those rights can infringe on other countries’ rights or other people’s rights to exist without fear as well” and said that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

He asserted that Israel is being held to a different standard than other countries and is effectively controlling U.S. policy.

“We have hitched our wagon so hard to Israel in turning a blind eye to their actions on a national stage that we’re willing to disregard what we would hold to account any other country for the same exact violence and war crimes and violations of international law,” Cleveland said. “We cannot allow another country to have that type of control on not only what we’re doing in terms of sending armaments and money, but also that’s an ally to the United States, so everything that they do, we too are responsible for.”

Sam Forstag, a wildland firefighter and union leader with the backing of prominent national progressives and D.C.-based groups, said that he agreed with Busse and Cleveland, also disavowing AIPAC support while blaming U.S. support for Israel for a lack of services and government assistance at home.

“We need to have strict enforced humanitarian requirements on any aid that we are providing countries overseas,” Forstag said. “That needs to apply to Israel, that needs to apply to any country, because if we cannot afford to feed our hunger, if we cannot afford to make sure that the elderly in this country are not living on the streets, we sure as hell cannot afford to rain cruelty in chaos overseas, Israel or Iran.”

Matt Rains, an Army veteran, rancher and photographer, was the only one of the four Democratic candidates to stake out an opposing view and offer a defense of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

He emphasized that he has spent time in the region, and that he understands “we need to value our alliance with Israel, and I am in support of that because I am against hatred, I’m against racism, I’m against antisemitism, I’m against terrorism.”

Rains said that actually working toward a two-state solution requires people who have firsthand experience and understand the situation on the ground, arguing that many draw incorrect conclusions from news reports.

Busse has been the top fundraiser in the field, pulling in $529,000, followed by Forstag with $448,000, Cleveland with $325,000 and Rains with $125,000. Cleveland, however, trails the rest of the field in cash-on-hand.

Antisemitic activity online has also cast a cloud over two of the candidates in the race.

Cleveland liked an antisemitic Instagram comment that read, “I wouldn’t vote for anybody who takes money from those stinking Jews,” on a post endorsing him.

Cleveland denied any knowledge of the post and disavowed it. He told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that his campaign “incidentally liked [this] comment” and that “My team and I do not condone these types of antisemitic comments, nor support them. … This is antisemitic. I don’t approve of that comment. I wouldn’t have liked it intentionally.”

Busse’s son Lander has also landed in hot water over a series of controversial social media posts which included a spat with a local rabbi.

The younger Busse responded to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that “Free Palestine is today’s version of Heil Hitler” with a gif of a “Breaking Bad” character saying, “Well, Heil Hitler b****.”

He also demanded that a local Chabad rabbi, Chaim Bruk, acknowledge that Israel is an apartheid state and conducting a genocide. When Bruk declined to do so, the younger Busse responded “aight then f*** you.”

He also said in another post “F*** ISRAEL.”

The elder Busse told the New York Post, “I don’t condone any language or actions that minimize the very real tragedy of the Holocaust, and I don’t condone any antisemitic behavior or language.”

He said he opposes antisemitism and that his son is “definitely not antisemitic in any way shape or form,” but denied having seen his son’s social media posts, which were subsequently deleted.

Bruk, the longest-serving rabbi in Montana, told Jewish Insider that he felt it was necessary to engage with Lander Busse as the son of a person running for office, when the younger Busse was spreading comments that could prompt hate against the Jewish community.

Bruk said that he also wanted to give the elder Busse “an opportunity to reach out and see if he has a very different opinion than his son — which he has not done as of today.”

Bruk argued that he’s seen little evidence that Busse’s own opinions differ from those of his son, noting that, while they haven’t engaged in the same sort of vulgarity, Busse, Cleveland and Forstag had all made concerning comments about Israel and Jews.

“I have always strongly opposed antisemitism and will continue to do so unequivocally. I am deeply troubled by the rise in antisemitic activity and rhetoric across our country, and I stand firmly with Jewish communities,” Busse said in a statement to JI. “At the same time, I am troubled by the current Israeli government’s policies and leadership. In my view, criticism of a government’s actions and policies should not be conflated with prejudice against an entire people or faith. We should be able to reject antisemitism in all forms while also engaging in honest and thoughtful discussion about the actions of governments, including Israel’s.”

But Bruk said he takes Cleveland at his word that he did not personally or intentionally like the antisemitic Instagram post.

Cora Neumann, a Jewish state senator who was a previous Democratic nominee for the 1st District seat, said she feels that many of the candidates for the seat are “getting pulled into national issues that don’t impact us, just to posture and play political games,” particularly when it comes to Israel.

She said she has found the attacks on AIPAC, which come despite the fact it hasn’t been involved in the race, “very problematic,” and has been concerned by candidates blaming Israel for the war in Iran. She said she has reached out to several of the candidates to share her perspective.

But she said she hasn’t seen many of the candidates in the race “take pause and think twice about the way you speak” about Israel, even after being warned that their rhetoric might fuel antisemitism, “which shows a disregard for a vulnerable population in the U.S. and around the world.”

“I think this is a poison that has taken hold in our party and it has made my family less safe, and there has been little to no action taken to combat it, locally or nationally,” Neumann told JI. “Democrats need to reflect on our values and who we are and if we really feel that this is acceptable. … Democrats need to seriously reflect on why they’ve let it get so out of hand.”

Asked about concerns from members of the local Jewish community about the way Israel and AIPAC have been invoked in the race, Cleveland said in a statement to JI that, “Being critical of the actions of Israel with regard to its military aggression and violation of international law is not antisemitic.”

“We cannot simply label criticism of any one country as prejudice just because many of us oppose more war, death and destruction. The best possible outcome in the region is one where all people, no matter whether they are from Israel, Palestine, or Lebanon, are treated equally and without prejudice,” Cleveland said. “I want peace for the people of Israel, just as I do for those in any other country or territory. I believe this can be achieved through application of freedom of religion, coexistence, and seeking strength through diversity. This, however, can only be achieved through strict adherence to international law and practice of equal rights of all people.” 

In an interview with JI, Rains, an Army captain who served in Iraq and traveled throughout the world in that role and a subsequent one as a photojournalist, said that he has a “vital perspective” of understanding the dynamics in the region firsthand, rather than being “told by other people how to think and believe” on the internet.

His travels took him throughout Israel and the West Bank, and he said that he found many of the media narratives that people in the United States hear about Israel and the conflict to be exaggerated.

He said he feels that the other candidates in the race are “jumping on [the anti-Israel] bandwagon” without a proper understanding of the situation. “You just want to scream because it’s truly a lack of understanding and knowing what is reality and what you’re just being fed through the internet and buying into.”

He said that growing animosity toward Israel and calls to cut off aid are jeopardizing a critical alliance, which will ultimately make the United States less safe and lead to more regional instability and more wars.

He said that he’s also been stunned by what he has seen as an embrace of antisemitism in the United States, pointing significant blame toward the Trump administration for spreading and normalizing “comments that are there to rile up people.” He said that he would be vocal as a member of Congress in emphasizing that antisemitism is not acceptable.

He called the spread of antisemitic rhetoric in the primary race “one of the most shocking things of this campaign.” He said he didn’t anticipate that the issue would be one that he would campaign on, but said he felt a responsibility to not “let hatred creep in” in his own party.

Rains’ photojournalism work also brought him to Myanmar, where he said he was the first photojournalist on the ground documenting the Rohingya genocide in the early 2010s. Having seen such atrocities firsthand — and encountering fierce police resistance to documenting them — he called the accusations of genocide against Israel “absolutely frustrating,” and criticized those in his party who have spread that narrative.

Having worked on strategic planning matters in Iraq, Rains said that he’s been frustrated by what he saw as a failure of proper planning in the U.S. operations in Iran. “The threat of the regime [was] horrific,” Rains said, but he doesn’t have faith in the Trump administration to ensure that Iran is more stable and has better governance at the end of war.

“My biggest frustration is there’s a risk — kind of what happened in Afghanistan when we left there — for a worse government to backfill and make it more hostile than it was,” Rains said.

Bruk and Neumann both spoke positively of Rains’ stance on issues of concern to and of his engagement with the Jewish community.

Bruk said Rains is the only one of the four Democratic candidates who has visited the local synagogue and Chabad center and “made it clear that he stands with the Jewish people and he stands with the people of Israel and their right to their own nation.” He said Rains and his campaign had reached out to visit the synagogue of his own initiative.

Bruk said it’s important to him that the growing Montana Jewish community has a representative who cares about them and who “isn’t ready to throw them locally under the bus because of some international issue with which they agree or disagree” — regardless of potential policy differences on Israel.

Neumann said that she’s also been impressed by the “moral clarity” Rains has shown on the issue and others.

“I think to be able to stand up against the intense headwinds and national pressure to speak on Israel, even if it’s not relevant to your constituents, to be able to stand up against that pressure shows incredible moral character, and that’s what I look for in candidates,” Neumann said.

Bruk said he’d also had a conversation with Forstag and was optimistic that his rhetoric would change going forward. “I think he genuinely didn’t realize that it’s not just about some lobbying PAC that gives, you know, very little money to Montana at all, but it ends up creating an environment in which Jews become fair game,” Bruk said.

He said that he felt from their conversation that Forstag didn’t realize that AIPAC had had little to no involvement in politics in the state. Bruk said he emphasized to Forstag that invoking AIPAC on the campaign trail can increase the dangers to the Jewish community.

“I don’t think he realized the practical ramifications,” Bruk said, and said he was comforted to see Forstag’s rhetoric seemingly shift since then.

Neumann said she also found Forstag to be “receptive and sensitive to feedback on how problematic this disproportionate focus on Israel is.”

In last night’s Texas primary runoffs, Democrats successfully prevented a virulent antisemite from becoming the party’s nominee in a battleground House race, while voters also ousted one of the party’s longtime anti-Israel lawmakers for a younger, more pragmatic replacement. 

On the Republican side, President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was the decisive factor in Paxton’s sweeping victory over Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a widely respected pragmatic conservative who served for years in party leadership. 

The results painted a picture of a volatile electorate in both parties. A late push by the Democrats’ House campaign arm and the pro-Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel helped prevent sex therapist Maureen Galindo, who advocated putting pro-Israel Jews in internment camps as part of her campaign message, from winning a valued nomination in Texas’ swing 35th Congressional District.

Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy long touted by national Democrats as a top recruit, won the Democratic nomination by 28 points (64-36%) despite finishing in second place in the primary. He will face Republican Air Force veteran Carlos de la Cruz in the general election.

DMFI’s political action committee touted its role as an early endorser of Garcia’s campaign, and for being one of the first and few groups to raise the red flag on Galindo’s extreme views. In its victory statement, DMFI also condemned the efforts from a secretive GOP group to spend nearly $1 million on Galindo’s behalf, in hopes of elevating a more vulnerable Democratic candidate to the general election. 

On the positive side, an extremist was defeated thanks to leading Democratic Party organizations and officials rushing to condemn her candidacy. It’s a sign of how institutions can use their power to unify in speaking out against hate. On the other hand, she still won over one-third of the runoff vote despite the full-court press from Democrats to oppose her, a sign that it may take aggressive measures simply to stop a crank from prevailing.

Pro-Israel leaders also cheered the resounding defeat of Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who has alienated the Houston Jewish community with his anti-Israel votes in Congress in recent years and lackluster constituent services. Green lost by nearly 40 points to Rep. Christian Menefee (D-TX), who was just elected to Congress in a neighboring district and was forced to run against his colleague as a result of redistricting. 

AIPAC tweeted a congratulatory note to Menefee after he prevailed, cheering his “victory tonight over one of the most outspoken anti-Israel voices in Congress.” Menefee, a former Harris County attorney, was generally a critic of Israel’s wartime actions during its campaign in Gaza, but unlike Green, refused to describe its war against Hamas as a “genocide.” He also said during a debate against Green that he understood why a democratic nation would want to wage a war against a terrorist group.

And in a suburban Dallas district that pitted former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) against his successor, Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX), Allred prevailed in the battle of the two experienced politicos. Allred was the party’s unsuccessful nominee for the Senate in 2024 and considered another Senate campaign before pivoting and deciding to run for the House again. 

The race generating the most national headlines was Paxton’s resounding victory over Cornyn by 28 points (64-36%) — proving another example of Trump’s endorsement power in Republican nomination fights. Cornyn had been one of the state’s most popular Republican elected officials before facing growing grassroots opposition from the right over his pragmatism and lack of deep MAGA bona fides. Paxton, despite facing considerable personal baggage, sensed Cornyn’s vulnerability with the base — and in the end, parlayed a Trump endorsement to victory.

This month alone, Trump defeated five of seven targeted Indiana state senators for resisting redistricting efforts, ousted Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in primaries over perceived disloyalty and handily dispatched the battle-tested Cornyn. Trump is struggling to maintain support with many Americans, but within the Republican Party, his grip is still tight.

CUNY School of Law once again featured anti-Israel activity at its commencement ceremony on Thursday, allowing antagonistic student activity during its graduation events for the fourth straight year. 

Over a dozen new graduates unfurled Palestinian flags and signs while on stage at the United Palace Theatre receiving their diplomas to applause and cheering. 

One sign read, “CUNY divest from genocide now.” Another poster said, “resistance is the deepest form of love.”

While anti-Israel protests and speeches surged at university commencements nationwide after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and amid the ensuing war in Gaza, CUNY Law — the only publicly funded law school in New York City — was already grappling with this trend years earlier. The school did not respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider about this year’s graduation. 

In 2023, graduate Fatima Mousa Mohammed delivered remarks that were highly critical of Israel, the NYPD and New York City leadership in her student-selected address. “Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old and young,” said Mohammed, a Yemeni immigrant who was a student activist involved with Students for Justice in Palestine. “It continues its project of settler colonialism expelling Palestinians from their homes.”

The year before, Palestinian-American graduate speaker Nerdeen Kiswani encouraged “the fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world” and condemned university administration for “normalizing” trips to Israel for students and faculty. Kiswani, who was also involved with SJP while a student, went on to co-found Within Our Lifetime, a radical anti-Israel organization that has engaged in antisemitic demonstrations including outside of New York City synagogues. 

In 2024, CUNY Law eliminated live student and faculty addresses at commencement, causing eight CUNY Law graduates to file a federal First Amendment lawsuit against the university. 

This year, when the school did not allow a student commencement speaker at all, Jewish Voice for Peace condemned CUNY’s decision, calling it “deeply perverse that an institution that prides itself on being the people’s university and loudly proclaims its commitment to student-centered learning would take steps to silence students at what should be a celebration of their achievements and future promise. This censorship displays a cowardly disregard for your students’ right to political expression. It also deeply damages CUNY’s reputation.”  

Track AIPAC, the social media account that has gained a growing audience among anti-Israel activists in recent years, found itself in an embarrassing position this week when a candidate it had championed for Congress faced bipartisan backlash over extreme antisemitic comments calling to imprison and castrate “American Zionists,” whom she accused of pedophilia.

In a lengthy statement posted to X on Tuesday, the account said it was “aware of incendiary statements and troubling behavior” by Maureen Galindo, a San Antonio activist competing for an open swing seat in Texas next week against a pro-Israel Democrat whom national party leaders view as their best chance to flip the newly drawn House district in the general election.

While the account, which runs an affiliated super PAC, qualified its response with the added caveat that it “stands firmly on the side of free expression,” it informed its nearly 500,000 followers that it was “immediately revoking” its endorsement of Galindo, whom it had helped raise funds for through an online portal, and encouraged others “to follow suit.”

“Calls for cruel and unusual punishment,” Track AIPAC wrote, “are fundamentally in opposition to our organization’s commitment to justice and due process.”

Still, the point at which Track AIPAC finally chose to draw a line over Galindo’s rhetoric underscored how the account’s ostensibly narrow focus on opposition to what it calls the “Israel lobby” has often obscured an indulgence of extreme views and positions. 

Galindo, who narrowly finished in first in the March primary, rose to prominence with a stream of unhinged videos promoting conspiracy theories about Jews and Israel. 

Well before calling to imprison Zionists, for example, she had said Jews “own Hollywood” and “worship the synagogue of Satan,” while claiming that “billionaire Zionists and their puppet journalists are FAKE Jews who create antisemitism to harm and harvest off the real Jews,” among several other incendiary remarks Track AIPAC apparently did not find disqualifying.

Those who have taken issue with the account — which has also faced criticism for using antisemitic language in its fierce opposition to AIPAC and calls for the group to register as a foreign agent — were quick to detect a lack of sincerity in its decision to rescind support for Galindo.

The about-face raises questions about Track AIPAC’s judgement and vetting process, adding to widespread criticism related to its methodology for scoring candidates and elected officials who have taken donations from a range of disparate Israel advocacy groups like J Street, AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel, a broad category critics have dismissed as selective and sloppy.

The account, which has backed several candidates through its political arm, Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption, has at times included contributions from individual lobby donors, fueling accusations that it is simply singling out Jewish political spending without making clearer distinctions among pro-Israel groups.

Brian Romick, the president of DMFI PAC, which is backing Galindo’s runoff opponent, Johnny Garcia, argued that “Track AIPAC embodies the very-online activist fringe: large social-media following, minimal real-world influence, and a political strategy based on vibes.”

While Galindo is likely the most extreme candidate Track AIPAC has endorsed this election cycle, it has backed others who have used inflammatory rhetoric while speaking about Israel, including Chris Rabb, a Democratic state legislator in Pennsylvania who recently claimed the nomination after sharing an Instagram post blaming the massacre of Jewish Australians at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on “Zionists.” 

Track AIPAC was co-founded by Casey Kennedy and Cory Archibald, a former campaign staffer for several anti-Israel Squad members who has described herself as a Marxist and reportedly resides in Germany. The account, which launched in 2024, has claimed a level of growing vitality among far-left audiences due to its eye-catching scorecards posted to social media. Its super PAC, however, reported only $265,000 cash on hand at the end of March, far outnumbered by AIPAC itself. 

The group has endorsed around 80 candidates for House and Senate this election cycle, most notably Graham Platner and Abdul El-Sayed, now running for Senate seats in Maine and Michigan, respectively.  

Even as Galindo’s comments drew fierce blowback from some high-profile figures on the left, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Track AIPAC largely eluded serious scrutiny in progressive circles. In a testament to the extremist views of its followers, the account faced criticism from anti-Zionist X users who accused Track AIPAC of abandoning its values in pulling support for the antisemitic House candidate. 

Jewish Insider contacted several candidates backed by Track AIPAC asking if they were still comfortable receiving support from the account after the Galindo episode, and only one responded. 

Chuck Park, a Democrat challenging Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) in New York City, said “Galindo’s antisemitic comments are reprehensible,” while adding, “I agree with their decision to rescind the endorsement.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a progressive critic of Israel, has interacted cordially with Track AIPAC but is not endorsed by the account, which encourages him “to continue improving” his record “on Israel-Palestine issues.” 

In a statement to JI, Khanna appeared to distance himself from Track AIPAC without directly referring to the account. “What Galindo said was hateful and disgusting,” he said. “Antisemitism has no place in the Democratic party or America. There is a reason I never supported Galindo, and no one should endorse her.”

Track AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment. 

Joel Rubin, a progressive strategist who has warned that the far left is alienating Jewish Democrats with incendiary rhetoric about Israel, said he believed that Track AIPAC’s decision to rescind its endorsement of Galindo did not go “far enough,” saying the account “should be calling for her to immediately withdraw from the race.”

“For Track AIPAC, this does demonstrate the hostility they have to the Jewish community and Israel,” he told JI on Wednesday. “They were so gleefully supporting someone like this when they knew very well how hateful and racist she was.”

Good Wednesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we break down the results of yesterday’s critical primaries, including Rep. Thomas Massie’s loss in Kentucky and Chris Rabb’s win in PA-03, and report on the introduction by Sens. Jacky Rosen and James Lankford of the Jewish American Security Act. We look at how Democratic officials speaking at the Center for American Progress’ convening on Tuesday sidestepped discussions about Israel even as it held multiple sessions on the Middle East, and cover a new report from Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies warning about the effects of the erosion of American Jewish support for Israel on the relationship between Washington and Jerusalem. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Nick Valensi and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

• The House of Representatives is expected to vote today on the Iran war powers resolution sponsored by Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The vote comes a day after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who last week fell short in his reelection bid after President Donald Trump endorsed an opponent, flipped his vote to advance a similar Democratic-led measure in the Senate. More below.
• The House Education Committee’s subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions is holding a hearing this morning on antisemitism in the healthcare field, with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law’s Deena Margolies, Dr. Jacob Agronin, Bend the Arc CEO Jamie Beran and American Jewish Medical Association CEO Eveline Shekhman set to testify. Read more here.
• Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) is among those slated to speak at a hearing being convened this morning by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the State Department’s budget request for its adjacent entities.
• The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center in a session titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate.”
• Elsewhere in Washington this morning, the Jewish Federations of North America, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History are hosting a congressional breakfast to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month. Sam Salz, who in 2022 became one of the only Orthodox Jews to play Division I college football when he walked on to Texas A&M’s team, will give the breakfast’s keynote address.
• Down Pennsylvania Ave., the Hudson Institute is holding an event with Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, on modernizing public diplomacy to address global challenges. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) is slated to give introductory remarks at the event.
• The Federalist Society is hosting its inaugural Legislative Branch Summit today in Washington.
• In Israel, the Knesset unanimously advanced a bill to dissolve the body, which if passed would automatically trigger elections, which are slated to take place no later than October 27. The bill will still need to go through several more readings and votes before it is passed.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Pro-Israel and Republican Jewish groups helped oust one of their leading GOP antagonists on Tuesday night, aligning with President Donald Trump to defeat Rep.Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the most expensive House primary in recent memory. 

Ed Gallrein, a military veteran and farmer recruited by the Trump White House to challenge Massie, decisively defeated the congressman by 10 points, 55-45%. Massie, a libertarian lawmaker who long cast lonely Republican votes against Israel funding and resolutions condemning antisemitism, increasingly trafficked in bigoted rhetoric in the closing weeks of the campaign. 

In his concession speech, Massie continued his antisemitic vitriol against his opponent, telling the crowd: “I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.” Even though Trump’s outspoken opposition was the leading factor behind his demise, he routinely blamed Jewish and pro-Israel donors like Miriam Adelson for costing him his seat and insinuated that Israel was buying seats in Congress. 

Massie first drew the ire of Trump for voting against his “big beautiful” reconciliation bill last year, and the anger was exacerbated by his work with Democrats to force the Department of Justice to release all of the files involving Jeffrey Epstein. 

Outside groups, including a Trump-aligned super PAC (MAGA KY) and those affiliated with the Republican Jewish Coalition, AIPAC and Christians United for Israel, spent aggressively with ads and billboards attacking Massie over his record, with several pointing out his opposition to Israel and Trump’s foreign policy.

Massie’s defeat also underscores Trump’s strong and continued support within the party, with his endorsements in primaries almost always translating into his candidate’s victory. His opposition to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) led to his defeat last week, and he successfully ousted most of the Indiana GOP state senators who opposed his redistricting efforts.

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

POLICY PRIORITIES

Rosen, Lankford introduce bill championed by Jewish leaders to address antisemitism

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) on Tuesday introduced the Jewish American Security Act, a broad new effort by the lawmakers, who co-chair the Senate antisemitism task force, to address antisemitism across multiple sectors of American society, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Similar legislation is also expected to be introduced in the House.

About the bill: The bill contains various provisions aimed at increasing security for Jewish communities through additional funding and federal resources. Key provisions include: additional security assistance and improvements to security grant programs for Jewish communities; addressing antisemitism on college campuses through new federal oversight measures including a federal official to handle campus antisemitism; and addressing the spread of antisemitism online by requiring new transparency reports from social media companies, among a range of related steps in each category.

Read the full story here.

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EIGHTH TIME’S THE CHARM

Cassidy joins Democrats in passing procedural vote aiming to restrict Trump’s war against Iran

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) joined with Democrats to vote for a procedural motion advancing legislation that would end U.S. military operations against Iran, allowing the war powers resolution to move forward on Democrats’ eighth such attempt since the war began, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

State of play: Cassidy, who last week fell short in his reelection primary effort against a Trump-backed challenger, joined three other Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rand Paul (R-KY) — in voting for the procedural motion, which was approved by a 50-47 vote. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted against the motion. The passage of the motion will now tee up further debate on and an additional vote on the resolution itself, at a time to be determined. 

Read the full story here.

Money messages: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on U.S. allies on Tuesday to “step up” and join Washington in taking aggressive economic action against Iran and its broader terrorism financing networks, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.

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LEAVING FINGERPRINTS

Secretive GOP-linked super PAC Lead Left boosting antisemitic Dem candidate in Texas

A newly launched super PAC with ties to Republicans has spent nearly half a million dollars to help boost a Democrat running for a competitive open House seat in Texas who is facing growing bipartisan furor over a series of virulently antisemitic social media remarks, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Boosting Galindo: Lead Left PAC, the GOP-linked group, has been aggressively promoting Maureen Galindo, a fringe San Antonio activist who finished first in the primary and has said that Jews “own Hollywood” and “worship the synagogue of Satan.” Last week, she said that, if elected, she would turn a local immigration detention center “into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking,” while adding, “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists.”

Read the full story here.

Bonus: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed Galindo’s comments, saying that “bigoted garbage and antisemitism should be nowhere near our politics” and suggesting that the “donors behind the Republican super PAC funding her should be exposed.”

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MENDING FENCES

Israeli think tank warns erosion of American Jewish support could weaken U.S.-Israel alliance

A new study from the Tel Aviv University-affiliated Institute of National Security Studies warns that American Jews’ ties with Israel have weakened in recent years, and Israeli leaders do not seem to care enough about how these shifting attitudes might affect Israel’s national security. If Israel ignores the growing distance with the American Jewish community, the country could face long-term consequences, authors Ted Sasson and Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis argue, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. 

Words of warning: “An American Jewish community that is less supportive of Israel would leave Israel more isolated globally, less capable of extending soft power, and less confident in its role as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Sasson, a Middlebury College professor and INSS scholar, and Ben Sasson-Gordis, director of the Israel-United States Research Field at INSS, write. 

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DEM DISCUSSIONS

Center-left think tank’s conference avoids the elephant in the room: Israel

On Tuesday, more than a dozen Democrats pitched their vision for America to a roomfull of liberal donors, staffers and funders at the Center for American Progress’ IDEAS Conference, a convening that pledged to bring together “the broad center-left’s leading thinkers and doers” to offer ideas on a range of policy topics. American foreign policy was one of those topics. In the two sessions on national security, each of which devoted significant discussion to the Middle East, one topic was notably absent: Israel, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. 

Iran war opposition: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) kicked off the gathering with an address billed as “National Security Ideas for the Future.” He cited his own experiences as a member of the Marine Corps who served in Iraq, arguing that the war in Iran is misguided and harming Americans. ”I’m here today because right now our country is in danger. Will this president continue to drag America into another endless Middle East war?” Gallego said. “This is a war that wasn’t planned, wasn’t authorized and is not making us safer. [Donald] Trump got his war, and working families got stuck with the bill every day.”

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FLOURISHING FRIENDSHIPS

Iran war is leading to stronger alliance between Israel, India and the UAE, experts say

While some geopolitical relationships have been tested by the Iran war, others have been strengthened: Emerging alignments between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and India are creating new opportunities for cooperation among three countries increasingly bound by shared defense and economic interests, experts told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

Overlapping interests: On Friday, India and the UAE agreed on the framework for a strategic defense partnership, a step that could deepen ties between New Delhi and Abu Dhabi amid the regional fallout from the war. Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that the partnership also extends to Israel, which has remained a key ally of both countries. He said the emerging alignment is rooted in overlapping economic and strategic interests and shared adversaries.

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Worthy Reads

Narrative War: Days after The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof published a piece alleging numerous abuses of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli security officials, Kristof’s colleague on the Opinion desk, Bret Stephens, observes the documented history of news outlets publishing falsehoods about Israel without basic fact-checking. “The common thread in these and many other stories is that they all involve strenuous, if ultimately embarrassed, efforts to prove that Israelis deliberately seek to kill the innocent and maim the vulnerable, apparently for no other reason than gratuitous cruelty. This isn’t a matter of reporters’ impartially trying to expose wrongdoing wherever they find it — if that were the case, the errors wouldn’t invariably lean in the same ideological direction. It isn’t speaking truth to power. It’s feeding narratives to the credulous.” [NYTimes]

Drawing Down Aid: In The Wall Street Journal, the American Enterprise Institute’s Daniel Samet argues in favor of winding down U.S. aid to Israel, calling it a “political liability” that could affect the future of the relationship between the countries. “Military aid to Israel, which Washington began supplying in significant amounts during the 1960s, has been a sound investment. The U.S. has financed a reliable ally that fights and wins wars against America’s enemies. Yet Israel no longer commands the affection of the American people as widely as it once did. Ending military assistance is a political imperative in changing times.” [WSJ]

Word on the Street

U.S. forces in the Indian Ocean seized an Iran-linked oil tanker that had been under U.S. sanctions since March; the vessel was believed to be carrying upwards of a million barrels of crude oil that was loaded earlier this year from Iran’s Kharg Island…

The New York Times reports on an Israeli-developed plan, backed by the U.S., for former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was under house arrest in Tehran, to be installed as the leader of Iran; the plan reportedly fell apart after the hard-liner was injured on the first day of the war in a strike intended to free him from house arrest and, per the Times, “became disillusioned with the regime change plan”…

Ahmadinejad biographer and Israeli analyst Meir Javedanfar dismissed the report, calling it “a disinformation campaign initiated by those that tried to assassinate him”; Javedanfar said that the “disinformation is being used to create chaos within the ranks of the Islamic Republic of Iran” following what he described as “an assassination attempt gone wrong”… 

Iranian state media reported that Tehran had offered a new proposal to the U.S. that would include the withdrawal of U.S. troops from areas near Iran, an end to hostilities targeting both Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon and reparations for damages the regime sustained in the recent war…

The United Arab Emirates said that three drones that targeted the country’s nuclear power plant over the weekend originated from Iraq, deepening speculation that Iran, which backs militias in the country, was behind the attack…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the challenges facing Kuwait following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz that has halted the Gulf state’s ability to ship crude oil…

President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s primary challenge against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Tuesday, dealing a significant blow to Cornyn’s bid for a fifth term, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…

Former CIA officer Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, an ally of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, is departing her senior roles at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of Management and Budget to return to the private sector…

The Senate passed a resolution honoring Jewish American Heritage Month by unanimous consent…

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), responding to Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) primary defeat, said that Massie “lost because he had the guts to stand up to the Epstein class and against the war”; the California Democrat, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, said he welcomed “voters who feel rejected by Trump,” pledging to “build a movement to stand for Team America”…

The South Carolina Statehouse approved a new congressional map that would eliminate the district represented by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the state’s only Democratic district; the new map will next head to the state Senate for a vote…

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has in recent days held a series of meetings and listening sessions with Wall Street executives, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, after Mamdani angered business leaders by filming a video outside the home of Citadel’s Ken Griffin in which the mayor announced a plan to tax second homes in the city…

Police in New York are investigating the death of a Jewish bakery owner and former Hatzolah volunteer whose body was found in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing after he was shot in the neck and back…

The Strokes announced that guitarist Nick Valensi, who is Jewish, won’t be participating in the band’s upcoming summer tour, weeks after Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas said on the “SubwayTakes” web series that “American Zionists get the benefits of white privileged people, but talk like they are Black people during slavery”…

Mohamed Hagi, Somaliland‘s newly arrived ambassador to Israel, announced that Hargeisa planned to open its embassy in the country in Jerusalem…

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed that the International Criminal Court was seeking a warrant for his arrest; the ICC would not comment on the claim, saying that requests for warrants are confidential…

In what he said was a response to the ICC’s request for a warrant, Smotrich threatened to evict residents of the West Bank Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar…

Comedy writer Barry Blaustein, a longtime collaborator of comedian Eddie Murphy who worked on the screenplays of “Coming to America” and “The Nutty Professor,” died at 71…

Pic of the Day

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who is in Prague this week for meetings with senior officials, announced the launch of the Israel-Czech Republic Business Forum alongside his Czech counterpart, Petr Macinka.

Birthdays

Emmy Award-winning singer and songwriter, Rachel Platten turns 45… 

CEO at Kings’ Care – A Safe Place, operator of multiple drug and alcohol rehabilitation and treatment centers, Ilene Leiter… Canadian businesswoman and elected official, she served in the Ontario Assembly and in the Canadian House of Commons, Elinor Caplan turns 82… Former member of the New York State Assembly until 2020, representing the 97th Assembly District in Rockland County, Ellen Jaffee turns 82… Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CT) for 20 years, he was born in a DP camp in Germany after WWII, Sam Gejdenson turns 78… Chagrin Falls, Ohio, attorney, Robert Charles Rosenfeld… CEO emeritus of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Michael S. Miller… Seamstress and weaver, Bernice Ann Penn Venable… Retired in 2022 as a federal judge for the Southern District of Texas, she is now a mediator and arbitrator, Judge Nancy Ellen Friedman Atlas turns 77… Five-time Emmy Award-winning producer and writer who has worked on “Saturday Night Live,” PBS’ “Great Performances” and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” Alan Zweibel turns 76… U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) turns 75… Former director of international affairs, policy and planning at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, following 12 years at the ADL, Michael Alan Salberg… Professor at Tulane, he was president of the Aspen Institute, CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time, Walter Isaacson turns 74… Born in upstate New York as Michael Scott Bornstein, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and then member of the Knesset, Michael Oren turns 71… Actor and singer, known for her work in musical theater, Judy Kuhn turns 68… CEO and founder of Abrams Media, chief legal analyst for ABC News and the founder of Mediaite, Dan Abrams turns 60… NYC location scout and unit production manager for feature films, TV and commercials, David Brotsky… Co-founder and CEO of Breitbart News, Larry Solov turns 58… Senior advisor at Majority Democrats, Ami Copeland… French singer and actor, at 13 she became the youngest singer to ever reach No. 1 in the French charts, Elsa Lunghini turns 53… Co-president of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, Matthew Silverman turns 50… Principal of public policy at Amazon, Philip Justin “PJ” Hoffman… Program officer of Jewish life at the Michigan-based William Davidson Foundation, Vadim Avshalumov… Founder and CEO of Berkeley, California-based Caribou Biosciences, a genome engineering company, Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D…. Senior director of government relations and strategy for the ADL, Lauren D. Wolman… Executive communications leader, Susan Sloan… VP of digital advocacy at McGuireWoods Consulting, Josh Canter… Beauty pageant winner who was awarded the title of Miss Israel 2014, Doron Matalon turns 33… Master of public policy candidate at Oxford University, Aylon Berger turns 26… Conservative political activist, he is a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Kyle Kashuv turns 25… 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will appoint Rabbi Miriam Grossman — a veteran of various far-left and anti-Israel organizations, and one of the few Jewish religious leaders to back his campaign — to a taxpayer-funded post in his newly created “Office of Mass Engagement,” Jewish Insider has learned.

Multiple sources confirmed that Grossman, a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College who formerly led the independent congregation Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn, will take on the role of “faith liaison” inside the new department, which has imported personnel and outreach strategies from the Democratic Socialists of America into City Hall. 

A listing for the position posted on May 1 shows a salary in the $90,000 to $110,000 range, and indicates Grossman will be responsible for engaging the city’s Jewish religious community, the world’s largest outside Israel.

The listing indicated that Grossman will also be responsible for maintaining key relationships with Jewish religious leaders and organizations, representing Mamdani at community events and acting as the primary link between the community and City Hall.

Grossman, however, is well to the left of even some of the most progressive-minded Jews when it comes to Israel. A self-identified “member-leader” of far-left Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and a veteran of the rabbinical council of the pro-Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions group Jewish Voice for Peace, in a 2021 NPR interview she referred to her father as an “AIPAC rabbi” and recounted turning against Zionism while protesting construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota as an Oberlin College student in 2008. 

“I was really specifically taught not to trust or empathize with Palestinians and how to dismiss charges of anti-Zionism or criticism of Israel as antisemitism,” she said of her youth. “I was beginning to criticize the United States and I was starting to feel that way about Israel as well.”

Seven months before the Oct. 7 attacks, she participated in a march on the Brooklyn home of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to protest U.S. military aid to the Jewish State. In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ atrocities, Grossman doubled down, joining a JFREJ protest demanding a halt to military aid to Israel and speaking with the Islam Channel on YouTube at a demonstration outside the White House. 

“We are here to take it to the White House to tell the White House and Congress it is in our power to prevent a genocide to stop this cycle of death for all of us — for Palestinians and most especially this moment for the people of Gaza who are suffering and crying out for help, and the world is watching,” she said.

She also participated in multiple DSA-led events protesting the Israeli response to the assault. She later appeared in a JFREJ “New York Rabbis for Mamdani” video, endorsing the anti-Israel democratic socialist’s campaign.

Grossman did not respond to requests for comment, and Mamdani’s administration would not remark on the record about the hire. The faith liaison role is distinct from the executive directorship and deputy directorship of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, to which the mayor has appointed Phylisa Wisdom of New York Jewish Agenda and J Street veteran Josh Binderman, respectively.

Binderman and Wisdom’s groups are also critical of Israel, but identify as Zionist.

One Orthodox Jewish leader, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid antagonizing Mamdani, despaired at the news.

“If true it would send a terrible signal and would be one more indication that this mayor is not a friend to the Jewish community,” he said. “JVP is a radical fringe group that does not represent the views of the overwhelming majority of Jewish New Yorkers.”

An antisemitism task force championed by UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk released a report on Thursday urging the university to intensify its crackdown on anti-Jewish harassment, as the school continues to be enmeshed in legal battles with the Trump administration. 

The 42-page set of recommendations, issued by the Initiative to Combat Antisemitism action group, suggested that UCLA set a deadline of 120 days to resolve disciplinary cases. It also said the university should more clearly define consequences for violations to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  

The committee further urged UCLA to prevent faculty groups from using university resources or authority to express institutional support for anti-Zionism or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and to implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into rule enforcement and policy formation. 

“The roadmap announced today turns our values into action. It makes clear that antisemitism and all other forms discrimination and bigotry have no place at UCLA,” said Frenk, who took over the school’s leadership last year. 

UCLA’s Initiative to Combat Antisemitism was formed last year following recommendations of the 2024 Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias. It is led by Stuart Gabriel, a professor in UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. 

“Our work at UCLA is building a strong foundation for a campus free of discrimination, and we hope our initiative can serve as a blueprint for colleges and universities nationwide as they seek to build more inclusive campuses,” Gabriel said. 

Daniel Gold, a member of the committee and executive director of UCLA Hillel, told Jewish Insider, “While initial work of our Initiative has concluded with the release of this important report, the work of everyone else at UCLA now begins to implement these changes and uphold the commitment towards a campus free of antisemitism.”

The report comes shortly after the school’s student government condemned a campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, labeling the speaker selection as “selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence” and “a troubling disregard for Palestinian life.” 

UC Regent Jay Sures told JI at the time that UCLA’s student government was “shortsighted, antisemitic or both,” and called its members “lunatics” for condemning Shem Tov’s appearance. Sures, who is Jewish, had his home vandalized last year by UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine, which was since banned from campus. 

The federal government has been in a monthslong legal battle with UCLA, including a February lawsuit alleging that the campus failed to protect Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff in accordance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.  

The DOJ complaint alleges that since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, UCLA “has ignored, and continues to ignore, gross and repeated violations of viewpoint-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions. Jewish and Israeli faculty have been physically threatened, had their classrooms disrupted, and had their workplaces papered with disturbing images.”

Last year, UCLA settled a lawsuit with Jewish students who alleged that the university permitted antisemitic conduct during the spring 2024 anti-Israel encampments on the campus.

The new report does not specifically mention the Trump administration crackdown. 

Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) urged the Jewish and pro-Israel communities to go on the offensive against antisemitism and anti-Israel attacks, in remarks on Wednesday at an event hosted by the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 78th anniversary of Israel’s founding. 

Both lawmakers said they were fed up with constant attacks against the Jewish and pro-Israel communities — and against themselves and other pro-Israel lawmakers personally — for their stances, and urged the audience to forcefully push back and put those attacking the Jewish community and Israel on the defensive.

“No defense, only offense,” Gottheimer said. “I am sick and tired of people apologizing, of making excuses. We should feel proud of the U.S.-Israel relationship, of the independence, of what it’s done for America, of the bipartisan nature, historically, of the relationship and thank God we have Israel to help us fight terror, to stand for freedom and to stand for democracy.”

Moskowitz emphasized that lawmakers who support Israel are being held to a drastically different standard than they are about any other global conflict, just as, he argued, Israel is held to a different standard than other countries.

“We have to stop the defense. We as Jews feel like, ‘Oh, if we just educate them, if we just educate people, if we just give them the information, if we just talk to them, they’ll finally understand,’” Moskowitz said. “We have to flip the script. It’s enough of defending what Israel does. … We have to make the other side defend.”

He said that members of Congress should be grilled aggressively on their support for and relationships with extreme figures such as Hasan Piker and Tucker Carlson, and they should be forced to defend or justify the stances such figures have taken.

“We need all of you … to stand up, to fight back, to play offense, whether that’s against Hasan Piker, whether it’s Candance Owens, we need to make it very clear that’s not going to fly. You’re not going to mess with us. We’re coming for you,” Gottheimer agreed.

Other speakers at the event included Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter. Wright drew comparisons between President Harry Truman’s decision to recognize the state of Israel and President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

“The United States and Israel will prevail, and we will remove a massive threat, and we will bring years and decades of peace, prosperity and restoring confidence in the economic, social and cultural progress of this awesome region, the Middle East, anchored by the state of Israel,” Wright said.

He paid homage to Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, the two Israeli Embassy staffers gunned down last year in an antisemitic attack at the Capital Jewish Museum, not far from the location of Wednesday night’s event.

Wright also highlighted Israel’s technological and energy sector successes and innovations.

Other lawmakers in attendance at the event included Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Randy Fine (R-FL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Virginia Foxx (R-NC).

Other administration officials who attended the event included Sebastian Gorka, Josh Gruenbaum and Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.

The annual event also included, for the first time, a dance floor, DJ and live music, to highlight and celebrate the end of the yearslong Gaza hostage crisis — following through on a slogan that emerged following the Hamas massacre at the Nova Music Festival on Oct.7, 2023: “We will dance again.”

The Open Society Foundations, the major international philanthropy founded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, has pledged $30 million over three years to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate, directing those funds to a number of progressive groups, some of which are at odds with the mainstream Jewish establishment.

Jewish recipients of the funding include progressive Jewish groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Nexus Project and Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. Alexander Soros, George Soros’ son, was also a founding chair of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, another grantee. The younger Soros is a longtime donor to progressive Jewish causes and chairs OSF’s board of directors. 

The OSF has also come under fire within the Jewish community for funding initiatives seen as hostile to Israel, including providing grants for Jewish Voice for Peace — which has spearheaded anti-Israel campus demonstrations. 

Asked about the OSF’s support of anti-Israel groups, a spokesperson for the organization told Jewish Insider, “We’re a human rights organization and we were created in part to counter discrimination and hatred which are contrary to ideas an open society needs to flourish. Everything we fund is aligned with those values but a lot of the work is focused on many other issues [unrelated to antisemitism].”  

The commitment, announced Wednesday, marks an alternative approach to the community’s fight against rising antisemitism, which has traditionally focused on legacy organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federations of North America that have historically been at the forefront of combating antisemitism. The spokesperson told JI that the commitment “supports organizations on the frontlines standing against antisemitism and other forms of hate — not by challenging another organization.”

JCPA, one of the grantees, is a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations — the umbrella organization of mainstream American Jewish groups. “JCPA is​ a legacy Jewish organization [that] already collaborates with other legacy Jewish organizations, including on campus and broader education-related issues,” the group’s CEO, Amy Spitalnick, told JI. 

“No grantee of any foundation agrees with every position of every other grantee,” said Spitalnick. “We’ve been a clear voice calling out antisemitism wherever it exists across the ideological spectrum and underscoring that our legitimate concerns should not be exploited to attack democratic norms and institutions, including university research funding.”

But other organizations selected, such as Nexus, are newer and use a more left-wing lens to combat antisemitism than the approach taken by the largest Jewish organizations. Nexus released the Nexus Document to challenge the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, specifically arguing that double standards targeting Israel are not inherently antisemitic. The IHRA definition is largely embraced among mainstream Jewish organizations. 

Nexus also faced backlash after it defended a recent New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof that alleged widespread rape of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli security forces. The Israel Foreign Ministry and AJC called the column a “blood libel.”  

Nexus wrote on Tuesday that “Kristof’s article is a challenging and important read. It takes courage and care to expose sexual violence” and accused Israel of “weaponiz[ing] the term ‘blood libel’ to dismiss Kristof’s thorough reporting.” 

Other recipients of the foundation’s funding include Jewish Social Justice Roundtable — a coalition of 60+ progressive member and partner organizations focused on humanitarian and social justice — and Bend the Arc, a national progressive Jewish group, which offers a guide and trainings focused on dismantling antisemitism, focused primarily on right-wing antisemitism. 

Open Society’s commitment comes amid broader conversations in the Jewish world about the efficacy of legacy Jewish institutions’ efforts to combat antisemitism. In February, at Manhattan’s 92Y, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens called to “dismantle the Anti-Defamation League,” arguing Jewish philanthropy’s allocation of funds to fight antisemitism were “mostly wasted.”

Recent moves by the ADL, including their creation of a “Mamdani monitor” after the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the organization’s initial collaboration with the second Trump administration, have raised the ire of left wing Jewish groups.

An OSF spokesperson told JI that organizations were selected based upon ones “we knew were doing great work in this space, which is certainly already underway.”

“Some of these organizations have been on our radar for a long time; either we had a relationship with them or we had been aware of their work for a while,” the spokesperson said.  

Good Wednesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview President Donald Trump’s trip to China amid the tenuous ceasefire with Iran, and report from last night’s Anti-Defamation League reception in Washington, where lawmakers sounded the alarm over rising antisemitism. We have the first interview with Michael Kay, announced yesterday as the next head of UJA-Federation of New York, and report on NY-12 candidate Alex Bores‘ effort to distance himself from Our Revolution‘s stances on Israel despite receiving the group’s endorsement. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Noam Bettan and Spencer Pratt.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

• President Donald Trump will arrive in China this evening ahead of his meeting tomorrow in Beijing with President Xi Jinping. More below.
• In Washington, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding markups on a number of pieces of legislation, including a resolution condemning attacks on civilians in Sudan and calling for an end to external support for warring parties in the war-torn country.
• Elsewhere in D.C., the Jewish Democratic Council of America’s annual gathering continues. Speakers today include 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, pollster Jim Gerstein, former diplomat Dennis Ross, former Pentagon officials Jeremy Bash and Dana Stroul, and former national security officials Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer.
• Tonight, the Israeli Embassy in Washington is holding a belated Yom Ha’atzmaut reception.
• Nonprofit executive Denise Powell defeated Nebraska state Sen. John Cavanaugh by two points (39-37%) in the Democratic primary last night in Nebraska’s 2nd District. Cavanaugh, a consistent Israel critic, was one of 10 state senators who declined to sign onto a resolution supporting Israel and condemning Hamas on the first anniversary of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Powell will face Republican Brinker Harding, an Omaha city councilmember, in a bid to succeed retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE).
• President Isaac Herzog is hosting the “President’s Conference for a Shared Israeli Future” today in Jerusalem. Actor Gal Gadot is participating in a panel dedicated to relations between Israel and the Diaspora.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

There will be a number of items on the agenda when the two most powerful men in the world — President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping — meet in Beijing tomorrow, chief among them tech and AI. The president is bringing with him a roster of top business leaders, including Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Apple’s Tim Cook, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, BlackRock’s Larry Fink and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman.

And while emerging technologies will be a major topic of conversation during the three-day trip, most eyes — and markets — are on the tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.

Beijing has, after all, been playing a major role in the U.S.-Iran conflict — even if it has done so from the margins: serving as the largest importer of oil from the Islamic Republic in violation of U.S. sanctions, meeting with top Iranian officials (including last week’s sit-down between Xi and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi) and transferring weapons to Iran through third countries.

Trump, who has spent much of his second term welcoming leaders to Washington, will be on Xi’s home turf, face-to-face with a leader who is opting not to use his leverage to push Iran into making concessions. The longer the uncertainty continues, the more restless even the president’s most fervent supporters will get — especially with the midterms approaching.

That dynamic is already beginning to play out on Capitol Hill. Yesterday, JI reported on divisions among Republican senators over whether the U.S. should reengage militarily with Iran, while last week, Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI), who is facing a tough reelection battle in his swing district, became the first GOP lawmaker to introduce an authorization for use of military force in Iran.

All of that is good for Xi, and gives him little incentive to use China’s economic and diplomatic leverage over the Islamic Republic, which while knocked down a few pegs, has managed to maintain control despite the severe blows it has been dealt.

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

SOUNDING THE ALARM

Lawmakers offer dire warnings about rising antisemitism at ADL reception

A series of largely Democratic lawmakers painted an unusually dire portrait of the state of rising antisemitism and threats to the Jewish community in remarks on Tuesday evening at an Anti-Defamation League reception honoring Jewish American Heritage Month on Capitol Hill, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Several emphasized the need for those in the audience, many of them young Jewish congressional staffers and Washington professionals, to continue speaking out and fighting for the Jewish community in a time of crisis.

Unvalidated: Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) emphasized that efforts to fight antisemitism have often been met with additional hostility. “It is a very scary time for the Jewish community,” Friedman said. “And to make matters worse, when we express that we’re scared and that there’s this rising level of hatred directed towards the Jewish community, we’re often met with people telling us that we’re not allowed to feel that way. And how dare we even say that there’s anything wrong with treatment towards Jews in this country?”

Read the full story here with additional comments from Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).

Dem divides: Hoyer, a pro-Israel stalwart and a former House majority leader, said on Tuesday that Jewish Democrats “ought to be” concerned about the critical way that some of their Democratic colleagues talk about Israel, in remarks at the Jewish Democratic Council of America’s annual leadership summit, where he was honored with an award marking his upcoming retirement, after 45 years in Congress, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports. 

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HEATED BACKLASH

Israeli officials, AJC slam Nick Kristof’s NYT column as modern-day ‘blood libel’

Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column alleging widespread Israeli sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners was certain to generate intense debate and scrutiny, given the sensitivities involved in covering such a highly charged subject. But after it was published on Monday, his opinion piece, headlined “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” has faced particularly heated backlash, including accusations of antisemitism and claims Kristof relied on discredited sources to advance his message, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Pushing back: Despite the direct testimonies he presented, critics have countered with a range of rebuttals, claiming that he drew a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas, that his column overstated the existence of alleged misconduct and that his broader assessment rests on questionable data and sources that weaken his central thesis. The American Jewish Committee expressed concerns about Kristof’s decision to cite allegations that Israel had trained police dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners, a claim critics have rejected as a thinly sourced conspiracy theory, saying the allegation represented “a modern-day blood libel in the ‘paper of record.’”

Read the full story here.

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NAME AND SHAME

DSA is ‘evil,’ trying to drive Jews out of polite society, D.C. Jewish leader says

Amid the rise of a DSA-aligned mayoral candidate in the city, a senior Jewish community leader in Washington, D.C., excoriated the Democratic Socialists of America as an “evil” organization committed to driving Jews out of society. Speaking on a webinar with other Washington-area Jewish leaders on Tuesday, Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, stridently criticized the far-left group, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Icing out: “I think they’re a fringe, radical, antisemitic organization, and I happen to even think they’re evil,” Halber said. “They are trying to do in America what [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] seems to do internationally, which is to make being Jewish unacceptable in polite society.” He said 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. Antisemitism is “core to their belief,” he continued.

Read the full story here.

Slotkin signals: Asked at the Politico Security Summit in Washington on Tuesday 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,” JI’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.

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CANDIDATE FORUM WATCH

Bores breaks with Our Revolution on approach to Israel

New York State Assemblymember Alex Bores, a leading Democratic primary candidate for an open House seat in Manhattan, said on Tuesday that he disagreed with Our Revolution, the left-wing advocacy group that recently endorsed his campaign, over its opposition to U.S. military funding for Israel, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.  

What he said: Speaking at a candidate forum hosted by West Side Institutional Synagogue and moderated by JI’s editor-in-chief, Josh Kraushaar, Bores said that even as he welcomed the endorsement because of such shared interests as AI regulation, he was not aligned with Our Revolution’s approach to Israel, a key issue in the heavily Jewish 12th Congressional District. “They asked me specifically about my position on Israel, which is well-documented and different from theirs,” Bores explained. “I said the same thing I say in every room.”

Read the full story here.

Cash flow: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced his administration would allocate $26 million annually toward anti-hate crimes measures, signaling that the significant funding increase — promised during the campaign season — would go toward a program that funds both leading Jewish organizations and left-wing nonprofits, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.

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ON THE FENCE

Mikie Sherrill to ‘evaluate’ N.J. adoption of federal Education Freedom Tax Credit

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill has not committed to joining a new federal education tax initiative being championed by Jewish community advocates to secure funding for Jewish day schools and yeshivas, which New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently agreed to adopt, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Wait-and-see approach: “Governor Sherrill will evaluate the program once the Trump Administration has finalized and published its rules. The Governor’s top priority is building New Jersey into the best public school system in the nation for all our kids,” Maggie Garbarino, Sherrill’s deputy press secretary, told JI on Tuesday.

Read the full story here.

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TRANSITION

UJA-Federation of New York taps Leffell School’s Michael Kay to serve as next CEO

The country’s largest Jewish federation, UJA-Federation of New York, has reached into the day school world to tap its next leader, naming longtime Jewish educator Michael Kay as CEO, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports for Jewish Insider. Kay, who currently serves as head of school at The Leffell School in Westchester County, N.Y., will succeed Eric Goldstein, 66, a former Wall Street lawyer who announced last June that he was stepping down after 12 years in the role. Kay, 46, will enter the position on Oct. 5.

City Hall relationships: Asked how he wants UJA’s relationship with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to look under his leadership during an interview with JI announcing his appointment, Kay said, “We have an obligation and a responsibility to work with our local elected officials no matter who they are to ensure that our needs are met and they are accountable for meeting those needs, as I said, well-being, thriving, safety, security.”

Read and watch the full interview here.

Nostra Aetate Award: Reflecting on his tenure as the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said it would be “difficult” to serve in his former position without the friendship of Jewish people, noting that Jews are a “respected part of the fabric” of New York City. Dolan was speaking at the American Jewish Committee’s Manhattan headquarters on Tuesday, where AJC honored him with the Nostra Aetate at Sixty Award for his work combating antisemitism and improving Catholic-Jewish relations, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

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Worthy Reads

Dahiya or Dubai?: The New York Times’ Tom Friedman talks to Emirati Lebanese writer Nadim Koteich about the two warring visions for the future of the Middle East, which Koteich refers to as “Dahiya or Dubai” — respectively a Hezbollah-controlled area of Beirut and a flourishing Middle Eastern business hub. “Anything this Dahiya vision touches ‘is a kiss of death for a country,’ as Koteich put it. ‘It turns it into another mediocre version of Iran.’ … [The Dubai model] proclaimed that the future belongs to those governments that produce noncorrupt, responsible bureaucracies, and that support moderate Islam, religious pluralism and an openness to the world and anyone eager to bring their talents. … The Dubai model is precisely the one Tehran wants to destroy.” [NYTimes]

AI in the Negev: In The Wall Street Journal, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Mike Doran and Zineb Riboua advocate for the development of a joint U.S.-Israel AI hub in Israel’s Negev desert dubbed by Jerusalem as Project Spire. “Technologies developed at Spire would remain under American ownership, enabling scaling and manufacturing back in the U.S. — creating jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. A successful Negev base would serve as the prototype. Once proven, the model can be replicated with Britain, Japan, India and other trusted partners. In the contest to neutralize China’s espionage apparatus, Project Spire offers the foundation for enduring American primacy.” [WSJ]

Doing Deals in the ‘Stans: Politico’s Diana Nerozzi and Phelim Kine profile Sergio Gor, President Donald Trump’s envoy to India and Central Asia, who has focused the administration’s efforts in the region on dealmaking. “But Gor’s investment focus is a welcome change to those in the region and Central Asian countries have embraced the Trump administration’s focus on ‘business, business, business,’ said a Washington-based Central Asia diplomat. For Central Asian leaders that’s a welcome shift away from a traditional U.S. focus on governance issues. … ‘He’s much more effective because he has that direct line to the White House,’ a second Central Asian diplomat said. ‘That means he can much more easily overcome the bureaucracy of D.C.’” [Politico]

Word on the Street

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday that the Trump administration does not plan to and does not believe it needs to seek congressional approval should it decide to resume military operations in Iran, further sidelining Congress at a time when a growing number of Republicans are becoming hesitant about continued U.S. military operations, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Vice President JD Vance tapped Cliff Sims, who served as special assistant to the president and director of White House message strategy in the first Trump administration, to serve as a national security advisor; Sims previously worked closely with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and served as chair of the CIA’s external advisory board…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman has been turned into an “emergency logistics lifeline” for trucks carrying exports bypassing the closed Strait of Hormuz…

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps expanded its definition of the boundaries of the Strait of Hormuz to encompass a much wider area than before the war… 

Kuwait accused Iran of sending members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the strategically located Kuwaiti-held Bubiyan Island earlier this month, where the fighters exchanged fire with Kuwaiti soldiers, injuring one; four of the six IRGC fighters who took part in the attack on the island, located in the Persian Gulf, were arrested…

Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia launched covert strikes against Iran in late March in response to attacks from the Islamic Republic on Saudi territory…

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed into law a bill requiring the disclosure of foreign government funding in statewide K-12 schools; read more about the first-in-the-nation legislation here…

Politico reports on the “overwhelming evidence” that Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who cites his background in medicine and experience as a physician in campaign materials and interviews, has “no experience as a licensed medical doctor”…

The New York Times looks at efforts by two GOP-linked super PACs to get involved in Democratic primaries in Nebraska, Texas, Ohio and California to boost their preferred general election candidates, in one instance sending out a mailer in support of a fringe candidate who has espoused antisemitic tropes…

The NYPD arrested four protesters demonstrating outside of a Jewish senior home in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood, which was hosting an event promoting real estate opportunities in Israel… 

In text messages shared on X, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt appeared to denounce antisemitism, calling it a “legitimate mind virus and sign of a decaying society,” adding that he has “been horrified to see how the Jewish community has been vilified over the past few years”…

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, released a new online resource that provides educational materials focused on the American Jewish experience…

The Wall Street Journal interviews Israeli-American therapist Orna Guralnik ahead of the release on Friday of the new series “Couples Therapy,” in which Guralnik plays a major role…

A survey conducted by the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia and presented to the royal commission investigating antisemitism in the country found that 80% of Jewish women surveyed said that they or a family member had experienced antisemitism firsthand in the last two years; the survey also found that of that group, more than two-thirds had been called “genocidal” because they were Jewish, Israeli or Zionist…

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing growing calls to step down following last week’s local elections that saw his Labour Party lose more than 1,000 municipal seats…

Israeli singer Noam Bettan advanced to the Eurovision finals after his performance of “Michelle” at last night’s semifinals in Vienna…

Hezbollah head Naim Kassem called on the Lebanese government to pull out of direct talks with Israel, the third round of which is scheduled for Thursday, and return to indirect talks…

Pic of the Day

The family of slain Israeli American hostage Omer Neutra, who was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and his body taken to Gaza, was awarded an honorary degree from Binghamton University at a reception hosted by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (left) to mark Jewish American Heritage Month.

Birthdays

Emmy Award-winning film, television and stage actress, Zohra Lampert turns 89…

Professor emerita of Yiddish literature at Harvard University, she is presently a distinguished senior fellow at The Tikvah Fund, Ruth Wisse turns 90… Actor and producer, Harvey Keitel turns 87… Ophthalmologist in South Florida, he is the father of Facebook’s former COO Sheryl Sandberg, Dr. Joel Sandberg turns 83… Former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at American Jewish University, Samuel Edelman turns 78… Professor of mathematics at Princeton since 1987, he was a winner of a 1991 MacArthur genius fellowship, Sergiu Klainerman turns 76… Former FDA commissioner in the 1990s, then chief science officer for COVID-19 response during the Biden administration, David A. Kessler turns 75… Retired editor and columnist for the New York Post, he was also managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, Eric Fettmann turns 73… Rabbi Uren Reich turns 70… Chief rabbi of the city of Shoham in central Israel, chairman of the Tzohar organization and rabbi for the Ezra youth movement, Rabbi David Stav turns 66… Founder and former CEO of LRN, a legal research, ethics and compliance management firm, Dov Seidman turns 62… Past chair of JFNA’s National Women’s Philanthropy Board and of the Hartford (Conn.) Federation, Carolyn Gitlin… Retired NFL defensive lineman, he played for the Raiders and Panthers, Josh Heinrich Taves, a/k/a Josh Heinrich, turns 54… Ice hockey player, she won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics and a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Sara Ann DeCosta-Hayes turns 49… U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) turns 49… CEO of Friedkin Philanthropies, previously chief Jewish life officer at JFNA, Sarah Eisenman… Former Israel director for J Street, then the chief of staff for Israel’s Ministry for Regional Cooperation, Yael Patir … Member of the U.K.’s House of Lords, she was previously a member of the House of Commons, Baroness Luciana Berger turns 45… Software entrepreneur, Google project manager, then Facebook engineering lead, Justin Rosenstein turns 43… Israeli rapper, singer, songwriter and actor, known by his stage name Tuna, Itay Zvulun turns 42… Retired NFL offensive lineman for seven NFL teams, now a regional manager at Rocksolid, Brian de la Puente turns 41… Actress, writer, producer and director, best known as the creator, writer and star of the HBO series “Girls,” Lena Dunham turns 40… Hannah Sirdofsky… Co-founder in 2018 of Manna Tree Partners, she is the daughter of Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, Gabrielle “Ellie” Rubenstein… Chief of staff and senior program manager at Jigsaw, a unit within Google, she is an alum of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Raquel Saxe Gelb… Therapist in Philadelphia, Bela Galit Krifcher turns 33… Law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Dore Lev Feith turns 30… VP of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, Jesse Martin Arm… Gold medalist for Israel in rhythmic gymnastics at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Linoy Ashram turns 27… 

A series of largely Democratic lawmakers painted an unusually dire portrait of the state of rising antisemitism and threats to the Jewish community in remarks at an Anti-Defamation League reception honoring Jewish American Heritage Month on Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening.

Several emphasized the need for those in the audience, many of them young Jewish congressional staffers and Washington professionals, to continue speaking out and fighting for the Jewish community in a time of crisis.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the retiring former No. 2 House Democrat, said that antisemitism has escalated to the point that Jews are no longer guaranteed safety in the United States.

“There were two places in the world where Jews felt really safe. One, of course, was Israel, and the second was the United States of America,” Hoyer said. “That’s not true today, and that is a sad statement of what’s going on in the country today. So you all need to be involved. You all need to when you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just stand up, speak up and make a difference.”

Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) emphasized that efforts to fight antisemitism have often been met with additional hostility.

“It is a very scary time for the Jewish community,” Friedman said. “And to make matters worse, when we express that we’re scared and that there’s this rising level of hatred directed towards the Jewish community, we’re often met with people telling us that we’re not allowed to feel that way. And how dare we even say that there’s anything wrong with treatment towards Jews in this country?”

She offered as an example of “how bad it’s gotten” that her synagogue was graffitied this year with a swastika, and that she ended up in an argument online with local activists “who were trying to tell me why it was appropriate for people to put swastikas on the sides of buildings in the Jewish part of Los Angeles, where there are Holocaust survivors still living, why they thought that was OK and not antisemitic.”

Friedman used as another example a recent ad created by a super PAC backing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in his reelection race attacking a Jewish conservative donor, Paul Singer, who is supporting Massie’s opponent, which prominently featured a graphic of a Jewish star alongside the Singer’s face.

“A super PAC thought it was totally fine to do a hit on a candidate by showing one of their donors and by flashing a Jewish star behind that donor to let everyone know that, ‘Hey, if everything else we’ve said about this candidate isn’t convincing enough, they have a donor who’s Jewish,’” Friedman said.

“I don’t think anyone can sit this one out and you all being here is part of that effort, so thank you … for showing up, thanks for the work you do,” she concluded.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who is running for Senate in Michigan and has faced attacks over her support for Israel and ties to the Jewish community, said that she would not “sugarcoat” the situation, explaining that “the faces of hate in this country have morphed into violent extremism,” with an increasing pace of violent attacks targeting the Jewish community, including in her own district.

“Extremist words matter. They absolutely matter,” Stevens said.

She also maintained that she is “unequivocal in declaring that I am very much a proud Zionist” in spite of facing attacks for that stance. “When I show my face in my community, every so often [I] get chased out because of violent extremism, because people feel so emboldened to shout at me that I am a ‘Zionist pig.’ That cannot be acceptable.”

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), whose congressional district was recently carved up by Tennessee Republicans, likely ending his career, warned that prejudice is still a real and very active problem. 

He recounted a story of when he ran for governor in 1994: “I went to a little radio station in Dixon, Tenn. — one person radio station, gravel road. [I] came in, talked to the man for a while and he said, ‘Son, you Jewish?’ I said, ‘Yes sir.’ He said, ‘Good luck,’” Cohen recounted. “It ain’t changed a lot since then. Be careful. There’s a lot of mamzers out there. They don’t know us, but they don’t like us,” he said, using the Hebrew word for bastard.

Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) said that it is “obviously a very bad time” for the American Jewish community and “in my opinion, it’s going to get a lot worse.” He urged the crowd “to lead through such difficult, chaotic, awful times.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) lambasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as emboldening and encouraging antisemitism.

“We see a mayor in New York City who has, in many respects, OKed his supporters engaging in antisemitic hate, engaging in conduct that threatens Jewish students and Jewish lives,” Lawler added. “We see these protests happening outside places of worship — these are real issues that we have to combat.”

He also emphasized that antisemitic influencers like Hasan Piker, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have been using antisemitism as a “grift” and playing on hatred to “make a buck” and create further division. 

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said that it is “unacceptably scary to be a Jew in the United States” and that the country is “violating the core promise that George Washington made” to the Jewish community in Rhode Island in 1790 that the country would be one of religious freedom and pluralism.

Auchincloss highlighted his efforts in Congress to combat antisemitism on social media, describing platforms as having become “failed societies online. It’s become so toxic, it’s become so rotten on these platforms that antisemitism is mushrooming as a symptom of something that is deeply rotten underneath.”

Rep. Kim Schrier (D-WA) said that Jews are “all feeling so threatened right now” and emphasized the need for broader understanding of antisemitism.

“They need to understand that anti-Zionism is kind of a new iteration [of antisemitism], if you don’t want another country wiped off the map,” Schrier said. “And I just think we all need to recognize that we all need to call it out, whether it’s in our party or another party.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said that “antisemitism and racism are the gateway to the destruction of liberal democracy” and that “the extremism, the fascism, the racism and the antisemitism” are infecting politics in the U.S. and around the world.

He praised Hungary as an example of a country that had been able to buck such trends, ousting its longtime right-wing government.

Several of the lawmakers who addressed the group also offered remembrances about Abe Foxman, the former longtime ADL leader who died last weekend.

“We’re all thinking about Abe Foxman right now, who looms over this room in a powerful way and taught us so much,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said. “I think what he taught us most was to be courageous, to fight, to never back down. That’s my ask of you. It’s tough out there, by the way. The harder they hit us, the more fight I feel.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said that Foxman was “a giant, a hero of mine, hero of so many, and really built this organization practically from the ground up.” She said she’d been stunned by his death, having spoken to him at a Holocaust remembrance event at the Capitol just weeks ago.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also urged those in attendance to follow Foxman’s model, and emphasized the need for additional funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

In a statement, Lauren Wolman, ADL’s senior director of government relations and strategy, said the group was “honored to host our annual Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) reception celebrating Jewish Members of Congress and congressional staff.”

“At a time when many of these dedicated public servants are navigating rising antisemitism and growing challenges on Capitol Hill, the reception served as an important opportunity to celebrate their work and create a space for Jewish professionals to come together in community, connect with one another, and feel supported,” Wolman continued.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced his administration would allocate $26 million annually toward anti-hate crimes measures, signaling that the significant funding increase — promised during the campaign season — would go toward a program that funds both leading Jewish organizations and left-wing nonprofits.

The new funding, part of a sprawling $124.7 billion budget that would resolve the city’s fiscal woes largely by delaying pension payments, would go toward the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes — though the mayor provided few details about the funds’ destination in a Tuesday afternoon press conference. He did, however, acknowledge that Jewish New Yorkers represent a minority of city residents yet a majority of hate crime victims, and promised the anti-hate crime campaign would operate “alongside” the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism to reduce the number of prejudice-inspired incidents.

“These are investments in programs that have been found to be effective. And too often the only response offered to a hate crime is exactly that, it’s a response to the hate crime. We want also to do the work of preventing those hate crimes,” he said, adding that his antisemitism czar, Phylisa Wisdom, would soon embark on a “listening tour” to develop a “municipal approach to fighting antisemitism.”

Additional details were not immediately available, and Mamdani’s office did not respond to questions from Jewish Insider.

Initial reports asserted that this represented a $23 million increase over a prior $3 million budget. That $3 million figure matches the amount the Partners Against the Hate (P.A.T.H.) FORWARD Initiative, which operates under the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, provided last year to “50 community-based organizations representing the city’s diversity to help combat hate and bias motivated incidents,” according to an analysis the Mamdani administration also released on Tuesday.

A list of subvendors for the initiative released last year features a wide range of social service providers, including a number based in or supporting Jewish communities across the city. Sources at several of these participating nonprofits did not immediately answer questions as to whether P.A.T.H. Forward might benefit from the new spending — and one, Devorah Halberstam of the Jewish Children’s Museum of Crown Heights, told JI she had “no idea, because he just announced it.”

P.A.T.H. Forward also provides resources to multiple leftist organizations, such as Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, that supported Mamdani’s election through political affiliates. 

Amid the rise of a DSA-aligned mayoral candidate in the city, a senior Jewish community leader in Washington, D.C., excoriated the Democratic Socialists of America as an “evil” organization committed to driving Jews out of society.

Speaking on a webinar with other Washington-area Jewish leaders on Tuesday, Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, stridently criticized the far-left group.

“I think they’re a fringe, radical, antisemitic organization, and I happen to even think they’re evil,” Halber said. “They are trying to do in America what [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] seems to do internationally, which is to make being Jewish unacceptable in polite society.”

He said 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. Antisemitism is “core to their belief,” he continued.

Halber described the activist group as emboldened and energized during the second Trump administration — as numerous DSA-aligned candidates make gains in local and national elections — and said that the Jewish community “should view DSA with alarm, because they are having a radical impact.”

And, he added, the Jewish community should be “very, very wary of political candidates who go out and seek their endorsement and who wish to affiliate.”

The Metro DC DSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Halber said it’s the responsibility of Jewish organizations to come together with allies to expose the DSA as “the fringe of American society that most people in America would be repulsed by.”

Tali Cohen, the Anti-Defamation League’s Washington regional director, said on the webinar that she has been “astonished by the rhetoric coming out of the D.C. DSA chapter.” 

Cohen said the group is attempting to “isolat[e] the Jewish community through exclusionary policies” — requiring endorsees to cut ties with “the overwhelming majority of organized Jewish community institutions” — and has “embrace[d] antisemitism as an organizational orthodoxy” through its embrace of anti-Zionism.

“If you read DSA’s platform, they have disproportionately and overwhelmingly chosen to focus on the world’s only Jewish state,” she continued. “The selective focus can suggest that something else is at work beyond just policy concerns.”

Cohen also raised concerns about the group’s opposition to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and its efforts to defund the D.C. police, a project she said endangers the Jewish community.

The event comes following a high-profile clash between Jewish communal groups and the Washington DSA chapter over its endorsement questionnaire for the city’s mayoral race that required candidates to pledge to refrain from engaging with “Zionist lobby groups.”

Mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George, a DSA member endorsed by the group, said in response to the questionnaire that she would not attend events “promoting Zionism and apartheid.”

Alan Ronkin, the regional director of the American Jewish Committee in Washington, and ADL experts also spoke on the webinar.

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.” 

While the leaders of many elite universities struggled to respond to anti-Israel activism that at times veered into antisemitism and violence, Diermeier was one of a handful of leaders at elite universities in 2023 to speak clearly about what constituted acceptable protest and what violated school rules. He has also been a forceful advocate for institutional neutrality, a position that many of Vanderbilt’s peer institutions — such as Harvard, Stanford and Columbia — have since adopted in the wake of that heady year. 

“My sense is that higher education is moving overall,” said Diermeier. “You feel there is momentum there. … It’s gratifying to see that this is happening, and it must happen, because fundamentally we need to regain the trust of the American public.” 

For American Jews, the post-Oct. 7 campus chaos has led some to rethink the kind of institution they want to attend.

“As a professor, as an educator, one of the most tragic dimensions of what’s happened on campus is it’s introduced this wedge between American Jews and the university,” Steven Weitzman, director of the Center of Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said at a panel on antisemitism at Milken. “That relationship has been so important for Jewish success and also for the success of the university.” 

That wedge has benefitted schools like Vanderbilt and Dartmouth College, each of which have pitched themselves as places where a multiplicity of voices can be found, without the disruptions that have plagued peer institutions. 

“We have a culture that is very committed to creating an educational environment where these different voices can be heard, and where you don’t have to justify all the time that you went on a Birthright trip,” said Diermeier.

Dartmouth College President Sian Beilock started at the university in September 2023, and she said she has observed “a more robust, vibrant Jewish presence on our campus” since then. “It feels like something special is happening,” she told JI in an interview at Milken. 

Both Beilock and Diermeier touted their cooperation with the campus Chabad and Hillel organizations. Earlier this month, the student government at The New School in New York City voted to defund and sever ties with Hillel over its connections to Israel. (The administration rejected the measure.) Beilock called the development “concerning,” and Diermeier said it is “awful.”

“It would never be tolerated for any other group. It is exactly what’s wrong. At that point, you are violating the fundamental principles of an institution,” Diermeier said. “They are terrible developments and it shows us that we still have a lot of work to do.”

Like Vanderbilt, Dartmouth took on the tumult of the post-Oct. 7 era forcefully and directly. Beilock said she was always clear about the university’s mission in a way that some of her colleagues at other schools were not, though that is beginning to change.

“We’ve called balls and strikes, and I actually think it’s led to a campus where we have some of the most diverse views portrayed on campus in a way that’s more respectful,” Beilock said. “I see a shift in presidents understanding that it’s important to call out the mission of an institution, to be clear about that, and important to ensure that people who are both receiving our education and benefiting from the impact, whether it’s our doctors or discoveries, see the power in what we do.”

In other words: universities need to do a much better job of telling their stories, and not acting like their worth is self-evident. Trust in higher education was higher last year than in 2023 or 2024 — 42%, according to a Gallup poll in 2025, up from 36% — but still down from 57% a decade before. University of Southern California President Beong-Soo Kim said at a Milken panel about the future of higher education that the problems facing the academy connect to a broader loss of public trust.

“There’s a larger breakdown in trust in other institutions, not just higher education, and I think that that’s something important to understand,” Kim said. “I think that there’s an opportunity for partnership among universities, between universities and the government, and the private sector.” 

Making change on that front requires humility, a quality that is not always present among elite institutions. 

“I think there’s a lot of institutional rigidity to prevent that from happening,” said Eric Gertler, CEO of U.S. News & World Report, which publishes annual college rankings.

Rebuilding that trust runs through Washington, university leaders have begun to realize. Prominent universities are building out satellite campuses — and lobbying shops — in the nation’s capital. 

Diermeier and Beilock told JI that they have each decided to engage with Washington more than ever, including by traveling to the city regularly for meetings with members of Congress and administration officials. Vanderbilt and Dartmouth have for now managed to avoid the most severe of the civil rights investigations or funding cuts coming from the Trump administration, but shifts in funding priorities from the federal government still impact the schools. 

“I spent a lot of time in D.C. in the last year. I’ve probably been there close to a dozen times, and I plan to continue it. It’s more than I did before, but really important,” Beilock said. “I think we have to be clear to our representatives what the value of the government-university partnership is and how important it is not to lose it. And part of that, to me, is being clear where we can do better.”

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht announced Monday he has left the Democratic party, citing “anti-Jewish” actions and “acquiescence to Jew-hatred” within the party, including from elected officials. 

“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,” wrote Wecht, who was elected as a Democrat in 2015. He added that he is no longer affiliated with any political party. 

A former vice-chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Wecht wrote that he and his wife were married at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Congregation, the site of the 2018 synagogue shooting. “That terror came from the right,” he wrote. “Jew-hatred has always festered on the fringe of that sector.”  

But, Wecht continued, “in the quarter century that has passed” since his leadership position, “the Democratic Party has changed.”

“Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored, and even coddled,” he wrote.

A judge in Santa Clara County 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. 

District Attorney Jeff Rosen “is allowed to take a strong stance against crime in the community, against antisemitism. But caution and care need to be taken when utilizing active litigation in campaign communication,” Judge Kelley Paul said last week from the bench. 

Rosen’s case against five anti-Israel protesters who occupied Stanford President Richard Saller’s office in June 2024 ended in a mistrial in February following a hung jury. He quickly announced plans for a retrial. 

But the defendants’ attorneys alleged that Rosen had a conflict of interest, which included utilizing the case on a campaign page titled “fighting antisemitism” and using the website — which includes a video of Rosen giving a speech at San Jose Hillel claiming “antisemitism is anti-American” — in a December fundraising email blast, The Stanford Daily reported. Rosen is seeking reelection to the district attorney’s office this November.

Referencing that video, Paul said that the lawsuit “is not a hate crime” and that Rosen had overstepped when framing it as such. 

The protesters, who barricaded themselves in a university building to demand divestment from companies linked to the Israel-Hamas war, face felony vandalism and conspiracy charges following the break-in that caused an estimated $300,000 in damages. They do not face hate crimes charges.

Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to friends and former colleagues of Abe Foxman, the longtime former head of the Anti-Defamation League who died yesterday, and cover Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments on Iran and the U.S.-Israel relationship during his “60 Minutes” interview last night. We talk to Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf, who brought a group of football players and Black Minneapolis-area high school students to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and report on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s rebuke of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as a “proven bigot and antisemite,” which has earned the New York Democrat criticism from the far left. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Morton Schapiro and Larry David.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

• 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.

What You Should Know

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.

BLUE DOT BATTLE

Nebraska Democratic primary pits Israel critic against more-moderate challenger

Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District — the so-called “blue dot” in an otherwise red state — is a critical pickup opportunity for Democrats in November’s midterms. Vice President Kamala Harris won the district in 2024, and the popular, moderate Republican incumbent, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), is retiring. The Democratic primary in the district on Tuesday is coming down to John Cavanaugh, a progressive state senator backed by a range of prominent left-wing leaders, and Denise Powell, a nonprofit executive backed by a host of Democratic political groups, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Positions on Israel: Cavanaugh was one of 10 state senators who declined to sign onto a resolution supporting Israel and condemning Hamas on the first anniversary of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. “I support Israel and believe Israel has a right to exist. And I also believe a two-state solution is the only way to secure lasting peace,” Cavanaugh said in a statement to Jewish Insider in February. Powell is taking a more pro-Israel line, yet still falls to the left of other Democrats in the race on the issue. She said in a statement to JI earlier this year that she has “always unequivocally supported Israel’s right to exist and its right to defend itself.”

Read the full story here.

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THE BATTLE FOR MANHATTAN

In America’s largest Jewish district, Democratic candidates split over Israel, antisemitic protests

With seven weeks remaining until the Democratic primary for an open House seat in Manhattan, the crowded race is beginning to show emerging signs of division over Israel and rising antisemitism, key issues in the heavily Jewish district where many voters closely identify with liberal Zionist sentiments, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Different lanes: From recent efforts to block U.S. weapons sales to Israel to the intersection between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the four top candidates in the closely contested race — state Assemblymembers Alex Bores and Micah Lasher, Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and former Republican attorney George Conway — are by varying degrees staking out differing views on Middle East policy as well as domestic concerns affecting the Jewish community, while continuing to reaffirm their support for the Jewish state.

Read the full story here.

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HORSESHOE THEORY

AOC blasts ‘proven bigot and antisemite’ MTG, earning some far-left criticism

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) expressed skepticism of allying with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on issues like Israel policy, calling Greene a “proven bigot and antisemite.” The comments have, notably, earned her the opprobrium of others on the far left, and also mark a break with some more mainstream Democrats who have urged their party to join forces with the disgruntled GOP ex-lawmaker, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What she said: “There are certain places, certain areas where I don’t think that we should ignore some folks’ record on some of these issues. It’s about where we trust intent, where we trust where those outcomes are going,” Ocasio-Cortez said at an event last week at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. “I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and antisemite, on the issues of what is good for Gazans and Israelis.”

Read the full story here.

Pennsylvania politics: Axios reports on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s behind-the-scenes efforts to derail the congressional campaign of Chris Rabb, a state legislator with a history of anti-Israel activism who has the backing of Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive heavyweights, and with whom Shapiro has clashed in recent years.

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on the record

Iran war is ‘not over,’ Netanyahu tells ‘60 Minutes’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday that the war against Iran is not yet over, in spite of the weekslong ceasefire and assertions by the U.S. administration that the operations that began in February have concluded. In the interview with Major Garrett, Netanyahu also reiterated his call to end direct U.S. financial aid for Israel over the next 10 years, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Premier’s position: Netanyahu said that, while the joint U.S. and Israeli operations in Iran accomplished much, the war is “not over,” with nuclear material still in Iran, and certain Iranian enrichment sites, proxies and ballistic missile efforts surviving. “We’ve degraded a lot of it. But all that is still there, and there’s work to be done,” he said, adding that any diplomatic agreement with Iran should address all of those areas. Netanyahu said that he would be happy to see an agreement, if it covers those areas, but that both Israel and the United States are prepared to reengage militarily if it does not.

Read the full story here.

MIA Mojtaba: The Wall Street Journal reports that among the hurdles facing Iranian negotiators as they attempt to negotiate with the U.S. is the inability to receive direction from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was severely injured in Israeli strikes at the start of the war and who remains “noticeably MIA and silent on the talks.”

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HISTORY LESSONS

Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf leads players, high school students on Holocaust Museum trip

Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf, the son of Holocaust survivors, was joined by Vikings defensive tackle Levi Drake Rodriguez, offensive lineman Walter Rouse, defensive end Elijah Williams and former Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe for a tour of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum together with a group of Black Minneapolis-area high school students, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

Looking back to move forward: “It’s very important for young people to learn about history and how they can make an impact on the world and society,” Wilf told JI during the group’s guided tour of the Holocaust museum. “To learn the history of the world — where sometimes there’s hatred and bigotry and see what it can lead to — and also learn the impact of an individual: how an individual can change things, can fight back and how we can set an example by being tolerant and learning from each other.”

Read the full story here.

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ON THE SCENE

Addressing WJC, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner declares: ‘Europe must become more Jewish’

Mathias Döpfner, CEO of global publishing firm Axel Springer, doubled down on his and his company’s commitments to the Jewish People and the State of Israel on Monday morning in an address to the World Jewish Congress, condemning the rise of anti-Zionism and Jew hatred around the world, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports from Geneva.

Encouraging Jewish immigration: Perhaps most curiously, Döpfner called for European countries to encourage and facilitate Jewish immigration to the continent, noting that the Jewish population by capita is 10 times smaller than that of the United States. “Europe should introduce preferential immigration and naturalization for Jewish families. It is in Europe’s own best interests to change that,” he said. “It is more than a gesture. If the idea of a multicultural society is to be taken seriously, there is an urgent need for greater diversity in Europe’s Christian and increasingly Muslim-influenced societies today.”

Read the full story here.

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Worthy Reads

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]

Word on the Street

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…

Pic of the Day

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.

Birthdays

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… 

Abraham “Abe” Foxman, a towering figure in Jewish communal life who led the Anti-Defamation League for nearly three decades, and whose personal story as a hidden child during the Holocaust gave him a unique gravitas in dealing with issues of Holocaust memory and anti-Jewish bias, died on Sunday, the ADL confirmed. He was 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, 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 was succeeded by Jonathan Greenblatt, who serves as the group’s CEO. 

Foxman was named to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s council by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, a role he was reappointed to by Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden. In recent years, Foxman was the only Holocaust survivor to serve on the board, which now includes a number of children and grandchildren of survivors.

Met Council CEO David Greenfield, who met Foxman while serving on the New York City Council, said the longtime ADL head “really shaped modern Jewish leadership today.”

Foxman, Greenfield said, “was the kind of leader that all of us aspire to be. … I really believe he set the standard, and everyone is still chasing that standard. There was only one Abe Foxman.”

In his years at the ADL, Foxman built deep relationships with his staff. Jay Kaiman, the president of the Marcus Foundation, was hired by Foxman to head the group’s operations in the Southeast. That relationship endured long after Kaiman left the organization, he told JI. 

“He was my compass,” Kaiman said. “He was invaluable to me as a resource all those years, and he had a lot to offer.” Foxman, Kaiman added, “really was a mentor to so many people.”

After stepping down from the ADL, Foxman remained active in Jewish communal life. “He really did love his work,” Kaiman said, “and he never stopped working, even if he wasn’t the ADL director. He was the epitome of being the professional’s professional.” 

Once he was no longer the head of a nonpartisan organization, Foxman began to endorse candidates and policies, while speaking out against the mainstream media’s coverage of Israel and antisemitism. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential bid, but became increasingly critical of the Democratic Party’s leftward shift on Israel.

Foxman was also critical at times of Republicans and the Trump administration. 

Delivering an address last spring at the Capitol to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, Foxman said, “As a [Holocaust] survivor, my antenna quivers when I see books being banned, when I see people being abducted in the streets, when I see government trying to dictate what universities should teach and whom they should teach. As a survivor who came to this country as an immigrant, I’m troubled when I hear immigrants and immigration being demonized.”

In the same address, he gave credit to both the Biden administration and the second Trump administration for their commitments to addressing antisemitism.

“What made him so unique was he wasn’t a Democrat or Republican. He called balls and strikes like he saw them,” Greenfield told JI. “He was really one of the few leaders to call out both sides and say, ‘Hey, a pox on both of your houses. You both have increasing levels of antisemitism, to new levels never seen before.’”

Deborah Lipstadt, who served as the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, knew Foxman for decades. When she was being sued for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving, Foxman was a source of support, she told JI, even bringing a group to the trial in a London court.

She praised Foxman’s lifelong commitment to fighting antisemitism. “We’ve got too many voices that carry with them an agenda,” she said. “His agenda was, ‘I hate the Jew-haters.’ And he had no patience for the Jew-haters: right, left, center. He had no patience for people who use their position for self-aggrandizement.”

Citing record-high levels of antisemitism, Lipstadt called Foxman’s death “a big loss for the Jewish people at a particularly crucial moment.”

“At a time like this, we have very few voices like that that spoke with a personal and professional authority, a personal and professional commitment, and he shall be deeply missed,” Lipstadt said.

Greenblatt said that Foxman was “an iconic Jewish leader who embraced the ideal of an America free from antisemitism and hate and who strongly believed that these scourges could be defeated if good people opposed it.”

“In his storied career, Abe transformed ADL while confronting antisemitism and hate (from both left and right), opposing the global rise in antisemitism, holding world leaders accountable and working to ensure that Israel was Jewish, secure and democratic,” Greenblatt continued. 

“Abe’s voice was heard — and listened to — by popes, presidents, and prime ministers, a voice he used wherever Jews were at risk. Abe Foxman spoke on the global stage with moral authority and clarity and was relentlessly dedicated to his pursuit of a world without hate.”

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called Foxman “a mentor, a guide, and a towering presence in Jewish communal life” who “showed a generation of leaders that fighting antisemitism demands clarity, courage, and the willingness to stand firm under pressure.”

In a statement, Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised Foxman as a “passionate Zionist, a humanist, and an outspoken, [and] wise friend.”

“Coming into a world at war, the Holocaust shaped Abe’s character and defined his mission: Combating antisemitism and hypocrisy, calling out racism and bias, speaking up for the Jewish people and the Jewish democratic Israel,” Herzog said. “His story, of rising from the ashes, is our story, the story of our people.”

Foxman met his wife, Golda Bauman, while attending Camp Herzl in Webster, Wisc. The couple was engaged in Mexico and married in 1967, the same year he joined the ADL. 

He is survived by his wife and two children, Michelle and Ariel.

The country’s consummate insiders gathered at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills this week. But far away from the five-star hotels where attendees closed business deals and mingled over salmon bento boxes, there is concern over an anti-elite sentiment that is dominating American politics. 

The executives, philanthropists and politicians who attended the gathering took note of this increasingly populist moment while discussing how to remedy some of the legitimate concerns of Americans. 

There were sessions focused on protecting the workforce in the face of disruption from AI, and on retirement planning for gig economy workers who cannot contribute to a typical 401(k). Behind the scenes, Trump Accounts — tax-advantaged savings accounts for American children, with $1,000 kicked in from Uncle Sam — were a big topic of conversation. 

As some of America’s most important decision-makers discussed the turbulent downstream impacts of the AI boom, and the sense that many people are feeling left behind, a related topic that animated the many Jewish executives and investors who attended the conference.

They worry that the intermingling of populism and antisemitism, already heightened following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel two and a half years ago, represents a dangerous combination.

“Antisemitism is a manifestation of extremism and populism,” TD Bank Vice Chair Jeffrey Solomon told Jewish Insider. “Extremism on the left and extremism on the right, neither one of those is good for us as Jews, but it’s not good for a lot of people.” 

Solomon, a major Jewish philanthropist who chairs the board of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, spoke on a panel at Milken about macroeconomic trends. He said that fighting antisemitism requires also understanding that the problems in society run deeper than just anti-Jewish hate.

“Our job isn’t necessarily to just cure antisemitism. The job is to get at the root cause of what’s causing there to be stress in society. We have to acknowledge that the policies that have gotten us to this place have not been inclusive enough for enough people,” said Solomon, which requires “enabling [people] to be able to find their own path and be successful. The people that can make that happen are at this conference, and if we do that, antisemitism will take care of itself, because there will be no need for it.”

Sara Eisen, a CNBC reporter who was at the conference to moderate several conversations with big-name principals like Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, told JI she heard concerns about antisemitism, and the broader political environment, raised in conversation with other high-profile attendees. 

“They see what’s happening in the political world. They see what’s happening in geopolitics,” she said. “This is the sideline conversation.”

At a Tuesday panel about antisemitism, Steven Weitzman, director of the Center of Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, made the case that antisemitism is itself anathema to the ideals espoused by Milken attendees.

“Not only is antisemitism the hatred of the Jews,” said Weitzman, “it’s also opposition to globalization, it’s opposition to what this very conference represents, which is peaceful cooperation across national borders.”

The leading Jewish advocacy group representing the Washington, D.C., area is raising the alarm on a uniquely high rate of antisemitic incidents in Maryland’s Montgomery County public school system. 

Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said Tuesday that the JCRC is receiving “significantly higher” reports of antisemitism out of MCPS, located just outside of Washington, than others in the region. 

Montgomery County’s public school system is the largest school district in the state and hosts a sizable Jewish student population.

The statement comes amid a new report from the Anti-Defamation League showing that Maryland ranked ninth in total antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2025, two-thirds of which occurred in Montgomery County. Among the top ten states with total incidents, Maryland ranked first in the percentage of incidents occurring at K-12 schools, at 34%. 

“While the details vary, these incidents reveal a harsh truth: too many Jewish students and educators at too many MCPS schools continue to face too many threats,” said Franklin Siegel, whose statement came the day after JCRC leadership met with MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor and his senior management team. 

Incidents in recent months include anti-Jewish and anti-Israel graffiti on school walls, most recently at Greenwood Elementary School last weekend; inflammatory anti-Israel messaging at Olney Elementary School’s recent cultural night; “Heil Hitler” gestures and speech occurring at middle school events; and, according to JCRC, “physical threats and harassment directed toward Jewish students at multiple schools.”

Franklin Siegel said MCPS and JCRC leadership discussed “progress on the steps MCPS needs to take to protect Jewish students, educators, and staff.” 

“Our messages were simple: MCPS must establish a zero-tolerance policy on antisemitism and other forms of hatred and bias; train and empower administrators and teachers to correctly identify and respond to antisemitism; and rigorously enforce disciplinary codes, making it clear that anyone who engages in antisemitic or other hateful behavior will face meaningful consequences,” Franklin Siegel said.

MCPS said it “will be in compliance with recently adopted state law requiring anti-bias training for school educators and staff” starting in August, according to Franklin Siegel. 

The school district also committed “to improv[ing] school participation rates in JCRC’s gold-standard Student to Student and Holocaust speakers’ programs” and to “drafting specific guidelines for culture and international nights. The district must ensure these events are safe and educational for all students and families, not political battlefields,” she added.

But Franklin Siegel called on the school district to go further in protecting Jewish students. 

“MCPS should follow the lead of other schools in our area by incorporating specific antisemitism training as well,” she said. “More lessons about Jewish history beyond antisemitism and the Holocaust should be included in its curricula. And given that bias incidents are so often connected to the proliferation of hate speech online, MCPS also needs to discipline students who harass and bully Jewish students on social media accounts, even when those accounts are not formally affiliated with schools. The district has that authority, and principals must enforce it.” 

MCPS, which serves over 156,000 students, did not respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider.

After a Jewish university leader withdrew as Georgetown University Law Center’s commencement speaker following backlash from anti-Israel student activists, the school replaced him with a professor who criticized congressional hearings on campus antisemitism as a form of “McCarthyism” aimed at chilling free speech.

In an email to law school students on Wednesday, Joshua Teitelbaum, the interim dean of Georgetown Law, wrote that “in the past week, a number of law students raised concerns” about the speaker selection of Morton Schapiro, an economist and the former president of Northwestern University for over 10 years. Teitelbaum said those concerns were “due primarily to opinion essays [Schapiro] published on Israel and Palestine in the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023.” 

Teitelbaum said he “listened carefully” to students’ concerns but had determined that withdrawing Schapiro’s invitation would be “inconsistent with Georgetown’s commitment to free and open inquiry.” Schapiro then independently “decided to decline our invitation to speak” after learning of the students’ concerns, Teitelbaum said. 

Schapiro has written extensively for the Jewish Journal in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, including criticizing university presidents for failing to protect Jewish students and suggesting that progressive organizations abandoned Israel and the Jewish community after the attacks. Schapiro could not be reached for comment. 

Teitelbaum announced in the email that Georgetown Law professor David Cole would replace Schapiro as commencement speaker. Cole, the former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, last year spoke before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in defense of First Amendment speech that “many of us find wrongheaded or deeply offensive, including anti-Israel advocacy and even antisemitic advocacy.” He also condemned Republican-led congressional hearings into the rise of campus antisemitism.  

“It is beyond antisemitic of the university to do this. It’s extremely heartbreaking and devastating to the Jewish students that [Georgetown Law] respectfully asked [Schapiro] to step down because of his belief in a Jewish homeland,” Julia Wax Vanderwiel, a third-year law school student and founder of Georgetown Law Zionists, told Jewish Insider.

Georgetown University — and its law school — have been under scrutiny for alleged inaction against extremism and the more than $1 billion the school has received from Qatar. Liz Magill, who resigned as University of Pennsylvania president after facing criticism of inaction against campus antisemitism, was tapped in February as the dean of Georgetown’s law school. She will assume the role on Aug. 1. 

Last year, the law school faced criticism for scheduling a discussion featuring a convicted member of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The event, which was organized by Georgetown Law Students for Justice in Palestine, was postponed indefinitely following pushback from both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY). Weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks, Georgetown Law hosted Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd, who celebrated Hamas as a “liberation movement” and called the massacre a “resistance tactic.” 

“I have been fighting the university administration on antisemitism since I stepped foot on this law school,” Wax Vanderwiel told JI. “It feels like I’m arguing with a brick wall sometimes. [The administration] doesn’t have any interest in changing their behaviors as they claim to have for the past three years I’ve been here.”

Good Wednesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at concerns from Jewish leaders over the increasing targeting of Hillels by anti-Israel activists, and report on FEC filings indicating that far-left N.J. congressional candidate Adam Hamawy has charged his campaign for the use of office space in his medical practice. We tag along with Yossi Farro in Los Angeles as the 22-year-old hits the conference circuit in search of machers to wrap tefillin, and report on President Donald Trump’s call for Jewish Americans to observe a “national Sabbath” next week as part of the country’s Semiquincentennial celebrations and Jewish American Heritage Month. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Don Bacon, Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit and David Frum and Danielle Crittenden.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

• President Donald Trump announced a pause in Project Freedom, the plan unveiled earlier this week to protect ships transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s announcement came shortly after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House that the administration had ended its Operation Epic Fury against Iran and transitioned to Project Freedom. Axios reported this morning that the Trump administration believes it is nearing an agreement on a memorandum of understanding that would lay the groundwork for nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran. More below.
• The pause was announced hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
• The White House plans to unveil a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy this morning, the Trump administration’s Seb Gorka announced at the National Press Club last night. Gorka said the new strategy will “shape everything America does” when it comes to countering terrorism and repatriating American hostages. “Countries that wrongfully detain our citizens run the danger of being designated as state sponsors of wrongful detention, with all the attendant consequences that accrue,” he added.
• The Milken Institute Global Conference concludes today, with Argentine President Javier Milei set to deliver the confab’s closing remarks this afternoon. More below on yesterday’s sessions and sidelines conversations.
• Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue is holding a NY-12 candidate forum tonight, with Democrats George Conway, Micah Lasher and Jack Schlossberg slated to attend. Absent from the forum will be Alex Bores, who withdrew from the event yesterday.
• Elsewhere in New York City, former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Jeff Yass are set to be honored tonight at the Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner.
• The Chicago Cubs will hold their first Jewish American community night when the team takes on the Cincinnati Reds. Cantor Rachel Brook of Lakeview’s Anshe Emet Synagogue will sing the National Anthem before the first pitch.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Two Jewish Democrats from Chicago are looking to run for president. 

One, Illinois’ two-term governor, JB Pritzker, has built up a reliably progressive record while steering clear of ideological fights over Israel, antisemitism and other cultural issues fueling the Democratic Party. 

The other, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is one of his party’s leading pragmatists, known for feuding with left-wing Democrats over education, the power of unions and the degree to which cultural progressivism cost the party on the ballot box.

So it came as a surprise that, in two separate interviews each published Tuesday, it was Pritzker who came out as a more forceful voice against antisemitism and in support of the U.S. relationship with Israel, while Emanuel sounded like he was all too eager to blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he anticipated a future breakup between the two close allies. 

Pritzker offered the point that relationships between allies aren’t dependent on whether you personally like the elected leadership in charge. It’s a line you’d expect more mainstream Democrats to invoke, especially as Israel’s favorability within the Democratic Party has sunk to new lows.

“There are a lot of people who don’t like Netanyahu, but you shouldn’t take it out on Israel. It’s a democracy that elected him. There are a lot of people who don’t like Trump. I mean, should we be tossed into The Hague as a country because of Trump?” Pritzker told Politico over matzoh ball soup at Manny’s Deli, referring to the home of the International Criminal Court.

Emanuel, when asked by Jewish Insider if there was a special relationship between the U.S. and Israel, agreed with the premise but then quickly pivoted to arguing the state of the relationship should be premised on Israel’s efforts contributing to peace in the region. It’s an implication that its post-Oct. 7 efforts at self-defense have gone too far.

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

FRONT LINES

Jewish leaders warn of new front in anti-Israel campus activity: targeting Hillels

In the aftermath of The New School student government’s vote to defund and sever ties with Hillel, Jewish leaders are warning that the latest front in campus anti-Israel activity is designed to delegitimize the world’s largest Jewish campus organization, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Red line: “Hillel is a space of Jewish belonging on campus. It is a place Jewish students need, and particularly need right now. For anyone to call into question a place that Jewish students go for their needs is beyond the pale. This absolutely crosses a red line,” Laura Shaw Frank, vice president of the American Jewish Committee Center for Education Advocacy, told JI. Shira Goodman, the Anti-Defamation League’s vice president of advocacy, labeled the incident at The New School “an escalation,” voicing concern that campus organizations are targeted solely for supporting Israel.

Read the full story here.

Elsewhere in New York: Members of NYU’s chapter of Jews Against Zionism spoke out in support of a nationwide campaign to boycott Hillel, calling on the university to cut ties with the organization.

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MISSION TO WRAP

How Yossi Farro, the 22-year-old tefillin wrapper, chases influential Jews from coast to coast

Yossi Farro stepped onto the helipad, taking in the panoramic view of Los Angeles: the Hollywood sign in front of him, the skyscrapers of downtown L.A. behind him, all of it surrounded by mountains. But he was not there to take in the view. Farro was standing atop a Wilshire Boulevard office building on Tuesday afternoon to wrap tefillin with two budding Jewish entrepreneurs in their 20s, as part of his mission to spread mitzvot — this week on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Milken moments: Farro, 22, grew up in New York as a Hasidic Jew, part of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, and has gained a social media following for wrapping “the most Powerful Jews in the World,” as his Instagram bio reads. After Oaktree Capital Management co-founder Howard Marks told Farro he is not Jewish during a run-in at a Beverly Hills Starbucks, Farro Googled him — and learned he was lying. They did not wrap tefillin together, but “we grabbed a picture and ended up bonding over both growing up in New York.”

Read the full story here.

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ANTISEMITISM REPORT

ADL report: Antisemitic incidents decline overall in 2025, remain elevated in post-Oct. 7 era

The number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. plummeted by a third last year, led by a steep drop on college campuses, but assaults with a deadly weapon spiked dramatically, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2025 audit released on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

By the numbers: The ADL tallied 6,274 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the country in 2025, an average of 17 incidents per day. While representing a 33% decrease from 2024, this total remains significantly higher than levels before the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, making 2025 the third-highest year for antisemitic incidents since ADL began tracking the data in 1979.

Read the full story here.

Ted talk: Speaking on a Milken Institute Global Conference panel titled “Combatting the New Cycle of Antisemitism,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said social media companies should be pressured to enforce their own rules and regulations in the absence of government action, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.

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WAR WHIPLASH

Trump pauses Strait of Hormuz operation, citing ‘great progress’ in Iran negotiations

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he was temporarily pausing “Project Freedom,” the three-day-old operation aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, at the request of Pakistan and due to progress in negotiations — hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio heralded the start of the operation, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

Trump talk: The president wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday evening that all elements of Project Freedom, a U.S. mission to escort commercial vessels safely through the Strait of Hormuz, “will be paused for a short period of time” in order to see if a “[peace] agreement can be finalized and signed.” The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, however, “will remain in full force and effect,” Trump noted.

Read the full story here.

Show of support: Virginia’s former Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, defended the war in Iran in a Tuesday address at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Meanwhile in Israel: A majority of Israelis believe that ending the war with Iran under the current conditions would undermine the country’s security, according to a new poll from the Israel Democracy Institute, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.

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FOLLOW THE MONEY

Anti-Israel House candidate sends campaign cash to his plastic surgery practice

Dr. Adam Hamawy’s New Jersey plastic surgery practice, which offers such procedures as Brazilian butt lifts, hair transplants and post-pregnancy “mommy makeovers,” is charging his own congressional campaign $7,900 a month for office space, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

Paper trail: Filings with the Federal Election Commission reveal that Hamawy, running on a fervent anti-Israel platform to replace retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), has already relayed the first rent check to Princeton Plastic Surgeons, for which state business records show the candidate himself as the sole owner. And there’s more campaign cash headed to the clinic in the months ahead, a spokesperson told JI. “We would much rather be spending this money on paid media, literature, or anything else, but we are running a grassroots campaign in one of the most expensive real estate markets in America, and a space for our volunteers to gather and organize is crucial,” an emailed statement reads.

Read the full story here.

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PRESIDENTIAL DECREE

Trump urges Jewish Americans to observe ‘national Sabbath’ in Heritage Month proclamation

President Donald Trump encouraged Jewish Americans to observe Shabbat next weekend in his Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation issued earlier this week, marking the first time a U.S. president has called for a national Shabbat, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

Shalom Aleichem: The president wrote in the proclamation, issued on Monday, that he urged American Jews to “observe a national Sabbath” from sundown on Friday, May 15, 2026, to sundown on Saturday, May 16, 2026. The Shabbat coincides with Rededicate 250, Trump’s national prayer event commemorating “250 glorious years of American independence” as part of his Freedom 250 initiative, the public-private partnership overseeing the Semiquincentennial of the United States.

Read the full story here.

Warning bells: Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a co-chair of the House Antisemitism Task Force, warned on Tuesday that anti-Israel sentiment has moved from the political fringes to a “dominant” position within the Democratic Party and warned the same could happen to his own party, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

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Worthy Reads

Oil Change: In the Financial Times, United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba explains Abu Dhabi’s decision to split from OPEC. “Aviation, logistics, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, tourism and life sciences are our fastest-growing sectors. In the past four years we have signed 35 comprehensive economic partnership agreements (of which 15 are already operational) with India, South Korea, Indonesia, Ukraine, Israel, Kenya, Malaysia, Vietnam, Jordan and others — broadening access to markets covering billions of people. We are advancing a bilateral trade agreement with the European Union. We have committed to a $1.4tn investment and technology partnership with the US. This is not the profile of a country whose primary interest is managing oil supply within a collective framework.” [FT]

As Trump Hesitates…: The Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov looks at concerns that Iran is taking advantage of the U.S.’ reluctance to reengage military by striking targets in the region knowing that the Trump administration is unlikely to respond. “President Trump chose to look the other way after Iran launched three salvos of missiles and drones into the United Arab Emirates, one of America’s main Middle Eastern partners, despite a cease-fire he negotiated nearly a month ago. The likely conclusion in Tehran, Gulf governments fear, is that further escalation pays off because Trump is so intent on extricating himself from the war that he will ignore renewed Iranian attacks on America’s regional allies.” [WSJ]

Maine Attraction: In The Free Press, Ruy Teixeira does a deep dive into the fundraising disparity between rivals Graham Platner and Maine Gov. Janet Mills, the latter of whom dropped her Senate bid after being significantly outraised by the far-left Democrat — and the national implications of Platner’s strategy. “Mills depended on itemized, large-donor contributions and institutional-style support. Platner, by contrast, sought and received national media coverage, national endorsements by progressive figures like Bernie Sanders, and a high profile in the online, generally progressive and antiestablishment Democratic discourse. That was then translated into massive numbers of small online donations through the ActBlue fundraising platform. Mills simply could not match this energy — and money.” [FreePress]

Word on the Street

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed spoke by phone this week to discuss Iran’s recent attacks on the Gulf nation; the Emirati news agency WAM said the two “affirmed their countries’ solidarity with the UAE and support for measures it takes to safeguard its security and stability and ensure the safety of its citizens”…

A majority of the candidates backed by President Donald Trump in Indiana as part of a broader redistricting fight in the state won their primaries, ousting sitting Republican legislators who opposed the redistricting effort…

In Ohio, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy secured the GOP nomination for governor, while Democrat Amy Acton, a former state health director, won the state’s Democratic primary…

Former Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is endorsing Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the state’s Democratic primary for Senate…

The man accused of attempting to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner was hit with an additional charge of assaulting a Secret Service officer at the event last month…

The Atlantic does a deep dive into former Trump administration AI czar David Sacks’ efforts to fuse the Silicon Valley technology scene and White House priorities…

The New York Times’ Bret Stephens interviews Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) about the state of the Democratic Party ahead of the midterms, and the party’s goals for 2028 and beyond…

A California man reversed his plea of not guilty and pleaded to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of pro-Israel activist Paul Kessler, who died after a clash at dueling pro- and anti-Israel rallies in November 2023… 

The New York Times looks at how the decision by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to get involved in some primaries has “bitterly divided Democrats, who are feuding openly over the choices in a sign of deeper rifts about the party’s tactics and future”…

Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit clarified that a Democratic bill package that removed Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as state-recognized holidays was done at the behest of Jewish legislators, following confusion in past years over whether state residents were expected to report to work on those days; Arbit added that the bills acknowledging holidays are “just symbolic bills and last time we introduced them, we got all kinds of excited feedback from constituents thinking they’d finally get Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off as paid holidays”…

IAC Chairman Barry Diller said at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything conference that he would “absolutely” buy CNN before the network’s executives “ruin it any further”…

The Washington Post interviews David Frum and Danielle Crittenden about their efforts, through a book and an essay, respectively, to process their grief over their daughter Miranda’s death in 2024…

The Free Press spotlights Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, or HAYI, a new group, believed to have ties to Iran, that has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks targeting Jewish institutions across Europe in recent months…

London’s Metropolitan Police announced the creation of a “community protection team” as part of an effort to protect the city’s Jewish community amid a spate of antisemitic attacks…

The announcement came a day after U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened Jewish and community leaders at 10 Downing St. for a summit on antisemitism; shortly after the British leader began his remarks, security officials in London confirmed an investigation into an arson attack at a former synagogue…

Former U.K. Green Party leader Caroline Lucas called on the party to take immediate action to address antisemitism in its ranks, amid investigations into a number of members and candidates accused of making antisemitic comments; Lucas’ comments come as Rachel Millward, a co-leader of the party, faces criticism for sharing on social media a conspiracy about last week’s attack in the heavily Jewish London suburb of Golders Green…

Authorities in Sydney, Australia, arrested a man wearing a swastika shirt outside the venue where the country’s royal commission on antisemitism was convening for a third day of public testimony…

Pianist and composer Seymour Bernstein died at 99…

Pic of the Day

Bar Ben-Yaakov and Matan Sivek, co-founders of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in the U.S., received the James Foley Foundation’s Humanitarian Award on Tuesday night at an event hosted at the National Press Club in Washington. 

Qatari Minister of State Mohammed Al-Khulaifi was also honored at the event, where he received the group’s 2026 American Hostage Freedom Award for his role in facilitating negotiations that contributed to the release of hostages in Gaza, as well as his efforts that have brought several other hostages and Americans home, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

Birthdays

President and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America, he was previously CEO of Hillel and a U.S. congressman from Ohio, Eric David Fingerhut turns 67… 

U.S. senator (R-AL) from 1987 to 2023, Richard Shelby turns 92… Senior fellow emeritus at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, a U.S. District Court judge and the State Department legal advisor, Abraham David Sofaer turns 88… Novelist, playwright and human rights activist, professor emeritus at Duke University, Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman turns 84… Professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago, Martha Nussbaum turns 79… Israeli theoretical physicist and astrophysicist, he is best known for his work on gamma-ray bursts and on numerical relativity, Tsvi Piran turns 77… Senior counsel at WilmerHale, she was the deputy attorney general of the U.S. in the Clinton administration, Jamie S. Gorelick turns 76… Former prime minister of the United Kingdom, he sits on the founding executive board of the Board of Peace for Gaza, Tony Blair turns 73… President emeritus of the Jerusalem College of Technology / Lev Academic Center, Noah Dana-Picard turns 72… Director of the Jewish studies program at Northeastern University, Lori Hope Lefkovitz turns 70… Pepper Pike, Ohio, resident, Sherry Krasney Feuer turns 70… and her son, Nicky Feuer, turns 36… Co-founder of Boston-based HighVista Strategies, he is the former board chair of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Daniel Jick turns 69… Member of the Knesset for Likud from 2003 to2006, Daniel Benlulu turns 68… Retired attorney and former member of the board of trustees of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, Sheri Goldberg… Los Angeles-based attorney and real estate entrepreneur, Daniel Todd Gryczman… Israel’s minister of national security since 2022, he is the leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir turns 50… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Shelly Tal Meron turns 47… Los Angeles-based television personality, actress, writer and video blogger, Shira Lazar turns 43… Venture advisor at Vintage Investment Partners, Brachie Sprung… Conductor, pianist, clarinetist and composer, he is currently music director of The Louisville Orchestra, Edward “Teddy” Paul Maxwell Abrams turns 39… Founder at ALC Hospitality, Alyse Cohen… Principal at the UAE Presidential Court, Benjamin Levine… Partner at Courtside Ventures and advisor to the board of directors of the Atlanta Hawks, Oliver Ressler… Former head of business development at Seam and now a full-time conservative commentator across many social media platforms, Arynne Wexler turns 33… Actor and singer, married to actor Ben Platt, Noah Egidi Galvin turns 32… 

In the aftermath of the New School student government’s vote to defund and sever ties with Hillel, Jewish leaders are warning that the latest front in campus anti-Israel activity is designed  to delegitimize the world’s largest Jewish campus organization.

“Hillel is a space of Jewish belonging on campus. It is a place Jewish students need, and particularly need right now. For anyone to call into question a place that Jewish students go for their needs is beyond the pale. This absolutely crosses a red line,” Laura Shaw Frank, vice president of the American Jewish Committee Center for Education Advocacy, told Jewish Insider. 

Last week, the New School’s student senate approved a resolution to strip funding and cease collaboration with Hillel, alleging that Hillel violated international law by running programming in Israel, including Birthright trips and volunteer opportunities with the Israel Defense Forces. 

While the New School’s administration rejected the vote, the move marked the first time a student government has moved to officially cut ties with the organization that acts as a hub of campus life for Jewish students — although many have called on their universities to end partnerships with Hillel, particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.  

Now some in the Jewish community believe that student governments on other campuses will imitate the behavior.  

“We’re very heartened by the New School making clear this is not going to happen and we’re pretty confident other university leaders would do the same,” said Shaw Frank. “At the same time, it has to be made clear that Hillel is one of the key places on campus that Jewish students go for support, Jewish identity and celebration, and this kind of message is that their community spaces are conditional, that their identity is suspect and that their safety and belonging is up to the vote of their fellow students.” 

“None of those things are acceptable, so we will be doing everything in our power to ensure that any kind of trend in this direction is shut down. It’s completely unacceptable and antisemitic.” 

Shira Goodman, the Anti-Defamation League’s vice president of advocacy, labeled the incident at the New School “an escalation,” voicing concern that campus organizations are targeted solely for supporting Israel. 

“We’ve seen in the last two years calls to dissociate from Hillel; that was among some of the encampment demands and there have been protests blocking access to Hillel and Chabad events,” Goodman told JI. “We hadn’t seen a campus resolution like that so we’re certainly worried that it will become a bigger trend.”

Those concerns come as campus antisemitism and anti-Israel activity — which reached historic levels during Israel’s war with Hamas and has quieted down since a ceasefire was reached in the fall — appears to be ramping up again as the end of the academic year approaches.  

The outgoing chair of University of Michigan’s faculty senate, who has a history of anti-Israel advocacy, attacked Israel at a commencement ceremony on Saturday in comments that deviated from his prepared remarks. The university apologized for his behavior. 

Last month, UCLA’s student government condemned a campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, labeling the speaker selection as “selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence” and “a troubling disregard for Palestinian life.” UCLA said it stood by Hillel for hosting the event. 

On Monday, the ADL sent a letter to around 150 campuses expressing concern about the resurgence of antisemitic harassment, including the recent reestablishment of encampments at Occidental College and Smith College. (Both were quickly dismantled.)    

Goodman was skeptical that resolutions aimed at shutting down Hillel will be successful or that they could replace campus Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions efforts. While BDS initiatives had largely disappeared prior to Oct. 7, the months following the Hamas attack and the start of the war in Gaza sparked a resurgence in efforts to enact them on various campuses. 

“Given that most of those resolutions have been unsuccessful in getting campuses to divest — although some have led to being able to present to investment committees — I think these will also be unsuccessful,” she said.  

Still, both types of resolutions lead to a hostile campus climate for Jewish students, she said. 

“These student government bodies are supposed to be places that deal with student organizations, funding, policies that impact students and they’re spending a lot of time on these issues that don’t impact students daily lives and are becoming increasingly hostile to the Jewish students on campus.” 

Shaw Frank and Goodman both said that a silver lining of recent campus turmoil is that institutions are now better equipped to handle antisemitism than they were in 2024, when anti-Israel encampments first roiled campuses nationwide and university administrators floundered in shutting them down and negotiating with student protesters. 

“I think with respect to the demonstrations that took place in 2024, it was very clear to campus administrators that their campuses were being shut down and they were unable to continue their work as institutions of learning,” said Shaw Frank. “Employing time, place and manner restrictions as we and other Jewish organizations called for largely solved the problem.” 

She added that the current situation “is much smaller” than it was two years ago. “Most students are no longer active in this space on campus, even in places that were hotbeds of protests in 2024. The protests are much more anemic now. We know that students who see themselves as activists tend to choose places like student government. A small number of students have a disproportionately powerful impact,” said Shaw Frank.

Jewish leaders are looking to university administrations to take decisive action in protecting Jewish students.

“We want to make sure that they use the policies that they enacted, or decided to enforce, after 2024 and that they continue to do that, they continue to be clear that there are consequences for violating university policies and that all students can access their educational and extracurricular activities equally,” said Goodman. 

Shaw Frank added, “This is a moment when university leadership must not only speak out very clearly to state this is unacceptable, but also ensure that their codes of conduct and guidelines are up to date and their departments of student life are educated about antisemitism. 

“We urge universities to ensure that it is very clear to their student governments and student bodies what types of resolutions are OK and what are not OK.”   

The number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. plummeted by a third last year, led by a steep drop on college campuses, but assaults with a deadly weapon spiked dramatically, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2025 audit released on Wednesday. 

The ADL tallied 6,274 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the country in 2025, an average of 17 incidents per day. While representing a 33% decrease from 2024, this total remains significantly higher than levels before the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, making 2025 the third-highest year for antisemitic incidents since ADL began tracking the data in 1979. 

2025 also saw the first time American Jews were murdered in antisemitic attacks on U.S. soil since 2019. Two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed last May outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. One month later, a victim died from injuries sustained in a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo., at a walk in support of the Israeli hostages.

According to the audit, there were 203 incidents categorized as assault, a 4% rise from 2024. Incidents of assault involving a deadly weapon increased from 23 in 2024 to 32 in 2025, and at least 300 people were victimized by incidents of assault. 

Forty-five percent of all incidents (2,847 incidents) were related to Israel or Zionism, a decline from 58% in 2024. There was also a nearly 50% drop in white supremacist propaganda distribution.

Antisemitic incidents at public K-12 schools remained nearly stable from 2024 (860) to 2025 (825). Most of the reported incidents in schools involved interpersonal behavior between classmates, such as antisemitic harassment or students vandalizing classrooms with swastikas, rather than organized group activity.  

Meanwhile, incidents on university campuses saw the steepest decline of any location, a trend the ADL attributes to proactive measures by college administrators. In 2025, ADL recorded 583 antisemitic incidents on college campuses, a 66% drop from 2024 (1,694 incidents).

The states with the highest levels of incidents were New York (1,160), California (817) and New Jersey (687).

The ADL maintained that it did not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism in its methodology. It defined harassment, vandalism and assault as incidents reported to ADL by victims, law enforcement, the media and partner organizations. 

“Our 2025 Audit, which shows it was one of the most violent years for American Jews on record, is a reminder of how dramatically the threat landscape has shifted. Numbers that would have shocked us five years ago are now our floor,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “People are being murdered because of antisemitism on American soil, and thousands more are threatened.” 

The University of Michigan apologized after the outgoing chair of the faculty senate, who has a history of anti-Israel advocacy, delivered an unapproved jab at Israel at a commencement ceremony on Saturday. 

Derek Peterson, a tenured professor of history and African studies, praised “the pro-Palestinian student activists who have over these past two years opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza,” during his campus-wide commencement address to loud cheering from students. 

The university’s president, Domenico Grasso, said in a statement later on Saturday that the remarks were “hurtful and insensitive to many members of our community.”

“We regret the pain this has caused on a day devoted to celebration and accomplishment. For this, the university apologizes,” Grasso continued. “The Faculty Senate Chair deviated from the remarks he had shared before the ceremony. The Chair’s comments were inappropriate and do not represent our institutional position. Nor do they represent the diversity of views across our entire faculty … The Chair’s remarks were expected to be congratulatory, not a platform for personal or political expression. Introducing such commentary in this setting was inappropriate and did not align with the purpose of the occasion.” 

Grasso said he will “work with university leadership to review and refine future commencement programming” but did not announce any disciplinary action against Peterson. 

In January 2024, Peterson authored and presented a faculty senate resolution urging the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel amid its war in Gaza. The resolution passed with a 38-17 vote. 

The University of Michigan experienced virulent campus antisemitism and anti-Israel activity since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, including an assault of a Jewish student and the repeated harassment of a Jewish Board of Regents member.  

Sarah Hubbard, a UMich regent, called on her board colleagues to “make lasting changes that will change the course of this conduct.”

Hubbard called Peterson’s comments “incredibly troubling and disappointing,” in a post on X. “It is very difficult to execute meaningful consequences on tenured faculty but as a leader I can help set the tone and expectations for their conduct. His conduct was unbecoming for a leader of the greatest university in the world,” she said. 

In a joint statement, Michael Schostak and Lena Epstein, the Republican candidates in the upcoming UMich regent election, also said they were “deeply troubled” by the university’s decision to select Peterson as a commencement speaker “given his divisive track record.” 

A Virginia state lawmaker with a history of inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric who had been exploring a congressional run announced on Friday that he would instead remain in the state’s House of Delegates. 

Sam Rasoul, a Roanoke Democrat who is the son of Palestinian immigrants, said he would hold onto his seat in the state Legislature to continue focusing on his work chairing the Education Committee, a role that has garnered concern from the state’s Jewish community due to his heated comments. 

The decision comes days after Virginia voters approved a new congressional map that is likely to deliver four additional House seats to Democrats, prompting a reshuffling as politicians in the state opt to run — or not to run — for the newly drawn Democratic-friendly seats. 

“Over the past few months, I have been evaluating the best path forward for me to continue serving our communities as we witness the Trump administration use our taxpayer dollars to fund a genocide abroad and wage an illegal and immoral Middle East war, all while our infrastructure and education systems are left crumbling here at home,” Rasoul said in a statement. “After careful consideration, I have decided that I will not be running for Congress this year.” 

He urged congressional leaders to “champion Medicare for All, tackle the affordability crisis, and fight for an arms embargo on Israel.”

Rasoul came under fire last year from Jewish leaders in the state after posting a series of anti-Israel messages on social media that critics say veered into antisemitism. “Zionism has proven how evil our society can be,” he wrote on Instagram last summer, in a post that also called Zionism a “supremacist ideology created to destroy and conquer everything and everyone in its way.” 

The Jewish Community Relations Councils for the Washington metro area, Richmond, Virginia Beach and Newport News called last August for Rasoul to be removed from his position as chair of the Education Committee, but that push was not successful. 

A new complaint filed with the Department of Education accuses a Florida Panhandle school district of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by ignoring years of antisemitic harassment against a Jewish student, including Nazi salutes performed in the classroom. 

The complaint, filed Thursday with the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights by the Anti-Defamation League and Akerman law firm, requests that the agency initiate an investigation into the Bay County School District over allegations that the student, who is currently in 11th grade, faced antisemitic discrimination consistently since elementary school.

Approximately 27,000 students are enrolled in Bay District K-12 public schools, which operates 49 schools. Bay County has one of the smallest Jewish communities in Florida, with fewer than 1,000 Jewish individuals.

The student — who is one of the only Jewish students in the district— is referred to throughout the complaint as “Student A.” He said he was forced to transfer out of A. Crawford Mosely High School mid-year as a result of the bullying and has suffered adverse mental health impacts and academic challenges. Before transfering, the student said he made the decision to hide his Star of David necklace, wearing it inside his shirt so it was not visible to classmates.  

Incidents alleged in the complaint, while the student was still enrolled at Mosley High School, included a group of students in a media studies class presenting two PowerPoint projects, in August and September 2025, which displayed antisemitic conspiracy theories portraying Jews as powerful, greedy, manipulative and in control of banks, the media and government. 

The students performed Sieg Heil salutes and mockingly wore yarmulkes while making the presentation. None of the student presenters were Jewish. The teachers present in the classroom did nothing to stop it, even as the presentations did not address the assignment, according to the complaint — which alleges that one teacher laughed during one of the presentations.  

The complaint alleges the district ignored repeated outreach from the student’s mother — a former 20-year employee of the district — who sought better inclusion of Jewish culture, including teaching the story of Hanukkah, following her son’s harassment.

“Bullying and harassment have persisted during Student A’s time enrolled in the district, but the district’s institutional neglect of Jewish students isolated Student A and left him to suffer in silence,” the complaint alleges. The district “knew, or should have reasonably known, that Student A was being isolated, singled out and excluded from school-wide holiday celebrations and other programs.”

The complaint suggests reforms the DOE could require the school district to adopt, including usage of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism — which is codified in Florida state law — and enforcement of a zero-tolerance policy for antisemitic conduct. It also suggests implementation of mandatory antisemitism training for all students, administrators, school board members, teachers, faculty and staff, and modification of programs to include Jews, such as revising the “Christmas Break” to read “Winter Break” on the academic calendar.

Neither the Bay School District nor the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to requests for comment from Jewish Insider about the complaint. 

PITTSBURGH — On the eve of the NFL Draft on Wednesday, Pittsburgh, the host city, was in full spectacle mode. Israel, 6,000 miles away, was abuzz for a very different reason: the country was celebrating Yom HaAtzmaut, marking 78 years of independence. 

As he jumped between draft events, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro shared his thoughts about both. 

“I think we’re here to celebrate an iconic event in sports and sports in general. Sports has the power to bring people together, and we need more of that in our society,” Shapiro told Jewish Insider in an interview following a “unity dinner” in Pittsburgh that brought together 100 Black and Jewish students from local universities. 

At the event — organized by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, in partnership with Hillel International, the United Negro College Fund, the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers — Shapiro appeared on a panel with Kraft and retired Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stopped by to introduce the event.

“The fact that the commissioner and Robert decided to dedicate a portion of draft week to finding ways to come together to a unity dinner, I felt that it was not just something I should do, but a responsibility of mine,” said Shapiro. 

Asked about Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s independence day, Shapiro expressed affection for Israel. He also called for America to do more to rein in its government.

“I’ve always been really clear that I have a love for Israel, even while I have real concern about the leadership of Israel,” said Shapiro. 

A growing number of progressive lawmakers have in recent weeks called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel, including funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, a position adopted by the progressive Israel advocacy group J Street. Shapiro declined to endorse that position. 

“In the case of Israel, you have a country that is constantly being attacked with missiles and other weapons that put civilians at risk, and America is invested in providing assistance like Iron Dome to protect innocent civilians from those terrorist attacks,” said Shapiro. “I think that is in America’s national security interest.”

But he did argue that the U.S. should use its position as a major financial backer of Israel to exert leverage over the country’s use of American-made weapons. Shapiro said Washington has not done a good enough job of that.

“I would say that our last two presidents, President [Joe] Biden and now President [Donald] Trump, have failed to use the leverage of an American president to force Israel’s hands to use that military aid in ways that comport with our American values, to limit the loss of innocent lives as the key factor there,” said Shapiro. “I think what we need to examine is the rubber stamp that Donald Trump has been to the Netanyahu government.” 

Shapiro noted that more than 100 countries receive some form of military assistance from the U.S., a figure that includes nations who may not receive funding but who instead partner with the U.S. military for training or purchase U.S. weaponry. 

“In any one of those 100 countries comes leverage for an American president to exercise to ensure that the military assistance we provide to that country is being used in accordance with our values, our American values,” said Shapiro. “What we need is an American president who’s going to use the leverage that we have when we provide that kind of assistance to Israel or any one of the other 90-plus countries.” 

In recent months, as Shapiro eyes a 2028 presidential bid, he has appeared on several popular podcasts, including “Pod Save America,” “Higher Learning” from digital media company The Ringer and the “All-In Podcast.” As one of the most vocally Jewish politicians in the country, Shapiro is almost always asked about his views on Israel.

“Every day I do, of course, get asked about Israel and the Middle East, and I think it’s important to just speak truthfully about how I feel,” said Shapiro. “I think it’s important to be true to who you are, to not put your finger in the wind and just sort of follow which way it’s blowing.” 

One show he has not appeared on? The Twitch stream hosted by Hasan Piker, a far-left commentator with a history of antisemitic and anti-American views who has hosted conversations with several progressive lawmakers. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another potential 2028 contender, has said he would sit for an interview with Piker. 

Piker has generated a great deal of controversy among Democrats in recent weeks after he appeared at two campaign rallies with Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed this month. Those events prompted sharp criticism from several Michigan Democrats, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and El-Sayed’s primary opponents, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.

Shapiro opted not to weigh in. Asked if he would appear on Piker’s stream, he demurred. 

“I haven’t been invited,” said Shapiro. “I haven’t really thought about it.”

Jewish leaders from communities impacted by antisemitic violence in the past year met with House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to advocate for additional federal security assistance. The advocates represented Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss., a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo. and, the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

“I will never forget the phone call. Or the images on the news of smoke rising from the place where I had just left my child,” Taylor Weintraub, a parent of a child who attended Temple Israel, told reporters on Wednesday morning. “Thank God, none of the children were physically hurt. But that wasn’t luck, that was preparation — reinforced doors, trained security, investments made because we knew this could happen. But here’s what keeps me up at night: we are the lucky ones.”

Among other priorities, the group, organized by the Anti-Defamation League, lobbied lawmakers for an increase to $1 billion in Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding in 2027, with Weintraub making the case that the program is “literally saving lives” — at Temple Israel, NSGP funding helped upgrade the synagogue’s cameras.

“Without these resources, more parents will get that phone call saying a terrorist is inside their child’s school,” Weintraub continued. “And no one should have to live through that.”

Cassi Cohen, the director of development at Temple Israel, said that, as a survivor of the attack, she is “living proof that these pieces of legislation work. … If I can be a voice to help ensure that other houses of worship have the ability to get the resources and the funding to prevent something as catastrophic as what we went through, then I’ll do this every day, because I don’t think there’s anything more important right now.”

Elyssa Schmier, a member of Temple Israel and the ADL’s regional director in Michigan, said that Jewish institutions across the state are undertaking reviews of their security and making upgrades — in some cases without the funding to pay for it.

Schmier’s son’s Jewish preschool is expanding its armed guard’s hours to full time — he previously worked part time because the school did not have enough money to pay for more — “and they’re not really sure how they’re paying for it. They’re just doing it.”

Smaller communities farther outside urban areas are especially vulnerable, she added.

Susan Rona, ADL’s Mountain States regional director, said that security has been critical to ensuring that the community feels able to continue gathering and participating in Jewish life.

“When we built the [Jewish Community Center] building, we benefited from the Nonprofit Security Grant Program as well, and it still is present,” Rona said. “We’re almost a year out, and there’s been real impacts to Boulder and our security needs are just getting higher to make sure that we can still create a space for the community to say, ‘Yes, I want to gather in this Jewish space.’”

The group met with the offices of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) and Gary Peters (D-MI) and Reps. Haley Stevens (D-MI), Hilary Scholten (D-MI), Joe Neguse (D-CO) and John James (R-MI).

In addition to NSGP funding, the group advocated for the Pray Safe Act and the SACRED Act, a new bill being led by Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) to create a protected 100-foot buffer zone around houses of worship, similar to legislation being pursued in New York and California.

Good Wednesday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the state of the State of Israel as the country celebrates the 78th anniversary of its founding, and talk to Jewish Democrats in Michigan who plan to continue engaging politically, even as the state party increasingly backs radical, anti-Israel candidates. We report on a statement by the University of California, Los Angeles student government condemning a recent on-campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, and talk to Sens. Adam Schiff and Mark Kelly about the future of U.S. arms sales to Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mark Cuban and Michael and Susan Dell.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

• President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday afternoon that the ceasefire with Iran that was set to expire shortly would be extended “until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” even as a second round of talks between Washington and Tehran remained on pause. The president said the extension was made at the request of Pakistani army chief Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country hosted the first talks.
• Trump said that the U.S.’ maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would remain in place. The Wall Street Journal reports that ahead of the first round of talks between the U.S. and Iran earlier this month, Tehran went into the negotiations believing that its drone and UAV capabilities and control over the strait gave it leverage, but found that the U.S. blockade “has chipped away at Tehran’s advantage.”
• Shortly after Trump’s announcement, Iranian boats fired on two cargo ships off the coasts of Oman and Iran.
• Senate Democrats will make a fifth attempt to pass a war powers resolution today after the vote, which was expected yesterday, was bumped.
• TheAnti-Defamation League is hosting a fly-in in Washington today, with members of the West Bloomfield, Mich., Jackson, Miss., and Boulder, Colo., Jewish communities — all of which have been targeted in antisemitic attacks in the last year — as well as the organizer of the event last May at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington in which two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed. The community representatives will be lobbying officials on the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, the Pray Safe Act and the Safeguarding Access to Congregations and Religious Establishments from Disruption Act.
• Jonathan Burke, the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, is slated to testify before the House Financial Services Committee this afternoon on the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions. 
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell are slated to speak at a forum on Capitol Hill focused on terrorism and religious violence being hosted by the International Committee on Nigeria and EMET.
• Elsewhere in D.C., mayoral candidate Kenyan McDuffie is holding a meet-and-greet with young Jewish professionals.
• In Pittsburgh tonight, Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate will host a unity dinner and fireside chat — featuring Gov. Josh Shapiro — for Black and Jewish college students in partnership with the NFL, Hillel International, United Negro College Fund and the Pittsburgh Steelers. 
• In New York, the City Council’s task force on antisemitism will hold its first hearing this afternoon on antisemitic hate crimes and bias.
• This morning, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and New York City Comptroller Mark Levine will sit in conversation at an event at 92NY focused on the future of the city’s Jewish community.
• And further uptown, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) will be interviewed by Yeshiva University President Rabbi Ari Berman about her new book, Poisoned Ivies.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Every year, ahead of Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics releases the latest population figures. As Israel turns 78, the country’s population stands at 10.2 million, up 1.4% from last year, which the bureau said is one of the highest growth rates in the Western world. 

In the last year, 177,000 babies were born in Israel, and 27% of the population is under age 14. 

If having a baby is an expression of hope, then clearly Israelis, with the highest birthrate by far among developed countries, are an optimistic bunch. According to the CBS, 91% of Israelis are satisfied or very satisfied with their life, 96% are satisfied or very satisfied with their family and even two-thirds of Israelis are happy with their economic situation. 

That would explain why, despite the events of recent years, Israel was ranked the eighth-happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Index released last month. 

You couldn’t blame Israelis if they felt differently. After all, the last year was a roller-coaster of emotions. 

This time in 2025, there were still dozens of hostages in Gaza, with weekly protests for their freedom but little by way of any plan or agreement to get them out. Fighting continued in Gaza, even though Hamas’ leadership had largely been eliminated, the Houthis were regularly launching missiles at Israel and Iran was rushing toward a nuclear weapon.

Then came the 12-day war with Iran in June, with the U.S. joining for the coda to destroy much of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities. Finally, in October, the last of the living hostages held in Gaza passed from Hamas’ hands, and they were home.

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

DEM DIVIDES

Jewish Dems vow to keep fighting in Michigan, even as they question if they belong

Jewish Democrats described a “shell-shocked” atmosphere at their statewide convention in Detroit on Sunday, which saw marked hostility to pro-Israel voices within the party that were marginalized and shouted down, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Tense climate: Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a moderate and pro-Israel candidate for Senate, faced loud, sustained boos when she spoke in front of the main convention room. One person spotted an attendee on Sunday wearing a shirt that said “Resistance until liberation,” with an image showing someone wearing a keffiyeh throwing rocks. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI), a moderate Democrat representing a swing district, who is not Jewish, on Tuesday described the scenes from the convention as “deeply troubling,” and in particular criticized the party’s nomination of Amir Makled, a Dearborn attorney with a history of social media posts praising Hezbollah, for a position on the University of Michigan Board of Regents.

Read the full story here.

Further fallout: Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) also criticized the divisive behavior by Democratic Party activists at the convention, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

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Ex-Democratic Socialists of America official working as top consultant to Osborn, Platner

A former Democratic Socialists of America organizer has been a top advisor to independent Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn and Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Background: Daniel Moraff was a longtime DSA member, including acting as a local and national DSA organizer and leader in the mid-to-late 2010s, though he said his membership lapsed in 2019 because his local chapter became too focused on internal matters. He argued in a now-deleted 2017 article that the best way for socialists to gain political power and achieve elective office would be by running in Democratic primaries.

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CAMPUS CONTROVERSY

UCLA student government condemned Hillel event featuring former hostage Omer Shem Tov

UCLA’s student government condemned a recent campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, labeling the speaker selection as “selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence” and “a troubling disregard for Palestinian life,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.    

Council’s condemnation: In an undated letter to UCLA administration, as well as the organizers of the event — UCLA Hillel and the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies — and “affiliated campus stakeholders,” the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council wrote that it “condemns” the April 14 event, held on Yom HaShoah, which was titled “505 Days in Captivity: Omer Shem Tov’s Testimony of Resilience.” The council represents over 29,000 undergraduates at UCLA. 

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EXCLUSIVE

CUFI spends six figures on anti-Thomas Massie billboard campaign

President Donald Trump’s effort to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a longtime thorn in his side, got another big-money boost as Christians United for Israel Action Fund, the advocacy arm of the Christian Zionist group, announced that it is spending six figures to blanket Massie’s congressional district with dozens of billboards hitting the congressman over his opposition to the Iran war, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What it involves: “For one full month, CUFI Action Fund will dominate Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District outdoor advertising space by securing every available billboard in the district, creating a broad and highly visible message presence across the region,” CUFI Action Fund senior director Ari Morgenstern told JI. “The buy spans key communities across the district, ensuring the message reaches voters in both local population centers and along major commuter and travel routes.” The Kentucky primary election, where Massie is facing off against Trump-endorsed Navy veteran Ed Gallrein, is on May 19. 

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ARMS ARGUMENTS

Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly say future votes on Israel arms sales will be case-by-case

Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), both of whom voted for the first time last week in favor of blocking some U.S. arms sales to Israel, said that their future positions on such votes would be made on a case-by-case basis, determined by the specific sales in question and the circumstances surrounding the votes. The two were somewhat surprising votes in favor of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) effort to block U.S. arms sales, having generally maintained pro-Israel records while in Congress, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What they’re saying: “I was, and am, strongly opposed to the war in Iran, and I couldn’t justify voting against our own supplemental funding bills, which I plan to, and supporting funding for the same war in a JRD,” Schiff told JI, referring to the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block specific arms sales to Israel. “I’ll evaluate each circumstance as they come.” Kelly disputed the notion that his vote had flipped, saying, “I make these decisions based on what is the current situation, and what is the vote on — I don’t make these [decisions] in a vacuum.”

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Transatlantic tensions: Democratic lawmakers are expressing concern over Israel’s fracturing relationship with key European allies, while experts say the shifting dynamics could carry longer-term economic and political risks for Jerusalem, even if Israel weathers threats to unwind largely symbolic defense agreements, JI’s Matthew Shea reports. 

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ACROSS THE POND

London synagogue arsonist released on bail amid spate of attacks on Jewish community

The arsonist who pleaded guilty to attacking a North London synagogue on Saturday night was released on bail by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday. The 17-year-old boy, whose name has not been disclosed due to his age, threw a bottle containing accelerant through the window of Kenton United Synagogue, according to the Metropolitan Police, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Details: The Community Security Trust, U.K.’s Jewish security organization, said that the building faced minor smoke damage but no injuries. It was the third such attack on a Jewish institution in London within a week. District Judge Nina Tempia granted the arsonist bail under the conditions that he live and sleep at his home address and not enter any synagogue, or he will be rearrested, The Independent reported. A second suspect, a 19-year-old male, was also arrested after the attack and had been released on bail earlier this week, the Met Police said. 

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Worthy Reads

Barrack Going Rogue: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board raises concerns that U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack is deviating from U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. “​​In 30 minutes at Turkey’s Antalya Diplomacy Forum on Friday, Mr. Barrack managed to counsel the Middle East against democracy, push cooperation with Hezbollah, mock the Lebanon cease-fire, call to include Iran in Lebanon talks, play down Turkey’s purchase of Russian air defenses, and threaten Israel on Turkey’s behalf. On each point, Mr. Barrack is undermining U.S. policy. Iran has no business in Lebanon’s affairs, and President Trump has been at pains to distance Iran from the Lebanon cease-fire.” [WSJ]

Poison For the Dems: In The Washington Post, Democratic strategist Ethan Wolf posits that efforts by some Democrats to engage with extremists, such as Hasan Piker, risk damaging efforts to expand the party’s footprint ahead of the midterms and 2028 presidential election. “Democrats have been here before. The party’s most successful leaders understood that expanding the tent and policing its boundaries are necessary complements, not contradictions. … Open the tent. Talk to more people. Take more communication risks. But do it in a way that affirms the truth. The left is culturally savvy, not aloof; it is scornful of anti-Americanism, antisemitism and bigotry, not tolerant of them.” [WashPost]

Gaza Lit: In The Free Press, Matti Friedman introduces the concept of “Gazology,” a literary genre that removes Hamas and its Oct. 7, 2023, attacks from discourse around Gaza and is powered almost entirely by authors with no firsthand experience. “And lastly, and most importantly, Gazology rests on the idea that the Gaza war is not just Israel’s fault, a bad decision, or even a crime, but the doorway to the dark workings of the world. It’s in the last point that a reader glimpses the battery powering the genre. Gazology is a literature of Jewish evil. Its origins lie not in journalism or academic inquiry but in the pseudosciences that have sprung up over the centuries to explain the problems of humanity with stories about the malevolence of this group of people.” [FreePress]

What War Goals?: Puck’s Peter Hamby looks at recent polling indicating that Americans are confused about the Trump administration’s goals in the Iran war. “The takeaway from that thicket of answers is that there is no consensus view among voters as to what the war is for. … Taken together, it’s an ugly messaging failure for the president and his team at the White House. An imperfect comparison: After the invasion of Iraq, regardless of whether they supported the war or not, almost 90 percent of American voters agreed that the United States would find weapons of mass destruction there. Dubya and his crew of neocons might have cooked up the evidence, but at least they sold it.”[Puck]

Word on the Street

The University of Texas’ Dell Medical Center announced a $750 million gift from Michael and Susan Dell to fund what UT officials are calling the country’s first “AI-native” medical campus. The Dells are now the first UT donors to surpass over $1 billion in donations…

Kanye West was spotted leaving the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles as the singer faces the cancellation of numerous stops on his upcoming European tour; some countries, including the U.K. and France, have revoked his entry permit, while in others, the venues and organizers themselves canceled shows due to West’s past antisemitic comments…

The Treasury Department announced sanctions targeting more than a dozen individuals and companies in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates that assisted Iran in procuring and transporting weapons and aircraft… 

The U.S. suspended cash transfers to Iraq — including a delivery of $500 million in U.S. currency — with Treasury officials pressing Baghdad to dismantle Iran-backed militias in the country…

Half an hour before Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) was set to face a House Ethics Committee hearing recommending sanctions for a range of financial crimes, the Florida Democrat stepped down from Congress…

Representatives from the Board of Peace have reportedly met with officials from DP World to discuss the United Arab Emirates-owned company’s potential overseeing of humanitarian aid distribution in the Gaza Strip…

President Donald Trump has reportedly told aides that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is “begging” for a job in the administration — including potentially secretary of defense or being named a Supreme Court justice — when his term ends in early 2027…

Speaking at a health care summit on Tuesday, Mark Cuban, who had backed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, said he would not support her in a future bid as she mulls entering the 2028 race… 

A number of private-equity firms and investors are expressing interest in acquiring Casey Wasserman’s talent and marketing agency, which could be valued at $3 billion, as Wasserman looks to sell the company after the release of emails earlier this year between him and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell…

The Department of Justice announced an investigation into the University of Washington’s handling of antisemitism, citing an event by an anti-Israel group that aimed to raise funds for Lebanon; the university distanced itself from the group, SUPER UW, saying that its status as a registered student organization was revoked last year, though the group’s membership is comprised of current students…

Two IDF soldiers involved in the desecration of a statue of Jesus in a southern Lebanese Christian town were sentenced to 30 days in military detention and will be removed from combat duty; six others who witnessed the incident, a photo of which went viral earlier this week, will be summoned for further discussions…

U.N. officials convened representatives from Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in Amman, Jordan, for a meeting aimed at de-escalating tensions…

New York magazine profiles Rabbi Eliezer Lawrence, New York City’s “most in-demand mohel,” who has built a full-time practice performing hundreds of ritual circumcisions each year across the tri-state area…

Pic of the Day

Argentine President Javier Milei (left) joined in singing the Spanish song “Libre” onstage at the 78th anniversary Independence Day ceremony, held at Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, on Tuesday. Milei also lit a torch, one of Israel’s highest honors, at the ceremony.

Birthdays

Former chief economist at the World Bank, Sir Nicholas Herbert Stern turns 80… 

Calgary-based CEO of Balmon Investments, Alvin Gerald Libin turns 95… Co-founder of Human Rights Watch, formerly national director of the ACLU and then president of George Soros’ Open Society Institute, Aryeh Neier turns 89… English journalist and former anchor of BBC Television’s “Newsnight,” Adam Eliot Geoffrey Raphael turns 88… Conductor and professor of music at Boston University, Joshua Rifkin turns 82… Former mayor of Madison, Wis., he has served as mayor three times for a total of 22 years, Paul R. Soglin turns 81… Managing director emeritus of Kalorama Partners, D. Jeffrey “Jeff” Hirschberg… Real estate developer and principal owner of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, Zygmunt “Zygi” Wilf turns 76… President and chief investment officer of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google, Ruth Porat turns 69… Four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The Washington Post, Sari Horwitz turns 69… NYC-area accountant, he is chief financial officer at Melar Acquisition Corp, Edward Lifshitz… Chicago-based philanthropist and immediate past board chair of Ramah Camping Movement, Arnie Harris… New Zealand native now serving as the CEO of Australian-based job-board SEEK, Ian Mark Narev turns 59… Founder and editor of the data-journalism and research initiative themadad, Shmuel Rosner turns 58… NYC-based attorney, co-founding partner of Kriss & Feuerstein LLP, Jerold C. Feuerstein turns 58… Senior writer at The Forward and the author of My Jesus Year: A Rabbi’s Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith, Benyamin Cohen turns 51… Russian and Israeli public figure, media manager and an art dealer, Yegor Altman turns 51… Member of the Knesset for the National Unity party, Yehiel Moshe “Hili” Tropper turns 48… Tel Aviv-based deputy bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, Shayndi Raice… Associate VP of external communications for the Jewish Federations of North America, Niv Elis… Former president of Y Combinator and now the CEO of OpenAI, Samuel H. “Sam” Altman turns 41… Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Zachary Krooks… Retired competitive ice dancer, Elliana Pogrebinsky turns 28…