• We’ll be keeping a close eye this weekend on developments in the Middle East as President Donald Trump mulls military action against Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the president could order an initial limited strike in an effort to push Tehran into accepting a nuclear agreement. More below.
• AIPAC’s annual Congressional Summit kicks off on Sunday in Washington. More below on the gathering, which in recent years has taken the place of the group’s annual Policy Conference.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

More than 1,000 of AIPAC’s top donors will gather in Washington this weekend for the pro-Israel group’s annual Congressional Summit, meeting at a moment of intense scrutiny surrounding the group’s political tactics. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid are slated to address the convening via video, along with senior congressional leaders and a representative from the Trump administration, according to an AIPAC source. U.S. Ambassador to the U. N. Mike Waltz will speak at the conference, as will House Speaker Mike Johnson (R‑LA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D‑NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D‑NY) and Sens. Tom Cotton (R‑AR) and Ted Cruz (R‑TX). 

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) did not respond to a request for comment. 

At the conference, AIPAC activists will work to “further accelerate the community’s political efforts this election cycle” and will meet with more than 400 members of Congress, according to the source with knowledge of AIPAC’s plans. 

“Discussions will focus on the evolving threats facing Israel, the negotiations with Iran, solidarity with the Iranian people seeking freedom from a brutal regime, continued U.S. security assistance and expanding joint defense cooperation that will strengthen the security and strategic edge of both nations,” the source told Jewish Insider.

Supporters and critics alike are closely watching the group’s next moves after a very public defeat earlier this month. AIPAC spent more than $2.3 million on attack ads against former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) in a Democratic primary in New Jersey, only for Malinowski to lose in a close race to Analilia Mejia, a far-left activist who will almost certainly take a much more hostile approach to Israel than Malinowski.

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

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading back to Israel today following yesterday’s meeting with President Donald Trump. More below.
• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding its confirmation hearing for Jeremy Carl to be assistant secretary of state for international organizations. Carl, who was born to a Jewish family and now identifies as Christian, has expressed a range of derogatory views about Jews, including in a 2024 interview in which he said that “Jews have often loved to play the victim rather than accept that they are participants in history.” Read Jewish Insider’s past reporting on Carl’s comments here.
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is meeting today with Zach Shemper, president of Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss., which suffered significant damage in an arson attack last month. The two are expected to discuss the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which provided the congregation with security cameras that helped catch the perpetrator, and the Pray Safe Act.
• In Los Angeles, Sinai Temple and Fabric are co-hosting a daylong summit focused on building bridges within the sports community. Lisa Leslie, Eddy Curry and Tamir Goodman are among those slated to appear at the gathering.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

At first glance, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nearly three-hour meeting at the White House on Wednesday appeared to end without any clear accomplishments.

Instead of the freewheeling question-and-answer sessions with media in the Oval Office and formal press conferences that followed most of Trump and Netanyahu’s previous six meetings since Trump returned to the White House, came a laconic statement from Netanyahu’s office about Israel’s security needs and a Truth Social post from Trump that was staid by the president’s standards. 

Trump wrote that he “insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated. If I can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference.” However, the president warned that last time Iran decided against making a deal, “that did not work out well for them,” and the U.S. struck the country’s nuclear sites.

However, Trump and Netanyahu were similarly silent about their meeting in April 2025 — their last in-person meeting before the joint strike in Iran two months later.

Behind the scenes, the main topic of conversation between the two leaders yesterday appeared to focus on options for action if Iran does not agree to a deal. 

The lack of press around the meeting was because Netanyahu wanted to keep a relatively low profile and show deference to Trump, since a strike on Iran — should one occur — would be led by the U.S., an Israeli source said.

The Israeli side is very skeptical that any deal can be reached between the U.S. and Iran, with Trump saying publicly that a good deal would mean “no nuclear weapons, no ballistic missiles,” and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying the ballistic missile issue is a nonstarter for Tehran. 

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

Open Season: In The Free Press, 92nd Street Y CEO Seth Pinsky, reflecting on protests last week targeting the venue’s State of World Jewry address, calls on officials in New York City and state to take additional steps to protect the Jewish community. “The protesters outside illustrated one of the challenges plainly: In today’s New York City, Jewish conversations — on any topic — are treated as legitimate targets for protest and disruption. More disturbing still, the hostility was not confined to the event’s attendees. Families arriving from birthday parties were harassed, as were New Yorkers simply using our gym. Even a neighboring store was targeted, with one protester explaining that it “had Zionists inside.” In other words, merely being present in and around a Jewish space was now enough to make someone fair game. … [W]hat we need from our progressive leaders is to demand the same clarity and consistency from their allies when it comes to Jews and Israel that they and their allies regularly demand of the MAGA right on a host of other topics.” [FreePress]

Bridge Over Troubled Water: In The Wall Street Journal, Henry Louis Gates Jr., who recently released a four-part docuseries on Black-Jewish relations, makes the case for strengthened ties between the two communities. “Two streams run beneath the floorboards of Western culture: antisemitism, our civilization’s oldest hatred, and antiblack racism. Whenever people search for a scapegoat, they lift up those floorboards and reach down. … Neither community speaks with a single voice. Each contains a range of convictions, anxieties, loyalties and values. Any durable partnership has to make room for that internal plurality. Coalitions fail when they demand unanimity, when they turn disagreement into disqualification. What sustains a shared project is the harder work of staying in relationship across difference, arguing without rupture, and protecting common interests even amid unresolved tensions. We often talk about community as if it were a mood. But it’s a practice. It means renouncing the cheap satisfactions of applause from your own side and the ease of a story with only heroes and villains.” [WSJ]

The Gaza Fantasy: In The Atlantic, Hussein Ibish reflects on what he calls the “profoundly unserious” proposal from the Trump administration to reconstruct Gaza. “It promises industrial parks, educational centers, residential zones, and beach resorts, likely inspired by cities such as Dubai and Singapore. But those cities evolved through decades of careful urban planning. Gaza is, at the moment, a rubbled wasteland. Approximately 80 percent of all structures have been badly damaged or destroyed, and Gazans have nowhere to live except in squalid tents or the ruins of former homes. … The fantasy is beguiling, and its realization would be a magnificent accomplishment — if it weren’t so unimaginably absurd. Trump’s master plan treats Gaza as if it were a greenfield site rather than a partitioned pile of wreckage populated by destitute, hungry, unsheltered people.” [TheAtlantic]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally joined the Trump administration’s Board of Peace during his meeting on Wednesday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio…

A group of Senate Democrats, including Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mark Warner (D-VA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Alex Padilla (D-CA), urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to halt further deportations of asylum seekers to Iran…

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the Financial Times that efforts to broaden U.S.-Iran talks beyond the nuclear issue would risk “nothing but another war”…

More Democratic lawmakers condemned the Israeli Cabinet’s recent moves to expand control over the West Bank, with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) saying the move constituted a “green light for unilateral annexation of the West Bank” that violates the Oslo Accords and “threatens Israel’s security,” and House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Greg Meeks (D-NY) calling the decision “de facto annexation’ and “deeply troubling” and saying  it may “irreversibly erode” the possibility of a two-state solution…

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced legislation to gain more transparency into the U.S.’ handling of hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan oil proceeds, which are currently being held in an offshore account in Qatar…

Harlem’s Tsion Cafe, the only Ethiopian-Israeli restaurant in New York City, ended its regular dining service, with owner Beejhy Barhany citing a changed environment for Israeli restaurants in the city since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and over the course of the ensuing war in Gaza among the reasons she’s switching to a cultural events-only model… 

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square revealed a $2 billion stake in Meta, with the hedge fund manager reportedly being drawn to the tech company’s focus on AI…

The EU approved Google/Alphabet’s $32 billion acquisition of Israeli cloud-security startup Wiz, avoiding a lengthy inquiry as the companies seek to move forward on the sale…

France is calling on Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, to resign over comments she made at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, Qatar, last week, in which she claimed that all of humanity “now has a common enemy” in Israel…

The Sydney Morning Herald reports on Hamas documents that allege that Mohammed al-Halabi, the former Gaza director of the World Vision, worked for Hamas while employed by the charity and used his role to obtain information about Israeli court proceedings…

Takamitsu Muraoka, an expert in Semitic languages and a former chair of Hebrew, Israelite Antiquities, and Ugaritic at Leiden University in the Netherlands, died at 88…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog (left) met on Wednesday with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra. Herzog will travel back to Israel today after a four-day visit, which also included stops in Melbourne and Sydney, that was marred by widescale protests targeting the president.

Best-selling author, known for children’s and young adult fiction, Judy Sussman Blume turns 88…

Commercial director in the Inglewood and Beverly Hills offices of Keller Williams Realty, he is also a principal at Westside Realty Advisors, Gary Aminoff turns 89… Physician and public intellectual, he is a dean at Shalem College in Jerusalem and professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, Leon Richard Kass turns 87… Former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak turns 84… Periodontist in Newark, Del., Barry S. Kayne, DDS… Economist, physicist, legal scholar and libertarian theorist, his father was Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, David D. Friedman turns 81… Computer genius, author, inventor and futurist, Ray Kurzweil turns 78… Grandmother of Aryeh, Gabby, Alex and Daniella, among others, Esther Dickman… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, Eti Hava Atiya turns 66… Former president of Disney-ABC Television Group, Ben Sherwood turns 62… President of U.S. affairs at Combat Antisemitism Movement, Alyza Lewin… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Brett M. Kavanaugh turns 61… Film director, producer and screenwriter, Darren Aronofsky turns 57… Comic book author and illustrator, Judd Winick turns 56… Actress known for her voice work in animation, websites and video games, Tara Lyn Charendoff Strong turns 53… Member of the board of directors for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics committee, Chad Tyler Brownstein turns 53… Comedian, actor, podcaster, writer and producer, Ari Shaffir turns 52…

Principal deputy national security advisor throughout the Biden administration, now a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Jonathan Finer turns 50… Deputy director for external affairs and communications at the Troy, Mich.-based Kresge Foundation, Christine M. Jacobs… Former MLB player, he is now the program director and owner of London, Ontario-based Centrefield Sports, Adam Stern turns 46… Former columnist for The Wall Street Journal for 17 years, Rachel Feintzeig… Deputy solicitor general of New Jersey, he previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Michael Zuckerman… New York regional director for the American Jewish Committee, Joshua Kramer… Israeli actress, best known as ADA Samantha Maroun on “Law & Order,” Odelya Halevi turns 37… Syndicated political columnist and senior editor-at-large for Newsweek, Josh Hammer turns 37… Senior advisor in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs at the State Department during the Biden administration, Megan Apper… Counsel in the international trade group at Crowell & Moring, Jeremy Iloulian… PR and communications manager at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Anna Behar…

• Vice President JD Vance is traveling to Armenia today as part of a two-country trip that will also include a stop in Azerbaijan later this week, in a last-minute trip first reported yesterday. Vance will not be in Washington during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, slated for Wednesday.
• Former Israeli hostage and musician Alon Ohel will play a one-night concert in Tel Aviv this evening. In videos shared by his loved ones during his more than two years in captivity, Ohel deftly played the piano, drawing widespread praise for his talent. He’ll be performing alongside a number of high-profile Israeli musicians, including Idan Amedi and Eviatar Banai for the performance, titled “Alon Ohel, Playing for Life.”
• The Religious Liberty Commission is holding its fifth hearing on issues related to antisemitism today at the Museum of the Bible. Speakers at the gathering, which begins this morning and runs through the mid-afternoon, include the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell, former Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl and former U.S. Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback.
  Prince William is making his first official visit to Saudi Arabia this week. The trip comes as Riyadh hosts the World Defense Show, and as the U.K. works to establish Saudi Arabia as a partner in its next-generation Tempest fighter aircraft program.
• Somali Defense Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi is also in Riyadh, where earlier in the day he inked a new defense cooperation agreement with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman. The Saudi official had met with Jewish leaders in Washington last month, during which he reiterated Riyadh’s opposition to Israel’s recent recognition of Somaliland.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to fly to Washington for a Wednesday White House meeting amid increasing concern in Jerusalem that the U.S. and Iran are headed towards a nuclear deal that does not meet Israel’s immediate security need — to drastically limit Iran’s ballistic missile program.

After the first round of indirect negotiations in Oman on Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One that talks had been “very good” and that “Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly.” 

Asked about Iran’s demand that the talks only be about nuclear weapons, Trump said, “That would be acceptable. One thing, right up front, no nuclear weapons. … They weren’t willing to do that [last year]; now they are willing to do much more.” That message contrasted with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks from last week, that “in order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles, that includes the sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region, that includes the nuclear program and that includes the treatment of their own people.”

Netanyahu announced the urgent meeting with Trump, less than two months after they last met at Mar-a-Lago, with a statement that said: “The Prime Minister believes any negotiations must include limitations on ballistic missiles and a halting of the support for the Iranian axis.”

For Israel, while the Iranian nuclear program may be the biggest threat, Operation Midnight Hammer did enough damage that the ballistic missiles are the more urgent concern, one that Iran has been threatening to use against Israel if the U.S. launches an attack. 

Though Israel destroyed hundreds of missiles, launchers and production sites during the 12-Day war last June, most of Iran’s missiles remained intact. The prime minister presented the president with evidence during their December meeting that Iran has been working to rebuild its ballistic missile program and air defenses with help from China and Russia.

Any deal that does not include significant limitations on the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles will be woefully inadequate from Israel’s perspective. Plus, as Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday, Israel wants a deal that addresses Iran’s sponsorship of terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed skepticism that the negotiations would bring about an acceptable agreement and noted the legal requirement to bring any such deal before Congress, writing on X: “I hope it can meet our national security objectives and the needs of the people of Iran through diplomacy. Given Iran’s behavior regarding deals, it could be a tough sell. However, I am open-minded, understanding [that] any agreement with the Islamic Republic and the United States must come to Congress for review and a vote.” 

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

• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is in the United Arab Emirates today for meetings aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war. Witkoff traveled to the UAE from Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday afternoon.
• The meeting between Witkoff and Netanyahu came amid increasing tensions between the U.S. and Iran, and took place hours before a U.S. aircraft carrier shot down an approaching Iranian drone. On Tuesday evening, reports emerged that Tehran was pushing to move a meeting between Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi from Turkey to Oman.
• In Washington, First Lady Melania Trump is hosting former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel at the White House this afternoon for a private sit-down.
• Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is in Washington for a critical minerals conference hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Last night, Sa’ar convened a group of Latin American and U.S. diplomats, including the ambassadors of Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador as well as Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, White House Faith Advisor Paula White and Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL).
• The House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a hearing on religious freedom around the world. Sam Brownback, who served as ambassador at large for international religious freedom, is among those set to testify.
• The Muslim World League is holding an event on Capitol Hill with former Saudi Justice Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Issa and Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
• The Manhattan Institute is awarding Ben Shapiro with the annual City Journal Award at a reception tonight in Palm Beach, Fla.
• The World Governments Summit continues today in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Earlier today, Tucker Carlson interviewed newly appointed Venezuelan Vice President Calixto Ortega Sánchez on the main stage. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who took the stage yesterday, told attendees that a new deal between the U.S. and Iran was “unimaginable” while Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remains in power.
• Web Summit Qatar wraps up today in Doha, Qatar. During one of yesterday’s mainstage sessions, far-left streamer Hasan Piker alleged that Israel “played a significant role in how Oct. 7 took place.” Read more from JI’s Matthew Shea here.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Tomorrow’s New Jersey special Democratic primary election to fill Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s vacant House seat will offer an early test of AIPAC’s ability to continue showcasing its political clout. The pro-Israel group’s super PAC, in a potentially risky move, has spent over $2 million in ads attacking former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who has come out in favor of conditioning some aid to Israel, in hopes of electing a more reliable ally in former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way.

The group’s ad hits Malinowski not for his views on Israel, but for a bipartisan vote in 2019 funding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and over stock trades he made as a congressman. The ICE attacks, in particular, are expected to resonate in the affluent, center-left district. Because of his name recognition representing a neighboring district before losing reelection in 2022, Malinowski started out as the early front-runner but is taking a serious hit on the airwaves.

But complicating that strategy is the presence of a far-left, anti-Israel candidate in Analilia Mejia, who leads a progressive advocacy group and has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Mejia has been polling in second place, according to some reports, and has a path to winning the nomination — and the seat, given the 11th Congressional District’s Democratic lean.

The race also features Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, an establishment-oriented politician — endorsed by former Gov. Phil Murphy — who has expressed consistently pro-Israel views on the campaign trail and in an interview with Jewish Insider. 

Even as the political environment within the Democratic Party has shifted to the left, AIPAC isn’t backing down from its aggressive, on-offense playbook from 2024, when a number of mainstream pro-Israel Democrats backed by the group won their elections to Congress — while two of AIPAC’s most extreme opponents, former Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), fell short in their reelection bids.

Given the changed intraparty mood, there was a question about whether pro-Israel groups would need to play a little more defense this election cycle, or at least refocus attention on stopping the most radical candidates with a chance of winning instead of going all-out for the most principled allies.

That’s looking — at least for now — not to be the case.

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

Talking to Tehran: In Newsweek, former White House Middle East Envoy Jason Greenblatt urges U.S. negotiators to address Iran’s treatment of its citizens when the parties meet later this week for talks aimed at calming tensions between Washington and Tehran. “The Iranian people are too often treated as a secondary concern, eclipsed by geopolitical calculations and security debates. That framing misses something fundamental. The regime’s threat to the outside world begins with how it governs at home. … Too often, international negotiations bracket domestic repression as an internal matter. That choice has consequences. A regime sustained by fear is not stable; it is brittle. Its violence is not incidental to its strategy. It is the strategy. Any serious approach to Iran must therefore confront the full scope of the threat the regime poses — not only to regional security and global nonproliferation, but to the Iranian people themselves. Their repression is not peripheral to the problem. It is central to it.” [Newsweek]

Pahlavi’s Path: The Free Press’ Eli Lake spotlights exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and the challenges he faces as he works to position himself as the successor to the current regime, should it collapse. “The moment has arrived for Pahlavi to decide what role he’ll play in any future beyond the regime. And there are signs that he is not well-positioned to unite the factions of Iran’s opposition and lead an orderly transition to a new form of government. Many other Iranian opposition figures told The Free Press that the crown prince’s organization has sought to marginalize them. Based on interviews with Iranian activists, along with journalists and friends and advisers to Pahlavi, it’s clear that the crown prince has alienated many of the Iranians who are challenging the Islamic Republic on the ground. Friends of the crown prince have bullied rival political figures and tried to curb their influence. And Pahlavi himself has at times exaggerated the fragility of the regime that just slaughtered thousands of his countrymen.” [FreePress]

San Francisco’s Mr. Fix-it: The New York Times’ Heather Knight profiles San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who has spent the bulk of his first year in office targeting minor bureaucratic hurdles and inconveniences facing city residents. “His quality-of-life strategy, which also included trying to bring businesses back to the hollowed-out downtown and clearing sidewalks of daytime drug markets, has paid off so far, resulting in strong first-year approval ratings. At the same time, Mr. Lurie, a moderate Democrat and earnest technocrat, insists he has no interest in national politics, and he still refuses to say President Trump’s name in public. … The maze at City Hall is so complex that some savvy San Franciscans earn a living as ‘permit expediters.’ Mr. Lurie’s administration has convened focus groups to figure out how to smooth the permitting process, yielding a running ‘no nonsense list’ that includes dozens of fixes.” [NYTimes]

State Department Deputy Spokesman Tommy Pigott slammed South Africa for expelling Israel’s top diplomat in the country after video surfaced last week of Israel offering water technology and medical aid to minority tribes; “Expelling a diplomat for calling out the African National Congress party’s ties to Hamas and other antisemitic radicals prioritizes grievance politics over the good of South Africa and its citizens,” Pigott wrote on X…

The Chicago Tribune endorsed state Sen. Laura Fine over Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss and far-left activist Kat Abughazaleh in the Democratic primary in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District…

Democrat Sue Altman, who lost to Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in the 2024 congressional election in New Jersey’s 7th District before working for Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) as state director, is mounting a bid in the 12th District, which covers central Jersey…

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance released its upcoming Super Bowl ad aimed at tackling antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports; the commercial will also air during the Winter Olympics and is part of a $15 million campaign that additionally includes digital advertisements and billboards…

The New York Times spotlights fashion designer and actor Isaac Mizrahi, whose three-week cabaret residence at New York’s Café Carlyle opened this week…

The descendants of French-Jewish art dealer Max Julius Braunthal, who was forced to sell a painting by Camille Pissarro under duress in 1941, are suing the Metropolitan Museum of Art for ownership of the work, which had been bequeathed to the museum more than two decades ago by its former chairman…

In an interview with The New York Times, former Israeli hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal recounts his experiences in captivity, including the numerous sexual assaults he endured over the course of two years…

Israel’s high court ruled that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must explain why he has not fired National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir despite a determination by the country’s attorney general, with whom Ben-Gvir has clashed in the past, that the far-right minister abused his powers…

The two Human Rights Watch staffers comprising the organization’s Israel bureau resigned after the NGO refused to publish a report that called Israel’s refusal to allow Palestinians the “right of return” a “crime against humanity”…

Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi said that Hargeisa expects to soon reach a trade agreement with Israel, which in December became the first country to formally recognize the East African nation; Abdullahi said the country would seek access to Israeli technology as part of the deal, while it would give Israel rights to some of the country’s mineral deposits…

NPR spotlights efforts by the Syrian government to return ownership of the country’s Jewish sites to the largely exiled community…

Matt Nosanchuk was announced as The George Washington Law School’s new Lerner family associate dean for public interest and lecturer in public service law; Nosanchuk, a co-founder of the New York Jewish Agenda, was previously deputy assistant secretary for strategic operations and outreach in the Office for Civil Rights in the Biden administration…

The National Jewish Advocacy Center announced that it has acquired the Zachor Legal Institute…

Rochel Pinson, the oldest Chabad-Lubavitch emissary, who helped expand the movement’s footprint across North Africa while living in Morocco and Tunisia, died at 102…

Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos (center) met earlier this week with American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch (left) and Hellenic American Leadership Council Executive Director Endy Zemenides at AJC’s Washington office to discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor.

Television writer and producer, best known for his work on two ABC dramas, “Lost” and “Once Upon a Time,” Edward Lawrence “Eddy” Kitsis turns 55… 

One of the founders of the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe (Vt.), Barbara Gould Stern… Co-founder and chair of Sage Publications, an academic publishing company, she was international president of B’nai B’rith Girls at 19, Sara Miller McCune turns 85… Attorney, bank executive and philanthropist, donor of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, Adrienne Arsht turns 84… Torrance, Calif., resident, Patrick B. Leek… Senior counsel at the global law firm Dentons, Evan Wolfson turns 69… Director of English-language programming at Herzog College in Alon Shvut, Israel, Shalom Berger turns 66… Actress, best known for her award-winning role in the 1986 science fiction action film “Aliens,” Jenette Elise Goldstein turns 66… Member of the state Senate of Maryland, representing portions of Montgomery County, Brian J. Feldman turns 65… Former mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, Ethan Avram Berkowitz turns 64… Former kickboxing champion, ultra-distance cycling champion and IDF soldier, Leah Goldstein turns 57… President and COO of Blackstone Group and chairman of the board of Hilton Worldwide, Jonathan D. “Jon” Gray turns 56… The first Jewish mayor of Los Angeles, he then served as the U.S. ambassador to India until 2025, Eric Garcetti turns 55… Executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, Howard Libit… Senior vice president and chief policy officer at J Street, he was previously director of Jewish outreach for Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, Ilan Goldenberg… Author, psychotherapist and group fitness instructor, her book is about her genetic disease that has made her almost completely blind and deaf, Rebecca Alexander turns 47… Washington-based economic policy reporter for The New York Times since 2014, Alan Rappeport… CEO at Aeris Medical Group PLLC in Minneapolis, Noson “Nelson” Weisbord turns 43… Senior manager in the NYC office of Monitor Deloitte, he previously held a series of White House, OMB and Commerce Department positions, Justin Meservie turns 43… Client operations and legal project manager at Ropes & Gray, Abigail Dana Cable… Professor emeritus at Northeast Forestry University in Harbin, China, Dan Ben-Canaan… Jan Winnick…

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

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman is in Washington today and tomorrow to meet with senior Trump administration officials as the White House weighs strikes on Iran. Earlier this week, White House officials met with Israeli military intelligence chief Gen. Shlomi Binder in Washington, who briefed the administration on intelligence regarding Iran.
• The Hudson Institute is hosting a briefing with Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg on the Trump administration’s AI-focused Pax Silica initiative. During Helberg’s trip to the Middle East earlier this month, he participated in signing ceremonies with officials from Israel, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which have all joined the pact in recent months.
• Elsewhere in Washington, Gov. Josh Shapiro is speaking about his new memoir, Where We Keep the Light, at the Sixth and I Synagogue.
• More than two dozen European foreign ministers are meeting today in Brussels to discuss the potential designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization, as well as to move forward with the implementation of sanctions on Iranian entities in response to the Islamic Republic’s crackdowns on protesters in recent weeks. France, which had previously expressed reluctance to designate the IRGC, yesterday reversed its opposition to the designation — which will require a unanimous vote to be implemented.
• Ahead of the meeting, Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) led a bipartisan group of legislators urging the EU to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

A week after President Donald Trump took office for the first time in 2017, the White House ignited a political and media firestorm by releasing a statement commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day that failed to mention Jews. 

The omission was covered in major media outlets including CNN and Politico; the Anti-Defamation League called it “puzzling and troubling.” 

Nearly a decade later, Trump released another Holocaust Remembrance Day post this week, with a far more specific message: “Today, we pay respect to the blessed memories of the millions of Jewish people, who were murdered at the hands of the Nazi Regime and its collaborators during the Holocaust,” the statement read, “as well as the Slavs and the Roma, people with disabilities, religious leaders, persons targeted based on their sexual orientation, and political prisoners who were also targeted for systematic slaughter.”

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance’s post commemorating the day, which marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz by Allied Forces, did not mention Jews or antisemitism, leading political rivals on the left to pounce. (Democratic Majority for Israel called it “indefensible.”)

But despite the visibility of Vance’s tweet — which his defenders pointed out included pictures of him and his wife at Dachau, standing in front of a sign that said “Never again” in Yiddish — he was far from the only politician that failed to mention the fact that the Holocaust targeted Jews. Among them were: Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA), both of whom pledged to remember the victims of the Holocaust without referring to Nazis’ targeting of Jews. 

Multiple presenters at the U.K.’s BBC also failed to mention Jews in their coverage of Holocaust Remembrance Day — drawing backlash and a subsequent apology from the national broadcaster.

Does it matter that these politicians or media don’t reference Jews if they are still highlighting the significance of the Holocaust? It’s possible to argue that, definitionally, the Holocaust was about Jews, so one could assume that any reference to the Holocaust is itself a reference to the killing of Jews and the antisemitism that led to it. 

“If I talk about the potato famine, do I have to say Irish? How many other potato famines were there?” asked Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian who served as President Joe Biden’s antisemitism envoy. “But this is part of a greater whole in an age of rising antisemitism.” 

For years, Americans’ knowledge of basic facts about the Holocaust has been declining, particularly as fewer Holocaust survivors are alive each year to share their stories. A 2023 survey conducted by the Claims Conference found that 21% of Americans believed that 2 million Jews or fewer were killed. Eight percent of Americans, and 15% of 18- to 29-year-olds, said the number of Jews who were killed during the Holocaust has been greatly exaggerated. 

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

Ran’s Home, Grief Lingers: In The Free Press, Rachel Goldberg-Polin reflects on the repatriation of the body of Ran Gvili as she continues to mourn the death of her son, Hersh, who was killed by Hamas in 2024. “On Day 843, Ran Gvili’s body was returned to his family. In a bag. I know the experience of having a child returned that way. For me, when Hersh came home, it was not a happy day. At all. It changed the rest of my life forever, and every day is sodden with grief and pain. So it was confusing for me yesterday to receive many messages telling me how happy I must be. But as more and more texts and emails swam to me, I began to understand the messages were because this specific agonizing mission, to get every hostage home, has concluded. … But for us bereaved families, the eternal hurdle is figuring out how to wake up each morning with part of our souls elsewhere. It is doable, because millions of people around the world do it every day. But sadly, this lazy-eight infinity symbol does not end for us; it keeps looping.” [FreePress]

Past is Prologue: In The Washington Post, photographer David Burnett, who covered the 1979 revolution in Iran, reflects on the Islamic Republic’s “full-circle” moment as those who led the fall of the shah nearly half a century ago now find themselves the targets of the country’s anti-government protests. “The protesters of the revolution have become the regime. But the street terror is the same. During the revolution, long before the internet and cellphones, demonstrators and the military alike relied on telephones and the occasional radio to spread word amid the chaos. In the 2020s, word of a protest can spread instantly — unless the internet is cut and the cell network has been shut down. … Now, almost a half-century later, a volatile and angry country ponders where things go from here. The revolutionaries have turned gray, but judging by the deadly serious way they are reacting to the uprising of a new generation, I imagine they still recognize the approach of change when they see it.” [WashPost]

New Regional Rivalry: In Foreign Policy, Firas Maksad posits that two new regional alliances are forming in the Middle East: a moderate grouping led by Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and an Islamic coalition led by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan. “Tehran is no longer a principal actor shaping the region’s strategic trajectory. Instead, the Middle East is entering a new phase defined by competition between two emerging blocs: an Abrahamic and an Islamic coalition. How this rivalry evolves—rather than Iran’s next move—will do more to determine the region’s future and the U.S. role in it.” [FP]

Qatar on the Quad: In The Wall Street Journal, Ken Marcus, the founder of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, raises concerns about the degree to which Qatari influence is playing a role in hiring decisions at American universities, citing a recent lawsuit by Jewish student Yael Canaan at Carnegie Mellon University that alleged she was the target of antisemitism. “Qatari interests in particular contributed to the salary of Elizabeth Rosemeyer, the university’s assistant vice provost for DEI and Title IX coordinator. In light of Qatari investments, Carnegie Mellon was required to ‘consult’ with the Qatar Foundation before hiring her. … At least three other DEI-related officials at Carnegie Mellon involved in Ms. Canaan’s complaints of antisemitism had work-related visits to Qatar, according to the December court order. These included Wanda Heading-Grant, the chief diversity officer, who invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when she was asked about Ms. Canaan’s complaint. Ms. Arscott also worked in Qatar for a time and received funding from Qatar.” [WSJ]

The White House is continuing to weigh the possibility of military strikes targeting Iran, as Tehran threatened to hit the “heart of Tel Aviv” if the U.S. were to mount an attack…

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is speaking in Saudi Arabia this week at the Real Estate Future Forum, met on Wednesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh…

The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, whose campus was destroyed in last January’s Eaton fires, is suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility company’s negligence failed to follow security protocols that would have mitigated the spread of the fire…

A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in an assassination plot targeting Iranian dissident and activist Masih Alinejad…

Gamma co-founder Larry Jackson met with Black and Jewish employees of the record label prior to signing Kanye West, also known as Ye, to discuss the rapper’s history of antisemitic and racist comments… 

Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow on Wednesday with Rabbi Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia, and Rabbi Alexander Borodaon, president of the Federation of Communities…

A new report published by UNESCO found that three-quarters of the more than 2,000 teachers in the European Union who responded to a survey from the agency said that they had encountered antisemitism in the classroom, including 61% of respondents who said that Holocaust denial or distortion had been present among students…

A day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pope Leo XIV, speaking to a group of Italian visitors to the Holy See, called for “a world without any more antisemitism, prejudice, oppression or persecution of any human being”…

The Palestinian Authority reportedly paid $200 million in salaries in 2025 to terrorists who committed attacks against Israelis, as well as their families, despite a pledge from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last year to end the PA’s “pay-for-slay” program…

Israel’s Knesset approved the first of three readings of the government’s 2026 budget; if the budget is not passed by the end of March, the Knesset will dissolve, sending the country to elections…

Israeli journalist Amir Tibon was awarded this year’s Wingate Prize for his book, The Gates of Gaza, which recounts his family’s experiences surviving the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…

The IDF accepted Hamas’ estimate that approximately 71,000 people were killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war…

Airlines operating under the Lufthansa group are extending their cancellation of night flights to and from Israel through Feb. 3 due to ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran…

Bloomberg spotlights the “sprawling investment empire” of Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of and possible successor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose business dealings are conducted by Iranian businessman Ali Ansari…

The Wall Street Journal looks at the split in Washington over the White House’s support for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa following his takeover of Kurdish-held areas of the country, where the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces had been a key component of the U.S.’ strategy to counter ISIS…

Deann Forman was named the executive director of the JCC Association of America’s Center for Innovation and Impact…

Carl Kaplan, the founder and managing director of Koret Israel Economic Development Funds, is retiring more than three decades after founding the organization…

Shira Gvili mourned at the casket of her brother, slain IDF soldier Ran Gvili, at his funeral in Meitar, Israel, yesterday, two days after his body was recovered by the IDF in a cemetery in the Gaza Strip. Gvili was killed in battle on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was brought to the enclave, where it remained after every other living and dead hostage was repatriated to Israel.

Israeli multi-platinum record producer and songwriter specializing in pop, hip-hop, dance and electronic music, Yonatan “Johnny” Goldstein turns 35… 

Rabbi, mohel and public speaker, he is the author of the best-selling Maggid series, Rabbi Paysach Krohn turns 81… Author and first woman ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso turns 79… Singer-songwriter, he is a two-time gold medal winner in the Maccabiah Games (1985 and 1989) in fast-pitch softball, Steve March-Tormé turns 73… Regional director in Houston for the American Jewish Committee, Randall Czarlinsky… Louisiana resident, Jerry Keller… CEO of the Westchester Jewish Council, Elliot Forchheimer… Senior writer for JCCs of North America, a.k.a. Jane the Writer, Jane E. Herman… Actress known for her role as Amy MacDougall-Barone on the TV sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Monica Horan turns 63… Former member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 2003 and 2013, Ruhama Avraham turns 62… Physician and an author of four New York Times best-selling books, he is a professor of medicine and engineering at USC, as well as a CBS News contributor, Dr. David Agus turns 61… Former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (R-WI), Paul Ryan turns 56… Robyn Cooke Bash… Writer and occasional Bollywood film actor, he is known for his writing of the popular Jewish children’s comic book series “Mendy and the Golem,” Matt Brandstein turns 54… Israeli documentary filmmaker, photojournalist and film producer, winner of two Emmy Awards, Oren Rosenfeld turns 50… Chief impact officer at The Conduit, Denielle Sachs… Former president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, now a D.C.-based philanthropic consultant, Kari Dunn Saratovsky… Israeli actress, model and television host, Yael Bar Zohar turns 46… Former chair of the American Institute in Taiwan, Laura Rosenberger turns 46… Ethiopian-born Israeli fashion model and actress, Esti Mamo turns 43… Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, Yasha Moz… U.S. Representative (D-MA) since 2021, Jacob Daniel “Jake” Auchincloss turns 38… Mayor of Holyoke, Mass., for nine years starting at age 22, he is now the town manager of Provincetown, Alex Morse turns 37… Associate software engineer at BlackRock, Martha Baumgarten… Swimmer for Israel at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, Andrea “Andi” Murez turns 34…

• Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day tomorrow, Meta, UNESCO and the World Jewish Congress are convening a discussion at the U.N. today in New York focused on the role that technology can play in Holocaust preservation efforts.
• Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is hosting the second annual International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem. Speakers at the two-day confab include Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, the Department of Justice’s Leo Terrell, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut.
• Elsewhere in Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will host the annual lecture of the Jabotinsky Institute at the President’s Residence tonight, delivered this year by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
• The IDF, acting on new information from Hamas, is conducting an operation in northern Gaza to locate the remains of Ran Gvili, who was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
• The Saudi Real Estate Future Forum kicks off today in Riyadh. Former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are slated to speak, as is far-right commentator Tucker Carlson.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Anti-Israel and antisemitic messages from Saudi regime mouthpieces and state-sanctioned media have increased in recent weeks, as Riyadh has pivoted away from a more moderate posture to an alignment with Islamist forces, such as Qatar and Turkey.

Over the weekend, prominent Saudi columnist Dr. Ahmed bin Othman Al-Tuwaijri wrote an article in a Saudi news site attacking the United Arab Emirates, with whom Saudi Arabia has been at odds in recent weeks, as “an Israeli Trojan horse in the Arab world … in betrayal of God, His Messenger and the entire nation.” He also wrote that “Israel is on a path to a rapid downfall and the umma [community of Muslims] will remain, God willing.” The column, published after weeks of anti-Israel and antisemitic messaging from Saudi-backed channels, sparked an uproar from Western voices, including the Anti-Defamation League, which condemned “the increasing frequency and volume of prominent Saudi voices … using openly antisemitic dog whistles.”

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said on the “Ask A Jew” podcast earlier this month that the Trump administration needs “to have a serious talk with” the Saudis. “I’m ringing the alarm; I’m breaking the glass,” he said. “I’m saying, listen, these guys are changing.”

In the past, “you only got these crazy terrorist clerics, the al-Qaida types … would be inciting against the Jews,” Abdul-Hussain said. “But this week, the [Saudi] state-owned media was inciting against the Zionist plan to partition the region and to divide the region. This is very new.” 

One possible reason for the turn in Saudi messaging is that Riyadh is “very afraid of Israel,” Edy Cohen, a research fellow at the Israel Center for Grand Strategy, told Jewish Insider, noting that it views recent Israeli actions as going against Saudi interests.

Cohen noted that “the Saudis and the Qataris led a campaign for Trump not to strike Iran. …[The Saudi leadership] heard [exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi] said the new Iran will normalize relations with Israel, and this drove the leadership crazy. Imagine Iran and Israel together … It’s their biggest nightmare.” Riyadh and Jerusalem are also at odds on Syria and Somaliland.

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

• The World Economic Forum wrapped up this morning in Davos, Switzerland. Some of those who are staying for the weekend will be attending tonight’s Shabbat dinner in the Alpine town. Though not an official WEF event, the exclusive annual dinner will bring together roughly 150 conference attendees at the conclusion of the busy week. Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, and Henry Schein Board Chair and CEO Stanley Bergman, will be the dinner’s main speakers this year, joined by Michelle Bolten, the chief of staff to the vice chairman of BlackRock. Rabbi Menachem Berkowitz, who received his semicha from Chabad last week, will give tonight’s d’var Torah, and professor Ricardo Hausmann will share his thoughts on current events, with a focus on Venezuela. Read more about past Shabbat dinners at Davos here.
• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are in the United Arab Emirates for the weekend for meetings aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war following a meeting last night in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was also attended by White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum, that went into the early morning hours.
• The U.N. Human Rights Council is holding an emergency session today on Iran‘s weekslong crackdown on anti-government protesters.
• Manhattan’s Temple Emanu-El will hold a special interfaith service tonight honoring Cardinal Timothy Dolan as the longtime Catholic official retires as the archbishop of New York.
• The two-day JLI Leadership Summit starts on Sunday in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

Tensions are running high across the Middle East after a week in which the U.S. and Iran lobbed threats at each other, dominating headlines, destabilizing markets and leaving many in the region unnerved at the prospect of renewed military action seven months after the 12-day war between Israel and Iran that included U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday, Trump warned that an “armada” was on its way to the Gulf — a reference to the aircraft carrier and fleet of fighter jets being redeployed from the South China Sea.

In response, Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned that Iran had its “finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief.”  

Trump, true to form, has been unpredictable and inconsistent in his approach to Tehran — alternating between threatening force and teasing diplomacy. “Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk,” Trump said at a signing ceremony in Davos on Thursday, just hours before he told reporters on Air Force One about the naval deployment to the Gulf. “We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it,” he said on AF1, managing in one whiplash-inducing sentence to lob a threat at Iran while also offering it a theoretical off-ramp.

The president has proven that he is willing to engage in bold action — especially when it comes to Iran. One has only to look to the 2020 killing of Quds Force head Gen. Qassem Soleimani or the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last June to see that the Trump administration is willing to engage militarily with Iran in ways prior administrations may have not. (Case in point: former President Joe Biden’s issuance in April 2024 of a one-word warning to Iran — “Don’t” — a day before Tehran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel.)

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

Iraq and a Hard Place: Bloomberg’s Sam Bagher observes the difficult decisions facing Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as the country finds itself being pulled by both Iran and the U.S.“The Arab country is torn between Iran, its erstwhile enemy that wants to maintain its longtime grip on its neighbor, and the U.S., the superpower whose disastrous 2003 invasion destroyed the country and destabilized the Middle East for a generation. … Over the past two years, Sudani has largely steered a middle path through the fallout from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing Gaza war that have humbled Tehran, turned the Jewish state into a regional military hegemon and reshaped the Middle East. But at the same time, taking advantage of Iran’s weakness, he’s worked quietly to move Iraq closer to the US, its wealthy Sunni-led Gulf Arab allies and Turkey. It’s a fine line — he must dismantle Iran-backed militias, entice Western and Gulf Arab investment and bring in American oil companies, all without alienating Shiite political factions backed by Tehran or inviting a stronger response from the Islamic Republic.” [Bloomberg]

Bouncing Bibi: The Financial Times’ Andrew England and James Shotter look at efforts across the Israeli political spectrum to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this year’s election. “As the incumbent, Netanyahu only has to ensure he doesn’t lose. If there is no clear winner — as happened in a string of elections before a 2022 vote — he could remain as caretaker prime minister. Or Netanyahu, as he has done before, could attempt to peel off opponents to form a government. That means only an outright opposition victory, achieved just once in the past 17 years of Netanyahu’s dominance, would dethrone ‘King Bibi’. ‘Politics-wise, Netanyahu pretty much yet again dug himself out of a political grave,’ says Yohanan Plesner, a former member of the Knesset for the centrist Kadima party, now at the Israel Democracy Institute. ‘The least wise thing you can do is predict Netanyahu’s end in politics.’” [FT]

Day-to-Day Hate: In The Washington Post, Or Moshe, who spent more than two years working in the international department of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, warns that antisemitism is increasingly being accepted as a part of society even as attacks against Jews escalate in their brutality and frequency. “I have learned something painful and consistent. Jewish pain is rarely allowed to stand on its own. Instead, it is weighed. Qualified. Contextualized. Explained away. Violence against Jews is treated as a reaction rather than an atrocity. Fear is treated as an exaggeration. Mourning is treated as politics. … Antisemitism today does not always look like the caricatures people expect. It does not always announce itself with slurs or symbols. Sometimes it presents itself as moral clarity. It claims righteousness while denying Jews the right to safety, dignity and self-defense. It insists that Jewish fear is suspicious. That Jewish vulnerability is strategic. That Jewish deaths require footnotes.” [WashPost]

Monuments to Evil: In eJewishPhilanthropy, Menachem Z. Rosensaft calls on New York City leaders, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, to act on a long-standing request from the Jewish community to remove plaques in lower Manhattan honoring French war criminals Marshal Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval, who were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of French Jews during the Holocaust. “The two plaques remain as monuments not only to Laval and Pétain, but also to the callous indifference of three successive NYC mayors and municipal administrations to the glorification of two men who epitomized evil. During the primary campaign for last year’s Democratic mayoral nomination, Zohran Mamdani declared that he ‘condemned the Holocaust.’ … Fair enough. I am prepared to take him at his word. As mayor, Mamdani can now demonstrate affirmatively that he is genuinely committed to honor the memory of the more than six million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis.”[eJP]

Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud and Israeli President Isaac Herzog both shared optimistic remarks about the region’s future at a lunch, hosted by Meta President Dina Powell McCormick and philanthropist David Rubenstein, following a signing ceremony inaugurating the new Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports… 

President Donald Trump said he had rescinded his invitation for Canada to join his newly created Board of Peace, amid a deepening rift between Washington and Ottawa and days after Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the world was “in the midst of a rupture”…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met this morning with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) in Jerusalem…

The House passed a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, with seven moderate Democrats joining with Republicans to advance the bill in spite of Democratic uproar about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations; the bill, packaged with Pentagon funding legislation, now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain…

House Republicans narrowly defeated a war powers resolution that would have limited the Trump administration’s ability to act in Venezuela without congressional approval; GOP leaders delayed the closing of the vote in order to give Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) time to reach Capitol Hill from Dulles airport via police escort and cast a vote that tied the total count and prevented the resolution from passing…

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) filed paperwork to form a campaign committee as she moves closer to announcing a run for governor in Minnesota…

Former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the school’s anti-Israel protest movement, will likely be rearrested and deported to Algeria, a top Department of Homeland Security official said Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

A federal judge issued an order blocking the Trump administration from retaliating against the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association for their efforts to prevent the detention and deportation of visa holders who engaged in anti-Israel activity…

The NYPD arrested two teenagers in connection with the vandalization of a playground in Gravesend Park, Brooklyn, in which dozens of swastikas were graffitied on structures at the playground in two separate incidents; the teens are facing aggravated harassment charges, with one of them facing an additional charge of criminal mischief as a hate crime…

Children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel is under fire for liking a social media comment calling to “Free america from the Jews”; after posting a tearful apology for her initial engagement with the comment — which she said had been an accident —  the educator responded “ooooooooooohhhhh” to another user’s suggestion that Jews had left the antisemitic comment… 

Israel’s bobsled team, led by Israeli American athlete AJ Edelman, secured a slot in next month’s Winter Olympics in Milan, making history as the country’s first Olympic entrant in the sport; read more about Edelman’s yearslong effort to get an Israeli team to the Olympics here…

Former hostage Emily Damari got engaged to her girlfriend, food influencer Danielle Amit, at a party celebrating the British-Israeli citizen’s one-year anniversary of her release from Hamas captivity…

The U.S. is mulling a full troop withdrawal from Syria, days after Damascus took control over areas previously controlled by the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces; a U.S. assessment found that approximately 200 low-level Islamic State fighters escaped from a Syrian prison earlier this week but had been recaptured after SDF forces abandoned the facility they had been guarding…

Baltimore-based entrepreneur and political fundraiser Michael Bronfein, the co-founder and CEO of Curio Wellness, died at 70…

At the Sydney Opera House on Thursday, Chabad of Bondi, led by Rabbi Yehoram Ulman (pictured), marked the shloshim — the 30-day milestone after death — of the victims of the Hanukkah terror attack at Bondi Beach, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.

Singer-songwriter and one of the world’s best-selling recording artists of all time, Neil Diamond turns 85 on Saturday…

FRIDAY: Real estate developer, Bruce Ratner turns 81… Professor of biological chemistry at Weizmann Institute of Science, David Wallach turns 80… Educational consultant, trade association and non-profit executive, Peter D. Rosenstein turns 79… Manager of Innovative Strategies LLLP, he is a board member of the Baltimore-based Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, Howard K. Cohen… Former U.S. senator (D-DE), Tom Carper turns 79… Israeli archaeologist and professor at the University of Haifa, Estee Dvorjetski turns 75… Former Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa turns 73… President of Lazard, Raymond J. McGuire turns 69… Broadway theater owner, operator, producer and presenter and president of the Nederlander Organization, he is a 13-time Tony Award winner, James L. Nederlander turns 66… Former president of Staples Inc., she serves on the boards of Burlington Stores, CBRE and CarMax, Shira Goodman turns 65… Former CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp for 15 years, Jeremy J. Fingerman… Journalist and co-author of Game Change and Double Down: Game Change 2012, John Heilemann turns 60… Palm Beach, Fla., resident, formerly of Greenwich, Conn., Hilary Bangash Cohen… Journalist, screenwriter and film producer, in 2009 he wrote and produced “The Hurt Locker” for which he won two Academy Awards including for Best Picture, Mark Boal turns 53…Film director, comic book artist and musician, S. Craig Zahler turns 53… Israeli set and production designer for the television and film industries, Arad Sawat turns 51… Fourth rebbe of the Pittsburgh hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Meshulam Eliezer Leifer turns 47… Founder and executive director of Jew in the City, Allison F. Josephs… Strategic communications consultant, Arielle Poleg… Head of Meta’s Instagram, Adam Mosseri turns 43… Manhasset, N.Y., native who competed for Israel in figure skating, she was the 2014 Israeli national champion, Danielle Montalbano turns 37… Retired in 2024 as a soccer player for DC United, he also played on the U.S. men’s national soccer team, Steven Mitchell Birnbaum turns 35… NYC native who competed for Israel in pairs figure skating, she and her partner won silver medals in the 2008 and 2009 Israeli championships, Hayley Anne Sacks turns 35…

SATURDAY: Canadian architect and urban renewal advocate, she is a member of the Bronfman family, Phyllis Barbara Lambert turns 99… Born in Tel Aviv, 2011 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry, professor at Technion and Iowa State University, Dan Shechtman turns 85… Chairman of the Sazerac Company and of Crescent Crown Distributing, two of the largest domestic distillers and distributors of spirits and beer in the US, William Goldring turns 83… Professor of modern Jewish history at New York University, Marion Kaplan turns 80… Politician and lawyer who was an official in the Reagan, Bush 43 and Trump administrations, Elliott Abrams turns 78… Professor of alternative dispute resolution and mediation at Hofstra School of Law, Robert Alan Baruch Bush turns 78… Ukrainian-born comedian, actor and writer, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1977 and is noted for the catchphrase “What a country,” Yakov Smirnoff turns 75… Conductor, violinist and violist, who has performed with leading symphony orchestras worldwide, Yuri Bashmet turns 73… VP of strategy at LiveWorld, Daniel Flamberg… Founder of an online software training website which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2015 for $1.5 billion, Lynda Susan Weinman turns 71… Burlingame, California-based surgeon at Peninsula Plastic Surgery, Lorne K. Rosenfield M.D…. Beryl Eckstein… Former senior correspondent for Fox News for 24 years, now a senior correspondent at Newsmax, Rick Leventhal… Former CEO of Ford Motor Company, and now on the boards of Hertz and Qualcomm, Mark Fields (his family’s original name was Finkelman) turns 65… B’nei mitzvah coordinator at Temple Beth Am of Los Angeles, Judith Alban… Former HUD secretary and OMB director, now the president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, a housing non-profit, Shaun Donovan turns 60… Co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy, he served as associate White House counsel in the Obama administration, Ian Bassin turns 50… Journalist and then tax attorney, now chief legal officer at Ripple Fiber, Joshua Runyan… Sporting director for Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Premier League and the FIBA Champions League, Yotam Halperin turns 42… Founder and CEO at TACKMA and a principal at Schottenstein Property Group, Jeffrey Schottenstein… Former regional director of synagogue initiative at AIPAC, Miryam Knafo Schapira… Law Clerk at Fried Frank, Michael Krasna… Musician and former child actor, Jonah Bobo turns 29…

SUNDAY: Senior partner of The Mack Company and a director of Mack-Cali Realty, a real estate investment trust, David S. Mack (family name was Makofsky) turns 84… Israeli peace activist and author, whose fiction and nonfiction books have been translated into more than 30 languages, David Grossman turns 72… Editor-in-chief of The National Memo, Joe Conason (family name was Cohen) turns 72… Retired in 2023 as Dean of the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Naamah Kelman-Ezrachi turns 71… SVP and senior portfolio manager in the Los Angeles office of Morgan Stanley, Robert N. Newman… Stage, film and television actress and television director, Dinah Beth Manoff turns 70… Los Angeles resident, Helene S. Ross… Agent at Creative Artists Agency, Michael Glantz… Chief correspondent and executive editor for CBS News “Eye on America” franchise, Jim Axelrod turns 63… Former member of Knesset for Yesh Atid, he also served as minister of education, Shai Moshe Piron turns 61… Founding partner of merchant bank Finback Investment Partners, John Leachman Oliver III… Member of the Canadian Parliament from Montreal since 2015, he won 12 medals in swimming at the 2013 and 2017 Maccabiah Games, Anthony Housefather turns 55… Author of multiple novels, she is a writer-in-residence in Jewish studies at Stanford University, Maya Arad turns 55… Toronto-born movie and television actress, she had a recurring guest role on the Fox TV series “24,” Mia Kirshner turns 51… National political reporter at The Washington Post covering campaigns, Congress and the White House, Michael Scherer… President and CEO of Knollwood Cemetery Corp, David Newman… President of Ukraine since 2019, he is the first Jewish leader of that country, Volodymyr Zelensky turns 48… Member of the U.S House of Representatives (D-FL), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick turns 47… Benjamin L. Newton… Managing VP of executive operations for the National Association of Manufacturers, Mark Isaacson… Member of the Arizona House of Representatives until 2023, Daniel Hernández Jr. turns 36… Actress, writer and director, Pauline Hope Chalamet turns 34… Associate director of foreign policy at JINSA, Ari Cicurel…

• The World Economic Forum continues today in Davos, Switzerland. Earlier today, President Donald Trump held a signing ceremony with the newly created Board of Peace. More below.
• Later this afternoon in Davos, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will separately take the main stage. The last time the Indonesian leader, whose country is joining the Board of Peace, had a global platform — four months ago at the United Nations General Assembly — he concluded his speech by saying “Shalom.” 
• Later in the afternoon, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Bridgewater Associates’ Nir Bar Dea will participate in a panel focused on geopolitics and global collaboration. Elon Musk will take the stage following that discussion for a one-on-one conversation with BlackRock CEO and WEF interim Co-Chair Larry Fink. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

President Donald Trump hosted a signing ceremony on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday for the founding members of the Board of Peace, his newly formed organization dedicated to world peace and security.

“We’re going to have peace in the world, and boy, wouldn’t that be a great legacy for all of us,” Trump said in his speech launching the board.

The Board of Peace’s “inaugural resolution,” which Trump signed at the ceremony, is to oversee the demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza.

On Iran, Trump said that the U.S. bombing in June was because “they were two months from having a nuclear weapon, and we can’t let them have that. Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk.”  

In addition to the U.S., 19 countries attended the “massive event,” as a Trump administration source characterized it to Jewish Insider: Bahrain, Morocco, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.

Members of Trump’s team in Davos — Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, informal advisor Jared Kushner and Josh Gruenbaum, a diplomatic advisor to the board — spent the hours preceding the event working to bring more countries on board.

Most Western European countries declined to join the Board of Peace because of its apparent aim to replace the United Nations, as well as Trump’s pressure to turn Greenland over to the U.S. and Russia’s invitation to join.

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

Saudi Turns on the Hate Spigot: In his Substack “It’s Noon in Israel,” Amit Segal posits that efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia are dead. “Over the past month, Al Arabiya has been worse than Al Jazeera in the texts broadcast against any normalization with Israel. Saudi podcasters who specialize in luxury cars or sports are suddenly cursing Zionism and the Abraham Accords. … Now, with the Saudis no longer celebrating the Abraham Accords, they are trying to undermine their foundations of support, from Morocco to the Emirates. Someone I spoke with this week used an Arab proverb to explain it: ‘He who cannot reach the grapes says they are sour.’ I suggested an Israeli version, straight from air-defense battle lore: ‘If I don’t fly, nobody flies.'” [ItsNooninIsrael]

Hanging the Protesters Out to Dry: In The Wall Street Journal, William Galston criticizes President Donald Trump’s decision not to assist Iranian anti-regime protesters. “Considering the information Mr. Trump received during the administration’s deliberations, his decision to stand down may well have been correct. Still, he shouldn’t have sent encouraging messages to the protesters if he wasn’t committed to backing them up. Because he did so, the president bears a measure of responsibility for the consequences. … Even if he decides against military action, he has a robust menu of nonmilitary options that could significantly weaken the regime. As my Brookings Institution colleague Suzanne Maloney has proposed, he can target key command-and-control systems to weaken the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other security forces, seize Iran’s ghost fleet of oil tankers, and impose sanctions on Chinese imports of Iranian oil. He can also fully restore the Voice of America’s Iran Service, press our friends and allies to expel Iran’s diplomats, and help strengthen Iran’s divided opposition groups.” [WSJ]

Blazing a Trail, Quietly: The Athletic’s Jason Quick profiles Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, the Israeli basketball phenom who got his start playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv and is having his best season as a pro. “​​He doesn’t feel pressure to add his voice to the dialogue surrounding his country’s conflict in the Middle East and, in fact, feels irritated when he is put in the middle of it. … He said he understands that he has a larger platform than most to deliver his viewpoint, but he said he doesn’t think that requires him to broadcast his opinion or politicize it. ‘I’ll be honest: What do people expect me to do?’ Avdija said. ‘This is my country, where I was born, where I grew up. I love my country; there are a lot of great things about my country. But obviously, not everyone is educated and knows what is going on, and that’s what pisses me off. Because if you are educated and know what is going on, it’s fine to say what you think and say who you think is right or wrong. But if you are not educated and you are not part of the Middle East, and you don’t understand how long this goes back and understand the consequences and everything … just don’t say anything.’” [TheAthletic]

Copying Caracas: The Economist looks at the continued tensions inside Iran following the regime’s crackdown on the widescale protests that swept the country in recent weeks. “Much of this internal criticism focuses on the 86-year-old Mr Khamenei, who has ruled for 36 increasingly despotic years. Critics complain about his intransigence in nuclear talks with America: by insisting on a token enrichment programme, they argue, he squandered a deal in 2025 that could have lifted sanctions altogether. Some go further. At least one cleric behind the manifesto called for him to stand trial for the state’s slaughter, according to another signatory. ‘We expect the supreme leader to exit within the next three to 12 months,’ says an investor still operating in Iran, citing both Mr Khamenei’s age and unpopularity. Others wistfully seek Mr Trump’s intervention. ‘We used to worry we’d become Venezuela,’ runs a joke in cafés frequented by civil servants. ‘Now we worry we won’t.'” [TheEconomist]

Organizers of the World Economic Forum are mulling moving the annual gathering to another venue, with interim Co-Chair Larry Fink arguing that the WEF should “start doing something new: showing up — and listening — in the places where the modern world is actually built”; among the places he suggested were Detroit and Dublin…

Fink and Bank of America President and CEO Brian Moynihan were spotted this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, wearing the blue square pins popularized by Robert Kraft’s foundation that have become a symbol in the fight against antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was heckled at a WEF dinner last night, with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde walking out during his speech…

The U.S. Air Force confirmed that the Qatari jet being gifted to President Donald Trump for use as Air Force One will be delivered by this summer…

The Treasury Department announced sanctions on six Gaza-based medical organizations the government said had ties to Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, as well as the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, which the department said was “clandestinely controlled” by Hamas and had supported numerous flotillas attempting to reach Gaza; in November, Reps. Andy Barr (R-KY) and Jefferson Shreve (R-IN) sent a letter to the Treasury Department calling for the designation of the PCPA as a Specially Designated Terrorist group…

The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 45-2 to advance legislation expanding U.S. cooperation programs in the Eastern Mediterranean; Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) voted against the bill, with Castro citing concerns that U.S.-Israel scientific grant programs cited in the bill may provide funding for programs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem…

Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, weighed in on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s recent revelation that the Harris presidential campaign had asked if he was an Israeli government agent, calling the questions “totally appropriate and totally inappropriate”…

A judge in New York ordered a newly drawn congressional map, determining that the state’s 11th Congressional District — the only New York City district represented by a Republican — had been drawn unconstitutionally…

The New York Times spotlights the relationship between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who hold differing views on policing and politics, as they work together in Mamdani’s first weeks in office…

The Mississippi state Senate unanimously approved a resolution in support of Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation, a week and a half after Stephen Spencer Pittman allegedly set fire to the synagogue, which housed the state’s largest Jewish congregation; Pittman pleaded not guilty earlier this week to a federal charge of arson…

The NYPD is investigating an incident in which more than 50 swastikas were graffitied on a playground in Gravesend Park, Brooklyn…

The New York Times reports from the Los Angeles premiere of “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!,” a two-part documentary about the legendary comedian and filmmaker… 

Israel is moving toward the privatization of Israel Aerospace Industries and considering the sale of stakes in Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in an effort to offset the last two years of massive defense spending…

Three journalists, including contributors to CBS News and Agence France-Press, were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza…

A report from the Israeli Justice Ministry’s Public Defender’s Office found that some Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails have faced “conditions unfit for human beings,” citing instances of food deprivation, medical neglect and violence… 

Nitzan Chen is departing Israel’s Government Press Office after nearly 14 years as its director…

Eliezer “Geizi” Tzafrir, a former Mossad and Shin Bet senior official who oversaw the Mossad’s Tehran station during the 1979 fall of the shah, died at 92…

Legal historian Barbara Aronstein Black, who became the first woman to lead an Ivy League law school when she was named the head of Columbia Law School in 1986, died at 92…

Rifaat al-Assad, who was known as the “butcher of Hama” for his role in quelling an uprising to overthrow his brother, former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, died at 88…

Israeli President Issac Herzog met with his Somalilander counterpart, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, at a dinner on Wednesday night on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Jewish hockey player, he was a first-round pick of the New York Islanders in 2014, Josh Ho-Sang turns 30…

Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry in 2000, he is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Alan J. Heeger turns 90… Los Angeles resident, Ruth Lynn Kopelove Sobel… Managing director and founder of Brave Warrior Advisors, he is the son of Hall of Fame baseball star Hank Greenberg, Glenn H. Greenberg… Rabbi and leader who has served in New York, New Jersey and California, Mark Samuel Hurvitz… Brooklyn-born conductor, who during his tenure as artistic director of the Kraków Philharmonic became friends with Pope John Paul II for whom he later conducted multiple Papal concerts, Gilbert Levine turns 78… Senior political law counsel and consultant at Akin Gump, Kenneth A. Gross turns 75… Founder and executive director of the Brooklyn-based Bridge Multicultural and Advocacy Project, Mark Meyer Appel… Publisher at Chicago Public Square, Charlie Meyerson… Financial services attorney, Lisa Arlyn Lowe… Former director-general of the Israeli Defense Ministry, he is a retired major general in the IDF, Ehud “Udi” Adam turns 68… Member of the Knesset for Likud, Katrin “Keti” Shitrit-Peretz turns 66… Deputy president of the Supreme Court of Israel, Noam Sohlberg turns 64… Michael S. Marquis… President of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, Gideon Taylor… American-Israeli composer, pianist and music producer, Roy Zu-Arets turns 57… Actor best known for his role as Harvey Specter on the USA Network series “Suits,” Gabriel Macht turns 54… Play-by-play broadcaster for the Washington Commanders of the NFL, Bram Weinstein turns 53… Rabbi at the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, N.Y., Joel Mark Levenson… Director of the Chabad House in Kathmandu, Nepal, Rabbi Yechezkel “Chezki” Lifshitz… Columnist for Ami Magazine, Yochonon Donn… CEO of Our Generation Speaks, Heidi Rosbe… Managing director at SKDKnickerbocker, Kendra Barkoff Lamy… Congress executive producer at Politico, Zachary Warmbrodt… Music composer and winner of two Academy Awards and two Grammys, Justin Hurwitz turns 41… Head of U.S. at Blue Laurel Advisors and of counsel at Grossman Young & Hammond, Mark Donig… NYC-based managing director at Politico, Jesse Shapiro… Business reporter for The Washington Post, she is also a professional balloon twister and was a 2018 contestant on “Jeopardy!,” Julie Zauzmer Weil… Israeli singer known as Netta, she was the winner of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal, Netta Barzilai turns 33… Actress, best known for her role as Nicky Reagan-Boyle in the CBS series “Blue Bloods,” Sami Gayle Klitzman turns 30… Associate in the Chicago office of Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, Matthew Lustbader…

• President Donald Trump will speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this afternoon local time after a delayed arrival resulting from an electrical issue on Air Force One that forced the initial plane to return to Joint Base Andrews after an hour in flight to be swapped out.
• We expect Trump to speak at length about the Board of Peace he is assembling, a day after the president told reporters at the White House that the body could serve as an alternative to the U.N. Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel would join the body, after previously criticizing the inclusion of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on the board’s executive committee.
• The president’s address will be preceded by an interview with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, and followed by a session focused on the political realignment of the Middle East. Speakers in the latter session include Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, U.K. Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper and International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi.
• Later in the day, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) is slated to speak at the WEF about the U.S.-China relationship.
• We’re continuing to monitor the situation in the Middle East, as the U.S. deploys an aircraft carrier and fighter jets to the region. Trump issued his harshest warning yet to Iran, vowing in an interview with NewsNation last night to “wipe them off the face of this Earth” if Tehran makes an assassination attempt against him. “Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up,” Trump said.
• In Washington, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding its markup of the Eastern Mediterranean Gateway Act.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

When President Donald Trump first raised the idea of establishing a Board of Peace in October, it was as part of his 20-step ceasefire plan for Gaza. The board was meant to oversee a committee of Palestinian technocrats — whose composition was announced last week — and “set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza … [and] call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment.” 

The following month, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution supporting the ceasefire plan and “welcom[ing] the establishment of the Board of Peace,” authorizing it to operate in Gaza until the end of 2027. 

But the board’s charter describes a body concerned with peace worldwide, not with removing Hamas’ terror threat in Gaza, and in fact, it does not mention Hamas, Gaza or Israel at all. Its expansive, stated role is to “promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.” 

Indeed, it appears to be an attempt to compete with the United Nations. Its preamble says: “Declaring that durable peace requires pragmatic judgment, common-sense solutions, and the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed … Emphasizing the need for a more nimble and effective international peace-building body.” Asked at a press conference on Wednesday if he intends for the body to replace the U.N., Trump said it “might.” “I wish the United Nations could do more. I wish we didn’t need a Board of Peace,” he said.  

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

• The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which kicked off yesterday, will feature a number of conversations and addresses from world leaders today, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. In sessions throughout the afternoon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Palantir’s Alex Karp, Alphabet’s Ruth Porat and Bank of Israeli Governor Amir Yaron are slated to speak.
• One high-profile speaker was removed from the schedule — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was slated to speak this afternoon. The WEF had been facing blowback for hosting Araghchi, who had been quietly added to the lineup several days ago, amid Iran’s deadly crackdowns on protesters in recent weeks.
• On the sidelines of the WEF, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to meet today with Kirill Dmitriev, an envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to discuss Gaza peace efforts. The meeting comes after Moscow was invited to join the Trump administration’s Board of Peace overseeing the rebuilding and new governance of a postwar Gaza Strip. Several additional countries, including China and Morocco, have also been extended invitations in recent days to join the board. Read more on the growing board — and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to its makeup — here.
• President Donald Trump heads to Davos today, where he will speak tomorrow before holding a signing ceremony for the Board of Peace on Thursday on the sidelines of the confab.
• In New York, the Israeli consulate is hosting the premiere of the Israeli play “Jabotinsky’s Dream,” about Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky, in Manhattan.
• And in nearby Newark, N.J., New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill will be inaugurated today. Sherrill traveled to Virginia over the weekend for the swearing-in of her former Washington roommate, Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
• Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) is being arraigned today on charges that she stole more than $5 million in misallocated federal funds during the COVID-19 pandemic prior to her 2021 election.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh Kraushaar

Concerns over rising antisemitism and growing hostility toward Israel within the Democratic Party have long been on a slow boil. 

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s blockbuster revelation in his upcoming memoir that he was asked by Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign during the VP vetting process if he was ever an agent of the Israeli government underscores just how fraught the political environment has gotten for Jewish Democrats who support Israel.

Shapiro’s decision to go public with allegations that the last presidential nominee’s team exhibited bigotry underscores just how deep the divisions are within the party, especially as he considers a 2028 presidential run. These rifts pit the party’s moderate wing — which is generally supportive of Israel and harbors zero tolerance for antisemitism — against an ascendant left wing, exemplified by the disruptive anti-Israel protesters that Harris was pandering to at the time of her veepstakes deliberations.

Shapiro, if he runs for national office, is planting his flag in the mainstream wing of the Democratic Party, willing to call out antisemitism when he sees it, including on college campuses in his state, and supporting Israel — even while strongly criticizing some policies of the Netanyahu government. In his book, he proudly discusses his personal connections to Israel and the role Judaism plays in his life.

These were uncontroversial views within the Democratic Party, until the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks against the Jewish state emboldened an ugly strain of extremism that has, all too often, been accommodated by party leaders. (Shapiro also revealed that Harris insisted he apologize for his condemnation of intimidation targeting Jewish students at the University of Pennsylvania by anti-Israel protesters, which he refused to do.)

Anyone documenting the evolution of Democratic Party politics over the last few years can see the red flags. New York City, the epicenter of Jewish life in the United States, elected a mayor who refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Jewish Democrats running for office in progressive constituencies buckle under pressure to call Israel’s war against Hamas a “genocide” or decide to suddenly condemn AIPAC to showcase their progressive bona fides. A majority of Democratic voters, according to recent polls, now have an unfavorable view of Israel. 

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