Plus, CNN terms 'Palestinian-Israeli towns'
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
CIA Director John Ratcliffe arrives to the U.S. Capitol for a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense closed hearing titled "A Review of the President's FY2026 Budget Request for the Intelligence Community," on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Iran’s second ballistic missile strike on Beersheba in as many days, and cover CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s suggestion that Iran is like a football team nearing the 1-yard line in its quest for a nuclear weapon. We report on a Democratic primary between a DSA candidate and a more moderate challenger in South Brooklyn, and talk to Rep. Randy Fine, the newest Jewish member of Congress. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Max Miller, Josh Kesselman and Edan Alexander.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Persian Jews in the U.S. watch Israeli strikes on Iran and dare to hope; How a Mediterranean vacation destination for Israelis turned into a displaced persons hub; and Leonard Lauder, who supercharged his family’s cosmetics firm and became an arts patron, dies at 92. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump is convening the National Security Council at 11 a.m. as senior U.S. officials mull American involvement in what has been to date a conflict between Israel and Iran.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is meeting for nuclear talks today in Geneva with his counterparts from France, Germany and the U.K. The European delegation is also set to meet with the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas.
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Anna Borshchevskaya, Michael Knights, Farzin Nadimi and Assaf Orion are headlining a virtual event this afternoon focused on the Israel-Iran war.
- The Jewish Democratic Council of America is hosting a briefing on the Israel-Iran war with Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Adam Smith (D-WA) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
- Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter is appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S melissa weiss
On Thursday, NBC News reported a claim from Iran’s Ministry of Health that “over 2,500 injured people were treated in public and university hospitals, with 1,600 discharged and about 500 still hospitalized.” Earlier this week, CBS News reported 224 Iranians were dead from Israeli airstrikes, also attributed to Iran’s Ministry of Health.
There is no free press in Iran, and journalists have been arrested and imprisoned simply for practicing journalism in the Islamic Republic. There is no real way to verify the Iranian Health Ministry’s numbers, and so many journalists report them, unscrupulously.
In a fast-paced, constantly evolving news environment, accuracy is paramount. The ability to try to authenticate a statistic by attributing it to an official government source, while knowing that the source is unreliable, can serve as the basis for an inaccurate narrative with wide-ranging effects.
An ABC News report from earlier this week on violence near humanitarian aid distribution sites in Gaza leads with the headline “More than 30 killed at controversial foundation’s aid distribution sites in Gaza: Health officials,” giving an air of legitimacy to the claim — even though a reader would have to move down to the story before learning that those health officials came from the “Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.” And nowhere in the story does ABC News note that the Gaza Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The inclination to publish talking points and statistics from terror groups and regimes incentivizes a playbook for malign actors — from Iran to the Houthis to Hamas — to provide misleading casualty figures for the media to carry that lack the intricacies and nuances necessary in such reporting.
ISRAEL-IRAN WAR, DAY 8
Iran strikes Beersheba again as Trump defers strike decision for up to two weeks
An Iranian missile struck Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, for the second consecutive day on Friday, hours after President Donald Trump said he would decide in the next two weeks whether to join Israel in striking the Islamic Republic, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. The IDF unsuccessfully attempted to intercept the surface-to-surface missile from Iran, which injured seven and left a crater at the blast site and damage to buildings in the area of Beersheba’s HiTech Park. One of the sites reportedly damaged is Microsoft’s office in Beersheba, which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed worked in “close collaboration with the Israeli military” and was “part of the system supporting aggression, not merely a civilian entity.”
Trump’s timeline: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump would take up to two weeks to decide if the U.S. will join Israel’s operation against Iran. Key components of Iran’s nuclear program are in a facility in Fordow built under a mountain, and experts said Israel does not have the capability to destroy it from the air, while the U.S. has Massive Ordinance Penetrators and B-2 heavy stealth bombers, which are thought to be have the capacity to destroy it. “I have a message directly from the president, and I quote, ‘Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,'” the press secretary said at a White House briefing.
THE RED ZONE
Ratcliffe: Iran’s at the nuclear goal line — and wants to score
CIA Director John Ratcliffe has told colleagues behind closed doors he believes Iran is actively working toward building a nuclear weapon, comparing the claim that Tehran isn’t working on building a nuclear weapon to the idea that football players at the 1-yard line would not attempt to score a touchdown, per CBS News, citing an unnamed U.S. official, Jewish Insider’s Jake Schlanger reports.
Background: Ratcliffe’s reported comments function as a rebuke of other U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran is not actively developing a nuclear weapon, in spite of its accelerating efforts to amass stockpiles of highly enriched uranium in violation of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments and construction of ballistic missiles with which a nuclear weapon could be launched.
language choices
In apparent shift, CNN describes Arab-Israeli towns as Palestinian
After an Iranian ballistic missile struck a home in the northern Israeli city of Tamra, killing a woman, her two daughters and her sister-in-law, news outlets faced an additional challenge beyond the sober responsibility of covering a tragic loss: choosing what language to use to describe these women and their ethnic identity, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Media matters: Tamra is an Arab town, with a history dating back hundreds of years. When Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited on Wednesday, he talked about the “shared society of Jews and Arabs” in Israel that “believe in our common life together,” and described the victims as “Muslim women.” Most news reports — in major international outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — referred to Tamra as either an “Arab-Israeli city” or an “Arab town in Israel.” CNN, however, chose a different word for Tamra, a city that is firmly inside Israel’s original 1948 borders: Palestinian. “Iranian strikes expose bomb shelter shortage for Palestinian towns inside Israel,” read one headline from this week. The accompanying article described Tamra’s residents as “Palestinian citizens of Israel.” Another story called Tamra a “Palestinian-Israeli town.”
Label politics: “There’s a growing trend going on in the past, I want to say 10, maybe 20, years, of people who are saying, ‘We are going to reclaim our identity as Palestinians, and we’re not going to be ashamed to call ourselves Palestinians,’” said Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School who is completing a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She counts herself among that trend: She didn’t use the term “Palestinian citizen of Israel” to describe herself until her late 20s, after she studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
More from CNN: In a segment about Tucker Carlson published yesterday, one of the most vocal critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan described Carlson as “a frequent supporter of Israel,” and stated that “U.S. intelligence suggests that Iran is years away from a nuclear bomb.”
ROAD RAGE
Rep. Max Miller says he was run off the road, threatened by pro-Palestinian activist
Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), one of four Jewish Republicans in the House, said on Thursday that his car was run off the road by a pro-Palestinian activist who threatened his and his family’s lives, earlier in the day, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What happened: Miller said in the video that on his way to work in his district on Thursday morning, an “unhinged, deranged man” leaned on his car horn and ran Miller off the road “when he couldn’t get my attention, to show me a Palestinian flag, not to mention ‘death to Israel, death to me’ — that he wanted to kill me — and my family.” He explained in the X post that the man threw a Palestinian flag out of his car before driving off and threatened his life and his family’s lives. Miller did not specify what the individual said. Miller said that he had reported the incident to local and U.S. Capitol Police, and that the individual had been identified and would face consequences.
COUNCIL CLASH
With Ling Ye, pro-Israel activists see opportunity to unseat DSA-backed Alexa Avilés in City Council primary in South Brooklyn
In recent years, Jewish and pro-Israel activists in New York City have been successful in defending favored incumbents while boosting candidates in open-seat local races. But they have struggled to go on the offensive against far-left Israel critics on the City Council aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, which has gained prominence in some districts. Now, however, some Jewish community activists and pro-Israel strategists are expressing optimism that a competitive City Council election in southern Brooklyn could be their best pick-up opportunity in next week’s citywide primaries, delivering a possible upset that has so far proved elusive at the local level, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
The players: In one of the city’s most hotly contested local races, Alexa Avilés, a two-term councilmember backed by the DSA, is facing a formidable challenge from Ling Ye, a moderate former congressional staffer making her first bid for elective office with a focus largely on public safety. The race is playing out in a redrawn district that now includes more moderate constituents in Dyker Heights who are likely less receptive to reelecting a socialist, strategists say, fueling hopes among allies of Ye eager to pick off an incumbent whose hostility to Israel while in office has rankled Jewish leaders.
A FINE MISSION
Rep. Randy Fine says he’s on Capitol Hill to be a leader against antisemitism
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) believes that he was sent to Congress, at least in part, to take a leading role in fighting for the Jewish community against antisemitism. Fine, during a lengthy interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod in his congressional office earlier this month, said he sees himself as having a mostly unique ability among House members to help tackle the rise of antisemitism nationwide, as one of only four Jewish Republicans in the lower chamber.
It’s personal: “I think I can play that role. I’m willing to do it. Certainly happy to share the spotlight with the other three [Jewish Republicans] if they wish to do it, but, but this is deeply personal to me,” Fine said. “This affects my children and so I understand it better than others.” Fine added, “This must be why [I’m in Congress]. This is what He wants me to do. … I think this is one of the reasons that I am here, to solve this problem, much like we did in Florida.”
Worthy Reads
Battle of Wills: The Atlantic’s Eliot Cohen considers the implications of Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program. “Israel’s current campaign is built around two realities often missed by so-called realists: first, that the Iranian government is determined to acquire nuclear weapons and cannot be deterred, bought off, or persuaded to do otherwise, and second, that Israel reasonably believes itself to be facing an existential threat. … It takes a particular kind of idiocy or bad faith to disregard the speeches, propaganda, and shouts of ‘death to Israel.’ The Israeli lesson learned from the previous century — and, indeed, the Jewish one learned over a much longer span of time — is that if someone says they want to exterminate you, they mean it.” [TheAtlantic]
The Case for a U.S. Attack: In The Free Press, Niall Ferguson and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posit that the U.S. should help Israel destroy the Fordow nuclear facility in order to “shorten the war, prevent wider escalation, and end the principal threat to Middle Eastern stability” posed by Iran. “A nuclear-armed Iran would pose more than a threat to the Israeli people and their state. Its missiles could reach Gulf capitals and Europe. Those missiles could allow Iran to sponsor terror and wage conventional war with impunity. The result would be a nuclear arms race in the Gulf. By destroying Fordow, President Trump would create a new equilibrium in the Middle East and reestablish American leadership. The strike would focus solely on eliminating Iran’s nuclear arms program, but it should be accompanied by a clear message: If Iran attempts to target the United States or its Gulf allies, it will risk the elimination of its regime.” [FreePress]
Back to Begin: In The Wall Street Journal, Amit Segal considers how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has employed the “Begin Doctrine” established four decades ago that seeks to keep bad actors from acquiring nuclear weapons. “Persuading the Trump administration to support the attack was a historic diplomatic success. The ayatollahs spread their tentacles throughout the Middle East, but now Iran stands completely vulnerable. If only the free world had adopted its own Begin doctrine against countries like North Korea and Pakistan, so that a dictator’s temper tantrum couldn’t lead to nuclear winter. At least Israel has become the world’s bomb squad, a stroke of good fortune for which we can thank Menachem Begin.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
The FBI is increasing its surveillance of Iran-backed operatives and suspected sleeper cells in the U.S….
U.S. carriers including United and American Airlines are suspending service to parts of the Middle East, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, amid heightened tensions in the region around the Israel-Iran war…
Bloomberg reports on the surprise of Arab states by the timing and speed of Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear facilities last week; one Gulf official told the publication that it was “beneficial for his own country and the wider region to see Iran’s nuclear program set back or destroyed.” Satellite imagery indicates that Iran has made a concerted push to export oil since the eruption last week or war with Israel…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the rising financial cost of the Israel-Iran war, finding that the costs of interceptors alone can cost Israel hundreds of millions of dollars a day…
Iran is reportedly using Israeli home-camera systems to spy inside Israel and obtain better information about its missile targets…
The Washington Post spotlights Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) as the trio seek to lead the Democratic Party into the next generation; the Post describes the three as “centrist women with national security backgrounds who helped retake the House in 2018 and this year hope to steer their beleaguered party back toward winning”…
Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American citizen who was held hostage in Gaza for more than 580 days, returned on Thursday to his family’s home in Tenafly, N.J….
Josh Kesselman, the founder of the Raw rolling paper company, purchased the cannabis magazine High Times this week for $3.5 million…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the behind-the-scenes efforts that go into planning luxury weddings, ahead of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s upcoming nuptials; luxury event planner Ruth Minkowitz, whose Elite Kosher Events company works with clients in Italy, told the WSJ, “Food, plates, material, everything, it all goes by boat … You need a lot more personnel, just to schlep.”
Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were killed in a terror attack in the West Bank in 2023, announced his engagement to Aliza Teplitsky…
Pic of the Day
A view of the Khatib family home yesterday in the northern Israeli village of Tamra that was destroyed in an Iranian missile strike, killing four women inside. During a solidarity visit to the family, Jewish Agency Chair Doron Almog said he hoped to connect the Arab town to a Jewish community in the United States, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross from Tamra. “We have come here to be in pain together with the Khatib family. We are in pain with you,” Almog said, speaking at a mourning gathering with the family. “There is great pain and loss here. And from that pain, I want us to cultivate partnership, to cultivate love, to cultivate hope.”
Birthdays
Writer, director and film producer, he is a two-time Israeli Academy Award winner and the founder of Hey Jude Productions, Dani Menkin turns 55 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Weston, Fla., resident, Harold Kurte turns 96… Former member of Knesset for the Ratz party, Ran Cohen turns 88… Owner of Schulman Small Business Services in Atlanta, Alan Schulman… Detroit-based pawnbroker, reality TV star, author and speaker, Leslie “Les” Gold turns 75… Chef, baker and author of eight books, she popularized sourdough and artisan breads in the U.S., Nancy Silverton turns 71… Host of “Bully Pulpit from Booksmart Studios,” Bob Garfield turns 70… Former assistant managing editor for politics at NBC News, now an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and FIU, Gregg Birnbaum… Federation leader, co-founder of Brilliant Detroit (helping children out of poverty) and of Riverstone Communities (it owns and operates over 80 manufactured housing communities in 12 states), James Bellinson… EVP of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Moshe Hauer turns 60… Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and rabbi of Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Bergenfield, N.J., Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky turns 60… Israeli-American screenwriter, film director, writer and producer of 20 films, Boaz Yakin turns 59… Senior legal affairs reporter at Politico, Josh Gerstein… Governor of Pennsylvania, Joshua David Shapiro turns 52… U.S. senator (R-MI), Eric Stephen Schmitt turns 50… Singer, songwriter and hazzan, he is a co-founder of the band Moshav, Yehuda Solomon turns 48… Senior program director of civic initiatives at The Teagle Foundation, Tamara Mann Tweel, Ph.D…. Israeli author of crime and thriller books, Mike Omer turns 46… Journalist, blogger and EMT in NYC, Maggie Shnayerson turns 44… EVP of Moxie Strategies, Pearl Gabel… French-Israeli singer and songwriter, Amir Haddad turns 41… Deputy communications director in the Trump 45 White House, now head of external affairs at Standard Industries, Josh Raffel… Jennifer Bernstein… Photographer, producer and digital strategist, she is a supervising producer at HardPin, Sara Pearl Kenigsberg… Writer, director, comedian, YouTuber, podcaster and mental health advocate, Allison Beth Raskin turns 36… Team captain of Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and the EuroLeague, John DiBartolomeo turns 34… Chief campus officer at Hillel Ontario, Beverley Shimansky… Director of advocacy initiatives at The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Jaime Reich…
SATURDAY: Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Marjorie Margolies turns 83… Investment banker, he was the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador in the Bush 43 administration, Charles L. Glazer turns 82… Philanthropist, she is vice-chair of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Ingeborg Hanna Rennert… British businessman, co-founder with his brother Charles of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, appointed to the House of Lords in 1996, Baron Maurice Saatchi turns 79… U.K. cabinet minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind turns 79… Retired creditors rights attorney in the Chicago area, David Stephen Miller… Retired managing editor and writer at The Washington Post for 33 years, now chief editor at The Reis Group, Peter Perl… Member of the Knesset since 2013 for the Yesh Atid party, Mickey Levy turns 74… Susan Gutman… CEO of Amir Development Company in Beverly Hills, Keenan L. Wolens… Punk rock singer and songwriter, known as the Gangsta Rabbi, Steve Lieberman turns 67… Washington Institute distinguished fellow and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, David Makovsky turns 65… Chief communications officer at Minerva University until last month, he is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, David L. Marcus… Co-founder and executive editor of Axios, Mike Allen turns 61… National education policy reporter for The Washington Post, Laura Meckler… Founder and leader of Beautifully Jewish, Tanya Rebecca Singer… Actor, singer and entrepreneur known for his work on Broadway, television, film and concerts, Aaron Scott Lazar turns 49… Journalist and author, Abigail Krauser Shrier turns 47… Public affairs consultant based in Manhattan, Sam Nunberg turns 44… Co-founder and former CEO of Kaggle, a data science platform acquired by Google in 2017, Anthony Goldbloom turns 42… Former member of the Knesset where she was the first-ever Druze woman, she then became a Jewish Agency shlicha to Washington, Gadeer Kamal Mreeh turns 41… Communications executive at Netflix, she was previously a communications officer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jacqueline (Jackie) Berkowitz… Chief of staff to the chairman and CEO at Saban Capital Group, Amitai Raziel… Award-winning Israeli classical pianist, Boris Giltburg turns 41… Executive director at Hunter Hillel, Merav Fine Braun… Editor for the global programming team at CNN, Madeleine Morgenstern… Singer-songwriter known as Jeryko, Yaniv Hoffman turns 34… Singer-songwriter and actor, known by his mononym Max, Maxwell George Schneider turns 33…
SUNDAY: A leading securities, corporate and M&A attorney, he is a founding partner of the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Martin Lipton turns 94… D.C.-based VP of Israel Aerospace Industries from 1969 until 2017, Marvin Klemow turns 88… Jerusalem-born 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, she is the director of a research center at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Ada Yonath turns 86… Retired U.K. judge, who chaired high-profile hearings on ethics in the media, prompted by the 2011 News of the World phone hacking affair, Sir Brian Henry Leveson turns 82… Winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize for physics, he is a professor at Brown University, J. Michael Kosterlitz turns 82… Justice on Israel’s Supreme Court until 2014, she was previously the Israeli State Prosecutor for eight years, Edna Arbel turns 81… U.S. senator (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren turns 76… Member of the California State Assembly until 2022, now a judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Richard Hershel Bloom turns 72… Partner at Shibolet & Co., one of Israel’s largest corporate law firms, Yoram Raved turns 69… AIPAC director for Greater Washington, Deborah Adler… Chair of the kindergarten and pre-K division of Bowman Ashe Elementary in Miami, Fla., Cynthia Rosenbluth Huss… Past president of the UJA-Federation of New York, Alisa Robbins Doctoroff… U.S. senator (D-CA), Adam Schiff turns 65… Former member of the Knesset for the Hatnuah and Zionist Union parties, Robert Tiviaev turns 64… Creator of the Android operating system which he sold to Google, Andy Rubin turns 63… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, now serving as deputy prime minister and minister of justice, Yariv Gideon Levin turns 56… SVP at Red Banyan PR, Kelcey Kintner… Program director at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Rafi Rone… The Economist‘s Israel correspondent and author of a biography of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Anshel Pfeffer turns 52… Israeli jazz vocalist and composer, Julia Feldman turns 46… COO of TR Capital Management, Ahron Rosenthal… Retired MLB second baseman, he played for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics and managed the team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Ian Kinsler turns 43… Russian-Israeli Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Russia’s largest social network VK[dot]com and Selectel network centers, Lev Binzumovich Leviev turns 41… Baltimore-based endodontist, Jeffrey H. Gardyn, DDS… Israeli Muay Thai kick boxing champion, Ilya Grad turns 38… Israeli-born basketball player with 11 NBA seasons, Omri Casspi turns 37… Former outfielder for Team Israel in the 2016 World Baseball Classic qualifier round, now a real estate investor based in Nashville, Rhett Wiseman turns 31…
Plus, overnight Iranian strikes hit Israeli hospital
DigitalGlobe via Getty Images
This is a satellite image of the Fordow facility in Iran.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the early morning Iranian strikes that hit Israel’s Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Tel Aviv’s Diamond District and the city of Holon, and cover President Donald Trump’s comments on potential U.S. military involvement against Iran’s nuclear program. We cover Sen. Ted Cruz’s recent interview with Tucker Carlson and report on former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s pushback against Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s defense of the “globalize the intifada” slogan. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alex Wong, Morgan Ortagus and Haim.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump will hold an intelligence briefing in the Situation Room this morning. The meeting comes days after the president reportedly approved a plan to attack Iran. Trump has so far held off on issuing the final order to move forward on the attack plan, in order to give Tehran the opportunity to abandon its nuclear program diplomatically.
- We’re also keeping an eye on U.S. military movements in the region, signaling U.S. military preparation for possible strikes on Iran — including whether those movements will include planes capable of carrying the bunker-buster bombs believed necessary to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordow.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Lahav harkov
Israelis woke to sirens this morning — a routine occurrence over the past week — but were shocked to learn that Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center, one of the country’s major hospitals, had been among the sites hit in the most recent barrage of ballistic missiles from Iran. In addition to Soroka, there were direct hits in the Tel Aviv area that wounded 89, including three seriously.
The missile struck the hospital’s old surgical building, severely damaging it and causing what a Soroka spokesperson described as “extensive damage in various areas” of the hospital complex. The surgical building had been recently evacuated in light of the war, and patients and staff had been moved to areas with reinforced walls. Injuries from the strike were light, hospital representatives said.
Soroka is the largest hospital in the Negev, such that the strike left a large swath of Israel without a functioning major medical center. Other hospitals in the area, including Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod, prepared to take in patients from buildings that were damaged. Magen David Adom provided four intensive care buses, able to transport a total of 23 ICU patients and 50 lightly injured casualties.
Early Thursday, the IDF struck an inactive nuclear reactor near Arak in Iran after sending warnings to civilians in the area. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said the strike included “the structure of the reactor’s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production.” The IDF also gave details of strikes on the active nuclear site in Natanz, which “contained components and specialized equipment used to advance nuclear weapons development and projects designed to accelerate the regime’s nuclear program.”
In addition, 40 IAF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets in Tehran and other parts of the country, including factories manufacturing ballistic missile and air-defense components, as well as air-defense batteries, surface-to-surface missile storage sites, radar systems and other targets.
close to the vest
Trump on U.S. striking Iran: ‘I may do it, I may not do it’
There is a chance the U.S. will join Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday, adding that “nobody knows” yet what he will decide, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
What he said: “I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump said in his first public comments about Iran after an hour-long Situation Room briefing on Tuesday. He said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “keep going.” Trump added, “So far he’s doing a good job.” He acknowledged that some of his supporters “are a little bit unhappy” about his posture toward Iran, but added that there are “some people that are very happy.” Trump further threw his support behind Israel’s actions: “All I’m doing is saying you can’t have a nuclear weapon. I’m trying to do it nicely, and then on Day 61, I said, let’s go,” he said.
Disowned: “My supporters don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon. … Very simple: If they think it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, then they should oppose me,” Trump said in response to a question in the Oval Office later in the day about the foreign policy debates between hawks and isolationists in the GOP base, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. “The problem is they get themselves into a thing: They don’t want them to have nuclear, but then they say, ‘Well, we don’t want to fight.’ Well, you’re going to have to make a choice because it’s possible that you’re going to have to fight for them not to have nuclear.”
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Hegseth defends Kingsley Wilson amid questioning about antisemitic record
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth offered a strident defense of Kingsley Wilson, the recently promoted Pentagon press secretary with a history of espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories, under questioning at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
No hesitation: “I’ve worked directly with her, she does a fantastic job, and any suggestion that I or her or others are party to antisemitism is a mischaracterization attempting to win political points,” Hegseth said in a heated exchange with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who co-chairs the Senate antisemitism task force. “Senator, you’re attempting to win political points on the backs of mischaracterizing the statements of a member of my department and I’m not going to stand for that,” Hegseth continued. Rosen shot back that his answer made clear Hegseth was not serious about fighting antisemitism.
TC VS TC
The key moments from the testy Tucker Carlson-Ted Cruz showdown
Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) interview on Tucker Carlson’s podcast published on Wednesday devolved into a shouting match at times between the two GOP heavyweights, with insults and charges of ignorance and antisemitism dominating the two-hour conversation between one of the Republican Party’s biggest pro-Israel champions and one of the most vocal critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Increasingly tense: The interview was relatively civil for the first hour, but began to devolve when Carlson and Cruz started debating the benefits of the U.S. relationship with Israel and the merits of Israel and the United States allegedly spying on one another. Carlson pressed Cruz to say that allies spying on one another was wrong, which Cruz responded to by asking why Carlson and others had an “obsession with Israel” while ignoring similar behavior from other allies. Carlson rejected that he was “obsessed with Israel.”
TRANSITION
Morgan Ortagus joins U.S. mission to the U.N. after NSC shake-up
Morgan Ortagus, who joined the Trump administration as Steve Witkoff’s deputy Middle East special envoy, has now moved to a position at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. A State Department directory lists Ortagus as a senior policy advisor at the mission to the U.N., according to a screenshot obtained by JI.
Background: Ortagus left Witkoff’s office after a widespread purge of Israel and Iran officials at the National Security Council. Ortagus is close with Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor who is now his pick to serve as ambassador to the UN.
SEEKING STRATEGY
Top Senate Democrats caution Trump against potential U.S. Iran strikes
Asserting that President Donald Trump “owes Congress and the American people a strategy for U.S. engagement” in the Middle East, top Senate Democrats cautioned in a statement on Wednesday afternoon against potential U.S. strikes on Iran and argued that the president would need congressional authorization to conduct such an operation, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Why it matters: The signatories to the statement include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrats on several key Senate committees and subcommittees. The statement suggests that a direct U.S. military intervention in Iran would see little support among Senate Democrats. “We are deeply concerned about a lack of preparation, strategy, and clearly defined objectives, and the enormous risk to Americans and civilians in the region,” the senators said.
Elsewhere on the Hill: Meanwhile, a group of 10 House Republicans led by Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Ann Wagner (R-MO) wrote to Trump on Wednesday with a very different message: “We fully support future efforts to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program and, if necessary, take decisive action to protect American lives and interests, as is within your powers as Commander-in-Chief.” They also reiterated that no deal with Iran can allow Iran to continue enriching uranium. “Above all, we are in full support of the red line you have set with Iran to prevent them from regaining their power and influence in the region via proxy groups or a nuclear weapon.”
COSTLY COMMENT
Cuomo denounces Mamdani for defending calls to ‘globalize the intifada’
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke out against Zohran Mamdani, his top rival in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, for defending calls to “globalize the intifada” in a widely criticized podcast appearance this week, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Cuomo’s criticism: “Yesterday when Zohran Mamdani was asked a direct question about what he thought of the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’ he dismissed it as ‘language that is subject to interpretation,’” Cuomo said in a social media post on Wednesday. “That is not only wrong — it is dangerous. At a time when we are seeing antisemitism on the rise and in fact witnessing once again violence against Jews resulting in their deaths in Washington, D.C., or their burning in Denver (sic) — we know all too well that words matter. They fuel hate. They fuel murder.”
Worthy Reads
Endgame in Iran: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens suggests how the Trump administration could use military and diplomatic means to achieve an end to the war that eliminates the nuclear threat from Iran and stabilizes the region. “Here, then, is what Trump should do: First, drop bunker busters on Fordo and other hardened nuclear sites to ensure that Iran has no fast route to a bomb. That would need to be followed up by dropping a diplomatic bunker buster on Tehran — the proverbial offer Iran can’t refuse. … The regime would have to agree to two things: First, permanent, verifiable, comprehensive and immediate denuclearization, including a system of intrusive inspections and an end to its enrichment programs. Second, an end to its financial and military support for Hezbollah, Hamas and other foreign proxies.” [NYTimes]
‘America First’ in Iran: In Semafor, former Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt explains President Donald Trump’s approach to Iran. “Meanwhile, Trump is showing Iran its options before it hits the point of no return. If Tehran pursued a new approach — surrendering its nuclear program, dismantling its missile arsenal and proxies, and allowing genuine freedom for its people — it could chart a different course. The likelihood of this is exceedingly low. Trump making the stakes clear is exactly on brand. He doesn’t waste time with niceties or euphemisms. He says things like, ‘We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding…But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers’ and threatening to kill the Ayatollah if he makes a false move. His direct communication style is worth a thousand clever diplomatic maneuvers.” [Semafor]
Iran’s Opposition in Fear: The Atlantic’s Arash Azizi talks to regime opponents in Iran about how they view the military confrontation between Israel and Iran. “Most of the activists I spoke with — about a dozen — blamed the war largely on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and evinced no political support for his regime. Nor were they supportive of Iran’s attacks on Israel, which have already killed at least 23 Israeli civilians, injured hundreds more, and sent thousands of people to bomb shelters every night. But they in no way welcomed the Israeli strikes on their country. They worried about their own safety — and also about societal collapse and the destruction of Iran’s infrastructure.” [TheAtlantic]
Proxies on the Sidelines: The Wall Street Journal’s Sudarsan Raghavan, Summer Said and Saleh al-Batati report on the reluctance of Iran’s regional proxies to join Tehran in attacking Israel. “The bruising wars have left Iran’s allies wary of taking on Israel, which has demonstrated vastly superior military and intelligence capabilities. Some are now focused on their own interests and have a lot to lose from an expanding war, such as Iraq’s militia members who are now making fortunes in the oil sector. Others, like Hezbollah, are trying to rebuild and nursing grievances over the lack of support from Tehran during the group’s war with Israel, according to Arab diplomats who speak to the group regularly.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
The Washington Post looks at President Donald Trump’s inner circle advising him on Israel-Iran policy; Vice President JD Vance, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are among “a small group of lower-key but more experienced aides” who the president is leaning on over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard…
Politico reports on the leading role CENTCOM head Gen. Erik Kurilla has taken in overseeing Pentagon policy vis-a-vis the Israel-Iran war since it began last week…
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called on Wednesday for the international community to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports…
Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) introduced a Senate version of a resolution condemning rising antisemitic violence that passed the House nearly unanimously earlier this month. The Senate resolution has close to 40 co-sponsors…
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee declined to call up Joel Rayburn’s nomination to be deputy secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs for a vote today, further dimming the prospects of Rayburn being confirmed to the State Department post, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Bipartisan groups of House and Senate members have introduced legislation to repeal the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, sanctions legislation passed in 2019 targeting the former Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad, a step that proponents say will help remove obstacles to reconstruction and stabilization efforts in post-Assad Syria, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
The New York Times profiles Katie Miller, the wife of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and former spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency who has continued to work for Elon Musk following his departure from the Trump administration…
Alex Wong, who served as deputy national security advisor until last month, is joining the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board…
Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, who has raised concerns among members of the state’s Jewish community for her efforts to lobby against antisemitism legislation, won the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, defeating former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney…
Federal prosecutors can move forward with hate crimes charges against an Egyptian national accused of firebombing attendees at a hostage-awareness rally in Boulder, Colo., following a judge’s ruling on Wednesday…
Applicants for student visas will have to put their social media profiles on publicly viewable settings as part of what a senior State Department official called “enhanced social media vetting” amid a broader crackdown on foreign students by the Trump administration…
The Wall Street Journal reviews “I Quit,” the first new album by Haim in five years…
Photography critic Vicki Goldberg died at 88…
Pic of the Day
Charles Kushner was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to France on Wednesday at the White House. In attendance were Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, in addition to other relatives.
Birthdays
Singer known as Skye, Daniel Skye turns 25…
Attorney, investment banker, film producer and former deputy mayor of NYC, Kenneth Lipper turns 84… Rabbi emeritus of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, N.J., Rabbi Bennett F. Miller… Historian of the Jews in Muslim lands in the modern era, he won the Israel Prize this year for Jewish history, Yaron Tsur turns 77… Retired territory sales manager for GlaxoSmithKline, Harry E. Wenkert… Retired president and CEO of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, last month he was appointed as the interim president of American Jewish University, Jay Sanderson turns 68… Inna N. Zalevsky… Overland Park, Kan., resident, Kathi Shaivitz Rosenberg… Former director of communications for Kings Bay Y, Adrienne M. Knoll… Member of the European Jewish Parliament for Latvia, Valery Engel, Ph.D. turns 64… Physician specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, Jessica Rosenberg Brown, MD… Co-founder of Centerview Partners, Blair Effron turns 63… Singer-songwriter, actress and television personality, Paula Abdul turns 63… Former member of Knesset for the Zionist Union party, Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin turns 55… Co-founder of nine venture-backed companies in the telecom, high-tech, pharmaceuticals, energy, water, and biotechnology industries, Andrew T. Perlman turns 50… Human rights activist and advocate for women and minorities in Iran, Marjan Keypour Greenblatt… Director of the export control department in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eitan Weiss… Director of affinities and major giving at the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, Tslil Shtulsaft… Founder of JSwipe dating app, David Austin Yarus… Rhythmic gymnast from Israel who competed in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics, Neta Rivkin turns 34… VP at Jewish Federations of North America, Anna Langer… COO at Lightning Inspiration, Alex Jakubowski… Organization director at Senate Leadership Fund & One Nation, Cydney Couch…
Plus, a way for Israel to compete with checkbook diplomacy
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump stops and talks to the media before he boards Marine One on the South Lawn at the White House on June 15, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we continue to report on the latest developments in the war between Israel and Iran, including President Donald Trump’s call for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” and the potential for U.S. involvement in strikes targeting the Fordow nuclear facility. We also highlight stories of stranded Israelis attempting to enter the country and stranded tourists attempting to exit it, and report on NYC mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani’s defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada.” Also in today’s Daily Kickoff, Sen. Josh Hawley, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and David Zaslav.
What We’re Watching
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning on the Pentagon’s 2026 fiscal year budget.
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will appear in a new interview with Tucker Carlson, slated to be released later today. Clips released ahead of the full interview show clashes between the Texas Republican and conservative commentator, whose policy positions on Iran and Israel are increasingly at odds with the Trump administration.
- The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York is holding a memorial event tonight for Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
While the last two months have been an exercise in diplomacy for Trump administration officials, who have crisscrossed the Middle East and Europe in an attempt to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program, the last 24 hours have seen a sharp pivot from President Donald Trump to a more hard-line approach to Tehran.
“UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” the president posted on his Truth Social site on Tuesday afternoon, understood to be a message to Iran after more than five days of Israeli attacks meant to degrade Tehran’s military and nuclear infrastructure. Iranian reprisals that have paralyzed Israel, but resulted in damage that has fallen far short of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s threats. (Khamenei responded on Wednesday that “the Iranian nation will not surrender.”)
Trump’s latest comments underscore his shift away from the isolationist elements of the GOP that have dominated his administration since a purge of more traditional foreign policy-minded Republicans, including former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. As The New York Times’ Ross Douthat wrote on Tuesday, Trump’s isolationist supporters “imagined that personnel was policy, that the realists and would-be restrainers in Trump’s orbit would have a decisive influence. That was clearly a mistake, and the lesson here is that Trump decides and no one else.”
On Capitol Hill, while Republicans appear publicly split on the level of involvement that the U.S. should have in the conflict — from working with Israel to destroy the Fordow nuclear facility to forcing Iran’s hand in diplomatic talks — JI’s conversations with legislators indicate a different approach behind the scenes. One senior Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss internal conference dynamics estimated that nearly the entire GOP conference is privately united on the issue of the U.S. supporting Israel in bombing the Fordow facility if Israel needs such support. Read more from JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod here.
“I think the president has struck the right position,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI, “which is supportive of Israel’s right of self-defense, which is what this really is, and supporting them publicly while they defend themselves. I think that’s the right position to stick on.” Read more of Hawley’s comments here.
ISRAEL-IRAN WAR, DAY 6
Over 50 Israeli warplanes strike in Tehran area overnight
Israel struck a centrifuge production site in Tehran early Wednesday, after successfully intercepting more than two dozen missiles launched by Iran toward Israel in the preceding hours. Over 50 Israeli Air Force jets flew to Iran, where they struck a facility in which centrifuges were manufactured to expand and accelerate uranium enrichment for Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. “The Iranian regime is enriching uranium for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons. Nuclear power for civilian use does not require enrichment at these levels,” the IDF said.
Military update: The IDF also said it struck several weapons manufacturing facilities, including one used “to produce raw materials and components for the assembly of surface-to-surface missiles, which the Iranian regime has fired and continues to fire toward the State of Israel.” Another facility that the IDF struck manufactured components for anti-aircraft missiles. Effie Defrin, the chief military spokesman, said on Wednesday that the IDF “attacked five Iranian combat helicopters that tried to harm our aircraft.” Defrin added, “There is Iranian resistance, but we control the air [over Iran] and will continue to control it. We are deepening our damage to surface missiles and acting in every place from which the Iranians shoot missiles at Israel.”
FORDOW FACTOR
Israeli national security advisor: Iran operation will not end without strike on Fordow nuclear facility
Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear site is a key target in the current operation against the Islamic Republic, Israel’s national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, said on Tuesday. “This operation will not conclude without a strike on the Fordow nuclear facility,” Hanegbi told Israel’s Channel 12 News. The Fordow facility is home to thousands of centrifuges, crucial to Iran’s weapons-grade uranium enrichment program, and is located 295 feet underground beneath a mountain. Israel is thought to have neither the munitions nor the aircraft to destroy it from the air, while the U.S. does, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
American angle: Washington, however, has yet to make clear if it will take part in the offensive on Iran, though it has shot down Iranian missiles headed for Israel in the last few days. Hanegbi said that he does not believe the Trump administration has made a decision on the matter yet. Hanegbi denied that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked the U.S. to join Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear sites: “We didn’t ask and we won’t ask. We will leave it to the Americans to make such dramatic decisions about their own security. We think only they can decide.”
Decisive decision: A decision by Trump on whether or not to join Israel’s strikes against Iran could make the difference between the full destruction of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and a more drawn-out war with a less conclusive end, Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher in the Iran and the Shi’ite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JI’s Lahav Harkov on Tuesday.
Word of warning: Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) cautioned on Tuesday that bombing Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility would leave significant enriched uranium buried underground. “I’m a little confused on all the conversation about dropping a bunker buster on a mountain that’s filled with enriched uranium, and how that solves the problem. If you’re going to try to get enriched uranium out of the country, dropping a big bunker buster on it may disable the centrifuges in [Fordow], but you still have 900 pounds of enriched uranium sitting there,” Lankford told JI’s Marc Rod.
UNIQUE OFFERING
Is this the way Israel can compete with checkbook diplomacy?
Midway through June, the Middle East looks very different than it did when President Donald Trump traveled to the region just last month. Trump was feted by Gulf monarchs, as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates sought to make their mark on a business-savvy president by touting hundreds of billions of dollars in investments and trade deals. Now, with Israeli strikes on Iran entering their sixth day, the best way to get Trump’s attention in the region — at least for the moment — is no longer financial prowess. It is firepower, according to at least one observer, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Expert view: “I think what you saw over the last few days is Israel’s alternative model to checkbook diplomacy,” author and podcast host Dan Senor said in a Saturday episode of “The Prof G Pod,” hosted by NYU professor Scott Galloway. “Israel has its own way of competing, because what Israel is demonstrating is, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to be the country that personally has sheikhs and emirs who can write checks for billions and trillions of dollars into the American economy,’” Senor said. “‘But we are the most capable ally in the world, and you, the United States, are going to get more out of this relationship than you give.’”
REVERSE EXODUS
Let my people leave — by land or by sea
Until flights out of Israel begin, Americans stuck there are passing along any information they can find — in WhatsApp threads, Facebook groups and private messages — to get themselves and their loved ones home. The details are hard to verify. The costs range from expensive to astronomical, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Moment of truth: When Home Front Command alerts woke Sam Heller at 3 a.m. on Friday, informing the nation that Israel had launched a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he quickly booked the first flight out to Paris from Ben Gurion Airport. “I went straight to the airport, and they locked the doors to Ben Gurion, and they stopped letting people in,” Heller told JI on Tuesday, safely back home in Cleveland. “They’re like, ‘We’re closing our airspace indefinitely. Your flight’s been canceled. All flights are canceled. You can’t get out.’”
At all costs: One graphic shared widely on WhatsApp advertises an emergency evacuation flight from Israel to New York, promising a Wednesday afternoon departure to Eilat and a bus transfer to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, followed by a charter flight to Milan, Italy, and then a connection to JFK Airport in New York — “lavish meals included” and “security escorted” — for $2,200 a person. According to the travel company’s website, though, it was already sold out by the time the graphic circulated. Another message advertised a chartered flight from Aqaba, Jordan — near Eilat — to Paris, for $3,000 a person. Abraham Tours, a travel company best known for its hostels in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, advertised a cross-border transfer to Amman, Jordan, for $438.
Pressure push: A bipartisan group of 45 House members led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Wesley Bell (D-MO) wrote to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday urging officials to act promptly to facilitate evacuations of American citizens from Israel, or at least provide them with additional information on efforts to allow for such evacuations, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
GILDED CAGE
How a Mediterranean vacation destination for Israelis turned into a displaced persons hub
An American couple who were en route to Israel to celebrate their wedding but had their flight diverted. Two Israeli single mothers on holiday looking for a quick refresh, now stranded. A group of injured Israel Defense Forces soldiers on a healing retreat. These are some of the nearly 2,500 Jewish people that Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin, the chief rabbi of Cyprus, and his wife, Shaindel, unexpectedly found themselves hosting for Shabbat last Friday after at least 32 flights from the United States and Europe were diverted to the island in the Mediterranean amid Israel’s preemptive military campaign against Iran, which was launched early Friday morning, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Old Faithful: Shabbat at Chabad “was amazing, a crazy experience,” said Tzvi Berg, a Jerusalem resident who was flying home from a wedding in New York on Thursday night when — just moments away from landing in Tel Aviv — his flight was rerouted to Larnaca, a port city in Cyprus. But as Shabbat ended — with Israeli airspace still shuttered as Iranian missiles continued to strike in Tel Aviv and elsewhere — “the challenge began again,” Raskin said. And those in need are knocking on Chabad’s door looking for food and accommodations, as many Jews do in moments of crisis around the world.
CHANT CONTROVERSY
Zohran Mamdani says ‘globalize the intifada’ is expression of Palestinian rights
Zohran Mamdani, a leading candidate in next Tuesday’s New York City mayoral primary, refused to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada” during a new podcast interview with The Bulwark released on Tuesday, arguing the phrase is an expression of Palestinian rights. In an exchange about antisemitic rhetoric on the left, Mamdani was asked by podcast host Tim Miller to share his thoughts on the phrase, which has been invoked at anti-Israel demonstrations and criticized as an anti-Jewish call to violence, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
What he said: “To me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” said Mamdani, a far-left assemblyman from Queens who has long been an outspoken critic of Israel. “And I think what’s difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle,” he said, apparently referring to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. He added that, “as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning.”
Surveys say: Two new polls — from the Marist Institute for Public Opinion and the Manhattan Institute — show former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo leading New York state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in next week’s Democratic mayoral primary in New York City. The Marist poll has Cuomo ultimately prevailing over Mamdani in the seventh round of ranked-choice voting, 55-45, while the Manhattan Institute poll has Cuomo beating Mamdani 56-44 in 10 rounds.
Worthy Reads
From Hands-Off to Hands-On: The New York Times looks at how President Donald Trump’s approach to the Israel-Iran war shifted as the war has unfolded. “When he woke on Friday morning, his favorite TV channel, Fox News, was broadcasting wall-to-wall imagery of what it was portraying as Israel’s military genius. And Mr. Trump could not resist claiming some credit for himself. In phone calls with reporters, Mr. Trump began hinting that he had played a bigger behind-the-scenes role in the war than people realized. Privately, he told some confidants that he was now leaning toward a more serious escalation: going along with Israel’s earlier request that the United States deliver powerful bunker-busting bombs to destroy Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordo[w].” [NYTimes]
Axis of Illiberality: In The Washington Post, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and a former member of Knesset, considers the role of China, Russia and North Korea alongside Iran in advancing antisemitism around the world. “While ‘intersectionality’ once was intended to advance the foundational principles of life and liberty, it can now be applied to a contemporary target: authoritarian and illiberal regimes’ efforts to tear apart those very foundations. The declared intention is destroying liberal democracies. … There are many ties that bind Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. Oil, arms and food bring them together; stoking global antisemitism is a useful tool in a divide-and-conquer strategy. These regimes pursue their agendas in ways that may outwardly vary, but they share a common goal: the West’s downfall. They all recognize that the liberal principles of democracies and the international rules-based order can be exploited to sow fear, despair and distrust.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump, traveling back to Washington from the G7 in Canada, dismissed a public assessment by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard made earlier this year that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; Politico looks at the “widening gap” between Trump and Gabbard as the two clash on Middle East policy issues…
A new bipartisan resolution introduced by Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) and 14 co-sponsors on Tuesday praises Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities and condemns Iran’s retaliatory missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
An Army general who served as the Levant and Egypt branch chief at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate was removed from the joint staff amid an investigation into his social media posts, which included a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies” and allegations that American pro-Israel activists are prioritizing “support for Israel over our actual foreign interests”…
Tablet interviews the Institute for Science and International Security’s David Albright, a former International Atomic Energy Agency inspector, about the state of the Iranian nuclear program and Israeli capabilities to target the Fordow facility without U.S. assistance…
Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) said he would consider a bid for the House seat held by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) if Sherrill prevails in the November gubernatorial election…
Colorado’s two Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, wrote to Senate leaders on Tuesday calling for funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to be increased to as much as $500 million following the antisemitic attack on a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; they also urged lawmakers to ensure that the funding can be used to “pay permanent security guards and other critical personnel”…
Oracle announced a new program, Oracle Defense Ecosystem, to help smaller vendors sell technology to the Pentagon, including artificial intelligence; participating vendors will be able to utilize Oracle’s office space and expertise with the Defense Department’s procurement system, as well as receive a discount for Palantir’s cloud and AI services…
Warner Bros. Discovery is cutting CEO David Zaslav’s pay when the company divides in two next year, though it will provide him with extra stock options that will pay out if the company hits share-price targets, in order to better tie pay to performance…
A Bay Area man is facing federal hate crimes charges for his participation in what the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office called an “antisemitic group beating” of two people, one of whom was Jewish; a physical confrontation escalated after members of the group reportedly shouted “free Palestine” and “f–k the Jews”…
A Maryland man was charged with allegedly sending numerous threats to Jewish organizations in Pennsylvania over a period of more than a year, from April 2024 to May 2025…
The Birmingham City Council became the first in the U.K. to recognize the Jewish identity of residents when collecting demographic data…
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Israel was doing the “dirty work” of striking Iran “for all of us”…
A new poll from the Council for a Secure America found overwhelming support (79%) among the Israeli public for Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities…
The Wall Street Journal speaks with Israeli entrepreneurs about how the war between Israel and Iran is impacting Israeli startups — destroying homes and offices, calling up reservists, canceling conferences, halting business travel and affecting productivity…
The U.S. withdrew troops from two bases in northeastern Syria, amid concerns from U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces in the region that the vacuum could provide an opening for extremist groups…
Turkey is ramping up its production of medium- and long-range missiles amid the escalation between Israel and Iran…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) met on Tuesday with Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, the first time the two have met for a security briefing in more than a month.
Birthdays
Music mogul, Scott Samuel “Scooter” Braun turns 44…
Chicago-based attorney, he is the only ordained rabbi to have served as an alderman on the Chicago City Council, Solomon Gutstein turns 91… Former Washington Post editor and reporter, Fred Barbash turns 80… Retired IT management advisor at Next Stage, Steven Shlomo Nezer… Croatian entrepreneur, he was previously the minister of economy, labour and entrepreneurship in the Croatian government, Davor Stern turns 78… Rabbi at Or Hamidbar in Palm Springs, Calif., he previously led congregations in Israel and Stockholm, Rabbi David James Lazar turns 68… Rebecca Diamond… Best-selling author and journalist, she was editor-in-chief of USA Today, Joanne Lipman turns 64… Retired professor of English at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Helene Meyers… Executive of the William Pears Group, a large UK real estate firm founded by his father and grandfather, Sir Trevor Steven Pears (family name was Schleicher) turns 61… Vice chairman and president of global client services at BDT & MSD Partners, she recently joined the board of Meta/Facebook, Dina Powell McCormick… White House senior aide during the Trump 45 administration, he is a principal of Cordish Companies, Reed Saunders Cordish turns 51… Film director and screenwriter, Jonathan A. Levine turns 49… Actor, comedian, satirist and writer, known professionally as Ben Gleib, Ben Nathan Gleiberman turns 47… Television producer and writer, Jeremy Bronson turns 45… Baseball pitcher for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics, he is now the director of pitching development for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jeremy Bleich turns 38… Of counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Esther Lifshitz… Israeli musician, producer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by his stage name Dennis Lloyd, Nir Tibor turns 32… Investor at Silver Point Capital, Jacob E. Best… Rachel Hazan…
Plus, the political extremes horseshoe against Israel ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One after leaving the G7 Leaders' Summit early on June 16, 2025 in Calgary, Alberta.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the latest developments in the war between Israel and Iran, and cover President Donald Trump’s early departure from the G7 in Canada and comments about potential talks with Tehran. We also report on Trump’s rebuke of “kooky” Tucker Carlson over the commentator’s opposition to U.S. support of Israeli strikes, and look at how Jewish LGBTQ community leaders are approaching Pride celebrations that ostracize Jewish and pro-Israel individuals. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Scott Jennings, Jason Isaacs and Jeff Rubin.
What We’re Watching
- We’re continuing to monitor the ongoing situation in Israel and Iran, following another barrage of ballistic missiles fired at Israel by Iran this morning. More below.
- President Donald Trump is back in Washington today, after his early departure from the G7 in Alberta, Canada, where he will meet with senior advisors this morning in the Situation Room to weigh the level of U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are among those who will be meeting with the president.
- Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) are expected to put forward a war powers resolution today in the House that would force the administration to seek congressional approval ahead of any U.S. attack on Iran. Yesterday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced a war powers resolution in the Senate. More below.
- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are slated to testify this morning before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the administration’s FY2026 budget request for the intelligence community.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) trip to Israel this week, in which Johnson was slated to address the Knesset, has been postponed due to the conflict between Israel and Iran. Read more here.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD
We’ve written a lot about the so-called horseshoe theory of U.S. politics and foreign policy — the point at which the far left and the far right coalesce into agreement — but the Israeli campaign against Iranian military and nuclear targets is providing a particularly stark example of that convergence. The two factions find themselves openly and publicly aligned in opposition to any form of U.S. intervention in Israel’s campaign and against Israel’s operations in general.
An X post by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Sunday provided a distillation of that dynamic. Greene claimed that a regional war or global war, which would likely overwhelm the Middle East, BRICS and NATO, is inevitable and that countries would be “required to take a side.” She continued, “I don’t want to see Israel bombed or Iran bombed or Gaza bombed. … And we do NOT want to be involved or required to pay for ANY OF IT!!!”
Among those who supported Greene’s post were CodePink activist Medea Benjamin, who praised Greene’s “incredibly strong anti-war position!” and Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim, who called the Georgia Republican “presently the most sensible member of Congress.” Doug Stafford, the chief strategist for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), shared Benjamin’s post — and has repeatedly shared and praised both her and Code Pink in the wake of the Israeli operation. Read more here.
It’s not just Greene and Stafford. A host of prominent figures on the right, such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and former Pentagon senior advisor Dan Caldwell are touting narratives about the conflict that would not be out of place at a far-left anti-Israel rally.
ISRAEL-IRAN WAR DAY 5
Israel kills Iranian military chief of staff as attacks from Tehran slow down
Israel killed Iran’s new top military commander and confidante of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei days after eliminating his predecessor, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office announced on Tuesday, after a night in which missile launches from Iran towards Israel slowed down significantly. The Israeli Air Force struck a command center in Tehran, killing Ali Shadmani, Iran’s chief of war general staff, who had authority over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian military. Shadmani, whom the IDF Spokesperson’s Office called “one of the closest figures to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,” was on the job for four days after Israel killed his predecessor, Alam Ali Rashid, early Friday, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Lower volume: Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning were the quietest since the beginning of the war with Iran on Friday. The IAF intercepted 30 projectiles launched from Iran toward Israel, with sirens mostly in northern and central Israel and no reports of injuries or damage to property. On Tuesday morning, Iran launched additional missiles at Israel, triggering sirens in the center of the country, including Jerusalem and the West Bank. The IDF said it intercepted most of the projectiles. Magen David Adom reported 14 injuries at eight impact sites, including a bus depot in Herzliya where the blast created a 13-foot-wide hole in the ground.
Top target: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule out the possibility of targeting Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an interview with ABC News on Monday, amid widespread speculation in Israel and beyond that the strikes on the Islamic Republic could pose an existential challenge to the regime.
DIPLOMACY DIARIES
Trump departs G7 early, denies ‘peace talks’ with Iran
President Donald Trump denied on Tuesday that he was attempting to facilitate “peace talks” with Iran as he returned to Washington after prematurely leaving a meeting of G7 leaders in Canada to monitor the ongoing war between Israel and Iran, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
Word of warning: While still aboard Air Force One, the president told reporters that he wanted “a real end” to Iran’s nuclear program and he would be monitoring developments between Israel and Iran from the White House Situation Room. He suggested that Israel was unlikely to slow its strikes on Iranian targets in the coming days, saying that, “You’re going to find out over the next two days. You’re going to find out. Nobody’s slowed up so far.” But the president stopped short of addressing whether the U.S. would join Israel’s strikes, saying he hopes the Iranian nuclear weapons program “is wiped out long before that.”
French folly: French President Emmanuel Macron suggested to reporters on Monday that Trump had departed the G7 earlier to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, saying that “the U.S. assured they will find a ceasefire and, since they can pressure Israel, things may change.” Trump slammed Macron and denied his claims, posting on Truth Social, “Publicity seeking President Emmanuel Macron, of France, mistakenly said that I left the G7 Summit, in Canada, to go back to D.C. to work on a ‘cease fire’ between Israel and Iran. Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire.” Trump said he had departed for something “much bigger than that.”
United front: The leaders of the G7 issued a joint statement on Sunday affirming “that Israel has a right to defend itself,” their “support for the security of Israel” and that “Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror.” They further “urge[d] that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”
TRUMP CHECKS TUCKER
Trump rebukes ‘kooky Tucker Carlson’ on Iran
President Donald Trump rebuked Tucker Carlson at several points on Monday over Carlson’s comments opposing Trump’s support for Israeli strikes on Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
New nickname: Asked Monday at the G7 Summit in Canada about Carlson’s comments accusing Trump of being “complicit” in the war, Trump quipped, “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.” Trump later posted on his Truth Social platform, “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, ‘Iran CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!’”
ALLIES AND ARMS
U.S. should help Israel destroy Fordow, some Senate Republicans say
Some Senate Republicans argued Monday that the U.S. should join Israel’s strikes on Iran to help it destroy deeply entrenched nuclear sites such as the Fordow facility, contending that Israel lacks the capacity to do so on its own. Others, though, argued that Israel may have alternative plans to attack Fordow, while still others suggested that the U.S. should hold back and focus on diplomacy unless U.S. personnel are attacked directly, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Unique needs: Assessments have long held that bunker-busting bombs and larger bombers, neither of which Israel has, are needed to eliminate Fordow, though some analysts have speculated in recent days that Israel has been developing alternative strategies to strike that site. “We have to. I think we have to help. I am going to be encouraging the president [to support Israel] because the greatest tragedy in the world would be if we left the Iranian regime in place with a nuclear easy startup. I’d hate to see Israel spending all those resources of people and dollars on getting the job 90% done,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told JI.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE).
War powers activated: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced a war powers resolution on Monday that aims to block the U.S. from taking military action against Iran in support of Israel’s ongoing operation against the regime, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
STRANDED BUT NOT ALONE
CNN’s Scott Jennings flew to Israel for the first time to understand Oct. 7 — and then war with Iran broke out
CNN contributor Scott Jennings traveled to Israel last week to bear witness to the atrocities Hamas committed during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. But in the wake of Israel launching its military operation to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities and prevent the regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon, Jennings is witnessing more than he expected to on his first trip to the Jewish state, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
And then some: “Not only did I get to fulfill my mission of understanding deeply the horrors of Oct. 7, but being here watching the war unfold against Iran, I feel like I am here at the beginning of the war to defend Western civilization,” Jennings, who is traveling with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, told JI from his hotel in Tiberias on Friday. “I think this has to end with a complete annihilation of Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon,” he said, calling on the U.S. to do “whatever we have to do to achieve that in concert with our special partner, Israel.”
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Proud, but pushed out: Why LGBTQ Jews are creating Pride spaces of their own
In early June, Rabbi Eleanor Steinman wrote to members of Temple Beth Shalom, the Reform congregation she leads in Austin, Texas, sharing the synagogue’s plans to celebrate Pride Month with several events in June. Steinman also revealed that, for the first time in more than two decades, her congregation would not be marching in the Austin Pride parade, which event organizers say draws 200,000 people each August, because of concerns about antisemitism. “The Austin Pride organization took an antisemitic stance in the midst of the Pride Parade and Festival last year,” wrote Steinman, who is gay. Ahead of last year’s Pride parade, slides were leaked from a presentation in which Austin Pride organizers said hate speech against Jews wasn’t welcome, including “symbols, images or flags used by terrorist and hate groups.” It was part of an education campaign for queer activists as anti-Israel sentiment exploded in the queer community after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza, as it did in many other progressive spaces, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Backfiring and backtracking: But the effort to educate about antisemitism backfired. Anti-Israel activists pressured Austin Pride to disavow that message. Austin Pride not only backtracked on barring those slogans; it issued a statement pledging to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and stating that the organization does not work with the Anti-Defamation League. In the months that followed, Jewish leaders and LGBTQ activists pushed Austin Pride’s leadership to consider changing this stance, to no avail. “Despite attempts to meet with Austin Pride since then, a coalition of Jewish leaders were unable to create an environment where we felt we would be both safe and respected as Jewish LGBTQ+ and allies,” Steinman wrote in the email. It was a remarkable statement, tinged with bitter irony: The synagogue first started marching in Pride so that LGBTQ congregants would feel that they could bring their full selves to the Jewish community. Now some of those same congregants feel that they need to suppress their Jewishness in order to fully belong in the queer community.
Worthy Reads
Bibi Turns the Tables: The Wall Street Journal’s Walter Russell Mead considers how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pivoted from a series of domestic and diplomatic crises to mounting one of the most significant military operations in Israeli history. “A coalition in revolt, prosecutors on his heels, powerful rivals looking to unseat him, chilly relations with Mr. Trump, growing opposition from Europe, skeptical military and intelligence chiefs and a hostile press — few leaders anywhere have faced this kind of pressure. By week’s end, Bibi had flipped the script. A series of military blows exposed the weakness of Iran’s sulphurously belligerent regime and demonstrated Israel’s military and intelligence supremacy in the Middle East. The government crisis subsided. Mr. Trump praised Israel’s audacious attack. As in the months after Oct. 7, 2023, a determined prime minister harnessed the Israeli military machine to orchestrate a dazzling series of victories that stunned the world even if they did not win it over.” [WSJ]
More Than Bombs: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius looks at potential avenues to regime change in Iran. “You’ll get no argument from me that it’s long past time for political change in Tehran. The clerical regime has been shedding the blood of Israelis, Americans, Saudis and anyone else who opposed its dictates since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The question is how change will come. What’s the road toward a dynamic country that’s worthy of Iran’s creative, cultured people? Here’s one obvious fact: Israel can’t bomb its way to this new Iran. A campaign of bombing of the kind Tehran is experiencing makes people hunker down, turn inward and often fight harder. Strategic bombing didn’t break the will of the British, German or Japanese people during World War II. It hasn’t yet destroyed Hamas in Gaza, either, for that matter.” [WashPost]
Hate’s Not on the Menu: In the San Francisco Chronicle, Manny Yekutiel condemned the recent vandalism of his eponymous Mission District cafe, which was graffitied with anti-Israel graffiti during recent anti-ICE protests. “A disturbing pattern is emerging — one that even here in San Francisco is endangering the core values this city is meant to uphold: tolerance, inclusion, civic engagement and common humanity. The act of hate at Manny’s is part of a larger danger facing the progressive movement and the country. We are living in a moment where real and painful disagreements are being used as an excuse to turn people against one another. Instead of standing together to fight injustice, some are choosing to let hate and bigotry divide us. We cannot allow that. If we lose the ability to sit across from people we disagree with and have hard conversations, we lose the very foundation of this movement.” [SFChronicle]
Word on the Street
Amos Hochstein, a former special envoy in the Biden administration, told CNBC that only the U.S. could dismantle the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran…
The Senate modified provisions of the Educational Choice for Children Act, a tax credit program for scholarships that could help families afford religious schools, in its version of the budget reconciliation bill; the Senate version of the bill decreases the total annual tax credit from $5 billion to $4 billion, but eliminated a sunset provision that had been in the House version of the bill, making the program permanent. The Senate version also modifies portions of religious liberty protections included in the House bill…
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) told Jewish Insider he hasn’t had any discussions about calling a floor vote to discharge Joel Rayburn‘s nomination from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which it appears Rayburn lacks the votes to advance…
The Florida Legislature earmarked $10 million in funds allotted for Jewish school security, $1 million above the amount recommended by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year…
Chalkbeat interviews historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, who was tapped by the New York City Department of Education to develop a Jewish American history curriculum…
In an interview with Vulture, “White Lotus” actor Jason Isaacs, who is Jewish, reflected on his relationship with Mel Gibson, saying his “The Patriot” co-star, whose antisemitic rant following a 2006 DUI arrest went viral, has “done some things that are unconscionable and unforgivable”…
The New York Times looks at the legacy of Leonard Lauder, who died last week, on the beauty industry; Lauder was known for coining the concept of the “lipstick index”…
The Wing co-founder Audrey Gelman, who opened a home goods and tchotchkes store in Brooklyn in 2022, is pivoting to hospitality, opening a hotel in New York’s Hudson Valley…
The displays of several Israeli defense firms at the Paris Air Show were covered up during the annual gathering; French officials said the companies, including Elbit and Rafael, had disregarded an agreement not to display offensive weapons, while Israel’s Defense Ministry accused France of trying to tamp down competition…
The Wall Street Journal reports that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman have appealed to the U.S. to pressure Israel to halt its strikes on Iran…
The Associated Press looks at how the escalation between Israel and Iran has affected flights and travelers across the region, stranding many far from home…
The Maccabiah Games, which had been slated to take place next month in Israel, are being postponed to 2026 due to the war between Israel and Iran, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…
Jeff Rubin announced his upcoming retirement from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he served as communications director since 2011…
Pic of the Day
Ambassador Jim Jeffrey (center) poses with Antoun Sehnaoui (left) and Daniel Glaser, the co-founders of the U.S.-Israel Opera Initiative, at the organization’s launch on Sunday at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The program featured the premiere screening of the opera “Theodor,” about the life of Theodor Herzl. The performance was dedicated to Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two Israeli Embassy staffers who were killed in a terror attack at the Capital Jewish Museum last month.
Birthdays
Comedian, actor, director, writer and producer, Michael Showalter turns 55…
Diplomat and attorney, undersecretary of state for International Security Affairs in the Carter administration, longtime U.N. special representative, Matthew Nimetz turns 86… Winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, professor at Georgetown and UC Berkeley, he is married to former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin, George Akerlof turns 85… One of the world’s best-selling singer-songwriters over the course of seven decades, born Barry Alan Pincus, Barry Manilow turns 82… Former member of the Knesset for the Zionist Union party, Eitan Broshi turns 75… Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission during the Obama administration, Jonathan David (“Jon”) Leibowitz turns 67… Deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration during the first two years of the Biden administration, Stephanie Pollack turns 65… President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors until earlier this year, Aaron Dan Peskin turns 61… Singer and composer, a pioneer of the Turkish and Arab music genres in Israel, Ofer Yoel Levy turns 61… Fashion designer, daughter of Reva Schapira, Tory Burch turns 59… Active in interfaith peace initiatives between Judaism and Islam and in encounters for Jews with Eastern religions, Rabbi Yakov Meir Nagen (born Genack) turns 58… Founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, Michael Freund turns 57… British historian, columnist and musician, Dominic Green, Ph.D. turns 55… International human rights attorney who serves as managing director of the law firm Perseus Strategies, Jared Matthew Genser turns 53… Screenwriter, television producer, director and voice actor, Matthew Ian Senreich turns 51… Advocacy, philanthropic and political counsel at Chicago-based Beyond Advisers, David Elliot Horwich… SVP for the economic program at Third Way think tank, Gabe Horwitz… Chief philanthropy officer of the Jewish Community Foundation and Jewish Federation of Broward County, Keith Mark Goldmann… VP of government affairs for the Conservation Lands Foundation, David Eric Feinman… Former rabbi of the Elmora Hills Minyan in Union County, N.J., now an LCSW therapist in private practice, Rabbi Michael Bleicher… NYC-based senior editor for The Hollywood Reporter, Alexander Weprin… Professional surfer and musician, his family owns Banzai Bagels on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Makua Rothman turns 41… Founder and executive director of the Zioness Movement, Amanda Berman… Director of national outreach for the East at the New Israel Fund, Alexander Willick… Award-winning college football and basketball analyst for NBC Sports and SiriusXM, Nicole Auerbach… Member of the U.S. Ski Team’s alpine program, he competed for the USA in both the 2014 (Sochi) and 2018 (PyeongChang) Winter Olympics, Jared Goldberg turns 34… Senior art director at Business Insider, Rebecca Zisser… Shortstop for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics, Scott Burcham turns 32… Actress best known for her roles in the CBS series “Fam” and the Netflix series “Grand Army,” Odessa Zion Segall Adlon turns 25… D.C.-based freelance foreign media consultant, she is also a real estate agent, Mounira Al Hmoud…
IRGC head, nuclear scientists killed in initial campaign
Israeli Air Force on X
Israeli Air Force jets take off during Operation Rising Lion on June 13, 2025.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Israel’s preemptive attack on Iranian nuclear targets and Tehran’s retaliatory drone attack, and look at how Jewish communities and world leaders are responding. We also look at why Rep. Josh Gottheimer struggled to turn out Jewish voters in the New Jersey gubernatorial primary, and talk to Aaron Magid, the author of a new book about King Abdullah II of Jordan. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Dave McCormick, Daniel Hernandez and David Zaslav.
What We’re Watching
- Our team, reporting from Israel, New York, Washington and Paris, is working around-the-clock to provide updates following Israel’s preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities and Iran’s retaliatory drone strikes. More below.
- Across Israel, events and gatherings — including Tel Aviv’s Pride parade — were canceled. Israel’s chief rabbis instructed against congregating at synagogues for Shabbat prayers. The country remains on high alert, with Home Front Command having issued guidelines canceling school and non-essential work across the country. A directive to stay near protected areas ended at 10:45 a.m. local time.
- Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is still planning to travel to Oman this weekend for nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran that are slated to take place on Sunday.
- In Washington, the Nova music festival exhibition is slated to open this weekend. At a special opening event this evening, Steve Witkoff, former hostages Noa Argamani and Omer Shem-Tov, and Nova survivor Ofir Amir are slated to speak. Organizers have not yet said how or if the opening events will be affected by the Israeli strike and Iranian retaliation.
- On Saturday, President Donald Trump’s military parade is scheduled to take place in Washington. Anti-Trump protesters have also announced a series of demonstrations across the country on Saturday.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH MELISSA WEISS
Friday the 13th has long been an auspicious day.
But Friday the 13th will now be known as something different in Israel — the day the country mounted a massive campaign against Iranian military leadership and nuclear facilities.
It’s too soon to know the extent of the damage from the ongoing strikes, the first wave of which was carried out by approximately 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft and targeted more than 100 sites around the Islamic Republic — including senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials. Israel’s attack against Iran last year knocked out hundreds of military installations and destroyed much of Tehran’s air-defense systems; last night’s attack may have dealt it a death knell.
Reports out of Tehran are inconsistent and difficult to confirm — owing in part to Iran’s desire to minimize embarrassment following the first strikes of Operation Rising Lion — but the IDF and Iran both confirmed that the Natanz enrichment facility was targeted and damaged in the operation. Elsewhere, IRGC Commander Hossein Salami, Iranian military chief Mohammad Bagheri and other senior officials, as well as nuclear scientists, were killed.
President Donald Trump said early this morning that he “gave Iran chance after chance” to reach a nuclear agreement. He warned of “already planned attacks” that will be “even more brutal” and called on Tehran to make a deal “before there is nothing left.”
Today’s Daily Kickoff looks at how Israel, Washington and the American Jewish community are responding to the major Israeli offensive, and we will continue to report throughout the weekend on developments across the region. Sign up for Jewish Insider’s email and WhatsApp news alerts for around-the-clock reporting in the coming days. And read on for our coverage of the overnight operation, Iran’s retaliatory drone attack and how the situation is being viewed around the world.
ISRAEL ATTACKS IRAN
Israel carries out preemptive strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, without U.S. involvement
Israeli leaders said they carried out a series of preemptive strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and key personnel overnight, declaring a national state of emergency as it prepares for anticipated Iranian retaliation. U.S. officials took steps to distance themselves from the Israeli strikes, emphasizing that Washington was not involved, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
First stage: The Israeli Embassy in Washington issued a statement that Israel had launched a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive to strike Iran’s nuclear program,” and that Israeli jets had been involved in the “first stage” targeting “dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.” The statement continued, “Today, Iran is closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon. Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranian regime are an existential threat to the state of Israel and to the wider world. The State of Israel has no choice but to fulfill the obligation to act in defense of its citizens and will continue to do so everywhere it is required to do so, as we have done in the past.”
Trump’s take: President Donald Trump told Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Thursday evening that the United States would defend Israel if Iran retaliated following Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear and military targets. Earlier today, he posted on TruthSocial that the U.S. “makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the world BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it.”
TEHRAN RETALIATION
Iranian drone strikes intercepted before reaching Israel after strikes on nuclear, military targets
Over 100 drones launched by Iran and its proxies at Israel were intercepted on Friday morning, as Israelis continued bracing for further retaliation after the IDF launched Operation Rising Lion, reportedly destroying Iran’s main enrichment site in Natanz and killing Iran’s top three military officers. “Iran launched over 100 drones at Israel and we are working to intercept them,” the IDF spokesperson, Effie Defrin, said, hours after Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites and eliminated senior military figures, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Hossein Salami, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Successfully thwarted: Three hours later, Israeli media reported that all of the drones had been shot down and the IDF Home Front Command lifted its directive for Israelis to stay near their safe rooms and shelters. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned on X prior to the drone strike that Israel “should anticipate a severe punishment … With this crime, the Zionist regime has prepared itself for a bitter painful fate, which it will definitely see.” Some of the projectiles were launched from Iraq, and the IDF prepared for possible launches from Lebanon and Yemen, where the Houthis have shot missiles provided by Iran at Israel every few days in recent months. Jordan reported intercepting some Iranian UAVs over its territory, saying that it will not allow Iran to violate its airspace.
ISRAEL’S HILL ALLIES
Senior Republican senators, pro-Israel Dems express support for Israel’s strike against Iran
Many of the highest-ranking Senate Republicans, along with leading pro-Israel Democrats, expressed support for Israel’s preemptive strikes on Iran, but a number of skeptical lawmakers — mostly Democrats — expressed concern that the strikes could set off a broader war in the region, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Strong support: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said, minutes after reports of the operation began, “Proud to stand with Israel.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) soon followed, saying, “Game on. Pray for Israel.” Cotton later added that “We back Israel to the hilt, all the way,” adding that if “the ayatollahs harm a single American, that will be the end of the ayatollahs.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), said “Israel IS right—and has a right—to defend itself!”
And criticism: A number of congressional Democrats — and one notable isolationist House Republican — are expressing concern that the strikes will spark a broader war in the region and several described the strikes as designed to sabotage U.S. nuclear negotiations with Tehran. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemned the strikes as a “reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence” and called on the Trump administration to push for “diplomatic de-escalation before this crisis spirals further out of control.” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), a Republican aligned with the isolationist wing of the party, also appeared to decry the strikes. “I’m sad to say but some members of Congress and US Senators seem giddy about the prospects of a bigger war,” Davidson said, appending an emoji of a bandaged, frowning face.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Jim Risch (R-ID), John Cornyn (R-TX), Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Fetterman (D-PA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Rick Crawford (R-AR) and Greg Casar (D-TX).
COMMUNAL REAX
Jewish groups warn of potential Iran-backed attacks on Diaspora Jewry, express solidarity after Israeli preemptive strike against Tehran
After Israel launched a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program and military top brass last night, Jewish groups in the United States and around the world expressed solidarity with Israel and called for heightened awareness within Diaspora Jewish communities amid fears of Iran-backed attacks. With the community already on edge following recent attacks in Washington and Boulder, Colo., Jewish security groups are warning that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has a history of supporting and facilitating attacks on Diaspora Jewish communities, may again attempt such an assault, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.
Safety concerns: The Community Security Service and Secure Community Network both called for Jewish communities to ramp up their security measures, even as they were not yet aware of specific threats. The New York Police Department also said that it was “deploying additional resources” to Jewish and Israeli sites throughout New York City. “Our safety can be impacted not only by domestic extremism like we saw in DC and Boulder, but by global events thousands of miles away,” Richard Priem, CEO of CSS, said in an email. “The situation is dynamic and can change at any time. Jews in America cannot afford to be complacent.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
EYE ON AMMAN
Why we should be paying more attention to Jordan, according to new King Abdullah biography
American fascination with the Middle East and its colorful leaders — dictators and military generals and royals and Israeli premiers — dates back decades, from Saddam Hussein to Iran’s ayatollahs to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. One ruler has survived more or less unscathed over more than a quarter century, avoiding flashy headlines about power struggles or coups, all while keeping a tight grip on power and maintaining close, bipartisan ties with Washington. That’s Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who has ruled the country since 1999. In The Most American King, a new biography of King Abdullah, author Aaron Magid argues that the Jordanian king’s staying power is what makes him interesting — that the relative stability he has overseen demands attention in a region so often beset by chaos elsewhere, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Aid allocated: Jordan receives roughly $1.45 billion a year from the U.S., making it one of the largest beneficiaries of American foreign assistance dollars. That’s despite King Abdullah’s public criticism of Israel, America’s strongest ally in the Middle East — and even harsher language from his wife, Queen Rania, who is of Palestinian descent. “I think he does understand that having some sort of relationship with Israel is in his benefit and his national security interest,” Magid told JI in an interview this week.
FALLING SHORT
Gottheimer’s bet on Jewish vote didn’t pay off
With his path to victory narrowing in the closing stretch of New Jersey’s gubernatorial primary, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) had placed his hopes for a come-from-behind win on the state’s sizable Jewish community, a politically active voting bloc he saw as a crucial part of his coalition in a crowded race with overlapping constituencies and likely low turnout. The moderate Jewish Democrat worked to court Jewish voters by touting his pro-Israel record and commitment to fighting antisemitism. In the end, however, the veteran congressman came in fourth place in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, losing to a fellow House member, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), by 22 points, even as she had claimed only a third of the vote in the six-way race, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Matthew Kassel report.
A look at Lakewood: Gottheimer’s poor overall performance across the state came in spite of relatively strong turnout in Lakewood, where he won more than 5,000 votes from the Orthodox community, including several unaffiliated backers, according to Shlomo Schorr, director of legislative affairs for Agudath Israel of America’s New Jersey office. With nearly 3,000 registered Democrats in the Orthodox community in Lakewood, Gottheimer’s Vaad endorsement helped him secure those votes and to claim additional support from unaffiliated residents, though hardly as many as his allies had hoped to attract: Lakewood has more than 20,000 unaffiliated Orthodox voters — suggesting that only a small fraction of them had declared as Democrats in order to vote in the primary. Even if he had sought to mobilize those Orthodox voters earlier in the primary, Gottheimer still would have come up short. “None of that would have made a difference,” Schorr told JI, given the outcome on Tuesday. “We just don’t have the kind of numbers to flip such a lopsided race, obviously.”
Worthy Reads
Taking It to Tehran: In The Times of Israel, Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, who previously served as prime minister, explains the motives behind Israel’s decision to strike Iran. “What does victory look like? An Iran without a nuclear capability. An Iran deterred from further escalation. An Iran that understands it cannot spread terrorism in the region without paying a price. The opening hours of this operation have shown what Israel is capable of, the strength and sophistication of our armed forces and the depth of our intelligence. Those who stand behind Iran’s nuclear program and its terrorist infrastructure can’t run and they can’t hide.” [TOI]
Waking to a New Middle East: The Free Press’ Matti Friedman reflects on “turning point” in the Middle East following Israel’s preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear targets. “After waking up my children, hustling them blearily into the safe room, and checking my phone, I saw that the siren indicated not that we were being attacked — but that we were attacking. The army’s Home Front Command warned us to stay close to shelter. After a decade and a half of news reports that Israel was about to attack the Iranian nuclear program, after years of Iranian obfuscation, Israeli indecisiveness, and American fecklessness, the Israeli air force was actually striking in Natanz and Tehran. Among the pilots, I assume, are a few people I know.” [FreePress]
Breaking Rank: The Atlantic’s Annie Lowrey describes the shortcomings of the ranked-choice voting system in the “annoyingly chaotic” New York City mayoral primary. “Seeing a no-name upstart attempt to upset a brand-name heavyweight is thrilling. But the system has warped the political calculus of the mayoral campaign. Candidates who might have dropped out are staying in. Candidates who might be attacking one another on their platforms or records are instead considering cross-endorsing. Voters used to choosing one contender are plotting out how to rank their choices. Moreover, they are doing so in a closed primary held in the June of an odd year, meaning most city residents will not show up at the polls anyway. If this is democracy, it’s a funny form of it.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump will attend Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-PA) Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, slated for July 15 at Carnegie Mellon University; White House AI czar David Sacks, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg are slated to attend…
Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Troy Nehls (R-TX) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) introduced legislation banning any individuals living in the West Bank or holding a Palestinian Authority passport from receiving refugee status, and dictating that any such individuals currently holding refugee status should be deported…
Reps. August Pfluger (R-TX), Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Derek Schmidt (R-KS) introduced a bill that would ban anyone who “endorses or espouses terrorist activities” committed by terrorist groups including Hamas, Hezbollah or Palestinian Islamic Jihad from entering the U.S.…
Arizona congressional candidate Daniel Hernandez said that a staffer’s car was hit by gunfire outside of his campaign headquarters, which is also Hernandez’s family residence…
New York Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, mounting a bid for mayor of New York City, said he “would not pursue” efforts to continue the U.S.-Israel Economic Council begun under New York City Mayor Eric Adams…
A Maryland man armed with a pocketknife was arrested outside the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, following a scuffle with the school’s security; the man, identified as Joseph Amr Khairy Abdalla, had been observed circling the school parking lot and refused to exit the car or identify himself to officials…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the decisions by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav that led to the impending split of the company, staff dissatisfaction and debt incurred by the company…
The Hamas-run Gaza police force claimed to have killed 12 members of a local militia that Israel had recently acknowledged arming…
Sander Gerber‘s Hudson Bay Capital Management is set to open an Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, office by the end of the year; the company already has a 10-person office in Dubai…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Air Force jets take off on Friday during Operation Rising Lion.
Birthdays
Chief political correspondent for CNN, born Dana Ruth Schwartz, Dana Bash, left, and co-anchor of a CNN global news show, Bianna Golodryga, both celebrate birthdays on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Existential psychiatrist, he is a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford University, Irvin David Yalom turns 94… Professor emeritus at UCLA, he played an influential role in the development of the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, Leonard Kleinrock turns 91… London-born, now living in Gstaad, Switzerland, founder of Graff Diamonds, Laurence Graff turns 87… Former official in the Johnson, Nixon, Clinton and Obama administrations, Morton Halperin turns 87… Chairman and CEO of Oppenheimer & Co., then Chancellor of Brown University and now CEO of Source of Hope Foundation, Stephen Robert turns 85… Member of Congress (D-NY) since 1992 and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Lewis “Jerry” Nadler turns 78… Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, he was previously attorney general of Israel, Elyakim Rubinstein turns 78… Assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of retina surgery at Franklin Square Hospital, Michael J. Elman, MD… National political correspondent for National Public Radio and a contributor at the Fox News Channel, Mara Liasson turns 70… Chief Jewish education officer of the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Fla., Rabbi Arnie Samlan turns 70… Co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, Benjamin Abraham “Ben” Horowitz turns 59… Founder and CEO of Overtime, Daniel Porter turns 59… Yoga instructor, Jenny Eisen Verdery… Founder and CEO of Peninsula Group, Micah Lakin Avni turns 56… Family court judge of the City of New York, serving in Brooklyn, Judge Erik S. Pitchal turns 53… White House and foreign affairs correspondent at Politico, Eli Stokols… Founder and CEO of NYC-based JDS Development Group, Michael Stern turns 46… Chief external affairs officer at BSE Global, Marissa Shorenstein… Actor, the son of Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving, Max Samuel Spielberg turns 40… Actress, known professionally as Kat Dennings, she starred in the CBS sitcom “Two Broke Girls,” Katherine Litwack turns 39… Fashion blogger and creator of Something Navy apparel stores, Arielle Noa Nachmani Charnas turns 38… Contributor at Real Clear Investigations, Benjamin H. Weingarten… Retired NFL football player after four seasons, he is the COO at Jones Soda, Gabe Carimi turns 37… Policy advocate at Protect Democracy, Ariela Rosenberg… Speed skater who represented the USA at the Winter Olympics in 2014, 2018 and 2022, Emery Lehman turns 29…
SATURDAY: Retired Soviet nuclear scientist, now writing from Skokie, Ill., on Jewish intellectual spirituality, Vladimir Minkov, Ph.D. turns 92… Retired U.S. district judge for the District of Maryland, Marvin Joseph Garbis turns 89… Former vice chair of the board of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, Dr. Beryl A. Geber… 45th and 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump turns 79… Former French diplomat and advisor to former French Presidents Chirac and Sarkozy, Jean-David Levitte turns 79… Television sportscaster and journalist, Len Berman turns 78… Writer, critic, philosopher and magazine editor, Leon Wieseltier turns 73… Chairman and chief investment officer of Duquesne Family Office, Stanley Druckenmiller turns 72… Businessman and philanthropist, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 for services to philanthropy, Sir Leonard “Len” Blavatnik turns 68… Political activist, Pamela Geller turns 67… Co-founder of Virunga Mountain Spirits, a distillery in Rwanda, William Benjamin (“Bill”) Wasserman… President of Blue Diamond HR LLC, Michelle “Shel” Grossman… President of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., Maud S. Mandel turns 58… Senior advisor to Tollbit, Campbell Brown… Singer-songwriter with ten studio albums, Joshua Radin turns 51… Co-founder of Kelp, now a part of Signal AI where he is an SVP, Daniel M. Gaynor… Australian fashion model, author, philanthropist and businesswoman, Kathryn Eisman turns 44… NYC-based businessman, Pavel Khodorkovsky turns 40… Deputy assistant secretary at HUD and then senior advisor at OMB in the Trump 45 administration, Paige Esterkin Bronitsky… Director of public affairs at San Francisco’s District Attorney’s office, Lilly Rapson… Actor, Daryl Sabara… and his fraternal twin brother, also an actor, Evan Sabara, both turn 33… Digital manager at the Republican National Committee, Julia Cohen… Associate attorney at Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester, Jacob Ellenhorn… Vienna-based European editor for Moment Magazine, Liam Hoare…
SUNDAY: Iranian-born British billionaire, he was knighted in 1989 and made a life peer in 2004, Baron David Alliance turns 93… Former president of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix, Stuart C. Turgel… Former president of the National Rifle Association, Sandra S. (Sandy) Froman turns 76… Ethicist and professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, Laurie Zoloth turns 75… Internationally recognized authority on Yiddish folk and theater music, Zalmen Mlotek turns 74… Entrepreneur, currently living in Estonia, VP of the Eurasian Jewish Congress, he rebuilt a synagogue and a community center in Estonia, Alexander Bronstein turns 71… President and CEO of the PR firm Edelman, founded by his father Daniel Edelman in 1952, Richard Winston Edelman turns 71… Chicago-based political commentator, Art Friedson turns 71… Chief Rabbi of Poland, Rabbi Michael Schudrich turns 70… Israeli Druze politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud, Fateen Mulla turns 65… Novelist, screenwriter, teacher and freelance journalist, Jill Eisenstadt turns 62… First woman certified by the NFLPA as a player agent, she is now general counsel for USA Lacrosse, Ellen Marsha Zavian turns 62… Director at Citrin Cooperman Advisors, Reuben Rutman… Los Angeles-based attorney, Daniel Brett Lacesa… Regional director of the ADL based in Los Angeles, Jeffrey I. Abrams… Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, now deputy managing editor at The New York Times, Clifford J. Levy turns 58… Retired news anchor for Israel Public Broadcasting, wife of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Geula Even-Saar turns 53… Former head speechwriter for Michelle Obama and author of a 2019 book Here All Along and an upcoming book As a Jew, Sarah Hurwitz… Ethiopian-born Israeli marathon runner, he represented Israel at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Zohar Zimro turns 48… Political staffer, Adam Jentleson turns 44… Co-founder of Evergreen Strategy Group and former director of speechwriting for Hillary Clinton, Daniel Baum Schwerin… Director of corporate communications and public affairs at Google, Rebecca Michelle Ginsberg Rutkoff… Chief advancement officer at Birthright Israel Foundation, Jaclyn “Jackie” Saxe Soleimani… Senior recruiter at The Carlyle Group, Victoria Edelman Klapper… Correspondent with the “PBS NewsHour” and “PBS News Weekend,” Ali S. Weinberg Rogin… Associate at Blackstone, Elli Sweet… Jimmy Ritter… Joel Winton… A former member of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration and Democratic nominee for Sheriff of Bucks County, Pa., Danny Ceisler turns 33…
Plus, U.S. pours cold water on Macron’s Palestinian summit
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
State Department Sikorsky HH-60L Black Hawk helicopters as they fly over Baghdad towards the U.S. embassy headquarters on December 13, 2024.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to analysts about the significance of the evacuation of some State Department personnel and military families from the Middle East and the likelihood of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. We report on the defeat of two resolutions in the Senate yesterday to stop weapon sales to Qatar and the UAE, and cover comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the status of the Qatari luxury jet gift. We talk to GOP senators about French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign for international recognition of a Palestinian state, examine the findings of a new Quinnipiac poll that illustrates deepening partisanship over Israel, and have the scoop on a push by the Orthodox Union calling on the Senate to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Van Jones, Rev. Johnnie Moore and Rabbi Abraham Cooper.
What We’re Watching
- The House Appropriations Committee will conduct its full committee markup of the 2026 defense and homeland security funding bills.
- The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Department of Defense’s 2026 budget request with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
- The Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs will hold a hearing on the nomination of Sean Plankey to be director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
- The Zionist Organization of America is holding its annual legislative lobbying day at the Capitol.
- Argentine President Javier Milei is being presented with the Genesis Prize today at Jerusalem’s Museum of Tolerance.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
Since the Israeli strike on Iran’s air defenses in October, Jerusalem has sought a green light, or something close to it, from Washington to strike the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites. President Donald Trump, however, repeatedly told Israel to hold off as he pursued a diplomatic agreement with Tehran to stop its enrichment program.
Now, after the Iranian nuclear program has continued apace and Trump has voiced frustration over Tehran’s intransigence, it seems that Jerusalem’s patience for diplomacy is running out.
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad chief David Barnea will be meeting Trump’s top negotiator Steve Witkoff on Friday ahead of the sixth round of talks with Iran in Oman on Sunday “in an additional attempt to clarify Israel’s stance,” an official in Jerusalem said, amid persistent reports and strong indications that Israel is prepared to strike Iran.
After a call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu last week, Trump said that if Tehran does not agree to give up uranium enrichment, the situation will get “very, very dire.” On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that “there have been plenty of indications” that Iran is moving towards weaponization of its nuclear program, and Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the chief of CENTCOM, said that he presented Trump and Hegseth with numerous options to attack Iran if nuclear talks break down.
Hours later, the State Department began to move some personnel out of Iraq and the military suggested that servicemembers’ families depart the Middle East, while the U.K. warned about a potential “escalation of military activity” in the region. Such evacuations are often the first step to reduce risk ahead of a large-scale military operation.
Trump told reporters that the evacuations are happening because the Middle East “could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens.” More on this from Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod here.
Kurilla postponed his testimony before the Senate planned for Thursday. Staff at U.S. embassies and consulates throughout the Middle East were told to take safety precautions, and those stationed in Israel were told not to leave the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Jerusalem or Beersheva.
Multiple news outlets published reports citing anonymous American officials that Israel is ready to strike Iran without help from the U.S. One possible reason for the timing — moving forward even as Washington and Tehran are set to enter a sixth round of talks on Sunday — is that Iran has reportedly begun to rebuild the air defenses that Israel destroyed last year. Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri reportedly said last month: “We are witnessing a remarkable improvement in the capability and readiness of the country’s air defense.”
PARIS PUSHBACK
GOP senators criticize France’s Macron for defying U.S. with Palestinian statehood push
French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign for international recognition of a Palestinian state and championing of an upcoming United Nations conference on the subject despite U.S. opposition has received a frosty reception from Senate Republicans, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. France is set to co-chair “The High Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” with Saudi Arabia at the U.N. headquarters in New York next week. Several senators described it as a distraction from U.S. efforts to secure peace in the region while praising the Trump administration’s decision to urge U.N. member states against participating.
Republican reactions: “It certainly sounds like they take us for granted and think that they can act without consequence. France has a long history of doing this in foreign policy. They’re consistently a problem and have been forever, but I’d say it’s very unhelpful of them at this present moment,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI. “They’ve generally had a cozy relationship with Iran that is purely driven by economic ties, maybe some historic ties. It makes no sense to me. I don’t think it’s well received by our administration,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).
ON THE HILL
Bipartisan Senate group votes down resolutions to stop Qatar, UAE arms sales
The Senate defeated two resolutions aimed at blocking certain weapons sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, with five Democrats voting with nearly all Republicans against both resolutions, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What happened: The 56-39 votes came as a pressure tactic from some progressive Democrats on the two U.S. partners and the Trump administration over dealings between President Donald Trump and the two Gulf states — Qatar’s provision of a luxury jumbo jet to serve as Air Force One and the UAE’s investment of $2 billion in a Trump-linked cryptocurrency. Democratic Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) voted against the two resolutions. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted present.
Up in the air: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding between the Trump administration and Qatar for the gift of a luxury jet worth $400 million to join the Air Force One fleet has not been completed and signed, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
PAC ATTACK
New pro-Israel super PAC launches ads against Zohran Mamdani
A new super PAC funded by donors involved in Jewish and pro-Israel causes is targeting Zohran Mamdani as he continues to surge in the final days of New York City’s mayoral primary, tying the far-left Queens state assemblyman to a range of recent antisemitic incidents. In a 30-second digital ad released by Sensible City, the super PAC takes aim at Mamdani, a democratic socialist polling in second place behind former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for supporting efforts to defund the police amid a rise in anti-Israel demonstrations and antisemitic violence fueled by Israel’s war in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
What it says: “It doesn’t stop,” the ad’s narrator intones over images of anti-Israel protests as well as antisemitic attacks, notably highlighting the alleged shooter of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington last month. “Day after day, streets blocked, demonstrations, some calling for killing, destruction — it’s not safe. Institution walls defaced with symbols to remind us of what can happen only because of who we are. The haters mean every word they utter. What can we do?”
POLL POSITION
New Quinnipiac poll illustrates deepening partisanship over Israel
A new Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday underscores the growing partisanship over Israel, and the declining sympathies among Democratic voters towards the Jewish state, Jewish Insider’s Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar reports. The survey asked respondents whether their sympathies were more with Israelis or Palestinians. A 37% plurality said Israelis, 32% said Palestinians and 31% said they don’t know — the narrowest advantage Israel has had since Quinnipiac began asking the question in 2001.
Partisan divide: The slippage was driven mainly by Democrats, who now are overwhelmingly more sympathetic towards Palestinians. Among Democrats, just 12% said their sympathies were more with Israelis while a record 60% said they were with Palestinians. By comparison, in November 2023, shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the Quinnipiac survey found 41% of Democrats saying they were more sympathetic to Palestinians, while 34% said they were more sympathetic to Israelis. By contrast, Republicans remain overwhelmingly supportive of Israel and independents are still more supportive of Israelis than Palestinians. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Republicans are more sympathetic to Israelis, while 7% are more sympathetic to Palestinians. The small share of Republicans more sympathetic to the Palestinians is unchanged since 2023.
EXCLUSIVE
OU launches major push for school choice legislation in reconciliation bill
The Orthodox Union on Thursday announced a national advocacy effort calling on the Senate to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act, which is part of the budget reconciliation bill recently passed by the House and under consideration in the Senate and could open up a new funding stream for Jewish families aiming to send their children to Jewish day schools, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
New goal: The campaign, run jointly by the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center and the Teach Coalition, OU’s state-level advocacy arm, will include digital, print and grassroots advertising, urging Orthodox Jews to contact their senators to support the ECCA and double the funding recommended in the House bill. The OU is aiming to mobilize 50,000 people to contact their senators on the issue.
SOLIDARITY PUSH
‘A double helix of hope’: CNN’s Van Jones calls for renewed Black-Jewish alliance
“It’s not the firebombs and hunting of Jewish people in the streets of America right now, it’s the appalling silence of people that know better and won’t say better,” CNN commentator Van Jones told some 600 attendees of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s (AJCF) 25th anniversary gala dinner on Wednesday at Pier 60 in Manhattan. Jones was honored at the gala for his work promoting Black-Jewish relations, which includes launching the Exodus Leadership Forum, a group that aims to renew the Civil Rights Movement-era alliance between the Black and Jewish communities, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Looking to history: “It was a small number of Black folks who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘justice for all.’ It was a small number of Jews who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘repair the world,’” Jones said, reflecting on the Civil Rights Movement, in which American Jews played a meaningful role. “When you put those two bits of cultural DNA together, you get a double helix of hope for humanity.” Jones called on Black people and Jews to partner together again amid a different kind of crisis. “We have to do it again,” he said.
Worthy Reads
A Socialist in Gracie Mansion?: The Free Press’ Olivia Reingold considers Zohran Mamdani’s chances of beating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to become mayor of New York City. “To a rising number of New Yorkers, particularly the young and college-educated, Mamdani is a welcome alternative to a 67-year-old member of the Democratic establishment. As canvassers broke off to start knocking on doors, 33-year-old bar owner Roberto Beltre told me he supported Mamdani because ‘the ideas that we hear at these protests are never said by any of these other politicians.’ His girlfriend, 31-year-old Mercy, chimed in: ‘He’s saying everything that I want to hear. It seems unlikely, but I hope that he can win.’ The thing is—he can. In only a few months, he’s managed to surge from polling at 1 percent, to second place in the race with the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A new poll commissioned by a pro-Mamdani PAC shows him just two points behind Cuomo in a head-to-head race. Other recent polls show Cuomo winning—but only in the eighth or 10th round under New York City’s ranked choice voting system.” [FP]
What’s Next in Gaza?: The Times of Israel’s founding editor, David Horovitz, writes about the continued lack of clarity over Israel’s next steps in Gaza, exacerbated by a growing disconnect between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump as well as the IDF. “Some military sources speculate that the IDF may eventually be asked to oversee a controlled return of the Gaza populace to their largely ruined home areas, under a process that would necessitate screening the returnees to ensure that Hamas forces do not simply come back with them. However nice in theory, the idea is impractical. The IDF is not capable of controlling, much less screening, large masses of civilians. … At the same time, domestic and global criticism of the war is growing — especially since the government chose in March not to move ahead with the second and third phases of the January deal it had unanimously endorsed, which was intended to secure the release of all hostages and end the war, and instead resumed the military campaign. Growing, too, is US presidential impatience, in part reflecting deepening dismay from within Republican ranks, and Trump has vast weapon-supply and diplomatic leverage to exert over Netanyahu should he so choose.” [TOI]
Word on the Street
Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh threatened on Wednesday to attack U.S. bases in the region if conflict arises, saying, “Some officials on the other side threaten conflict if negotiations don’t come to fruition. If a conflict is imposed on us … all U.S. bases are within our reach and we will boldly target them in host countries”…
Iran announced plans today to expand its uranium enrichment and install advanced centrifuges after a U.N. atomic energy agency resolution declared it in violation of nuclear obligations…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine declined to definitively say on Wednesday whether they believed Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it acquired one, as they testified before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
The Knesset on Thursday struck down a bill that would have called an election later this year, with Haredi parties agreeing to another week of negotiations on penalties for yeshiva students who avoid the IDF draft, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
Israeli Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of the United Torah Judaism party, resigned today and will join the opposition, but the rest of the Haredi bloc remains part of the coalition…
Ezzedin al-Haddad, known as the Ghost of al-Qassam, has been named as the new leader of Hamas in Gaza following Israel’s assassination of his predecessor Mohammed Sinwar, and before that Yahya Sinwar…
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the U.S. and Israel-backed aid distribution mechanism, reported that a bus carrying more than two dozen members of its team were “brutally attacked” by Hamas on Wednesday night, resulting in at least five fatalities, multiple injuries and concerns of some team members taken hostage…
The IDF recovered the bodies of two deceased hostages from Gaza on Wednesday, that of Yair Yaakov and another whose name has not yet been approved for publication…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told U.S. envoy Tom Barrack that he is interested in the U.S. acting as a mediator in an updated security deal ultimately leading to a full peace agreement between Israel and Syria, Axios scooped…
Rev. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Trump advisor, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa this week. On potential Israel-Syria normalization, Moore told Reuters, “I think peace is very possible, if not probable”…
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday stating that the Trump administration cannot detain nor deport Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil. The ruling does not take effect until Friday, leaving time for the government to appeal…
At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on antisemitism, Democrats repeatedly highlighted Trump administration delays in disbursing already allocated Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), the subcommittee chair, argued that policy changes, aggressive prosecutions and condemnations of antisemitic ideology are equally or more important than funding…
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers wrote to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, again demanding that Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, be dismissed from her position, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
The DETERRENCE Act, bipartisan legislation which increases penalties on individuals who commit crimes on behalf of the Iranian regime or other foreign adversaries, passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Tuesday…
Asif Rahman, a former CIA analyst, was sentenced to just over three years in prison on Wednesday for unlawfully retaining and sharing top secret records about Israeli plans for a strike on Iran on social media…
Ira Stoll writes in the Wall Street Journal about Harvard Memorial Church, owned and operated by Harvard University, where the minister has repeatedly bashed Israel from the pulpit, calling the war in Gaza “increasingly genocidal,” saying “We know what hell looks like … it looks like Gaza today” and arguing that the anti-Israel encampment on campus was “right to lament and decry the death of so many innocent people in Gaza”…
Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, argued in an op-ed titled “Congress must act against the American intifada” that “Congress is failing to meet the urgent demands of the moment” and must open application for the National Security Grant Program, increase its funding to $500 million for 2026 and allocate $200 million of the Department of Justice’s existing grants to local police specifically for increased patrols and police presence at faith institutions…
Leland Lehrman was named as the executive director of the MAHA Institute, a policy center that previously operated as a super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. Lehrman has repeatedly espoused his belief in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and, speaking on a far-right radio show, argued that Jews communicate with the devil and discussed “high-level Jewish Illuminists, or Lucifer worshipers”…
Columnist and writer Miranda Devine described her experience interviewing President Donald Trump for her new podcast “Pod Force One,” calling him “a bountiful host” who will “quite literally offer you the food off his plate”…
Apollo Global Management announced that it will not interview or extend offers to the class of 2027 this year, breaking with its tradition of extending future-dated offers. CEO Marc Rowan said he agreed with criticism of hiring young recruits too early…
The trial of three teenagers accused of raping a 12-year-old Jewish girl, calling her a “dirty Jewess,” began yesterday in Paris…
Pic of the Day
Some 100 LGBTQ+ leaders from North America met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem yesterday, as part of the Jewish Federations of North America’s LGBTQ+ mission to Israel.
Birthdays
Founder and managing partner of the investment firm Thrive Capital and the co-founder of Oscar Health, Joshua Kushner turns 40…
Senior of counsel at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Martin Edelman turns 84… Retired sportscaster for NBA games on TNT, has also been the play-by-play announcer of multiple Super Bowls, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals and the World Series, Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig) turns 84… Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit since 1991, now on senior status, Judge Andrew Jay Kleinfeld turns 80… Former solicitor of labor in the Nixon and Ford administrations, then a senior partner at Gibson Dunn, William J. Kilberg turns 79… Social psychologist, he is the director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, Leonard Saxe turns 78… Israeli statesman and scholar who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government including 20 years as a member of the Knesset, Yosef “Yossi” Beilin turns 77… Rabbi at Temple Beth El in Santa Cruz County, Calif., for 40 years, now emeritus, known as Rabbi Rick, Richard Litvak… British Conservative Party member of Parliament from 1992 until last year, his father was a rabbi, Sir Michael Fabricant turns 75… Professor at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center, his 2022 book is The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People, Walter Russell Mead turns 73… Dental consultant and recruiter, Kenneth Nussen… Peruvian banker and politician, José Chlimper Ackerman turns 70… Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and professor at Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization, Danielle Pletka turns 62… Television producer and executive, he was the CEO of Showtime Networks until 2022, David Nevins turns 59… EVP of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Levi Shemtov… Film and television actor, known for his role as Louis Litt in the legal drama series “Suits,” Rick Hoffman turns 55… SVP for politics at NBC, Carrie Budoff Brown… Founder of Singularity Communications, Eliezer O. (“Eli”) Zupnick… Canadian tech entrepreneur, television personality and venture capitalist, Michele Romanow turns 40… Partner at Enso Collaborative, Hanna Siegel… Co-creator of the Mozilla Firefox internet browser, he was the director of product at Facebook and then worked at Uber, Blake Aaron Ross turns 40… Associate director of health policy and the law initiative at Georgetown Law School, Zachary Louis Baron… VP at MediaLink, Alexis Rose Levinson… Multimodal transportation coordinator in the planning department of Montgomery County (Md.), Eli Glazier… Photographer and Instagram influencer, Tessa Nesis… Israeli windsurfer, he won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tom Reuveny turns 25… Lead consultant at AutoNate, Joel Bond…
Plus, Congress votes to condemn antisemitism, amid controversy
Steve Hockstein/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool
From left, New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer; Newark Mayor Ras Baraka; Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop; moderator NJ Spotlight News anchor Briana Vannozzi; moderator WNYC Morning Edition host Michael Hill; New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill; and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney attend the New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial primary debate Monday, May 12, 2025, in Newark, N.J.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the House’s passage of two resolutions condemning antisemitic attacks, and cover President Donald Trump’s comments criticizing Iran’s slow-walking and continued demand for nuclear enrichment capabilities. We also profile former FBI intelligence official John Sullivan, who is mounting a bid to challenge Rep. Mike Lawler in New York’s 17th Congressional District, and report on Jewish communal concerns over legislators’ proposed funding level for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ken Moelis, Gary Torgow and Argentine President Javier Milei.
What We’re Watching
- It’s primary day in New Jersey. More below on the state’s gubernatorial primaries.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is testifying before the House Appropriations Committee this morning, alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. It’s the first of three hearings Hegseth is slated to sit for this week, and the first since the “Signalgate” incident in which Hegseth and others, including Vice President JD Vance, discussed plans for a strike on Houthi targets in Yemen in a group chat that included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.
- Also this morning, the House Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing on “U.S. Military Posture and National Security Challenges in the Greater Middle East and Africa” with CENTCOM Commander Gen. Erik Kurilla, while CIA Director John Ratcliffe testifies before the House Intelligence Committee.
- This afternoon, former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom and the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Rubin will discuss human rights in Turkey at a hearing being convened by the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
- We’re also keeping an eye on the Knesset, where Israel’s opposition is expected to put forward a vote tomorrow to dissolve the government, which would trigger new elections. The motion is likely to pass only if the Haredi parties that are part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition break with the prime minister over Haredi military conscription.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH MATTHEW KASSEL
As New Jersey’s competitive gubernatorial primary takes place today, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) looks like the front-runner in the crowded Democratic field but without much public polling and a late flurry of advertising, there’s still a considerable amount of uncertainty as to who will emerge as the nominee in the six-way race.
Sherrill, a military veteran who has represented a suburban north New Jersey seat since 2018, is the favorite of many Democratic Party officials and has been leading in the limited public polling of the race. The congresswoman has also been one of the top fundraisers in the field, along with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who has been courting support from the state’s sizable Jewish community.
“Josh has been betting on the Jewish community coming out strong, and there is a realistic possibility that if new voters emerge in places like Lakewood, which is the fifth-largest city in New Jersey now, it could play a decisive role,” one Jewish community activist, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the primary, told Jewish Insider on Monday.
DOUBLE TALK
Zohran Mamdani says he will not travel to Israel but planned ‘Palestine’ trip in 2020
In his campaign for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, a far-left Queens state assemblyman polling in second place behind former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has indicated he would not visit Israel if he is elected, saying he does not believe that such a trip is necessary “to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Making an exception: By contrast, in a 2020 Zoom discussion with the Adalah Justice Project, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, Mamdani said he was planning to organize a trip to the Palestinian territories, suggesting that he would make an exception for an issue he has upheld as one of his top causes in Albany. The comments underscore how Mamdani’s past remarks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have become a source of growing tension as he confronts basic questions on the issue in his mayoral campaign.
ANTISEMITISM ON THE FLOOR
House passes two resolutions condemning antisemitic attacks, amid controversy
The House voted on Monday to pass two resolutions condemning recent antisemitic attacks. One, led by Republicans, which focused on the Boulder, Colo., attack and immigration issues, split the Democratic caucus. The other, which was bipartisan and highlighted a series of antisemitic attacks, passed nearly unanimously, with just two lawmakers voting present, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Vote breakdowns: The first resolution drew criticism from Democrats ahead of the vote, but it passed, 280-133. Seventy-five Democrats, mostly moderates and pro-Israel members, ultimately voted in favor of the resolution and 113 voted against it. Another five Democrats — Reps. Herb Conaway (D-NJ), Shomari Figures (D-AL), Sarah McBride (D-DE), Johnny Olszewski (D-MD) and Dina Titus (D-NV) — and one Republican, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), voted present. Republicans removed some controversial language from the resolutions ahead of the vote. The second resolution, which condemns “the rise in ideologically motivated attacks on Jewish individuals in the United States,” passed with 400 votes in favor. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Greene voted present.
Time to act: A group of eight Jewish House Democrats called on House and Senate leaders to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act and increase Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding to $500 million, in advance of the resolution votes. “The Jewish community needs real action, not just resolutions,” the lawmakers said.
DIPLOMATIC DIALOGUE
Trump criticizes Iran’s continued nuclear enrichment demands after Bibi call
President Donald Trump on Monday criticized Iran’s continued demands on uranium enrichment as part of the terms of a nuclear deal with the United States. Trump made the comments while speaking to reporters from the State Dining Room about his phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What he said: Trump said the call went “very well” but declined to offer specifics beyond acknowledging that Iran was “the main topic.” He also added that the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon were also discussed. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the call lasted around 40 minutes. “They [Iran] are good negotiators, but they’re tough. Sometimes they can be too tough, that’s the problem. So we’re trying to make a deal so that there’s no destruction and death. We told them that. I have told them that. I hope that is the way it works out. It might not work out,” Trump said.
HE’S RUNNING
Former senior FBI intel agent in Israel joins crowded Democratic field against Lawler
John Sullivan, who recently joined the increasingly crowded Democratic primary race to face Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in November, brings unique pro-Israel bona fides to the race, even among a field of candidates vowing support for the Jewish state: From 2017-2020, Sullivan was the top FBI intelligence official living and working in Israel, liaising with the Israeli government on counterterrorism operations, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
On the scene: Those three years, Sullivan told JI in an interview in May, gave him on-the-ground experience combating Hamas and Hezbollah and protecting both Israeli and American citizens. He said he’s seen and experienced firsthand the threats posed by both terror groups. “Working really closely with the Israelis to do everything possible to keep Israel safe was a key part of my life and my work for three years while I was overseas,” Sullivan said. “Israel has a very special place in my family’s heart.”
ON THE STAND
House committee calls Georgetown, Berkeley, CUNY presidents for antisemitism hearing
The House Education and Workforce Committee announced that its next hearing on campus antisemitism will feature testimony from the leaders of Georgetown University, the University of California, Berkeley and the City University of New York, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Looking ahead: The hearing, set for July 9, will include testimony from Georgetown’s interim president, Robert Groves, UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons and CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), the committee’s chair, indicated in a statement that the committee plans to focus the hearing on the issues driving campus antisemitism including foreign funding and antisemitic student groups.
SECURITY FUNDING
Jewish groups say House’s NSGP proposal falls short
Jewish groups said on Monday that the House Appropriations Committee’s 2026 appropriations bill, which includes $305 million in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, fails to meet the need for the program. The House Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security voted on Monday evening to advance the bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, with an increase from 2025 of just over $30 million for NSGP funding. The full committee will debate and vote on the bill on Thursday morning, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.
Jewish groups react: Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, said in a statement the House proposal is “a far cry from what is needed in the face of exploding antisemitism. The pro-Hamas calls to ‘globalize the Intifada’ have arrived in America. Jewish communities are facing a real crisis with a real set of threats, and Congress must respond with real action.” The Anti-Defamation League expressed a similar view. “In the wake of the horrific antisemitic violence we’ve seen in Washington, D.C., and Boulder, our communities are living in fear. We appreciate the proposed increase to $305 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, but it is not enough,” Lauren Wolman, director of federal policy and strategy at the ADL, said in a separate statement. “Not when Jewish schools are forced to hire armed guards. Not when synagogues are receiving bomb threats during services.”
Worthy Reads
Tunnel Visions: The New York Times’ Isabel Kershner interviews former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov about the religious journey he experienced while in Hamas captivity in Gaza. “A few days into his captivity, he said, he began to speak to God. He made vows. He began to bless whatever food he was given. And he had requests — some of which he believes were answered. ‘You are looking for something to lean on, to hold onto,’ Mr. Shem Tov said in a recent interview at his family home in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. ‘The first place I went to was God. I would feel a power enter me,’ he said. … Mr. Shem Tov, who turned 22 in captivity, said he had always had faith, but had never been religiously observant. Many other released hostages have spoken of similar experiences, finding solace and the strength to survive by connecting or reconnecting with God and recalling oft-forgotten Jewish rituals.” [NYTimes]
Tug-of-War on Tehran: Politico’s Rachael Bade and Felicia Schwartz look at the behind-the-scenes efforts by both the isolationist wing of the GOP and Iran hawks to impact President Donald Trump’s final decision on how to address Iran. “The private lobbying and public sniping highlight a vast breach in the GOP over U.S. foreign policy just months into Trump’s first term. While many hawkish members of the old guard have viewed [Mideast envoy Steve] Witkoff’s diplomatic effort with skepticism, the more restrained wing of the party has been adamant about defusing tensions with Tehran. In the middle of the tug-of-war is Trump, who ran on a promise of ending what his followers see as endless U.S. foreign adventurism and war.” [Politico]
Doctor Without Borders: In The New Yorker, Eyal Press spotlights Israeli-Arab Dr. Lina Qasem Hassan, who in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks traveled to treat survivors of the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, about her experiences as a medical provider of Palestinian descent treating Israelis in a post-Oct. 7 environment. “But Qasem Hassan wasn’t going anywhere, even as she acknowledged feeling increasingly isolated, not only from her Jewish peers but also from some of her fellow Palestinians, including family members. Her older brother, a successful economist, and her sister, a government lawyer, have repeatedly warned her that her outspokenness could damage not only her career but theirs. … [S]he had sometimes asked herself if going to the Dead Sea after October 7th had been the right decision. She ultimately decided that she was proud of it. She told me, ‘I did it for myself, because it put to the test the idea I was raised on — that all people are equal and that human pain is universal.’” [NewYorker]
Word on the Street
The Justice Department is suing an Oakland, Calif., coffeehouse and its Palestinian owner over a 2024 incident in which a man wearing a yarmulke was denied service and asked to leave the premises…
NBC News reports on the White House’s struggle to hire Pentagon staff to work under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, amid broader tensions between the administration and Hegseth, who was reportedly instructed to cancel a trip to the Middle East because the itinerary included a stop in Israel…
A new poll by the Pew Research Center found that the global Jewish population increased by 1 million between 2010-2020, to 15 million; Pew noted that the total number of Jews in the world is still less than the pre-World War II number of 16.5 million…
Solidarity PAC, a pro-Israel super PAC in New York City, is backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as its top choice for mayor and urging supporters not to rank Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in the primary, according to a new voter guide shared first with JI…
The Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition announced it is supporting Cuomo, saying in a statement that the election “presents a stark and urgent choice for Jewish voters”…
Ken Moelis will step down from his eponymous investment bank later this year; Moelis, who launched the firm in 2007, will be succeeded by co-founder Navid Mahmoodzadegan, the bank’s co-president…
The New Yorker spotlights television writer Gertrude Berg, whose 1950s show “The Goldbergs,” about a midcentury Jewish family in the Bronx, was among the first family sitcoms…
Police in Ottawa, Canada, are investigating the vandalism of the city’s National Holocaust Monument that took place earlier this week…
The family of Israeli hostage Matan Angrest released video taken from his capture on Oct. 7, 2023; in the video, Angrest’s limp body is seen being tossed off a tank into the arms of terrorists…
The New York Times interviews former hostage Liat Beinin Atzili, who was released from captivity in November 2023 and whose husband, Aviv, was killed in the Oct. 7 attack…
Argentine President Javier Milei arrived in Israel last night, traveling to the Western Wall in Jerusalem shortly after landing…
Climate activist Greta Thunberg departed Israel on an El Al flight to France on Tuesday morning, a day after the boat she and other activists had attempted to sail to Gaza was intercepted by Israeli forces…
International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said that Iran’s announcement that it had obtained information about an Israeli nuclear program appeared to refer to Israel’s Soreq Nuclear Research Center, which operates under the IAEA’s supervision…
Israel’s navy conducted strikes against Houthi targets in the Yemeni port of Hodeida, the first time Israel has attacked the Iran-backed group from the sea…
Iran expanded its ban on dog-walking — first instituted in Tehran in 2019 — to several major cities around the country; Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had previously called dog ownership “reprehensible”…
The Jewish Federation of Tulsa, Okla., announced a new initiative, the Elson Israel Fellowship, aimed at making the city a center for Israel-related thought. The four inaugural fellows are: World Zionist Organization advisor Avi Gamulka, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross, author and educator Sarah Sassoon and community organizer and researcher Barak Sella…
The board of trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America elected Gary Torgow, a Detroit-based philanthropist and board president of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, as the group’s chair…
Pic of the Day
Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) spoke at a ceremony on Monday to rename the Delray Beach post office after Ben Ferencz, who led post-World War II Nuremberg prosecutions of Nazis. Read more about Frankel’s yearslong effort to honor Ferencz here.
Birthdays
Author of award-winning books about her experiences before, during and after the Holocaust, Aranka Davidowitz Siegal turns 95…
Journalist and author, Jeff Greenfield turns 82… Musician, producer, composer and conductor for film and television, Randy Edelman turns 78… Physical therapist at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Andrea Sachs… Cathy Farbstein Miller… Senior director of communications for CoGenerate, Stefanie Weiss… Former attorney general and later governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer turns 66… Director of business development at Evergreen Benefits Group, Avi H. Goldfeder… Blogger and columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, Neil Steinberg turns 65… Film, television and stage actress, Gina Gershon turns 63… President and CEO of JINSA, Michael Makovsky… Actress and the older sister of comedian Sarah Silverman, Laura Silverman turns 59… Israeli film and TV actress, Avital Abergel turns 48… Veteran of nine NFL seasons as an offensive tackle, he is now the athletic director of Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Calif., Mike Rosenthal turns 48… VP of strategic partnerships at the Birthright Israel Foundation and director of community education at NYC’s Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, Rabbi Daniel Kraus… Professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, Yascha Mounk turns 43… Economic commentator on Israeli television, Matan Hodorov turns 40… Publisher of The New York Sun and CEO of The Algemeiner, Dovid Efune… Actor, producer, writer and director, Joseph Paul “Joey” Zimmerman turns 39… CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, Tyler Gregory… Singer, composer and entertainer, Simcha Leiner turns 36… CEO of Encounter Programs, Yona Shem-Tov… Belgian singer and songwriter, known as “Blanche,” Ellie Blanche Delvaux turns 26…
Plus, the surprise hotspot in NYC's West Village
LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas during a meeting on the sidelines of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 25, 2024.
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the House Appropriations Committee’s suggested 2026 funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, amid a warning from federal agencies of an “elevated threat” facing the Jewish community. We look at the state of relations between Israel and France as Paris moves toward unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state, and report on UCSF’s firing of a medical school professor accused of antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Vice President JD Vance, Sen. John Hickenlooper and Rep. Brad Sherman.
What We’re Watching
- The House of Representatives is set to vote this evening on two resolutions condemning antisemitism and the terrorist attack on a hostage march in Boulder, Colo. One resolution from Republicans, focused on Boulder, highlights immigration issues and denounces the slogan “Free Palestine,” while the other, which is bipartisan, links Sunday’s Colorado attack to a series of other recent violent antisemitic attacks. The first of the two is already attracting criticism from Democrats.
- The House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security subcommittee will hold a vote on its 2026 funding bill today. More below.
- New York City Mayor Eric Adams is holding a roundtable for Jewish media this morning.
- The Jewish Federations of North America is leading an LGBTQ+ Pride mission to Israel this week.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH MELISSA WEISS
The image of Greta Thunberg eyeing a turkey sandwich as she is taken into Israeli custody has been picked up across pro-Israel social media. And on the other side of the ideological spectrum, supporters of Thunberg, who is vegan, decried the “hostage-taking” of the Swedish climate activist and other participants on the boat that had been headed to Gaza before its interception overnight by Israel’s navy.
But the stunt — after all, the small vessel carrying Thunberg and the other activists could carry only a minimal amount of aid — has briefly taken global attention away from the legitimate efforts to distribute aid in Gaza, amid mounting distribution challenges following the launch of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation last month.
Distribution through the GHF was briefly paused last week following a series of incidents in and around distribution sites, including the shooting of some Gazans as they neared sites as instructed, and the rush on other facilities by crowds of Gazans. Additionally, the GHF said it was forced to close its distribution sites on Saturday due to threats from Hamas.
ON ALERT
FBI, Jewish security experts warn of uptick in antisemitic threats
The American Jewish community is facing an “elevated threat” following a surge of violent antisemitic attacks across the country in recent weeks, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned last week. In a joint statement, the FBI and DHS called for increased vigilance among Jewish communities, noting the possibility of copycat attacks after a shooting in Washington in which two Israeli Embassy employees were killed and an attack in Boulder, Colo., in which 15 people were injured in a firebombing targeting advocates calling for the release of hostages in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Words of warning: “The ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters. Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States,” the agencies warned. Jewish organizations that track threats to the community are similarly concerned about online rhetoric following the attacks. The Anti-Defamation League highlighted that, one day after the incident in Boulder, videos allegedly recorded by the assailant shortly before the assault began circulated on a Telegram channel called Taufan al-Ummah, which translates to “Flood of the Ummah,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas’ name for its October 7 terror attack on Israel. The circulated posts celebrated the actions of the terror suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman.
MONEY MATTERS
House Appropriations Committee proposes $305 million for nonprofit security grants
The House Appropriations Committee’s draft 2026 Homeland Security funding bill includes $305 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, a marginal increase that would restore the program to its 2023 funding levels,Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Yes, but: Lawmakers and Jewish advocacy groups called that funding level insufficient at the time, well before antisemitism skyrocketed following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the recent series of terrorist attacks targeting Jews in the United States. At the time, the funding fell well short of meeting demand, which has increased significantly since then.
PARIS POSITION
Macron’s Palestinian state push comes as report recommends step to appease Muslims
Israel and France have been on a diplomatic collision course in recent weeks, with French President Emmanuel Macron set to lay out steps toward the recognition of a Palestinian state at a French- and Saudi- sponsored conference promoting a two-state solution being held at the United Nations headquarters in New York next week. The move comes as the French government released a report calling on Paris to recognize a Palestinian state and recalibrate its policies towards Israel to “appease” France’s growing Muslim population, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Gov’t report: Amid the sparring between Israel and France, the French Interior Ministry released a report titled “Muslim Brothers and Political Islam in France,” calling the Muslim Brotherhood an “imminent threat” to French national security. The Islamist group is funded by foreign powers, has over 100,000 members in France and runs or influences countless mosques, schools and other organizations. The report also describes the Muslim Brotherhood’s dissemination of antisemitic texts and propaganda. Among the report’s recommendations is “the recognition by France of a Palestinian State alongside Israel” to “appease the frustrations” of French Muslims who perceive Paris as “supporting Jewish Israelis against Muslim Palestinians.”
Condemnation: Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), in a blistering statement, accused the U.N.’s special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, of antisemitism and said that her activity has undermined the United Nations and eroded U.S. support for the U.N. and foreign aid in general and will contribute to deaths around the world. The statement came in response to a letter from Albanese to Israel Bonds, accusing it of involvement in crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
PODCAST PLAYBACK
Vance parries anti-Israel attacks from podcaster Theo Von, rejects genocide charge
Vice President JD Vance defended Israel against an accusation of genocide from podcaster Theo Von on Saturday, but said “this whole debate” around the Israel-Hamas war “has caused us to lose our humanity,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
What he said: Speaking on the comedian’s podcast, Vance called the images coming out of Gaza “very heartbreaking” and said the administration is trying to “solve two problems here.” The first, he said, is that “you’ve got innocent people, innocent Palestinians and innocent Israeli hostages, by the way, who are like caught up in this terrible violence that’s happening as we speak. OK? And we’re trying to get as much aid and as much support into people as humanly possible.” The second, Vance said, is that “Israel’s attacked by this terrible terrorist organization … So I think what we’re trying to do in the Trump administration with that situation is to get to a peaceful resolution.”
Bipartisan push: A new bipartisan letter sent Friday by 16 House lawmakers to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff argues that any nuclear deal with Iran must permanently dismantle its capacity to enrich uranium, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The letter highlights that an insistence on full dismantlement of Iran’s enrichment capabilities is not only a Republican position, and that President Donald Trump will not be able to count on unified Democratic support for a deal that falls short of that benchmark.
DOCTOR DISMISSED
UCSF fires medical school professor accused of antisemitism
A University of California, San Francisco medical school professor whom Jewish colleagues allege has routinely posted antisemitic content on social media during the Gaza war has been fired by the university, more than a year after concerns about her behavior first surfaced, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Background: Dr. Rupa Marya worked at UCSF for 23 years, beginning as a resident before becoming a professor of internal medicine and a regular lecturer on social justice topics. With an active social media presence, Marya began posting about Israel’s war against Hamas soon after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks. Her posts included attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli colleagues and students. In a federal lawsuit filed against UCSF this week, Marya alleged that the university violated her constitutional free speech protections by firing her in a retaliatory fashion over posts published on her personal account, which Marya claimed the university willfully misconstrued. She asserted that “neither her views nor her posts are antisemitic.”
URBAN SPIRITUALITY
Shabbat, style and soul at Chabad in the West Village
It’s Friday evening in Manhattan’s fashionable West Village. A couple dozen of New York’s elite — business executives, a television producer, a fashion designer, a journalist and a few politicos — pack a charming brownstone, a spot that’s been frequented by a range of influential people, from former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides to reality TV personality Andy Cohen. This isn’t dinner in one of the neighborhood’s Michelin-starred restaurants — although some weeks the waitlist here can be just as long. It’s Shabbat at Chabad West Village. There are more than 3,000 Chabad Houses around the world aimed at Jewish outreach. But in the West Village — one of Manhattan’s most unlikely neighborhoods for the spread of Torah — synagogue-goers, a diverse group of mostly secular Jews, say something unique is happening at this Chabad in particular, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Building a community: “When we moved here, we did not know one person,” Rabbi Berel Gurevitch, who launched Chabad West Village six years ago with his wife, Chana, told JI. “Now our list consists of around 5,000 Jewish people,” said Gurevitch, who is in his early 30s. The Gurevitches decamped from the comfort of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where they both grew up, for the West Village. The synagogue initially ran out of a small apartment on Grove Street — with New Yorker staff writer Calvin Trillin, who still attends frequently — as its landlord. Now in a townhouse on Charles Street, where such real estate can run into the tens of millions of dollars, the center, which is also the personal home of the Gurevitches and their three children, has become synonymous with several innovative programs: letting attendees be “Rabbi for a Day”; a “TGIF” program where participants learn how to host Friday night dinners with their friends; explanatory “Shabbat Matinée” services for people who would otherwise be at brunch and are giving prayer a chance; and a speaker series called “Hineni: Here I Am,” which has featured Trillin, Nides, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and comedian Alex Edelman.
Worthy Reads
The Case for Israel: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg posits that recent antisemitic attacks targeting Jews over their support for Israel underscores the country’s founding purpose as a safe haven for Jews. “Although these assailants all attacked American Jews, they clearly perceived themselves as Zionism’s avengers. In reality, however, they have joined a long line of Zionism’s inadvertent advocates. As in Herzl’s time, the perpetrators of anti-Jewish acts do more than nearly anyone else to turn Jews who were once indifferent or even hostile to Israel’s fate into reluctant appreciators of its necessity. … Simply put, Israel exists as it does today because of the repeated choices made by societies to reject their Jews. Had these societies made different choices, Jews would still live in them, and Israel likely would not exist — certainly not in its present form.” [TheAtlantic]
Foreign Exchange Fee: In The New York Times, Princeton professor David Bell considers the benefits and pitfalls of maintaining current levels of foreign-student enrollment in American universities. “If we think of universities principally as generators of knowledge, expanding international enrollments clearly makes sense. By increasing the pool of applicants, it raises the quality of student bodies, thereby improving the level of intellectual exchange and facilitating better research and more significant discoveries. … A graduate of an elite private school in Greece or India may well have more in common with a graduate of Exeter or Horace Mann than with a working-class American from rural Alabama. Do we need to turn university economics departments into mini-Davoses in which future officials of the International Monetary Fund from different countries reinforce one another’s opinions about global trade?” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
he State Department informed Congress that it no longer plans to eliminate the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator, a Jerusalem-based office that works with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority; the office will now be consolidated into the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem…
Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced a resolution condemning the antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colo., and calling for “continued vigilance and Federal resources to counter rising antisemitism, investigate hate crimes, and support targeted communities”…
Hickenlooper was among the hundreds of marchers who attended Sunday’s hostage walk in Boulder, the first to be held following the attack…
Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced a resolution honoring Sarah Milgrim, an Israeli Embassy employee and Kansan killed in the Capital Jewish Museum shooting…
A bipartisan resolution calling for the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza advanced through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday…
In audio leaked from a Democratic National Committee officers meeting that took place in mid-May, DNC Chair Ken Martin said he was not sure he wanted to continue in his position, amid a push to oust DNC Vice Chairs David Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta; the move by Hogg’s super PAC to back primary challengers to incumbents spurred internal concerns over Hogg’s continued leadership role at the DNC…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism…
The Bobov sect, a major Hasidic voting bloc in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, is endorsing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City, a representative for the community confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Friday…
The mayor of San Diego and a number of the city’s Jewish organizations pulled out of the upcoming San Diego Pride over the selection of Kehlani, who has faced backlash for recent comments about Israel, as the celebration’s headline act; one of the singer’s recent music videos opens with the text, “long live the intifada”…
A Pride music festival in San Francisco announced that Kehlani, who was slated to headline the event, had departed the lineup…
The New York Times spotlights the firing of a tenured Muhlenberg College professor over anti-Zionist social media posts, amid a broader crackdown on universities alleged to have mishandled campus antisemitism after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack…
Two U.S. Army veterans were found with a cache of stolen weapons and Nazi and white supremacist paraphernalia after they were arrested in connection with the assault of another soldier while attempting to steal additional combat equipment from a Washington state base…
Three Serbian nationals were charged with vandalizing Jewish sites in Paris, including the city’s Holocaust memorial, last weekend…
Iran claimed to have seized an “important treasury” of documents regarding an Israeli nuclear program, but did not provide evidence of the discovery…
Israel recovered the body of Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta in Gaza; Pinta was believed to have been killed in the early months of the war, after he was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he was working…
The IDF found the body of Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, weeks after he was believed to have been killed in an airstrike while hiding in a tunnel under the European Hospital…
The Australian government canceled the visa of Israeli American activist Hillel Fuld, citing the Department of Home Affairs’ concerns over the risk officials suggest Fuld, who had been slated to speak at Magen David Adom fundraising events in Sydney and Melbourne, poses to “the health, safety or good order” of Australians…
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid is departing Walla News and will join Israel’s Channel 12 as the network’s Washington correspondent; Ravid will continue to report for Axios and appear on CNN as an analyst…
The Jewish Telegraph Agency’s Ben Sales is joining The Times of Israel as news editor…
Pic of the Day
United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed hosted fellow UAE rulers and faith leaders last Friday on the occasion of Eid Al Adha, the Islamic festival that concludes its four-day celebration today. Among the faith leaders that greeted the UAE president was Rabbi Levi Duchman, the head of Chabad of the United Arab Emirates.
Birthdays
Former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, Walter Julius Levy turns 103…
Journalist for 30 years at CBS who then became the founding director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, then a fellow at GWU, Marvin Kalb turns 95… Retired Israeli diplomat who served as ambassador to Italy and France and world chairman of Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, Aviezer “Avi” Pazner turns 88… Author of 12 books, activist, and founding editor of Ms. Magazine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin turns 86… British businessman, co-founder with his brother Maurice of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, Charles Saatchi turns 82… Diplomat and Shakespeare historian, Kenneth Adelman turns 79… Founder and chairman of Commonwealth Financial Network and chairman of Southworth Development, Joseph Deitch turns 75… Professional mediator and advice columnist, Wendy J. Belzberg… Israel’s former minister of defense and deputy prime minister, Benny Gantz turns 66… Canadian journalist, author, documentary film producer and television personality, Steven Hillel Paikin turns 65… Producer, director, playwright and screenwriter, Aaron Benjamin Sorkin turns 64… Former lead singer of the Israeli pop rock band Mashina, Yuval Banay turns 63… CEO of Jewish Women’s International, Meredith Jacobs… Managing director at Major, Lindsey & Africa, Craig Appelbaum… EVP of Jewish Funders Network, Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu… Screenwriter, director and producer, Hayden Schlossberg turns 47… Founder and CEO of Delve LLC, previously a Bush 43 White House Jewish liaison, Jeff Berkowitz… Co-founder of Swish Beverages, David Oliver Cohen turns 45… Jerusalem born Academy Award-winning actress, producer and director, Natalie Portman turns 44… Online producer, writer and director, Rafi Fine turns 42… Multimedia artist, Anna Marie Tendler turns 40… Composer and lyricist, in 2024 he became the 20th person to complete the EGOT, an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards, Benj Pasek turns 40… Israeli tech entrepreneur, he is the founder and chairman of Israel Tech Challenge, Raphael Ouzan turns 38… Director of the Yale Journalism Initiative, her book, A Flower Traveled In My Blood, is being published next month, Haley Cohen Gilliland… Deputy assistant secretary for strategic communications at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration, Jeff Solnet… Ice hockey player for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers and best-selling author of children’s books, Zachary Martin Hyman turns 33… Founder and CEO of The Fine Companies, Daniel Fine… Emilia Levy…
Plus, China's charm offensive in Israel
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks alongside U.S. President Donald Trump to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the growing influence of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party in the Trump administration, and report on a bipartisan call from members of Congress for social media platforms to address antisemitic content. We also talk to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about his push for an increase in Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding, and look at China’s efforts to strengthen relations with Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. James Lankford, Shari Redstone and Julie Platt.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on the fallout following yesterday’s clashes between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, which escalated over a period of several hours as both men took to their respective social media platforms to attack the other.
- The Boulder chapter of Run For Their Lives will hold its weekly walk on Sunday to raise awareness for the remaining 56 hostages in Gaza, a week after a terror attack in which an Egyptian national firebombed marchers, injuring 15. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum as well as nearby Run For Their Lives chapters will send representatives to Sunday’s march.
- Brilliant Minds is holding its annual confab in Stockholm.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH AND JOSH KRAUSHAAR
Another week, another round of evidence showing that a growing faction of isolationist-minded foreign policy advisors — or, in the parlance of some on the MAGA right, the “restrainers” — are slowly but surely gaining influence in the Trump administration’s second term.
If personnel is policy, it suggests the second Trump term will feature a markedly different approach to the Middle East than his record from 2017-2021, which included the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab countries, the elimination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard leader Qassem Soleimani and the withdrawal from former President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
We reported this week that the Senate will soon consider the nomination of Justin Overbaugh to be deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security. Overbaugh is just the latest of several senior Pentagon nominees who come from Defense Priorities, a Koch-backed think tank that has generally argued the U.S. should scale back its involvement in global conflicts, including in the Middle East.
It’s not just at the Defense Department. A senior State Department official told Jewish Insider that at Foggy Bottom, too, the “restrainers” are ascendant. Morgan Ortagus, an Iran hawk who has been serving as deputy Middle East special envoy under Steve Witkoff, plans to depart the office. At the National Security Council, top officials focused on Israel and the Middle East were pushed out last month as President Donald Trump seeks to centralize foreign policy decision-making in the Oval Office.
This story is more than just a gossipy tale of White House palace intrigue. This factional foreign policy battle is set to have major global consequences. The impact is already clear: Trump is pursuing nuclear negotiations with Iran, led by Witkoff, that may result in a deal — one that reportedly could allow Iran to at least temporarily continue enriching uranium, a position that would have been unimaginable in Trump’s first term.
EXCLUSIVE
Lawmakers press social media platforms on violent antisemitic content after attacks
A bipartisan group of 41 lawmakers led by Reps. Wesley Bell (D-MO) and Don Bacon (R-NE) wrote to the CEOs of Meta, TikTok and X on Friday urging them to take action in response to the spike in violent antisemitic content posted on their platforms following recent antisemitic attacks in Washington and Boulder, Colo., Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they said: “We write to express grave concern regarding disturbing and inflammatory content circulating on your platforms in support of violence and terrorism,” the lawmakers — mostly Democrats — wrote in a letter sent on Friday, highlighting the rise of rhetoric praising and justifying the two antisemitic attacks. “This content is effectively glorifying, justifying, and inciting future violence, mirroring the surge in hateful rhetoric and open calls to violence and support of terrorism observed after the October 7, 2023 [attacks], and the ensuing Israel-Hamas conflict.”
Nominee notes: Kim Richey, the nominee to be the assistant secretary of education for civil rights, said during a confirmation hearing on Thursday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that the Department of Education should look at amending Title VI regulations and issuing new guidance to address the surge of antisemitism on campuses nationwide since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
scoop
Schumer to push for $500 million for 2026 NSGP funding, says Republicans are amenable
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will announce on Monday that he is launching “an all-out push to shore up” $500 million in the fiscal year 2026 budget for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in response to a spate of recent antisemitic terrorist attacks, he revealed to Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday. He said that key Senate Republicans have appeared amenable to that request and called the administration’s proposal for flat funding for the program a nonstarter, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.
What he said: “The attack in Colorado, the shooting in Washington, the arson in Pennsylvania [of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home] have one thing in common: they have cited anti-Israel sentiment as a justification for their violence. In other words, they’ve used the actions of the Israeli government they don’t like to justify violence against Jewish Americans here at home,” Schumer said. “We’re witnessing — unfortunately, in real time — the resurgence of collective blame against the Jewish people. Collective blame is traditionally one of the most nasty, dangerous forms of antisemitism, and so if we don’t confront it clearly, unequivocally together, we risk opening the door to even darker days.”
Bonus: In a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal, Nathan Diament, the executive director for public policy at the Orthodox Union, calls for “concrete steps” to address antisemitic violence, including an increase in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $500 million and support for local police patrols near Jewish sites and institutions.
NOT IN OUR NAME
AJC rejects Trump’s travel ban as lacking a ‘clear connection’ to antisemitism
The American Jewish Committee criticized President Donald Trump for his executive order barring travel into the United States for citizens of 12 countries as lacking “a clear connection to the underlying problem” of domestic antisemitism and potentially having “an adverse impact on other longstanding immigration and refugee policies,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Zoom out: The administration framed the announcement as a response to the antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colo., carried out by an immigrant from Egypt who overstayed a work permit. The AJC’s response echoes the cautious, skeptical approach it and other major nonpartisan Jewish organizations have taken to other actions by the Trump administration to combat antisemitism, including revoking visas from international students and cutting funding from universities.
BEIJING BOOST
With increasing pressure from the West, can Israel resist a China charm offensive?
Chinese Ambassador to Israel Xiao Junzheng has been on a charm offensive since arriving to his new post in December. In contrast with his predecessors, who shied away from the Israeli media, Xiao has been blanketing the airwaves and acting in ways unprecedented for Beijing: condemning Hamas and calling to free the hostages. The ambassador’s personal outreach is a sharp departure from the declining relations between Beijing and Jerusalem since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. But now, China is seemingly trying to turn the clock back to a time when it was making major investments in Israel and inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Beijing. Israel’s response has been inconsistent, and the Trump administration hasn’t yet raised any public objections to the outreach, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Change in perspective: A year after the attacks and after Israel killed much of Hezbollah and Hamas’ leadership, Beijing made a subtle shift and started to speak about Israel’s “legitimate security concerns.” According to Carice Witte, founder and executive director of SIGNAL Group, a think tank specializing in Israel-China relations, Beijing no longer viewed Israel as a regional superpower after the Oct. 7 attacks, but “after Israel’s incredible military and intelligence successes in the fall of 2024 that rewrote the narratives of Lebanon and Syria, Beijing began to change its tune — becoming less anti-Israel and less pro-Iran.” Soon after his arrival in Tel Aviv in December, Xiao sprang into action. He praised Israeli tech companies in an interview with Israeli financial paper Calcalist. On ILTV last month, he gave the first unambiguous condemnation from China of the Oct. 7 attacks and even wore a yellow ribbon calling to bring back the hostages.
TRIP TALK
Sen. Lankford says he’s very ‘optimistic’ about Lebanon’s future after visit
Following a visit to the Middle East, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he’s very “optimistic” about the future of Lebanon under its new government, describing the country’s leaders as serious about centralizing power and demilitarizing Hezbollah, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “The Lebanese Armed Forces and the president were very clear: ‘We will be the defender of Lebanon. There’s not two armies, there’s one army,’” Lankford said. “They are working to demilitarize Hezbollah and to be able to make sure that they are the one army … I think there’s real progress and real opportunity.” Lankford said that he also heard from Iraqi partners in contact with the Iranian regime that Tehran is not budging on its commitment to uranium enrichment.
stamp of approval
Freed hostage Edan Alexander, family endorse Josh Gottheimer for New Jersey governor
Recently released Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander and his family endorsed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) for governor of New Jersey and praised his advocacy for Alexander’s release in a letter to the congressman, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Alexander grew up in Tenafly, N.J., in Gottheimer’s district.
What they said: The letter, read at a recent Gottheimer campaign event by a family friend, reads, “We can’t wait to thank you in person and we can’t wait to call you Governor Josh in November.” The letter is signed by Alexander himself, his mother and father Yael and Adi, his sister Mika and brother Roy. Alexander is a Gottheimer constituent who grew up in his district. “In those dark times” of Alexander’s captivity, “you were not only a shining ray of light, but you were what we call a mensch,” the family wrote.
Exclusive: A new coalition of pro-Israel LGBTQ activists is backing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as its first choice in a ranked slate of candidate endorsements for New York City mayor, according to a statement shared exclusively with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Thursday.
Worthy Reads
For Pete’s Sake: The Atlantic’s Missy Ryan and Ashley Parker report on relations between the White House and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which began to fray after Hegseth offered former White House advisor Elon Musk a high-level briefing in March. “Many at the Pentagon question how long the president’s backing for their boss will last. During his first term, Trump cycled through four defense secretaries and four national security advisers. … Although the president appears to appreciate Hegseth’s pugnacious public style, he may require more from his defense secretary over time, as the administration faces pressure to deliver on a set of complex and interlocking goals, including fixing a byzantine military-procurement system, reviving a diminished defense industry, and strengthening America’s response to China’s military rise.” [TheAtlantic]
Dems Missing the Revolution:The New York Times’ David Brooks posits that Democrats are misgauging the political shift underway in American society. “Trump has taken the atmosphere of alienation, magnified it with his own apocalypticism, and, assaulting institutions across society, has created a revolutionary government. More this term than last, he is shifting the conditions in which we live. Many of my Democratic friends have not fully internalized the magnitude of this historical shift. They are still thinking within the confines of the Clinton-Obama-Biden-Pelosi worldview. But I have a feeling that over the next few years, the tumult of events will push Democrats onto some new trajectory.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
The State Department announced sanctions on four International Criminal Court judges, calling the body “politicized” and alleging that the sanctioned judges “actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel”…
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appointed a close ally to sit in the office of the inspector general of the intelligence community…
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed an anticipated vote on Thursday on Joel Rayburn’s nomination to be assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs as he faces opposition from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), which could imperil his nomination, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) accused the search firm that oversaw the failed nomination of former University of Michigan President Santa Ono to lead the University of Florida of not properly vetting and disclosing the candidate’s record, in comments to Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs…
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said he’ll force votes as soon as next week on resolutions to block U.S. arms sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates…
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink estimated on Thursday that the costs of retrofitting a Qatari plane that Doha intends to gift to the White House for use in the Air Force One fleet will be less than $400 million…
The Defense Department informed the Senate and House Armed Services committees that it will divert anti-drone technology allocated to Ukraine to positions in the Middle East…
Six members of Colorado’s House delegation introduced a resolution condemning the Boulder attack and the rise of antisemitism in the United States…
The NYPD is investigating as a hate crime an attack on a 72-year-old Jewish man who was putting up hostage posters on Manhattan’s Upper East Side; the assailants reportedly shouted “Free Palestine” at the man before the attack…
A federal judge in Massachusetts ordered a temporary halt to a Trump administration directive banning Harvard from enrolling international students…
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck is opening a public affairs shop led by Campbell Spencer and Max Hamel…
Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone confirmed that she is being treated for thyroid cancer; a spokesperson for Redstone said her prognosis is “excellent” as she receives radiation treatment for the cancer, which was discovered two months ago…
The Washington Post reviews poet Edward Hirsch’s memoir My Childhood in Pieces, calling it a “vibrant, moving portrait of mid-century Jewish communities in Chicago and Skokie, Illinois, and of a particular middle-class Middle America”…
eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross interviews outgoing Jewish Federations of North America Chair Julie Platt about her tenure with the organization, which began just prior to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and continued through the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in Israel and ensuing war in Gaza…
Jonathan Hall, the U.K.’s senior-most advisor on terrorism issues, warned of the “extraordinary” terror and espionage threats posed by Iran and Russia on British soil…
A Pakistani man was convicted in a U.S. federal court of smuggling Iranian missile components to Tehran’s Houthi proxies in Yemen; two Navy SEALs died in the mission to apprehend Muhammad Pahlawan, whose boat was intercepted off the coast of Somalia in 2024…
The number of commercial ships passing through the Red Sea and Suez Canal has dropped by more than 50% since 2023; shipping companies are largely avoiding the maritime route, despite a recent ceasefire between the U.S. and the Houthis, out of concern that Houthi ballistic missiles targeting Israel could misfire and strike commercial vessels…
Israel reportedly assured the Trump administration it would not conduct military strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities unless talks between Washington and Tehran fail…
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Moscow’s assistance in ongoing U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, citing Russia’s close ties with Tehran…
Iran ordered thousands of tons of ammonium perchlorate, with the capability of fueling hundreds of ballistic missiles, from China…
The Israeli Air Force conducted strikes on the southern outskirts of Beirut targeting what the IDF said were Hezbollah drone production facilities…
Israel is providing weapons to an armed militia opposing Hamas, a defense source confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov…
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced it was shutting its aid distribution sites until further notice…
Lufthansa plans to resume flights to Israel later this month…
Shaul Magid was appointed Harvard Divinity School’s first professor of modern Jewish studies in residence, a five-year appointment; Rabbi David Wolpe, a former visiting scholar at the school, called Magid, who has argued in favor of “counter-Zionism” and a binational state, a “gracious human being & an estimable scholar of Jewish texts,” but added that he profoundly disagree[s] with [Magid’s] stance on Israel and wish[ed] HDS would appoint someone whose views reflect the mainstream of the Jewish community”…
Economist Marina von Neumann Whitman, the first woman appointed to the White House Council of Economic Advisors, died at 90…
Pic of the Day
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (left) and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar participated on Thursday in a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin.
Birthdays
Chicago- and Aspen-based businessman, he owns large stakes in Maytag, Hilton Hotels, the New York Yankees and the Chicago Bulls, Lester Crown turns 100 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: U.S. District Court judge since 1994, on senior status since 2005, serving in the Eastern District of New York, Frederic Block turns 91… Real estate entrepreneur and executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Thomas Pritzker turns 75… U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) turns 73… Diplomat who has served as Israel’s ambassador to South Sudan and then Egypt, Haim Koren turns 72… Four-time Tony Award winner, he is an actor, playwright and screenwriter, Harvey Fierstein turns 71… Comedian, political critic, musician and author, Sandra Bernhard turns 70… Radio news personality, known as “Lisa G,” Lisa Glasberg turns 69… Past chair of the board of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools and President at Micah Philanthropies, Ann Baidack Pava… CEO of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Steve Koonin turns 68… Israeli conductor and musician, Nir Brand turns 64… Former majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives and now vice chairman of investment bank Moelis & Company, Eric Cantor turns 62… Partner in the strategic communications division of Finsbury Glover Hering (FGS Global), Jonathan Kopp turns 59… Israeli-American behavioral economics professor at UCSD, Uri Hezkia Gneezy turns 58… Best-selling author, journalist and television personality, Anna Benjamin David turns 55… Chairman of Israeli fintech entrio (formerly The Floor), he is the only child of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Elisha Wiesel turns 53… Hedge fund manager and founder of Saba Capital Management, he is also a skilled poker and blackjack player, Boaz Weinstein turns 52… Producer of 11 network television programs, Jennie Snyder Urman turns 50… 2019 Trump impeachment witness, he was director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, Lt. Col. (ret.) Alexander Semyon Vindman… and his twin brother, Col. (ret.) Yevgeny Vindman, a member of Congress from Virginia’s 7th District, both turn 50… Founder and chairman of the Washington Free Beacon, Michael L. Goldfarb turns 45… Senior reporter at ABC News, Katherine B. Faulders… Director at Finsbury Glover Hering (FGS Global), Anna Epstein… Member of the New York State Assembly until 2023 when he resigned to become VP of government relations at UJA-Federation of New York, Daniel Rosenthal turns 34… White House staffer during the Biden administration, Jordan G. Finkelstein… Communications manager at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Allie Freedman…
SATURDAY: Rehoboth Beach, Del., resident, Dennis B. Berlin… Former five-term Democratic congressman from California, he now serves as counsel in the Century City office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Mel Levine turns 82… Professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, and author of 13 books, Deborah Tannen turns 80… Epidemiologist, toxicologist and author of three books about environmental hazards, Devra Davis turns 79… Deputy secretary of state of the U.S. during the first half of the Biden administration, Wendy Ruth Sherman turns 76… Retired staff director at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Hillel Weinberg… President of Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Israel, he is a grandson of former Israeli PM Levi Eshkol, Sheizaf Rafaeli turns 70… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-PA-7) until earlier this year, Susan Ellis Wild turns 68… Former vice president of the United States, Mike Pence turns 66… Jerusalem resident, Deborah Lee Renert… Founder chairman and CEO of the Naftali Group, Miki Naftali turns 63… U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York, Jesse Matthew Furman turns 53… U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) turns 53… Brooklyn rapper better known by his stage name Necro, Ron Raphael Braunstein turns 49… One-half of the Arab-Jewish electronic music duo Chromeo, David “Dave 1” Macklovitch turns 47… Israeli actress, singer and pianist, she performs in Hebrew, Russian, French and English, Ania Bukstein turns 43… Senior director of place-based initiatives at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Isaac Luria… Editor of The New York Review of Books, Emily S. Greenhouse… Actress and model, Emily Ratajkowski turns 34… Canadian ice hockey forward, he played for China in the 2022 Winter Olympics, now a businessman in Ontario, Ethan Werek turns 34… Andrea Gonzales…
SUNDAY: Hebrew University mathematics professor and 2005 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, Robert Aumann turns 95… Guru of alternative, holistic and integrative medicine, Dr. Andrew Weil turns 83… Hedge fund founder and manager, founder of the Paloma Funds, Selwyn Donald Sussman turns 79… Detective novelist, best known for creating the character of V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky turns 78… Founder and CEO of Sitrick and Company, Michael Sitrick… Classical pianist, teacher and performer at the Juilliard School and winner of a Grammy Award, he is the child of Holocaust survivors, Emanuel Ax turns 76… Former member of Knesset from the Zionist Union party, now a professor at Ben-Gurion University, Yosef “Yossi” Yona turns 72… Barbara Jaffe Panken… Senior advisor at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based O2 Investment Partners, Robert Harris (Rob) Orley… Journalist, stand-up comedian, author, cartoonist and blogger, Aaron Freeman turns 69… CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, Stacy Ritter turns 65… AVP for campaign at the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, Patti Frazin… Co-founder and CEO of the Genesis Prize Foundation, Stan Polovets turns 62… Winner of many Emmy and SAG awards, star of the long-running TV series “The Good Wife,” Julianna Margulies turns 59… Israel’s state comptroller and ombudsman, Matanyahu Englman turns 59… Actor, screenwriter and producer, Dan Futterman turns 58… Former congresswoman (D-AZ-8), she is a survivor of an assassination attempt near Tucson in 2011, Gabrielle Giffords turns 55… Actor who starred in USA Network’s “Royal Pains,” he also wrote and created the CBS series “9JKL,” Mark Feuerstein turns 54… Executive director at Consulate Health Care in New Port Richey, Fla., Daniel Frenden… Head of North America for the Jewish Agency and President and CEO of Jewish Agency International Development (JAID), Daniel Elbaum… Former deputy chief of staff for Charlie Baker when he was governor of Massachusetts, Michael Emanuel Vallarelli… Lead community organizer at LA Voice, Suzy Stone… Businesswoman, art collector and editor, founder of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Dasha Zhukova turns 44… Fourth-generation supermarket executive at Klein’s ShopRite of Maryland, Marshall Klein… Corporate litigation partner in the Wilmington office of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, Daniel Kirshenbaum… Three-time Tony Award-winning theatrical producer, he is the co-founder at Folk Media Group, Eric J. Kuhn turns 38… CEO of BZ Media and the Bnai Zion Foundation, Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm… Offensive tackle in the NFL for nine seasons until he retired in 2022, he started in 121 straight games in which he played every offensive snap, his Hebrew name is “Mendel,” Mitchell Schwartz turns 36…
Plus, Risch's pessimism on Iran deal
John Lamparski/Getty Images for Concordia Summit
Morgan Ortagus speaks onstage during 2024 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York Times Square on September 25, 2024 in New York City.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the departure of deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus from her role reporting to Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and cover Sen. Jim Risch’s pessimism toward a potential new nuclear deal with Iran. We also report on the Trump administration’s tapping of Defense Priorities alum Justin Overbaugh for a senior Pentagon role, and scoop a major Jewish communal endorsement for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ahead of New York City’s upcoming Democratic mayoral primary. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jason Isaacman, Rep. Elise Stefanik and Judith Weinstein-Haggai and Gad Haggai.
What We’re Watching
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is meeting with President Donald Trump today at the White House.
- Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Randy Fine (R-FL) are speaking at a Sephardic Heritage International DC event this evening on Capitol Hill commemorating the anniversary of the Farhud pogrom that took place in Iraq in 1941.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH ji’s MATThEW KASSEL
With just under three weeks until New York City’s mayoral primary on June 24, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is slowly but surely securing commitments from a range of key leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community, a large and politically influential voting base whose widespread support is seen as crucial to his pathway to the Democratic nomination.
In the coming days, Cuomo is expected to garner endorsements from several prominent Orthodox leaders in Brooklyn and Queens, including major Hasidic sects in Borough Park and Williamsburg that can traditionally turn out thousands of votes, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to address private plans.
But as most top Orthodox leaders have not historically taken sides until relatively late in the primary season, some Jewish community activists are voicing anxiety about their continued delay in publicly backing Cuomo — as he increasingly faces competition to his far left from Zohran Mamdani, a Queens state assemblyman whose fierce opposition to Israel has drawn mounting accusations of fueling antisemitism.
“Now that the race has been essentially a two-man race for the past few months, what are they waiting for?” one Jewish leader, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Jewish Insider. “Are they considering Mamdani?”
ORTAGUS OUT
Deputy Special Envoy Morgan Ortagus to leave post under Witkoff
Morgan Ortagus, a key member of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s team, is departing his office, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and Emily Jacobs have learned. Ortagus, the deputy special envoy, has been removed from her portfolio in the special envoy’s office, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to JI. Ortagus had been overseeing the Trump administration’s Lebanon policy and had wanted to take over the Syria file, but was unsuccessful in doing so.
Context: Ortagus’ departure comes less than two weeks after Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw a widespread purge of officials at the NSC, including those overseeing the Middle East and Israel and Iran portfolios. This followed Trump’s decision to pull former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, another Iran hawk in the administration, from his role and instead nominate him to be his ambassador to the United Nations.
DEFENSE DYNAMICS
Another Koch-funded think tank affiliate on track for top Defense job
Justin Overbaugh is on track to be the latest affiliate of the Koch-backed Defense Priorities think tank to be placed in a top post at the Defense Department, approaching confirmation as the deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the nominee: Overbaugh lacks the extensive public record of other Defense Priorities alumni in the administration — who have called for the U.S. to curtail its role in the Middle East — and his nomination has attracted little public attention or controversy. “I believe that we do not have the resources to cover all threats simultaneously, therefore we must be deliberate and discerning about the capabilities we pursue to defend our Nation and deter, or if necessary, defeat, our adversaries,” Overbaugh said in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Nomination reservations: Multiple Senate Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that they plan to scrutinize President Donald Trump’s nomination of Paul Ingrassia, a far-right figure picked last week to lead the Office of Special Counsel, charged with fighting corruption and fighting federal whistleblowers, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Risch’s reservations
Sen. Risch: ‘I’m not particularly optimistic’ about a deal with Iran
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Wednesday in remarks at the Hudson Institute that he is “not particularly optimistic” that a deal with Iran that stops it from enriching uranium can be reached, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Israeli threat: Risch added that if Iran does not agree to a deal, “Israel is going to do something about that.” “I’ve sat across the table from [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, I don’t know how many times, and he has looked me in the eye and said, ‘Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,’” the top Senate Republican said. “And you know what? I believe him, and I think that’s a case for the United States to be in the exact same position.”
ACCREDIATION ESCALATION
Trump admin warns Columbia University at risk of losing accreditation
The Trump administration’s battle with higher education escalated on Wednesday with the announcement that Columbia University is at risk of losing accreditation for violation of the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What is said: The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights “determined that Columbia University acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students, thereby violating Title VI,” the Education Department said in a statement, noting that the Ivy League institution “no longer appears to meet the Commission’s [sic] accreditation standards.”
SCOOP
Influential Queens Orthodox coalition backs Cuomo for mayor
An influential coalition of Orthodox Jewish leaders in Far Rockaway, Queens, is endorsing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel has learned, the first official demonstration of support from a major Orthodox group in the race. In a lengthy statement first shared with JI on Wednesday night, leaders of the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance wrote that the “Jewish community in New York — particularly the frum community — faces a political crisis of historic proportions,” and urged voters to move past their lingering resentment over Cuomo’s COVID policies, which community members recall as discriminatory.
Now and then: “We still feel the pain of the unfair red zones imposed by Cuomo in 2020, which targeted our communities and restricted our way of life with heavy-handed measures,” the leaders acknowledged. “That wound lingers, a reminder of how quickly our freedoms can be curtailed. Yet, despite this pain, we must look forward and consider our future as Jews in New York City, where new threats loom larger than past grievances.”
Elsewhere in Gotham: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary.
COALITION CHAOS
Haredi leaders threaten to bring down Israeli government as effort to revive draft exemptions stalls
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition was thrown into disarray on Wednesday night after the spiritual leaders of Haredi factions threatened to bring about an early election if penalties for yeshiva students avoiding military service are not canceled, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
From bad to worse: The leading rabbis of Agudat Yisrael, the Hasidic party of United Torah Judaism, told party leader Yitzchak Goldknopf on Tuesday to move forward with a vote next week on a bill to dissolve the Knesset, prompting an election, because Netanyahu did not keep a promise to pass a bill exempting young Haredi men from military service by Shavuot, a holiday that was observed on Monday in Israel. On Wednesday morning, the other part of United Torah Judaism, Degel Hatorah, received a similar directive from the senior rabbis of the “Litvak” non-Hasidic Haredi community, Dov Lando and New York native Moshe Hillel Hirsch. Still, Netanyahu’s 68-seat coalition would retain a narrow majority in the Knesset even if he lost those Haredi parties’ seven seats. The political threat became more acute on Wednesday evening, when Sephardic Haredi party Shas, which has 11 seats in the Knesset, supported UTJ’s move to call an election. Israeli media reported that Shas’ spiritual leader Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef told the party’s lead negotiator, former minister Ariel Atias, to tell Netanyahu that he will not have a government if agreements are not reached with the Haredi parties.
Worthy Reads
Full-Court Press: In the Baltimore Sun, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan calls for “moral clarity” in the face of rising antisemitism in the U.S. “When innocent people are attacked for their faith or identity, neutrality is not courage. It is cowardice. People are hungry for real leadership. Not performative outrage. Not partisan talking points. Real leadership, rooted in principle and courage. That is what communities expect from their elected officials, civic organizations, media institutions and universities. They want to know that when a synagogue is firebombed or a Jewish student is harassed, someone will speak up. When extremists target a faith community, there should not be silence or spin. There must be action.” [BaltSun]
Choppy Waters: The Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Kalin and Shelby Holliday look at how the maritime warfare perpetuated by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen has reshaped the U.S. response to threats in the region. “Officials are now dissecting how a scrappy adversary was able to test the world’s most capable surface fleet. The Houthis proved to be a surprisingly difficult foe, engaging the Navy in its fiercest battles since World War II despite fighting from primitive quarters and caves in one of the world’s poorest countries. The Houthis benefited from the proliferation of cheap missile and drone technology from Iran. They fired antiship ballistic missiles, the first-ever combat use of the Cold War-era weapon, and they innovated how they deployed their weaponry. The latest technologies have transformed maritime warfare, much the way they have rewritten the script for land wars in Ukraine — forcing militaries to adapt in real time.” [WSJ]
The Show Must Go On: The Washington Post’s Marc Fisher reflects on his recent visit to a new LGBTQ exhibition at the Capital Jewish Museum, which opened on the same day the museum reopened following an attack the week prior in which two Israeli Embassy officials were killed. “Jewish museums chronicle the centuries-long tension among Jews between insisting on belonging to the culture where they live and accepting the outsider status foisted upon them by dominant forces in their society. … The exhibit confronts contradictions, which are at the heart of Judaism. People like the shooter cannot bear such nuance; to them, it somehow makes sense to take out one’s wrath toward Israel against a Jewish American institution — one that barely mentions Israel. The museum, like all good encounters with history, cherishes clashes between past and present, but the shooter can only see the binary: us and them.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump announced last night that citizens of 12 countries will be barred entry to the United States, while citizens of seven other countries will face restrictions. The planned executive order was scooped yesterday by Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch…
Jason Isaacman, an ally of Elon Musk who had been the Trump administration’s pick to head NASA until his nomination was pulled last month, reportedly told associates that he believes that Musk’s departure from the White House gave the administration an opportunity to rescind the nomination; White House officials said the nod was pulled over Isaacman’s past donations to Democrats, which Isaacman disputed, saying the White House was aware of the donations…
Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will release a book later this year about her time in the Biden administration and departure from the Democratic Party…
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) launched the Save New York PAC to boost GOP candidates running in local races across the state…
Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Bill Keating (D-MA), Valerie Foushee (D-NC) and Becca Balint (D-VT) are leading more than 90 Democrats on a resolution calling on the administration to “urgently use all diplomatic tools” to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza, as well as release the hostages and end the war in Gaza; Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) is leading similar legislation in the Senate with the support of nearly all Democrats…
A group of lawmakers from more than 30 countries came together on Wednesday to discuss ways that the Abraham Accords can be leveraged to address energy security issues in the Middle East, the Caspian Sea Basin and the Eastern Mediterranean, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod has learned…
Reps. August Pfluger (R-TX) and Randy Fine (R-FL) introduced a resolution condemning the antisemitic attack on a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., and calling for congressional action “to secure the border and deport migrants who overstay their visas”…
The U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war without conditioning a ceasefire on the release of the remaining hostages; the other 14 members of the council voted in favor…
The IDF found and returned the bodies of U.S.-Israeli citizens Judith Weinstein-Haggai and Gad Haggai, who were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
The Wall Street Journal interviews victims and witnesses of the terror attack on marchers at a Boulder, Colo., walk on Sunday to call attention to the plight of the hostages in Gaza…
A federal judge issued an order barring the deportation of the wife and children of the Egyptian national accused of attacking the Boulder hostage march…
Germany’s Federal Research and Information Point for Antisemitism said that antisemitic incidents in the country had nearly doubled between 2023 and 2024, finding 8,627 incidents of violence, vandalism and threats targeting Jews last year…
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation suspended operations for a second day, as both the foundation and Israeli officials address safety concerns tied to a series of deadly incidents near distribution sites in recent days…
Israeli officials said the country exported a record $14.8 billion in weapons in 2024, an increase of $1.8 billion from the year prior…
Stu Sandler is joining the office of Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) as chief of staff; Sandler was previously the deputy director of the Republican Jewish Coalition…
Aaron Bandler is joining the Jewish News Syndicate as U.S. national reporter, based out of Los Angeles…
Pic of the Day
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis spoke on Wednesday at a vigil held at the site of the weekend terror attack targeting a hostage-awareness march in Boulder, Colo., in which 15 people, including a Holocaust survivor, were injured.
Birthdays
Actor, voice actor, comedian, writer and producer, Nicholas Kroll turns 47…
Lithuanian-born Holocaust survivor, co-founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, Va., known for his ever-present cowboy hat, Jay M. Ipson turns 90… Training director and broker associate of the Santa Monica, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services branch, Saul Bubis… Owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots, Robert Kraft turns 84… The first woman to serve as international president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Judy Yudof turns 81… Senior project manager in the AI field, Dan Yurman… Israeli politician, diplomat and businessperson, he served as consul general of Israel in Philadelphia from 1988 to 1992, Israel Peleg turns 76… VP of new business development at Maresco & Partners, Linda Greenfield… Author of 11 personal finance books, financial advisor, motivational speaker and television host, Susan Lynn “Suze” Orman turns 74… Staff member at Burbank Temple Emanu El, Audrey Freedman-Habush… Portrait photographer and visual anthropologist, she is the author of The Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora, Penny Diane Wolin turns 72… Former commissioner on the U.S. International Trade Commission, now a consultant, Dean A. Pinkert turns 69… Best-selling instrumental musician, the saxophonist “Kenny G,” Kenneth Bruce Gorelick turns 69… Columnist for the New York Post, Andrea Peyser turns 66… Senior associate general counsel at Compass real estate, Sam Kraemer… EVP and managing director at DC’s Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW), Michael Heimowitz… Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for eight years until 2022, Gila Deborah Martow turns 64… VP of government affairs at Invenergy, Mark S. Weprin turns 64… First-ever Jewish speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, she served from 2020 until 2022, Eileen R. Filler-Corn turns 61… Manager of the Jeff Astor Legacy Fund, Beth Astor Freeman… Member of Congress (D-PA-6), her father is a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Poland, Christina Jampoler Houlahan turns 58… Member of the British House of Commons for 15 years, now a member of the House of Lords, Baron Ed Vaizey turns 57… Entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author, he holds more than 100 granted and pending patents, Nova Spivack turns 56… Professor of Israel studies at UCLA, Dov Morris Waxman turns 51… Film and television actress, she has a recurring role in the Fox series “The Cleaning Lady,” Liza Rebecca Weil turns 48… Co-founder of BlueLabs and director of analytics for the campaigns of both Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2012, his father and grandfather were both rabbis, Elan Alter Kriegel… Research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, he was previously a member of the New Hampshire state Legislature, Jason Bedrick turns 42… Humorist, novelist and screenwriter, Simon Rich turns 41… Partner relationship manager at Voyant, Arielle Levy Marschark… Account director on the corporate PR team at M Booth, Maya Bronstein… Clara Moskowitz… Susan Stein…
Screenshot/X
A man is arrested after throwing a Molotov cocktail at pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder, CO on June 1, 2025.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the aftermath of the terrorist attack last weekend at a hostage march in Boulder, Colo., and cover a resurgent push for the U.S. to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization following reports that the Boulder attacker had expressed support for the group. We also talk to students and faculty at Harvard to check in on the school’s recent approach to antisemitism and its clashes with the Trump administration, and report on President Donald Trump‘s recommendation not to increase the funding level of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Randy Fine, Santa Ono and Jake Sullivan.
What We’re Watching
- The White House is holding a briefing for Jewish community leaders this afternoon.
- The House Education and the Workforce Committee is holding a hearing today with Education Secretary Linda McMahon on the department’s policies and priorities.
- Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) is speaking at the Hudson Institute this afternoon about the future of American foreign policy in the Middle East.
- The Congressional Israel Allies Foundation is hosting a belated Jerusalem Day celebration today on Capitol Hill. MK Gila Gamliel, Israel’s minister of innovation, science and technology, will address the gathering.
- In New York City, WNBC, Politico and Telemundo are hosting a mayoral primary debate at 7 p.m. tonight for nine of the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination later this month.
- Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is traveling to Germany today, where he’ll meet with his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, and other senior officials, as well as Jewish communal leaders, in Berlin.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’s mELISSA WEISS
The holiday of Shavuot is one of prayer and celebration, marked by all-night learning, indulging in cheesecake and communal events.
But across the U.S., this Shavuot was marked with a fear and unease that has become abnormally normal in recent months, following the Passover arson at the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro and the murders of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum last month, and deepened further by the horrific attack in Boulder, Colo., on Sunday in which an Egyptian national threw homemade Molotov cocktails at marchers calling for the release of the remaining 58 hostages being held in Gaza. Twelve people, including a Holocaust survivor, were injured.
The reverberations from the attack are already being felt in Washington, where legislators are reviving a bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. More below.
Two days before the attack, we reported on the Trump administration’s full FY 2026 budget request for Congress — which did not recommend an increase in funding to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, instead holding it at its current level of $274.5 million. Fewer than half of the requests — which are submitted by organizations at elevated risk of being targeted in a terrorist attack — were fulfilled in 2024.
The attack in Boulder is likely to garner additional calls from the Jewish community for increased funding for the program. In the wake of last month’s deadly attack at the Capital Jewish Museum, a coalition of leading Jewish groups called for the federal government to increase NSGP spending to $1 billion. “The rising level of anti-Jewish incitement, which inevitably leads to violent acts … requires governmental action commensurate with the level of danger,” the organizations said.
In the wake of Sunday’s attack, many legislators condemned the attacks, most denouncing the antisemitic nature of the firebombing. But three Squad members — Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Summer Lee (D-PA) — condemned the attacks without mentioning Israel or antisemitism. President Donald Trump, in his response, did not mention Israel or antisemitism either, choosing instead to rail against former President Joe “Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly.”
The identities of the victims of the attack and the perpetrators’ declared motivations are political inconveniences to legislators and activists on both sides of the political spectrum — and their decision to erase both perhaps reverberates the loudest.
Other lawmakers focused their comments on the shooter’s immigration status. Mohamed Sabry Soliman had come to the U.S. in 2022 and received a work visa, which expired earlier this year. That the attack was perpetrated by an individual who had been approved for a visa by the Biden administration and remained illegally under the Trump administration is expected to produce more calls for stricter immigration policies. Last night, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that Soliman’s wife and five children had been apprehended by immigration officials and faced potential deportation.
But while politicians debate the best approaches — from designating terror groups to calling for immigration crackdowns — Jewish communities remain on edge, feeling unsafe and unheard.
Perhaps nothing underscores Jewish communal concerns at this moment better than an op-ed published in The New York Times on Tuesday by National Council for Jewish Women CEO Sheila Katz.
“When antisemitism emerges within progressive spaces, cloaked in the language of justice, too often it is met with silence and discomfort, creating echo chambers where dangerous ideas are amplified rather than confronted,” Katz wrote. In response to sounding the alarm about antisemitism in left-wing circles, she said, “we have been gaslit, ignored and told that our fear is overblown, our outrage unjustified. Among many groups that have fought to secure and reclaim civil rights, voting rights and reproductive rights, we have seen antisemitism dismissed as not bad enough to matter, our grief met with cynicism, our safety treated as optional.”
Some Americans waking up to their morning news on Tuesday saw “Jews Are Afraid Right Now” as the Times headline accompanying Katz’s piece. But for the first several hours it was posted, the op-ed had a different headline: “American Jews Are Paying for the War in Gaza” — an approach to both the Israel-Hamas war and antisemitism in America that plays into the dual-loyalty tropes that American Jews have fought long before the Oct. 7 attacks.
The Times quietly changed the op-ed’s headline to the milquetoast “Jews Are Afraid Right Now” — which, while correct, missed Katz’s core point: “At rallies and on campuses, in coalition rooms and online spaces, slogans sometimes directly drawn from Hamas’s terrorist manifesto have been chanted and painted on placards, and shouted from stages and in the streets. ‘Globalize the intifada.’ ‘By any means necessary.’ ‘From the river to the sea.’ ‘Zionists out.’ These are not simply words; they can be interpreted as calls for violence.”
The Boulder attacker told investigators he wanted “to kill all Zionist people” — not dissimilar from comments made by the Capital Jewish Museum shooter, who declared, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” after gunning down Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. The arsonist who set the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion on fire said he committed the crime because of what Shapiro, one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in the country, “wants to do to the Palestinian people.”
From academia to activism to journalism, there is a reticence in left-wing circles to acknowledge that inciting language around the Israel-Hamas war can have a dangerous impact.
A year and a half ago, Ivy League administrators were pressed on whether “From the river to the sea” was a genocidal chant. The response, given by the since-ousted presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, was that “it depends on the context.”
In this case, the context is the firebombing of elderly Jews calling for the release of hostages in Gaza. Last month, the context was the gunning down of a young couple outside a Jewish organization’s event focused on humanitarian aid in Gaza. In April, the context was the arson of the residence of a Jewish governor on the first night of Passover.
The recent attacks in Harrisburg, Washington and now Boulder are not surprising. They are what happens when ideology-driven activism trumps ethical journalism, when antisemitism becomes a political football and when the boundaries between free speech and calls for violence blur — creating a dangerous and deadly reality for American Jews.
temperature check
Jews at Harvard are still worried about antisemitism — and about Trump’s response to it
As Israeli students departed from Harvard University last month to begin summer break, the usual sense of relief and excitement at having completed another academic year was replaced by fear and uncertainty for many. Amid the Trump administration’s battle with Harvard — which recently escalated to stripping the university of its ability to enroll foreign students entirely — among international students exchanging goodbyes, “See you in the fall” was replaced with “I hope to see you in the fall.” Jewish students and faculty who conduct biomedical research at Harvard also face grim prospects, after Trump revoked billions of dollars in federal funds to the university. At the same time, many Jewish students on campus expressed relief that the antisemitism and anti-Israel activism that was all too common in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks had declined significantly in the previous school year, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen and Gabby Deutch report.
Trump effect: Changes on campus were implemented at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, when Joe Biden was still president, said Harvard Law professor Jesse Fried, noting that Harvard’s progress in addressing antisemitism and students’ anti-Israel bias was not only a result of pressure from President Donald Trump. But once Trump came into office and began threatening Harvard — and then implementing policies that directly targeted the Ivy League university — change happened more quickly, Fried observed. “Harvard is moving very quickly and aggressively to eliminate certain sources of anti-Israel bias on campus,” Fried said. “If the Trump administration were not breathing down their neck, I believe progress would have been much slower.”
Elsewhere: A federal judge dismissed a discrimination lawsuit filed against the University of Pennsylvania by two Jewish students, saying that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the university had taken action that “could be interpreted as antisemitic with the intention of causing harm to the plaintiffs.”
OH NO
Santa Ono rejected as University of Florida president
In an unprecedented move, the Florida Board of Governors rejected the confirmation of Santa Ono, the former president of the University of Michigan, as the University of Florida’s next president, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Board grilling: During a three-hour meeting on Tuesday, Ono was questioned by the board, which oversees the state’s 12 public universities, about an anti-Israel encampment last year that remained on the Michigan campus for a month, as well as his stance on antisemitism. Alan Levine, vice chair of the board, grilled Ono about what he described as an inadequate response to antisemitism at Michigan during Ono’s tenure to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, The Gainesville Sun reported. “What happened on Oct. 7 deeply affected the members of my community and me personally, and so at UF I would be consistently focused on making sure antisemitism does not rear its head again,” Ono responded.
APOLOGY TOUR
Washington Post corrects story claiming aid site shooting
The Washington Post issued an apology on Tuesday for an article that claimed, citing the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, that Israeli troops had killed more than 30 people on Sunday at an aid site in Gaza, a story picked up by a variety of U.S. news outlets in spite of denials by Israeli forces and U.S.-backed aid contractors, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Walk-back: “The Post didn’t give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings,” the paper said in an editor’s note added Tuesday, days after it corrected the story. “The early versions fell short of Post standards of fairness and should not have been published in that form.” The newspaper has repeatedly faced accusations of bias and faulty reporting in its coverage of the war and the families of hostages. It has repeatedly been forced to issue corrections to high-profile stories accusing Israel of misconduct.
Bonus: The Washington Post is creating a new program to publish a range of essays and writings from journalists and writers who do not work for the Post; the move comes amid a revamping of the paper’s editorial section that saw the departure of David Shipley, the section’s editor, and other top editorial writers.
terror tag
Lawmakers push to designate Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group after Boulder attack
Following Sunday’s attack in Boulder, Colo., on a group marching to raise awareness about the hostages being held in Gaza, a bipartisan push is growing on Capitol Hill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
New push: Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian citizen who lived in Kuwait for 17 years prior to arriving in the United States, appears to have expressed support for the group. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he plans to reintroduce legislation he had led on multiple previous occasions on the subject. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) wrote to Trump urging him to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle indicated they’ll support the effort.
fine’s fix
Rep. Randy Fine: To stop antisemitic attacks, declare CAIR a terrorist group
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), the newest Jewish Republican member of Congress, argued on Monday, following an antisemitic attack on a group marching in support of the hostages in Gaza in Boulder, Colo., that the federal government should take aggressive action against groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, deport all undocumented immigrants and take a strong hand toward college campuses, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “I’m angry that we’ve allowed this to get there, I’m angry that we’ve allowed Muslim terror to operate unfettered in this country,” Fine said in an interview with JI on Monday. “Make no mistake, the Palestinian cause is fundamentally a broken, evil philosophy … It’s time to realize there is evil in this world and we have to fight it.” He said that institutions tied to that ideology, including CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood and Students for Justice in Palestine, should not be allowed to operate in the United States, and should be designated as terrorist organizations, “because that’s what they are.”
SPENDING FREEZE
Trump doesn’t request an increase in funding for nonprofit security grants
President Donald Trump’s full budget request to Congress on Friday recommended Congress hold the Nonprofit Security Grant Program at its current level of $274.5 million, in spite of chronic funding shortages and pressure from both lawmakers and the Jewish community for substantially increased funding at a time of rising antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the request: The budget also requests no funding for two hate crimes prevention grant programs, the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer NO HATE Act Program and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Grants Program, and proposes funding cuts for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
Bonus: Speaking at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon laid out the administration’s expectations for campus antisemitism policies, including encampment and mask bans and stricter student and faculty vetting, but sidestepped how the administration will execute on those directives while making substantial cuts to OCR.
Worthy Reads
Lighting the Fuse: In The Atlantic, Bruce Hoffman considers the impact that anti-Israel rhetoric plays in stoking antisemitic sentiment. “Words matter. The protester at Columbia University in 2024 holding a sign labeling Jewish demonstrators who were waving Israeli flags as ‘Al-Qasam’s next targets’ was dismissed as being hyperbolic. So were the ‘By Any Means Necessary’ banners carried at demonstrations and the red inverted triangles, similar to those Hamas uses to mark Israeli targets, spray-painted on university buildings, a national monument, and even the apartment building of a museum director. When demonstrators wave the flags of terrorist organizations, wear headbands celebrating those same groups, and publicly commemorate the martyrdom of terrorist leaders such as Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, they’re not throwing the bomb, but their message can light the fuse.” [TheAtlantic]
The Battle Over Food Aid: In The Free Press, Eli Lake looks at how the misreporting about aid distribution in Gaza is being pushed by Hamas and its affiliates in the enclave. “In other words, Hamas wants to sabotage Israel’s plans to cut out the terrorist group from one of its remaining sources of control and leverage in Gaza: distribution of food and aid. That is an important piece of context missing from nearly all of the first-day stories on the alleged massacres. It also may explain why on Tuesday morning, the world awoke to more reports of Palestinians being shot as they awaited food deliveries. At a bare minimum it’s reasonable to conclude that Hamas is instigating confrontations with the IDF in order to provoke the shootings of hungry aid recipients. This, however, does not eliminate the possibility that Israeli soldiers have in some cases fired in the direction of Palestinians awaiting aid. Israel is attempting to deliver food in the middle of a war zone. Even the most professional armies make mistakes. If the accounts of these shootings are accurate, then the Israelis have fired warning shots as crowds approached a site before the aid distribution was ready. That’s a tragedy, but not a massacre.” [FreePress]
Credit Risk:The Wall Street Journal’s David Cloud reports on efforts by Iranian-backed militias to exploit a currency-exchange scheme that allowed the groups to bring in billions of dollars. “Regulators in Iraq and U.A.E. limited daily withdrawals and cracked down on the card smuggling. In one case, more than two dozen Iraqis carrying a total of around 1,200 cash cards loaded with more than $5 million were arrested at Iraqi airports and border crossings. An Iraqi traveler was arrested at the airport in the city of Najaf with 300 bank cards hidden in cigarette packs in his luggage. In another, multiple Iranians and Iraqis were caught by border guards while attempting to smuggle Mastercards to Iran. The militias adjusted, and began persuading merchants in the other countries with access to Visa and Mastercard networks to run fake purchase transactions in return for a kickback. In an example described by bankers familiar with the scheme, a luxury-goods store in the U.A.E. charges a Visa or Mastercard cash or debit card $5,000, even though no merchandise changes hands. In return for a 5% payment, the shop gives the cardholder the $5,000 in cash or the equivalent in U.A.E.’s currency, the dirham, which is pegged to the dollar. The card company debits the card at the official Iraqi dollar rate. The funds then move back to Iraq for the market exchange.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday rejected a nuclear deal with the “rude, insolent” U.S. that would require the Islamic Republic to stop enriching uranium, one of President Donald Trump’s core requirements for any nuclear agreement, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports; the Trump administration had reportedly been negotiating an interim deal that would allow Iran to enrich uranium to 3% until a final agreement is reached in which the Islamic Republic can no longer enrich its own uranium…
Trump withdrew the nomination of Jason Isaacman to be the head of NASA, with a White House spokesperson saying that it is “essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda”…
Rev. Johnnie Moore was named the new head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation following Jake Woods’ departure last month; Moore’s appointment came a day after the Boston Consulting Group, which had been advising the effort, withdrew its team from the project…
The GHF paused operations on Wednesday with plans to resume on Thursday, following a string of security incidents in the vicinity of distribution sites in which Israeli forces fired at Palestinians who had mistakenly strayed from pre-approved routes to the sites; the GHF reportedly asked the IDF to improve instructions and directions for Palestinians to safely access the aid sites…
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) introduced a resolution honoring the 129th anniversary of the Jewish War Veterans organization…
Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Yvette Clarke (D-NY) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) introduced a resolution honoring the 100th anniversary of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research…
A group of four House Democrats introduced legislation on Wednesday that aims to exempt Israel and Ukraine from the global tariffs that Trump imposed by executive order, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
The State Department is launching a pilot program to vet student visa applicants’ social media profiles in an effort to crack down on the matriculation into American universities of foreign students with antisemitic beliefs; the pilot program is focused on individuals “seeking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose”…
In Foreign Policy, Aaron David Miller assesses the state of relations between the Trump administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
The House Education and Workforce Committee threatened on Monday to subpoena Bowdoin College, accusing the school of failing to comply with the committee’s requests for information regarding antisemitism on campus, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
In a recent appearance on the “Unholy Podcast,” former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan praised Trump for his strategy of engagement with Iran on their nuclear weapons program and predicted that the Trump administration would reach a deal that “is going to look and feel pretty similar to the” 2015 nuclear deal reached by former President Barack Obama, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
In a newly surfaced clip of New York Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani from 2021, the legislator, who is currently mounting a bid for New York City mayor, acknowledged that he identifies as an anti-Zionist, saying, “In the anti-Zionist movement that I believe in and belong to, there is no room for antisemitism”…
CBS News interviews the family of Sarah Milgrim, one of two Israeli Embassy employees killed in a terror attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum last month…
The French National Assembly unanimously voted to promote Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general more than a century after the Jewish army officer was stripped of his rank in an incident widely attributed to antisemitism…
Several Jewish institutions in Paris, as well as the city’s Holocaust memorial, were vandalized over the weekend…
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who is also serving as the Trump administration’s Syria envoy, said that the U.S. would eliminate seven of its eight bases in Syria as part of a broader drawdown of troops from the country…
Israel conducted a series of airstrikes on weapons targets in southern Syria following the launch of projectiles from the area into Israel on Tuesday evening…
Betsy Berns Korn assumed the role of chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations over the weekend, succeeding Harriet P. Schleifer…
Macroeconomist Stanley Fischer, who served as governor of the Bank of Israel and vice chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, died at 81…
South African author Lynn Freed, whose writings focused on her childhood in a Jewish community in apartheid South Africa, died at 79…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog met on Tuesday with released hostage Omer Wenkert and his parents, Niva and Shai, at the president’s residence in Jerusalem.
Birthdays
Israeli supermodel, Bar Refaeli turns 40…
Co-founder of Boston Properties and owner of U.S. News & World Report, Mort Zuckerman turns 88… Professor emeritus of organic chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science and winner of the 2012 Israel Prize, David Milstein turns 78… Retired chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, Stephen J. Markman turns 76… Judge on the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia since 2018, he was the longest tenured member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (42 years from 1974 to 2016), Mark B. Cohen turns 76… Lineman for the Miami Dolphins for 11 seasons, which included three Super Bowl appearances and four Pro Bowls, then a judge on the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida (Miami-Dade County), Ed Newman turns 74… British journalist, author of 11 books and columnist for The Times of London, The Jerusalem Post and The Jewish Chronicle, Melanie Phillips turns 74… First-ever Jewish governor of Hawaii and then chief operating officer of Illinois, she serves on the board of directors of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Linda Lingle turns 72… President and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC until 2023, now a professor at Johns Hopkins, Daniel H. Weiss turns 68… Co-founder of Ripco Real Estate, Todd Cooper… Chair in Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Matthew Langer Meyerson turns 62… Law professor at both the University of Toronto and University of California, Berkeley, Ayelet Shachar turns 59… U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) turns 54… French-Israeli entrepreneur, angel investor in over 360 startups, Jeremie Berrebi turns 47… D.C.-based photographer and founder of Revamped Media, Daniel Swartz… Reporter for The Washington Post, Colby Itkowitz… Senior planning analyst at Con Edison in NYC, Adam E. Soclof… Director at Dentons Global Advisors, Jason Hillel Attermann… Managing editor at eJewishPhilanthropy, Judah Ari Gross… Gena Wolfson… Political coordinating producer for NBC, Emily Gold… Former member of the New York State Assembly, now VP of government relations at UJA-Federation of New York, Daniel Rosenthal turns 34… Ken Moss…
Plus, new UCLA chancellor calls out campus antisemitism
GETTY IMAGES
A general view of the U.S. Capitol Building from the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 29, 2025.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how Congress has increasingly ceded its authority over foreign policy to the White House, and interview UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk about his efforts to address antisemitism at the school. We also talk to Rep. Mike Lawler about his recent trip to the Middle East, and report on President Donald Trump’s plan to nominate far-right commentator Paul Ingrassia to a senior administration post. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Greg Landsman, Mia Schem and Michael Bloomberg.
Ed. note: In observance of Shavuot, the next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Wednesday, June 4. Chag sameach!
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Hostages’ long-lasting mental and physical scars of Gaza captivity are treated at ‘Returnees Ward’; Israel can’t compete in checkbook diplomacy. These tech leaders have other ideas; and Sen. Dave McCormick, in Israel, talks about Trump’s Iran diplomacy, Gaza aid. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations, amid reports yesterday that Israel and Hamas were close to reaching an agreement that would have included the release of 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 deceased hostages. A senior Hamas official last night rejected the U.S.-proposed ceasefire deal that had already been agreed to by Israel.
- Fox News Channel will air a wide-ranging interview tomorrow night with Sara Netanyahu, in which she’ll discuss with Lara Trump how life in Israel has changed since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JOSH KRAUSHAAR
Pore over the latest round of polling in the New York City mayoral primary, and it is something of a political analyst’s Rorschach test. The question is what will be a bigger turnoff for Gotham voters: extremism or personal scandal?
Will Zohran Mamdani’s radicalism make it difficult for the DSA-affiliated assemblyman — polling in second place — to win an outright majority of the Democratic vote? Candidates from the far-left wing of the party typically have a hard ceiling of support, but the latest polls suggest he’s not yet facing the elevated negative ratings that candidates in his ideological lane typically encounter. There hasn’t yet been a barrage of attack ads reminding voters about his record, as he slowly inches closer to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Will Cuomo’s personal baggage ultimately be a bigger factor for Democratic voters? Cuomo has been leading the race since jumping in, but holds elevated unfavorability ratings, predominantly stemming from the scandal over sexual misconduct allegations, which he continues to deny, that forced him to resign as governor.
The city’s ranked-choice voting system requires the winner to receive an outright majority of the vote, and build a broader coalition than would be necessary if one only needed a plurality to prevail. In theory, that would advantage Cuomo, given his high name identification, moderate message and ample fundraising resources. In nearly every contest held under a ranked-choice system across the country, moderates have gotten a significant boost, including in the 2021 NYC mayoral primary, when Eric Adams prevailed.
But if there’s a broad antipathy to Cuomo that goes beyond ideological lines, it’s plausible that any alternative to Cuomo could benefit, simply because they’re running as a candidate of change. It’s hard to overlook Cuomo’s underwater favorability rating among primary voters; a new Emerson poll found a near-majority (47%) of NYC Democrats viewing Cuomo unfavorably, with 40% viewing him favorably.
Cuomo’s lead over Mamdani in the final round of ranked-choice voting, according to the poll, stood at eight points (54-46%). It’s a lead that is outside the margin of error, but a little too close for comfort considering Cuomo’s other advantages. The poll found Mamdani winning more of the votes from the third-place finisher (Comptroller Brad Lander) in the final round, suggesting that Cuomo could be vulnerable to opponents framing their campaigns as part of an anti-Cuomo coalition.
Cuomo’s strongest support comes from the Black community (74% support over Mamdani), voters over 50 (66%) and women (58%). Mamdani’s base is among younger white progressives, leading big over Cuomo with voters under 50 (61%).
Cuomo’s margin for success could end up coming from the city’s sizable Jewish community — many of whose members view Mamdani’s virulently anti-Israel record and pro-BDS advocacy as a threat — even though he’s currently winning a fairly small plurality of Jewish votes, according to a recent Homan Strategy Group survey.
Cuomo only tallied 31% of the Jewish vote, according to the poll, but has a lot of room for growth, especially since he still has potential to make inroads with Orthodox Jewish voters, many of whom became disenchanted with him as governor due to his aggressive COVID restrictions. (For instance: A significant 37% share of Orthodox Jewish voters said they were undecided in the Homan survey; 0% supported Mamdani.)
If those Cuomo-skeptical Orthodox voters swing towards the former governor in the final stretch, especially as the threat of Mamdani becomes more real, that may be enough for Cuomo to prevail. But it’s a sign of the times — and the state of the Democratic Party — that this race is as competitive as it is, given the anti-Israel record of the insurgent.
IN THE BACK SEAT
How Congress became impotent on foreign policy
For decades, Jewish and pro-Israel groups invested significant resources in building bipartisan relationships with key members of Congress to steer legislation, while helping secure foreign aid and blocking unfavorable initiatives concerning the Middle East, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. But that long-standing playbook has appeared less effective and relevant in recent years as Congress has increasingly ceded its authority on foreign policy to the executive branch, a trend that has accelerated with President Donald Trump’s return to office. The dynamic is frustrating pro-Israel advocates who had long prioritized Congress as a vehicle of influence, prompting many to reassess the most effective ways to advocate for preferred policies.
‘Increasingly irrelevant’: There are any number of reasons why Congress has taken a back seat in shaping foreign affairs, experts say, including Trump’s efforts to consolidate power in the executive branch, most recently by gutting the National Security Council. And Trump’s own power in reshaping the ideological direction of his party, preferring diplomacy over military engagement, has made more-hawkish voices within the party more reluctant to speak out against administration policy. “Congress is increasingly irrelevant except on nominations and taxes,” Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as a special envoy for Iran in the first Trump administration, told Jewish Insider. “It has abandoned its once-central role on tariffs, and plays little role in other foreign affairs issues. That’s a long-term trend and we saw it in previous administrations, but it is worsened by the deadlocks on Capitol Hill, the need to get 60 votes to do almost anything, and by Trump’s centralization of power in the White House.”
UNIVERSITY RECKONING
‘The challenge attracted me’: Julio Frenk brings the fight against campus antisemitism to UCLA
After Oct, 7, 2023, Julio Frenk, then-president of the University of Miami, was swift and clear in his unequivocal condemnation of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel, and in his guidance about the university’s rules around protesting, harassment and violence, and continued disavowals of antisemitism. Now, in his new role as chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, Frenk is attempting to bring some Florida to deep-blue California as he wraps up his first semester. “When we engage with each other, we do that respectfully and without — obviously no hatred, no harassment, no incitement to violence, but also no expressions that are deeply offensive to the other side,” Frenk told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch in an interview this week.
Protest problems: During UCLA’s large anti-Israel encampment last spring, Jewish students were barred from accessing parts of campus by the protest organizers. The tents popped up just days after Frenk had accepted the offer from Michael Drake, president of the University of California system. “I had already said yes, and he said, ‘Are you going to change your mind?’ And I said, ‘No, I’m not going to change my mind. I think this is a very important challenge to face and fix if I can, and I’m going to give it my all,’” Frenk recalled. “What drew me here is just the reputation, the standing, and I know that that spring, the images of UCLA going to the world were not very enticing. But to be honest, facing that challenge was something that attracted me.”
STANDING TOGETHER
‘Keep showing up’: Capital Jewish Museum reopens after deadly shooting
As visitors entered the Capital Jewish Museum on Thursday morning, open for the first time after an antisemitic attack killed two Israeli Embassy staffers steps from its doors last week, they walked past a makeshift memorial to Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky before security guards wanded them down and checked their bags. The museum might be reopening, but its staff — and the broader Washington Jewish community — now feel a heaviness that did not exist last week, when the museum was on the cusp of unveiling a major new exhibit about LGBTQ Jews ahead of the World Pride Festival next month. The presence of police officers and heightened security precautions in the newly reopened space were stark reminders of the violence perpetrated by a radicalized gunman who said he killed the two young people “for Gaza,” Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Stop by: A brief ceremony marking the museum’s reopening began with a cantor leading the crowd in singing songs for peace. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged to continue to support the Jewish community and called on all Washingtonians to do the same. “It is not up to the Jewish community to say, ‘Support us.’ It is up to all of us to denounce antisemitism in all forms,” Bowser told the several dozen people at the event. Bowser, who was instrumental in the creation of the museum, which opened in 2023, urged people in the local community to visit.
SEEING THE SIGNS
Rep. Landsman: Murder of Israeli Embassy staffers was the culmination of a ‘trajectory’ toward antisemitic violence
For Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), the murder of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum last week brought to life fears he has harbored for months, amid rising extremism in anti-Israel demonstrations, Landsman told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod in an interview on Wednesday.
Worst fears: The Jewish Ohio congressman said that days before the shooting, while attending a public event in downtown Cincinnati, he had a “really vivid image of being shot in the back of the head. What I saw was myself laying on the ground in the way in which you would be if you had been shot in the head … I wasn’t alive, I was dead.” Landsman continued, “And then, literally two or three days later, that’s what happened outside the Jewish museum. That’s what happened to these two innocent people.” He said he feels the country has been on a “trajectory” toward such violence by anti-Israel agitators, and that it will continue without a change in course.
CONTOVERSIAL COMMENTATOR
Latest Trump nominee called Israel-Palestinian conflict a ‘psyop’, promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories
President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate far-right commentator Paul Ingrassia to head the agency tasked with rooting out corruption and protecting whistleblowers in the federal government, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports. Ingrassia, 29, currently serves as the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security. He briefly served as the White House liaison to the Department of Justice early in Trump’s second term, but was reassigned after clashing with the DOJ’s chief of staff after urging the president to hire only individuals who exhibited what Ingrassia called “exceptional loyalty,” according to ABC News.
Part of a pattern: Ingrassia has trafficked in a number of conspiracy theories, as have several other controversial administration appointees, including Department of Defense Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson and Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie. On Oct. 7, 2023, as the Hamas attacks were still underway, Ingrassia posted on X calling illegal immigration to the U.S. “comparable to the attack on Israel,” writing, “The amount of energy everyone has put into condemning Hamas (and prior to that, the Ukraine conflict) over the past 24 hours should be the same amount of energy we put into condemning our wide open border, which is a war comparable to the attack on Israel in terms of bloodshed — but made worse by the fact that it’s occurring in our very own backyard. We shouldn’t be beating the war drum, however tragic the events may be overseas, until we resolve our domestic problems first.”
TEHRAN TALK
Lawler: Regional leaders ‘cautiously optimistic’ about nuclear talks, but ‘realistic’ about Iranian bad faith
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), returning from a trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, characterized leaders in the region as being open to the Trump administration’s efforts to reach a new nuclear deal with Iran, but also suggested that they are skeptical that Iran will actually agree to a deal that dismantles its nuclear program, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “I think folks are realistic about the prospects of Iran coming to an agreement, but still want to give the process a chance and try to avoid a conflict if possible,” Lawler told JI on Thursday. “But ultimately, you know, I think everybody is very clear about the fact that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” Asked about the potential contours of a deal, Lawler said, “my general view is that the nuclear program, obviously, is a major threat, but so too is their continued funding of terrorism, and all of these issues are going to have to be addressed, one way or the other.”
Worthy Reads
Gaming Out the Jewish Future: eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross spotlights an initiative launched by philanthropist Phil Siegel using “war games” that simulate potential future scenarios facing the American Jewish community to get leaders to think more about long-term planning. “The Jewish community may not have direct control over nuclear war, global demographic trends or international trade wars, for instance, even though these have a profound influence on the Jewish community. (Most of the scenarios include a geopolitical element as well, such as peace in the Middle East in the first one or an acute housing crisis in Israel that prevents American Jews from emigrating despite harsh conditions in the U.S. in the third scenario.) However, the Jewish community does have control over creating new organizations and initiatives or coordinating existing ones. ‘The game itself and the scenario itself were less important. It was more about how people think — What types of things influence us? Do we have more or less agency over them?’ [Israeli educator Barak] Sella said. ‘Is there an optimal scenario and does the Jewish community have a 2050 outcome that we are working toward?’” [eJP]
Delay of (End) Game: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius calls for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, positing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for a year rejected subordinates’ suggested strategies for winding down the conflict. “What’s agonizing is that Israeli military and intelligence leaders were ready to settle this conflict nearly a year ago. Working with U.S. and Emirati officials, they developed a plan for security ‘bubbles’ that would contain the violence, starting in northern Gaza and moving south, backed by an international peacekeeping force that would include troops from European and moderate Arab countries. … The Israeli-Palestinian dispute might seem intractable, but ending this conflict would be relatively easy. I’m told that Israeli military officials keep working on ‘day after’ plans, honing details as recently as this week. But they have had no political support from Netanyahu. ‘The “exit ramp” has been staring us in the face for a long time,’ argues Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It’s a mix of Arab states and Gaza Palestinians, operating under a Palestinian Authority umbrella, he explains. “It is messy, with overlapping responsibilities and lots of dotted lines. But it checks all the boxes to enable the process of reconstruction and rehabilitation to get off the ground.’” [WashPost]
Mumbai Makeover: In The Wall Street Journal, Howard Husock interviews Rabbi Yisroel Kozlovsky of the Chabad House of Mumbai, India, about the city’s Jewish revival since the terror attack in 2008 in which Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife and unborn child were killed. “Now in his 12th year in Mumbai, the rabbi recalls his unease upon receiving the assignment from Chabad’s headquarters in New York. He arrived in 2013 to find the building untouched since the terror attacks, its walls still bloodstained. His successor had been forced to live and hold services in rented apartments for the Jewish visitors and expats. (There are reportedly no more than 5,000 ethnic Indian ‘Bene Israel’ Jews in the country.) ‘Imagine our feelings when we walk in and see the destruction firsthand. It was still one big mess,’ Rabbi Kozlovsky says. ‘We knew immediately, though, we wanted to bring life back to the building.’ … Rabbi Kozlovsky has nevertheless decided not to shy away from the events of 26/11, as the locals refer to the attack, but to make it the basis of a mission. He has set out to build an artistic multimedia memorial to educate the hundreds of visitors, almost all non-Jewish Indians, who come here each week, mainly through class trips. ‘Restoration and resilience are not good enough responses to terror,’ he says of the project. ‘We are building a memorial and museum to teach history, to be a beacon of light.’” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack, who is also serving as Syria envoy, said in Damascus on Thursday that relations between Syria and Israel are a “solvable problem” that “starts with a dialogue”; Barrack also raised the U.S. flag over the ambassador’s residence in Damascus for the first time since the embassy’s closure 13 years ago…
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that any nuclear agreement with the U.S. must include the full lifting of sanctions and preservation of Tehran’s enrichment capabilities…
Saudi, Qatari and Emirati leaders reportedly told President Donald Trump during his trip to the region last week that they opposed military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program…
The Wall Street Journal reports on Israeli concerns over Washington’s ongoing nuclear talks with Iran, positing that a deal could put Israel “in a bind with its most important ally on its most pressing national security question”…
Columbia University reached a settlement with a Jewish social work student who had filed a lawsuit against the school alleging antisemitic discrimination…
California’s state Assembly unanimously advanced antisemitism legislation backed by Jewish groups in the state; AB715 would improve the process for making discrimination complaints, as well as create an antisemitism coordinator position for the state’s K-12 schools…
A Yonkers, N.Y., man was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to attacking a Jewish barber last year…
A Michigan man who in 2022 threatened parents and students at a synagogue preschool pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the efforts of small wine importer and distributor Victor Owen Schwartz to challenge the Trump administration’s tariffs in court…
The board of Ben & Jerry’s issued a statement labeling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, setting up another battle with parent company Unilever, which has for years clashed with the ice cream company’s independent board over its approach to social issues, including Israel…
CBS News profiles Karin Prien, the first Jewish federal cabinet member to serve in post-WWII Germany; the daughter of Holocaust survivors who was born in the Netherlands, Prien moved to Germany with her family when she was 4 and now serves as the country’s minister for education, family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth…
Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with United Arab Emirates National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan for a conversation largely focused on the opportunities presented by AI technology…
The Associated Press reports on efforts to free Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped by an Iranian-backed militia group in Iraq in 2023…
Iran’s embassy in India said it is investigating the disappearance of three Punjabi men who went missing earlier this month in Tehran while transiting through Iran en route to Australia, where a local travel agent had promised them jobs…
An increasing number of oil tankers are turning off their transponders as they near Malaysia, an area used to transfer Iranian oil bound for China, as Tehran continues to work to evade U.S. sanctions…
Missouri philanthropist Bud Levin died at 88…
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who headed the NYPD during the 9/11 terror attacks, died at 69…
Dr. Robert Jarvik, who oversaw the design of the first artificial heart, died at 79…
Pic of the Day
Following her return to Israel, Mia Schem — who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and spent 55 days in Hamas captivity — famously had the phrase “We will dance again” tattooed on her arm. On Thursday night, approximately 800 New Yorkers joined Schem in dancing again at the sold-out inaugural Tribe of Nova Foundation benefit held at Sony Hall, a concert venue in Times Square.
The event was held with the goal of raising at least $1 million to aid families of victims and survivors of Nova, where 411 festivalgoers, mostly young people, were killed and 44 were taken hostage, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Birthdays
Medical director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Ethiopia spine and heart project, Dr. Richard Michael Hodes turns 72…
FRIDAY: Santa Monica, Calif.-based historian of Sephardic and Crypto-Jewish studies, Dolores Sloan turns 95… Real estate developer, landlord of the World Trade Center until 9/11, former chair of UJA-Federation of New York, Larry A. Silverstein turns 94… Partner in the NYC law firm of Mintz & Gold, he is also a leading supporter of Hebrew University, Ira Lee “Ike” Sorkin turns 82… Board member of the Collier County chapter of the Florida ACLU and the Naples Florida Council on World Affairs, Maureen McCully “Mo” Winograd… Cape Town, South Africa, native, she is the owner and chef at Los Angeles-based Catering by Brenda, Brenda Walt turns 74… Former professional tennis player, he competed in nine Wimbledons and 13 U.S. Opens, now the varsity tennis coach at Gilman School in Baltimore, Steve “Lightning” Krulevitz turns 74… Former chief rabbi of France, Gilles Uriel Bernheim turns 73… Encino, Calif.-based business attorney, Andrew W. Hyman… Literary critic, essayist and novelist, Daphne Miriam Merkin turns 71… Israeli physicist and philosopher, Avshalom Cyrus Elitzur turns 68… Former member of Congress for 16 years, since leaving Congress he has opened a bookstore and written two novels, Steve Israel turns 67… Former science editor for BBC News and author of six books, David Shukman turns 67… Founder of Krav Maga Global with 1,500 instructors in 60 countries, Eyal Yanilov turns 66… Editorial writer at The New York Times, Michelle Cottle… Film, stage and television actress; singer and songwriter, she sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, Idina Menzel turns 54… Writer, filmmaker, playwright and DJ, known by his pen name Ithamar Ben-Canaan, Itamar Handelman Smith turns 49… Member of Knesset who served as Israel’s minister of agriculture in the prior government, Oded Forer turns 48… Director of engagement and program at NYC’s Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Scott Hertz… Chief of staff for Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Reema Dodin turns 45… Tsippy Friend… Israeli author, her debut novel has been published in more than 20 languages around the world, Shani Boianjiu turns 38… Rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer, known professionally as Hebro, Raphael Ohr Chaim Fulcher turns 38… Senior counsel at Gilead Sciences, Ashley Bender Spirn… Ice hockey defenseman, he has played for four NHL teams and is now in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, David Matthew Warsofsky turns 35… Deputy chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Miryam Esther Lipper… Senior reporter for CNN, Eric Levenson… Challah baker, social entrepreneur and manager at Howard Properties, Jason Friend…
SATURDAY: Investment advisor at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, Alfred Phillip Stern turns 92… Businessman and philanthropist, Ira Leon Rennert turns 91… Professor at Yale University and the 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, William Dawbney Nordhaus turns 84… Food critic at Vogue magazine since 1989 and judge on “Iron Chef America,” he is the author of the 1996 award-winning book The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten turns 83… Founder and retired CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, Alvin “Al” From turns 82… Author, political pundit and a retired correspondent for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” he has won 14 Emmy Awards during his career, Bernie Goldberg turns 80… Comedian, actress and TV producer, Susie Essman turns 70… Founder and chairman of the Katz Group of Companies with operations in the pharmacy, sports (including the Edmonton Oilers), entertainment and real estate sectors, Daryl Katz turns 64… Reality television personality, best known for starring in and producing her own matchmaking reality series, “The Millionaire Matchmaker” on Bravo TV, Patti Stanger turns 64… Jerusalem-born inventor, serial entrepreneur and novelist; founder, chairman and CEO of CyberArk Software, one of Israel’s leading software companies, Alon Nisim Cohen turns 57… Entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of CryptoLogic, an online casino software firm, Andrew Rivkin turns 56… Former Democratic mayor of Annapolis, Md., now head of policy at SWTCH, Joshua Jackson “Josh” Cohen turns 52… Program director of synagogue and rabbinic initiatives at the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, Melissa York… Israeli actress, singer and dancer, she played a Mossad agent in the espionage TV series “Tehran,” Liraz Charhi turns 47… Author of the “Money Stuff” column at Bloomberg Opinion, Matthew Stone Levine turns 47… Freelance writer in Brooklyn, Sara Trappler Spielman… Attorney and NYT best-selling author of the Mara Dyer and Shaw Confessions series, Michelle Hodkin turns 43… Senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce until earlier this year, Bert Eli Kaufman… Senior product manager at Tel Aviv-based Forter, Zoe Goldfarb… Stephanie Oreck Weiss… Chief revenue officer at NOTUS, Brad E. Bosserman… Senior rabbi and executive director of Jewish life at D.C.’s Sixth & I, Aaron Potek… Managing editor at Allbritton Journalism Institute, Matt Berman… Medical student in the class of 2027 at the University of Nicosia Medical School, Amital Isaac… Brad Goldstein… Basketball player in Israel’s Premier League until recent years, while at Princeton he won the Ivy League Player of the Year award, Spencer Weisz turns 30… Professional golfer on the PGA Tour, Max Alexander Greyserman turns 30… Rapper, singer, songwriter and producer, known by his stage name, King Sol, Benjamin Solomon turns 27…
SUNDAY: Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, pianist and conductor, he has taught at Yale, SUNY Purchase, Cornell, Brandeis and Harvard, Yehudi Wyner turns 96… Holocaust survivor as a child, he served as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel for 10 years and twice as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv for 16 years, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau turns 88… NYC-based attorney, author of two books regarding the history and operations of El Al, owner of 40,000 plus pieces of memorabilia related to El Al, Marvin G. Goldman turns 86… Grammy Award-winning classical pianist, Richard Goode turns 82… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Shimon Ohayon turns 80… Retired attorney in Berkeley, Calif., Thomas Andrew Seaton… Pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay area, Elliot Charles Lepler, MD… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui and the Hilonit Tzionit parties, Eti Livni turns 77… Founding editor of The American Interest, Adam M. Garfinkle turns 74… Former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News and co-author with Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Matthew Winkler turns 70… Contributing editor at The Free Press, Uri Paul Berliner… Founding rabbi of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, N.Y., Rabbi Moshe Weinberger turns 68… Former IDF officer and now a London-based political scientist and journalist, Ahron “Ronnie” Bregman turns 67… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party for 16 years ending in 2015, Amnon Cohen turns 65… Owner of MLB’s Athletics (temporarily playing in Sacramento), he is the chair of Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Foundation, John J. Fisher turns 64… Poet, performance artist and essayist, Adeena Karasick turns 60… Founding editor and publisher of the Dayton Jewish Observer, Marshall J. Weiss… Television personality and matchmaker, Sigalit “Siggy” Flicker turns 58… Actress, voice actress and film director, Danielle Harris turns 48… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer, Spencer J. Ackerman turns 45… Comedian, writer, actress, director and producer, Amy Schumer turns 44… Partner in Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm, Daniel Tannebaum… President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Yael Eckstein turns 41… Musician, songwriter, author, actor and blogger, Ari Seth Herstand turns 40… CEO of The Good Food Institute, Ilya Sheyman turns 39… Political reporter for NBC News and MSNBC until earlier this year, now a newspaper editor in Maine, Alex Seitz-Wald… Senior writer at Barron’s covering the Federal Reserve, Nicole Goodkind… Former engineering lead at Palantir Technologies, now in a MPP program at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, Naomi S. Kadish… Executive business partner at Lyft, Isabel Keller… NYC-born Israeli pair skater, she competed for Israel at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Hailey Esther Kops turns 23…
Plus, Torres urges APA to address 'persistent and pernicious’ antisemitism
SAEED JARAS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Dislocated Palestinians carry the humanitarian aid they have received from a United Nations distribution point in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip on May 27, 2025.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we consider the efficacy of the first days of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s operations to distribute aid in the enclave, and report on a call by Rep. Ritchie Torres on the American Psychological Association to address antisemitism in its ranks. We have scoops on a call by 33 senators for $500 million in nonprofit security funding on the heels of the Capital Jewish Museum shooting; a bipartisan House letter urging President Donald Trump to reach a deal to release the hostages in Gaza; and a statement by 41 pro-Israel House Democrats praising the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Marc Steinberg, Sam Feist and Gal Gadot.
What We’re Watching
- The Capital Jewish Museum will reopen today, a week after a deadly attack in which two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed after attending an American Jewish Committee event held at the museum. The museum will hold a program this morning that includes addresses from museum officials, local clergy and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser.
- In Massachusetts, the Holocaust Museum Boston is holding its official groundbreaking ceremony today.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH MELISSA WEISS
In October 2023, then-Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said that “getting assistance into Gaza is a complicated undertaking.” In a constantly evolving war in which much has changed over the last 19 months, Finer’s comments remain as relevant and prescient as they did when he first made them to CNN. Aid distribution has long plagued Israeli, American, Palestinian and Arab agencies and officials, who have since the start of the war struggled to unite on a comprehensive aid plan.
There are a variety of challenges, among them the resistance of many aid organizations in Gaza to work with Israel, Israeli bureaucracy and logistical hurdles, and the sheer challenge of delivering aid to two million people in an enclave in which terrorists embed themselves with civilians and in aid groups.
After the failed attempt to create a humanitarian pier to deliver aid by sea, skepticism ran high that outside actors could facilitate the mass transfer of aid across Gaza. And in the first 48 hours of its operations, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation faced a slew of online criticism — largely from activists and other aid groups.
But a closer look at the GHF’s operations shows a newly formed organization that is serving as an efficient, if imperfect, mechanism to distribute aid in Gaza after an 11-week-long block.
Despite some isolated incidents, including brief chaos ensuing from a rush on supplies that was quickly calmed, and the looting of some facilities, the transmission of aid has largely proceeded smoothly. There are expected hurdles, including the long distances some have to travel to access the aid being provided by GHF. On the first day of operations, GHF said it distributed 8,000 packages, increasing the next day to 14,000. That number is expected to steadily increase as operations are refined and adjusted as needed.
The aid mechanism’s successes to date are underscored by Hamas’ efforts to thwart its work. The terror group used Facebook to spread rumors that GHF had closed some of its facilities. The rumors were quickly picked up by news outlets, such as Reuters, despite a lack of verification. GHF released a statement saying it “urge[s] journalists and the public to verify sources carefully. In several instances, we are seeing news reports echo Hamas statements or online disinformation campaigns without verification for accuracy.” Such narratives, the group added, “endanger humanitarian efforts and mislead the public.”
Outside aid efforts have for months faced resistance from established groups on the ground, including U.N. organizations. UNRWA in particular, which has been largely sidelined from operations since the implementation of an Israeli law banning the group from operating in the Palestinian territories over its staffers’ ties to Hamas, has been among the most critical of the new effort.
Critics were quick to write the GHF’s obituary earlier this week, following the resignation of its CEO and COO. But the first days of operations show what a coordinated, multi-party effort could look like, and provide an alternative for those looking for a new way to address an issue that has long plagued decision-makers. The greatest threat to GHF’s existence may not be the logistical problems or online backlash, but the deeply entrenched institutions that have repeatedly failed to deliver for the people of Gaza.
exclusive
Torres warns American Psychological Association to address ‘persistent and pernicious’ antisemitism in its ranks
Concerned with a “persistent and pernicious pattern of antisemitism” at the American Psychological Association, the preeminent professional organization for American psychologists, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is urging the body’s leadership to investigate antisemitism within its ranks and better respond to the concerns of Jewish members, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. His letter comes as the mental health field grapples with an antisemitism problem that has only grown more acute after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.
Blowing the whistle: “I have spoken directly with whistleblowers — many of them longtime APA members — who accuse the organization of enabling a hostile environment,” Torres wrote in a letter, obtained by JI, that he sent to the APA’s president and president-elect on Wednesday. “These incidents collectively suggest that the APA has not only been dismissive of the legitimate grievances of Jewish psychologists but also permissive of content that traffics in malicious falsehoods against Zionism, Israel, and the Jewish community.”
SCOOP
After Capital Jewish Museum killings, 33 senators call for $500 million in nonprofit security funding
A bipartisan group of 33 senators — mostly Democrats — sent a letter last week urging Senate Appropriations Committee leaders to provide $500 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in 2026, matching the record-high request from a group of House members earlier this month, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the request: The letter was sent the day following the murder of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, an attack that led a coalition of Jewish groups to call for increasing funding for the program, which provides synagogues and nonprofits with grants to improve their security, to $1 billion. Though only two Republicans signed the letter, the bipartisan request marks a change in Senate advocacy on this issue — in the past, bipartisan Senate groups have not specified amounts in their lobbying for the program. Senate Democrats last year called for $400 million for the program.
rumor realized
Trump confirms he told Netanyahu not to strike Iran last week
President Donald Trump confirmed reports that he warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call last week not to proceed with plans to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities while the U.S. and Iran continue negotiations, saying that he told the Israeli leader a strike “is not appropriate right now,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
What he said: Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the president responded to a question about the validity of the report by saying, “I’d like to be honest. Yes, I did.” Pressed about the nature of the conversation, the president clarified, “It’s not a warning, I said I don’t think it’s appropriate. We’re having very good discussions with them [Iran] and I don’t think it’s appropriate right now.”
EXCLUSIVE
Pro-Israel Dems say resumption of Gaza aid will refocus attention on hostages
A group of 41 pro-Israel House Democrats released a statement on Wednesday praising the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza as helping to refocus international attention on releasing the hostages and calling for a comprehensive plan for postwar Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they said: The statement, first shared with JI, argues that the renewed delivery of aid, which began on Monday, was “essential to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, so that the primary focus of the international community can return to releasing the hostages that remain in captivity.” They added, “the United States, Israel, and key Arab partners must agree upon a serious and credible political and security plan to govern Gaza after the war.” The statement was organized by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), in cooperation with Democratic Majority for Israel.
after captivity
Hostages’ long-lasting mental and physical scars of Gaza captivity are treated at ‘Returnees Ward’
When Israelis held hostage by terrorists in Gaza are released, there is a flurry of attention. Members of the media descend on the hospitals to which the newly freed hostages are sent. Soon after, however, the public no longer hears much from most of them. Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, in central Israel, has treated and continues to treat hostages released in the ceasefire that took place earlier this year. Dr. Michael Bahar, director of the Rehabilitation Unit at Beilinson, who has been overseeing their recovery, told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov in the hospital this week that his department “built rehabilitation programs based on each patient’s specific needs. It’s a multidisciplinary process, working with physical therapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, nurses and psychologists. For the rehabilitation of the female soldiers, “we work with the IDF,” he added.
Meaningful connection: The Rehabilitation Unit at Beilinson also treats many wounded soldiers, and Bahar said they and the former hostages have found it meaningful to undergo joint treatment and exercises together, including in the department’s pool. “The soldiers felt that they were fighting to free the hostages, so we connected between them,” Bahar said. “One evening the [female soldier hostages] went to visit the wounded soldiers in the department. It was an indescribable moment. They couldn’t speak, they were so excited … It was very significant, very powerful for the soldiers and the returnees.”
exclusive
Bipartisan House letter urges use of ‘all available diplomatic efforts’ to free hostages
In a letter to President Donald Trump, a bipartisan group of House members renewed a call for a deal to release all of the remaining hostages held in Gaza, including the bodies of four Americans believed to be deceased, urging him to capitalize on potential momentum from the release of Israeli American Edan Alexander earlier this month, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Letter writing: “Building on the momentum of Edan’s release, we strongly urge your Administration to press forward with all available diplomatic efforts to secure the return of all hostages — including the four remaining Americans: Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai, and Judi Weinstein Haggai,” the House letter reads. “While Edan’s return marks a critical breakthrough, the suffering he endured underscores the urgency of this mission … This moment — coming in the wake of Edan’s homecoming—offers a window of opportunity.”
Worthy Reads
Ditch Gaz-a-Lago: In Foreign Policy, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro suggests that President Donald Trump should abandon his proposed “Gaza Riviera” plan in the interest of ending the war and freeing the remaining hostages. “The plan was utterly unrealistic from the start. The White House quickly clarified that Trump envisioned no U.S. troops taking part and no U.S. funds being used to implement it. No other countries stepped forward either to host the displaced Palestinians or with money to pay for the grand reconstruction. Having never asked Gaza’s residents if they wanted to leave — surely some do, and should be permitted to, but others would choose to stay — Trump’s plan, if it forced the latter category out, would amount to ethnic cleansing. But even a mirage can cause damage. What the Gaza Riviera plan did accomplish was to empower the far-right Israeli leaders, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to pursue their extremist agenda of ridding Gaza of Palestinians, followed by Israeli reoccupation and resettlement. … But Netanyahu’s embrace of this plan has become a major obstacle to the release of hostages and a better path for Gaza. It is fueling the worst instincts of Israeli politicians whose agenda would upset Trump’s own regional goals.” [ForeignPolicy]
The NSC Purge: In The Atlantic, Thomas Wright, who served in the Biden administration’s National Security Council, considers the role that a fully staffed NSC plays in presidential decision-making, following the White House’s purge last week of dozens of appointed officials. “Those who oppose Trump may welcome these cuts, precisely because they reduce the ability of this president to destroy and remake U.S. foreign policy. Decimating the NSC removes a layer of White House oversight from the departments engaged in foreign affairs, which could mean strengthening them relative to Trump: If Rubio is truly a temporary national security adviser, there for just six months, the gutting of the NSC will weaken his successor and strengthen his influence as secretary of state. The Pentagon, Treasury Department, Department of Homeland Security, Central Intelligence Agency, and other agencies could likewise set up their own mini–foreign policies, each based on the Cabinet secretary’s interpretation of what they heard from the president, whether in a meeting, a side conversation, or a Truth Social post.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
The transfer of a Qatari plane to the Trump administration has not been finalized amid delays regarding a memorandum of understanding that lays out the terms of the agreement; President Donald Trump has said that the plane is a “free” gift from Doha, while Qatari officials have stated that the Trump administration initiated the transaction…
A federal court blocked the imposition of the Trump administration‘s tariffs, saying the administration overstepped its authority in imposing the tariffs…
The New York Times’ Edward Wong posits that Trump may be envisioning a world order in which China, Russia and the United States operate in separate spheres of influence…
CNN interviews released hostages Omer Shem Tov and Keith Siegel about their time in Gaza and efforts to raise awareness about the plight of those who remain in captivity, including Omri Miran and Matan Angrest, with whom Siegel was kept for long periods of time…
A federal judge in New Jersey issued an order on Wednesday ruling that the Trump administration’s justification for its monthslong effort to deport Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil was likely unconstitutional — but that his failure to disclose his affiliations with anti-Israel groups raises concerns, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Elon Musk reportedly threatened to withhold the Trump administration’s support for the creation of an artificial intelligence campus in the United Arab Emirates that is being built in partnership with Sam Altman’s OpenAI and Nvidia if Musk’s xAI was not included in the project…
Elliott Investment Management partner Marc Steinberg was appointed to the board of Honeywell International; Elliott, which has a more than $5 billion stake in the company — one of its largest investments — last year called on Honeywell to break itself apart…
C-SPAN CEO Sam Feist said the network is facing a “crisis of funding” amid a broader shift away from cable news and the decision by distributors, including YouTube and Hulu, not to include the channel in its offerings…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the origins of the Trump administration’s targeting of elite universities, positing that the president’s focus on the issue began following the 2019 assault of a conservative student at the University of California, Berkeley…
Five anti-Israel activists were arrested for protesting at the London set where Israeli actress Gal Gadot is filming “The Runner”…
The U.K. is mulling sanctions on Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel killed Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar in an airstrike earlier this month…
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel planned to establish 22 settlements in the West Bank, a move he said “strengthens our hold” on the territory…
The Israeli Defense Ministry said it has shot down more than 40 drones using its new laser air-defense system since October 2023; most of the drones shot down by the new system were fired from Lebanon…
Ravid Haim, the baby born following a West Bank terror attack that killed his mother two weeks ago, died on Thursday morning; the baby had been in serious condition since he was delivered by emergency c-section immediately after the shooting…
The Financial Times looks at the domestic and international challenges facing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as he confronts “a hostile U.S., a stagnant economy and radical populist parties hovering in the wings”…
International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said that “the jury is still out” on whether the U.S. and Iran will reach a new nuclear agreement, as the parties prepare for a fifth round of talks to start on Friday…
Boston-based philanthropist and business leader Richard Barry Slifka died at 85…
Chicago real estate lawyer Morrie Much, a longtime donor to the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Jewish United Fund of Chicago who also supported the construction of the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Ill., died at 88…
Educator and fundraising professional Henry Saltzman died on May 11 at 95…
Pic of the Day
Israelis gathered yesterday in front of the U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv to mark the 600th day of the war, calling on President Donald Trump to put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war and secure the release of the remaining 58 Israeli hostages from Gaza.
Birthdays
Founder and creative director of the fashion label Shoshanna, style director for Elizabeth Arden, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss turns 50…
Montreal-based businessman and philanthropist, Marvin Birnbom turns 95… Professor emerita of marine biology at Rutgers University, Judith Shulman Weis turns 84… Former member of the Knesset for the Likud party and then Israel’s ambassador to Japan, Eli Cohen turns 76… Winner of three Emmy Awards and a Grammy, actor, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer, Danny Elfman turns 72… U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) turns 71… Retired senior diplomat in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she was previously a brigadier general in the IDF, Ruth Yaron turns 68… Television writer, producer and actor, best known as the creator of the sitcom “Arrested Development” as well as the co-creator of “The Ellen Show,” Mitchell Hurwitz turns 62… Immediate past president of Ahavath Achim Congregation in Wichita, Kan., she is a trustee-at-large on the board of JFNA, Ellen Ginsburg Beren… Professor at the University of Chicago, co-author of the best-selling books in the Freakonomics series, Steven Levitt turns 58… CEO and executive editor of 70 Faces Media, Amiram (Ami) Eden… Policy analyst at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Yaakov Feinstein… Founding partner of Blandford Capital, Nathaniel Jerome Meyohas turns 51… Chief communications officer and global spokesperson at Aish, she is also a cookbook author with over 100,000 cookbooks sold, Jamie Geller turns 47… Film producer and former corporate lawyer at Skadden Arps, Edward Frank “Teddy” Schwarzman turns 46… Senior political reporter at The Forward, Jacob Kornbluh… Swedish-born pro-Israel activist, commentator and reporter, Annika Hernroth-Rothstein turns 44… Managing director at Hudson Bay Capital Management, Alexander Berger… Assistant secretary for constituency affairs for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Jacob “Jake” Adler… Israeli-born assistant pitching coach for the Miami Marlins, he pitched for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Alon Leichman turns 36… English actor, his bar mitzvah was at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Gregg Sulkin turns 33…
Plus, the NYC candidate who won't say 'Jewish state’
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
A police officer stands at the site of a fatal shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover comments by Zohran Mamdani at last night’s UJA-Federation of New York town hall with the leading Democratic candidates in New York City’s mayoral primary and report on the Trump administration’s move to strip Harvard University of its ability to enroll foreign students. In the aftermath of Wednesday’s deadly shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, we talk to friends of the victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, and report on comments by pro-Israel leaders connecting the murder to anti-Israel advocacy on the political extremes and highlight a statement by 42 Jewish organizations urging additional action from the federal government to address antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. John Cornyn, Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Ambassador Yechiel Leiter.
Ed. note: In honor of Memorial Day on Monday, the next edition of the Daily Kickoff will arrive on Tuesday, May 27.
What We’re Watching
- The fifth round of nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran will take place today in Rome. Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad Director David Barnea are also set to meet with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Rome to coordinate Israel’s views with the U.S.
- Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) will deliver the keynote address at the 51st commencement ceremony of Touro’s Lander Colleges on Sunday at Lincoln Center.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JOSH KRAUSHAAR
In a series of upcoming Democratic primaries, Jewish and pro-Israel groups are deciding whether to press their political case and go on offense behind stalwart allies — or take a more cautious approach, focused on preventing candidates that are downright hostile to Jewish concerns from emerging as nominees, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
It’s an unusual place to be in. Until recently, most Democratic candidates were reliably attuned to Jewish communal interests, and there wasn’t much of a need for groups to play in primaries, except in rare situations. That changed with the emergence of the anti-Israel Squad of far-left Democrats, which led pro-Israel Democratic groups like DMFI to step up and support mainstream candidates, and pushed AIPAC to launch a super PAC to become much more involved in direct political engagement.
Now, even the issue of fighting or speaking out against antisemitism — far from the more heated debate over Israel policy — is no longer a consensus issue for Democrats. Senate Democrats (when in charge of the upper chamber) hesitated to hold hearings on campus antisemitism, a leading candidate for mayor of New York City declined to sign onto a legislative resolution commemorating the Holocaust and an increasingly credible New Jersey gubernatorial candidate has declined to distance himself from Louis Farrakhan.
What was once the extreme has now come uncomfortably close to the Democratic mainstream. The urgency of ensuring most candidates condemn antisemitism and anti-Israel radicalism wherever it rears its ugly head was made clear after the horrific murder on Wednesday night of two Israeli Embassy employees by a terrorist with a radical, anti-Israel background. Far too often, the growing number of threats to Jews along with the rise of anti-Israel sloganeering featuring antisemitic hate or adoption of terrorist symbols has been met with a benign acceptance.
That’s made the tactical decisions from outside Jewish and pro-Israel groups involved in politics a lot more significant. There are a number of Democratic primaries coming up featuring a stalwart ally of the Jewish community, an anti-Israel candidate with checkered history on antisemitism and a middle-of-the-road candidate whose record on these issues is respectable, but not always reliable.
Take next month’s New Jersey governor’s primary. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), seen as the front-runner, has compiled a generally pro-Israel record in Congress but hasn’t stuck her neck out as much as her Democratic colleague, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). Gottheimer has yet to catch momentum in the crowded primary, and one of the other credible challengers is Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, whose condemnation of Israel’s war in Gaza and praise for Farrakhan is viewed as beyond the pale.
At a certain point, do Jewish groups rally behind the center-left front-runner to block the more problematic candidate, or stick with the most supportive candidate?
The New York City mayoral primary next month provides another key test. State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is the favorite of the DSA base, and thanks to strong support from that far-left faction, is polling in second place. But due to his high profile and moderate pro-Israel message, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo looks like the clear front-runner — even as Jewish voters haven’t yet consolidated behind him in the crowded field.
To Cuomo’s benefit, New York City mayoral primaries have a ranked-choice system that prevents a candidate with a small but passionate base from winning a small plurality in a crowded field. In theory, that should help Cuomo. But as the leading moderate candidate in the race, he could also benefit from consolidating the centrist vote, which is still up for grabs.
Within the sizable Jewish constituency in New York City, Cuomo faces pushback from some Orthodox voters still angry about the then-governor’s lockdowns and expansive COVID-19 restrictions during the pandemic, making his pitch in support of Israel and against antisemitism far from a slam dunk in certain circles. His resignation from the governorship amid allegations of sexual misconduct is also a factor for some Jewish voters, as well.
But if pro-Israel, Jewish voters divide their support among other candidates, it could help Mamdani, whose record is the least palatable to these same constituents.
The fact that many Democrats in New Jersey and New York City, two places with among the largest concentrations of Jewish voters in the Diaspora, are not automatically stalwart allies of mainstream Jewish interests, is itself a sign of the changing political times and the evolving nature of the Democratic Party. It may also explain why there appears to be more of an effort to play defense — a focus on blocking the most objectionable candidates from winning high office — rather than hoping for the best, and seeing where the chips fall.
TYING IT TOGETHER
Pro-Israel leaders link anti-Israel advocacy to fatal shooting
Pro-Israel leaders and lawmakers in the United States on Thursday connected the killing of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington to the anti-Israel advocacy seen on the political extremes throughout the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, characterizing it as a culmination of such rhetoric and, in some cases, the failure of some politicians to denounce it, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
What they’re saying: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told Jewish Insider that the attack should be a signal to the left that it needs to rethink its rhetoric on Israel and Zionism. He compared the anti-Israel movement in the United States to a “cult” that has been stoked online and is using inherently violent slogans while its members “try to hide behind this idea that it’s free speech to intimidate and terrorize members of the Jewish community.” A coalition of 42 Jewish organizations, in a statement, described the murders as “the direct consequence of rising antisemitic incitement in places such as college campuses, city council meetings, and social media that has normalized hate and emboldened those who wish to do harm.”
Hill talk: Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) called on the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate the political organizations that Elias Rodriguez, the suspect in the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum, claims to be an active member of, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
fondly remembered
Israeli Embassy victims remembered as ‘the perfect diplomat’ and ‘committed to peace’
“The perfect diplomat.” That’s how a former colleague and friend of Yaron Lischinsky remembered him on Thursday, the day after the Israeli Embassy staff member was shot dead alongside his girlfriend, Sarah Milgrim, outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington as the couple was leaving an event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee. “He was diligent and went to D.C. to pursue his dream,” Klil, who interned with Lischinsky, 29, at the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, in 2020 and requested to be identified only by her first name, told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen.
Cherry blossoms: The pair mostly lost touch after the internship, when Lischinsky moved to Washington to work at the Israeli Embassy after pursuing a masters’ degree at Reichman. But their interest in Japan kept the two connected via social media, where they would share cherry blossom photos — Lischinsky’s came each spring when the Japanese trees bloomed on the Tidal Basin in Washington. Klil shared her cherry blossom photos from London, where she was living after the internship. “We had a shared experience around that,” she said. Recently, Lischinsky’s Instagram posts featured more than cherry blossoms. Klil took note of the photos he had been posting, posing together with Milgrim. The couple met while both working at the embassy.
Remembering Milgrim: Milgrim, 26, was remembered by a former colleague and friend as “bright, helpful, smart and passionate.” “Sarah was committed to working towards peace,” said Jake Shapiro, who worked with Milgrim in 2022-23 at Teach2Peace, an organization dedicated to building peace between Palestinians and Israelis. “One small bright spot in all of this is seeing both Israelis and Palestinians that knew Sarah sending their condolences and remembering her together,” Shapiro told JI. That gives him hope that a “more peaceful reality is possible.”
COMMUNITY CALL
Jewish community urges additional action from federal government following D.C. shootings
A coalition of 42 Jewish organizations issued a joint statement on Thursday urging additional action from the federal government to address antisemitism in the United States following the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, and particularly expanded funding for a variety of programs to protect the Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re asking for: The demands include a call to massively expand funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion, from its current level of $274.5 million. The groups also called for additional funding for security at Jewish institutions, for the FBI to expand its intelligence operations and counter-domestic terrorism operations and for local law enforcement to be empowered to protect Jewish establishments. And they called for the federal government to “aggressively prosecute hate crimes and extremist violence” and hold websites accountable for amplification of antisemitic hate, glorification of terrorism, extremism, disinformation, and incitement.”
UNSAID BUT UNDERSTOOD
Mamdani declines to support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state
Zohran Mamdani, a leading Democratic candidate in New York City’s June mayoral primary, declined to say whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, when pressed to confirm his view during a town hall on Thursday night hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York in Manhattan, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Between the lines: “I believe Israel has a right to exist and it has a right to exist also with equal rights for all,” Mamdani said in his carefully worded response to a question posed by JI’s editor-in-chief, Josh Kraushaar, who co-moderated the event. Despite some initial resistance to addressing such questions earlier in his campaign, Mamdani, a Queens state assemblyman and a fierce critic of Israel, has in recent weeks acknowledged Israel has a right to exist. But his remarks on the matter have never recognized a Jewish state, an ambiguity he was forced to confront at the forum — where he avoided providing a direct answer.
DEFINITION DYNAMICS
Following shooting, Gottheimer urges New Jersey governor candidates to support IHRA bill
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), a candidate for governor of New Jersey, challenged his fellow candidates to pledge to sign bipartisan state legislation to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in response to the murder of two Israeli Embassy officials outside the Jewish museum in Washington, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Background: That legislation has become a major dividing line in the gubernatorial race — Gottheimer and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) support it, while Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop opposes it, but said recently he would not veto it. Other candidates did not respond to requests for comment on the issue earlier this year. Critics of the legislation say that the IHRA definition — which identifies some criticism of Israel as antisemitic — violates free speech protections. “As Governor, I’ll immediately sign New Jersey’s IHRA bill into law, and I’ll push to dismantle antisemitism and hate in any form whenever it rears its ugly head,” Gottheimer said.
EDUCATION ESCALATION
Trump escalates war on Harvard by barring all foreign students
The Trump administration on Thursday stripped Harvard University of its ability to enroll foreign students, citing Harvard’s collaboration with the Chinese Communist Party, in what the Department of Homeland Security described as an act of accountability for the university “fostering violence, antisemitism and pro-terrorist conduct from students on its campus.” The move is an escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with Harvard, just one front in his war with elite higher education institutions. But this is the first instance of the White House completely cutting off a university’s ability to admit international students, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Israelis on campus: Harvard currently hosts more than 10,000 international students, according to university data, 160 of whom are from Israel. Current students must transfer schools or lose their visa. Harvard Hillel’s executive director, Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, expressed concern about the impact on Israeli students at Harvard. “The current, escalating federal assault against Harvard — shuttering apolitical, life-saving research; threatening the university’s tax-exempt status; and revoking all student visas, including those of Israeli students who are proud veterans of the Israel Defense Forces and forceful advocates for Israel on campus — is neither focused nor measured, and stands to substantially harm the very Jewish students and scholars it purports to protect,” Rubenstein told JI.
Worthy Reads
Today’s Blood Libel: Bari Weiss draws a line in The Free Press between anti-Israel vitriol that has pervaded protests, universities and social media in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks and the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers on Wednesday. “Venomous, untrue statements about Israel, its supporters, and the war against Hamas in Gaza chipped away at the old taboo against open antisemitism in America. Constant demonization of American Jews and Zionists is how a democratic state and its supporters have been made into targets. It is how the ‘permission structure’ for violence against Jews in America has been erected. Growing up, learning about Simon of Trent or other medieval blood libels, I wondered how something so unnatural, so deranged, could ever happen. How lies could spread so far, transmogrify into a movement, infect culture so comprehensively, and engender deadly action. … How can anyone honest with themselves not draw a connection between a culture that says Zionists are antihumans — even Nazis themselves — and the terrorists now attacking Jews across the globe?” [TheFreePress]
Israeli Resilience: Tablet’s Armin Rosen writes about the resilience of the Israeli diplomatic corps: “In my experience the diplomats of the Jewish state are among the least Israeli of Israelis. They are restrained and secular and quiet and usually know how to dress themselves; they speak with every possible accent, and it’s hard to imagine them whacking at a matkot ball, fighting their way onto a bus, or davening during halftime of a basketball game. They are the normal and cosmopolitan faces of a rambunctious and inherently tribal country. But it is the tension between the rigors of diplomacy and the character of their homeland that also makes them deeply Israeli: whatever their religious practice and whatever their politics, Israeli diplomats are inevitably Jews among the nations, a tiny sub-tribe that serves as the official foreign representation of the world’s only Jewish state, the first in 2,000 years and one of the most hated and lied-about countries in the entire history of humankind. To carry out this mission for fairly low pay on behalf of an often-dysfunctional foreign ministry, in places far from home where spies and activists and journalists and local Jews are circling you or even actively targeting you at any given moment, requires a typically Israeli mix of creativity, resourcefulness, and optimism” [Tablet]
Yaron the Healer: Mariam Wahba, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, eulogizes her friend Yaron Lischinsky, one of the victims of Wednesday night’s shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum, in The Free Press. “He told me how his family lived in Israel before they moved to Germany, about moving back when he was 16, and knowing, early and without hesitation, that he wanted to be a diplomat and peacemaker. Language came easily to him: Hebrew, Japanese, English, and of course, his native German. He moved through the world with care and thoughtfulness, as if everyone and everything he touched might break. … Yaron was the kind of person who knew the exact year of the First Council of Nicaea and never made you feel small for getting it wrong. His murder leaves a wound in many hearts, one that may never fully heal, for he was the healer. Yaron was sharp, but more importantly, he was kind. He didn’t just want to understand the world. He wanted to mend it. Quietly and gently. Thoughtfully. Steadily.” [TheFreePress]
Bibi, the Bit Player: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg argues that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put too much faith in a second Trump term and has found himself sidelined from the president’s agenda. “By revealing Netanyahu to be a bit player, rather than an elite operator, Trump has not just put the Israeli leader in his place. He has exploded Netanyahu’s carefully cultivated political persona — an act as damaging to Netanyahu’s standing as the Hamas attack on October 7. Worse than making Netanyahu look foolish, Trump has made him look irrelevant. He is not Trump’s partner, but rather his mark. In Israeli parlance, the prime minister is a freier — a sucker. The third-rate pro-government propagandists on Channel 14 might not have seen this coming, but Netanyahu should have. His dark worldview is premised on the pessimistic presumption that the world will turn on the Jews if given the chance, which is why the Israeli leader has long prized hard power over diplomatic understandings. Even if Trump wasn’t such an unreliable figure, trusting him should have gone against all of Netanyahu’s instincts.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
Elias Rodriguez, the suspected gunman in the deadly shooting of two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington on Wednesday, was charged with two counts of murder and other federal crimes. Interim U.S. Attorney in Washington Jeanine Pirro said investigators are continuing to investigate the attack as a hate crime and terrorism and additional charges may be brought…
The New York Times drew parallels between Wednesday night’s killing of two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington and another murder of an Israeli diplomat in the Washington area in 1973, a case which was never solved…
Scripps News published archive footage from 2018 from an interview it conducted with Elias Rodriguez, the suspected gunman in the Wednesday night shooting of Israeli Embassy employees, during a protest in Chicago where he identified himself as a member of ANSWER Chicago. ANSWER has held protests against the Israeli war in Gaza, which the organization calls a genocide…
The shooting has stoked safety fears among Israelis and Jews amid a spike in global antisemitism, The Wall Street Journal reports…
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “have a good relationship, one that’s built on transparency and trust.” Leavitt said the president “has made it very clear to not just Prime Minister Netanyahu, but also the world, that he wants to see a deal with Iran struck if one can be struck.”…
The Supreme Court, in a 4-4 decision, rejected an Oklahoma Catholic school‘s bid to receive public funds as a religious charter school; the deadlocked ruling lets stand an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision barring the creation of such a charter school. The Orthodox Union had filed a brief in support of the school and said that a favorable ruling would make Jewish education more accessible…
A federal judge in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration and Education Secretary Linda McMahon from dismantling the Department of Education and ordering them to reinstate department employees who had been fired. The administration said it will challenge the judge’s ruling “on an emergency basis”…
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights announced on Thursday that Columbia University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by “acting with deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students from October 7, 2023, through the present.” Anthony Archeval, acting director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS, said in a statement, “We encourage Columbia University to work with us to come to an agreement that reflects meaningful changes that will truly protect Jewish students.”…
The Wall Street Journal highlights what it called the “extraordinary blurring of government negotiations and private business dealings” as Zach Witkoff, son of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, continues to invoke his father’s work and White House connections as he travels the world pursuing deals for his cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial…
Netanyahu on Thursday appointed Maj. Gen. David Zini as the next Shin Bet chief, despite a court ruling that his firing of the previous chief, Ronen Bar, and the determination of the attorney general that the move represented a conflict of interest in light of the agency’s ongoing investigation into Netanyahu’s aides’s ties to Qatar…
The Israeli airstrike that targeted Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza, earlier this month, also reportedly killed several other high-ranking Hamas operatives as they gathered for a meeting…
Iran threatened to “implement special measures” to protect its nuclear facilities and materials if Israeli threats of a strike persist…
A failed Houthi attempt to launch a missile from the vicinity of Sana’a airport caused an explosion this morning, Muammar al-Iryani, Yemen’s information minister, said…
Globes reports that in closed meetings with Israeli officials, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee conveyed concerns from Washington on several economic issues including initiatives that would affect U.S. energy giant Chevron and streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+…
Pic of the Day
Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. (right), on Thursday stands outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, where two staff members of the Israeli Embassy were killed in a terror attack the night before. With him are (from left) Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
Birthdays
Actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian sometimes referred to as “Yid Vicious,” Bobby Slayton turns 70 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Emeritus professor of physics and the history of science at Harvard, Gerald James Holton turns 103… Businessman and attorney, he acquired and rebuilt The Forge restaurant in Miami Beach, Alvin Malnik turns 92… Businessman, optometrist, inventor and philanthropist, Dr. Herbert A. Wertheim turns 86… Former dean of the Yale School of Architecture and founder of an eponymous architecture firm, Robert A. M. Stern turns 86… Founder and chairman of law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, leading DC super-lobbyist but based in Denver and long-time proponent of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Norman Brownstein turns 82… British fashion retailer and promoter of tennis in Israel, he is the founder, chairman and CEO of three international clothing lines including the French Connection, Great Plains and Toast brands, Stephen Marks turns 79… Senior counsel at Cozen O’Connor, focused on election law, he was in the inaugural class of Yeshiva University’s Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, Jerry H. Goldfeder turns 78… Award-winning television writer and playwright, Stephanie Liss turns 75… Israeli diplomat, he served as Israel’s ambassador to Nigeria and as consul general of Israel to Philadelphia, Uriel Palti turns 71… Editor-in-chief of a book on end-of-life stories, she is a special events advisor to The Israel Project, Catherine Zacks Gildenhorn… Israeli businessman with holdings in real estate, construction, energy, hotels and media, Ofer Nimrodi turns 68… President of Newton, Mass.-based Liberty Companies, Andrew M. Cable turns 68… Best-selling author and journalist, whose works include “Tuesdays with Morrie,” he has sold over 42 million books, Mitch Albom turns 67… Resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Reuel Marc Gerecht… Chairman of the board of the Irvine, Calif.-based Ayn Rand Institute, Yaron Brook turns 64… Actor, comedian, writer, producer and musician, H. Jon Benjamin turns 59… Former ski instructor, ordained by HUC-JIR in 1998, now rabbi of the Community Synagogue of Rye (N.Y.), Daniel B. Gropper… Film and television director, Nanette Burstein turns 55… Australian cosmetics entrepreneur, now living in NYC, she is known as the “Lipstick Queen,” Poppy Cybele King turns 53… Prominent NYC matrimonial law attorney, she is the daughter of TV journalist Jeff Greenfield, Casey Greenfield turns 52… Member of the Knesset for the New Hope party, she previously served as Israel’s minister of education, Yifat Shasha-Biton turns 52… Retired attorney, now a YouTuber, David Freiheit turns 46… Executive director of the Singer Family Charitable Foundation, Dylan Tatz… Tech, cyber and disinformation reporter for Haaretz, Omer Benjakob… Professional golfer on the LPGA Tour, Morgan Pressel turns 37… Senior manager of brand and product strategy at GLG, Andrea M. Hiller Tenenboym…
SATURDAY: Co-founder of the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, he is featured in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers,” Herbert Wachtell turns 93… Professor emeritus of statistics and biomedical data science at Stanford, Bradley Efron turns 87… Biographer of religious, business and political figures, Deborah Hart Strober turns 85… Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, his Hebrew name is Shabsi Zissel, he is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of his generation, Bob Dylan turns 84… Social media and Internet marketing consultant, Israel Sushman turns 77… Member of Congress since 2007 (D-TN-9), he is Tennessee’s first Jewish congressman, Steve Cohen turns 76… Former director of planned giving at American Society for Yad Vashem, Robert Christopher Morton turns 74… Former Mexican secretary of foreign affairs, he is the author of more than a dozen books, Jorge Castañeda Gutman turns 72… President of the Israel ParaSport Center in Ramat Gan and vice chair of Birthright Israel Foundation, Lori Ann Komisar… First-ever Jewish member of the parliament in Finland, he was elected in 1979 and continues to serve, Ben Zyskowicz turns 71… Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer, Michael Chabon turns 62… U.S. ambassador to Singapore during the Obama administration, he is now the managing director and general counsel of KraneShares, David Adelman turns 61… Senior advisor at the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, Debby Goldberg… Ukrainian businessman, patron of the Jewish community in Ukraine, collector of modern and contemporary art, Gennadii Korban turns 55… Film director, in 2019 he became the second-ever Israeli to win an Academy Award, Guy Nattiv turns 52… Swedish criminal defense lawyer, author and fashion model, Jens Jacob Lapidus turns 51… Actor, who starred in the HBO original series “How to Make It in America,” Bryan Greenberg turns 47… Emmy Award-winning host of “Serving Up Science” at PBS Digital Studios, Sheril Kirshenbaum turns 45… EVP and chief of staff at The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Benjamin E. Milakofsky… Synchronized swimmer who represented Israel at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Anastasia Gloushkov Leventhal turns 40… Travel blogger who has visited 197 countries, Drew “Binsky” Goldberg turns 34… Member of the Iowa House of Representatives since 2023, Adam Zabner turns 26… Social media influencer and activist, Emily Austin turns 24…
SUNDAY: Academy Award-winning film producer and director, responsible for 58 major motion pictures, Irwin Winkler turns 94… Holocaust survivor as a young child, he is a professor emeritus of physics and chemistry at Brooklyn College, Micha Tomkiewicz turns 86… Co-founder of the clothing manufacturer, Calvin Klein Inc., which he formed with his childhood friend Calvin Klein, he is also a former horse racing industry executive, Barry K. Schwartz turns 83… Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1986, he is now on senior status, Douglas H. Ginsburg turns 79… British journalist, editor and author, he is a past VP of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Alex Brummer turns 76… Of counsel in the Chicago office of Saul Ewing, Joel M. Hurwitz turns 74… Screenwriter, producer and film director, best known for his work on the “Back to the Future” franchise, Bob Gale turns 74… Los Angeles area resident, Robin Myrne Kramer… Retired CEO of Denver’s Rose Medical Center after 21 years, he is now the CEO of Velocity Healthcare Consultants, Kenneth Feiler… Israeli actress, Rachel “Chelli” Goldenberg turns 71… Professor of history at Fordham University, Doron Ben-Atar turns 68… President of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, Ralph Friedländer turns 66… U.S. senator (D-MN), Amy Klobuchar turns 65… Senior government relations counsel in the D.C. office of Kelley Drye & Warren, Laurie Rubiner… Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania from 2020 until 2022, Yossi Avni-Levy turns 63… Actor, producer, director and writer, Joseph D. Reitman turns 57… Cape Town, South Africa, native, tech entrepreneur and investor, he was the original COO of PayPal and founder/CEO of Yammer, David Oliver Sacks turns 53… Member of the Australian Parliament since 2016, Julian Leeser turns 49… Former Minister of Diaspora Affairs, she is the first Haredi woman to serve as an Israeli cabinet minister, Omer Yankelevich turns 47… Senior political reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greg Bluestein… COO at Maryland-based HealthSource Distributors, Marc D. Loeb… Comedian, actor and writer, Barry Rothbart turns 42… One of the U.S.’ first radiology extenders at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Orli Novick… Senior communications manager at Kaplan, Inc., Alison Kurtzman… Former MLB pitcher, he had two effective appearances for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifiers, Ryan Sherriff turns 35… Olympic Gold medalist in gymnastics at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Alexandra Rose “Aly” Raisman turns 31… Laura Goldman…
Israeli Embassy staffers killed outside Jewish Museum
Embassy of Israel to the USA
Yarón Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we detail the latest on last night’s deadly attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. and report on the response from Jewish communities and Israeli officials. We highlight Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch’s podcast interview with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the lead-up to New York’s mayoral primary, report on remarks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the urgency of humanitarian aid for Gaza as well as his predictions for the expansion of the Abraham Accords, and cover Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s press conference last night. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Ted Cruz, Bruce Pearl and Richard Priem.
What We’re Watching
- The UJA-Federation of New York and JCRC-NY will be hosting a town hall this evening with the leading Democratic New York City mayoral candidates. Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar and New York Jewish Week managing editor Lisa Keys will be co-moderating the forum.
- The Brandeis Center will host a briefing on Capitol Hill featuring current college students and recent graduates sharing their personal experiences with antisemitism on campus. Kenneth Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Brandeis Center, Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center, and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) will also deliver remarks.
- The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Africa subcommittee will hold a hearing on the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
- The Qatar Economic Forum wraps up today in Doha.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH ji’s TAMARA ZIEVE
It was an evening dedicated to humanitarian service — young Jewish professionals gathering under the theme “Turning Pain Into Purpose,” discussing interfaith collaboration and working to counter the rising tide of “us versus them” narratives. The event spotlighted efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in the Middle East and North Africa — including in Gaza.
But what was supposed to be a night rooted in shared humanity was rocked by deadly violence. Outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where the American Jewish Committee was hosting the event, an assailant opened fire on a group of four people, killing a young couple, both Israeli Embassy employees.
Eyewitness Paige Siegel, who was a guest at the event, told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod that she heard two sets of multiple shots ring out, and then an individual, who police have since identified as suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, entered the building appearing disoriented and panicked, seconds after the shooting ended. She said security allowed the man in, as well as two other women separately. (Police say the suspect had discarded his weapon.)
Siegel said she spoke to the man, asking him if he had been shot. He appeared panicked and was mumbling and repeatedly told bystanders to call the police. Siegel said that she felt the man was suspicious.
JoJo Drake Kalin, a member of AJC’s DC Young Professional Board and an organizer of the event, told JI’s Danielle Cohen the man appeared disheveled and out of breath when he entered the building. Kalin assumed he had been a bystander to the shooting who needed assistance and she handed him a glass of water. Siegel said that the man was sitting in the building in a state of distress for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, and she and a friend engaged him in conversation, informing him that he was in the Jewish museum.
Siegel then said that the man started screaming, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red keffiyeh.
“The deep irony I felt after the guy pulled out the keffiyeh was, ‘if only you knew,’” Drake Kalin reflected. “It was Jewish professionals gathering not for a political agenda but for our collective humanity,” Kalin added. “Which I won’t let this event take from me.”
The two victims of last night’s attack, Yarón Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were due to be engaged soon — Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter said that the man had purchased a ring earlier this week and was planning to propose next week in Jerusalem.
Milgrim’s last job before joining the embassy’s public diplomacy department was at Tech2Peace, where she researched peace-building theory and, according to her LinkedIn profile, designed and implemented a 12-person study on the role of friendships in the Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding process.
Lischinsky emigrated from Germany to Israel at age 16, where he studied government, diplomacy and strategy and served in the IDF, according to his LinkedIn profile. The last post shared on X by Lischinsky, an employee of the embassy’s political department, called out a United Nations official for “blood libel,” for spreading a false claim that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die within 48 hours without aid.
Reactions to the killings have been swift. President Donald Trump said of the shooting, “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
Leiter said Trump vowed to him that the administration would do everything it can to fight antisemitism and demonization and delegitimization of Israel. “We’ll stand together tall and firm and confront this moral depravity without fear,” Leiter said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, updated him on the details of the incident and asked to convey her condolences to the families of the couple, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
“We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel,” Netanyhau said. “Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost. My heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer. I have directed that security be increased at Israeli missions around the world and for the state’s representatives.”
In a press conference in Jerusalem this morning, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the attack was “the direct result of toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world that has been going on since the Oct. 7 massacre.” He pointed a finger at incitement by “leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe.”
Sa’ar noted that “there is not one week without terror attacks or attempted terror attacks around the world — usually more than one.”
The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem and Israeli missions around the world will lower their flags to half-mast today to honor the memory of Milgrim and Lischinsky.
security concerns
After deadly shooting, Jewish communities go on high alert
Jewish communities are going on high alert following the deadly shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on Wednesday night, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports. Richard Priem, CEO of the Community Security Service, which trains security teams at synagogues and other institutions, told eJP this morning that his organization and other security groups would be stepping up their “posture” in the wake of the shooting in case additional attacks had been planned or others are “inspired” to act by this one.
Increased measures: “We’re definitely going to be present, we’re definitely going to do something that increases our posture because anytime there’s an attack, certain people get activated and think, ’Now’s the time,’” Priem said. “But we don’t know yet if there might be a direct, correlated threat.” Such security measures may include additional guards posted outside buildings, tighter involvement of local law enforcement and increased coordination between different Jewish security groups, such as national ones like the Anti-Defamation League and Secure Communities Network, as well as local ones like New York’s Community Security Initiative or various neighborhood watchdog groups.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Security funding: The Capital Jewish Museum is one of the recipients of a $500,000 security grant for local nonprofits recently announced by the D.C. government.
new york, new york
Cuomo predicts Jewish vote could decide mayoral race
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the leading Democratic candidate in New York City’s upcoming mayoral primary, predicted that Jewish voters could ultimately swing the outcome of the June election in a new podcast interview released today, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
‘Use your vote’: “You have 600,000 registered Jewish Democrats. The whole turnout in the primary is 800,000,” he said in a conversation with Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York. “They could decide the election. Use your voice, use your vote, get aggressive. Passivity does not work.”
shifting sentiment
Rubio: Israel’s Gaza aid blockade hurt Israel’s security, standing
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a shift, said in a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday that Israel’s 11-week blockade of aid into Gaza was damaging Israel’s national security and international standing and that U.S. pressure had contributed to Israel’s decision to release the hold. He also said that current levels of aid entering Gaza are not sufficient. The remarks are strikingly similar to comments made since the beginning of the war in Gaza by Democrats, particularly progressives, who have criticized Israel’s policy toward aid to Gaza, and stand in contrast with Rubio’s and other Republicans’ previous comments arguing against allowing aid to flow back into Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “In the interim period, the one thing we’ve made abundantly clear is that the humanitarian situation — and I think this was acknowledged by the prime minister in his statement — the humanitarian situation, the direction that it was headed was undermining Israel’s standing and national security,” Rubio said.
More from Rubio: In his second consecutive day of hearings on Capitol Hill, Rubio said that he expects that additional Arab countries will join the Abraham Accords by the end of the year, if not earlier. “We do have an Abraham Accords office that is actively working to identify a number of countries who have lined up and already I think we may have good news, certainly before the end of this year, of a number of more countries that are willing to join that alliance,” Rubio said a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday.
WAR ROOM
Netanyahu lays out newest phase of Gaza war, view on Iran negotiations in press conference
Striking a defiant tone on Wednesday amid intensifying international pressure to end the war in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid down his conditions for the end of hostilities, Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve and Lahav Harkov report. “The world is telling us to end the war,” Netanyahu said, in the first press conference he has held in Israel since December. “I am prepared to end the war according to clear conditions: Hamas lays down its weapons, steps down from power, returns all the hostages, Gaza is demilitarized and we implement the Trump plan” to relocate residents of Gaza.
Talk of tension: Addressing reports of strained ties between the U.S. and Israel, Netanyahu said that he spoke to President Donald Trump about 10 days ago and Trump told him, “Bibi, I want you to know I have a total commitment to you and to the State of Israel.” Referring to Trump’s recent Middle East tour, which excluded Israel, Netanyahu said, “I have no opposition to the U.S. deepening its ties to the Arab world … I think this can help broaden the Abraham Accords that I’m very interested in.”
On Iran: “Iran remains a serious threat to Israel. We are in full coordination with the U.S. — we talk to them all the time. We hope that it’s possible to reach an agreement that will prevent a nuclear weapon from Iran and will prevent Iran from having the ability to enrich uranium. If it is reached, of course, we will welcome it,” he said, before adding, “In any case, Israel reserves the right to defend itself against a regime that threatens to destroy us.” Netanyahu previously called for total dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, which would go farther than stopping Iran from enriching uranium. An official in Netanyahu’s office denied that his remark reflects a change in policy.
TEHRAN TALK
Some Senate Republicans skeptical of excluding terrorism, missiles from Iran talks
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued on Wednesday that sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program can’t be separated from other sanctions on the regime as part of a nuclear deal, contrasting the approach apparently being taken by the Trump administration to that of the Obama administration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said in congressional testimony this week that talks with Tehran have revolved solely around Iran’s nuclear program and have not addressed its sponsorship of terrorism or its ballistic missile program, but said that sanctions related to terrorism and missiles would remain in place if those issues are not addressed in a potential deal. “The Obama administration invented the category of ‘nuclear sanctions’ as an excuse to give the Ayatollah whatever he wanted for a nuclear deal,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said to Jewish Insider, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.
Tillis’ take: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) expressed confidence that the Trump administration understood that any deal must be multifaceted, though he noted that congressional Republicans haven’t been briefed on the talks. “I have to believe at the end of the day, they realize that it’s not just about enrichment, but it’s all the other enabling capabilities, because the reality is the world’s a dangerous place and if they had that underlying capability, maybe then they’ll build their own bomb,” Tillis told JI.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), James Lankford (R-OK), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and John Kennedy (R-LA).
ON THE HILL
House lawmakers call on Appropriations Committee to address antisemitism in health care
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is urging colleagues to take steps to address antisemitism in the health care field in the 2026 appropriations process for the Department of Health and Human Services and related agencies. In a letter sent Wednesday, the lawmakers called on the leaders of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies to demand reports from HHS on the rise of antisemitism in health care, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they said: “Failure to confront this pernicious ideology harms not only Jewish medical professionals, students, and patients but threatens to destroy the very foundations of our healthcare system,” the letter reads. “Dangerous rhetoric from individuals in positions of influence raises fears among Jewish and Israeli students, families, and patients about whether they will receive equitable and compassionate care. Antisemitic hate and bigotry put Jewish patients at risk and undermine the ethical foundations of medicine, where commitment to the patient should be paramount.”
Signed on: The letter was signed by Reps. Buddy Carter (R-GA), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Troy Balderson (R-OH), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Tim Kennedy (D-NY), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Don Bacon (R-NE), Shelia Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), Mike Carey (R-OH), Laura Friedman (D-CA) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).
Education confrontation: House Democrats urged Education Secretary Linda McMahon not to make cuts to the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights as employees work through the backlog of cases, which includes scores of civil rights complaints from Jewish students alleging discrimination at their universities since the Oct.7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Worthy Reads
Terror Comes to Washington: Commentary Editor John Podhoretz reflects on the nature of last night’s deadly attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. “This is a different kind of event from the attacks on synagogues in Pennsylvania and California in 2018, which were the work of white supremacists. It happened at a secular Jewish site, and targeted an event sponsored by the American Jewish Committee for young diplomats. And it was self-evidently an act of anti-Semitic terror in the nation’s capital — which raises similarities to the 2015 attack on the Hyper Casher supermarket in France’s capital, Paris. The only analogue here I can think of was the invasion of the headquarters of the B’nai Brith in D.C. in 1977 by Hanafi Muslims, during which 104 staffers at the Jewish organization — including my wife’s cousin, William Korey, an expert on Soviet Jewry — were held hostage for three days and repeatedly threatened with execution and torture. Two other buildings in DC were invaded as well, and a security guard at one of them was shot in the head and killed.” [Commentary]
Private Sector Diplomacy: The Atlantic’s Andrew Exum writes approvingly about Trump’s transactional approach to Middle East foreign policy in The Atlantic. “Trump unabashedly uses the American private sector as an instrument of national power. In fact, he does this better than any previous president has in my lifetime…Trump may well understand that with the Democratic Party likely divided on Israel for the next generation, his Jewish and evangelical-Christian supporters have nowhere else to go. This puts him in a position of power relative to the Israeli prime minister — one that must surely make Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders very uncomfortable. Making them still more uncomfortable will be the fact that everyone who mattered seemed to be in those meetings in the Gulf. Everyone, that is, except them” [TheAtlantic]
Red Lines on Iran: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board endorses Trump’s Iran diplomacy. “Iran’s rulers are unhappy with the direction of nuclear talks, which is a sign President Trump is pushing in the right places. No one is ever pleased to make far-reaching concessions, but those are what the U.S. and the world need to get a deal worth making… Iran long insisted it would never negotiate with Mr. Trump. It spent the Biden years talking about killing him. But after Mr. Trump resumed sanctions enforcement and built up a military threat that Iran had to take seriously, Iran came to the table. Its other options are worse. Tehran may decide it can’t abandon enrichment or allow its centrifuges to be dismantled. And it may call the U.S. and Israeli bluff on the use of force, but that could be a mistake its leaders come to regret” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump is reportedly set to appoint Thomas Barrack, the current U.S. ambassador to Turkey, as a special envoy for Syria…
The Department of Defense formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jumbo jet from Qatar for President Donald Trump’s use as Air Force One, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
The State Department announced that anyone involved in the sale or transfer to or from Iran of 10 materials found to be used in Iran’s nuclear, military and ballistic missile programs will now be subject to mandatory sanctions…
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said at a conference in Tehran on Wednesday about nuclear negotiations with the U.S. that Iran “not give up this right to use peaceful nuclear technology in any way. No matter what they say, do, how they threaten us or impose sanctions, it makes no difference.” Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said that the fifth round of nuclear talks will be held in Rome on Friday…
Xiyue Wang, who was wrongly imprisoned in Iran for more than three years until Trump arranged for his release during his first administration, was named as a senior advisor for Iran at the State Department…
In a tense meeting at the Oval Office yesterday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa refuted unsubstantiated claims made by Trump about genocide against white South Africans…
Speaking at one of the university’s commencement ceremonies on Wednesday, Columbia University’s acting president, Claire Shipman, said, “I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate, Mahmoud Khalil,” referring to the anti-Israel protest leader who is currently facing deportation proceedings, and said, “We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else, and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right.”
Some 100 pro-Palestinian protesters outside the campus attempted to disrupt the ceremony…
Charl Kleinhaus, an Afrikaner who was granted refugee status in the United States and said Jews are “untrustworthy and a dangerous group” on social media, confirmed that he is being resettled by HIAS and its affiliate, the Jewish Family Services of Western New York. Kleinhaus said his posts were “completely misinterpreted” and he “probably should have worded it better”…
The Vaad of Lakewood, N.J., endorsed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) for the Democratic nomination in the New Jersey gubernatorial election, specifically calling on unaffiliated voters to cast their ballots for him in the June 10 primary…
New York state Democratic lawmakers moved to block a bill in the state Assembly to include the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism in state education law…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights shifting sentiment in the Israeli public toward the war in Gaza…
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security advisor, met with Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of Blackstone, to discuss investment trends…
Arc magazine chronicled the role of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in supporting President Jimmy Carter’s creation of the Department of Education…
Amy Schumer, Israeli actor Yadin Gellman and Israeli director Eliran Peled are co-producing a romantic comedy called “Now More Than Ever” about the divides between Israeli and American Jewry post-Oct. 7…
Eliana Goldin, a recent Columbia University graduate and pro-Israel activist, shared her experience being fired from the Columbia Daily Spectator student newspaper…
Philanthropist and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, whose father was Jewish, died at 65…
Pic of the Day
Auburn University men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl addressed a Jewish American History Month breakfast on Capitol Hill yesterday. Guests included more than 25 House members and senators, antisemitism envoy nominee Yehuda Kaploun and former deputy envoy Aaron Keyak. The event was hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, Jewish Federations of North America, Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, AEPi and Operation Benjamin.
Birthdays
Author, activist, actress and producer, she served until 2023 as a special envoy against antisemitism at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Noa Tishby…
Senior fellow emeritus at the Hudson Institute, Irwin M. Stelzer turns 93… Retired U.S. district court judge from Massachusetts, now a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, Nancy Gertner turns 79… Award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker since 1989, Connie Bruck turns 79… Former Skadden partner and then vice-chair at Citibank, J. Michael Schell turns 78… Cognitive scientist and CEO emeritus of Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Philip E. Rubin turns 76… Director emeritus of policy and government affairs at AIPAC, Ambassador Bradley Gordon turns 76… Gloria Woodlock… Charles Scott… Former member of Knesset from the Zionist Union party, he was previously a major general in the IDF, Eyal Ben-Reuven turns 71… Immediate past chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Dianne F. Lob… Former member of Congress (D-AZ-1), now a business and transactional attorney in Phoenix, Sam Coppersmith turns 70… Senior consultant as to philanthropy and impact at private equity firm Cresset Capital, Sanford Ronald “Sandy” Cardin… U.S. Sen. (R-AK) Lisa Murkowski turns 68… General partner of Google Ventures where he co-leads the life science investment team, David Schenkein turns 68… Former head coach of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, he was the winning coach of the EuroLeague Championship in 2014 with Maccabi Tel Aviv, David Blatt turns 66… Actor, he appeared in all five seasons of the HBO program “The Wire” as defense attorney Maurice Levy, Michael Kostroff turns 64… British writer, philanthropist and documentary filmmaker, Dame Hannah Mary Rothschild turns 63… Partner at Sidley & Austin, he clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist in the 1996 term, David H. Hoffman turns 58… Former relief pitcher for seven MLB teams, Alan Brian “Al” Levine turns 57… Harvard Law School professor since 2007, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice David Souter in the 1998 term, Noah Feldman turns 55… Israeli cookbook author and TV cookery show host, Shaily Lipa turns 51… Israel’s minister of communications in the prior government, Yoaz Hendel turns 50… Executive director of American Compass, Oren Cass… Co-founder of Facebook in 2004, Dustin Aaron Moskovitz turns 41… Retired slot receiver and kick returner for the NFL’s New England Patriots, member of three Super Bowl-winning teams, Julian Edelman turns 39… Co-founder and former CEO of Tinder, Sean Rad turns 39… Film, television and theater actress, Molly Ephraim turns 39… Washington bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Wilner turns 36… J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School in the class of 2026, he is a summer associate at Weil Gotshal, Alex Friedman turns 25… Law clerk for a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York until earlier this year, Peter Walker Kaplan… Emma Kaplan… Aryeh Jacobson… Rebecca Weiss… Benjamin Weiss…
Plus, Rubio, Cruz talk Trump Iran policy
REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey speaks ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign rally outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 4, 2024.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we break down a new Anti-Defamation League report on antisemitism at independent K-12 schools, and report on Corey O’Connor’s victory yesterday in Pittsburgh’s mayoral primary. We report on the increasing pressure on Israel over its conduct in Gaza, cover Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since being confirmed, and highlight remarks made by Sens. Ted Cruz and John Fetterman to NORPAC members. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Lishay Lavi Miran, Sen. Andy Kim, and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Dan Goldman.
What We’re Watching
- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Donald Trump will meet at the White House today, with new trade agreements on the agenda amid strained ties between the two countries.
- The Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Jewish Federations of North America will host the Annual Jewish American Heritage Month Congressional Breakfast on Capitol Hill today, with a keynote address from Bruce Pearl, head coach of the Auburn men’s basketball team.
- The House Appropriations Committee will hold separate budget hearings with testimony from Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
- The House Foreign Affairs Committee will also hold a hearing with Rubio on “Fiscal Year 2026 State Department Posture: Protecting American Interests.”
- The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a hearing on “The State of Higher Education” with witnesses including Dr. Andrew Gillen, a research fellow at the Cato Institute; Dr. Michael Lindsay, president of Taylor University; Dr. Mark Brown, president of Tuskegee University; Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center; and Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, chancellor of the Austin Community College District.
- The Qatar Economic Forum continues today in Doha, with speakers including Donald Trump Jr.; Steve Mnuchin, former U.S. treasury secretary; Mark Attanasio, principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers; John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg; and Hassan Al-Thawadi, former secretary general at Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S hALEY COHEN
A new Anti-Defamation League report puts a spotlight on episodes of antisemitism in K-12 non-Jewish independent schools, a trend that doesn’t get as much attention as the higher-profile incidents on college campuses but is affecting Jewish students in critical ways.
The study found antisemitic incidents in independent schools down 26% in 2024, compared to 2023, but still up significantly since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. There were only 494 documented incidents of antisemitism in independent schools in 2022; that number has nearly doubled to 860 in 2024.
A quarter of surveyed parents said their children experienced/witnessed antisemitic symbols (such as swastikas) in school.
The research was conducted through four focus groups and a survey of 369 parents of Jewish children in independent K-12 schools across 21 states. The ADL told Jewish Insider‘s Haley Cohen it selected independent schools to evaluate since they operate outside of the oversight of public education and therefore have greater autonomy in shaping their curricula, policies and disciplinary procedures.
In addition to expressing concern over antisemitic symbols, nearly one-third of parents reported anti-Jewish and anti-Israel curricula featuring more prominently in their children’s classrooms since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. They’re also deeply dissatisfied with administrators’ responses to antisemitism: Of the parents surveyed who were aware of antisemitism in their child’s school, 34% said the school’s response was either “somewhat” or “very” inadequate.
One bit of encouraging news: A sizable majority of students at these schools (64%) said they felt “very comfortable” showing their Jewish identity at schools, with only 8% feeling somewhat or very uncomfortable with doing so. But there were isolated episodes of student discomfort, including one parent saying their son avoided wearing a Star of David necklace.
Another notable trend: Many independent school parents voiced concern that diversity, equity and inclusion frameworks do not include Jewish identity and antisemitism. They view the exclusion as a fundamental flaw of the programming rather than an oversight and described a pattern in which Jewish identity was omitted altogether from DEI conversations or misrepresented to perpetuate bias.
And parents are voting with their feet: There’s been an increase in Jewish day school enrollment in recent years.
But for those Jewish students who remain in independent schools, the ADL said it’s launching a new initiative to hold schools accountable and support families. “These independent schools are failing to support Jewish families,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the group’s CEO, said. “By tolerating — or in some cases, propagating — antisemitism in their classrooms, too many independent schools in cities across the country are sending a message that Jewish students are not welcome. It’s wrong. It’s hateful. And it must stop.”
GAINEY’S GOODBYE
O’Connor ousts Gainey in heated Pittsburgh mayoral primary
Corey O’Connor prevailed in his bid to oust Mayor Ed Gainey of Pittsburgh in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the activist left in a city where progressives had until recently been ascendant. O’Connor, the Allegheny County controller and a centrist challenger, defeated Gainey, the first-term incumbent aligned with the far left, by a significant six-point margin, 53-47%, on Tuesday evening with most of the vote counted, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Victory post: “We built this campaign with and for the people of this city, neighborhood by neighborhood,” O’Connor said in a social media post on Tuesday night. “I’m proud to be your Democratic nominee for Mayor. I’m ready to get to work, and I’m grateful to have you with me as we take the next steps forward, together.”
WAITING FOR OMRI
An Israeli mom’s NYC mission to free husband from Hamas captivity
Every morning, Lishay Lavi Miran’s toddler daughters ask her the same two questions: Why is daddy still in Gaza and when is daddy coming home? In a desperate attempt to provide answers, Miran spent the past week in New York City — her first time in the U.S. — advocating for the release of her husband, Omri Miran, who was kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and has remained in Hamas captivity for nearly 600 days. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen during her visit to the states, which concluded on Tuesday, Miran said that her message to the American Jewish community is that its advocacy efforts have provided a “warming sense of hope.”
Now and then: The family received the first sign of life from Omri in April when Hamas terrorists published a video in which he is seen walking through a tunnel in Gaza. The video was released right around his 48th birthday. “It was difficult to see him in those conditions,” Miran told JI during her visit to the states, which concluded on Tuesday. The “exhausted” man in the video was a contrast to the guy known for having “the biggest smile in the world and spark in his eyes,” as Miran describes her husband.
foreign policy in focus
Rubio: Iranian proxy terrorism hasn’t been part of negotiations with Iran
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in his first appearance on Capitol Hill since being confirmed as secretary of state that Iran’s support for regional terrorist proxies has not been part of the ongoing talks between the Iranian government and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which Rubio said have been focused wholly on Iran’s nuclear program and enrichment capabilities. At the same time, Rubio insisted that any sanctions related to terrorist activity and weapons proliferation would remain in place if such issues are not part of the nuclear deal, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What this means: Rubio’s comments indicate the deal might still be subject to what some critics in the United States and the region described as a key flaw of the original nuclear deal — that it failed to address other malign activity by the regime. One U.S. lawmaker who traveled to the Middle East recently said that U.S. partners in Israel and the Arab world had argued that any deal must include non-nuclear provocations. Rubio added that sanctions will remain in place until a deal is reached, and that European partners are working separately on re-implementing snapback sanctions, potentially by October of this year, when such sanctions expire. He also said that Iran cannot have any level of nuclear enrichment under a nuclear deal, as it would inevitably provide a pathway for Iran to enrich to weapons-grade levels.
Read the full story here with Rubio’s additional remarks on Iran, Gaza and Syria.
TED TALK
Ted Cruz expresses concern about influence of some Trump officials on Iran policy
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on Tuesday that he is concerned about the views of some of the officials in the White House shaping President Donald Trump’s Iran policy, marking the most critical comments yet from the hawkish senator about Trump’s approach to Iran. He urged members of NORPAC, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, to raise the issue in their meetings with anyone in the Trump administration, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
What he said: “We need clarity with the Trump administration, and as NORPAC talks to the administration, I would say, I worry there are voices in the administration that are not eager to hold up the president’s red line of dismantlement,” Cruz said at NORPAC’s annual Washington lobbying mission, referring to mixed messaging from some U.S. officials on the acceptable contours of a potential new nuclear agreement with Iran.
Also during NORPAC’s mission: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who is facing attacks from the media and fellow lawmakers in the Democratic Party, hit back at members of his own party. Speaking to members of NORPAC, Fetterman offered some of his sharpest criticism yet of the Democratic Party’s approach to Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. “Israel and your community deserves much better from my party,” Fetterman said, earning loud applause.
RELATIONSHIP RUPTURE
Foreign Minister David Lammy announces suspension of U.K.-Israel free trade agreement
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that Britain has suspended negotiations with Israel on a new free trade agreement and will be “reviewing cooperation,” a day after the U.K., France and Canada threatened to take “concrete actions” and impose sanctions on Israel over its policies on humanitarian aid in Gaza and settlement activity in the West Bank, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen and Lahav Harkov report.
Upping the pressure: Lammy, speaking to British lawmakers in the House of Commons on Tuesday, said the “Netanyahu government’s actions have made this necessary,” describing the lack of humanitarian aid entering Gaza as “intolerable” and “abominable.” He said that Tzipi Hotovely, the Israeli ambassador to the U.K., has been summoned to the U.K. Foreign Office, where Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer will tell her that “the 11-week block on aid to Gaza has been cruel and indefensible” and that “dismissing concerns of friends and partners … must stop.” Lammy also announced that the British government will impose sanctions on three individuals and four entities with ties to settlements in the West Bank, which the U.K., France and Canada called “illegal” in their joint statement.
Meanwhile in Brussels: The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said that Brussels will review whether Israel is violating the human rights clause of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which governs the high-level political and economic ties between the sides. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp proposed the review with the backing of 17 of 27 EU members; however, a policy change would require unanimity within the bloc.
And from the Vatican: Pope Leo XIV appealed this morning “to allow the entry of dignified humanitarian aid and to put an end to the hostilities, whose heartbreaking price is paid by the children, elderly, and the sick.
kim’s call
Sen. Andy Kim urges Homeland Security Secretary Noem to protect Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) pressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for clarification of her department’s plans regarding the Nonprofit Security Grant Program as the Trump administration considers cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. Kim and Noem engaged on the issue while the latter was testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday. Kim, the top Democrat on the HSGAC subcommittee that oversees FEMA, urged Noem to ensure NSGP funding is not reduced or eliminated outright as part of President Donald Trump’s push to abolish FEMA, citing the program’s success rate with New Jersey synagogues amid rising antisemitism.
Making the case: “I think that there’s very strong bipartisanship here in Congress, especially the Senate, to protect the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. It is literally the best tool that people in New Jersey are telling me is needed to be able to counter antisemitism. I can’t tell you the number of synagogues and temples that are lined up to try to get this type of funding. In fact, you know, given the rise of antisemitism that we have in our country right now, we should be surging resources, not cutting,” Kim said.
Worthy Reads
A Tale of Two New York City’s: New York magazine’s E. Alex Jung writes about the stark contrast between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral primary. “Their respective campaigns are striking foils: Cuomo, who at 67 would become the oldest incoming mayor of New York City ever, has stayed out of the public eye while racking up endorsements from major labor unions. When he does appear, he’s working the Black church circuit. He knows that the path to the Democratic nomination has historically gone through Black and Latino voters, mostly in Southeast Queens and Central Brooklyn. In one simulation, Cuomo is winning those communities by 91 percent and 72 percent by the final round, respectively. To the ire of white liberals, he has a broad multi-racial coalition. While Mamdani is seemingly everywhere in the city, running from protests to rallies to galas, his base is largely white college-educated Brooklynites, with much of his early efforts going toward activating South Asian and Muslim voters, who have traditionally been ignored. ‘Zohran is Cuomo’s wet-dream opponent,’ says one anti-Cuomo Democratic strategist. ‘Supported by online kids, on the record for “defund,” on the record about Palestine, and little support in Black or Latino communities.’” [NYMag]
Sam (A)I Am: In a New Yorker review of two new books on Sam Altman and the future of AI, Benjamin Wallace-Wells considers the OpenAI founder’s Midwestern Jewish roots. “Within the world of tech founders, Altman might have seemed a pretty trustworthy candidate. He emerged from his twenties not just very influential and very rich (which isn’t unusual in Silicon Valley) but with his moral reputation basically intact (which is). Reared in a St. Louis suburb in a Reform Jewish household, the eldest of four children of a real-estate developer and a dermatologist, he had been identified early on as a kind of polymathic whiz kid at John Burroughs, a local prep school. “His personality kind of reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell,” the school’s head, Andy Abbott, tells [Keach] Hagey [author of The Optimist: Sam Altman, Open AI, and the Race to Invent the Future]. ‘He can talk about anything and it’s really interesting’ — computers, politics, Faulkner, human rights.” [NewYorker]
Under African Skies: The Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior director Elaine Dezenski and senior research analyst Max Meizlish offer a warning about South Africa’s anti-American activity in the run-up to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s meeting with Trump today. “South Africa isn’t an innocent, neutral party. It is playing both sides — courting the West while deepening its ties to China, Russia and Iran. Its leaders speak the language of nonalignment, but their actions tell a different story: They’ve welcomed Hamas and Hezbollah officials, hosted sanctioned Russian warships and worked with entities tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps … South Africa’s conduct is not just inconsistent with American values — it’s increasingly incompatible with US national security. Under Ramaphosa, the ANC has intensified its lawfare campaign against Israel at the International Court of Justice, ramped up efforts to diplomatically isolate Taiwan, and embraced Beijing’s narrative on global governance by joining the China-led BRICS group. The ANC’s historical alignment with authoritarian powers is no secret — but today, it’s backed by real material support. That should concern every serious policymaker in Washington.” [NYPost]
The Illiberal Left, and Right: The Liberal Patriot’s executive editor, John Halpin, considers the future of American liberalism. “Instead of pragmatic, universal solutions to the problems of working- and middle-class Americans, Democrats after Obama went off on extreme ideological tangents and illiberal fads from structural racism and transgender ideology to decriminalization and open borders to the socialist ‘Green New Deal’ and other radical climate policies. Notably, all of these illiberal ‘ideas’ produced significant public backlash from a wide array of American voters and are now in the process of being dismantled or disregarded. On the Republican side, the traditional party of Reagan has basically discarded all its past social and economic liberal commitments in favor of Trump’s peculiar blend of command-and-control tariff and trade policies, unrestrained executive authority, withdrawal from global allies and international security arrangements, and the use of governmental legal and bureaucratic authority to attack and prosecute perceived enemies. ‘Postliberal’ ideas that explicitly reject individualism as the foundation of American life are now dominant in a party that feels the need ‘to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power,’ according to Vice President JD Vance.” [LiberalPatriot]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump is reportedly frustrated by the continuing war in Gaza and has instructed his aides to tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “wrap it up,” White House officials told Axios…
Netanyahu’s office announced yesterday that the senior members of the ceasefire and hostage-release negotiating team had been recalled from Doha, Qatar, while the working echelon would continue the talks. The PMO statement stressed that Israel had agreed to the U.S. proposal but that Hamas “is continuing to cling to its refusal”…
In an interview published today in The National, Jake Sullivan, the Biden administration’s national security advisor, says of Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu, “It’s not that the balance of power has changed, just the weight and emphasis on who can deliver” …
CNN, citing intelligence from “multiple US officials,” reported that Israel has been making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, though they stressed it remains unclear if Israeli leaders have made a final decision to do so. In reaction to the story, former Washington Institute for Near East Policy fellow Nadav Pollak wrote on X: “The only surprising part in [the story] is that US officials leaked the fact they monitor Israeli communications.”…
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that, “I do not think nuclear talks with the U.S. will be successful” and warned, “They should not try to talk nonsense. It is a big mistake to say that we will not allow Iran to enrich. No one is waiting for permission from this or that.”…
Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will move forward on construction of a Golden Dome missile defense system. Trump began calling for a U.S. missile defense shield similar to Israel’s Iron Dome after watching Israel deflect missiles and drones amid Iran’s attacks in 2024…
Democrat Sam Sutton won a special election for a New York state Senate seat, which the GOP had hoped to flip after Trump received 77% of the vote in the district in November. The district encompasses several heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, and Sutton is a leader of its Sephardic community…
The New York Times confirmed reporting that Trump, through the Pentagon, White House military office and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, had initially approached the Qataris about purchasing the luxury Boeing 747 jet for use as Air Force One, rather than it being offered as a gift…
Newly released emails reveal that Joe Kent, chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, pressured analysts to revise an intelligence assessment to align with Trump’s claim that Venezuela’s government controls a criminal gang…
Elon Musk told attendees at the Qatar Economic Forum that he doesn’t plan to spend money on elections in the future. “I think I’ve done enough,” he said…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) clashed in a heated exchange during a Senate hearing Tuesday. “I regret voting for you for secretary of state,” Van Hollen said. “Your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job,” Rubio responded…
Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) sought unanimous consent to call up a resolution pushing the administration to work to resume U.S. aid to Gaza, which is sponsored by nearly all Senate Democrats. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) blocked the effort…
The United Arab Emirates said yesterday that it will send urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza, after UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and his Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke on the phone…
The U.S. and Turkey released a joint statement on the U.S.-Turkey Syria Working Group’s most recent meeting held in Washington, which included discussions on “shared priorities in Syria, including sanctions relief according to President Trump’s directive and combatting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”…
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sent a letter to Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone expressing their concern that CBS News may be engaging in “improper conduct” and violating anti-bribery law in its effort to settle a lawsuit with Trump that will potentially block Paramount’s intended merger with Skydance…
Trump called Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) a “grandstander” who “should be voted out of office” over Massie’s opposition to his budget bill. Massie, a longtime opponent of aid to Israel and legislation to combat antisemitism, is mulling a statewide run for Senate or governor in Kentucky…
Speaking at a congressional hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Tuesday, AJC CEO Ted Deutch urged the U.S. to remain engaged in international bodies including the U.N., UNESCO and OSCE and called for Congress to confirm Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to the role of special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and provide $3 million in funding for the office…
New York Times reporter Joseph Bernstein chronicled the life of his father, a “Nazi hunter” with the U.S. Department of Justice in the ‘80s, who was killed in the Pan Am 103 bombing in 1988, and his struggle to find meaning in the resulting decades-long investigation that ultimately led to the currently delayed trial of a Libyan man accused of planting the bomb on behalf of dictator Muammar Gaddafi…
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer eulogized his mother, Yaffa Dermer, who died last Sunday at the age of 89. Ron said, “We don’t choose our parents. They are chosen for us. So I thank Hashem for blessing me to have been raised by such an extraordinary mother and teacher. … Over the years, I have had the privilege to serve in prominent positions and hold prestigious titles. But the greatest honor of my life has been to be Yaffa’s son.”…
Eva Wyner, previously deputy director of Jewish affairs for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, is now serving as the governor’s director of Jewish affairs…
Arthur Maserjian, previously chief of staff at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, is now the senior director of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies’ Center for Combating Antisemitism…
Eric B. Stillman was hired to serve as the next president and CEO of the Florida Holocaust Museum, which will reopen on Sept. 9 following an extensive renovation; Stillman succeeds Mike Igel, who has led the organization as its interim CEO for the past year…
Pic of the Day
Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) addressed an Anti-Defamation League reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month yesterday in Washington.
Birthdays
Northern California-based comedian, he celebrated his bar mitzvah at 52 years old in Israel, Josh Kornbluth turns 66…
Former U.S. senator from Minnesota, he was previously a comedian, actor and writer, Al Franken turns 74… VP of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, Ralph Lewin turns 72… Guitarist and composer, Marc Ribot turns 71… EVP of American Friends of Bar-Ilan University, Ron Solomon… Chief rabbi of Mitzpe Jericho and dean of Hara’ayon Hayehudi yeshiva in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yehuda Kroizer turns 70… CEO of the Boston-based hedge fund Baupost Group, Seth Klarman turns 68… Legal analyst at CNN, Jeffrey Toobin turns 65… Founder and former co-owner of City & State NY, Thomas Allon turns 63… Director of antisemitism education and associate director of the Israel Action Program, both at Hillel International, Tina Malka… Actress, artist and playwright, Lisa Edelstein turns 59… Former head of Dewey Square’s sports business practice, now a freelance writer, Frederic J. Frommer… Author and journalist, she was a reporter with The New York Times for eight years, Amy Waldman turns 56… U.S. cyclist at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, she is now the executive director of the New England Mountain Bike Association, Nicole Freedman turns 53… President and CEO of the Michigan-based William Davidson Foundation, Darin McKeever… University chaplain for NYU, Rabbi Yehuda Sarna turns 47… Founder of Agora Global Advisory, Brandon Pollak… EVP and chief legal officer at Sinclair Broadcast Group, David Gibber… Professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, Scott Joel Aaronson turns 44… President of Mo Digital, Mosheh Oinounou… International fashion model for Versace, Sharon Ganish turns 42… Partner at CreoStrat, Steve Miller… Windsurfer who represented Israel in the Olympics (Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016), she is now a SW delivery lead at SolarEdge, Maayan Davidovich turns 37… Player on the USC team that won the 2016 NCAA National Soccer Championship, she is now an associate in the LA office of Foley & Lardner, Savannah Levin turns 30… Comedian, actress and writer, known for starring in the HBO Max series “Hacks,” Hannah Marie Einbinder turns 30… Deputy director at the Yael Foundation, Naomi Kovitz…
BIRTHWEEK: (was Monday): Alex Shapero…
Plus, DMFI names new president & board chair
JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images
This picture taken from a position in southern Israel on the border with the Gaza Strip shows Israeli tanks and bulldozers deployed as smoke billows over destroyed buildings in Gaza during Israeli bombardment on May 17, 2025.
