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…
Plus, Tehrangelenos on Trump's Iran tango
Office of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) hold a joint press conference on Iranian nuclear negotiations at the U.S. Capitol on May 8, 2025.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to members of the Persian American Jewish community about the Trump administration’s nuclear negotiations with Iran, and look at how Jewish interfaith leaders are responding to the selection of Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago. We also report on former hostage Emily Damari’s response to the Pulitzer Prize Board’s awarding of its commentary prize to a Palestinian poet who disparaged victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, and cover bipartisan House pushback to President Donald Trump‘s decision to reach a ceasefire with the Houthis. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Judea Pearl, Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Jake Retzlaff.
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: Israeli presence in Syria ‘a direct lesson of Oct. 7’; Washington Post’s Pulitzer finalist for Gaza coverage slams Israel’s military conduct in one-sided acceptance speech; and In this NJ election, antisemitism could decide the race — while dividing a Jewish community. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s planned trip to Israel was reportedly scrubbed today. Hegseth had been slated to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz before joining President Donald Trump, who is traveling to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar next week for his first trip abroad since reentering office.
- The Financial Times Weekend Festival is taking place tomorrow in Washington. Scheduled speakers include former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, U.K. Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson, UnHerd’s Sohrab Ahmari, Rev. Johnnie Moore and Steve Bannon.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S HALEY COHEN
It’s not a coincidence that we’ve been focusing on Michigan a lot in these pages. It’s something of a battleground in the domestic politics surrounding antisemitism and the Middle East. Its universities have been among the epicenters of egregiously antisemitic activity. The state’s congressional delegation ranges from a stalwart ally of the state’s Jewish community in Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), one of the most radical anti-Israel voices in Congress.
So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that one of the leading officials in the state, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, found herself caught in political purgatory after abruptly dropping charges against seven University of Michigan students arrested for their role in anti-Israel demonstrations. The students were accused of assaulting police officers and engaging in ethnic intimidation.
Nessel, a Democrat, faced attacks from anti-Israel activists for bringing the case in the first place, and was subject to ugly smears that she only brought charges because of her Jewish identity. Tlaib has for months called on Nessel to recuse herself, arguing she only brought the case because of her “bias.”
But after Nessel blamed a local Jewish communal organization for playing a role in dropping the case, she’s been facing friendly fire from many of her erstwhile Jewish allies as well. After she dropped the charges on Monday, she criticized the Ann Arbor Jewish Community Relations Council for writing a letter to the court defending her against accusations of bias, claiming it was inappropriate and may have tainted the case.
In her statement, Nessel maintained the evidence against the suspects was strong, and otherwise would have led to a conviction.
Rabbi Asher Lopatin, director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, told Jewish Insider that the organization has not heard from Nessel since releasing its statement. He said the letter was simply meant to “push back against these accusations against Nessel” and there is confusion over why or how it has compromised the case.
It’s fair to ask whether Michigan’s charged intra-Democratic politics also played a role in the decision to drop the charges. Nessel is one of the Democratic Party’s leading officials in the state, and didn’t get a lot of public backing from her colleagues when she first brought the case. The Arab American community in the state is significant — and was mobilized against Nessel — often drowning out the Jewish and more-moderate voices looking for accountability for those engaging in antisemitic activity.
On top of that, President Donald Trump’s aggressive (and arguably illiberal) actions against elite colleges with checkered records on antisemitism have made the enforcement against antisemitic hate crimes a more partisan issue, making it uncomfortable for a Democrat who’s tough on enforcement to stand their ground.
The dropped charges also raise legal questions about the validity of the case to begin with — and whether a new precedent is now set for anti-Israel activity in the state, which has seen a spate of antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.
“If the attorney general believes, as she said in her statement, that a reasonable jury would find the defendants guilty of the charges, we worry about the precedent this decision sets,” a spokesperson for the Michigan office of the Anti-Defamation League told JI.
HOLDING OUT HOPE
For Persian Jews, Trump’s Iran policy is personal — and confusing
As nuclear talks between the United States and Iran enter their fourth round this weekend, WhatsApp groups within the Persian Jewish community in the United States are blowing up, as Iranian refugees and their first-generation American children try to decode Trump’s approach to the talks and figure out what to make of all of it. In conversations with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch, several Jewish activists and leaders who were born in Iran or whose families fled the regime described confusion at Trump’s posturing on the issue, holding out hope for a strong deal — and trepidation that he might settle for something weak.
Shifting stance: To Jews whose families fled Iran out of concern for their lives, the prospect of Trump now negotiating with the rogue regime that wanted them dead is confounding, particularly since he took such a tough approach to Iran in his first term. “I think that the Jews from the Middle East, by and large, voted for Trump,” said Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh, a rabbi in Los Angeles whose family left Iran shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. “The main reason was because of their support for Israel and hoping that that goes hand in hand, as Persian Jews, with his being hard on Iran, and that’s what he promised. He promised he was going to be tough on Iran. And he keeps saying that, and then floundering.”
PROMISING POPE
American-born pope offers hope of improved Catholic-Jewish relations, religious experts say
The election of Robert Francis Prevost as the first American pope on Thursday marked the beginning of a historic era for the Catholic Church, even as it also raised questions about the direction of Catholic-Jewish relations that had struggled under his predecessor. Prevost, a 69-year-old Augustinian cardinal from Chicago who took the name Leo XIV, brings to his new role no known history of involvement with the Jewish community or record of commentary on Israel and antisemitism, experts told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel.
Positive predictions: Despite his apparent lack of engagement, Jewish leaders and scholars of Catholic-Jewish relations still expressed optimism that Prevost’s rise could help to smooth lingering tensions with the Jewish community — which had risen during the reign of Pope Francis, who died last month at 88. “I think the election of an American pope bodes well for the future of Catholic-Jewish relations,” Noam Marans, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, told JI on Thursday.
NUCLEAR NEWS
Graham, Cotton warn Iran nuclear deal without ‘complete dismantlement’ won’t pass Senate
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) are cautioning that the Senate will not deliver President Donald Trump the 67 votes he needs to ratify a nuclear agreement with Iran if that deal does not require the “complete dismantlement” of Tehran’s current program. The senators issued the warning during a press conference at the Capitol on Thursday promoting their resolution affirming that the only acceptable outcome of U.S. nuclear talks with Iran would be the total dismantlement of its enrichment program, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What they said: Asked why the approval of the Senate is necessary when Trump could technically implement a deal without the legislative branch, both senators noted that his agreement would have no guarantee of surviving in future administrations if not ratified by Congress. “If they want the most durable and lasting kind of deal, then they want to bring it to the Senate and have it voted on as a treaty,” Cotton said. Graham noted another requirement of a deal getting congressional support would be its addressing Iran’s missile and terror proxy activities. He said that he told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “a treaty with Iran in this space is only possible if you get 67 votes …You’re not going to get 67 votes for a treaty regarding their nuclear program unless they deal with the missile program and their terrorism activity. So is it possible? Yes, if Iran changes.”
Taking a stand: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued on Thursday that Iran does not need a civilian nuclear energy program — a stance that would support a more stringent position on the ongoing nuclear negotiations than members of the Trump administration have outlined, Jewish Insider’s Marc reports.
pulitzer problems
Emily Damari denounces Pulitzer board for awarding journalist who ridiculed hostages
A former British-Israeli hostage who was held by Hamas in Gaza for 15 months spoke out against the Pulitzer Prize Board on Thursday for bestowing an award to a Palestinian poet who has disparaged victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and appeared to legitimize the abduction of hostages, among other comments that have stirred controversy, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
‘Shock and pain’: Emily Damari, who in January was released from Hamas captivity after she was shot and taken from her home in southern Israel on Oct. 7, expressed outrage at the Pulitzer board for honoring Mosab Abu Toha, a Gazan-born writer whose New Yorker magazine essays on the war-torn enclave won the award for commentary. In an anguished statement, Damari, 28, voiced “shock and pain” that Abu Toha had won the award, citing past remarks in which he denigrated Israeli captives abducted by Hamas and questioned their status as hostages, while casting doubt on Israeli findings that a baby and a toddler kidnapped by the terror group were “deliberately” murdered in Gaza with “bare hands.”
EXCLUSIVE
Schneider leads House Dems to call for resumption of aid to Gaza
A group of 25 House Democrats led by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) wrote to President Donald Trump on Friday urging him to call on Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu to resume aid flows into Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The letter follows one from close to 100 House Democrats earlier in the week, backed by J Street, which described Israel’s blockade of aid as a moral failure that would also endanger Israel’s security. The Schneider-led letter is worded in a less strident manner toward Israel, and is framed as supportive of Trump’s own comments and efforts on the issue.
Pressure push: “Israel has the right and obligation to defeat Hamas and rescue the hostages,” the letter reads. “At the same time, it is critical that Israel enables entry of lifesaving humanitarian aid into Gaza. We respectfully urge you to call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to immediately address this humanitarian crisis and promote lasting peace.” The Democratic lawmakers highlighted that stores of food and water in Gaza are running short, and said that it is vital for humanitarian assistance to again get to those in need, even amid the ongoing conflict.
Huckabee presser: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in a press conference in Jerusalem today that a humanitarian aid program to deliver food into Gaza has been launched and he hopes it will start to be implemented soon. Huckabee stressed that Israel will not be involved in distributing the aid but will be involved in security aspects.
SCOOP
Bipartisan House group expresses ‘serious concern’ about U.S.-Houthi deal
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers blasted the Trump administration over its deal to cease attacks on the Houthis in Yemen, a ceasefire agreement that does not include any provisions requiring the Iran-backed terrorist group to end its attacks on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The letter led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Don Bacon (R-NE) to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is serving as acting national security advisor, is a new indication of congressional concern about the deal with the Houthis, which was met with skepticism by multiple Senate lawmakers when it was first announced.
Israel exclusion: “We are writing to express our serious concern over the agreement reached on May 6 with the Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen, which halts U.S. strikes against Houthi targets without addressing the threat to Israel. Shortly after the announcement, the Houthis declared their intent to continue targeting Israeli civilians, despite the agreement with the United States,” the letter reads. “This decision leaves Israel dangerously vulnerable and fails to confront the broader threat posed by Iran’s proxy network.”
Envoy weighs in: “The United States isn’t required to get permission from Israel to make some type of arrangement that would get the Houthis from firing on our ships,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in a clip from an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 set to be aired over the weekend. He added, “There’s 700,000 Americans living in Israel, if the Houthis want to continue doing things to Israel and they hurt an American, then it becomes our business.”
Worthy Reads
Grays’ Anatomy of a Gift: eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports on the recent $125 million gift by Jon and Mindy Gray to Tel Aviv University — the largest in both the school’s history and in the Grays’ giving to Israel causes. “For one of the largest donations ever made to Israeli academia, the ceremony marking the inauguration of the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at Tel Aviv University on Thursday morning was an understated affair — at least as understated as an event can be when it’s attended by one of the world’s top hedge fund managers, Blackstone President and COO Jonathan Gray; Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog; the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Blackstone Vice Chair Tom Nides; along with some of Israel’s top academics and medical professionals. … ‘We are American Jews who grew up on modest means far from Israel, in Chicago and Philadelphia. But thanks to our families, we have always known where our past was rooted: here in this sacred land, where orange trees were coaxed from the arid desert. Tragically, the unthinkable events of Oct. 7 awakened the need to express that connection in a far more concrete way,’ Jon Gray said, citing his family’s immigration to the United States at the end of the 19th century fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe.” [eJP]
Plan B, For Bomb: Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen suggests that the U.S. should take military action against Iran if Tehran doesn’t agree to dismantling its nuclear program. “Trump understands the nature of an Iranian regime that has plotted to assassinate American officials on American soil — including him. Like presidents before him, he has pledged that Iran will not be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon. Unlike presidents before him, he is now poised to deliver on that pledge and actually stop them. I don’t believe Trump will agree to a deal with Iran that is weaker than the deal Bush negotiated with Libya. If Trump can convince Iranian officials to allow U.S. military aircraft to land in their country, load up all of their uranium, centrifuges, bomb designs and ballistic missiles, and fly them to Oak Ridge — and agree to cease its support for terrorism — then Trump should sign on the dotted line. If not, then it’s time for Plan B — and for the United States and Israel to, in Trump’s words, ‘bomb the hell out of them.’” [WashPost]
Harvard’s Defiance: In The Wall Street Journal, Roland Fryer, an economics professor at Harvard and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, considers the clash between “economic interests and principle” as the university’s battles with the Trump administration. “My hope is that Harvard has realized its past wrongs and will resist these pressures going forward — allowing the university to determine and uphold its own core values. But two other theories would explain Harvard’s recent behavior just as well. One is political bias. Harvard’s leadership leans decidedly to the left and will likely be far friendlier to pressure from that direction. Its spine could thus weaken again once the presidency changes hands. The other explanation is simple economics. Like any institution, Harvard seeks to maximize its utility — prestige, endowment growth, influence. That might mean resisting federal policy that threatens core funding, but yielding quietly on symbolic or lower-stakes issues. Behavior under this explanation is determined not by veritas — truth, Harvard’s motto — but by coldly calculated costs and benefits. … I hope that Harvard’s current defiance is a burning-bush moment: a real commitment to institutional independence and to the search for truth that will last beyond a single presidency. The economist in me worries that it’s only another move in a political chess match — one in which the board tilts depending on who’s in power and which way the wind blows.” [WSJ]
Portnoy’s Complaint: MSNBC columnist and New School professor Natalia Mehlman Petrzela considers how educators can combat antisemitism, following a recent antisemitic incident at a Philadelphia bar that garnered national attention. “Students should learn about Jewish history and identity as an important part of their study of the United States. Social studies curricula should teach about Jews as immigrants, Americans, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, and as members of a diverse community from many national and ethnic backgrounds who hold a range of views on any given topic, including Israel, and most importantly, as everyday people deserving of respect and full civil rights. Understanding antisemitism is of paramount importance, but it should not be addressed only in response to incidences of Jew hatred, or uniquely in relation to the Holocaust. Rather, antisemitism should be explained as a centuries-old hatred that shape-shifts depending on the historical moment, to be about religion, biology or culture, and as still very much with us. Teaching about Jewish identities and experiences, both of perseverance and success and of facing persistent discrimination, is important to understanding, and improving, our pluralistic society.” [MSNBC]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump met with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Thursday during Dermer’s trip to Washington to discuss Gaza and ongoing nuclear talks with Iran…
Judea Pearl, the father of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, clarified reports on Thursday that a terrorist tied to his son’s death had been killed by Indian forces in Pakistan; Pearl said that Abdul Rauf Azhar’s group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, “was not directly involved in the plot to abduct Danny, it was indirectly responsible. Azhar orchestrated the hijacking [of IC-814 in 1999] that led to the release of Omar Sheikh — the man who lured Danny into captivity”…
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin held a ceremony in his office with Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington, to inscribe letters into The Washington Torah and affix a mezuzah to his office door…
The Trump administration canceled an additional $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard University amid a growing battle between the school and the White House…
Claire Shipman, the acting president of Columbia University, released a five-minute video stridently criticizing the anti-Israel campus activists who disrupted hundreds of students studying in the school’s main library during finals week…
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) launched his Senate campaign challenging Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA); Carter is the first Republican to enter the race to unseat Ossoff…
Ivanka Trump made her first public appearance since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, speaking with Arianna Huffington at the Heartland Summit in Bentonville, Ark., about Planet Harvest, the produce company she co-founded after leaving her White House role in the first Trump administration…
The Washington Post reviews British author Rachel Cockerell’s Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land, about her great-grandfather’s efforts to help Russian Jews emigrate to Galveston, Texas, in the early 20th century…
A British art dealer who appeared on the TV show “Bargain Hunt” pleaded guilty to a series of charges tied to his sale of art to a Hezbollah financier in violation of the country’s 2000 Terrorism Act…
Brigham Young University quarterback Jake Retzlaff is in Israel this week for his first trip to the Jewish state; Retzlaff, who is Jewish, is making the trip along with five teammates through an initiative run by Athletes for Israel…
The Adelson Family Foundation made a “transformative” seven-figure gift to the American Friends of Bar-Ilan University to help create the Israeli school’s Adelson Institute for Smart Materials, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…
Former World Food Program head David Beasley, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000, is in talks with key stakeholders, including the Trump administration and Israeli government, to lead the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as the U.S., Israel and a number of aid groups work to address mounting food distribution challenges in Gaza…
The mother of Israeli hostage Tamir Nimrodi said her son, who was serving on the Nahal Oz base when he was taken captive alive by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, is one of three hostages whose status is unknown; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged earlier this week that Israel had not had signs of life since early in the war from three of the 24 hostages who were taken captive alive that day…
A Jewish jeweler from the Tunisian island of Djerba was injured in an axe attack days before thousands of Jews from around the world are slated to travel to the city for an annual Lag B’Omer pilgrimage; five people were killed in a terror attack targeting the city’s synagogue, the oldest in Africa, in 2023…
The Walt Disney Co. announced plans to open a theme park on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island, which CEO Bob Iger said will be “authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati”…
Paul Singer is stepping down as chair of the Manhattan Institute after 17 years in the role, and will be succeeded by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos…
Pic of the Day
Film director Ziad Doueiri, Forbes Executive Vice President Moira Forbes, staff from Iran International and Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner were honored last night at the America Abroad Media awards in Washington. Döpfner was introduced by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), who called him a “true groundbreaking innovator in the media landscape.”
Attendees at the dinner included U.S. Ambassador to Israel Yechiel Leiter, Deputy Middle East Special Envoy Morgan Ortagus, Brett Ratner, Elliot Ackerman, former Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Sara Bloomfield, Jan Bayer, Michael and Sofia Haft and Karim Sadjadpour.
Birthdays
Israeli actress, she appeared in 30 episodes of “Shtisel,” played the lead role in the Netflix miniseries “Unorthodox” and appeared as the Marvel superhero “Sabra” in the newest “Captain America” film, Shira Haas turns 30 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Holocaust survivor, philanthropist and social activist, she marched in Selma, Ala., with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965, Eva Haller turns 95… Academy Award-winning director, producer and screenwriter, James L. Brooks turns 85… Guitarist and record producer, best known as a member of the rock-pop-jazz group Blood, Sweat & Tears, Steve Katz turns 80… Israeli rabbi who is a co-founder of Yeshivat Har Etzion, Yoel Bin-Nun turns 79… Mashgiach at Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Rabbi Beryl Weisbord turns 78… Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Michael Levitt turns 78… Pianist, singer-songwriter and one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, Billy Joel turns 76… Physician in Burlington, Vt., she was the first lady of Vermont from 1991 until 2003 when her husband (Howard Dean) was governor, Judith Steinberg Dean turns 72… Sharon Mallory Doble… Co-founder and board member of PlayMedia Systems, Brian D. Litman… Founding executive director of Chai Mitzvah, The Resource Center for Jewish Engagement, Audrey B. Lichter turns 70… Film director and producer, Barry Avrich turns 62… Staff writer at The Atlantic and author of five books, Mark Leibovich turns 60… Chair of Bain Capital and owner of a minority interest in the Boston Celtics, Jonathan Lavine turns 59… President of global affairs at Meta/Facebook, he was previously the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and a law clerk for Justice Scalia, Joel D. Kaplan turns 56… NYC-based celebrity chiropractor, Arkady Aaron Lipnitsky, DC… and his twin brother, managing director at Baltimore’s Pimlico Capital, Victor “Yaakov” Lipnitsky both turn 52… VP at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Lesli Rosenblatt Gillette… Owner of NYC’s Dylan’s Candy Bar, Dylan Lauren turns 51… Executive director of the Richardson Center and former IDF paratrooper, he has negotiated the release of political prisoners worldwide, Michael “Mickey” Bergman turns 49… Deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs during the Biden administration, Aaron Scheinberg turns 44… Founder and managing member at Revelstoke PLLC, Danielle Elizabeth Friedman… Opinion columnist and podcast host at The New York Times, Ezra Klein turns 41… Jenna Weisbord… Principal at Blackstone Growth Israel, Nathaniel Rosen… Graduate of Harvard Law School, Mikhael Smits…
SATURDAY: Scion of a Hasidic dynasty and leader of the Beth Jehudah congregation in Milwaukee, Rabbi Michel Twerski… and his twin brother, who is a professor at Brooklyn Law School, following a career as dean at Hofstra University School of Law, Aaron Twerski, both turn 86… Real estate developer and principal owner of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, Stephen M. Ross turns 85… Leading Democratic pollster and political strategist, Stanley Bernard “Stan” Greenberg turns 80… British actress, she is a vocal supporter of Israel, Dame Maureen Lipman turns 79… Israeli businessman and philanthropist, his family founded and owned Israel Discount Bank, Leon Recanati turns 77… Founder and CEO of OPTI Connectivity, Edward Brill… CEO of Medical Reimbursement Data Management in Chapel Hill, N.C., Robert Jameson… American-born Israeli singer, songwriter and music producer, Yehudah Katz turns 74… Claims examiner at Chubb Insurance, David Beck… Anchor for SportsCenter and other programs on ESPN since 1979, Chris “Boomer” Berman turns 70… Former NBA player whose career spanned 18 seasons on 7 teams, Danny Schayes turns 66… U.S. senator (R-MS), Cindy Hyde-Smith turns 66… U.S. senator (R-UT), John Curtis turns 65… Reform rabbi living in Israel, she is the sister of actress Laura Silverman and comedian Sarah Silverman, Susan Silverman turns 62… Brazilian businessman, serial entrepreneur and partner with Donald Trump in Trump Realty Brazil, Ricardo Samuel Goldstein turns 59… Neil Winchel… Attorney general of Colorado, elected in 2018 and reelected in 2022, he is running for governor of Colorado in 2026, Philip Jacob Weiser turns 57… Senior rabbi of Houston’s Congregation Beth Yeshurun, Brian Strauss turns 53… Israeli rock musician, singer-songwriter, music producer and author, Aviv Geffen turns 52… Editor-in-chief, recipe developer, art director and food stylist of Fleishigs, a kosher food magazine, Shifra Klein turns 43… Reporter for the Associated Press based in Israel, Melanie B. Lidman… Video games reporter at Bloomberg News, Jason Schreier turns 38… Manager of government affairs at the American Forest & Paper Association, Fara Klein Sonderling… Associate director of communications in the D.C. office of Pew Research Center, Rachel Weisel Drian… National correspondent for New York magazine, Gabriel Debenedetti… Editorial director at The Record by Recorded Future, Adam Janofsky… Actress who has appeared in many films and television series, Halston Sage (born Halston Jean Schrage) turns 32… Scriptwriter and actress, she is the daughter of Larry David, Cazzie Laurel David turns 31… Mollie Harrison…
SUNDAY: Israeli optical and kinetic artist and sculptor, born Yaacov Gibstein, Yaacov Agam turns 97… Sociologist and author, Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D. turns 80… Israeli social activist focused on issues of women’s and human rights, Iris Stern Levi turns 72… Treasurer and receiver-general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Deborah Beth Goldberg turns 71… Past president and then chairman of AIPAC, Morton Zvi Fridman, MD turns 67… Copy chief at Random House until 2023 and the author of Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer turns 67… Brian Mullen… Howard M. Pollack… CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, William Albert “Bill” Ackman turns 59… Michael Pregent… Member of the California state Senate since 2016, he is a co-chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, Scott Wiener turns 55… Co-founder and president of Omaha Productions, which he started with Peyton Manning, Jamie Horowitz… Filmmaker and podcast host, Dan Trachtenberg turns 44… Deputy chief of staff in the Office of the President at Carnegie Mellon University, Pamela Eichenbaum… Senior cost analyst at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Michael Jeremy Alexander… PR and brand manager for overseas resource development at Leket Israel, Shira Woolf… Founder and CEO of the digital asset technology company Architect Financial Technologies, Brett Harrison turns 37… Staff writer at Time magazine, Olivia B. Waxman… Manager of paid search and e-commerce at Wavemaker, James Frichner… Paralympic track and field athlete, he is also a motivational speaker and disability rights advocate, Ezra Frech turns 20…
BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Founder of Follow Team Israel, David Wiseman…