• Tensions are high in the Middle East going into the weekend, as Iran has continued to strike U.S. assets around the region this week and Saudi Arabia has also faced attacks by Tehran’s proxies.
• We’re keeping an eye out for word from Jerusalem on its stance on Trump’s announcement of a deal for Hamas’ “complete disarmament” announced last night, which requires complete IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. See more below.
• Amid the global developments, Trump will hold the 13th Cabinet meeting of his second administration this morning at the historic Camp David retreat in Maryland.
• The Democratic Socialists of America kicks off its three-day annual organizing conference today in Chicago. One programming track is set to focus on “anti-imperialist and pro-Palestine organizing strategy” to end the “U.S.-Israeli genocide in Palestine.”

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S WILL BREDDERMAN

In chatting with plugged-in Democratic strategists currently working on congressional campaigns, I was shocked — but not all that surprised — at the acceptance that the party has been all but dominated by the socialist faction, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), that has gotten more radical since his presidential campaign in 2016 and has played a key role in many Democratic primaries across the country.

Two Democratic operatives involved in Michigan and other targeted races bluntly told JI that left-wing candidates endorsed by Sanders and his band of far-left allies can now expect to win about one-third of the primary vote from the start if given the Sanders seal of approval. And far from being contained to deep-blue urban districts in New York, the trend is spreading into swing-district primaries and statewide nomination fights.

That’s certainly shaping up to be the case in Michigan’s 7th District, one of the biggest battleground districts in the country long held by now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). Despite two candidates with cross-partisan credentials running — former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam and former Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink — the Sanders-endorsed socialist activist William Lawrence is the front-runner, according to new polling conducted in the race.

And the socialist wave is building in statewide races in two of the biggest Midwestern battlegrounds, with Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed Francesca Hong running away with the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin’s governorship, despite her recent embrace of politically toxic views like supporting funding cuts to the police.

And as we’ve extensively covered in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed’s virulently anti-Israel and left-wing platform in the Senate race doesn’t appear to be stunting his primary campaign against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), even with popular Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s endorsement of Stevens.

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

• We’ll be keeping a close eye over the weekend on the situation in the Middle East amid continued U.S. strikes on Iran and Iranian attacks across the region. President Donald Trump said last night that the U.S. would use frozen Iranian assets to pay for the damage caused to vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz that have come under attack by Iranian forces.
• The 125 members of the International Criminal Court are expected to vote today by secret ballot on whether to remove the body’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, over sexual misconduct allegations made against him by a former ICC subordinate. To oust Khan, 63 members — an absolute majority — will have to vote in favor. Khan had taken a leave of absence in May 2025 and was formally suspended by the court last month.
• The rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner — postponed after the annual April event was interrupted by a gunman at the Washington Hilton — will be held tonight at the Waldorf Astoria (formerly the Trump International Hotel). Trump is expected to attend.
• In Maine tomorrow, Democratic delegates will gather in Bangor to formally select a candidate to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in November. Former state Sen. Troy Jackson is expected to handily win the nomination, which comes after former Senate candidate Graham Platner dropped his bid earlier this month.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH AND JOSH KRAUSHAAR

President Donald Trump’s capture of the Republican Party did not happen at once, and was memorably met with resistance from some lawmakers who would later become his allies. 

Many Republicans, during the rise of Trump, cast mostly party-line votes alongside the president and rarely spoke out publicly when they disagreed. But there were notable times when prominent party leaders used their political capital to stand up for their principles on key issues, such as then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) outspoken advocacy for Ukraine funding or Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) decisive vote against repealing Obamacare.

There may be a similar political calculus at play for some typically pro-Israel Democrats, who are facing immense political pressure from loud activists in their party base to turn against the Jewish state. Nearly half of the House Democratic caucus voted to cut off aid to Israel last week, a record number that included 18 lawmakers who had previously been endorsed by AIPAC and were seen as strong allies of the U.S.-Israel relationship. 

AIPAC cut off fundraising to their reelection campaigns after the vote, and how these lawmakers will position themselves on Israel policy going forward is now uncertain. 

Not all of the Democrats who supported the amendment have adopted an anti-Israel worldview. Some said that they still support Israel, but wanted to make a statement, via a bill that was certain to fail, that they disagree with many recent actions of the Israeli government. 

It’s also possible that some of them — especially those in districts where they face a credible primary threat from the left — took the vote to attempt to placate anti-Israel activists without making any real change in policy, like the Republicans who would offer an olive branch to their right-wing base by voting contrary to their longstanding beliefs.

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

Language Lesson: In The Wall Street Journal, Adam Louis Klein examines the parallels between those who accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza and the language employed by the Hutus as they conducted a genocide in Rwanda. “As in Rwanda, anticolonialism and genocide inversion have converged. Israel is imagined not only as a state accused of genocide, but as a people whose identity as foreign settlers makes genocide their destiny. … Whether directed against the Tutsis in Rwanda or against Israelis — now cast as genocidal colonizers by a cohort of anti-Zionist academics and nonprofit advocacy groups — portraying a people as foreign usurpers and inherent perpetrators isn’t neutral. It is a well-recognized prelude to violence.” [WSJ]

VP’s Vitriol: The Wall Street Journal‘s Kimberley Strassel reflects on the criticism she faced from both Vice President JD Vance’s office and his supporters following a column she wrote citing legislators in Washington discussing Vance’s absence from Capitol Hill. “One answer is simply that Mr. Vance is a sensitive bunny. If he wants to be president, he’ll need to get over that. But the other answer is that Mr. Vance knows his ‘national conservative’ ambitions for the GOP aren’t landing. Republicans are increasingly up in arms over a Vance agenda that sounds like Bernie Sanders. Hence his Vance team’s need to invalidate anyone who disagrees as a ‘RINO’ or a ‘tool’ of special interests or an ‘elite’ — the better to allow them to define what counts as a ‘real’ Republican.” [WSJ]

Going Nuclear: In his Substack, “It’s Noon in Israel,” Israeli journalist Amit Segal considers President Donald Trump’s decision to agree to a deal that would allow Saudi Arabia to have a civilian nuclear program. “Trump is a compartmental thinker. It has served Israel before — the Abraham Accords worked precisely because he declined to treat the Palestinian question as the gate through which everything else must pass. It has also cost Israel. In May 2025, he asked Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to normalize relations with Jerusalem in exchange for sanctions relief, then lifted the sanctions anyway, squandering the leverage and ending the Israeli-Syrian talks that were ongoing.” [ItsNooninIsrael]

A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.

The Treasury Department announced sanctions on a U.K.-based Muslim Brotherhood official as well as several organizations based in Gaza, Indonesia and Turkey that provided financial support for Hamas…

The Defense Department lowered the number of U.S. service member fatalities during the war with Iran from 18 to 14, with officials telling The New York Times that the four soldiers killed last week were removed from the list because those troops were killed during the ceasefire with Tehran…

The House passed a second Iran war powers resolution on Thursday following the resumption of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, with a handful of Republicans who have argued that continued operations violate the War Powers Act again siding with Democrats on the measure, JI’s Marc Rod reports…

The State Department summoned Malaysia’s ambassador in Washington over the decision by Kuala Lumpur to deport a dual Israeli American citizen traveling to the Southeast Asian nation for a digital nomad program; the meeting came after a group of House Democrats called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to push back on Malaysia’s efforts to deport Israelis…

U.S. representatives to the United Nations slammed Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories who has faced repeated accusations of antisemitism, and said at a hearing on Wednesday that the next U.N. secretary-general will be faced with a choice of whether to turn the page on the institution’s antisemitic and anti-Israel bias, JI’s Marc Rod reports…

Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), Andy Barr (R-KY), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Young Kim (R-CA), Maria Salazar (R-FL), Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Randy Fine (R-FL) reintroduced a bill to permanently prevent any U.S. contributions to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency…

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and 14 other Senate Democrats introduced a resolution demanding that the Senate’s legal counsel bring a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the gift of a Qatari 747 jet to serve as Air Force One constitutes an illegal foreign emolument banned by the constitution…

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) named presidential historian Tevi Troy and author Dara Horn to a commission established to study the possible transfer of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History to the Smithsonian Institution…

In The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, warns of the damage that the rise of Democratic Socialists of America-affiliated candidates are doing to Democratic efforts to flip the House and Senate in November…

The Republican Jewish Coalition announced its endorsement of Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) in the state’s upcoming special election to replace her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who died earlier this month, on the November ballot…

Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) said she will back far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in the state’s Democratic primary…

U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner — who is currently residing in Paris — told the New York Post that he doesn’t want to “live in a city with a blatantly antisemitic mayor and his antisemitic wife” — in a reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and First Lady Rama Duwaji — and planned to relocate his primary residence from New York City to Florida, while maintaining his Manhattan apartment…

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League reached a settlement with Reed College, in which the school agreed to adopt a range of measures, including an updated discrimination policy detailing how anti-Zionist conduct can constitute unlawful discrimination…

Hillel International is withdrawing an amicus brief it filed in support of Harvard University in the school’s legal fight against the Trump administration; a spokesperson for the group said the brief, which praised Harvard’s efforts to combat antisemitism as the university works to keep roughly $2.7 billion in federal funding that had previously been frozen by the government, was “filed without having gone through our internal review process”…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross interviews Daryl Messinger, who last month was tapped as chair of the Israel Policy Forum, about shifting sentiment on Israel and efforts to advance the two-state solution…

The World Climbing Association blocked a motion to suspend Israel from the international climbing body following pushback from the climbing federations in the U.S., Australia, and Cyprus…

A Sydney man who wore a shirt with a swastika outside a hearing in which survivors of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack testified before Australia’s royal commission investigating antisemitism was fined $1,500, with a judge ruling that the man was “frustrated with the horrific events [in the Middle East] as he perceives them”…

A U.K. government spokesperson said the country was “ready 24/7 to defend itself” following threats from Tehran to target British military bases that London is allowing the U.S. to use for defensive attacks against Iran…

Satellite images obtained by The Wall Street Journal indicate that Iran is quickly rebuilding infrastructure damaged by the U.S. and Israel earlier this year…

Zehava Shaul, the mother of slain Israeli Staff Sgt. Oren Shaul, whose body was held by Hamas for more than a decade after he was killed in 2014, died at 71…

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Alavida Malbec 2025:

Except for a small ownership stake in the Stuttgart Kickers, soccer never held much claim on me. Argentina changed that. Israel’s great friend and ally reignited my passion for the game this summer, and I watched nearly every match the team played, cheering as though they wore blue and white, which, come to think of it, they do. The final did not end the way I had hoped. But this year Tisha B’Av ended on a Thursday night, and with Shabbat around the corner, wine returned to my table early. The choice made itself: a great bottle from Argentina, to honor a friendship and to raise a glass to a team that fell just short, yet made a whole nation, and one distant admirer, proud.

The Alavida Malbec 2025 is equal to the moment. The opening is not a sip but a full meal: blueberries and raspberries pour across the palate and refuse to leave. The mid-palate mellows just enough to let you catch your breath. Then the finish arrives, deep, thunderous, and altogether alive. It will keep you up all night, and you will not mind at all. The wine will hold gracefully for several years yet. Pair it with a whole trout grilled over open flame, its skin crackling and bronzed, its flesh sweet and smoky with lemon and char, and let the evening unfold slowly.

Purchase a bottle here.

Israelis gathered on Thursday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tisha B’Av, the day that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples and is marked by fasting and reading from the Book of Lamentations.

Screenwriter, director and producer, best known for creating “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Sex and the City,” Darren Star turns 65 on Saturday… 

FRIDAY: Former U.S. ambassador to Romania, now senior counsel at Covington and Burling, Alfred H. Moses turns 97… Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who worked for ABC News and CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Lowell Bergman turns 81… Israeli physician, author and playwright, he is the younger brother of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Iddo Netanyahu turns 74… Political consultant known for his role in both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns, Joel Benenson turns 74… Retired Los Angeles-based business and real estate attorney, Michael Jeffrey Bordy… Radio anchor and reporter on both CBS nationally and NYC’s WCBS, Michael Sugerman… Member of Congress (D-FL) until 2022, he previously served as the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist turns 70… Russian businessman, one of the largest real estate investors in Russia, he is a member of the Board of Patrons of The Conference of European Rabbis, Boris Mints turns 68… Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Judge Patty Shwartz turns 65… Presidential historian, professor at McGill and senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, Gil Troy turns 65… Director of donor development for AIPAC, he is a retired NFL player who played for the Packers and the Cowboys where he won in Super Bowl XXVII, Alan “Shlomo” Veingrad turns 63… Founder of the Migdal Oz seminary for women in Gush Etzion, she is a granddaughter of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Esti Rosenberg turns 61… Film director and producer, Douglas Eric Liman turns 61… Partner in Frost Brown Todd and author of The Liberal Case for Israel, he was the first-ever Jewish statewide elected official in Kentucky (state treasurer), Jonathan Miller turns 59… Author, he wrote roughly 600 stories for the “My Ride” column on exotic cars for The Wall Street Journal, A.J. Baime turns 55… Mayor of Asheville, N.C., she was elected in 2013, 2017 and 2022, Esther E. Manheimer turns 55… Actor, writer, podcaster and comedian, Jamie Denbo turns 53… President of Access Computer Technology in West Bloomfield, Mich., he is a rabbi, entrepreneur and social media expert, Jason Miller turns 50… Member of Congress (D-MI) and a founding member of “The Squad,” Rashida Harbi Tlaib turns 50… President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas… EVP and CFO of Morgan Stanley, Sharon Yeshaya turns 47… Actor, screenwriter and director, she is married to Seth Rogen, Lauren Miller Rogen turns 44… Former member of the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, Aviva M. Futerman Schochat… Co-founder and partner at Orfin Ventures, an incubator and deep-tech venture fund, Adam Finkel… Public relations manager at The Avon Company, Sarah Citrenbaum… Actor, best known for her role as Nomi Segal on the Freeform comedy drama “Grown-ish,” Emily Taryn Arlook turns 36… 2020 graduate of Yale Law School, he is the CEO and founder of Learned Hand, building AI tools for judges, Shlomo Klapper… 

SATURDAY: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising participant and Holocaust survivor, she is the subject of the 2021 documentary “I am Here,” Ella Blumenthal turns 105… Former publisher and editor-in-chief of Jewish Lights Publishing, he is an economist and religious scholar best known for his interfaith work, Stuart M. Matlins turns 86… Cinematographer, whose work includes “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “The Empire Strikes Back,” Peter Suschitzky turns 85… Member of the New York City Council from 2014 to 2021, Alan N. Maisel turns 80… Born in Casablanca, nightclub owner, entrepreneur and film producer, he produced “The Woman in Red” and “Weekend at Bernie’s,” Victor Drai turns 79… Former IDF brigadier general (he was part of Operation Entebbe in 1976), then a member of Knesset, Efraim “Effi” Eitam turns 74… Voiceover artist, he is also the writer, producer, director and narrator of a documentary about the restoration of a NYC synagogue, Peter Grossman… Chairman of Vibrant Capital Partners and chair emeritus of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, Philip Darivoff… Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist, she is a staff writer at The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum turns 62… Retired MLB pitcher from a small Jewish community in the Dominican Republic, he maintains a kosher home, José Bautista turns 62… Israeli journalist, former news anchor and author of a non-fiction book and a novel, Oshrat Kotler turns 61… Former CEO of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, Rabbi Steven Weil… Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, he is a NYC-based criminal defense attorney in many high-profile cases, especially involving Russian-born defendants, Arkady L. Bukh turns 54… Head coach of the men’s basketball team at Kent State University since 2011, Rob Senderoff turns 53… Radio personality on Baltimore’s WBAL and 98 Rock, Josh Spiegel turns 51… Senior communications lead at the National Association for Healthcare Quality, Erin Seidler… Experimental electronic music producer, composer and singer, known professionally as Oneohtrix Point Never, Daniel Lopatin turns 44… Film and television actor, Michael Welch turns 39… Pitcher for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics and at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he is also a real estate broker at CBRE, Joseph “Joey” Samuel Wagman turns 35… 

SUNDAY: Former mayor of Las Vegas for 12 years, where he was succeeded by his wife, Oscar Goodman turns 87… Former administrator at the University of Illinois and the University of Houston, chancellor of the California State University system and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Barry Munitz turns 85… Journalist and author or co-author of nearly two dozen books, both of her parents were killed in Auschwitz, Paulette Cooper turns 84… Author, podcaster, columnist and rabbi, Shammai Engelmayer turns 81… Member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2012 to 2020, Richard Stark turns 74… Chief medical officer at F|42, Alan H. Spiro, MD, MBA… Film and television director, she is best known for her work on the Showtime drama series “Homeland,” Lesli Linka Glatter turns 73… Sports columnist, author, television and radio personality, he works for ESPN’s Charlotte-based SEC Network, Paul Finebaum turns 71… Venture capitalist, until his wife died in 2024 he was a brother-in-law of Sen. Mitch McConnell, James W. Breyer turns 65… Actor, comedian and producer, Jeremy Samuel Piven turns 61… Former correspondent at ABC News for 23 years, now a founder at Ten Percent Media, Daniel B. “Dan” Harris turns 55… Physician and attorney, he is the founder and chairman of the D.C.-based consulting firm Stonington Global, Nicholas Muzin turns 51… Secretary of homeland security, Markwayne Mullin turns 49… Actor best known for her role in the Spider-Man trilogy, Mageina Tovah Begtrup turns 47… Partner of the D.C. office of ColdSpark, Nachama Soloveichik… Senior Reporter at CNN’s Jerusalem bureau, Tal Shalev… Israeli born classical music composer, Gilad Hochman turns 44… Israeli born R&B singer and songwriter, Hila Bronstein turns 43… Communications manager at Cetera Financial Group, Lauren Garfield-Herrin… Actor and filmmaker, Hallie Meyers-Shyer turns 39… Member of the comedy group “The Try Guys,” Zachary Andrew “Zach” Kornfeld turns 36… Associate policy director for complex care at United Healthcare , Drew Gerber… NFL running back who retired in 2024, despite his last name he is not an MOT, Tarik Cohen turns 31… Pitcher on the Israeli Women’s National Softball Team, now a curriculum designer at Great Hearts Academies, Tamara “T” Statman Schoen turns 29… President at B&B Digital Media, Tomer Barazani…

• The Aspen Security Forum concludes this afternoon. This morning, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) will join former NSA Director Timothy Haugh for a panel on American leadership in an era of advancing technologies.
• The Knesset voted this morning to dissolve itself, sending the body into recess until after the Oct. 27 election.
• We’ll be watching the situation in the Middle East as the U.S. continues to expand its campaign against Iran. Tehran for the first time on Friday acknowledged that the U.S. had struck the Islamic Republic’s energy infrastructure, with the country’s energy ministry calling for residents of the southern provinces to conserve electricity as the area is “currently experiencing extreme heat and attacks on power infrastructure.”
• Meanwhile, Chevron is expected to sign deals today that would see the company invest in two Iraqi oil fields and join a broader consortium looking to build a pipeline to connect Iraq to the Syrian coast as it looks for alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

The second-quarter congressional fundraising reports, which were posted on Wednesday, paint a picture of far-left, anti-Israel candidates drawing financial fuel from a growing small-dollar donor network of like-minded individuals. 

Nearly all of the Democratic Socialists of America-aligned or virulently anti-Israel candidates were among the Democrats’ leading fundraisers, including lawmakers (like Reps. Rashida Tlaib [D-MI] and Ilhan Omar [D-MN]) who are not facing particularly competitive races. 

The highlights: Abdul El-Sayed raised $4.6 million between April and June in the Michigan Senate primary, more than double the $2.1 million that Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) brought in. Disgraced former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner took in a whopping $9.1 million before dropping out amid allegations of rape, outpacing Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) $5.7 million haul.

On the House side, the DSA duo who won New York City congressional nominations last month — doctoral student Darializa Avila Chevalier and state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez — nearly hit the million-dollar mark in fundraising.  

Avila Chevalier raised $952,000 in the run-up to her primary against Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), coming close to matching the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairman’s fundraising. Meanwhile, Valdez brought in $942,000 for the quarter, significantly more than the party-backed progressive favorite Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president.

The list goes on: Adam Hamawy’s past ties to Islamist radicals didn’t prevent him from winning the nomination in New Jersey’s 12th District, and certainly didn’t stunt his fundraising. Hamawy raised $987,000 in the second quarter, a staggering sum for a low-profile open-seat race. That’s well more than double the total of his nearest fundraising rival.  

Melat Kiros, the 29-year-old DSA-backed insurgent who ousted Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), also outraised the longtime lawmaker in the homestretch of the campaign. Kiros brought in $712,000 between April and June, while DeGette only raised $694,000.

What does this say about the state of our politics? 

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

• State Department-facilitiated talks between Israel and Lebanon that were slated to conclude yesterday are being extended and are now expected to wrap up today, as the parties remain split on whether the IDF will partially withdraw from southern Lebanon.
• Elsewhere in Washington, the State Department’s two-day Pax Silica Summit continues today. The State Department announced on Thursday that nine new parties had signed on to Pax Silica, the U.S.-led initiative uniting American allies with the aim of developing global supply chains for artificial intelligence and the production of semiconductors, chips, critical minerals and energy sources to reduce global dependence on China. Read more here.
• Texas Democrats are gathered in Corpus Christi for the state party’s convention, which began yesterday. Among the resolutions expected to be voted on before the convention concludes on Saturday are more than a dozen resolutions about Israel.
• The Aspen Ideas Festival is underway in Colorado. This evening, Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer, respectively the national security advisor and deputy national security advisor in the Biden administration, are recording a live episode of their podcast “The Long Game,” alongside foreign policy analyst Robert Kagan, focused on shifting global power dynamics.
• On Saturday in Aspen, Karen Brunwasser, Riman Barakat, Nour Darwish and Noam Helfer are set to speak on a panel titled “The Opposite of War Is Creation: Israeli-Palestinian Artistic Partnership.” Later in the day, Fareed Zakaria, Kim Ghattas, Karim Sadjadpour and Mark Dubowitz will discuss Middle East dynamics and the war with Iran.
  
  

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

As diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran continues following the adoption of the memorandum of understanding between the two countries last week, Washington is again leaning on Qatar to serve as a critical interlocutor, further cementing Doha’s standing as an intermediary despite the significant setbacks sustained by the Gulf state during the recent war with Iran.

In an interview with UnHerd that was published on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance, traveling back from the Iran talks in Switzerland earlier this week, said that Doha would serve as the location for CENTCOM to meet with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials — despite the IRGC’s designation as a foreign terror organization by the U.S. (a move undertaken by President Donald Trump in his first term).

“One of the things we wanted to come out [of the negotiations]” was a “channel on the Iranian side” to seek conflict resolution, Vance told UnHerd aboard Air Force Two. “Which we did. They were like, ‘OK, fine, we’ll send somebody from the IRGC to go hang out in Doha with somebody from CENTCOM,’ and that’s how we’re going to settle a lot of these disputes,” he said. Read more here.

Doha has long played a role in the back-channel communications between the U.S. and adversaries. But Vance’s comments underscore the degree to which Qatar’s once-quiet intermediary role is now not only public, but a key element of the infrastructure supporting the new regional dynamics.

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

Leaving Iranians Behind: In The Washington Post, Elliott Abrams, who served as Iran envoy in the first Trump administration, raises concerns about Washington’s pledge, in its memorandum of understanding with Iran, to “refrain from interfering” in the country’s domestic affairs. “If the West cares about freedom in Iran, support for dissidents is crucial — for opposition leaders in the country and those in exile, for the millions of Iranians who loathe the regime and for the hundreds of thousands who rise up against it even in the face of murderous suppression. They need and want the moral and political support of democratic societies. Lifting sanctions and unfreezing the mullahs’ assets only make their struggle more difficult.” [WashPost]

Feeling the Heat on Israel: In The Free Press, Mark Halperin examines the degree to which Israel has become a “toxic litmus test” among Democrats. “The anti-Israel left has learned that it can pressure establishment politicians by arousing the grassroots over Israel, which has created an unvirtuous cycle. The more such pressure campaigns work against universities, corporations, and political actors, the more the left returns again and again to the same tactics, strategies, and themes to apply their threats. There is not a Democratic candidate in the country, from places with a lot of Jewish voters to places with nearly none, who is not aware of this dynamic.” [FreePress]

Vance’s Veer: Puck’s Julia Ioffe looks at how Vice President JD Vance, assessing shifting political dynamics, has increasingly staked out a position on Israel that is more critical than it was when he was in the Senate. “In recent weeks, word has spread around town that Vance has been regularly talking to Trita Parsi, the Swedish-Iranian co-founder of the Quincy Institute. The anti-interventionist think tank, which is funded by Charles Koch, bills itself as ‘transpartisan’ and operates in that space between the ends of the political horseshoe — one that, these days, looks increasingly like a circle.” [Puck]

Gulf Positioning: The Wall Street Journal’s Elliot Kaufman reflects on Vance’s appeal to Gulf states as he worked to promote the memorandum of understanding with Iran. “The Gulf states are always hedging with Iran, by virtue of geography. Several opposed the war from the start and denied the U.S. use of local airspace and U.S. military bases. … The Gulf states want their oil exports out and their energy infrastructure safe, and they are glad for the conflict to end. But that doesn’t mean they think this is a strong deal. The collapse of the U.S. position on Iran’s missile program — left out of the memorandum of understanding entirely — has unsettled the Gulf Arabs, and rightly so.” [WSJ]

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck a Singapore-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursdayin an apparent violation of the ceasefire agreement…

Iran is estimating it will amass some $40 billion annually in revenue from its control over thestrait as an increasing number of ships transit the waterway after it was reopened…

The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into Washington’s calculus on rebuilding destroyed and damaged U.S. military facilities in the Middle East and relocating assets — including potentially to Israel — as it addresses the significant damage caused by Iran’s attacks on a U.S. Navy base in Bahrain during the war…

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton is expected to plead guilty to a single count of retaining government information when he appears today in federal court; Bolton, who served in the first Trump administration, had previously pleaded not guilty after being accused by prosecutors of sending from his personal email address more than 1,000 pages of “diary-like” recollections to relatives helping him with a book…

In The Hill, former Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) considers the takeaways for moderate Democrats following the Democratic Socialists of America’s victories in Tuesday’s primaries in New York…

Republican Bruce Blakeman, who is mounting a gubernatorial bid in New York challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul, suggested that Brad Lander, who won his primary against Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) on Tuesday, “would be a camp guard in the concentration camp if he could,” prompting Lander to respond, “Standing up for Palestinian human rights doesn’t make me any less proud to be Jewish, or any less serious about fighting antisemitism”…

Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, speaking this week at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London, cautioned that antisemitism had become a “global export” following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, and that antisemitism among younger generations was “the biggest disgrace of our times”…

The New York Times interviews MIT professor Yossi Sheffi about his new book about antisemitism at the university, which he said he wrote in response to administrators’ decision not to thoroughly investigate and report on antisemitism on the campus and efforts to address it…

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the country should reopen its embassies in Iran and Venezuela, noting that having a diplomatic presence “does not mean we endorse the policies of that country”…

The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Australian government’s security arm, said that an Australian citizen living in Iran and working for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had orchestrated the firebombing of a 2024 Sydney restaurant, months before an Australian living in Iraq had plotted an attack on a Melbourne synagogue…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how CoinEx became a “major hub” for Iran, which used the cryptocurrency exchange to move nearly $4 billion in illicit funds… 

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Katzrin Cabernet 2021:

Celebrating the Sheva Brachot of a close friend’s daughter in his glorious Jerusalem garden was spiritual, emotional and full of joy, and it settled, for me, an age-old question: Does the wine make the moment, or the moment make the wine? The answer came the instant I opened one of Israel’s greatest bottles, the Yarden Katzrin 2021, as wine and occasion were joined in perfect harmony.

The Katzrin Cabernet 2021 is rich and generous from first sip to last. The opening is layered with tobacco leaf; the mid-palate carries a Bordeaux-style earthiness; and the finish is deep, luscious and unforgettable. This is a wine with 20 years ahead of it. Pour some now, alongside a 14-hour wine-braised brisket, and the marriage will speak for itself.

Purchase a bottle here.

Author Jonathan Safran Foer met this week with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, where he presented the pontiff with a sold-out New York Knicks yarmulke days after the team’s NBA championship win. Foer was invited to the Holy See as it celebrated the centenary of the Vatican Publishing House.

Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award-winning actor, movie director, composer and comedian, born Melvin James Kaminsky, Mel Brooks turns 100 on Sunday… 

FRIDAY: Member of the New York State Senate from Queens since 1999, she chairs the committee on higher education, Toby Ann Stavisky turns 87… Partner in the law firm BakerHostetler known for his recovery of $14.5 billion from the Madoff investment scandal, Irving H. Picard turns 85… Retired co-host for more than 30 years of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Robert Siegel turns 79… Rabbi of Congregation Chaverim in Tucson, Ariz., for more than 35 years, Stephanie Aaron… Chair of the Nexus Project and retired lawyer, he was previously chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Alan Solow turns 72… CEO of Emerging Star Capital and the author of a biography of President Bill Clinton, Robert E. Levin… Attorney and Holocaust survivors’ rights advocate, Samuel J. Dubbin turns 71… CEO of ZMC, he was previously chairman of CBS and president of 20th Century Fox, Strauss Zelnick turns 69… Professor of psychology at Loyola University Maryland, she is known for her work on sleep patterns and behavioral well-being, Amy Ruth Wolfson, Ph.D…. Israeli actor and comedian, Anat Waxman turns 65… Once the wealthiest of all Russian businessmen, then a prisoner in Russia and now living in London, Mikhail Khodorkovsky turns 63… First Jewish federal cabinet member to serve in post-WWII Germany, she is minister for education, family, seniors, women and youth, Karin Prien turns 61… Creator of multiple TV series including “Felicity,” “Alias,” “Lost” and “Fringe,” and director and producer of many films, Jeffrey Jacob “J.J.” Abrams turns 60… Novelist and journalist, most notable as the author of the Magicians trilogy, he was the book critic and lead technology writer at Time magazine, Lev Grossman… and his twin brother, author, video game designer and adjunct instructor at NYU, Austin Grossman both turn 57… Head of school at Ramaz since 2025, Noam T. Wasserman turns 57… President and founder of Reut Group, a Tel Aviv-based nonpartisan and nonprofit policy think tank, Gidi Grinstein turns 56… Political commentator, YouTube personality, comedian and talk show host, Dave Rubin turns 50… Head of external communications at Geico, Ross Feinstein… Partner in Mayer Brown’s D.C. office, Michael “Mickey” Leibner… EVP of programming at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Sara Fredman Aeder… CEO at Jewish California (formerly JPAC), David Bocarsly turns 36… Principal at Boston Consulting Group, Asher J. Mayerson… Author, model, media personality and political operative, she was the national spokesperson for the Republican Party, Elizabeth Pipko turns 31… 

SATURDAY: One of the heirs to the Bronfman family fortune, a co-founder of Taglit Birthright, the first chairman of the United Jewish Communities and former owner of MLB’s Montreal Expos, Charles Bronfman turns 95… One-half of the husband-wife screenwriting and television production team, Richard Allen Shapiro turns 92… Technion graduate, he is regarded as the founding father of unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) technology, Abraham Karem turns 89… Brooklyn resident, Meyer Roth… Former member of both houses of the Pennsylvania Legislature, Constance Hess “Connie” Williams turns 82… Former commander of the Israeli Navy, head of the Shin Bet and member of Knesset, Amihai “Ami” Ayalon turns 81… First-ever woman ordained as a rabbi by HUC-JIR, Sally Jane Priesand turns 80… Author of fiction and nonfiction books, she is the founding president of the Mayyim Hayyim mikveh in Newton, Mass., Anita Diamant turns 75… New Jersey resident, Kenneth R. Blankfein… Minority leader of the Florida State Senate, Lori Berman turns 68… Managing director at Osprey Foundation, Louis Boorstin… and his twin brother, principal at Panther Works and senior advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group, Robert O. Boorstin, both turn 67… British historian and award-winning author, he is a great-great-great-nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, Simon Sebag Montefiore turns 61… Southern California-based accountant, Susan M. Feldman… President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland (Ore.) since 2010, Marc N. Blattner turns 57… South Florida resident, Gordon M. Gerstein… Reporter for The New York Times on the climate desk, Lisa Friedman… Member of Knesset for United Torah Judaism, Yoel Yaakov Tessler turns 53… Senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, Ilya Shapiro… Israeli judoka, best known for his default victory at the 2004 Summer Olympics when his Iranian opponent refused to fight him, Ehud Vaks turns 47… Director of stakeholder advocacy at Ford Motor, Caroline Elisabeth Adler Morales… Singer and musician, best known for being Avril Lavigne’s lead guitarist, Evan David Taubenfeld turns 43… Executive talent partner at Greylock Partners, Holly Rose Faith… National security advisor to Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Charles Dunst… 

SUNDAY: Laguna Woods, Calif., resident, she is a retired hospital administrator, Saretta Platt Berlin… Owner of NYC’s United Equities Companies and honorary chairman of Berkshire Bank, Moses M. Marx turns 91… Former member of Congress for 16 years and now a distinguished fellow and president emerita of the Wilson Center, Jane Harman turns 81… Political consultant, community organizer and author, he is married to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Robert Creamer turns 79… Novelist, journalist, conservative commentator and senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, Mark Helprin turns 79… Author of crime fiction for both adults and children, Peter Abrahams turns 79… Documentary producer and adjunct associate professor at USC, James Ruxin turns 78… Professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, Kenneth Alan Ribet turns 78… Shareholder in the Tampa law office of Carlton Fields, Nathaniel L. Doliner turns 77… Rabbi and historian, he is the author of a 2017 book Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan, David G. Dalin turns 77… Former member of the California State Senate following two terms in the State Assembly, Martin Jeffrey “Marty” Block turns 76… Retired partner at Chicago-based accounting firm of Morrison & Morrison, he has been involved with the leadership of J Street since its inception, Mark Zivin… Volunteer president of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, he served for 17 years as executive director of Maccabi USA, Jed Margolis turns 75… Founding partner of NYC law firm Kasowitz LLP, Marc Kasowitz turns 74… Israeli journalist for Haaretz, she lives in Ramallah, Amira Hass turns 70… Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation, a Fortune 50 company that includes NBC Universal, Brian L. Roberts turns 67… Rabbi of the Har Bracha community and rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva there, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed turns 65… U.S. special envoy for Holocaust issues at the State Department, Ellen J. Germain turns 64… Founding member of GPS Investment Partners, Marc Spilker turns 62… Actor and singer, Jessica Hecht turns 61… Former diplomatic correspondent for Al-Monitor, now reporting on Substack, Laura Rozen… Novelist and short story writer, Aimee Bender turns 57… Israeli actor residing in Los Angeles, Ayelet Zurer turns 57… Trillionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, owner of X formerly known as Twitter, Elon Musk turns 55… Former member of Knesset as a member of the Labor Party / Zionist Union, Michal Biran turns 48… Toltzy Kornbluh… and her twin sister, Chany Stark… UAE-based businessman and philanthropist who is the founder and CEO of NY Koen Group, Naum Koen turns 45… Associate at Latham & Watkins, she was previously the social secretary to the ambassador of Israel in Washington, Molly Rosen… Mark Winkler…

• Four Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack on an IDF tank in southern Lebanon overnight and five others injured in an additional attack in violation of the newly implemented memorandum of understanding, prompting dozens of retaliatory Israeli strikes in the area. The incident, which was the deadliest attack on Israeli troops by Hezbollah in months, came hours after Vice President JD Vance assailed Israeli government officials — one of whom, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, warned that the Iranian-backed group would exploit the diplomacy between Tehran and Washington to attack Israel — for their opposition to the deal. Read more here.
• The escalation comes as Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) circulate a resolution among lawmakers condemning Hezbollah for its “repeated violations of ceasefire agreements” through its attacks against Israel and calling for the terrorist group to be disarmed, Jewish Insider‘s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs have learned.
• Vance had been scheduled to travel today to Switzerland, where he was set to begin talks with Iran, following the signing this week of the MOU between the countries. But the trip was scrapped overnight, with a White House spokesperson saying that “the logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable.”
• Elsewhere in Washington, Bill Pulte, the Trump administration’s housing-finance regulator, takes over as interim director of national intelligence today, days after President Donald Trump postponed DNI nominee Jay Clayton’s confirmation hearing, drawing the ire of senators from both sides of the aisle concerned over Pulte’s potential access to classified documents.
• FII Priority Europe wraps up today in Rome. On the main stage yesterday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama blasted Iran for stoking protests in the Balkan nation tied to efforts by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to develop a new real estate project in the country. More below.
• In New York, the Jewish Food Society’s Great Nosh will take place on Sunday on Governors Island.
• The Jewish News Syndicate’s annual policy summit begins on Sunday in Jerusalem.
• Also Sunday, Orthodox Union Advocacy’s annual Attorneys Conference kicks off in Washington.
• We’ll also be keeping an eye on Colombia on Sunday, where far-right attorney Abelardo de la Espriella and far-left activist Iván Cepeda, backed by current President Gustavo Petro, will face off in a presidential runoff. De la Espriella, who has the endorsement of Trump, has also gotten support from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, with whom he met last year in Argentina. After the votes from the first round of voting were tallied, Sa’ar posted a photo of the two and congratulated de la Espriella.

A QUICK WORD WITH GILI COHEN

The long love affair between Israelis and President Donald Trump, on the rocks over the last few weeks as the U.S. and Iran hammered out an end to the war, appears to be over, with humiliations mounting for Jerusalem. “I call all the shots,” not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said earlier this month. More recently, the Israeli leader’s bombing campaign in Beirut was “vicious,” Trump said. And perhaps most humiliating of all, Trump suggested that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa could better take care of Hezbollah than the IDF.

The Israeli public — the spurned lover who once hailed the U.S. president with billboards hung in the center of Tel Aviv reading “Thank you God & Donald Trump” — is not taking it well. Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog told JI, “President Trump, who has been a hero to many Israelis, is now openly criticized from within the Israeli government, including Netanyahu’s close circle.”

And this criticism is not only expressed behind closed doors. Channel 14, the popular right-wing outlet that promotes Netanyahu, has been criticizing Trump resolutely, with some of its anchors publicly cursing Vice President JD Vance and the president’s close advisors, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

It was not always this way. For most of the time since Trump reentered the White House in January 2025, he has been popular in Israel, with polls consistently showing high ratings for the American president. 

For Israelis, Trump is the one who brokered the hostage-release agreement with Hamas; Trump is the one who made the strikes in Iran and the bombing of the nuclear enrichment facilities in Fordow and Natanz a reality; and Trump is the one who established the Abraham Accords and is willing to expand them, giving Israelis the chance to sunbathe in the UAE, and perhaps in other countries in the Gulf in the near future. And although some won’t admit it, many Israelis also like his tendency to speak very bluntly, and crudely: a president born in Queens, full of Israeli chutzpah.

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

Getting Going in Gaza: In the Financial Times, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posits that the West should embrace the Trump administration’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza and the Board of Peace’s efforts in the enclave, arguing that they offer the most viable opportunity for progress. “The gleeful anticipation of failure is not just unhelpful. It is strategically self-defeating. The Board of Peace is an improbable vehicle, and the 20-point plan leaves many legitimate concerns unresolved. Governments will continue to disagree with important elements of both. But diplomacy rarely offers a choice between good options and bad ones. The international community cannot claim concern for Palestinian civilians while refusing to engage with the only mechanism currently capable of shifting conditions on the ground.” [FT]

Wrong on U.S. Aid: In The Free Press, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant clarifies the contours of U.S. military aid to Israel. “No matter where you fall on this issue, almost everyone seems to agree on the premise that American support for Israel is a donation, and that the only remaining question is how generous the benefactor should be. But that premise is wrong. It has been wrong for a long time. And because it is wrong, the debate built on top of it misrepresents to the American people what their money has actually been doing for the past half-century. … But U.S. aid to Israel is not charity. American dollars flow into American factories; American assistance frees Israeli capital for innovation; and American forces eventually receive Israeli-developed capabilities refined in real combat.” [FreePress]

Strait Jacket: In The New York Times, Ed Fishman warns that other countries will use Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a blueprint for exacting economic and military concessions of their own. “Even if the deal holds, Iran is poised to emerge from the war battered militarily and economically but strengthened strategically, the newly empowered gatekeeper of the world’s most important energy chokepoint. Other countries will take note — and seek their own chokepoints to exploit. … The irony is that Iran’s success at the Strait of Hormuz may set off a different kind of arms race — one in which every country searches for chokepoints to convert into money and power.” [NYTimes]

Wrong Turn for the Left: In The Atlantic, Adam Louis-Klein argues that anti-Zionism runs counter to progressive values. “How can it be that an ideology that has produced repeated acts of discrimination, dispossession, and violence now bears the mantle of progressivism in the West and has been normalized within the Democratic Party? Like Stalinism or the Khmer Rouge, anti-Zionism represents a wrong turn for the left. Anti-Zionism claims to be concerned with rights of minorities, opposition to racism, and universal justice. In truth, though, it has appropriated the language of anti-colonial liberation to justify oppression, transformed anti-racism into a racist accusation, and turned hatred of Israel into a global ritual.” [TheAtlantic]

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee responded rhetorically to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot’s comments that Israel should halt its attacks on Hezbollah by asking, “Does France get all its info from Hezbollah?” adding that “Ceasefire happens when Hezbollah stops shooting & killing”…

The New York Times spotlights the “last-minute scramble” that produced the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran; at one point last weekend, the Times reports, President Donald Trump “placed a call to a New York Times reporter to explain the deal, even as, he said, his ‘wonderful family’ was waiting for his birthday dinner to begin”…

Spotted at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Thursday: Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden; former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Tony Blinken, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff; Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, former U.S. Ambassadors to Israel Dan Shapiro, Jack Lew and Tom Nides; former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Karlie Kloss…

J Street is slated to host a virtual briefing for congressional staff on the Trump administration’s memorandum of understanding with Iran featuring former Biden administration special envoy for Iran Rob Malley, who was suspended from his State Department role amid an investigation over his handling of classified materials, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The Associated Press projected Washington, D.C., Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist, to win the city’s Democratic mayoral primary, shortly after former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie conceded…

A federal grand jury indicted a Florida man facing hate crime charges over a foiled plot to attack Jewish employees of a pro-Israel nonprofit organization…

Lion Raisins condemned the recent antisemitic and racist behavior by Bruce Lion, one of the company’s heirs, who was arrested last week on charges of making criminal threats targeting a neighbor in his Pacific Palisades, Calif., community who is a rabbi; Lion, who was charged with three felony hate crimes, faces up to nine years in prison if convicted…

The New York Times Magazine does a deep dive into the term “goyslop,” which was popularized as an antisemitic trope by the far right and has increasingly become part of the discourse among the Zoomer generation…

Police in Canada arrested a 19-year-old man in connection with a shooting in March targeting the U.S. consulate in Toronto…

The U.K. government is pledging £1 million to support the Jewish Museum London; U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the funding would go to sharing the “stories, the connections and the understanding that are the basis of a cohesive society and the future of our country”…

U.K. Labour party member Andy Burnham won a special parliamentary election, positioning the Greater Manchester mayor to mount a challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer…

The Koum Family Foundation donated $36 million to Los Angeles’ Milken Community School, one of the largest non-Orthodox Jewish day schools in the country, as part of a major capital campaign, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

Shalev Hulio and Sebastian Kurz’s Israeli AI cybersecurity firm Dream, whose technology works to protect governments against cyberattacks, raised $260 million, at a $3 billion valuation, in a private round of funding…

Tens of thousands of people participated in this week’s annual pilgrimage to the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in Queens, N.Y., to mark the 32nd anniversary of his death yesterday.

Singer-songwriter known as Jeryko, Yaniv Hoffman turns 35 on Sunday… 

FRIDAY: Attorney, investment banker, film producer and former deputy mayor of NYC, Kenneth Lipper turns 85… 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 in 2025 for Jewish history, Yaron Tsur turns 78… Retired president and CEO of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, he is now the president of American Jewish University, Jay Sanderson turns 69… Inna N. Zalevsky… Former director of communications for Kings Bay Y, Adrienne M. Knoll… Member of the European Jewish Parliament for Latvia, Valery Engel, Ph.D. turns 65… Physician specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, Jessica Rosenberg Brown, MD… Co-founder of Centerview Partners, a boutique investment bank based in NYC, Blair Effron turns 64… Singer-songwriter, actor and television personality, she was a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18, Paula Abdul turns 64… Former member of Knesset for the Zionist Union party, in the 1990s she was an assistant legal advisor to then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin turns 56… Human rights activist and advocate for women and minorities in Iran, Marjan Keypour Greenblatt… Co-founder of nine venture-backed companies in the telecom, high-tech, pharmaceuticals, energy, water and biotechnology industries, Andrew T. Perlman turns 51… Consul general of Israel to the Southeastern United States, Eitan Weiss… Staff writer at The New Yorker, Isaac Chotiner… Director of affinities and major gifts at the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, Tslil Shtulsaft… Founder of JSwipe, a Jewish dating app created in 2014, David Austin Yarus… Retired rhythmic gymnast from Israel who competed in the 2008 (Beijing), 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio) Olympics, Neta Rivkin turns 35… 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… Singer, popular on video and streaming services, known as Skye for short, Daniel Skye turns 26… Vice president for education at the American Jewish Committee and director of its Center for Education Advocacy, Laura Shaw Frank…

SATURDAY: Weston, Fla., resident Harold Kurte turns 97… Former member of Knesset for the Meretz party, Ran Cohen turns 89… Owner of Schulman Small Business Services in Atlanta, Alan Schulman… Detroit-based pawnbroker, reality TV star, author and speaker, Leslie “Les” Gold turns 76… Chef, baker and author of eight books, she popularized sourdough and artisan breads in the U.S., Nancy Silverton turns 72… Writer of the “Bully Pulpit” Substack from Booksmart Studios, Bob Garfield turns 71… Former assistant managing editor for politics at NBC News, now an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and FIU, Gregg Birnbaum… Co-founder of Brilliant Detroit (helping children out of poverty) and owner of Riverstone Communities, James Bellinson… Rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University and rabbi of Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Bergenfield, N.J., Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky turns 61… Israeli-American screenwriter, film director, writer and producer of 20 films, Boaz Yakin turns 60… Senior legal affairs reporter at Politico, Josh Gerstein… Governor of Pennsylvania, one of three current Jewish governors that are named Josh, Joshua David Shapiro turns 53… U.S. Sen. Eric Stephen Schmitt (R-MO) turns 51… Singer, songwriter and hazzan, he is a co-founder of the band Moshav, Yehuda Solomon turns 49… Senior program director of civic initiatives at The Teagle Foundation, Tamara Mann Tweel, Ph.D…. Israeli author of crime and thriller books that have sold more than 2.5 million copies in more than 20 languages, Mike Omer turns 47… Journalist, blogger and EMT in NYC, formerly editor for Gawker and director of public relations for the Village Voice, Maggie Shnayerson turns 45… EVP of Moxie Strategies, Pearl Gabel… French-Israeli singer and songwriter, Amir Haddad turns 42… Deputy communications director in the Trump 45 White House, now head of corporate 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 37… Team captain of Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and the EuroLeague, John DiBartolomeo turns 35… Chief campus and culture officer at Hillel Ontario, Bev Shimansky Ades… Development Director at Ashkenaz Foundation, Jaime Reich…

SUNDAY: Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, she is the mother-in-law of Chelsea Clinton, Marjorie Margolies turns 84… Investment banker, he was the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador in the Bush 43 administration, Charles L. Glazer turns 83… 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 which became the largest in the world, appointed to the House of Lords in 1996, Baron Maurice Saatchi turns 80… U.K. Cabinet minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind turns 80… Retired creditors rights attorney in the Chicago area, David Stephen Miller… Retired senior 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 75… Susan Gutman… CEO of Amir Development Company in Beverly Hills, he is a member of the national council of AIPAC, Keenan L. Wolens… Punk rock singer and songwriter, known as the Gangsta Rabbi, Steve Lieberman turns 68… Washington Institute director and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, David Makovsky turns 66… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, David L. Marcus… Co-founder and executive editor of Axios since 2016, Mike Allen turns 62… National education writer for The Washington Post, Laura Meckler… Founder and leader of Beautifully Jewish, Tanya Rebecca Singer… Actor, singer and entrepreneur, who now raises awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Aaron Scott Lazar turns 50… Yale Law School graduate, journalist and author, Abigail Krauser Shrier turns 48… Public affairs consultant based in Manhattan, Sam Nunberg turns 45… Co-founder and former CEO of Kaggle, a data science platform acquired by Google in 2017, Anthony Goldbloom turns 43… 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 42… Head of Communications for Paramount+, 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 42… Executive director at Hunter Hillel, Merav Fine Braun… Editor for the global programming team at CNN, Madeleine Morgenstern… Singer-songwriter and actor, known by his mononym Max, Maxwell George Schneider turns 34…

• In Washington, the Pentagon is convening military representatives from Israel and Lebanon for a fourth round of talks between Jerusalem and Beirut aimed at winding down military action around the Israel-Lebanon border and disarming Hezbollah and its strongholds in southern Lebanon.
• Allison Hooker, the State Department’s under secretary for political affairs, is slated to meet this morning with Oman’s ambassador to the U.S. The meeting comes days after President Donald Trump said at a Cabinet meeting that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow ‘em up.” 
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in Singapore for the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri-La Dialogue, where he’ll speak tomorrow morning. Dozens of defense ministers and senior officials from around the world are slated to speak at the convening, which kicks off later today and runs through the weekend.
• In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the IDF to expand its control in the Gaza Strip to 70% of the enclave, amid stalled talks aimed at disarming Hamas and beginning the reconstruction of Gaza.
• Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) is hosting his annual World Famous Fish Fry, historically considered a mandatory pit stop for Democratic presidential aspirants. This year, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear are expected to attend the Columbia, S.C., fry-up.
• The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor State Convention kicks off today and runs through the weekend. This year’s convention takes place amid growing concerns that the party’s statewide conventions have become activist turf, after attendees at the Michigan Democratic Party convention last month heckled pro-Israel speakers and in one case screamed an antisemitic slur at the Jewish husband of Michigan Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow. Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), who is running for Minnesota’s open Senate seat, will skip this weekend’s convention altogether.
• The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum begins on Sunday. Read our interview with AJC CEO Ted Deutch below.
• The annual Israel on Fifth parade will take place on Sunday in Manhattan. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will not attend the parade, marking the first time in more than six decades that a sitting mayor has not attended. In attendance, however, will be dozens of Israeli officials — the largest delegation the country has ever sent to the parade. More below.
• Elsewhere in New York on Sunday, the Republican Jewish Coalition is holding its USA 250 Gala Dinner. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Reps. Randy Fine (R-FL) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) are slated to speak at the event.

A QUICK WORD WITH GILI COHEN

For years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has relied on a small, passionately loyal inner circle of advisors — Ron Dermer foremost among them — to provide a sounding board on some of the country’s thorniest security matters.

Now, with Dermer (mostly) gone, new elections looming and Israel fighting a multifront war and isolated on the world stage, that inner circle is nearly empty. And the departures of key security advisors have left the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history arguably more alone than ever.

The position of head of Israel’s National Security Council has been unfilled on a permanent basis since October 2025, when Netanyahu dismissed Tzachi Hanegbi from the role. It is currently held in an acting capacity by Gil Reich, a former senior official at the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, who will move to a different role within the defense establishment on Monday. 

Just a day later, the director of the Mossad, David Barnea, will also step down after completing a full five-year term. He is set to be replaced by Netanyahu’s military secretary, Gen. Roman Gofman.

However, in the Israel of 2026, nothing is straightforward. High Court justices must soon rule on whether Gofman’s sensitive appointment for the Mossad will be approved. This comes after the head of the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee — the Israeli version of a Senate hearing for high-ranking civil service roles — opined that Gofman’s appointment was flawed on ethical grounds.

But Gofman’s departure will mark a farewell to one of Netanyahu’s closest advisors and currently the most influential security figure in his orbit — and at a time when Netanyahu’s post-Oct. 7 relationship with the military echelon remains exceptionally complex. 

“The role of the national security advisor and head of the NSC is critical and central for shaping, planning and overseeing the execution of Israel’s national security policy,” Eyal Hulata, who served as head of Israel’s NSC from 2021-2023, told Jewish Insider. 

“The fact that the prime minister is not appointing a replacement for this role is, unfortunately, yet another example of a disregard for organized staff work and another blow to the professionalism required when working with the defense establishment,” Hulata continued. Sources close to the prime minister told JI that Netanyahu intends to fill these soon-to-be-empty positions shortly.

So, who are the candidates for head of the Israeli NSC? According to sources familiar with the matter, there are two front-runners: Reuven Azar, Israel’s ambassador to India, and Col. (res.) Gabi Siboni, a hawkish commentator on military strategy.

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

Weeding Out the Uyghurs: The Financial Times’ Alison Killing does a deep dive into China’s escalating efforts to crack down on Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the country. “But FT analysis suggests that the Chinese state’s campaign of oppression against Uyghurs and their culture and identity has in fact entered a new phase. It shows Xinjiang has the world’s highest prison detention capacity relative to its population size — evidence that authorities continue to rely on mass incarceration. Researchers and rights groups say repression in the region now extends towards the long-term remaking of Uyghur society. … ‘Everything that once reflected Uyghur civilization — our culture, our language — has been wiped out,’ says a Uyghur man who recently visited the region from the U.S.” [FT]

Making a Militia: In New Lines Magazine, Farea Al-Muslimi examines the decades-long effort by Hezbollah to grow and strengthen the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. “The relationship between Hezbollah and the Houthis is not simply a case of proxy support. It reflects a sustained process of construction — militarily, politically and institutionally — that produced an actor with its own strategic direction. Over time, that process altered the relationship itself. What began as mentorship created the conditions for autonomy. The Houthis remain aligned within a broader regional framework, but they are no longer defined by their allies.” [NewLines]

Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday afternoon that the U.S. and Iran were “very close” to reaching an agreement on the wording of a memorandum of understanding that would institute a 60-day ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin nuclear talks… 

The Treasury Department reimposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese after the Trump administration appealed a federal court order to remove the U.N. special rapporteur from the U.S. sanctions list while a lawsuit challenging the sanctions plays out in court…

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ruled out a 2028 presidential run, saying at Thursday’s Mackinac Policy Conference that “there will be a robust group of people running for president,” but she “will not be one of them”…

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), a Jewish Democrat who is among the most vocal supporters of Israel in Congress, announced on Thursday that he would seek reelection in a new South Florida House district recently drawn to favor Republicans, after his own was largely erased, setting the stage for what is expected to be a costly and competitive race, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports…

Reps. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) and Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ), two strong supporters of Israel, made another trip to the country this week, during which they met separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier in her primary challenge to Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY); Mamdani had last year committed to backing Espaillat after the chair of the House Hispanic Caucus dropped his support for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and endorsed Mamdani in the general election…

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion President Andrew Rehfeld, speaking at the Re-Charging Reform Judaism conference in New York this week, fought back against Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch’s condemnation of the Reform seminary’s ordination of anti-Zionist clergy, calling his comments “an attack on the very Enlightenment principles that founded our movement” and accusing him of “anti-intellectualism,” eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports…

Third Point founder and CEO Daniel Loeb made his first podcast appearance, appearing on Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s “Invest Like the Best” to discuss AI, corporate governance and investing in the current climate…

Appearing on The Free Press’ “Second Thought” podcast, Scooter Braun reflects on his relationship with Kanye West and the performer’s past antisemitic comments, noting that “obviously the things that [West has] gone through and the things he’s said been have been very upsetting to me,” but that Braun wants “to always believe people have an opportunity to have salvation and growth. And as much as I was very much upset because my family was in the Holocaust, and some of the things he said were incredibly inappropriate [and] very frustrating. And that’s the reason, probably, we haven’t spoken in a very long time”…

Jerusalem-born chef Raz Shabtai’s North Miami restaurant Mutra was awarded a Michelin star, becoming the only current kosher restaurant with the honor…

A who’s who of high-profile figures in sports management were in Budapest, Hungary, last night for the UEFA Champions League gala dinner; those in attendance included New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin…

A Jewish teenager in Toronto who had been missing since mid-May was found by authorities, who are investigating “whether or not there is any evidence of criminality” in her disappearance…

Organizers of Rome’s upcoming Pride parade denied a request from the country’s only Jewish LGBTQ group to march with a float, saying that the Keshet Italia, which is unaffiliated with Israel, had refused to called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide”…

A soccer match between the Irish and Qatari national teams at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium was disrupted on two occasions by match-goers who threw tennis balls emblazoned with Palestinian flags onto the field, raising concerns about fans’ behavior ahead of two matches between Ireland and Israel slated for this fall in Dublin…

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said that Israel would cut ties with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres over Israel’s inclusion in an upcoming sexual violence blacklist, owing to alleged abuses of Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody…

CBS News is tapping former New York Times columnist Nick Bilton, a Vanity Fair alum, as executive producer of “60 Minutes,” replacing Tanya Simon…

The New York Times interviews the Washington Star‘s new owner, Dovid Efune, about his plans to resurrect the publication 40 years after it last published; earlier this week, Efune filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against online publication NOTUS, which recently announced plans to rebrand as The Star…

William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was named the first chair of the J50 Forum, a group of leaders from 50 Jewish communities from around the world that was created last year by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar… 

CNN Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Diamond won the Emmy Award for Outstanding News Interview for his sit-down with senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad…

Actor Marvin Chatinover died at 99…

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Hajdu Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2022:

I have written before about the brilliant cult winemaker Jonathan Hajdu. His wines continue to grace the kosher market with varieties new to it, challenging our palates in ways at once playful and serious. His rieslings dance; his old-vine zinfandels brood.

This Shabbat, we were blessed to taste his 2022 Reserve Cabernet. A big, bold, all-encompassing wine, it opens with a rush of dry earthiness that yields to a mouthwatering mid-palate juiciness of dark berry. The finish is long, carrying familiar notes of dark chocolate and a whisper of cedar. Pair it with a meat-rich cholent, and lay a bottle down for years to come.

Dan Tadmor, the president of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, addressed the crowd at the museum gala last night in New York City, which honored Stuart and Jane Weitzman, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports from the Plaza Hotel. The gala comes as the museum, which is making efforts to be incorporated into the Smithsonian, launches a $100 million fundraising campaign to transform and expand its mission.

“It’s the only museum that tells the American Jewish story in its entirety, geographically, historically, thematically, which is a tall order. It means that we need to excel,” Tadmor told eJP. “It’s been a very tumultuous 20 years, and thematic museums, which are museums that tell a story, they evolve, they need to evolve, because our stories change, narratives change, technology changes.”

Film, stage and television actor, singer and songwriter, Idina Menzel turns 55 on Saturday… 

FRIDAY: Montreal-based businessman and philanthropist, Marvin Birnbom turns 96… Professor emerita of marine biology at Rutgers University, Judith Shulman Weis turns 85… Former member of the Knesset for the Likud party and then Israel’s ambassador to Japan, Eli Cohen turns 77… Winner of three Emmy Awards and a Grammy, actor, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer, Danny Elfman turns 73… U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) turns 72… Retired senior diplomat in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she was previously a brigadier general in the IDF, Ruth Yaron turns 69… 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 63… 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 59… CEO and executive editor of 70 Faces Media, the parent company of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Amiram “Ami” Eden… Policy analyst at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Yaakov Feinstein… Founding partner of Blandford Capital, Nathaniel Jerome Meyohas turns 52… Founder and creative director of the fashion label Shoshanna, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss turns 51… Chief communications officer and global spokesperson at Aish, she is also a cookbook author, Jamie Geller turns 48… Film producer and former corporate lawyer at Skadden Arps, Edward Frank “Teddy” Schwarzman turns 47… Senior political reporter at The Forward, Jacob Kornbluh… Swedish-born pro-Israel activist, commentator and reporter, Annika Hernroth-Rothstein turns 45… Managing director at Hudson Bay Capital Management and Jewish communal activist, Alexander Berger… Assistant secretary for constituency affairs for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, he was formerly her Jewish liaison, Jacob “Jake” Adler… Israeli-born assistant pitching coach for the Colorado Rockies, he pitched for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Alon Leichman turns 37… English actor, his bar mitzvah was at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Gregg Sulkin turns 34… 

SATURDAY: Santa Monica, Calif.-based historian of Sephardic and Crypto-Jewish studies, Dolores Sloan turns 96… Real estate developer, landlord of the World Trade Center until 9/11, former chair of UJA-Federation of NY, Larry A. Silverstein turns 95… Partner in the NYC law firm of Mintz & Gold, he is also a leading supporter of Hebrew University, Ira Lee “Ike” Sorkin turns 83… Cape Town, South Africa, native, she is the owner and chef at Los Angeles-based Catering by Brenda, Brenda Walt turns 75… Former professional tennis player, he competed in nine Wimbledons and 13 U.S. Opens, Steve “Lightning” Krulevitz turns 75… Former chief rabbi of France, Gilles Uriel Bernheim turns 74… Medical director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Ethiopia spine and heart project, Dr. Richard “Rick” Hodes turns 73… Encino, Calif.-based business attorney, Andrew W. Hyman… Literary critic, essayist and novelist, Daphne Miriam Merkin turns 72… Israeli physicist and philosopher, Avshalom Cyrus Elitzur turns 69… Former member of Congress from Long Island for 16 years, since leaving Congress he has opened a bookstore and written three novels, Steve Israel turns 68… Former science editor for BBC News and author of several books, David Shukman turns 68… Founder of Krav Maga Global with 1,500 instructors in 60 countries, Eyal Yanilov turns 67… Member of the editorial board at The New York Times, Michelle Cottle… Writer, filmmaker, playwright and DJ, known by his pen name Ithamar Ben-Canaan, Itamar Handelman Smith turns 50… Member of Knesset who previously served as Israel’s minister of agriculture, Oded Forer turns 49… Director of marketing at NYC’s Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Scott Hertz… Deputy assistant to President Biden until 2023, the first Palestinian-American White House senior staffer, now the chief of staff for Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Reema Dodin turns 46… Communication and marketing coordinator for the San Francisco office of AIPAC, Alina T. Katz… Israeli author, her debut novel has been published in dozens of countries, Shani Boianjiu turns 39… Rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer, known professionally as Hebro, Raphael Ohr Chaim Fulcher turns 39… Senior counsel at Gilead Sciences, Ashley Bender Spirn… Ice hockey head coach of the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, David Matthew Warsofsky turns 36… Deputy chief of staff for Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Miryam Esther Lipper… Senior reporter for CNN, Eric Levenson… Challah baker and manager of San Francisco’s Howard Properties, Jason Friend…

SUNDAY: Investment advisor at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, Alfred Phillip Stern turns 93… Owner of one of the nation’s largest privately held industrial empires, Ira Leon Rennert turns 92… Professor emeritus at Yale University and the 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, William Dawbney Nordhaus turns 85… Food critic at Vogue magazine since 1989 and judge on “Iron Chef America,” he is the author of the 1997 award-winning book The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten turns 84… Founder and retired CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, Alvin “Al” From turns 83… Author, political pundit and a retired correspondent for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” he has won fourteen Emmy Awards during his career, Bernie Goldberg turns 81… Comedian, actor and TV producer, Susie Essman turns 71… Founder and chairman of the Katz Group of Companies with operations in the sports (including the Edmonton Oilers), entertainment and real estate sectors, Daryl Katz turns 65… Reality television personality, best known for starring in and producing her own matchmaking reality series, “The Millionaire Matchmaker,” Patti Stanger turns 65… 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 58… Entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of CryptoLogic, an online casino software firm, Andrew Rivkin turns 57… Former Democratic mayor of Annapolis, Md., now VP of policy at SWTCH, Joshua Jackson “Josh” Cohen turns 53… Senior director of volunteerism & advocacy at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Melissa York… Israeli actor, singer and dancer, she played a Mossad agent in the espionage TV series “Tehran,” Liraz Charhi turns 48… Author of the “Money Stuff” column at Bloomberg Opinion, Matthew Stone Levine turns 48… Freelance writer in Brooklyn, Sara Trappler Spielman… Former attorney and NYT-bestselling author of the Mara Dyer and Shaw Confessions series, Michelle Hodkin turns 44… Senior counsel for autonomy & robotics at DoorDash, formerly a senior advisor at the Department of Commerce, 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 NOTUS, 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 (2017), Spencer Weisz turns 31… Professional golfer on the PGA Tour, Max Alexander Greyserman turns 31… Tech product leader and rapper known by his stage name, King Sol, Benjamin Solomon turns 28…

• Today is the deadline for Iran to send a revised peace proposal to Pakistan following the U.S.’ rejection of Tehran’s earlier proposal that offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all traffic but push off nuclear talks.The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday evening that the Islamic Republic is increasingly struggling amid the U.S.-imposed blockade that is cutting off Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked shadow fleet from selling oil to China.
• The McCain Institute’s 2026 Sedona Forum kicks off today in Arizona. Speakers at the two-day confab include Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Peter Welch (D-VT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI); Reps. Craig Goldman (R-TX), Don Bacon (R-NE), Jake Ellzey (R-TX), Jason Crow (D-CO), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Jim Himes (D-CT) and Stephanie Bice (R-OK); National Democratic Institute President Tamara Wittes, former CENTCOM head Gen. (ret.) Kenneth McKenzie, outgoing World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain, The Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian, Mo News’ Mosheh Oinounou, Polar Sun Ventures’ Ahron Cohen and David Axelrod.
• The Milken Institute Global Conference kicks off Sunday in Beverly Hills, Calif. Speakers at the annual gathering of business executives, philanthropists and politicians include Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Florida’s Ron DeSantis; Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mark Warner (D-VA); NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick; university presidents from Dartmouth, Vanderbilt and the University of Southern California; former athletes Tom Brady and Shaquille O’Neal; and International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi. Jewish Insider‘s Gabby Deutch will be in L.A. covering the conference. Shoot her an email if you’ll be there, too. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S TAMARA ZIEVE

Kenton — a suburb of northwest London that doesn’t ordinarily get international attention — has become one of the epicenters of the wave of antisemitic attacks sweeping England against Jewish individuals, synagogues and other institutions of Jewish life. It also happens to be where I grew up.

Last month, its synagogue was firebombed, causing some damage to the premises. Thankfully, no one was hurt. It is just one of the many incidents of antisemitic vandalism, harassment and violence across the U.K. that have made Jewish life all the more precarious in what was, previously, seen as a safe, close-knit Jewish community. The situation escalated further on Wednesday, when two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, a suburb of London with a large Jewish population.

I moved to Israel as an adult, and have spent years covering the country as a journalist, most recently as Jewish Insider‘s Israel editor. In that time, the check-in calls have mostly gone one way, with friends from the U.K. touching base after terror attacks and through wars in Israel.

That dynamic has shifted in recent weeks. In a jarring role reversal, I have found myself checking up on Jewish British friends amid an alarming escalation of antisemitic attacks in London. 

Some will say the writing was on the wall, but there is a difference between knowing something is possible and watching it become real.

“At the moment, people across the Jewish community are waking up and almost expecting to find there’s been yet another attack,” Justin Cohen, news editor and co-publisher of the U.K.’s Jewish News, told me. “And this has now been going on for several weeks.”

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

Mourning Miranda, in the Cloud: In The Wall Street Journal, Danielle Crittenden, whose daughter Miranda died in 2024, reflects on uphill efforts to retrieve Miranda’s digital data while facing regular reminders of her daughter on her own devices. “Our online profiles outlive our physical bodies. We can pack or give away possessions, but the tech gods preserve the digital lives forever of those we’ve lost. … Thirty years ago, the deceased left behind paper letters, files and boxes of photos. Now, the ‘clouds’ hold every scrap of our existence after we die, locked behind walls. Miranda was a talented writer. Were there unpublished essays? What about her photographs?” [WSJ]

The Road to Ruin: In The Washington Post, the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka posits that radical Islamism will be the next ideology to join nationalism and socialism as failed movements in the Middle East. “Now another hinge point is here, and this one offers a liberalizing pathway that can respect Islam (and Judaism and Christianity) while delivering a better life to the hundreds of millions of people who live in the Middle East. Such a movement would repudiate the ideologies, from pan-Arab nationalism to socialism to radical Islamism, that overpromised and underdelivered and instead tread the path of slow opening that is now seen in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and even Syria and Lebanon.” [WashPost]

The Bondi Disconnect: eJewishPhilanthropy Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross reflects on the disparity between Australian Jewish communal concerns and law enforcement’s assessments of those concerns leading up to the December 2025 terror attack targeting a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, days after the release of a royal commission report on the deadly attack. “As violent antisemitism rises around the world — seen most apparently in this week’s stabbing attack in a heavily Jewish suburb of London and in last month’s attempted terror attack at Temple Israel outside Detroit — recognizing the difference between feelings of safety and actual safety becomes critical. … While it is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, the Jews gathered at Bondi Beach did not need to ‘feel safe,’ they needed to be safe, and they weren’t.” [eJP]

The Financial Times reports that during the Iran war earlier this year, Israel sent its Iron Beam laser-defense system to the United Arab Emirates to shoot down Iranian missiles in addition to a previously reported Iron Dome battery and operators…

The New York Times does a deep dive into recent attacks on Jewish individuals and sites across Europe, most of which bear the hallmarks of Iranian “hybrid warfare,” which the Times describes as involving “tactics, including cyberattacks, sabotage, assassination and disinformation campaigns, that are used covertly to destabilize countries, erode trust in institutions and undermine adversaries without provoking a major military response”…

Boaz Weinstein’s Saba Capital Management is poised to take over Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust, following a shareholder vote yesterday to replace the trust’s current board…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how the fallout from the release of emails between Jeffrey Epstein and Ariane de Rothschild is affecting the other branches of the Rothschild family and “threatens to deepen a divide among the descendants at a time when the two remaining banks bearing the family name are increasingly in competition”…

Yeshiva University announced that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will give the school’s commencement address later this month…

Rochester, N.Y., Rabbi Peter Stein served as yesterday’s guest chaplain in the House of Representatives… 

Mike Solomonov’s Zahav is celebrating its 18th year — represented by the Hebrew letter chai, which means life — with a series of Shabbat dinners hosted at the Philadelphia restaurant this summer…

In The Wall Street Journal, Rabbi Avi Shafran observes the clash between Rabbi Warren Goldstein, chief rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues of South Africa, and Pope Leo XIV over the pontiff’s criticism of the war in Iran…

Authorities in Colombia are investigating the homicide of a Hasidic Jewish man from New York whose body was discovered in Bogota…

Amid tensions between Jerusalem and Kiev over allegations that Israel accepted Russian shipments of grain believed to have been taken from occupied areas of Ukraine, Israeli grain importer Zenziper rejected a Russian cargo ship slated to deliver a shipment at the port in Haifa; the Israeli Grain Importers Association said the Russian vessel “will be required to find an alternative destination for its discharge”…

FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed that Iran’s national team will play in this summer’s World Cup across North America, after a member of the team’s delegation to the FIFA congress was denied entry to Canada this week, an incident that Ottawa’s foreign affairs minister said was “unintentional”…

Toward the end of the congress’ gathering, Infantino attempted a photo with the heads of the Israeli and Palestinian delegations, but was denied when Palestinian Football Federation President Jibril Rajoub, who in 2019 faced a FIFA investigation over his alleged glorification of terror, refused to stand next to Israeli Football Association Vice President Basim Sheikh Suliman…

The New York Times reports on Hezbollah’s use of drones powered by fiber-optic cables that the Israeli army is struggling to combat; the UAVs, which are faster than normal drones and not controlled by radio signals susceptible to GPS jamming, have also been used in the Russia-Ukraine war…

The Jewish Theological Seminary named Rabbi Mike Uram as the school’s next chancellor; Uram, who is currently the chief Jewish learning officer at the Jewish Federations of North America, previously served as the executive director of University of Pennsylvania Hillel for 15 years…

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, met on Thursday with Felix Klein, Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, at the Interior Ministry in Berlin to advance Transatlantic coordination against antisemitism.

Holocaust and genocide scholar, born in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen, Germany, Menachem Z. Rosensaft turns 78…

FRIDAY: Retired national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Henry Foxman turns 86… Professor at Yeshiva University and editor emeritus of Tradition, an Orthodox theological journal, Rabbi Shalom Carmy turns 77… Deborah Chin… Boston-area actor, David Alan Ross… Brigadier-general (res.) and former chief medical officer in the IDF, he was also a member of Knesset for 10 years, Aryeh Eldad turns 76… Of counsel at D.C.-based Sandler Reiff where he specializes in redistricting law, Jeffrey M. Wice… Member of the House of Representatives (D-CO) from 2007 to 2023, Edwin George “Ed” Perlmutter turns 73… Israeli entrepreneur and software engineer, founder and former CEO of Conduit, Israel’s first billion-dollar internet company, Ronen Shilo turns 68… Austrian-Israeli singer-songwriter, Timna Brauer turns 65… Real estate entrepreneur based in Southern California, Eli Tene turns 63… Member of the board of governors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, Rina F. Chessin… Member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David R. Karger turns 59… Israeli judoka, she is a member of the International Olympic Committee and the head of the merchandise division of Paramount Israel, Yael Arad turns 59… Majority leader of the Washington state Senate until 2025, he is a co-owner of minor league baseball’s Spokane Indians, Andrew Swire “Andy” Billig turns 58… Staff writer at The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait turns 54… Radio personality and voice-over artist, Gina Grad turns 48… Former professional tennis player with 23 USTA Pro Circuit singles titles, now a tennis coach, Michael Craig Russell turns 48… Attorney and co-founder of I Am a Voter, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization, Mandana Rivka Dayani turns 44… D.C.-based political reporter, Ben C. Jacobs turns 42… Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative producer at NBC News, Jonathan Gerberg… Former member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Marina Tauber turns 40… Team lead at GrowthSpace, Jenny Feuer… Principal at Forward Global, Omri Rahmil… Photographer known for incorporating Jewish culture into her work, she is the digital media editor at the Jewish Women’s Archive, Hannah Altman turns 31… Sam Zieve-Cohen turns 29… 

SATURDAY: Former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, he financed the visitors center at the Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., John Langeloth Loeb turns 96… Former lord chief justice of England and Wales, Baron Harry Kenneth Woolf turns 93… Retired professor at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, journalist, international negotiator and private consultant, Dr. Alon Ben-Meir turns 89… Author of 23 books and conservative political activist, Alan Merril Gottlieb turns 79… U.S. senator (D-VT) since 2023, Peter Welch turns 79… Former member of the Texas state Senate, she was born in NYC to Holocaust survivor parents, Florence Shapiro turns 78… Former USAID contractor imprisoned by Cuba from 2009 to 2014, Alan Phillip Gross turns 77… Co-founder and president of private equity firm NCH Capital, he funded the establishment of Chabad houses at universities throughout the world, George Rohr turns 72… Former under secretary of state for public diplomacy in the Obama administration, following a stint as managing editor of Time magazine, Richard Allen “Rick” Stengel turns 71… Member of the New York State Assembly since 2010, he was previously a member of the NYC Council and former Deputy Superintendent of the NYS Banking Commission, David Weprin turns 70… Former U.S. secretary of commerce in the Obama administration, she is on the board of Microsoft, Penny Sue Pritzker turns 67… Partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, she is active on many nonprofit boards including Penn Law School and the Jewish Federations of North America, Jodi J. Schwartz turns 66… Television writer and reality television personality known for his high IQ test scores, Richard G. Rosner turns 66… Admiral in the IDF (res.), he served as the commander of the Israeli Navy, Ram Rothberg turns 62…Chief rabbi of Slovakia, Rabbi Baruch Myers turns 62… Senior attorney in the Newark, N.J., office of Eckert Seamans, Laura E. “Lori” Fein… Founder and chairman of Shutterstock, Jonathan E. Oringer turns 52… Israeli writer known for his novels, essays and philosophical work, Yaniv Iczkovits turns 51… SVP of Drumfire Public Affairs following four years as deputy chief of staff to then-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Stephen Schatz… Journalist and founder of MamaDen, a platform that connects and empowers mothers, Julianna Goldman turns 45… Podcast host and founder and president of ETS Advisory, Emily Tisch Sussman… Attorney in the office of the New York attorney general, Gabe Cahn… Chief development officer at Grinspoon Hillel at Cornell, Susanna K. Cohen… Running back for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, A.J. Dillon turns 28… 

SUNDAY: Southern California-area writer and activist promoting wellness, Deborah Shainman Szekely turns 104… Senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University, Ely Karmon, Ph.D. turns 85… Television journalist known for his work at ABC News and Al Jazeera English, David Marash turns 84… U.S. senator (R-ID), Jim Risch turns 83… Venture capitalist and economist, his original family name was Jacobstein, William H. Janeway turns 83… Francine Holtzman… U.S. senator (D-OR), his original family name was Weidenreich, Ron Wyden turns 77… Six-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, Stewart F. Lane turns 75… Retired attorney, he represented political parties, campaigns, candidates, governors and members of Congress on election law matters, Benjamin Langer Ginsberg turns 74… Retired chair and CEO of Mondelez International, a multinational food and beverage company, Irene Rosenfeld turns 73… Retired partner from the Chicago office of DLA Piper, now a consultant at Washburn Advisors, Mark D. Yura turns 73… Political reporter and former columnist for The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Jeff E. Schapiro… Retired senior advisor at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Susan Steinmetz… EVP at NBCUniversal News Group, he is on the Board of Visitors at Duke Law School, Stephen Labaton turns 65… Former owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, Mikhail Prokhorov turns 61… Lobbyist since 2010, he was previously deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs in the Bush 43 administration, Scott A. Kamins… Veteran NHL player, he is now an assistant coach for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, Jeff Halpern turns 50… Israeli singer and actress, winner of multiple Israeli Female Singer of the Year awards, Miri Mesika turns 48… Reporter for Politico New Jersey and author of New Jersey’s Playbook, Matthew R. Friedman… Jewish Insider‘s director of audience development, Kevin Hechtkopf… Educated at the Hebrew Academy of San Francisco, he was a defensive lineman in the NFL, Igor Olshansky turns 44… Managing director and co-head of executive communications of SKDKnickerbocker, he was a speechwriter for President Obama, Stephen Andrew Krupin… President of Flaxman Strategies, Seth Flaxman… Israeli minister for social equality and women’s advancement, she is a member of the Knesset for the Likud party, May Golan turns 40… Benjamin S. Davis… NBA All-Star for the Sacramento Kings, he is studying to convert to Judaism, Domantas Sabonis turns 30… Director of the Judaism and State Policy Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel, Tani Frank… Foreign correspondent for NBC and a former Middle East correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, Raf Sanchez…