tucker ties

Vance fundraiser with Tucker Carlson backer Omeed Malik raises eyebrows

By Matthew Kassel

A fundraiser hosted by Vice President JD Vance in the Hamptons on Wednesday is raising red flags among some Jewish Republicans who continue to harbor concerns over his likely intention to run for president in 2028. 

The event, first reported by Axios, was notably held in the home of Omeed Malik, the Iranian American investor who was an important early backer of Tucker Carlson’s media company. The fundraiser highlights Vance’s ongoing ties to Carlson’s network — even as the far-right commentator has faced backlash for his regular promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews and Israel.

The event underscores the anxieties among some traditional Republicans who are skeptical of Vance’s indulgence of antisemitic forces on the far right and commitment to a strong relationship with Israel that has long been a key GOP value but is now waning among the party’s younger voters. Jewish conservatives voiced their concerns about the fundraiser on social media as the invitation surfaced online Thursday. 

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● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.

A U.S. official said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will be barred from attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month, a year after he was first denied a visa over U.S. claims that the PA had engaged in efforts to undermine peace efforts…

Michigan Democratic congressional nominee Jeremy Moss declined to endorse his party’s Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, in an interview with Slate: “Abdul’s going to have to demonstrate some serious outreach to Oakland County’s Jewish community,” Moss said. The two candidates have “had an ongoing dialogue,” Moss added, as he said Democrats must ensure that “the liberal Jewish community is not politically homeless”…

Our Time NYC, a nonprofit founded by allies of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to back the mayor’s policies, will close down following the departure of all of its staff, nine months after the group launched…

In Newsweek, former White House Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt lauds Jared Kushner’s diplomatic efforts, noting that Kushner operates “knowing the region’s leaders, and the ground beneath them, better than almost anyone else Washington could send”…

German investigators said they had identified the alleged perpetrator of a 1970 arson attack on a Jewish community center in Munich in which seven Holocaust survivors were killed; the man, who was not named, was a German neo-Nazi who died in 2020…

A researcher testifying before Australia’s royal commission into antisemitism in the country clashed with a commissioner after saying she did not consider Israel to be a “legitimate state” and believed Zionism to be a “violent extremist” movement…

The Israeli government advanced plans to build an additional 1,200 housing units in the West Bank, prompting the U.K., France, Germany, Canada and Italy to condemn the move…

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee warned against efforts by Israeli settlers to take property owned by Palestinian Americans, telling Reuters such moves constituted “a violation of God’s law” and could be met with U.S. sanctions…

The Catholic Biblical Association of America elected Old and New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine, who is Jewish, to serve as the body’s next president; Levine, who previously served as the CBA’s vice president, is the first Jewish person to lead the group…

Meta’s Alex Luxenberg was named the next CEO of Sefaria, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…

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Houthi Havoc: In The New York Times, RAND’s Alexandra Stark posits that the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are likely to continue to pose a challenge to Western interests in the region, regardless of the situation between the U.S. and Iran. “Highly attuned to their own interests and pragmatic in the international arena, the Houthis have proved savvy at choosing when to enter or escalate conflicts. … While the United States looks to wind down the war with Iran, the Houthis are threatening to resume their war in Yemen, which would likely draw in Saudi Arabia, menace the global oil trade and keep the region unstable.” [NYTimes]

On Guard in Gotham: In The Wall Street Journal, Queens native Tevi Troy reflects on the increasing threats facing Jewish New Yorkers amid rising antisemitism. “In my weekly teaching visits to New York from Maryland, I choose — for now — to continue taking the subway, going to synagogue, eating at kosher restaurants. But other Jews may make different choices. They may stop being observant, or may stop doing things that identify them as Jewish. They may move to Florida or Texas or out of a Jewish neighborhood. Put all those individual choices together and we lose the things that for more than a century made New York such a Jewish city.” [WSJ]

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JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Noah Estate Cabernet:

Once a year, a few of us from our Oakland, Calif., synagogue fly somewhere far removed from our weekly routines. This week it was Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I arrived with the ambition to find a great malbec. What came to the table instead was a rack of asado de tira, charred dark at the edges and rendered gold along the bone, with bife de chorizo and matambre behind it. Standing equal to all of it, in the end, was not a malbec but the Noah Cabernet 2023, a wine from the Judean foothills outside Jerusalem.

It is 100% cabernet sauvignon, and it opens with the muskiness of aged tobacco leaf. The mid-palate is deep cherry, dark and unhurried, with tannin enough to cut the fat without ever talking over the meal. The finish, carried on the tango from the next room, is lively and stays with you well after the plates are cleared. A wine for the Shabbat table, and no less at home on a Tuesday night. Pour it alongside short ribs, a rib roast, or anything that has spent hours over coals.

FRIDAY 

Irwin Wecker, retired owner of Effective Strategy Consultants, South Florida resident

Ilana Rovner, senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, turns 88

L. Rafael Reif, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until the end of 2022, turns 76

Eric S. Brown, former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, he was the first Jewish chief justice in Ohio history, turns 73

Yossi Dina, Israeli-born pawnbroker and star of the reality television series “Beverly Hills Pawn,” turns 72

Sabina Berman Goldberg, Mexican writer, playwright and journalist, turns 71

Mitchell Rales, businessman and collector of modern and contemporary art, he is the owner of the NFL’s Washington Commanders, turns 70

Jon Tester, former U.S. senator (D-MT), turns 70

Yehiel Lasri, Israeli physician who was a member of the Knesset, he now serves as mayor of Ashdod, turns 69

Jerry Avenaim, photographer best known for his fashion and celebrity images, turns 65

Ido Aharoni, Israeli career diplomat who served for six years as consul general in New York, turns 64

Scott Bessent, secretary of the Treasury, turns 64

Mark Stuart Charendoff, president at Maimonides Fund

Jack Weiss, co-founder of BlueLine Grid, he was previously an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and a member of the Los Angeles City Council, turns 62

Chavie Kahn, member of the philanthropic leadership group for the UJA-Federation of New York

Ken Mehlman, global head of public affairs at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts-KKR, turns 60

Rachel Hirschberg Light, president of Berger Hirschberg Strategies

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, both Bloomberg and Forbes rank him as one of the ten wealthiest people globally, turns 53

Jason Marquis, former MLB pitcher for nine teams, he was the starting pitcher in three of Team Israel’s first four games in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, turns 48

Chesa Boudin, former district attorney of San Francisco, turns 46

Adam Fisher, head coach of the Temple University Owls men’s basketball team, turns 42

Adam Rosenblatt, founding partner of Bold Decision, turns 41

Erica Miller, missions manager for domestic and overseas travel at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia

David Abadian Heifetz, communications director at Breakthrough Energy

Madeline Fuhrman, pop singer and songwriter, turns 33

Tzippy Baitch, associate editor at Simon & Schuster

Noa Rakel Perugia, an Argov fellow at Reichman University

Lynn Sharon

James Barton

SATURDAY

Morton Dean, Emmy Award-winning television news journalist, formerly the weekend anchor of “CBS Evening News,” turns 91

Margie Berkowitz, former director of Prozdor, the high school program of the Hebrew College in Newton, Mass.

Paul Singer, founder, president, co-CEO and co-chief investment officer of Elliott Management Corporation, turns 82

Joyce Fox, dermatologist in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Eli Capilouto, president of the University of Kentucky since 2011, he traces his heritage to a small Sephardic community on the island of Rhodes, turns 77

Steven Brill, founder of the magazine American Lawyer and the cable channel Court TV (now TruTV), he also co-founded NewsGuard, turns 76

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to VPOTUS Dick Cheney, turns 76

Yitzhak Aharonovich, chairman of Mekorot (Israel’s water company), he was a member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, turns 76

Robin Elcott

Mark Gilbert, former MLB outfielder, then investment banker, he was the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and has served as president of B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Fla., turns 70

Adlai W. Wertman, former investment banker who left his job to run a Los Angeles-based homeless service provider, he was also a professor at USC, turns 67

Ofra Strauss, chairwoman of Israel’s Strauss Group, conducting business in 20 countries, turns 66

Jesse Itzler, co-founder of Marquis Jet and part owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, turns 58

Ed Miller, SVP of political campaigns and strategy at AIPAC, turns 55

Deborah Hochberg, director of strategic partnerships at the Paul E. Singer Foundation

Michael Fragin, senior advisor to the county executive in Nassau County, N.Y.

Craig Greenberg, mayor of Louisville, Ky., since the start of 2023, turns 53

Rachel Saifer Goldman, director of operations at the University of Pennsylvania Hillel

Stuart A. Graiwer, partner in the Century City office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Shari Dollinger Magnus, co-executive director of Christians United for Israel

Shana Knizhnik, attorney and author, best known for her NYT best-selling book, Notorious R.B.G.: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, turns 38

Claire Stein-Ross, chief of staff and development director at Protect Borrowers

Ari Stidham, actor known for his role as statistical genius Sylvester Dodd in the television series “Scorpion,” turns 34

Braden Adam Bishop, professional baseball player for nine years, he is now a player agent and he also manages a foundation for families affected by Alzheimer’s, turns 33

SUNDAY

Norman Braman, owner of many car dealerships, art collector and former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, turns 94

Leslie Mayesh

Ron Blomberg, former MLB player, he was the first designated hitter in MLB history and was the manager of the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox in the Israel Baseball League, turns 78

Reuven Amitai-Preiss, director of the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of the Jewish Communities of the East, turns 71

David Alexander Wolf, astronaut, medical doctor and electrical engineer, he brought a dreidel, a yad and a small menorah into space, turns 70

Richard Zeskind, retired SVP and general counsel of Eastern Savings Bank in Hunt Valley, Md.

Eitan Cabel, former member of Knesset for 23 years representing the Labor party and Zionist Union party, turns 67

Bracha Radin, owner of A&A Wholesale

Anna Kaplan, first Iranian-American member of the New York State Senate, her term ended in 2022, turns 61

Marc Swatez, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis

Elise Rosenstock, jewelry designer

Kimberly Merle Schrier, member of the House of Representatives since 2019 (D-WA), she served as a physician prior to entering politics, turns 58

Errol Damelin, founder and CEO of Wonga, a British financial technology company (one of the first fintechs in the world), turns 57

Jeremy Schaap, ESPN host and one of the network’s longest-tenured personalities, he has won 11 Emmy Awards, turns 57

Rabbi Josh Kohl, teacher at Politz Hebrew Academy in Philadelphia, known by his students as “Rabbi Science”

Lawrence Frank, former NBA head coach (Pistons and Nets), now president of basketball operations for the LA Clippers, turns 56

Craig Silverman, national reporter for ProPublica, turns 49

Mor Katzir, Israeli model, born in Haifa, turns 46

Avigail Goldgraber, managing director in the hospital and healthcare practice of Accenture

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor, turns 41

Isabella Tobias, retired ice dancer who competed for Georgia, Lithuania and Israel, turns 35

• While Washington is quiet during the August recess, the campaign season is kicking into high gear — both for the few remaining states to hold their primaries, and for general ballot candidates who have less than three months before Election Day.
• In Nassau County, N.Y., President Donald Trump will campaign today with N.Y. GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.
• In Florida, where voters will cast their primary ballots on Tuesday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is campaigning on behalf of several left-wing candidates, including Elijah Manley and Oliver Larkin. Manley and Larkin are respectively challenging Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), two of Congress’ most pro-Israel lawmakers, following a redistricting that has scrambled both lawmakers’ districts. Tlaib is set to participate in several events today, including a rally this evening that was relocated after the initial venue canceled the event amid pushback from area residents.
• On Sunday, voters in California’s 14th Congressional District will head to the polls for the special election to replace Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). More below.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

A quarter century ago, when the late Sen. Joe Lieberman was tapped by Al Gore, the Democratic nominee for president, to be his running mate on the 2000 ticket, the question around many a Shabbat table was, “Is he too Jewish to be in the White House?”

There’s a different question being asked, largely in Democratic circles, of today’s potential Jewish presidential candidates: “Is he the ‘right’ kind of Jewish candidate to be president?” — a question that is almost entirely centered around a candidate’s position on Israel and how openly he identifies with his religious faith. 

A long list of Jewish candidates are considering a presidential campaign or are being touted as credible contenders, ranging from moderates including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to progressives such as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and those who straddle the ideological divide, like Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA).

In both 2026 and 2028, the debate over Israel is on the ballot: Congressional primaries are pitting pro-Israel candidates against those who don’t acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and already a clear divide is emerging in the prospective 2028 presidential field over the issues of the U.S.-Israel relationship and dealing with rising antisemitism. 

Even in races where Israel policy is not front-and-center, invoking AIPAC has become something of a catch-all slur for progressives attacking the role of outside money in Democratic primaries. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 hopeful, proudly proclaimed in February that he’d never taken AIPAC money — which of course he hasn’t, given that AIPAC and its affiliated super PAC historically focus on federal, not state, races. 

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

Pray or Prey?: In The Wall Street Journal, Moshe Davis, who served as the inaugural executive director of the New York Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism under former Mayor Eric Adams, makes the argument for the federal Right to Worship Act, which he helped to craft. “While existing laws cover harassment and obstruction, they don’t reach the organized disruption that actually makes Americans feel afraid to enter their houses of worship. Courts have repeatedly upheld buffer-zone protections for funerals, polling sites and other places where people deserve to be left in peace; a law addressing disruptive behavior at houses of worship is on solid constitutional ground.” [WSJ]

No Deal is a Good Deal: The Washington Post’s editorial board argues that a policy of containment vis-a-vis Iran is a better approach than making a deal with the Islamic Republic. “The U.S. should adapt its blockade to be more sustainable, lowering the number of ships conducting direct interdictions while sanctioning anyone who buys Iranian oil that gets through. The regime’s frozen assets should also stay frozen. And Iran’s proxies should be relentlessly suppressed in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza. Crucially, Trump needs to keep the threat of significant escalation on the table, especially if Iran takes even the smallest step toward reconstituting its nuclear program.” [WashPost]

How DSA Does It: The New York Times’ Charles Homan does a deep dive into the Democratic Socialists of America’s resurgence, as the group seeks to reshape the Democratic Party. “Offline communities built around shared interests — the sort once found in bowling alleys, all-ages punk-rock venues, church basements or radical bookstores — are rare now, and D.S.A. chapters fill this role. They offer not just a different politics but a different model for what participating in politics means. Chapter operations are heavily D.I.Y. affairs, which adds a giddy unreality to their victories, as if a group of college friends started a record label in their dorm room and somehow ended up using it to unseat an eight-term congressman.” [NYTimes]

Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

White House advisor Jared Kushner is expected to travel to Israel next week with Board of Peace High Representative Nickolay Mladenov, where the two will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials to discuss the Hamas disarmament deal; Kushner is also expected to travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators…

Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that the U.S.’ primary goal in the war with Iran is to “keep oil and gasoline cheap for Americans,” while “goal No. 2 is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon”…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the Trump administration planned to apply economic tactics “that have never been seen on Iran,” as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested that the U.S.’ naval blockade of Iran would remain in place “indefinitely”…

CENTCOM announced a new effort to establish the “first-ever multi-domain, multinational attack drone task force,” including consulting with and inviting regional partners to join, that will work to utilize unmanned, one-way attack drones “from above, on, and below the sea” in the Middle East…

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) penned a letter to Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao raising concerns about the deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been on extended deployment in the Middle East; Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a former Marine, said he was seeking an oversight visit to the vessel for a bipartisan Senate delegation…

Meanwhile, the U.S. military is preparing to send the USS George Washington from the South China Sea to the region to relieve the Lincoln; the move will leave a U.S. void in the Pacific, where Beijing has positioned a carrier…

The United Arab Emirates condemned what it said was a “hostile Iranian attack” targeting two boats linked to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company as the vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz…

Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran program, warned on Thursday of potential Iranian escalation — military or otherwise — in the run-up to the midterms, with the goal of disrupting the elections, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Semafor looks at the U.S.’ stalled sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey as Ankara remains in possession of the S-400 Russian air-defense system, the offloading of which is a requirement to move forward with the F-35 sale… 

Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), facing a runoff special election to be the GOP nominee for her late brother’s Senate seat, announced she is co-sponsoring several bills in support of the Jewish community and the U.S.-Israel relationship, including the Jewish American Security Act, the U.S.-Israel FUTURES Act, a bill on Iran sanctions and a bill on Iranian human rights and internet access…

Politico profiles Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) as the former Democratic National Committee chair faces a challenging reelection campaign — fighting headwinds from both local activists and the Congressional Black Caucus as she runs in a historically Black district following Florida’s GOP-led redistricting effort…

Former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is slated to headline a Labor Day rally for the Hancock County Maine Democrats next month, his first public appearance since dropping out of the race last month after he was accused of sexual assault by a former romantic partner; a state party official said the event was not a sanctioned party event but hosted by the local activist groups Hancock County Activists and Acadia Action Peacemakers…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Hasan Piker’s rising popularity on the far left, despite concerns from moderate Democrats that the antisemitic streamer’s brand of progressivism will taint the party in the midterms…

J Street Action Fund, the super PAC affiliated with the progressive Israel advocacy group, on Thursday spent $108,000 on digital advertisements to boost progressive California state Sen. Aisha Wahab in the special election in California’s 14th Congressional District, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The California state Legislature is considering a bill to require state agencies to include “Jewish” as an ethnicity option on all forms that collect demographic data; the move would make California the first state to officially consider Judaism as more than a religion for identification purposes…

The National Council for Jewish Women is rolling out a new strategic plan, in which local chapters who want to maintain their affiliation with the group need to align with the national organization’s shift away from community service to focus more on advocacy, eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Jay Deitcher reports… 

An Illinois man who attacked two Jewish students at DePaul University in November 2024 pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime and was sentenced to 600 days in jail; a second assailant who pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges was sentenced to two years’ probation… 

Tel Aviv University has removed the name of the Sackler family from its Faculty of Exact Sciences, the final department on its campus that was still named for the family tied to the U.S. opioid crisis, eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Justin Hayet reports…

Tamar Rothstein is now communications director for Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY)…

Former Air Force Secretary James Roche, a member of the advisory board of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a board member of the Friends of the Jewish Chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy, died at 86…

Former South Dakota lawmaker and philanthropist Stan Adelstein died at 94…

Find on-demand Live Briefing updates throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Charley Winery Romi 2021:

This week I marked one of the in-between birthdays. My plan had been to go about my business and let the day pass quietly, like any other. But as the morning wore on, birthday wishes began arriving from friends scattered across the world, and nearly every one carried the same question: What amazing bottle of wine will you crack open tonight to celebrate? Something in me shifted. I wanted a bottle new to me, something vibrant, something I would remember. My hand reached for the Charley Winery Romi, grown in the Judean Hills.

The Romi is a blend of cabernet sauvignon and petite sirah. The petite came out of the gate crashing into my front palate in a way I will not soon forget: bold, brash and utterly alive. The cabernet followed on the mid-palate with a beautiful infusion of berry, and the finish gathered the two into a genuinely serene moment, the kind of quiet that only a great glass of wine, in the right hour, can bring. The Romi is mevushal, and it would grace any simcha. Serve it with a rich risotto. It will hold beautifully for at least five years.

Purchase a bottle here.

Former hostage Omer Shem Tov, who spent 505 days in Hamas captivity, escorted his sister Dana down the aisle at her wedding to Daniel Saportas on Thursday.

Filmmaker and producer, she is the executive director of DOC NYC, a major documentary film festival in NYC, Raphaela Neihausen turns 50 on Friday… 

FRIDAY: Social media influencer, she appears regularly on both Instagram and TikTok, Dorothy Katz Wiggins turns 101… American-born British novelist, biographer, journalist and Oscar-winning screenwriter, Frederic Michael Raphael turns 95… Former attorney general of New Jersey and chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, David Samson turns 87… President of the Hampton Synagogue until 2024 and former board member of the UJA-Federation of New York, Carol Levin… Historian and VP of alumni relations for MLB’s New York Mets, the press box at Citi Field is named in his honor, Jay Edward Horwitz turns 81… Member of the New York State Assembly since 2005, Charles D. Lavine turns 79… Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Ester R. Fuchs turns 75… Professor of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, Henry Brem, M.D. turns 74… U.S. district court judge in South Carolina, he is the co-author of a book on the early Jews of Columbia, S.C., Judge Richard Mark Gergel turns 72… Turkish-born economist and professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Dani Rodrik turns 69… U.S. senator (R-TN) since 2021, Bill Hagerty turns 67… Home fragrance and décor guru, Harry Slatkin turns 66… Lecturer at Purdue University, Martin J. Sweet turns 56… Winner of three Pulitzer Prizes as a journalist, Adam Goldman turns 53… VP at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, he was an AIPAC and Republican Jewish Coalition staffer who ran for Congress in 2018, Jeremy Scott Wynes… Professional tennis player for 15 years, primarily a doubles specialist, now an assistant athletic director, Scott Lipsky turns 45… Personal counsel to President Donald Trump, Boris Epshteyn turns 44… Ukrainian-born actor, she moved to Los Angeles at age 7 and has appeared in dozens of films, Mila Kunis turns 43… Opinion editor at eJewishPhilanthropy, Rachel Kohn turns 42… Internet entrepreneur and former CTO at Facebook, he is the co-founder and CEO of Quora, Adam D’Angelo turns 42… President of Anthropic, sister of the CEO, Daniela Lily Amodei turns 39… Retired lacrosse player, he played for ten seasons in Major League Lacrosse and for Team Israel in 2018, Maxwell “Max” Oren Seibald turns 39… Managing director at Marcus & Associates Executive Recruiters, Jacob Lefkowitz… Member of Knesset for Otzma Yehudit, he serves as the minister for the development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee, Yitzhak Shimon Wasserlauf turns 34… Ryan Smith… Dylan Cooper… Tim Carney… 

SATURDAY: Philadelphia resident, Irvin Farber… Retired associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Stephen Breyer turns 88… Former CFO of The Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg turns 79… Founder and chairman of the Executive Committee of Limmud FSU, he has also served as treasurer of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization, Chaim Chesler turns 77… Professor emeritus of Jewish education and leadership development at Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Samuel K. Joseph turns 76… Economist, CPA, investment advisor and founding member of wealth advisor RVW Wealth LLC, Selwyn Gerber… Colorado resident, he is an artist and avid mountain biker, William Crary “Bill” Weidman… Chairman of Benj. E. Sherman & Sons, he is the immediate past chair of Israel Policy Forum, David A. Sherman turns 66… Orthopedic and trauma surgeon in Rome, Dr. Dario Perugia turns 64… Co-founding rabbi of Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy Springs, Ga., Rabbi Mario Karpuj… Emmy Award-winning actor, she played Grace Adler on the 11-season sitcom “Will & Grace,” Debra Messing turns 58… Immediate past board chair of Holocaust Museum Houston, Elyse Spector Kalmans turns 57… Chief development officer for the Birthright Israel Foundation, Margot Ettlinger… U.S. senator (D-PA) since 2023, John Fetterman turns 57… Co-CEO and chairman of the entertainment production company Propagate, Benjamin Noah Silverman turns 56… Associate justice of the California Supreme Court since 2019, Joshua Paul Groban turns 53… Member of the House of Representatives (D-VA) for four years ending in 2023, Elaine Goodman Luria turns 51… Real estate and business law attorney in the Baltimore law firm of Rosen Neuberger Lehmann, Meir Neuberger… Senior director at Teva Pharmaceuticals, he was an international model for Armani and appeared in the Israeli versions of “The Amazing Race” and “Dancing with the Stars,” Raz Meirman-Baruch turns 49… National college football reporter for ESPN, Adam Rittenberg turns 45… Chief of staff at Los Angeles-based Bedrock, Rachel Sterne Haot turns 43… Computer scientist at MIT and podcaster, he interviews notable figures from science, technology, sports and politics, Lex Fridman turns 43… Career counselor, Rachel Spekman… Member of the Alaska House of Representatives until 2023, now mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Grier Hayden Hopkins turns 43… Chief communications officer at AI-native cybersecurity company Tenzai, Yael Wissner-Levy… Contemporary jazz and classical recorder player, vocalist, composer and educator, Tali Rubinstein turns 42… Co-founder of Irenic Capital Management, Adam Jason Katz… Freelance designer, Talia Siegel… MLB pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds in 2015 and 2016, he played for Team Israel in the 2020 Summer Olympics, he is now a VP at a private equity firm, Jon Moscot turns 35… VP of technology policy at Retail Industry Leaders Association, Justin Goldberger… Founder and managing partner at Ezra Venture Group, Ezra Mosseri… Joe Farry… David Summer… 

SUNDAY: Solicitor general of New York, Barbara Dale Underwood turns 82… Retired judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, she is currently of counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner, Shira Ann Scheindlin turns 80… Sportscaster known as the “voice of the Dallas Cowboys,” Brad Sham turns 77… President and CEO of the Business Roundtable, he was previously the White House chief of staff in the Bush 43 administration, Josh Bolten turns 72… Secretary of the Maryland Department of Aging from 2015 to 2023, Rona E. Kramer turns 72… Gerald Platt… Media consultant, Sol Levine… Former commander of the Israeli Air Force and later CEO of El Al, Eliezer Shkedi turns 69… Shareholder in the Denver office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and an AIPAC board member, Steven C. Demby… Founder of Value Retail Plc and co-owner of the NHL’s New York Islanders, his sister is married to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Scott David Malkin turns 68… Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Associated Press, Martha Mendoza turns 60… Founder of Walk Swiftly Productions, she spent 17 years on-air at ESPN/ABC and CBS covering the Super Bowl, NBA playoffs and MLB playoffs, Bonnie Bernstein turns 56… Johannesburg, South Africa-born model, actor and singer-songwriter living in NYC, Caron Bernstein turns 56… Award-winning journalist, currently an opinion columnist for The New York Times, Michael Grunwald… Former lieutenant governor of Vermont, David E. Zuckerman turns 55… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Vladimir Beliak turns 53… Mayor of Ramat Gan, Israel, he served as a member of the Knesset and as Israel’s ambassador to the OECD, UNESCO and the Council of Europe, Carmel Shama-HaCohen turns 53… Board member of the Torah School of Greater Washington, Kami Troy… Senior advisor at Boston Consulting Group, Sarah Hofstetter… Co-founder and co-CEO of The Creative Counsel, South Africa’s largest advertising agency, Gil Oved turns 51… Political and public relations consultant based in Albuquerque, N.M., Jonathan Lipshutz… Producer with Reuters News Agency, Matthew J. Silverstein… Chief political analyst for “The Upshot” at The New York Times, Nathan David “Nate” Cohn turns 38… VP at BlackRock, Julian Olidort… Studio manager at Barre3 Bethesda and founder of Atom, LLC, Anna Dubinsky… Founder and CEO at Project Healthy Minds, Phillip Schermer… Argentine former professional tennis player, he has ranked as high as No. 8 in the world, Diego Schwartzman turns 34… Rachel Berman… Associate in the D.C. office of Eversheds Sutherland, Katherine Dolgenos O’Donnell… Member of AJR, an indie pop multi-instrumentalist trio, together with his two brothers, Jack Metzger turns 29… VP at Tier One Rankings, she was the executive assistant to the ambassador at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Galit Tassi Imbo… Director of public affairs at J Street, Cooper Boyar… Ellen Weissfeld… Marshall Cohen… Dave Jacobsen…

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is meeting today with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Riyadh, where the three are slated to sign a joint defense agreement.
• We’re keeping an eye out for a public statement from Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) after his primary defeat last night. The far-right lawmaker, who had the backing of President Donald Trump, was ousted by Charlie Hatcher, the state’s former agriculture commissioner. In his remarks at his victory party last night, Hatcher said Ogles had called to concede.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

A meme circulated on social media earlier this week depicting a cartoon version of President Donald Trump addressing different stages of negotiations with Iran. In it, the president cycles between “We’re going to bomb their power plants,” “They called us begging for a deal,” “They’re giving us everything we want” and “They’re scum, you can’t negotiate with these people.” 

It’s perhaps the most accurate commentary on the situation that has unfolded since early July, as the U.S. and Iran have continued to exchange fire, with Iran striking Arab states around the region. Every few days, the stage resets. The endless loop of diplomacy and military strikes has thrown the countries into a situation that is equal parts “Groundhog Day” and “The Apprentice” — military strikes on loop, with a major breakthrough soon to come.

Indeed, Trump suggested on Tuesday that “a lot of progress had been made” in negotiations that would see the Strait of Hormuz reopened and signaled a deal on the strategic waterway could be announced as soon as this week.

His rhetoric echoes comments he has made in recent weeks teasing a diplomatic breakthrough that is right around the corner, while the consistent reality is that diplomacy has been cyclical, devoid of significant progress and increasingly beneficial to Tehran, which has learned that it only needs to wait out the situation — at least until the midterms, if not until 2029.

It also raises questions about the limits of American deterrence — especially when taken alongside recent reports of dwindling American weapons stockpiles.

Trump understands optics (and markets) perhaps better than any other world leader, hence his constant claims that a major diplomatic breakthrough could be days away — whereas Iran, unburdened by looming midterms and the realities that come with living in a democracy, can afford to wait it out as Washington runs through the endless narrative loop.

Almost as cyclical as Trump’s pronouncements are Iran’s near-immediate denials of the president’s claims: the regular insistence that a deal is far off and unlikely to happen without significant American and Israeli concessions. 

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

Sanders’ Sensibilities: In The New York Times, Matthew Yglesias raises concerns about the “political judgments” of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as the Vermont senator has sought to boost the insurgent left — causing damage to the Democratic Party along the way. “The very top electoral performers among Democrats — lawmakers who have a record of results in districts most liberals would lose, like Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington State, Tom Suozzi of New York and Don Davis of North Carolina — are independent thinkers who are critical of Democratic Party leaders and the establishment. The difference is that rather than positioning themselves even further left than a party that most Americans think is too left-wing, they pick issues and rhetoric that are heterodox and often more restrained.” [NYTimes]

Back to School: In Fox News Opinion, Teach Coalition CEO Sydney Altfield calls for a “whole-of-society response” to mounting antisemitism as students head back to school, following an NYPD report indicating a significant increase in antisemitic hate crimes since the start of the year. “Administrators should say plainly that antisemitism is unacceptable, whether it appears as a threat, a slur, a swastika, harassment over Jewish identity or intimidation tied to Israel or Zionism. Further, education must be more than a one-off assembly after an incident. Students should learn what antisemitism is, how it mutates across political movements, conspiracy theories and social media trends and why targeting Jews corrodes civic life for everyone.” [FoxNews]

Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

Vice President JD Vance was pressed by Senate Republicans at a lunch on Thursday to provide more transparency into the Trump administration’s decision-making on Iran…

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he was discharged from a rehabilitation center nearly two months after he was first hospitalized following a fall…

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) demanded that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee step down over his handling of incidents in which U.S. citizens have allegedly been injured by the IDF and other Israelis…

Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) joined Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) in calling on Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), Moreno’s former son-in-law, to drop out of his reelection race and resign from Congress amid growing scrutiny of domestic violence allegations against Miller, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Wednesday that he believes Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan has put the state in play for Republicans in November. “He will quickly discover a primary is a much different situation in this state [than the general election], when you’re accountable for winning the other side. I can’t wait to see him campaign for the general. I have got my popcorn for that,” Fetterman told JI’s Emily Jacobs… 

El-Sayed gave an extensive interview to The New York Times, in which he declined to say whether he’d continue to campaign with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, with whom he had appeared during the primary…

Politico looks at Republican efforts to win over disaffected Jewish and Black voters in Michigan following El-Sayed‘s primary win as the Michigan Democrat seeks to shore up support from the party’s base; El-Sayed has already reached out to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore as he looks to make inroads with Black voters…

In her first cable news interview since her Senate primary loss on Tuesday, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) told CNN that she identifies as “a Zionist Democrat in Michigan” and suggested that voters concerned about El-Sayed’s stance on Israel and rhetoric about the Jewish state “need to make a personal and private decision” as to who to support in November…

Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and 16 Democratic colleagues introduced the Honoring the Sacrifice of Troops in War Act, which aims to prevent the administration from manipulating Iran war casualty data and protects benefits for troops involved in the effort; Fetterman, who supports the Iran war and has broken with Democrats on other measures relating to it, is supporting the bill…

The Atlantic does a deep dive into how the U.S. “squandered” its advantage in the war with Iran, as Washington finds itself facing weapons shortages… 

Reps. Derek Tran (D-CA), Ami Bera (D-CA) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA) led 65 House Democrats raising concerns about Israeli restrictions they said are preventing the entry of medical supplies and other humanitarian goods into Gaza…

Jonathan Cowan, president of the center-left group Third Way, told The New York Times that the group plans to spend $15 million ahead of the 2028 presidential election to target the Democratic Socialists of America after El-Sayed’s primary win in the Michigan Senate race…

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill‘s Mission to Deliver PAC endorsed a series of Democratic candidates with national security or military backgrounds, including Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) in his primary campaign to oust Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA)…

The Education Department announced probes into anti-Israel protests at San Jose State University and San Francisco State University, citing complaints alleging the schools’ administrators failed to adequately address antisemitism on campus…

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sold his Hawaii estate for $36 million, 11 years after purchasing the property for $25 million…

Nazi warships deliberately sunk by the Germans as they retreated from Romania in 1944 are emerging in the Danube River in Serbia as the waterway faces dropping water levels due to drought and recent heat waves…

The United Arab Emirates has successfully transported more oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the last two months than any other country despite ongoing military hostilities in the area, Bloomberg reports, by utilizing tankers that switch off their transponders during the risky crossing…

Israel charged Israeli settler activist Yinon Levy with reckless homicide following the death last month of a Palestinian activist in the West Bank who was killed in a confrontation that occurred when Levy allegedly directed settlers to enter a private property and then shot at a group of Palestinians at the site…

Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid announced that MK Yoav Segalovitz is departing the party; the announcement came amid reports that Segalovitz is considering joining the Ra’am party, a move that would make him the first Jewish official on the Arab party’s ticket. In his new Substack, former crime reporter Ben Hartman examines how Segalovitz, formerly the head of Israel’s police intelligence and investigations branch, could shake up Israeli politics if he joins Ra’am…

Longtime former Likud MKs Gilad Erdan, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.N., and Yuli Edelstein announced the creation of a new, as-yet-unnamed party; the two former MKs said that they hoped to attract Likud voters disillusioned with the party’s direction under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a special focus on military conscription…

Israeli media reported that Mossad head Roman Gofman dismissed the agency’s intelligence directorate head as well as the head of the Mossad’s Iran division over Israel’s failure to topple the Iranian regime earlier this year…

The Yemeni Defense Ministry said the Iran-backed Houthis attacked the internationally recognized government’s military forces in several locations — reportedly killing dozens of soldiers and officers — and that the military would retaliate against the terror group “at the appropriate time and place”…

Two former members of Iran’s national women’s soccer team were granted citizenship in Australia, where they sought humanitarian asylum earlier this year during a tournament in Melbourne…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Lele Yutzy as the state’s first director of its Office of Civil Rights, which was created under a bill enacted last year that acknowledged the prevalence of antisemitism in the state’s public schools and pledged to tackle discrimination…

The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced that Steve Gamer was joining the organization as chief development officer…

Find on-demand Live Briefing updates throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met on Thursday with Colombia’s incoming president, Abelardo de la Espriella, in Barranquilla, Colombia, one day before his official inauguration. According to a readout from Sa’ar’s office, the two discussed steps to strengthen diplomatic, security and economic relations between their countries.

Former professional soccer player, he played for the U.S. in the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Israel, Zac MacMath turns 35 today…

FRIDAY: Brooklyn resident, Esther Holler… Former U.S. trade representative and then U.S. secretary of commerce, both positions during the Clinton administration, Michael “Mickey” Kantor turns 87… Co-founder of the world-wide chain of Hard Rock Café, Peter Morton turns 79… Retired lieutenant general in the Israeli Air Force, he also served as chief of staff of the IDF, Dan Halutz turns 78… Former PR director for the New York Yankees and author of more than 20 books, Marty Appel turns 78… President of private equity firm Palisades Associates, former CEO of Empire Kosher Poultry, Greg Rosenbaum turns 74… Former U.S. intelligence analyst, he pled guilty to espionage in 1986 and was released from prison in 2015 and moved to Israel in 2020, Jonathan Pollard turns 72… Spiritual leader of Agudas Israel of St. Louis since 1986, Rabbi Menachem Greenblatt… Founder of the Cayton Children’s Museum in Santa Monica, Esther Netter… Former comptroller of the city of Rockville Centre, N.Y., Michael Schussheim turns 68… Television cook, YouTuber, restaurateur and cookbook author, known as Sam the Cooking Guy, Samuel D. Zien turns 67… City council president of Westlake, Ohio, David S. Greenspan turns 61… Professor of computational biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Liran Carmel turns 55… CEO at Capital Camps & Retreat Center after 14 years at AIPAC, Havi Arbeter Goldscher… Governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger turns 47… Financial news anchor for CNBC, Sara Aliza Eisen turns 42… Emmy Award-winning political reporter for The New York Times, Jonathan V. Swan turns 41… Public address announcer for both MLB’s Athletics and the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, Amelia Schimmel… Former MLB catcher, he batted .350 with two home runs for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics, he is now a catching instructor for the Chicago Cubs, Ryan Lavarnway turns 39… Senior faculty at Ariel University, Anna Harwood-Gross… Product management director at Signify Health, Estee Goldschmidt… Professional Super Smash Bros. player, known as Dabuz, Samuel Robert Buzby turns 33… Founder of Love For Our Elders, a global nonprofit organization in dozens of countries, Jacob Cramer turns 26… Scott Harrison… 

SATURDAY: Actor and director, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1980 for “Kramer vs. Kramer” and in 1989 for “Rain Man,” Dustin Hoffman turns 89… Arlington Heights, Ill., resident, Elizabeth Gordon… Dutch diplomat and politician, he served as the speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives, Frans Weisglas turns 80… Greenwood Village, Colo., resident, Robert M. Schwartz… Tampa, Fla., resident, Roy D. Pulliam… Retired U.S. Army four-star general, who then served as the secretary of defense during the Biden administration, Lloyd James Austin III turns 73… Vancouver, Wash., resident, Juliana E. Miles Bagherpour… U.S. ambassador to Israel throughout the Trump 45 administration, David Melech Friedman turns 68… Former CEO of BusinessGhost, a ghostwriting firm that has written and published over 700 books, Michael Graubart Levin turns 68… Former managing general partner of MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, Stuart L. Sternberg turns 67… Chess grandmaster, once ranked 8th in the world, he is the director of the Brooklyn Chess Academy, Leonid Yudasin turns 67… White House chief of staff for the first two years of the Biden administration, Ron Klain turns 65… Film director whose works include nine Disney films, Jon Turteltaub turns 63… Former chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court, she continues to serve as a justice, Elissa F. Cadish turns 62… Digital strategist, he is the founding partner of Fuse, a consultancy, Jonah Seiger… Former book editor of the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Action magazine, Rabbi Gil Ofer Student turns 54… Lead guitarist of the mathcore band the Dillinger Escape Plan, also playing rhythm guitar with the crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, Benjamin A. Weinman turns 51… Film and television actor, Lindsay Sloane turns 49… MLB pitcher for 12 seasons and now chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox, Craig Breslow turns 46… Author, freelance writer and editor, she is a former dancer with the New York City Ballet, Sophie Flack turns 43… Managing principal at Rocktower Capital, Bara Lane… Canadian film, television and stage actor, Jacob Benjamin “Jake” Goldsbie turns 38… Digital director at the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Sarah Garfinkel… Founder and managing partner at Avid Ventures, Addie Lerner Katz… Director of marketing and communications at Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zachary Pellish… Creative producer for Airbnb, Morgan Furlong… Internet celebrity and fitness model, Jennifer Leigh “Jen” Selter turns 33… Jack Baum… Rob Schwartz… 

SUNDAY: Prominent Sephardic rabbi in Tel Aviv, he was a member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Rabbi Moshe Maya turns 88… Physicist and venture capitalist, co-founder and senior advisor at New Markets Venture Partners, Donald M. “Don” Spero, Ph.D. turns 87… Comedian, actor, writer, director and author, son of a rabbi, he appeared 140 times on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show,” David Steinberg turns 84… Romance novelist with 25 books on the NYT bestseller lists, Barbara Delinsky (born Barbara Ruth Greenberg) turns 81… Author of more than 33 Jewish-themed books, he is an ordained rabbi as are two of his daughters, Seymour Rossel turns 81… Telecommunications consultant based in Chattanooga, Tenn., Mark Shapiro turns 80… Psychologist and bestselling suspense novelist, Jonathan Kellerman turns 77… Southern California resident, Faith Schames… Brigadier general (res.) in the Israeli Air Force, Amir Abraham Haskel turns 73… Executive director of the Steinhardt Family Foundation in Israel and executive director of the Henry S. and Mala Dorfman Family Foundation, Tova Dorfman… U.S. senator (R-KS), Roger Marshall, M.D. turns 66… Member of the Minnesota state Senate since 2007, Ronald Steven “Ron” Latz turns 63… Professor of French at Yale University, he is the inaugural director of the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism, Maurice Samuels turns 58… Chief of staff for Representative Jerrold Nadler for 25 years, she started a consulting practice in 2024, Amy Beth Rutkin… Founder of Tannenbaum Capital Group, Leonard M. Tannenbaum turns 55… Two-time Grammy Award-winning operatic soprano, songwriter and actor, Hila Plitmann turns 53… Assistant secretary for inter-departmental data integration for the Maryland Department of Human Services, Kirill Reznik turns 52… Reporter in the Washington bureau of The New York Times, he covers the confluence of money, politics and influence, Kenneth P. Vogel turns 51… Democratic political strategist, Rebecca Kirszner Katz… Chair of JEWELS (Jewish Education Where Every Level Succeeds), Jules Friedman turns 51… Drummer, popular on YouTube with over 300 million views, Meytal Cohen turns 43… CEO of the Israel on Campus Coalition since 2013, Jacob Baime… Real estate investor based in Cleveland, Ohio, Amanda Isaacson… Associate at K&L Gates LLP, Isaac Lederman… Israeli actor, best known for his role as Yanky Shapiro in the 2020 Netflix miniseries “Unorthodox,” Amit Rahav turns 31… SVP at Dezenhall Resources, he was previously communications director for the Republican Jewish Coalition and an RNC alum, Fred Brown… Elise Aronson… Dan Zimerman…

• 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.

• We’re keeping an eye on the tense situation in the Middle East, amid hints from senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, that it is willing to reenter the fight against Iran and assist the U.S. More below.
• The Wall Street Journal reported last night that Israel had notified the U.S. of intelligence indicating that Iran was plotting a new assassination attempt against President Donald Trump, who, while in Turkey earlier this week for the NATO summit, repeatedly suggested that Iran considered him its “No. 1” target. “I saw this morning, I’m on every single one of their lists,” Trump told reporters in Ankara. When the president returned from Turkey mid-week, he took one of the older planes home, rather than the refurbished Qatari luxury jet, which lacks some of the same security features as the older Air Force Ones.
• Turkey is expected to announce today that it will sell its Russian-made S-400 batteries to the United Arab Emirates, a move that would allow the U.S. to move forward on its sale of F-35s to Ankara.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S TAMARA ZIEVE AND MATTHEW SHEA

After several days of watching from the wings as the United States has conducted strikes against Iran, Israeli officials have increasingly indicated that Jerusalem is ready to return to military action if it determines that circumstances demand it.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told CNN on Thursday that Jerusalem is “supportive of the position of the United States” and would “fly alongside U.S. aircraft” if called on to do so. 

At an Israeli Air Force graduation ceremony the same day, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF is prepared to “regain air superiority and carry out ‘blue-and-white’ [Israeli] strikes in Iran to remove threats — even for a third time,” warning that it would be with “even greater force” than before. Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told graduates that “on the drawing board are new plans. Major operations are still expected to lie ahead of us. Be prepared.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reinforced that message in his remarks at the ceremony. While celebrating the outcome of Operations Rising Lion and Roaring Lion, he made clear that Israel does not view the conflict with Iran as settled. “Our policy is clear: With an agreement or without an agreement, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. He added: “The war is not yet over. Alongside old challenges, new ones are emerging. Axes fall, and axes rise. We are turning our attention to this. We are prepared for any scenario.”

Security analysts say the messaging reflects a desire to preserve military pressure without committing to another immediate campaign. Yoni Tobin, a senior political analyst at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told Jewish Insider, “While Israel isn’t exactly clamoring for more combat with Iran, particularly after nearly three years of multifront war, it is certainly ready for it.” Tobin noted that “Israel will likely feel comfortable acting against Iran if the United States does so as well, and if the two countries are aligned on objectives and strategy.”

David May, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the memorandum of understanding “should be seen as part of the process of ending the fighting between the United States and Iran, not the final agreement.” 

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

From Friends to Foes: Bloomberg‘s Ethan Bronner spotlights the dissolution of the “cross-cultural bromance” between Israeli entrepreneuer Eyal Waldman and Palestinian American tycoon Bashar Masri following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel in which Waldman’s daughter Danielle, who was attending the Nova music festival, was killed. “The Hamas attack effectively reset the historical clock so that in Israel today, all political and security discussions start on Oct. 7. … Waldman today says his views on coexistence haven’t changed. He continues to meet with the Palestinian leadership and advocate for two states. But he dismisses the notion that Masri might ever again be a partner. Convinced that Masri helped Hamas build the infrastructure that was set loose to such devastating effect, Waldman is doing everything he can to bring down his old friend through the U.S. lawsuit.” [Bloomberg]

Mojtaba’s MIA: The New York Times’ Yeganeh Torbati reports on Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s “looming absence at the top of the government” and failure to appear in public since he succeeded his father in March. “Without a strong central authority like the elder Ayatollah Khamenei, it has become even more unpredictable which faction will eventually gain the upper hand — and how the country will navigate its many crises. … ‘There’s no central authority in effect to reconcile the various factions that are fighting for control,’ said Ali Ansari, a historian of Iran at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.” [NYTimes]

Crowd Control: In The Free Press, Masih Alinejad posits that the coverage from within Iran of the funeral ceremonies for late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not depict the reality on the ground. “The Islamic Republic has always treated mass mobilization as a proof of legitimacy: The bigger the crowd, the stronger the claim to power. But the crowds are an illusion. I know from experience how they are assembled: through force. This time is no different. … The Islamic Republic spent this week performing strength. But the regime has a problem: Almost everything about it — the chants, the flags, the scripted weeping at the coffin — is a performance. The people inside Iran, dancing in secret or driving north with 20 kilograms of rice they did not want, know this to be true.” [FreePress]

Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) withdrew as co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Spain Caucus, citing in part Madrid’s “hostile actions against Israel and the Jewish people”…

A new survey from the Pew Research Center found that fewer than half of Americans ages 18-29 — both Democrats and Republicans — view either Israelis or the Israeli government favorably…

A Pennsylvania man was arrested and charged with making antisemitic threats targeting Gov. Josh Shapiro; the Delco, Pa., resident, after entering the office of a state legislator to complain about taxes, threatened an arson attack at the governor’s mansion, 15 months after Shapiro’s residence was firebombed during Passover… 

The New York Times spotlights Notarikon Review Publisher Mendel Uminer, whose collection of some 10,000 books prompted his landlord to force him from his apartment…

David Lubin, the father of slain lone soldier Rose Lubin, an Atlanta native who was killed in a terror attack in Jerusalem in November 2023, opened the first U.S. chapter of Yad LaBanim, an Israeli group that supports bereaved military families, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports…

U.K. Labour MP Andy Burnham, who is poised to become the U.K.’s next prime minister, apologized for the party’s stance on Gaza, saying that London was “too slow to call for a ceasefire. And we must now do more to strengthen our approach”…

London Mayor Sadiq Khan visited the Nova music festival exhibition in the city, a week after the exhibition’s organizers told the Jewish News they were disappointed that the mayor had yet to attend; Khan was at the exhibition on the birthday of British-Israeli musician Jack Marlowe, who was killed at the music festival… 

Jewish Community Iceland—Beit Tovah Chabad opened the country’s first Jewish center, in the capital of Reykjavik, after years of operating out of the home of the local emissary…

The Wall Street Journal looks at the challenges and delays the International Stabilization Force in Gaza is facing in deploying troops to the enclave…

The IDF said it is investigating an incident in which a Palestinian detainee was stripped and bound, after an image of the man posted online last month by a Palestinian activist went viral; the IDF confirmed the photograph’s authenticity while not releasing any details about the circumstances surrounding it…

The Associated Press spotlights an Israeli effort to clear unexploded ordnance and other munitions off the coast of the city of Rishon LeZion, which has been used for decades as a military firing range…

Alongside former Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas (left), whose wife and sons were killed in captivity in Gaza after being taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his wife, Janet, installed a plaque through the My Tree in Israel program honoring Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas.

Co-founder of Imagine Entertainment, his films and TV series have been nominated for 47 Academy Awards and 217 Emmys, Brian Grazer turns 75 on Sunday… 

FRIDAY: Senior U.S. district court judge in the Southern District of Texas, Judge David Hittner turns 87… Retired attorney at the California Office of Legislative Counsel, Robert D. Gronke… Stan Udaskin… Folk singer-songwriter, Arlo Guthrie turns 79… NYC-born author of 13 novels, she has been living in Israel since 1971, Naomi Ragen turns 77… Partner in consulting firm Quorum, LLC and president at Regal Domestics, Barbara Goldberg Goldman… Author of 13 books, journalist, she is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Julie Salamon turns 73… Editor of the Cleveland Jewish News, Columbus Jewish News and Akron Jewish News, Bob Jacob… Israel’s ambassador to Spain until 2024, Rodica Radian-Gordon turns 69… Past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest New Jersey, Leslie Dannin Rosenthal… Partner in Holland & Knight’s public policy group, he was previously a member of Congress (D-FL-22), Ronald J. “Ron” Klein turns 69… Lobbyist, he was a member of the New York state Legislature: Assembly for 10 years and Senate for 14 years, Jeffrey D. Klein turns 66… National president of the American Jewish Committee, he is a founder of Lapin & Landa, a Houston-based civil litigation firm, Robert E. Lapin turns 66… Voice actor and impressionist who has voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat and dozens of others, Jeffrey Bergman turns 66… U.S. ambassador to his native Estonia, he is the former president of NYC’s Park East Day School, Roman Pipko turns 66… Critic at large for The New York Times Book Review, Anthony Oliver “A.O.” Scott turns 60… U.S. senator (D-MI), Elissa Blair Slotkin turns 50… NYC-based founding partner at Purposeful Advisors, Elie Jacobs… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Yinon Azulai turns 47… VP of politics and public affairs at Altice and Optimum Media, Rena Shapiro… Writer and comedian, his conversion from Mormon to Jew is the subject of a documentary, “Latter Day Jew,” H. Alan Scott turns 44… Senior policy adviser at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Morgan Deann Ortagus turns 44… Managing editor of The Bulwark, a center-right news outlet, Sam Stein… Multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker,and fine art photographer, she is the daughter of CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz, Kimberly Ovitz turns 43… Television and film actor, Aviva Farber Baumann turns 42… Dance teacher at John Foster Dulles High School in Sugar Land, Texas, Kayla Sokoloff…

SATURDAY: Entrepreneur, investment banker, civil servant and political advisor, Stephen Berger turns 87… Developmental psychologist at Harvard, he was selected in the 1981 inaugural class of MacArthur genius fellows, Howard Gardner turns 83… Member of the U.K.’s House of Lords, he was PM Tony Blair’s special envoy to the Middle East for nine years, Baron Michael Abraham Levy turns 82… U.S. senator (D-MA), Ed Markey turns 80… EVP of the Milken Family Foundation and past chair of the board of trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America, Richard V. Sandler turns 78… Journalist covering classical music, he is the author of Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947, Norman Lebrecht turns 78… Founder in 1992 of Schnur Associates, a marketing, PR and lobbying firm, she spent 12 years as executive director of the Greater New York Coalition for Soviet Jewry, Zeesy Schnur… West Orange, N.J., resident, Jeffrey Maas… Actor, she portrayed Frau Farbissina in the “Austin Powers” film series, Mindy Lee Sterling turns 73… Singer-songwriter, known by his stage name “RebbeSoul,” Bruce Burger turns 69… Founder and retired CEO of Sidewalk Labs (an Alphabet company), he was previously CEO of Bloomberg L.P., Daniel L. Doctoroff turns 68… Group EVP of public relations for Discovery Channel and Science Channel from 2007 to 2023, Laurie Goldberg… Executive chairman of Aston Martin and the owner of the Aston Martin Formula 1 Team, Lawrence Stroll turns 67… Radiation oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvey Jay Mamon, MD, Ph.D…. General partner and head of research at CET Ventures, Barry Mannis… Former member of the Knesset for the Likud party, Yaron Mazuz turns 64… Former commander of the IDF’s Southern Command, now in the IDF Reserves, Maj. Gen. Shlomo “Sami” Turgeman turns 62… Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit since 2014, Judge Robin Stacie Rosenbaum turns 60… Retired tax attorney, she now bakes challahs on Manhattan’s UWS to benefit UJA-Federation of New York, Adina Tamar Spiro Wagman… Editor-in chief of the Forward, Alyssa A. Katz… Founder of Koz and Effect LLC, Lindsey Caren Kozberg… Consultant focused on social impact strategies, Joshua D. Wachs… Actor, podcaster and lead singer of the band Sun Spin, Michael Owen Rosenbaum turns 54… Ukrainian-born computer scientist and internet entrepreneur, Max Levchin turns 51… Founder and CEO of Wisconsin-based Good Karma Brands, Craig Karmazin turns 51… Principal at Civitas Public Affairs Group, Celine Mizrahi… Chabad rabbi at Washington University in St. Louis, Rabbi Hershey Novack… Comedian, podcaster and political commentator, Katherine Rose “Katie” Halper turns 45… Screenwriter and executive producer, Theodore Beren Bressman… Retired ice hockey forward, he played for 19 seasons in the U.S., Canada and Europe, now a businessman in Destin, Fla., Jacob Micflikier turns 42… Executive director of the New Democrat Coalition, Anne Sokolov… and her twin sister, a co-founder at Social Goods, Kate Sokolov (daughters of shopping mall executive Rick Sokolov)… Offensive guard in the NFL for eight seasons, his Hebrew name is Gedalia Yitzhak, Geoff Schwartz turns 40… Senior deputy associate counsel in the White House Counsel’s office during the Biden administration, Matthew J. Rosenbaum… Bryan Stone…

SUNDAY: Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Rita E. Hauser turns 92… Former congressman (R-OK-5) for 16 years, Marvin Henry “Mickey” Edwards turns 89… Former executive director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, Dan Botnick… Canadian journalist, social activist and author of three bestselling books, Michele Landsberg turns 87… Former member of the Florida House of Representatives for eight years, Franklin Sands turns 86… Best-selling author, screenwriter, and playwright, sister of the late Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron turns 82… Professor of religion at the University of Vermont, he was an advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on his 2016 presidential campaign, as an undergraduate at Yale his roommate was Joe Lieberman, Richard Sugarman turns 82… Obstetrical nurse and board certified lactation consultant in NYC, Rhona Yolkut… Founding executive director (now retired) of Newton, Mass.-based Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, focused on children with special educational needs, Arlene Remz… Co-owner of the Midland Group with holdings in steel, shipping, real estate, agriculture and sports, Eduard Shifrin turns 66… Former member of the Knesset for the Blue and White party, he grew up in Raleigh, N.C., as Albert Rosenthal, Alon Tal turns 66… Chief television critic for The New York Times, James “Jim” Poniewozik turns 58… Former chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, now executive director of the MIT Media Lab, Jessica Rosenworcel turns 55… Israeli journalist and former member of Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Anastassia Michaeli turns 51… Founder of Innovation Policy Solutions, a D.C.-based health care consulting and advocacy firm, Jennifer Leib… U.S. senator (I-AZ) until January 2025, Kyrsten Sinema turns 50… Israeli news anchor, television presenter and journalist, Yonit Levi turns 49… Winner of an Olympic gold medal (Athens, 2004) and a silver medal (Sydney, 2000) as a freestyle swimmer, now in the product development software business, Scott Daniel Goldblatt turns 47… Senior reporter at CNN, Edward-Isaac Dovere… Partner in the Des Moines, Iowa-based public relations firm AdelmanDean Group, Liz Rodgers Adelman… Israeli media personality, sociologist and fashion and jewelry designer, Ortal Ben Dayan turns 45… U.S. senator (D-NJ), Andrew Kim turns 44… Founder and CEO of executive communications firm A.H. Levy & Co based in NYC, Alex Halpern Levy… Intensive care nurse now living in Jerusalem, Rena Meira Rotter… Benjamin Birnbaum… Actor, she is well known for playing a Jewish character on television (the title character in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), though she herself is not of Jewish descent, Rachel Brosnahan turns 36… CEO of Teach Coalition, an Orthodox Union affiliate, Sydney Altfield… Board member at Israel Policy Forum and member of the board of governors of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, Steven Koppel…

• 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…