Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that Israel “prefer[s] that Turkey not receive F-35s from the U.S.,” breaking with Washington over the move that President Donald Trump indicated he was open to during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in September. 

But Leiter dismissed concerns around Saudi Arabia potentially acquiring F-35s, which is currently under negotiation ahead of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House next week. “There’s no indication that Israel’s qualitative edge will be compromised,” he said. Leiter has recently become Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main conduit in Washington after the resignation of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer…

Israel is seeking a new 20-year memorandum of understanding with the U.S. when the current one expires in 2028, U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios, double the length of past agreements.

New Israeli propositions, including redirecting some of the funds towards joint U.S.-Israeli R&D rather than direct military aid, are reportedly designed to make the lengthy deal more attractive to Trump as well as the GOP, which has grown weary of foreign aid…

Trump told MBS in a phone call last month that he expects to see progress made on Israel-Saudi normalization now that the ceasefire in Gaza is in force, U.S. officials also told Axios, which MBS said he was “willing to work on”…

Israel and White House advisor Jared Kushner are preparing contingency plans in case Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan doesn’t come to fruition, Israeli media reports. The IDF’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, told Israeli Security Cabinet officials that the IDF will soon present its alternative…

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Democratic primary for the seat of retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in New York’s 12th Congressional District, which has one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the country, gets more crowded by the day. 

Shortly after the entry of JFK’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, into the race, Erik Bottcher, a Democratic city councilman and LGBTQ activist, told The New York Times he’s jumping in (and that he supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state). There are rumors that Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway is eyeing a bid, as well. 

Among the many other candidates are longtime Nadler aide Micah Lasher, who today got the endorsement of Comptroller-elect Mark Levine; state Assemblyman Alex Bores; and gun control activist Cameron Kasky, who posted yesterday on social media, “If you are a Democrat running in 2026 and do not fully support an arms embargo to the State of Israel … Stop wasting everybody’s time”…

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell conceded to his opponent, socialist Katie Wilson, today after last night’s ballot drop made it mathematically impossible for him to prevail.

Though the moderate Harrell led in the polls for the week following Election Day, Wilson eventually gained ground and now leads him by a 0.7% margin — just shy of 2,000 votes. With only several hundred votes left to be counted, The Seattle Times said the race is “on pace to be the closest in modern Seattle politics.”

Wilson joins New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, as well as progressive challengers who prevailed in several Seattle City Council races, as evidence of the far left’s growing popularity in major U.S. cities. However, their small (or razor thin, in Wilson’s case) margins of victory and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s win over his DSA-aligned opponent are proof the fringe still lacks a mandate in the Democratic Party…

Former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) announced raising more than $500,000 in the first 24 hours after the launch of her comeback bid for her seat in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.

The Jewish, pro-Israel Navy veteran sent out a fundraising email this afternoon with the subject line “Chutzpah,” saying the “Yiddish term that means guts or courage … runs in my family” and she’s “not afraid of a little mishigas”…

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was hospitalized today after suffering a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up” and subsequent fall and face injuries, but is doing well, his spokesperson reported. His scheduled discussion this evening with UJA-Federation of New York about his new book has been cancelled…

The New York Times profiles Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and his path from leading a small Catholic college to helming the prominent think tank and sparking controversy among conservatives over his embrace of Tucker Carlson. 

Roberts claimed as part of his defense over releasing the controversial video during a staff meeting last week, “I actually don’t have time to consume a lot of news. I consume a lot of sports,” and “I didn’t know much about this [Nick] Fuentes guy. I still don’t.” 

“‘Who could believe that the head of a think tank doesn’t think?’ said Charles Jacobs, the president of the Jewish Leadership Project, which resigned from a Heritage Foundation task force meant to fight antisemitism after Mr. Roberts’ video was released”…

Joining the list of Heritage resignations, Adam Mossoff, a law professor at George Mason’s Scalia Law School and a prominent pro-Israel advocate, announced he is resigning as a Heritage visiting fellow today “based on [his] considered judgment” of Roberts’ video and “subsequent commentary”…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for a preview of President Donald Trump’s meeting next week with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is traveling to Israel tomorrow for a five-day trip where he plans to meet with government officials and economic development and high-tech leaders.

The Texas Tribune Festival, taking place this week in Austin, continues tomorrow with speakers including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Democratic Texas Senate candidates James Talarico and Rep. Colin Allred, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), comedian John Mulaney, former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. On Saturday, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) are slated to speak.

MSNBC is launching its rebrand on Saturday as MS NOW, part of its separation from NBCUniversal, with dozens of veteran journalists recruited as part of its expanded newsroom.

On Sunday, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will present its fourth annual New York Jewish Book Festival. 

Sunday evening, the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly kicks off in Washington, with an opening plenary including former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, authors Sarah Hurwitz and Micah Goodman, CNN contributor Scott Jennings and Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, senior rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York City.

We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

U.S. and Saudi officials are working to finalize a defense pact between the two countries ahead of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington next week, Axios reports. The agreement would reportedly contain similar guarantees to those Qatar received from the U.S. last month, with the Saudis also looking to purchase a weapons package that would include F-35 fighter jets. 

The Trump administration also told the Saudis that it would like to see progress made on Saudi-Israel normalization, U.S. officials said. The negotiations on these deals quietly brought White House advisor Jared Kushner to Riyadh over the weekend and the Saudi defense minister to the U.S. earlier this week…

Jordan Wood, a former congressional aide and Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, announced that he is switching his candidacy to now run for the House in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, where Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) has said he will not seek reelection. 

Wood joined his fellow Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner in vowing not to accept support from AIPAC, saying in an interview last week, “There’s a tremendous amount of distrust right now among Democratic primary voters that the money that AIPAC has put into our political system has affected our priorities when it comes to foreign aid to Israel”…

Another shifting race is New York’s 17th Congressional District, where Jessica Reinmann, a Democratic nonprofit executive who was challenging Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), dropped out of the Democratic primary today and endorsed Cait Conley.

An Army veteran with extensive counterterrorism experience in the Middle East, Conley told Jewish Insider in April about her commitment to Israel’s security and concerns around threats posed by Iran.

With her background in national security, Conley is viewed as having the strongest profile to win back the swing seat for the party, according to Democratic sources familiar with the race.…

The Wall Street Journal reports on financial gains made by U.S. businesses over the two-year Israel-Hamas war; out of the $32 billion of military-related sales the U.S. has greenlit to Israel since October 2023, $19.3 billion is through contracts with Boeing, Lockheed Martin has secured $743 million, Caterpillar secured $295 million, and more…

An Israeli-founded AI cybersecurity company, Tenzai, founded just six months ago, came out of stealth yesterday with a $75 million seed round. Its technology, which finds hackable vulnerabilities in code, drew support from major venture capital firms including Greylock Partners, Lux Capital and Battery Ventures…

Israel reopened the Zikim border crossing into Gaza today to facilitate increased food and humanitarian aid flow, as part of its compliance with the ongoing ceasefire agreement with Hamas…

After being heckled by anti-Israel protesters at a podcast taping earlier this week, former Vice President Kamala Harris paused the conversation to tell the audience: “A lot of what this process has been for me has been about reflection. Look, we should’ve done more as an administration. We should’ve spoken publicly about our criticism of the way that Netanyahu and his government were executing this war.”

“We had more levers in terms of leverage that we did not use. … But let’s be very clear, that the inhuman nature of what has happened to the Palestinian people in Gaza, the innocent civilians, the extent of hunger, famine, suffering, death, is something that we must acknowledge,” Harris continued…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reporting on the status of the Muslim Brotherhood under Israeli law.

The U.S. House is expected to approve a spending package to reopen the government this evening, which would fund the government through Jan. 30.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is holding a hearing tomorrow morning on religious freedom in Syria during the country’s transition out of dictatorship.

The DP World Tour golf championship kicks off in Dubai, UAE, tomorrow.

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted that Israel will have to become increasingly self-reliant as countries call for embargoes and sanctions against the Jewish state. Speaking at a Finance Ministry conference in Jerusalem today, Netanyahu said, “We will increasingly need to adapt to an economy with autarkic characteristics.”

“I am a believer in the free market, but we may find ourselves in a situation where our arms industries are blocked. We will need to develop arms industries here — not only research and development, but also the ability to produce what we need,” the Israeli PM said…

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem today, where they gave remarks on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Abraham Accords. “Imagine, despite the difficulties the region has confronted over the last few years, how much more difficult it would have been had the Abraham Accords not been in place,” Rubio said…

Elsewhere in the region, after an emergency summit of Arab states convened in Qatar to discuss last week’s Israeli strike in Doha, the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries today directed the GCC defense ministers to hold an “urgent meeting” to “assess the defense situation of the Council states.”

The countries also issued a communique calling on states to “review diplomatic and economic relations” and “initiate legal proceedings” against Israel…

At the International Atomic Energy Agency’s annual conference happening now in Vienna, Iran is circulating a resolution to censure the U.S. and Israel over their strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June. Iran was unexpectedly elected by other Middle Eastern countries to serve as vice president of the gathering.

Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said in an interview that “if [participating countries] want to obey the law of the jungle and the rule of coercion and force” by blocking the motion, “it’ll end in chaos”…

Stateside, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) announced he will not be endorsing Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor, on the heels of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement that she’s supporting the candidate.

Suozzi, who represents a swing district on Long Island, said that, “While I share [Mamdani’s] concern about the issue of affordability, I fundamentally disagree with his proposed solutions. Like the voters I represent, I believe socialism has consistently failed to deliver real, sustainable progress.”

On Hochul, Suozzi said that he did not discuss his decision with her and is “not in a position to give the Governor political advice considering the fact that when I ran against her she beat me soundly”…

In another high-profile New York race, Micah Lasher, a state assemblyman and former aide to Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), officially launched his campaign for his former mentor’s congressional seat today, joining a Democratic primary that’s likely to become crowded in the heavily Jewish Manhattan district. Nadler is expected to offer Lasher his support, a key endorsement in the race…

The New York Times investigates a series of trade and business dealings over the UAE’s access to AI chips that appear to be connected with cryptocurrency windfalls for the Witkoff and Trump families.

When David Feith, then senior director for technology on the National Security Council, attempted to change AI chip policy, which would have inhibited that access, he was fired by President Donald Trump, after a conversation with his influential advisor Laura Loomer…

The fallout from Charlie Kirk’s killing continues: Semafor’s Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith writes about Kirk’s legacy on Israel within the GOP and how both the isolationist and pro-Israel camps of the party are now claiming him as their own.

“A bereft White House official told me that Kirk functioned as something like a Republican chairman and Rush Limbaugh ‘rolled into one.’ Clips of his speeches and debates are everywhere, but movement-building is a subtler thing, and Kirk’s public statements, friends said, often reflected attempts at intraparty diplomacy,” Smith wrote…

Karen Attiah, an opinion columnist at The Washington Post who regularly espoused anti-Israel views, was fired from the paper over her posts on social media about Kirk’s death, including mischaracterizing some of his positions and positing that her “journalistic and moral values” prevented her from “engaging in excessive, false mourning” for Kirk.

Attiah, the Post’s founding Global Opinions editor, retweeted social media messages justifying the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel as they were taking place and wrote a piece on Oct. 13, less than a week after the attacks, headlined, “We cannot stand by and watch Israel commit atrocities”…

Also in the media, Jewish influencer Hen Mazzig reacts to Jewish actress Hannah Einbinder’s pro-Palestinian commentary at the Emmys last night in The Hollywood Reporter: “Hannah should know there is no such thing as a ‘good Jew’ who can launder antisemitism. The ‘good Jews’ trope — the ones who sign boycott pledges or reassure progressives that this isn’t about hatred — are always used as cover. They are never enough. And at the end of the day, the people demanding ‘good Jews’ don’t actually believe there is anything good about being Jewish”…

After the Vuelta a Espana bike race in Madrid was called off during its finale on Sunday due to anti-Israel protests on the route, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called today for Israel to be banned from sports events due to its military campaign in Gaza, despite the team being protested, Israel-Premier Tech, not being an official Israeli team. 

The international union of cyclists voiced its disapproval of Sánchez’s stance, saying in a statement that it “strongly condemns the exploitation of sport for political purposes in general, and especially coming from a government”…

Lynn Forester de Rothschild is exploring a sale of a minority stake in the parent company of The Economist magazine, according to Bloomberg, which would mark the publication’s first ownership shake-up in over a decade…

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for an interview with Yaakov Katz, former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, on his new book about Oct. 7 and an interview with Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), a rising national security voice on Capitol Hill.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will deliver a major address on political violence at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh tomorrow, nearly a week after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk and several months after the firebombing of Shapiro’s residence over Passover. 

Also speaking at the summit will be KIND Snacks founder and former CEO Daniel Lubetzky alongside Lonnie Ali, founder of the Muhammad Ali Center with her eponymous late husband. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow morning on oversight of the FBI with FBI Director Kash Patel.

Democratic Majority for Israel will host a live briefing tomorrow with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Gottheimer’s recent trip to Israel, next steps for the Abraham Accords and the latest in the Israel-Hamas war.

The Center for a New American Security will hold a live fireside chat tomorrow with Adam Boehler, the U.S. special envoy for hostage response.

Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard Law School professor and prominent defense attorney and Israel advocate, will speak tomorrow at the JFK Jr. forum at Harvard at the first “Middle East Dialogues” event of the academic year, hosted by professor Tarek Masoud, who invites polarizing speakers to debate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the evening, American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) will host its Lamplighter Awards at D.C.’s Union Station. This year’s honoree is Palantir CEO Alex Karp, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) will receive a leadership award.

Magen David Adom will host its 2025 New York City Gala in Manhattan, where political commentator Meghan McCain will receive its Champion of Israel Award. 

• The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a classified briefing today on the U.S.’ June strikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities.
• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding confirmation hearings today for Michel Issa to be U.S. ambassador to Lebanon and Duke Buchan, the former Republican National Committee finance director, to be ambassador to Morocco.
• The Israel on Campus Coalition’s National Leadership Conference wraps up today in Washington. Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) are slated to speak at the confab’s closing session.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh kraushaar

One of the defining features of our politics over the last decade has been the declining power of institutions, combined with the growing influence of individuals acting in their narrow self-interest, frequently at the expense of the public interest.

President Donald Trump’s ability in 2016 to bypass the Republican establishment benefitting from a crowded, self-interested opposition, was one of the seminal moments in our brave new world of individualism over institutionalism. Party institutions, outside-group spending and strident media criticism were no match for the grassroots army that rallied to Trump in that election.

Ten years later, the inability of moderate Democrats and other mainstream institutions to organize any coalition against the campaign of far-left New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani looks like the culmination of a dynamic where leaders feel powerless to lead, and are instead simply standing aside, ceding any influence to a cadre of ideological activists within the party. 

What’s remarkable about this moment is that the top Democratic leaders in New York, over a month after the primary, aren’t supporting Mamdani — but aren’t willing to speak out against him, either. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have all stayed on the sidelines, reflecting the state of political purgatory that many mainstream leaders are in right now.

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

The Hunger Games: The Free Press’ Matti Friedman lays out the challenges in getting accurate information regarding humanitarian aid and malnutrition in Gaza. “The transformation of truth-telling institutions into ideological megaphones has had a high price for citizens in liberal societies and for the institutions themselves, as we’re now seeing at places like Harvard and NPR. The feeling of being unmoored from objective reality — of rowing a boat through a choppy sea of lies and propaganda — is very much a feature of the present moment, and not only in Israel. But one of the most awful prices was made clear this past week, with reports of acute hunger in Gaza. In a blizzard of ideological fiction, how are sane citizens in Israel, or anywhere else, supposed to know what’s true and to do the right thing? It’s not an exaggeration to say, as we’re seeing right now, that the answer to this question can be a matter of life and death.” [FreePress]

Screen Time: Against the backdrop of media coverage of the growing food crisis in Gaza, The Atlantic’s David Graham looks at the role television news plays in informing President Donald Trump. “As president, Trump has access to the most powerful information-gathering network in the world, yet he takes his cues from what he watches on television. This helps him see the news from the same perspective as the general public, which has enabled his political success. But it also narrows his understanding, and it makes him highly susceptible to manipulation. … This means that despite access to high-quality information about what’s going on in Gaza, he seems to really perk up only once it’s on the tube. Such a narrow information stream is a problem, because TV is not a good source of information on its own; it should be consumed as part of a balanced news diet.” [TheAtlantic]

For Pete’s Sake: Politico’s Rachael Bade looks at the relationship between President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following a series of missteps and moves that are at odds with the White House. “Concerned that the laundry list of scandals could lead to his downfall, they’ve implored Hegseth in private conversations to rethink surrounding himself with people the White House distrusts. Others are urging Hegseth to make peace with the former employees he ousted and accused of leaking. A smaller group is even quietly working to help those employees land a public apology or some sort of exoneration of their character. ‘If there’s any chance at Pete resetting and ensuring that whatever time he has left in this position is well served, he’s got to do it — otherwise Pete is just doubling down on the lie,’ said the person close to Hegseth. So far, however, he has yet to heed the warning.” [Politico]

Water Woes: The Financial Times’ Chloe Cornish, Eleni Varvitsioti and Ahmed Al Omran spotlight the growing use of desalinization plants by governments in the Middle East and southern Mediterranean, as the region grapples with mounting water crises and rising temperatures. “Reducing energy consumption has made producing desalinated water less polluting in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, and reduced the costs. In Israel, water produced by the Sorek B desalination plant is priced at about 40 cents per cubic metre, which is enough for 25 showers, according to Thames Water. Dubai utility Dewa will get a price of 37 cents per cubic metre for water from its Hassyan desalination plant, which is due to start operations next year. … Academics in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest desalinated water producer, are trying to tackle the brine problem. Zhiping Lai, a professor at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, is mining the brine for valuable elements such as lithium and potassium, which have commercial uses.” [FT]

A Blackstone executive and NYPD officer were among four people killed in a shooting last night at Blackstone’s Park Avenue headquarters in Manhattan; the suspect, who was reportedly targeting NFL headquarters in the same building, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an MOU earlier this month with Qatar for the “unconditional donation” of a luxury jet…

The Senate Appropriations Committee‘s Justice Department budget bill released last week sets up a clash with the House over funds aimed at combating hate crimes; the House bill aims to eliminate that funding, supported by key Jewish groups, for 2026, while the Senate bill would preserve it…

Sen. Angus King (I-ME) accused Israel of deliberately causing a famine in Gaza, calling its actions in Gaza “an affront to human decency,” and said that he “will advocate — and vote — for an end to any United States support whatsoever [for Israel] until there is a demonstrable change in the direction of Israeli policy.”…

Two members of the Boulder, Colo., City Council accused a colleague of posting content on social media that “crossed a serious line into antisemitism”…

Harvard is reportedly open to spending as much as $500 million to resolve its legal disputes with the Trump administration, following an agreement between the government and Columbia University last week in which the New York school agreed to pay $200 million and undertake a series of steps to address campus antisemitism…

Singer Regina Spektor‘s weekend concert in Portland, Ore., was disrupted by anti-Israel protesters…

An Oregon man was sentenced to 60 months in prison over a series of bomb threats to Jewish institutions in the New York area dating back to 2021… 

Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, who appeared in the recent Oscar-winning film “No Other Land,” was shot and killed by an Israeli settler in the West Bank on Monday; the Trump administration had recently lifted sanctions that had been imposed on Hathaleen’s alleged assailant, Yinon Levi, by the Biden administration…

Israel’s Elbit Systems was awarded a $260 million contract with the German government to supply defensive systems for Berlin’s A400M aircraft fleet…

The Financial Times reviews Scott Anderson’s King of Kings, which focuses on the fall of the shah in Iran in 1979…

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency are expected to travel to the country in the next two weeks for talks aimed at restarting inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites…

Los Angeles-based philanthropist Wallis Annenberg, whose family foundation, which she led for more than 30 years, gave over $3 billion to an array of causes, died at 86…

Longtime Washington Post reporter Morton Mintz died at 103…

Israeli singer Eden Golan performed her 2024 Eurovision Song Contest entry “Hurricane” on Monday at the Israel on Campus Coalition’s National Leadership Summit in Washington.

Tony Award-winning actor, Ari’el Stachel turns 34…

Chairman of BOK Financial Corporation in Tulsa, Okla., George Bruce Kaiser turns 83… Shoe designer, entrepreneur and founder of an eponymous shoe company, Stuart A. Weitzman turns 76… Denver-based trial lawyer, film producer and author of both fiction and nonfiction, Kenneth Eichner turns 71… Israeli electrical engineer and inventor, he is best known as the inventor of the USB memory stick, Dov Moran turns 70… Former deputy health and science editor at The Washington Post, Carol Eisenberg… Attorney general of Israel from 2016 to 2022, Avichai Mandelblit turns 62… Global economics and geopolitical correspondent for The New York Times, Peter S. Goodman turns 59… Actor and comedian, best known for his voice work in animation and video games, Richard Steven Horvitz turns 59… Twin brothers, Los Angeles based philanthropists and businessmen, Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz and Yisroel Zev Rechnitz turn 54… Actor, filmmaker and musician, he is best known for his role in the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” Joshua Radnor turns 51… Chief White House correspondent for NBC News, Peter Alexander turns 49… SVP of philanthropic engagement at BBYO, Jayme David… Director of the Straus Center at Yeshiva University, he is also the Rabbi of NYC’s Congregation Shearith Israel (The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue), Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveichik turns 48… Data scientist and journalist focused on elections for the Associated Press, Aaron Kessler… Former member of the Canadian Parliament, David de Burgh Graham turns 44… Iraq war veteran, political and communications strategist, she is now serving as an adjunct professor at Duke University, Allison Jaslow… Rabbi, writer, educator and physician assistant, Rabbi Levi Welton… White House principal deputy communications director during the Biden administration, Herbie Ziskend… SVP in the Los Angeles office of Edelman, Jason Levin… Israeli actress, model and television presenter, Maya Wertheimer turns 35… D.C. attorney, Daniel Ryan Vinik… Uriel Wassner… Broadcaster and media relations manager for the Chicago Dogs and Windy City Bulls, Sam Brief… Quarterback for the NFL’s Washington Commanders, Sam Hartman turns 26…

• The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations kicks off a three-day mission to Israel today.
• Oral arguments in Harvard‘s lawsuit against the Trump administration‘s freezing of approximately $3 billion in federal funds begin today in Boston.
• Lawmakers in Texas return to Austin today for the start of a special legislative session that will take up, among other issues, potential statewide redistricting that could potentially give Republicans an additional five House seats but may make other safe GOP districts more competitive.
• Israel launched fresh drone strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen earlier today, days after a ballistic missile fired by the Iran-backed terror group triggered sirens across central Israel.
• We’re keeping an eye on Iranian nuclear talks, following an announcement this morning from Iran’s Foreign Ministry that Tehran’s deputy foreign minister will meet this Friday in Istanbul with his counterparts from the U.K., France and Germany to continue negotiations. Over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with senior Iranian official Ali Larijani.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

A newly released CNN poll, conducted this month, illustrates the resilience of a hawkish DNA within the Republican Party and among its voters even amid the rise of an isolationist strain that has sought to gain influence in the GOP during President Donald Trump’s second term.

The poll asked respondents: “Do you think the United States should or should not take the leading role among all other countries in the world in trying to solve international problems?” Overall, 43% took the more active approach, while 56% took a more isolationist view.

Republicans, however, remained the strongest advocates of a muscular American role in world affairs, with 52% supporting America taking a leading role, with 47% opposed. By contrast, just 42% of Democrats and 39% of independents shared the more hawkish worldview.

Notably, the shift in more isolationist sentiment was almost entirely driven by Democrats and independents since the last CNN survey in March, which found majority support for significant American global engagement. In the March survey, a 57% majority of Democrats preferred more American involvement in the world, a number that dropped 15 points in the last four months. The Republican share of those preferring American engagement remained steady at 52%.

The results from the CNN polls suggest there’s a more committed core of Republican-voting hawks that is more resilient than the shifting political winds, whereas the Democratic foreign policy worldview appears more dependent on partisanship and what’s happening in the news at the time.

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

The Trump Whisperer: The New Yorker’s Antonia Hitchens profiles Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, looking at the former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO’s yearslong friendship with President Donald Trump. “Lutnick and President Donald Trump speak on the phone most nights, at around one in the morning, just after Lutnick gets in bed. They talk about ‘real stuff,’ like Canadian steel tariffs, Lutnick told me, and also about ‘nothing,’ which he summarized as ‘sporting events, people, who’d you have dinner with, what was this guy like, can you believe what this guy did, what’s the TV like, I saw this on TV, what’d you think of what this guy said on TV, what did you think about my press conference, how about this Truth?’ Of course, Lutnick said, ‘Trump has other people he calls late at night.’ But does he have other people he always calls?” [NewYorker]

Confronting Cambridge: The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer does a deep dive into the tenure of Harvard President Alan Garber, who has handled much of the fallout from the school’s handling of post-Oct. 7 campus antisemitism as well as Harvard’s legal battles with the Trump administration. “Even as Harvard sits on the receiving end of vitriolic attacks from the right, Garber has turned inward — willing to engage with Harvard’s harshest critics and to admit that even bad-faith attacks sometimes land on uncomfortable truths. He’s treated the university’s crisis as an opportunity, leveraging the looming threat of Trump to make changes that would have been politically impossible in less ominous times. The leader of Harvard, bane of MAGA, agrees with much of the underlying substance of the MAGA critique of higher education, at least when stripped of its rhetorical froth and fury. He knows that elite higher education is suffering a crisis of legitimacy, one that is, in no small measure, of its own making, because it gives fodder to those who caricature it as arrogant and privileged.” [TheAtlantic]

The Gaza Debate: In eJewishPhilanthropy, Michael Berenbaum and Menachem Z. Rosensaft respond to genocide scholar Omer Bartov’s recent New York Times op-ed alleging Israel is engaging in genocide. “We are not arguing that this war has always been waged appropriately or that it has been waged proportionally. Nor do we suggest that Israel or any other country involved in warfare cannot be accused of or should not be held accountable for other alleged violations of international law, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and even ethnic cleansing. But those are separate questions from whether a genocide is being committed; and unless such alleged violations of international law satisfy the elements, including specific intent, as defined in Article II of the Convention, they do not constitute genocide.” [eJP]

Cowed on Campus: In Tablet, Eric Kaufmann looks at recent survey data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression that indicates shifts in the behaviors of Jewish college students as campus climates become increasingly politicized in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and ensuing war in Gaza. “A closer look at the 2024 data shows that the pro-Palestinian tent encampments had a big impact: Before they went up on April 17, 28% of Ivy League Jewish students self-censored. Afterward, 40% did. Across all institutions in the FIRE data, statistical analysis shows that the encampments increased Jewish self-censorship while reducing it for conservatives. Conservative speech has for years been the least free of any major demographic, but Jews have now converged with them. In the Ivy League, Jews now self-censor more than conservatives do.” [Tablet]

Unnamed Trump administration officials are reportedly angry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s recent actions, telling Axios that the prime minister has “acted like a madman” who “bombs everything all the time”; the White House officials expressed concerns that Netanyahu’s actions could “undermine” President Donald Trump’s efforts in the region…

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) met for an hour on Friday with New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani but did not issue an endorsement for the candidate; a spokesperson for Jeffries said the two had a “constructive, candid and community-centered” conversation that also included “a variety of other important issues, including public safety, rising antisemitism, gentrification and the importance of taking back the House in 2026”…

Reps. Mark Alford (R-MO), Don Davis (D-NC), Tony Gonzales (R-TX), John Carter (R-TX), Sam Graves (R-MO) and Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) introduced a resolution congratulating the fighter and bomber wings involved in the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities…

Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced a resolution commemorating the anniversaries of the bombings of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina and the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish community center; in the House, Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) introduced a resolution condemning the AMIA bombing…

Reps. Jefferson Shreve (R-IN), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Mark Messmer (R-IN) introduced a bill requiring the administration to provide a strategy to counter Iran and Hezbollah’s influence in Latin America…

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who in 2022 lost to Gov. Josh Shapiro in the commonwealth’s gubernatorial race, teased a potential rematch, posting different logos for a “Doug Mastriano for Governor” campaign…

Minnesota’s statewide Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsed state Sen. Omar Fateh, a democratic socialist, over incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the efforts of Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, under the leadership of Adam Katz, to use analytics to identify digital trends in antisemitism, craft countermessaging and share data with social media platforms and universities…

Harvard Business School graduate Yoav Segev filed a lawsuit against the university and its police department, alleging that both failed to protect him from being assaulted by anti-Israel campus activists and that school officials obstructed an investigation into the incident…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought medical attention over the weekend after falling ill from eating spoiled food; the prime minister will work from home until Tuesday while he recovers…

Israel, working with the U.S., reportedly delivered aid to the Syrian Druze city of Sweida as a ceasefire reached late last week appeared to hold; more than 1,100 are believed to be dead in the sectarian violence that drew in Syrian government forces…

Israel will not renew the visa of Jonathan Whittall, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, citing his “biased and hostile conduct against Israel”…

Hamas officials in Gaza claimed at least 85 people were killed trying to access humanitarian aid near the Zikim border crossing; the IDF, which said it fired “warning shots” to remove an “immediate threat,” disputed the number, saying the “reported number of casualties does not align with the existing information”…

The Wall Street Journal looks at the logistical and operational challenges facing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation amid increasing concerns over humanitarian aid distribution in the enclave…

Senior Christian leaders from Jerusalem, including Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, visited the sole Catholic church in Gaza, which was damaged by an Israeli strike last week that also killed three people…

Brig. Gen. (res.) Giora Even Epstein, the most decorated Israeli Air Force fighter pilot in the country’s history, died at 87…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog (right) received the credentials of Polish Ambassador to Israel Maciej Hunia. Hunia’s arrival marks the first time in four years that Warsaw has had an ambassador posted to Israel. In addition to Hunia, Herzog also received the credentials of Malta’s new envoy to Israel, Ambassador Claude Bonello.

Actress and producer, Alysia Reiner turns 55… 

Laureate of the 1992 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Rudolph A. Marcus turns 102… President at Admar Group, Henry Dean Ostberg turns 97… Retired CEO of Sony/ATV, a large music publishing firm, he is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Martin Bandier turns 84… Professor emeritus in the Department of Physics at Bar-Ilan University, he won the Israel Prize in 2018, Shlomo Havlin turns 83… Director of the Center for the Political Future at USC, Robert Shrum turns 82… Criminal defense attorney, known for representing many politicians, celebrities and organized crime defendants, Benjamin Brafman turns 77… Former member of the U.K.’s House of Commons, now in the House of Lords, Baroness Susan Veronica Kramer turns 75… U.S. senator (R-WY), John Barrasso turns 73… Chairman and CEO at Quantitative Financial Strategies, Sanford “Sandy” Jay Grossman turns 72… Endocrinologist and professor at Columbia University’s medical school, she is an honorary president of NYC’s Central Synagogue, Shonni Joy Silverberg, MD… Professor at Columbia Law School and daughter of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jane Carol Ginsburg turns 70… Brooklyn resident, Irene Ostrovsky… Comedian and actor, best known for his five seasons on “Saturday Night Live” ending in 1990, Jon Lovitz turns 68… Former chief rabbi of Moscow, his opposition to the Ukraine war forced him to leave Russia, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt turns 62… Literary agent at the William Morris Endeavor book department, Eric Matthew Simonoff turns 58… Professor of astronomy at MIT and winner of a 2013 MacArthur genius award, Sara Seager turns 54… Brazilian fashion designer best known for avant-garde designs and eclectic prints, Alexandre Herchcovitch turns 54… CEO of Fanatics, licensed sports merchandise and digital sports platform, Michael G. Rubin turns 53… Founder, president and CEO of Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) and the Electrification Coalition, Raphael “Robbie” Diamond… Rabbi of Congregation Bais Naftali in Los Angeles, his YouTube channel has over 4.6 million views, Rabbi Yoel Gold… Online media personality and director of product management at Electronic Arts (EA) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Veronica Belmont turns 43… CEO of Women of Reform Judaism since 2023, Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch… Clinical social worker, Aniko Gomory-Pink… Entrepreneur and political activist, Chloé Simone Valdary turns 32… Policy advisor at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Zachary A. Marshall… Recruiter at Tines, Rachel Elizabeth Nieves… Attorney in Madrid and secretary general of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain until 2021, Elias Cohen…

• President Donald Trump is slated to host Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani tonight at the White House. More below.
• At the Aspen Security Forum this afternoon, Amos Yadlin, the former head of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate; former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog; Brett McGurk, the former National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa; and author and “Call Me Back” podcast host Dan Senor are set to take the stage for a conversation about Israel’s future.
• This morning in Washington, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is slated to hold a business meeting followed by a full committee hearing on State Department reform.
• This afternoon, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East and North Africa subcommittee is holding its own hearing on State Department management.
• Also today, Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) is holding a press conference with other members of Congress calling for the National Education Association’s congressional charter to be revoked following the organization’s adoption of a measure effectively banning cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League.

A QUICK WORD WITH jI’S MELISSA WEISS

Ceasefire and hostage-release talks have been ongoing in Doha, Qatar, for the last week. But one of the most consequential meetings in the negotiations could be happening tonight in Washington, when President Donald Trump hosts Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani for dinner at the White House.

This continues a new tradition for Trump of hosting prominent Gulf royals who aren’t the heads of state of their respective countries for dinner at the White House. In March, Trump hosted a dinner in the White House’s State Dining Room for Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security advisor and chairman of several sovereign wealth funds. 

Qatari officials have been in the U.S. all week. Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was rumored to have met with Trump on the sidelines of the FIFA finals in New Jersey on Sunday, after being spotted in New York over the weekend. 

White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, whose trip to Doha last week was postponed over stalled talks, told reporters over the weekend that he planned to meet with Qatari negotiators on the sidelines of the match. And Trump shared a suite with senior Qatari sports officials at the match, including Nasser bin Ghanim Al-Khelaifi, the president of the Paris Saint-Germain team who played in New Jersey on Sunday and chairman of beIN Sports, previously known as Al Jazeera Sport. (In a weekend interview at the FIFA match, Trump even noted Qatar’s “big presence.”)

Qatar also loomed large in Washington this week, where legislators on the House Education and the Workforce Committee pressed university leaders from Georgetown, CUNY and the University of California, Berkeley about their foreign funding sources during a hearing about antisemitism in higher education. (More below on the hearing.) Former Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), one of Qatar’s top lobbyists in Washington, was seen sitting right behind Georgetown University interim President Robert Groves as Groves testified on Tuesday. The school has received over $1 billion from Qatar, and has a campus in Doha.

Qatar’s be-everywhere, invest-in-everything strategy has allowed Doha to gain footholds across the global economy and in diplomatic circles. And since the start of the war, it has sought to highlight its role as a facilitator of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, the latter of which Doha supports financially and diplomatically.

Doha has the power to push Hamas to accept a ceasefire. Whether tonight’s dinner will exact a change in Qatar’s approach to Hamas remains to be seen. The sit-down between Trump and the Qatari prime minister could change the tide in the 21-month war, or it could serve as yet another missed opportunity in a war full of stalemates and diplomatic posturing — with fresh casualties mounting on both sides and 50 hostages still languishing in captivity.

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

NEA’s Lesson Plan: In The Wall Street Journal, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt responds to the National Education Association’s recent adoption of a measure targeting the ADL. “This wasn’t about the ADL. It was a clear and unambiguous statement to Jewish educators, parents and children: You don’t count. And it perversely takes this stance at a time when anti-Jewish hate is skyrocketing. … Unfortunately, the NEA vote is symptomatic of a larger problem of intensifying antisemitism in our K-12 schools. Specifically, antisemitism cloaked in the rhetoric of anti-Zionism. A generation of teachers has been educated on college campuses where this poison has festered and spread. It has been normalized. Now its purveyors want to bring this bigotry into your children’s classrooms.” [WSJ]

Pressing Putin: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius looks at President Donald Trump’s new approach to Russia, following Trump’s support for sending offensive weapons to Ukraine. “Trump decided to escalate for three reasons, according to a source familiar with administration discussions. First, he believed that Putin was disrespecting him, feigning a readiness to make peace but ignoring the U.S. president’s call for a ceasefire. Second, he saw the efficacy of U.S. military power in the use of B-2 bombers and Tomahawk missiles against Iran. And third, he thought Putin would only negotiate if threatened with greater force. As the Russians like to say, Trump decided to ‘escalate to de-escalate.’ Trump has made a sound choice in recognizing that Putin won’t make concessions without more pressure. But the president has also embarked on an escalatory course whose risks are unknowable.” [WashPost]

Mamdani’s Gift … to the GOP: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens posits that a victory in November by New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani would be a positive outcome for Republicans nationwide who are likely — and in some cases, have already begun — to push Mamdani as the future of the Democratic Party. “Among the reasons the Democratic Party’s brand has become toxic in recent years is progressive misgovernance in places like Los Angeles; San Francisco; Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and Chicago. If Mamdani governs on the promises on which he’s campaigned, he’ll bring the same toxicity to America’s biggest city. … A Mamdani mayoralty would be the political gift that keeps on giving. The state of the city would become a reflection of the Democratic Party writ large. Every Mamdani utterance would become a test for every Democratic politician, starting with Senator Chuck Schumer on Israel.” [NYTimes]

The FBI released new images of three Iranian intelligence agents believed to be involved in the kidnapping and disappearance of retired special agent Bob Levinson, who was last seen on Iran’s Kish Island in 2007; Levinson is believed to have died in Iranian custody sometime prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic…

Adelita Grijalva was declared the winner of the Democratic primary special election in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District to succeed her father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died earlier this year; the special election in the deep-blue district will take place in September…

Former Washington, D.C., Councilmember Trayon White, who was expelled last year over an ongoing bribery case, was reelected to his seat in a special election on Tuesday; White had previously promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories while in office…

New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani told business leaders on Tuesday that he would “discourage” the use of the “globalize the intifada” slogan and not use the phrase himself, but said the term was used by many to show support for Palestinians; among the attendees in the 90-minute meeting was Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who, according to The New York Times, “pushed Mr. Mamdani about the meaning of genocide and defended Israel’s war in Gaza”… 

Former Future Investment Initiative Institute CEO Richard Attias is rejoining the Saudi Arabian conference network as interim CEO, replacing Penny Richards, who is departing after six months in the position…

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism ended its contract last month with an interfaith advisor who had been working with the group for several years, in a potential indication that it is moving away from previous plans to allow rabbis within the movement to officiate interfaith weddings, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…

The Washington Post reports on the recent reunion between a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor and one of the American soldiers involved in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp; the reunion was facilitated by the USC Shoah Foundation…

British police cautioned that Russia, China and Iran were behind an increasing number of sabotage, espionage and kidnapping plots in the U.K….

France, Germany and the U.K. will bring back sanctions on Iran via the U.N. Security Council if a nuclear deal is not reached by the end of August, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot warned on Tuesday, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how Iran struck Israeli targets with increasing success during the 12-day war between the countries, as Tehran used trial and error to adapt its military strategy by using more advanced weaponry and firing from more locations toward the end of the war…

The Financial Times reports on tensions between Iranian hard-liners and the country’s reformists following the country’s war last month with Israel, with the country’s hard-line faction opposing engagement with the Trump administration that President Masoud Pezeshkian has supported…

The U.N.’s special representative for Afghanistan warned that the country’s support systems were under strain amid an influx of Afghans returning to the country following the implementation of new immigration laws in Iran; more than 1 million Afghans illegally living in Iran have been repatriated this year amid the crackdown…

The three members of the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory reportedly resigned from their positions in rapid succession earlier this month; the resignations come amid an effort by the Trump administration to sanction officials who have targeted Israel in international institutions…

Twenty Palestinians were killed in a crowd rush at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution site in Khan Younis, Gaza; the organization said the “chaotic and dangerous surge” was “driven by agitators in the crowd”…

The Argentine Embassy in Washington held a commemoration event at the Capitol last night ahead of the 31st anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed.

World-renowned violinist, violist and conductor, Pinchas Zukerman turns 77… 

One of the three co-founders of Comcast Corporation, he served as its chief financial officer and vice chairman, Julian A. Brodsky turns 92… Senior U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of New York, Judge Sidney H. Stein turns 80… President of an eponymous communications firm, public speaker and coach, Betsy R. Sheerr… Co-creator of the first-ever spreadsheet program (VisiCalc), he currently serves as the chief technology officer of Alpha Software, Daniel Singer “Dan” Bricklin turns 74… Former high ranking civilian official in the Pentagon during the Bush 43 administration, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, Douglas J. Feith turns 72… Senior rabbi since 1997 at Temple Beth Avodah in Newton Centre, Mass., Rabbi Keith Stern… Los Angeles-based attorney, she is the president emerita of the LA chapter of the Jewish National Fund, Alyse Golden Berkley… Past vice chair of the Board of Trustees of The Jewish Federations of North America, Cynthia D. Shapira… British solicitor, he represented Princess Diana in her divorce and Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt in a libel case, Anthony Julius turns 69… Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Tony Kushner turns 69… U.S. ambassador to the EU in the Trump 45 administration, Gordon David Sondland turns 68… Former airline executive at Northwest and Delta, now on the board of Spirit Airlines, Andrea Fischer Newman… Former president of Viacom Music and Entertainment Group, Douglas Alan Herzog turns 66… Businessman and philanthropist, owner of interests in many Israeli firms including IKEA Israel, Matthew Bronfman turns 66… Canadian journalist, he worked for CNN International for 30 years, Jonathan Mann turns 65… Former Israeli minister of science and technology, now a venture capitalist, Yizhar Nitzan Shai turns 62… Chief of staff of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, Jim Rosenberg… Chicago-based entrepreneur and philanthropist, Victoria Rivka Zell… Former NFL offensive lineman, he is now the president of Collective Mortgage in Colorado, Ariel Mace Solomon turns 57… Senior scholar at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center, a home for Conservative Judaism in Israel, Rabbi Joshua Kulp turns 55… Israeli former professional tennis player, in 2003 she was ranked 15th in the world, Anna Smashnova turns 49… Founder of Pinkitzel, a cupcake cafe, candy boutique and gift store located in three Oklahoma cities, Jonathan Jantz… U.S. senator (R-IN) since the beginning of this year, Jim Banks turns 46… National political correspondent for The New York Times, Shane Goldmacher… Co-founder of Los Angeles-based Meteorite Social Impact and Health Action Alliance Advisors, Steven Max Levine… White House liaison to the Jewish community in the Bush 43 administration, now managing partner at Arogeti Endeavors, Scott Raymond Arogeti… Features reporter for Jewish Insider, Matthew Kassel… Founder and managing partner at Vine Ventures, Eric M. Reiner… Registered nurse and an internationally board-certified lactation consultant, Chantal Low Katz…