Plus, Andy Baker to leave Vance's circle
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) speak to the media before a visit to the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on July 12, 2025 in Ochopee, Florida.
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Welcome to our new and fresh Daily Kickoff. Let us know your thoughts on our new and improved format by replying to this email.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how the GOP’s generational divide over Israel has been bolstered by social media, talk to Sen. Rick Scott about antisemitism within the Republican Party and spotlight the South Florida Democratic primaries where Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Jared Moskowitz are facing DSA-aligned opponents. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Lance Stroll, Andy Baker and Rizy Horowitz.
Curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today’s Agenda
Jared Kushner is in Israel today, where he is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The sit-down comes a day after Kushner met with Hamas officials in Cairo.
Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Board of Peace High Representative Nickolay Mladenov and Board of Peace senior advisors Aryeh Lightstone and Liran Tancman, who participated in the Cairo meetings, are also attending the meeting with Netanyahu, JI has learned.
Netanyahu’s Likud party is holding its primary today to select the slate for the upcoming Oct. 27 election.
In New York, the annual two-day Sephardic Rabbinic Conference kicks off today. Read more here.
Australia’s royal commission into antisemitism in the country began its final hearings today, following weeks of testimony from hundreds of witnesses including government officials, Jewish community leaders, Holocaust survivors, college students and faculty and relatives of victims of last year’s terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
One Thing To Know
Tuesday’s Florida primaries are shaping up to be the starkest test yet of how widespread the scourge of antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel views are within both parties.
On the Democratic side, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), one of the remaining pro-Israel stalwarts within his party, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), a pragmatic Jewish lawmaker who is running in a new district after GOP redistricting chopped up her old seat, are both facing serious primary threats from their left flank.
Moskowitz is facing the more direct threat, going up against a Democratic Socialists of America-backed challenger in Oliver Larkin, who is running as a far-left candidate hostile to the U.S.-Israel relationship in a GOP-leaning district with one of the biggest Jewish constituencies in the country.
Larkin’s decision to run on a platform hostile to the district’s Jewish voters would typically be politically problematic. Deciding to campaign with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) during the primary’s final stretch, as Larkin did on Friday, is a curious campaign choice, to put it mildly. The blowback was intense enough that several Fort Lauderdale venues declined to host the socialist shindig.
But if there is a surge of left-wing, anti-establishment anger — and latent anti-Israel sentiment from the district’s non-Jewish Democratic voters — it’s worth keeping a close eye on the election results. Even a respectable 40-45% Larkin showing, short of victory, would raise eyebrows about how widespread the far-left ideology has penetrated the party.
The Big Reads
GENERATIONAL DIVIDE
At the National College Republicans convention earlier this month in Tampa, Fla., exchanges between lawmakers and student activists captured a broader tension within the Republican Party that was on display throughout the conference, which focused on recruiting, building chapters, training leaders and working on campaigns. But lawmakers and students kept coming back to simpler questions around where young Republicans get their news and whom they trust to give it to them, Sloan Rachmuth reports from Tampa for Jewish Insider.
SENATOR SIT-DOWN
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) expressed confidence ahead of Florida’s primary elections on Tuesday that voters will reject the Republican candidates who have embraced blatantly antisemitic messages as part of their campaigns. “The Republican Party is a broad coalition of people that care about this country, but we’re not going to allow antisemites into our party, period,” he said in an interview with Jewish Insider‘s Emily Jacobs. “Our party is not run by antisemites and will never be run by antisemites as long as I have any power to stop it,” he continued. “We have to fight, fight, fight.”
red line
Rep. Randy Fine’s (R-FL) primary opponent, influencer Dan Bilzerian, is pushing blatantly antisemitic and pro-Adolf Hitler messaging in the closing days of Florida’s primary season. Bilzerian has made no secret of the openly antisemitic tenor of his campaign, having said from the outset that he is challenging Fine because he is Jewish and pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories about Fine, the Jewish community and Israel, Jewish Insider‘s Marc Rod reports.
The Rundown
PRIMARY COLORS
PALMETTO STATE POLITICS
COMINGS AND GOINGS
ON THE HILL
ANOTHER ANTISEMITIC ATTACK
On Our Radar
● 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.
In what appeared to be a contradiction to Vice President JD Vance’s suggestion last week that the White House’s “goal No. 1” in the war with Iran was lowering gas prices for Americans, President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social site Monday morning that “The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon”…
Trump said he ordered the Pentagon to scale down its joint military exercises with South Korea, citing in part Seoul’s decision not to join in the “Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran“; the president added that the scale of previous annual exercises with South Korea had sent a “signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea…
Axios reports that the Trump administration engaged in back-channel talks with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier this year, using Nechirvan Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, as an interlocutor.
Meanwhile, Kurdistan’s prime minister, Masrour Barzani, said on Monday that his office in Erbil was targeted in an Iranian drone attack…
The New York Times does a deep dive into the virality of a fabricated quote from a senior Iranian official indicating that Iran intended to become a nuclear state, which appeared to originate from an anonymous Indian social media account before gaining traction, eventually being referenced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
The Wall Street Journal looks at Iran’s “secret plan” to use the downtime of negotiations to prepare for an eventual escalation against the U.S., including expanding the powers of the IRGC and increasing production of missiles and drones…
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz marked the 14th anniversary of American journalist Austin Tice’s abduction in Syria, saying that former President Bashar al-Assad “is gone. His prisons have been opened. But Austin is still not home. President Trump has made clear that America does not forget its people”…
Jewish leaders and local officials in Philadelphia are expressing concern following the vandalism last week of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, the second time in a year that the building has been vandalized…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights Florida’s exclusive Indian Creek Country Club, where both Jeff Bezos and Jared Kushner have yet to gain membership…
The New York Times reports on the efforts of Rizy Horowitz, the program manager at Nachas Health and Family Network, as the organization assists Holocaust survivors and adapts to the evolving needs of the dwindling community…
Canadian Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll posted a photo of himself wrapped in tefillin as part of a recent Instagram roundup that also included a photo with his girlfriend, Israeli model and actress Yael Shelbia…
CF Montreal banned two fans of the soccer club following an investigation by Major League Soccer into the recent harassment of New England Revolution player Dor Turgeman, who is Israeli…
A new plan to build an apartment complex on top of a World War II-era Nazi bunker in Berlin is drawing debate over whether to continue with construction or to preserve the area as a historical site…
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, speaking on the podcast of former Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, suggested killing “30-40 each night” in “targeted assassinations” in Gaza…
The New York Times spotlights “Azad,” an Iranian YouTube program that hosts debates on hot-topic issues in the Islamic Republic and provides a platform for both supporters and critics of Tehran’s policies…
Nuclear physicist and engineer Yehonathan Hazony died at 94…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Opportunity Knocks: In The Wall Street Journal, Lt. Col. (ret.) Or Horvitz posits that Israel is “missing a strategic window” to engage with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa as Damascus looks to reintegrate with the West. “A comprehensive peace treaty isn’t currently realistic. But Israel’s strategy need not run only through the barrel of a gun. In Mr. al-Sharaa’s Syria, an opportunity is emerging for limited cooperation against the Shiite axis, which could lay the groundwork for broader arrangements, foremost a security agreement in southern Syria.” [WSJ]
Can El-Sayed Win?: The New York Times’ Nate Cohn considers the degree to which Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is a liability for Democratic efforts to take back the upper chamber. “He may not be a self-identified democratic socialist, but he’s an unapologetic ally of democratic socialists like [Rep. Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez and the influential Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. He’s defined in part by his support for progressive causes, like opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza. To this point, he has campaigned as a firebrand, often with the language to match.” [NYTimes]
Picture of the Day
Rep. John James (R-MI), fifth from right, the GOP nominee for governor of Michigan, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), sixth from right, on Thursday visited Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., the site of an attempted attack earlier this year, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Courtesy
Birthdays
Gail Berman, co-owner and founding partner of The Jackal Group, a television and film production firm, turns 70 Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images
Rabbi Baruch Dov “Berel” Povarsky, leader of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel, turns 95
Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation, one of the wealthiest people in the world, turns 82
Millard “Mickey” S. Drexler, head of Drexler Ventures and 16-year board member of Apple until 2015, turns 82
Norm Coleman, former U.S. senator from Minnesota, his family name was originally Goldman, turns 77
Eliot Lauer, partner in Katten Muchin Rosenman, he represented Jonathan Pollard
Louise Citron, audiologist and disability activist in the Boston area
Barry Ted Moskowitz, senior U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of California, turns 76
Sharon Taksler, retired special education teacher with an interest in Holocaust studies and human rights education
Jeffery Alan “Jeff” Smisek, former chairman, president and CEO of Continental Airlines and then United Airlines, turns 72
Lee A. Solomon, associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey until 2024, turns 72
Jordan Levy, founder and managing partner of venture capital firm SBNY, he is a past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo
Deborah Kessner Peskin, communications coordinator at Temple Beth El in Longmeadow, Mass.
David Harold McCormick, U.S. senator (R-PA), turns 61
Revital Swid, former member of Knesset for the Zionist Union and Labor parties, she is a leading Israeli criminal defense attorney, turns 59
Brian Kowitz, former MLB baseball player, now an insurance advisor in Baltimore, turns 57
Zvi Yehezkeli, Arab affairs correspondent on Israel’s i24 News, turns 56
Judd Milo Ehrlich, Emmy Award-winning documentary film director and producer, turns 55
Glen Caplin, special assistant for baseball operations at Major League Baseball
Hadassa Robyn Waxman, partner in the white-collar and securities litigation groups at Proskauer Rose
Jon Lovett, former Obama White House staffer, now a podcaster and comedian, turns 44
Elyse Cohen, chief impact officer at Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez
Raphael Bob-Waksberg, comedian, writer, producer and actor, turns 42
Ben Brody, technology reporter at Punchbowl News
Ari Meyerowitz, one of the Sprout Brothers from Great Barrington, Mass.
Aaron Taxy, executive director of California Jewish Action Network
Amanda Horwitz Langer, project manager of real estate at BDT & MSD Partners
Marhu Teferi, Israeli marathon and half marathon runner who represented Israel at the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, turns 34
Eli Diamond
Gabriel Berger
John Kohan
Plus, Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi pen YA novel on antisemitism
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover this week’s House Intelligence Committee trip to Israel, and interview Democrat Rebecca Bennett, who is challenging Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. We report on a new young adult novel about antisemitism by journalists Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi, and cover a new report alleging a yearslong effort by Hamas to direct humanitarian assistance. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Brett McGurk, Stephen Levin and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger.
What We’re Watching
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is convening his Security Cabinet tonight for a vote on what Israeli media has described as a “full conquest” of the Gaza Strip. IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has warned against a full takeover of the enclave.
- We’ll be keeping an eye on the U.S. reaction to the vote, with several dozen legislators in Israel this week — and meeting with Netanyahu (more on those meetings below). In Washington, President Donald Trump, Axios reported on Wednesday, does not plan to intervene, despite opposition within the administration to a full Israeli takeover of Gaza.
- In Southampton, N.Y., Dynasty Partners wraps up its annual two-day Hamptons Investment & Philanthropy Forum today.
- Israeli singer Ishay Ribo is performing tonight at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York’s Catskill Mountains as part of B’nei Akiva’s Yamim Ba’im concert. Singers Avraham Fried, Zusha and Shmuel are also set to perform at the concert.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH ji’s JOSH KRAUSHAAR
Based on the latest wave of Democratic primary results, it’s looking more likely that the hard-left “resistance” faction of the Democratic Party, which was muted in the aftermath of the 2024 election, is reasserting itself in a consequential way — especially in the deep-blue cities that make up much of the party’s voting base.
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s come-from-behind victory in the New York City mayor’s primary was a major wake-up-call for party leadership. His success came after a surge of progressive discontent with the Democratic establishment, a sentiment fueled by the Trump administration’s aggressive (and at times, unlawful) deportation push, the imposition of tariffs and the general sense that party leaders in Washington weren’t doing everything they could to oppose President Donald Trump’s polarizing policies.
The reason the Democratic Party brand is polling at historic lows is because a sizable share of younger, progressive voters are expressing their discontent with their own party leadership — even as most still plan to vote Democratic in a general election. We’re seeing the growth of the left-wing faction within the party, in real time.
The fact that Mamdani’s radical views on the economy, crime and antisemitism did little to dissuade a critical mass of rank-and-file Democrats is a sign of the changing mood of the party.
That same dynamic that drove New York City Democrats was apparent in the first round of results in Seattle’s local primaries Tuesday night.
In the early returns from the city’s all-party primary, moderate incumbents — serving as mayor, city attorney and council president — were all trailing left-wing challengers. The moderate city officials were elected in 2021, largely as a backlash to the crime, homelessness and disorder in the city under progressive leaders.
EXCLUSIVE
Amid an international outcry over the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have repeatedly pointed to Hamas’ practice of diverting and disrupting the distribution of aid that officials say has entered Gaza unimpeded as one of the culprits behind the crisis. In a new report given exclusively to Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov, NGO Monitor, which tracks the funding of anti-Israel organizations, claims to show evidence of Hamas controlling the destination of humanitarian aid given in cash for years before and during the Gaza war, including money coming from U.N. agencies and NGOs funded by European governments.
Follow the money: The report alleges that the groups distributed cash and vouchers to beneficiaries selected by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Social Development (MoSD), which since 2019 has been led by Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas politburo who was designated a terrorist by the U.S. last year and who, weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, vowed that “there will be a second, a third, a fourth … one-millionth” Oct.7-style attack on Israel. In 2023, the EU provided $19.6 million, France donated $9.34 million and Spain $1.75 million “for the payment of social allowances to poor Palestinian families.” The EU stated that since 2008, it “has been a steadfast supporter of the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Social Development, collaborating to ensure that basic social allowances are extended to the most vulnerable families residing in the West Bank and Gaza.”
Bonus: The BBC reported on Wednesday that Hamas has continued to pay 30,000 salaries throughout the war in Gaza using “a secret cash-based payment system” even as Israel attempts to block the terrorist group from making payments.
NO COMMENT
As concern mounts in the Virginia Jewish community about anti-Zionist rhetoric posted on social media by a state lawmaker who leads the Education Committee in the House of Delegates, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who is favored in this year’s governor’s race, has avoided weighing in on the matter, taking heat from her opponent in the process. Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to several calls and emails from Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch on Wednesday inquiring about state Del. Sam Rasoul, a Roanoke Democrat who has in recent weeks called Zionism “evil.” Rasoul is the chair of the House Education Committee in Richmond.
On record: Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia’s lieutenant governor and the Republican nominee for governor, described Rasoul’s rhetoric as antisemitic and called on Spanberger to address his comments. His recent Instagram posts have drawn criticism from prominent Democrats in the state, including former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, who said Rasoul’s language is “fueling one of the oldest forms of hatred in the world,” as well as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).
communal concern
St. Louis’ Jewish community is reeling after a targeted antisemitic attack in the predawn hours of Tuesday morning on a family whose college-aged son served in the IDF, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What happened: The family, living in a quiet suburban neighborhood with a significant Jewish population, found three of their cars burned and a message spray-painted on the street which read, in part, “Death to the IDF.” Another part of the message specifically targeted the IDF veteran, local news reports and members of the local Jewish community said, but has not been publicly disclosed. The attack has shaken a Jewish community that has faced frequent and heated protests since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. This is the first time that activity has turned openly violent. Local and federal officials are investigating the attack as a hate crime.
BOOK TALK
The rise of antisemitism has dominated breaking news headlines, films and books in recent years. But two leading journalists noticed a void — a lack of resources in how to address the subject matter with young readers. Concerned about what they observed, CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi, an anchor on Israel’s Channel 12, joined forces to write Don’t Feed the Lion, a new novel geared towards middle schoolers, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Timely release: The book tells the story of three children in Chicago who experience antisemitism firsthand at school when a soccer star makes an antisemitic remark and a swastika appears on a locker. Theo, his sister Annie and their new friend Gabe each struggle with how to speak up and confront hate. The book comes as antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment has increasingly impacted K-12 classrooms nationwide in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel and ensuing war in Gaza.
flight path
Rebecca Bennett is the kind of Democrat — combat-tested, pragmatic, pro-Israel — who moderates hope can be a balm to a battered Democratic brand, especially in competitive swing districts. The Navy veteran is hoping that her military background — which included stints as a helicopter pilot over the Strait of Hormuz and as a test pilot — will help her clinch victory over incumbent Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, one of those purple districts, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Military minded: Bennett told JI in a recent interview that national security, alongside affordability and health care, would be one of her core focuses if she’s elected. “There’s two key areas in this bucket that I think about,” Bennett said. “One is, how are we preparing the United States and our allies for 21st-century conflicts? … And then the other piece of it is, what are we doing to support our veterans and military families, both when they’re serving and then when they come home?” Bennett, 37, brings a personal perspective to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, having flown missions over the Strait of Hormuz to ensure the safe travel of an aircraft carrier strike group through the region.
trip talk
A group of House Intelligence Committee members visited Israel this week, meeting with top Israeli leaders as well as visiting one of the sites of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation staging site and the Kerem Shalom border crossing, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The group included Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) and Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Ronny Jackson (R-TX).
Itinerary: The group met with leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad Director David Barnea, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, IDF officials and Palestinian Authority officials. They also visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Gaza border, which was hard hit during the Oct. 7 attack, and met with hostage families, including the family of Evyatar David, the emaciated Israeli hostage forced by Hamas to dig his own grave in a Gaza tunnel in a video released by the terrorist group last week.
Worthy Reads
A Mother’s Plea: In The Free Press, Rachel Goldberg-Polin makes a plea for a ceasefire and hostage-release agreement to end the war between Israel and Hamas. “With thousands and thousands suffering in our battered region, I would like to get up on the highest table in the area and, like Norma Rae, in the movie I was too young to understand, hold up a homemade sign that plainly says, ‘enough.’ Enough of the hostage families trying to convince the world that stealing our children is not an option. Enough of innocent people suffering from lack of resources: water, food, clothing, medical care. Enough of leaders who use their people as props. It’s time for this excruciation to end. The innocent people in Gaza, the ones who have lived there for a long time, and the innocent people in Gaza who were dragged there from Israel on October 7, 2023, have had it. We, the people who love them, are broken.” [FreePress]
Closing Doors: In The Wall Street Journal, Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, American Jewish Committee’s Europe director, raises concerns about France’s asylum policies regarding Gazans, following the deportation of a Palestinian master’s degree student over antisemitic social media posts. “For many French elites, humanitarianism seems to be moral performance. Bureaucracies aren’t built to detect ideology. Suffering is assumed to neutralize hatred — despite decades of documented indoctrination in Gaza’s schools. But ideology doesn’t dissolve at the border. It doesn’t disappear with a visa. … France still can — and must — set clear criteria for admission, funding and advancement that doesn’t endanger society. Humanitarian protection can’t mean subsidizing the glorification of Hitler or the celebration of mass murder.” [WSJ]
State of the Teachers’ Unions: In The Hill, Ken Marcus, the founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, looks at the role some teachers’ unions across the country have played in fomenting antisemitism in K-12 schools. “In many instances, teachers unions play a role in curriculum development, resolve disputes between teachers and administrators and address issues related to school resources. Unions are also the bargaining representative of teachers. As such, federal labor law imposes on a union the legal duty to fairly represent all its employees. Unions cannot choose to favor one protected identity over another or facilitate discrimination against a group of its members. By developing antisemitic curricula and encouraging teachers to include discriminatory materials and propaganda in the classroom, the bias is clear.” [TheHill]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump is mulling getting involved in New York City’s mayoral race; Trump spoke with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after Cuomo’s primary loss to Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani…
New York City’s Campaign Finance Board denied New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ request for public matching funds, alleging that the campaign had violated the law and provided “incomplete and misleading” information…
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced a bid for governor; the Tennessee Republican won her Senate reelection bid last year with 64% of the vote…
The Chicago man accused of shooting and killing two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington in May was indicted on federal hate crimes charges…
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said that the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation planned to scale up the number of distribution sites from the existing four to as many as 16…
The San Francisco Standard interviews former senior Biden administration official Brett McGurk about his post-White House pivot to VC as a venture partner at the defense- and AI-focused Lux Capital, as well as serving as a special advisor for the Middle East and international affairs at Cisco Systems; McGurk has made at least two trips to the Middle East since departing the administration earlier this year…
TikTok removed a video from Huda Kattan in which the beauty influencer accused Israel of orchestrating both world wars, the Sept. 11 attacks and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel…
The University of Pennsylvania removed the name of alum and donor Stephen Levin from the school’s behavioral sciences building after Levin halted the remainder of his $15 million pledge to the university in November 2023 over administrators’ handling of campus antisemitism…
Gratz College launched a doctoral program in antisemitism studies, a year and a half after launching a master’s program on the subject…
The U.K.’s Royal Ballet and Opera canceled an upcoming collaboration with the Israeli Opera on a production of “Tosca” slated for next year, following backlash from more than 180 RBO staffers over the decision to perform in Israel…
A flotilla carrying families of Israeli hostages sailed toward Gaza this morning “to get as close as possible to their loved ones,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said…
Dozens of prominent Jewish philanthropists and communal leaders joined a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemning his government’s policies and rhetoric for causing “lasting damage” to Israel and Diaspora Jewry and calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Nira Dayanim reports.
Iran executed a nuclear scientist convicted of spying for Israel by providing information on one of the nuclear scientists killed during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June…
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed Ali Larijani to be secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council; Larijani had previously led the council from 2005-07, when he was removed by then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…
The Financial Times reports on a previously unknown trip to Russia by a group of Iranian nuclear officials, who visited scientific institutes in the country that focused on “dual use” nuclear technology that is used for both military and civilian purposes…
The New York Times covers the fragile calm that has settled on southern Syria following a wave of sectarian violence targeting the Druze community in Sweida…
Legal scholar and professor Marshall Breger, who served as White House Jewish liaison during the Reagan and Bush 41 administrations, died at 78…
Pic of the Day
The New York City-Israel Economic Council, a new joint initiative between the two governments aimed at building economic ties, hosted its launch event on Wednesday at New York City Hall, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. The council is a reflection of “the long relationship we’ve had with [New York City],” Anat Katz (pictured), the outgoing head of Israel’s economic mission in the U.S., told the crowd, which included representatives from American and Israeli companies including Google and Electra as well as Israeli venture capitalists.
Birthdays
Emmy Award-winning political reporter for The New York Times, Jonathan V. Swan turns 40…
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 86… Co-founder of the worldwide chain of Hard Rock Café, his father founded the Morton’s Steakhouse chain, Peter Morton turns 78… Retired lieutenant general in the Israeli Air Force, he also served as chief of staff of the IDF, Dan Halutz turns 77… Former PR director for the New York Yankees and author of more than 20 books, Marty Appel turns 77… President of private equity firm Palisades Associates, former CEO of Empire Kosher Poultry, Greg Rosenbaum turns 73… Former U.S. intelligence analyst, he pled guilty to espionage in 1987 and was released from prison in 2015, Jonathan Pollard turns 71… Spiritual leader of Agudas Israel of St. Louis since 1986, Rabbi Menachem Greenblatt… Founder of the Cayton Children’s Museum in Santa Monica, Calif., Esther Netter… Former comptroller of the city of Rockville Centre, N.Y., Michael Schussheim turns 67… Television cook, YouTuber, restaurateur and cookbook author, known as Sam the Cooking Guy, Samuel D. Zien turns 66… Local and state government relations principal for Cleveland’s MetroHealth System, he is also the city council president of Westlake, Ohio, David S. Greenspan turns 60… Professor of computational biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Liran Carmel turns 54… CEO at Capital Camps & Retreat Center, Havi Arbeter Goldscher… U.S. representative (D-VA-7) from 2019 until earlier this year, she is running to become governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger turns 46… Financial news anchor for CNBC, Sara Aliza Eisen 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 38… An incoming professor of psychology at Israel’s Ariel University and director of research at Metiv: Israel Psychotrauma Center, Anna Harwood-Gross… Product management director at Signify Health, Estee Goldschmidt… Professional Super Smash Bros. player, known as Dabuz, Samuel Robert Buzby turns 32… Goalkeeper for Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer, he played for the U.S. in the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Israel, Zac MacMath turns 34… Founder of Love For Our Elders, a global nonprofit organization in 27 countries, Jacob Cramer turns 25… Scott Harrison…
DAY 8: “A week of raids and arrests, but no hard lead to the kidnappers” by Avi Issacharoff:“The terrorist group that was able to kidnap the three Israeli teens from the Alon Shvut hitchhiking stop last Thursday will likely go down in the annals of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israeli intelligence forces as one of the most dangerous and sophisticated cells to have been active in the West Bank in recent years.“To disappear for more than a week with the entire Israeli army and intelligence force in hot pursuit is no easy task. Clearly, much thought and many resources were dedicated to it. Which begs the question: could it be that all this was a local initiative by a local Hamas cell acting of its own accord? Or was it a case of a few terrorists who instigated an attack under explicit orders from the political leadership of Hamas or, alternatively, its senior military leadership?” [ToI] (more…)
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