• We’re keeping an eye on primary night returns in California, where most races have yet to be called. Those include the race for Los Angeles mayor, where Mayor Karen Bass has already advanced to the November election and will face either reality star Spencer Pratt or Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, and the governor’s race, where Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra lead Tom Steyer, with some three million ballots yet to be counted. More below.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to appear on CNBC at 10 a.m. ET for an interview with the network’s Sara Eisen.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio will testify before the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Appropriations Committees today, while the House Homeland Security Committee will hear from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is on Capitol Hill today, amid a push from progressives to regulate AI.
• Elsewhere in Washington, Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy, will hold a memorial event with the Argentine Embassy at the U.S. Institute of Peace ahead of the 32nd anniversary next month of the bombing at the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
• The Jewish Democratic Council of America is hosting a forum for candidates in the NY-12 Democratic primary tonight at Manhattan’s Streicker Center.
• Iran continued overnight to escalate its attacks on Kuwait, which said this morning that an Iranian drone struck its airport, causing multiple injuries and suspending flights into and out of the Gulf nation. The passenger terminal at the airport, which reopened on Monday after closing due to the war with Iran, was struck in the attack, which a senior Kuwaiti defense official said involved “a number of hostile drones.” Hours earlier, the U.S. struck an Iranian facility in retaliation for attacks by Iran on both Kuwait and Bahrain that failed to hit their targets.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Democrats nominated a mix of pro-Israel moderates and anti-Israel ideologues in Tuesday’s primaries across the country, but the biggest red flag for the party is the emergence of a New Jersey nominee with past terror ties prevailing in a closely watched congressional contest. 

Plastic surgeon Adam Hamawy prevailed with 28% of the vote in a crowded Democratic primary field in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ). 

Hamawy was a former associate of Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the Blind Sheikh, who was convicted of inspiring the terrorists who engineered the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Hamawy later served as a defense witness during Abdel Rahman’s 1995 trial, and volunteered around the same time in Bosnia with a group later shuttered as a front for al-Qaida. 

Hamawy, with the support of left-wing groups, some progressive lawmakers and the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC, defeated his opponents with regional bases but limited support outside their local communities. No pro-Israel groups or other moderate-minded outside PACs decided to spend money on anti-Hamawy attack ads, allowing him to consolidate enough backing from his base to prevail with a relatively small plurality. 

Despite his baggage, Hamawy is expected to win election to Congress in November, given the central New Jersey district’s heavily Democratic electorate. 

In more favorable news for pro-Israel moderate voters, Democrats nominated former Navy pilot Rebecca Bennett, who flew missions over the Straits of Hormuz, to run against Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) in a major battleground district.

“I just feel very strongly that Israel has a right to defend itself and has a right to exist, and that the United States needs to be able to support Israel, and it shouldn’t be partisan,” Bennett told Jewish Insider last August. “I think we should be supporting Israel as an ally, regardless of political party.” She also told JI she supports continuing U.S. aid to Israel without restrictions or conditions.

Kean, who has represented the 7th Congressional District since 2022, has been missing from Congress for the last several months with an undisclosed illness. His uncertain personal circumstances have made Democrats bullish about their prospects in the swing district, which Kean only won by five points in 2024.

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

The Politics of Virtue and Vice: The New York Times’ Ross Douthat considers the impact of the “amoral center” on the upcoming midterms, where candidates such as Maine Democrat Graham Platner and Texas Republican Ken Paxton have already found success in spite of moral shortcomings. “In this environment, the upright moralist becomes an inherently untrustworthy figure — not because he might be secretly a hypocrite but because he might be entirely sincere, and in his sincerity end up imposing a stringent morality that’s alien to your own. Whereas the sinner, the disreputable character, seems more reassuring because his vices double as a promise that he won’t be too fanatical.” [NYTimes]

Pulse on Pulte: The Atlantic’s Shane Harris considers President Donald Trump’s motivations in naming Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence. “The president has shown no sign that he wants a DNI who can coordinate the work of 18 intelligence agencies and harness the power of a multibillion-dollar global-espionage network to provide senior government leaders the best up-to-the-minute information about threats to U.S. national security. No, what Trump has made very clear is that he wants a DNI who will selectively declassify government documents that help fuel conspiracy theories, use the authorities of the state to enact political retribution against his enemies, and try to persuade Americans that Venezuela and maybe the Democratic Party are rigging elections by fiddling with voting machines.” [TheAtlantic]

Time Lapse: The Free Press’ Aaron MacLean explains the stalled negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, which have now gone on for longer than the active conflict between the countries. “Perhaps the president’s apparently urgent need to keep negotiations going has to do with his need to keep the financial markets calm … The first (and, in retrospect, defining) example of this trend was Trump’s original ceasefire announcement on April 7, when he claimed that the Iranian side had agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz in return for the pausing of hostilities. But Iran did not open the strait, and the president allowed the ceasefire to proceed anyway. On numerous occasions since, Trump has threatened military action if the Iranians don’t open the strait or otherwise comply with his demands regarding their nuclear program. But for nearly two months full of threats like this, he has not followed through at all.” [FreePress]

Infantino’s Impact: The New Yorker‘s Sam Knight looks at the extent to which FIFA head Gianni Infantino has influenced the trajectory of the league. “The governments that Infantino has worked most closely with as FIFA president have been Putin’s, the Emir of Qatar’s, the Trump Administration, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. On the one hand, it is a self-selecting group. FIFA has to deal with rulers who have the wealth, and the disposition, to put on the largest events. ‘A lot of the sucking up is exactly as a multinational corporation will do,’ a former FIFA committee member told me. ‘It’s the behavior of Coca-Cola, of Siemens, of Mercedes.’ In 2024, Aramco, the Saudi state-owned oil company, became an official FIFA sponsor. On the other hand, Infantino’s fascination with autocracy seems to be more than just a matter of the people whom he does business with. In 2021, he and his family lived in Qatar, which hosted the following year’s World Cup.” [NewYorker]

President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social site that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which in April ended in a failed assassination attempt, would be rescheduled for July 24 at Washington’s Waldorf Astoria; Trump added that he planned to attend the rescheduled event at the hotel, which he used to own…

Elias Irizarry, a convicted Jan. 6 Capitol rioter, was tapped by the Trump administration for a role in the irregular warfare and counterterrorism section of the Pentagon’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office…

The White House sent a fresh slate of diplomatic nominations to the Senate for approval, with few nominations to fill critical vacancies across the Middle East and North Africa, even as the Iran conflict has increased the need for coordination and dialogue in the region, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

The Wall Street Journal looks at Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s divergent opinions over how to wind down the war with Iran, with the White House preferring diplomacy and Israel pushing for intensified military action against Iran and its regional proxies…

Trump confirmed an Axios report that he had called Netanyahu “f***ing crazy” during a phone call earlier this week, telling the New York Post he was “a little bit perturbed at [Netanyahu’s] constantly fighting with Lebanon,” but insisted the two have “worked very well together” and that he liked the prime minister “a lot,” calling himself a “wartime president” and Netanyahu a “wartime prime minister”…

The United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is planning to build a multi-fuel pipeline that will allow gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to bypass the Strait of Hormuz…

In a rare moment of bipartisanship at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin agreed to work together to get delayed Nonprofit Security Grant Program FY 2025 grants “out the door as quickly as possible”; Murphy called the issue an area of “deep agreement,” with both pledging to get the number of funded applications “as high as we can”…

The leadership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, whose members constitute nearly 45% of House Democrats, is encouraging members to vote for a war powers resolution led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) that aims to prevent any U.S. cooperation with or assistance for the Israeli operations in Lebanon, JI’s Marc Rod reports…

In an address at the gala of liberal organizing group T’ruah in New York City on Tuesday night, which was bookended by standing ovations, Mayor Zohran Mamdani repeatedly shouted out his candidate for Congress in the audience, former city Comptroller Brad Lander, and touted his proposal to pump an additional $26 million in city funds into his Office to Prevent Hate Crimes… 

Jewish leaders and elected officials in New York are condemning the participation of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and other far-right Israeli officials in Sunday’s Israel on Fifth parade, saying they did not have advance notice regarding the country’s delegation to the parade; Mark Treyger, the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, which organized the parade, told The New York Times that “there was a complete lack of transparency” with regards to the Israeli delegation, and that the Israeli consulate in New York refused to provide names of delegation members to the JCRC ahead of the parade…

Makan Delrahim, the chief legal officer of Paramount, told the Los Angeles Times that “some of these people” who oppose Paramount’s effort to acquire Warner Bros. Discover “are trying to inflict harm on this transaction, really because of their own antisemitic views”…

Longtime “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley was fired by CBS after clashing with network executives, as well as the show’s new executive producer, Nick Bilton, at a staff meeting earlier this week… 

A federal judge issued a temporary order blocking NOTUS from rebranding as The Star, following a lawsuit filed last week by Washington Star Publisher Dovid Efune after Efune acquired the outlet, which last published four decades ago, and relaunched it as a Substack…

The New York Times reviews The Fire Agent, David Baerwald’s semi-fictional account of his grandfather’s years as a spy for the U.S.…

U.K. Green Party leader Zack Polanski signed onto a petition calling on the government to investigate British-Israeli citizens who served in the IDF…

Israir said that a flight set to land in Ljubljana, Slovenia, was forced to reroute to Croatia mid-flight after being denied landing permissions by Slovenian authorities in a move the airline said was politically motivated…

The family of a British couple who was arrested last year in Iran and sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of espionage said that the two had lost an appeal to overturn their convictions…

Indonesia and Qatar are deepening defense ties, with plans to sign a defense cooperation agreement in the near future; earlier this week, Qatari Defense Minister Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with his Indonesia counterpart in Jakarta…

Career foreign service officer and diplomat Donald Bruce Cofman, who served as spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Israel from 1987 to 1991 and remained in his posting through the duration of the Gulf War, died at 87…

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met in Fiji with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on Tuesday during a trip to open Israel’s embassy in the Pacific island nation.

Chairperson and co-founder of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Hilde Schwab, pictured with Sir Elton John, turns 80… 

Longtime San Fernando Valley, Calif., resident, Richard J. Munitz turns 88… Attorney, author and 2024 candidate for Congress, she was awarded both a Ph.D. in political science and a J.D. from Yale, Jan Schneider turns 79… Tel Aviv-based attorney who served as an overseas representative to the French parliament, Daphna Poznanski-Benhamou turns 76… Former first lady of the United States, Jill Biden turns 75… Retired director for legislative strategy, policy and government affairs at AIPAC, Ester Kurz… Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he heads its program in Judezmo (or Ladino) studies, David Monson Bunis turns 74… President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston from 2007 to 2021, Eric S. Rosengren turns 69… Chief cantor of Vienna’s Israelitische Kultusgemeinde since 1992, Shmuel Barzilai turns 69… Rabbi emeritus of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, Steve Leder turns 66… Racquetball player, he won two World Championships and 10 Canadian Championships, now an advertising account executive in Winnipeg, Sherman Greenfeld turns 64… Former White House national security communications advisor in the Biden administration, now serving as director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, John F. Kirby turns 63… Founding member of the rock band Phish, Michael Eliot Gordon turns 61… Member of the British Parliament for the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2024, Jonathan Djanogly turns 61… CEO of Azrieli Group, one of the largest real estate development firms in Israel, she serves on the boards of both the Weizmann Institute and Tel Aviv University, Danna Azrieli Hakim turns 59… U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York, Judge Ronnie Abrams turns 58… CEO of Ridgeback Communications, Andrew Samuel Weinstein… Executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Greater San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys (Calif.), Jason Moss… Actor and model best known for her role as Nicole Walker on the daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” Arianne Zucker turns 52… Los Angeles-based PR consultant at Winning Progressive, Eric M. Schmeltzer… Major gifts officer at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, Lauren Becker… Senior director of experiential marketing at the International Rescue Committee, Sophie Oreck… Chief of staff and special advisor to the president of the Baltimore Ravens, Adam Neuman turns 36… Chief political officer at Israel on Campus Coalition, Brandon Beigler… D.C.-based reporter at The Wall Street Journal covering immigration policy, Michelle Hackman… Gold Glove-winning center fielder for the San Francisco Giants, Harrison Bader turns 32… 

• It’s primary day in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. We’ll be closely following the results as polls close this evening, with an eye toward the results of the Los Angeles mayoral and controller elections, as well as the NJ-12 Democratic primary, where Adam Hamawy, who is under scrutiny for his past ties to Islamist extremists, is the front-runner in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ).
• The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum concludes today. Speakers at the closing plenary include the Justice Department’s Harmeet Dhillon, Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA), and Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ).
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio is slated to testify this morning before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the State Department’s budget. This afternoon, Rubio will appear before the House Appropriations Committee for a separate hearing on the department’s budget. Following Rubio, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will appear before the House committee for a hearing on the Justice Department’s upcoming budget.
• Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is set to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee this afternoon on his department’s budget for the upcoming year.
• The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding a closed-door intel briefing today.
• Roman Gofman begins his tenure today as head of the Mossad, after Israel’s High Court rejected two petitions challenging his appointment. He was sworn in earlier today at a command-change ceremony at the Mossad headquarters that was attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
• The Israel Democracy Institute’s Eli Hurvitz Conference on Economy and Society kicked off earlier today in Jerusalem. Speakers include former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, as well as MKs Avigdor Liberman, Benny Gantz and Mansour Abbas. Read more here.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

As the 2028 presidential campaign season nears, a handful of prospective candidates from the Democratic Party’s left flank are raising their profiles with efforts to shape a more critical approach to U.S. policy toward Israel.

Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Chris Murphy (D-CT), as well as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), all of whom are seen as potential presidential prospects, have been among the party’s most prominent critics of Israel on Capitol Hill amid a marked decline in Democratic support for the Jewish state. 

Recent moves suggest they are each testing voter appetite for a possible White House campaign. Even as they are not considered top-tier contenders in what is likely to be a crowded primary field, history has shown they could be positioning themselves for a Cabinet role — particularly if they prove successful in driving the national conversation on the debate stage and other forums.

Murphy, for instance, released a book last month, Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America, of the sort that typically presages a bid for higher office. The senator has otherwise continued to promote what he terms a “forward-looking foreign policy,” which has included an increasingly antagonistic assessment of Israel and its relationship with the United States.

Van Hollen, meanwhile, published a deeply disputed op-ed in The New York Times last week that argued for wholly jettisoning the Democratic Party’s “unconditional support to Israeli governments” that, he warned, has “increasingly undermined American interests and values.”

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

Tech-tonic Shift: In The Atlantic, Yeganeh Torbati and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin explore how Iran’s crackdowns on tech startups dealt a death blow to the industry as it was on the rise. “The story of Iran’s start-ups could have been a triumphant one for Iran’s private sector, and for a young generation seeking opportunity and connection with the outside world. Instead, this is a story of thievery. … Iran’s tech entrepreneurs had built their businesses on a paradox. They were inspired by the Silicon Valley mythos of fierce competition, user-first design, and disruption. But Silicon Valley had arisen in a time and place where access to infrastructure, especially the internet, was relatively free and open. Iran’s economy was built on closed networks.” [TheAtlantic]

Not Easy Being Green: The Financial Times’ Anna Gross and Rachel Rees do a deep dive into the political evolution of U.K. Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who has come under fire amid numerous reports that he exaggerated or misrepresented elements of his background. “Within months of being overlooked [as a Liberal Democrat candidate], Polanski had joined the Green Party. He now describes himself as an ‘eco-populist,’ and has become the most popular figure on the left, fighting to reduce inequality, lower living costs and oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza. But Polanski has faced allegations that he misled the public about his career, his legal address and whether he voted in local elections.” [FT]

Survivor’s Story: In eJewishPhilanthropy, British-born Nova music festival survivor Maayan Dee describes her experience marching in Sunday’s Israel Day on Fifth parade in Manhattan. “Trauma isolates. It makes you feel that no one can understand, that the world keeps spinning while you’re frozen in the same field, on the same ground, that same Saturday morning. And after Oct. 7, alongside the personal pain, came something else: the feeling that the world doesn’t see us, that our story is being erased. But then something like this happens. You plant your feet on a street in Manhattan and you see a sea of blue and white. Jews and non-Jews who had no obligation to be there, and yet they were.” [eJP]

President Donald Trump reportedly went on an expletive-laden tirade against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call on Monday over the Israeli leader’s plans, since scrapped, to escalate military activities in Lebanon; a U.S. official speaking to Axios summed up Trump’s comments to Netanyahu as, “You’re f**king crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this”…

Israeli journalist Amit Segal said earlier today that the Axios report was “inaccurate,” noting that “Trump did not make personal remarks about jail or claim Netanyahu is hated globally” but indicated that “defending Israel’s global position is difficult and breeds hatred”…

A federal prosecutor told a judge in New York that the government may charge additional people in a wide-ranging terror probe following the arrest of the head of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia…

The Wall Street Journal looks at the White House’s efforts to pressure Oman, which has largely stayed neutral in the conflict with Iran, to side with the U.S. and cut its relations with Tehran…

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) blamed low turnout for his loss to Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state’s GOP Senate primary last week, and said that Trump’s endorsement of Paxton “wasn’t as [impactful] as he thought.” Cornyn said he “absolutely” believes that Paxton’s nomination endangers the seat, and that he stands by his comments during the campaign…

Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks celebrated his group’s role in ousting Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in his primary election earlier this month at the organization’s  “America 250”-themed gala Sunday night, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

The New York Times does a deep dive into the congressional race pitting far-left activist Claire Valdez against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was endorsed by outgoing Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), as the race splits members of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s coalition…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills said in an interview with a local news outlet that she remains on the ballot in the state’s Democratic Senate primary, amid a new report that Graham Platner, who had been leading Mills in primary polling prior to her suspension of her campaign, had inappropriately communicated with at least half a dozen women while married to his wife… 

Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan met on Monday in Qatar with Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Faisal Al-Thani, the Gulf state’s minister of commerce…

Barry Diller’s People Inc. is preparing an $18 billion bid to take over MGM Resorts…

In a speech addressing antisemitism in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the country’s “civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians; the Canadian premier also announced the establishment of a new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion…

The Associated Press spotlights efforts by residents of Bedzin, Poland, and historians in the country to preserve World War II-era artifacts, including a building in what was the city’s Jewish ghetto that had secret bunkers and acted as a hub for Jewish resistance fighters…

El Al will resume its flights between Israel and San Francisco, more than six years after the route was paused amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; the airline will run three weekly nonstop flights — under the flight number LY49, in tribute to the San Francisco 49ers — between Ben Gurion Airport and SFO…

Israel’s Defense Ministry said that France has barred official Israeli participation in the upcoming Eurosatory defense exhibition in Paris taking place later this month…

Thousands of Haredi demonstrators protesting Israel’s proposed draft laws crippled transportation in parts of the country on Monday, blocking highways and train tracks between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem…

The Associated Press reports on rising levels of child marriage in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israel-Hamas war…

A Russian cargo ship arrived in Syria last month to resupply Moscow’s air base in the country, the first time it has done so since the fall of the Assad regime, signaling Russian officials’ intention to maintain the installation under the government of Ahmad al-Sharaa…

A memorial ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Monday marking the one-year anniversary of the murders of Israeli Embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky was filled with many tears, some anger and even a few laughs, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

Milgrim’s father, Robert, told an assembled crowd of dignitaries, Jewish leaders and D.C. staffers that he was saddened not only by the death of his daughter but by the ways in which her death exemplifies the challenges facing every Jewish community.

Aerospace engineer and a former NASA astronaut, he flew on three shuttle missions and took a memento from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum into space, Mark L. Polansky (right) turns 70…

Former member of the British Parliament from Manchester and then a member of European Parliament, David Anthony Gerald Sumberg turns 85… Co-founder of ReelAbilities, a film festival by, or about, people with disabilities, Anita Altman turns 81… Israeli entrepreneur and inventor, founder of Indigo Digital Press and known as the father of commercial digital printing, Benny Landa turns 80… Johns Hopkins University professor and a pioneer in the field of cancer genomics, Dr. Bert Vogelstein turns 77… Writer-at-large for New York magazine since 2011, following a 31-year career at The New York Times, Frank Rich turns 77… SVP of institutional advancement at Brandeis University, Jordan E. Tannenbaum… Commissioner of the National Hockey League since 1993, Gary Bettman turns 74… Holiday and weekend cantor at Los Angeles Jewish Health (formerly Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging), Ben Zion Kogen… Former board chair of Sapir Academic College in the western Negev, he was one of Israel’s senior peace negotiators at the Camp David summit in 2000, Gilead Sher turns 73… Founder of Newark, N.J.-based IDT Corp and numerous affiliates and spinoffs, Howard S. Jonas turns 70… Dinorah Cecilia Baroody… General manager of The Piedmont Club, a Spartanburg, S.C., private social club, Davina Weinstein… Radio and television talk show host, Andrew Joseph “Andy” Cohen turns 58… President of Marvel Studios and chief creative officer for Marvel Comics, Marvel Television and Marvel Animation, Kevin Feige turns 53… Special counsel focused on land use and zoning at NYC-based law firm Goldstein Hall, Jessica Ashenberg Loeser… SVP of EnTrust Global, Jordan David Kaplan… Director of technology at Santa Monica, Calif.-based Action Network, a tech platform for progressive causes, Jason S. Rosenbaum… Woman Grandmaster chess player, she won the 2004 Israel Women’s Chess Championship, Bella Igla Gesser turns 41… Equestrian show jumper, she represented Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Danielle “Dani” Goldstein Waldman turns 41… Co-founder and former CEO of The Wing, now the owner of The Six Bells (“a new old country store”) in Brooklyn, Audrey H. Gelman turns 39… Founder and CEO at Button AI, a company for AI paralegals that settle estates, Jared R. Fleitman… CEO and co-founder at Platform Cannabis Advisors, Benjamin G. Sheridan… Theater, television and film actor best known for his lead role in “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical,” Ethan Samuel Slater turns 34… Israeli K-pop singer, whose first two songs when she was 17 both topped Israeli airplay charts, Ella-Lee Lahav turns 23… 

• In Washington, we’re expecting fresh votes this week on Iran war powers resolutions in both the House and the Senate. The House is also expected to hold a war powers vote, introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), to block U.S. involvement — including support for Israel — in Lebanon. Read more here.
• The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will meet today at the Museum of the Bible in Washington. Speakers include the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Reps. Randy Fine (R-FL), Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Kat Cammack (R-FL).
• New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is hosting a Shavuot celebration today at Gracie Mansion, days after drawing the ire of Jewish communal leaders in the city for posting a video, featuring a translator of Bosnian descent whom the mayor referred to as a “New Yorker and a Nakba survivor.” More below.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is campaigning today with Republican Ed Gallrein, the challenger to anti-Israel Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), in the run-up to Tuesday’s closely watched primary in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District. Hegseth and Gallrein are scheduled to appear together at an America First Works event in Hebron, Ky., at 1 p.m. ET.
• The International Smart Mobility Summit kicks off today in Tel Aviv. Postponed from March due to the war with Iran, the event featured live televised remarks from Elon Musk, who had planned to come to the conference prior to its postponement. “My hat is off to Israel for just how much incredible innovation … I’d say innovation per capita, Israel must be No. 1 by far in the world,” Musk told the gathering. Read more about Musk’s remarks here.
• Ambassador Daniel Meron, Israel’s envoy to the U.N. in Geneva, is slated to speak today at the World Health Organization’s annual assembly, where he’ll call for reform of the WHO’s system for tracking attacks on health in conflict zones. Meron’s address comes days after the release of a report by Israel’s Center for Medical Integrity that found that the WHO’s surveillance system has hampered efforts to provide assistance to health workers in conflict zones.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

For the last two weeks, a resumption of hostilities with Iran seemed unlikely, with the U.S. uninterested in sparking renewed fighting against the Islamic Republic in advance of President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping — whose country is a key trade partner of Iran. 

But with the president back in Washington, the administration appears to be reopening military options — even as Iran continues to drag out tensions by offering what U.S. officials have said were unacceptable proposals to end the war. That extends to Congress, where Democrats on both sides of Capitol Hill are expected to introduce new war powers resolutions this week in an attempt to constrain the administration’s actions in the Middle East.

Trump told Axios on Sunday that “the clock is ticking” for Iran and the U.S. to reach an agreement to end the war. After rejecting Iran’s previous response to a U.S. proposal, Trump said that Tehran has to get to “where we want them to be,” or else “they are going to get hit much harder.” 

A decision on whether to return to active fighting could come as soon as Tuesday, when Trump is set to hold a Situation Room meeting to discuss options. After returning from Beijing, the president met on Sunday with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

In Israel, preparations are being made for a possible return to war. Channel 12 quoted a senior Israeli official on Friday saying that the country is “preparing for days to weeks” of renewed fighting.

Even as the tenuous ceasefire has held, the United Arab Emirates — which during the active hostilities took the brunt of Iran’s attacks — has continued to face drone attacks. Emirati officials are investigating a fire near Abu Dhabi’s Barakah Nuclear Power Plant that broke out on Sunday after a drone entered the UAE from its western border and struck a generator near the facility.

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

Hakeem’s Highest Hurdle: The New Yorker’s Jason Zengerle looks at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ (D-NY) challenging path to retake the House. “Ironically, one of the few issues that Jeffries is identified with is the very topic that now most threatens to divide the Democratic Party. From his earliest days in politics, Jeffries has been a strong supporter of Israel, taking his first trip there when he was in the State Assembly and visiting five more times with AIPAC as a member of Congress… For most of Jeffries’s career, his pro-Israel position was in line with mainstream Democratic sentiment… last summer, he skipped the annual trip to Israel for first-term House Democrats, which is sponsored by AIPAC; two years earlier, he’d helped lead it.” [NewYorker]

Kristof Crisis: Puck News’ Dylan Byers looks at the debate in The New York Times’ newsroom over columnist Nicholas Kristof’s recent opinion piece alleging sadistic human rights violations targeting Palestinian prisoners in Israel. “Nevertheless, many Times journalists told me they remain suspicious of Nick’s sourcing for the most incendiary allegations, skeptical that those sources would have cleared the standards of the newsroom rather than Opinion, and mildly miffed at the Pulitzer-eager columnist for bringing scrutiny on the paper in a piece that should have been in their jurisdiction. Above all else, many seemed exasperated by what they viewed as another instance of the Times brand being undercut by the actions of another department that, they feel, is not held to the same standards.” [Puck]

Overwhelming Force: In The Wall Street Journal, Seth Cropsey considers how the U.S. should approach renewed warfare against Iran. “Mr. Trump has a narrow window in which to end this crisis favorably, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and ensure an economic rebound while securing American interests and prestige. But that requires deploying the full spectrum of American power. … Mr. Trump’s objective shouldn’t be to bluff the Iranians out. Instead it should be to demonstrate that if push comes to shove, the U.S. will commit to an overwhelming confrontation that breaks the Iranian state economically and politically.” [WSJ]

Dumont’s Bet: Bloomberg’s Randall Williams and Christopher Beam spotlight Las Vegas Sands CEO Patrick Dumont, the son-in-law of Dr. Miriam Adelson who, with the Adelson family, purchased a 73% stake in the Dallas Mavericks from Marc Cuban in 2023, and who is seeking to turn Dallas into a sports and gambling hub. “Dumont, who lives in Las Vegas with his wife and seven children, says he’s not a gambler. On the other hand, thanks to his Sands job, “technically I’m on the other side of every single bet.” When it comes to achieving his vision in Texas, he has the money, the connections and the will. All he needs is local buy-in. And, of course, a bit of luck.” [Bloomberg]

Holding Bibi Back: In Air Mail, Yossi Melman profiles Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom he describes as the “thorn” in the side of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Critics liken [Netanyahu] to Recep Erdoğan, the president of Turkey; Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s outgoing prime minister; and other populist world leaders. Over his many years in power, they argue, he has sought to dominate the media, weaken law enforcement, and bend the judiciary to political ends. Standing in his way is Baharav-Miara, whose dual role is unusual by international standards. As law professor Yaniv Roznai explains, Israel’s attorney general serves both as the government’s head prosecutor and its legal adviser.” [AirMail]

Pictures at a Roundup: In The New York Times, Jean-Marc Dreyfus reflects on the discovery of dozens of photographs of roundups of Parisian Jews during World War II that were taken to be used as Nazi propaganda and are newly on display at the city’s Holocaust memorial. “They remind us that the past is never entirely buried, and that images can unexpectedly return to challenge the void of memory and representation. They function today not as propaganda, the purpose for which they were originally produced, but as fragments of truth — painful, incomplete and indispensable — that allow us to better understand the way the roundup was organized and conducted and also to get a glimpse of the victims’ shock, fear and pain.” [NYTimes]

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack met on Sunday with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Riyadh…

The New York Times reports on a second Israeli military outpost in the Iraqi desert that was used during combat against Iran, shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported on the existence of an initial base… 

The IDF killed Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the most senior remaining Hamas commander in the enclave, in a Friday strike, according to a joint statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) endorsed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the hotly contested Michigan Senate Democratic primary… 

Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY) introduced a resolution, “recognizing, from Chicago to Palestine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Puerto Rico, that the pain, violence, and oppression the global majority experiences are interconnected, acknowledges that the future must be self-determined, and affirms our humanity and dignity through a renewed mandate for human rights.” The resolution calls for a grab bag of far-left academic and policy priorities, ranging from  defunding the Department of Defense to ending “carceral punishment”…

Federal authorities have charged an Iran-backed militia commander with plotting to attack Jewish sites in New York City and Los Angeles, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Federal prosecutors in Washington will seek the death penalty against the Illinois man accused of killing two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum last May…

The Yeshiva World does a deep dive into the White House’s celebration of Shabbat over the weekend, coinciding with Rededicate 250 celebrations that took place over the weekend…

The Rededicate 250 events included an hours-long Christian prayer rally on the National Mall, which included remarks from Rabbi Meir Soloveichik…

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who has often criticized the evolution of his party, announced the launch of an eponymous leadership Institute at Maryland’s Washington College aimed at fixing what he called a “broken” two-party system after vowing not to seek elected office again…

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who will face the winner of next week’s GOP Senate primary in Texas in November, said he will not campaign with Maureen Galindo, a Democratic House candidate who has leaned heavily into antisemitic conspiracy theories as she mounts her campaign for the state’s 35th Congressional District…

The New York Times spotlights the New York state Assembly race for the seat being vacated by Micah Lasher as he mounts a congressional bid; the race pits Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay against public defender Eli Northrup, with the Times noting that both candidates have “cited their faith as drivers of their political ambitions, pointing to Judaism’s teachings and their own unique backgrounds”…

Jewish groups in the U.K., including Community Security Trust and the Jewish Leadership Council, are calling on the government to bar far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has events scheduled in London next month, from entering the country over his past antisemitic rhetoric…

The U.K. group Parents Against Antisemitism released a report detailing how Jewish students are “routinely bullied” by classmates, describing incidents including praise for Adolf Hitler, threats of violence and Nazi graffiti on school buildings…

Authorities in London arrested 20 people at a pair of dueling rallies on Saturday, one organized by far-right figure Tommy Robinson, and the other organized by far-left activists that included anti-Israel elements…

The New York Times looks at how the war with Iran and Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz have collectively dealt a severe economic blow to Qatar, which since February has been unable to move gas, the Gulf nation’s primary export, out of the country…

The Financial Times spotlights the role of Islamist forces bolstering the Sudanese Armed Forces as the U.S., Israel and the United Arab Emirates prioritize ending the “residual Iranian influence and weapons flows” to the African nation…

Somaliland’s ambassador to Israel, Mohamed Hagi, presented his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday…

Israel is moving forward with plans to create a museum, IDF enlistment office and offices for the defense ministry on the site that was previously home to the east Jerusalem headquarters of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which was banned by Israel last year…

Computer science researcher Peter Neumann died at 93…

Israeli singer Noam Bettan, performing “Michelle,” finished second behind Bulgaria at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night in Vienna. Bettan amassed 123 points from the juries from participating countries, and an additional 220 in the televote, but still fell short of Bulgarian singer Dara’s “Bangaranga,” which garnered 516 votes.

Pioneer of the corporate investigations industry, he is now chairman and co-founder of K2 Integrity and Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Jules B. Kroll turns 85…

Leader and rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger since 1996, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter turns 87… Best-selling author of nine spy thriller novels, he has served in both the U.S. and the Israeli armies, Andrew Gary Kaplan turns 85… Widow of Bernard “Bernie” Madoff, Ruth Madoff turns 85… Retired New York Times columnist and editorial writer, he was the NYT’s Jerusalem correspondent for four years in the early 1990s, Clyde Haberman turns 81… President of Everest Management and trustee of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, Gary Kopff turns 81… Los Angeles-based attorney, board member of American Friends of Nishmat, past president of Westwood Village Synagogue, Linda Goldenberg Mayman… Longtime Washington correspondent for Newsweek, now writing for SpyTalk, Jonathan Broder turns 78… Longest-serving member of the Maryland General Assembly, starting in 1983, Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg turns 76… Chair of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a former IDF major general and leading activist for the disability community, Doron Almog turns 75… Senior advisor at Moelis & Company, a former IDF major general, then CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Shlomo Yanai turns 74… Director of nutrition and hospitality at Philadelphia’s Temple University Hospital, Nancy Baumann… Attorney in Atlanta, he was the director of congregational engagement at the Union for Reform Judaism for nine years, Alan Kitey… Film producer and CEO of Miramax, Jonathan Glickman turns 57… Venture capitalist and author of a book on business principles derived from the Book of Genesis, Michael A. Eisenberg turns 55… CEO at Waze from 2009 to 2021, Noam Bardin… VP for communications strategy at Strategic Marketing Innovations (SMI), Bryan Bender turns 54… Former head of development at NYC charter school system Uncommon Schools, Sarah Danzig… Author of Substack-based newsletter and blog “Slow Boring,” he was a co-founder of Vox, Matthew Yglesias turns 45… Founder of London-based Tech With Intention, Eliza Krigman… Staffer for the Senate Armed Services Committee, Eric Trager… Founder of Satori Global Media, Joshua Lederman… Former acting under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, then a member of the National Archives Public Interest Declassification Board, Ezra Asa Cohen turns 40… Tech entrepreneur in the AI and gaming space, Dan Garon… Co-founder of Rebel (formerly known as Rebelmail), then acquired by Salesforce, Joe Teplow… Managing associate in the D.C. office of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Lauren DePinto Bomberger… Journalist and podcast producer, Netanel “Tani” Levitt… Director of strategic partnerships at Anduril Industries, Sofia Rose Gross Haft… Five-time member of the U.S. Women’s National Gymnastics Team, now a business manager in the office of the CIO at Citadel, Samantha “Sami” Shapiro turns 33… Chief development officer at TAMID Group, Rachel Philipson Marsh… 

• The White House rejected Iran’s latest response to the U.S.-proposed peace plan given to negotiators earlier this month, with President Donald Trump calling Tehran’s response “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.” The latest rejection comes days before Trump is set to travel to China to meet with President Xi Jinping — a trip that was initially postponed due to the Iran war.
• Jewish California, formerly the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, is kicking off its annual two-day Capitol Summit today in Sacramento. Speakers at the gathering include former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff (who will be making his first advocacy address in the state since departing Washington) and Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman. 
• The World Jewish Congress is convening in Geneva as the group marks its 90th anniversary. Read more about the conference from eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross here.
• The 30th Annual Webby Awards will take place tonight in Manhattan. “Borrowed Spotlight,” the exhibit that paired A-list celebrities with Holocaust survivors, will be honored for its photography and design. Read our interview with “Borrowed Spotlight” creator Bryce Thompson here.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

A mentor. A friend. A compass. A “professional’s professional.”

Those were just some of the descriptors that friends and former colleagues of Abe Foxman used as they reflected on the life and legacy of the longtime former head of the Anti-Defamation League following his death yesterday at age 86.

Foxman was born to Polish Jewish parents in present-day Belarus in 1940. As a toddler, his parents placed him in the care of his Catholic nanny, who had him baptized and raised him in the church. After being reunited with his parents at the end of World War II (following a legal battle in which his nanny attempted to keep custody of Foxman), the family moved into a displaced persons camp in Austria. In 1950, when he was 10 years old, the family immigrated to the U.S. 

His early childhood experiences shaped the trajectory of his life. Foxman joined the ADL in 1965 as a legal assistant, becoming the organization’s national director in 1987, a post he held until his retirement in 2015. He built the ADL into a $60 million organization with more than two dozen offices around the country. 

As the head of the ADL and in his retirement, Foxman was one of the nation’s foremost authorities on antisemitism. He met with presidents and popes, college students and celebrities — and everyone in between. He maintained close relationships over the years with those who had fallen under his tutelage.

“He was invaluable to me as a resource all those years, and he had a lot to offer,” Jay Kaiman, the president of the Marcus Foundation who was hired by Foxman to be the ADL’s Southeast regional director in 1996, told JI.

In 1987, Foxman was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s board, an honor that Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden would also bestow upon him. In a 2022 conversation with JI, Foxman said he had recently learned that he was the only Holocaust survivor to sit on the board. Many others, he said, were the children and grandchildren of survivors. But he was the only one to experience the horrors of Nazi Europe firsthand.

Deborah Lipstadt, the former State Department envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, told JI that Foxman “bridged that gap” — linking the devastating realities of the Holocaust to rising antisemitism in the present.

Read Foxman’s obituary in full here.

Giving Hate a Pass: In The New York Times, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) warns that the Democratic Party has developed a double standard on antisemitism, citing its embrace of far-left antisemites and leftward shift on Israel. “I’ve spoken to congressional colleagues who have privately told me that many things [Hasan] Piker has said are disgusting. Yet they’ll say nothing about it in public, even as they rightly rush to condemn President Trump for his unending barrage of offensive comments and social media posts. … Democrats have justly denounced the Trump administration for its broadsides — in some cases, threats — toward some of America’s closest allies. But many increasingly excuse, or join, feverish denunciations of Israel, our longstanding, democratic and strategic ally.” [NYTimes]

Habit-Forming: In The Wall Street Journal, former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) reflects on the good habits that can be adopted amid what he calls a “civilization-warping crisis of institutional decline,” naming among the good habits the institution of “tech Sabbaths” to disconnect from the internet. “Character, whether of an individual or of a nation, is molded by habits and by time. This republic requires men and women to do long-form deliberation, serious thinking, honest humility and daily striving. What good is it to gain the whole world if we forfeit the souls that we’re supposed to form? We can’t expect to remain free without being virtuous, we can’t be bold without being rooted, we can’t be great without aiming first to be good.” [WSJ]

No Layup for Silver: The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta looks at the challenges facing NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as the league enters “a moment of institutional crisis” amid a series of betting and corruption scandals. “The quality of the product has diminished. Narratives surrounding the league are prevailingly negative. Things once taken for granted — commercial satisfaction, cultural prestige, national relevance — no longer seem guaranteed. Peacetime is a thing of the past; for the foreseeable future, the commissioner will be at war — with fans, with media critics, with players and coaches, with the game itself.” [TheAtlantic]

In response to an op-ed by Saudi Ambassador to Washington Turki al-Faisal that alleged that Israel attempted to ignite a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, analyst Hussain Abdul-Hussain slammed al-Faisal and Riyadh’s “cowardice and abandoning of responsibility” over its decision not to respond to Iran’s attacks across the Middle East…

The FBI said that a man who was wearing a T-shirt with the flag of Iran when he killed three people outside an Austin, Texas, bar in early March had acted alone and without foreign influence, but “admired” slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been killed the previous day…

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced a bill to ban certain federal funding to schools that operate branch campuses in Iran, Turkey, Qatar and other adversary states, a companion to legislation introduced recently in the House…

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) introduced a bill to prohibit U.S. exports of oil and gasoline until hostilities with Iran cease, in a bid to lower energy prices spiking as a result of the war…

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed to Jewish leaders on Thursday that she will opt into a new federal education tax initiative, a move promoted by community advocates to help fund Jewish day schools and yeshivas, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The Jewish Journal published the commencement address that former Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro had been slated to deliver at Georgetown University Law Center’s graduation ceremony; Schapiro withdrew as the school’s commencement speaker following backlash from anti-Israel student activists…

Despite being banned from campus, UCLA’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter is actively lobbying candidates to influence upcoming student government elections, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned… 

A former Cornell student convicted of making threats against the school’s Jewish community in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks was sentenced to 21 months in prison; a lawyer for Patrick Dai said the posts were a “misguided attempt to highlight Hamas’ genocidal beliefs and garner support for Israel”…

Artist Paul Klee’s “Angelus Novus” sketch, which had been owned by German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin, who died in Nazi Europe in 1940, will go on display today at New York’s Jewish Museum after its transport from Jerusalem was delayed by the Iran war…

The New York Post covers Jeffrey Katzenberg’s exclusive gathering of CEOs in Montecito, Calif., that took place last week…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the “golden age of bagels” as restaurants across the country put their own spins on the classic Ashkenazi Jewish breakfast carb…

The New York Times reports on a decades-old screenplay written by Larry David that has found new life after being purchased by a fan on eBay and published online in full…

Authorities in north London charged a British man with religiously aggravated assault in an attack on three members of the Enfield Jewish community over the weekend… 

The family of a deceased Palestinian man in the West Bank was forced by Israeli settlers to exhume and rebury the man after the settlers claimed the cemetery was too close to a newly established settlement; the family had been granted a permit for the burial by Israeli officials and coordinated with Israeli security forces, who did not intervene in the forced exhumation…

ZoomInfo announced plans to close its R&D center in Israel and lay off some 300 employees; the decision comes five years after the software company was acquired by Chorus.ai for $575 million…

Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi was transferred to a hospital in Tehran and had her sentence suspended after collapsing last week in prison…

The Wall Street Journal profiles Iraqi banking tycoon and Prime Minister-designate Ali Al Zaidi, the preferred candidate of President Donald Trump whose bank had in 2024 been penalized for its ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…

U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis spoke on Sunday at a rally against antisemitism in London organized by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jenni Frazer reports for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Mirvis gave the opening address at the rally, which also included speeches from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and senior Reform U.K. Party official Richard Tice.

Filmmaker and podcast host, Dan Trachtenberg turns 45…

Israeli optical and kinetic artist and sculptor, he was just awarded the Israel Prize, Yaacov Agam turns 98… Sociologist and author of numerous books, magazines and website columns on the subject of love, relationships and intimacy, Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D. turns 81… Israeli social activist focused on issues of women’s and human rights, Iris Stern Levi turns 73… Treasurer and receiver-general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Deborah Beth Goldberg turns 72… Past president and then chairman of AIPAC, Morton Zvi Fridman, MD turns 68… Copy chief at Random House until 2023 and the author of Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer turns 68… Brian Mullen… Howard M. Pollack… CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, William Albert “Bill” Ackman turns 60… Former senior fellow and a Middle East analyst at the Hudson Institute, now a consultant, Michael Pregent turns 58… Member of the California state Senate since 2016, now running for Congress, Scott Wiener turns 56… Co-founder and president of Omaha Productions, which he started with Peyton Manning, Jamie Horowitz… Deputy chief of staff in the Office of the President at Carnegie Mellon University, Pamela Eichenbaum… Senior cost analyst at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Michael Jeremy Alexander… PR and brand manager for overseas resource development at Leket Israel, Shira Woolf… Founder and CEO of the digital asset technology company Architect Financial Technologies, Brett Harrison turns 38… Staff writer at Time magazine, Olivia B. Waxman… Supervisor of commerce strategy at Zenith, James Frichner… Israeli actress, she appeared in “Shtisel,” “Unorthodox” and “Captain America: Brave New World,” Shira Haas turns 31… Paralympic track and field athlete, he is also a motivational speaker and disability rights advocate, Ezra Frech turns 21… 

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will testify on Capitol Hill today for the first time since the start of the Iran war when they appear before the House Armed Services Committee for a Pentagon budget hearing.
• Hegseth’s appearance comes a day after Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee sent a letter to the defense secretary inquiring about the injuries and deaths of U.S. servicemembers in Kuwait in Iranian counterattacks in the early days of the war. According to prewritten remarks obtained by Punchbowl News, Hegseth is expected to accuse U.S. allies of not having done enough to back Washington in its fight against Iran, while Caine is expected to say that the Iranians “are weaker and less capable than they have been in decades.”
• President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has reportedly told aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran as talks with the Islamic Republic remain at an impasse.
• Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) is holding a closed-door roundtable meeting with members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Education Secretary Linda McMahon to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the department — and has taken the unusual step of inviting press to attend. McMahon, for her part, claimed yesterday at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that she’s trying to rebuild and expand the department’s Office for Civil Rights. Read more here.
• The American Enterprise Institute’s Brett Schaefer and Advancing American Freedom’s Eugene Kontorovich are among the witnesses slated to testify at the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Oversight and Intelligence subcommittee hearing on U.S. accountability at the United Nations.
• The full House Appropriations Committee is meeting for its State Department markup today.
• The House Education & the Workforce’s subcommittee on higher education is holding a hearing on the First Amendment in higher education.
• In Philadelphia, public broadcaster WHYY is holding a debate this afternoon for the Democrats running in the open primary in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA), where progressive heavyweights have in recent months thrown their support behind state Rep. Chris Rabb, a critic of Israel, over more moderate candidates including state Sen. Sharif Street and Dr. Ala Stanford. Read our deep dive into the race to represent the bluest district in the country.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

The near-consensus among Israeli political pundits is that the merger of the parties led by former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid is a huge moment in the campaign ahead of the next Knesset election, scheduled for Oct. 27. 

However, judging by polls published by six major Hebrew-language media outlets after the merger on Sunday, not much has changed since the announcement that Bennett and Lapid were joining forces. 

The newly formed “Together” opposition party polled around 24 seats — nearly the same number of seats as the two parties combined before the merger. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is, according to the average of the latest polls, still the largest party at 29. 

According to the latest polling, it would be difficult for either side to build a governing coalition. The opposition Zionist parties did not get a 61-seat majority in any of the six polls. The most favorable poll for the opposition showed the anti-Netanyahu Zionist parties at 60 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, while the current coalition received over 61 seats in two polls (from those commissioned by Channel 14 and I24NEWS, which are more sympathetic to Netanyahu than the other media outlets).

To be sure, polls taken within 24 hours of an event are not the most reliable, and much can change in the six months until the election. 

The key question after the Bennett and Lapid merger is whether they are fighting other opposition candidates for dominance within their bloc – in which case, Bennett has likely solidified his status as Netanyahu’s main competition for the premiership – or to broaden the bloc’s appeal to win a majority in the Knesset.

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

Mitch’s Pitch on Ukraine: In The Washington Post, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) raises concerns about the status of U.S. aid to Ukraine that was approved by Congress months ago but has not moved beyond the Pentagon. “When Senate appropriators have sought an explanation from the department’s policy shop, led by Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, they’ve been stonewalled. … If we’re serious about ‘drone dominance,’ we shouldn’t sandbag a relationship with the world’s foremost drone experts. And if we’re keen on remaining the world’s preeminent superpower, we shouldn’t let unelected defense officials undermine U.S. leadership and obstruct deepening ties with Ukraine’s innovative military and industrial base.” [WashPost]

Manifesto Destiny: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens posits that the growing acceptance of violent political rhetoric across broad swaths of society is creating a breeding ground for extremism. “In short, it’s the philosophy of people who believe that democracy is actually despotism, provided they don’t like its results; that the laws of such a democracy are an oppressive sham that must be actively resisted; that the way to bring about change isn’t through political participation and elections but rather through multiple homicides. On the right, this is called fascism. On the left, communism. They are functionally almost interchangeable.” [NYTimes]

OPEC’s Obit: The Financial Times’ Verity Ratcliffe and Malcolm Moore look at the impact of the United Arab Emirates’ withdrawal from OPEC. “‘This is the beginning of the end of Opec,’ said Saul Kavonic, an energy analyst at MST Financial. ‘Saudi Arabia will struggle to keep the rest of Opec together. We could see other members follow suit, including Venezuela.’ … Meanwhile, markets have become increasingly attuned to statements from the U.S., including President Donald Trump’s social media accounts. ‘The Iran war has shown that the U.S. can have as much, if not more, influence over global oil flows than Opec,’ said Kavonic.” [FT]

Power to Wage War: The Wall Street Journal’s William Galston suggests that President Donald Trump is unlikely to be constrained by war powers resolutions, which have proven in recent decades to be ineffective. “Congress would gain leverage over Mr. Trump only when the Defense Department runs out of discretionary funds and the president is forced to request a supplementary appropriation to continue the war. Until that happens (and no one knows for sure when it will), the president holds the cards. The post-World War II emergence of the U.S. as a superpower with global reach and responsibilities has changed the constitutional balance between the executive and legislative branches, especially regarding the power to take the nation to war.” [WSJ]

Former Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) departed his role as the State Department’s principal advisor for global religious freedom, three months after the position was created for him after he fell short of the Senate support necessary to be confirmed as ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, which he was initially nominated for last year…

The Treasury Department announced sanctions on nearly three dozen companies and individuals associated with Iran’s shadow banking system, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “serves as a critical financial lifeline for its armed forces, enabling activities that disrupt global trade and fuel violence across the Middle East”…

The Financial Times reports on remarks made in February by U.K. Ambassador to the U.S. Christian Turner, who said he considered the term “special relationship” — a phrase commonly used to describe ties between London and Washington — to be outdated, adding, “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States — and that is probably Israel”…

During a meeting on the 2027 funding bill for the State Department, several Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee pushed, ultimately unsuccessfully, for the committee to adopt new conditions on the $3.3 billion in U.S. military aid allocated for Israel annually in the bill, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who championed liberal causes during his decades-long tenure in the House, is releasing a book excoriating Democrats for having “embraced an agenda that goes beyond what’s politically acceptable” as he enters hospice care…

A Los Angeles megamansion built on property purchased in 2010 for $35 million by an entity tied to Qatar’s Al-Thani family was put on the market for $400 million, becoming the most expensive home listed for sale in the country; Colony Capital, which was previously led by now-U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, played a key role in the property’s development…

An active-duty soldier stationed at a Louisiana base was arrested after posting on Discord that his “goal in life” was to go to a synagogue armed with a weapon and “kill every single Jew I know”…

Duke University reinstated the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine after the group was suspended for having posted on social media an image of a pig holding a staff with the Star of David that had previously been used in Black Panthers imagery in the 1970s…

California’s secretary of state said the office is considering making changes to the state’s elections code after the statewide distribution of a voter guide that included antisemitic conspiracy theories from a fringe gubernatorial candidate…

The Wall Street Journal interviews B.J. Novak about his childhood and career trajectory ahead of the release of “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” which stars the former “The Office” actor… 

Israeli chef Eyal Shani opened his fourth South Florida restaurant, Naked Tomato, in the South Beach Moxy Hotel…

Israeli kosher burger chain Ruben is opening its first outpost in the U.S.; the restaurant is expected to open in Cooper City, Fla., next month…

The U.K.’s Foreign Office summoned Iran’s ambassador to London after a statement posted to the embassy’s social media that called on Iranians living in the U.K. to “all stand together, ready to sacrifice our lives, for it is better than surrendering our country to the enemy”…

Two Haredi men were reportedly stabbed outside a synagogue in the heavily Jewish London suburb of Golders Green…

The New York Times spotlights the British Navy’s Maritime Trade Operations Centre, an around-the-clock agency monitoring shipping routes in the Gulf and serving as an emergency service for vessels under attack…

Newly released correspondence between J.D. Salinger and his editor indicates that the Catcher in the Rye author wanted references to his Jewish-Irish background removed from the book’s jacket, saying he would “end up being expected to wear a Star of David and a Shamrock on the back of my sweatshirt”…

A Sydney, Australia, benefit concert meant to spotlight unity and benefit the Bondi Beach Jewish community following a deadly terror attack at a Hanukkah party in December was canceled after members of the Australian Hellenic Choir voted to withdraw from the event, where they were set to perform alongside the Sydney Jewish Choral Society…

The jury of the Venice Biennale said it will not consider submissions from “those countries whose leaders are currently charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court,” putting both Israeli and Russian entrants out of contention; Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the move “transformed the Biennale from an open artistic space of free, boundless ideas into a spectacle of false, anti-Israeli political indoctrination”…

Former Washington Post reporter Rachel Siegel is joining CNN as a reporter for CNN Business, working out of the network’s Washington bureau…

Simon Amiel is joining Birthright Israel as executive vice president for North America…

Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro spoke to a group of more than 200 Jewish day school students at the State Capitol in Harrisburg on Tuesday during Teach PA’s annual Advocacy Day.

Comedian, actor, writer, producer and director, he is best known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the sitcom “Seinfeld,” Jerry Seinfeld turns 72… Nobel Prize-winning economist, professor emeritus at MIT, known for his analysis of Social Security policy, Peter Diamond turns 86… Co-founder of the NYSE-traded homebuilding company Toll Brothers, Bruce E. Toll turns 83… Retired U.S. senator (D-MI), she completed her 24 years in the Senate in 2025, Debbie Stabenow turns 76… Marcy Smith… London-born actor with three Academy Awards for best actor, knighted at Buckingham Palace in 2014, Sir Daniel Day-Lewis turns 69… Sportscaster, best known as the radio and television play-by-play announcer for MLB’s New York Mets, Gary Cohen turns 68… Co-founder and first CEO of Netflix, Marc Bernays Randolph turns 68… Israeli diplomat, she was Israel’s ambassador to Latvia and then to Ireland, Lironne Bar Sadeh turns 67… Former NYC comptroller, he ran for mayor unsuccessfully in 2021 and 2025, Scott M. Stringer turns 66… CEO and chairman of 20th Century Fox until its acquisition by Disney, Stacey Snider turns 65… CEO of the United Democracy Project, Rob Bassin… Professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, he is the author of many books including Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely turns 59… NY-based award-winning artist who works with sound, kinetics, optics, magnetism and other materials to make sculptures and photographs, Julianne Swartz turns 59… Film and television actor, Paul Adelstein turns 57… Israeli-born, NYC resident, stand-up comedian, actor and sometimes chazzan, Modi Rosenfeld turns 56… Executive at a NYC-based investment management firm, Bennett J. Schachter turns 51… Former minister of environmental protection in Israel, Tamar “Tami” Zandberg turns 50… SVP of the Leon Levine Foundation and director of operations for the Levine family office, Justin Steinschriber… Israeli model and actress, she has appeared in many American movies, TV shows and advertisements, Bar Paly turns 44… Director of the office of government relations at the Smithsonian Institution, Anne Brachman… Commercial, industrial and residential real estate developer in the Mid-Atlantic region, Samuel A. Neuberger… Leader of public affairs for New York at Success Academy Charter Schools, Daniel Mitzner… Baseball pitcher for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Jonathan de Marte turns 33… Surfer, she represented Israel at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, Anat Lelior turns 26…

• Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Simon Karam, Lebanon’s former top envoy to Washington, are set to convene today for a second State Department-brokered meeting in as many weeks between officials from the countries. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee returned to Washington earlier this week and is expected to participate in the talks.
• The talks will take place days before the expiration of a 10-day ceasefire between Jerusalem and Beirut, and a day after a Lebanese journalist for the pro-Hezbollah daily Al-Akhbar was killed in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. Read more here.
• Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is hosting a dinner this evening at the U.S. Institute of Peace honoring President Donald Trump and CBS News’ White House correspondents amid a flurry of events around the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday night.
• The Jewish Democratic Council of America is hosting a candidate forum with NY-17 Democratic candidates Cait Conley and Beth Davidson. Read our interviews with Conley, a former senior counterterrorism official, and Davidson, a Rockland County legislator.
• Former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Walter Russell Mead are among those slated to speak today at the Hudson Institute‘s daylong New India Conference in Washington.
• Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, will sign into law legislation adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S mATTHEW KASSEL

As Vice President JD Vance has recently found himself navigating tenuous negotiations between the United States and Iran, his central role in the talks to end the war is highlighting his own vulnerabilities on the domestic front — where he is facing pushback from the isolationist right that is seen as part of his coalition. 

In many ways, Vance’s political troubles recall his predecessor, former Vice President Kamala Harris, who in her 2024 presidential campaign drew fierce protests from far-left activists who objected to former President Joe Biden’s support for Israel amid the war in Gaza.

Harris, who has grown more openly critical of Israel since losing the race and leaving office, strained both to articulate a consistent message on Gaza that would satisfy the far and center left and to distance her campaign from an aging, unpopular president whose approach to Israel, according to her recent memoir, was not fully aligned with her own.

Anti-Israel activists continue to insist, even years after the election, that Harris’ association with Biden while he supported Israel’s war against Hamas cost her votes that contributed to her defeat, while pro-Israel Democrats claim she failed to draw red lines around growing extremism within the party that alienated moderates, and is now inflecting the midterm elections. More recently, the former vice president faced anti-Israel hecklers during a book tour last year.        

In recent weeks, Vance, who is widely seen as a top 2028 presidential prospect, has likewise struggled to appease a restive coalition of anti-war critics on the populist right who feel his alignment with President Donald Trump’s robust foreign policy agenda represents not only a betrayal of their values but also the noninterventionist views he himself had long espoused.

Last week, in a disruption reminiscent of Harris’ campaign experience, Vance was notably heckled during a speaking appearance at a Turning Point USA event held at the University of Georgia, where an attendee interrupted his comments to accuse the Trump administration of supporting “genocide” in Gaza and “killing children.”

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

Dems’ El-Sayed Trap: The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait posits that far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is rising in polls against Democratic opponents, could win the primary but fall short in the general election due to his more radical positions and embrace of terrorist supporters. “The Democratic Party’s interest is to tamp down the importance of Israel. But El-Sayed’s best strategy to win the nomination is to play up the issue, which drives apart the party’s base and allows him to claim the biggest slice. … A candidate could potentially win statewide election in Michigan after soliciting endorsements from supporters of terrorism, but it won’t be easy. The Democrat’s likely opponent in November, former Representative Mike Rogers, presents as a mainstream Republican.” [TheAtlantic]

The Improbable Intermediary: The Financial Times’ Humza Jilani and Andrew England spotlights Pakistani army chief Asim Munir’s efforts to mediate talks to reach an end to the war between the U.S. and Iran. “During his stints heading Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the military intelligence wing, Munir became familiar with Iran’s various power bases. This month, he visited Iran’s joint military command headquarters in Tehran and met its head, Major General Ali Abdollahi. The field marshal’s ascent into Trump’s orbit has been more improbable…” [FT]

Pakistan’s Preoccupation: In The Wall Street Journal, the American Enterprise Institute’s Sadanand Dhume suggests that Pakistan will “struggle to prosper in the modern world” if it continues its “visceral hostility” to Israel. “Pakistanis often frame talk of normalization as doing Israel — and by extension, the U.S. — a favor. In reality, Islamabad would be doing itself a favor. An obsession with Israel is often the hallmark of a country that can’t get its own act together. … To turn this ship around, Pakistan needs to see the world as it is, not as it would like it to be. It could learn from India, which jettisoned antipathy toward Israel in the early 1990s, at around the same time that it embraced a more market-based economic outlook.” [WSJ]

The Defense Department announced that Navy Secretary John Phelan was departing, without giving a reason for his exit after 13 months in the role…

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack doubled down on recent comments appearing to equate Israel and Hezbollah, saying he was “simply stating the obvious reality on the ground” when he said at a conference in Turkey last week that “everybody has been equally untrustworthy”…

Politico spotlights Keith Sonderling, a deputy to former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer who was tapped by the Trump administration to serve as acting secretary following her departure earlier this week; one GOP insider told Politico that Sonderling, who also served in the first Trump administration, has been “the pivot point of all labor and workforce policy for this administration”… 

Rep. David Scott (D-GA) died at age 80; Scott, who was elected to the House in 2002 after decades in state politics, was the fourth House Democrat to die in office this Congress…

Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) has been absent from the House for nearly two months as the New Jersey Republican faces unspecified health issues; a consultant for Kean said the lawmaker, who represents the state’s most competitive purple seat, “will be back on a regular full schedule very soon”…

A senior Pentagon official told House Armed Services Committee members in a closed briefing this week that efforts to clear mines placed by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz could take six months…

Iran seized Liberian- and Panamanian-flagged ships transiting through the Strait of Hormuz; White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the seizures did not violate the ceasefire as neither boat was U.S.- or Israeli-flagged…

Paolo Zampolli, the U.S. special representative for global partnerships, asked FIFA to replace Iran with Italy in this summer’s World Cup, after the Italian team failed to qualify for the tournament; the effort comes as the Trump administration looks to repair its relationship with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with whom President Donald Trump has clashed in recent months over the president’s comments about Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war…

Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George missed a scheduled meeting with Jewish community members, with her staff citing a City Council hearing schedule change, Jewish Insider‘s Gabby Deutch reports; Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington said “We know that there are many demands on their time and we understand completely when unanticipated scheduling changes come up”…

High school basketball forward Chaim Galbut committed to Duquesne, which discovered the 6-foot-7 Orthodox Jewish teen on social media, as he aims to become the first observant Jew to play four years of D1 basketball…

Mitchell Rales is donating $116 million to support efforts to send works from the National Gallery of Art, where he serves as a longtime trustee, to smaller museums around the country that are facing fiscal challenges and declining attendance…

The New York Times spotlights Rabbi Shalom Landau, who is using TikTok and Instagram to share Jewish teachings beyond the Jewish community; read JI’s December 2025 profile of Landau here…

Mark Cuban’s Harbinger Sports Partners has reportedly garnered $450 million in investor commitments as it closes its first funding round…

Former Ben & Jerry’s CEO David Stever, who was fired by the ice cream company’s parent Unilever as the conglomerate clashed with its subsidiary over social issues, including product sales in Israel, was named the new CEO of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams…

The Financial Times calls Patrick Drahi’s potential sale of his SFR to French telecoms companies for $24 billion “a masterclass in hardball negotiation”… 

A Canadian court found a 17-year-old guilty of plotting to murder Jews in an Islamic State-inspired attack in the country’s capital; a trial for the teen’s alleged co-conspirator is set to begin today…

Australia’s University of Queensland Press scrapped the publication of an indigenous author’s upcoming book after the book’s illustrator penned an essay in response to last year’s terror attack targeting a Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration calling the victims of the attack “affluent beneficiaries of imperialism” and suggesting that “White, Jewish settler victimhood demands exceptional, heightened grief”…

Two Palestinians — a student and a parent of a student — were killed at a West Bank school by Israeli settlers; the IDF said it was investigating the incident, which took place after rocks were thrown at a car carrying Israeli passengers…

The New York Times spotlights India’s B’nei Menashe community, one of the “lost tribes” of Israel, as the remaining 5,800 members of the Jewish community prepare to move to Israel, with 250 flying to the Jewish state today…

The Hudson Institute’s Nate Sibley is joining the Helsinki Commission as a senior policy advisor focusing on illicit finance and economic statecraft…

70 Faces Media tapped Hilary Krieger as executive editor of the Jewish Telegraph Agency and  New York Jewish Week… 

Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson was named the executive director of New York Jewish Agenda, months after Phylisa Wisdom, who previously held the job, joined the Mamdani administration in New York City…

Israelis celebrated Yom HaAtzmaut, the country’s Independence Day, on Wednesday afternoon at Tel Aviv’s Charles Clore Park.

Founding member of the rock band the National, he was a collaborator on several of Taylor Swift’s studio albums, Aaron Brooking Dessner… and his twin brother, also a member of the National, Bryce David Dessner, both turn 50… 

Retired stage, television and film actor, Alan Oppenheimer turns 96… Owner of Council Bluffs, Iowa-based Ganeeden Metals, a multigenerational scrap metal recycling firm, Harold Edelman… Retired real estate brokerage executive, he held leadership positions at Merrill Lynch Realty, Prudential California Realty and Fox & Carskadon, Terry Pullan… Retail industry analyst and portfolio manager at Berman Capital, he is the former president of JCPenney Credit Services and VP of credit at Macy’s, Steve Kernkraut… Chair emeritus of Israel Policy Forum, he serves as chairman of Trenton Biogas, an organics recycling-to-energy business in Trenton, Peter A. Joseph… Health services researcher focused on smoking cessation programs for women, maternal health and child health, Judith Katzburg, PhD, MPH, RN… Deputy director of NCSEJ, the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, Lesley L. Weiss… Principal of Philadelphia-based Ceisler Media & Issue Advocacy, Larry Ceisler turns 70… Gary R. Pickholz… Retail sales manager at Chrissy’s Collection, Janni Jaffe… Co-founder of Gryphon Software, he is the author of a book on the history of antisemitism, Gabriel Wilensky turns 62… CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, he is the primary proponent worldwide of the Magnitsky Act, Bill Browder turns 62… DC-based executive director of the Orthodox Union’s Advocacy Center, Nathan J. Diament… Heiress and businesswoman, daughter of Ronald Lauder, style and image director for the Estée Lauder Companies, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer turns 56… CEO of Aish HaTorah, Rabbi Steven Burg turns 54… Former president and CEO at Americans For Peace Now, now president and CEO at New Jewish Narrative, Hadar Susskind… Jewelry designer, Jennifer “Jen” Meyer turns 49… Director of policy initiatives at Maimonides Fund, Ariella Saperstein… Founder and CEO at 90 West, a Boston-based strategic communications firm, Alexander Goldstein… Co-founder of Edgeline Films, he co-directed and co-produced “Weiner,” a documentary about Anthony Weiner’s campaign for mayor of NYC in 2013, Joshua Kriegman… Vertical lead at Red Banyan, he was the communications director at the Republican Jewish Coalition, Neil Boylan Strauss… Israeli singer-songwriter, now based in Seville, Spain, known for Ladino music of the exiled Jews of Portugal and Spain, Mor Karbasi turns 40… Deputy director of the Mid-Atlantic and Florida for J Street, Adi Adamit-Gorstein… Senior editor at Axios, Alexis Kleinman… Former University of Michigan quarterback, now a fund manager in NYC, Alex Swieca… American Jewish Committee ACCESS New York board member, Sam Sorkin… Director of the Jewish Renewal Administration, Elisheva Mazya… Executive editor and strategist at ILTV News, Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman… 

• President Donald Trump suggested yesterday that a call between Israeli and Lebanese leaders could take place today, following a State Department summit on Tuesday between the ambassadors from the two countries. Israeli Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun were slated to speak, while a Lebanese government official told Reuters earlier today that Beirut was “not aware” of any upcoming contact with Israeli officials.
• Pakistani army chief Asim Munir is in Tehran today for meetings with senior Iranian officials aimed at convening a second round of U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad. Yesterday, Munir met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The meetings come as Pakistani Prime ‌Minister Shehbaz Sharif conducts a multicountry trip through the weekend, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. In Jeddah yesterday, Sharif met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
• Voters in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District are heading to the polls today for the election to succeed now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Progressive organizer Analilia Mejia, who since the primary has gotten the backing of top Garden State Democrats, is the favorite to win in the blue district against Republican Joe Hathaway.
• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a confirmation hearing for several positions: NTIA Deputy Administrator Adam Cassady to be ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy, attorney Todd Steggerda to be U.S. representative to the U.N. in Geneva and the State Department’s Preston Wells Griffith III to be U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
• The House Appropriations Committee is holding a series of budget hearings over the course of the day. Committee members will hear this afternoon from Karen Evans, the acting administrator of FEMA, which administers the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
• Harvard University is hosting a landmark public conference on antisemitism and civil rights today, one of the terms of a legal settlement between the school and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. More below.
• The Shalom Hartman Institute’s Yehuda Kurtzer and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg will sit in conversation at an event this evening at the Capital Jewish Museum focused on “Jewish America at 250” ahead of the U.S. Semiquincentennial.
• Semafor’s World Economy summit in Washington continues today. Speakers today include Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Mark Warner (D-VA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Todd Young (R-IN) and Susan Collins (R-ME), Steve Bannon, former Biden administration official Amos Hochstein and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. 

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

There’s been a lot of debate lately over whether President Donald Trump is losing some of his grip on the Republican Party, amid growing economic concerns and the ongoing military operations in Iran.  

While the media coverage has been amplifying any sign of intraparty discontent — to the point that former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is getting strange new respect from some Democrats and mainstream press — polls continue to show Trump with widespread backing from within his own party, and especially within the MAGA faction of the GOP.

Ultimately, election results are the best reality check. And you couldn’t draw up a better test on the degree of Trump’s impact on the Republican Party than examining the results from four states holding highly consequential primaries next month that will be a benchmark of the president’s power.

Key races in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas will speak volumes about the president’s ability to shape the GOP agenda for the remainder of his second term — and most consequentially, whether he will be able to maintain a unified front with his party on continuing to pursue military action against Iran. 

The biggest intraparty showdown, especially when it comes to foreign policy, is the May 19 primary between Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and military veteran Ed Gallrein. Massie, one of the few anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, is being opposed by Trump but also has a solid base of grassroots support in the northern Kentucky district, which has thus far supported his anti-establishment brand of politics. But Gallrein has proven to be a credible challenger, raising millions and giving Massie the biggest political test of his career. 

Trump has spent some valuable political capital to boost Gallrein, including appearing at a recent rally in Massie’s district to promote his challenger. He’s been joined by the Republican Jewish Coalition, which has poured $3.5 million into the race, airing five ads underscoring Massie’s record of breaking with Trump. (Further drawing Trump’s ire: Massie also joined with Democrats in championing the release of the Epstein files.)

It’s never easy to beat a sitting incumbent, but Trump also has an imposing record of winning primaries in which he chooses to engage. If Massie pulls out a victory despite breaking so flagrantly with Trump on a number of key issues, it will be a sign of the president’s diminished political clout.

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

The Problem with Piker: The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik looks at Democrats’ continued embrace of Hasan Piker, despite the far-left streamer’s extensive history of praising terrorists and antisemitic and anti-American rhetoric. “The truth is they’re afraid of challenging Piker because they don’t want to alienate his next-gen Bernie Bro audience — a fear that is greatly exacerbated by their hand-wringing about not being on ‘the right side of history,’ down with the kids. … There’s a deeper problem here, one that is more cognitive, even spiritual: Too few Democrats can see that Piker is obviously, deeply wrong, that he lacks imagination, that he’s ignorant, that he camouflages his ignorance with just enough lingo to make his highly unoriginal neo-Marxist riffs and rants sound incisive.” [FreePress]

The Future of Warfare: In The Wall Street Journal, former CIA Director David Petraeus posits that despite the U.S.’ military successes in Iran, the war in Ukraine is more instructive as to the future of warfare. “War is increasingly defined by unmanned systems, artificial intelligence and mass precision. The Gulf offers useful insights, but Ukraine is the more demanding laboratory. There, the true challenges of unmanned systems at scale and the rapid emergence of autonomous capabilities are already on display. … The Gulf conflict demonstrates what American forces can achieve from a position of strength. Ukraine has shown what war looks like from a more vulnerable position, when that strength is contested at scale.” [WSJ]

At Semafor’s World Economy summit in Washington on Wednesday, Chuck Robbins, CEO of the tech giant Cisco, spoke about his decision a decade ago to acquire Leaba Semiconductor, an Israeli company, before it had even developed a product, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…

UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy, speaking at the confab, called for the Strait of Hormuz to be an international passageway that is not under the control of any one country…

Also speaking at the summit yesterday, “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, speaking to David Rubenstein, talked about documentarian Ken Burns‘ July 4 tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence out loud with his family, calling it “a Seder for America”…

A second U.S.-sanctioned supertanker entered the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the U.S.’ maritime blockade of the waterway…

The Wall Street Journal looks at how growing economic distress in Iran could push Tehran back to negotiations with the U.S. as it seeks much-needed sanctions relief…

Seb Gorka, a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, is reportedly looking to be named the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, following Joe Kent’s resignation last month…

The Financial Times spotlights Paolo Zampolli, a close personal friend of President Donald Trump and the U.S. special representative for global partnerships, as he conducts multibillion-dollar deals on behalf of the White House…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the hurdles facing Kevin Warsh ahead of his confirmation hearing to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve…

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), appearing on “Pod Save America,” praised former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — once a vocal Omar foe who called for the congresswoman’s deportation while they were both in the House — and far-right influencer Candace Owens over the pair’s break with Trump, JI’s Marc Rod reports… 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a challenge Wednesday to those seeking to challenge her plan to penalize protesters who get too close to religious institutions — “Bring it on.” Announcing new state programs to provide support and security for organizations deemed “vulnerable to hate crimes,” the governor, a Democrat, took questions regarding her proposal to bar demonstrations of more than two people from occurring within 25 feet of a house of worship, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…

Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, apologized for using racist language in social media posts as a teenager, but fell short of addressing more recent comments in which she suggested that Tel Aviv “shouldn’t exist in the first place,” and celebrated “freedom fighters of Palestine”… 

A new report from Yale University’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education found that universities themselves cultivated significant public distrust of higher education, citing soaring tuition costs, unclear admissions processes and the uneven applications of standards and rules…

Kent Syverud, who earlier this year had been tapped as the next chancellor of the University of Michigan, announced that he has been diagnosed with brain cancer and will not assume the position in Ann Arbor; the school’s Board of Regents said it will begin a new search process in the coming days…

Duke University suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on Tuesday, one month after students began submitting complaints about an antisemitic Instagram post from the group, which depicted the U.S. and Israel as pigs frothing at the mouth, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Hebrew Union College President Andrew Rehfeld told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher that the school was “deeply disappointed” by a decision by the Ohio Attorney General’s office to file a lawsuit to block the institution’s plans to shutter its Cincinnati rabbinical programs…

Apple TV released the trailer for the upcoming Israeli thriller series “Unconditional,” which stars Liraz Chamami and Talia Lynne Ronn as a mother-daughter pair stranded in Russia and at the mercy of Moscow crime rings following Ronn’s character’s arrest on drug-smuggling charges… 

“Fauda” co-creator Avi Issacharoff shared a sneak peek of the show’s upcoming fifth season, which takes place in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…

Police in the U.K. arrested two people following an attempted arson attack at a synagogue in North London…

U.K. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for the deportation of foreigners who engage in antisemitism…

Immanuel College, one of London’s only private Jewish secondary schools, is set to close at the end of this year, citing financial challenges…

Kanye West postponed an upcoming show in Marseille, France, after government officials, as well as the mayor of Marseille, suggested the rapper would not be welcome in the country; the decision comes days after U.K. authorities revoked West’s visa ahead of a summer festival he was set to headline in the country…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law legislation levying criminal penalties — including fines and prison sentences — against individuals convicted of antisemitic offenses…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungary Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar spoke by phone on Wednesday, with a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office saying that the incoming Hungarian leader invited Netanyahu to the country for the 70-year commemoration of the Hungarian Uprising…

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil denied reports that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was planning to pull its financial support for the league, weeks before its first scheduled U.S. tournament of the season, slated to take place next month at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia… 

Front Office Sports reports that a multiyear deal between Michael Rubin‘s Fanatics and Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority is on the verge of collapse… 

Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks is joining Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as a senior strategic advisor; Brooks will continue in his position at the RJC, in addition to his role leading the Jewish Policy Center…

Israel Malachi was named the new director general of Israel’s Finance Ministry after serving for nearly four years as the ministry’s deputy director general…

Amy Marks is joining JCC Association of North America as the organization’s chief advancement officer…

Former “All Things Considered” host Ari Shapiro is joining CNN as a contributor, where he’ll co-host a new podcast focused on digital trends with his former NPR colleague Audie Cornish…

Author and TV producer Barbara Gordon, whose memoir about her addiction to Valium and mental health challenges became a bestseller, died at 90…

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (center right), cut the ribbon at the official launch on Wednesday of ARC Landing Boston, a joint initiative between Healey’s administration and Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. Joining Healey for the ribbon-cutting were New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Sheba Director General Yitshak Kreiss and ARC Innovation Founder and Director Eyal Zimlichman. 

Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress and movie producer, Ellen Barkin turns 72… 

CEO and president of American Express in the 1990s, he now serves on many corporate and charitable boards, Harvey Golub turns 87… Chasidic singer, known by his stage name Mordechai Ben David or MBD, Mordechai Werdyger turns 75… Olympic track-and-field athlete, and survivor of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, Esther Roth-Shachamorov turns 74… Cofounder of Jordan Company LP, a New York private equity firm, David Wayne Zalaznick turns 72… Physician and venture capitalist focused on biotechnology and life-sciences industries, Lindsay Rosenwald turns 71… Professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, Aaron Louis Friedberg, Ph.D. turns 70… Filmmaker, he directed the 2011 documentary “Paul Williams Still Alive” and the 1997 slapstick comedy “Vegas Vacation” starring Chevy Chase, Stephen Kessler turns 66… Former dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf turns 64… Former secretary of state of the United States under the Biden administration, Antony John “Tony” Blinken turns 64… Emmy Award-winning television producer and writer, he co-created and produced “Will & Grace” and “Boston Common,” David Sanford Kohan turns 62… Long Island native, he is a Los Angeles pharmacist, Jeffrey D. Marcus… U.S. ambassador to Egypt during the Trump 45 administration, Jonathan Raphael Cohen turns 62… Former mayor of Hoboken, N.J., Dawn Zimmer turns 58… Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S. and minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer turns 55… Canada’s minister of the environment, climate change and nature, Julie Dabrusin turns 55… Celebrity plastic surgeon, he is active on social media as “Dr. Miami” and has been on reality TV about his practice, Michael Salzhauer, M.D. turns 54… Board member of Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco, Ellen K. Finestone… Founder and president of Glass Ceiling Strategies, she is also a managing director for communications at Climate Power, Alex Glass… Founder of Jewish Fashion Council and journalist at Fabologie, Adi Heyman… Former pitcher in the Washington Nationals organization, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Richard Sidney Bleier turns 39… Attorney who has served as a law clerk to three Maryland judges, now a VP at JPMorgan Chase, Geoffrey S. Middleberg… Lead product manager at Anthropic, Uriel Kejsefman… Singer, pianist and composer, he is best known as half of the folk-rock duo the Portnoy Brothers, Mendy Portnoy turns 34… Climate and energy transition investor, he was a White House staffer in 2017, Matthew Saunders… Senior client strategy and success manager at Grow Progress, Adam Gotbaum… First baseman and free agent, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Matthew Jared “Mash” Mervis turns 28… Josh Goldstein… Sarah Wolfson…

• We’ll be keeping a close eye this weekend on developments in the Middle East as President Donald Trump mulls military action against Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the president could order an initial limited strike in an effort to push Tehran into accepting a nuclear agreement. More below.
• AIPAC’s annual Congressional Summit kicks off on Sunday in Washington. More below on the gathering, which in recent years has taken the place of the group’s annual Policy Conference.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

More than 1,000 of AIPAC’s top donors will gather in Washington this weekend for the pro-Israel group’s annual Congressional Summit, meeting at a moment of intense scrutiny surrounding the group’s political tactics. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid are slated to address the convening via video, along with senior congressional leaders and a representative from the Trump administration, according to an AIPAC source. U.S. Ambassador to the U. N. Mike Waltz will speak at the conference, as will House Speaker Mike Johnson (R‑LA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D‑NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D‑NY) and Sens. Tom Cotton (R‑AR) and Ted Cruz (R‑TX). 

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) did not respond to a request for comment. 

At the conference, AIPAC activists will work to “further accelerate the community’s political efforts this election cycle” and will meet with more than 400 members of Congress, according to the source with knowledge of AIPAC’s plans. 

“Discussions will focus on the evolving threats facing Israel, the negotiations with Iran, solidarity with the Iranian people seeking freedom from a brutal regime, continued U.S. security assistance and expanding joint defense cooperation that will strengthen the security and strategic edge of both nations,” the source told Jewish Insider.

Supporters and critics alike are closely watching the group’s next moves after a very public defeat earlier this month. AIPAC spent more than $2.3 million on attack ads against former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) in a Democratic primary in New Jersey, only for Malinowski to lose in a close race to Analilia Mejia, a far-left activist who will almost certainly take a much more hostile approach to Israel than Malinowski.

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

• Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud is slated to meet today with Jewish leaders as he concludes a two-day trip to Washington. More below.
• The Saudi defense minister’s meetings with senior Trump administration officials are expected to focus on ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Iran as President Donald Trump continues to mull military action against the Islamic Republic. The U.S. sent a sixth warship to the Gulf this week as it shores up its military assets in the region.
• Trump is expected to announce his pick for Fed chair today, with advisors to the president saying he plans to nominate former Fed governor Kevin Warsh.
• The Alfalfa Club is holding its annual dinner in Washington tomorrow night. In a personal first, Trump, who skipped the dinners during his first term as well as last year, will attend the black-tie dinner.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

Jewish and pro-Israel organizations that have celebrated the Abraham Accords in recent years appear slow to recognize the role they could be playing within the Abrahamic coalition — particularly by leveraging their Washington clout and decades of experience engaging Congress — as countries in the accords face increasing criticism for their participation in the normalization framework.

In recent weeks, prominent Saudi social media figures and media outlets have amplified sharply critical and often inflammatory rhetoric aimed at countries that joined the Abraham Accords, particularly the United Arab Emirates, portraying normalization with Israel as a betrayal of regional interests and casting Abu Dhabi as a proxy for Israeli power.

Countries that joined the Abraham Accords do not have comparable grassroots advocacy in Washington, making the role of established Jewish and pro-Israel organizations potentially consequential to the broader normalization effort. Yet despite those long-standing relationships, the groups have mounted little effort to inform the conversation in Washington as the Abraham Accords and their signatories face growing attacks. This was evident from Jewish Insider’s reporting earlier in January, when pro-Israel lawmakers from both parties largely downplayed concerns about Saudi Arabia’s shift when asked for comment.

Several of the groups have voiced growing discomfort with the kingdom’s pivot away from what was perceived as its moderating force in the region. But their relatively cautious responses, particularly around Riyadh’s increasingly hostile posture toward Israel and traditional alliances, have also highlighted an awkward tension as they seek to maintain support for the long-sought but elusive goal of bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords.

That dynamic has come into sharper focus as a few major Jewish and pro-Israel organizations prepare to attend a sensitive meeting in Washington on Friday with Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, raising questions about how — or whether — the groups will more forcefully confront the growing rhetoric against the Abraham Accords.

Among the groups invited to the meeting were the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Zionist Organization of America, multiple sources familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider on Thursday, though it remains unclear which will attend. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies confirmed it would be attending a separate sit-down with the defense minister in the morning.

Notably, representatives from the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC weren’t set to attend, according to some sources familiar with the dynamics, hinting at some possible internal debate in the community regarding the wisdom of engaging with Saudi Arabia in spite of its troubling recent behavior. AIPAC declined to comment on the meeting when reached by JI on Thursday afternoon.

The AJC and ADL also declined to comment, and the Conference of Presidents did not respond to a request for comment. The Republican Jewish Coalition was invited to the meeting, one informed source told JI, but the group would not confirm its involvement.

The varying approaches suggest that Jewish organizations are strategically sensitive to alienating Saudi Arabia — as they hope for a change of heart on normalization with Israel. In turn, many groups haven’t directly confronted the antisemitic vitriol among influential figures in the kingdom.

Still, Abe Foxman, the former longtime national director of the ADL, stressed that efforts to court Saudi involvement in a diplomatic agreement with Israel need not obscure a broader commitment to strenuously denouncing the kingdom’s “anti-Israel expressions and antisemitism.” 

“As much as we may want Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, that hope and desire should not inhibit our ability to criticize” its recent policies, Foxman told JI on Tuesday. “I recall that during the years we pursued peace between Israel and Egypt and Israel and Jordan, we did not refrain from being critical of their anti-Israel policies or their embrace of antisemitism.”

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

Technocrats in Gaza: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius expresses optimism about the ability of President Donald Trump’s newly created Board of Peace and the Palestinian technocratic committee that will oversee the reconstruction of Gaza to effect positive change in the enclave. “The Board of Peace event looked to some like a Trump stunt, with its pay-to-play board and its AI renderings of a futuristic ‘New Gaza’ meant to invoke the wonders of Doha and Dubai. But there’s a real plan here, anchored in a U.N. resolution and backed by a burgeoning ‘Civil-Military Coordination Center,’ based just east of Gaza in Kiryat Gat and run by U.S. Central Command, that now includes troops from 20 countries. … What’s interesting about Trump’s plans for Gaza is that Israel doesn’t play a big role. The key partners are Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. That’s one reason right-wing Israelis have blasted the plan. But the premise of the plan is that Gaza isn’t Israel’s problem anymore, but Trump’s and the international community’s.” [WashPost]

The Haredi Way: Amid a wave of scrutiny following YouTuber Tyler Oliveira’s hostile video targeting the Hasidic town of Kiryas Joel, N.Y., Shtetl founder Naftuli Moster, who previously led a push calling for reforms in the Haredi yeshiva system, explains in The Wall Street Journal why he chose to send his children to a Jewish day school. “Education isn’t only about math and reading. It’s about belonging to a community that draws its strength from shared beliefs. This is something the Haredi world understands deeply — and something our broader culture has largely forgotten. While outliers in many respects, the Haredim and towns like Kiryas Joel reflect how humans have lived for thousands of years: having children, building families, forming larger tight-knit communities, passing on values, and caring for one another. Few groups in the U.S. have figured out how to build stable families and vibrant communal life better than the Haredi community has. … Few Haredim would oppose any group of Americans trying to build a community around shared values, traditions and faith. Most would applaud such an effort — and gladly offer advice.” [WSJ]

After the USAID Cuts: eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher does a deep dive into the ripple effects of the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID a year after funding was first frozen. “For Jewish organizations in the humanitarian aid and international development field, the past year has been particularly challenging, according to [OLAM CEO Dyonna] Ginsburg. ‘This is a compounding crisis, because many of these organizations…experienced funding cuts due to philanthropic shifts, Jewish philanthropy moving towards Israel or combating antisemitism and non-Jewish philanthropy distancing itself from Jewish or Israeli organizations doing this work,’ Ginsburg said. … Still, the international aid workers and organizations on the ground are resilient and adapting to the current landscape, [American Jewish World Service’ Shari] Turitz said. No AJWS partners have shuttered due to the cuts. ‘We are already seeing organizations coming together and saying, “What did we do before we had all this money? We need to go back to those first principles,”’ she said. [eJP]

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) officially launched her campaign for governor in Minnesota, aiming to succeed Gov. Tim Walz, who opted against a third bid for the seat amid a federal investigation into alleged widescale fraud in the state’s Somali community…

A new Emerson College poll found Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow leading the Democratic primary field in the state’s open Senate race; McMorrow, at 22%, is ahead of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), with 17%, followed by Abdul El-Sayed with 16%…

An Alabama man described by the Justice Department as a “Free Palestine radical” is facing federal charges of interstate stalking for allegedly planning to assassinate then-President Joe Biden during a 2024 presidential debate in Atlanta…

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced the launch of a bipartisan task force to combat antisemitism; the body will be led by Councilmembers Eric Dinowitz and Inna Vernikov…

A group of Jewish artists is spearheading an effort to keep the government’s Wilbur J. Cohen Building, which contains frescos and other works by Jewish artists, from sale and potential demolition…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher previews a new four-part PBS docuseries from Henry Louis Gates Jr. on the history of Black-Jewish relations in America…

The University of Texas is launching its Ackerman Program on Jewish and Western Civilization and Rosenthal-Levy Scholars program housed in the school’s School of Civic Leadership, beginning in the fall…

Apple acquired Aviad Maizels’ Q.ai facial-recognition startup in a valuation estimated to be $2 billion…

Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians following the repatriation of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili’s remains earlier this week, marking the end of the exchange of bodies between Israel and Hamas in accordance with the October 2024 ceasefire agreement…

David Brooks is joining The Atlantic as a staff writer after 22 years at The New York Times; Brooks will also host a weekly video podcast for the publication…

President Donald Trump and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft greeted attendees from the presidential box at the Kennedy Center last night during a screening of Brett Ratner’s new documentary “Melania.”

Israeli singer, songwriter and music producer, Assaf Amdursky turns 55… 

FRIDAY: Chairman of The Cordish Companies, David S. Cordish turns 86… Artist, she paints brightly colored biblical narratives based upon her Torah study, Barbara “Willy” Mendes turns 78… Professor at the school of pharmacy of The Hebrew University, Meir Bialer turns 78… Teacher and communal leader, Judith Friedman Rosen turns 74… Broadcaster for MLB’s Oakland Athletics and author, Kenneth Louis Korach turns 74… Upton, Wyo., resident, Heather Graf… Former VP of corporate engagement at the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in New Hyde Park, NY, Lina Scacco… CEO of the Jewish National Fund, Russell F. Robinson turns 70… Member of the California state Senate from 2014-2019, now a member of the Nevada state Senate, Jeffrey Earle Stone turns 70… Philadelphia-area psychologist, Dr. Rachel Ginzberg… Managing partner of lobbying and law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Richard B. Benenson… Director of public relations for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Zalman Shmotkin turns 57… Associate professor in the electrical engineering department at Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Guy Gilboa turns 55… Publicist, manager and socialite, she runs an eponymous NYC PR and management firm, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Grubman turns 55… Special projects editor at The Week Junior, Bari Nan Cohen Rothchild… At-large member of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council, Evan M. Glass turns 49… Dallas resident, Gisele Marie Rogers… Managing director at Westbrook Global Advisory, Joshua M. Kram… Administrator of the EPA in the Trump 47 administration, Lee Zeldin turns 46… National correspondent for ABC News Radio, Steven Portnoy turns 45… Israeli actor, director and author, he is known for starring in “Shtisel” and as the host of the popular reality TV show, “The Voice Israel,” Michael Aloni turns 42… CEO at Harvesting Media and host of the “Kosher Money” podcast, Eli Langer… Media professional and communications strategist, Alyona Minkovski turns 40… Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives since 2019, he is the eldest son of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Matthew S. Blumenthal turns 40… Partner in Avalanche VC and strategic advisor at Array Education, Eric Scott Lavin… Deputy national security advisor to then VPOTUS Kamala Harris for her last three years in office, Rebecca Friedman Lissner turns 39… Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, Kate Lynne Bock Love turns 38… Senior principal at Publicis Sapient, Max Delahanty… Professional ice hockey defenseman, he played on Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics and recently left EHC Red Bull München, Jonathon Blum turns 37… Principal at Blue Wolf Capital Partners, Jared Isenstein… Ice hockey forward for four seasons at Northeastern University, she is now playing in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, Chelsey Goldberg turns 33… Digital marketing manager in South Florida, Alexa Smith…

SATURDAY: Israeli nuclear physicist and professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Igal Talmi turns 101… Scion of a leading rabbinic family in pre-World War II Poland, former assistant U.S. solicitor general, now a private attorney with an active Supreme Court practice focused on religious liberty issues, Nathan Lewin turns 90… Classical music composer as well as acclaimed movie score composer, Philip Glass turns 89… Associate professor emeritus of Talmud and rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary, Mayer Elya Rabinowitz turns 87… Senior partner at Trombly & Singer, PLLC and an advisory board member of Tzedek DC, Kenneth M. Trombly turns 76… Chair emeritus of global management consultancy Bain & Company, Orit Gadiesh turns 75… Chief rabbi of Norway while also serving as a member of Knesset from 1999-2009, Michael Melchior turns 72… Founder and CEO of MikeWorldWide, a PR firm headquartered in East Rutherford, N.J., Michael W. Kempner turns 68… Former member of the Tennessee House of Representatives for 20 years, Matt Kisber turns 66… Founder and CEO of Oneg, Jeanie Milbauer… CEO at Gracie Capital, Daniel L. Nir… Dermatologist who served as the U.S. ambassador to Iceland from 2019-2021, he was a candidate for U.S. Senate from Nevada in the 2024 election, Jeffrey Ross Gunter turns 65… Co-founder and senior chairman of Meridian Capital Group, Ralph Herzka turns 64… Organization of American States commissioner to monitor and combat antisemitism, Fernando Lottenberg turns 64… Neurosurgeon and chairman of the Rockland County (NY) Board of Health, Jeffrey Sable Oppenheim turns 64… Fourth-generation real estate developer, he is a founding partner of Redbrick LMD, Louis Myerberg Dubin turns 63… Classical cellist, her debut in Carnegie Hall was at 17, Ofra Harnoy turns 61… Host of NPR’s news quiz “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!,” his older brother is a rabbi, Peter Sagal turns 61… Canadian-born businessman, best known for founding American Apparel, Dov Charney turns 57… CEO of Tel Aviv’s Anu Museum of the Jewish People and former mayor of Efrat, Oded Revivi turns 57… CEO of City Cast, he was previously CEO of Atlas Obscura and Slate, David Plotz turns 56… Actress best known for her role in the Showcase series “Lost Girl,” Anna Silk turns 52… CEO at Affiliated Monitoring, Daniel J. Oppenheim… Senior advisor at Orchestra, Michael Rabinowitz-Gold… SVP of insights and measurement at NBC Universal Media, Matthew Gottlieb… Film producer and founder of Annapurna Pictures, Megan Ellison turns 40… Singer, who won Israel’s “Kokhav Nolad” (A Star is Born) song contest in 2008, Israel Bar-On turns 37… General partner at NYC’s 25madison, Grant Silow… Israeli singer, songwriter and television actor, Eliad Nachum turns 36… Director of programs and strategy at the Kraft Group and affiliates, Clara Scheinmann… Associate at Covington & Burling, Eli Nachmany…

SUNDAY: Retired Israeli educator, she is the only sibling of Yitzhak Rabin, Rachel Rabin turns 101… Executive vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm I. Hoenlein turns 82… Mediator and arbitrator, he is a past president of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Howard S. Fredman turns 82… Academy Award-winning producer and motion picture executive, Zvi Howard Rosenman turns 81… Midtown Manhattan physician, affiliated with Lenox Hill Hospital, specializing in nephrology and internal medicine, Mark H. Gardenswartz, MD… Laureate conductor of Orchestra 914 from 2002-2018, and author in 1994 of The Jewish 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of All Time, Michael Jeffrey Shapiro turns 75… Far Rockaway, N.Y., resident, Maurice Lazar… President and part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he was previously president of the Atlanta Braves and then the Washington Nationals, Stan Kasten turns 74… Publisher of Baltimore Jewish Life, Jeff Cohn… Recently retired after 18 years as the CEO of the Charleston (S.C.) Jewish Federation, Judi Corsaro… Born in Derbent in southern Russia, now living in Albany, N.Y., he is an artist whose oil on canvas paintings have many Jewish themes, Israel Tsvaygenbaum turns 65… Director for policy and government affairs at AIPAC, David Gillette… 25-year veteran of the Israeli foreign service, now a scholar-in-residence at American University in Washington, Dan Arbell… EVP and chief program officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Becky Sobelman-Stern… One of Israel’s top soccer players of all time, successful on both Israeli and European teams, Eli Ohana turns 62… Co-founder of Brilliant Detroit (helping children out of poverty), Carolyn Bellinson… Actor, comedian, director, writer and producer, Pauly Shore turns 58… Voting rights and election law attorney, he advises the DNC, DSCC, DCCC and the DGA, Marc E. Elias turns 57… CEO of Momentum, Tara Brown… Managing director of Pickwick Capital Partners, Ari Raskas… Canadian actress, her stepfather is a rabbi, Rachelle Lefevre turns 47… Experimental jazz guitarist, bassist, oud player and composer, Yoshie Fruchter turns 44… Venezuelan journalist, writer and TV and radio presenter, Shirley Varnagy Bronfenmajer turns 44… Libertarian political activist, radio host and author, Adam Charles Kokesh turns 44… Comedian, writer, actress and illustrator, best known for co-creating and co-starring in the Comedy Central series “Broad City,” Abbi Jacobson turns 42… General manager and head of public affairs at Semafor, Andrew Friedman… Sportscaster and sports reporter who covers the New York Mets for SNY, Steven N. Gelbs turns 39… VP of government and industry relations at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, Stephanie Beth Cohen… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA-51) since 2021, Sara Josephine Jacobs turns 37… Ob-Gyn physician in Atlanta, she is married to U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Alisha Sara Kramer turns 36… Israel-based director of growth marketing at SchoolStatus, David Aryeh Leshaw… Television and movie actress and model, Julia Garner turns 32…

• President Donald Trump is meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this morning, followed by a lunch between the president and Vice President JD Vance. Trump will meet in the afternoon with oil and gas executives to discuss the situation in Venezuela.
• Jacob Helberg, the undersecretary of state for economic affairs, is traveling to the Middle East through next weekend. He’s slated to meet with senior officials in Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In the UAE, he’ll lead the U.S. delegation to the U.S.-UAE Economic Policy Dialogue.
• We’re continuing to monitor the situation in Iran, where protests escalated last night as the regime cut off internet and international phone calls, limiting the amount of information that could leave the Islamic Republic. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a video address that Trump’s hands were “stained with the blood of Iranians” for having voiced support for the protesters.
• Ongoing current events coincide with the long-delayed release of the third season of the Israeli series “Tehran,” which drops today on Apple TV in the U.S.
• Tomorrow, Rabbi David Wolpe will sit in conversation with the Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt at Los Angeles’ Sinai Temple, where Wolpe is the Max Webb Rabbi Emeritus.
• Awards season kicks off on Sunday night with the Golden Globes. Up for Best Motion Picture and Best Screenplay is “Marty Supreme,” based on the life of table tennis player Martin Reisman (with star Timothée Chalamet nominated for Best Actor). “It Was Just An Accident,” a thriller by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (who also received nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay), and “The Voice Of Hind Rajab,” about a young Palestinian girl who died during the Israel-Hamas war, are both nominated for Best Film in a non-English language. Adam Brody was nominated for Best Actor for his starring role in the TV show “Nobody Wants This,” and Jason Isaacs was nominated for his “White Lotus” performance in the Best Supporting Actor category. Comics Sarah Silverman and Brett Goldstein are both nominated for their stand-up specials.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW SHEA

The United States, Israel and their regional allies are watching closely as sustained unrest in Iran puts renewed pressure on the regime at a moment of economic strain, international isolation and lingering fallout from the 12-day war with Israel last June.

Recent demonstrations have spread across all 31 of Iran’s provinces, fueled by public anger over a collapsing economy, inflation exceeding 40% and aggressive crackdowns by security forces. Economic pressure — intensified by costly proxy wars and United Nations sanctions — have sent Iran’s currency into a sharp decline.

Jonathan Ruhe, a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, said the regime’s “unwillingness to be responsive to its people’s basic demands and rights,” is also a factor. Adding that Tehran has a “clear preference to spend the country’s resources on military projects like its proxies, missiles and nuclear program instead of its citizens’ well-being.”

More than 400 demonstrations took place this week alone, with at least 743 recorded over the past month, according to a tracker from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The death toll has reached at least 38, with more than 2,200 arrests reported. The demonstrations are the largest since April 2025 and among the most sustained since late 2022 as videos continue to circulate online of Iranians flooding the streets, burning regime flags and lighting fire to statues of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ruhe said that uprisings by the Iranian people against the regime are not uncommon. “In 2009 it was political corruption, when the regime clearly stole the presidential election to get [former President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad reelected,” he said. “In 2017-18 it was economic and foreign policy issues, for instance Iranians being killed in the Syrian civil war and the regime’s lavish spending on its proxies instead of at home. In 2022 it was social and cultural issues, namely hijab enforcement.”

But experts say what is unfolding now could be more significant than protests of the past, expressing to Jewish Insider that recent developments could pose an unprecedented challenge to a regime already under strain. 

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

Softer Touch on Protesters: In The Wall Street Journal, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh posit that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian are taking a less hard-line approach to the protests sweeping the country. “The government hopes a softer touch will cause the marchers to be satisfied with making their point. If not, the emollients favored by [Parliament Speaker Mohammad] Qalibaf and Pezeshkian will likely give way to the severity favored by the supreme leader and encouraged by Mr. Trump’s provocative challenge. For at least a century, the Iranian public has sought meaningful political participation while central governments resisted. With the exception of the 1979 revolution, the regimes prevailed. But Iranians have never remained satisfied with national bargains in which they forfeit political rights for economic dividends or social emancipation.” [WSJ]

Clash in the Gulf: In Foreign Policy, Marc Lynch looks at the dynamics between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as the countries clash in a number of theaters, including Yemen and Somalia. “[After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks,] the UAE maintained its relations with Israel, positioning itself as the key Arab interlocutor for a post-Hamas Gaza and hoping to claim vindication for its strategy of tight alignment with Israel and Washington. Saudi Arabia, with a much more challenging domestic environment and its own ambitions for regional leadership, reverted to its traditional position of conditioning normalization with Israel on a credible path toward a Palestinian state. Unstated, but well understood, was that Riyadh never had any intention of joining an Abu Dhabi-led initiative. The crystallization of a divide between Saudi Arabia and the Emirati-Israeli alliance would force everyone in the region to take sides — something smaller states usually prefer to avoid. Most of the other Gulf states, such as Egypt, seem to be falling in line with Saudi Arabia. The competition could inflame civil wars, just as it did a decade earlier.” [FP]

Five Senate Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Susan Collins (R-ME), Todd Young (R-IN) and Rand Paul (R-KY) — voted with Democrats in favor of a war powers resolution limiting further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval… 

Bloomberg reports on the White House’s exclusion of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard from the planning of the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this month due to Gabbard’s past opposition to U.S. military action in Venezuela…

Massad Boulos, the Trump administration’s senior advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, said that the U.S. will make an announcement about the Muslim Brotherhood in the coming days…

Politico looks at the wave of far-left Democrats critical of Israel who are who are mounting congressional bids, deepening divisions within the party and raising concerns that far-left candidates focused on Israel will drain campaign resources and damage eventual candidates’ efforts to win in the general election…

The Cooper Union settled a lawsuit brought forth by 10 Jewish students at the school who had been trapped in the New York university’s library for 20 minutes while anti-Israel students protested outside in an October 2023 incident …

Four former University of Rochester students pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging university property for their roles in posting “Wanted” posters accusing faculty and staff members of committing war crimes in Gaza; the students were expelled weeks after they were arrested…

New Jersey State Police are investigating an incident that took place on the New Jersey Turnpike on Wednesday in which a rock was thrown through a school bus window, fracturing the skull of an 8-year-old girl…

Approximately 30% of the workforce across the six locations of New York City eatery Breads Bakery is unionizing and making demands of the shop’s Israeli owners — including “a redistribution of profits, safer working conditions, more respect and an end to this company’s support of the genocide happening in Palestine”…

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a royal commission investigating antisemitism, following the terror attack targeting a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach last month…

The board of the Adelaide Writers’ Week festival in Australia disinvited anti-Israel activist and writer Randa Abdel-Fattah, saying her participation in the event would “not be culturally sensitive” during what the board described as an “unprecedented time so soon after Bondi”; Abdel-Fattah’s disinvitation prompted the withdrawal of several participants who had been slated to speak at the festival…

Politico breaks down the significance of the U.S.-brokered meeting between senior Israeli and Syrian officials in Paris this week, during which the parties agreed to create communications channels to more effectively coordinate on security, diplomatic and commercial issues…

The United Arab Emirates ceased funding scholarships for citizens who plan to study in the U.K.; the cut comes amid frustration from Emirati officials over London’s refusal to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization…

A new report from TRM Labs found that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used two U.K.-based cryptocurrency exchanges to move approximately $1 billion over the last three years…

The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into a shadow fleet with ties to Russia, Iran, China and Venezuela that moves oil around the world in violation of international sanctions…

Ahmed al-Ahmed, the Syrian-born man who tackled and disarmed one of the two gunmen in the Bondi Beach terrorist attack in Sydney that killed 15 people, visited Capitol Hill on Thursday, his arm still in a sling after being shot twice.

“What I want to say for the whole world around everywhere, in America, Australia, England, everywhere in the world, we must stand by each other and stay united, and peace for everyone. That’s my message,” al-Ahmed told Jewish Insider in between meetings with officials including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Al-Ahmed was accompanied by Rabbi Yehoram Ulman (second from left), a Chabad leader in Sydney whose son-in-law was killed in the attack, and Rabbi Levi Shemtov (far left), the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch. Al-Ahmed and Ulman also met jointly with Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA).

Actor with a recurring role in “Sex and the City” and author of two books on his recovery from acute myeloid leukemia, Evan Handler turns 65 on Saturday… 

FRIDAY: Law professor at Georgetown University, Peter Edelman turns 88… Former member of the Swiss Federal Council and president of the Swiss Confederation in 1999, she is the first woman to ever hold this position, Ruth Dreifuss turns 86… Rabbi emeritus of Kehilath Israel Synagogue in Overland Park, Kan., Herbert Jay Mandl turns 81… Vice chairman of Gilbert Global Equity Partners, Steven Kotler… Pulitzer Prize-winning Supreme Court reporter for The New York Times for 40 years, she is now a lecturer and senior research scholar at Yale Law School Linda Greenhouse turns 79… Retired MLB umpire, he worked in 3,392 major league games in his 26-year career, his family name was Sklarz, Al Clark turns 78… Presidential historian, spokesman for the 9/11 Commission, and university lecturer, Alvin S. Felzenberg turns 77… Composer, singer, radio show host, and author, he has released seven albums under the name “Country Yossi,” Yossi Toiv turns 77… Actress, singer and songwriter, she is the half-sister of Barbra Streisand, Roslyn Kind turns 75… Australian author of more than 40 books of children’s and young adult fiction, including a five-book series about a 10-year-old Jewish boy in Nazi-occupied Poland, Morris Gleitzman turns 73… Former governor of the Bank of Israel from 2013 to 2018, Karnit Flug turns 71… International president of the Rabbinical Assembly, he is the rabbi of Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor, N.J., Rabbi Jay M. Kornsgold turns 61… Dean of the Bar-Ilan University law school, Michal Alberstein turns 57… Investment banker, Joel Darren Plasco turns 55… Justice of the High Court of Australia, James Joshua Edelman turns 52… Russian-born American novelist, journalist and literary translator, Keith A. Gessen turns 51… Filmmaker, she is the second lady of New York State, Lacey Schwartz Delgado turns 49… NFL insider and reporter for the NFL Network, Ian Rapoport turns 46… Chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance and founder of Skydance Media, David Ellison turns 43… Israeli actress and model, best known for her role as Nurit in “Fauda,” Rona-Lee Shimon turns 43… Director of development and community relations at Manhattan Day School, Allison Liebman Rubin… Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer at The New Yorker, Ben Taub turns 35… Enterprise account executive at Built, Madeline Peterson… Television and film actress, Nicola Anne Peltz Beckham turns 31…