Plus, Riyadh's self-inflicted Houthi headache
(KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)
A picture taken on July 1, 2022 in Brussels shows the frontpage of "Politico" newspapers.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleGood Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at Politico’s attack on a Jewish aide to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, which was published on Yom Kippur, and talk to Seattle Jewish leaders about their concerns regarding rising antisemitism in the city. We report on a call from Jewish leaders in Michigan for former Vice President Kamala Harris to appeal to Abdul El-Sayed, the state’s Democratic Senate nominee with whom she campaigned, on his rhetoric on Israel and antisemitism, and talk to experts about the challenges, some self-inflicted, facing Saudi Arabia as it deals with ongoing attacks by the Houthis in Yemen. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Jacky Rosen, Palmer Luckey and Zibby Owens.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Tamara Zieve and Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today’s Agenda
The U.N. General Assembly’s high-level week continues today in New York. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is slated to address the gathering during this morning’s session.
The Trump administration’s Board of Peace is expected to unveil its $2.45 billion Gaza reconstruction and governance plan today at a meeting of its members. The 66-project proposal, a Board of Peace official told Axios, “shows how to stand up a government from nothing, an economy from shambles and a territory from disaster.”
UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the New York chapters of the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee and the Israeli American Council are among the groups holding a rally near the U.N. this evening calling on world leaders to scale up efforts to address antisemitism.
In Washington, American Friends of Lubavitch is hosting its annual Lamplighter Awards dinner. This year’s honorees include U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council Chairman Jeff Miller and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Elsewhere in Washington, the Anti-Defamation League is bringing survivors of antisemitic attacks to Capitol Hill for meetings with legislators.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a classified briefing this morning with CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper.
One Thing To Know
Schmear campaign
On Monday morning — as Jews around the world marked Yom Kippur — Politico published a pointed attack targeting David Milstein, an observant Jew who serves as senior advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, labeling his actions as a “national security threat” while failing to provide evidence for the claim.
In a recent WhatsApp message sent to wedding invitees, Milstein, who lives in Israel, wrote that those who wanted to give a “monetary wedding gift” in either “U.S. dollars or Israeli shekels” to the couple could do so through a provided QR code, Politico’s Adam Wren reported.
Politico’s Monday morning flagship newsletter “Playbook” led with the story, accompanied by the subject line: “Huckabee’s ‘walking counterintel red flag’” — using Milstein’s wedding message as a hook to cite anonymous intelligence sources who labeled him a national security threat.
An individual with knowledge of the situation told Jewish Insider that Wren messaged Milstein just before 7 p.m. ET on Sunday — or 2 a.m. local time on Monday in Israel, where Milstein was observing Yom Kippur — to inform him the story would run the following morning.
The Big Reads
CANARY CALL
Two of Seattle’s top Jewish leaders are sounding the alarm about the costs of ignoring rising antisemitism, offering up their own city as a “canary in the coal mine” — a warning of how Jewish communal apathy can allow individual acts of discrimination to slowly erode Jewish life. “I’ve been stunned by the effort to erase the Jewish community in so many parts of civic life across the country,” Joe Schocken, one of the authors of a new eJewishPhilanthropy op-ed laying out the stark warning, told Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik in an interview last week. “I’ve been deeply involved in many aspects of the Jewish community, and sadly steeped in Jewish history. That this effort to push the Jewish community out, this effort to scapegoat the Jewish community, has happened so quickly is just stunning to me.”
VEEP APPEAL
Michigan Jewish leaders on Tuesday urged former Vice President Kamala Harris — who is set to campaign with the party’s Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, in Michigan this week — to appeal to El-Sayed on issues related to antisemitism and Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The group of Jewish leaders, writing to Harris under the banner of the Nonnegotiable Michigan campaign, said that they are longtime supporters of her and the Democratic Party, and called on her to press El-Sayed to accept the five demands on Jewish issues and Israel that the Nonnegotiable campaign has presented.
Michigan maneuver: Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she is endorsing El-Sayed after having previously voiced reservations over his views on Israel and antisemitism, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports.
RIYADH’S RECKONING
Saudi Arabia is facing an escalating Houthi offensive along the Red Sea coast and direct attacks on its own territory, in what regional analysts describe as a turning point in Riyadh’s conflict with the Iran-backed terror group — and a crisis they say was created in part by Riyadh’s own miscalculations. Regional analysts told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea that Saudi Arabia’s current position stems in part from its failure to strategically prepare during a yearslong pause in fighting. Experts say that Riyadh’s rift with the United Arab Emirates has also weakened the anti-Houthi coalition in Yemen, making the challenge more daunting.
The Rundown
DAMASCUS DIARIES
UNGA UNFILTERED
CANDIDATE CALCULATIONS
BOOKSHELF
supper club
partnership pitch
money matters
POLAND IN FOCUS
ON THE HILL
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
President Donald Trump signed a commission establishing Secretary of State Marco Rubio as national security advisor, a position Rubio has held in an acting capacity for more than a year following U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz’s departure from the role; Rubio is the first secretary of state since Henry Kissinger to hold both roles simultaneously…
The U.S. proposed a $5 billion investment — to be matched by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq and Jordan — in a new fund to rebuild energy infrastructure across the region that had been damaged or destroyed during the war with Iran…
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi pledged to disarm the Iran-backed militias operating in Iraq by June 2027 as Baghdad faces pressure from the Trump administration to take a stronger stance against the groups and as Tehran seeks to deepen its control in the region…
Palmer Luckey’s Erebor Bank is moving toward an expansion into Syria, a move that would help to reintegrate Damascus into global financial systems…
Yasser Abbas, a son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, attempted to circumvent a State Department ban on Palestinian officials entering the country by using his Canadian passport to try to board a flight to the U.S.; Abbas was denied boarding due to a failure to produce requisite entry documents…
The New York Times interviews Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) about her 2028 plans, including whether she plans to seek reelection to her House seat, challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for his Senate seat or pursue a White House bid; the New York Democrat told the Times of a presidential bid, “If I were to run in this cycle, and not win, I would be done”…
A superior court judge in California ruled that the Oakland Unified School District must take substantive steps to address antisemitism in the district, determining that the northern California district did not fully comply with a California Department of Education directive to implement corrective measures in the district’s schools…
RedBird IMI CEO Jeff Zucker will make a cameo in the upcoming A24 film “Primetime,” which looks at the 2000s-era “Dateline” investigation series “To Catch a Predator” and its host, Chris Hansen…
The Art Institute of Chicago will return a 1913 Jean Metzinger oil painting to the descendants of the work’s Jewish owner, after the work was forcibly sold by the Nazis in 1940 following the German invasion of the Netherlands…
The man accused of opening fire outside a synagogue in Belleville, Canada, on Sunday died from injuries sustained during an exchange of gunfire with police outside of the building; the man, 29-year-old Sean Ward, was a military veteran who had espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the COVID-19 pandemic…
U.K. police said that they foiled an “imminent” attack on the Manchester Jewish community following the arrest of two men just prior to Yom Kippur; the arrests came after a year after two Jewish men were killed during an attack on a synagogue in the city during Yom Kippur…
An Argentine court charged seven Iranians and one Lebanese national — all of whom remain at large — in connection with the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in which 85 people were killed and more than 300 injured…
Microsoft named Ohad Jassin, the company’s corporate vice president, as the head of its research and development center in Israel; Jassin will assume the role in November, succeeding Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk…
Singer Boy George announced an upcoming concert in Tel Aviv, slated for Nov. 4; the performance comes nearly a decade after the artist’s last trip to Israel, when he performed at the same venue in 2017…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Different Collateral Damage: In The Wall Street Journal, former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov responds to the recent film “NAZA,” a film about civilian deaths in Gaza resulting from the Israel-Hamas war whose title was taken from the term for collateral damage. “A dead Palestinian child isn’t made less dead by a statistic. But neither should we ignore what Israel risked to reduce that number. If Israel had cared less about NAZA, perhaps I would have come home sooner. Fewer Israeli soldiers might have died. Fewer hostages might have died. But more Palestinians would have.” [WSJ]
A House Divided, Again: The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood does a deep dive into the challenges facing Israeli voters ahead of next month’s elections, amid resurgent tensions between the country’s religious and secular communities. “The ambition of every gourd is to escape ephemerality, outlast its predecessors, and leave Israel less hapless than Jonah and more shaded from the scorching threats that go along with being a nation-in-progress. The parties fill a niche in a bewilderingly diverse ideological ecosystem … Better to stop trying to figure out who is right and just try to figure out how to get along. That pragmatic exasperation is the starting point of liberal democracy.” [TheAtlantic]
Picture of the Day
American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch (third from left) met on Tuesday with North Macedonia Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski (center right) on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly high-level week, one of dozens of sit-downs AJC officials are holding with leaders from more than 70 countries during the week — the group’s annual “diplomatic marathon.” Read more from JI’s Marc Rod here.
Birthdays
Eli Dershwitz, three-time Olympic saber fencer, he was the first American to claim gold in saber at the World Fencing Championships, turns 31
Rabbi Shubert Spero, pulpit rabbi in Cleveland for more than 30 years, then a professor at Bar-Ilan University, turns 103
Richard Bergman, Sarasota Jewish Federation executive
Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer, he has sold more than 300 million records and performed at more than 5,000 concerts for over 60 million people, turns 83
David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee from 1990-2022, turns 77
Mark J. Dollinger, president at Trendlines America
Josh Fidler, co-chairman and COO of Chesapeake Realty Partners, he is also a founding partner of Boulder Ventures
Colin M. Winston, former deputy director of policy and government affairs at AIPAC
Seth Frisch, founder and director of Lerhaus/The New Shul of America
Jay Scott Greenspan, actor, famous for his role as George Costanza on “Seinfeld” and known professionally as Jason Alexander, turns 67
Darryl Nirenberg, U.S. ambassador to Romania
Marc Lasry, co-founder and CEO of hedge fund Avenue Capital Group and the co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks until 2023, turns 67
Angela Maddahi, past president of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, now a rabbinic student at the Ziegler School
Sheryl W. Kimerling, former vice chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, she is the president of the Birmingham (Ala.) Jewish Federation
Jonathan Peled, Israel’s ambassador to Italy, turns 65
Oren Zeev, Israeli American venture capitalist and head of Zeev Ventures, turns 62
Kristen Silverberg, former U.S. ambassador to the EU, now president and COO at the Business Roundtable, turns 56
Naomi Seligman, chief strategy officer at Whistleblower Aid
Jay Feldman, executive director of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Foundation
Joshua Foer, author of two best-selling books and co-founder of the nonprofit Sefaria, turns 44
Michael Schmidt, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington bureau reporter for The New York Times, turns 43
Gabriella Schwarz, principal designer at Google DeepMind
Abby Glassberg, VP of sales at Idomoo Personalized Video
Naomi Chaya Kutin, record-setting powerlifter, turns 25
Plus, Tisch's Turtle Bay test
Nic Antaya/Getty Images
Vice President JD Vance speaks during a rally at Universal Contracting and Urban Tree Trimming on August 31, 2026 in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how the NYPD is preparing for “multiple” daily protests around the U.N. General Assembly next week, talk to lawmakers about their concerns following a classified briefing with the Pentagon’s Elbridge Colby on the Trump administration’s National Defense Strategy and interview Deborah Lipstadt about the launch of her new institute at Emory University to train the next generation of policymakers fighting antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: David Bashevkin, Amos Hochstein and Hanan Ben-Ari.
Ed. note: The next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Wednesday, Sept. 23 in observance of Yom Kippur. Become a premium Jewish Insider subscriber to receive our Daily Overtime newsletter as well as updates throughout the weekend and as the Yom Kippur holiday concludes, including regular updates on our in-app live briefing.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Erielle Reshef’s journey from Israeli TV to MS NOW; Houthi gains leave Saudi Arabia short on options and looking to Washington; and Supreme Court to hear case of man blocked from holding minyan in his home. Print the latest edition here.
Today’s Agenda
Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance are set to host a Shabbat dinner at the vice president’s residence tonight. The gathering comes as Vance continues to work to burnish his relationship with Republican Jews — including a meeting on Thursday with conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg, which Rosenberg said “went well.”
Axios released its full interview with far-left streamer Hasan Piker this morning, after releasing brief clips from the conversation yesterday. On the topic of Israel, Piker told Axios he believes “Zionism is fascism” and compared holding Zionist beliefs to being a “rabid neo-Nazi” — but said he was “not worried that [my listeners are] going to be violent against Zionists.”
Students from The Ramaz School and SAR High School in Riverdale, N.Y., will hold services today outside New York’s Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence. Mayor Zohran Mamdani noted earlier this week that he was unlikely to be at the residence during the event, but said, “Whatever it is intended to be, they have the room and space to do so outside of Gracie Mansion.”
The Atlantic Festival continues today in New York. Speakers today include New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).
The U.N. General Assembly’s high-level week — which will see heads of state and senior officials from around the world travel to New York for speeches, events and sideline meetings — kicks off on Tuesday. President Donald Trump is slated to convene Gulf leaders on Tuesday to discuss postwar scenarios in Iran.
A State Department spokesperson said that senior Iranian officials had been granted visas to attend the UNGA, but will be under some restrictions that include a prohibition on purchasing luxury items while in the U.S.
Ahead of the start of the official UNGA proceedings, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and Anwar Gargash, an advisor to United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed, will speak on Sunday at an Al-Monitor Live event in New York.
One Thing To Know
ON ALERT
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters on Thursday that her department expects a wave of protests around the U.N. General Assembly next week, set to feature President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Tisch and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined officials from the Secret Service and State Department at One Police Plaza to brief the press on security measures and what the mayor described as a “whole-of-department response” to head off any risks to the international gathering. This will include “full deployment” of patrolmen and elite police units, as well as restrictions on traffic, flight patterns and pedestrian access in the area around the U.N. headquarters.
But both emphasized that, despite ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran — and despite Mamdani’s since-abandoned threat to arrest Netanyahu if he visited the city — these precautions were largely the same as those the city always takes around the annual geopolitical conference.
The Big Reads
taking heat
Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s under secretary for policy, is once again facing criticism from senators who said he was evasive, unresponsive and even disrespectful at a classified briefing on Thursday regarding the implementation of the National Defense Strategy, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Senators said that, among other issues, Colby had failed to provide clear answers regarding the war in Iran. “The most telling thing I can tell you is that he didn’t have an opening statement, and he’s there to give us an update,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told reporters. “That seemed weird. You’re the policy under secretary and you come before the Armed Services Committee and you don’t have an opening statement? That seemed contemptuous.”
crossing the aisle
Amos Hochstein, a senior Middle East negotiator in the Biden administration, on Thursday argued in favor of the Trump administration’s nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, which opens the path for nuclear enrichment inside the kingdom, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. “Do I want to do this? No. Do I feel the American national security interest is that we must do this deal? One hundred percent, because the alternative is a lot worse,” Hochstein said during a conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations, organized by the nonprofit Open to Debate. He added that during the Biden administration’s negotiations, other countries, including U.S. allies, actively tried to coax the Saudis away from the U.S. by promising lower verification standards. The deal, he argued, would help keep Saudi Arabia, a critical ally, in the U.S.’s corner.
policy pipeline
When Deborah Lipstadt returned to academia last year after nearly three years navigating the State Department as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, she had a new mission: to turn what she learned in government into a training ground for the next generation of policymakers confronting antisemitism. Lipstadt, a longtime Emory University historian, announced last week the launch of the Emory Policy Institute on Countering Antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. “In academia, professors think they’re right more often than not. Very often they are right in their assessments. But in diplomacy, you want to be effective. Sometimes you’ve got to compromise, narrow your view and adapt without losing sight of what you want to do,” Lipstadt told JI in an interview on Thursday.
The Rundown
NUCLEAR NEWS
RIPPING ON RIYADH
CAMPUS BEAT
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh said the FBI thwarted an intended mass casualty attack following the arrest last weekend of a Pennsylvania man who had been inspired by the Islamic State…
The State Department approved the sale of 48 F-35 fighter jets, worth $24.3 billion, to Saudi Arabia, a prospect that has raised concerns for some supporters of Israel; the State Department assessed that the deal would “not alter the military balance in the region.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she is “still considering” whether to support the Trump administration’s planned $2.8 billion arms sale to Israel…
Automaker General Motors has begun building missile parts for Lockheed Martin’s Patriot missiles, in an effort to boost production of the critical interceptor whose stockpiles have been depleted by the Iran war and heavy demand from allies…
Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution put forward by the U.S. that would have renewed the mandate of U.N. experts tasked with monitoring nuclear sanctions against Tehran…
Mahan Air announced the suspension of flights to Turkey and Oman, a week after the Treasury Department issued additional sanctions targeting one of Iran’s largest commercial carriers…
Pakistan’s army chief called on Tehran to make an effort to stop attacks by its Houthi proxies in Yemen on Saudi Arabia; the call from Field Marshal Asim Munir comes a year after Islamabad entered into a defense agreement with Riyadh…
Israel issued a tender for more than 2,000 new housing units to be built in the West Bank under its E1 settlement plan, on top of a tender for 1,234 units issued in late August…
The IDF said it killed two Hamas terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in separate strikes earlier this week…
eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Jay Deitcher spotlights the newly launched Talmud Daily, a free 40-week, daily video breakdown of the Talmud from Rabbi David Bashevkin that offers an introduction to the central text of Rabbinic law…
The Criterion Collection is rereleasing Claude Lanzmann’s 1985 “Shoah” film; the new release will include three additional Lanzmann films and interviews…
RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster, said it would boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest for the second year in a row, citing Israel’s participation in the annual competition…
i24NEWS’ Mike Wagenheim was named the next president of the White House Foreign Correspondents’ Association…
Former NBA player Michael Sweetney, who played for the Knicks and Bulls before becoming an assistant coach for the Yeshiva University Maccabees and The Ramaz School, died at 43…
Conservative writer Dovie Eisner died at 35…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Never Forget, Especially Now: In Moment Magazine, Menachem Z. Rosensaft considers the obligations of the children of Holocaust survivors in a time of increasing Holocaust denial and revisionism. “Our parents survived to bear witness. We, who grew up with them, who know or knew them better than anyone else, who listened to and internalized their stories, their memories, their silences and their nightmares, are more than their witnesses. We must be their attestors. … We are the guardians of their memories.” [Moment]
Influence Peddling: In Sapir, Aaron Kaplowitz raises concerns about the rise of an “influencer” class among Jewish and pro-Israel activists. “At the exact moment when Jews around the world need moral seriousness, parts of the communal establishment have fallen for the most opportunistic actors on the least serious platform. We are confusing visibility with leadership, and follower numbers with wisdom. The influencer economy now shapes how some of our institutions raise money and decide who speaks in the name of the community.” [Sapir]
Next-Gen Rising: In eJewishPhilanthropy, William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO and board chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, call on the Jewish communal world to make space for next-generation leadership. “If we believe these young men and women belong in Jewish leadership now, our community has to find more ways to trust them with real responsibility. That means moving beyond encouragement, conferences, fellowships and invitations to observe.” [eJP]
Picture of the Day
Israeli singer-songwriter Hanan Ben-Ari posted a clip of his live performance of “Hashivenu” — which he released in October 2025 to celebrate the release of the hostages from Gaza — from his recent “Hindikim 360°” show. “Everything that has been happening with this song under the radar over the past year is completely crazy,” Ben-Ari wrote on Instagram. “Jews from all over the world are singing and praying it everywhere, as though it were an ancient melody hundreds of years old!!”
Birthdays
Billy Eichner, comedian, actor, producer and screenwriter, turns 48 on Friday
FRIDAY
Kathy Levinson Wolf, Marina Del Rey, Calif., resident
Dr. Ben Carson, retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, he is currently the national advisor for nutrition, health and housing at the Department of Agriculture and previously served as U.S. secretary of housing and urban development, turns 75
Léo Apotheker, business executive who served as co-CEO of SAP and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, turns 73
Steven Pinker, Harvard professor of psychology, specializing in visual cognition and psycholinguistics, turns 72
Tommy Tuberville, U.S. senator (R-AL), he is the Republican nominee for governor of Alabama, he had a career prior to politics as a collegiate football coach, turns 72
Howard Tevlowitz, former CEO of the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee (Fla.)
Brian Greene, former executive director of the Los Angeles Westside Jewish Community Center, now The J Los Angeles
Gali Baharav-Miara, attorney general of Israel, turns 67
Mark Lee Romanek, winner of three Grammy Awards for music videos, he is also a filmmaker and photographer, turns 67
Joshua Angrist, professor of economics at MIT and a 2021 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, turns 66
Yanki Margalit, one of the earliest Israeli tech entrepreneurs, he is best known for starting Aladdin Knowledge Systems in 1985, turns 64
Ezra Uzi Yemin, founder of Delek US, turns 58
Simone Dinnerstein, classical pianist, turns 54
Karen Paikin Barall, chief policy officer at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law
Tali Farhadian Weinstein, CEO of New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, turns 51
Justin Ishbia, founding partner of Shore Capital Partners, he is a part-owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury along with his brother Mat Ishbia, turns 49
Jason Horowitz, Madrid bureau chief of The New York Times
Robin Anderson, director of operations at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin
Lisa Abramowicz, co-host of Bloomberg Surveillance on “Bloomberg Television,” turns 47
Bakari Sellers, author, CNN analyst and an ardent supporter of Israel within the Black community, he was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, turns 42
Avi Mayer, founder of the “Jerusalem Journal” Substack following a stint as editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post
Nick Schulman, professional poker player whose total career live tournament winnings exceed $24.5 million, turns 42
Dan Kolko, baseball broadcaster for the Washington Nationals
Shoshana Bush, television and film actor, turns 38
Zak Sawyer, senior director at TLG Communications
Rabbi Joshua B. Cohen, West Coast regional director at Leket Israel
SATURDAY
Rabbi Haym Soloveitchik, professor of Jewish history and literature at Yeshiva University, he is the only son of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, turns 89
Jeffrey Salloway, member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives until 2022, he has served as synagogue president, turns 85
Barry Scheck, professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law and co-founder of the Innocence Project, turns 77
Harold Rhode, distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, after a 28-year Pentagon career as a Middle East expert, turns 77
David Elliot Hoberman, producer of over 40 films in his career and executive producer of the television series “Monk,” turns 74
Bruce Alpert, freelance reporter, he was a writing instructor at Montana State University Billings
Jodi Magness, archaeologist and professor of early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, turns 70
Ronald Kass, Stockton, Calif.-based physician at the Pacific Sleep Disorders Center
Rabbi David J. Wolpe, rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, he is the inaugural rabbinic fellow for the ADL, turns 68
John Nathan “Janno” Lieber, chairman and CEO of NYC’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, turns 65
Ken Rosenthal, bow tie-clad field reporter for Fox Major League Baseball since 2005, he is also a senior baseball writer for The Athletic, turns 64
Michael Evan Horowitz, inspector general of the Federal Reserve Board and the CFPB, turns 64
Tim Scott, U.S. senator (R-SC), he chairs the Senate Banking Committee, turns 61
Ronald Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington
Mike Michalowicz, author of nine popular business books, former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal
John Harthorne, founder and managing director at Two Lanterns Venture Capital, he is also the founder of MassChallenge (a startup accelerator)
Jillian Schwartz, pole vaulter, she competed for the U.S. in the 2004 Olympics and for Israel in the 2012 Olympics, now an associate brand manager at Kraft Heinz, turns 47
Neal Urwitz, CEO of Enduring Cause Strategies
Danny Valencia, former MLB player for nine seasons, he was on Team Israel for the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2023 World Baseball Classic, turns 42
Joseph Kristol, senior public affairs director at Elliott Investment Management
Charlie Burg, singer-songwriter and producer, he frequently wears a Magen David pendant when performing, turns 30
Sam Sloman, former NFL placekicker, his college teammates nicknamed him the “Kosher Cannon,” turns 29
SUNDAY
Candy Spelling, author, theater producer, television personality and philanthropist, turns 81
Curt Randy Grossman, wealth management advisor, he won four Super Bowls with the Steelers during his eight-year career as a tight end, turns 74
Rav Ahron Lopiansky, rosh yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington, turns 73
Lloyd Blankfein, senior chairman of Goldman Sachs since 2019, prior to which he served as its CEO for 13 years, turns 72
Henry Samueli, co-founder of Broadcom and owner of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, turns 72
Yosef Elron, former justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, turns 71
Lawrence Schreier, insurance agent in Tulsa, Okla.
Marc Roberts, real estate developer, sports agent and boxing promoter, turns 67
Rabbi Tovia Singer, former rabbi of Congregation Beit Torat Chaim of Jakarta, Indonesia, turns 66
Randolph Lipscher, emergency medicine physician in Austin, Texas, he was the goalkeeper for the U.S. field hockey team at the 1984 Summer Olympics, turns 66
Lisa Bloom, civil rights attorney, author and legal analyst, turns 65
Deborah Gavin Shemony, chief marketing and brand officer at BBYO
Keren Barak, former member of the Knesset for the Likud party, turns 54
Melissa Kronfeld, founder of PFAP (Passion for a Purpose) Consulting and COO of PizzaIDF
James Mazol, deputy under secretary of defense for research and engineering
Drew Singer, deputy news team lead at Bloomberg Law
Emily Grunewald, principal at Blue Laurel Advisors
Carter Lavin, climate activist in Oakland, Calif.
Alison Bogdonoff, senior director of strategic initiatives at Sony Music Entertainment
Zoe Plotsky, director of integrated marketing at Rent the Runway
Isabel Tsesarsky, Manhattan resident
Gabriel LaBelle, actor, best known for his leading role as young aspiring filmmaker Sammy Fabelman in Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” turns 24
Jason Ian Drucker, theatre, film and television actor, turns 21
Lauren Ackerman
Plus, the MS NOW anchor who got her start in Israel
JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP via Getty Images
Abdul El-Sayed addresses supporters at his election night event at The Majestic Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, on August 4, 2026
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the scoop on a recent meeting between Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and rabbis from Michigan’s Temple Israel, which earlier this year was attacked by a pro-Hezbollah terrorist, and cover yesterday’s Capitol Hill rally supporting the passage of the Right to Worship Act. We report on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s remarks that he will not participate in protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during next week’s U.N. General Assembly, and profile MS NOW anchor Erielle Reshef, who got her start on Israeli television. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Michael Dell, Lacey Schwartz Delgado and Jonathan Powell.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today’s Agenda
Vice President JD Vance is sitting down for an interview with Sid Rosenberg today, during which the conservative radio host said he intends to press Vance on his relationship with Tucker Carlson and his stance on the U.S.-Israel relationship.
The Hudson Institute is holding a fireside chat this morning focused on Iran-China relations and the U.S.’ Operation Economic Outcast effort to financially isolate Tehran that had initially featured Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA). Nunn, who is locked in a tight reelection bid and earlier this week voted in favor of a war powers resolution to force an end to the Iran war, no longer appears on Hudson’s promotional page for the event, which now features Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA).
Axios is releasing portions of its recent interview with far-left commentator Hasan Piker over the course of the day, ahead of the release of the full interview tomorrow. In the first released clip, Piker told the outlet’s Alex Thompson that he believed that the U.S. had committed more acts of terror than al-Qaida, saying, “Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes,” adding, “We have caused tremendous terror all around the world.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is holding a briefing today alongside NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch about security around the U.N. General Assembly, which begins next week. More below.
The Atlantic Festival kicks off today in New York. The three-day convening begins this morning with a sit-down with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (who was in New York’s Hudson Valley yesterday campaigning with NY-17 Democratic candidate Cait Conley). This afternoon, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a 2028 bid, will take the stage for a fireside chat about the future of the Democratic Party.
We’re continuing to follow the fallout from Macklemore’s performance earlier this month at two Ed Sheeran concerts over the rapper’s anti-Israel remarks at previous concerts and past antisemitic incidents. Robert Kraft, who along with several other stadium owners banned the rapper from performing at their venues over his past antisemitic rhetoric and imagery — prompting several other opening acts to drop out of the shows in solidarity — pledged $2 million for aid to the Middle East on Wednesday, matching a donation of the same amount by Sheeran. Read more about the donation here.
One Thing To Know
SCOOP
In the most significant sign of his efforts to make inroads with skeptical Jewish voters in Michigan’s Senate race, Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee, recently met with rabbis at Temple Israel for a closely guarded conversation, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
Two rabbis who were said to have participated in the conversation, details of which were unclear, declined to comment when reached on Wednesday. El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The covert nature of the meeting, which neither party has publicized, underscores the sensitivities felt among some Jewish leaders who have remained wary of publicly associating with El-Sayed because of their continued discomfort with his positions on Israel and remarks about antisemitism.
The Big Reads
show of support
Reps. Brad Knott (R-NC) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) rallied outside the Capitol on Wednesday alongside more than two dozen representatives of religious community organizations in support of the Right to Worship Act, their federal bill establishing buffer zones outside of religious institutions to protect them from disruptions. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who has been involved in supporting the bill behind the scenes, also expressed his support for it in a statement to Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod. “Religious liberty is regarded as our ‘First Freedom.’ Our Founders listed it first in the Bill of Rights because they understood how essential it was to the foundation of our Republic. But that right rings hollow if worshippers must brave harassment or worry for their safety as they exercise their religion,” Johnson said.
First in JI: Over a year after the deadly firebombing attack targeting an Israeli hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), who represents the city, and Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) introduced legislation to modify Nonprofit Security Grant Program conditions to allow grantees to use funding for staffing costs.
PROTEST POLITICS
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters on Wednesday that he does not intend to participate in any demonstrations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance at the U.N. General Assembly next week — and maintained he did not endorse public agitation against the Jewish state’s premier, an apparent ratcheting-down of his remarks from earlier this summer, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports. Following an unrelated press conference, Mamdani confirmed information leaked to Politico that he would not take part in anticipated protests against Netanyahu’s scheduled arrival in New York on Sept. 23 or speech at the international summit the next day. He also stressed that he did not call for his anti-Israel allies on the left to take to the streets either. “I do not have any plans to attend any protest at the U.N. General Assembly,” Mamdani said. “To New Yorkers, I have never encouraged them to protest.”
anchor point
MS NOW anchor Erielle Reshef never planned to become a television journalist. After completing a master’s degree in diplomacy and conflict studies in Israel in 2010, she happened to be watching an English-language news program whose anchors were about to go on maternity leave. Her husband wrote down the email address on the screen and pushed her to apply. That opportunity launched a career that has taken Reshef from her hometown of Oklahoma City to local television, international news and eventually ABC News, where she spent eight and a half years, including as a national correspondent. In June 2025, Reshef left the relative comfort of a network news reporting job to join MSNBC, which was rebranded later in the year as MS NOW, where she is now a fill-in anchor for daytime cable news shows for the first time. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen, Reshef said her Jewish values — particularly curiosity, rigorous debate and a commitment to understanding people on the margins — are the “scaffolding” of her journalism.
The Rundown
ON THE HILL
not so fast
behind the veil
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
President Donald Trump is planning to meet with Gulf leaders next week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York to discuss a postwar strategy for Iran; the president held a similar meeting on the sidelines of last year’s UNGA to discuss Gaza, a week before publicly releasing his postwar plan for the enclave…
The State Department extended its visa ban on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Palestinian officials, preventing members of the delegation from attending UNGA next week for the second year in a row; State Department officials attributed the ban to Palestinian leaders’ efforts to “internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”…
New photos obtained by CBS News indicate widespread damage at U.S. facilities around the Gulf resulting from Iranian attacks, including destroyed planes, buildings and vehicles in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
CNN reports that more than a dozen Russian spy satellites had operated over a U.S. base in Saudi Arabia two days before the facility was struck in an Iranian drone and missile attack in which 15 U.S. troops were injured…
The House passed, in a 262-159 vote, a major Russia and Iran sanctions package named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), which targets Russia’s energy sector as well as Iran’s weapons and energy industries…
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) filed a war powers resolution to block military action against Oman, in response to Trump‘s threats to bomb the U.S. ally if it does not cooperate with U.S. efforts to counter Iran in the Strait of Hormuz…
Former Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to campaign with Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed next week in the Wolverine State.
Meanwhile, the Detroit News endorsed El-Sayed’s opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), citing in part El-Sayed’s history of deleting past social media content and noting that a “candidate who feels the need to hide his past from voters is not someone who can be trusted to be the same person after Election Day as he was on the campaign trail”…
A New York man who pleaded guilty to assaulting a Jewish man days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks was sentenced to 90 days in jail; during sentencing, Yehia Amin was photographed smiling and flashing the peace sign with his hands, telling the judge through an interpreter that he wanted to look good in photographs from the courtroom…
Michael Dell listed his Boston penthouse in the city’s Millennium Tower for less than he purchased it a decade ago for $10.9 million…
The Hollywood Reporter reviews documentarian Lacey Schwartz Delgado’s “Re/Pair,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and pairs Black and Jewish figures, including David Schwimmer, Van Jones, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and Rabbi Sharon Brous, for conversations about Black-Jewish relations…
The Spectator reports that both U.K. National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell and London’s ambassador in Israel, Simon Walters, advised Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband against banning imports from Israeli settlements, warning that such a move would bolster support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government ahead of next month’s elections…
Air Canada removed an in-flight service director following a report that the employee had shared antisemitic content on social media; the Canadian carrier will also resume direct flights between Toronto and Israel at the end of November, earlier than its planned January resumption of flights…
A Kurdish-Jewish man with Canadian and Israeli citizenship who had traveled to the region to fight ISIS more than a decade ago was freed from an Iraqi Kurdish prison after he was convicted of killing a taxi driver in 2015; Aish announced that Ben Chasin will arrive at the organization’s yeshiva this week, where he will study…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita in New York in a meeting convened by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, during which Jerusalem and Rabat agreed to a series of measures to boost bilateral ties, including appointing full ambassadors to each other’s countries, turning their diplomatic missions into embassies, increasing direct flights and holding high-level visits in the near future.
The night prior, Waltz hosted Sa’ar, Bourita, United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba and diplomats from Bahrain and Kazakhstan for a diplomatic reception marking the sixth anniversary of the Abraham Accords.
While in New York, Sa’ar also met with senior leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations for a wide-ranging discussion on Israel’s security, regional developments and U.S.-Israel relations…
Dalia Ziada is joining the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy as the director of the organization’s Washington office…
Artist and graphic designer Peter Max died on Monday at 88…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Meta-morphosis: Bloomberg’s Riley Griffin and Alexandra Levine look at the role that Dina Powell McCormick plays at Meta, where she now serves as president, vice chairman and co-leader of Meta Compute after eight months on the company’s board. “While [Mark] Zuckerberg, 42, is the cerebral engineering leader obsessed with improving Meta’s products for the AI race, Powell McCormick, 53, has her pulse on the world outside of Silicon Valley, and can be Meta’s bridge to opportunities and fixer of challenges. ‘She is a close, trusted advisor of the whole senior leadership team, but especially of Mark,’ said CJ Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer. ‘She’s generally the last person who’s consulted on really important decisions.’” [Bloomberg]
Riyadh Ruminations: In War on the Rocks, Richard Nephew posits that the burgeoning nuclear agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is better than had initially been expected. “If it performs as promised, its provisions of exclusivity will provide benefits to the U.S. nuclear industry and lock Russia and China out of a potentially lucrative market that could have attendant political and security implications long term, especially in a Middle East where nuclear proliferation remains a serious threat. The U.S.-Saudi agreement is also innovative and imaginative, a credit to creative negotiations to unlock an issue that has been difficult for multiple administrations.” [WarontheRocks]
AI and the Archives: In The Washington Post, Daniella Greenbaum Davis explains how she used Anthropic’s Claude to recover and translate a 1946 Yiddish-language article that had been authored by her grandmother and detailed the day she was liberated from Bergen-Belsen. “Much of the debate concerning AI today is about scale and mortal threat, about destroying jobs and flooding social media with slop. It’s easy to forget that large language models, like all tools, are a thing human ingenuity has built to finish what human hands cannot. … I had spent years blindly feeling my way through archives; in a matter of days, AI had stitched together pieces of information that I couldn’t see, let alone put together.” [WashPost]
Picture of the Day
Birthdays
Stan M. Herman, fashion designer known worldwide for his leading-edge corporate uniforms, turns 98
Chuck Grassley, U.S. senator (R-IA) since 1981 and president pro tempore of the Senate, turns 93
Peter J. Solomon, investment banker who once served as a NYC deputy mayor, turns 88
Gail Carson Levine, Newbery Honor-winning author of many young adult books, some with Jewish themes, turns 79
Joshua Muravchik, author of 11 books and hundreds of articles on foreign policy and the Middle East, turns 79
T. Alan Hurwitz, former president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and then president of Gallaudet University, turns 79
Frank Hagelberg, Rochester, N.Y., attorney, he has held positions at the UJA-Federation of New York and the Rochester Jewish Federation
Jeremy Don Fogel, retired judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, turns 77
Harold Solomon, former professional tennis player who achieved a world ranking of No. 5 in 1980, turns 74
Rita Rudner, comedian, writer and actor, she was a frequent guest of Johnny Carson on the “Tonight Show,” turns 73
Daniel Fingeroth, author, comic book writer and editor, best known as group editor of the Spider-Man books at Marvel Comics, turns 73
Mody Kidon, Israeli businessman with real estate holdings in Israel and NYC, turns 72
Ellen Kahan Zager, author and graphic designer
Rina Frenkel, former member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, turns 70
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, rabbi emeritus of the New North London Synagogue and senior rabbi of Masorti Judaism UK, turns 69
Elliott S. Feigenbaum, former consultant at Quick Hits News
Richard Wolffe, journalist, best-selling author including two books on the Obama presidency and Emmy Award-winning executive producer, turns 58
Mandy Krauthamer Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the last 18 months of the Biden administration, turns 48
Adam Abrams, former regional communications director and spokesperson for former President Barack Obama, now a partner at Seven Letter
Nick Melvoin, member of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education, turns 41
David Litt, former Obama White House speechwriter who has since written a best-selling comedic memoir, turns 40
Adina Shatz, principal product manager for CathWorks
Rachel Roubein, national healthcare reporter The Washington Post covering the FDA
Natalie Edelstein Jarvis, editorial producer at Google
Max August, founder of the Israel Summit at Harvard, now a member of the partnerships team at OpenAI
Plus, Saudis stymied by Houthi gains
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Mayor Brandon Johnson participates in a May Day march on May 01, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s targeting of AIPAC and a top Jewish donor in Illinois as he kicks off his reelection campaign, cover Vice President JD Vance’s comments on the U.S.-Israel relationship and talk to experts about the challenges in combating the Houthis as the Iran-backed terror group scales up its attacks on Saudi Arabia. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Fatema Al Harbi, Deborah Lipstadt and Rep. Tom Suozzi.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today’s Agenda
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) is holding a press conference at the Capitol today on the Right to Worship Act, which he is sponsoring. Suozzi told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod this week in a wide-ranging interview, “The big thing in my head was that a person shouldn’t have to show particular courage just to attend a religious service.” Read the full interview with Suozzi.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a nomination hearing today for a number of vacant ambassadorial postings across Africa, as well as for the position of ambassador to Malaysia. The hearing comes weeks after Malaysia expelled a dual American Israeli citizen over the country’s ban on Israelis entering the country, which prompted the State Department to summon Kuala Lumpur’s top diplomat.
The House Homeland Security Committee is holding a hearing this morning on counterterrorism efforts in the post-9/11 era.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East subcommittee is slated to hold a hearing this morning on the evolving terrorism landscape with Lt. Col. (ret.) Joel Borkert, the deputy coordinator for programs and military coordination at the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism.
The House Natural Resources Committee is convening today for a markup on legislation to designate Fort Ontario, in Oswego, N.Y., as a unit of the National Park System, owing to its use from 1944-1946 to house nearly 1,000 Holocaust survivors from Europe.
One Thing To Know
WINDY CITY WEDGE
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is facing a long list of challengers in his reelection campaign next year — not to mention dismal job approval ratings and paltry fundraising. He kicked off his bid for a second term at an event on Sunday, however, directly targeting AIPAC as well as a Jewish Democratic donor who has contributed both to the pro-Israel group and, more recently, a top rival of Johnson’s.
“When you hear that someone wants to be your mayor and they claim to be progressive but they take money from AIPAC and Michael Sacks and corporate interests and shell PACs,” Johnson said at a rally over the weekend, “you know who has the power. It’s not you.”
The embattled mayor was likely making a thinly veiled reference to Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, the front-runner in a race that has so far drawn over a dozen candidates. But Johnson’s statement, which has faced criticism from local Jewish leaders for espousing what they decry as antisemitic tropes about Jewish influence, was misleading, as AIPAC is not involved in his race.
The Big Reads
waiting game
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s team vowed that it would produce its long-promised plan to fight antisemitism in the five boroughs “soon” — but declined to provide any specifics about when it might actually come out or why his administration failed to meet its original Rosh Hashanah deadline, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports. Sam Raskin, Mamdani’s deputy press secretary, told JI, “The mayor is fully committed to the safety of Jewish New Yorkers and to using every tool available to ensure that Jewish communities continue to thrive as an essential part of the fabric of the five boroughs.”
red sea reckoning
Saudi Arabia’s escalating conflict with the Houthis has revealed just how challenging it has become for the U.S. to deter the Iran‑backed terrorist group, former officials and regional experts told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea, as Houthi gains along the Red Sea raise alarms about global shipping and give Tehran fresh leverage. Analysts said that while Israel could help Riyadh in combating the attacks, any cooperation is likely to be limited and politically fraught. Saudi Arabia on Tuesday issued an alert for a possible attack on the holy city of Mecca amid escalating strikes by the Houthis, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. A day earlier, Vice President JD Vance said the administration was “on top” of the issue and confirmed the U.S. is in direct talks with the group.
Bonus: CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper convened a meeting last week in Germany between the military chiefs of Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt to discuss regional tensions.
the jd doctrine
Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday that the U.S. must prioritize its own needs and “cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the State of Israel,” likening the dynamic to that of NATO during a virtual appearance at the All In Summit, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports. Vance made the comments in conversation with “All-In Podcast” co-host Jason Calacanis, saying there are “obviously a lot of important relationships, a lot of important partnerships in NATO, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to completely make our European foreign policy subservient to NATO in the same way that we cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the State of Israel.”
The Rundown
on the hill
designation push
digital danger
Q&A
austin speaker limits
PEOPLE OVER PARTY
minyan matters
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) ruled out a 2028 presidential bid, telling the Washington Examiner, “I have no intention of doing so, period”…
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is moving forward with an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing Hegseth of “high crimes and misdemeanors” over the war…
The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee advanced the Pray Safe Act by a voice vote; Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement the move “bring[s] us one step closer to passing a bill that would ensure every house of worship, faith-based organization and nonprofit can access critical resources to protect themselves”…
More than 20 Senate Democrats joined a resolution seeking to force a vote on Israeli policy in the West Bank, including the top Democrats on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, as well as incoming No. 2 Senate Democrat Brian Schatz (D-HI) and pro-Israel stalwart Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)…
Former State Department antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt, who returned to Emory University as a university distinguished professor after her departure from government at the end of the Biden administration, is founding the Emory Policy Institute on Countering Antisemitism, with a fellowship program set to begin in January…
The head of the Harvard Kennedy School rejected a call from the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance to revoke New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s invitation to speak at an endowed lecture at the school later this week, citing the HKS’ “commitment to free speech”…
The newly released fifth season of “Fauda,” which came out on Netflix earlier this month and covers the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and their aftermath, scored the show’s highest streaming numbers to date, ranking as the top show last week in both Israel and Lebanon…
Several musical acts set to open for Ed Sheeran withdrew from the singer’s remaining U.S. tour dates after the production company overseeing the tour parted ways with rapper Macklemore over his political rhetoric during two recent performances; Sheeran and the production company had faced pressure from venue owners, including Robert Kraft, who said the rapper’s onstage comments and displays and “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery” led to the decision…
The British government introduced legislation that would repeal a long-standing law barring Roman Catholic and Jewish prime ministers from involvement in appointments made by the Church of England…
Dennis Richardson, the former head of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, criticized media coverage of “blatant antisemitism” in the country following the Oct. 7 attacks, saying he agreed “with those who argue that following 7 October we dropped the ball and failed to draw a line”…
Tanchum Portnoy, the composer of the popular melody for “Eitz Chaim,” died at 75…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Strait Talk: In The Wall Street Journal, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh argue that the Trump administration needs to end Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz in order for the U.S. to win the monthslong war it has fought with Tehran. “Control of the strait gives Tehran leverage over many enemies but doesn’t provide a perfect defense (or offense), especially against Israel. But if the clerical oligarchs and the Revolutionary Guards lose the strait, they will stand before their angry people bereft of accomplishment and legitimacy. Power once demystified is harder to sustain. If the White House doesn’t deny the regime this victory by fighting and winning the Battle of Hormuz, then Mr. Trump has surely lost this war.” [WSJ]
Civil Rights and Wrongs: In The New York Times, James Loeffler argues that American Jews have been turned into a political football as both parties have long failed to adequately address antisemitism and the Trump administration uses the issue as a cudgel. “Progressives have failed to grapple with antisemitism among their own ranks. And now a conservative administration intent on undoing civil rights law has turned that ambiguity to its own advantage. The civil rights revolution was never finished. Now its contradictions have returned, sharper than ever. They won’t end with antisemitism, because debates about Jews are never just about Jews. They are the seismographs of a society’s deeper tremors: its fears of difference, its contested visions of nationhood.” [NYTimes]
Picture of the Day
Moshe Edri, director-general of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC), addressed the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 70th General Conference in Vienna on Tuesday. In his remarks, Edri said, “it’s clear that a public threat by the radical regime of the Ayatollahs in Iran to destroy the State of Israel is something we cannot ignore. Israel cannot, and will not, sit idle, in light of such a threat. We acted to ensure our survival, and we will do it again if needed.”
Birthdays
David Seth Kotkin, award winning illusionist, who has sold tens of millions of tickets to his shows worldwide, known professionally as David Copperfield, turns 70
Esther Vilar, Argentine German writer and physician, author of books on gender relations, turns 91
Elaine Bloom, Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives for multiple terms, in 2015 she became the president and CEO of Plaza Health Network, turns 89
Rubin Schron, NYC-based real estate investor and the founder of Cammeby’s International Group, turns 88
Richard Perle, defense policy advisor to Presidents Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 and member of a number of DC-based think tanks, turns 85
Jon Olesen, Montebello, Calif., resident
Shari Goldberg, Pompano Beach, Fla., resident
Motti Lerner, Israeli playwright and screenwriter, turns 77
Jim Perelman, sheriff of Nantucket County, Mass., turns 76
Jonathan Medved, founder and former CEO of OurCrowd, an equity-crowdfunding platform focused on investing in Israeli startups, turns 71
Fern Wallach, former advertising account executive at The Forward, now a media sales consultant
Jonathan Boyarin, anthropology professor at Cornell, his work centers on Jewish communities and culture, turns 70
Dan Kohl, director of stakeholder engagement at the National Council of Jewish Women, he is a nephew of former Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), turns 61
Rabbi Dov Linzer, president and rabbinic head of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in Riverdale, N.Y., turns 60
Jason Zengerle, staff writer at The New Yorker
Gal Fridman, Israeli windsurfer, he won bronze in Atlanta 1996 and gold in Athens 2004, Israel’s first Olympic gold medalist, turns 51
Tzvi Avisar, mayor of Kiryat Motzkin, a city in the Haifa suburbs, turns 48
Josh Ginsberg, VP of corporate marketing at Meta
Koby Altman, president of basketball operations for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, turns 44
Lauren Morgan Suriel, chief field officer at the Israel on Campus Coalition
Suzy Goldenkranz, VP of customer success at SimpliFed
Daren Maxwell Kagasoff, actor, best known for starring in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” turns 39
Rachel Louise Ensign, NYC-based economics reporter at The Wall Street Journal
Niv Sultan, Israeli actor who played the lead role in Apple TV’s spy thriller “Tehran,” turns 34
Avishag Semberg, winner of an Olympic bronze medal for Israel in taekwondo at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, turns 25
Caryn Rosen Adelman, planned giving consultant
Plus, Houthi hits, Saudi sits — so far
(Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)
Recording artists Ed Sheeran (L) and Macklemore perform onstage during the 2014 iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 20, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to senators about how the U.S. could respond to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, report on New York GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman’s support for a long-shot House candidate who defended Ye’s antisemitic comments, and report on rapper Macklemore‘s removal from the remainder of Ed Sheeran‘s concert tour over his on-stage anti-Israel activism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Wesley Hunt, Jessica Tarlov and Danny Meyer.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today’s Agenda
Today marks the sixth anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington. The anniversary of the agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — which has held amid several years of war, during which Israel supplied missile-defense technology to Abu Dhabi — comes at a time of renewed tensions in the region as the Iran-backed Houthis continue to disrupt shipping routes and mount attacks on Saudi targets.
Riyadh — which was on the brink of normalizing relations with Israel prior to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks — now finds itself in what former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney described as the “worst-case scenario” for the Saudis as Iran and its proxies increasingly target the Gulf state. Earlier today, Riyadh vowed to respond “firmly” to the ongoing Houthi attacks.
Those regional tensions will form the backdrop to the Arab Media Summit, which kicks off today in Dubai. Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is set to address the opening session of the annual gathering.
In Washington, Vice President JD Vance will address House Republicans today at a political conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club.
Elsewhere in Washington, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Steve Bannon are slated to speak today at the Future of Life Institute’s AI-focused “Pro-Human Assembly.”
The three-day Eradicate Hate Global Summit begins today in Pittsburgh. Former National Amusements President Shari Redstone, Holocaust survivor Dr. Alfred Garfinkle, commentator Van Jones and political scientist Robert Pape are slated to speak at the annual conference.
At noon ET, the academic consortium CASJE and eJewishPhilanthropy will host a panel discussion, “Who Shapes Campus Conversation? What Research Tells Us About Faculty Attitudes Toward Israel and Jews.” Speakers include Hillel International’s Lisa Armony, the Academic Engagement Network’s Raeefa Shams, the Curricular Review Council’s Yuval Avnur and Leonard Saxe and Graham Wright of Brandeis University., while Vance will represent the White House in attending the memorial ceremony at Ground Zero.
One Thing To Know
ON THE HILL
By Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs
Senators returning to Washington on Monday offered mixed responses to the recent Houthi offensive inside Yemen and Saudi Arabia, with some Republicans telling Jewish Insider that the Iran-backed terror group’s moves warranted a response, while some Democrats framed the Houthi attacks as further fallout from the U.S. war against Iran.
The Iran-backed Yemeni terrorist group seized control of key port cities along the Red Sea coast, near the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait, as well as Perim Island inside the waterway and the Hanish archipelago to the north. The U.S. has thus far declined to intervene.
Republicans who spoke to Jewish Insider said they had not been fully briefed on the situation since returning to Washington on Monday after being away for the Senate’s extended August recess. Still, they said a forceful response from the Saudis was warranted, while Democrats generally framed the Houthi offensive as an extension and expansion of the Iran war.
The Big Reads
mackle-no-more
Macklemore has been dropped from the remainder of singer Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour after several venues objected to hosting the rapper, following the rapper’s chants of “Free Palestine” and comments and imagery on Gaza during two recent opening sets for Sheeran, Jewish Insider‘s Haley Cohen reports. Among the eight remaining shows on Sheeran’s tour, Macklemore was set to open for the singer at Massachusetts’ Gillette Stadium, which is owned by Robert Kraft. In an Instagram post, Macklemore claimed that Kraft, the founder of the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, rallied the other stadium owners to get him dropped from the venues. Kraft responded that the decision came following Macklemore’s “recent actions” and “history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery,” adding that the rapper crossed a line the stadium would not platform.
YE SAYER
Long-shot Brooklyn Republican House candidate Joel Anabilah-Azumah got a boost last week with an endorsement from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman — who hopes to unseat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul with an appeal to fellow New York Jews, particularly those discontented with Democrats’ declining support for Israel. But Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman found that Anabilah-Azumah has criticized Zionism while defending a string of antisemitic remarks by rapper Ye, also known as Kanye West, who the now-candidate hinted was at risk of assassination by Jewish music industry figures.
BOOKSHELF
In her new book, Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov advocates for constructive disagreement — “acknowledge without accepting,” or hearing someone out, hard as it may be, without torching the relationship or one’s own beliefs. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen ahead of Tuesday’s release of I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends, Tarlov pointed to her closely watched sit-down last year with far-left streamer Hasan Piker as evidence that her framework holds even when strained against its limits. Piker was “incredibly nice and gracious,” she recalled, arguing that calls for him to be shut out of Democratic circles are misguided. The exchange highlights the balancing act central to both Tarlov’s book and her on-air image as the primary liberal co-host on the Fox News talk show “The Five.”
The Rundown
ROAD TO RIYADH
on the trail
delay deja vu
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The Pentagon’s inspector general released a congressionally mandated report — the first since the beginning of the conflict with Iran earlier this year — that found that the war has led to a munitions shortfall for the military, as well as some $208 million in damages to the State Department across Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates…
The U.S. filed a civil forfeiture complaint against Iran alleging that the Islamic Republic laundered some $1.5 billion in oil through cryptocurrency networks to benefit the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…
CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah on Monday, as Riyadh continues to face escalating attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen; the Saudi leader reportedly urged President Donald Trump last week to conduct strikes against the Houthis, which Trump refused…
Vice President JD Vance told reporters that the U.S. is in direct contact with the Houthis as well as in continued discussions with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, “so we actually feel like we are on top of the situation” amid growing tensions in the region…
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) returned to the Senate floor on Monday evening for the first time since he was hospitalized after a fall in June, appearing in a wheelchair; in a post on X, the Kentucky Republican wrote, “I’m still not quite back to 100%, but I’ve assured Leader Thune that, as I continue with physical therapy on the advice of my doctors, I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me”…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he would not run for president in 2028 if former Vice President Kamala Harris chooses to mount another bid, saying that the Venn diagram of their personal and professional relationships “is just pure crossover. I wouldn’t do that”…
Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan cut an ad for his wife, Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), for her reelection bid; in the TV spot, Sullivan recounts their meeting at the Munich Security Conference when she approached him “to raise her concerns about some of our foreign policies” while she was working for then-Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Sullivan was serving as an advisor to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the Obama administration…
The New York Times profiles Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer ahead of the release of his new book, What Could Possibly Go Right?, which looks at his past business decisions — for better and for worse — and will be released later this month…
Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and several of his fellow activists filed a federal lawsuit against the school, arguing that administrators failed to protect them against harassment they allege that they faced on campus due to their activism…
Widespread protests, the largest since the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad in 2024, broke out across Syria after Damascus raised diesel prices by 40% and household gas prices by 9% over the weekend…
The New York Times looks at the Israeli pushback to the film “NAZA,” which premiered on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival; Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar called on Jerusalem to revoke the citizenship of the Israeli filmmakers, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, over the film’s content, which included interviews with anonymous Israeli military and intelligence officials regarding the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza…
Bloomberg reports that Malaysian authorities have for more than a month held three shipments of electric bike parts bound for Israel’s Ashdod port that were seized in mid-August; earlier in August, Malaysia seized a shipment from the Philippines that was bound for Israeli defense manufacturer Elbit Systems…
Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said that Israel’s continued settlement expansion efforts were incompatible with a two-state solution and undermined the prospects of Palestinian statehood…
Jon Gambrell is joining The Wall Street Journal as deputy Middle East bureau chief…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Question Mark: Colossus magazine’s Jeremy Stern profiles Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Unlike the Boomers and Gen X, he is the only trillion-dollar founder of his generation, and Millennials are cringe. He is Jewish and uncool, yet impervious to humiliation. He is, in one man, the personification of responsibility for alt-right populism; leftwing authoritarianism; the death of journalism; polarization; political propaganda; political censorship; the dangers of free speech; human rights violations; teenage depression; body dysmorphia; and male loneliness. He is an emperor for life. He is, in a word, an easy mark.” [Colossus]
No Choice: Politico’s Daniella Cheslow looks at the challenges facing the U.S. as the Iran-backed Houthis scale up their attacks in the Gulf. “The administration could join the fray after Yemeni forces, supported by Saudi Arabia, failed to repel the Houthis’ capture of the Red Sea port of Mokha and three islands key to controlling the waterway. Or the White House could leave the region to sort out the Houthis alone, and bear the pain of oil prices that spiraled up to $109 a barrel Monday. … Neither policy choice for the U.S. is terribly appealing, and one Arab diplomat in the region sensed inaction from the U.S., or ‘a kind of disregard.’” [Politico]
How Not to Teach Your Children: In The Washington Post, Dana Stangel-Plowe, the chief program officer of the North American Values Institute, raises concerns about the increasing politicization of the National Education Association under the leadership of its new president, Princess Moss, who has promoted teacher activism. “In saying so, the president of the nation’s largest teachers union advanced a specific vision for her profession: activism all the way down, no matter how much students struggle to keep up. Her union colleagues are citizens, too, free to have and act on their own political views. But Moss’s vision has no place in the classroom. A teacher’s job isn’t political organizing; it is to educate the nation’s youth.” [WashPost]
Picture of the Day
Noah Wyle celebrated his second consecutive Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series on Monday night for playing Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch in “The Pitt,” which also won outstanding drama series for the second year in a row.
Birthdays
Josh Charles, actor, best known for his roles on “Sports Night” and “The Good Wife,” turns 55
Jac Holzman, founder and former CEO of Elektra Records, he is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, turns 95
Emanuel Tov, professor emeritus at the Hebrew University and a leading scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls, turns 85
Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, chief rabbi of Migdal HaEmek, in northern Israel, known as the “Disco Rabbi,” turns 80
Diane Levin, professor emerita of counseling psychology at Boston University’s Wheelock College, turns 79
Ned Rothenberg, composer and multi-instrument musician, turns 70
Michael L. Reiss, television comedy writer, he served as a showrunner, writer and producer for “The Simpsons” and co-created the animated series “The Critic,” turns 67
Aron Uri Raskas, shareholder of law firm Gunster, turns 64
Nina Jacobson, film executive, she produced “The Hunger Games” film series, turns 61
David Magerman, managing partner and chief technology officer at Differential Ventures in Philadelphia, he is also the founder of a series of kosher restaurants, turns 58
David Folkenflik, NPR’s media correspondent, turns 57
Kira Soltanovich, comedian, writer and actor, turns 53
Deborah Leipzig, former VP of leadership at the Anti-Defamation League
Shayla Rosen, customer success manager at Screencastify, event organizer and fundraiser
Anya Kamenetz, author and longtime education correspondent at NPR, turns 46
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, data scientist, economist and author of the 2017 New York Times bestseller Everybody Lies, turns 44
Evan D. Goldberg, screenwriter, film producer and director, often in collaboration with his childhood friend Seth Rogen, turns 44
Yael Markovich, model and Israeli beauty pageant winner, turns 42
Jonah Raskas, CEO of Harmon Face Values
Josh Gruenbaum, senior advisor to the Board of Peace, he was the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, turns 41
Amanda Bresler, chief strategy officer at PW Communications
Eliza Shapiro, reporter at The New York Times covering NYC affordability issues
Roni Dalumi, singer and actor, she was the 2009 winner of the Israeli version of “A Star is Born,” turns 35
Shani Hazan, beauty pageant titleholder, she was crowned Miss Israel 2012, turns 34
Jeff Lewis, Arizona philanthropist and founder of the Froth and Bubble Foundation
Plus, Bibi's Big Apple trip tests Mamdani
Philip Dulian/picture alliance via Getty Images
Several AI applications can be seen on a smartphone screen, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI, Grok and DeepSeek.
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the political and logistical challenges facing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the NYPD ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the city for the U.N. General Assembly, spotlight a new report from Anthropic that revealed that Iran-linked actors used AI tools to target Jews and develop weapons, and talk to GOP Reps. David Kustoff and Craig Goldman about their party’s position on U.S. aid to Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Robert Kraft, Stuart Zimmer and Judge Judith Sheindlin.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve.
Today’s Agenda
Members of Congress are back in Washington today for the final week before the House goes on recess until the November midterms. The Senate is also back in session today, and is slated to remain so until early October.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is holding its general conference in Vienna today, where Energy Secretary Chris Wright is expected to deliver a speech in which he will reiterate U.S. opposition to Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Mohammad Eslami, Iran’s vice president for nuclear affairs, had been slated to address the gathering convened by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, but was denied entry to Austria, Bloomberg reports, following pressure from the Trump administration. In Tehran, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Austrian envoy over Vienna’s move to bar the Iranian nuclear chief.
We’re also keeping an eye on tensions in the Middle East as the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen scale up their attacks on Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government launches its own attacks on the Houthis. The escalation comes after the Houthis’ capture last week of the Yemeni port city of Mokha and an island on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, as well as Riyadh’s shutdown on Friday of its East-West pipeline amid the escalation.
Elsewhere in the region, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on Sunday that a meeting between Iran and Gulf countries over the Strait of Hormuz — intended to be held in Oman today — had been indefinitely postponed, citing “the interests of consensus.”
U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon in Rome that had been slated for this week have been postponed to October, with an Israeli official saying that the rescheduled meeting was due to scheduling conflicts. The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors in Washington are still slated to meet in Foggy Bottom ahead of the October talks to discuss the implementation of a framework agreement to wind down the conflict in Lebanon and disarm Hezbollah.
One Thing To Know
Analysis
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to New York City for the U.N. General Assembly next week is expected to set up political and logistical challenges for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, one of Netanyahu’s foremost U.S. critics, experts tell Jewish Insider — a challenge that protests, which Mamdani has tacitly encouraged, may only exacerbate.
The Israeli leader is scheduled to arrive in New York on Sept. 23 and address the annual gathering the following day, during which time the NYPD’s dignitary protection detail will help ensure Netanyahu’s personal protection, its intelligence and counterterrorism teams will work to secure the gathering as a whole and an array of its officers will manage the Manhattan streets. The department reports to the mayor’s office.
The various law enforcement veterans who spoke to JI all underscored the scale of the department’s annual efforts to head off potential threats to the diplomatic summit, even without this year’s furor around Netanyahu’s attendance, the ongoing conflict with Iran and the proximity to both the Jewish High Holy Days and the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
The Big Reads
CLAUDE CONTROLS
Anthropic disclosed in a new report released on Thursday that it had over the past eight months disrupted efforts by Iran and other state-aligned groups and actors to use the AI giant’s artificial intelligence tools for “malicious activity” such as tracking U.S. forces, developing weapons guidance software and waging “cognitive warfare” to spread propaganda, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. The 154-page report also said it had identified an “Iran-nexus threat actor” using Claude, Anthropic’s chatbot, to target “hundreds of individuals in Israel and the Jewish diaspora.” The report did not specify the purpose of the activity or confirm whether it had been disabled.
AI alert: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on Saturday, calling on the AI industry to slow down and was met with agreement by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind Chairman Demis Hassabis and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
SELF SCRUTINY
A new survey of 470 Middle East scholars finds that nearly three-quarters believe American academia is less equipped to pursue truth than it was at the time of the 9/11 attacks, while two-thirds lack confidence that their students understand the attacks and say American academia has provided cover for ideologies, regimes or groups hostile to the United States, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. The findings, released last week by the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, reflect what ASMEA’s executive director, Asaf Romirowsky, described as a broader failure by American universities to maintain objectivity and intellectual rigor in the quarter century since the attacks.
AID CONVERSATION
Jewish House Republicans said during the Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership summit in Las Vegas earlier this month that there’s little appetite among Republicans to end U.S. aid to Israel as the two sides look toward the end of the current memorandum of understanding on military aid, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. “I think the message is that the majority of the members of the House want to see the aid continue, want to see this alliance continue, but elections have consequences, and we don’t know what the makeup of the next House is going to be on the Republican side and on the Democrat side,” Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN) told JI. Rep. Craig Goldman (R-TX) emphasized that Israel and the United States are facing threats not only from Iran and its nuclear program but also from the terrorist groups that Iran has spent decades funding. “I certainly will fight tooth and nail as long as I’m a member of [the] U.S. Congress to continue aid to Israel,” Goldman said.
The Rundown
NUCLEAR NEWS
EXCLUSIVE
Doha Dealings
FLAGGING FICTION
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
President Donald Trump, speaking in Ireland on Sunday, suggested that the U.S. “ultimately get out” of Iran “unless we decide to stay and keep the oil, like Venezuela,” adding that Iran “wants to make a deal so badly, and is calling constantly”…
Jared Kushner said in virtual remarks to the Yalta European Strategy conference on Friday that the U.S. used Israel’s September 2025 “errant strike” targeting Hamas officials in Qatar to pressure Jerusalem to reach a deal to end the war in Gaza, saying that the strike “led to Israel being globally isolated,” creating a dynamic the U.S. “used … in order to push them into a deal that now, today, they’re quite happy with.” Watch the conversation here.
In response to Kushner’s comments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party issued a statement pushing back on the remarks, saying that Netanyahu’s “decision to send the IDF into Gaza City and to strike the Hamas leadership in Qatar, together with the intense pressure exerted by President Trump” led to Hamas dropping its demands as well as the release of the remaining hostages.
The New Yorker does a deep dive into Kushner’s approach to diplomacy as he represents the Trump administration in a voluntary capacity in negotiations to end a number of conflicts around the world while continuing to manage his own business interests, finding that “as [Kushner] has traversed the globe for Trump, he has grown more entangled in the commercial affairs of countries where he works”…
France and Lebanon are pushing to extend the mandate of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, which is slated to expire at the end of this year, calling the move to end the decades-long U.N. presence in southern Lebanon “premature”…
The National Security Agency is planning a massive internal restructuring that will see the creation of five organizations within the agency that will focus on artificial intelligence, China, cybersecurity, combat support and global intelligence…
Front Line Action, a group linked to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), released an AI-generated ad titled “Family Values” that spotlights relatives of Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed who have made anti-Israel and anti-America statements…
Sen. Jon Husted’s (R-OH) reelection campaign fired its political director following a Washington Post report last week that he had in 2018 used an image of Nazi SS soldiers as his Facebook profile picture…
The Boulder Valley School District in Colorado settled a federal civil rights complaint with the Anti-Defamation League and the family of a Jewish middle schooler in the district who faced what the ADL described as years of “persistent, escalating, and severe antisemitic harassment” that went unaddressed by administrators in the district…
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft donated $10 million to Brandeis University to name a new 28,000-square-foot facility for Jewish life, expected to open in spring 2028, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports…
Philanthropist Stuart Zimmer, who with his wife in 2018 had pledged $100 million to Harvard University but froze the gift in response to the school’s handling of campus anti-Israel activity in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks while their daughter studied at the school, quietly resumed funding; the gift will help expand kosher dining options on campus and will include the renaming of the school’s Science Center to honor Zimmer’s father…
CBS’ “60 Minutes” premiered its 59th season with an interview with the U.S. Air Force officer who was shot down over Iran and stranded in the Islamic Republic for two days before being rescued during the conflict earlier this year…
The Hollywood Reporter spotlights SHOOQ, a new online platform designed to boost Jewish filmmakers and help connect them to funding streams and financial backers; among those backing the initiative are former NBC Co-chair Ben Silverman, 30 West CEO Micah Green, Made by Us Co-CEO Tanya Cohen, actress Emmanuelle Chriqui and producer Anthony Bregman…
Singer-songwriter Pink published a lengthy statement explaining her criticism of rapper Macklemore, who led “Free Palestine” chants while opening for Ed Sheeran at a concert earlier this month, saying that the artist “stood in front of a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice, and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them”…
Judge Judith Sheindlin — known as Judge Judy — is stepping back from the cameras after a decades-long television career as Amazon Prime stops releasing new episodes of her “Judy Justice” show; Sheindlin will serve as an executive producer for a new show starring her son, attorney Adam Levy…
Germany’s federal prosecutor said in an indictment filed last week that Hamas had planned terror attacks in Berlin and Vienna on the second anniversary of its Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel; authorities in Germany made several arrests last year in connection with the alleged plots…
A Jewish Iranian-American man from New York who had been held in Tehran’s Evin prison was released from the notorious facility after serving approximately half of a two-year sentence but remains banned from leaving the Islamic Republic…
The New York Times spotlights the wedding of Adriana Fernandez, who has gained an internet following as “Now-Jewish Nanny,” and Jordan Langer…
Kimberly Colchamiro was announced as the new chief development officer of the Jewish Broadcasting Service…
Israeli planetary scientist Adi Ninio Greenberg died at 50… Longtime political columnist Roger Simon died at 78… Rachel Rabin Yaakov, the sister of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, died at 101… Luthier Jonathan Cooper, who designed a quartet of string instruments to honor slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, died at 76… Photographer Jay Maisel died at 95… Yehuda Widawski, believed to be the oldest Holocaust survivor in Israel, died at 107…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Hard-liners in Charge: The New York Times’ Farnaz Fassihi does a deep dive into the effort by Iranian hard-liners earlier this year to derail the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran. “The hard-liners succeeded in part because the only figure with the authority to resolve such disputes — the new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei — has been a phantom since taking office in March. … Three Iranian officials said inquiries by the government and security forces traced the decision to strike the three commercial ships in July to the cleric Hossein Taeb, an influential spymaster who had opposed the peace deal with the United States from the outset.” [NYTimes]
Definition Debate: In The Wall Street Journal, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Orde Kittrie and Andres Munoz-Mosquera, a former NATO chief legal advisor, warn of an effort tied to an International Court of Justice case involving Gambia and Myanmar that would change the definition of genocide. “The Myanmar judgment, expected in October, would establish the lower threshold before the ICJ judgment on Israel. It would change the rule first in the less-watched case against Myanmar rather than seemingly invent it for Israel. … ICJ judges who vote to lower the genocide threshold will damage the court’s credibility, invite an avalanche of politicized cases, and undercut democracies’ ability to fight terrorists and autocrats.” [WSJ]
Lambasting London: In Haaretz, Peter Lerner, director general of international relations at the Histadrut and a former IDF spokesperson, argues that Britain’s move to impose sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank may prove to be politically counterproductive. “Britain has handed Netanyahu and his coalition an electoral gift. Extremists in the current government will present the sanctions as proof that the world is hostile to Israel and Israelis. … At the very moment Israelis must decide whether to replace the most extreme government in the country’s history, London has provided that government with an external enemy.” [Haaretz]
Picture of the Day
Birthdays
Walter Koenig, actor, writer and director, first known for his role as Chekov in the original “Star Trek” television series, turns 90
Lawrence Harvey “Larry” Brown, the only basketball head coach to have won both an NCAA national championship and an NBA championship, turns 86
Larry A. Mizel, founder of MDC Holdings (parent company to Richmond American Homes), CEO of the Mizel-Mandarich Foundation and the primary supporter of the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, turns 84
Frederick A. Schenk, San Diego-based attorney, a specialist in mass torts, turns 73
Daniella Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade County, turns 71
Pope Leo XIV, born in Chicago as Robert Francis Prevost, turns 71
Dr. Terry Dubrow, plastic surgeon and television personality, turns 68
Thomas Scott Kaplan, chairman and chief investment officer of The Electrum Group, he is the world’s largest private collector of Rembrandt’s works, turns 64
Amy Kauffman, founder of Mindchat Research
Paul Budnitz, founder of Vermont-based Kidrobot, a retailer of art toys, apparel and accessories, and Ello, an ad-free social network, turns 59
Sir Grant Shapps, British secretary of state for defence until 2024 and knighted in 2025, he was a national president of BBYO, turns 58
Richard Strauss, president of Strauss Media Strategies, during the Clinton administration he became the first-ever White House radio director, turns 57
Ketanji Brown Jackson, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, turns 56
Mark A. Semer, managing director at Gasthalter & Co., he is a past president of the Young Israel of New Rochelle
Elon Gold, comedian, television actor, writer and producer, turns 56
Elliot S. Berke, managing partner of Berke Farah LLP, his clients include Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
Jennifer Jacobs, senior White House reporter for CBS News
Dana Sheanin, CEO of San Francisco-based Jewish LearningWorks
Courtney Cohen Flantzer, senior booking producer at CNN’s “Inside Politics with Dana Bash”
Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida and former 2024 POTUS candidate, turns 48
Hani Furstenberg, Israeli-American Actor, turns 47
Marisa Scheinfeld, artist, photographer and educator, turns 46
Russell Berman, staff writer at The Atlantic since 2014
Leah Greenberg, co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive Indivisible movement
Roxana Pourshalimi, Los Angeles-based attorney working as a contracts supervisor at MarketCast
Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times reporter since 2011, now focused on in-depth profiles
Jeremy Moskowitz, EVP at Voyager Global Mobility
Arkadiy Abramovich, founder and owner of ARA Capital, a British firm with holdings in e-commerce and energy, he is the son of Roman Abramovich, turns 33
Julia Savel, MSW graduate at Yeshiva University
Lihie Raz, artistic gymnast, she represented Israel at the 2020 (Tokyo) and 2024 (Paris) Summer Olympics, turns 23
Plus, the rabbi who lost his voice at Ground Zero
Joshua Lott/Getty Images
Hasan Piker speaks during a campaign rally for Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong on August 2, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the reaction of Jewish community leaders to Norm Eisen’s alliances with critics of Israel, and cover the blowback from University of Texas College Dems’ invitation to Hasan Piker to speak on campus. We report on a new poll that finds low support among Jewish voters for Vice President JD Vance, and ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we interview, through written correspondence, Rabbi Ronald Kaplan, whose service as a spiritual first responder at Ground Zero during the aftermath of the attacks ultimately cost him his voice. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Rep. Brad Knott and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Curated by JI Israel Editor Tamara Zieve and U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik with an assist from Marc Rod.
Ed note: In observance of Rosh Hashanah, the next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Monday, Sept. 14. Chag sameach and shana tovah. We will be publishing stories and updates throughout the weekend on our Live Briefing, which you can access via our app and website.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition — a curated PDF of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: › Rep. Jared Moskowitz: Pro-Israel Democrats are being ‘ostracized’ in the Democratic Party; After son’s remains returned from Gaza, Ruby Chen continues his fight in Washington and beyond; Birthright launches Global Business Summit, connecting Diaspora donors, Israeli financial figures.
Today’s Agenda
We’re monitoring developments in the Middle East after Iran reportedly damaged multiple U.S. military aircraft in overnight strikes at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, according to CBS reporter Jennifer Jacobs. The strikes took off the wing of an A-10 Thunderbolt II, known as the Warthog, while eight F-15s sustained light damage and were placed back into service, sources told CBS.
The Iran-backed Houthis have reportedly seized the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Mocha, Yemeni government sources told Reuters. Witnesses told AFP the rebel forces chanted “Death to America, death to Israel,” as they entered the city.
The GOP midterm convention concludes this evening with a keynote address from Vice President JD Vance and closing remarks from President Donald Trump. Also set to address the convening today are Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Donald Trump Jr.
Targeting Vance’s speech, Democratic Majority for Israel is running digital ads across mobile devices and websites in Dallas, raising questions about the vice president’s alliance with Tucker Carlson and what it described in a statement as his “conditional support” for Israel.
In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is displaying 40 artifacts from the three sites — New York, the Pentagon and the Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville, Pa. — through Saturday. The museum is also screening the 2011 Smithsonian Channel documentary, “9/11: Stories in Fragments,” hourly, through Friday, and the Udvar-Hazy Center is hosting a panel this evening with first responders and aviation personnel.
On Friday, Trump will attend the Pentagon memorial ceremony, while Vance will represent the White House in attending the memorial ceremony at Ground Zero.
One Thing To Know
Norm-alizing?
Norm Eisen, a former Obama White House lawyer and U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, has in recent months emerged as one of the Trump administration’s most prominent legal antagonists.
Through a nonprofit group he founded, Democracy Defenders Fund, Eisen has helped to wage a series of key court battles challenging the administration over issues like birthright citizenship, the Federal Reserve and the Kennedy Center, claiming some victories in a fight against what he calls President Donald Trump’s executive overreach.
But Eisen’s recent work with two vocal critics of Israel who have faced accusations of antisemitism has raised some eyebrows in the Jewish community, owing to his identification as a liberal Zionist whose record includes combating anti-Jewish prejudice at home and abroad.
The Big Reads
PIKER PUSHBACK
The University of Texas’ College Democrats chapter invited antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker to speak on campus at the end of the month, sparking outrage from Jewish leaders and students on campus and generating a potential political firestorm in a red state hosting consequential elections in November’s midterms, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. The event is scheduled to be held on Sept. 30, amid the final stretch of Texas’ highly competitive Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico and a competitive gubernatorial contest between GOP Gov. Greg Abbott and Democrat Gina Hinojosa. “Hasan Piker said America deserved 9/11 and praised the brutal terrorist organization Hamas. University Democrats at UT Austin are choosing to amplify that disgusting rhetoric. Terrorist sympathizers have no place in Texas,” an Abbott spokesperson told JI.
BEYOND WORDS
For more than four decades, Rabbi Ronald Kaplan’s primary tool for his work was his voice. It was the instrument he relied on every Shabbat and holiday on the bimah, in the classroom, under the chuppah, at the cemetery and in the hospital — guiding congregants through both moments of celebration and grief. As he puts it, a rabbi’s task is to “pray, to teach, to inspire, to counsel and to lead” — and the voice is the means to do it, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. But this year, as the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — a commemoration that falls as the major Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins on Friday night — that work of speaking and remembering holds particular resonance for Kaplan, whose service as a spiritual first responder at Ground Zero during the aftermath of the attacks ultimately cost him his “greatest sacrifice” — his voice.
SURVEY SAYS
A new poll of Jewish American voters commissioned by the nonpartisan Jewish Voters Resource Center found that Vice President JD Vance is viewed negatively by more than 80% of Jewish voters, including a sizable number of Jewish Republicans, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. The poll finds Vance’s favorability rating at only 14% among Jewish voters overall, with 82% viewing him unfavorably. Only 61% of Jewish Republicans view Vance favorably, compared to the 89% of those who view President Donald Trump favorably, and the 93% of Jewish Republicans who hold a favorable view of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The Rundown
SENSE OF SECURITY
BACKUP PLAN
Doha Dealings
FLAGGING FICTION
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
President Donald Trump predicted on Wednesday that the Iran war “will end immediately after” the midterm elections because the Iranian regime is “desperate to affect the election,” though his top advisors are reportedly privately discussing the possibility that the war could run through the rest of his term…
Trump has begun tapping his super PAC’s $400 million war chest through a new group, No Going Back PAC — financially backed by his main super PAC, MAGA Inc. — which has reserved at least $47 million in ads across six contested Senate races and one House race, led by nearly $15 million in Michigan, $11 million in Ohio and $9.6 million in New Hampshire, The New York Times reports…
J Street is spending $3 million against five AIPAC-backed Republicans in the midterm races, Axios reports, naming Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins; Reps. Max Miller (OH), Derrick Van Orden (WI), Ryan Mackenzie (PA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA) as targets of the J Street Action Fund. (Collins was endorsed by AIPAC as a House Republican running in a safe district; he hasn’t been backed by AIPAC in the Georgia Senate race)…
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) made a video appearance at the GOP midterm convention on Wednesday evening where he praised President Donald Trump and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) for their work protecting the steel industry, Axios reports. While Fetterman is still not expected to announce he is switching parties, the move, made just weeks ahead of the midterm elections, is likely to further antagonize Democrats with whom the Pennsylvania senator has become increasingly estranged…
New CNN polls of the Maine and Michigan Senate races found the Democratic candidates holding narrow leads over their Republican opponents, though both were within the margin of error. In Maine, the survey found Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) trailing Democrat Troy Jackson, 48%-45%. In Michigan, the CNN poll found Democrat Abdul El-Sayed up 47%-44% over Republican Mike Rogers. Two-thirds of voters in each state view President Donald Trump unfavorably, according to the surveys…
The Congressional Black Caucus PAC endorsed El-Sayed on Wednesday. “CBCPAC will fight alongside Abdul to build a coalition to beat Mike Rogers and get a majority in the United States Senate that can bring down costs for all Michiganders,” said the PAC’s chair, Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY)…
Elon Musk’s America PAC has spent more than $1 million in the last week on digital ads and mailers to boost Rogers and attack El-Sayed…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has privately told at least one person in recent months that he has “no plans at this time” to run for president in 2028, according to NBC News…
Jeff Miller, a Republican Jewish Coalition board member, wrote on X that while he wants Republicans to hold the House and Senate, he has no interest in “tearing down” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), whom he described as “one of the few Democrats left willing to stand unapologetically with America and Israel.” Moskowitz is locked in a competitive reelection campaign against Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, a Republican who is endorsed by the RJC…
Rhode Island state Rep. David Morales, a democratic socialist backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), unseated Providence, R.I., Mayor Brett Smiley in the mayoral Democratic primary on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Issues of Israel policy and antisemitism had dominated the race, as Morales has backed an anti-Israel ballot initiative and criticized Smiley, who is Jewish, for attending a Combat Antisemitism Movement conference…
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee became the first U.S. governor since 2014 not to win renomination, losing to businesswoman Helena Foulkes by 24 points in the Democratic gubernatorial primary…
The Office of Congressional Conduct, a nonpartisan investigative entity, cleared Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) of wrongdoing in connection with documents she submitted to Congress that dramatically overstated her wealth, The Wall Street Journal reports. A disclosure filed last year showed Omar and her husband had assets of between $6 million and $30 million, indicating a massive jump in personal wealth over a short period of time, but the investigation concluded the numbers were inflated because of an accounting error…
Asked about the U.K., France and Canada enacting sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon on his way to Dallas for the GOP midterm convention that he’ll be “speaking to Israel” about the issue. “I understand exactly what’s going on, but I want to find out why all of a sudden does that happen,” he added…
Maryland state Sen. Cheryl Kagan and West Virginia state Sen. Jay Taylor, as well as Nevo Barchad, deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., spoke at the embassy’s Rosh Hashanah celebration on Wednesday night. Under Secretary of State Sarah Rogers, Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun and Department of Justice Senior Counsel Leo Terrell were among those in attendance…
Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Craig Goldman (R-TX), Ann Wagner (R-MO), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take steps to ensure Hamas cannot “exploit” the economic instability in the West Bank, raising concerns about Israel’s decision to withhold tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority…
Israelis are divided on the importance of U.S.-Israel relations as a factor in their decision of which party to vote for in the October elections, with 55% of Jewish Israelis and 26.5% of Arab Israelis seeing it as an important issue, according to a poll published on Wednesday by the Israel Democracy Institute…
An Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday morning reportedly killed a family of four, including two children, health officials said. The IDF told The Times of Israel it was looking into the reports…
Joel Lion, Israel’s former ambassador to Ukraine, Moldova and Armenia, has been appointed as the acting chargé d’affaires to Turkey and presented his credentials to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced…
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors voted on Wednesday for the first time in two decades to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for violating its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, diplomats told Reuters. The move marks an escalation that opens Iran to possible U.N. sanctions, though Russia and China’s vetoes on the UNSC make actual punitive action unlikely…
DreamWorks Animation co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, Bill Peebles, the former head of OpenAI’s Sora app, and former Dropbox CFO Sujay Jaswa are planning to launch a new AI video startup that would train its own models for filmmakers, and are in talks with potential investors including Andreessen Horowitz to raise funding, The Information reports…
The world-famous Carnegie Deli is reopening in Manhattan, and will be located in the space of the former Stage Deli, which closed in 2012…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The Blame Game: Wall Street Journal columnist Barton Swaim reflects on the tendency for anti-American activists to blame Israel as a stand-in for their antipathy of the United States: “In the years after 9/11, blaming America for the activities of Islamic terrorists became a mania among left-tilting scribblers the world over. When they couldn’t reasonably attach culpability to America — because the attack happened in France or Spain, which consistently oppose U.S. interventions — the enlightened blamed America’s stand-in, Israel. Somehow the jihadists always lacked agency. A corollary belief, equally resistant to evidence, holds that violent criminals commit their offenses because some societal inequity drove them to it.” [WSJ]
Some Things Are Nonnegotiable: Shalom Hartman Institute President Yehuda Kurtzer writes on his Substack about the need for Jewish leaders to set clear red lines for politicians who want to win their support: “When voters fail to use their leverage, they relinquish power to those who have not earned it, they forfeit the responsibilities of the citizen who is meant to be sovereign, and they allow politicians to be static when they should always be bendable. This exercise of power is best expressed through transparency… I see many Jews doing the opposite, searching for signs of what is in a politician’s heart, parsing their rhetoric, standing on the side to wait which way the wind is blowing, and lamenting their chosen condition of ultimately having to choose between imperfect choices.” [Substack]
Picture of the Day
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (left) inaugurated the first Israeli Embassy in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana on Wednesday, alongside his Slovenian counterpart, Tone Kajzer. The two ministers also signed a multi-sector cooperation agreement ahead of a joint business forum, as their countries move to strengthen ties. Gideon Sa’ar/X
Birthdays
Eric Kaplan, television writer and producer whose work includes “The Big Bang Theory,” turns 55
Stanley Gold, chairman of Shamrock Holdings, Roy Disney’s private investment company, turns 84
Dianne Varon, retired realtor in Southern California
Gerald Fishman, former EVP and general counsel at Chicago’s futures broker Rosenthal Collins Group
Howard Penner, past president of Congregation Ahavas Israel in Passaic, N.J.
Henri Goettel, retired coordinator at Truman Heartland Community Foundation, she was a Hebrew teacher at Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kan.
Gary M. Polland, Houston attorney and Republican Party activist, turns 76
Joel Judd, Denver attorney and politician, he served in the Colorado House of Representatives for eight years, turns 74
Nancy Finkel, executive assistant to the office managing partner of the E&Y office in Tampa
Cynthia Lummis, U.S. senator (R-WY), turns 72
Matthew Fried, retired VP at Goldman Sachs, now a part-time elementary school teacher
Steven Greenspan, real estate attorney in South Florida
Amity Ruth Shlaes, writer, columnist and author of three NYT bestsellers, turns 66
Richard Behar, award-winning journalist and author, he wrote a 2024 book on Bernie Madoff
Charles Rosenberg, former acting administrator of the DEA, now a senior counsel at D.C.’s Crowell & Moring, turns 66
Andrew Shapiro, founder and managing director at Beacon Global Strategies, he serves on the New Leadership Council of the Jewish Democratic Council of America
Lawrence Garbuz, NYC trusts and estates attorney
Jonathan Soros, co-founder and partner of One Madison Group, he is a son of George Soros, turns 56
Ariel Sadwin, executive director of the Maryland / Mid-Atlantic region of Agudath Israel
Sarah Schneider, writer, actor and comedian, she was a writer for “Saturday Night Live,” turns 43
Charles Szold, principal at Blue Zone Partners and managing partner at Precision Infrastructure Management
Joshua A. Nass, PR strategist, crisis manager and media analyst
Trey Yingst, chief foreign correspondent for Fox News, his 2024 book, Black Saturday, covers the events of Oct. 7 and the war that followed, turns 33
Jennifer Meyer
The prominent Trump legal antagonist and self-described Zionist has teamed with Mark Ruffalo and Karen Attiah to combat what he calls executive overreach
(Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)
Norm Eisen at the 2026 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner held at the Washington Hilton on April 25, 2026 in Washington, D.C.
Norm Eisen, a former Obama White House lawyer and U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, has in recent months emerged as one of the Trump administration’s most prominent legal antagonists.
Through a nonprofit group he founded, Democracy Defenders Fund, Eisen has helped to wage a series of key court battles challenging the administration over issues like birthright citizenship, the Federal Reserve and the Kennedy Center, claiming some victories in a fight against what he calls President Donald Trump’s executive overreach.
But Eisen’s recent work with two vocal critics of Israel who have faced accusations of antisemitism has raised some eyebrows in the Jewish community, owing to his identification as a liberal Zionist whose record includes combating anti-Jewish prejudice at home and abroad.
In a broader effort to take on those he views as the president’s “enablers” outside of government, Eisen has notably teamed up with actor Mark Ruffalo, one of the fiercest detractors of Israel in Hollywood, to block the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery — a pending deal opponents warn would consolidate ownership in the hands of a Trump ally.
Last month, Ruffalo drew backlash from Jewish leaders who said he had used antisemitic rhetoric in social media posts attacking David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount, and his father, Larry, the founder of Oracle and a top Trump donor whom the actor said “will own most of ‘Para Bros.’” Ruffalo accused the Ellisons of enabling “genocide,” claiming Oracle had been “built on an apartheid system of oppression” in Gaza, among other statements linking the deal to the Middle East.
Amid the subsequent fallout, Eisen, for his part, reportedly tried to enlist Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, to help Ruffalo convey contrition for his social media comments, but was rebuffed. A spokesperson for the ADL declined to comment on Eisen’s alleged outreach to Greenblatt — who called Ruffalo’s remarks “cynical and sickening.”
Eisen then reportedly worked to gather support from more than 180 Jewish entertainment figures who signed an open letter defending Ruffalo amid what they criticized as a “smear campaign” promoting “spurious charges of antisemitism” against the actor.
Eisen denied the alleged back-channeling on Ruffalo’s behalf. “I did not work on the letter and I was not rebuffed by ADL,” he said in a statement to Jewish Insider shared by a press representative on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Eisen has touted his role in helping to represent Karen Attiah, who was recently reinstated as a columnist at The Washington Post after a private arbitrator concluded the paper wrongly fired her over social media comments she made about the killing of Charlie Kirk.
While her termination was not related to remarks about Israel, Attiah has faced scrutiny in the Jewish community for her writings and social media activity in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, including the promotion of messages that justified the violence.
Eisen hailed the arbitrator’s decision as “a landmark victory for one of our nation’s crusading journalists” and shot a celebratory video with Attiah afterward — even as some free speech advocates questioned if the case could be reasonably argued on First Amendment grounds since it was not tied to the government but a paper owned by Jeff Bezos, who has cultivated ties to the Trump administration.
The American legal tradition has long rested on the principle that attorneys need not share their clients’ views in order to represent them. Still, Eisen’s work with Ruffalo and Attiah has provoked quiet curiosity among Jewish leaders familiar with his involvement in pro-Israel and Jewish causes.
Eisen, an Orthodox Jew, served as assistant director of the ADL’s Los Angeles office before he became the chief White House ethics lawyer to former President Barack Obama, a Harvard Law School classmate, earning the nickname “Mr. No” for his Talmudic commitment to upholding rules and standards.
He was later appointed ambassador to the Czech Republic, a particularly significant post for Eisen, whose mother was deported to Auschwitz from what was then Czechoslovakia during World War II.
In 2018, Eisen, who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, published a book, The Last Palace: Europe’s Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House, centering on the villa in Prague where he had lived as ambassador, which was built by a Jewish financier after World War I and was later occupied by the Nazis.
In a statement to JI on Monday, Eisen said that he was “proud to represent Karen Attiah in her unjust firing by The Washington Post — a firing that has been adjudicated illegal,” while noting that he was also “proud to work side-by-side with Mark Ruffalo to block the Paramount Warner’s merger.”
“Do I agree with them — or with anyone — on every issue? Of course not. I am a Zionist who supports a two-state solution (and is strongly anti-Bibi),” Eisen added, using the nickname for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“But,” he argued, “I believe it is OK and indeed mandatory to agree to disagree on particular issues while we join together on the cause of defending US democracy from an authoritarian president like Donald Trump — and his autocratic enablers like Bezos or the Ellisons.”
To mark the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, the Jewish Insider team asked leading thinkers and practitioners to reflect on how that day has changed the world. Here, we look at how Oct. 7 changed American Politics
Worawat/Adobe Stock
The United States Capitol with reflection at night Washington DC USA
The House Judiciary Committee's majority counsel details the behind-the-scenes discussions and deliberations during the Trump impeachment trial
Andrew Harrer/Pool via AP
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., speaks as staff attorney Norm Eisen listens during a House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019.
Norm Eisen describes himself as an optimist. It’s that positive thinking, he believes, that kept him from deep disappointment after President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate in early February on two articles of impeachment resulting from issues of foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Eisen, the White House special counsel for ethics and government reform under President Barack Obama, wasn’t surprised by the decision to acquit the president on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But he does take comfort in the idea that the vote — which presented a unified Democratic front, and a bipartisan effort on the charge to remove Trump from office — presented a strong case for voters to consider when they head to the polls in November.
In a new book out today, A Case for the American People: The United States v. Donald J. Trump, Eisen offers an exclusive look at the behind-the-scenes discussions and deliberations — as well as his conversations with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), the only Republican to side with the Democrats on one of the charges — he had as the majority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment trial.
“One of the few things that everyone agreed on in the impeachment trial was that whether to convict or to acquit the president was up to the American people,” Eisen said in a recent interview with Jewish Insider. “The House managers and we, the lawyers, felt that the Senate should have taken that responsibility. But since they didn’t, it was now a case for the American people. And that is why I wrote the book, so that the job that I helped begin can be completed when all Americans vote on the president’s behavior in November.”
Eisen, a lifelong Democrat, goes to great lengths to illustrate that he was originally hoping he could be an asset. Eisen details the help he provided to Chris Christie in the summer of 2016, when the former New Jersey governor served as head of the Trump transition team, as well as to the senior team at Trump Tower after the November election. “I was doing my part to help Donald Trump prepare to take the reins of our government, and side by side with my sadness, I felt some measure of hope that he might do a good job,” he writes.
“I was not a ‘Never Trumper,’” Eisen told JI, using the term to describe Republicans who refused to support Trump’s candidacy, even after he was declared the party’s nominee. “I tried to help. I have had dinner with the president. I found him to be personable and engaging at the time. I am acquainted with his daughter [Ivanka] and his son-in-law [Jared Kushner]. Once he was elected, he was going to be the president of all of us, and I was prepared as a patriotic American to do what I could to help.”
The gesture blew up in Eisen’s face as he watched the first post-election press conference, in which Trump declared he would not divest from his businesses. “That press conference was the moment when my hope for the Trump presidency was lost,” he writes. From then on, Eisen was a vocal critic of the president and his family over ethical transparency and conflict of interest matters. “That was the breaking point for me,” he said.
Over the course of the Trump presidency, Eisen has seen a spike in Twitter followers — now at 271,000 — attributable to his frequent media appearances and outspokenness on rule of law. “But I would gladly go back to 5,000 Twitter followers to get rid of [Trump],” Eisen told JI.
In February 2019, Eisen, who was a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, was hired as the House Judiciary Committee’s special counsel building the case for the impeachment of Trump. Eisen questioned witnesses in committee hearings, helped to draft the articles of impeachment, and assisted Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) and other House managers during the Senate trial.
Eisen reveals in the book that, working with Nadler and co-counsel Barry Berke, the team had prepared 10 articles of impeachment against Trump, but in the end settled on just two in order to get the requisite support from legislators. “I believe that gave the country a structure to understand Trump’s bad actions,” Eisen told JI. “Often I get asked, wasn’t it a mistake to do impeachment since he was acquitted? Absolutely not, because you wouldn’t have the third stage of the rocket most fundamentally, you wouldn’t have the American people fully understanding what’s happening now.”
The decision to move toward impeachment following the 2019 Ukraine scandal, Eisen told JI, wasn’t a rushed one. While he was disappointed with the outcome of former FBI director Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Eisen believes the Mueller findings helped the House committees demonstrate a pattern of presidential misconduct. According to Eisen, 135 Democrats supported impeachment by the end of the August recess, up from 95 following Mueller’s hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee in July.
“Think of the impeachment as a rocket that has three stages. There was the booster rocket — the Mueller report. Ukraine was the second stage that pushes you further along, and this book and the national debate that the nation is having now about the president’s response to coronavirus is the third stage,” he explained. “But all three stages are the same. Instead of working for American interests, to save American lives and help our country, it’s all about what’s good for the president’s personal and political interests.”
Eisen, who served as ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2014, said that he was very careful to avoid contact with foreign officials and with some of his colleagues in the diplomatic corps during the trial. But now that the trial is over, “many people around the world have said to me, ‘America is so strong because you can still hold your president accountable.’ A president cannot do this kind of thing and just get away with it like in other countries,” he said. “Foreign leaders were very impressed with the effort.”
“So even though the work is not done yet, it will be finished,” Eisen said, with hope in his voice. “It won’t be a success unless it has the right outcome of impeaching him, the people impeaching him in November.”
In the book, Eisen describes Nadler as a ‘mensch’ and details the close friendship the pair developed in recent years, including a shiva call in the fall of 2018 when Eisen mourned the death of his brother. “For all his haimish (down-home) ways, from our earliest conversations it struck me that Jerry was exactly the man to take down Trump for his constitutional violations, if anyone could,” Eisen writes.
“This book has the most Yiddish in it of any impeachment book ever written; maybe the most Yiddish book ever written about the inner workings of the American government,” Eisen quipped, “because Jerry Nadler and I are shtemming from similar roots.”
In the interview, Eisen used a unique Yiddish term to describe Nadler’s overall approach: yo yo, nisht nisht — which translates to “you either do it or you don’t.”
“He’s not ‘waffly,’” Eisen told JI of the longtime New York congressman. “He makes up his mind, what is the right thing. If it’s right, yes. if it’s wrong, no — and he drives forward. I felt comfortable with that kind of a strong moral compass. He’s a straight shooter. I felt at home.”
Among the details of the impeachment process, the book is also a reflection of Eisen’s personality. Throughout the book, Eisen details his own thinking and offers a personal look into his work. “The book is full of my own mistakes,” he said. “I think you should not write a book that talks about other people unless you write about yourself. You should be toughest on yourself [out] of everybody.”
Eisen said that as a public figure taking on Trump, he felt targeted for being Jewish. He pointed to comments made by Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) during an inquiry hearing last December, referring to Berke as a “New York lawyer,” which was perceived at the time as an antisemitic dog whistle. Eisen said the remark had “a demeaning effect that caused me to stiffen. That can be a common code word, as in ‘New York Jewish lawyer.’ I shrugged it off the first time, but when he did it again my temper flared up,” he writes.
Eisen, who along with Nadler and some of the House managers are Jewish, suggested that “the mere presence of any single Jew, no matter how large the crowd is, the antisemites are always going to seek him or her out, and that happened.” Eisen said.
“That being said, in this beautiful mosaic of America, there is a role for the Jewish people,” he said. “Baruch Hashem we have a very active [role] to play in America and that is, we make a big contribution. I’m very proud of that. I am proud of my Jewish identity.”
Looking back, Eisen believes Romney’s vote for one of the articles of impeachment made the Senate vote on Trump’s impeachment a truly historic moment for the county. “I did not feel sad,” Eisen said of the president’s acquittal. ”I don’t think people would be awake the way they are to what’s happening without all of the warnings.” But he added that it took Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic for public opinion to turn dramatically against the president. Eisen compared the situation to a person waking up only after the third alarm rings in the morning.
Commenting on the 2020 presidential race, Eisen said Jewish voters shouldn’t judge Trump just by his pro-Israel record, particularly given Biden’s longstanding support of Israel. “I feel that the president’s pathological selfishness also represents a danger to the State of Israel, because this is somebody who’s fundamentally interested in only himself,” he explained. “So for the moment, Israel suits his interests and serves his interests, but he could turn in a moment. Look how he’s turned off some of the people around him. If he felt it turns against his interest, I believe he would sacrifice Israel in a heartbeat.”
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