Plus, an interview with Judge Jeanine
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) campaigns with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) at an Evening for Patriotism and Bipartisanship event on November 1, 2022, in East Lansing, Michigan.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff we explore how Sen. Jon Ossoff’s Wednesday night vote in favor of blocking a shipment of automatic weapons to Israel is fueling renewed frustration among the Georgia Jewish community and cover Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s statement of support for the weapons-blocking votes from which she was absent. We also have the scoop on Rep. Ro Khanna’s push for U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state. We report on a conversation between the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation head Rev. Johnnie Moore and members of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, and sit down with the new interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Steve Witkoff, Dennis Ross and Antoun Sehnaoui.
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: Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s leading Jewish lady; New York Jewish leaders reluctant to fight against Mamdani; Turning mourning into action to address a modern tragedy, Jewish and Earth Alliance holds pre-Tisha B’Av environmental lobbying day. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Following meetings in Israel yesterday, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee traveled to Gaza today to visit humanitarian aid sites and “meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced in a briefing yesterday. After their visit, President Donald Trump will approve a “final plan” for food and aid distribution in Gaza.
- Israel and the U.S. have agreed that it is necessary to reach a comprehensive framework, rather than another partial deal, that releases all the hostages at once and ends the war in Gaza with the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the enclave, a senior Israeli official told reporters.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
This week, the Trump administration demonstrated its endgame in its fight against campus antisemitism: hefty financial settlements.
Columbia University agreed to pay $221 million to the federal government to settle the administration’s civil rights investigation, and Brown University will pay $50 million to Rhode Island workforce development agencies to put a federal civil rights investigation to rest. Harvard is reportedly willing to spend up to $500 million on a settlement that is in the works. In return, frozen research grants to the tune of billions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services will be reinstated.
What these early settlements have made clear is that antisemitism is only one small part of President Donald Trump’s fight against elite universities. The agreements offer a window into the other right-wing culture war issues driving his administration’s hard-charging negotiations with America’s top academic institutions. The lengthy documents also have the universities ceding to White House demands on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, race-based hiring standards, transgender issues and international students.
In its agreement with the White House, Columbia pledged to hire an administrator to “serve as a liaison to students concerning antisemitism issues,” and promised other sought-after changes, such as the hiring of new faculty members in the Israel and Jewish studies department and additional oversight of the school’s Middle East studies program.
But the propositions agreed to by Columbia go much further. The school pledged not to use racial preferences in admissions and promised to share admissions and hiring data with the federal government. The university also said it will allow any women who want it to have access to “single-sex housing” and “all-female sports, locker rooms and showering facilities,” a reference to Trump’s opposition to the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sports.
FRAYED TIES
Ossoff’s vote to block arms sale to Israel hampers his Jewish outreach efforts
Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) vote Wednesday night, with a majority of Senate Democrats, in favor of a resolution to block a shipment of automatic weapons to Israel is fueling renewed frustration with the senator within the Georgia Jewish community, setting back efforts by the senator to repair ties with Jewish voters who objected to similar votes last December, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: Ossoff’s relationship with Georgia’s sizable Jewish community could be a critical deciding factor in his reelection campaign next November — with a tight margin of victory expected in the swing state, significant changes in Jewish voting patterns could help decide the election. Norman Radow, a major Democratic donor in Georgia who spoke to Ossoff on Wednesday evening after the votes, told JI, “I’m disappointed with him and he knows it. And I think he knows that a vast majority of the Jewish community feels the same way.”
SLOTKIN’S STANCE
Slotkin says she supports resolutions on blocking arms sales to Israel
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said Thursday that she supported two resolutions led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to cut off shipments of assault rifles and bombs and bomb guidance kits to Israel, in a pivot from her previous stances. Slotkin missed the votes on the resolutions which occurred Wednesday, having spent part of the day taping an episode of “The Late Show with Steven Colbert.” Her support brings the total number of Democrats supporting the two resolutions to 28 and 25, respectively. Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a potential future colleague of Slotkin in Michigan’s Senate delegation, also voiced support Wednesday for cutting off offensive weapons to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Slotkin’s statement: “I have struggled with this Joint Resolution of Disapproval more than any previous votes in the nearly two years since Hamas initiated the attacks of October 7,” Slotkin said in a statement. “Had I made it back for the vote yesterday, I would have voted yes to block offensive weapons to Israel based on my concerns over lack of food and medicine getting to civilians in Gaza.” She said she remains a “strong supporter of the Jewish State of Israel … But despite the fact that Hamas began this bloody round of conflict — and refuses to release the hostages — the images of emaciated children are hard to turn away from. As are the calls from Michiganders who have friends and family trying to survive in Gaza.”
CONGREGATION CONVERSATION
GHF head Johnnie Moore faces tough questioning from Sinai Temple congregants
Faced with tough questions about the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza from members of one of the country’s most prominent synagogues, Rev. Johnnie Moore, executive chairman of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, defended his organization’s actions and said reports of civilian casualties at GHF’s aid sites are overblown. “The hunger crisis in Gaza is real, and on the same token, this crisis is being used in all kinds of different ways to advance other agendas,” Moore told members of Sinai Temple, a large Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles, in a webinar hosted on Thursday by its leader, Rabbi Erez Sherman, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Hamas’ hold: “Hamas is losing control,” said Moore, a member of President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory committee. The terrorist organization has made shutting down GHF a central demand in ceasefire negotiations with the U.S. and Israel. “We are meeting with Gazans every single day.” As hunger worsens in Gaza, some pro-Israel American Jews, like those at Sinai Temple, are growing increasingly concerned with the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave and placing some of the responsibility with GHF, which took over the aid distribution in May with backing from the United States and Israel.
SCOOP
Rep. Khanna, progressives push for U.S. recognition of Palestinian state
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is circulating a letter among House lawmakers to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling for the United States to recognize a Palestinian state, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: “We are writing to request that the United States officially recognize a Palestinian state, as this tragic moment has highlighted for the world the long overdue need to recognize Palestinian self-determination,” a draft version of the letter obtained by JI reads. “Just as the lives of Palestinians must be immediately protected, so too must their rights as a people and nation urgently be acknowledged and upheld.” The letter had nine co-signatories as of Thursday evening. Khanna said that it began circulating earlier this week and he plans to send it during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September.
JUSTICE AGENDA
Pirro prioritizes fighting antisemitism in her new role as U.S. attorney
When interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro began her tenure as Westchester County, N.Y., district attorney on New Years Day in 1994, she walked into her new office to discover a backlog of antisemitism-related cases left behind by her predecessor. In an interview with JI at her D.C. office on Tuesday, Pirro said learning of the scope of antisemitism in Westchester County opened her eyes to “the trauma and the revictimization” of the Jewish people and prompted her to get involved with efforts to promote Holocaust education through the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs, Marc Rod and Josh Kraushaar report.
‘Telling’ first days: “It’s almost like this thing that follows me,” Pirro said of prosecuting anti-Jewish hate crimes, calling it “so telling” that the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington — by a 31-year-old suspect who witnesses said shouted “free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” — took place during her first week in her current role. “My introduction here was just stunning, and it kind of brought me back to where I started, as a local DA, right off the bat with antisemitism,” she said of her initial days as U.S. attorney for the nation’s capital.
ON THE HILL
Senate Appropriations Committee pushes for increase in U.S.-Israel defense funds
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s draft 2026 defense funding bill, approved by a broad bipartisan committee vote on Thursday, includes increases to several U.S.-Israel cooperative defense programs, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
By the numbers: The bill includes a total of $80 million in additional funding, as compared to 2025, for several cooperative programs with Israel. It offers a total of $75 million for counter-drone and missile programs, $47.5 million for cooperative programs in emerging defense technologies like artificial intelligence and $80 million for counter-tunneling programs, according to a summary released by the committee. The bill includes the $500 million for cooperative missile-defense programs including Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow provided annually under the terms of the U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding. It also offers additional security assistance funding for Bahrain and Jordan.
Funding fury: Senate Appropriations committee members sparred on Thursday about the Trump administration’s sweeping moves to combat campus antisemitism, including withholding hundreds of millions of dollars from some elite institutions.
Worthy Reads
End of a Bromance: The Atlantic’s Jonathan Lemire and Isaac Stanley-Becker write that President Donald Trump has broken rhetorically with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days over the issue of starvation in Gaza because of his frustration with the seemingly endless war and “gruesome photos” he sees on TV. “During the 2024 campaign, Trump frequently boasted that he had kept the world free of conflict during his first term, and he returned to the Oval Office this year pledging to bring the wars in Gaza and Ukraine to a quick close. Instead, both have escalated, to Trump’s humiliation. … Netanyahu’s recent strikes in Syria and his rejection of claims about the Gaza famine have angered Trump. The president is eager to stabilize the Middle East — and expand the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Gulf states in his first term — in order to foster business and trade relationships in the region. … Netanyahu’s defiance has caused an additional rupture in Trump’s base—and frustrated the president by creating yet another news cycle he can’t control. ‘He just really wants these stories to stop being on TV,’ the outside adviser told us.” [TheAtlantic]
Flood Gaza With Food: Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian from Gaza now heading the Atlantic Council’s Realign for Palestine project, argues in The Atlantic that “Hamas wants Gaza to starve” and therefore Israel should ensure the enclave receives ample food and aid. “Hamas actually wants a famine in Gaza. Producing mass death from hunger is the group’s final play, its last hope for ending the war in a way that advances its goals. Hamas has benefited from Israel’s decision to use food as a lever against the terror group, because the catastrophic conditions for civilians have generated an international outcry, which is worsening Israel’s global standing and forcing it to reverse course. … If Hamas believes that the suffering of Gazans bolsters its cause, Israeli decision makers should take that to heart. They should abandon their misguided and inhumane policies and cease their efforts to pressure the population as a means of pressuring the terror group. The best way to undermine Hamas’s position is to instead flood Gaza with food, and to alleviate the suffering of its people.” [TheAtlantic]
Faith in Dark Times: In his Substack column, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren reflects on hope during the period of mourning before Tisha B’Av. “Finally, there is the most fundamental source of my hope, its bedrock. Faith. No greater leap of it is required of any religion more than atheism. To deny the existence of an Almighty means insisting that the countless trillions-to-one chance that a certain planet in a specific orbit around an ideally-situated sun would generate an atmosphere, produce water and life forms that would evolve into sentient human beings — that all of that was a mere coincidence, necessitates incalculable faith. So, too, must an atheist view the ideas of monotheism, universal morality, and the relentless pursuit of justice introduced by a small, desert people as an historical accident. An atheist must look at Israel today and conclude that its existence, to say nothing of its achievements, is merely a fluke, and Jews are — as Toynbee once infamously called us — a fossil people.” [Substack]
Losing the PR War: Haviv Rettig Gur argues in The Free Press that while Israel is succeeding in its ground war in Gaza, it has “utterly failed in the humanitarian war,” and “the only place it has fared worse is in the information war. In that arena, it has failed so miserably that Hamas has been propped up at every turn, its resilience assured, and all Israel’s gains in the battlefield jeopardized. … Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu literally does not have a clearly identified English language spokesperson. No one in the Israeli state apparatus tracks claims about the country or the war and responds, handles damage control, or manages the narrative and coordinates the message—the sorts of activities that every political campaign understands is the bread and butter of a winning strategy. … [Israel] tried to play a game of chicken with humanitarian aid. It blinked first. Obviously. How could it have been otherwise? Which Israeli strategist was dumb enough ever to think that Israel’s threshold of tolerance for Gazan suffering was higher than Hamas’s? And finally, we failed to understand that when Israel does not speak to the world while people die, Hamas is strengthened.” [FreePress]
Word on the Street
The State Department announced sanctions that will deny visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and officials from the Palestinian Authority on Thursday, over the PLO and PA’s continued “pay-for-slay” policy, glorification of violence “especially in textbooks” and initiation of or support for proceedings against Israel at the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice…
The Trump administration notified Congress that it has determined the U.N. Relief and Works Agency “is irredeemably compromised and now seeks its full dismantlement” on July 29, the Free Beacon scooped…
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group released a video yesterday of Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, which the group said it filmed before it lost contact with its members who are holding Braslavski captive in Gaza. Braslavski appears pale and thin…
The Washington Post published a list of names and ages of 18,500 children whom the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says were killed during the war in Gaza…
The U.S. must compensate Iran for losses incurred from the June war between Israel and Iran, which the U.S. participated in, before it will return to nuclear talks, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister and chief negotiator, told the Financial Times on Thursday…
Michael Whatley, chair of the Republican National Committee, launched his bid for North Carolina’s open Senate seat on Thursday, days after former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced he’s seeking the Democratic nomination. An Emerson College poll, released this morning by Politico, found Cooper holding a six-point lead…
Israel’s National Security Council issued a warning to its citizens in the United Arab Emirates and is reportedly evacuating its diplomats due to increased terror threats from Iran targeting Israeli nationals there…
Harvard may face a new lawsuit from the Trump administration after the Department of Health and Human Services, which had been investigating the university for antisemitism, found the school in violation of the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and that it would not “voluntarily comply with its obligations.” HHS referred the case to the Department of Justice, which will decide how to proceed, according to the Free Press…
President Donald Trump unveiled his new reciprocal tariff rates Thursday night in anticipation of his Aug. 1 trade deal deadline. The new rates include a 15% tariff on imports from Israel, down from the initial 17% rate imposed in April…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio postponed a meeting with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in Washington on Wednesday, Bloomberg reports, intended to help broker peace talks in Sudan. The delay reportedly comes as Egypt disagreed with the intended joint statement stating neither of the North African country’s warring parties — the Sudanese Armed Forces nor the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces — could lead the transitional government…
Sens. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Sara Jacobs (D-CA) wrote to U.S. companies providing security for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, saying, “We were horrified by reporting this week on your companies’ deadly security operations in Gaza. Your operations have exposed hundreds of brave American veterans to future criminal and civil liability under U.S. laws criminalizing war crimes, torture, and forced deportation”…
Former Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” her first interview since losing the 2024 presidential election…
The Wall Street Journal ran an ad campaign called “Eye on Qatar,” featuring a “Custom Content” series of articles extolling the Gulf state, as Doha continues to invest in American institutions and media…
The Middle East Institute released its 2025 second-quarter assessment of the Trump administration’s policy in the Middle East, finding that the president “is still struggling to produce a major positive outcome from its frenetic activity trying to end kinetic wars while prosecuting an unprecedented economic war with much of the rest of the world”…
Sunset Lane Media bought the rights to adapt The Missing Peace, a nonfiction retelling by Dennis Ross — a former State Department official and negotiator for the U.S. under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton — of the 2000 Camp David Summit between Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat…
Shell CEO Wael Sawan told the Financial Times that the oil giant didn’t trade oil price spikes during the Israel-Iran war in June. “We just don’t play in that space,” Sawan said…
Washington Jewish Week interviewed a close advisor to Lebanese banker and philanthropist Antoun Sehnaoui on how he came to co-found and help fund the U.S.-Israel Opera Initiative and why he identifies as a Zionist…
Tal Shalev, chief political correspondent for Walla! News, is leaving the Israeli outlet after almost 12 years…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met yesterday with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in his office in Jerusalem.
Birthdays
Retired head coach of both the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, the oldest-ever living member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Marv Levy turns 100 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Culver City, Calif., resident, Allene Prince… Formerly CEO of Cendant Corporation, then CEO of 54 Madison Partners, Henry R. Silverman turns 85… Israeli film director and screenwriter, winner of the Israel Prize and professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University, Ram Loevy turns 85… Founder and chairman of NYC-based Midtown Equities, Joseph Cayre turns 84… U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of New York, now on senior status, Judge Jed S. Rakoff turns 82… Former president of Brandeis University, now president of the Cleveland-based Mandel Foundation, Jehuda Reinharz turns 81… British businessman, he has been described as “the father of British venture capital,” Sir Ronald Mourad Cohen turns 80… Israeli-born businessman and film producer, later CEO of Marvel Studios, Avi Arad turns 77… Second-generation owner of a Los Angeles flooring business, Eric Kalman Biren… Immediate past president of Hadassah, Rhoda Smolow… Founder and president of Greystone Hotels, the IHA Group and Markev Realty Corporation, Eric Horodas 72… Media analyst and host of “MediaBuzz” at Fox News, Howard Kurtz turns 72… Director of New York government relations at Agudath Israel of America, Yeruchim Silber… U.S. career diplomat who served as ambassador to South Korea during the Biden administration, Philip Seth Goldberg turns 69… United States secretary of the interior, Douglas James Burgum turns 69… Attorney, political strategist and former president of the American Jewish Congress, Richard Scott Gordon… CEO of Atlanta’s Jewish Family & Career Services since 2019, she served for 12 years in the Minnesota Senate, Terri E. Bonoff turns 68… Professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Rachel Yehuda, Ph.D. turns 66… Policy director in the D.C. office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Andrew C. (“Drew”) Littman… Former senior rabbi of the British movement for Reform Judaism, now a rabbi at London’s Bromley Reform Synagogue, Laura Naomi Janner-Klausner turns 62… U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration, now a principal at WestExec Advisors, Daniel B. “Dan” Shapiro turns 56… Producer for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Shachar Bar-On… Professor of mathematics at Princeton and Hebrew U, he was the winner of the 2010 Fields Medal, Elon Lindenstrauss turns 55… CEO of Goliath Records and former president of Def Jam Recordings, best known as the agent of Eminem, Paul D. Rosenberg turns 54… CEO of NYC’s Quantum Media Group, Ari Zoldan… Israeli film director, writer and producer, Asaf Epstein turns 47… Venture partner in Leap Forward Ventures, she is also chief growth and marketing officer at Blue Flame, Jessica Alter… Founder and CEO of Moishe House (now known as Mem Global), David Cygielman… CEO of National Council of Jewish Women, Sheila Katz… COO at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Noam Gilboord… SVP of public relations at Burford Capital, David Helfenbein… Board certified family physician, Mor Toledano Shapiro, M.D…. Deputy director of North America Israel Strategy at JFNA, Roey Kruvi… Cross-country skier who competed for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics in 2014 (Sochi) and 2018 (Pyeongchang), Noah Hoffman turns 36… Client relations specialist at Pacific Libra Insurance Agency, Yael Rabin… Investment director at Bayit Capital Ventures, Asher Perez… Television, stage and film actor, Benjamin “Ben” Rosenfield turns 33…
SATURDAY: Co-founder and chairman of NYC-based real estate development firm, Rockrose Development Corporation, Henry Elghanayan turns 85… Professor emeritus of Bible at London’s Leo Baeck College, Jonathan David Magonet turns 83… Former member of Knesset for 28 years, he then served as chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems until 2023, Uzi Landau turns 82… Retired colonel in the U.S. Army and a recipient of the Medal of Honor and seven other medals, he serves as a military analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, Jack H. Jacobs turns 80… Longtime librarian, Irene Seff… Nationally syndicated radio talk show host, author and public speaker, Dennis Prager turns 77… Ambassador and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations, Robert Keith Rae turns 77… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, Roger Cohen turns 70… U.S. senator from Nevada, Jacklyn Sheryl “Jacky” Rosen turns 68… Psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and brain researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yoram Yovell turns 67… Growth consultant at the National Council of Jewish Women, Amy Aronoff Blumkin… Mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., for eight years until 2022, now of counsel at Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, Richard David “Rick” Kriseman turns 63… Owner of Newton, Massachusetts-based MPG Promotions, Elliot Mael… VP and general counsel of Yeshiva University, Andrew J. “Avi” Lauer… Professional tennis player, once ranked sixth best in the world, now the director of tennis at St. Andrews country club in Boca Raton, Fla., Aaron Krickstein turns 58… Former member of the Knesset, first for the Labor party and then the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Leon Litinetsky turns 58… Senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Steven A. Cook turns 57… EVP for Hearst Television and past chair of the NBC Television Affiliate Board, Eric J. Meyrowitz… Professional golfer, he won a PGA tournament in both 2003 and 2004, Jonathan Andrew Kaye turns 55… Senior director for global trade and public affairs at confectionery, food, and pet care firm, Mars Inc., Jay Eizenstat… National security reporter for The New York Times for 14 years until 2024, now doing investment research, Matthew Rosenberg turns 51… Senior executive communications lead at Adobe, Stephen L. Rabin… Labor law attorney in the Nashville, Tenn., office of Holland & Knight, he served on the national board of JFNA, Aron Zwi Karabel… Regional manager of the Jewish Fertility Foundation, Tamar Poupko Smith… CEO of Make It Real, he is also the co-founder and chair of The Jewish Entrepreneur (a mentoring program), Isaac William “Zevy” Wolman… Julia Nayfeld Schulman… Vice president of the United States, James David (JD) Vance turns 41… Actress best known for her 1999 “Pepsi Girl” role as a 7-year-old, and later for subsequent teen roles, Hallie Kate Eisenberg turns 33… Baseball pitcher, he played for Team Israel in 2017 and now manages a baseball training facility for young players in Philadelphia, Kenny Koplove turns 32… British media personality, Eyal Adi Booker turns 30…
SUNDAY: English actor, author, playwright and theater director, known for his roles as the villain in both James Bond and Rambo films, Steven Berkoff turns 88… EVP emeritus of the UJA-Federation of New York, John S. Ruskay turns 79… Retired regional director in the Cleveland office of the ADL, she serves on the board of trustees of the Cleveland Federation, Anita Gray… Former chairman and CEO of the NYC office of commercial real estate brokerage firm Savills, Mitchell S. Steir turns 70… Voice actor in dozens of Disney films, video games and television programs, known professionally as Corey Burton, Corey Gregg Weinberg turns 70… Chair of the board of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and board member of JFNA, Orna Amir Wolens… President of DC-based Freedman Consulting, LLC, Thomas Z. Freedman turns 62… CEO and co-founder of Pushkin Industries, a podcast company, Jacob Weisberg… Israeli filmmaker, producer and director, Ilan Moskovitch turns 59… Canadian entrepreneur and former commodities trader, Alexander Shnaider turns 57… Executive director of public affairs at the Jewish Federation of Broward County (Fla.), Evan Goldman… Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, she sometimes serves as a fill-in for her husband Rich Eisen, Suzy Shuster turns 53… Managing editor of Vital City, Josh Greenman… U.S. senator (D-CT), Chris Murphy turns 52… Chief advancement and communications officer at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Joshua Cherwin… Head of public policy at Riot Platforms, a bitcoin-driven digital infrastructure company, Brian Morgenstern… Managing editor at The Jewish State, Seth A. Mandel turns 43… Managing partner and head of global government affairs at SoftBank Group International, Jeffrey A. Dressler turns 41… Director of strategic partnerships and senior development officer at JDC (the “Joint”), Erica Greenblatt… journalist, until recently a Tel Aviv-based reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Caroline “Carrie” Keller-Lynn… Director of member engagement at Christians United For Israel, she was born in Lutsk, Ukraine, and raised in Sacramento, Calif., Liliya Maskovcevs… Executive director of The Natan Fund, Adina Poupko … Executive director of the Reducetarian Foundation, Brian Kateman… Fashion model, Karlie Kloss turns 33… U.S. news editor at the Financial Times, Emily Goldberg… First-round pick of MLB’s Atlanta Braves in the 2020 draft, he made his MLB debut in 2023, now in the Chicago White Sox organization, Jared Shuster turns 27… Ariana Kaufman… Leigh Bonner Levine…
By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff
DRIVING THE DAY: UPSET IN ISRAEL’S PRESIDENT ELECTION: Dovish Knesset member Meir Sheetrit surprised everyone this morning by surging to 2nd place in the first round of voting. Out of 117 qualified votes, frontrunner Reuven Rivlin came in first place with 44 votes, Sheetrit in second place with 31 votes and former Knesset speaker Dalia Itzik with 28 votes. The momentum has now shifted towards Sheetrit as the top two face each other in the second round. WATCH LIVE BROADCAST [Knesset Channel] (more…)