• White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are traveling to Moscow today ahead of their meeting tomorrow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Witkoff and Kushner, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, met yesterday in Miami with senior aides to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
• Pope Leo XIV is in Lebanon this week as part of his first international trip since becoming pontiff. He first traveled to Turkey last week, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as the head of the country’s Jewish community.
• Israel Defense Tech Week kicked off this morning at Tel Aviv University. Senior Pentagon official Mike Dodd; Adm. (ret.) Mike Rogers, a former director of the National Security Agency; and Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire are among the two-day conference’s featured speakers.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Ireland has long been competing for the title of most anti-Israel country in the West, and in recent years, the local Jewish community has expressed fears that the country has become systemically antisemitic. Calls to boycott Israel have permeated the political mainstream; the Emerald Isle’s under 3,000 Jews face hostility in schools and workplaces, and physical harassment has increased in recent years. Pleas to the former president not to politicize International Holocaust Memorial Day by making it another occasion to accuse Israel of war crimes fell on deaf ears; Ireland has since elected a president who is even more stridently opposed to the Jewish state.

Yet, Irish Jews and supporters of Israel notched two victories on Sunday.

Ireland is pulling its “Occupied Territories Bill” to boycott Israeli products from the West Bank in light of a “changed political climate” as a result of the ceasefire in Gaza, the Irish Mail on Sunday reported. The legislation faced legal challenges due to its violation of European Union trade rules, and, as several members of Congress pointed out, could run afoul of U.S. states’ laws penalizing those who boycott Israel and damage relations between Washington and Dublin. 

In addition, following an uproar started by the local Jewish community that went global, leading Israel’s leadership and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to sound the alarm, pressuring Ireland’s government, a proposal to remove sixth Israeli President Chaim Herzog’s name from a public park and replace it with a name related to Palestinians was taken off of Dublin City Council’s agenda.

Herzog, father of current Israeli President Isaac Herzog, was born in Belfast and grew up in Dublin. He was Israeli ambassador to the U.N. — famously tearing up its “Zionism is racism” resolution — before serving as president in 1983-1993. The park in Dublin was named after Herzog in 1995, to coincide with the 3,000th anniversary of Jerusalem’s establishment. It is adjacent to Ireland’s only Jewish school and close to major Orthodox and Progressive synagogues.

The current President Herzog, his brother, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Graham and others spoke out, saying “Ireland, once home to a proud, thriving Jewish community, has become the scene of raging antisemitism.”

Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin chimed in soon after, expressing concern that the name change would be seen as antisemitic, and hours later, it was no longer on Dublin City Council’s agenda.

Read the rest of What You Should Know here.

Penny Wise: In The Washington Post, philanthropist and Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky considers the overlap in Jewish and American values as he reflects on the rise in global antisemitism. “My maternal grandfather — who fled pogroms in Lithuania and landed on the shores of northern Mexico, where he became a successful cattle rancher — taught his grandchildren about humility and resourcefulness. He used to say, in Spanish, ‘A man who is too arrogant to pick up a penny is not worth a penny.’ The idea harbored by some that picking up a penny is beneath them, and is disgusting in others, isn’t just bad for Jews. Its manifestation today seems to reflect a cultural crisis marked by economic anxiety, frustration and a growing rejection of the very values that have long been the foundation of the American Dream. The crisis has been marked by the emergence of a victim-oppressor mindset; those who feel left behind often believe that they have no agency, and it is all too easy to deflect responsibility onto convenient scapegoats — including those perennial targets, the Jews.” [WashPost]

Qatar Ready For Its Close-up: Variety’s Nick Vivarelli looks at the effort by Qatar to break into Hollywood amid the backdrop of last week’s Doha Film Festival, which kicked off featuring “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” about a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza. “‘We are building the foundations of a world class [film and TV] ecosystem with new infrastructure, production facilities and post-production capabilities supported by vast technology, and data analytics,’ said Hassan Al Thawadi, the Qatari lawyer who oversaw the 2022 World Cup. He is now leading The Qatar Film Committee, an official body that is part of the Media City Qatar hub tasked with driving growth of the country’s entertainment industry. But Al Thawadi made it clear that Hollywood should not be expecting any handouts from Qatar. ‘This agreement is about more than financing films,’ he said, after announcing the relatively modest pact with Neon that involves six to 10 feature films and shorts over a four-year period that Neon will co-finance and distribute. ‘It’s about creating a new platform for Arabic and regional storytelling, ensuring that stories from Qatar and the wider Arab world are seen, celebrated, and shared globally.’” [Variety]

Beyond Denominations: In Tablet, Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz argues that the post-Oct. 7 landscape provides an opportunity for the American Jewish community to find new ways of collaboration and partnership relating to Israel that go beyond the confines of denominations. “We should drop the focus on denominational labels and instead be willing to partner with anyone — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and everything in-between — who is a Zionist. Now that the crisis of war is behind us, how do we together foster a new, inspiring Jewish identity of Oct. 8? We can invite rabbis from other regions and other denominations into our communities to speak and to teach to build bonds. We can also work together and pool resources in programming efforts. More communities can work together to share the messages of Zionist thinkers and authors, artists and musicians. Pooling our resources and ideas can help bridge the American Jewish connection with our Israeli brothers and sisters.” [Tablet]

Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), a pro-Israel stalwart among House Democrats, will run for reelection in his redrawn 1st Congressional District, which under the new state congressional map was won by President Donald Trump by 11 points…

A federal judge ordered the University of Florida’s law school to reinstate a student who had authored a paper arguing that “Jews must be abolished by any means necessary”…

The New York Times interviews former Israeli hostage Segev Kalfon about the more than two years he spent in Hamas captivity in Gaza…

Actor Guy Pearce apologized for sharing antisemitic social media posts, including content that blamed Israel for the Sept. 11 attacks as well as the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk…

A tribunal affiliated with the U.K.’s National Health Service suspended for 15 months a British-Palestinian doctor who defended Hamas terrorists as “oppressed resistance fighters” and called Israelis “worse than Nazis”…

U.K. police arrested a man in connection with the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur in which two congregants were killed…

A Nazi soldier photographed executing a Jewish man in the Ukrainian town of Vinnitsa was identified using artificial intelligence decades after the image, whose subjects were unknown, gained notoriety during the trial of Adolf Eichmann…

Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi said the low-cost European carrier plans to open a hub in Israel in early 2026…

Israeli drone manufacturer Heven AeroTech raised $100 million in a round of funding, led by IonQ, that values the company at more than $1 billion…

Iran said it would boycott the 2026 World Cup draw this week in Washington after the U.S. denied visas to members of the soccer team’s delegation…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who met with his Turkish counterpart in Tehran over the weekend, announced a $1.6 billion joint project with Ankara to build a rail link connecting Asia and Europe…

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized an Eswatini-flagged ship carrying oil and more than a dozen crew members as it transited through the Persian Gulf; the incident occurred less than a month after the IRGC seized a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel that originated in the United Arab Emirates… 

The Wall Street Journal reports on Iran’s efforts to funnel money to Hezbollah through Dubai-based companies…

In The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek reflects on his own marriage and the vows and promises made in his ketubah…

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Alexis Lewis, who is Jewish, married in a ceremony co-officiated by Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz, a longtime friend of Booker, in Washington over the weekend…

Tony Award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard, whose “Leopoldstadt” reflected his own life as an assimilated Englishman who did not learn of his family ties to the Holocaust until adulthood, died at 88… Israeli Maj. Gen. (res.) Dan Tolkowsky, who led the Israeli Air Force from 1953-1958 before going on to found the country’s first VC, died at 104… Tekserve co-founder David Lerner died at 72… Architect Robert A.M. Stern, who gained global acclaim for Manhattan’s 15 Central Park West, died at 86… Psychologist Paul Ekman, whose pioneering work on facial recognition was used by Hollywood animators and the FBI alike, died at 91…

Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Daniel Gold, head of the Israel Ministry of Defense Directorate of Defense Research & Development, spoke this morning at the International DefenseTech Summit at Tel Aviv University. 

Singer, actress, comedian and author, Bette Midler turns 80… 

Former CEO of Marvel Comics and chairman until 2023 of Disney’s Marvel Entertainment, Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter turns 83… Former EVP of Stuart Weitzman, Jane Weitzman… NYC-based real estate mogul, he owned the New York Post, served as chair of NYC’s MTA and is a noted car collector, Peter Kalikow turns 83… Executive producer of over 200 shows with more than 15,000 hours of television over a lengthy career, David E. Salzman turns 82… Comedian, actor and voice actor best known for his starring role in the animated sitcom “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist,” Jonathan Katz turns 79… Former director of Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, he is now the director of Yashrut, Rabbi Daniel Landes turns 75… Former president of the American Jewish Committee and a board member at Israel Policy Forum, John M. Shapiro… British playwright, director and scriptwriter who has won many awards for his work on the stage, film and television, Stephen Poliakoff turns 73… U.S. senator (R-FL), Rick Scott turns 73… Newly appointed rabbi at Congregation Beth El of Windsor, Ontario, Rabbi Gordon Fuller… Former chair of the board of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Isaac “Ike” Fisher turns 69… U.S. District Court judge in Oregon, Judge Michael H. Simon turns 69… U.S. senator (D-MI), Gary Peters turns 67… CEO of Oracle Corporation until a few months ago, now vice chair of the board, she also joined the board of the recently merged Paramount Skydance, Safra A. Catz turns 64… Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Cambridge, Raymond E. Goldstein turns 64… Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur, David Seldin… CEO at My Pest Pros in Fairfax County (Virginia), Brett Lieberman… Emmy Award-winning stand-up comedian, actress, producer and writer, Sarah Silverman turns 55… Rabbi of Shaarei Tefillah Congregation in Toronto, Rafi Lipner turns 52… Editorial lead in policy communications on the global affairs team at OpenAI, he is the author of a book on military suicides, Yochi J. Dreazen turns 49… Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director, comedian, producer, writer and actor, Akiva Schaffer turns 48… Marketing and communications executive, Natalie Ravitz… Editor-in-chief at Jewish Insider, Josh Kraushaar… Writer and television producer, including for NBC’s primetime series “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Evan Daniel Susser turns 40… English teacher at Jerusalem’s Inbar School, the first secular, girls-only middle-high school in Israel, Shira Sacks… Senior advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, David Milstein… Mexican musician influenced by Sephardic brass and klezmer styles, known by his mononym “Sotelúm,” Jorge Sotelo turns 36… Becky Weissman…

• We’re keeping an eye on ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations, amid reports yesterday that Israel and Hamas were close to reaching an agreement that would have included the release of 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 deceased hostages. A senior Hamas official last night rejected the U.S.-proposed ceasefire deal that had already been agreed to by Israel.
• Fox News Channel will air a wide-ranging interview tomorrow night with Sara Netanyahu, in which she’ll discuss with Lara Trump how life in Israel has changed since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.

A QUICK WORD WITH JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Pore over the latest round of polling in the New York City mayoral primary, and it is something of a political analyst’s Rorschach test. The question is what will be a bigger turnoff for Gotham voters: extremism or personal scandal?

Will Zohran Mamdani’s radicalism make it difficult for the DSA-affiliated assemblyman — polling in second place — to win an outright majority of the Democratic vote? Candidates from the far-left wing of the party typically have a hard ceiling of support, but the latest polls suggest he’s not yet facing the elevated negative ratings that candidates in his ideological lane typically encounter. There hasn’t yet been a barrage of attack ads reminding voters about his record, as he slowly inches closer to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 

Will Cuomo’s personal baggage ultimately be a bigger factor for Democratic voters? Cuomo has been leading the race since jumping in, but holds elevated unfavorability ratings, predominantly stemming from the scandal over sexual misconduct allegations, which he continues to deny, that forced him to resign as governor. 

The city’s ranked-choice voting system requires the winner to receive an outright majority of the vote, and build a broader coalition than would be necessary if one only needed a plurality to prevail. In theory, that would advantage Cuomo, given his high name identification, moderate message and ample fundraising resources. In nearly every contest held under a ranked-choice system across the country, moderates have gotten a significant boost, including in the 2021 NYC mayoral primary, when Eric Adams prevailed. 

But if there’s a broad antipathy to Cuomo that goes beyond ideological lines, it’s plausible that any alternative to Cuomo could benefit, simply because they’re running as a candidate of change. It’s hard to overlook Cuomo’s underwater favorability rating among primary voters; a new Emerson poll found a near-majority (47%) of NYC Democrats viewing Cuomo unfavorably, with 40% viewing him favorably.

Cuomo’s lead over Mamdani in the final round of ranked-choice voting, according to the poll, stood at eight points (54-46%). It’s a lead that is outside the margin of error, but a little too close for comfort considering Cuomo’s other advantages. The poll found Mamdani winning more of the votes from the third-place finisher (Comptroller Brad Lander) in the final round, suggesting that Cuomo could be vulnerable to opponents framing their campaigns as part of an anti-Cuomo coalition.

Cuomo’s strongest support comes from the Black community (74% support over Mamdani), voters over 50 (66%) and women (58%). Mamdani’s base is among younger white progressives, leading big over Cuomo with voters under 50 (61%). 

Cuomo’s margin for success could end up coming from the city’s sizable Jewish community — many of whose members view Mamdani’s virulently anti-Israel record and pro-BDS advocacy as a threat — even though he’s currently winning a fairly small plurality of Jewish votes, according to a recent Homan Strategy Group survey.  

Cuomo only tallied 31% of the Jewish vote, according to the poll, but has a lot of room for growth, especially since he still has potential to make inroads with Orthodox Jewish voters, many of whom became disenchanted with him as governor due to his aggressive COVID restrictions. (For instance: A significant 37% share of Orthodox Jewish voters said they were undecided in the Homan survey; 0% supported Mamdani.)

If those Cuomo-skeptical Orthodox voters swing towards the former governor in the final stretch, especially as the threat of Mamdani becomes more real, that may be enough for Cuomo to prevail. But it’s a sign of the times — and the state of the Democratic Party — that this race is as competitive as it is, given the anti-Israel record of the insurgent.

Gaming Out the Jewish Future: eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross spotlights an initiative launched by philanthropist Phil Siegel using “war games” that simulate potential future scenarios facing the American Jewish community to get leaders to think more about long-term planning. “The Jewish community may not have direct control over nuclear war, global demographic trends or international trade wars, for instance, even though these have a profound influence on the Jewish community. (Most of the scenarios include a geopolitical element as well, such as peace in the Middle East in the first one or an acute housing crisis in Israel that prevents American Jews from emigrating despite harsh conditions in the U.S. in the third scenario.) However, the Jewish community does have control over creating new organizations and initiatives or coordinating existing ones. ‘The game itself and the scenario itself were less important. It was more about how people think — What types of things influence us? Do we have more or less agency over them?’ [Israeli educator Barak] Sella said. ‘Is there an optimal scenario and does the Jewish community have a 2050 outcome that we are working toward?’” [eJP]

Delay of (End) Game: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius calls for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, positing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for a year rejected subordinates’ suggested strategies for winding down the conflict. “What’s agonizing is that Israeli military and intelligence leaders were ready to settle this conflict nearly a year ago. Working with U.S. and Emirati officials, they developed a plan for security ‘bubbles’ that would contain the violence, starting in northern Gaza and moving south, backed by an international peacekeeping force that would include troops from European and moderate Arab countries. … The Israeli-Palestinian dispute might seem intractable, but ending this conflict would be relatively easy. I’m told that Israeli military officials keep working on ‘day after’ plans, honing details as recently as this week. But they have had no political support from Netanyahu. ‘The “exit ramp” has been staring us in the face for a long time,’ argues Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It’s a mix of Arab states and Gaza Palestinians, operating under a Palestinian Authority umbrella, he explains. “It is messy, with overlapping responsibilities and lots of dotted lines. But it checks all the boxes to enable the process of reconstruction and rehabilitation to get off the ground.’” [WashPost]

Mumbai Makeover: In The Wall Street Journal, Howard Husock interviews Rabbi Yisroel Kozlovsky of the Chabad House of Mumbai, India, about the city’s Jewish revival since the terror attack in 2008 in which Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife and unborn child were killed. “Now in his 12th year in Mumbai, the rabbi recalls his unease upon receiving the assignment from Chabad’s headquarters in New York. He arrived in 2013 to find the building untouched since the terror attacks, its walls still bloodstained. His successor had been forced to live and hold services in rented apartments for the Jewish visitors and expats. (There are reportedly no more than 5,000 ethnic Indian ‘Bene Israel’ Jews in the country.) ‘Imagine our feelings when we walk in and see the destruction firsthand. It was still one big mess,’ Rabbi Kozlovsky says. ‘We knew immediately, though, we wanted to bring life back to the building.’ … Rabbi Kozlovsky has nevertheless decided not to shy away from the events of 26/11, as the locals refer to the attack, but to make it the basis of a mission. He has set out to build an artistic multimedia memorial to educate the hundreds of visitors, almost all non-Jewish Indians, who come here each week, mainly through class trips. ‘Restoration and resilience are not good enough responses to terror,’ he says of the project. ‘We are building a memorial and museum to teach history, to be a beacon of light.’” [WSJ]

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack, who is also serving as Syria envoy, said in Damascus on Thursday that relations between Syria and Israel are a “solvable problem” that “starts with a dialogue”; Barrack also raised the U.S. flag over the ambassador’s residence in Damascus for the first time since the embassy’s closure 13 years ago…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that any nuclear agreement with the U.S. must include the full lifting of sanctions and preservation of Tehran’s enrichment capabilities…

Saudi, Qatari and Emirati leaders reportedly told President Donald Trump during his trip to the region last week that they opposed military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program…

The Wall Street Journal reports on Israeli concerns over Washington’s ongoing nuclear talks with Iran, positing that a deal could put Israel “in a bind with its most important ally on its most pressing national security question”…

Columbia University reached a settlement with a Jewish social work student who had filed a lawsuit against the school alleging antisemitic discrimination…

California’s state Assembly unanimously advanced antisemitism legislation backed by Jewish groups in the state; AB715 would improve the process for making discrimination complaints, as well as create an antisemitism coordinator position for the state’s K-12 schools…

A Yonkers, N.Y., man was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to attacking a Jewish barber last year…

A Michigan man who in 2022 threatened parents and students at a synagogue preschool pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the efforts of small wine importer and distributor Victor Owen Schwartz to challenge the Trump administration’s tariffs in court…

The board of Ben & Jerry’s issued a statement labeling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, setting up another battle with parent company Unilever, which has for years clashed with the ice cream company’s independent board over its approach to social issues, including Israel…

CBS News profiles Karin Prien, the first Jewish federal cabinet member to serve in post-WWII Germany; the daughter of Holocaust survivors who was born in the Netherlands, Prien moved to Germany with her family when she was 4 and now serves as the country’s minister for education, family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth…

Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with United Arab Emirates National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan for a conversation largely focused on the opportunities presented by AI technology…

The Associated Press reports on efforts to free Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped by an Iranian-backed militia group in Iraq in 2023…

Iran’s embassy in India said it is investigating the disappearance of three Punjabi men who went missing earlier this month in Tehran while transiting through Iran en route to Australia, where a local travel agent had promised them jobs…

An increasing number of oil tankers are turning off their transponders as they near Malaysia, an area used to transfer Iranian oil bound for China, as Tehran continues to work to evade U.S. sanctions…

Missouri philanthropist Bud Levin died at 88…

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who headed the NYPD during the 9/11 terror attacks, died at 69…

Dr. Robert Jarvik, who oversaw the design of the first artificial heart, died at 79…

Following her return to Israel, Mia Schem — who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and spent 55 days in Hamas captivity — famously had the phrase “We will dance again” tattooed on her arm. On Thursday night, approximately 800 New Yorkers joined Schem in dancing again at the sold-out inaugural Tribe of Nova Foundation benefit held at Sony Hall, a concert venue in Times Square.

The event was held with the goal of raising at least $1 million to aid families of victims and survivors of Nova, where 411 festivalgoers, mostly young people, were killed and 44 were taken hostage, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Medical director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Ethiopia spine and heart project, Dr. Richard Michael Hodes turns 72… 

FRIDAY: Santa Monica, Calif.-based historian of Sephardic and Crypto-Jewish studies, Dolores Sloan turns 95… Real estate developer, landlord of the World Trade Center until 9/11, former chair of UJA-Federation of New York, Larry A. Silverstein turns 94… Partner in the NYC law firm of Mintz & Gold, he is also a leading supporter of Hebrew University, Ira Lee “Ike” Sorkin turns 82… Board member of the Collier County chapter of the Florida ACLU and the Naples Florida Council on World Affairs, Maureen McCully “Mo” Winograd… Cape Town, South Africa, native, she is the owner and chef at Los Angeles-based Catering by Brenda, Brenda Walt turns 74… Former professional tennis player, he competed in nine Wimbledons and 13 U.S. Opens, now the varsity tennis coach at Gilman School in Baltimore, Steve “Lightning” Krulevitz turns 74… Former chief rabbi of France, Gilles Uriel Bernheim turns 73… Encino, Calif.-based business attorney, Andrew W. Hyman… Literary critic, essayist and novelist, Daphne Miriam Merkin turns 71… Israeli physicist and philosopher, Avshalom Cyrus Elitzur turns 68… Former member of Congress for 16 years, since leaving Congress he has opened a bookstore and written two novels, Steve Israel turns 67… Former science editor for BBC News and author of six books, David Shukman turns 67… Founder of Krav Maga Global with 1,500 instructors in 60 countries, Eyal Yanilov turns 66… Editorial writer at The New York Times, Michelle Cottle… Film, stage and television actress; singer and songwriter, she sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, Idina Menzel turns 54… Writer, filmmaker, playwright and DJ, known by his pen name Ithamar Ben-Canaan, Itamar Handelman Smith turns 49… Member of Knesset who served as Israel’s minister of agriculture in the prior government, Oded Forer turns 48… Director of engagement and program at NYC’s Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Scott Hertz… Chief of staff for Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Reema Dodin turns 45… Tsippy Friend… Israeli author, her debut novel has been published in more than 20 languages around the world, Shani Boianjiu turns 38… Rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer, known professionally as Hebro, Raphael Ohr Chaim Fulcher turns 38… Senior counsel at Gilead Sciences, Ashley Bender Spirn… Ice hockey defenseman, he has played for four NHL teams and is now in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, David Matthew Warsofsky turns 35… Deputy chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Miryam Esther Lipper… Senior reporter for CNN, Eric Levenson… Challah baker, social entrepreneur and manager at Howard Properties, Jason Friend… 

SATURDAY: Investment advisor at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, Alfred Phillip Stern turns 92… Businessman and philanthropist, Ira Leon Rennert turns 91… Professor at Yale University and the 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, William Dawbney Nordhaus turns 84… Food critic at Vogue magazine since 1989 and judge on “Iron Chef America,” he is the author of the 1996 award-winning book The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten turns 83… Founder and retired CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, Alvin “Al” From turns 82… Author, political pundit and a retired correspondent for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” he has won 14 Emmy Awards during his career, Bernie Goldberg turns 80… Comedian, actress and TV producer, Susie Essman turns 70… Founder and chairman of the Katz Group of Companies with operations in the pharmacy, sports (including the Edmonton Oilers), entertainment and real estate sectors, Daryl Katz turns 64… Reality television personality, best known for starring in and producing her own matchmaking reality series, “The Millionaire Matchmaker” on Bravo TV, Patti Stanger turns 64… Jerusalem-born inventor, serial entrepreneur and novelist; founder, chairman and CEO of CyberArk Software, one of Israel’s leading software companies, Alon Nisim Cohen turns 57… Entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of CryptoLogic, an online casino software firm, Andrew Rivkin turns 56… Former Democratic mayor of Annapolis, Md., now head of policy at SWTCH, Joshua Jackson “Josh” Cohen turns 52… Program director of synagogue and rabbinic initiatives at the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, Melissa York… Israeli actress, singer and dancer, she played a Mossad agent in the espionage TV series “Tehran,” Liraz Charhi turns 47… Author of the “Money Stuff” column at Bloomberg Opinion, Matthew Stone Levine turns 47… Freelance writer in Brooklyn, Sara Trappler Spielman… Attorney and NYT best-selling author of the Mara Dyer and Shaw Confessions series, Michelle Hodkin turns 43… Senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce until earlier this year, Bert Eli Kaufman… Senior product manager at Tel Aviv-based Forter, Zoe Goldfarb… Stephanie Oreck Weiss… Chief revenue officer at NOTUS, Brad E. Bosserman… Senior rabbi and executive director of Jewish life at D.C.’s Sixth & I, Aaron Potek… Managing editor at Allbritton Journalism Institute, Matt Berman… Medical student in the class of 2027 at the University of Nicosia Medical School, Amital Isaac… Brad Goldstein… Basketball player in Israel’s Premier League until recent years, while at Princeton he won the Ivy League Player of the Year award, Spencer Weisz turns 30… Professional golfer on the PGA Tour, Max Alexander Greyserman turns 30… Rapper, singer, songwriter and producer, known by his stage name, King Sol, Benjamin Solomon turns 27…

SUNDAY: Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, pianist and conductor, he has taught at Yale, SUNY Purchase, Cornell, Brandeis and Harvard, Yehudi Wyner turns 96… Holocaust survivor as a child, he served as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel for 10 years and twice as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv for 16 years, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau turns 88… NYC-based attorney, author of two books regarding the history and operations of El Al, owner of 40,000 plus pieces of memorabilia related to El Al, Marvin G. Goldman turns 86… Grammy Award-winning classical pianist, Richard Goode turns 82… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Shimon Ohayon turns 80… Retired attorney in Berkeley, Calif., Thomas Andrew Seaton… Pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay area, Elliot Charles Lepler, MD… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui and the Hilonit Tzionit parties, Eti Livni turns 77… Founding editor of The American Interest, Adam M. Garfinkle turns 74… Former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News and co-author with Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Matthew Winkler turns 70… Contributing editor at The Free Press, Uri Paul Berliner… Founding rabbi of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, N.Y., Rabbi Moshe Weinberger turns 68… Former IDF officer and now a London-based political scientist and journalist, Ahron “Ronnie” Bregman turns 67… Member of the Knesset for the Shas party for 16 years ending in 2015, Amnon Cohen turns 65… Owner of MLB’s Athletics (temporarily playing in Sacramento), he is the chair of Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Foundation, John J. Fisher turns 64… Poet, performance artist and essayist, Adeena Karasick turns 60… Founding editor and publisher of the Dayton Jewish Observer, Marshall J. Weiss… Television personality and matchmaker, Sigalit “Siggy” Flicker turns 58… Actress, voice actress and film director, Danielle Harris turns 48… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer, Spencer J. Ackerman turns 45… Comedian, writer, actress, director and producer, Amy Schumer turns 44… Partner in Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm, Daniel Tannebaum… President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Yael Eckstein turns 41… Musician, songwriter, author, actor and blogger, Ari Seth Herstand turns 40… CEO of The Good Food Institute, Ilya Sheyman turns 39… Political reporter for NBC News and MSNBC until earlier this year, now a newspaper editor in Maine, Alex Seitz-Wald… Senior writer at Barron’s covering the Federal Reserve, Nicole Goodkind… Former engineering lead at Palantir Technologies, now in a MPP program at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, Naomi S. Kadish… Executive business partner at Lyft, Isabel Keller… NYC-born Israeli pair skater, she competed for Israel at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Hailey Esther Kops turns 23…