‘What is astounding to me is the cavalier way in which so many public voices so freely spread dangerous lies about Israel and the Jewish people,’ the AJC CEO told JI
Aryeh Schwartz/AJC
Ted Deutch
Add JewishInsider on GoogleAhead of the American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum conference, which begins in Washington on Sunday, the group’s CEO, Ted Deutch, is reflecting on a significantly transformed landscape — in which, he said, antisemitism has become mainstream in politics and circles of power in alarming ways that seemed to leave the longtime former congressman stunned.
But he also said that AJC has been working on a comprehensive new plan to address the changing manifestations of antisemitism in the current social environment, which it plans to unveil at next week’s conference.
“Antisemitism is unfortunately no longer just on the fringes, but it’s become instrumentalized, it’s become institutionalized in so many ways and amplified in mainstream politics and media and online and at international institutions,” Deutch said during an interview with Jewish Insider in AJC’s Washington offices on Thursday. “The threat of antisemitism has evolved, and I think our response has to evolve as well.”
The former Democratic congressman expressed a sense of frustration and astonishment with the spread and proliferation of antisemitism in recent years, particularly its mainstreaming in political circles and discourse.
“What is astounding to me is the cavalier way in which so many public voices so freely spread dangerous lies about Israel and the Jewish people,” Deutch said.
Deutch said he’s been reflecting on a speech he made on the House floor in 2019 condemning then-newly elected Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for employing antisemitic tropes.
He said it was “frustrating” at the time to have to explain to colleagues the history of antisemitism “and why the Jewish community gets to define what they feel threatened by, why others don’t get to impose that on us, and why the use of those tropes over millennia have led to the Jews being attacked and chased out of countries and put in ghettos and the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people.”
Seven years later, Deutch said, “serious political figures” across multiple states in both parties are employing those same antisemitic tropes and worse — spreading conspiracy theories about antisemitic attacks, employing dual loyalty tropes, calling support for a Jewish state inconsistent with American values, sporting a Nazi tattoo, justifying an attack on a synagogue preschool or openly espousing antisemitism — and have constructed a narrative that these are all simply criticism of Israel.
He said that the discourse in mainstream circles has gone well beyond critique of the Israeli government, crossing over into “opposition to the very existence of Israel.”
Deutch said that social media algorithms have played a significant role in mainstreaming hatred, but elected officials are responsible for their own rhetoric and decisions, and have a responsibility to reject antisemitic tropes, rather than playing into them. He pointed to the killings of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside an AJC event in Washington, D.C., a year ago as a consequence of such rhetoric.
“People in public life have a responsibility to understand that the language that they use has real world implications,” Deutch said. “When everyone defaults to accusations of genocide against Israel, that becomes just a political talking point to them. But to people who hear this over and over, and then decide that they’re going to go shoot at and … kill people at Jewish events — they need to think about it in those terms.”
Political leaders, he continued, have a responsibility to create and enforce guardrails for their coalitions as well. He said leaders tolerating antisemitism in the interest of a political “big tent” is unacceptable.
“Whoever is creating the big tent has to be clear about views that are acceptable within the tent, and those that are outside the tent,” Deutch said. “This is not about policy differences. … For thousands of years, we’ve seen what happens when you allow antisemitic tropes to just become part of accepted conversation. We need leaders to speak out against that.”
Those who are only willing to call out antisemitism among their political enemies are “trying to use Jewish fear for political gain,” he added.
Jewish members of Congress, he added, now face legitimate threats to their lives far more frequently than they did when he was in office. “That doesn’t come in the form of some criticism of Israel. These are violent threats against Jews.”
In recent months, calls to end U.S. financial aid to Israel for missile-defense systems have rapidly become mainstream, particularly among Democrats. Deutch argued that that stance reflects a fundamental “hatred of Israel for, sadly, a growing number of elected officials,” emphasizing that the Iron Dome system saves the lives of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians.
He also highlighted the “litmus tests” that political leaders are facing, offering as an example the attacks this week on Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) and calls to exile him from the Democratic Party over Auchincloss’ criticism of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s now-covered tattoo of a Nazi Totenkopf.
“We need a strong democracy where no one is shunned because they have the belief that they should be able to live their lives freely, safely, that they can support the State of Israel without being shunned by others in politics,” Deutch said.
Deutch noted that this year’s Global Forum coincides with both the 120th anniversary of AJC but also the 250th anniversary of the United States. AJC, he said, was founded to pressure the U.S. government to address attacks on Jews in the Eastern European pogroms, and these landmark anniversaries come at a new time of crisis for the Jewish people.
He teased plans for an announcement at the AJC conference of a “significant new initiative” to combat antisemitism that “recognizes the moment we’re in and how antisemitism has evolved,” which has come about as a result of meetings with leaders across various sectors of society in the past year to understand and address antisemitism.
“It’s going to talk about all of the ways that antisemitism manifests itself today, and the institutions that are providing cover for it, the way that politics and politicians have in some cases not only referred to it, utilized it, but leaned into it in ways that are extremely dangerous,” Deutch explained. “More than anything, we’re going to be making the point that security alone isn’t enough, that we have to address the culture and the ideology that are driving antisemitism today.”
Deutch praised legislation by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) condemning antisemitic social media influencers on the fringes of both parties as simple and common sense — and lamented that the resolution hasn’t received stronger support. He also praised Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) for their new wide-reaching legislation to help protect the Jewish community.
Looking toward the war in Iran, Deutch said that there should be several key red-lines for U.S. negotiators, who are reportedly close to finalizing a deal with Tehran: no enrichment of uranium, no nuclear weapons, an end to Iranian support for regional terrorism, human rights for the Iranian people and no sanctions relief as long as Iran continues its ballistic missile program.
He said that the administration should not accede to an “agreement by Iran to enter into negotiations” that the regime can then drag on for months and years. Until the next steps are clear, he said, it’s too early to render a verdict on the war and its results.
“Just because there has been this sharp partisan divide over this war doesn’t mean that we should then let Iran off the hook for all of the ways that it has destabilized the region and put so many people, millions of people, at risk,” Deutch continued. “There’s no one who could think that a good outcome here is to simply accept the fact that they’re going to advance their ballistic missile program without any repercussions.”
He said that discussions of congressional war powers were appropriate, but “what’s been missing” from conversations about the war “has been the longstanding bipartisan acknowledgement that we have to stand together” against Iran’s destabilizing activities and violations of its own citizens’ human rights.
In addition to the new plan for addressing antisemitism, Deutch said the Global Forum will focus on education and what the higher education system in the United States should look like, emphasizing that the treatment and silencing of Jewish Americans on campus undermines “the very essence of education in America,” and creates dangerous downstream effects in the next generation of leaders.
He said that, in recognition of the United States’ 250th anniversary, the forum will also highlight the role and contributions of Jewish Americans across the country’s history, and reflect on the future of America and the Jewish people’s place in it.
The Global Forum is set to include representatives from more than 70 countries, a sign that the Jewish community “is not going to withdraw, that the Jewish community is going to stand up and proudly be who we are,” Deutch said.
Anticipated speakers include Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA), Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, the parents of murdered Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, former Israeli hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel, ambassadors from the European Union and Argentina and Jewish leaders and experts from around the country and around the world.
In addition to the new plan for combating antisemitism, AJC will announce a program to provide more opportunities for leaders to visit both Israel and the UAE together, to understand the promise of a more integrated region, Deutch said.
Deutch also emphasized that the Jewish community can’t allow itself to be defined by antisemitism, highlighting plans for new leadership development programs to build and bring together the next generation of Jewish leaders from around the world.
And the group will announce plans to help build upon the relationships between Latin American countries and Israel, ahead of a summit that is set to bring Jewish leaders from across the region together in Costa Rica later in the year.
Plus, Ted Cruz’s warning about antisemitism in both parties
Meg Kinnard/AP
Former U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel speaks to voters as he participates in the South Carolina Democratic Party's "On the Road" series on Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Abbeville, S.C.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel about his leftward shift on Israel as he mulls a 2028 presidential bid, and talk to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz about Hamas’ refusal to disarm. We report on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s visit to the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn, and interview Sen. Ted Cruz about his concerns over the spread of antisemitism across the political spectrum. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Alex Karp and Sharon Sharabi.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio is slated to brief reporters from the White House at 3 p.m. ET today, amid rising tensions with Tehran following yesterday’s launch from Iran of several missiles and drones at the United Arab Emirates. More below.
- Vice President JD Vance is in Iowa, where he’s campaigning with Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) as the Des Moines-area Republican attempts to hold his seat in the midterms.
- The Manhattan Jewish Historical Initiative is holding its 2026 Hall of Fame induction ceremony today in Bryant Park. Those being inducted this year include Ari Ackerman, Michael Fuchs, Michael Hershman, Melissa Manchester, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, David Milch, Richard Price, Josef and Devora Wilhelm, Tanya Zuckerbrot and Ariel Zwang.
- In Washington, Hostages and Missing Families Forum U.S. co-founders Matan Sivek and Bar Ben Yaakov are being honored tonight with the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation’s humanitarian award. The foundation will also honor Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Khulaifi with its “2026 American Hostage Freedom Award.”
- The Milken Institute Global Conference continues today in Los Angeles. Speakers today include Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former First Lady Jill Biden, former Biden administration senior official Amos Hochstein, World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Citadel’s Ken Griffin, KIND Snacks’ Daniel Lubetzky, Palantir’s Josh Harris, Altérra’s Majid Al Suwaidi, ADGM’s Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the Center for American Progress’ Neera Tanden.
- One of the day’s first sessions is a panel hosted by the Milken Family Foundation’s Richard Sandler focused on antisemitism. Speakers on the panel include American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch, the University of Pennsylvania’s Steven Weitzman, Pepperdine Dean Pete Peterson, Sinai Temple Senior Rabbi Nicole Guzik and journalist and philanthropist Jacki Karsh.
- Later in the morning, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will sit with The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker for a conversation about the future of U.S. politics.
- In the afternoon, Emirati and Qatari officials will sit for separate conversations about economic growth among Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
- A panel later in the afternoon will focus on higher education, with the leaders of the University of Southern California, Dartmouth, Arizona State University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
- Indiana and Ohio voters are headed to the polls to vote in primary elections. In Indiana, the state Senate primaries will offer an early test of President Donald Trump’s clout within the party, as he has worked to defeat seven GOP state lawmakers who successfully opposed his redistricting push. In Ohio, Republicans will nominate a challenger to Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), one of the most stalwart pro-Israel Democrats in the House who is running for reelection in a Trump district.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
The tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran came close to collapsing overnight after the Islamic Republic fired 15 missiles and four drones at the United Arab Emirates. The question now is whether hostilities will resume in the coming days — just before next week’s major summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, slated to take place in Beijing.
Monday’s Iranian missile fire came amid ramped-up rhetoric from both Tehran and Washington over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and as the U.S. launched “Project Freedom” to assist vessels attempting to transit through the waterway. One of the drones fired yesterday by Iran hit the UAE’s Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, sparking a fire that injured three Indian workers.
CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper touted the initial success of the Project Freedom naval effort, which on its first day protected two U.S.-flagged ships traveling through the strait. It’s unclear the degree to which the endeavor will help with the resumption of normal activities in the waterway, which normally sees some 120 vessels passing through each day.
Later Monday, two U.S. naval ships came under heavy fire from Iran as they navigated through the passage. Iran claimed to have hit a warship, which CENTCOM denied. Trump told Fox News’ Trey Yingst that Iran would be “wipe[d] off the face of the earth” if it targeted ships being escorted through the strait. The Wall Street Journal reported that the president “for days has toggled between two competing impulses: severely punishing Iran for failing to abandon its nuclear work, and avoiding a significant escalation that could draw the U.S. deeper into a Middle East conflict.”
The bigger question is what will happen next week, when Trump is slated to meet with China’s Xi Jinping in Beijing — a summit already delayed once due to the war. Over the weekend, Beijing told Chinese firms to ignore U.S. sanctions on five Iran-linked oil refiners in the country.
Beijing has attempted to play both sides of the conflict, encouraging Iran to pursue diplomacy while also providing the Islamic Republic with commercial support for use in the event of a resumption of hostilities. Should the summit take place, all eyes will be on Xi to see if he attempts to play Trump, as well.
RAHM UNBOUND
How Rahm Emanuel is recalibrating on Israel ahead of 2028
Last November, Rahm Emanuel, a former ambassador, mayor, White House chief of staff and current prospective presidential candidate, warned the Jewish Federations of North America about Israel’s declining global reputation, marking a turning point in his approach to the issue. In an interview with Jewish Insider‘s Matthew Kassel last week, he outlined his views amid changing winds in a Democratic Party increasingly hostile to the pro-Israel stance long central to his identity.
On military aid to Israel: “What I said couldn’t have been clearer,” he told JI last Thursday, referring to his recent comments on “Real Time With Bill Maher” calling for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel that raised eyebrows in the Jewish community. “There will no longer be U.S. taxpayer subsidies for the purchase of U.S. military equipment. Israel will be like every other ally. They can buy what they want, and they have to live within the restrictions. You can decide to slice it, dice it, but that’s what it is,” he said.
Read the full interview and story here.
Elsewhere: Politico‘s Jonathan Martin sat down at Manny’s Deli in Chicago with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to discuss the Jewish Democrat’s potential 2028 presidential bid. Pritzker touched on his faith, noting that he and his family have faced increased threats in recent years, and raised concerns about the rise in antisemitism more generally. Pritzker noted that he was “unapologetically in favor of having a peaceful sanctuary Jews can live in, in Israel,” and doubled down on his call for a two-state solution.
FAMILIAR FACE
Direction of Dem policy group raises red flags after hiring of new leader with history of anti-Israel activism
Several top Jewish Democrats are expressing concerns about the ideological direction of a newly revived foreign policy group now aiming to shape the party’s approach to Israel in the 2028 presidential election as well as a future Democratic administration. National Security Action is returning to the political arena with a new leader, Maher Bitar, who has served in high-level defense and intelligence roles on Capitol Hill and in the White House, the group confirmed on Sunday, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Israel approach: Bitar has faced scrutiny over his past record of anti-Israel activism. “We urge National Security Action to continue to be an honest convener about these important issues,” Brian Romick, the president of Democratic Majority for Israel, told JI. “There is a strong majority of Americans, including Democratic primary voters, who support the U.S.-Israel relationship because they understand that doing so is in the best interest of the United States.
GAZA RECONSTRUCTION
U.S. quietly advances postwar Gaza plan as Waltz vows Hamas ‘will never again rule’
While the world’s attention has been fixed on Iran, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and a team of American bureaucrats have spent the last few months quietly working to turn President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace into a fully functioning entity. “The contributions keep coming in for both the international stabilization force and the new police force,” Waltz told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch during an interview on Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.
Waltz’s vision: Waltz is bullish on the possibility that the morass of Gaza can be worked out peacefully, with enough buy-in from countries who are willing to finance the creation of a new governing and police structure in Gaza. “That training is standing up in both Egypt and Jordan. It’s going to take time, but all of those pieces are moving forward,” Waltz said. One lingering challenge is Hamas’ grip on power. Waltz swore that Hamas “will never again rule Gaza,” whether as a result of “diplomatic action or military action.”
Elsewhere at the Milken Conference: Top foundation leaders on a panel on philanthropy called for grantmakers to move toward a “builder” mindset amid seismic shifts in the economy and society, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.
SOUNDING THE ALARM
Cruz warns of future where both parties are anti-Israel
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has for months been raising the alarm about the growing threat of antisemitism on the American right. During a visit to Los Angeles for the Milken Institute Global Conference, he called for elected officials — including in his own party — to take a clear stand on the issue, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Words of warning: “I don’t want to wake up in five years and find ourselves in a country where both major political parties are unequivocally anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic. And I think that is a very real threat,” Cruz told JI in an interview on Monday on the sidelines of the Milken conference. “Every elected official is going to have to decide where he or she stands, and what you believe,” said Cruz. “As Ronald Reagan said more than 50 years ago, this is a time for choosing, and each person can decide where he or she stands.”
Swastikas in Queens: Multiple Jewish homes, a synagogue and a Jewish center in Queens — which contains a preschool — were vandalized with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti overnight on Monday, leaving Jewish residents questioning their safety amid a spate of antisemitic incidents, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.
CALL TO ARMS
Lindsey Graham calls for ‘big, strong and short’ military action against Iran
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would support “big, strong and short” U.S. military action against Iran following Tehran’s latest strikes on the United Arab Emirates on Monday — the first such attack on the critical American ally since the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire took hold in early April, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
What he said: Graham, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and supporter of the war effort, said that Iran’s “attack against UAE’s vital infrastructure and continued attacks on international shipping … justifies a big, strong and short response to inflict further damage on Iran’s war machine” in a statement on X. “A forceful response on behalf of our ally, UAE, will reinforce that America is back as a reliable ally, helping to further wash away the damage caused by the Biden administration on this front,” Graham continued.
MAYORAL TOUR
Mamdani makes surprise visit to Jewish Children’s Museum
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani toured the Jewish Children’s Museum in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn on Monday — accompanied by the police commissioner, the local city councilmember and the museum’s co-founder, but no press or local religious leaders, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Closed-door tour: The mayor’s stop was first reported by Chabad community news site COLlive, which shared a photo of him entering the building alongside NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and inside the lobby with Tisch and Councilmember Crystal Hudson. In another image was Devorah Halberstam, one of the museum’s founders, who COLlive reported provided a “closed-door tour.” Halberstam told JI she connected with the mayor following the car-ramming of the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters, which sits a few hundred feet from the museum and serves as the spiritual center of the neighborhood, and that a meeting had been in the works since before Passover.
Bonus: Mamdani appeared alongside Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) at an event on Monday in the Bronx to announce a federal investment of $2 million for an effort to expand high-speed internet access to low-income residents in parts of the city. Politico New York looks at the relationship between the two NYC politicos, who clashed during last year’s mayoral campaign.
Worthy Reads
What Rachel Represents: In the Jewish Review of Books, Dara Horn reviews Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s When We See You Again. “As we face an ongoing barrage of anti-Jewish attacks worldwide — the massacres of October 7 and the subsequent torture and murder of hostages, missile hailstorms, maniacs murdering Jews in synagogues and museums and on beaches and sidewalks, and nonstop calls from all sorts of influencers cheering for more of the same, or explaining why we deserve it — our responses have oscillated between confusion and outrage, with little room for sorrow. [Goldberg-Polin’s book] is a reminder that beneath all the armor each of us must now wear in public, we are actually wounded, grieving mothers and fathers and daughters and sons, and we are allowed to weep.” [JewishReviewofBooks]
Dems Should Fear Keir: In The New York Times, Samuel Earle suggests that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s plummeting popularity among Labour party members serves as a warning to Democrats ahead of the midterms. “For Democrats, there are lessons in Mr. Starmer’s plight. To name a few: A leader without a base will soon find the floor falling out from beneath them; a campaign that relies on voter apathy will foment the political forces it purports to fight; and an offer of competence, pragmatism and decency is no longer enough. These dynamics have played out in Maine, where an unconventional, unpolished outsider with a radical message galvanized Democratic voters so much more than the state’s experienced and moderate governor that the governor dropped out of the race.” [NYTimes]
End of an Era: In The Independent, Ben Judah posits that the “golden age” of Jewish life in the Diaspora has ended. “Today, with the Jewish community feeling that many spaces, from social media platforms to pro-Palestine marches on the streets of London, or the arts, have normalised a kind of attitude to Israel they find antisemitic, demonised any connection to it and rolled their eyes at the attacks they are under, there is a profound Jewish alienation instead of the old enthusiasm. There will be less Jewish energy powering these cultural and political engines of the West going forward.” [TheIndependent]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump issued a proclamation for Jewish American Heritage Month, calling on Jewish Americans to observe a “national Sabbath” May 15-16, in “special honor of 250 glorious years of American independence and on the weekend of Rededicate 250 — a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving”…
The Financial Times reports that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clashed with U.K. Chancellor Rachel Reeves over Reeves’ comments, made last month while she was in Washington for International Monetary Fund meetings, critical of the Iran war…
Palantir announced record-high first quarter earnings of $1.63 billion in sales amid the company’s entry into the AI space and efforts to make inroads in Washington; CEO Alex Karp said that the company’ “biggest problem currently is demand in the U.S.,” adding, “We just cannot meet demand”…
The Egyptian national accused of firebombing participants in a Boulder, Colo., march to raise awareness for the Israeli hostages last year, killing an elderly woman and injuring a dozen others, will plead guilty to a series of charges including murder; Mohamed Sabry Soliman pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges, which can carry the death penalty, but last year offered to plead guilty to the charge in exchange for life in prison…
eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher spotlights the celebrations around the third annual National Challah Day, which fell on May 2…
During its second day of public testimony, Australia’s royal commission into the circumstances that led to the December terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach heard from Jewish parents who described ongoing, “normalized” antisemitism in Australian society; the commission also listened to testimony from a paramedic who faced antisemitism from both patients and other emergency responders, one of whom threatened to “skin you the way my family skinned yours in the camps”…
The U.K.’s Metropolitan police are investigating a suspected arson attack at a former synagogue in the Whitechapel district of London…
Former Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party announced that Sharon Sharabi, the brother of hostages Eli and Yossi Sharabi, the latter of whom was killed in captivity, was joining the party; the announcement came amid reports that the right-wing opposition party was considering a merger with Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party…
Israel’s Defense Ministry said that the first of six new Boeing KC-46 refueling planes that Israel ordered from the U.S. completed its first flight test…
The New York Times looks at the rise in settler violence targeting Palestinians in the West Bank…
Kan reporter Suleiman Maswadeh is joining Israel’s Channel 13 as the network’s Washington correspondent…
Elliot Cohen is joining the Trump administration’s Board of Peace after being detailed to the Office of Special Envoy for Peace Missions through the Department of the Interior; he was previously at the Department of Government Efficiency and Blackstone…
Doris Fisher, who with her husband, Don, started The Gap in 1969, died at 94…
Pic of the Day
Noam Bettan, Israel’s entrant to the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, began rehearsals earlier this week in Vienna ahead of the competition’s semifinals next Tuesday.
Birthdays
Head coach of the football team at the University of Washington, Jedd Ari Fisch turns 50…
Senior U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Illinois, Robert W. Gettleman turns 83… Best-selling author of 20 novels featuring fictional Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper, written by the former head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Linda Fairstein turns 79… Retired chief judge on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, he was once president of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, Peter B. Krauser turns 79… Docent at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ruth Klein Schwalbe… Gayle Weiss Schochet… Member of the Knesset, almost continuously since 1988, leader of the Ashekazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism, Moshe Gafni turns 74… South African-born former president of American Jewish World Service, Robert Bank turns 67… David Shamir… Pulitzer Prize-winning author of three nonfiction books, historian and journalist, Tom Reiss turns 62… Senior managing director of Jewish Funders Network, he is a graduate of Yeshiva College and Yale Law School, Yossi Prager… Emmy Award-winning television writer and producer, known for “The Simpsons,” Josh Weinstein turns 60… Special education consultant, Nancy Simcha Cook Kimsey… EVP of BerlinRosen, Nicole Rosen… Executive director of public relations at UJA-Federation of New York, Emily Kutner… Executive director of Micah Philanthropies, Deena Fuchs… President of Charleston, S.C.-based InterTech Group, a global holding company, Jonathan M. Zucker turns 48… Television news correspondent, print journalist, stage and film actress, entrepreneur and pro-Israel activist, Lara Berman Krinsky turns 46… Former Israeli national soccer team captain, he also played for Chelsea, West Ham United and Liverpool in the English Premier League, Yossi Benayoun turns 46… Mayor of Bat Yam, Israel, Tzvika Brot turns 46… Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since 2013, Michael H. Schlossberg turns 43… Former professional golfer, now an orthopedic surgeon, David Bartos Merkow, MD turns 41… Partner at New Enterprise Associates and a member of the inaugural class of the Schwarzman Scholars program, Andrew Adams Schoen… Maxine S. Fuchs… Blake E. Goodman… Basketball player selected 27th overall by the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the 2025 NBA draft, Danny Wolf turns 22…
AJC’s Director of Antisemitism Policy Holly Huffnagle: ‘The No. 1 reason that we have the antisemitism levels that we do today in the United States and around the world is because of the digital space’
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
AJC CEO Ted Deutch on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025.
A new report by the American Jewish Committee, released on Friday, found that 73% of American Jews saw or heard antisemitism online in the last year and 21% said that the antisemitism they witnessed made them feel physically threatened.
Top officials at the group say that this pervasive antisemitism online is the fundamental root of the current wave of antisemitic sentiment society-wide, including violent extremist attacks on Jewish communities in the U.S. and globally, and that protecting the Jewish community requires making real progress in tackling that problem.
According to the group’s CEO, Ted Deutch, the report is the first comprehensive survey-based tracking of American Jews’ experiences with and opinions on social media, “and the results are alarming.”
Deutch told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday that the report further finds that those pushing antisemitic content have found an “alarming number of ways” to avoid rules on various platforms to safeguard against hate.
Deutch, a longtime former House lawmaker, expressed frustration at the continued lack of action from Congress on antisemitism generally, amid a series of violent attacks across the country and the globe, drawing some parallels between that dynamic and his own struggles in the House to pass legislation in response to school shootings, as such events repeated themselves.
“If we stop it from spreading online, we’ve taken a dramatic step to preventing someone from showing up in D.C., killing two people, and saying, ‘I did it for Gaza,’ or someone in Colorado showing up, throwing Molotov cocktails with people at a march for the hostages, and killing someone there, and saying, ‘I did it for Palestine,’” Deutch said. “This needs urgent attention. It’s not getting it and it’s not acceptable.”
Speaking out against antisemitism is important, he said, “but you know what? We know where this starts, we know how it spreads. We have to do something to stop it there, so that we can stop the violence.”
He said that he’s concerned that Congress is becoming desensitized to the string of attacks on the Jewish community and isn’t responding with the action it warrants.
“The ability for Congress and policymakers around the country to simply move on, from one attack to another, the normalization of the antisemitic rhetoric that’s being used, the willingness to simply chalk this up to one extreme or another … You wind up accepting it. We cannot accept it,” Deutch said. “That sense of urgency does not exist. I don’t understand it.”
“I get it that this is a really hard time for Congress to legislate,” Deutch continued. “I understand that there are very strong feelings about everything that happens in politics, but I cannot understand how on an issue like this, when the data is clear and the impact of what’s happening is clear, that we can allow week to week, more attacks on synagogues, more attacks on schools.”
He said that ultimately, true security for the Jewish community won’t come through increasingly stringent physical security measures, but through a broader shift, “and that starts with what’s happening online” because the attacks across the country and the world “aren’t isolated incidents.”
He said that he wants Congress, President Donald Trump and the American people to understand that, and to collectively work to tone down antisemitic rhetoric online and decrease its spread.
The report, compiled in collaboration with Cyberwell, an Israeli nonprofit aimed at fighting antisemitism online, offers a variety of recommendations for technology companies and platforms to respond to antisemitism on their services.
“The No. 1 reason that we have the antisemitism levels that we do today in the United States and around the world is because of the digital space,” Holly Huffnagle, AJC’s director of antisemitism policy, said. “We can’t just keep sitting by and observing and collecting data. We actually need to do something about this, and this is how we think is the best way to go forward in closing some of those gaps around enforcement on the platforms.”
The report found that, across social media platforms, only around one-third of American Jews report antisemitic content they see, in many cases feeling that doing so will be futile. Deutch said he found that data point the most concerning.
“If the Jewish community is essentially throwing up its hands … then that says an awful lot about them, and our larger population as a whole,” Deutch said. He argued it sends the conclusion to the population at large that “the battle is lost. We can’t afford that. This isn’t a battle that is lost. This is an ongoing effort that we all have to be a part of.”
Huffnagle said that the report, based in part on data from AJC’s annual poll of the Jewish community’s experience of antisemitism, is proof of what many in the Jewish community have long seen and felt — that antisemitism is rampant online — and shows that “they’re not alone.”
The report offers a set of nine recommendations for tech companies: tightening enforcement mechanisms against those who support terrorism and antisemitic attacks; clarifying and strengthening policies on antisemitism; addressing coded antisemitism through emojis and euphemisms; consistently applying visibility restrictions on antisemitic content, ensuring that such measures are applied early and improving tools to prevent targeted harassment; ensuring that hateful content is not monetized or amplified and that users can’t evade restrictions; detecting and preventing AI-created and -driven antisemitic content; implementing better tools to prevent coordinated activity to boost antisemitic content; creating better reporting systems for antisemitism; and providing greater transparency and data access.
Legislatively, AJC is supporting the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act, which would require social media companies to share more data with the public. Deutch said that lawmakers are “flying blind” when it comes to antisemitism on social media platforms, lacking the data internal to the platforms that they and civil society need to address the problem.
“The transparency … can help drive accountability and real policy change and real changes to community standards, so that we don’t have to see these kinds of data points repeat year after year,” Deutch said.
“We have to approach this with greater urgency,” he continued. “Congress can’t simply allow itself to fall into the same old argument about how to approach this, and should we be talking about liability or not, whether this is free speech or it’s not free speech. That’s not what this is about. This is about real threats to the Jewish community and the ability that social media companies have — and the urgent need that we all have — for them to act, to keep the Jewish community and, in turn, to keep society safe.”
Huffnagle said she hopes the report can help identify other “creative” solutions and approaches to addressing antisemitism, particularly outside of government and apart from longstanding debates in Congress like reforming liability protections for social media platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — an idea that Jewish groups have discussed for years but hasn’t seen movement on legislatively.
“I think we need to be creative,” she said. “Just because something’s being stalled doesn’t mean there can’t be movement elsewhere.”
Huffnagle said AJC is working with various platforms to tailor the group’s approach to the specific issues on those platforms — having developed a greater understanding of the distinct problem sets on each platform — rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach that they and others in the Jewish community previously had.
In spite of policy shifts at social media companies in recent years toward a more permissive posture, including less strict content moderation and less company-sponsored fact-checking, Huffnagle said that AJC maintains relationships with social media companies and that they have been receptive to and implemented some of the feedback that AJC has offered.
She added that engaging with the tech sector — not just law enforcement and government — is necessary to addressing the society-wide problem of antisemitism. Huffnagle emphasized that she wants to see real change come out of this report — not just a compilation of data and unfulfilled recommendations.
She acknowledged that the survey likely includes a blindspot when it comes to TikTok because AJC only surveyed adults, and the platform is highly popular among younger teens.
The survey found that a majority of American Jews (65%) are concerned that artificial intelligence chatbots will spread antisemitism, and 69% were concerned that information produced by AI will fuel antisemitic incidents.
AI, Huffnagle said, poses both “novel problems” as well as “helpful solutions.” It can both create and amplify antisemitic content, but can also help moderate content, particularly as platforms are scaling back on human moderators. But, she said, using AI for moderation can’t currently keep up with the pace of antisemitic content.
“It can be used for good. I see it. It’s just not nearly as efficient and sufficient to meet how it’s being used for bad,” Huffnagle said.
Deutch said another concern is that, without proper policies and transparency from social media companies, platforms may devolve into a “war … between the AI that’s targeting us and the AI that’s trying to protect us.”
Deutch and Huffnagle’s conversation with JI came on the same day that a jury ruled that Meta and YouTube were negligent in their design of their platforms, awarding a plaintiff $3 million, a landmark case finding that social media platforms are responsible for their platforms’ impacts on their users.
“The one conclusion that I think everyone should draw from these headlines is that the courts have now ruled that there is responsibility to the customer,” Deutch said. “The tech companies acknowledge that. They wouldn’t have their community standards if they weren’t worried about what’s happening to their users. … It’s time for these community standards to be enforced.”
‘Injecting the views of antisemites into’ the rise of political extremism ‘and welcoming those views is dangerous,’ Deutch said
Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, testifies about 'The Crisis on Campus: Antisemitism, Radical Faculty, and the Failure of University Leadership" during a US House Committee on Ways and Means hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 13, 2024.
Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee and a former Democratic congressman, said that Democratic lawmakers and candidates should not associate with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has a record of antisemitism and support for terrorism.
His comments come at a time when a small but growing group of Democrats has begun speaking out against Piker, particularly as he’s set to join a far-left Michigan Senate candidate on the trail.
Deutch drew parallels between Piker on the far left and white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes on the far right.
“In both cases, each party should make clear that voices that aren’t representative of their parties have no place in an official campaign setting — shouldn’t be welcomed, shouldn’t be welcomed in to share their views,” Deutch said. “In Piker’s case, his record speaks for itself, the same with Nick Fuentes. I don’t need to go into details about who they are or what they represent. Neither one of them belongs in the middle of the political process as a result of candidates choosing to put them there.”
He said he’s expressed that view to candidates on both sides of the aisle and would keep those conversations private, but “my hope is that we’ll see some clarity on that issue going forward.”
“The challenges that we’re facing now with increasing polarization and the rise of extremism on the edges of both political parties is bad enough. Injecting the views of antisemites into that mix and welcoming those views is dangerous,” Deutch said.
Plus, Bibi's budget-or-ballot deadline looms
Mustafa Hatipoglu/Anadolu via Getty Images
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (R) meets with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani (L) during an official visit in Doha, Qatar, on March 19, 2026.
👋 Good Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how a court’s decision to restore Voice of America’s operations could impact the broadcaster’s coverage in Iran, and report on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s efforts to put some distance between herself and her controversial aides. We have the scoop on a call from 150 House lawmakers to increase Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding to $1 billion for the next fiscal year 2027, and report on the upcoming deadline for the Israeli government to pass a budget, or risk triggering early elections. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Ted Deutch and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik, Lahav Harkov and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- Israel confirmed Iranian state media reports this morning that Ali Mohammad Naini, the spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been killed in a strike, hours after he rebuffed a claim by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran was no longer able to manufacture ballistic missiles.
- Meanwhile, the U.S. is kicking off what is expected to be a multiweek operation to open the Strait of Hormuz. In a joint statement released last night, the U.K., France, Japan, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, joined later by Canada, said they backed the American effort to restore freedom of movement through the crucial waterway.
- In New York City, the House Appropriations Committee is holding a field hearing today on accountability and reform at the U.N.
- The Fanatics Flag Football Classic is taking place tomorrow in Los Angeles after being moved from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, due to the ongoing war.
- Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter will appear on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
- The Leffell Foundation’s third annual rabbinical conference kicks off on Sunday in Florida.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
Over the last three weeks, Qatar’s leadership has woken up to a reality it had long seemed determined to disprove: that money will only take you so far. And so Doha has fallen back on a longstanding Middle Eastern tradition of blaming Israel for its problems.
Qatar is the top foreign contributor to American universities, World Cup host, patron of the arts and donor of the new Air Force One, and the influence that comes with philanthropy led much of the world to turn a blind eye to the dark side of the Al Thani royal family’s generosity: Funding perhaps the world’s most effective propaganda arm for radical Islam, Al Jazeera, hosting the leaders of Hamas and other terrorist groups, and more.
With a massive real estate portfolio that includes properties in London and Manhattan, its efforts to bail out White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in 2023 and 2025, and its work with former lobbyists now in the Trump administration — such as Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel — Doha appeared to have built a winning strategy to ensure its voice was heard in the White House.
Despite public opposition from Qatar and other Gulf states, the U.S., alongside Israel, went to war with Iran. Now, Doha finds itself on the receiving end of attacks from the Islamic Republic. Tehran’s attacks on Qatari gas facilities have led to a loss of 17% of Qatar’s capacity to export liquefied natural gas and an estimated $20 billion loss of annual revenue for the next three to five years, QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters.
The latest Iranian assault on Doha’s gas industry came after Israel struck the Iranian side of the South Pars gas field, shared with Qatar. In a message that appeared, at least in part, an attempt to appease Doha, President Donald Trump blamed Israel — in mild terms by Trump standards — and said he had no idea about the attack, a claim experts and former Israeli and U.S. officials have said is unlikely to be true. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Thursday night press conference that Israel “acted alone” and will respect Trump’s request that Israel not bomb the gas field again.
In addition, Trump threatened that if Iran attacks “a very innocent, in this case, Qatar,” the U.S. will “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”
Ariel Admoni, a Qatar expert at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), said Trump’s statement shows “great anger” in Doha “expressed through pressure on Trump and a demand to clarify that he wasn’t part of this, in order not to hurt [Qatar’s] image” of being well-connected to the administration.
Persian Coverage Push
Court ruling reviving VOA sparks cautious hope for expanded Iran coverage
A federal judge’s ruling this week that voided the Trump administration’s efforts, overseen by Kari Lake, to shutter Voice of America, restoring more than 1,000 journalists and other employees by Monday, is raising some hopes that the embattled international broadcaster funded by the federal government may now be able to ramp up its Persian-language coverage to reach Iranians at a crucial moment amid war with the U.S. and Israel, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Near shutdown: While VOA had resumed some of its Persian news broadcasting in recent months, it has been hobbled by a yearlong near shutdown ordered by the Trump administration that had reduced the organization to a skeletal staff. Earlier this month, the judge ordered that Lake’s appointment as acting chief had been unlawful and nullified her aggressive moves to gut VOA. One USAGM source expressed optimism that the judge’s decisions would result in “more resources,” but cautioned that “there are still leadership issues” in the Persian service — once one of VOA’s largest divisions — stifling its ability to report exhaustively on news developments and offer coverage without the appearance of bias.
AT ARM’S LENGTH
DNI Tulsi Gabbard keeps some distance from controversial aides Joe Kent, Dan Caldwell
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard distanced herself — to a degree — on Thursday from two aides who have taken hostile stances toward the U.S.’ Middle East policy: the recently departed director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, and the recently hired Dan Caldwell, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
DNI dilemma: “He said a lot of things in that letter,” Gabbard said, when first asked at a House Intelligence Committee hearing if she agreed with Kent’s controversial and antisemitic resignation letter. Pressed again on whether Kent’s comments blaming Israel for the war in Iran concern her, Gabbard affirmed that they do. Regarding Caldwell — a prominent GOP isolationist who was reportedly hired to serve in the ODNI, Gabbard’s agency, after being fired amid a leak investigation from the Pentagon last year — Gabbard denied personal knowledge of him and claimed he would have no influence over intelligence products. A longtime isolationist, Gabbard also declined to discuss her own views on the war in Iran.
FUNDING FURY
Democrats skeptical of proposed $200 billion in Iran war funding, raising questions about passage
The Pentagon’s reported intention to ask Congress for $200 billion for an emergency supplemental to fund the U.S. military amid war in Iran is being met with prompt rejection from many congressional Democrats, raising questions about whether the funding will pass through normal procedures or if supporters will have to resort to partisan budget reconciliation measures, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Matthew Shea report.
What they’re saying: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said that the size of the request suggests that the administration is planning for a much larger war than initially envisioned. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) predicted that the request would be carefully considered and matched to U.S. needs. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was among the first Republicans to firmly reject any supplemental military spending.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Susan Collins (R-ME).
Up in arms: The Senate is set to hold another round of votes on blocking U.S. arms transfers to Israel, as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) filed three new joint resolutions of disapproval against $658.8 million in sales of 500- and 1,000-pound bombs to Israel and “defense articles” for 250-pound bombs, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
SCOOP
150 House lawmakers push for $1 billion in security grant funding in 2027
In a letter to the leaders of the House Appropriations Committee, a bipartisan group of 150 House members asked the committee to provide $1 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program in 2027, a massive expansion of the program and an unprecedented increase in their request level, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Call for action: The request letter, which has been sent annually for the last several years at the start of the House’ appropriations process, comes this year in the immediate aftermath of an attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., and its early childhood center. “The fact of the matter is, around this country, we’ve all experienced a rise in antisemitism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, hatred of all types,” Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI), who again co-led the request with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), told JI on Thursday. “This is a response that’s proportional to the demand, and right now, we need to act swiftly.”
Exclusive: A group of congressional Democrats is urging the State Department to restart chartered evacuation flights and take additional steps to help U.S. citizens who wish to leave Israel amid the ongoing war with Iran.
DEADLINE LOOMING
Netanyahu has less than two weeks to pass a budget — or go to early elections
The war against Iran may have united the vast majority of Israelis who support its aims, but much of the governing coalition’s prewar political obstacles still have to be resolved by the end of the month — including the passing of a state budget for the current year and a Haredi conscription law — or else an early election will automatically be called, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
State of play: The coalition failed to pass a 2026 budget by Dec. 31, a regular occurrence in Israel, due to several policy disputes. By law, if the Dec. 31 deadline is not met, it may be extended to the end of March. However, if the Knesset does not pass a budget by the end of March, the law states that the body will automatically dissolve, with an election held 90 days later. The Knesset is slated to go into recess on March 24, but it appears increasingly likely that the legislature will stay in session, with efforts to finalize the budget continuing until hours before Passover, which begins on the evening of April 1.
Survey says: A new poll by The Times of Israel’s Hebrew site, Zman Israel, has Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party overtaking former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s party, but still falling behind Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud. Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid fell to its lowest standing since Zman Israel began polling.
IVY LEAGUE INQUIRY
Report on declining Jewish enrollment at Harvard raises alarm and sparks debate
A new report finding that Jewish enrollment at Harvard University has fallen to roughly 7% — its lowest level since the pre-World War II era — has sounded alarms among some Jewish leaders, while touching off a debate at Harvard about its accuracy. The figure marks a steep decline from a decade ago, when Jewish students made up about twice that share, and represents the lowest proportion among Ivy League schools with available data, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Compare and contrast: The decrease is not reflected at all Ivy Leagues, though: At Princeton, Jews declined at less than a fifth of the rate of their white non-Jewish peers. At Brown and Cornell, Jewish enrollment held or grew over the past decade. The 64-page report, “A Narrowing Gate: Jewish Enrollment at Harvard and Its Peers, 1967-2025,” released this week by the university’s official Jewish alumni group, argues that the decline is not simply the byproduct of neutral admissions trends, but reflects a growing “ambivalence” to admitting Jewish students on Harvard’s part.
Worthy Reads
Target on His Back: Roll Call’s Ryan Tarinelli interviews Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) about having been a target of a foiled terror plot. “‘In any of his writings that they discovered, he wasn’t mad about any of my policy positions or votes. It was simply the fact that I was Jewish [and] my support for Israel,’ Moskowitz said. Efforts to dehumanize Jewish people appear in normal life, Moskowitz said, but even more so online, where it can reach younger people.” [RollCall]
Too Close For Comfort: In The Wall Street Journal, Third Way’s Jonathan Cowan and Lily Cohen call on Democrats to distance themselves from far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has increasingly been embraced by elements of the left. “Mr. Piker is anti-American, antiwomen, anti-Western and antisemitic. No Democrat should engage with him. All should seek to push him to the fringe, where he belongs. This isn’t happening. … There’s no excuse for putting political tribalism before Jewish safety. Or for overlooking hatred to generate likes online. Or for failing to act against the surge of antisemitism, spread by the Hasan Pikers of the world and normalized by too many on the Democratic side.” [WSJ]
The Rhodes to Ruin: In The Hill, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch raises concerns about comments made this week by Obama administration official Ben Rhodes calling for the Democratic Party to ostracize lawmakers in the party who support military action in Iran. “Disagreements about war and peace are as old as American democracy itself. They should be debated vigorously, examined carefully, and decided with the seriousness that questions of life and death demand. But declaring that those who reach a different conclusion simply don’t belong crosses a very different line: It replaces debate with ideological exclusion. Rhodes’s comment reflects a broader and troubling shift in political discourse. Increasingly, foreign policy disagreements are treated not as differences in judgment but as evidence of moral failure. The expectation is no longer that leaders will argue their case and persuade others. It is that those who dissent should be pushed outside the bounds of legitimate debate.” [TheHill]
Word on the Street
The Treasury Department is mulling lifting sanctions on 140 million barrels of Iranian oil currently at sea in an effort to lower oil prices, which hit $119 a barrel on Thursday…
Israel struck Syrian infrastructure on Friday, which Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said was in response to attacks on the Druze minority near the border with Israel, adding, “Israel will not stand by and will not allow anyone to harm the Druze under the cover of our war against the Iranian terrorist regime and against the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon”…
Bazan Group reported to investors on Friday that vital infrastructure at its oil refinery in Haifa had sustained damage in an Iranian missile attack on Thursday, but it is expected to return to regular operations within a few days…
The Wall Street Journal looks at how President Donald Trump has narrated his version of the Iran war and communicated U.S. policy on Iran through scores of Truth Social posts…
Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized the administration for bypassing normal congressional review procedures to approve $20 billion in arms and military equipment sales to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan…
The New York Times does a postmortem on AIPAC’s spending in the recent Illinois primaries, as the group — and Israel — faces diminishing support from Democrats…
The University of California Board of Regents reached a settlement with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights over what Jewish students said was the University of California, Berkeley’s failure to address campus antisemitism; under the terms of the settlement, the school will implement mandatory campus-wide antisemitism and anti-discrimination training, and hire a Title VI coordinator…
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is surveying Cornell University employees about antisemitism they have experienced or observed on the campus as the Trump administration pursues a civil rights case against the Ivy League school…
Palestinian American author Susan Abulhawa criticized American Jews and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who last week distanced himself and his wife, who illustrated one of Abulhawa’s books, from the author over her numerous antisemitic comments — saying that “Jewish Americans are the most privileged demographic in this country … no terrible words should be spared for these monsters, because they are monsters”…
In the 24 hours before a fringe Catholic political group planned to host a gala in Washington honoring a number of public figures who have faced accusations of antisemitism, including Candace Owens and Joe Kent, several prominent members of the American Catholic Church stated unequivocally that antisemitism is not a part of their religious doctrine, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
The Lebanese American man who attacked Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., sent a photo of himself with the rifle he used to a family member on the day of the attack…
Temple Israel released photos of the extensive damage caused during last week’s attack, saying that unauthorized photos that have been published “have caused considerable harm to the survivors of last week’s attack” and that the congregation was sharing their own photos “to take back control of our narrative”…
The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco announced plans to sell its building in the city’s downtown Yerba Buena district after temporarily shuttering in late 2024 over financial challenges…
The Wall Street Journal reviews “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” the feature-length continuation of the popular TV series that centers around a Nazi plot to destabilize the British economy…
The Washington Post spotlights the northern Israel residents who are staying in the area rather than evacuating amid constant fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog visited the Israeli Arab town of Kfar Qasem, where several homes and businesses were hit by missile shrapnel earlier this week.
Birthdays
Stage and screen actor, television director and musician, best-known for his role as the title character in the television comedy series “Barney Miller,” Hal Linden (born Harold Lipshitz) turns 95…
FRIDAY: Retired consultant on public policy issues to IBM, Ford and Citicorp, among others, he was the chair of the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, Norman Ira Gelman turns 97… Rabbi and human rights activist, he has served for over 60 years as the senior rabbi of NYC’s Park East Synagogue, Arthur Schneier turns 96… Pioneer of financial futures, he is the chairman emeritus of CME Group (formerly the Chicago Mercantile Exchange), Leo Melamed turns 94… Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences as a geologist and oceanographer, but known popularly as poet and performer, Alexander Gorodnitsky turns 93… Australian award-winning writer of Portuguese Sephardi descent, author of fiction, nonfiction, screenplays and poetry collections, David George Joseph Malouf turns 92… Senior advisor to the family office of Charles Bronfman, he was previously SVP and COO of UJA-Federation of New York, Dr. Jeffrey R. Solomon turns 81… Senior lecturer of Talmud at Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Rabbi Tzvi Berkowitz turns 75… Award-winning author of 26 children’s books, Louis Sachar turns 72… Owner of Baltimore-based Diamond Point Metals, Jack Zager… Former professional tennis player, Bruce Manson turns 70… Philanthropist and pioneer in corporate social responsibility, formerly CEO of family-owned Timberland, Jeffrey Swartz turns 66… Retired as Israel’s chief of police in 2018 after a 27-year prior career at the Shin Bet, Roni Alsheikh turns 63… Host of “Time Team America,” a PBS program, she also produced and directed a feature-length documentary titled “Our Summer in Tehran,” Justine Shapiro turns 63… Chilean businessman with substantial mining interests, in 2014 he donated seven newly written Sefer Torah scrolls to synagogues on six different continents, Leonardo Farkas turns 59… Former member of the Knesset for the Blue and White alliance, he served as minister of justice, Avraham Daniel “Avi” Nissenkorn turns 59… Journalist, author and lecturer, he is an editor-at-large for Esquire, Arnold Stephen “A.J.” Jacobs turns 58… Actor, podcast host, director, comedian and advocate for Israel, Michael Rapaport turns 56… First-ever Jewish mayor of Lansing, Mich., now in his second term, Andy Schor turns 51… Award-winning Israeli actress, her credits include a role in “Fauda,” Netta Garti turns 46… Actor, music video director and writer, he is the son of Dustin Hoffman, Jake Hoffman turns 45… Head of global strategic partner sales within the financial services group at Amazon Web Services, Daniel M. Eckstein… Senior writer and messaging strategist for Apple, Matt Finkelstein… Senior editor of politics, policy and ideas at Vox, Benjamin “Benjy” Sarlin… Director of real estate development for a N.Y.-based hedge fund, Jason Lifton… Comedian, writer and actress who gained popularity through her comedy videos on YouTube, Joanna Hausmann turns 37… New York City-based comedian, his most recent show centers on a meeting of neo-Nazis that he attended incognito in Queens, Alex Edelman turns 37… Talmud teacher and secretary of the committee of Jewish law and standards at the Rabbinical Assembly, Max Buchdahl… Technical program manager at Bugcrowd, Tatiana Uklist turns… Ehud Lazar…
SATURDAY: Rabbi emeritus of Manhattan’s Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and former principal of the Ramaz School, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein turns 94… Harvard professor, biochemist, physicist, molecular biology pioneer and winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Walter Gilbert turns 94… Scholar of Jewish mysticism and a retired dean at the Hebrew College in Boston, Arthur Green turns 85… Far Rockaway, N.Y., resident, Samuel Gross… First Jewish member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire until 2011, he is of counsel to the law firm of Shaheen & Gordon, Paul Hodes turns 75… Former executive director of The Charles Bronfman Prize, Jill Collier Indyk… Chabad rabbi, martial artist and chaplain for 13 years in the Israel Prison Service, Fishel Jacobs turns 70… President of NYC- and Singapore-based KWR International, Keith W. Rabin… Retired director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was previously Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem turns 67… Istanbul-born entrepreneur, hotelier and real estate developer, he is president of NYC-based Alexico Group LLC, Izak Senbahar turns 67… Co-founder of Wynnefield Capital Management, Joshua H. Landes… Award-winning film, stage and television actor and singer whose roles include the title role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Matthew Broderick turns 64… Israeli rock musician and record producer, he is best known for being the guitarist and one of the songwriters in the rock band Mashina, Shlomi Bracha turns 64… Hedge fund manager, philanthropist and former chairman of the board of the New York City Opera, Roy Niederhoffer turns 60… Partner in the Los Angeles office of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, Michael Blacher… Founding editor of The Dispatch and author of three NYT bestsellers, Jonah Goldberg turns 57… James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef from Miami, Michelle Bernstein turns 56… Emmy Award-winning CNN anchor, John Berman turns 54… IDF general, he is one of the highest-ranking Druze ever in the IDF, Ghassan Alian turns 54… President and founder of Bully Pulpit International, Andrew Bleeker… Stage and voice actress, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld turns 39… Board member at Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support, Hadas Alterman… Staff attorney at Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services in Cleveland, Addison Caruso…
SUNDAY: Professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, E.D. Hirsch turns 98… “Star Trek’s” Captain Kirk, in 2021 he flew to space aboard a Blue Origin sub-orbital capsule, William Shatner turns 95… Born in Iran, twice elected as mayor of Beverly Hills, he is a past president of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, Jamshid “Jimmy” Delshad turns 86… Dentist, born in Tel Aviv and raised in NYC, he practiced in Norwalk, Conn., Murray Bruckel, DDS… Academy Award-winning screenwriter, his work includes “Forrest Gump” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Eric R. Roth turns 81… Israeli viola player and teacher, she has performed as soloist with many orchestras worldwide, Rivka Golani turns 80… Senior principal of the law firm of Neuberger, Quinn, Gielen, Rubin & Gibber, Isaac M. Neuberger turns 79… One of the principal anchors for CNN, Wolf Blitzer turns 78… Aviation and aerospace professional, Mike Orkin… Founder and executive director at WomenStrong International, Susan Morton Blaustein turns 73… Mayor of the 16th Arrondissement of Paris until 2023, now a member of the upper house of the French Parliament, Francis Szpiner turns 72… Popular musical entertainer in the Orthodox Jewish community, his stage name is Avraham Fried, Avraham Shabsi Friedman turns 67… Director of marketing and communications at Dorot, Andrea Glick… SVP and general counsel at Hertz Corporation until 2014, J. Jeffrey Zimmerman… Chabad rabbi in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, he is a frequent guest on “Fox News at Night,” Chaim Mentz… Hedge fund manager, he sold a majority stake in the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning during 2024 but he continues to control the team, Jeffrey N. Vinik turns 67… Retired Israeli basketball player, she is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most points (136) ever scored in a women’s professional game, Anat Draigor turns 66… Author, journalist, soldier and award-winning defense correspondent who has covered Israel and the Middle East, Arieh O’Sullivan turns 65… Journalist and author, Debra Nussbaum Cohen… Head of real estate for Mansueto Office, Ari Glass… Member of the U.K. Parliament until 2024 as a member of the British Conservative Party, Robert Halfon turns 57… Partner at Mercury Public Affairs, Jonathan Greenspun… SVP at HCA Healthcare, Jeff E. Cohen… Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, she is a member of Adas Israel, a Conservative Washington synagogue, Judge Neomi Rao turns 53… Internet celebrity, pizza reviewer, blogger and founder of Barstool Sports, David Portnoy turns 49… Visuals editor at The City (dedicated to in-depth local reporting in NYC) and adjunct professor at CUNY, Ben Fractenberg… VP of communications and public policy at Antora Energy, Adam Perecman Frankel… Founder and CEO of beauty and cosmetic firms Into The Gloss and Glossier, Emily Weiss… Creator of the Yehi Ohr program at Jewish Community Services of South Florida, now a real estate agent, Zisa Levin… Retired MLB first baseman after seven seasons, he starred for Team Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Isaac Benjamin “Ike” Davis turns 39… Communications director for then-Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), Sarah Alice Frank Feldman… Energy policy and climate change reporter for Politico, Joshua Adam Siegel… Director of the Dan David Prize (an international award headquartered at Tel Aviv University), Charlotte Hallé… Director of communications at the U.K.’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, James Sorene… Beatrice Stein…
Plus, Tehran attacks Azerbaijan
Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for Entertainment Industry Foundation
Governor Gavin Newsom attends a pep rally to celebrate the second year of the Roybal Film and Television Production School on October 13, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on yesterday’s failed war powers resolution vote in the Senate and preview a similar vote in the House today. We take a closer look at the leftward shifts on Israel by both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) as both men gear up for potential 2028 presidential bids, and spotlight a series of recent public opinion polls in Israel and the U.S. about attitudes toward the war in Iran. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Ahmad Vahidi.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- The House is slated to vote on a war powers resolution today, a day after a similar effort was blocked by Senate Republicans. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), an isolationist-leaning lawmaker, said he plans to vote with most Democrats in support of the resolution, joining Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). A few Democrats are expected to oppose the resolution. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), a moderate House Democrat, said he will also support the resolution. With razor-thin margins in the House, the ultimate outcome could come down to the number of Democratic defections, and potential absences, though Republicans have expressed confidence that the vote will fail.
- The House will separately vote on a Republican-led resolution affirming that Iran remains the leading state sponsor of terrorism.
- Elbridge Colby, the Trump administration’s under secretary of defense for policy, is testifying this morning on the U.S. National Defense Strategy before the House Armed Services Committee.
- The House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a hearing this morning with Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers.
- Elsewhere on the Hill, the Muslim World League is hosting an interfaith iftar gathering later today.
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom is slated to be interviewed by anti-Israel podcaster Jack Cocchiarella in New Hampshire today for a conversation that is expected to heavily focus on Israel. More below on Newsom’s sharp left turn on Israel in recent months.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV AND TAMARA ZIEVE
More than 80% of Israelis support the war against Iran, polls by two major Israeli research institutions found this week, while several U.S. polls found that a majority of Americans oppose it.
The Israel Democracy Institute found that 82% of Israelis — 93% of Jewish Israelis and 26% of Israeli Arabs — support the war with Iran. Among Jewish Israelis, the war has strong support across the political spectrum, with 76% of respondents on the left backing it, 93% of voters from the center and 97% from the right.
Similarly, the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University found that 81% of Israelis back the war against Iran, and 63% support continuing military efforts until the Iranian regime falls. Among Jewish Israelis, support for the war was at 92%, while only 38% of Israeli Arabs support it. About half (49%) of Israeli Arabs oppose the war, while the rest said they did not know.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., a CNN poll, conducted by SSRS shortly after the war began on Saturday, found that nearly 41% of Americans approve of the U.S. military action in Iran, with a sharp divide between Republicans, Democrats and independents — 77% of Republicans approve of the launch of the operation, compared to 32% of independents and 18% of Democrats. The poll found that 59% of Americans disapprove of the U.S. decision to strike.
Similarly, an NBC poll found that 41% of American registered voters approve of President Donald Trump’s approach to Iran, while 54% disapprove and 5% aren’t sure. Just 8% of Democrats approve of the president’s handling of the situation, while 79% of Republicans and 28% of independents approve of it. In addition, the poll found that 52% oppose the current U.S. military operation. A sizable majority of Republicans (77%) agree with the U.S. decision to strike Iran, while 89% of Democrats and 58% of independents disagree.
There is a further divide between self-identified MAGA-aligned Republicans and other Republicans, the poll found: 90% of the former back the strikes, while 54% of the latter support them. The CNN poll found that MAGA Republicans are 30 points more likely than non-MAGA Republicans to strongly approve of the decision to take military action.
MILITARY UPDATE
Day 6: Repatriation flights briefly delayed in the air as Iran shoots missiles at Israel
Some of the first repatriation flights carrying Israelis who had been stranded abroad were briefly held mid-flight on Thursday morning as Iranian missiles were fired at central Israel. El Al, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa repatriation flights began departing for Israel on Wednesday evening from dozens of destinations in Europe, the U.S. and Thailand, and began landing Thursday morning. Several flights needed to briefly detour while en route to Ben Gurion Airport after Iran shot missiles toward central Israel. The flights are expected to continue through the weekend, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Developments: Iran also attacked Azerbaijan for the first time Thursday morning, launching drones that injured two at Nakhchivan International Airport. Shortly after, Baku vowed to respond to the attack. Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands said they would send naval vessels to Cyprus, after an Iranian UAV struck a British base on the island state. The IDF has been preparing for the possibility that the Houthis will begin striking Israel as they have done sporadically since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, Israeli media reported. The Houthis have threatened to fire at Gulf States if they attack Iran, and Saudi Arabia increased security for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in case of a Houthi attack, according to Israeli public broadcaster KAN.
FINGER IN THE WIND
Gavin Newsom shifts hard left on Israel policy amid presidential primary considerations
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday night on a popular liberal podcast that the U.S. should reconsider its military support for Israel, a marked evolution for a politician who traveled to Israel less than two weeks after the Oct. 7 terror attacks in 2023 and who said in an October interview that he would not consider eliminating U.S. military aid to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. Asked by Jon Favreau, the co-host of “Pod Save America,” if the U.S. should, in the future, rethink its military support for Israel, Newsom responded, “It breaks my heart because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don’t think you have a choice.”
Zoom out: Newsom’s move away from military support for Israel is a shift even from his recent positions. In October, during an interview with the “Higher Learning” podcast, Newsom said he would not support ending U.S. military aid to Israel. He touted his decision in December 2023 to send humanitarian aid to Gaza, while also defending Israel’s right to exist. Newsom is widely considered a 2028 presidential contender, and he has been shifting his public stances on Israel to the left in recent months in response to questions from progressive interviewers.
Bonus: The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik writes that Newsom “seems congenitally incapable of rising above his tribe and conceiving of the war [in Iran] as anything other than yet another opportunity for politicking, for taking a few shots, scoring some points.”
ABOUT FACE
Ruben Gallego transforms from pro-Israel moderate to face of antiwar opposition
With a series of pugnacious tweets and media appearances, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has made himself a face of the Democratic opposition to the war in Iran, issuing one of the first comments from a U.S. lawmaker opposing the effort in the early hours of Saturday morning. Gallego’s outspoken commentary, which has repeatedly pinned blame for the operation on Israel — a notion that colleagues on both sides of the aisle have disputed — also coincide with Gallego’s endorsement of Graham Platner, the progressive Maine Senate candidate who has faced a series of scandals related to antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Current messaging: The high-profile moves come as Gallego, who claimed victory in Arizona in 2024 even as President Donald Trump won the state, is seen by political observers as positioning himself for a 2028 presidential campaign — and as anti-Israel policies have become a litmus test for the progressive left. “So Netanyahu now decides when we go to war? So much for America First,” Gallego said earlier this week, in response to comments by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that seemed to suggest that the timing of the war was dictated by Israel. “What the f*** happened to America First?” Gallego wrote in another post, adding that the U.S. should have left Israel to go ahead with the operation alone.
VOTED DOWN
Senate defeats resolution to halt Iran war, largely along party lines
With the U.S.-Israel operation against Iran widening, the Senate voted 53-47 on Wednesday afternoon — largely along party lines — to block a procedural vote on a war powers resolution that would have forced the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from combat with Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What happened: Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and John Fetterman (D-PA) broke with their respective parties as expected, with Paul voting for and Fetterman voting against the motion, with all other lawmakers voting along party lines. The vote showcased how the Iran war has quickly become a partisan issue, despite lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressing long-standing concerns about the threat from Iran and its malign activities and some Democrats offering a degree of positive commentary about the U.S. strikes. Though widely expected to fail, Democrats view the resolution, and a similar one up for a vote in the House tomorrow, as a critical avenue to go on record with their opposition to the Trump administration’s military offensive.
STEERING CLEAR
Lawmakers keep arm’s length from WH’s reported Kurdish insurgency push in Iran
Lawmakers are largely keeping an arm’s length from the administration’s reported discussions with Kurdish leaders in Iraq about supporting an armed offensive against the Iranian regime, as an on-the-ground force aligned with U.S. interests in the ongoing American and Israeli air campaign, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: Many Republican senators indicated Wednesday that they knew little about the effort. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told JI he couldn’t comment on the subject due to classification issues, but said generally that “the Kurds know how to fight — you don’t want to tangle with the Kurds.” Some seemed broadly supportive, while not commenting on the specifics of the reported moves. Democrats are generally skeptical of the reported plan. “I am struck by the hypocrisy of pulling the rug out from under the Kurds in Syria and then asking them to fight again for Iran. Kurds deserve better,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said.
NOT CONVINCED
Iran ‘catastrophically’ miscalculated in striking Arab countries, experts say
Leading Middle East foreign policy experts warned that Iran’s decision to expand its response to the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign by striking neighboring Arab states could prove to be a major strategic miscalculation — one that risks isolating Tehran further and potentially drawing Gulf countries to take action, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. In the days following the launch of the campaign, Iran carried out widespread drone and missile strikes at multiple Arab nations, striking all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — as well as Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Oman.
Tehran ‘encircled’: Alexander Gray, a former National Security Council chief of staff under President Donald Trump and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told JI that Iran’s decision to attack Arab countries was an “extraordinary strategic miscalculation.” Gray said, “Not only has Iran forced the region’s Arab states to openly support the U.S. and Israeli operation, but it has encircled itself far more effectively than any American diplomacy could have accomplished.” Michael Koplow, chief policy officer at Israel Policy Forum, called the action a “risky move at best.”
Ankara angle: Iran and Turkey moved to de-escalate tensions between them in the immediate aftermath of the downing of an Iranian missile over Turkey on Wednesday, but the development signals dangerous potential if the conflict heats up between them, experts told JI’s Lahav Harkov.
Worthy Reads
A New Middle East: In Semafor, Jason Greenblatt, who served as White House Middle East envoy in the first Trump administration, posits that shifting regional dynamics have created an environment for a new power structure in the Middle East. “For the first time in decades, there is a convergence of strength in the Middle East: A US president willing to confront threats directly; an Israel capable of degrading proxy networks and striking hard at Iran’s military infrastructure; and Arab leaders who have built dynamic economies focused on modernization and long-term competitiveness. Working together, they can isolate the Iranian regime diplomatically, dismantle much of its proxy infrastructure, severely degrade its military reach, and strip it of the intimidation it has used to dominate the region.” [Semafor]
Why America Went to War: In The Free Press, Haviv Rettig Gur considers the broader global geopolitics at play amid debates in the U.S. over the main drivers of the war with Iran. “There is a regional chessboard, on which Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the other Gulf states all play. Iran’s proxies, its drones and ballistic missiles, its nuclear ambitions, its funding of Hezbollah and the Houthis: All of that belongs primarily to this smaller game. … But there is a second chessboard, vastly larger, on which the United States and China are the primary players. … America went to war in Iran because Iran made itself a Chinese weapon. It didn’t need to do this, to invest so much of the administration’s political capital and of the military’s firepower, just to shore up a second-run Israeli operation.” [FreePress]
Lonely is the Head…: In The Wall Street Journal, RealEye CEO Kevin Cohen looks at Israel’s strategy of targeting the top echelon of Iranian leadership. “The logic is straightforward. Authoritarian systems recover from shocks by quickly re-establishing hierarchy. If that re-establishment becomes dangerous, decision-makers hesitate. Hesitation spreads uncertainty through the entire structure. A regime can survive sanctions. It can survive airstrikes. It can even survive the death of a supreme leader. What it struggles to survive is doubt about who holds authority next. That doubt ripples outward. Commanders delay orders until legitimacy is confirmed. Rival factions position themselves cautiously. Security services turn inward, searching for infiltration. Decision cycles lengthen. Under pressure, elongated decision cycles become fragility. This strategy depends on intelligence rather than brute force.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the accomplishment of several key objectives, including that “the leader of the unit” responsible for the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in November 2024 “has been hunted down and killed,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…
Seventy-five retired U.S. generals and military officials signed onto an open letter from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America supporting the U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran…
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI), the top Democrat on the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee, expressed concerns about reports that the FBI had fired staff involved in countering threats from Iran in retaliation for their involvement in investigating President Donald Trump…
First in JI: Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) endorsed James Leuschen, a former staffer for Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) running for Congress in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District. “Americans are getting squeezed by high grocery prices, health care, child care, rent, and utility bills,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “They want results, not rhetoric. James Leuschen knows that serving the district where he was born and raised means working with anyone to lower costs and deliver real solutions — and to stop Donald Trump’s chaos”…
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) dropped his reelection bid hours before the deadline to file in Montana; Daines endorsed U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana Kurt Alme, who filed to run for the seat shortly after Daines withdrew from the ballot…
Far-left Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam conceded to Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC) in the Democratic primary in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District after falling short in her second bid for the seat…
Former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) is expected to step down as inspector general of the Labor Department as soon as today and announce a comeback bid for the Long Island House seat he lost to Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY) in 2024…
A federal judge in Florida ruled that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ move to declare the Council on American-Islamic Relations a terrorist group was unconstitutional and violated the group’s First Amendment rights…
A New York State Supreme Court justice who also serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s law school dismissed the punishments — including expulsions, degree revocations and suspensions — of Columbia students who participated in the takeover of the school’s Hamilton Hall in 2024 to protest Israel’s war in Gaza, determining that the school could not use sealed arrest records as evidence in disciplinary proceedings; the ruling came as a result of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to drop criminal charges against the students, thereby sealing their records…
Florida International University is conducting a criminal investigation into a group chat of students associated with Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party in Florida where participants repeatedly used racial slurs, praised Nazi ideology and discussed violent acts against Black people…
Jewish leaders in Chicago are calling on Mayor Brandon Johnson to follow the recommendation of the city’s Commission on Human Relations and create an antisemitism task force…
A local Democratic candidate in Northern Virginia’s Prince William County is under fire for recently unearthed racist and antisemitic social media posts from 2012 and 2015…
The U.K. is undertaking an official review into antisemitism at British schools and universities, following a report from the Community Security Trust that showed that school-related antisemitic incidents had doubled since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…
Poland repatriated more than 90 artifacts from Greece’s Jewish community that had been looted by the Nazis’ Rosenberg Taskforce during Germany’s occupation of the country during World War II…
The New York Times reports on how the Australian Jewish community, and specifically the Sydney Jewish Museum, is memorializing the victims of the December terror attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach…
Ahmad Vahidi, a key suspect in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was named the new head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…
The Wall Street Journal looks at how Iran’s decision to build underground “missile cities” to store munitions has backfired, with U.S. and Israeli jets poised to strike missile launchers as they emerge from the underground caverns…
Pic of the Day
A delegation of the American Jewish Committee, led by CEO Ted Deutch (center) and President Bobby Lapin, met Tuesday with Paraguayan President Santiago Peña (far left) in the group’s first-ever visit to Paraguay.
Birthdays
Actor and screenwriter, Jason Isaac Fuchs turns 40…
Particle physicist and astrophysicist, he is a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, Carl William Akerlof turns 88… Retired university counsel for California State University, Donald A. Newman… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, he is an associate fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Roy Gutman turns 82… Retired partner of Los Angeles law firm, Gordon, Edelstein, Krepack, Grant, Felton & Goldstein, LLP, Mark Edelstein… President of Los Angeles PR firm Robin Gerber & Associates, Robin Gerber Carnesale… Managing partner at Lerer Hippeau, a NYC-based VC firm, he co-founded Huffington Post and was the longtime chair of BuzzFeed, Kenneth B. Lerer turns 74… Political philosopher and professor at Harvard Law School, Michael Joseph Sandel turns 73… Founder and retired CEO of the DC-based News Literacy Project, Alan C. Miller… Author of Judaism: A Way of Being and former professor of computer science at Yale University, David Hillel Gelernter turns 71… Maryland state senator since 2019, Benjamin F. Kramer turns 69… Actor, screenwriter and film producer, he has been a contestant on three seasons of CBS’ “Survivor,” Jonathan Penner turns 64… Retired tennis player, she won 10 doubles tournaments, Elise Burgin turns 64… Former senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former NPR reporter, Sarah Chayes turns 64… Professor at Université de Montréal, most noted for his work on artificial neural networks and deep learning, Yoshua Bengio turns 62… Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, former president and board chair of AIPAC, Betsy Berns Korn turns 58… President and founder of West End Strategy Team, Matt Dorf turns 56… Los Angeles-area builder and developer, Michael Reinis… Renewable energy executive, Michael N. Kruger… Recording music industry executive, best known for his association with the game show “Jeopardy!,” Austin David “Buzzy” Cohen turns 41… Chief communications officer at Jenner & Block, Daniel S. Schwarz… Managing director at Portage Point Partners, Steven Shenker… Disgraced and jailed founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried turns 34… Manager of operations support at TEKsystems, Andrew Leiferman… Singer and influencer, her career started with a song she performed at her own bat mitzvah, Madison Elle Beer turns 27…
Plus, Trump sets monthlong timeline for Iran deal
DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Jeremy Carl speaks at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington D.C., Sept. 3, 2025.
Good Thursday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again voiced skepticism about the U.S.’ ability to reach an agreement with Iran as he departed Joint Base Andrews today, reports Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov, who is traveling with the prime minister’s delegation.
A day after his White House meeting with President Donald Trump, Netanyahu told reporters, “The president thinks the Iranians understand who they’re dealing with. He thinks the conditions he is setting, combined with their understanding that they made a mistake last time not reaching a deal, could bring them to agree to conditions that will allow a good deal to be reached.”
The prime minister’s view was more reserved: “I do not hide my general skepticism about the possibility of any deal with Iran.” Netanyahu said he told Trump that if a deal is indeed reached, “it must include the components that are important to us, the State of Israel, and, I think, the entire international community: not just the nuclear matter, but also ballistic missiles and Iranian proxies in the region.”
The Prime Minister’s Office also said Netanyahu will not be returning to Washington next week as scheduled, in order to speak at an AIPAC conference, and will instead appear virtually…
At a press conference this afternoon, Trump said the timeline for a potential deal with Iran is “over the next month … should happen quickly.” Asked why Netanyahu wants him to stop negotiating, Trump said, “He didn’t say that, we didn’t discuss that. I’ll talk to [Iran] as long as I like.” Trump additionally said Israeli President Isaac Herzog “should be ashamed of himself” and called him “disgraceful” for not issuing a pardon to Netanyahu…
The Trump administration smuggled around 6,000 Starlink terminals, used to establish internet connection, to activists in Iran during the regime’s violent suppression of nationwide protests, which included internet blackouts, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his team refused to condemn antisemitic and pro-Hamas social media posts from the co-founder of the group ‘Hot Girls for Zohran’ when pressed by JI’s Will Bredderman and other reporters today.
Speaking from City Hall, Mamdani would only stress that Gilani’s organization operated independently of his official election effort: “This was an individual leading an outside group and was never paid for by our campaign,” said Mamdani. “If New Yorkers want to know my views then they can hear it directly from me.
But when JI pressed the mayor directly whether he condemned the content of Gilani’s posts, he refused to respond and left the room, similar to how he fled questions on the matter from Politico on Wednesday…
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) urged the Trump administration today to investigate reports that a clique of radical staffers at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had launched an anti-Israel “working group” inside the agency, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
In a letter addressed to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Stefanik decried reports that employees had met during work hours at the city bureaucracy’s Queens headquarters. She raised the possibility that the department’s federal funding might have gone toward a prohibited political purpose — or that the gathering may have violated civil rights protections by creating a discriminatory environment for Jewish New Yorkers…
The nomination of Jeremy Carl, tapped to be the assistant secretary of state for international organizations, appears bound to fail after Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) announced his opposition to Carl’s confirmation following his contentious hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
Curtis and a series of Democrats questioned Carl over past antisemitic, anti-Israel and otherwise inflammatory comments that the nominee had made online and in a series of podcast appearances, including his assertion that the U.S. spends too much time and energy on Israel “often to the detriment of our own national interest” and that “the Jews love to see themselves as oppressed”…
CENTCOM announced today it had completed a “deliberate and conditions-based” withdrawal of U.S. forces from al-Tanf Garrison in Syria, handing control of the site on the country’s border with Iraq and Jordan to forces aligned with the Syrian government. The U.S. has had a presence at the base since 2016 as part of its fight against ISIS; over 7,000 ISIS detainees are also being transitioned out of Syria into Iraq, while the U.S. troops were relocated to Jordan…
Germany joined the growing calls today for U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese to resign, after France did the same yesterday, over her recent speech at the Al Jazeera Forum where she called Israel humanity’s “common enemy.” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul wrote on X, “I respect the system of independent rapporteurs of the UN. However, Ms. Albanese has already repeatedly failed in the past. I condemn her recent statements about Israel. She is untenable in her position”…
Israeli authorities arrested several people, and indicted one army reservist and one civilian, for allegedly using classified information to place bets on the popular prediction market Polymarket around the timing of Israel’s war with Iran last June, the Shin Bet announced today. The bets all correctly predicted the timeline of the strikes, raking in more than $150,000, Israeli media reported…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for reporting on the race to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, where the congresswoman is coming out forcefully against the lone Jewish candidate in the race — for being too supportive of Netanyahu.
The Munich Security Conference kicks off tomorrow, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading the U.S. delegation and speaking from the main stage on Saturday. Dozens of members of Congress were also expected to attend — official travel was canceled due to the impending shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security tomorrow, but members still may attend on their own. One member making a foray into foreign policy is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who will be speaking on two panels at the high-level summit. Other Democrats in attendance will be California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
In observance of President’s Day, we’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Tuesday. Shabbat Shalom!
Stories You May Have Missed
DOUBLING DOWN
Two Trump religious liberty appointees joined forces in anti-Israel push for antisemitism hearing
Activist Sameerah Munshi was appointed by the White House to the commission’s advisory board; the two women have jointly posted antisemitic content online
DOHA DEALINGS
GOP senator Ted Budd calls on Qatar to extradite Hamas leader to the U.S.
Budd says Qatar should hand over Khaled Mashaal because he has the ‘blood of Americans on his hands’
Plus, France calls for resignation of U.N.'s Albanese
GPO
President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Feb. 11, 2026.
Good Wednesday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The U.S. will continue pursuing diplomacy with Iran, President Donald Trump said following his White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
“There was nothing definitive reached” in the meeting “other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue, to see whether or not a deal can be consummated,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference.”
If negotiations do not lead to a deal, the president added, “we will just have to see what the outcome will be. Last time, Iran decided they were better off not making a deal, and they were hit with [Operation] Midnight Hammer. That did not work out well for them. Hopefully, this time, they will be more reasonable and responsible.”
Netanyahu’s office said about the meeting, “The prime minister stood up for the State of Israel’s security needs in the context of the negotiations, and the two agreed to continue to coordinate closely”…
Even as Trump insists diplomacy will continue, the Pentagon has told a second aircraft carrier strike group to prepare for deployment to the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reports, to join the USS Abraham Lincoln along with dozens of U.S. aircraft and other warships…
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of 23 senators, spanning the political and ideological spectrums, introduced a resolution today condemning the Iranian government for its crackdown on protesters and attempts to cut off internet access across the country, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
“Iranian civilians’ unprecedented nationwide protests and bravery, confronted with the regime’s unprecedented widespread extrajudicial killing of thousands and disruption of all electronic communication, have profoundly destabilized the country and constitute changed conditions in Iran,” the resolution reads, highlighting that the regime’s suppression and killing of protesters continues…
The Trump administration expects to be able to announce several billion dollars in donations for Gaza reconstruction at the Board of Peace’s inaugural meeting in Washington next week, The Times of Israel reports, even as it is still working on a proposal to disarm Hamas. That plan so far reportedly envisions Hamas relinquishing its heavy weapons and destroying manufacturing sites, without fully addressing lighter arms…
Conservative activist Carrie Prejean Boller was removed from the White House’s Religious Liberty Commission today, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports, two days after the commission held its first public hearing on antisemitism, which turned contentious when Prejean Boller pressed Jewish witnesses about whether they would consider her antisemitic for not being a Zionist and for believing Jews killed Jesus.
“No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who chairs the commission, wrote in a post on X. “This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision”…
France is calling for the resignation of U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced today, after Albanese called Israel humanity’s “common enemy” in a speech at the Al Jazeera Forum in Qatar over the weekend.
“France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticized, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Barrot said in remarks to lawmakers. Her latest comments add “to a long list of scandalous positions,” including “justifying” the Oct. 7 attacks and “comparing Israel to the Third Reich,” he said…
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced legislation seeking oversight into the hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan oil proceeds that the U.S. has acquired, some of which officials have said is being held in an account in Qatar…
New York City’s only Ethiopian-Israeli restaurant is closing its doors to diners, Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports, and turning only to private events over rising anti-Israel harassment, which the owner, Beejhy Barhany, said escalated after the restaurant became kosher in February 2024…
The Department of Homeland Security hired a social media manager who had raised red flags at his previous position at the Department of Labor posting messaging that echoed white nationalist sentiments on official social media accounts, The New York Times reports.
Those posts “used evocative imagery, some reminiscent of the 1920s and 1930s, with phrases like ‘Restore American Greatness’ and ‘the globalist status quo is OVER.’ … Colleagues warned superiors that the department’s accounts could be seen as promoting white-supremacist rhetoric, Nazi imagery and QAnon conspiracy theories”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for an interview with Jason Friedman, a longtime Chicago Jewish federation leader making a bid for Illinois’ open 7th Congressional District.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a nomination hearing for conservative commentator Jeremy Carl to serve as assistant secretary of state for international organizations. Schumer denounced Carl and his nomination on the Senate floor this week, “citing Carl’s long history of racist, white supremacist, and antisemitic views.”
Sinai Temple in Los Angeles will host a summit tomorrow on faith and sports, ahead of NBA All-Star weekend taking place in the city. The convening will feature several NBA athletes, coaches and faith and civic leaders.
Stories You May Have Missed
BASEBALL DIARIES
Team Israel’s World Baseball Classic team unveils its 2026 roster
The team is anchored by its pitching ace Dean Kremer of the Orioles, while Harrison Bader and Spencer Horwitz are among its best known hitters
SYRIA SPOTLIGHT
House members say Syrian government is not meeting U.S. expectations for sanctions relief
Speaking at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Republican and Democratic lawmakers highlighted ongoing abuses by the Syrian government
Plus, N.C. Dems condemn antisemitism from Muslim caucus chair
Heather Khalifa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Analilia Mejia, Democratic House candidate for New Jersey, speaks to supporters and members of the media at Paper Plane Coffee Co. in Montclair, N.J., on Jan. 29, 2026.
Good Tuesday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump is considering sending a second aircraft carrier group to the Middle East as a contingency if negotiations with Iran fail, he told Axios today. “Either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time,” the president said, adding, “We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going.”
Still, Trump expressed optimism that Tehran “wants to make a deal very badly” and said the negotiations are “very different” since he authorized strikes last June on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He also said he doesn’t think Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is en route to Washington for his Wednesday meeting with Trump, is nervous about the negotiations, stating Netanyahu “also wants a deal. He wants a good deal”…
Trump also reiterated his opposition to West Bank annexation, days after Israel’s Security Cabinet voted to expand Israeli authorities in the area. “I am against annexation. We have enough things to think about now. We don’t need to be dealing with the West Bank,” he told Axios. While Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu tomorrow will ostensibly focus on Iran, the latest Israeli moves could drive a wedge between the two leaders…
On the campaign trail, former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) conceded the race for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District to far-left activist Analilia Mejia today, after outstanding ballots broke decisively in her favor over the weekend.
In his statement, Malinowski, the presumed favorite who was the target of over $2 million of ads by the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project super PAC, claimed that “the outcome of this race cannot be understood without also taking into account the massive flood of dark money that AIPAC spent on dishonest ads” attacking him. He warned, “If AIPAC backs a candidate — openly or surreptitiously — in the June NJ-11 Congressional primary, I will oppose that candidate and urge my supporters to do so as well.”
Mejia was congratulated by New Jersey Democratic leaders including Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker and Gov. Mikie Sherrill, though it remains to be seen if she will retain their support in the June primary when she must run for the Democratic nomination again if she hopes to retain the office for a full term…
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) officially launched her reelection campaign today for her seat which Democrats likely need to flip if they hope to take back the chamber. Collins, who has been targeted by Trump due to her occasional votes across the aisle, will likely face either Maine Gov. Janet Mills or oyster farmer Graham Platner in the general, after they battle it out in a hotly contested primary…
New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado dropped his primary challenge to Gov. Kathy Hochul today, whom he had hoped to beat out in her reelection race from the left. The move comes after several progressive leaders, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, endorsed Hochul, which Delgado alluded to in his statement: “After much consideration, I’ve concluded that there simply is no viable path forward. And though my campaign has come to an end, I fully intend to do all I can in our effort to build a more humane, affordable, and equitable state that serves all New Yorkers”…
The Washington Free Beacon details several Mamdani administration staffers with a history of comments defaming Israel, including one who called Israel a “modern-day Nazi Germany” and one who called people ripping down posters of Israeli hostages “heroes”…
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, condemned rhetoric from the leader of the state Democratic Party’s Muslim Caucus, Elyas Mohammed, in a statement shared exclusively with JI’s Matthew Kassel. Mohammed recently described Zionists as “modern day Nazis” and as a “threat to humanity,” among other incendiary social media posts.
“Antisemitic comments and conspiracy theories have no place anywhere, including in the North Carolina Democratic Party,” the governor said, after the leaders of several prominent Jewish groups in the state sent a joint letter urging Democratic officials and lawmakers to publicly denounce Mohammed’s statements…
Columbia University is considering expanding and refocusing how its Middle Eastern studies department teaches about Israel, JI’s Haley Cohen reports. The provost’s regional review committee announced a set of recommendations this week for the department, including a stronger partnership with the school’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, marking a pivot in a field and at a school that have come under immense scrutiny from the federal government and Jewish leaders following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks…
Shaare Tefila, a Conservative congregation in Olney, Md., in the Washington suburbs, was defaced with antisemitic graffiti today, JI’s Haley Cohen reports. A swastika, the word “genocide” and the phrase “AZAB,” an acronym standing for “All Zionists Are Bastards,” were spray-painted on street signs and banners outside the synagogue.
Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, called the act “outrageous. While it is fortunate that no one was physically hurt, it is yet another sad reminder that antisemitic incidents have become common occurrences throughout our region,” he said…
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the Justice Department intends to pursue and ultimately shut down groups that have engaged in disruptive protests at synagogues and other antisemitic activities, as well as those supporting those groups, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
Speaking today at a conference on antisemitism organized by The George Washington University Program on Extremism, Dhillon said her division’s work includes pursuing those funding, training and supporting groups such as American Muslims for Palestine and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which she said are engaging in “acts of domestic terrorism”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump tomorrow at the White House, as the Israeli PM seeks to provide input on U.S. negotiations with Iran.
The House Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing on the potential impacts of a Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which looks likely as lawmakers struggle to reach a deal before its funding runs out on Friday.
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch will speak at New York City’s Temple Emanu-El on the organization’s annual State of Antisemitism in America survey, released today.
Stories You May Have Missed
POSTWAR PROBLEMS
White House needs to confront limits of Hamas disarmament, experts say
The options for demilitarization ‘strike me as not feasible from a military point of view and certainly not practical from a political point of view,’ says the Carnegie Endowment’s Aaron David Miller
POST-TRAUMA ACTIVISM
‘Bringing voice to the voiceless’: Former hostages Aviva and Keith Siegel heal through helping others
The couple, once held captive by Hamas, channel their trauma into humanitarian work, volunteering in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee settlement with IsraAid and amplifying the stories of those suffering in silence
Plus, Rabbi Shemtov's Hanukkah hop
Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images
Attendees listen to conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro during Turning Point's annual AmericaFest conference in remembrance of late right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona on December 18, 2025.
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Jewish leaders in Texas concerned about Democrat James Talarico’s rhetoric on Israel as he mounts a Senate bid in the Lone Star State, and spotlight Providence, R.I., Mayor Brett Smiley‘s efforts to lean on his Jewish faith as the city reels from the shooting at Brown University. We interview Rabbi Levi Shemtov as the rabbi concludes a week of criss-crossing the District to celebrate Hanukkah, and talk to AJC CEO Ted Deutch about the need for Jewish communal unity on security issues in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Josh Blackman, Seymour Hersh and Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re continuing to monitor developments in Australia. At a Sunday vigil in Sydney for the victims of last week’s Bondi Beach attack, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was jeered and booed over what the country’s Jewish leaders have derided as inadequate efforts to address antisemitism before and since the attacks.
- Earlier today, an Australian court released police charging documents for the alleged shooter who was not killed during the attacks. The documents noted that Naveed Akram and his father had also hurled explosive devices into the crowd that had failed to detonate, and prior to the attacks had recorded a video explaining their motivations while standing in front of an ISIS flag.
- In Israel, Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, in collaboration with the Ruderman Family Foundation, is hosting a conference this afternoon examining the U.S.-Israel relationship, including the connection between Israel and American Jewry.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh Kraushaar
The kids aren’t alright.
That’s the unmistakable takeaway from a weekend filled with shocking developments surrounding the views of young conservatives, punctuated by a Turning Point USA conference that turned into a proxy war between mainstream voices led by Ben Shapiro, looking to create guardrails against antisemites and conspiracy theorists within the MAGA movement, against a growing cadre of bad-faith right-wing influencers leading the charge to embrace extremist voices into the conservative coalition.
The conference concluded with Vice President JD Vance all but taking the side of the extremists, while offering fulsome praise to his friend, Tucker Carlson, as an essential part of the Republican Party coalition.
The last several days also featured news of an eye-opening Manhattan Institute focus group of Gen Z Nashville-area conservatives reluctant to offer any negative reaction toward Adolf Hitler and sharing numerous antisemitic stereotypes about Jews. (One 29-year-old woman offered this representative reaction about Hitler: “I think he was a great leader, to be honest. I think what he was going for was terrible, but I think he showed very strong leadership values.”)
The weekend ended with a Jewish Insider scoop that a Trump administration nominee for a senior position at the State Department has a long track record of making derogatory comments about the Jewish community, characterizing Jews as religiously incorrect and in need of conversion.
This moment was further underscored by the hideously antisemitic tirade that Candace Owens went on over the last few days, barely eliciting any serious pushback from conservative movement leaders. Meanwhile, former journalist Megyn Kelly, during her own speech Friday at the TPUSA conference, chose to go after Shapiro and CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss even as Kelly has publicly steered clear of criticizing Owens, citing the fact that she’s a young mother and a personal friend. (Shapiro, she said, is no longer a friend after he criticized her in his speech Thursday night.)
Shapiro, long one of the leading voices on the right, opened the conference with a warning that the conservative movement is in danger from “charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty, who offer nothing but bile and despair.”
He called out Tucker Carlson, Owens and Kelly by name. “We must not let fear of audience anger deter us from telling the truth; we must not let fear of other hosts deter us from telling the truth,” Shapiro warned. “The fact that Candace has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years on end while others fly cover for her is … cowardly.”
TALARICO TALK
Texas Jewish voters, leaders alarmed by James Talarico’s Israel rhetoric
Jewish leaders in Texas are growing increasingly concerned about Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s comments on Israel, with four members of the community telling Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod that without concerted outreach from Talarico, they’re likely to back Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in the Democratic primary. Their frustrations came to a head after Talarico accused Israel of war crimes in response to a general question on foreign policy at an event last week. “I will use every bit of financial and diplomatic leverage that this country has to end the atrocities in Palestine,” Talarico vowed to do if elected. “I will not use your tax dollars to fund these war crimes. I will vote to ban offensive weapons to Israel.” He also said he’d refuse to accept support from AIPAC.
Calling him out: Art Pronin, who leads the Meyerland Area Democrats Club, a largely Jewish Democratic group in the Houston area, told JI he’s known Talarico for years and the candidate has spoken to the Meyerland Democrats group. Pronin has repeatedly expressed concerns to Talarico directly and to the campaign about his Israel rhetoric, to little effect. “I told him … ‘You’ve got to stop singling out one group,’” Pronin said, referring to AIPAC. He said that Talarico had apologized and said he would modify his rhetoric, but offered similar comments, unprompted, at the Houston town hall last week.
BUOYED BY BELIEF
Finding faith in office: Providence mayor leans on his Judaism in hard times
As the Rhode Island capital has found itself a fixture in the national news following the recent mass shooting at Brown University, where a gunman killed two students and injured nine more, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley has also found himself in the spotlight. “I think my job in the days to come is to help our community heal, to process the trauma that they’ve been through,” Smiley said at a vigil last Sunday. A long-planned communal holiday gathering, meant to be a Hanukkah celebration and a Christmas tree lighting, had turned into a place for people to grieve together, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Healing together: On Friday, Smiley sat in his dark City Hall office before dawn, describing the surreal saga following the end of the dayslong manhunt, in an interview with a local NBC affiliate. “Everything about this situation is tragic, but at least we now know there is a definitive end to it,” Smiley said, sitting in front of a Hanukkah menorah. “Now we can start the healing process as a community.” The mayor leaned on his own faith in the days afterward. Aside from taking part in the menorah lighting, he stopped by his synagogue, Temple Beth-El, and spoke several times last week to Rabbi Sarah Mack. “He’s a lovely, wonderful person with deeply rooted morals and values, and he has found his Jewish faith to be incredibly meaningful to him,” Mack told JI on Thursday.
MENORAHS ON THE MALL
Lighting up Washington: Rabbi Levi Shemtov brings Hanukkah to the halls of power
One of Washington’s few remaining bipartisan traditions is the annual clamoring for a ticket to the White House Hanukkah party — an affair that was smaller than usual this year after the Trump administration tore down the East Wing, prompting disappointment even from some Republican allies who did not score an invite. If you’re a member of the opposing political party, forget about it. But even as power changes hands in Washington, one person is a fixture at Republican and Democratic White House Hanukkah parties, as well as Hanukkah gatherings all across the Beltway. That’s Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), the Washington arm of the global Chabad movement, and Washington’s unofficial menorah-lighter-in-chief, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Expression of pride: “I was raised during the Bicentennial, and I got a very patriotic education in our day school. I felt very American, and I thought this was a strong public expression of a deep Jewish pride that I was able to enjoy,” Shemtov said during Hanukkah last week. “I come from grandfathers on both sides of my family who were arrested and imprisoned, tortured and exiled for being Jews and for practicing Judaism and for leading Jewish communities. So I wasn’t going to let the freedom we are so fortunate to have here just pass without my active participation in it.”
ON THE HILL
Senate Appropriations Committee proposes $330 million for nonprofit security grants
Senate Appropriations Committee Republicans, in a long-delayed Homeland Security funding bill released on Friday, proposed a modest increase in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $330 million, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: The program was funded at $274.5 million in 2025 — not counting supplemental funds included in the 2024 national security supplemental bill. The Senate’s proposed increase comes in far below the $500 million to $1 billion that Jewish community advocates and supporters of the program on Capitol Hill have called for. The proposal is also slightly below the $335 million approved by the House in its version of the bill earlier this year. The Senate proposal sets off a sprint to finalize 2026 government funding when Congress returns in January, ahead of an end-of-month deadline.
CALL TO ACTION
AJC CEO calls for Jewish organizations to unify over communal security
Following the shooting at a Sydney, Australia, Hanukkah event in which 15 people were killed, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said that it’s critical for Jewish communal organizations to join together around a campaign to protect the Jewish community worldwide and win over allies in that fight, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Coming together: “The community organizations need to come together around an immediate effort to respond to Bondi Beach. This is urgent for us,” Deutch said. Even if various groups have different approaches to their work, “we’ve got to show the Jewish world” and the philanthropists who back them “that we can actually work together, all of us, in ways that will protect the Jewish community in response to what happened at Bondi Beach.” And he said that the Jewish community needs to stand its ground and be clear that it has the right and expectation to have its concerns and security “treated as seriously as other communities” and the “expectation that when we’re at risk, there will be action, rather than asking that everyone please consider our plight.”Read the full interview here.
SIGHTS ON SYRIA
Over half of House Republicans call for accountability on Syria sanctions repeal
A group of 136 House Republicans released a joint statement on Friday calling for increased oversight of and accountability from Syria, days after voting to repeal the last major sanctions package on the country as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they said: The lawmakers said that the “the mass murder of the Syrian Christians, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, and other religious and ethnic minorities must be a thing of the past” and that they are “committed to keeping a watchful eye on the new al-Sharaa Administration to ensure protections for religious and ethnic minorities.” They said they had received assurances from the administration and House leadership that sanctions would be re-imposed if the Syrian government breaches the non-binding conditions laid out in the bill, that the House would hold a hearing on the treatment of religious minorities in Syria and that they would like to visit Syria to personally observe the situation on the ground.
Worthy Reads
Sounding the Alarm: In The Times, Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, argues that efforts by governments and leaders to “engage in pieties but not action” that see officials ignore antisemitic elements in their coalitions will lead to more attacks on Jewish targets. “However, unlike the neo-Nazis of previous generations, the extreme right-wing of today looks quite respectable. Think of the influencer Nick Fuentes or the YouTube host Candace Owens. No sieg heil salutes. No Nazi-like uniforms. But the hate they spew is as dangerous as that we heard in years gone by. It may even be more dangerous than its predecessors, because it sounds rational. There is, of course, also a very real problem on the left, which we have seen playing out at universities in recent years. … Islamists have made common cause with the left. This alliance persists even though both groups’ views on democracy, LGBTQ identities, gender equality and much more are at opposite ends of the spectrum.” [TheTimes]
Parental Guidance: In The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who served as chief of staff in the Obama administration, reflects on the parenting choices he and his wife, Amy, made as they raised their three children. “Our first principle, perhaps the most important, is a tribute to my Jewish mother: Meals matter. If you want to raise successful children, families have to eat together. No matter my job, Amy and I made it a practice to carve out at least four evenings a week for dinner. Knowing that Shabbat dinners often run long, President [Barack] Obama would sometimes text me late on Friday nights: ‘Is it safe to call yet?’ I wasn’t only insisting on time alone with Amy and the kids; Amy and I were signaling to the kids how important they were to us and how important the Shabbat meal was to our family.” [WSJ]
Primary Problems: CNN’s Sarah Ferris and Manu Raju report on concerns among Capitol Hill Democrats over far-left primary challenges to sitting party members as the 2026 midterms gear up. “Democrats in Washington say primaries are simply part of life in a big-tent party. But privately, many see the surge in far-left challengers as an expensive headache that distracts from the party’s goal of seizing control of Congress next November. And it has infuriated some Democrats — including among the most vulnerable members — who fear the party will have to divert money away from the bigger fight against the GOP to protect incumbents in safe seats. ‘I think we’ve got individuals who might be caught up in the moment, caught up in the internet,’ said Rep. Greg Meeks, a fellow New York Democrat who has watched liberal challengers line up against many in his home state delegation.” [CNN]
‘Free Pass’ for Antisemitism: In the Deseret News, Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, calls for the protection of religious gatherings and places of worship in the wake of protests at synagogues in Los Angeles and New York and the recent attack in Bondi Beach. “It is crucial that society be honest about who and what we are dealing with. The ‘protestors’ are not genuine proponents of free speech. Their vile and violent chants are clear: They seek to dismantle, disrupt and deny Jewish religious life. They want to use their absolutist claim on free speech to annihilate the equally important right to freedom of religion. We are witnessing the natural consequence of two years of refusing to hold bad actors accountable. The vast majority of campus protestors and rioters were given a free pass by local politicians and prosecutors even though they assaulted students, destroyed private property and clearly violated Jews’ civil rights. They were essentially told society doesn’t care enough about those rights.” [DeseretNews]
Word on the Street
Israel is cautioning the U.S. that a recent missile drill conducted by Iran could be part of an effort to prepare for another military conflict with Israel, six months after the 12-day war between the countries…
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, assisted by senior White House aide Josh Gruenbaum and other administration officials, are promoting their “Project Sunrise” plan to develop Gaza into a coastal metropolis; under the terms of the plan, the U.S. would contribute about 20% of the reconstruction costs over the next 10 years…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), visiting Israel on Sunday, said that Hamas is “absolutely not” prepared to disarm, despite the move being a key stipulation of the Trump administration’s 20-point peace plan; Graham added that the terror group is “rearming” and “consolidating power” in the Gaza Strip…
The U.S. launched airstrikes on dozens of ISIS targets in Syria on Friday in response to an attack last week in which two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter were killed by a member of the Syrian security forces whom Syrian and American officials said had ISIS sympathies…
The Wall Street Journal interviewed U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee about the Republican Party’s divide over Israel…
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) announced on Friday that she was ending her campaign for governor of New York, an abrupt and unexpected move that comes just over a month after the Republican congresswoman launched her bid to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua was fined $25,000 by the NFL for comments made on a livestream last week in which the football player criticized the league’s officiating; Nacua was not fined for having made an antisemitic gesture on the same livestream…
The New York Times reviews “Cover-Up,” a documentary by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus about the work of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh…
Josh Blackman announced his resignation as senior editor of the Heritage Foundation’s Heritage Guide to the Constitution, amid a wave of departures as the think tank’s leadership, staff and board clash over CEO Kevin Roberts’ embrace of Tucker Carlson…
The Financial Times spotlights Israeli-Arab MK Mansour Abbas as the Ra’am party leader works to again position himself as a kingmaker in next year’s elections…
An estimated 20,000 Saudi forces are amassing near the Gulf country’s border with Yemen amid efforts to force the Southern Transitional Council separatist group to relinquish its recent territorial gains…
Rabbi Emily Korzenik, who, as one of the first female ordained rabbis, presided over the first bar mitzvah in Krakow, Poland, since the Holocaust in 1985, died at 96…
Art historian and photographer Allan Ludwig, whose book Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650-1815 brought new interest to the field of Puritan funerary art, died at 92…
Stock trader and art dealer Robert Mnuchin, the father of former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, died at 92…
Pic of the Day
William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, lit Hanukkah candles in Jerusalem with freed hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel at the J50 gathering of Jewish leaders, representing the 50 largest Jewish communities in the world.
Birthdays
Filmmaker, novelist, video game writer and comic book writer, David Samuel Goyer turns 60…
Retired New York Supreme Court judge, Arthur J. Cooperman turns 92… Former president of the World Bank, U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. deputy secretary of defense and dean of JHU’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Paul Wolfowitz turns 82… NYC-based political consultant, ordained as a Rabbi by Chabad in 2011, his early career included stints as a policeman, taxi driver and bounty hunter, Henry “Hank” Sheinkopf turns 76… Retired assistant principal from the Philadelphia school district, Elissa Siegel… Associate at Mersky, Jaffe & Associates, he was previously executive director of Big Tent Judaism and VP of the Wexner Heritage Foundation, Rabbi Kerry Olitzky turns 71… Rosh yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, Rabbi Michael Rosensweig turns 69… Cardiologist and professor of medical engineering at MIT, Elazer R. Edelman turns 69… Retired Israeli brigadier general who then served as the national CEO of the Friends of the IDF, Yehiel Gozal turns 68… Senior managing director in the D.C. office of Newmark where she is responsible for investment sales and commercial leasing transactions, Lisa Benjamin… Former CFO of Enron Corporation, Andrew Fastow turns 64… Rabbi at Temple Sinai of Palm Desert, Calif., David Novak turns 63… NPR correspondent covering the State Department and Washington’s diplomatic corps, Michele Kelemen turns 58… Film and television actress, Dina Meyer turns 57… CEO of Next Titan Capital until four months ago, Michael Huttner… U.S. senator (R-TX), Ted Cruz turns 55… CEO of American Council of Young Political Leaders, Libby Rosenbaum… Columnist and best-selling author, James Kirchick turns 42… Writer and editor from New York City, Sofia Ergas Groopman… Business development representative at HiBob, Carly Korman Schlakman… Head of philanthropy and impact investment for EJF Philanthropies, Simone Friedman… Liberty Consultants’ Lisa Brazie…
Ted Deutch praised Sen. Ted Cruz as a particularly powerful voice standing up to the ‘horrific’ antisemitic conspiracy theories spread by right-wing extremists
Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, testifies about 'The Crisis on Campus: Antisemitism, Radical Faculty, and the Failure of University Leadership" during a US House Committee on Ways and Means hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 13, 2024.
Following the terrorist attack at a Sydney, Australia, Hanukkah event in which 15 people were killed, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said that it is critical for Jewish communal organizations to join together around a campaign to protect the Jewish community worldwide and win over allies in that fight.
“The community organizations need to come together around an immediate effort to respond to Bondi Beach. This is urgent for us,” Deutch said. Even if various groups have different approaches to their work, “we’ve got to show the Jewish world” and the philanthropists who back them “that we can actually work together, all of us, in ways that will protect the Jewish community in response to what happened at Bondi Beach.”
He said all Jewish community organizations need to come together on “one campaign right now that seeks to help secure the Jewish community, to help the world better understand the Jewish community, to enlist allies in this fight, and to help everyone understand why fighting antisemitism is not just the right thing to do, but it is in everyone’s self interest, because our society will be strengthened as a result.”
And he said that the Jewish community needs to stand its ground and be clear that it has the right and expectation to have its concerns and security “treated as seriously as other communities” and the “expectation that when we’re at risk, there will be action, rather than asking that everyone please consider our plight.”
“We are a proud community that has experienced challenges for thousands of years. We’re not going anywhere. If you’re not going to take this seriously, then we’re going to keep ramping up the pressure until you do,” Deutch said. “We can’t just go from one of these tragedies to the next. At other moments in American history with rising antisemitism, the community came together in ways that forced policymakers to acknowledge what we’re going through. This is one of those moments.”
He said he’s begun reaching out to colleagues on the subject.
Deutch said that he sees a level of unified horror, “passion” and “resolve” following the Bondi Beach attack akin to that he saw after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and said that the community and organizational leadership need to build on that.
He said it’s critical to make clear to non-Jews that the fear and horror they felt at the footage of the Sydney shooting is “what we think about every single day as a community” and whenever Jews gather together.
Asked how those efforts will be more successful and more durable than similar calls seen repeatedly since Oct. 7, Deutch responded, “because we have to.”
“One coordinated campaign … isn’t going to solve the thousands of years of antisemitism but it will help us in this moment and it will show that the Jewish community can actually work together on one effort in a meaningful way, which is what members of the Jewish community everywhere in America are desperate to see,” Deutch continued.
The AJC CEO said that lawmakers and leaders have a responsibility to mind their rhetoric, emphasizing that the Bondi attack has shown “yet again” that rhetoric can prompt violence against the Jewish community.
“The need for them to ratchet down the rhetoric, to focus on the dangers that spreading antisemitism and polarization is having on society, is something that they can do without passing legislation. That needs to be an ongoing topic of conversation,” Deutch said. “They need to lead by example.”
Deutch, a former Democratic member of Congress, said that antisemitic actors on both sides of the political aisle have “not been marginalized” in the way that they should be. He said he’d “like to see more from leaders across politics and throughout the country and in every part of our society.”
Calls to “globalize the intifada” and “casual accusations of genocide” lead people to “taking action against anyone they think is responsible,” Deutch said, pointing to the Capital Jewish Museum attack in which two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed outside an AJC event in Washington, perpetrated by an alleged shooter who witnesses said shouted that he had carried out the shooting in the name of Gaza and freeing Palestine.
“What the leaders need to understand in Australia and around the world is, this has always been about terrorism,” Deutch said. “It’s terrorism against the Jewish community. These are attacks against the Jewish community to terrorize us, to put us at risk. The motives have been clear throughout.”
Referencing comments from Democratic Party Chair Ken Martin calling the party a “big tent,” Deutch said that “both parties may claim to be big tents” but have the ability to decide “who’s in the tent and who’s outside of the tent.” He said that anyone targeting Jews should be excluded, regardless of which side they’re on.
Deutch praised Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as a particularly powerful voice standing up to the “horrific” antisemitic conspiracy theories spread by far-right voices like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes, calling him a “model” for other leaders.
“There has to be an acknowledgement in both parties that there will be no place for that, for those kinds of voices,” Deutch said.
He expressed frustration with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian government’s response to the Sydney attack, which he said has ignored and de-emphasized the fact that the attack targeted Jews.
He also highlighted Canberra’s failure to fully implement the recommendations of its own antisemitism envoy, which were presented over the summer, saying Albanese should have made such a commitment immediately after the attack.
“What the leaders need to understand in Australia and around the world is, this has always been about terrorism,” Deutch said. “It’s terrorism against the Jewish community. These are attacks against the Jewish community to terrorize us, to put us at risk. The motives have been clear throughout.”
Earlier in the year, Deutch had offered a mixed response to the administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism, particularly on college campuses. In the months since, those efforts have mostly fallen out of the headlines. But Deutch largely praised the administration’s ongoing efforts and the “serious way they’re approaching these issues.”
Of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon’s work on antisemitism, he said, “the way that she’s approaching this fight is serious and thoughtful and aggressive and that’s the way that every part of the administration should be approaching it.”
“When protesters come and stand and march and scream outside of a synagogue, it’s clear that there’s not a question of why they’re doing this. It’s antisemitism and the idea that every, every Jew is to be held responsible for whatever ills they see in Israel,” Deutch said. “It all starts with this fundamental belief that, just as it’s true for Christians and for Muslims and for Hindus and for everyone else: Jews should not be afraid simply for gathering together.”
Deutch recently sent a letter to Dhillon urging her to investigate whether there is coordination or foreign involvement in recent synagogue attacks across the country, and to enforce applicable laws to ensure access to religious institutions.
He said that AJC is open to working with the administration and supporting legislation, if necessary, to ensure that blocking access to a religious institution is banned — even if the institution is not hosting a religious service, currently a gray area in existing law.
“When protesters come and stand and march and scream outside of a synagogue, it’s clear that there’s not a question of why they’re doing this. It’s antisemitism and the idea that every, every Jew is to be held responsible for whatever ills they see in Israel,” Deutch said. “It all starts with this fundamental belief that, just as it’s true for Christians and for Muslims and for Hindus and for everyone else: Jews should not be afraid simply for gathering together.”
Deutch said that the Department of Education has made “significant steps forward in working toward a real plan” that he hopes the administration will put into effect. And he praised Justice Department senior counsel Leo Terrell for his efforts as well.
Looking at the year in retrospect, Deutch said that it brought many unexpected developments in the foreign policy realm, especially the strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Israel’s strengthened geopolitical position and the return of all but one of the hostages in Gaza.
“The administration’s leadership has been significant,” Deutch said. “The president’s decision about Iran and the president’s leadership on this peace plan have given us this opportunity to think about what comes next.”
He said the administration needs to continue to squeeze Qatar and Turkey to pressure Hamas to stand down and relinquish its arms, in accordance with the next stages of the ceasefire plan. He said key administration officials also need to stay focused on moving the plan ahead.
AJC has worked for decades to cultivate ties with the Gulf and pushed for greater regional integration and normalization. Asked about how he views the prospects for Saudi-Israeli normalization, Deutch said there have been some concerning developments, but said that the U.S. and other advocates “have to stick with this.” With progress on the peace plan, he said that movement toward normalization would also be possible, he argued.
Deutch also warned that, even after the 12-day war between Israel and Iran that included U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, the Islamic Republic continues to pose a threat through its international terrorism and plots against the Jewish community, its repression of its citizens, its continued desire to destroy Israel and its global efforts to foment conflict.
“Their desire to destroy Israel has not changed as a result of the strikes,” Deutch said. “So the advice to policymakers everywhere is Iran continues to be a threat, not just to Israel, but to the Jewish community around the world and more broadly beyond that, and they have to be treated that way. That requires being vigilant, both in the military context and through using economic force.”
Plus, the Coast Guard quietly walks back anti-swastika policy
(Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump greets Rabbi Levi Shemtov and Holocaust survivor Jerry Wartski during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.
👋 Good Wednesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report from Hanukkah receptions at the White House, on Capitol Hill and in New York, and cover concerns from U.S. lawmakers over Canberra’s failure to address concerns from Australia’s Jewish community prior to Sunday’s deadly attack in Sydney. We report on the Coast Guard’s quiet moves to reverse its policy on swastikas, and talk to Rep. Zach Nunn about his legislative work aimed at expanding the U.S.-Israel relationship. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Mark Zuckerberg and Galia Lahav.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump will give a televised address at 9 p.m. ET.
- The Heritage Foundation is hosting a sit-down this afternoon between Heritage President Kevin Roberts and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.
- Elsewhere in Washington, Jewish members of Congress are hosting the annual Capitol Hill Hanukkah party. Across town, the Israeli Embassy in Washington is hosting its annual Hanukkah reception tonight.
- Norman Podhoretz, the longtime editor of Commentary magazine and influential conservative thought leader, died on Tuesday. In a remembrance of his father, John Podhoretz wrote: “He bound himself fast to his people, his heritage, and his history. His knowledge extended beyond literature to Jewish history, Jewish thinking, Jewish faith, and the Hebrew Bible, with all of which he was intimately familiar and ever fascinated.”
- Australian police charged Naveed Akram, one of the suspects in the Sunday terror attack in Sydney, with 15 counts of murder in addition to dozens of other offenses, including committing a terrorist act; Akram is in stable condition at a Sydney hospital after spending two days in a coma.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH THE JI team
As Jewish communities are marking Hanukkah under the shadow of the deadly terror attack in Sydney that marred the beginning of the Jewish holiday, leaders in Washington and New York addressed growing concerns about antisemitism at several Hanukkah events held yesterday.
President Donald Trump warned that Israel and the “Jewish lobby” have lost their influence in Washington and that Congress is “becoming antisemitic,” in a holiday message delivered to attendees at the White House’s annual Hanukkah party.
Speaking from the East Room to a gathering of lawmakers and prominent Jewish figures ahead of a ceremonial menorah lighting, the president repeatedly cautioned that the Jewish community and its allies “have to be very careful because bad things are happening” to Jewish people and to Israel’s global standing, citing the shooting in Sydney and the ongoing denials of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Read the full story here.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, speaking at a Hanukkah reception hosted by Israel’s U.N. mission at The Jewish Museum in Manhattan, said the U.S. “can and will confront antisemitism without apology, without hesitation and will do so everywhere around the world, including right here in the halls of the U.N.” Read the full story here.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (D-FL) annual Hanukkah party featured remarks by Shira Gvili, sister of Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza, JI’s Marc Rod reports. Gvili highlighted that her brother had always dreamed of being a police officer and ran into the fight on Oct. 7 — when he was killed — despite waiting for surgery for a broken shoulder. She also noted that he volunteered to support Holocaust survivors.
“On this celebration of light, of heroes, as we do on Hanukkah, Ran is not only my hero, he is our hero. For everyone lighting a candle tonight, may the glow of the menorah [brighten] the darkened moments. May the glow of the menorah’s light bring Ran home tonight,” Gvili continued.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also delivered remarks, and nearly 40 lawmakers — a majority of them Democrats — stopped through the gathering. These included Reps. Ed Case (D-HI), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Daniel Goldman (D-NY), Craig Goldman (R-TX), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), David Kustoff (R-TN), George Latimer (D-NY), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), April McClain Delaney (D-MD), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Grace Meng (D-NY), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Don Davis (D-NC).
Jeffries said that, after the attack in Australia, “it’s incumbent on all of us as leaders not just to, of course, authentically express our thoughts and prayers on behalf and directed at those families who have suffered from this unconscionable, unthinkable, unspeakable tragedy, but to make it clear that we all have a responsibility to combat antisemitism whenever and wherever it’s found, and make sure that no matter what it takes, we’re committed, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans, to bury antisemitism in the ground never to rise again.”
Jeffries continued, “At the same time, we’ll also make clear that we will continue to stand up for Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and Democratic state and a homeland for the Jewish people.”
ON THE HILL
Australian Jews’ warnings about rising antisemitism were ignored, U.S. lawmakers say
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, multiple Jewish lawmakers emphasized that the Sunday massacre that killed at least 15 at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, came after many warnings from the Australian Jewish community, and Jewish communities around the world, about the rising violent threats they face — warnings that have often gone ignored, the lawmakers said, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “That threat, those warnings, have fallen on deaf ears, and we are living with those consequences now,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said. “I hope that this tragedy is the wake-up call that world leaders need to truly stand up and protect their Jewish communities from antisemitism, whether that manifests online or in person. … Lives are at stake. This is not pretend. These enemies of the Jewish people are not playing games. They mean to end our existence as a people.” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a co-chair of the Congressional Jewish Caucus, emphasized that the attack was “not predicted” but “it was predictable,” adding, “For too long, the Jewish community in Australia was saying to the authorities, saying to the government, ‘Antisemitism is a cancer eating away at the soul of the nation, and it’s going to result in the death of Jews in the land,’ and that’s what we saw on Sunday.”
Exclusive: The co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism urged Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to act more forcefully to protect Australia’s Jewish community and implement months-old recommendations from the country’s antisemitism envoy. They likewise highlighted the string of “warning signs” that preceded the attack.
SANDERS’ STATEMENTS
Bernie Sanders pivots from sympathy toward Sydney shooting victims to criticizing Netanyahu
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, after Netanyahu linked the terror attack in which 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, to Canberra’s support for a Palestinian state, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: Sanders issued a statement in response on Tuesday: “No, Mr. Netanyahu. Speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian people is not antisemitic. Opposing the disgraceful policies of your extremist government is not antisemitic. Condemning your genocidal war, which has killed more than 70,000 people — mostly women and children — is not antisemitic. Demanding that your government stop bombing hospitals and starving children is not antisemitic.”
BETRAYAL ON THE HIGH SEAS
Democratic lawmakers outraged by Coast Guard’s reported reversal on swastika policy
Weeks after the Coast Guard commandant personally called lawmakers to reassure them that swastikas and nooses would remain banned hate symbols within the service, the Guard quietly broke its pledge and diminished the severity of such displays as “potentially divisive” instead — the very language that had prompted outrage from lawmakers and the Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The latest: Leading Democrats erupted in outrage on the news of the Coast Guard’s policy shift, while Republicans have thus far been silent. Several Republicans who spoke out against the initial policy change did not respond to JI’s requests for comment on the latest development on Tuesday. “The shocking news from the Coast Guard exposes a crisis of conscience enabled by the Trump administration’s stunning lack of moral clarity,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) told JI. “The Trump Administration lied right to the American people’s faces when they indicated last month that they weren’t going through with this policy change,” Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) said.
BACKING BROOKS
Shapiro joins with progressives to back Dem recruit Bob Brooks in key Pennsylvania swing seat
With backing from both moderate Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and progressives like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), firefighter union leader Bob Brooks has emerged as a front-runner in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, a critical swing district that Democrats are aggressively contesting for next year’s midterms, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Endorsement insights: Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College, said that Brooks’ background brings elements that appeal to various elements of the Democratic coalition, perhaps explaining his support from both sides of the party: his time as a leader in organized labor with a history on workers’ rights issues should resonate with progressive voters, while his “personal narrative fits if you’re trying to win over white working-class voters that might be more moderate or socially conservative.”
PUSHING PARTNERSHIP
Rep. Zach Nunn stands by U.S.-Israel relationship as ‘returning huge dividends’
At a time when an increasingly vocal minority on the right is questioning the future and the benefits of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) led a pair of amendments to the 2026 defense policy bill aiming to expand the relationship, with a particular focus on new technologies. Asked how he responds to those on the right who question the value of the relationship, Nunn, the chair of the Republican Study Committee’s national security task force, said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod, “Israel is the lone bastion of democracy, freedom and Western values in a region where the U.S. has vital national security interests. For decades, Israel has been a strategic partner in kinetic and non-kinetic action against bad actors like Iran.”
Tech talk: Nunn added that programs such as the ones he championed would prepare the U.S. for all manner of challenges. “As our adversaries embrace low-cost options like drones and cyberwarfare, it’s more important than ever that we not only coordinate closely on joint security, but also on the underlying technologies that will define the next generation of conflict,” the Iowa lawmaker continued. “My amendments are about ensuring that partnership continues to evolve. They are strategic investments that strengthen American security, deter our adversaries and deliver real returns for U.S. taxpayers.”
Worthy Reads
⚠️ Shoulder to Shoulder: In The Times of Israel, Israeli President Isaac Herzog reflects on the Sydney terror attack and the meaning of Hanukkah. “Yet as we reflect on the miracle of the return home of our brothers and sisters, we also confront a deeply troubling reality beyond Israel’s borders. As the October 7th massacre in southern Israel was still ongoing, Jewish communities around the world began to experience a vicious wave of hatred. Institutional antisemitism, Holocaust inversion, conspiracies left and right, Jew-hatred platformed on social media, and moral bankruptcy masquerading as social justice have all disturbingly increased across the Western world. The deadly terror attack in Sydney this week demonstrates where these dangerous trends can lead.” [TOI]
👮 ‘Forever Changed’: In The New York Times, Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, mourns those killed in Sunday’s terror attack in Sydney, as well as the sense of communal security that no longer exists for Australian Jews. “Now we have suffered a loss that is impossible to measure or articulate. It is a loss felt nationally for a country that is forever changed. It is a loss felt communally for a way of life defined by pride and open observance that no longer exists. And it is a loss we feel individually for the friends and relatives who died in our arms from hideous wounds inflicted by high-powered shells used for hunting game. … My community will never recover from this, I am sure. My rabbi, my friend, Eli Schlanger lived by a mission of being proud of who he was as a Jew. The annual Hanukkah event he hosted on the beach was the ultimate evidence of our acceptance, the proof that we were safe in our acts of community pride. That is all gone now. And with it, a man who had shown us the way.” [NYTimes]
⚖️ After Bondi: In the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood posits that governments need to take serious, tangible actions that go beyond antisemitism education to address threats to the Jewish community. “With an attack like this, the only effective response is the zealous prosecution of anyone who planned or supported it, and the protection of those who might be targeted in similar attacks in the future. Museum education is nice, but if an attack is under way, a police officer with a rifle has more stopping power. Self-study to determine whether Jews are systematically excluded or vilified is worthwhile but will take time. Restrictions on speech are another matter, and a distraction from real police work. It should not be a crime to inquire about the whereabouts of Jews, or even to say you wish to gas them. But if you spray-paint a Jewish school or set a car on fire, a government with its resources properly ordered will find and charge you before you graduate to violent crime.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
The Sudanese Armed Forces – backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and Iran – are the subject of a new CNN investigation that found them responsible for mass killing of civilians and dumping their bodies into canals…
United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed re-upped a 2024 Atlantic piece by Palestinian political activist Samer Sinijlawi calling for leadership changes in Israel and the Palestinian Authority…
Turkey was excluded from a CENTCOM-hosted conference in Doha, Qatar, focused on putting together an international stabilization force in the Gaza Strip…
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said that the Trump administration needs to put forward a new nominee for the post of ambassador for religious freedom as former Rep. Mark Walker’s (R-NC) nomination remains stalled in the Senate…
The widow of a security officer who was killed in a mass shooting at the Park Avenue building housing the headquarters of the NFL is suing the league, the real estate firm that owns the building and the building’s security company over their failures to prevent the attack, in which philanthropist Wesley LePatner and two others were also killed…
The NYPD is investigating an incident in which a group of Orthodox Jewish men were harassed and assaulted on a subway car after video of the confrontation was posted to social media; police are also investigating as a hate crime a separate incident, also filmed, in which a visibly Jewish man was attacked while walking down the street in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood…
Two members of the Heritage Foundation’s board resigned amid a series of high-profile departures from the think tank over its embrace of Tucker Carlson and failure to denounce extremist views; Abby Spencer Moffat said Heritage was “unwilling or unable to meet this moment with the clarity and courage it requires,” while Shane McCullar said the think tank was “unwilling to confront the lapses in judgment that have harmed its credibility, its culture, and the conservative movement it once helped shape”…
Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to reject Skydance Paramount’s hostile takeover bid due to concerns over financing; Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, which had provided some backing to Paramount in its effort, withdrew its support for Paramount’s bid…
The Financial Times reports on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to build out AI infrastructure as he looks to compete with OpenAI and Google…
Qatar Sports Investments-owned Paris Saint-Germain was ordered by a French court to pay more than $70 million to former PSG star Kylian Mbappé resulting from unpaid wages and bonuses…
Actress Sydney Sweeney wore a gown by Israeli designer Galia Lahav to the premiere of her new film, “The Housemaid”…
Iranian victims of the Women, Life, Freedom protests that swept through the Islamic Republic in 2022 are suing more than three dozen Iranian officials in an Argentine court, alleging the officials committed or were complicit in crimes against humanity…
PBS reports from Hezbollah’s secretive military installations following their seizure by the Lebanese Armed Forces…
Wall Street investment banker Arthur Carter, who would go on to purchase The Nation and found The New York Observer, died at 93…
Pic of the Day
Actor Jonah Platt sat in conversation with former Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi on Monday night at the American Friends of Magen David Adom’s Miami Gala.
Birthdays
Grammy Award-winning songwriter and musician, Benjamin Goldwasser turns 43…
Retired attorney and vice chair of the American Jewish International Relations Institute, Stuart Sloame turns 86… Former CEO of multiple companies including the San Francisco 49ers and FAO Schwarz, Peter L. Harris turns 82… VP of strategic planning and marketing at Queens-based NewInteractions, Paulette Mandelbaum… Professor of Jewish history, culture and society at Columbia University, Elisheva Carlebach Jofen turns 71… Retired chair of the physician assistant studies program at Rutgers, Dr. Jill A. Reichman turns 70… Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and senior foreign policy advisor to prime ministers Sharon, Barak and Netanyahu, Danny Ayalon turns 70… Longtime chairman and CEO of HBO, he now heads Eden Productions, Richard Plepler turns 67… Israeli film director, screenwriter, animator and film-score composer, Ari Folman turns 63… Former president of Freedom House, now the director at Voice of America, Michael J. Abramowitz turns 62… Chief of the General Staff of the IDF until this past March, Herzl “Herzi” Halevi turns 58… Founder and CEO of LionTree LLC, Aryeh B. Bourkoff turns 53… Pastry chef, television personality and cookbook author, Jeffrey Adam “Duff” Goldman turns 51… Israeli former soccer goalkeeper, then on the coaching staff for the national team, Nir Davidovich turns 49… CEO of the New Legacy Group of Companies, he is also founder and chair emeritus of Project Sunshine, Joseph Weilgus… Co-director of New Public, Eli Pariser turns 45… Senior writer at National Review and author of Unjust: Social Justice and the Unmaking of America, Noah C. Rothman… Director of foundation partnerships at the UJA-Federation of New York, Julia Sobel… National correspondent for Vanity Fair and author of the 2018 book Born Trump: Inside America’s First Family, Emily Jane Fox… State general manager for Maryland at Entyre Care, Daniel Ensign… Actor, singer-songwriter and musician, he starred in the Nickelodeon television series “The Naked Brothers Band,” Nat Wolff turns 31…
Plus, Raskin rewinds on MTG
Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Jack Schlossberg walks into the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library ahead of the annual gala on May 4, 2025.
Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how Israel faded into the background of Saudi-U.S. normalization talks during this week’s trip to Washington by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and report on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s backing of a Palestinian American state legislative candidate who downplayed the 9/11 attacks. We talk to Rep. Jamie Raskin about his comments that the Democratic Party could welcome Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene despite the Republican congresswoman’s espousing of antisemitic conspiracy theories, and report on concerns by Democratic House lawmakers over the Trump administration’s handling of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Abigail Spanberger, Shira Haas and Jessica Tisch.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve with assists from Marc Rod and Matt Shea. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump is meeting with recently returned hostages and their families at 2 p.m. today at the White House.
- Vice President JD Vance is joining Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle for a fireside chat in Washington this morning.
- Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral is taking place at 11 a.m. at the Washington National Cathedral. Former President George W. Bush and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) are among those giving eulogies for the former vice president.
- On Capitol Hill, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to hold a vote on advancing the nomination of Leo Brent Bozell III to be U.S. ambassador to South Africa.
- Elsewhere on the Hill, the Helsinki Commission is holding a hearing on lifting Caesar sanctions against Syria. Rabbi Yosef Hamra, the brother of the last chief rabbi of Syria, is among those slated to testify.
- In celebration of the holiday of Sigd, celebrated by Ethiopian Jews, the Israeli Embassy in Washington is hosting a reception this evening.
- The Hudson Institute is hosting a conversation with Caroline Glick, a senior advisor in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, this afternoon at the think tank’s Washington headquarters.
- Catholic University is holding a remembrance ceremony tonight for legal scholar and professor Marshall Breger, who died in August. Breger served as Jewish liaison in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.
- In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting this afternoon with American Jewish Congress President Daniel Rosen and a delegation of mayors from around the world who are in Israel for the organization’s 34th Mayors’ Conference.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL
Jack Schlossberg’s decision to launch a bid for Congress in New York City last week was just the latest example of a Kennedy scion hoping to ascend to federal office, testing the continued strength of a hallowed family name whose political currency has dwindled over the years.
His unorthodox campaign also marked the most recent arrival of a new type of political candidate that has cropped up with increasing regularity this election cycle: the social media influencer vying for power beyond the screen.
Schlossberg, the 32-year-old grandson of John. F. Kennedy, is joining a growing crop of young House contenders with digital clout who have been seeking to convert online popularity into a seat in Congress. His campaign announcement follows, among other recent newcomers, Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old left-wing social media influencer running in next year’s crowded Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in the Chicago suburbs.
And it’s not just young recruits trying to parlay their social media clout into political success. George Conway, the vocally anti-Trump conservative lawyer, is hoping that 2.2 million followers on X and his prolfic online attacks against the president will translate into Democratic votes as he seriously considers running in the Nadler district as well. To succeed, voters in the heavily-Democratic district would have to overlook his long record of traditionally conservative views on policy.
Both parties have tried to harness social media to advance their messages while courting influencers and content creators to broaden their appeal among younger online voters. But as influencers engaged in political commentary now pursue political office — most with few apparent qualifying credentials — it remains to be seen if their new efforts can translate to winning campaigns.
So far, the results have not been promising for such candidates. In a special election for a vacant House seat in Arizona this past summer, for instance, Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old influencer, fell short by a nearly 40-point margin, losing to a more well-known local lawmaker, Adelita Grijalva — a daughter of the late congressman who represented the district for more than two decades.
sideline chatter
Trump prioritizes Saudi partnership, leaving Abraham Accords on hold
During Tuesday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the leaders strengthened their relationship and confirmed the completion of several deals. Any plan to utilize such transactions as part of normalization with Israel, however, was notably absent, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. While taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, Trump confirmed that the U.S. would sell Saudi Arabia F-35 fighter jets of similar caliber to Israel’s. At a dinner that evening, the president added that a strategic security agreement had crossed the finish line, while also formally naming Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally. On Wednesday, the two countries announced a strategic artificial intelligence partnership.
Takeaways: “The main takeaway of the visit was the normalization of the U.S.-Saudi relationship,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former State Department negotiator. “[There was] very little, it seemed to me, not surprisingly, on the side of normalization to Israel. It’s almost as if Israel was sort of an afterthought this visit.” Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel under former President Barack Obama, told JI, “By the way this was done, President Trump seems to have elevated the partnerships with Saudi Arabia and maybe, to some degree, with other Gulf states, above pretty much all other U.S. partnerships, including Israel.”
Saudi summit: Congressional lawmakers met Wednesday with MBS included Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jim Banks (R-IN), James Lankford (R-OK), Katie Britt (R-AL), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Rep. French Hill (R-AR), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report. On the House side, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Reps. Rick Crawford (R-AR), Jim Himes (D-CT), Mike Rogers (R-AL), Adam Smith (D-WA), Tom Cole (R-OK), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) reportedly participated in a separate meeting with MBS.
on the hill
Antisemitism envoy nominee Kaploun emphasizes need for education in Senate hearing
Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the Trump administration’s nominee to be the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, emphasized the importance of education as the critical tool to combat antisemitism during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “We must, educate, educate, educate about the history of the Jewish community in America and the Judeo-Christian values our country was founded on,” Kaploun told lawmakers. He also emphasized the importance of understanding the history of the Holocaust. Kaploun responded to a question about Trump’s recent comments on Tucker Carlson’s interview with neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes by emphasizing the Trump administration’s policies against antisemitism while also noting, “freedom of speech is something that’s a right.”
endorsement choice
Mamdani champions Palestinian American legislative candidate who downplayed 9/11 attacks
Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, is facing scrutiny for reportedly throwing his support behind a local state Assembly candidate with a record of controversial remarks about 9/11, Israel and other related topics. Aber Kawas, a Palestinian American activist running for an open Assembly seat in a largely Hispanic Queens district, came under the spotlight this week after several of her past online posts and comments resurfaced, Jewish insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Background: Kawas is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel and was involved in efforts to promote failed legislation led by Mamdani that sought to strip Jewish nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, according to a candidate questionnaire solicited by the Democratic Socialists of America, which is reportedly moving to back her campaign. Elsewhere in the questionnaire, which was shared with JI this week, Kawas said she would “refrain from any and all affiliation with the Israeli government and Zionist lobby groups” such as AIPAC and J Street, a left-wing organization that has defended Mamdani.
NOT EASY BEING GREENE
Raskin tempers support for MTG, after being asked about her antisemitism
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on Tuesday that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) would need to reject antisemitism and other forms of bigotry if she wanted to join the Democratic coalition, tempering his recent comment that the Democratic Party should be enough of a “big tent” to accommodate Greene.
Backpedaling: Asked about Greene’s ongoing promotion of antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories, Raskin told JI in a statement, “Before I would welcome Rep. Greene or any other leaders who might flee from Trump’s autocratic personality cult, I would of course want to see them repudiate all the forms of authoritarianism, antisemitism, racism, transphobia and bigotry that they have promoted as Republicans and that have become so intertwined with the MAGA Republican brand under Trump.” Jewish Democratic groups urged Democrats to keep Greene at a distance, even if she happens to vote with them on certain issues.
speaking out
Democrats blast DHS, FEMA over alleged mismanagement of NSGP program
A group of more than 30 House Democrats wrote to leaders at the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday criticizing their management of the 2025 Nonprofit Security Grant Program, saying that a lack of information provided by DHS is severely hampering applications to and implementation of the critical program, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Laundry list: Among the litany of criticisms outlined by the Democrats were DHS’ delay in publishing applications for the grants was: failing to provide specific deadlines and timelines for the grants; failing to engage in legally required outreach and education programs for prospective applicants; ignoring from Congress to share the names of recipient organizations of recent funding rounds; adding burdensome new requirements for those seeking reimbursements from previously allocated grant funds; new language potentially requiring cooperation with immigration authorities; and alleged discrimination against Muslim groups.
campus beat
Virginia Jewish leaders scrutinize Spanberger’s engagement in education appointments
Conservative Jewish legal and education experts in Virginia are voicing concern over a request made by Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, for the University of Virginia to pause its presidential search until she takes office in January — and how such a move could impact campus climate for Jewish students, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Background: The issue of selecting board members at the state’s leading public universities has been a politically charged one since Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, took office in 2021. Several board seats remain unfilled at George Mason University after Democrats in the state legislature blocked Youngkin’s nominees, including Ken Marcus, founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, whom Youngkin appointed in 2024. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of Virginia upheld the ruling in favor of Virginia Senate Democrats blocking more than 20 of Youngkin’s university board appointments at several schools, including UVA and GMU.
Interfaith fiasco: The City College of New York is facing scrutiny after a Muslim spiritual leader delivered an antisemitic tirade against a CUNY Hillel director during a university-sponsored interfaith dialogue program last week, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Worthy Reads
MBS’ Money Woes: The New York Times’ Rob Copeland and Vivian Nereim report that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is running low on cash as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman seeks to restructure the Gulf nation’s sovereign wealth fund. “But a different reality is being whispered about in the power corridors of Riyadh and Wall Street: The kingdom’s vaunted Public Investment Fund, which Saudi Arabia has typically used to fulfill commitments like the one it made this week in Washington, is running low on cash for new investments. That’s in large part because Prince Mohammed and his deputies have spent a vast portion of the nation’s bounty on projects that are in financial distress, and they are frantically trying to turn things around, according to 11 people briefed on its operations, including current employees, board members, investors and their representatives.” [NYTimes]
The Hamas Roadblock: The Washington Post’s editorial board, describing Hamas as “the primary obstacle to peace,” considers the challenges of implementing President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza. “Hamas clearly has no plans to surrender control over Gaza. … Any survey of Palestinians in Gaza should be viewed skeptically, but one recent poll suggests that Hamas has enjoyed a surge in popularity since the end of the fighting, because it is the only organization currently in Gaza providing security and preventing looting. That has to change for the other phases of the peace plan to have any chance of moving forward. If the Arab and Muslim countries like Indonesia, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt are unwilling to step up and do the tough business of disarmament, Israel may be forced to return.” [WashPost]
Succession Saga: Bloomberg’s Kate Sullivan, Catherine Lucey and Eric Martin compare and contrast the approaches taken by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to foreign policy ahead of the 2028 election, when both could make a bid for the presidency. “Both the Republican stars, who have each chased White House dreams, have closely aided Trump as he sketches out the bones of a new foreign policy. Paying attention to their divergent styles and interaction offers clues to reading the emerging doctrine espoused by the US administration — as well as a gauge of who might take on the mantle for the 2028 race. … The recent Gaza ceasefire deal showcased the different roles of the two men. As the US closed in on the accord, it was Rubio who quietly slipped the president an urgent note during a public meeting, telling him it was ready. Some weeks later, as the fragile arrangement teetered, Vance was the one dispatched to Israel to keep it on track. Rubio arrived to reinforce it just hours after Vance’s plane left the country.” [Bloomberg]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that he plans to meet with Zohran Mamdani — whom the president referred to as ‘Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran “Kwame” Mamdani’ —in the Oval Office on Friday, after the New York City mayor-elect reached out to schedule a sit-down…
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that she will stay on as the department head following Mamdani’s offer for her to remain in the role…
The House Ethics Committee announced plans to open an investigation into Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), for allegations including incomplete financial disclosures, violations of campaign finance law, receipt of special gifts and favors, sexual misconduct or dating violence and misuse of congressional resources…
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) was indicted and charged with stealing $5 million in FEMA funds during the COVID-19 pandemic and funneling the money to her campaign…
The Commerce Department signed off on the sale of up to 70,000 chips to two state-backed companies based in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia; the decision marks an about-face from the Trump administration, which had previously hesitated to approve the deals…
Harvard will not release the full results of a survey of undergraduate students regarding several Israel divestment proposals; university officials said that more than 80% of the school’s approximately 7,100 undergraduates did not answer the survey, skipped the questions on divestment or said they were uncertain, while 8.4% of the total undergraduate population voiced support for divestment…
Former Harvard President Larry Summers is taking leave from teaching at Harvard and from his position as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School following the release of Summers’ emails with Jeffrey Epstein that continued until the day before Epstein’s 2019 arrest…
The Koum Family Foundation is endowing the Israel Studies Program at Stanford, four years after the launch of a pilot program at the school…
Chapman University is facing a lawsuit from two recent alumni who allege that administrators at the California school did not adequately address incidents of antisemitism on the campus…
Actress Shira Haas was tapped to star in Peter Morgan’s upcoming limited Netflix series “The Boys from Brazil,” based on real-life efforts to track down Nazi officials who fled to South America following World War II…
Walmart is in discussions to acquire Israeli startup R&A Data, which tackles online scams related to digital marketplaces; R&A has been working with the retailer as a third-party vendor since 2024…
The Washington Post spotlights Israeli basketball player Yarden Garzon, the co-captain of the University of Maryland women’s basketball team…
A Bristol, U.K., music venue said that its cancellation of an Oi Va Voi show earlier this year was a “mistake” that was “not in line” with the venue’s values and came as a result of pressure from what the venue described as “activist groups” targeting the London-based klezmer band “because they are a Jewish band performing with an Israeli singer”…
Former Israeli hostage Guy Gilboa Dalal, who was released last month after more than two years, detailed the sexual assaults he endured while in Hamas captivity in Gaza…
The Wall Street Journal looks at concerns in Israel that Saudi Arabia’s acquisition of F-35 fighter jets could encourage other countries in the region to seek the planes and potentially erode Israel’s aerial advantage…
The New York Times reports on a previously undisclosed meeting in July between U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Jonathan Pollard, who spent 30 years in prison in the U.S. for passing classified information to Israel…
An Iranian-American Jewish man diagnosed with bladder cancer has been imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin prison after being sentenced to jail time earlier this year for a trip to Israel taken more than a decade ago for his son’s bar mitzvah…
Iran released a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker and its 21-member crew seized last week after departing from Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; the vessel’s high sulphur gasoil was offloaded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shortly before the tanker was released…
The Financial Times reports on a previously undisclosed trip by Iranian nuclear scientists to Russia last year, the second known visit of representatives from the Iranian military-linked Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research…
Hamas terrorists fired at Israeli forces in Khan Younis in violation of the ceasefire, prompting Israeli strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip…
Paramount engaged with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund and other Gulf investors regarding potential investment in Warner Bros. Discovery as Paramount makes a bid for the company…
The Wall Street Journal looks at how Pakistani army chief Asim Munir is consolidating power following a series of changes to the country’s constitution that, according to the WSJ, “creates a new post that puts Munir in charge of all three branches of the armed forces as soon as the end of this month, and gives him lifelong immunity from prosecution”…
Pic of the Day
CNN commentator Van Jones was presented with a shofar by American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch on Tuesday during a panel moderated by former AJC President Harriet Schleifer during the AJC Westchester/Fairfield Fall Gala at Temple Israel Center in White Plains.
At the event, AJC honored Schleifer, who has served in a number of top lay leadership roles in American Jewish organizations, most recently as immediate past chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Birthdays
Rapper and founding member of the hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, he is known as “Mike D,” Michael Louis Diamond turns 60…
Art dealer and former owner of MLB’s Miami Marlins, Jeffrey Loria turns 85… Professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Southern California, he won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Arieh Warshel turns 85… Former president of the United States, Joe Biden turns 83… Singer and songwriter best known for writing and performing the song “Spirit in the Sky,” Norman Greenbaum turns 83… Short story writer and actress, she was a professor of writing at Columbia University and was a winner of a MacArthur genius fellowship, Deborah Eisenberg turns 80… Former national security advisor and U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John R. Bolton turns 77… Character actor who has appeared in more than 80 films, he served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, Richard Masur turns 77… Major-General (reserves) in the IDF, he is a former combat pilot and head of Aman (the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate), Amos Yadlin turns 74… Longtime spokesman (now emeritus) to the foreign press at the Jewish Agency for Israel, Michael Jankelowitz turns 73… Pulitzer Prize-winning national affairs writer for The Wall Street Journal during the 1990s, he is the author of six well-regarded books, Ronald Steven “Ron” Suskind turns 66… Partner at Kirkland & Ellis, Jay P. Lefkowitz turns 63… Pianist, composer and author, Robin Spielberg turns 63… Vice chair of the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and a trustee of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, Heidi Monkarsh… Deputy assistant director at the National Science Foundation, Graciela Narcho… American-born former member of Knesset for the Likud party, Yehudah Glick turns 60… Hedge fund manager and founder of Greenlight Capital, David Einhorn turns 57… Boston-based real estate attorney at Goulston & Storrs, Zev D. Gewurz… Anchor for Yahoo Finance, Julie Hyman… Opposition research specialist and founder of Beehive Research, Devorah Adler… Executive director at Aish HaTorah, Rabbi Benjamin Gonsher… U.S. senator (D-AZ), Rubén Gallego turns 46… Outfielder for four MLB teams over eight years, he played for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, he was the general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, Sam Fuld turns 44… Director for North America at the Saban Family Foundation and the Cheryl Saban Self-Worth Foundation for Women & Girls, Jesse Bronner… Actress and writer, her decision to convert to Judaism was the subject of a 2006 article in The Sunday Times of London, Margo Stilley turns 43… Actress and playwright, Halley Feiffer turns 41… Senior White House editor for Politico, Dan Goldberg… Alexis Weiss…
Plus, Laura Loomer turns on Israel aid
Syrian Presidency
President Donald Trump greets Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in the Oval Office on Nov. 10, 2025.
Good Monday afternoon!
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Despite the historic nature of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s White House visit today, his meeting with President Donald Trump was kept a relatively low-key affair. Al-Sharaa entered through a back door and didn’t receive the usual greeting photo op with Trump, and the meeting was closed to the press.
The two leaders made news nonetheless: Syria is now set to join the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS, Trump and al-Sharaa discussed reopening respective embassies in Damascus and Washington and the Treasury Department issued a new order extending the suspension of U.S. sanctions on Syria for six months.
Ibrahim Olabi, Syria’s U.N. ambassador, said the two leaders also discussed a prospective Israel-Syria security agreement. “The term used frequently during the meeting by President Trump and Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio was ‘let’s get this done,’” Olabi said…
Trump has encouraged lawmakers to fully lift the congressionally mandated U.S. sanctions on Syria, but Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), a Trump ally and the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, did not commit to supporting sanctions relief when he held his own meeting with al-Sharaa yesterday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Mast and al-Sharaa “had a long and serious conversation about how to build a future for the people of Syria free of war, ISIS, and extremism,” Mast said in a statement, but offered no words of praise for the Syrian leader…
Sergio Gor was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to India today to unusual fanfare — he and Trump were joined in the Oval Office by Rubio; Vice President JD Vance; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; Attorney General Pam Bondi; U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro; Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jim Risch (R-ID); Katie Britt (R-AL) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL); Erika Kirk and Fox News host Laura Ingraham, among others.
Swearing in Gor, who used to serve as the head of the Presidential Personnel Office where he wielded significant influence in assuring political hires shared his skepticism of American engagement abroad, Vance said, “We have such a crowd here, you’d think we were swearing in a vice president”…
Laura Loomer, a right-wing Trump advisor who has historically maintained pro-Israel stances, wrote on social media today that, after spending “an incredible week” in Israel, she has “reached a firm conclusion: Israel must end its dependence on U.S. aid and the U.S. must end all aid to Israel.”
“I truly hope by the end of the Trump administration and by the beginning of a new administration in 2028 that we see zero aid flowing to Israel,” she wrote, calling it a “win-win” for the U.S., which will no longer be a “global baby sitter,” and for Israel, which will be free to conduct its wars as it wishes.
In response, Democratic Majority for Israel accused Loomer of continuing “a troubling pattern on the Right — embracing anti-Israel policies & undermining our allies,” in the vein of Tucker Carlson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)…
Christine Pelosi, daughter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who was thought to be considering a run for her mother’s seat as she retires, announced today that she is not running for Congress. Instead, Pelosi is launching a campaign for the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Wiener, who is running for her mother’s San Francisco congressional district…
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani named two of his top advisors today: Dean Fuleihan to be first deputy mayor and Elle Bisgaard-Church as his chief of staff.
Bisgaard-Church is a democratic socialist who was part of Mamdani’s campaign inner circle. Fuleihan, on the other hand, is a city and state government veteran; he previously served in the same role under former Mayor Bill de Blasio and as his budget director, as well as a budget expert in the state Legislature, among other roles. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who was at times at odds with Mamdani during his campaign, called Fuleihan’s appointment “exceptional … in more ways than one”…
Danielle Sassoon, the former interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who resigned her post rather than drop a case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams at the request of the Trump administration, has joined the law office of Clement & Murphy, The New York Times reports. The conservative boutique firm is known for its “longstanding opposition to executive branch overreach”…
The Wall Street Journal reports on Yale’s attempt to stay out of the line of fire in Trump’s crusade against higher education, including President Maurie McInnis’ increased government lobbying expenditures and a student forum where classmates encouraged each other to refrain from disruptive anti-Israel protests: “‘The only thing continuing to protest will do is to take education and opportunities away from the rest of us,’ said one post [on the forum]. ‘Ppl need to stop being stupid and selfish and realize they will gain no ground under this administration on the Israel issue’”…
Palantir CEO Alex Karp defended his support of Israel in an interview with WIRED, released today, saying, “Israel is a country with a GDP smaller than Switzerland, and it’s under massive attack. Some critiques are legitimate, but others are aggressive in attacking Israel. My reaction is, well, then I’m just going to defend them.”
“When people are fair to Israel and treat it like any other nation, which I don’t think they do, I will be much more willing to express in public the things I express in private to Israelis”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reporting on veteran journalists Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi’s new book, Don’t Feed the Lion, which they will launch at Temple Emanu-El in New York City tomorrow night, joined in conversation by comedian Elon Gold.
This evening, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will appear on Fox News’ “Special Report” with Bret Baier.
Stories You May Have Missed
SCENE AT SOMOS
Jewish leaders begin outreach to incoming Mamdani administration, sensitively
At the post-election Somos conference, Jewish officials tried to find areas of common ground with the new mayor
DAYTONA X DAMASCUS DIPLOMACY
The influencer couple selling Syria on Capitol Hill
JI asked senior New York Democratic officials and Jewish community leaders to discuss the top threats that a Mamdani administration could pose to Jewish life in the city
Plus, Treasury targets Hezbollah financiers
Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Kazakhstan national flag flutters in the wind on a flagpole.
Good Thursday afternoon!
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The Abraham Accords is expected to gain another participant this evening, though in a first, the country is not joining as a show of peace with Israel — since the new addition, the Muslim-majority central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, has had full diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992.
Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is expected to announce the move at a meeting with President Donald Trump later today, where they will also hold a joint phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump administration officials told Axios that the White House wants to “build momentum” for the Abraham Accords ahead of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington on Nov. 18.
As far as Kazakhstan’s motivation, the former Soviet nation has long lobbied Washington to cancel a Cold War-era law that has hindered its access to American markets, and could benefit from currying favor with the Trump administration.
Leading Jewish organizations have worked with Kazakhstan’s Jewish community and government for over a decade to lobby Congress to repeal the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, and told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and Danielle Cohen-Kanik that they are highly supportive of the country’s inclusion in the Accords…
Ahead of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s own visit to the White House on Monday, the U.N. Security Council voted in favor of a U.S.-sponsored resolution to lift sanctions on the former Al-Qaida leader turned president…
Also getting an Oval Office welcome, Israeli media reported today that Trump invited the 20 Israeli hostages released from Gaza last month to visit the White House in two weeks…
On the Hill, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee from both parties voiced concerns with Elbridge Colby, under secretary of defense for policy, and his office at the Pentagon at a committee hearing today — for the second time this week, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
“Many of this committee have serious concerns about the Pentagon’s policy office and how it is serving the president of the United States and the Congress,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the committee, said in his opening statement. “In many of these conversations, we hear that the Pentagon policy office seems to be doing what it pleases without coordinating, even inside the U.S. executive branch”…
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced this morning that she will retire at the end of her term in 2027, after serving 39 years in Congress where she made history as the first female speaker of the House.
For most of her illustrious career, Pelosi has been a reliable ally of Israel and, as Democratic leader, generally managed to keep her caucus united around support for the Jewish state. But, like many Democrats, she leaned in a more critical direction during the war in Gaza, at one point supporting a call to suspend weapons transfers to Israel. Read JI’s interview with Scott Wiener, the state senator from California seeking to win her seat…
The IDF is beginning to demobilize thousands of reservists called up for duty, some of whom have served hundreds of days in the past two years, announcing that the country is transitioning from war into a period of “enhanced border security” as the ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza largely endures…
The Treasury Department announced sanctions today against members of Hezbollah’s “finance team” who “oversee the movement of funds from Iran” in an effort to support the Lebanese government’s moves to disarm the terror group. The department revealed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has already transferred over $1 billion to Hezbollah this year…
Author Jamie Kirchick argues in The Washington Post that the “inevitable fracturing of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement is in sight, the instigator of its rupture that most narcissistic and destructive of media personalities: Tucker Carlson.”
Kirchick admonishes Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts for failing to outright condemn Carlson’s platforming of neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes: “Stalinists and Holocaust deniers like Fuentes are perfectly entitled to spew their nonsense on street corners, through self-published manifestos or in online livestreams. What they are not entitled to is the imprimatur of purportedly respectable institutions whose reputations hinge upon the voices they choose to amplify”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for an interview with former Minnesota Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, who will be celebrating his 95th birthday.
On Sunday, the Zionist Organization of America will hold its annual gala, where it will present awards to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY); Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter; Leo Terrell, head of the Department of Justice’s antisemitism task force; Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon; and philanthropists Irit and Jonathan Tratt.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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THE INSIDE STORY
The 36 hours in Washington that took hostage families from grief to gratitude
The story of how the hostage families came to learn their loved ones were coming home, told to JI by key players
COMMUNITY CONCERNS
What New York City Jewish leaders are most worried about in a Mamdani mayoralty
JI asked senior New York Democratic officials and Jewish community leaders to discuss the top threats that a Mamdani administration could pose to Jewish life in the city
Plus, the end of a Golden era in Maine
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey speaks to supporters at an Election Night party on November 2, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Good Wednesday afternoon!
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Jewish Americans are still taking stock after Zohran Mamdani’s victory last night in the New York City mayoral race. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, based in New York, called Mamdani’s victory a “grim milestone” and a reminder “that antisemitism remains a clear and present danger, even in the places where American Jews have long felt most secure.” Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, listed policies the organization will be looking toward “to address the profound concerns about what the future holds for Jewish safety and belonging.”
Robert Tucker, the Jewish commissioner of the New York City Fire Department, resigned this morning, The New York Post reports, hours before he was set to fly to Israel to meet his counterpart there.
In his first response to an incident of antisemitism as mayor-elect, Mamdani denounced the vandalism of the Magen David Yeshiva in Brooklyn, which had two swastikas graffitied on it overnight, as “a disgusting and heartbreaking act of antisemitism, and it has no place in our beautiful city”…
Another heavily Democratic city rejected its own far-left candidate for mayor today, as incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis won reelection against his DSA-aligned challenger, state Sen. Omar Fateh, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Marking a win for the more pragmatic wing of the Democratic Party, Frey secured his third term with 50% of the vote, to Fateh’s 44%, in the second round of the city’s ranked-choice voting.
A similar result may be emerging in Seattle, where preliminary results last night showed the Democratic incumbent, Mayor Bruce Harrell, leading over his socialist challenger, Katie Wilson, though many ballots remain to be counted…
One day after a historic Election Day — first democratic socialist mayor of New York City, largest turnout in an NYC mayoral race since 1969, first female governor of Virginia, first Muslim woman elected to statewide office as Virginia’s lieutenant governor, a record percentage of registered voters turning out for the municipal election in Minneapolis, among others — and the U.S. is already hitting another milestone: the longest government shutdown in history, at 36 days long.
President Donald Trump partially blamed the shutdown for Democrats’ strong showing in yesterday’s elections at a breakfast with Senate Republicans this morning, telling them, “I thought we’d have a discussion after the press leaves about what last night represented, and what we should do about it. … I think if you read the pollsters, the shutdown was a big factor, negative for the Republicans”…
Citing the shutdown, increased polarization and rising political violence, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) announced this afternoon that he will not be seeking reelection. Golden, a pro-Israel centrist who often worked across the aisle, has represented Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, a largely rural, working-class district that Trump won in the 2024 election by 14 points, since 2018, a seat that will be difficult for Democrats to maintain…
Recently freed former hostage Elizabeth Tsurkov recounted her two and a half years of captivity by Kataib Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group in Iraq, in a new interview with The New York Times, detailing the torture she experienced that resulted in potentially permanent nerve damage and the need for “long-term physical and psychological rehabilitation,” as determined by doctors at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center…
The University of Maryland, College Park student government is scheduled to vote on two resolutions hostile towards Israel tonight, JI’s Haley Cohen reports. One calls for the university to prohibit people who are “committing war crimes” and “genocide” from speaking on campus, after the campus chapter of Students Supporting Israel hosted an event last month where former IDF soldiers spoke about their experiences serving during Israel’s war with Hamas.
The second resolution calls on the university to issue an apology to students who faced disciplinary action for protesting that event, when demonstrators packed the outside hallway shouting “baby killers” and “IOF [Israel “Occupation” Forces] off our campus,” while several others protested outside of the building with chants comparing the IDF to the Ku Klux Klan…
Variety profiles David Ellison in his first 100 days as CEO of the recently merged Paramount Skydance, including the media company’s about-face on Israel issues. Free Press founder Bari Weiss, hired as editor-in-chief of CBS News by Ellison, “has been so vocal in her support of [Israel] that she faces frequent death threats. She and her wife, The Free Press co-founder Nellie Bowles, require a detail of five bodyguards that costs the studio $10,000-$15,000 a day.”
Paramount also reportedly “maintains a list of talent it will not work with because they are deemed to be ‘overtly antisemitic’ as well as ‘xenophobic’ and ‘homophobic,’” after the studio was the first to denounce a boycott of Israel signed by several Hollywood heavyweights…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for the latest news on the Heritage Foundation’s internal reckoning with its defense of Tucker Carlson.
Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, a bill aimed at eliminating loopholes used to possess Nazi-looted artwork that Jewish families have been trying to recover.
The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Alex Velez-Green to be deputy under secretary of defense for policy, coming days after committee lawmakers blasted the Pentagon office and its head, Elbridge Colby, during a contentious hearing for failing to communicate with them.
Maccabi Tel Aviv will play Aston Villa tomorrow in a Europa League match that generated controversy after local authorities announced that supporters of the Israeli team would not be permitted to attend, with the game deemed “high risk” over security concerns. Over 700 police officers are expected to be deployed and a no-fly zone will be established around the Villa Park stadium in Birmingham, England.
Israel’s Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball team will face off against the Dubai team in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Round 9 of the EuroCup tomorrow.
The Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, formerly the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, will host its second Sports Leaders Convening at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts tomorrow, featuring Robert Kraft, the organization’s CEO and owner of the New England Patriots; Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee; Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League; Adam Lehman, CEO of Hillel International; Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network; and leaders from major sports leagues.
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy will host a webinar tomorrow on the possibility of peace between Israel and Lebanon with Lebanese Member of Parliament Fouad Makhzoumi.
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VP Dick Cheney remembered as friend of Israel, strong voice on national security issues
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Dreazen spent 15 years at the Pentagon, most recently as principal director for Middle East policy
Courtesy
Anne Dreazen
The American Jewish Committee tapped Middle East policy official Anne Dreazen on Thursday as vice president and director of its Center for a New Middle East, Jewish Insider has learned.
Dreazen, whose career spanned 15 years at the Department of Defense in a variety of roles — most recently as principal director for Middle East policy — is slated to begin the Washington DC-based position on Oct. 20.
The Center for a New Middle East launched in June 2024 to advance the organization’s existing work in Israel and the Gulf. At the time, AJC CEO Ted Deutch told eJewishPhilanthropy that the center will host conferences and business programs in the U.S., Israel and the Gulf, as well as work with emerging leaders in Israel and the Arab world.
“At a time when the Middle East is undergoing profound challenges and transformations, the work of AJC’s Center for a New Middle East has never been more vital,” Dreazen told JI. “I’m honored and excited to join this extraordinary team working to advance the peace and security of Israel and its neighbors, to strengthen diplomatic, economic and civil society partnerships, and to shape a more hopeful future for the region.”
Dreazen oversaw U.S. defense cooperation with partners including Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar while serving as the Pentagon’s principal director for Middle East Policy, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
She also served as a national security fellow in the Senate. Prior to that, Dreazen spent seven months on the ground in Iraq’s Anbar Province, facilitating U.S. reconstruction efforts following Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“Anne brings a wealth of experience in national security and defense policy to this position, and deep familiarity with the priorities and principals guiding regional strategic affairs,” said Jason Isaacson, AJC chief policy and political affairs officer, who was the center’s first director. “After her distinguished career in the U.S. national security establishment, AJC looks forward to her guidance in shaping our efforts to widen the circle of Arab-Israeli peace.”
The suspected shooter shouted “free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza,” per an eyewitness
Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images
An exterior of the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington,DC on December 25, 2024.
Antisemitic violence struck at the heart of the nation’s capital on Wednesday evening when an assailant shot and killed two Israeli embassy employees outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee.
“Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” embassy spokesperson Tal Naim Cohen said in a statement. “We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel’s representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States.”
Officials said there was no ongoing threat to public safety and that a suspect had been arrested.
“American Jewish Committee (AJC) can confirm that we hosted an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. this evening,” AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement. “We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue. At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.”
President Donald Trump said in a statement, “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said that a man and woman were killed in the incident. Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter said that the two victims were a young couple and embassy employees who were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem — the man purchased a ring earlier this week.
Eyewitness Paige Siegel, who was a guest at the event, told Jewish Insider that she heard two sets of multiple shots ring out, and then an individual, who police have since identified as suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez, entered the building appearing disoriented and panicked, seconds after the shooting ended. She said security allowed the man in, as well as two other women separately.
Siegel said she spoke to the man, asking him if he had been shot. He appeared panicked and was mumbling and repeatedly told bystanders to call the police. Siegel said that she felt the man was suspicious.
JoJo Drake Kalin, a member of AJC’s DC Young Professional Board and an organizer of the event, also told JI the man appeared disheveled and out of breath when he entered the building. Kalin assumed he had been a bystander to the shooting who needed assistance and she handed him a glass of water.
Siegel said that the man was sitting in the building in a state of distress for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, and she and a friend engaged him in conversation, informing him that he was in the Jewish museum.
After Siegel said that, she said the man started screaming, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red Keffiyeh. She said that an officer, who had already arrived, detained the man and took him outside. She said that she subsequently saw security footage of Rodriguez shooting the female and identified the shooter as the same individual. Kalin said that some attendees stayed for several hours at the museum into the night to be debriefed by police.
A short video obtained by JI showed an individual in the lobby of the museum chanting “Free, free Palestine” being detained by police and removed from the building.
A video obtained by Jewish Insider shows the suspected shooter, identified by police as Elias Rodriguez, in the lobby of the Capital Jewish Museum chanting “free, free Palestine” as he is detained by police and removed from the building.
— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) May 22, 2025
Full story: https://t.co/ZGZBj9agQx pic.twitter.com/zZUbTvovFm
Smith said in a press conference that the suspect, Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, opened fire on a group of four outside the museum, and then entered the building and was detained by event security. Smith said that Rodriguez, once in custody, implied that he carried out the shooting and chanted “free, free Palestine.”
Smith said Rodriguez had been pacing outside the event before the altercation.
Leiter said that he had spoken to President Donald Trump, who vowed that the administration would do everything it can to fight antisemitism and demonization and delegitimization of Israel.
“We’ll stand together tall and firm and confront this moral depravity without fear,” Leiter said.
Smith said that police would coordinate with local Jewish organizations to ensure sufficient security. She said police had not received any intelligence warning of the attack.
Mayor Muriel Bowser said, “we will not tolerate antisemitism,” and said the city would continue to assist Jewish organizations with security grants.
FBI officials and Attorney General Pam Bondi and interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro joined the response alongside D.C. police.
“We are a resilient people. The people of Israel are a resilient people. The people of the United States of America are a resilient people. Together, we won’t be afraid. Together we will stand and overcome moral depravity of people who think they’re going to achieve political gains through murder,” Leiter said.
According to an invitation to the event viewed by JI, the event planned to discuss efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in the Middle East and North Africa, including in Gaza.
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, described the shooting as a “depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told JI, “I’ve been informed of the tragic shooting that occurred outside of the Capitol Jewish Museum tonight in Washington D.C. We are monitoring the situation as more details become known and lifting up the victim’s families in our prayers.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a post, “This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society.”
Richard Priem, the CEO of the Community Security Service, told eJewishPhilanthropy that there are still “so many unknowns” about the shooting, namely if it was a sophisticated attack specifically targeting Israeli Embassy staff or an attack more generally against the Jewish event itself. In any case, the organization called for “increased situational awareness” at Jewish institutions going forward, particularly ahead of Shabbat.
“Anytime there’s an attack, certain people get activated and think, ’Now’s the time,’” Priem said. “But we don’t know yet if there might be a direct correlated threat.”
eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross contributed reporting
Plus, Rubio, Cruz talk Trump Iran policy
REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey speaks ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign rally outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 4, 2024.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we break down a new Anti-Defamation League report on antisemitism at independent K-12 schools, and report on Corey O’Connor’s victory yesterday in Pittsburgh’s mayoral primary. We report on the increasing pressure on Israel over its conduct in Gaza, cover Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since being confirmed, and highlight remarks made by Sens. Ted Cruz and John Fetterman to NORPAC members. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Lishay Lavi Miran, Sen. Andy Kim, and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Dan Goldman.
What We’re Watching
- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Donald Trump will meet at the White House today, with new trade agreements on the agenda amid strained ties between the two countries.
- The Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Jewish Federations of North America will host the Annual Jewish American Heritage Month Congressional Breakfast on Capitol Hill today, with a keynote address from Bruce Pearl, head coach of the Auburn men’s basketball team.
- The House Appropriations Committee will hold separate budget hearings with testimony from Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
- The House Foreign Affairs Committee will also hold a hearing with Rubio on “Fiscal Year 2026 State Department Posture: Protecting American Interests.”
- The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a hearing on “The State of Higher Education” with witnesses including Dr. Andrew Gillen, a research fellow at the Cato Institute; Dr. Michael Lindsay, president of Taylor University; Dr. Mark Brown, president of Tuskegee University; Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center; and Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, chancellor of the Austin Community College District.
- The Qatar Economic Forum continues today in Doha, with speakers including Donald Trump Jr.; Steve Mnuchin, former U.S. treasury secretary; Mark Attanasio, principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers; John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg; and Hassan Al-Thawadi, former secretary general at Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S hALEY COHEN
A new Anti-Defamation League report puts a spotlight on episodes of antisemitism in K-12 non-Jewish independent schools, a trend that doesn’t get as much attention as the higher-profile incidents on college campuses but is affecting Jewish students in critical ways.
The study found antisemitic incidents in independent schools down 26% in 2024, compared to 2023, but still up significantly since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. There were only 494 documented incidents of antisemitism in independent schools in 2022; that number has nearly doubled to 860 in 2024.
A quarter of surveyed parents said their children experienced/witnessed antisemitic symbols (such as swastikas) in school.
The research was conducted through four focus groups and a survey of 369 parents of Jewish children in independent K-12 schools across 21 states. The ADL told Jewish Insider‘s Haley Cohen it selected independent schools to evaluate since they operate outside of the oversight of public education and therefore have greater autonomy in shaping their curricula, policies and disciplinary procedures.
In addition to expressing concern over antisemitic symbols, nearly one-third of parents reported anti-Jewish and anti-Israel curricula featuring more prominently in their children’s classrooms since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. They’re also deeply dissatisfied with administrators’ responses to antisemitism: Of the parents surveyed who were aware of antisemitism in their child’s school, 34% said the school’s response was either “somewhat” or “very” inadequate.
One bit of encouraging news: A sizable majority of students at these schools (64%) said they felt “very comfortable” showing their Jewish identity at schools, with only 8% feeling somewhat or very uncomfortable with doing so. But there were isolated episodes of student discomfort, including one parent saying their son avoided wearing a Star of David necklace.
Another notable trend: Many independent school parents voiced concern that diversity, equity and inclusion frameworks do not include Jewish identity and antisemitism. They view the exclusion as a fundamental flaw of the programming rather than an oversight and described a pattern in which Jewish identity was omitted altogether from DEI conversations or misrepresented to perpetuate bias.
And parents are voting with their feet: There’s been an increase in Jewish day school enrollment in recent years.
But for those Jewish students who remain in independent schools, the ADL said it’s launching a new initiative to hold schools accountable and support families. “These independent schools are failing to support Jewish families,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the group’s CEO, said. “By tolerating — or in some cases, propagating — antisemitism in their classrooms, too many independent schools in cities across the country are sending a message that Jewish students are not welcome. It’s wrong. It’s hateful. And it must stop.”
GAINEY’S GOODBYE
O’Connor ousts Gainey in heated Pittsburgh mayoral primary
Corey O’Connor prevailed in his bid to oust Mayor Ed Gainey of Pittsburgh in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the activist left in a city where progressives had until recently been ascendant. O’Connor, the Allegheny County controller and a centrist challenger, defeated Gainey, the first-term incumbent aligned with the far left, by a significant six-point margin, 53-47%, on Tuesday evening with most of the vote counted, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Victory post: “We built this campaign with and for the people of this city, neighborhood by neighborhood,” O’Connor said in a social media post on Tuesday night. “I’m proud to be your Democratic nominee for Mayor. I’m ready to get to work, and I’m grateful to have you with me as we take the next steps forward, together.”
WAITING FOR OMRI
An Israeli mom’s NYC mission to free husband from Hamas captivity
Every morning, Lishay Lavi Miran’s toddler daughters ask her the same two questions: Why is daddy still in Gaza and when is daddy coming home? In a desperate attempt to provide answers, Miran spent the past week in New York City — her first time in the U.S. — advocating for the release of her husband, Omri Miran, who was kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and has remained in Hamas captivity for nearly 600 days. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen during her visit to the states, which concluded on Tuesday, Miran said that her message to the American Jewish community is that its advocacy efforts have provided a “warming sense of hope.”
Now and then: The family received the first sign of life from Omri in April when Hamas terrorists published a video in which he is seen walking through a tunnel in Gaza. The video was released right around his 48th birthday. “It was difficult to see him in those conditions,” Miran told JI during her visit to the states, which concluded on Tuesday. The “exhausted” man in the video was a contrast to the guy known for having “the biggest smile in the world and spark in his eyes,” as Miran describes her husband.
foreign policy in focus
Rubio: Iranian proxy terrorism hasn’t been part of negotiations with Iran
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in his first appearance on Capitol Hill since being confirmed as secretary of state that Iran’s support for regional terrorist proxies has not been part of the ongoing talks between the Iranian government and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which Rubio said have been focused wholly on Iran’s nuclear program and enrichment capabilities. At the same time, Rubio insisted that any sanctions related to terrorist activity and weapons proliferation would remain in place if such issues are not part of the nuclear deal, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What this means: Rubio’s comments indicate the deal might still be subject to what some critics in the United States and the region described as a key flaw of the original nuclear deal — that it failed to address other malign activity by the regime. One U.S. lawmaker who traveled to the Middle East recently said that U.S. partners in Israel and the Arab world had argued that any deal must include non-nuclear provocations. Rubio added that sanctions will remain in place until a deal is reached, and that European partners are working separately on re-implementing snapback sanctions, potentially by October of this year, when such sanctions expire. He also said that Iran cannot have any level of nuclear enrichment under a nuclear deal, as it would inevitably provide a pathway for Iran to enrich to weapons-grade levels.
Read the full story here with Rubio’s additional remarks on Iran, Gaza and Syria.
TED TALK
Ted Cruz expresses concern about influence of some Trump officials on Iran policy
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on Tuesday that he is concerned about the views of some of the officials in the White House shaping President Donald Trump’s Iran policy, marking the most critical comments yet from the hawkish senator about Trump’s approach to Iran. He urged members of NORPAC, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, to raise the issue in their meetings with anyone in the Trump administration, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
What he said: “We need clarity with the Trump administration, and as NORPAC talks to the administration, I would say, I worry there are voices in the administration that are not eager to hold up the president’s red line of dismantlement,” Cruz said at NORPAC’s annual Washington lobbying mission, referring to mixed messaging from some U.S. officials on the acceptable contours of a potential new nuclear agreement with Iran.
Also during NORPAC’s mission: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who is facing attacks from the media and fellow lawmakers in the Democratic Party, hit back at members of his own party. Speaking to members of NORPAC, Fetterman offered some of his sharpest criticism yet of the Democratic Party’s approach to Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. “Israel and your community deserves much better from my party,” Fetterman said, earning loud applause.
RELATIONSHIP RUPTURE
Foreign Minister David Lammy announces suspension of U.K.-Israel free trade agreement
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that Britain has suspended negotiations with Israel on a new free trade agreement and will be “reviewing cooperation,” a day after the U.K., France and Canada threatened to take “concrete actions” and impose sanctions on Israel over its policies on humanitarian aid in Gaza and settlement activity in the West Bank, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen and Lahav Harkov report.
Upping the pressure: Lammy, speaking to British lawmakers in the House of Commons on Tuesday, said the “Netanyahu government’s actions have made this necessary,” describing the lack of humanitarian aid entering Gaza as “intolerable” and “abominable.” He said that Tzipi Hotovely, the Israeli ambassador to the U.K., has been summoned to the U.K. Foreign Office, where Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer will tell her that “the 11-week block on aid to Gaza has been cruel and indefensible” and that “dismissing concerns of friends and partners … must stop.” Lammy also announced that the British government will impose sanctions on three individuals and four entities with ties to settlements in the West Bank, which the U.K., France and Canada called “illegal” in their joint statement.
Meanwhile in Brussels: The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said that Brussels will review whether Israel is violating the human rights clause of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which governs the high-level political and economic ties between the sides. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp proposed the review with the backing of 17 of 27 EU members; however, a policy change would require unanimity within the bloc.
And from the Vatican: Pope Leo XIV appealed this morning “to allow the entry of dignified humanitarian aid and to put an end to the hostilities, whose heartbreaking price is paid by the children, elderly, and the sick.
kim’s call
Sen. Andy Kim urges Homeland Security Secretary Noem to protect Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) pressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for clarification of her department’s plans regarding the Nonprofit Security Grant Program as the Trump administration considers cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. Kim and Noem engaged on the issue while the latter was testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday. Kim, the top Democrat on the HSGAC subcommittee that oversees FEMA, urged Noem to ensure NSGP funding is not reduced or eliminated outright as part of President Donald Trump’s push to abolish FEMA, citing the program’s success rate with New Jersey synagogues amid rising antisemitism.
Making the case: “I think that there’s very strong bipartisanship here in Congress, especially the Senate, to protect the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. It is literally the best tool that people in New Jersey are telling me is needed to be able to counter antisemitism. I can’t tell you the number of synagogues and temples that are lined up to try to get this type of funding. In fact, you know, given the rise of antisemitism that we have in our country right now, we should be surging resources, not cutting,” Kim said.
Worthy Reads
A Tale of Two New York City’s: New York magazine’s E. Alex Jung writes about the stark contrast between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral primary. “Their respective campaigns are striking foils: Cuomo, who at 67 would become the oldest incoming mayor of New York City ever, has stayed out of the public eye while racking up endorsements from major labor unions. When he does appear, he’s working the Black church circuit. He knows that the path to the Democratic nomination has historically gone through Black and Latino voters, mostly in Southeast Queens and Central Brooklyn. In one simulation, Cuomo is winning those communities by 91 percent and 72 percent by the final round, respectively. To the ire of white liberals, he has a broad multi-racial coalition. While Mamdani is seemingly everywhere in the city, running from protests to rallies to galas, his base is largely white college-educated Brooklynites, with much of his early efforts going toward activating South Asian and Muslim voters, who have traditionally been ignored. ‘Zohran is Cuomo’s wet-dream opponent,’ says one anti-Cuomo Democratic strategist. ‘Supported by online kids, on the record for “defund,” on the record about Palestine, and little support in Black or Latino communities.’” [NYMag]
Sam (A)I Am: In a New Yorker review of two new books on Sam Altman and the future of AI, Benjamin Wallace-Wells considers the OpenAI founder’s Midwestern Jewish roots. “Within the world of tech founders, Altman might have seemed a pretty trustworthy candidate. He emerged from his twenties not just very influential and very rich (which isn’t unusual in Silicon Valley) but with his moral reputation basically intact (which is). Reared in a St. Louis suburb in a Reform Jewish household, the eldest of four children of a real-estate developer and a dermatologist, he had been identified early on as a kind of polymathic whiz kid at John Burroughs, a local prep school. “His personality kind of reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell,” the school’s head, Andy Abbott, tells [Keach] Hagey [author of The Optimist: Sam Altman, Open AI, and the Race to Invent the Future]. ‘He can talk about anything and it’s really interesting’ — computers, politics, Faulkner, human rights.” [NewYorker]
Under African Skies: The Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior director Elaine Dezenski and senior research analyst Max Meizlish offer a warning about South Africa’s anti-American activity in the run-up to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s meeting with Trump today. “South Africa isn’t an innocent, neutral party. It is playing both sides — courting the West while deepening its ties to China, Russia and Iran. Its leaders speak the language of nonalignment, but their actions tell a different story: They’ve welcomed Hamas and Hezbollah officials, hosted sanctioned Russian warships and worked with entities tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps … South Africa’s conduct is not just inconsistent with American values — it’s increasingly incompatible with US national security. Under Ramaphosa, the ANC has intensified its lawfare campaign against Israel at the International Court of Justice, ramped up efforts to diplomatically isolate Taiwan, and embraced Beijing’s narrative on global governance by joining the China-led BRICS group. The ANC’s historical alignment with authoritarian powers is no secret — but today, it’s backed by real material support. That should concern every serious policymaker in Washington.” [NYPost]
The Illiberal Left, and Right: The Liberal Patriot’s executive editor, John Halpin, considers the future of American liberalism. “Instead of pragmatic, universal solutions to the problems of working- and middle-class Americans, Democrats after Obama went off on extreme ideological tangents and illiberal fads from structural racism and transgender ideology to decriminalization and open borders to the socialist ‘Green New Deal’ and other radical climate policies. Notably, all of these illiberal ‘ideas’ produced significant public backlash from a wide array of American voters and are now in the process of being dismantled or disregarded. On the Republican side, the traditional party of Reagan has basically discarded all its past social and economic liberal commitments in favor of Trump’s peculiar blend of command-and-control tariff and trade policies, unrestrained executive authority, withdrawal from global allies and international security arrangements, and the use of governmental legal and bureaucratic authority to attack and prosecute perceived enemies. ‘Postliberal’ ideas that explicitly reject individualism as the foundation of American life are now dominant in a party that feels the need ‘to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power,’ according to Vice President JD Vance.” [LiberalPatriot]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump is reportedly frustrated by the continuing war in Gaza and has instructed his aides to tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “wrap it up,” White House officials told Axios…
Netanyahu’s office announced yesterday that the senior members of the ceasefire and hostage-release negotiating team had been recalled from Doha, Qatar, while the working echelon would continue the talks. The PMO statement stressed that Israel had agreed to the U.S. proposal but that Hamas “is continuing to cling to its refusal”…
In an interview published today in The National, Jake Sullivan, the Biden administration’s national security advisor, says of Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu, “It’s not that the balance of power has changed, just the weight and emphasis on who can deliver” …
CNN, citing intelligence from “multiple US officials,” reported that Israel has been making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, though they stressed it remains unclear if Israeli leaders have made a final decision to do so. In reaction to the story, former Washington Institute for Near East Policy fellow Nadav Pollak wrote on X: “The only surprising part in [the story] is that US officials leaked the fact they monitor Israeli communications.”…
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that, “I do not think nuclear talks with the U.S. will be successful” and warned, “They should not try to talk nonsense. It is a big mistake to say that we will not allow Iran to enrich. No one is waiting for permission from this or that.”…
Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will move forward on construction of a Golden Dome missile defense system. Trump began calling for a U.S. missile defense shield similar to Israel’s Iron Dome after watching Israel deflect missiles and drones amid Iran’s attacks in 2024…
Democrat Sam Sutton won a special election for a New York state Senate seat, which the GOP had hoped to flip after Trump received 77% of the vote in the district in November. The district encompasses several heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, and Sutton is a leader of its Sephardic community…
The New York Times confirmed reporting that Trump, through the Pentagon, White House military office and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, had initially approached the Qataris about purchasing the luxury Boeing 747 jet for use as Air Force One, rather than it being offered as a gift…
Newly released emails reveal that Joe Kent, chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, pressured analysts to revise an intelligence assessment to align with Trump’s claim that Venezuela’s government controls a criminal gang…
Elon Musk told attendees at the Qatar Economic Forum that he doesn’t plan to spend money on elections in the future. “I think I’ve done enough,” he said…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) clashed in a heated exchange during a Senate hearing Tuesday. “I regret voting for you for secretary of state,” Van Hollen said. “Your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job,” Rubio responded…
Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) sought unanimous consent to call up a resolution pushing the administration to work to resume U.S. aid to Gaza, which is sponsored by nearly all Senate Democrats. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) blocked the effort…
The United Arab Emirates said yesterday that it will send urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza, after UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and his Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke on the phone…
The U.S. and Turkey released a joint statement on the U.S.-Turkey Syria Working Group’s most recent meeting held in Washington, which included discussions on “shared priorities in Syria, including sanctions relief according to President Trump’s directive and combatting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”…
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sent a letter to Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone expressing their concern that CBS News may be engaging in “improper conduct” and violating anti-bribery law in its effort to settle a lawsuit with Trump that will potentially block Paramount’s intended merger with Skydance…
Trump called Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) a “grandstander” who “should be voted out of office” over Massie’s opposition to his budget bill. Massie, a longtime opponent of aid to Israel and legislation to combat antisemitism, is mulling a statewide run for Senate or governor in Kentucky…
Speaking at a congressional hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Tuesday, AJC CEO Ted Deutch urged the U.S. to remain engaged in international bodies including the U.N., UNESCO and OSCE and called for Congress to confirm Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to the role of special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and provide $3 million in funding for the office…
New York Times reporter Joseph Bernstein chronicled the life of his father, a “Nazi hunter” with the U.S. Department of Justice in the ‘80s, who was killed in the Pan Am 103 bombing in 1988, and his struggle to find meaning in the resulting decades-long investigation that ultimately led to the currently delayed trial of a Libyan man accused of planting the bomb on behalf of dictator Muammar Gaddafi…
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer eulogized his mother, Yaffa Dermer, who died last Sunday at the age of 89. Ron said, “We don’t choose our parents. They are chosen for us. So I thank Hashem for blessing me to have been raised by such an extraordinary mother and teacher. … Over the years, I have had the privilege to serve in prominent positions and hold prestigious titles. But the greatest honor of my life has been to be Yaffa’s son.”…
Eva Wyner, previously deputy director of Jewish affairs for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, is now serving as the governor’s director of Jewish affairs…
Arthur Maserjian, previously chief of staff at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, is now the senior director of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies’ Center for Combating Antisemitism…
Eric B. Stillman was hired to serve as the next president and CEO of the Florida Holocaust Museum, which will reopen on Sept. 9 following an extensive renovation; Stillman succeeds Mike Igel, who has led the organization as its interim CEO for the past year…
Pic of the Day
Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) addressed an Anti-Defamation League reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month yesterday in Washington.
Birthdays
Northern California-based comedian, he celebrated his bar mitzvah at 52 years old in Israel, Josh Kornbluth turns 66…
Former U.S. senator from Minnesota, he was previously a comedian, actor and writer, Al Franken turns 74… VP of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, Ralph Lewin turns 72… Guitarist and composer, Marc Ribot turns 71… EVP of American Friends of Bar-Ilan University, Ron Solomon… Chief rabbi of Mitzpe Jericho and dean of Hara’ayon Hayehudi yeshiva in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yehuda Kroizer turns 70… CEO of the Boston-based hedge fund Baupost Group, Seth Klarman turns 68… Legal analyst at CNN, Jeffrey Toobin turns 65… Founder and former co-owner of City & State NY, Thomas Allon turns 63… Director of antisemitism education and associate director of the Israel Action Program, both at Hillel International, Tina Malka… Actress, artist and playwright, Lisa Edelstein turns 59… Former head of Dewey Square’s sports business practice, now a freelance writer, Frederic J. Frommer… Author and journalist, she was a reporter with The New York Times for eight years, Amy Waldman turns 56… U.S. cyclist at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, she is now the executive director of the New England Mountain Bike Association, Nicole Freedman turns 53… President and CEO of the Michigan-based William Davidson Foundation, Darin McKeever… University chaplain for NYU, Rabbi Yehuda Sarna turns 47… Founder of Agora Global Advisory, Brandon Pollak… EVP and chief legal officer at Sinclair Broadcast Group, David Gibber… Professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, Scott Joel Aaronson turns 44… President of Mo Digital, Mosheh Oinounou… International fashion model for Versace, Sharon Ganish turns 42… Partner at CreoStrat, Steve Miller… Windsurfer who represented Israel in the Olympics (Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016), she is now a SW delivery lead at SolarEdge, Maayan Davidovich turns 37… Player on the USC team that won the 2016 NCAA National Soccer Championship, she is now an associate in the LA office of Foley & Lardner, Savannah Levin turns 30… Comedian, actress and writer, known for starring in the HBO Max series “Hacks,” Hannah Marie Einbinder turns 30… Deputy director at the Yael Foundation, Naomi Kovitz…
BIRTHWEEK: (was Monday): Alex Shapero…
The university organizations 'endorse[d] the Trump Administration’s priority of eradicating antisemitism' but said its tactics 'endanger' academic freedom
Cody Jackson/AP
American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO Ted Deutch is seen during an interview, Friday, Feb. 8, 2024 in Boca Raton, Fla.
The American Jewish Committee — together with major groups representing U.S. universities — on Tuesday released a statement asking the Trump administration to reconsider its approach to combatting campus antisemitism, which it said involves steps that “endanger” academic freedom.
“America’s higher education and Jewish communities share and endorse the Trump Administration’s priority of eradicating antisemitism. We come together to ask the Administration to pursue this important goal in ways that preserve academic freedom, respect due process, and strengthen the government-campus scientific partnership,” said the joint statement, which was co-signed by American Council on Education, Association of American Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, American Association of Community Colleges, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
The groups — which together represent more than 1,000 colleges and universities — called antisemitism “a plague on humanity” which “has found unacceptable expression on U.S. campuses in recent years, as it has elsewhere in American society, on both sides of the political spectrum.”
The statement continued, “In the name of combating antisemitism, the federal government has recently taken steps that endanger the research grants, academic freedom, and institutional autonomy of America’s higher education sector.”
It urged the U.S. government to instead address antisemitism “through the nation’s powerful anti-discrimination laws, which allow for vigorous enforcement while providing due process rights that are essential to ensure fair treatment of individuals and institutions.”
The groups pledged “continuing consequential reform and transparent action to root out antisemitism and all other forms of hate and prejudice from our campuses.”
The Trump administration has cut — or threatened to cut — more than $12 billion in research funding from elite schools including Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Brown and Northwestern. The moves to rescind billions in federal funding from colleges and universities, as well as to detain and deport foreign students, have ignited debate in the Jewish community in recent months, with many stressing a need for due process.
“Our democratic values are not at odds with our vision for classrooms and campuses free from antisemitism – in fact, each is necessary for the other,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the AJC, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Deutch told Jewish Insider last month that the group is trying to take a nuanced approach to the White House’s response to campus antisemitism.
“There are campuses [where] so many of the challenges should have been addressed by universities, and weren’t. We’ve been clear that it’s really important that the administration, that the president, is making this a priority,” Deutch said. “At the same time, as we’ve said, due process matters and obviously our democratic principles matter as well, we have to be able to both express appreciation and, when necessary, express concern.”
“When the hammer [of funding cuts] is dropped in a way which winds up cutting life-saving cancer research, that’s when we have concern, which we’ve expressed,” Deutch warned.
Barbara Snyder, president of AAU, an organization of 69 leading research universities, said in a statement that “cutting funds for life-saving research and threatening academic freedom and constitutional rights such as freedom of speech do nothing to make students safer. Fighting discrimination and supporting due process are two sides of the same coin; you cannot have one without the other.”
MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, gestures during an interview at the patriarchate headquarters in the old city of Jerusalem on April 22, 2025.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem who is a contender to be named the next pope, and report on the selection of Michael Anton to lead the U.S. delegation’s technical talks with Iran over its nuclear program. We also preview the American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum, which kicks off Sunday, and interview CEO Ted Deutch about the organization’s approach to the Trump administration’s efforts to address campus antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Adam Neumann, Larry Summers and Ron Dermer.
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: She forgot Yom Hashoah – then created a movement that changed the way Israel remembers the Holocaust; From seminary to secretary: How Uri Monson balances Pennsylvania’s budget and keeps Shabbat; and The quirky new VC being guided by Jewish values. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Technical talks on Iran’s nuclear program are taking place in Oman this weekend. More below.
- Elsewhere in the region, CENTCOM head Gen. Erik Kurilla is in Israel for meetings with senior officials to discuss Iran.
- The White House Correspondent’s Dinner will take place tomorrow night at the Washington Hilton in Dupont Circle.
- President Donald Trump will attend the funeral of Pope Francis tomorrow in the Vatican.
- Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is facing at least two years in prison when he is sentenced today for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
- The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum kicks off on Sunday in New York. More below.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD
The American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum Conference kicks off this weekend in New York. AJC’s CEO Ted Deutch told Jewish Insider that the organization is expecting over 2,000 attendees.
“It’s been clear since Oct. 7 [and] in everything we’ve seen since, the challenges that the Jewish community in Israel are facing are global challenges and they require global responses,” Deutch said. “AJC has people in 40 places around the world — 25 offices in the U.S., 15 more around the world — this is the opportunity for all of that global advocacy, all of those global advocates, to come together.”
Headline speakers will include Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, who moved his country’s embassy to Jerusalem last year and yesterday designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization and expanded Paraguay’s terrorist designations of the armed wings of Hezbollah and Hamas to encompass the entirety of both organizations. In addition, outspoken pro-Israel members of the European and Brazilian legislatures, as well as Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Auburn University basketball coach Bruce Pearl, will address the gathering. John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, and former Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass will be speaking.
Deutch said there will be a significant focus on the hostages — Noa Argamani and the family of Edan Alexander will be in attendance.
The event will also feature a debate between Ellie Cohanim, the former deputy antisemitism envoy in the first Trump administration, and Bill Kristol, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, on American leadership in the world and the implications of Trump’s America First foreign policy.
While not yet confirmed, Deutch said that the Trump administration had “expressed great interest” in sending a representative to speak at the conference.
Deutch also teased the announcement of a new collaborative effort to “help document antisemitism and the need to really confront it in all of its contemporary forms.”
In total, attendees and speakers will hail from more than 60 countries, including a feature discussion with Jewish community members from France, Mexico and Australia. Students will come from 46 U.S. colleges and universities and 27 other countries including Mexico, South Africa, North Macedonia and Australia. Young leaders from 14 countries who are part of AJC’s Access Global program will also be in attendance.
Deutch told JI that seeing university students step up as leaders and work together to strengthen each other has become “one of my favorite parts of AJC.” He said that there will also be opportunities for AJC’s campus programs to work with the World Union of Jewish Students and the European Union of Jewish Students and meet with Deutch and other AJC leaders.
“We’ve continued to work under the firm belief that the most important battlefield in the fight against antisemitism in the United States right now is in education,” Deutch added. He said that the conference will feature conversations with officials and activists at all levels, with a focus on both college and high school.
Speaking to JI at AJC’s offices in Washington this week, Deutch also delved into the nuanced approach AJC is taking on the Trump administration’s high-profile actions on campus antisemitism, including stripping grants from colleges and large-scale deportations of student visa holders, as well as offering an outlook on the ongoing Iran talks. Read more below.
letter to the president
Jewish Senate Dems accuse Trump of weaponizing antisemitism to attack universities
A group of Jewish Senate Democrats accused President Donald Trump of weaponizing antisemitism as a pretext to withhold funding from and punish colleges and universities, moves they said in a letter on Thursday “undermine the work of combating antisemitism” and ultimately make Jewish students “less safe,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: “We are extremely troubled and disturbed by your broad and extra-legal attacks against universities and higher education institutions as well as members of their communities, which seem to go far beyond combatting antisemitism, using what is a real crisis as a pretext to attack people and institutions who do not agree with you,” the lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), antisemitism task force co-chair Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Brian Schatz (D-HI), wrote to the president.
TEAM LEAD
Administration taps State Department’s Michael Anton as technical lead for Iran talks
The Trump administration tapped the State Department’s director of policy planning, Michael Anton, to lead a team of technical experts in negotiations with the Iranian regime about its nuclear program, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. According to Politico, Anton will lead a team of around 12 mostly career officials in discussions set to begin this weekend.
Anton’s record: Anton is a conservative essayist and speechwriter who served in the first Trump administration as a deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications on the National Security Council. In a 2020 Fox News interview, Anton said that the original Iran deal was flawed in part because it provided significant up-front financial benefits to Iran before the provisions more favorable to the U.S. took effect, which Iran used to fuel terrorism. He said President Donald Trump was “right to object to that” and reimpose sanctions. He said that cutting off Iranian resources would de-escalate, rather than escalate conflict.
Read the full story here.
ted talk
AJC searches for a middle ground on Trump’s campus antisemitism moves, CEO Ted Deutch says
The Trump administration’s moves to cut billions in federal funding from colleges and universities and detain and deport foreign students have sparked fierce debate in the Jewish community in recent months, and opened fault lines among some who see the actions as necessary to fight antisemitism and others who argue that they’re an overreach. The American Jewish Committee is trying to take a more nuanced approach, the organization’s CEO Ted Deutch told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod in an interview at AJC’s Washington office this week ahead of the group’s annual Global Forum conference, which starts this weekend.
Middle ground: Deutch emphasized that AJC is a “fiercely nonpartisan organization,” which means it must sometimes “hold competing thoughts” so that it can “speak with clarity about what we believe is in the best interests of the Jewish community” and represent “the vast middle of the Jewish community.” He added, “There are campuses [where] so many of the challenges should have been addressed by universities, and weren’t. We’ve been clear that it’s really important that the administration, that the president, is making this a priority. At the same time, as we’ve said, due process matters and obviously our democratic principles matter as well. We have to be able to both express appreciation and, when necessary, express concern.”
papal prospect
From Jerusalem to the Vatican: Cardinal Pizzaballa emerges as a contender for the papacy
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa left the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter on Wednesday to head to the Vatican for his first-ever conclave to select the next pope. He departed as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, but some have speculated that he could have a new title — pope — in the coming weeks, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. Pizzaballa is widely viewed as one of the favorites to succeed Pope Francis, who died on Monday. The vast majority of popes have come from Italy, where Pizzaballa hails from, though he has lived in Israel for the past 35 years and is fluent in Hebrew. His knowledge of the Middle East, as well as his support for inter-religious dialogue, are viewed as advantages, while his age, 60, is seen as too young for a pope, according to Politico.
Background: Pizzaballa moved to Jerusalem in 1990, when he pursued a master’s degree in the Bible at Hebrew University while studying and teaching at the Franciscan Faculty of Biblical and Archaeological Sciences in Jerusalem. He later became responsible for the pastoral care of Hebrew-speaking Catholics and then was elected Custos of the Holy Land, a senior position in the church in Israel, Palestinian-controlled territories, Jordan, Syria, Cyprus, Rhodes and part of Egypt, from 2004-2016. Pope Francis appointed Pizzaballa to be the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem in 2020, and made him the first-ever cardinal based in Jerusalem in 2023. Pizzaballa said that the appointment of a cardinal in the city elevated the “voice of Jerusalem” within the Catholic Church.
survey says
Poll shows most Jewish voters anti-Trump, but more receptive to his handling of antisemitism
More than 7 in 10 American Jews disapprove of President Donald Trump’s job performance, a new poll found, but he is making some inroads with Jewish voters on his handling of antisemitism, compared to his first-term standing. The poll, administered by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman for the Jewish Electoral Institute (JEI) between April 15-18 and released on Wednesday, found that Trump’s overall approval rating among Jewish voters is at 24%, with 72% disapproving, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
What this means: The results suggest there hasn’t been much of a shift since the election: Trump won 26% of the Jewish vote, according to Mellman’s post-election survey conducted last December. The poll also found large majorities of the 800 registered American Jewish voters who were surveyed opposing his policies on tariffs, cuts to the federal government and threats to law firms. “American Jewish voters are deeply distressed about the direction in which Donald Trump is taking the country and oppose many of his key policies. Indeed, a majority of Jewish voters disapprove of his job performance overall and disapprove of the way Trump is handling antisemitism,” Mellman said.
SCOOP
World Zionist Congress identifies thousands more suspect votes amid growing fraud probe — sources
The World Zionist Congress’ election committee has identified thousands more suspicious votes that were cast in the ongoing American election after rejecting nearly 2,000 votes that were deemed to have been fraudulent, multiple sources in Israel and the United States told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross. The Area Election Committee, which oversees the election, has not identified the slates for whom the votes were cast.
Ramifications: Together with the original tossed votes — which represented more than 2% of the total votes at that point — these additional suspect ballots represent a significant percentage of the total votes cast, which will likely mean that there will be a delay in releasing the results of the election, which ends May 4, in order to conduct a thorough audit of ballots. The American Zionist Movement, which is running the election, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Worthy Reads
The Last Waltz: The Atlantic’s Isaac Stanley-Becker does a deep dive into the recent upheaval and series of dismissals at the National Security Council coupled with President Donald Trump’s growing “distrust” of National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. “The result is that Waltz remains on the job even as he has effectively lost control over his own NSC. The erosion of his authority extends to both policy and personnel. On the priorities that matter most to the president, Waltz has less influence than Stephen Miller, the homeland-security adviser and deputy White House chief of staff for policy, whose team is part of the NSC. Miller treats the advisory body not as a forum to weigh policy options, current and former officials told me, but as a platform to advance his own hard-line immigration agenda. On the most sensitive geopolitical issues, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and U.S. interests in the Middle East, Trump’s longtime friend and special envoy, Steve Witkoff, sometimes draws on the support of the NSC staff but often operates independently, officials said.” [TheAtlantic]
The Dermer Doctrine: The Washington Post’s Shira Rubin looks at Israeli Strategic Minister Ron Dermer’s role in working to facilitate a potential U.S.-Saudi-Israeli mega-deal. “Dermer, 54, is technically Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, but he is widely viewed as Israel’s unofficial foreign minister, and his rise has helped shape the country’s relationship with Washington, the Palestinians and the wider Arab world. … While the Saudis have pinned their hopes on Dermer — seeing him as Netanyahu’s ‘right hand man, who is extremely influential and effective,’ according to Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University — normalization is a harder sell than it’s been before, he said. The war in Gaza has made it more difficult for Saudi Arabia to pursue negotiations with Israel, as Saudi youth have increasingly taken up the Palestinian cause. And Netanyahu’s resistance to Palestinian statehood and the push by some members of his far-right government to resettle Gaza and expel its residents are a challenge to the kingdom’s ambitions to stabilize and modernize the region.” [WashPost]
Alternate Approach: In Foreign Policy, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Steven Cook argues against both military strikes and diplomacy to address Iran’s nuclear program. “Only once policymakers in Washington understand the Iranian sociopolitical order that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor built does a superior policy become clear: doing more of what Washington has already been doing. Maintaining sanctions on Iran, preventing the regime and its proxies from destabilizing the region, and responding to them when they try, as well as providing moral support for the Iranian opposition, provide the United States with the best chance for the regime to collapse in on itself. Such an approach is not without risk, however, as Iranian scientists continue to work diligently to develop their nuclear program. But it is the most realistic and feasible policy toward rendering Tehran’s nuclear program less worrisome.” [ForeignPolicy]
Hitting Harvard: In The Hill, attorney Mark Goldfeder reflects on Harvard’s response to the Trump administration’s funding cuts and freezes, which it has blamed on the school’s handling of campus antisemitism. “The bottom line is this: We are living at an inflection point in our country’s history, and it is time for everyone to take a long, hard look in the mirror to see where they stand. If you are fine with protesters using their free speech to incite anti-Jewish hate, but not with the government using its free speech to stand up for the Jews; if you are okay with the IRS revoking tax breaks for racist institutions, but not for ones who ignore antisemitism; if you romanticize leaders of groups that endorse the murder of Jews, yet call it ‘unlawful’ when the government enforces civil rights; and if you care so much about ‘illegal’ detentions that you simply must get on a plane and act, but only when the person being held is not Jewish, well, there is a word for that, and it isn’t pretty.” [TheHill]
Word on the Street
The Department of Health and Human Services Task Force to Combat Antisemitism said it was “cautiously encouraged” by Yale’s efforts in recent days to swiftly address anti-Israel activity, including the brief establishment of an encampment on the campus…
Ed Martin, the Trump administration’s pick to be U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., who is currently serving in an interim role, apologized for his recent praise of a Nazi sympathizer with a history of making antisemitic comments…
Joe Kasper, who served as chief of staff to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is departing the Pentagon entirely, days after reports that he would be reassigned out of Hegseth’s office…
The Financial Times spotlights Brian Ballard’s lobbying firm Ballard Partners, which previously employed several members of the Trump administration and includes clients in Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia…
Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff rejected a proposal from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to attempt to reach an interim nuclear agreement, saying that the parties should work to reach a comprehensive deal by the end of the 60-day window given by the Trump administration…
Puck’s William Cohan interviews former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, previously the president of Harvard, about the Trump administration’s approaches to tariffs and academia…
In Time, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin called for the party’s senior officials to abstain from intervening in Democratic primaries, days after DNC Vice Chair David Hogg pledged to back insurgent candidates through an outside spending group…
Far-left New York state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who is mounting a bid for mayor of New York City, released his first ad of the race, targeting front-runner and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo…
Adam Neumann’s real estate startup Flow raised over $100 million in a Series B funding round with backing from Andreessen Horowitz…
The Washington Post reviews Richard Kreitner’s Fear No Pharaoh, which spotlights Jewish American views on abolition in the Civil War era…
The International Criminal Court’s appeals chamber unanimously ruled to return to a lower chamber an Israeli challenge to a ruling regarding jurisdiction in the issuance of arrest warrants of senior Israeli officials to a lower court…
Israel acknowledged its responsibility for the death of a Bulgarian aid worker who was killed in a strike last month on a U.N. guesthouse in Gaza where the IDF said it had “assessed enemy presence”…
Documentarian Andrea Nevins, whose short film “Still Kicking: The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies” was nominated for an Oscar in 1998, died at 63…
Author and researcher Leonard Zeskind, whose work focused on far-right and white nationalist movements, died at 75…
Attorney and art collector Arthur Fleischer Jr. died at 92…
Nechama Grossman, the oldest Holocaust survivor in Israel, died yesterday, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, at 110…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem on Thursday with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Reps. Ann Wagner (R-MO), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-American Samoa), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Marilyn Strickland (D-WA), Greg Landsman (D-OH) and Laura Friedman (D-CA).
Birthdays
Former chairman of the Conference of Presidents and previously president of Bed, Bath and Beyond, Arthur Stark turns 70…
FRIDAY: Retired attorney, Myron “Mike” Sponder… Social worker and former health spokesman of the Green Party of the U.K., he is the older brother of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Larry Sanders turns 90… Co-founder of Lender’s Bagel Bakery, he was the national chair of UJA, Marvin Lender turns 84… Founder of Omega Advisors, Leon G. “Lee” Cooperman turns 82… Former CEO of Caravan Products and the H.C. Brill Co., Joseph (Joe) Weber turns 80… Founder of CAM Capital, Bruce Stanley Kovner turns 79… Rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University and rabbi of the Young Israel of Riverdale Synagogue, Rabbi Mordechai Willig turns 78… David Handleman… Longtime chairman and CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures, now president of Through The Lens Entertainment, Bruce Berman turns 73… Administrative law judge at the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, Beth A. Fox… Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, Adam Silver turns 63… Senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, Michael Scott Doran turns 63… Litigator at Quinn Emanuel, he served as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic in the Obama administration and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, Andrew H. Schapiro turns 62… Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian and producer, he is descended from a Sephardic family rooted in Thessaloniki, Hank Azaria turns 61… Infomercial pitchman, better known as Vince Offer, Vince Shlomi, or “The ShamWow Guy,” Offer Shlomi turns 61… Israeli diplomat who served as deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Israel in D.C., Benjamin Krasna turns 60…
CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester (NY) since 2016, Meredith Dragon… New York Times-bestselling author and adjunct professor of neuroscience at Stanford University, David Eagleman turns 54… Deputy director of community health at the Utah Department of Human Services, David E. Litvack turns 53… Manager of the Oakland Ballers baseball team in the Pioneer League until last July, Micah Franklin turns 53… Democratic Party strategist, she is a co-founder of Lift Our Voices, Julie Roginsky turns 52… President of the Alliance for Downtown New York, the nation’s largest business improvement district, Jessica S. Lappin turns 50… Senior-editor-at-large for Breitbart News, Joel Barry Pollak turns 48… Attorney turned grocer and now professor at American University, she founded and sold Glen’s Garden Market north of Dupont Circle, Danielle Brody Rosengarten Vogel… Co-founder of WeWork and now Flow, Adam Neumann turns 46… Executive director at Yaffed, Adina Mermelstein Konikoff… Managing director, head of social, content and influencer at Deloitte Digital, Kenneth R. Gold… Spokesperson and director of public affairs and planning division at FEMA during the Biden administration, now SVP at Avoq, Jaclyn Rothenberg… Film and television actress, model and singer, Sara Paxton turns 37… Staff writer at Daily Kos, Emily Cahn Singer… Former NHL ice hockey defenseman, now a color analyst for Westwood One and ESPN, Colby Shane Cohen turns 36… TikTok Star with 10 million social media followers and over 3 billion annual views, he runs the culinary website CookWithChefEitan, Eitan Bernath turns 23…
SATURDAY: Computer expert, author, lecturer, Jewish genealogy researcher and publisher of Avotaynu, the International Review of Jewish Genealogy, Gary Mokotoff turns 88… Retired Federation executive in Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento, Loren Basch… Investment banker and chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers through its bankruptcy filing in 2008, Richard S. Fuld Jr. turns 79… Professor of computer science and engineering at MIT, Hal Abelson turns 78… Chair of the Conference of Presidents, Harriet P. Schleifer… President of Brandeis University from 2016 until last November, Ronald D. Liebowitz turns 68… Moscow-born journalist and political activist in Israel, Avigdor Eskin turns 65… Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and contributing editor of The Atlantic, Jonathan Rauch turns 65… London-based interfaith social activist, she founded and chaired Mitzvah Day International, Laura Marks turns 65… Journalist, biographer and the author of six books, Jonathan Eig turns 61… Former member of the Maryland House of Delegates for four years and then the Maryland State Senate for eight years, Roger Manno turns 59… Former member of the California State Assembly where he served as chairman of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, Marc Levine turns 51… Member of the NYC Council for six years and now a recently elected member of the NY State Assembly, Kalman Yeger turns 51… General partner of Coatue Management, Benjamin Schwerin… Senior staff editor of the international desk of The New York Times, Russell Goldman turns 45… Senior director of federal government affairs at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Karas Pattison Gross… Media relations manager at NPR, Benjamin Fishel… London-based reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering finance, he is the co-author of a book on WeWork, Eliot Brown… Male fashion model and actor, Brett Novek turns 41… Head coach of the UC Irvine Anteaters baseball program, he played for Team Israel in the 2012 World Baseball Classic, Ben Orloff turns 38… Communications director at the University of Florida College of Health and Human Performance, Alisha Katz… Product strategy services at Apple, Kenneth Zauderer… Washington correspondent for The Epoch Times, Jackson C. Richman… Board liaison at American Jewish World Service, he is also a part-time matchmaker at Tribe 12, Ross Beroff… Ahron Singer…
SUNDAY: Financial executive, he retired in 2014 as head of marketing for money manager Van Eck Global, Harvey Hirsch turns 84… Nonprofit executive who has managed the 92nd Street Y, the Robin Hood Foundation, the AT&T Foundation and Lincoln Center, Reynold Levy turns 80… U.S. senator (R-WV), Jim Justice turns 74… Physician and a former NASA astronaut, she is a veteran of three shuttle flights with more than 686 hours in space, Ellen Louise Shulman Baker, M.D., M.P.H. turns 72… Director-general of the Israel Antiquities Authority until 2020, he was previously a member of Knesset and deputy director of the Shin Bet, Yisrael Hasson turns 70… VP at Covington Fabric & Design, Donald Rifkin… Biologist and professor of pathology and genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, he won the 2006 Nobel Prize for medicine, Andrew Zachary Fire turns 66… Co-founder of Casamigos Tequila and owner of restaurants, bars and lounges worldwide, Rande Gerber turns 63… Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui party, Yigal Yasinov turns 59… CEO of ZAM Asset Management, Elliot Mayerhoff… Showrunner, director, screenwriter and producer, Brian Koppelman turns 59… Founder and CEO of NYC-based Gotham Ghostwriters, Daniel Gerstein turns 58… Israeli actor, entertainer and television host, Yitzhak “Aki” Avni turns 58… Attorney and journalist, Dahlia Lithwick… Author, political analyst and nationally syndicated op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, Dana Milbank turns 57… U.S. senator (D-NJ) since 2013, he was previously the mayor of Newark, Cory Booker turns 56… Israeli television and radio journalist and former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home party, Yinon Magal turns 56… Professor of science writing at MIT, Seth Mnookin turns 53… Cinematographer and director, Rachel Morrison turns 47… Identical twin brothers, between the two of them they won 11 Israeli championships in the triathlon between 2001 and 2012, Dan and Ran Alterman both turn 45… Israeli screenwriter and producer, she has written numerous advertisements and screenplays, Savion Einstein turns 43… Deputy regional director for AIPAC, Leah Berry… Television and film actress, Ariel Geltman “Ari” Graynor turns 42… Basketball coach, analyst and writer, Benjamin Falk turns 37… Senior creative director at Trilogy Interactive, Jessica Ruby… Head of data and climate science at Watershed, Jonathan H. Glidden… Associate at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, David Jonathan Benger… Investor and entrepreneur, Noah Swartz… MD/MPH candidate in the 2025 class at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, newly matched to be a medical resident at UCLA, Amir Kashfi…
‘We are working with the administration and giving them credit where due and we are offering our thoughtful criticism also, when necessary,’ Deutch told Jewish Insider
Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, testifies about 'The Crisis on Campus: Antisemitism, Radical Faculty, and the Failure of University Leadership" during a US House Committee on Ways and Means hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 13, 2024.
The Trump administration’s moves to cut billions in federal funding from colleges and universities and detain and deport foreign students have sparked fierce debate in the Jewish community in recent months, and opened fault lines among some who see the actions as necessary to fight antisemitism and others who argue that they’re an overreach.
The American Jewish Committee is trying to take a more nuanced approach, the organization’s CEO Ted Deutch told Jewish Insider in an interview at AJC’s Washington office this week ahead of the group’s annual Global Forum conference, which starts this weekend.
Deutch emphasized that AJC is a “fiercely nonpartisan organization,” which means it must sometimes “hold competing thoughts” so that it can “speak with clarity about what we believe is in the best interests of the Jewish community” and represent “the vast middle of the Jewish community.”
He called that approach not only proper, but necessary.
“There are campuses [where] so many of the challenges should have been addressed by universities, and weren’t. We’ve been clear that it’s really important that the administration, that the president, is making this a priority,” Deutch said. “At the same time, as we’ve said, due process matters and obviously our democratic principles matter as well, we have to be able to both express appreciation and, when necessary, express concern.”
He said that AJC does not and has never taken an all-or-nothing approach to any administration — being either fully supportive or fully opposed to all actions it takes — and that it is continuing to hold fast to that principle: “We are working with the administration and giving them credit where due and we are offering our thoughtful criticism also, when necessary.”
Deutch cited examples from both the Reagan and Obama administrations that he said demonstrated this principle.
“We’re not willing to give up on the idea that, in advocating for the Jewish community, we can continue to leave partisanship out of it, focus on the concerns and needs of the Jewish community and work with an administration as closely as we can to help them succeed in ways that are beneficial to the entirety of the Jewish community,” he said.
In both the revocation of federal funding from universities and the deportation of alleged anti-Israel agitators, Deutch said that due process must be “front and center.”
On federal funding, Deutch noted that there are provisions in federal law that allow for the revocation of funding and said that the prior administration also expressed willingness to slash funding, but that such moves have not actually occurred for decades.
“It’s really important that the funding cuts be done in a way that will have the most impact in addressing the challenges of antisemitism and that other issues not be conflated,” he said.
He added that funding cuts should be used as a tool to ensure that schools make necessary changes to protect Jewish students, such as changes to their protest and student conduct policies, and that funds should be cut in the context of negotiations with universities if they fail to take action.
“When the hammer is dropped before those conversations take place, then people go to their corners,” Deutch said. “What we are advocating for is for every university to do everything that it can to help keep Jewish students safe … It’s how we get them to do it, and making sure that when they make a commitment to act, that they follow through on it — from our perspective, that’s always the focus.”
He also warned that funding cuts motivated by antisemitism could have significant effects in other ways, and potentially take away from discussions about antisemitism.
“When the hammer [of funding cuts] is dropped in a way which winds up cutting life-saving cancer research, that’s when we have concern, which we’ve expressed,” Deutch said.
“When you announce unilaterally that you’re cutting all of the funding, including funding that can help find cures and treatments for disease and funding that has contributed to the global preeminence of American universities in scientific research, then, unfortunately, that becomes the conversation, instead of the necessary conversation that the administration rightfully wants to have about the university’s need to adequately protect Jewish students and all students.”
Deutch also noted that some in the Jewish community are worried that cuts to life-saving research may ultimately produce backlash against the Jewish community.
“It is a concern that can absolutely be ameliorated. This is exactly how we are trying to address this,” Deutch said. “AJC is not jumping in and declaring that we’re on one side or another.”
On the deportations issue, Deutch said, “If [foreign students’] behavior is illegal and they have due process, then they should be deported. But it’s not either-or. All of this matters as we’re tackling these really serious challenges.” He emphasized the need to protect First Amendment free speech rights.
“It’s not, ‘the administration should be as committed as it is to fighting antisemitism’ or ‘should also be committed to ensuring due process and adherence to the Constitution,’” Deutch said. “Both of those things can and have to happen together, and that’s why we’ve been working so hard to make sure that they are.”
The administration has repeatedly made clear that it is not alleging criminal conduct in high-profile deportation cases, instead citing authorities allowing deportations of those deemed to be damaging to U.S. foreign policy interests.
Pressed on that subject, Deutch emphasized that “due process [and] constitutional protections matter here,” and that every individual should have a fair hearing in court.
At the same time, he said that the rhetoric used by some of those facing deportation has been “horrific” and that universities themselves should have stepped in, but did not, “which is why we’re now at this point where the administration has stepped in, rightfully so.”
Deutch and AJC have previously called for additional funding and resources for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which the Trump administration has instead slashed. Deutch said that the Trump administration seems to be pursuing a strategy of “fewer cases” being investigated nationwide while “going after universities for bigger remedies.”
AJC is also closely watching the Trump administration’s nuclear talks with Iran. Both AJC and Deutch, who was a Democratic member of Congress at the time, opposed the original 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and Deutch voted against it in the House.
Deutch said that he doesn’t want to make assumptions about what a new Iran deal might entail based on the varying public comments from members of the administration, but said that “the world must agree” on a basic premise Trump has expressed, that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
As the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran continue, Deutch said AJC wants to make sure that there is a proper understanding of the current status of Iran’s nuclear program, which Deutch described as geared toward producing a nuclear weapon.
He added that the nuclear talks cannot be divorced from Iran’s support for terrorist proxies that continue to threaten the Jewish community worldwide.
“We’ve all said 1,000 times, but it just feels like it always needs repeating, [and] I know the administration understands this: When a country says that their goal is the destruction of another country … we have to take them at their word in the way that we approach this,” Deutch said. “That’s the message that we’re giving to those who are working on this issue.”
‘We know that what may begin as online threats in the virtual world can lead to violence in the real world,’ Rep. Ted Deutch tells JI
YouTube
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL)
A bipartisan group of members of Congress will announce on Tuesday the creation of a new global inter-parliamentary task force to combat digital antisemitism.
Members of the task force include Reps. Ted Deutch (D-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), along with elected officials from major parties in Canada, the U.K. and Australia. Another member of the panel is member of Knesset Michal Cotler-Wunsh from Israel’s Blue and White Party, the daughter of former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler. In July, Cotler-Wunsh challenged a Twitter spokesperson during a Knesset hearing over the company’s decision not to delete or flag a post by Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that she said was “calling for genocide.” In a May tweet, Khamenei called for “firm, armed resistance” to bring about the “elimination of the Zionist regime.”
In an interview with Jewish Insider, Deutch said the lawmakers coalesced around the issue of online antisemitism because as social media continues to grow, “it’s unfortunately more and more being used to spread hatred and antisemitism. And we know that what may begin as online threats in the virtual world can lead to violence in the real world.”
Deutch said conversations about combatting global antisemitism began when he attended the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem earlier this year, and felt “compelled to move forward” with more action after social media platforms — including Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Google — failed to counter it. “We are aware that there are efforts by multiple groups, and non-governmental organizations who are trying to address this,” Deutch said. “We think that it’s important for elected officials from countries that are experiencing concerning and really upsetting increases in antisemitism to speak out.”
The goals set by the task force, as reviewed by Jewish Insider, include raising awareness about online antisemitism and establishing a consistent message in legislatures across the world to hold social media platforms accountable. The group will also work to adopt and publish transparent policies related to hate speech.
“Always and at this time in particular as we stand united in fighting a global pandemic, another virus rages that requires global collaboration and cooperation,” Cotler-Wunsh said in a statement. “By working with multi-partisan allies in parliaments around the world, we hope to create best practices and real change in holding the social media giants accountable to the hatred that exists on their platforms.”
Deutch maintained that “the power of having a group of elected officials” from different parties across the globe come together on this issue “will highlight the need for action by the companies and the need for action by our respective legislative bodies.” He added: “And most importantly, we hope this will help advance the conversation that’s premised upon the fundamental understanding that we just shouldn’t accept this spread of antisemitism that we’ve seen on social media platforms.”
The Florida congressman told JI that as the group gains traction, its organizers will look to expand “into many more countries.”
By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff
By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff
DAY 5: Netanyahu: It’s Going To Take Time: “We are here in the midst of a complex operation. We need to be prepared for the possibility that it may take time. This is a serious event and there will be serious consequences. We are working together in a considered, responsible and very determined manner.” Netanyahu urged the international community to decry the kidnapping: “I expect all responsible elements in the international community – some of whom rush to condemn us for any construction in this place or for enclosing a balcony in Gilo – to strongly condemn this reprehensible and deplorable act of abducting three youths.” After 5 days and without mentioning Hamas, the EU finally released a statement: “We condemn in the strongest terms the abduction of 3 Israeli students in the West Bank and call for their immediate release.” [Statement] (more…)
By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff
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…)
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