DMFI President Brian Romick: ‘Our hope is that this pause will be temporary and that, through a candid conversation about the path forward, we can resume our endorsement’
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Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) speaks during a Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing in the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC
Add JewishInsider on GoogleDMFI PAC, Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm, is pausing its endorsements of nine Democratic House members who voted this month to end all U.S. aid to Israel, underscoring the depth of its frustration even as the group also seeks to preserve relationships with lawmakers it had championed.
In a new letter that the group intends to circulate among the lawmakers, Brian Romick, the president of DMFI PAC, expressed his disappointment with their votes in favor of the amendment introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), which did not pass, and said their endorsements would be temporarily suspended with a goal of engaging in a constructive dialogue on the issue.
“Because of that vote, we are pausing our endorsement and taking your name off the list of supported lawmakers on the DMFI PAC website,” Romick said in the letter, the full text of which was shared exclusively with Jewish Insider on Sunday. “At the same time,” he added, “our hope is that this pause will be temporary and that, through a candid conversation about the path forward, we can resume our endorsement.”
The Democrats include Reps. Laura Friedman (D-CA), Josh Harder (D-CA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Glenn Ivey (D-MD), Kevin Mullin (D-CA), Richard Neal (D-MA), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) and Pat Ryan (D-NY).
DMFI PAC has previously backed other pro-Israel Democrats who also voted against funding to Israel, notably including Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA). But the nine members now receiving letters were the only incumbents it had endorsed this cycle who approved the amendment, according to a spokesperson.
DMFI PAC’s diplomatic approach highlights the politically sensitive terrain that pro-Israel groups find themselves navigating after the controversial vote. The amendment drew backing from a total of 103 House Democrats, nearly half the caucus, many of whom were seen as supporters of Israel and said they approved the measure to register opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the Iran war.
The group’s decision comes after AIPAC retaliated against 18 of its Democratic endorsees who voted for the amendment by removing fundraising links from its online political portal or cutting language that had thanked some members for their support of Israel.
In an interview with JI on Sunday, Romick said the group’s intention with the letter is “to give people a path back to the pro-Israel movement” rather than permanently ending its longstanding relationships over a measure that it had strongly urged Democrats to vote against.
“Obviously it was a rough vote and it’s been a rough moment,” Romick acknowledged. “But the pro-Israel movement right now needs to be making friends, and I think being able to say ‘I support Israel’s security, I support Palestinians’ national aspirations over the long term, even if it’s not something today’ — I think that’s a reasonable position” and “we want to try to help Democrats land there and continue to support Israel’s security.”
He believes “members are looking for a path back to being in the pro-Israel movement,” he said, citing his recent conversations with House lawmakers. “I don’t think we should be pushing away friends right now.”
It remains to be seen whether all of the former DMFI PAC endorsees will be receptive to preserving “strong relationships and open channels of communication,” as described in the letter from Romick.
A spokesperson for Ryan, for example, said after the vote that he no longer wanted DMFI PAC’s support. The moderate New York lawmaker also promised to return his campaign donations from AIPAC, whose backing he likewise rejected in a social media post.
An AIPAC spokesperson told JI last week that its “members nationwide saw Rep. Ryan reject their participation in the political process,” and said the group is now “helping his donors receive a refund.”
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a pro-Israel stalwart who voted against the amendment, told JI he was encouraged by DMFI’s outreach to the lawmakers whose endorsements have been paused. “I think it’s the right decision,” he told JI.
“I know that if we’re going to improve the prospects for positive outcomes in the Middle East,” he added, “we need to find common ground with people across a lot of different ideas and ideologies, bring people together and move forward in a single direction, and that’s what I hope we can do.”
Plus, Auchincloss on axing Israel aid
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President Donald Trump speaks during bilateral meeting at the Bestepe Presidential Compound, following his arrival to attend the annual NATO Summit on July 7, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Rep. Jake Auchincloss about his vote in support of cutting U.S. aid to Israel, and report on yesterday’s attack in Manhattan in which a Jewish man was stabbed by an individual reportedly yelling “Allahu Akbar.” We cover President Donald Trump’s 11th-hour decision to link the just-signed civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia to Riyadh’s joining of the Abraham Accords, and report on the Trump administration’s withdrawal of its subpoena requesting information on Jewish staff at the University of Pennsylvania. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alma Hernandez, Daryl Messinger, Tevi Troy and Dara Horn.
We have also launched a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.
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.
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: Ed Miliband’s appointment as U.K. foreign secretary indicates tougher British policy toward Israel to come; Washington state’s Jewish Democrats fight for a place in a party they no longer recognize; and Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Jewish liaison says his old boss is promoting antisemitism. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- We’ll be keeping a close eye over the weekend on the situation in the Middle East amid continued U.S. strikes on Iran and Iranian attacks across the region. President Donald Trump said last night that the U.S. would use frozen Iranian assets to pay for the damage caused to vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz that have come under attack by Iranian forces.
- The 125 members of the International Criminal Court are expected to vote today by secret ballot on whether to remove the body’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, over sexual misconduct allegations made against him by a former ICC subordinate. To oust Khan, 63 members — an absolute majority — will have to vote in favor. Khan had taken a leave of absence in May 2025 and was formally suspended by the court last month.
- The rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner — postponed after the annual April event was interrupted by a gunman at the Washington Hilton — will be held tonight at the Waldorf Astoria (formerly the Trump International Hotel). Trump is expected to attend.
- In Maine tomorrow, Democratic delegates will gather in Bangor to formally select a candidate to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in November. Former state Sen. Troy Jackson is expected to handily win the nomination, which comes after former Senate candidate Graham Platner dropped his bid earlier this month.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH AND JOSH KRAUSHAAR
President Donald Trump’s capture of the Republican Party did not happen at once, and was memorably met with resistance from some lawmakers who would later become his allies.
Many Republicans, during the rise of Trump, cast mostly party-line votes alongside the president and rarely spoke out publicly when they disagreed. But there were notable times when prominent party leaders used their political capital to stand up for their principles on key issues, such as then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) outspoken advocacy for Ukraine funding or Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) decisive vote against repealing Obamacare.
There may be a similar political calculus at play for some typically pro-Israel Democrats, who are facing immense political pressure from loud activists in their party base to turn against the Jewish state. Nearly half of the House Democratic caucus voted to cut off aid to Israel last week, a record number that included 18 lawmakers who had previously been endorsed by AIPAC and were seen as strong allies of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
AIPAC cut off fundraising to their reelection campaigns after the vote, and how these lawmakers will position themselves on Israel policy going forward is now uncertain.
Not all of the Democrats who supported the amendment have adopted an anti-Israel worldview. Some said that they still support Israel, but wanted to make a statement, via a bill that was certain to fail, that they disagree with many recent actions of the Israeli government.
It’s also possible that some of them — especially those in districts where they face a credible primary threat from the left — took the vote to attempt to placate anti-Israel activists without making any real change in policy, like the Republicans who would offer an olive branch to their right-wing base by voting contrary to their longstanding beliefs.
DEM DEBATE
Auchincloss: Voting against aid to Israel was a vote against the Iran war
Of the 103 House Democrats who voted to cut off the $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel last week, few came as more of a surprise than Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), a Jewish Democrat who has generally been a reliable pro-Israel vote in the House. Auchincloss, in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod this week, said that he approached the vote as a protest of the war with Iran, and argued that the vote wasn’t anti-Israel.
War worries: “This president, in conjunction with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, has launched an illegal, catastrophic war that nine out of 10 Israelis think has led to Iranian gains, and that even fewer of my constituents support,” Auchincloss said. “And foreign military financing is a form of appropriations for a war I believe to be illegal and unwise.”
NEW YORK ATTACK
Jewish man stabbed in Manhattan by assailant allegedly yelling ‘Allahu Akbar’
A Jewish man was stabbed on Thursday afternoon on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, along with one other victim, in what was potentially a hate crime, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman and Haley Cohen report. Jewish groups had warned a day earlier that a video released by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday night railing against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he accused Israel of a litany of war crimes, put Jewish New Yorkers at risk.
Details: The NYPD press office told JI that police responded at 1:31 p.m. to a 911 call near West 84th Street and Central Park West and found a 57-year-old man conscious and alert with a stab wound to the back before attacking a second victim, who was not believed to be Jewish, two blocks away. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch wrote on X, “Detectives are continuing to work the case and determine motive, but according to victim and witness statements, [the suspect] yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ during both attacks.”
Bonus: The New York Times reports that Mamdani had already consulted with attorneys over Netanyahu’s potential arrest — who determined that Mamdani lacked the authority to order the Israeli leader’s arrest — prior to the mayor’s public comments that he was in “active conversation” over the legality of such a move.
U-TURN
Trump administration withdraws UPenn subpoena requesting information on Jewish
The Trump administration withdrew its controversial subpoena requesting that the University of Pennsylvania provide lists of Jewish university affiliates and their personal contact information, according to a Thursday court filing, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
University statement: “With the support of many members of the community who have stood with Penn throughout, the University has been able to protect its employees’ rights and none of the subpoenaed personal contact information was disclosed,” a university spokesperson told JI. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had requested, as part of its investigation into antisemitism at Penn, lists of Jewish-related organizations on campus, their membership rosters and contact information for the employees involved, among other information.
TUCSON TUSSLE
Pro-Israel stalwart Alma Hernandez wins Arizona state Senate race despite antisemitic attacks
Alma Hernandez, a Jewish Democratic legislator in Arizona who is known as an outspoken supporter of Israel, claimed victory on Wednesday in a bitterly contested primary for an open state Senate seat in Tucson, hailing the win as a repudiation of the far left, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. With all votes counted in Arizona’s 20th Legislative District, Hernandez pulled in 54% of the vote share, defeating Perez by 8 points, according to unofficial results on the secretary of state’s website.
Victory message: “The voters in my district rejected antisemitism and rejected the DSA’s agenda, and clearly rejected what the mayor, the congresswoman and the county attorney wanted,” Hernandez, a term-limited House member, said in a statement to JI, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America. “We proved that elections are won by knocking on doors and talking to voters, not by social media or online outrage and your friends’ endorsements.”
Endorsement diaries: Connie Chan, a progressive member of the San Francisco board of supervisors running to succeed retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), claimed an endorsement on Tuesday from Track AIPAC, a virulently anti-Israel group that has faced accusations of spreading antisemitism.
COOPERATION CLAIMS
Boebert claims Hegseth, White House want U.S.-Israel cooperation provision stripped from NDAA
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) claimed this week that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the White House want to see a provision on U.S.-Israel defense technology cooperation stripped out of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. Neither the Pentagon nor the White House responded to requests for comment from Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on whether such claims were accurate.
What she said: “Today, I was in a critical national security meeting with Secretary Hegseth where I helped secure his commitment that Section 219 would be stripped from the NDAA in conference. Protecting America’s intellectual property for future generations is non-negotiable,” Boebert said on X on Wednesday.
Trade tensions: Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, insisted at a Wednesday hearing that Israel could not be excluded from the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor, and called out U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack for apparent efforts to advance an alternative trade corridor through Syria.
11th-hour addition
Trump adds new Abraham Accords provision to Saudi nuclear deal
The new civilian nuclear cooperation agreement already signed between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is now contingent on Riyadh joining the Abraham Accords, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday morning. The president’s Truth Social post — in which he said the deal is “totally subject” to Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel, a provision not previously disclosed by the administration — was quickly affirmed by the White House, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
Confirmed condition: “Yes, this deal with Saudi Arabia, the energy deal, is contingent on this condition as far as the president is concerned,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing on Thursday. “So we’ll continue to talk with our Saudi counterparts to get the deal finalized, and hopefully see them joining the Abraham Accords very soon.”
View from the Hill: Congressional Democrats are lining up in opposition to the Trump administration’s reported nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that could allow Riyadh to enrich uranium for civilian purposes, while Republicans are mostly supportive of the effort, JI’s Marc Rod and Christina Sher report.
Worthy Reads
Language Lesson: In The Wall Street Journal, Adam Louis Klein examines the parallels between those who accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza and the language employed by the Hutus as they conducted a genocide in Rwanda. “As in Rwanda, anticolonialism and genocide inversion have converged. Israel is imagined not only as a state accused of genocide, but as a people whose identity as foreign settlers makes genocide their destiny. … Whether directed against the Tutsis in Rwanda or against Israelis — now cast as genocidal colonizers by a cohort of anti-Zionist academics and nonprofit advocacy groups — portraying a people as foreign usurpers and inherent perpetrators isn’t neutral. It is a well-recognized prelude to violence.” [WSJ]
VP’s Vitriol: The Wall Street Journal‘s Kimberley Strassel reflects on the criticism she faced from both Vice President JD Vance’s office and his supporters following a column she wrote citing legislators in Washington discussing Vance’s absence from Capitol Hill. “One answer is simply that Mr. Vance is a sensitive bunny. If he wants to be president, he’ll need to get over that. But the other answer is that Mr. Vance knows his ‘national conservative’ ambitions for the GOP aren’t landing. Republicans are increasingly up in arms over a Vance agenda that sounds like Bernie Sanders. Hence his Vance team’s need to invalidate anyone who disagrees as a ‘RINO’ or a ‘tool’ of special interests or an ‘elite’ — the better to allow them to define what counts as a ‘real’ Republican.” [WSJ]
Going Nuclear: In his Substack, “It’s Noon in Israel,” Israeli journalist Amit Segal considers President Donald Trump’s decision to agree to a deal that would allow Saudi Arabia to have a civilian nuclear program. “Trump is a compartmental thinker. It has served Israel before — the Abraham Accords worked precisely because he declined to treat the Palestinian question as the gate through which everything else must pass. It has also cost Israel. In May 2025, he asked Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to normalize relations with Jerusalem in exchange for sanctions relief, then lifted the sanctions anyway, squandering the leverage and ending the Israeli-Syrian talks that were ongoing.” [ItsNooninIsrael]
A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.
Word on the Street
The Treasury Department announced sanctions on a U.K.-based Muslim Brotherhood official as well as several organizations based in Gaza, Indonesia and Turkey that provided financial support for Hamas…
The Defense Department lowered the number of U.S. service member fatalities during the war with Iran from 18 to 14, with officials telling The New York Times that the four soldiers killed last week were removed from the list because those troops were killed during the ceasefire with Tehran…
The House passed a second Iran war powers resolution on Thursday following the resumption of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, with a handful of Republicans who have argued that continued operations violate the War Powers Act again siding with Democrats on the measure, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
The State Department summoned Malaysia’s ambassador in Washington over the decision by Kuala Lumpur to deport a dual Israeli American citizen traveling to the Southeast Asian nation for a digital nomad program; the meeting came after a group of House Democrats called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to push back on Malaysia’s efforts to deport Israelis…
U.S. representatives to the United Nations slammed Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories who has faced repeated accusations of antisemitism, and said at a hearing on Wednesday that the next U.N. secretary-general will be faced with a choice of whether to turn the page on the institution’s antisemitic and anti-Israel bias, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), Andy Barr (R-KY), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Young Kim (R-CA), Maria Salazar (R-FL), Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Randy Fine (R-FL) reintroduced a bill to permanently prevent any U.S. contributions to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency…
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and 14 other Senate Democrats introduced a resolution demanding that the Senate’s legal counsel bring a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the gift of a Qatari 747 jet to serve as Air Force One constitutes an illegal foreign emolument banned by the constitution…
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) named presidential historian Tevi Troy and author Dara Horn to a commission established to study the possible transfer of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History to the Smithsonian Institution…
In The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, warns of the damage that the rise of Democratic Socialists of America-affiliated candidates are doing to Democratic efforts to flip the House and Senate in November…
The Republican Jewish Coalition announced its endorsement of Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) in the state’s upcoming special election to replace her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who died earlier this month, on the November ballot…
Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) said she will back far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in the state’s Democratic primary…
U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner — who is currently residing in Paris — told the New York Post that he doesn’t want to “live in a city with a blatantly antisemitic mayor and his antisemitic wife” — in a reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and First Lady Rama Duwaji — and planned to relocate his primary residence from New York City to Florida, while maintaining his Manhattan apartment…
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League reached a settlement with Reed College, in which the school agreed to adopt a range of measures, including an updated discrimination policy detailing how anti-Zionist conduct can constitute unlawful discrimination…
Hillel International is withdrawing an amicus brief it filed in support of Harvard University in the school’s legal fight against the Trump administration; a spokesperson for the group said the brief, which praised Harvard’s efforts to combat antisemitism as the university works to keep roughly $2.7 billion in federal funding that had previously been frozen by the government, was “filed without having gone through our internal review process”…
eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross interviews Daryl Messinger, who last month was tapped as chair of the Israel Policy Forum, about shifting sentiment on Israel and efforts to advance the two-state solution…
The World Climbing Association blocked a motion to suspend Israel from the international climbing body following pushback from the climbing federations in the U.S., Australia, and Cyprus…
A Sydney man who wore a shirt with a swastika outside a hearing in which survivors of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack testified before Australia’s royal commission investigating antisemitism was fined $1,500, with a judge ruling that the man was “frustrated with the horrific events [in the Middle East] as he perceives them”…
A U.K. government spokesperson said the country was “ready 24/7 to defend itself” following threats from Tehran to target British military bases that London is allowing the U.S. to use for defensive attacks against Iran…
Satellite images obtained by The Wall Street Journal indicate that Iran is quickly rebuilding infrastructure damaged by the U.S. and Israel earlier this year…
Zehava Shaul, the mother of slain Israeli Staff Sgt. Oren Shaul, whose body was held by Hamas for more than a decade after he was killed in 2014, died at 71…
Wine of the Week
JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Alavida Malbec 2025:
Except for a small ownership stake in the Stuttgart Kickers, soccer never held much claim on me. Argentina changed that. Israel’s great friend and ally reignited my passion for the game this summer, and I watched nearly every match the team played, cheering as though they wore blue and white, which, come to think of it, they do. The final did not end the way I had hoped. But this year Tisha B’Av ended on a Thursday night, and with Shabbat around the corner, wine returned to my table early. The choice made itself: a great bottle from Argentina, to honor a friendship and to raise a glass to a team that fell just short, yet made a whole nation, and one distant admirer, proud.
The Alavida Malbec 2025 is equal to the moment. The opening is not a sip but a full meal: blueberries and raspberries pour across the palate and refuse to leave. The mid-palate mellows just enough to let you catch your breath. Then the finish arrives, deep, thunderous, and altogether alive. It will keep you up all night, and you will not mind at all. The wine will hold gracefully for several years yet. Pair it with a whole trout grilled over open flame, its skin crackling and bronzed, its flesh sweet and smoky with lemon and char, and let the evening unfold slowly.
Pic of the Day
Israelis gathered on Thursday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tisha B’Av, the day that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples and is marked by fasting and reading from the Book of Lamentations.
Birthdays
Screenwriter, director and producer, best known for creating “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Sex and the City,” Darren Star turns 65 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Former U.S. ambassador to Romania, now senior counsel at Covington and Burling, Alfred H. Moses turns 97… Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who worked for ABC News and CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Lowell Bergman turns 81… Israeli physician, author and playwright, he is the younger brother of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Iddo Netanyahu turns 74… Political consultant known for his role in both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns, Joel Benenson turns 74… Retired Los Angeles-based business and real estate attorney, Michael Jeffrey Bordy… Radio anchor and reporter on both CBS nationally and NYC’s WCBS, Michael Sugerman… Member of Congress (D-FL) until 2022, he previously served as the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist turns 70… Russian businessman, one of the largest real estate investors in Russia, he is a member of the Board of Patrons of The Conference of European Rabbis, Boris Mints turns 68… Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Judge Patty Shwartz turns 65… Presidential historian, professor at McGill and senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, Gil Troy turns 65… Director of donor development for AIPAC, he is a retired NFL player who played for the Packers and the Cowboys where he won in Super Bowl XXVII, Alan “Shlomo” Veingrad turns 63… Founder of the Migdal Oz seminary for women in Gush Etzion, she is a granddaughter of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Esti Rosenberg turns 61… Film director and producer, Douglas Eric Liman turns 61… Partner in Frost Brown Todd and author of The Liberal Case for Israel, he was the first-ever Jewish statewide elected official in Kentucky (state treasurer), Jonathan Miller turns 59… Author, he wrote roughly 600 stories for the “My Ride” column on exotic cars for The Wall Street Journal, A.J. Baime turns 55… Mayor of Asheville, N.C., she was elected in 2013, 2017 and 2022, Esther E. Manheimer turns 55… Actor, writer, podcaster and comedian, Jamie Denbo turns 53… President of Access Computer Technology in West Bloomfield, Mich., he is a rabbi, entrepreneur and social media expert, Jason Miller turns 50… Member of Congress (D-MI) and a founding member of “The Squad,” Rashida Harbi Tlaib turns 50… President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas… EVP and CFO of Morgan Stanley, Sharon Yeshaya turns 47… Actor, screenwriter and director, she is married to Seth Rogen, Lauren Miller Rogen turns 44… Former member of the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, Aviva M. Futerman Schochat… Co-founder and partner at Orfin Ventures, an incubator and deep-tech venture fund, Adam Finkel… Public relations manager at The Avon Company, Sarah Citrenbaum… Actor, best known for her role as Nomi Segal on the Freeform comedy drama “Grown-ish,” Emily Taryn Arlook turns 36… 2020 graduate of Yale Law School, he is the CEO and founder of Learned Hand, building AI tools for judges, Shlomo Klapper…
SATURDAY: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising participant and Holocaust survivor, she is the subject of the 2021 documentary “I am Here,” Ella Blumenthal turns 105… Former publisher and editor-in-chief of Jewish Lights Publishing, he is an economist and religious scholar best known for his interfaith work, Stuart M. Matlins turns 86… Cinematographer, whose work includes “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “The Empire Strikes Back,” Peter Suschitzky turns 85… Member of the New York City Council from 2014 to 2021, Alan N. Maisel turns 80… Born in Casablanca, nightclub owner, entrepreneur and film producer, he produced “The Woman in Red” and “Weekend at Bernie’s,” Victor Drai turns 79… Former IDF brigadier general (he was part of Operation Entebbe in 1976), then a member of Knesset, Efraim “Effi” Eitam turns 74… Voiceover artist, he is also the writer, producer, director and narrator of a documentary about the restoration of a NYC synagogue, Peter Grossman… Chairman of Vibrant Capital Partners and chair emeritus of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, Philip Darivoff… Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist, she is a staff writer at The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum turns 62… Retired MLB pitcher from a small Jewish community in the Dominican Republic, he maintains a kosher home, José Bautista turns 62… Israeli journalist, former news anchor and author of a non-fiction book and a novel, Oshrat Kotler turns 61… Former CEO of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, Rabbi Steven Weil… Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, he is a NYC-based criminal defense attorney in many high-profile cases, especially involving Russian-born defendants, Arkady L. Bukh turns 54… Head coach of the men’s basketball team at Kent State University since 2011, Rob Senderoff turns 53… Radio personality on Baltimore’s WBAL and 98 Rock, Josh Spiegel turns 51… Senior communications lead at the National Association for Healthcare Quality, Erin Seidler… Experimental electronic music producer, composer and singer, known professionally as Oneohtrix Point Never, Daniel Lopatin turns 44… Film and television actor, Michael Welch turns 39… Pitcher for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics and at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he is also a real estate broker at CBRE, Joseph “Joey” Samuel Wagman turns 35…
SUNDAY: Former mayor of Las Vegas for 12 years, where he was succeeded by his wife, Oscar Goodman turns 87… Former administrator at the University of Illinois and the University of Houston, chancellor of the California State University system and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Barry Munitz turns 85… Journalist and author or co-author of nearly two dozen books, both of her parents were killed in Auschwitz, Paulette Cooper turns 84… Author, podcaster, columnist and rabbi, Shammai Engelmayer turns 81… Member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2012 to 2020, Richard Stark turns 74… Chief medical officer at F|42, Alan H. Spiro, MD, MBA… Film and television director, she is best known for her work on the Showtime drama series “Homeland,” Lesli Linka Glatter turns 73… Sports columnist, author, television and radio personality, he works for ESPN’s Charlotte-based SEC Network, Paul Finebaum turns 71… Venture capitalist, until his wife died in 2024 he was a brother-in-law of Sen. Mitch McConnell, James W. Breyer turns 65… Actor, comedian and producer, Jeremy Samuel Piven turns 61… Former correspondent at ABC News for 23 years, now a founder at Ten Percent Media, Daniel B. “Dan” Harris turns 55… Physician and attorney, he is the founder and chairman of the D.C.-based consulting firm Stonington Global, Nicholas Muzin turns 51… Secretary of homeland security, Markwayne Mullin turns 49… Actor best known for her role in the Spider-Man trilogy, Mageina Tovah Begtrup turns 47… Partner of the D.C. office of ColdSpark, Nachama Soloveichik… Senior Reporter at CNN’s Jerusalem bureau, Tal Shalev… Israeli born classical music composer, Gilad Hochman turns 44… Israeli born R&B singer and songwriter, Hila Bronstein turns 43… Communications manager at Cetera Financial Group, Lauren Garfield-Herrin… Actor and filmmaker, Hallie Meyers-Shyer turns 39… Member of the comedy group “The Try Guys,” Zachary Andrew “Zach” Kornfeld turns 36… Associate policy director for complex care at United Healthcare , Drew Gerber… NFL running back who retired in 2024, despite his last name he is not an MOT, Tarik Cohen turns 31… Pitcher on the Israeli Women’s National Softball Team, now a curriculum designer at Great Hearts Academies, Tamara “T” Statman Schoen turns 29… President at B&B Digital Media, Tomer Barazani…
‘I represent a pro-Israel, anti-Netanyahu district and this is a pro-Israel, anti-Netanyahu vote,’ Rep. Jake Auchincloss told JI
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) participates in the House Transportation Committee hearing on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Of the 103 House Democrats who voted to cut off the $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel last week, few came as more of a surprise than Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), a Jewish Democrat who has generally been a reliable pro-Israel vote in the House.
Auchincloss, in an interview with Jewish Insider this week, said that he approached the vote as a protest of the war with Iran, and argued that the vote wasn’t anti-Israel.
“This president, in conjunction with Prime Minister Netanyahu, has launched an illegal, catastrophic war that nine out of 10 Israelis think has led to Iranian gains, and that even fewer of my constituents support,” Auchincloss said. “And foreign military financing is a form of appropriations for a war I believe to be illegal and unwise.”
He also pointed to comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for the U.S. to phase out aid to Israel over the next 10 years, arguing that Democrats can’t be expected to take a position on aid “to the right of Netanyahu” — though the Israeli prime minister hasn’t called for an immediate halt to aid.
“That grant of foreign military financing is a privilege that Congress grants annually to both our head of government and to counterparty heads of government,” Auchincloss said. “Every year, Congress has the right — Congress has the responsibility — to determine whether that privilege is warranted. Given Trump and Netanyahu’s decision-making about this debacle with Iran, I do not think it is warranted.”
He said he would evaluate his position on future FMF to Israel on a year-by-year basis depending on whether he believes such aid is deserved. “That’s not only my right as a member of Congress, that’s my responsibility — particularly when 18 Americans have died overseas.”
But he said that he continues to support the U.S-Israel relationship and said the U.S. should continue to work to preserve Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME), and suggested he would not, at this point, support a cutoff of support for Israeli missile-defense systems or an embargo on Israel buying U.S. systems with its own funds.
He said he also believes in continued U.S. support for the Abraham Accords and other efforts to bring Israel and the region closer together, including through the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC).
Some observers have seen Auchincloss’ vote as a concession to left-wing Democrats in his suburban Massachusetts district, in light of the party’s shifting stance on Israel and primary challenges to other pro-Israel Democrats. The district includes a substantial Jewish population.
Auchincloss himself won his first primary in 2020 with 22% of the vote, scoring a narrow victory over a divided field that included several candidates to his left. Some on the left still see him as vulnerable to a one-on-one challenge in a future race — or as a potential candidate for higher office in deep-blue Massachusetts.
“I represent a pro-Israel, anti-Netanyahu district and this is a pro-Israel, anti-Netanyahu vote,” Auchincloss asserted, arguing that he’s “confident … a majority of my Jewish constituents would agree with me.”
“I hear why people see this vote through the lens of primaries and the national Democratic scene,” Auchincloss said. “I represent about 100,000 Jewish constituents. They are super smart and engaged on this issue. If I try to take political votes or symbolic votes or too-clever-by-half 4D-chess votes, it doesn’t hang together. I have to be able to defend the internal logic of each and every vote to this community, and I am confident that I can say to this community on this vote: This is a rejection of Trump and Netanyahu’s decision-making to take away the credit card.”
Asked whether the U.S.-Israel relationship can be sustained and repaired while Netanyahu continues to lead Israel — as some prominent U.S. figures have suggested that Netanyahu being ousted in the upcoming Israeli elections is necessary to continued bilateral relations — Auchincloss said that the relationship should be bigger than any one leader.
“The U.S.-Israel alliance is deeper than personalities,” he said. “Certainly, you know, Congress and our decisions about appropriations and policy need to be calibrated to the individuals who are going to be executing that policy, right? But the U.S.-Israel alliance is based on shared interests, on common values, and a long history.”
He suggested he was unconcerned by AIPAC’s decision to halt fundraising for him following the vote, explaining that his votes aren’t shaped by endorsements or contributions and that he’s taken votes both supported and opposed by AIPAC over the course of his career.
Though he diverged from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on the Israel aid vote, Auchincloss praised the Democratic leader’s approach to the issue and called it a model for how the party as a whole should approach Israel policy going forward.
“Hakeem is pointing the way with a steady hand, which is to say, ‘We’re a party that supports qualitative military edge for Israel, which is surrounded by terrorists and the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, and has a right to defend itself against those terrorists and needs QME to be able to do that, but we’re not a party that yields congressional oversight to Trump and Netanyahu as Republicans have,”’ Auchincloss said.
Asked about the possibility of conditions on further U.S. aid to Israel, Auchincloss said that the next U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding should be crafted around supporting Israel’s QME, expanding and supporting normalization and, critically, provisions that can garner support from both chambers of Congress and both parties.
Even as he sided with progressives in the party on the Israel aid vote, Auchincloss has also found himself vocally at odds with the left over his criticisms of former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
Auchincloss long opposed Platner and faced strong backlash from the party in late May for saying that Platner’s tattoo and comments about it were “disqualifying” and saying he would support another candidate in the primary if he were a Maine voter.
“Character should matter in politics,” Auchincloss told JI. “Ten years ago, Republicans decided that it doesn’t. They’ve become a cult of personality, and Platner demonstrates to Democrats the hazards of agreeing that character doesn’t matter.”
“And I think it’s a problem for the Democratic Party to wrestle with [the fact] that it would have been more politically damaging for him to have a Star of David tattoo than to have a Totenkopf tattoo,” Auchincloss continued, an apparent reference to comments from a Platner supporter on the campaign trail earlier this year.
Auchincloss also said he remains concerned about surging antisemitism globally, and continues to be involved in other efforts to combat antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, including as one of a handful of Democrats who signed a letter earlier this week condemning plans by Malaysia to round up and expel Israeli citizens.
He said he’s been in discussions with Jewish community groups about the role of social media in promulgating antisemitism and is working on legislation to combat it, while also arguing that it will require a “multifaceted approach.”
“Antisemitism tends to mushroom in failed societies, and social media has become a failed society as one big online toxic brew. And politics is downstream of media and information and culture,” Auchincloss said.
He said that even as political leadership is necessary to call out and reject antisemitic candidates, leaders also need to look “upstream to media and culture and information,” particularly on antisemitism.
Auchincloss is making his own efforts to steer the direction of the Democratic Party, including as the chair of Majority Democrats, a new campaign group backing moderate and liberal Democratic lawmakers and candidates around the country.
In his view, Auchincloss said that he sees himself and the group as occupying a third corner of the party, separate from the left and the establishment. “There is the opportunity for a faction that will redefine the center of American politics and be disruptive of the establishment without being socialist,” Auchincloss said.
He said he believes his faction and the party as a whole should be focused on “the new American dream” — a robust primary and secondary education, the ability to own a home by age 30 and retire by 65 — as “partners to help you achieve that economic security.” Auchincloss said the party should also be aggressive about confronting corruption across the political spectrum and should not yield “faith, family and the flag” to conservatives.
“I don’t think Americans are going to vote for Democrats to lead this country if they don’t think Democrats like this country,” Auchincloss said. “And so we have to be the party of patriotism — not of blood and soil nationalism, but of true constitutional patriotism. And then, finally, we need a cross-ideological governing platform that is willing, even self-consciously celebratory, of dragging and dropping good ideas from across factions of American life.”
He also said that Democrats should be strongly supportive of public safety, including cracking down on petty crime, and support a national wealth tax.
Auchincloss pointed to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), increasingly seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, as someone who he believes is a strong leader for the party, particularly on anticorruption issues.
He said that he sees an anti-establishment mood across the party — which he said will look different in deep-blue and purple seats, while emphasizing that Democratic Socialists of America members have won “about 1%” of Democratic Party primaries.” He said he believes that the extremism problem is much more severe on the GOP side, asserting that 2020 election deniers have won more than half of GOP primaries to date.
“American politics is horseshoeing, but it’s not horseshoeing symmetrically,” Auchincloss alleged.
Asked whether he’s comfortable being in the same political coalition as those DSA members, Auchincloss said that he’s “not a bouncer” and doesn’t have the capability to police who’s winning Democratic primaries.
“What I’m concerned about is less about being a bouncer at the door and more about do we have music at this party that people want to come and dance to? Like, are we filling the room? Because enrollments for Democratic Party are going down,” Auchincloss said.
He said that, as with Platner, character matters, but that Democrats also shouldn’t be fixated on a “checklist at the door” for who can and can’t be part of the party, and should instead concentrate on a “governing vision” that will attract voters.
Plus, Lindsey's legislative legacy
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) speaks during a Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing in the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover Rep. Adam Smith’s comments that he was pressured to vote to end U.S. aid to Israel by violent, far-left activists, and report on Rep. Pat Ryan’s offer to return donations from individuals who oppose his vote against Israel aid. We do a deep dive into how anti-Israel candidates raised and spent money ahead of their primaries, and look at how Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden death has left the South Carolina Republican’s legislative priorities in limbo. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ted Deutch, Hakeem Jeffries and Marco Rubio.
We have also launched a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.
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.
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: Tributes pour in after death of Lindsey Graham, Israel’s staunch defender in the Senate; Vance alleges Israeli influence campaigns ‘manipulating’ American opinion on Iran war; In Georgia’s Senate race, tough choices ahead for the state’s Jewish community. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- The Aspen Security Forum concludes this afternoon. This morning, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) will join former NSA Director Timothy Haugh for a panel on American leadership in an era of advancing technologies.
- The Knesset voted this morning to dissolve itself, sending the body into recess until after the Oct. 27 election.
- We’ll be watching the situation in the Middle East as the U.S. continues to expand its campaign against Iran. Tehran for the first time on Friday acknowledged that the U.S. had struck the Islamic Republic’s energy infrastructure, with the country’s energy ministry calling for residents of the southern provinces to conserve electricity as the area is “currently experiencing extreme heat and attacks on power infrastructure.”
- Meanwhile, Chevron is expected to sign deals today that would see the company invest in two Iraqi oil fields and join a broader consortium looking to build a pipeline to connect Iraq to the Syrian coast as it looks for alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
The second-quarter congressional fundraising reports, which were posted on Wednesday, paint a picture of far-left, anti-Israel candidates drawing financial fuel from a growing small-dollar donor network of like-minded individuals.
Nearly all of the Democratic Socialists of America-aligned or virulently anti-Israel candidates were among the Democrats’ leading fundraisers, including lawmakers (like Reps. Rashida Tlaib [D-MI] and Ilhan Omar [D-MN]) who are not facing particularly competitive races.
The highlights: Abdul El-Sayed raised $4.6 million between April and June in the Michigan Senate primary, more than double the $2.1 million that Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) brought in. Disgraced former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner took in a whopping $9.1 million before dropping out amid allegations of rape, outpacing Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) $5.7 million haul.
On the House side, the DSA duo who won New York City congressional nominations last month — doctoral student Darializa Avila Chevalier and state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez — nearly hit the million-dollar mark in fundraising.
Avila Chevalier raised $952,000 in the run-up to her primary against Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), coming close to matching the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairman’s fundraising. Meanwhile, Valdez brought in $942,000 for the quarter, significantly more than the party-backed progressive favorite Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president.
The list goes on: Adam Hamawy’s past ties to Islamist radicals didn’t prevent him from winning the nomination in New Jersey’s 12th District, and certainly didn’t stunt his fundraising. Hamawy raised $987,000 in the second quarter, a staggering sum for a low-profile open-seat race. That’s well more than double the total of his nearest fundraising rival.
Melat Kiros, the 29-year-old DSA-backed insurgent who ousted Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), also outraised the longtime lawmaker in the homestretch of the campaign. Kiros brought in $712,000 between April and June, while DeGette only raised $694,000.
What does this say about the state of our politics?
PRESSURE COOKER
Smith says he was pressured to vote against Israel aid by violent, far-left activists
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, indicated he voted to cut off military aid to Israel in part because of sustained personal threats against his family and his staff, part of what he described as a violent and relentless campaign of intimidation by far-left anti-Israel activists, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
U-turn: Smith voted on Wednesday to support an amendment introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to strip $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel from the 2027 State Department appropriations bill — a major reversal by the hawkish Democrat after he previously told JI he planned to oppose the measure. In a statement explaining his vote in favor, the high-ranking defense lawmaker said it was a “very close vote.” He said that despite voting to cut off U.S. aid, he was “deeply concerned” about the tactics used by far left activists to pressure him to support such a measure.
Letter of the law: Several House Republicans sent a letter on Thursday to the Department of Justice calling for an investigation into whether New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his international affairs commissioner, Ana María Archila, violated the Logan Act by scheduling a meeting with the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations.
RETURN POLICY
Pat Ryan says he’ll refund AIPAC donors who ask following vote to end U.S. aid to Israel
Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) said on Thursday that he no longer wants AIPAC’s endorsement and would be “returning the funds” the group’s PAC had sent his campaign, following his vote on Wednesday, along with 102 other Democrats, to cut off all aid to Israel. The Hudson Valley Democrat also said he would refund individual donors who had previously supported his campaign if they made the request, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
No thanks: “I expect groups like AIPAC will not support me in my future elections and frankly, I don’t want their support,” he wrote in a social media post explaining his vote, saying he would no longer back $3.3 billion in annual military aid to Israel. In a separate post, Ryan confirmed he did not want AIPAC’s endorsement and would be “returning the funds” sent to his campaign. A spokesperson for Ryan clarified that he was returning AIPAC’s “PAC funds.” Ryan added, “I am grateful for any individual donor who has supported my campaign. My position is clear and if an individual requests a refund, I will happily provide it.”
Changing course: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said on Thursday that should Democrats regain control of the House in the upcoming midterm elections, the party will adopt a “broadly inclusive” but fundamentally new approach to policy on Israel, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
HEARD AT ASPEN
Turkish national security advisor shrugs off Iranian nuclear program, sidesteps questions on Russian missile system
Akif Çağatay Kılıç, a top foreign policy and security advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, downplayed the threat posed to the region by Iran’s nuclear program, while also repeatedly sidestepping questions about the status of Turkey’s Russian S-400 missile-defense system and efforts to acquire F-35 fighter jets, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports from the Aspen Security Forum.
Nothing to see here: “I don’t perceive that we have a nuclear threat to the level that is being talked about, but we are closely monitoring it, and we’re talking to our Iranian colleagues and friends on how they perceive to be working on their nuclear program — civil nuclear program,” Kılıç said.
Alternative view: Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi repeatedly emphasized on Wednesday that any deal with Iran should be comprehensive and ensure an end to Iran’s support for proxy groups and confront its efforts to destabilize the region.
TED TALK
Ted Deutch criticizes ex-colleagues’ votes on ‘meaningless,’ ‘ridiculous’ Massie amendment
American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch, who served as a Democratic member of Congress from 2010-2022, expressed frustration and disappointment with the decision of half of his former caucus to vote this week for an amendment to cut off U.S. military aid to Israel. The issue, Deutch told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod in an interview Thursday on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum, is too important and too sensitive for what some supporters characterized as a show vote on an amendment, led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), that even many of its supporters saw as deeply flawed.
What he said: Deutch said that he was “glad to see” that many of his colleagues acknowledged that the amendment was “bad policy” and “indirectly acknowledg[ed] that it would damage American interests.” Deutch added, “And yet [they] turned around to vote for it anyway. That was just a really disappointing reflection of the moment.”
Also at Aspen: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) argued on a panel that the war with Iran had irreparably damaged the U.S.’ reputation and capacity in the Middle East, and that Gulf states would now need to take the lead and negotiate with Iran over the region’s future. On a separate panel, Herro Mustafa Garg, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said the rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates hurts U.S. interests in the region and Washington should work to bring the countries and other Gulf Cooperation Council states back together.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Lindsey Graham’s sudden death leaves his legislative priorities in limbo
Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) sudden death last weekend is complicating an already difficult dynamic between Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump, as legislators try to muster enough support in the caucus to pass the president’s key legislative priorities, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
The gap left by Graham: Graham’s committee chairmanships, vast donor network and his close relationship with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio made him a critical leader in Washington whose presence helped move forward multiple bipartisan efforts, especially on foreign policy. He became one of the most geopolitically connected members of Congress, with world leaders and captains of industry on speed dial. “It’s impossible to fill that void, No. 1, so I’ll just take that off the table,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told JI at a press conference on Wednesday at NRSC headquarters on Capitol Hill.
analysis
How socialist candidates cashed in during the left-wing wave
The latest fundraising filing period highlighted the diverse donor bases backing some of the most outspoken critics of Israel and capitalism, with candidates raking in hundreds of thousands from executives and entrepreneurs in tech, medicine and finance. Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman looked into how ascendant anti-Israel candidates raised and spent money just before and after their primaries.
Doctors’ notes: Darializa Avila Chevalier, the radical grad student who defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), reported nearly $350,000 in donations in the last three weeks of June. Among the many medical professionals to cut checks to Avila Chevalier was Dr. Mohammed Hadi, a Long Island-based physician charged in 2015 with conspiring to defraud Medicare and distribute oxycodone. Hadi ultimately pleaded guilty in 2024 to misdemeanor theft of government funds.
Read the full round-up here of how some of the most prominent figures got that windfall — and what they did with it.
Worthy Reads
Take This Sabbath Day: In The Wall Street Journal, David Bashevkin reflects on the benefits of unplugging during Shabbat. “The modern world desperately needs a weekly rhythm of rest. But if unplugging promises greater focus, stronger families and richer communities, why has it proved so difficult? The answer isn’t simply that we’re addicted to our phones. It’s that unplugging isn’t enough. A Sabbath isn’t merely the absence of technology. It is the presence of something richer. … The world doesn’t need more reminders to turn off its phones. We’re already receiving plenty of those. What we need is a culture capable of making that unplugging last. In racing toward the future, we are searching for something the ancient world never stopped handing down.” [WSJ]
Echoes of Weimar: In The Free Press, Rod Dreher, who is working on a book about the parallels between Weimar Germany and the present, looks at Vice President JD Vance’s embrace of antisemitic elements of the GOP and recent comments suggesting an Israeli role in scuttling talks with Iran. “As in Weimar Germany and the early years of Nazi rule, Jews were the canary in the cultural, political, and religious coal mine. They still are. Von Papen conservatism, in which respectable right-wing leaders seek to hold on to power by accommodating themselves to extremists, is a dangerous game, and a losing one. Of course criticism of Israel should not be taboo in American political discourse, but that is not what stab-in-the-back scapegoating of the Jewish state and its supporters for decisions made by the commander in chief amounts to.” [FreePress]
Does He Have Any Trump Cards?: Tablet’s Lee Smith considers President Donald Trump’s options vis-a-vis Iran amid stalled talks with Tehran. “The Trump team spent down prestige by negotiating with a side determined to humiliate it, while it stiff-armed domestic allies on whom it depends for political support. And that support could come in especially handy now as the administration returns to a war that is likely to become increasingly unpopular as long as the president fails to devise a strategy to win it. Perhaps even more consequentially, the vice president, ever keen to highlight how U.S. interests diverge from Israel’s, beat up on a partner it is likely to need if it decides to win the war.” [Tablet]
A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.
Word on the Street
Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted representatives from 67 countries at the State Department on Thursday for a conference focused on far-left political terrorism…
Axios reports that President Donald Trump was angered by comments Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made to Fox News ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara earlier this month, in which the Israeli leader criticized the U.S.’ potential sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey; the flare-up came amid a weekslong push by Netanyahu for a White House meeting with the president, which has yet to materialize…
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that while he has “no plans” to leave the Democratic Party, he would do so “if our party ever becomes — and just makes it official — the anti-Israel party,” adding that the issue would be one of “moral clarity”…
CNN reports that the son-in-law of Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who faces Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in November, is a social media influencer who has used his platform to promote antisemitic conspiracy theories, Nazi imagery and the white nationalist group Patriot Front on social media; David Alan Scheer II, who is married to Collins’ daughter Summer, also shared an antisemitic infographic that he attributed to his wife…
Shanghai-based financier Neville Roy Singham is facing a federal criminal investigation into whether he illegally funnelled funds through the far-left nonprofit groups he supports; the probe comes nearly a year after GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill called for the Trump administration to investigate Singham’s bankrolling of “extremist organizations fueling division and civil unrest”…
The interim vice chancellor of Australian National University apologized to Jewish students and faculty for the school’s environment during the 2024 anti-Israel encampment on the campus, referring to a risk assessment commissioned by the school that in July 2024 found that Jewish members of the ANU community had faced a “high risk of psychosocial harm” associated with the demonstrations…
Hilton will terminate two of its contracts in Frankfurt, Germany, after the Treasury Department sanctioned the owner of the properties, calling him a “key financier” for Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei…
The Jewish News spotlights “Nabatele,” an inflatable synagogue hovering above the Venice Lagoon that its creator, Jewish Ukrainian artist and architect Anna Kamyshan, said is modeled on the wooden shtetl synagogues of Europe but is airborne to evoke the centuries when Jews had no nation of their own in which to build…
Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s office said that Colombia plans to open an embassy in Jerusalem, following the victory of President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, a right-wing lawyer who beat left-wing Sen. Iván Cepeda in last month’s election…
The Marcus Foundation is making a three-year, $27 million investment in Hillel International in a bid to bolster professional and student leaders on college campuses, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…
Wine of the Week
JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the 2023 Terra Gratia Red:
After three days sampling single-malt casks with Tod Bradbury, head of rare and collectible whiskies at Diageo, the London-based beverage distributor, I was certain my palate would refuse to fall in love with any wine worth writing about this week. Boy, was I wrong. I brought a small group up to Marciano Estate in St. Helena, Calif., where the vineyards sit among the oaks in the quiet northern stretch of Napa Valley. We tasted through a spectacular flight of big reds, and weary as it was, my tongue found its favorite: the 2023 Terra Gratia.
The wine is predominantly cabernet sauvignon, but the 10% cabernet franc is what makes it sing. It opens with soft, supple tannins and moves quickly into a lively dance of pear and plum, closing with one of my favorite finishes: strawberry sorbet. The name means “land of gratitude,” and it fits. Pair it with melt-away miso black cod, its sweet-savory glaze a lovely echo of the wine’s fruit. It drinks beautifully now and will age gracefully for 20 years.
Pic of the Day
U.S., Israeli and Central and Eastern Europe leadership attended their second annual regional strategic dialogue this week, which wrapped up on Wednesday in Belgrade, Serbia. The event, hosted by the Serbian-American Friendship Congress and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, featured speakers including AIPAC President Emeritus Lee Rosenberg, Serbian Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabić, Start-up Nation co-author Saul Singer and Startup Nation Central founder Wendy Singer.
Birthdays
Hotelier and real estate developer, the creator of the boutique hotel concept, he was the co-founder of NYC’s Studio 54 in 1977, Ian Schrager turns 80 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Chef and two-time James Beard Foundation Award winner, now a consultant to the restaurant and food industries, Joyce Goldstein turns 91… Retired executive director of the North American Association of Synagogue Executives, Harry Hauser turns 83… Professor emeritus at Tel Aviv U, he served as a member of Knesset, minister of foreign affairs and ambassador to Spain, Shlomo Ben-Ami turns 83… Emmy Award-winning play-by-play announcer on radio for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Charley Steiner turns 77… Co-editor of the classic The Big Book of Jewish Humor, Rabbi Moshe Waldoks turns 77… Civil rights and criminal defense attorney, he is the co-founder with Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project, Peter J. Neufeld turns 76… Former chairman of the Board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, he is now a lecturer at UConn law school, Robert K. Yass… Rabbi emeritus at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pa., Lance Jonathan Sussman, Ph.D. turns 72… Managing GP and co-founder of Pitango Venture Capital, he serves as chairman of The Peres Center for Peace & Innovation, Nechemia “Chemi” J. Peres turns 68… CEO of Samson Energy Company, co-founder of Granite Properties and chair of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Stacy Helen Schusterman… Business development team lead at Quorum, Steven Lebowitz… Television and film director, Joshua Seftel turns 58… Actor best known for playing Sharona in the television series “Monk,” Elizabeth Natalie “Bitty” Schram turns 58… Rabbi of the Young Israel of Woodmere (Nassau County, N.Y.), Rabbi Shalom Axelrod turns 57… Founder and CEO of Zeta Global, David A. Steinberg turns 57… Stand-up comedian, he was a finalist on the NBC reality-talent show “Last Comic Standing” in two seasons, Gary Gulman turns 56… Treasurer of Australia until 2022, now chairman of the Australian arm of Goldman Sachs, Joshua Anthony “Josh” Frydenberg turns 55… Blogger, journalist and science fiction author, Cory Efram Doctorow turns 55… Chief impact officer at the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, Naomi Knopf… President and CEO of Mashber Strategies, developing campaigns to fight antisemitism and respond to different types of hate, Matthew E. Berger… Public television host, Shannan Butler Adler… Former member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Boaz Toporovsky turns 46… Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian, podcaster and writer, Brett Goldstein turns 46… News director at Jewish Currents, previously at Barron’s and the Forward, Josh Nathan-Kazis… Senior account manager at Red Banyan, Jared Sorhaindo… Growth strategy and operations lead and executive director at JPMorgan Chase, Melanie Ettleson… Para table tennis player, he won medals at the 2020 (gold) and 2024 (bronze) Summer Paralympics, Ian Seidenfeld turns 25… Daughter of Jared and Ivanka, Arabella Rose Kushner turns 15…
SATURDAY: Israeli nuclear physicist and professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University, Jonas Alster turns 93… Theoretical chemist, 1981 Nobel laureate in chemistry, he has also published plays and poetry, born Roald Safran, Roald Hoffmann turns 89… President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County, Calif., Jan Meisels Allen… Former three-term mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, Stephen Mandel turns 81… Former prime minister of Peru, Yehude Simon Munaro turns 79… Longtime executive director of the MLB Players Association and then the NHL Players Association, Donald Fehr turns 78… Beverly Hills resident, Felisa Bluwal Pivko… Finance, real estate and nursing home executive, Leonard Grunstein turns 74… Antisemitism scholar and one of the authors of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, he is the COO of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, Mark Weitzman… Former Israeli Police spokesman, he is now a senior national radio broadcaster in Israel and an international talk-show host, Elihu Ben-Onn turns 72… Seattle-area consultant, Elihu Rubin… Former finance chairman of the RNC, Elliott B. Broidy turns 69… Former minister for congressional affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, he was previously the Israeli ambassador to Belarus, Martin Peled-Flax turns 68… Partner at Clifford Chance, Philip Wagman… CEO and co-founder at Let’s Bench, a publisher of customized keepsake prayer books and benchers, Yitz Woolf… Associate professor of cybersecurity law at the U.S. Naval Academy and formerly an attorney at Covington & Burling, Jeffrey Michael Kosseff turns 48… Deputy director of the White House National Economic Council until 2022, now a professor at NYU law school, David Kamin… Wellness specialist at the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Rabbi Joui Hessel… Co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alexander Ryvchin turns 43… Reporter for “NBC Nightly News” and “Today,” Gadi Schwartz turns 43… Editorial director for culture and lifestyle at 70 Faces Media, Molly Tolsky… Freelance graphic designer, Lauren Friedlander… CEO of Moving Traditions, Shuli Karkowsky… Senior spokesperson at the U.S. Treasury until 2023, now the head of U.S. public affairs at Coinbase, Julia Krieger… Deputy editor for crypto at SoFi, Philip Rosenstein… Foil fencer who competed for the U.S. at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympic Games, she won a team gold medal at the 2024 games, Jacqueline Dubrovich turns 32… Freelance Jewish education consultant for BBYO, Yosef Tarshish… Istanbul resident, Izi Doenyas… Ted Rosenberg…
SUNDAY: Retired Israeli airline pilot, he successfully thwarted an in-flight hijacking by Leila Khaled in 1970, Uri Bar-Lev turns 95… Interactive designer, author and artist, in 1986 he married Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late JFK, Edwin Arthur “Ed” Schlossberg turns 81… Retired professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University, he served in the Dutch Senate and then as the minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands, Uriel “Uri” Rosenthal turns 81… Co-founder of Limmud FSU, she co-founded UJA-Federation of New York’s Women’s Executive Circle, Sandra F. Cahn… Jewish communal activist in Connecticut, Linda Meyer Russ… Sportswriter for The Athletic and author of three books on baseball, Jayson Stark turns 75… Former CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, he owned the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics from 2001 to 2006, Howard Schultz turns 73… Retired judicial assistant at the Montgomery County (Pa.) Court of Common Pleas, Deenie Silow… Rabbi of Congregation Beth Abraham in Bergenfield, N.J., and rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University in NYC, Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger turns 71… Former chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings (owner of retailers Sears and Kmart), Edward Scott “Eddie” Lampert turns 64… Israel’s ambassador to Canada until 2023, Ronen Pinchas Hoffman turns 63… Pulitzer Prize-winning NY Times reporter until 2017 and author of The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men, Eric Lichtblau turns 61… Israeli actor, model and film producer, Yael Abecassis turns 59… Spokesperson to the Arab media in the Israel Prime Minister’s Office, Ofir Gendelman turns 55… Member of Congress (D-IL-8), Raja Krishnamoorthi turns 53… Co-chairman and CEO of CheckAlt, an independent provider of treasury and lockbox solutions, Shai Stern… Senior writer and NBA Insider for ESPN, Ramona Leor Shelburne turns 47… Former soccer star at the University of Virginia, now working in the healthcare industry, Chad Prince turns 47… Former deputy mayor of the city of Haifa, now a real estate developer, Shai Abuhatsira turns 46… Ultra-marathon runner, he performs as a mentalist and magician, Oz Pearlman turns 44… Associate partner at McKinsey & Company, Alexis Blair Wolfer… CEO of Clever Bee Academy in Hewlett, N.Y., Ezra David Beren… Israel editor at Jewish Insider, Tamara Zieve turns 41… Director of operations at Tide Realty Capital, Yanky Schorr… White House bureau chief at The Washington Post, Isaac Arnsdorf… Venue coordinator at JW3 London, a UK-based charity engaged in Jewish arts, culture and community, Caroline Mendelsohn Lawrence… First-ever Orthodox Jewish player selected in the MLB Draft, picked No. 77 overall in 2021, now on the minor league injured list, Jacob Steinmetz turns 23… Former EVP and CEO of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, Dr. George Ban… Zach Houghton…
Brad Lander calls for ending all U.S. aid to Israel, flip-flopping on previous support for Iron Dome
Lander joins a small number of progressive House lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in calling to cut off defensive aid
Adam Gray/Getty Images
Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander outside of 26 Federal Plaza on October 21, 2025 in New York City.
Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is challenging Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in a bitterly contested June primary, called for ending all U.S. aid to Israel during an interview published Friday, reversing his prior support for funding to bolster Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system.
Lander, a Jewish Democrat who identifies as a progressive Zionist, told The New York Editorial Board, a Substack of New York City journalists focused on local campaigns, that he “would not vote for any more aid [to Israel] at this moment,” when asked about his position on Iron Dome, saying he believed Israel was not following international law in the wake of its war in Gaza that he has called a genocide.
“I think we need to follow the Leahy Law and condition all of our foreign policy aid on human rights and international law compliance,” Lander said in the April 9 interview, referring to U.S. laws banning security assistance to foreign military units that engage in “gross” human rights violations. “At the moment, Israel is very far from complying with human rights and international law.”
Lander joins a handful of leading progressive lawmakers who have also recently vowed to reject further funding for Iron Dome and other defensive systems used by Israel, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA). New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, one of Lander’s top allies in his race to unseat Goldman, confirmed last week that he holds the same position regarding aid to Israel.
Lander had declined to comment when asked by Jewish Insider this week to share his position on defensive funding to Israel, raising questions about where he would land on an issue that is emerging as a sort of electoral litmus test among the far-left activists he is courting in his campaign to represent a heavily Jewish district covering Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.
Goldman, a pro-Israel Jewish Democrat, affirmed his support for continued Iron Dome funding in a statement to JI earlier this week, saying the system “provides critical protection to millions of civilians and saves hundreds of innocent lives every day.”
Lander had endorsed Iron Dome funding during his unsuccessful mayoral campaign last year, even as he had otherwise backed broad conditions on offensive aid. In February, he came out in support of a House bill seeking to impose sweeping new restrictions on offensive arms sales to Israel.
In a statement to The Forward on Friday, Lander called Iron Dome “critical to ensuring the safety of civilians in Israel” and said that “Israel should have access to purchase it with their own funds.”
But he added that the United States “should not provide taxpayer-funded financial aid for it at this time.”
“I genuinely hope that changes in the future, speedily and in our day, as part of a deal that protects the human rights and safety of all civilians in the region,” he told The Forward.
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