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Good Friday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Rep. Seth Moulton’s plans to return money bundled by AIPAC following his entry into Massachusetts’ Senate race, and cover White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s prediction that the Abraham Accords will “significantly expand” as the Israel-Hamas war winds down. We talk to the granddaughters of Nelson Mandela about their recent trip to Israel and Gaza, and report on Zohran Mamdani’s efforts to distance himself from far-left streamer Hasan Piker. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jacob Helberg, Ari’el Stachel and Rep. Mikie Sherrill.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Tamara Zieve with assists from Marc Rod and Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.

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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: With new higher ed compact, Trump’s antisemitism crusade broadens to fight academic bias; Orthodox Union’s Rabbi Moshe Hauer remembered as ‘master teacher’ and ‘voice of Torah’; and Israel’s conflict in Gaza may be winding down, but for reservist families, the battle continues. Print the latest edition here.

With all of the living hostages released from Gaza and an end (at least for the time being) of Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory, the coming months could offer the mainstream Jewish community something of a breather to assess the changed political landscape. 

In the war’s final months, the anti-Israel far left gained a foothold in Democratic Party politics, most prominently in the New York City mayoral race with Zohran Mamdani, but also in urban contests ranging from Seattle to Somerville, Mass. The antisemitic forces on the far right have been less of a political force, but have gained strength on podcasts and among younger right-wingers, and have been embraced to a greater extent by a few populist lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). 

With the return of the living hostages, Israel’s success in degrading Hamas and additional enemies, and the apparent end of the Gaza war, Jewish optimists can plausibly argue that some degree of normalcy could creep back in the political sphere. Israel should become a less salient issue for low-information scrollers, with the war’s end reducing the constant anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda being fed on so many screens. 

With a ceasefire finally achieved, the anti-Israel forces have been remarkably silent, and have been exposed for the Hamas-sympathizing extremists that they always have been. That faction of the anti-Israel Democratic left is as politically exposed as it’s been since the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023.

There’s also the possibility that, with Israeli elections being held next year, a new Israeli prime minister would get elected, bringing with him or her a new Israeli government that may not be as polarizing to liberal critics of Israel back in the U.S. 

Jewish pessimists also have a plausible case to make. Support for Israel has declined in the past year, with the most significant slippage coming from Democratic Party voters and some independents. It’s hard to imagine it will rebound anytime soon. The youngest Gen Z voters are the most hostile towards Israel and have been even before Oct. 7. It’s reasonable to expect their future growth in the electorate will only grow the pool of anti-Israel voters.  

Furthermore, the rise of anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment isn’t happening in isolation; it’s a symptom of the rise of larger illiberal and extreme forces within both parties. The fact that polls show an upward tick in the toleration of political violence, growing antipathy to capitalism on the left, and growing sympathy for authoritarianism on the right is the broader context of the growing hostility Jews are facing, and it’s not showing any signs of abatement.

In the coming year, it will be important to track whether the political outlook for Jews is getting better or whether the trends we’ve seen worsen in the last couple years are accelerating. 

We’ll be debuting an election scorecard next week, examining the most meaningful elections in the coming year that will test the influence of the political mainstream against the extremes. Stay tuned: it will be worth bookmarking and tracking as we approach Election Day this November, and in the runup to next year’s congressional primaries.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

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Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who on Wednesday announced a primary challenge to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), announced Thursday that he will return donations he has received from AIPAC and will reject further donations from the group, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Moulton’s changed stance on accepting support from AIPAC is a sign of how even more-moderate Democrats are facing pressure from the party’s activist base to distance themselves from embracing Israel.

What they’re saying: “I support Israel’s right to exist, but I’ve also never been afraid to disagree openly with AIPAC when I believe they’re wrong. In recent years, AIPAC has aligned itself too closely with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s government,” Moulton said in a statement. AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann responded, “Rep. Moulton is abandoning his friends to grab a headline, capitulating to the extremes rather than standing on conviction.”

Read the full story here.

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, expressed disagreement on Thursday with comments by Hasan Piker, a far-left streamer who has said “America deserved 9/11,” after several months in which the state assembly member had declined to condemn such rhetoric, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. “I find the comments that Hasan made on 9/11 to be objectionable and reprehensible,” Mamdani said during the first general election debate on Thursday night, where he traded barbs with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is trailing in the polls as he mounts an independent run following his primary loss to Mamdani in June.

More from Mamdani: Elsewhere during the debate, Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel who was arrested in October 2023 during a ceasefire demonstration outside the Brooklyn home of then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), declined to confirm that he would not participate in protests if he is elected mayor. “The important thing is to lead from City Hall,” Mamdani said. “That’s what I’ll be doing.” Mamdani had faced intense backlash before the debate for comments during a Fox News interview released on Wednesday in which he avoided directly answering a question about whether Hamas should disarm and relinquish its leadership role in Gaza. He clarified at the debate that Hamas, as well as “all parties,” “should lay down” their arms but did not comment on its future role in the conflict.  

Read the full story here.

The Democratic Senate primary in Maine is shaping up to be among the most significant proxy battles over Israel in the upcoming midterm elections, pitting the state’s moderate two-term governor against a left-wing populist upstart who has vocally embraced an anti-Israel platform. Gov. Janet Mills, who announced her campaign to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) on Tuesday and is backed by Senate Democratic leadership, is set to face a well-funded challenge from Graham Platner, a veteran and oyster farmer who boasts high-profile support from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Platner’s positions: In contrast with Mills, who has criticized anti-Israel divestment efforts in her state and warned against a “deeply troubling” rise in antisemitic incidents after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Platner has promoted more hostile views on Israel and its alliance with the United States. Since entering the race in August, Platner has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and endorsed measures to block U.S. arms sales to Israel. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment regarding the recently brokered ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas. Platner has also been an outspoken critic of the pro-Israel advocacy group AIPAC, whose affiliated political arm is supporting Collins, one of the most vulnerable Republicans now seeking reelection — in a state President Donald Trump lost by seven points in 2024.

Read the full story here.

Speaking on a Jewish Democratic Council of America webinar on Thursday, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) outlined a plan of action on antisemitism she said she would implement statewide if she wins next month’s gubernatorial race in the Garden State, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Sherrill and Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli look likely to split the Jewish vote in next month’s election.

Notable quotable: She emphasized her willingness to call out antisemitism among her political allies, pointing to the example of an employee of the New Jersey Educational Association — which endorsed Sherrill — who had made “horrible antisemitic [comments] online.” Sherrill said she had condemned the individual and demanded she be fired. “I'm going to call out anybody in this space that is promoting hate in any way against all of our citizens, but especially our children,” Sherrill said.

Read the full story here.

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff predicted on Thursday that the Abraham Accords will “seriously expand” in response to the end of fighting in Gaza. Witkoff was addressing attendees at an event commemorating the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

What he said: “No leader has done more for the Jewish people or the State of Israel than President Trump,” Witkoff, speaking at an event at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, said. “He moved our embassy to Jerusalem, he recognized Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and the Golan Heights. He forged the Abraham peace Accords, which will seriously expand now,” Witkoff said. The White House envoy, who returned from the region earlier this week after the implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire, posited that Trump winning a second term last November was “the major breakthrough of this conflict.” 

Read the full story here.

“What has emerged from all my conversations is that the yearning for peace is very intense,” former South African President Nelson Mandela, visiting Israel in 1999 as part of a broader Middle East, said as he reflected on his meetings with leaders across the region. More than a quarter century later — despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the degradation of Iran and its proxy network and numerous wars between Israel and its neighbors — that peace remains elusive. It was against that backdrop that two of Mandela’s granddaughters, Zamaswazi (Swati) Dlamini-Mandela and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, traveled to Israel and the Gaza Strip earlier this month. Dlamini-Manaway and Dlamini-Mandela spoke to Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss about their trip.

Mutual motivation: “For us, it’s important to actually go and actually experience the story for yourself,” Dlamini-Mandela said of the trip, which was organized by the National Black Empowerment Council and included meetings with Israeli hostage families and survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, as well as a day on the ground in Gaza where Mandela’s granddaughters assisted the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in its efforts to distribute aid in the enclave. “Coming from a high-profile family like ours, and also living in the media for years, all our lives have been pretty much lived in public, it’s very interesting what type of bias or viewpoints the news can take. So we always felt like, ‘Let’s go and see for ourselves. Let’s experience for ourselves, and let’s actually go on humanitarian missions to try and understand and really get to know what’s going on.’ 

Read the full interview here.

Political Cover: In The New York Times, Dana Stroul, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East in the Biden administration, posits that President Donald Trump’s “key intervention” in the Israel-Hamas war “was to give a political lifeline” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had faced threats from the far-right members of his government over efforts to reach a ceasefire. “Many analysts assumed Mr. Netanyahu, constrained by his far-right coalition, would not accept any end to the war without a complete Hamas surrender. Any compromise in which Hamas could reassert itself could have triggered early elections in Israel, costing Mr. Netanyahu the premiership and exposing him to his ongoing trials for corruption. Mr. Trump flipped the script. Mr. Trump lavished praise on his counterpart, extending him the political protection of Trump’s overwhelming popularity in Israel. In return, Mr. Netanyahu agreed to Trump’s proposal to free the hostages and let Hamas survive, for now.” [NYTimes]

JD’s Deflection: The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait considers what Vice President JD Vance’s response to leaked racist text messages sent by Young Republican leaders portends for the future of the party. “Some Republicans, including those who have directly employed the people in these chats, condemned these messages. But Vice President J. D. Vance had a different, and more telling, response. ‘I refuse to join the pearl clutching,’ he posted on X defiantly. … Given Vance’s evident ambitions to succeed Donald Trump as the Republican standard-bearer, his response is revealing. The vice president apparently grasps that openly defending references to Black people as ‘watermelon eaters’ and quips about sending political rivals ‘to the gas chamber’ would hurt his political standing, but he also clearly needs these Young Republican leaders if he hopes to consolidate the Trump base behind him. Deflection is a calculated response.” [TheAtlantic]

Rabbi Hauer’s Chavruta: In eJewishPhilanthropy, Rabbi Rick Jacobs reflects on his friendship with Rabbi Moshe Hauer, the Orthodox Union leader who died earlier this week. “A few years back, Rabbi Hauer sent me a marked-up copy of a statement I had published. My words were covered with his voluminous comments in red ink. He took issue with pretty much every point I had made. Rather than just thanking him for ‘sharing his thoughts,’ I asked if we could sit and discuss his rather extensive rebuttal. How could I not be impressed by the seriousness with which he debated my views about the latest news from Israel? With his characteristic humility, he took me to task, never once raising his voice or dismissing my deeply held convictions. As consummate students of Torah, our session felt like a chavruta, an intense one-on-one learning session with a wise colleague. I thanked him for his thoughtful critique.” [eJP]

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Former National Security Advisor John Bolton was indicted by a federal grand jury on a combined 18 counts of transmitting or retaining national defense information, stemming from his keeping and sharing of digital diaries — according to the indictment, more than 1,000 pages of entries, some including confidential information — that detailed his work during the first Trump administration…

Jacob Helberg was sworn in as under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment…

Rep. Dave Taylor (R-OH) blamed the appearance of an American flag bearing a swastika in his office on an orchestrated “ruse” to distribute such flags that were “initially indistinguishable from an ordinary American flag to the naked eye.” But Politico reported that a staffer from another office that received such a flag in the mail said that “it was plainly obvious to us that there was a swastika on the flag with the naked eye.” Taylor denied any intentional wrongdoing by any of his staff…

California state Sen. Scott Weiner is reportedly planning to announce a bid for the congressional seat held by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)...

Claudia Milne, who served as head of standards at CBS News since 2021, is departing the media company; Milne is the first senior CBS News executive to leave the network following CBS parent company Skydance’s acquisition of Bari Weiss’ The Free Press and installation of Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News…

Warner Bros. Discovery rejected calls for the media company to boycott Israeli film institutions, saying that such a move would run afoul of its nondiscrimination policy…

Pomona College opened an investigation on Thursday after an on-campus event held Wednesday commemorating the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks was disrupted by four masked and keffiyah-clad individuals who barged in chanting “Zionists not welcome here,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The owners of the Washington-area vegetarian chain Shouk, which served Israeli fare in the capital region for a decade, closed all its locations, citing financial losses resulting from a sustained boycott of the chain; Shouk is co-owned by Dennis Friedman and Israeli entrepreneur Ran Nussbacher…

The New York Times interviews actor Ari’el Stachel about his new one-man, off-Broadway show “Other,” about his conflicting identities as an Arab Jew…

Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria quietly restituted a 17th-century Gerard ter Borch painting to the descendants of Max Emden, a Swiss-German art collector who was forced to sell some of his pieces under financial duress in the lead-up to World War II…

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer ordered a review of antisemitism within the country’s National Health Service, citing “too many examples, clear examples, of antisemitism that have not been dealt with adequately or effectively”; 10 Downing Street is also asking the NHS to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism…

Starmer also condemned the decision by English Premier League team Aston Villa to prohibit attendance by Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters at an upcoming match in Birmingham and called on Aston Villa to reverse the decision, which the team said was due to “a number of physical and safety factors”; Emily Damari, a British-Israeli former hostage and a fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv, called on Aston Villa to “come to your senses and reconsider”...

A court in Oslo convicted a Norwegian man who worked as a guard at the U.S. Embassy of espionage on behalf of Russia and Iran…

The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen confirmed that the terror group’s chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Abdul Karim al-Ghamari, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in August…

The Washington Post spotlights the difficult and traumatic conditions, including beatings, starvation and uncertainty over the fates of their loved ones, that the last group of living Israeli hostages, who remained in Gaza until earlier this week, endured while in captivity…

The Wall Street Journal reports on the challenges in repatriating the bodies of the remaining Israeli hostages, citing both the difficulty in locating all of the bodies as well as Israel’s allegations that Hamas is holding onto some bodies as future leverage…

The New York Times does a deep dive into the whereabouts of former Syrian officials who have fled the country or otherwise evaded officials amid a broader crackdown on Assad-era officials believed to be complicit in the regime’s atrocities…

Michael Ratney, Nimrod Novik, Farah Bdour, Ibrahim Dalalsha, Elisa Ewers, Garrett Nada and Neri Zilber were named as members of a new Israel Policy Forum policy council…

Susan Stamberg, an early employee of NPR who hosted its “All Things Considered” from 1972-1986, died at 87…

Arts journalist Milton Esterow, whose brand of investigative journalism focused on artwork looted by the Nazis, died at 97…

Independent film distributor Toby Talbot, who with her husband operated art-house cinemas in New York City from 1960-2018, died at 96…

ALEX KOLOMOISKY/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participated in a state memorial ceremony on Thursday for the fallen soldiers of the Israel-Hamas war at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl.

THEO WARGO/GETTY IMAGES

Emmy Award-winning film and television music composer, Nicholas Britell turns 45...

FRIDAY: Chair emeritus of the board of directors of NYC's 92nd Street Y, Jody Gottfried Arnhold turns 82... Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit since 1999, Ronald Murray Gould turns 79... Filmmaker and novelist, Michael L. Tolkin turns 75... U.S. district judge for the District of Connecticut since 1994, he took senior status in 2017, Robert Neil Chatigny turns 74... Movie and television producer, Lawrence Bender turns 68... Rochester, N.Y., resident, Peggy Futerman... Number theorist and professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, he has written a highly critical report on the world's leading Holocaust deniers, Jeffrey Shallit turns 68... Partner in Becker & Poliakoff, she has been a member of both houses of the Florida Legislature, Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff turns 66... Rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University, he is a son of professor Isadore Twersky and a grandson of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, he also serves as the rebbe of the Talne Hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Mayer E. Twersky turns 65... Former Northwest regional director of J Street, Andrew Straus... Professor of economics at Harvard, he served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Jeremy Chaim Stein turns 65... Ramsey, N.J.-based licensed professional counselor, Shemsi Prinzivalli... Member of the California state Senate until last November, Josh Newman turns 61... Co-founder of AQR Capital Management, Cliff Asness turns 59... Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times, David Halbfinger turns 57... Founder of Maniv Investments in 1997 and Maniv Mobility, Michael Granoff turns 57... U.S. senator (D-NM), Martin Heinrich turns 54... CEO and founder of Crosscut Strategies, a D.C.-based public affairs firm, Kenneth Baer... Rheumatologist and director of the rehabilitation division of Arthritis and Rheumatism Associates in the D.C. area, Dr. Shari B. Diamond... Author and staff writer at The New Yorker magazine, Ariel Levy turns 51... VP and head of U.S. public policy at TikTok, Michael Beckerman turns 47... Los Angeles-based consultant to the beauty industry and former CEO of several companies, Jessica Goldin turns 46… CEO at Citizen AI, Tomer Kagan turns 42... D.C.-based director of federal affairs for New York University, Katharine Nasielski... Co-founder and executive director at the Constructive Dialogue Institute, Caroline Mehl... Member of the Maryland state Senate since early this year following seven years in the Maryland House of Delegates, Dalya Attar turns 35... Staff software engineer at Zocdoc, Adam Greenspan…

SATURDAY: Co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm, Irwin M. Jacobs turns 92... Former mayor of Amsterdam and leader of the Dutch Labour Party, Marius Job Cohen turns 78... Linguist, he is a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, Victor A. Friedman turns 76... Former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, he is president of the Coalition for a Safer Web, Marc Ginsberg turns 75... Physician and political activist In Henrico County, Va., Dr. Max S. Maizels turns 74… Professor of intelligence and global security studies at Capitol Technology University, Joshua B. Sinai, Ph.D.... Bakersfield, Calif.-based attorney focused on adoption and reproductive law, Marc Dennis Widelock... Television director, writer, producer, composer and actor, Chuck Lorre (born Chaim Levine) turns 73... Film producer and founder and head of Dimension Films, Robert "Bob" Weinstein turns 71... President of the Economic Future Group, a consulting firm, Jonathan Bernard Yoav Tasini turns 69... Award-winning illustrator and writer of books for children, Eugene Yelchin turns 69... Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission during almost all of the Biden administration, Gary Gensler turns 68... Retired NFL running back, he writes of his conversion in From Rose Bowl to Rashi: My Unique Journey to Judaism, Leon Calvin (now Yosef) Murray turns 67... Israeli journalist, political commentator and author of two books highly critical of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben Caspit turns 65... Retired in 2021 after 20 years as the director at Rutgers Hillel, followed by a year at Harvard Hillel, Andrew Getraer... Founder of Coalesce Advisors, he is a former president at Birthright Israel Foundation, David Fisher... Professor and director of Jewish studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Steven Phillip Weitzman turns 60... Weather anchor for NBC 4 New York, David M. Price turns 59... Former ESPN television host, sports reporter and anchor, Rachel Nichols turns 52... CEO of Future Today Strategy Group, she is an adjunct professor of strategic foresight at NYU, Amy Lynn Webb turns 51... Fashion designer, stylist and art director, Maryna Asauliuk turns 45... SVP and COO at the American Enterprise Institute, Suzanne Gershowitz... Academy Award-winning screenwriter and author, Graham Moore turns 44... Founding partner and Washington correspondent for Puck News, Julia Ioffe turns 43... Congressional correspondent for The New York Times, Annie Karni... Support team leader at Moovit, Ayal Kellman... Popular Israeli singer, Idan Yaniv turns 39... Staff writer at The New Yorker, Emma Green…

SUNDAY: Professor emeritus and first-ever Jewish president of the University of Minnesota, Kenneth Harrison Keller turns 91... CEO of Aramark Corporation for 34 years ending in 2014, he is a past chairman of the University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees, Joseph Neubauer turns 84... Founder and former ringmaster of the Big Apple Circus, Paul Binder turns 83... Pulmonologist in Plano, Texas, he is also the author of six mystery novels, Dr. Kenneth L. Toppell turns 83... Writer, scholar and former Israeli ambassador, Yoram Ettinger turns 80... Obstetrician and gynecologist at the Center for Fetal Medicine in Los Angeles, Lawrence David Platt, MD... Retired hospitality executive, Michelle Fischler... Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, she directed the journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until this past July, Deborah Blum turns 71... Founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist turns 69... Retired supervisor for Minnesota's Pollution Control Agency, David Alan Cera... Israel's minister of the economy and former mayor of Jerusalem for 10 years, both positions following a successful high-tech career, Nir Barkat turns 66... Co-owner of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers and English soccer club Manchester United, Avram A. "Avie" Glazer turns 65... Social psychologist and professor at New York University focused on the psychology of morality and moral emotions, Jonathan David Haidt turns 62... Canadian business executive and board member of Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, David Cynamon turns 62... Chief rabbi of Ukraine, Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich turns 61... Founder of Global Policy Associates where he is now an advisory board member, he was the White House Jewish Liaison in the Clinton administration, Jay Footlik... Ritual coordinator at Congregation Emanu El in Houston, Shira Kosoy Moses... Actor, director, producer and screenwriter, his television production company is Golem Creations, Jon Favreau turns 59... Former mayor of Portland, Maine, now a non-profit executive, Ethan King Strimling turns 58... Technology journalist and record producer, Joshua Ryan Topolsky turns 48... Film director, screenwriter and producer, Jason R. Reitman turns 48... Chief growth officer at itrek, Evan Majzner... Executive at Nefco, David Ochs... Pittsburgh-based founder and CEO of Mamalux, Lindsay Applebaum Stuart... Founder of iTrade[dot]TV, equities trader and financial marketer, Elie Litvin... Infielder in the Athletics organization, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Zack Gelof turns 26… Jim Vespe…