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Good Friday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we break down the Democratic primary fields taking shape across New York City following New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s win earlier this month, and report on Mamdani's suggestion that a New York synagogue event for Nefesh B’Nefesh promoted violating international law. We have the scoop on a new PAC being launched by Democratic lawmakers to fight antisemitism within the party, and remember Democratic Majority for Israel founder Mark Mellman, who died this week. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Caroline Glick, Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla and Justin Ishbia.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

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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: Trump prioritizes Saudi partnership, leaving Abraham Accords on hold; ‘Confused young groypers’: Jewish Republicans reckon with resurgent antisemitism on the right; and Freed hostages share harrowing accounts of Hamas captivity at JFNA confab. Print the latest edition here.

As next year’s midterm elections approach, New York City is quickly emerging as an epicenter of Democratic conflict, with a growing number of left-wing primary challengers targeting pro-Israel congressional incumbents as well as an expanding roster of candidates vying for an open House seat that is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the country.

In races spanning the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, new challengers are eyeing primaries to take on the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, which now finds itself on defense after Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory elevated a staunch democratic socialist and antagonist of Israel to executive office.

But even as challengers seek to capitalize on the momentum fueled by Mamdani’s rise, it remains to be seen if the mayor-elect will choose to weigh in on the upcoming primaries as he manages a diverse coalition to help advance his affordability agenda, which he has indicated is his top priority. 

While Mamdani has publicly discouraged one fellow democratic socialist in Brooklyn from a brewing campaign to challenge House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who endorsed Mamdani in the final weeks of the election, “the big unknown is the role that Mamdani is going to play” in the June primary elections, Chris Coffey, a Democratic strategist, told Jewish Insider.

It also is unclear whether pro-Israel groups such as AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel will engage in the upcoming primaries. A spokesperson for AIPAC declined to comment. DMFI’s political arm, for its part, is closely monitoring the emerging races and regards the challengers with varying degrees of concern, a person familiar with the group’s internal deliberations told JI.

The activist left, meanwhile, is also confronting its own organizational issues, including the prospect of some split primary fields that threaten to divide the opposing vote, as well as messaging struggles. 

With Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) announcing on Thursday that she will not seek reelection, a crop of candidates is also sure to engage in a spirited competition for her deeply progressive district in Brooklyn and Queens.

Here’s a rundown of the races to watch in New York City as the primary cycle continues to take shape.

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Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, distanced himself from a widely criticized demonstration outside a prominent synagogue in Manhattan on Wednesday night, where anti-Israel protesters were heard chanting “Death to the IDF” and “Globalize the intifada,” among other slogans, even as he suggested that the event, which provided information on immigrating to Israel, violated international law, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Condemnation with a caveat: “The mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so,” a spokesperson for Mamdani, Dora Pekec, said in a statement to JI on Thursday. “He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.” The protest, organized by an anti-Zionist group, took place outside Park East Synagogue, a historic Modern Orthodox congregation, at which an event was being held by Nefesh B’Nefesh, a nonprofit that assists in Jewish immigration to Israel from North America. Asked to clarify the concluding caveat from Pekec’s statement, Mamdani’s team said it “was specifically in reference to the organization’s promotion of settlement activity beyond the Green Line,” which “violates international law.”

Read the full story here.

A group of Democratic lawmakers is launching a political action committee to support candidates who have prioritized tackling antisemitism, alongside standing up against other forms of hate. Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Laura Friedman (D-CA) and Ted Lieu (D-CA) will be chairing the committee, called the Alliance Against Antisemitism PAC. The PAC filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission in October, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

PAC’s purpose: “We want to celebrate and lift up those leaders who are unapologetically going to fight back against hate in all of its forms, including antisemitism. Sometimes antisemitism gets lost,” Landsman told JI on Thursday. “This is our effort to root it out on our side, and I think it's going to have an enormous impact.” The idea of a PAC focused solely on a candidate’s stance on antisemitism is new, and a contrast from political action committees devoted to advancing pro-Israel candidates.

Read the full story here.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced on Thursday that he will introduce a resolution condemning neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes and his white supremacist views after President Donald Trump declined to condemn Fuentes or Tucker Carlson’s platforming of him. Schumer announced the move while criticizing Trump’s comments from over the weekend, in which the president noted that Carlson has “said good things about me over the years” and defended his decision to host Fuentes on his show, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

What he said: After calling Trump’s remarks “disgusting, Schumer warned that antisemitism in the U.S. has “reached a dangerous tipping point. Jewish Americans are facing threats, harassment and violence at levels we have not seen in generations.” Schumer said from the Senate floor on Thursday, “For Donald Trump to continue to excuse and protect the spread of Nick Fuentes’ ideology, confirms what many of us have long said: white supremacy and antisemitism are taking deep roots, unfortunately, within the Republican Party.” 

Read the full story here.

Also on the Hill: Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on Wednesday that there was a broad consensus among members of the Senate Armed Services committee that two nominees — Alex Velez-Green and Austin Dahmer — tapped to serve under Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby did not yet have sufficient support to move ahead at a committee meeting on Wednesday.

Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) drew comparisons between the Holocaust and the war in Gaza, the latter of which she described as a genocide, in a speech on the House floor on Thursday, explaining her decision to support a resolution with far-left lawmakers, supported by anti-Israel groups, accusing Israel of genocide, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Dexter was backed by AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC in her 2024 primary race against an opponent viewed as further left. 

Comment and backlash: The Oregon congresswoman began her speech by recounting a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the timing of which she described as “very intentional.” Dexter said, “After the Holocaust, the international community made a commitment that such evil can never happen again to any people, anywhere. Never again, they said. That is why I recently signed on to a resolution recognizing Israel’s actions in Gaza led by the Netanyahu government as a genocide.” Sara Bloomfield, the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, criticized Dexter’s comments. “Exploiting the Holocaust to accuse Israel of genocide is unconscionable and adds further fuel to an already raging antisemitic fire,” Bloomfield said in a statement to JI.

Read the full story here.

Picking sides: Democratic Majority for Israel on Thursday announced its endorsements of Reps. Haley Stevens (D-MI), Angie Craig (D-MN) and Chris Pappas (D-NH) and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper as they seek the Senate seats in their respective states.

The Treasury Department implemented new sanctions on Thursday targeting what the agency described as a “network of front companies and shipping facilitators that bankroll the Iranian armed forces by selling crude oil” — a critical revenue stream for the regime, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Target list: The latest round of sanctions, one of several announced in recent months, also targets six vessels in Iran’s “shadow fleet” of tankers used to transport oil to international markets, joining a list of more than 170 such vessels that have been sanctioned this year. The Treasury is also adding sanctions on a subsidiary of Mahan Air, an Iranian airline used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to help supply proxies and allies across the region.

Read the full story here.

Syria sanctions update: A full repeal of human rights sanctions on Syria under the Caesar Civilian Protection Act is likely to pass Congress as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, after House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) signed off on the measure, according to a source familiar with the matter, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

Mark Mellman, a longtime Democratic political strategist and former president of Democratic Majority for Israel, died this week after a long illness. Mellman, CEO of the Mellman Group, led campaigns for more than 30 U.S. senators, including former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), as well as dozens of members of Congress, including Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Seth Moulton (D-MA). He worked on Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and was the former president of the American Association of Political Consultants, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

Legacy: Mellman was also a fixture of election coverage and commentary, analyzing presidential debate performances for PBS and The Wall Street Journal, writing a longtime column for The Hill, and more. In Israel, Mellman was the longtime advisor to Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party, including during Yesh Atid’s meteoric rise from a new party to the second-largest in the Knesset in the 2013 election and Lapid’s brief time as prime minister in 2022. Lapid paid tribute to Mellman as "a friend and a mentor. A man with a huge heart and a wonderful sense of humor. He was also a trusted advisor and a brilliant strategic mind. ...He will be sorely missed by me, my family and everyone at Yesh Atid." 

Read the full story here.

The Gospel According to Tucker: The Wall Street Journal’s Barton Swaim considers how conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s misappropriation of biblical teachings instructs his approach to the world. “Mr. Carlson is too intelligent to fall for the inanity that the Old Testament is full of violence and retrogressive values, the New full of sweetness and light. He must know that Paul endorses the retributive justice of the Hebrew Bible, that the New Testament constantly quotes its antecedent’s portrayals of God’s compassion and liberality, and that Jesus’ atonement is meaningless apart from the law and the prophets. … So little of Mr. Carlson’s recent verbiage bears scrutiny that I’m left to wonder what it’s all about. I don’t pretend to know, but this much seems plain: His use of the Bible and Christianity has some purpose he won’t, or can’t, explain.” [WSJ]

Texas-Size Critique: In the Dallas Morning News, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who is facing a primary challenge to his right, calls on Republicans to address growing antisemitism in the party, underscored by the response to a recent interview between Tucker Carlson and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. “Some prominent voices in our conservative movement have shied from condemning the evil ideology that this young podcaster is promoting. Tucker Carlson hosted Fuentes on his show, giving him a broader platform to push his abhorrent views with minimal resistance. It is disappointing to see even storied institutions like the Heritage Foundation, which has long been a strong supporter of Israel and the Jewish people, waver in their condemnation of those who openly promote antisemitism and racism. Now is not the time to waver. Now is the time to speak the truth with clarity and conviction, and to condemn these un-American and anti-conservative ideas for what they are.” [DMN]

Political Parties Under Siege: The Atlantic’s Idrees Kahloon reflects on the declining influence in democracies around the world of some of the most prominent political parties that defined the latter half of the 20th century. “Reformers reason that by importing features of other democracies — a direct popular vote for president, tight limits on money in politics, voting by ranked choice — we could heal ourselves. If only it were so simple. In democracies all across the world, the party system appears unhealthy: Trust in parties is low, partisan antagonism is high, and elections feel existential instead of routine. Many countries’ equivalents of the Democrats and Republicans — parties that have been dominant at least since World War II — are suffering similar decline. Some are on the precipice of extinction.” [TheAtlantic]

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The National Book Awards awarded its top nonfiction prize to author Omar El Akkad, who railed against Israel in his acceptance speech; El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This takes a critical approach to American and European responses to the Israel-Hamas war…

A Washington Post report that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika as a hate symbol under a new policy set to be implemented next month garnered condemnation from Jewish groups and Democratic officials, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; Coast Guard spokesperson Jennifer Plozai told the Post that the Coast Guard would be “reviewing the language” of the new policy and later published a new policy specifying that it sees swastikas and nooses as hate symbols and that they are prohibited…

Vice President JD Vance dismissed the suggestion that traditional conservative Republicans would “wrest control” of the GOP from supporters of the MAGA movement after President Donald Trump leaves office and “go back to the Republican Party of 20 years ago,” Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…

The U.S. revoked the visa of former South African International Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor, who had previously faced criticism over her warm relations with Iran and Hamas and antipathy toward Israel…

Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and John Fetterman (D-PA) wrote to the Trump administration praising efforts to isolate and push out Iranian proxy groups in South America…

Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced legislation to bar anyone who "endorses or espouses terrorist activities" by groups including Hamas or Hezbollah from the United States…

The Senate passed, by unanimous consent, legislation to ensure that Jewish soldiers buried under other religious markers receive the correct religious markers; the House already passed a separate version of the bill…

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) will step down from her role as the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs’ Middle East subcommittee following her indictment on fraud charges relating to allegations that she funneled FEMA emergency funds to her congressional campaign…

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) launched his bid for governor of California, joining a field that includes  former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former state Controller Betty Yee and former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer.…

An analysis of Elon Musk’s Grokipedia by two Cornell University researchers found that the online encyclopedia cited neo-Nazi and conspiracy theorist websites, including Stormfront and Infowars, dozens of times…

The New York Times reports on Bill Ackman’s now-viral dating advice to young men: the four-word prompt, “May I meet you?”...

The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into Bari Weiss’ ascent to the top of CBS News and her first weeks on the job…

Chicago White Sox co-owner Justin Ishbia met this week with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, where he invited the Illinois-born pontiff and noted White Sox fan to throw the first pitch at the team’s eventual new stadium…

Netflix, Paramount and Comcast submitted bids to acquire all or part of Warner Bros. Discovery; the media conglomerate’s board is slated to make a decision on the future of the company by the end of the year…

French telecom companies Orange, Bouygues and Free are in discussions over the potential purchase of SFR that would include assets from Patrick Drahi’s Altice France…

CNN interviews former Israeli hostage Bar Kupershtein, who was shot and then taken from the Nova music festival after he stayed at the site to assist others who had been wounded during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Trump administration officials had assured Jerusalem that Israel’s qualitative military edge would not be affected by the U.S.’ just-announced sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia…

Israel has adopted a new mindset in its defense strategy since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Caroline Glick, international affairs advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Thursday at a Hudson Institute event in Washington, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

Israel is moving forward on efforts to expropriate the West Bank archeological site of Sebastia, under which the ancient Israelite kingdom of Samaria is believed to have been, with plans to develop the 450-acre site as a tourist attraction…

Data released by the Global Nutrition Cluster’s State of Palestine department last month indicates that the U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system (IPC) inflated numbers related to malnutrition in the Gaza Strip by as much as 23%...

India and Israel are reopening discussions on a free-trade agreement between Jerusalem and Delhi; Israeli Economic Minister Nir Barkat signed onto the framework agreement with Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal that will serve as a framework for talks…

Iran is pulling out of an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to allow inspectors access to the country’s nuclear facilities; the announcement came shortly after the IAEA, which has not been granted access to the Islamic Republic’s facilities since the 12-day war with Israel in June, passed a resolution calling on Tehran to give inspectors access and update the nuclear agency on enrichment work “without delay”...

Former CENTCOM head Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla is joining The Washington Institute for Near East Policy as the think tank’s Jill and Jay Bernstein distinguished fellow…

Scott Selig is joining Alpha Epsilon Pi as the fraternity’s new associate director of development for the Northeast region…

Jayne Zirkle is joining The Lawfare Project as its director of communications and outreach…

Translator David Bellos, who translated dozens of books, including Georges Perec’s Life: A User’s Manual, from French to English, died at 80…

THE WHITE HOUSE

President Donald Trump met on Thursday at the White House with a group of Israeli hostages — including many of those who were released from captivity last month — as the group wrapped up a week of meetings and events in New York and Washington.

Addressing the group, Trump said, “This is one of the best days I've had at the White House.” 

JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC

Academy Award-winning actress, director, producer and occasional singer, she founded The Hawn Foundation to help underprivileged children, Goldie Hawn turns 80… 

FRIDAY: Director-general of the Mossad from 1982 to 1989, Nahum Admoni turns 96… British entrepreneur and philanthropist, Baron Harold Stanley Kalms turns 94… U.S. senator (D-IL), Dick Durbin turns 81… Founder, chairman and CEO of Men's Wearhouse for 40 years, currently holding these same positions at Generation Tux, an online tuxedo rental platform, George Zimmer turns 77… U.S. senator (R-LA), John Kennedy turns 74… Beverly Hills, Calif., resident, Julie Shuer… U.S. district judge for the Northern District of California, she is a past president of Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo, Calif., Judge Beth Labson Freeman turns 72… Chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures and Screen Gems, Thomas Rothman turns 71… Israeli media personality, Avri Gilad turns 63… Business development officer at the San Francisco office of Taylor Frigon Capital Management, Jonathan Wornick… VP of planned giving and endowments at UJA-Federation of New York, William Samers… CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan A. Greenblatt turns 55… Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and editor-in-chief of Sapir, Bret Stephens (family name was Ehrlich) turns 52… President of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and only the fifth person to serve in this role in the federation’s 120-year history, Erika B. Rudin-Luria… Founder and publisher of the business magazine The Real Deal, Amir Korangy turns 52… Former NFL running back for the Raiders, Rams and Bears, he is now a schoolteacher, Chad Levitt turns 50… Political director of ABC News, Rick Klein turns 49… Director of global government relations at the Hershey Company, she was previously a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Joanna Liberman Turner turns 49… Consul general of the U.S. in Quebec, Danielle Hana Monosson… Reporter at Bloomberg News and Businessweek, Max Abelson… Member of the New York City Council from the Bronx, Eric Dinowitz turns 40… MLB pitcher in five organizations, now playing for the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos of the Mexican League, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Robert Stock turns 36… Director of sports engagement at the American Jewish Committee, Alexander Freeman… Judy Brilliant… Ruth Shapiro…

SATURDAY: Majority owner of MLB's New York Mets for 33 years ending in 2020, he was a high school teammate of Sandy Koufax and went on to a successful career as a real estate developer, Fred Wilpon turns 89… Professor at NYU Law School, she worked at OMB and the National Economic Council in the Clinton White House, Sally Katzen turns 83… Novelist and screenwriter, he is editor-at-large for The Epoch Times, Roger Lichtenberg Simon turns 82… Born to a Jewish family in Tunisia, he served as a member of the Canadian House of Commons until 2006, Jacques Saada turns 78… President emeritus of the 1.9 million-member Service Employees International Union, now a senior fellow at the Economic Security Project, Andy Stern turns 75… SVP of development for Hillel International, his bar mitzvah was at Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, Tim R. Cohen… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-NY), George Stephen Latimer turns 72… Television personality, previously an advertising executive, Donny Deutsch turns 68… IT specialist at the IRS, Martin Robinson… Chairman of Dynamo Kyiv (Kyiv's soccer team) since 2002, Ihor Surkis turns 67… Author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, Peggy Orenstein turns 64… Classical composer, conductor and pianist, Benjamin Yusupov turns 63… President and CEO of Paramount Pictures, known professionally as Brian Robbins, Brian Levine turns 62… Israeli film and television actor, Ishai Golan turns 52… Senior editor at The City and columnist and editorial writer for the New York Daily News, Harry Siegel turns 48… Israeli rapper, blogger and political activist, his stage name is “The Shadow,” Yoav Eliasi turns 48… Former State Department spokesperson and former deputy to the U.S.' United Nations ambassador, Edward "Ned" Price turns 43… Actress, she is the highest-grossing female box office star of all time, Scarlett Johansson turns 41… VP of communications and media relations for theSkimm, Jessica Sara (Turtletaub) Pepper… Actor, who has appeared in films directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, the Coen brothers and Warren Beatty, Alden Ehrenreich turns 36… Actor and comedian, he was on the cast of “Saturday Night Live,” Jon Rudnitsky turns 36… Social media personality known as Baby Ariel, she has 36 million followers on TikTok, Ariel Rebecca Martin turns 25… Former chief of staff to former Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, Yarden Golan...

SUNDAY: Former mayor of Pasadena, Calif., Terry Tornek turns 80… Senior U.S. district court judge in Massachusetts, Judge Mark L. Wolf turns 79… Senate minority leader (D-NY), Chuck Schumer turns 75… Phoenix resident, Richard S. Levy… Board member of the Yitzhak Rabin Center and former member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, Andrea Lavin Solow… President of Eastern Savings Bank in Hunt Valley, Md., Yaakov S. Neuberger… Emeritus professor of Jewish studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, Elliot R. Wolfson turns 69… Long Beach, N.Y., resident, Ellen P. Shiff… Graduate of Hebrew U, he is a Los Angeles-based cost and management accountant, Simon Ordever… Israeli-born entrepreneur, Raanan Zilberman turns 65… Television personality and author of both fiction and nonfiction books, Keith Ablow turns 64… Founder of Union Main Group, a private holding company focused on platform buildups of small companies, Marc Hanover… Professor of chemistry at Northwestern University, Chad Mirkin turns 62… Former owner of the NFL's Washington Commanders, Daniel Snyder turns 61… Neurosurgeon specializing in the treatment of brain tumors and aneurysms, he is a professor at Indiana University School of Medicine, Aaron Cohen-Gadol turns 55… SVP at Glen Echo Group, Amy Schatz… Berlin-based journalist on the Bloomberg News automation team, Leonid Bershidsky turns 54… Executive at Hakluyt & Company, Keith Lieberthal… SVP and financial advisor at UBS Financial Services in Baltimore, P. Justin "P.J." Pearlstone… Partner at Blueprint Interactive for digital strategy, Geoff Mackler… Senior tribal policy manager in the office of the attorney general of Washington State, Erin Ross… Independent art dealer, Hillel "Helly" Nahmad turns 49… Associate at Herbst & Weiss, Shmuel Winiarz… New England regional director for J Street, Jasmine Gothelf Winship… Rapper, singer, songwriter and recording artist, better known under her stage name Lanz Pierce, Alana Michelle Josephs turns 36… Former pitcher on the Israeli National Baseball Team, now working in renewable energy in Seattle, Corey A. Baker turns 36… Development and grant writer for Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans (Beit Halochem), Elise Fischer… Toronto-based lyricist, author and playwright, Naomi Matlow...