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👋 Good Tuesday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how New York Democrats, in the wake of the Sydney attack, are addressing anti-Israel rhetoric that Jewish leaders warn encourages antisemitic violence, and report on Vice President JD Vance’s comments linking youth antisemitism to immigration and Gen Z demographics. We cover the ties between a group plotting a New Year’s terror attack in California and the recent violent protest at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, and interview writer Izabella Tabarovsky about her new book on Soviet dissident Zionism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alan Garber, Steve Cohen and Stephanie Hallett.

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

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The massacre in which 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday has once again brought the Jewish community’s security vulnerabilities into stark focus.

But for the American Jewish community, the prospects for much-needed help from the federal government in the form of additional Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding remain unclear.

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s homeland security subcommittee still hasn’t released a draft bill for 2026, greatly increasing the chances of a full-year continuing resolution that would keep funding for the program flat, at $274.5 million, a level that advocates and proponents on the Hill and Jewish groups say is severely insufficient. The House has passed its own version of the bill with $335 million in funding for the program.

Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, told JI, "The events in Australia and California these past days are terrible reminders of the violent antisemitism Jewish communities face. We've worked to ensure that every Federation community has a professional security program and director, but at the end of the day it is the government's responsibility to keep its citizens safe from terrorism, and that's why it is critical to both ensure that the Nonprofit Security Grant Program is fully funded and not allowed to lapse."

Multiple lawmakers on the committee and those who follow the NSGP funding process closely said they have little clarity on the state of play on the funding bill, including subcommittee ranking member Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), a co-chair of the Senate antisemitism task force.

Read the rest of 'What You Should Know' here.

Daily Overtime brings you what we’re tracking at the end of the day — and what’s coming next.

The deadly terrorist attack during a Hanukkah celebration in Australia on Sunday is sparking a renewed debate within the Democratic Party over anti-Israel slogans including “globalize the intifada,” and whether such extreme rhetoric fuels antisemitic prejudice that can lead to violence against Jews. Some candidates and elected officials in New York City, where recent anti-Israel demonstrations have raised alarms within the largest Jewish community in the world, are tying such rhetoric directly to the carnage at Bondi Beach in Sydney — after two gunmen killed at least 15 people and wounded more than three dozen in the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in Australian history, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

The politics of words: Micah Lasher, a Jewish state assemblyman who is running to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), asked rhetorically in a social media post Sunday whether there was “any question” that “the spread of violence against Jews is intertwined with the social acceptability of violent rhetoric directed at Jews.” Erik Bottcher, a city councilman who is also mounting a bid for Nadler's seat, said that in the wake of “an attack like Bondi Beach, we should be unequivocal: antisemitic violence is unacceptable, full stop. And we should also be honest that slogans like ‘globalize the intifada’ don’t advance justice, they escalate hostility and make Jewish communities feel targeted.” 

Read the full story here with additional comments from New York Democrats including Mayor Eric Adams, state Assemblymember Alex Bores, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and NY-6 candidate Chuck Park.

Standing in solidarity: Speaking at the White House Sunday night, President Donald Trump called the shooting a “purely antisemitic attack,” and praised Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim man and bystander who stepped in to disarm the gunman at Bondi Beach, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. 

In a series of social media posts, Vice President JD Vance linked data finding increased antisemitism among young people on both sides of the aisle to immigration, and said that there is a difference between “not liking Israel” and being antisemitic, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What he said: “To write an article about the ‘generational divide’ in anti-semitism without discussing the demographics of the various generations is mind boggling,” Vance wrote, referencing an Atlantic piece by Yair Rosenberg that looked at polling data indicating higher levels of antisemitism among younger Americans. Vance blamed the increase in antisemitism on immigration and the demographic makeup of younger Americans, adding “the most significant single thing you could do to eliminate anti-semitism and any other kind of ethnic hatred is to support our efforts to lower immigration and promote assimilation.” The vice president also wrote, “I would say there’s a difference between not liking Israel (or disagreeing with a given Israeli policy) and anti-semitism.”

Read the full story here.

Federal authorities foiled an alleged terror plot by an anti-Israel, anti-American extremist group, officials announced on Monday. The group — the Turtle Island Liberation Front — appears to also be one of the organizers of an anti-Israel protest that targeted a Los Angeles synagogue this month, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Plan for midnight: Four members of TILF were arrested over the weekend in the Mojave Desert, where they had allegedly gathered to attempt to construct improvised explosive devices. According to Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, they planned to set off the pipe bombs in a coordinated attack at midnight on New Year’s Eve targeting U.S. companies in Los Angeles and Orange County, Calif. 

Read the full story here.

A senior State Department official and two GOP members of Congress met Friday with members of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has long faced accusations of extremism and pro-Nazi sympathies, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Meeting minutes: “My exchange with Under Secretary [of State for Public Diplomacy] Sarah Rogers on the new national security strategy of the Trump Administration has made it clear that Washington is seeking a strong German partner who is willing to take on responsibility,” Bundestag member Markus Frohnmaier posted after the meeting. Responding to a critic who noted that leaked Russian documents allegedly described Frohnmaier as a Russian asset, Rogers praised the AfD. The AfD delegation also met with Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Tim Burchett (R-TN) and attended a New York Young Republican Club event.

Read the full story here.

During a Friday sermon at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Saleh bin Abdullah bin Humaid — one of the nine imams of the mosque — urged Muslims to view Palestinian children as role models in the face of what he described as an “oppressive and brutal Zionist enemy,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

What this means: Sermons delivered at the Grand Mosque are closely watched across the Muslim world and are widely seen as reflective of official Saudi religious and political messaging, making it notable that the senior Saudi cleric used the address at Islam’s holiest site to condemn Israel as President Donald Trump continues to promote normalization between the two countries. Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the remarks point to broader political implications. “Preachers in most Gulf countries are government employees, and their sermons often reflect official talking points,” Abdul-Hussain said. 

Read the full story here.

Writer and activist Izabella Tabarovsky has heard from many Jewish students that large Jewish organizations advised them to keep their heads down and try not to attract attention as a strategy to weather the anti-Israel and antisemitic storms that have raged on campus since Oct. 7, 2023. Tabarovsky’s counter-message: Don’t hide. Reclaim your Zionism. And take inspiration from the Soviet refuseniks of the 1980s, who stared down Communist Party strongman Leonid Brezhnev, held fast to their Judaism and eventually won their freedom. Tabarovsky lays out some of these strategies for college students in a new book, Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student’s Survival Guide, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

Identifying a need: “We’re in a bleak moment, and a lot of books diagnose the bleakness. … I saw a hunger for an inspirational message,” Tabarovsky told JI. In the near-decade that she has been writing about the subject, it has become “widely accepted among scholars and people involved in this [activism] that the patterns of anti-Zionist demonization and erasure are some of what Soviet Jews experienced in [former Soviet Union leader Leonid] Brezhnev’s USSR,” she said.

Read the full interview here.

⛈️ Gathering Storm: In The Free Press, Rabbi David Wolpe and former U.S. antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt consider how antisemitic rhetoric and protests are affecting public Jewish life. “These chants, attacks, and endorsements from public personalities are designed to make Jews think twice about gathering with other Jews, going to kosher restaurants, putting a mezuzah on the doorpost of their apartments or dorm rooms, or even wearing a Jewish star around their necks. … We are a people too wise to be hysterical but too experienced to be naive. The greatest enemy we face now is indifference. If the moral people of the world do not stand with us to denounce and expunge this kind of behavior so destructive to the fabric of any healthy society, especially one founded on the promise of freedom and equality, the consequences will not only be dire for the Jewish people — they will be dire for democracies, the rule of law, and the civilization we cherish.” [FreePress]

🫂 Hints of Humanity: In The New York Times, Rabbi Sharon Brous reflects on the instances of humanity that have appeared in times of darkness and despair. “I’m tired of looking for the silver lining after such tragedies. I no longer want to hear, after a mass shooting, of the remarkable ways a community came together. I don’t want platitudes and pieties. I want justice. … I don’t want to celebrate resiliency; I want to see reform. But as a spiritual matter, I urgently need the silver lining. I need the hints of humanity that remind us that what is is not what must be. The quiet insistence that there is more light than darkness in this world, that tenderness and love can prevail over even the most virulent hatred. Give me the counterfactual that makes it impossible to fall into despair, that will keep me from slipping into the self-defeating certainty of our impending doom.” [NYTimes]

🕯️ Remembering Rabbi Eli: In The Atlantic, Zalman Rothschild reflects on his friendship with Rabbi Eli Schlanger and the lessons he learned from the rabbi, who was killed in the Bondi Beach attack. “Hanukkah does not commemorate despair or isolation. It marks rededication — to Jewish life, Jewish practice, and Jewish responsibility. As Schlanger himself put it earlier this year, the way forward in the face of darkness is to ‘be more Jewish, act more Jewish, and appear more Jewish.’ After October 7, 2023, my sister joined a synagogue for the first time and enrolled her daughters in Hebrew school — as did many others. On the road in Paris, I had no plans to light a menorah, but after learning of Schlanger’s murder, I felt compelled to attend a synagogue gathering and light a Hanukkah candle. … The story of Hanukkah is about political power and self-defense, but it is also about Judaism’s spirit and moral commitment. The words of the prophet Zechariah have been recited in synagogues for centuries on the Shabbat that falls on Hanukkah: ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit.’” [TheAtlantic]

👁️ Keep an Eye on Iran: In The Wall Street Journal, former National Security Advisor John Bolton warns that Iran is working to rebuild its proxy network as the U.S. and allies have their attention focused on other global and domestic events. “The Gaza cease-fire diverts Western attention from the real threat — Tehran and its surrogates — and benefits these bad actors. … The “axis of resistance” isn’t yet a well-oiled machine again, but it could be soon if the U.S. is inattentive. Washington’s frequent distractions must not prevent it from developing an effective long-term strategy. Now is the time not to negotiate with the ayatollahs but to resume serious enforcement of economic sanctions while adding new ones. When Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dies, the leadership vacuum will provide Iran’s resistance a critical opportunity for regime change, and the opposition deserves U.S. assistance. Ignoring Iran until it fully regains its strength will only make matters worse.” [WSJ]

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President Donald Trump said the administration was “looking into” whether Israel’s targeted drone strike on a senior Hamas official in Gaza over the weekend violated the ceasefire that went into effect in October…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday with U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack in Jerusalem as the U.S. works to alleviate tensions between Israel and both Lebanon and Syria; others present included Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, incoming Mossad head Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and White House Middle East advisor Aryeh Lightstone…

DMFI PAC is rolling out its first round of 2026 House endorsements in a list first shared first with JI, backing several Democratic incumbents facing challenges from the left including Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Wesley Bell (D-MO), Shri Thanedar (D-MI) and Steve Cohen (D-TN)...

Harvard University’s governing board announced that Alan Garber, who had initially been tapped to lead the school on an interim basis through June 2027, will continue as the school’s president indefinitely… 

Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners is dropping out of a plan to turn a former army complex in Belgrade, Serbia, into a Trump-branded property; the redevelopment of the site, which had been bombed by NATO in 1999, had prompted protests as well as government investigations into efforts to strip the complex of its status as a protected cultural-heritage site…

Police in Redlands, Calif., are investigating as a possible hate crime an incident in which assailants fired 20 shots at a home with Hanukkah decorations...

Nick Reiner, the son of Rob Reiner, was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder charges after the bodies of his parents were found at their Los Angeles home on Sunday…

A crowdfunding campaign for Ahmed al Ahmed, a Sydney shopkeeper who was filmed restraining one of the gunmen in the Bondi Beach attack, has raised $1.5 million, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports; contributors to the campaign include Bill Ackman, who gave $66,000, as well as thousands of small-dollar donors…

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen received approval for the construction of his $8 billion Metropolitan Park casino project next to the team’s Citi Field stadium…

The International Criminal Court rejected an Israeli appeal for the court to end its investigation into Israel’s conduct in Gaza, which Israeli representatives said falls outside of the court’s jurisdiction… 

Archeologists in Jerusalem discovered a 1,400-year-old pendant believed to date to the late Byzantine era; the discovery, made near the Western Wall complex…

Stephanie Hallett was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Bahrain…

Alyssa Katz, the executive editor of The City, was tapped as the new editor-in-chief of The Forward…

Rachel Gorsky Bombach, previously a foreign policy advisor to former Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and director of the National Security Council in the Obama administration, is joining Democratic Majority for Israel as chief policy officer…

Philanthropist Martin Rosen, an attorney and founding trustee of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, died at 100, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…

Columnist Robert Samuelson, whose work appeared in Newsweek, The Washington Post and the New York Sun, died at 87…

MAAYAN TOAF/GPO

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his wife, Janet Huckabee, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sara Netanyahu posed for a photo after lighting the second Hanukkah candle on Monday night at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. They were joined by IDF soldiers, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, who oversees the Western Wall and holy sites, as well as Western Wall Heritage Foundation Director Mordechai (Soli) Eliav.

ROB LATOUR/VARIETY/PENSKE MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES

Attorney, professor and author, she was the first woman to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review, Susan Estrich turns 73… 

CBS News journalist who has won 13 Emmy Awards, she has reported for CBS' “60 Minutes” since 1991, Lesley Stahl turns 84… Numismatist specializing in ancient Jewish and biblical coins and their archaeology, David Bruce Hendin turns 80… British chemist and research professor at the University of Nottingham, Sir Martyn Poliakoff turns 78… Litigator in Denver, Craig Alan Silverman… Novelist, journalist and lecturer, Allen Kurzweil turns 65… President and co-founder of The New Agenda, Amy Siskind… First OMB director in the Obama administration, now CEO of Lazard, Peter R. Orszag turns 57… Astrophysicist and professor at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute, he was a winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, Adam Guy Riess turns 56… National campaign director in the northeast for the Jewish National Fund, Rabbi Eric Stark… Director of public affairs at Charles Schwab, Adam Bromberg… Mexican singer, she has toured individually and in bands in Central America, the U.S. and Europe, Alix Bauer Tapuach turns 54… Activist, writer, farmer and punk rock musician, Sascha Altman DuBrul turns 51… Rabbi at Congregation Beth Shalom in Clifton Park, N.Y., Shara Siegfeld… Principal at Elm City Strategies, Melissa Wisner… Former chief of staff for U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Matthew Bennett Klapper turns 43… Middle East analyst at Christians United For Israel, Kasim Hafeez turns 42… Founder of Punchbowl News, Jake Sherman… Actress known for her role on The CW's teen drama “Gossip Girl” and more recently ABC's “General Hospital,” Amanda Setton turns 40… Congressional reporter at Bloomberg Tax, Zachary C. Cohen turns 34… Product manager at the Ignyte Group, Drew Liquerman...