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👋 Good Friday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s boosting of an antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and talk to Capitol Hill lawmakers concerns about a potential U.S.-Saudi nuclear treaty. We profile New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Sam Bregman (yes, the father of Chicago Cubs star Alex Bregman), and report on the upcoming release of a book of spiritual wisdom taken from conversations with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was killed in the December attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jared Isaacman, Oz Pearlman and Cindy McCain.

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.

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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: Democratic governors facing push from Jewish groups to embrace education tax credits; Atop a Tel Aviv tower, Israeli tech leader Yasmin Lukatz reflects on philanthropy, entrepreneurship; and State Dept. Shabbat dinner draws UAE, Saudi ambassadors and senior Trump officials. Print the latest edition here.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jerusalem this week was an important geopolitical moment for Israel.

The biggest tangible outcome of the visit is that, according to Indian media, Israel plans to transfer Iron Dome and Iron Beam missile-defense technology to India, as part of a defense deal reaching as much as $8 billion-$10 billion. The governments only officially acknowledged "significant growth made in defense cooperation ... both in scope and scale." 

As for confirmed deliverables, Israel launched expedited free-trade negotiations with the world's most populous country and fastest-growing economy. The governments released a nine-page statement announcing agreements in a range of areas, including mineral exploration, AI, agriculture, cultural exchange and recruitment of up to 50,000 Indian workers to Israel in the next five years — fulfilling a major need for Israel, which revoked most work permits for Palestinians after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. 

But the real impact is likely greater than any specific agreement. It's the alliance on display between Israel and India — a "special strategic partnership," as the countries are calling it — that bolsters Israel's global position at a time when many of the Jewish state's traditional partners have turned away.

Lauren Dagan Amoss, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and a leading India analyst in Israel, characterized Modi's speech to the Knesset as "a threshold moment ... designed to justify an upgrade from cordial relations to a partnership with strategic depth and deliverables. ... The message was aimed at external stakeholders ... especially Washington, the Gulf states, and the broader economic-technological community ... rather than treating Israel as a standalone bilateral track."

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.

Graham Platner, a far-left Senate candidate in Maine, amplified a social media post on Thursday from a far-right conspiracy theorist well-known for viciously antisemitic commentary — before quickly deleting the statement, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

What he posted: In a comment to X late Thursday morning, Platner approvingly boosted a remark from Stew Peters, an extremist radio host who has frequently promoted antisemitic tropes and engaged in Holocaust denial, calling a war with Iran “the only thing Republicans and Democrats have both given a standing ovation for.” Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran turned oyster farmer who has sharply criticized U.S. military engagement abroad, wrote in his own post, “As always, there’s one thing that brings Republican and Democratic politicians together: sending other people’s children to die in stupid wars in the Middle East.” He deleted the post an hour or so after it had been flagged by online observers who noted that he was elevating a problematic figure with a long record of hostile rhetoric toward Jews.

Read the full story here.

Democratic lawmakers are expressing concerns about the administration’s apparent moves toward a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that would allow the kingdom to enrich uranium, lacking the safeguards that were included in a similar nuclear cooperation deal with the United Arab Emirates. There had previously been bipartisan support in Congress for including such safeguards, including intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, under an “additional protocol” of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and the “gold standard” commitment of renouncing nuclear enrichment and reprocessing included in the UAE deal, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Matthew Shea report. 

Airing concerns: Asked about the situation this week, Democrats — across a broad ideological spectrum — expressed concerns, while Republicans generally avoided commenting, saying they weren’t familiar with the administration’s apparent plans. “I think we should be extremely cautious and scrutinize — very exactingly — any deal with Saudi Arabia that provides nuclear know-how or fuel, and certainly it has to be a part of a broader agreement for normalizing relations with Israel that expands the Abraham Accords,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).

Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Jim Risch (R-ID), as well as Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA).

Robert Peters, a far-left state senator from Illinois who is now competing in a crowded Democratic primary for a safely blue Chicago-area House seat, has made anti-AIPAC messaging a central focus of his campaign, castigating the pro-Israel group as a corrupting force in congressional elections funded by Trump-aligned interests scheming to promote a “right-wing agenda.” Not long after he had launched his campaign last year, however, Peters met privately with an AIPAC official in Chicago and then filed an Israel position paper at the group’s request, according to a person with close ties to the organization who reviewed the document at the time it was submitted, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. 

U-turn: The behind-the-scenes engagement — rumors about which have circulated among Peters’ opponents — raises questions about the sincerity of his hostile rhetoric toward AIPAC as he now is building support from prominent Israel critics. Most likely, the source familiar with the matter suggested to JI this week, Peters was “seeking AIPAC’s good grace” in a strategic effort to preempt attacks from its super PAC, United Democracy Project, which often targets candidates who stray from pro-Israel messaging. 

Read the full story here.

Sam Bregman, a Jewish prosecutor with immigrant roots and a rancher’s swagger, is making his case to lead New Mexico. Bregman will face Deb Haaland, a former congresswoman who served as interior secretary in the Biden administration, in the Democratic primary on June 2. Seeking to win in a state that leans blue but isn’t a lock for Democrats, Bregman is positioning himself as a moderate who is focused on kitchen-table issues, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Roots and the road ahead: In an interview with JI, Bregman spoke about his family roots, his record on hate crimes and immigration, and why he sees a political opening for a self-described moderate in today’s polarized climate. “On the political spectrum, many people call me a moderate. I'm not part of the radical left of our party. It's very frustrating to see the radical left and the radical right. I'm somewhere in the middle, [someone] who just wants to get things done, to better the quality of life for people, and very policy-oriented,” Bregman said. Bregman is a proud member of Albuquerque’s small Jewish community. Around 100 years ago, his grandfather fled to Baltimore from Russia. “He always said the greatest thing his parents ever did for him was to get him to America. I'll never forget that,” Bregman said of his father, who was born in the U.S. 

Read the full interview here.

France did not take part in drafting the Palestinian Authority’s proposed constitution released earlier this month, which enshrines payments to terrorists in Israeli prisons, the French Embassy in Israel told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov, despite PA President Mahmoud Abbas and French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of a joint committee on the matter last year.

Embassy’s explanation: The embassy told JI that the constitution’s “first draft was not written in coordination with France, and we were exposed to it with the broader public.” The embassy spokeswoman stated, “As part of the joint committee to strengthen the building of a Palestinian state … a delegation of French constitutional law experts is expected to examine the draft that was published and present recommendations.” Ofer Bronchtein, Macron’s advisor on Israeli-Palestinian affairs, told JI that the committee had met “here and there,” but like the embassy spokeswoman, did not know when they would meet next.

Read the full story here.

A forthcoming book offers insights into the spiritual advice Chabad Rabbi Eli Schlanger — who was killed in the Bondi Beach Hanukkah terrorist attack in Sydney, Australia in December — imparted to a secular Jewish woman during her own near-death experience. In September 2022, Nikki Goldstein lay comatose, fighting for her life in a Sydney hospital. Her daughter spotted Schlanger, the Chabad emissary to Bondi, in the ICU halls and Goldstein’s husband desperately requested he pray for her. Schlanger blew the shofar beside her hospital bed and prayed for her recovery. One day later, Goldstein began recuperating from a life-threatening infection, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Lasting legacy: As Goldstein, a best-selling author of more than a dozen books, regained her health, her bond with Schlanger grew and the duo decided to co-author a book. In January 2025, they began recording their conversations. Conversations With My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World will be published in May — allowing Schlanger’s legacy to live on after he and 14 others were killed in December in a targeted terror attack on Sydney’s Jewish community.

Read the full story here.

Mob Mentality: In his Substack “Between Us,” Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal compares the far-right protesters demonstration outside the home of Arab Israeli journalist Lucy Aharish to far-left protesters who have done the same outside the home of CNN anchor Jake Tapper. “All of this reminds me of the pro-Hamas group from Code Pink that ‘protested’ outside Jake Tapper’s house in the United States because they disliked his coverage of the war in Gaza. On the surface, these scenes look unrelated — far-right Israelis on one side, pro-Palestinian activists in America on the other. But there is a throughline connecting them. That line is the collapse of civility. The erosion of shared rules about what is legitimate and what is off limits, combined with a mob mentality and extremism. Worsened by some in power who wink and nod at the extremists, because they believe they can harness and control the energy of the mob for personal political gain at the expense of the country.” [BetweenUs]

Georgia on Her Mind: In The Hill, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Keti Korkiya warns that through its close ties with the ruling Georgia Dream party, Iran is using the Caucasus nation to evade Western sanctions. “Iran’s strategic objective is to ensure access to foreign markets despite American sanctions. Iranian officials describe Georgia as a favorable route for exporting Iranian goods to the European Union. In late 2021, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia agreed to cultivate a transit corridor linking Iran’s Persian Gulf ports to Georgia’s Black Sea ports of Batumi and Poti. In addition to moving licit goods, this corridor can facilitate sanctions-busting by obscuring the Iranian origin of illicit cargoes.” [TheHill]

The Purim Paradox: In Tablet, Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin considers how Haman’s words in the Book of Esther describing Jews as “a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the nations” whose “laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws,” carry a message to the present day. “The very practices that set Jews apart — dietary laws, Sabbath observance, a distinct sacred calendar — were the mechanisms that carried identity across continents and centuries. Difference became continuity. Which brings us, in an unexpected way, back to the simplest of things. Food. Time. Law lived out in the details of daily life. These were not trivial details. They were the architecture of a people. And perhaps this is the deepest irony in Haman’s speech. He thought he was identifying a weakness: a nation too committed to its own ways to blend in. What he was actually describing was a structure strong enough to survive exile, empire, and time itself.” [Tablet]

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A new poll from Gallup found that, for the first time, more Americans (41%) sympathize with the Palestinians than they do with the Israelis (36%), a marked shift from a year ago, when 46% said they sympathized more with the Israelis than the 33% that sympathized with the Palestinians... 

In a meeting at the White House yesterday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged President Donald Trump to authorize the release of an Azerbaijani student at Columbia University who had been detained by immigration officials earlier in the day; following the meeting, Mamdani gave the names of four students involved with anti-Israel protests on Columbia’s campus who have since been caught up in deportation proceedings — Mahmoud Khalil, Yunseo Chung, Mohsen Mahdawi and Leqaa Kordia — to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and asked for the administration’s help…

Vice President JD Vance said he had seen “bits and pieces” of Tucker Carlson’s interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, during which the commentator made false allegations about Israeli President Isaac Herzog and suggested Jews submit to genetic testing to determine their true origins, describing the interview as “a really good conversation that’s going to be necessary for the right, not just for the next couple years but for long into the future”...

The U.S. is threatening to cut off MBaer Merchant Bank AG’s access to the U.S. banking system over what Treasury officials allege is the Swiss bank’s facilitating of money laundering related to Russia, Venezuela and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Force…

The husband and daughter of Francesca Albanese are suing the Trump administration over sanctions imposed on the U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories last year, saying the sanctions violate their First Amendment rights and have prevented access to their home in Washington…

Netflix dropped its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery after Paramount's David Ellison raised the company's bid to $31 per share in an all-cash agreement, backed in part by $24 billion from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi's L'imad Holding Company; Warner Bros' CEO David Zaslav said the Paramount deal will "create tremendous value"… 

A group of 14 Congressional Black Caucus members is endorsing Rep. Haley Stevens' (D-MI) Senate campaign, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-NY); the infusion of Hill support now gives Stevens the most congressional endorsements in her primary against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Abdul El-Sayed...

The New York Times interviews NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman about the space agency’s goal of launching the Artemis II rocket to circumnavigate the moon and a potential mission to Mars in the next decade…

The White House Correspondents Association announced Israel-born mentalist Oz Pearlman as this year’s headline entertainer at its annual dinner in April…

The World Food Program announced that Cindy McCain, who has led the organization since 2023, will step down, citing health issues, months after McCain experienced a mild stroke…

Israel indicted a Shin Bet intelligence agent on charges of smuggling items into Gaza during the more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas; the agent, as well as several other Israelis and a Palestinian, were charged with accepting “large amounts of money” in bribes and of “aiding an enemy during wartime”...

The Knesset approved legislation exempting new U.S. immigrants to Israel who are self-employed and pay Social Security from paying into Israel’s social security system during their first five years in the country…

Israel Aerospace Industries delivered its first autonomous submarine, the “BlueWhale,” to the German Navy amid deepening military cooperation between Jerusalem and Berlin…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a selfie with the cast of the Israeli series “Fauda” during his two-day trip to Israel this week…

Former Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende resigned as CEO and president of the World Economic Forum after an internal investigation found long-standing ties between Brende and Jeffrey Epstein…

AMBASSADOR YOSSI SHELLEY

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke at an iftar meal hosted on Thursday night by Emirati Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja in Tel Aviv.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who also addressed the gathering, said, “We all agree, Mr. Ambassador, that the members of the Abraham Accords should be treated in an upgraded manner as they pursue the noble cause of people. And this I say especially when here are nations spreading hate, spreading blasphemy against nations who speak peace, against the Emiratis, against the Israelis.”

GREGG DEGUIRE/FILMMAGIC

Television writer, director and producer, he is best known for co-creating the comedy-drama "Glee," Brad Falchuk turns 55 on Sunday… 

FRIDAY: Performance artist and filmmaker, she is a professor emerita at UCSD, Eleanor Antin turns 91… Investor and trader, founder and chairman of CAM Capital, he is the chair of Juilliard, vice chair of Lincoln Center and on the board of the Metropolitan Opera, Bruce Kovner turns 81… Haverford, Pa.-based attorney, mediator and arbitrator, Judith Meyer… NYC-based real estate developer, Michael Gervis… Professor of physics at MIT, Alan Harvey Guth turns 79… Member of the British House of Lords, she is a retired rabbi and the chair of University College London Hospitals, Baroness Julia Neuberger turns 76… Historian, syndicated columnist, investigative journalist and talk show host, Edwin Black turns 76… U.S. senator (D-NH), Maggie Hassan turns 68… Stand-up comedian, Wendy Liebman turns 65… Suzanne "Suzy" Appelbaum… Writer and producer for television and film, David Krinsky turns 63… President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, David S. Waren… Film and television actor, he starred as FBI Agent Stan Beeman on the FX series "The Americans," Noah Emmerich turns 61… Founder of Spanx, an intimate apparel company, she is a part owner of the Atlanta Hawks, Sara Blakely turns 55… Founder and executive director of Toldot Yisrael, Aryeh Halivni turns 53… Director of Georgetown University's journalism program, Rebecca Sinderbrand… Singer-songwriter, composer and prayer leader, Sam Benjamin "Shir Yaakov" Feinstein-Feit turns 48… Finance minister of Israel, he is the leader of the Religious Zionist Party, Bezalel Smotrich turns 46… President of baseball operations for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chaim Bloom turns 43… Senior counsel at WilmerHale, he is a former Obama White House aide where he was one of the originators of the White House Seder, Eric P. Lesser turns 41… Senior segment producer for "The Late Show with Steven Colbert" (and host of Chabad West Village's "Hineni: Here I Am" speaker series), Neil Goldman… Video journalist for The Daily Wire, she completed her seven-year conversion process to Judaism in 2023, Kassy Dillon, now known as Kassy Akiva, turns 30… Alana Berkowitz…

SATURDAY: Israeli jurist, she was the first woman to serve as president of the Israeli Supreme Court, Dorit Beinisch turns 84… Professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego, Linda Preiss Rothschild turns 81… Retired executive director of the Montreal chapter of ORT, Emmanuel Kalles… Actress and singer, Ilene Susan Graff turns 77… State Department antisemitism envoy during the second Obama administration, now a visiting professor at Georgetown, Ira Niles Forman turns 74… Former New York Times op-ed columnist, he is a 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Paul Krugman turns 73… Professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, he is the brother of ZOA President Morton Klein. Dr. Samuel Klein turns 73… Founding engineer and a large shareholder of Facebook, Jeffrey Jackiel Rothschild turns 72… Greensboro, N.C., businessman, he is a past chairman of Hillel International, Randall Kaplan… Self-described as "America's most notorious lobbyist," at the center of an investigation that led to 21 convictions, Jack Abramoff turns 67… President of The New York Public Library since 2011, Anthony W. Marx turns 67… Editor-at-large of The Jewish Week, Andrew Silow-Carroll turns 65… Owner of a commercial lavender farm in New Jersey, she served as a member of the New Jersey state Senate until 2008, Ellen Karcher turns 62… Jerusalem-born businessman, he started and sold several companies in the automotive field, Mordechai “Moti” Kahana turns 58… President and CEO of The New York Times Company, Meredith Kopit Levien turns 55… Political commentator, Peter Beinart turns 55… Former member of the Knesset for the Blue and White party, Ruth Wasserman Lande turns 50… Former mayor of Jersey City, N.J., now head of the Partnership for New York City, Steven Fulop turns 49… National political correspondent for The New York Times covering campaigns, elections and political power, Lisa Lerer… Former professional ice hockey goaltender, he played for 10 years in North America and Europe, Dov Grumet-Morris turns 44… Head of analysis and insights at Prologue, Erica Goldman… Partner in the Los Angeles office of Davis Wright Tremaine, Adam Sieff… Director of international innovation and partnerships at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Andrew H. Gross turns 37… Director of digital assurance and transparency at PwC, Li-Dor David… Israeli national fencing champion and fashion model, she represented Israel at Miss Universe 2015, Avigail Alfatov turns 30…

FEB. 29: Executive director of AIPAC from 1980 through 1993, Thomas A. Dine turns 86… French fashion photographer featured on the reality television series “America's Next Top Model,” Gilles Bensimon turns 82… Polish-born economist and professor at New York University, Roman Frydman turns 78… Professor at Columbia Business School, she is a former board chair at Jewish Theological Seminary, Abby Joseph Cohen turns 74… Former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Paul D. Rosenthal turns 66… Co-founder of Biebelberg & Martin in Millburn, NJ, he was previously the chair of the Golda Och Academy in West Orange, Keith N. Biebelberg… Professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University, Joshua Berman turns 62… Denver-based attorney at Recht Kornfeld, Richard K. Kornfeld… Born in Kyiv, former U.S. Supreme Court law clerk known for his eponymous legal blog "The Volokh Conspiracy," Eugene Volokh turns 58… Israeli mountain climber, search and rescue professional, best known for his heroic rescue of an unconscious Turk he found near the summit of Mount Everest in 2012, Nadav Ben Yehuda turns 38… Political operations project manager at AIPAC, Samantha Friedman Fallon...

SUNDAY: President of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in NYC since 2001, he served for 30 years on the Los Angeles City Council, Joel Wachs turns 87… Real estate developer, Tulane's basketball arena is named in his honor, Avron B. Fogelman turns 86… Professor emeritus of Jewish studies at Los Angeles Valley College and the former editor of Shofar, a peer-reviewed academic journal of Jewish studies, Zev Garber turns 85… CEO of Mandalay Entertainment and a co-owner of both the LA Dodgers and Golden State Warriors, Peter Guber turns 84… Former chairman and CEO of IBM until 2002, Lou Gerstner turns 84… Former member of the Knesset for the Likud and then the New Hope party, he is a son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Ze'ev Binyamin "Benny" Begin turns 83… Librarian at the Anti-Defamation League's New York City headquarters, Marianne Benjamin… Israeli historian, author and journalist, he earned a Ph.D. from Boston University in the 1970s, Tom Segev turns 81… Israeli journalist, author, television personality and political commentator, Ehud Yaari turns 81… Industrialist, magazine publisher, film producer and art collector, Peter M. Brant turns 79… Cantor emeritus at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus / Congregation Beth Tikvah, Sam Weiss… U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) turns 75… Former executive of Viacom and longtime associate of the company's former Chairman Sumner Redstone, Philippe Dauman turns 72… Previous president of Emory University, he is the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors, Gregory L. Fenves turns 69… Author and former U.S. military intelligence officer, she is now a human rights activist focused on Eastern Europe, Nina Willner turns 65… Chairman and president of Berexco, an oil and gas firm based in Wichita, Kan., Adam E. Beren… Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist, Andrey Adamovskiy turns 64… Satirist, novelist, short story writer and journalist, he is also a three-time “Jeopardy!” champion, Neal Pollack turns 56… AVP of corporate and community relations at Baltimore's Kennedy Krieger Institute, Dara Schapiro Schnee… Six-time Emmy award-winning television journalist, he now works for CBS News, Dave Malkoff turns 50… Founder and principal at narrative/change, a Philadelphia-based media and communications firm, Jonathan Lipman… Israeli journalist and the former chairman of the Union of Journalists in Israel, Yair Tarchitsky turns 46… Principal at Mosaic Realty Partners and board member of both The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore and the Orthodox Union, Isaac Pretter… CEO of eToro, one of the world's largest social investment networks, Yoni Assia… Former member of the U.S. national soccer team, now head of international recruitment and development at Atlanta United FC, Jonathan Spector turns 40… Co-founder of Roebling, Joshua Lachter… Senior political data reporter and the host of the "Margins of Error" podcast (both for CNN), Harry Enten turns 38… Litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Hannah Klain turns 35… Shortstop for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, now playing for the New York Boulders of the Frontier League, Assaf Lowengart turns 28… Kevin Golden...