Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover Rep. Adam Smith’s comments that he was pressured to vote to end U.S. aid to Israel by violent, far-left activists, and report on Rep. Pat Ryan’s offer to return donations from individuals who oppose his vote against Israel aid. We do a deep dive into how anti-Israel candidates raised and spent money ahead of their primaries, and look at how Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden death has left the South Carolina Republican’s legislative priorities in limbo. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ted Deutch, Hakeem Jeffries and Marco Rubio.

We have also launched a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.

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

For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Tributes pour in after death of Lindsey Graham, Israel’s staunch defender in the Senate; Vance alleges Israeli influence campaigns ‘manipulating’ American opinion on Iran war; In Georgia’s Senate race, tough choices ahead for the state’s Jewish community. Print the latest edition here.

The second-quarter congressional fundraising reports, which were posted on Wednesday, paint a picture of far-left, anti-Israel candidates drawing financial fuel from a growing small-dollar donor network of like-minded individuals. 

Nearly all of the Democratic Socialists of America-aligned or virulently anti-Israel candidates were among the Democrats’ leading fundraisers, including lawmakers (like Reps. Rashida Tlaib [D-MI] and Ilhan Omar [D-MN]) who are not facing particularly competitive races. 

The highlights: Abdul El-Sayed raised $4.6 million between April and June in the Michigan Senate primary, more than double the $2.1 million that Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) brought in. Disgraced former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner took in a whopping $9.1 million before dropping out amid allegations of rape, outpacing Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) $5.7 million haul.

On the House side, the DSA duo who won New York City congressional nominations last month — doctoral student Darializa Avila Chevalier and state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez — nearly hit the million-dollar mark in fundraising.  

Avila Chevalier raised $952,000 in the run-up to her primary against Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), coming close to matching the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairman’s fundraising. Meanwhile, Valdez brought in $942,000 for the quarter, significantly more than the party-backed progressive favorite Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president.

The list goes on: Adam Hamawy’s past ties to Islamist radicals didn’t prevent him from winning the nomination in New Jersey’s 12th District, and certainly didn’t stunt his fundraising. Hamawy raised $987,000 in the second quarter, a staggering sum for a low-profile open-seat race. That’s well more than double the total of his nearest fundraising rival.  

Melat Kiros, the 29-year-old DSA-backed insurgent who ousted Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), also outraised the longtime lawmaker in the homestretch of the campaign. Kiros brought in $712,000 between April and June, while DeGette only raised $694,000.

What does this say about the state of our politics? 

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

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, indicated he voted to cut off military aid to Israel in part because of sustained personal threats against his family and his staff, part of what he described as a violent and relentless campaign of intimidation by far-left anti-Israel activists, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

U-turn: Smith voted on Wednesday to support an amendment introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to strip $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel from the 2027 State Department appropriations bill — a major reversal by the hawkish Democrat after he previously told JI he planned to oppose the measure. In a statement explaining his vote in favor, the high-ranking defense lawmaker said it was a “very close vote.” He said that despite voting to cut off U.S. aid,  he was “deeply concerned” about the tactics used by far left activists to pressure him to support such a measure.

Read the full story here.

Letter of the law: Several House Republicans sent a letter on Thursday to the Department of Justice calling for an investigation into whether New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his international affairs commissioner, Ana María Archila, violated the Logan Act by scheduling a meeting with the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations.

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) said on Thursday that he no longer wants AIPAC's endorsement and would be "returning the funds" the group’s PAC had sent his campaign, following his vote on Wednesday, along with 102 other Democrats, to cut off all aid to Israel. The Hudson Valley Democrat also said he would refund individual donors who had previously supported his campaign if they made the request, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

No thanks: “I expect groups like AIPAC will not support me in my future elections and frankly, I don’t want their support,” he wrote in a social media post explaining his vote, saying he would no longer back $3.3 billion in annual military aid to Israel. In a separate post, Ryan confirmed he did not want AIPAC’s endorsement and would be “returning the funds” sent to his campaign. A spokesperson for Ryan clarified that he was returning AIPAC’s “PAC funds.” Ryan added, “I am grateful for any individual donor who has supported my campaign. My position is clear and if an individual requests a refund, I will happily provide it.”

Read the full story here.

Changing course: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said on Thursday that should Democrats regain control of the House in the upcoming midterm elections, the party will adopt a “broadly inclusive” but fundamentally new approach to policy on Israel, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.

Akif Çağatay Kılıç, a top foreign policy and security advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, downplayed the threat posed to the region by Iran’s nuclear program, while also repeatedly sidestepping questions about the status of Turkey’s Russian S-400 missile-defense system and efforts to acquire F-35 fighter jets, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports from the Aspen Security Forum.

Nothing to see here: “I don't perceive that we have a nuclear threat to the level that is being talked about, but we are closely monitoring it, and we're talking to our Iranian colleagues and friends on how they perceive to be working on their nuclear program — civil nuclear program,” Kılıç said.

Read the full story here.

Alternative view: Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi repeatedly emphasized on Wednesday that any deal with Iran should be comprehensive and ensure an end to Iran’s support for proxy groups and confront its efforts to destabilize the region.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch, who served as a Democratic member of Congress from 2010-2022, expressed frustration and disappointment with the decision of half of his former caucus to vote this week for an amendment to cut off U.S. military aid to Israel. The issue, Deutch told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod in an interview Thursday on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum, is too important and too sensitive for what some supporters characterized as a show vote on an amendment, led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), that even many of its supporters saw as deeply flawed.

What he said: Deutch said that he was “glad to see” that many of his colleagues acknowledged that the amendment was “bad policy” and “indirectly acknowledg[ed] that it would damage American interests.” Deutch added, “And yet [they] turned around to vote for it anyway. That was just a really disappointing reflection of the moment.” 

Read the full interview here.

Also at Aspen: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) argued on a panel that the war with Iran had irreparably damaged the U.S.’ reputation and capacity in the Middle East, and that Gulf states would now need to take the lead and negotiate with Iran over the region’s future. On a separate panel, Herro Mustafa Garg, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said the rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates hurts U.S. interests in the region and Washington should work to bring the countries and other Gulf Cooperation Council states back together.

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) sudden death last weekend is complicating an already difficult dynamic between Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump, as legislators try to muster enough support in the caucus to pass the president’s key legislative priorities, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. 

The gap left by Graham: Graham’s committee chairmanships, vast donor network and his close relationship with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio made him a critical leader in Washington whose presence helped move forward multiple bipartisan efforts, especially on foreign policy. He became one of the most geopolitically connected members of Congress, with world leaders and captains of industry on speed dial. “It’s impossible to fill that void, No. 1, so I’ll just take that off the table,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told JI at a press conference on Wednesday at NRSC headquarters on Capitol Hill. 

Read the full story here.

The latest fundraising filing period highlighted the diverse donor bases backing some of the most outspoken critics of Israel and capitalism, with candidates raking in hundreds of thousands from executives and entrepreneurs in tech, medicine and finance. Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman looked into how ascendant anti-Israel candidates raised and spent money just before and after their primaries.

Doctors’ notes: Darializa Avila Chevalier, the radical grad student who defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), reported nearly $350,000 in donations in the last three weeks of June. Among the many medical professionals to cut checks to Avila Chevalier was Dr. Mohammed Hadi, a Long Island-based physician charged in 2015 with conspiring to defraud Medicare and distribute oxycodone. Hadi ultimately pleaded guilty in 2024 to misdemeanor theft of government funds.

Read the full round-up here of how some of the most prominent figures got that windfall — and what they did with it.

Take This Sabbath Day: In The Wall Street Journal, David Bashevkin reflects on the benefits of unplugging during Shabbat. “The modern world desperately needs a weekly rhythm of rest. But if unplugging promises greater focus, stronger families and richer communities, why has it proved so difficult? The answer isn’t simply that we’re addicted to our phones. It’s that unplugging isn’t enough. A Sabbath isn’t merely the absence of technology. It is the presence of something richer. … The world doesn’t need more reminders to turn off its phones. We’re already receiving plenty of those. What we need is a culture capable of making that unplugging last. In racing toward the future, we are searching for something the ancient world never stopped handing down.” [WSJ]

Echoes of Weimar: In The Free Press, Rod Dreher, who is working on a book about the parallels between Weimar Germany and the present, looks at Vice President JD Vance’s embrace of antisemitic elements of the GOP and recent comments suggesting an Israeli role in scuttling talks with Iran. “As in Weimar Germany and the early years of Nazi rule, Jews were the canary in the cultural, political, and religious coal mine. They still are. Von Papen conservatism, in which respectable right-wing leaders seek to hold on to power by accommodating themselves to extremists, is a dangerous game, and a losing one. Of course criticism of Israel should not be taboo in American political discourse, but that is not what stab-in-the-back scapegoating of the Jewish state and its supporters for decisions made by the commander in chief amounts to.” [FreePress]

Does He Have Any Trump Cards?: Tablet’s Lee Smith considers President Donald Trump’s options vis-a-vis Iran amid stalled talks with Tehran. “The Trump team spent down prestige by negotiating with a side determined to humiliate it, while it stiff-armed domestic allies on whom it depends for political support. And that support could come in especially handy now as the administration returns to a war that is likely to become increasingly unpopular as long as the president fails to devise a strategy to win it. Perhaps even more consequentially, the vice president, ever keen to highlight how U.S. interests diverge from Israel’s, beat up on a partner it is likely to need if it decides to win the war.” [Tablet]

A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted representatives from 67 countries at the State Department on Thursday for a conference focused on far-left political terrorism…

Axios reports that President Donald Trump was angered by comments Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made to Fox News ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara earlier this month, in which the Israeli leader criticized the U.S.’ potential sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey; the flare-up came amid a weekslong push by Netanyahu for a White House meeting with the president, which has yet to materialize… 

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that while he has “no plans” to leave the Democratic Party, he would do so “if our party ever becomes — and just makes it official — the anti-Israel party,” adding that the issue would be one of “moral clarity”...

CNN reports that the son-in-law of Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who faces Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in November, is a social media influencer who has used his platform to promote antisemitic conspiracy theories, Nazi imagery and the white nationalist group Patriot Front on social media; David Alan Scheer II, who is married to Collins’ daughter Summer, also shared an antisemitic infographic that he attributed to his wife…

Shanghai-based financier Neville Roy Singham is facing a federal criminal investigation into whether he illegally funnelled funds through the far-left nonprofit groups he supports; the probe comes nearly a year after GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill called for the Trump administration to investigate Singham’s bankrolling of “extremist organizations fueling division and civil unrest”...

The interim vice chancellor of Australian National University apologized to Jewish students and faculty for the school’s environment during the 2024 anti-Israel encampment on the campus, referring to a risk assessment commissioned by the school that in July 2024 found that Jewish members of the ANU community had faced a “high risk of psychosocial harm” associated with the demonstrations…

Hilton will terminate two of its contracts in Frankfurt, Germany, after the Treasury Department sanctioned the owner of the properties, calling him a “key financier” for Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei… 

The Jewish News spotlights “Nabatele,” an inflatable synagogue hovering above the Venice Lagoon that its creator, Jewish Ukrainian artist and architect Anna Kamyshan, said is modeled on the wooden shtetl synagogues of Europe but is airborne to evoke the centuries when Jews had no nation of their own in which to build…

Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s office said that Colombia plans to open an embassy in Jerusalem, following the victory of President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, a right-wing lawyer who beat left-wing Sen. Iván Cepeda in last month’s election…

The Marcus Foundation is making a three-year, $27 million investment in Hillel International in a bid to bolster professional and student leaders on college campuses, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports…

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JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the 2023 Terra Gratia Red:

After three days sampling single-malt casks with Tod Bradbury, head of rare and collectible whiskies at Diageo, the London-based beverage distributor, I was certain my palate would refuse to fall in love with any wine worth writing about this week. Boy, was I wrong. I brought a small group up to Marciano Estate in St. Helena, Calif., where the vineyards sit among the oaks in the quiet northern stretch of Napa Valley. We tasted through a spectacular flight of big reds, and weary as it was, my tongue found its favorite: the 2023 Terra Gratia.

The wine is predominantly cabernet sauvignon, but the 10% cabernet franc is what makes it sing. It opens with soft, supple tannins and moves quickly into a lively dance of pear and plum, closing with one of my favorite finishes: strawberry sorbet. The name means “land of gratitude,” and it fits. Pair it with melt-away miso black cod, its sweet-savory glaze a lovely echo of the wine’s fruit. It drinks beautifully now and will age gracefully for 20 years.

SERBIAN AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP CAUCUS

U.S., Israeli and Central and Eastern European leadership attended their second annual regional strategic dialogue this week, which wrapped up on Wednesday in Belgrade, Serbia. The event, hosted by the Serbian-American Friendship Congress and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, featured speakers including AIPAC President Emeritus Lee Rosenberg, Serbian Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabić, Start-up Nation co-author Saul Singer and Startup Nation Central founder Wendy Singer.

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP

Hotelier and real estate developer, the creator of the boutique hotel concept, he was the co-founder of NYC's Studio 54 in 1977, Ian Schrager turns 80 on Sunday...

FRIDAY: Chef and two-time James Beard Foundation Award winner, now a consultant to the restaurant and food industries, Joyce Goldstein turns 91... Retired executive director of the North American Association of Synagogue Executives, Harry Hauser turns 83... Professor emeritus at Tel Aviv U, he served as a member of Knesset, minister of foreign affairs and ambassador to Spain, Shlomo Ben-Ami turns 83... Emmy Award-winning play-by-play announcer on radio for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Charley Steiner turns 77... Co-editor of the classic The Big Book of Jewish Humor, Rabbi Moshe Waldoks turns 77... Civil rights and criminal defense attorney, he is the co-founder with Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project, Peter J. Neufeld turns 76... Former chairman of the Board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, he is now a lecturer at UConn law school, Robert K. Yass... Rabbi emeritus at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pa., Lance Jonathan Sussman, Ph.D. turns 72... Managing GP and co-founder of Pitango Venture Capital, he serves as chairman of The Peres Center for Peace & Innovation, Nechemia “Chemi” J. Peres turns 68... CEO of Samson Energy Company, co-founder of Granite Properties and chair of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Stacy Helen Schusterman... Business development team lead at Quorum, Steven Lebowitz... Television and film director, Joshua Seftel turns 58... Actor best known for playing Sharona in the television series "Monk," Elizabeth Natalie "Bitty" Schram turns 58... Rabbi of the Young Israel of Woodmere (Nassau County, N.Y.), Rabbi Shalom Axelrod turns 57... Founder and CEO of Zeta Global, David A. Steinberg turns 57... Stand-up comedian, he was a finalist on the NBC reality-talent show "Last Comic Standing" in two seasons, Gary Gulman turns 56... Treasurer of Australia until 2022, now chairman of the Australian arm of Goldman Sachs, Joshua Anthony "Josh" Frydenberg turns 55... Blogger, journalist and science fiction author, Cory Efram Doctorow turns 55... Chief impact officer at the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, Naomi Knopf... President and CEO of Mashber Strategies, developing campaigns to fight antisemitism and respond to different types of hate, Matthew E. Berger... Public television host, Shannan Butler Adler... Former member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Boaz Toporovsky turns 46... Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian, podcaster and writer, Brett Goldstein turns 46... News director at Jewish Currents, previously at Barron’s and the Forward, Josh Nathan-Kazis... Senior account manager at Red Banyan, Jared Sorhaindo... Growth strategy and operations lead and executive director at JPMorgan Chase, Melanie Ettleson... Para table tennis player, he won medals at the 2020 (gold) and 2024 (bronze) Summer Paralympics, Ian Seidenfeld turns 25... Daughter of Jared and Ivanka, Arabella Rose Kushner turns 15... 

SATURDAY: Israeli nuclear physicist and professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University, Jonas Alster turns 93... Theoretical chemist, 1981 Nobel laureate in chemistry, he has also published plays and poetry, born Roald Safran, Roald Hoffmann turns 89… President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County, Calif., Jan Meisels Allen... Former three-term mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, Stephen Mandel turns 81... Former prime minister of Peru, Yehude Simon Munaro turns 79... Longtime executive director of the MLB Players Association and then the NHL Players Association, Donald Fehr turns 78... Beverly Hills resident, Felisa Bluwal Pivko... Finance, real estate and nursing home executive, Leonard Grunstein turns 74... Antisemitism scholar and one of the authors of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, he is the COO of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, Mark Weitzman... Former Israeli Police spokesman, he is now a senior national radio broadcaster in Israel and an international talk-show host, Elihu Ben-Onn turns 72... Seattle-area consultant, Elihu Rubin... Former finance chairman of the RNC, Elliott B. Broidy turns 69... Former minister for congressional affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, he was previously the Israeli ambassador to Belarus, Martin Peled-Flax turns 68... Partner at Clifford Chance, Philip Wagman... CEO and co-founder at Let's Bench, a publisher of customized keepsake prayer books and benchers, Yitz Woolf... Associate professor of cybersecurity law at the U.S. Naval Academy and formerly an attorney at Covington & Burling, Jeffrey Michael Kosseff turns 48... Deputy director of the White House National Economic Council until 2022, now a professor at NYU law school, David Kamin... Wellness specialist at the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Rabbi Joui Hessel... Co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alexander Ryvchin turns 43... Reporter for “NBC Nightly News” and “Today,” Gadi Schwartz turns 43... Editorial director for culture and lifestyle at 70 Faces Media, Molly Tolsky... Freelance graphic designer, Lauren Friedlander... CEO of Moving Traditions, Shuli Karkowsky... Senior spokesperson at the U.S. Treasury until 2023, now the head of U.S. public affairs at Coinbase, Julia Krieger... Deputy editor for crypto at SoFi, Philip Rosenstein... Foil fencer who competed for the U.S. at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympic Games, she won a team gold medal at the 2024 games, Jacqueline Dubrovich turns 32... Freelance Jewish education consultant for BBYO, Yosef Tarshish... Istanbul resident, Izi Doenyas... Ted Rosenberg... 

SUNDAY: Retired Israeli airline pilot, he successfully thwarted an in-flight hijacking by Leila Khaled in 1970, Uri Bar-Lev turns 95... Interactive designer, author and artist, in 1986 he married Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late JFK, Edwin Arthur "Ed" Schlossberg turns 81... Retired professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University, he served in the Dutch Senate and then as the minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands, Uriel "Uri" Rosenthal turns 81... Co-founder of Limmud FSU, she co-founded UJA-Federation of New York's Women's Executive Circle, Sandra F. Cahn... Jewish communal activist in Connecticut, Linda Meyer Russ... Sportswriter for The Athletic and author of three books on baseball, Jayson Stark turns 75... Former CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, he owned the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics from 2001 to 2006, Howard Schultz turns 73... Retired judicial assistant at the Montgomery County (Pa.) Court of Common Pleas, Deenie Silow... Rabbi of Congregation Beth Abraham in Bergenfield, N.J., and rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University in NYC, Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger turns 71... Former chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings (owner of retailers Sears and Kmart), Edward Scott "Eddie" Lampert turns 64... Israel's ambassador to Canada until 2023, Ronen Pinchas Hoffman turns 63... Pulitzer Prize-winning NY Times reporter until 2017 and author of The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men, Eric Lichtblau turns 61... Israeli actor, model and film producer, Yael Abecassis turns 59... Spokesperson to the Arab media in the Israel Prime Minister's Office, Ofir Gendelman turns 55... Member of Congress (D-IL-8), Raja Krishnamoorthi turns 53... Co-chairman and CEO of CheckAlt, an independent provider of treasury and lockbox solutions, Shai Stern... Senior writer and NBA Insider for ESPN, Ramona Leor Shelburne turns 47... Former soccer star at the University of Virginia, now working in the healthcare industry, Chad Prince turns 47... Former deputy mayor of the city of Haifa, now a real estate developer, Shai Abuhatsira turns 46... Ultra-marathon runner, he performs as a mentalist and magician, Oz Pearlman turns 44... Associate partner at McKinsey & Company, Alexis Blair Wolfer... CEO of Clever Bee Academy in Hewlett, N.Y., Ezra David Beren... Israel editor at Jewish Insider, Tamara Zieve turns 41... Director of operations at Tide Realty Capital, Yanky Schorr... White House bureau chief at The Washington Post, Isaac Arnsdorf... Venue coordinator at JW3 London, a UK-based charity engaged in Jewish arts, culture and community, Caroline Mendelsohn Lawrence... First-ever Orthodox Jewish player selected in the MLB Draft, picked No. 77 overall in 2021, now on the minor league injured list, Jacob Steinmetz turns 23... Former EVP and CEO of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, Dr. George Ban... Zach Houghton...