Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Rep. Jake Auchincloss about his vote in support of cutting U.S. aid to Israel, and report on yesterday’s attack in Manhattan in which a Jewish man was stabbed by an individual reportedly yelling "Allahu Akbar." We cover President Donald Trump’s 11th-hour decision to link the just-signed civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia to Riyadh joining the Abraham Accords, and report on the Trump administration’s withdrawal of its subpoena requesting information on Jewish staff at the University of Pennsylvania. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alma Hernandez, Daryl Messinger, Tevi Troy and Dara Horn.

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 an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. 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: Ed Miliband’s appointment as U.K. foreign secretary indicates tougher British policy toward Israel to come; Washington state’s Jewish Democrats fight for a place in a party they no longer recognize; and Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Jewish liaison says his old boss is promoting antisemitism. Print the latest edition here.

President Donald Trump’s capture of the Republican Party did not happen at once, and was memorably met with resistance from some lawmakers who would later become his allies. 

Many Republicans, during the rise of Trump, cast mostly party-line votes alongside the president and rarely spoke out publicly when they disagreed. But there were notable times when prominent party leaders used their political capital to stand up for their principles on key issues, such as then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) outspoken advocacy for Ukraine funding or Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) decisive vote against repealing Obamacare. 

There may be a similar political calculus at play for some typically pro-Israel Democrats, who are facing immense political pressure from loud activists in their party base to turn against the Jewish state. Nearly half of the House Democratic caucus voted to cut off aid to Israel last week, a record number that included 18 lawmakers who had previously been endorsed by AIPAC and were seen as strong allies of the U.S.-Israel relationship. 

AIPAC cut off fundraising to their reelection campaigns after the vote, and how these lawmakers will position themselves on Israel policy going forward is now uncertain. 

Not all of the Democrats who supported the amendment have adopted an anti-Israel worldview. Some said that they still support Israel, but wanted to make a statement, via a bill that was certain to fail, that they disagree with many recent actions of the Israeli government. 

It’s also possible that some of them — especially those in districts where they face a credible primary threat from the left — took the vote to attempt to placate anti-Israel activists without making any real change in policy, like the Republicans who would offer an olive branch to their right-wing base by voting contrary to their longstanding beliefs.

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

Of the 103 House Democrats who voted to cut off the $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel last week, few came as more of a surprise than Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), a Jewish Democrat who has generally been a reliable pro-Israel vote in the House. Auchincloss, in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod this week, said that he approached the vote as a protest of the war with Iran, and argued that the vote wasn’t anti-Israel.

War worries: “This president, in conjunction with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, has launched an illegal, catastrophic war that nine out of 10 Israelis think has led to Iranian gains, and that even fewer of my constituents support,” Auchincloss said. “And foreign military financing is a form of appropriations for a war I believe to be illegal and unwise.”

Read the full interview here.

A Jewish man was stabbed on Thursday afternoon on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, along with one other victim, in what was potentially a hate crime, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman and Haley Cohen report. Jewish groups had warned a day earlier that a video released by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday night railing against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he accused Israel of a litany of war crimes, put Jewish New Yorkers at risk.

Details: The NYPD press office told JI that police responded at 1:31 p.m. to a 911 call near West 84th Street and Central Park West and found a 57-year-old man conscious and alert with a stab wound to the back before attacking a second victim, who was not believed to be Jewish, two blocks away. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch wrote on X, “Detectives are continuing to work the case and determine motive, but according to victim and witness statements, [the suspect] yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ during both attacks.” 

Read the full story here.

Bonus: The New York Times reports that Mamdani had already consulted with attorneys over Netanyahu’s potential arrest — who determined that Mamdani lacked the authority to order the Israeli leader’s arrest — prior to the mayor’s public comments that he was in “active conversation” over the legality of such a move.

The Trump administration withdrew its controversial subpoena requesting that the University of Pennsylvania provide lists of Jewish university affiliates and their personal contact information, according to a Thursday court filing, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

University statement: “With the support of many members of the community who have stood with Penn throughout, the University has been able to protect its employees’ rights and none of the subpoenaed personal contact information was disclosed,” a university spokesperson told JI. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had requested, as part of its investigation into antisemitism at Penn, lists of Jewish-related organizations on campus, their membership rosters and contact information for the employees involved, among other information. 

Read the full story here.

Alma Hernandez, a Jewish Democratic legislator in Arizona who is known as an outspoken supporter of Israel, claimed victory on Wednesday in a bitterly contested primary for an open state Senate seat in Tucson, hailing the win as a repudiation of the far left, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. With all votes counted in Arizona’s 20th Legislative District, Hernandez pulled in 54% of the vote share, defeating Perez by eight points, according to unofficial results on the secretary of state’s website. 

Victory message: “The voters in my district rejected antisemitism and rejected the DSA’s agenda, and clearly rejected what the mayor, the congresswoman and the county attorney wanted,” Hernandez, a term-limited House member, said in a statement to JI, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America. “We proved that elections are won by knocking on doors and talking to voters, not by social media or online outrage and your friends’ endorsements.”

Read the full story here.

Endorsement diaries: Connie Chan, a progressive member of the San Francisco board of supervisors running to succeed retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), claimed an endorsement on Tuesday from Track AIPAC, a virulently anti-Israel group that has faced accusations of spreading antisemitism.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) claimed this week that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the White House want to see a provision on U.S.-Israel defense technology cooperation stripped out of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. Neither the Pentagon nor the White House responded to requests for comment from Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on whether such claims were accurate.

What she said: “Today, I was in a critical national security meeting with Secretary Hegseth where I helped secure his commitment that Section 219 would be stripped from the NDAA in conference. Protecting America’s intellectual property for future generations is non-negotiable,” Boebert said on X on Wednesday.

Read the full story here.

Trade tensions: Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, insisted at a Wednesday hearing that Israel could not be excluded from the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor, and called out U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack for apparent efforts to advance an alternative trade corridor through Syria.

The new civilian nuclear cooperation agreement already signed between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is now contingent on Riyadh joining the Abraham Accords, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday morning. The president’s Truth Social post — in which he said the deal is “totally subject” to Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel, a provision not previously disclosed by the administration — was quickly affirmed by the White House, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.

Confirmed condition: “Yes, this deal with Saudi Arabia, the energy deal, is contingent on this condition as far as the president is concerned,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing on Thursday. “So we’ll continue to talk with our Saudi counterparts to get the deal finalized, and hopefully see them joining the Abraham Accords very soon.”

Read the full story here.

View from the Hill: Congressional Democrats are lining up in opposition to the Trump administration’s reported nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that could allow Riyadh to enrich uranium for civilian purposes, while Republicans are mostly supportive of the effort, JI’s Marc Rod and Christina Sher report.

Language Lesson: In The Wall Street Journal, Adam Louis Klein examines the parallels between those who accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza and the language employed by the Hutus as they conducted a genocide in Rwanda. “As in Rwanda, anticolonialism and genocide inversion have converged. Israel is imagined not only as a state accused of genocide, but as a people whose identity as foreign settlers makes genocide their destiny. … Whether directed against the Tutsis in Rwanda or against Israelis — now cast as genocidal colonizers by a cohort of anti-Zionist academics and nonprofit advocacy groups — portraying a people as foreign usurpers and inherent perpetrators isn’t neutral. It is a well-recognized prelude to violence.” [WSJ]

VP's Vitriol: The Wall Street Journal's Kimberley Strassel reflects on the criticism she faced from both Vice President JD Vance's office and his supporters following a column she wrote citing legislators in Washington discussing Vance's absence from Capitol Hill. "One answer is simply that Mr. Vance is a sensitive bunny. If he wants to be president, he’ll need to get over that. But the other answer is that Mr. Vance knows his 'national conservative' ambitions for the GOP aren’t landing. Republicans are increasingly up in arms over a Vance agenda that sounds like Bernie Sanders. Hence his Vance team’s need to invalidate anyone who disagrees as a 'RINO' or a 'tool' of special interests or an 'elite' — the better to allow them to define what counts as a 'real' Republican." [WSJ]

Going Nuclear: In his Substack, “It’s Noon in Israel,” Israeli journalist Amit Segal considers President Donald Trump’s decision to agree to a deal that would allow Saudi Arabia to have a civilian nuclear program. “Trump is a compartmental thinker. It has served Israel before — the Abraham Accords worked precisely because he declined to treat the Palestinian question as the gate through which everything else must pass. It has also cost Israel. In May 2025, he asked Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to normalize relations with Jerusalem in exchange for sanctions relief, then lifted the sanctions anyway, squandering the leverage and ending the Israeli-Syrian talks that were ongoing.” [ItsNooninIsrael]

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

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The Treasury Department announced sanctions on a U.K.-based Muslim Brotherhood official as well as several organizations based in Gaza, Indonesia and Turkey that provided financial support for Hamas…

The Defense Department lowered the number of U.S. service member fatalities during the war with Iran from 18 to 14, with officials telling The New York Times that the four soldiers killed last week were removed from the list because those troops were killed during the ceasefire with Tehran…

The House passed a second Iran war powers resolution on Thursday following the resumption of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, with a handful of Republicans who have argued that continued operations violate the War Powers Act again siding with Democrats on the measure, JI’s Marc Rod reports…

The State Department summoned Malaysia’s ambassador in Washington over the decision by Kuala Lumpur to deport a dual Israeli American citizen traveling to the Southeast Asian nation for a digital nomad program; the meeting came after a group of House Democrats called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to push back on Malaysia’s efforts to deport Israelis…

U.S. representatives to the United Nations slammed Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories who has faced repeated accusations of antisemitism, and said at a hearing on Wednesday that the next U.N. secretary-general will be faced with a choice of whether to turn the page on the institution’s antisemitic and anti-Israel bias, JI’s Marc Rod reports…

Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), Andy Barr (R-KY), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Young Kim (R-CA), Maria Salazar (R-FL), Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Randy Fine (R-FL) reintroduced a bill to permanently prevent any U.S. contributions to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency…

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and 14 other Senate Democrats introduced a resolution demanding that the Senate's legal counsel bring a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the gift of a Qatari 747 jet to serve as Air Force One constitutes an illegal foreign emolument banned by the constitution…

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) named presidential historian Tevi Troy and author Dara Horn to a commission established to study the possible transfer of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History to the Smithsonian Institution…

In The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, warns of the damage that the rise of Democratic Socialists of America-affiliated candidates are doing to Democratic efforts to flip the House and Senate in November…

The Republican Jewish Coalition announced its endorsement of Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) in the state’s upcoming special election to replace her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who died earlier this month, on the November ballot…

Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) said she will back far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in the state’s Democratic primary…

U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner — who is currently residing in Paris — told the New York Post that he doesn’t want to “live in a city with a blatantly antisemitic mayor and his antisemitic wife” — in a reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and First Lady Rama Duwaji — and planned to relocate his primary residence from New York City to Florida, while maintaining his Manhattan apartment…

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League reached a settlement with Reed College, in which the school agreed to adopt a range of measures, including an updated discrimination policy detailing how anti-Zionist conduct can constitute unlawful discrimination…

Hillel International is withdrawing an amicus brief it filed in support of Harvard University in the school’s legal fight against the Trump administration; a spokesperson for the group said the brief, which praised Harvard’s efforts to combat antisemitism as the university works to keep roughly $2.7 billion in federal funding that had previously been frozen by the government, was “filed without having gone through our internal review process”...

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross interviews Daryl Messinger, who last month was tapped as chair of the Israel Policy Forum, about shifting sentiment on Israel and efforts to advance the two-state solution…

The World Climbing Association blocked a motion to suspend Israel from the international climbing body following pushback from the climbing federations in the U.S., Australia, and Cyprus…

A Sydney man who wore a shirt with a swastika outside a hearing in which survivors of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack testified before Australia’s royal commission investigating antisemitism was fined $1,500, with a judge ruling that the man was “frustrated with the horrific events [in the Middle East] as he perceives them”...

A U.K. government spokesperson said the country was “ready 24/7 to defend itself” following threats from Tehran to target British military bases that London is allowing the U.S. to use for defensive attacks against Iran…

Satellite images obtained by The Wall Street Journal indicate that Iran is quickly rebuilding infrastructure damaged by the U.S. and Israel earlier this year…

Zehava Shaul, the mother of slain Israeli Staff Sgt. Oren Shaul, whose body was held by Hamas for more than a decade after he was killed in 2014, died at 71…

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JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Alavida Malbec 2025:

Except for a small ownership stake in the Stuttgart Kickers, soccer never held much claim on me. Argentina changed that. Israel’s great friend and ally reignited my passion for the game this summer, and I watched nearly every match the team played, cheering as though they wore blue and white, which, come to think of it, they do. The final did not end the way I had hoped. But this year Tisha B’Av ended on a Thursday night, and with Shabbat around the corner, wine returned to my table early. The choice made itself: a great bottle from Argentina, to honor a friendship and to raise a glass to a team that fell just short, yet made a whole nation, and one distant admirer, proud.

The Alavida Malbec 2025 is equal to the moment. The opening is not a sip but a full meal: blueberries and raspberries pour across the palate and refuse to leave. The mid-palate mellows just enough to let you catch your breath. Then the finish arrives, deep, thunderous, and altogether alive. It will keep you up all night, and you will not mind at all. The wine will hold gracefully for several years yet. Pair it with a whole trout grilled over open flame, its skin crackling and bronzed, its flesh sweet and smoky with lemon and char, and let the evening unfold slowly.

Purchase a bottle here.

ILIA YEFIMOVICH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Israelis gathered on Thursday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tisha B’Av, the day that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples and is marked by fasting and reading from the Book of Lamentations.

CHAD SALVADOR/VARIETY VIA GETTY IMAGES

Screenwriter, director and producer, best known for creating "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Sex and the City," Darren Star turns 65 on Saturday... 

FRIDAY: Former U.S. ambassador to Romania, now senior counsel at Covington and Burling, Alfred H. Moses turns 97... Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who worked for ABC News and CBS' “60 Minutes,” Lowell Bergman turns 81... Israeli physician, author and playwright, he is the younger brother of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Iddo Netanyahu turns 74... Political consultant known for his role in both of President Obama's presidential campaigns, Joel Benenson turns 74... Retired Los Angeles-based business and real estate attorney, Michael Jeffrey Bordy... Radio anchor and reporter on both CBS nationally and NYC's WCBS, Michael Sugerman... Member of Congress (D-FL) until 2022, he previously served as the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist turns 70... Russian businessman, one of the largest real estate investors in Russia, he is a member of the Board of Patrons of The Conference of European Rabbis, Boris Mints turns 68... Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Judge Patty Shwartz turns 65... Presidential historian, professor at McGill and senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, Gil Troy turns 65... Director of donor development for AIPAC, he is a retired NFL player who played for the Packers and the Cowboys where he won in Super Bowl XXVII, Alan “Shlomo” Veingrad turns 63... Founder of the Migdal Oz seminary for women in Gush Etzion, she is a granddaughter of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Esti Rosenberg turns 61... Film director and producer, Douglas Eric Liman turns 61... Partner in Frost Brown Todd and author of The Liberal Case for Israel, he was the first-ever Jewish statewide elected official in Kentucky (state treasurer), Jonathan Miller turns 59... Author, he wrote roughly 600 stories for the “My Ride” column on exotic cars for The Wall Street Journal, A.J. Baime turns 55... Mayor of Asheville, N.C., she was elected in 2013, 2017 and 2022, Esther E. Manheimer turns 55... Actor, writer, podcaster and comedian, Jamie Denbo turns 53... President of Access Computer Technology in West Bloomfield, Mich., he is a rabbi, entrepreneur and social media expert, Jason Miller turns 50... Member of Congress (D-MI) and a founding member of "The Squad," Rashida Harbi Tlaib turns 50... President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas... EVP and CFO of Morgan Stanley, Sharon Yeshaya turns 47... Actor, screenwriter and director, she is married to Seth Rogen, Lauren Miller Rogen turns 44... Former member of the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, Aviva M. Futerman Schochat... Co-founder and partner at Orfin Ventures, an incubator and deep-tech venture fund, Adam Finkel... Public relations manager at The Avon Company, Sarah Citrenbaum... Actor, best known for her role as Nomi Segal on the Freeform comedy drama "Grown-ish," Emily Taryn Arlook turns 36... 2020 graduate of Yale Law School, he is the CEO and founder of Learned Hand, building AI tools for judges, Shlomo Klapper... 

SATURDAY: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising participant and Holocaust survivor, she is the subject of the 2021 documentary "I am Here," Ella Blumenthal turns 105... Former publisher and editor-in-chief of Jewish Lights Publishing, he is an economist and religious scholar best known for his interfaith work, Stuart M. Matlins turns 86... Cinematographer, whose work includes "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "The Empire Strikes Back," Peter Suschitzky turns 85... Member of the New York City Council from 2014 to 2021, Alan N. Maisel turns 80... Born in Casablanca, nightclub owner, entrepreneur and film producer, he produced "The Woman in Red" and "Weekend at Bernie's," Victor Drai turns 79... Former IDF brigadier general (he was part of Operation Entebbe in 1976), then a member of Knesset, Efraim "Effi" Eitam turns 74... Voiceover artist, he is also the writer, producer, director and narrator of a documentary about the restoration of a NYC synagogue, Peter Grossman... Chairman of Vibrant Capital Partners and chair emeritus of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, Philip Darivoff... Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist, she is a staff writer at The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum turns 62... Retired MLB pitcher from a small Jewish community in the Dominican Republic, he maintains a kosher home, José Bautista turns 62... Israeli journalist, former news anchor and author of a non-fiction book and a novel, Oshrat Kotler turns 61... Former CEO of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, Rabbi Steven Weil... Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, he is a NYC-based criminal defense attorney in many high-profile cases, especially involving Russian-born defendants, Arkady L. Bukh turns 54... Head coach of the men's basketball team at Kent State University since 2011, Rob Senderoff turns 53... Radio personality on Baltimore's WBAL and 98 Rock, Josh Spiegel turns 51... Senior communications lead at the National Association for Healthcare Quality, Erin Seidler... Experimental electronic music producer, composer and singer, known professionally as Oneohtrix Point Never, Daniel Lopatin turns 44... Film and television actor, Michael Welch turns 39... Pitcher for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics and at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he is also a real estate broker at CBRE, Joseph "Joey" Samuel Wagman turns 35... 

SUNDAY: Former mayor of Las Vegas for 12 years, where he was succeeded by his wife, Oscar Goodman turns 87... Former administrator at the University of Illinois and the University of Houston, chancellor of the California State University system and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Barry Munitz turns 85... Journalist and author or co-author of nearly two dozen books, both of her parents were killed in Auschwitz, Paulette Cooper turns 84... Author, podcaster, columnist and rabbi, Shammai Engelmayer turns 81... Member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2012 to 2020, Richard Stark turns 74... Chief medical officer at F|42, Alan H. Spiro, MD, MBA... Film and television director, she is best known for her work on the Showtime drama series “Homeland,” Lesli Linka Glatter turns 73... Sports columnist, author, television and radio personality, he works for ESPN's Charlotte-based SEC Network, Paul Finebaum turns 71... Venture capitalist, until his wife died in 2024 he was a brother-in-law of Sen. Mitch McConnell, James W. Breyer turns 65... Actor, comedian and producer, Jeremy Samuel Piven turns 61... Former correspondent at ABC News for 23 years, now a founder at Ten Percent Media, Daniel B. "Dan" Harris turns 55... Physician and attorney, he is the founder and chairman of the D.C.-based consulting firm Stonington Global, Nicholas Muzin turns 51... Secretary of homeland security, Markwayne Mullin turns 49... Actor best known for her role in the Spider-Man trilogy, Mageina Tovah Begtrup turns 47... Partner of the D.C. office of ColdSpark, Nachama Soloveichik... Senior Reporter at CNN's Jerusalem bureau, Tal Shalev... Israeli born classical music composer, Gilad Hochman turns 44... Israeli born R&B singer and songwriter, Hila Bronstein turns 43... Communications manager at Cetera Financial Group, Lauren Garfield-Herrin... Actor and filmmaker, Hallie Meyers-Shyer turns 39... Member of the comedy group "The Try Guys," Zachary Andrew "Zach" Kornfeld turns 36... Associate policy director for complex care at United Healthcare , Drew Gerber... NFL running back who retired in 2024, despite his last name he is not an MOT, Tarik Cohen turns 31... Pitcher on the Israeli Women's National Softball Team, now a curriculum designer at Great Hearts Academies, Tamara "T" Statman Schoen turns 29... President at B&B Digital Media, Tomer Barazani...