Daily Kickoff
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2026
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at Politico’s attack on a Jewish aide to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, which was published on Yom Kippur, and talk to Seattle Jewish leaders about their concerns regarding rising antisemitism in the city. We report on a call from Jewish leaders in Michigan for former Vice President Kamala Harris to appeal to Abdul El-Sayed, the state’s Democratic Senate nominee with whom she campaigned, on his rhetoric on Israel and antisemitism, and talk to experts about the challenges, some self-inflicted, facing Saudi Arabia as it deals with ongoing attacks by the Houthis in Yemen. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Jacky Rosen, Palmer Luckey and Zibby Owens.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Tamara Zieve and Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today's Agenda
The U.N. General Assembly’s high-level week continues today in New York. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is slated to address the gathering during this morning’s session.
The Trump administration’s Board of Peace is expected to unveil its $2.45 billion Gaza reconstruction and governance plan today at a meeting of its members. The 66-project proposal, a Board of Peace official told Axios, “shows how to stand up a government from nothing, an economy from shambles and a territory from disaster.”
UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the New York chapters of the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee and the Israeli American Council are among the groups holding a rally near the U.N. this evening calling on world leaders to scale up efforts to address antisemitism.
In Washington, American Friends of Lubavitch is hosting its annual Lamplighter Awards dinner. This year's honorees include U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council Chairman Jeff Miller and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Elsewhere in Washington, the Anti-Defamation League is bringing survivors of antisemitic attacks to Capitol Hill for meetings with legislators.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a classified briefing this morning with CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper.
One Thing to Know
On Monday morning — as Jews around the world marked Yom Kippur — Politico published a pointed attack targeting David Milstein, an observant Jew who serves as senior advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, labeling his actions as a “national security threat” while failing to provide evidence for the claim.
In a recent WhatsApp message sent to wedding invitees, Milstein, who lives in Israel, wrote that those who wanted to give a “monetary wedding gift” in either “U.S. dollars or Israeli shekels” to the couple could do so through a provided QR code, Politico’s Adam Wren reported.
Politico’s Monday morning flagship newsletter “Playbook” led with the story, accompanied by the subject line: “Huckabee’s ‘walking counterintel red flag’” — using Milstein’s wedding message as a hook to cite anonymous intelligence sources who labeled him a national security threat.
An individual with knowledge of the situation told Jewish Insider that Wren messaged Milstein just before 7 p.m. ET on Sunday — or 2 a.m. local time on Monday in Israel, where Milstein was observing Yom Kippur — to inform him the story would run the following morning.
The Big Reads
canary call
Two Seattle Jewish leaders warn of Jewish complacency in face of rising antisemitism
Two of Seattle’s top Jewish leaders are sounding the alarm about the costs of ignoring rising antisemitism, offering up their own city as a “canary in the coal mine” — a warning of how Jewish communal apathy can allow individual acts of discrimination to slowly erode Jewish life. "I've been stunned by the effort to erase the Jewish community in so many parts of civic life across the country," Joe Schocken, one of the authors of a new eJewishPhilanthropy op-ed laying out the stark warning, told Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik in an interview last week. "I've been deeply involved in many aspects of the Jewish community, and sadly steeped in Jewish history. That this effort to push the Jewish community out, this effort to scapegoat the Jewish community, has happened so quickly is just stunning to me."
veep appeal
Michigan Jewish leaders urge Kamala Harris to appeal to El-Sayed on antisemitism, Israel
Michigan Jewish leaders on Tuesday urged former Vice President Kamala Harris — who is set to campaign with the party’s Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, in Michigan this week — to appeal to El-Sayed on issues related to antisemitism and Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The group of Jewish leaders, writing to Harris under the banner of the Nonnegotiable Michigan campaign, said that they are longtime supporters of her and the Democratic Party, and called on her to press El-Sayed to accept the five demands on Jewish issues and Israel that the Nonnegotiable campaign has presented.
Michigan maneuver: Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she is endorsing El-Sayed after having previously voiced reservations over his views on Israel and antisemitism, JI’s Emily Jacobs reports.
riyadh's reckoning
Saudi Arabia’s Houthi crisis is partly of its own making, analysts say
Saudi Arabia is facing an escalating Houthi offensive along the Red Sea coast and direct attacks on its own territory, in what regional analysts describe as a turning point in Riyadh’s conflict with the Iran-backed terror group — and a crisis they say was created in part by Riyadh's own miscalculations. Regional analysts told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea that Saudi Arabia's current position stems in part from its failure to strategically prepare during a yearslong pause in fighting. Experts say that Riyadh’s rift with the United Arab Emirates has also weakened the anti-Houthi coalition in Yemen, making the challenge more daunting.
The Rundown
The rest of today’s original stories from Jewish Insider — full stories, all published on the site.
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
President Donald Trump signed a commission establishing Secretary of State Marco Rubio as national security advisor, a position Rubio has held in an acting capacity for more than a year following U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz’s departure from the role; Rubio is the first secretary of state since Henry Kissinger to hold both roles simultaneously…
The U.S. proposed a $5 billion investment — to be matched by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq and Jordan — in a new fund to rebuild energy infrastructure across the region that had been damaged or destroyed during the war with Iran…
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi pledged to disarm the Iran-backed militias operating in Iraq by June 2027 as Baghdad faces pressure from the Trump administration to take a stronger stance against the groups and as Tehran seeks to deepen its control in the region…
Palmer Luckey’s Erebor Bank is moving toward an expansion into Syria, a move that would help to reintegrate Damascus into global financial systems…
Yasser Abbas, a son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, attempted to circumvent a State Department ban on Palestinian officials entering the country by using his Canadian passport to try to board a flight to the U.S.; Abbas was denied boarding due to a failure to produce requisite entry documents…
The New York Times interviews Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) about her 2028 plans, including whether she plans to seek reelection to her House seat, challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for his Senate seat or pursue a White House bid; the New York Democrat told the Times of a presidential bid, “If I were to run in this cycle, and not win, I would be done”...
A superior court judge in California ruled that the Oakland Unified School District must take substantive steps to address antisemitism in the district, determining that the northern California district did not fully comply with a California Department of Education directive to implement corrective measures in the district’s schools…
RedBird IMI CEO Jeff Zucker will make a cameo in the upcoming A24 film “Primetime,” which looks at the 2000s-era “Dateline” investigation series “To Catch a Predator” and its host, Chris Hansen...
The Art Institute of Chicago will return a 1913 Jean Metzinger oil painting to the descendants of the work’s Jewish owner, after the work was forcibly sold by the Nazis in 1940 following the German invasion of the Netherlands…
The man accused of opening fire outside a synagogue in Belleville, Canada, on Sunday died from injuries sustained during an exchange of gunfire with police outside of the building; the man, 29-year-old Sean Ward, was a military veteran who had espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the COVID-19 pandemic…
U.K. police said that they foiled an “imminent” attack on the Manchester Jewish community following the arrest of two men just prior to Yom Kippur; the arrests came after a year after two Jewish men were killed during an attack on a synagogue in the city during Yom Kippur…
An Argentine court charged seven Iranians and one Lebanese national — all of whom remain at large — in connection with the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in which 85 people were killed and more than 300 injured…
Microsoft named Ohad Jassin, the company’s corporate vice president, as the head of its research and development center in Israel; Jassin will assume the role in November, succeeding Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk…
Singer Boy George announced an upcoming concert in Tel Aviv, slated for Nov. 4; the performance comes nearly a decade after the artist’s last trip to Israel, when he performed at the same venue in 2017…
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Different Collateral Damage: In The Wall Street Journal, former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov responds to the recent film “NAZA,” a film about civilian deaths in Gaza resulting from the Israel-Hamas war whose title was taken from the term for collateral damage. “A dead Palestinian child isn’t made less dead by a statistic. But neither should we ignore what Israel risked to reduce that number. If Israel had cared less about NAZA, perhaps I would have come home sooner. Fewer Israeli soldiers might have died. Fewer hostages might have died. But more Palestinians would have.” [WSJ]
A House Divided, Again: The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood does a deep dive into the challenges facing Israeli voters ahead of next month’s elections, amid resurgent tensions between the country’s religious and secular communities. “The ambition of every gourd is to escape ephemerality, outlast its predecessors, and leave Israel less hapless than Jonah and more shaded from the scorching threats that go along with being a nation-in-progress. The parties fill a niche in a bewilderingly diverse ideological ecosystem … Better to stop trying to figure out who is right and just try to figure out how to get along. That pragmatic exasperation is the starting point of liberal democracy.” [TheAtlantic]
Picture of the Day
American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch (third from left) met on Tuesday with North Macedonia Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski (center right) on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly high-level week, one of dozens of sit-downs AJC officials are holding with leaders from more than 70 countries during the week — the group's annual "diplomatic marathon." Read more from JI’s Marc Rod here.
Birthdays
Eli Dershwitz, three-time Olympic saber fencer, he was the first American to claim gold in saber at the World Fencing Championships, turns 31
AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES
Rabbi Shubert Spero, pulpit rabbi in Cleveland for more than 30 years, then a professor at Bar-Ilan University, turns 103
Richard Bergman, Sarasota Jewish Federation executive
Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer, he has sold more than 300 million records and performed at more than 5,000 concerts for over 60 million people, turns 83
David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee from 1990-2022, turns 77
Mark J. Dollinger, president at Trendlines America
Josh Fidler, co-chairman and COO of Chesapeake Realty Partners, he is also a founding partner of Boulder Ventures
Colin M. Winston, former deputy director of policy and government affairs at AIPAC
Seth Frisch, founder and director of Lerhaus/The New Shul of America
Jay Scott Greenspan, actor, famous for his role as George Costanza on “Seinfeld” and known professionally as Jason Alexander, turns 67
Darryl Nirenberg, U.S. ambassador to Romania
Marc Lasry, co-founder and CEO of hedge fund Avenue Capital Group and the co-owner of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks until 2023, turns 67
Angela Maddahi, past president of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, now a rabbinic student at the Ziegler School
Sheryl W. Kimerling, former vice chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, she is the president of the Birmingham (Ala.) Jewish Federation
Jonathan Peled, Israel's ambassador to Italy, turns 65
Oren Zeev, Israeli American venture capitalist and head of Zeev Ventures, turns 62
Kristen Silverberg, former U.S. ambassador to the EU, now president and COO at the Business Roundtable, turns 56
Naomi Seligman, chief strategy officer at Whistleblower Aid
Jay Feldman, executive director of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Foundation
Joshua Foer, author of two best-selling books and co-founder of the nonprofit Sefaria, turns 44
Michael Schmidt, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington bureau reporter for The New York Times, turns 43
Gabriella Schwarz, principal designer at Google DeepMind
Abby Glassberg, VP of sales at Idomoo Personalized Video
Naomi Chaya Kutin, record-setting powerlifter, turns 25
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