| | Good Thursday morning. In today’s Daily Kickoff , we interview former Facebook executive Sam Lessin, who vied for a spot on Harvard’s Board of Overseers, and spotlight the IDF reservist who is pushing the government to approve a potentially life-saving treatment for his son. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff : Tiffany Haddish, Jeff Zucker and Steven Spielberg. United Airlines announced on Wednesday that it will be resuming a daily flight from Newark to Tel Aviv the first week of March, partially restoring air travel to Israel that was halted after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and the ensuing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The move is the first by a U.S.-based carrier to restore travel to Israel, but the service is still significantly reduced from before the war. Before the war, United offered two daily flights from Newark to Tel Aviv, while also offering direct service to Ben Gurion Airport from Chicago, Washington and San Francisco. The airlines will be reevaluating restoration of those routes in the fall. The airline added that it hopes to add a second route from Newark, if there’s enough demand, by May. United’s decision ends a long period of silence over when American airlines would be resuming their flights to Israel and why they’ve been stopped for so long — especially now that Hamas’ rocket fire over Tel Aviv has ceased. With only El Al providing service to Ben Gurion from the U.S., flights have been limited and ticket prices have been exorbitant, Jewish Insider senior correspondent Ruth Eglash reports today. The monthslong pause in U.S.-based airlines flying to Israel — largely due to safety concerns, union considerations and insurance issues — received little public attention in Washington, a marked difference from a previous round of conflict in 2014, when rockets struck near Ben Gurion Airport. During the 2014 conflict, the Federal Aviation Administration had imposed a ban on U.S. airlines flying to and from Tel Aviv. Airlines had also independently paused their flights to Ben Gurion. Some lawmakers publicly advocated at the time for the ban to be lifted, allowing flights to resume. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accused the then-Obama administration of imposing an “economic boycott” of Israel, seeking political concessions from Israel. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), now the Senate majority leader, said that the FAA had overreacted. During the current conflict, the FAA has urged U.S. airlines and pilots to “use caution” in Israeli airspace, issuing public guidance to that effect, but has not imposed any binding restrictions. Without formal FAA action, members of Congress have been hesitant to speak out forcefully on an issue fully in the purview of private businesses — especially in light of airlines’ safety and liability concerns. But at the same time, lawmakers have not been shy about making their concerns about private business conduct heard in the past. To be sure, those looking to travel to Israel — as its war against Hamas continues — make up a small constituency. But that hasn’t stopped lawmakers in the past from taking a stand on behalf of concerned constituents. Now that United has taken the first step to restoring service, expect other U.S. carriers to follow suit. But the fact that it took so long to happen is due in no small part to silence — and a notable lack of pressure — from Washington. In the world of politics: There’s a new and revealing poll out today about the lack of support for left-wing candidates running on anti-Israel platforms: Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX) holds a commanding 67-point lead (78%-11%) over Democrat Pervez Agwan, according to a University of Houston poll released to JI this morning. Agwan’s platform has been centered on ending American support for Israel. But he’s received next to no Democratic support in the recently redrawn majority-minority district in Houston. The Texas primary is set for March 5. Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇 Share with a friend | lessin learned The former Facebook exec seeking to re-center Harvard  courtesy Before last year, tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Sam Lessin thought of himself as only slightly more engaged with Harvard than the average Harvard grad. That changed last fall, after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel spurred a rise in antisemitism on American campuses, including at Harvard. In late December, Lessin announced a long-shot write-in bid to be a candidate to serve on Harvard’s Board of Overseers. He came just a few hundred votes short of qualifying for a spot on the ballot, but he pledged to stay involved with university affairs ahead of another board campaign next year. Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch talked to Lessin about the spiraling situation at Harvard and his views on how Harvard should change.
Optimistic for change: “It actually was very invigorating in that you just do see this huge mass of alums coming out of the woodwork who do want change, and I'm optimistic that there can be change,” Lessin, a former Facebook executive, told JI last week.
Don’t politicize: Lessin described himself as a moderate seeking to avoid the culture wars in which Harvard has become entangled, a position that he viewed in contrast to Harvard’s loudest critic: hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. “I worry that he's politicizing this even more, in certain ways, putting forward right-wing voices against left-wing voices. I’m much more of a centrist, is the way I would approach it,” said Lessin. Instead, he earned the endorsement of another billionaire who studied at Harvard — Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Fair game: Lessin said he believes in a robust free speech culture inside the classroom, but a crackdown on anti-Jewish harassment elsewhere on campus. “I believe strongly that there should be free speech in the classroom towards the goal of academic excellence. If people want to make a civil argument about why rape and murder is OK, inside of the classroom — from my personal perspective, I think that's fair game,” he said.
Read the full interview here. tourism troubles As internal tourism rebounds, foreign visitors face hurdles getting to Israel  BEATA ZAWRZEL/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz and his ministry’s director general, Danny Shahar, addressed separate American audiences this week, urging Jewish and Christian supporters of Israel to resume their visits to the country even as the war in the Gaza Strip rages near the five-month mark and rocket fire from Hezbollah in the north continues. Katz arrived in the U.S. on Monday to address more than 4,000 Christian communicators at the National Religious Broadcasting Convention in Nashville, Tenn., while Shahar spoke to Jewish American leaders in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations’ annual meet-up in Jerusalem, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Show of support: “What we are telling people is that if you want to support Israel then don't just donate, come,” Peleg Lewi, the minister’s foreign affairs advisor, told JI by phone on Tuesday. “Israel is now safe for tourists and visiting is the best way to support us.” At the Conference of Presidents, Shahar’s message was similar, calling on American Jewish leaders to “come with your communities to visit Israel. Your support for Israel takes on new validity and meaning in these difficult times,” Shahar said. “The tourism industry relies on the visits of our Jewish brothers and sisters from around the world, who are visiting Israel right now.”
Slow rebound: Israel’s tourism sector was hit hard following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack and the subsequent war in Gaza, with most international airlines immediately grounding their flights to Tel Aviv and the majority of the country’s 52,723 hotel rooms suddenly filled by evacuees from the Gaza periphery and the communities along the northern border. Four months later, while Israel’s internal tourism is showing signs of rebounding, with nearly half the 88,000 evacuees placed in hotels returning home or moving to longer-term accommodations, foreign tourists are still refraining from visiting, largely due to the slow resumption of services by international airlines and the high prices charged by Israeli carriers.
Read the full story here. taking action Jewish leaders praise Harvard for cracking down on latest antisemitic activity  ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES Harvard University, under scrutiny for its inaction against antisemitism on campus, took a tough stance against pro-Palestinian student and faculty groups for distributing “deeply offensive antisemitic tropes” posted to social media. The groups had posted an image containing a cartoon from 1967 of a puppeteer whose hand is marked by a dollar sign inside a Star of David, lynching two men who appear to be Muhammad Ali and former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Harvard announced that it will be launching an investigation into how the antisemitic material got posted, and who was responsible for promoting the hateful material, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen for Jewish Insider.
Official response: “The University will review the situation to better understand who was responsible for the posting and to determine what further steps are warranted,” Alan Garber, Harvard’s interim president, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Response to the response: Harvard’s response has led some Jewish leaders who have criticized campus leadership’s handling of antisemitism to applaud the college’s swift response to the most recent incident, with Harvard Chabad Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi calling it the school’s first “moment that looks appropriate.”
Read the full story here. Living la vida lula Blinken meets with Brazilian president following controversial Holocaust comments  Andressa Anholete/Getty Images Days after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva compared Israel’s actions in Gaza to Hitler’s treatment of Jews during the Holocaust, he met with Secretary of State Tony Blinken in Brasilia, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Strong ties: Public communications from the State Department about the Wednesday meeting did not mention Lula’s comments on Israel, although an official readout said the two men discussed the war in Gaza. Blinken tweeted afterward that U.S.-Brazil “ties are stronger than ever,” with a photo of the men smiling and shaking hands.
Not genocide: The day before, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said “obviously we disagree” with Lula’s comments. “We have been quite clear that we do not believe that genocide has occurred in Gaza,” said Miller.
Disagreement relayed: On Wednesday afternoon, Miller said Blinken had raised the comments with Lula. “The secretary had a chance to discuss the comments with President Lula today in his meeting, in the context of an overall discussion about the conflict in Gaza, and made clear — as I did yesterday, made clear that those are comments with which we disagree,” said Miller.
Read the full story here. IHRA PUSH Jewish groups push Congress to support IHRA definition of antisemitism  CELAL GUNES/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES A coalition of 17 U.S. Jewish groups wrote letters to House lawmakers this week expressing support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and urging them against endorsing any alternative definitions, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
No alternatives: The letter comes as many major Jewish groups are lobbying Congress to pass legislation related to the issue and amid a countervailing expanded lobbying effort in favor of the Nexus Task Force’s definition, an alternative antisemitism definition written in response to the IHRA definition that leaves more room for criticism of Israel. It strongly urges lawmakers against endorsing any alternative definition, arguing that doing so “would undo years of international cooperation and progress in identifying and combating antisemitism and would only create confusion and unequal standards,” “would break international consensus and undermine anti-discrimination efforts” and “would undermine efforts to protect Jewish communities.”
Who joined: The letter was signed by AIPAC, the American Jewish Committee, the American Zionist Movement, the Anti-Defamation League, B’nai B’rith International, Combat Antisemitism Movement, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Elie Wiesel Foundation, Hadassah, the Israeli American Council, the Jewish Federations of North America, MERCAZ USA, the National Coalition supporting Eurasian Jewry, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the Orthodox Union and Zioness.
Brewing battle: Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of JFNA, told JI last month that an expanded lobbying effort for the Nexus definition — a new lobbying group was established last year led by a former top J Street lobbyist — had heightened the importance of JFNA’s efforts to support IHRA. The Jewish umbrella group organized a series of meetings between nationwide activists and lawmakers and their staffs in January. “It simply is an attempt to undermine the IHRA definition to advocate for a different definition, including the Nexus definition, which has been accepted by nobody and is not being used anywhere,” Fingerhut said. “Additionally the substance of it is simply wrong… We recognize that members of Congress and their staffs are likely hearing from people about the Nexus definition, so we’ll address it directly and explain to them why it’s a diversion, and not a substantive response to antisemitism.”
Read the full story here. two wars The Israeli reservist fighting for his son's life  courtesy For Gadi Roz, a major in the IDF, the front line and the home front have collided, with life-and-death consequences. Since Oct. 7, Roz, a reservist, has spent months fighting in Gaza, while back home, his 6-year-old son Meitar is battling a degenerative condition known as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, for which there is no known cure. When he is not with his unit, Roz has been pressing the Israeli government — so far, to no avail — to approve a promising gene-therapy treatment for DMD, one approved last year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Roz, 35, describes "fighting two wars" — one for the future of Israel and one for the life of his son, Lianne Kolirin reports for Jewish Insider.
A father’s mission: Meitar, the younger of Roz’s two children with his wife, Eliya, was diagnosed with the life-limiting condition when he was 3. “Our world collapsed,” Roz, who had never previously heard of the illness, told JI. Since his son’s diagnosis, the decorated soldier, who in his civilian life works in high-tech while also studying for a degree in electronic and electrical engineering, has been campaigning to convince Israel’s Ministry of Health and health-care providers to authorize a pioneering gene-therapy treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year.
No giving up: “It was very hard on us, but I realized I had one of two decisions to make,” said Roz. The first, he said, was to “say, OK, my son is going to die, let’s make the best of those years, quit my job, stop learning and just gather positive experiences.” But this, he said, “is not me. I’m not the one that gives up, I’m the one that pursues my dreams, says there is always a hope and there is always a solution and you just need to find it.”
Read the full story here. | The Ultimate Sacrifice: The Washington Post’s Steve Hendrix and Shira Rubin spotlight three of the nearly two dozen American-Israelis killed since Oct. 7. “Naftali Yonah Gordon was born in Queens and worked each year at a Zionist summer camp in Pennsylvania. ‘Being American is part of our identity,’ said Gordon’s wife, Pesi Gordon, whose own mother grew up in New York. ‘But he was very, very connected to Israel. He gave his life for it.’ Gordon, 32, had been working as a physiotherapist and raising two daughters in Jerusalem when he rejoined his former armored unit after Oct 7. His tank was hit by a missile on Dec. 7. … Wherever they live, Americans in the region have become immersed in an intractable conflict where sudden death has long been a part of life. Pesi Gordon’s 15-year-old sister, Malki Roth, was killed in the bombing of a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001. Her parents have campaigned for years to have one of the convicted conspirators, a Palestinian woman freed in a 2011 prisoner swap, extradited from Jordan. ‘Living here, I felt that was normal,’ Gordon said, speaking of her sister’s death a few weeks after her husband’s funeral. ‘Like, “Oh, I guess everybody loses people to tragedy.” It’s only when you think about it rationally that you realize lightning isn’t supposed to strike twice.’” [WashPost]
Axis of Evil: In The Wall Street Journal, the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Seth Jones argues that U.S. support for Ukraine will bolster efforts to counter the global Moscow-Tehran-Beijing axis. “The opponents of American assistance come in several flavors. There are those who believe the threat China poses necessitates that the U.S. focus on opposing Beijing, not Moscow. They fail to appreciate how a Russian victory would be a boon to autocratic regimes around the globe — most of all China. Others want to kill funding for Israel, despite growing Iranian-backed aggression in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. Finally, some isolationists believe America can bury its head in the sand and focus mainly on domestic issues, such as immigration and border security, as though there’s no real trade-off. In each case, they misunderstand how wider American interests are tied into the security of each of these front-line states.” [WSJ] | Be featured: Email us to inform the JI readership of your upcoming event, job opening, or other communication. | Hostage Diplomacy: CIA Director Bill Burns is slated to meet in Paris on Friday with Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials for continued talks on securing the release of the remaining 134 hostages.
Backing Israel: The U.S. is backing Israel in a second International Court of Justice case against the Jewish state focused on Israel’s presence in majority-Palestinian areas.
Huge Haul: Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, now mounting a congressional bid in Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District, raised $2.75 million in the first three weeks of his candidacy.
Michigan Meetings: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is meeting with Arab and Muslim leaders in Michigan this week to discuss the Biden administration’s Mideast policy, amid a push to encourage voters in the Wolverine State to write in “uncommitted” in next week's primary rather than support the president’s reelection campaign.
New Gig: A Jewish computer science professor who departed MIT over its handling of antisemitism has accepted a job at Yeshiva University.
Suiting Up: Columbia University is facing its second lawsuit in as many weeks from students alleging the administration allowed “endemic” antisemitism.
Media Matters: The Hollywood Reporter talked to Jeff Zucker following the purchase of All3Media by the former CNN head’s RedBird IMI.
Film Fodder: Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham star in the upcoming film “Treasure,” about a Holocaust survivor and his daughter who travel to Poland to retrace their family history.
Looking Back: Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Martin Scorsese are among those who reflect on the making of “Schindler’s List” in an oral history of the 1993 Best Picture winner.
Staff Suspension: Employees at a private company that works with the U.K.’s Home Office were suspended after a birth certificate was issued with the father’s birthplace of Israel scribbled out.
Terror Attack: One person was killed and eight injured in a terror attack near Maale Adumim; the assailants were Palestinian men from Bethlehem.
Bern Ban: Switzerland is moving forward with plans to ban Hamas following the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
New Report: A new report from The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel found “systematic and widespread” sexual violence against women on Oct. 7 that was done “in a manner intended to increase the pain and humiliation of all present.”
Missile Intercept: Israel’s Arrow-3 missile-defense system intercepted a missile near the southern city of Eilat that was believed to have been fired by the Houthis in Yemen.
Talking to Tiffany: TMZ interviewed Tiffany Haddish shortly after the comedian landed in Israel on her first trip to the country.
Tune Talk: The European Broadcasting Union rejected “October Rain,” Israel’s entry for the upcoming Eurovision competition, saying the song’s lyrics were too political.
Nuke Nab: The U.S. charged a Japanese crime ring leader with conspiring to traffic nuclear materials to Iran.
Pipeline Hit: Iran’s oil minister accused Israel of sabotaging a natural gas pipeline in western Iran last week.
Media Move: Mehdi Hasan is joining The Guardian as a columnist after departing MSNBC.
Coming to America: Former Turkish Ambassador to the U.N. Sedat Önal was tapped as Ankara’s top envoy to the U.S.
Leveling Up: NYPD inspector Richie Taylor was promoted to deputy chief, becoming both the youngest deputy chief in the department as well as the highest-ranking observant Jewish officer.
Remembering: Animal rights activist Steven Wise died at 73. |  Shachar Yurman Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant addressed leaders from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
“While many in the world, including some leaders, attack us — we, the Jewish people and the State of Israel, must stand strong and united. We must know that we are fighting a just war against a brutal enemy – a terrorist organization,” Gallant told the delegation. |  Mike Stobe/Getty Images President of the New York Yankees baseball club since 2000, executive producer for the YES Network, Randy Levine turns 69...
Retired justice and deputy president of the Supreme Court of Israel, Shlomo Levin turns 91... Los Angeles-based philanthropist, she was a child survivor of Bergen-Belsen, Herta Amir turns 91... Music journalist and former board member for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, Rona Elliot turns 77... Co-chair of Wisconsin Jewish Democrats and author of three Jewish Miss Marple books, Linda Frank turns 76... Dutch singer-songwriter especially popular in France, Helena "Lenny" Kuhr turns 74... White House counsel to President Obama, now a professor at NYU School of Law, Robert (Bob) Bauer turns 72... Marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles and founder of the Israel Institute for Diplomacy and Technology Advancements, Daryl Temkin, Ph.D.... Chief strategist for both of Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, now a senior fellow at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago and a CNN commentator, David Axelrod turns 69... Winner of five major golf championships and 24 other LPGA Tour events, she is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, now a golf course architect, Amy Alcott turns 68... Former member of the Knesset for the United Right party, Mordechai "Moti" Yogev turns 68... Former director of administration and special projects at Cincinnati's Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, Lisa Shusterman... Weaverville, N.C., resident, Tami Gross… Writer, editor and publisher, Clifford Lawrence Meth turns 63... Senior rabbi at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation in Mercer Island, Wash., Rabbi Jacob Herber turns 61... Actress, comedian and cast member of “Saturday Night Live” for seven years, Rachel Dratch turns 58... Past leader of the Israeli Labor party, he is now the CEO of Partner Communications, Avi Gabbay turns 57... Emmy Award-winning television producer, he served as showrunner for four seasons of NBC's sitcom "The Office," Paul Lieberstein turns 57... Actor, author and academic, Ari Hoptman turns 57... Former soccer player on the Israeli national team and on European teams in both Spain and Turkey, Haim Michael Revivo turns 52... President of the University of Florida, he retired as a U.S. senator from Nebraska in 2023, Ben Sasse turns 52... British stand-up comedian and columnist for the Jewish Chronicle, Josh Howie turns 48... Winner of NBC's “Last Comic Standing” in 2008, she has released six stand-up specials on Netflix, Iliza Shlesinger turns 41... Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s longtime diplomatic advisor and international spokesman, Yair Zivan… Partner in the appellate practice of Norton Rose Fulbright, Peter B. Siegal... VP at Oddity and SpoiledChild, Miranda R. May... Lead associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, Danielle Bella Ellison... | | | | | |
