| | Good Wednesday morning. In today’s Daily Kickoff , we recap last night's presidential debate, report on Maggie Goodlander’s win last night in yesterday’s Democratic congressional primary in New Hampshire, talk to Rep. Seth Magaziner about the origin of the letter signed by Jewish Democrats in the House condemning Tucker Carlson for his recent platforming of a Holocaust denier and cover Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s floor speech about extremism on campus. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff : Rep. Joe Wilson, Golan Vach and Angelo Roefaro. Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇 Share with a friend | - Today is the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Memorial ceremonies will be held this morning in New York City, Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon.
- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Stephanie Hallett, the Biden administration’s nominee to be ambassador to Bahrain. Hallett, a career diplomat, is the current chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
- American Friends of Chabad Lubavitch is holding its annual Lamplighter Awards in Washington. This year’s honorees include House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Real Estate Roundtable President and CEO Jeffrey DeBoer, Suffolk Chairman and CEO John Fish and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck founder and Chairman Norm Brownstein.
| Vice President Kamala Harris last night showcased one of the strongest debate performances of her political career, lobbing well-crafted hits at former President Donald Trump as extreme and temperamentally unfit to again be president, all while praising a long list of Republicans from Dick Cheney to Mitt Romney to John McCain.
All told, she did as well as could be expected in what’s likely to be the only presidential debate of the campaign, even as the race is unlikely to shift dramatically given the country’s polarized electorate, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
Harris came well-armed with prepared attacks that served as scathing indictments of the former president’s record. She said he left office with the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression, the worst public health epidemic in a century and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. She mocked his references to Hannibal Lecter and windmills at his rallies. And she warned he would weaponize the government for his own personal benefit, if elected again – calling on “the American people to stop him.”
And by going after Trump’s obsession with crowd sizes at the outset, she rattled the former president in a way that kept him off his game during the rest of the nearly two-hour debate.
On foreign policy, she said to his face that foreign leaders laugh at him, while warning that he would abandon Ukraine if elected president. Harris offered support for Israel while expressing sympathy for the Palestinian plight, in comments that closely echoed her remarks at the Democratic National Convention.
Trump suggested that Harris "hates Israel" and that the Jewish state "will not exist two years from now" in a Harris administration. “At the same time in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up: Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone,” Trump added. “It would’ve never happened. Iran was broke under Donald Trump… Iran had no money for Hamas, or Hezbollah or any of the 28 different spheres of terror… horrible terror… they were broke.”
Trump had a lot of opportunities to raise questions about Harris’ progressive history and lack of clear positions, but he failed to make a sustained argument on that front. He had a few golden opportunities to hit her on the Biden administration’s economic record, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and disillusionment over unchecked immigration — but he never landed sustained punches on any of those issues.
The post-debate consensus from Republicans was that the ABC News moderators were too tough on Trump, and mainly asked their follow-up questions of the former president, not Harris. But complaining about the referees — no matter how legitimate the argument — is a loser’s game and a sign that Trump took a political hit from tonight’s proceedings.
And in another sign the debate went well for Harris, her campaign chair was already calling for a second debate minutes after the debate was over. “Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump,” said top advisor Jen O’Malley Dillon in a statement.
In our polarized times, even the best debate performance isn’t going to change the fundamental reality of a deeply divided electorate. All evidence points to a very competitive presidential campaign. But Harris, who has already made strides in consolidating the base behind her campaign, can feel optimistic that her performance reassured skeptical independents that she’s up to the job. | gRANITE sTATE RACE Maggie Goodlander wins New Hampshire Democratic congressional primary  MAGGIE GOODLANDER FOR CONGRESS Maggie Goodlander, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Biden administration, won the heated Democratic primary contest in the race for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH), Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Comfortable win: Goodlander, the wife of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, was declared the winner over Colin Van Ostern, a former member of the state’s Executive Council and Democrats’ 2016 gubernatorial nominee, less than an hour after polls closed in New Hampshire on Tuesday. With most precincts reporting, Goodlander was comfortably beating Van Ostern with 63% of the vote. Van Ostern conceded as results were being tabulated.
Read the full story here. hate crimes hearing Senate Judiciary Committee announces first post-Oct. 7 hearing on hate crimes  CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES The Senate Judiciary Committee announced on Tuesday that it will hold a hearing on hate crimes on Sept. 17, the first such hearing that it has held since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and ensuing proliferation of antisemitic incidents across the United States, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the hearing: The committee, led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), first announced in May that it would hold a hearing on hate crimes, with a focus on the “rise in hate incidents across the country, particularly targeting the Jewish, Arab, and Muslim communities” since Oct. 7. No Senate committee has held a hearing specifically about antisemitism since the Hamas attack. Tuesday’s announcement makes no mention of antisemitism. No Senate committee has held a hearing specifically about antisemitism since the Hamas attack.
Read the full story here. magaziner's message Jewish Democrats' statement condemning Vance, Carlson and Musk started with a group text  TOM WILLIAMS/CQ-ROLL CALL, INC VIA GETTY IMAGES Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) was home in Rhode Island during the congressional recess late last week, “stewing” about Tucker Carlson’s widely viewed interview with a vocal Holocaust revisionist, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. In response, he sent a text to a group chat of Jewish Democratic members of the House suggesting they speak out, which led, in a matter of days, to a joint statement from all 24 Jewish House Democrats, a rare example of unanimity from a group including members from both ends of the Democratic Caucus.
What happened: “My concern was that this kind of embrace of literal fascism is happening in plain sight on the far right, and people have become so desensitized to it that they are treating it as normal, and we cannot let it become normal,” Magaziner told JI on Tuesday. He emphasized that he was concerned not only about the interview itself, which garnered millions of views, but also that it was promoted by Elon Musk and that Republican vice-presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) refused to condemn it. Magaziner also explained how he came to lead the statement from Jewish Democrats, even though he doesn’t practice Judaism.
Read the full story here. campus concerns McConnell urges Columbia, elite schools not to tolerate 'tantrums of campus radicals'  KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called on Columbia University and other elite academic institutions to tackle the “great deal of work to do to earn back the trust of students, parents and alumni, alike” over the handling of last year’s anti-Israel campus protests, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What he said: Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, McConnell urged university faculty and administrators not to tolerate “the tantrums of campus radicals” this fall that “made some elite schools so inhospitable to learning – particularly for Jewish students.” The top Senate Republican said that “[a]s students head back to school, college campuses across the country are hoping this academic year begins more calmly than the last one ended.”
Read the full story here. MIND THE (IS)GAP Rising hatred offers U.S. Jewry a chance for rejuvenation, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism founder says  COURTESY/ISGAP With students now back on campuses across the U.S., the fierce debates – and disruptive protests – over the Israel-Hamas war that sparked so much controversy last semester appear to be returning, fueling a renewed discussion of how college administrators, faculty and Jewish students should combat the documented rise in antisemitism. From new university policies to refrain from taking official positions on polarizing issues or commemorating contentious events, including Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on Oct. 7, to political threats over accreditation for academic institutions if antisemitism is not addressed and even dismissals for presidents, faculty and students, the tide appears to be turning when it comes to confronting anti-Jewish hatred on college campuses. Yet for Charles Asher Small, founder and executive director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism (ISGAP), who has been researching and writing about antisemitism in the academic world and beyond for more than two decades, these steps are “a drop in the bucket,” Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports for eJewishPhilanthropy.
‘Tipping point’: “I’m afraid we’re at a tipping point,” Small told eJP in a recent interview. “Faculty and students are being intimidated at universities around the world, particularly in the United States, and the demonization of Israel in academia has gotten to the point where this stuff is coming out of the university classrooms into these encampments and from there onto the subways, the streets and the airports, and even in front of the homes of Jewish leaders and journalists.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here. | Press Problem: The Free Press’ Matti Friedman reflects on his decade-old writings about media coverage of Israel and how the role of journalists has shifted from reporting the news to opining on it. “Telling the truth would make Israelis look sane, and Israelis are the wrong people. People writing letters complaining about press errors and demanding corrections, then and now, miss the point: These aren’t errors. They’re the result of the press doing a different job correctly. … The ideas I saw shape Israel coverage, in other words, have spread through the press and tamed the formerly independent and unruly world of journalists—a world where we may have been wrong most of the time, but not all the time, and never all in the same way.” [FreePress]
The Tucker Test: In The Wall Street Journal, William Galston suggests that former President Donald Trump distance his campaign from Tucker Carlson, who recently hosted a Holocaust denier on his platform. “This isn’t a one-day media flap. It goes to the heart of what the Republican Party has become under the rule of Mr. Trump. Tucker Carlson was given a prime-time speaking slot on the last night of the Republican convention. He sat with Mr. Trump in the former president’s VIP box. He was one of the most important voices urging him to select JD Vance as his running mate. Mr. Carlson’s X account has almost 14 million followers, which makes him perhaps the most prominent voice on the right other than Mr. Trump. His army of supporters has allowed him to cow most Republican officials into anonymity or silence. … [Trump] can denounce Mr. Carlson. He can tell his running mate and his son not to appear on Mr. Carlson’s tour. By reaffirming the truth about the Holocaust and World War II, he can draw a bright line between what’s acceptable and what isn’t. If he doesn’t do this, he will prove that he isn’t strong enough to stand up to the blatant antisemitism in his own party.” [WSJ] | Be featured: Email us to inform the JI readership of your upcoming event, job opening, or other communication. | The U.S. announced new sanctions on Iranian air carrier Iran Air following the transfer of ballistic missiles from Tehran to Moscow; France, Germany and the U.K. announced their own sanctions in response to the escalation…
Israel has offered Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar safe passage out of Gaza for him and his family in exchange for the release of the remaining 101 hostages…
Sinwar issued a rare statement yesterday congratulating Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on his reelection…
Israeli officials said the shooting of a Turkish-American activist at a West Bank protest happened “indirectly and unintentionally”; Secretary of State Tony Blinken, speaking in London on Tuesday, said the incident was “not acceptable” and that Israel’s security forces “need to make some fundamental changes in the way they operate in the West Bank”...
Freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was on Capitol Hill yesterday; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who posted a photo with the journalist, said that “reporters will continue to pursue the truth and hold the Kremlin to account for its brutality”...
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) was hospitalized after collapsing at an event in Washington; Wilson’s son said the 77-year-old lawmaker had experienced “stroke-like symptoms”...
Representatives from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf met in New York as they work toward completing a merger deal that has been in the works for more than a year…
Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated last night outside the National Constiution Center in Philadephia where the presidential debate was held…
Harvard reinstated the school’s Palestine Solidarity Committee, five months after the campus organization was suspended for violating Harvard’s rules around protests…
The University of Pennsylvania announced it will adopt a policy of institutional neutrality in an effort to protect the school’s “diversity of thought”; Yale is creating a committee to consider implementing such a policy…
The Lauder Foundation and the Yael Foundation are jointly contributing to a new effort to significantly expand the Rome Jewish community’s school system, eJewishPhilanthropy reports…
The Pakistani national who was arrested while attempting to cross the U.S.-Canada border to conduct an attack on a New York City Jewish center was living in Canada on a student visa at the time of his arrest…
The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote on a proposed Palestinian resolution calling on Israel to end "its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory" by early 2025…
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) demanded that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk state clearly whether he considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization…
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven injured in a helicopter crash overnight in Gaza…
The IDF released footage taken from the tunnel where the bodies of six hostages were discovered last month shortly after they were executed…
An Israeli man was critically wounded in a ramming attack near the West Bank settlement of Givat Asaf...
Senior Israeli Home Front Command officer Col. (res.) Golan Vach was injured in a tunnel collapse in central Gaza and hospitalized in stable condition; Vach has played a critical role in search-and-rescue operations in Israel and around the world, notably in Surfside, Fla., following a building collapse in the town, and in Turkey following an earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people… | Angelo Roefaro, press secretary to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem last week on his first trip to Israel. |  Rober Solsona/Europa Press via Getty Images French physicist who was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for physics, Serge Haroche turns 80...
Lyricist and songwriter, together with his late wife he won four Emmys, three Oscars and two Grammys, Alan Bergman turns 99... Wisconsin resident, Janis Gershon Kohlenberg... 7-foot basketball center who played for the Bulls and Hawks in the NBA, David L. "Dave" Newmark turns 78... Senior U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Ohio based in Cincinnati, Judge Susan J. Dlott turns 75... Pediatric nephrologist, Dr. Jonathan Heiliczer... Member of the New Jersey General Assembly since 2006, he is the first Orthodox Jew to serve in the New Jersey Legislature, Gary Schaer turns 73... Television producer and executive producer, Jon Meyersohn... Global real estate advisor at ONE Sotheby's International Realty, Rosy Lofer... Owner of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, he is the founder and president of global hedge fund Appaloosa Management, David Tepper turns 67... Director of sales and marketing at Hillcrest Royale Senior Living in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Marian Rubinstein... Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge, Ellen Ceisler turns 67... Co-founder of the U.K. hedge fund, Brevan Howard Asset Management, he is a former director of the U.K.'s Conservative Friends of Israel, Alan Howard turns 61... London-based CEO and founding partner of Stanhope Capital, Daniel Pinto turns 58... CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Mark Dubowitz turns 56... Israeli journalist, political commentator and investigative reporter, Raviv Drucker turns 54... CEO of NYC's 92nd Street Y, Seth William Pinsky... Executive director at JP Morgan Chase, Daniel E. Berger... Former member of the Illinois Legislature, now the CEO of NYC's Chevra Hatzalah Volunteer Ambulance Service, Yehiel Mark Kalish turns 49... Arbi Tatevosian... Artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics, Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky turns 45... Stand-up comedian and podcast host, his YouTube channel has over 235 million views, Steven Ira Hofstetter turns 45... Author and social media personality in Israel's religious-nationalist community, Rabbi Avraham Stav turns 38... Jessica Sebella Setless Spiegel... Co-founder and rebbetzin of the Altneu synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East Side and news editor for The Real Deal, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt... Media and foreign affairs advisor to Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, Betty Ilovici turns 30… Chief of staff at The Jewish Agency for Israel, Gali Gordon... Udi Ben Zeev… | | | | | |
