Daily Kickoff
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2026
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover last night’s contentious Michigan Senate debate between Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed, report on the cancellation of a program for Israeli and American Jewish preschool educators in Italy after organizers asked them to condemn Israel, and spotlight conversations and addresses at the National Conservatism Conference in Jerusalem in which speakers criticized Jews for raising concerns about antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Hakeem Jeffries, Asaf Rajuan and Nechumi Yaffe.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Tamara Zieve.
The Weekly Print
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, featuring stories from Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy, including: Three years after Oct. 7, Israel’s security is ‘much better,’ but risks loom; Michigan Hillel’s break with Israel advocacy groups raises questions about where it stands; and The Siegels lost their home and community on Oct. 7. Now they’re finding their way forward. Print the latest edition here.
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Today's Agenda
With weeks to go before the midterms, President Donald Trump ruled out a resumption of strikes on Iran before Election Day, saying on Truth Social that the U.S. is having “productive discussions” with the Islamic Republic.
The president’s comments could be taken with a grain of salt: In June 2025, he suggested that the U.S. was pursuing diplomacy a day before joining Israel’s attacks on the Islamic Republic, and earlier this year, he said he had not decided on whether to attack Iran, hours before the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated military strikes that took out the top echelon of Iranian leadership.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Navi Pillay, a former U.N. high commissioner for human rights and International Criminal Court judge, as the winner of this year’s peace prize. Pillay, a South African jurist and sharp critic of Israel, served as the head of the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry targeting Israel, which has been condemned by members of the international body over its anti-Israel bias.
We’re keeping an eye on the political situation in the U.K., where Green Party leader Zack Polanski lost his House of Commons by-election bid overnight, days after his party passed a resolution declaring Zionism to be racism. Polanski has said he will stay on as party leader following his defeat, despite questions over his ability to lead the Greens going forward. The Campaign Against Antisemitism, meanwhile, has reported Polanski’s party to the U.K.’s Equality and Human Rights Commission over the Zionism motion passed earlier this week, saying that such a move has “real potential to embolden expressions of antisemitism.”
One Thing to Know
By Marc Rod
In the first debate of the general election for Senate in Michigan, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) repeatedly hit Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed over his supporters’ ties to and support for terrorist groups and El-Sayed’s comments on the Temple Israel terrorist attack — accusations that El-Sayed largely did not respond to during the deeply acrimonious exchange.
El-Sayed, for his part, said he would not support defensive aid to Israel even if it was under attack, framed Israel as a threat to the United States comparable to Iran, defended his decision not to issue a statement honoring the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and continued to sidestep questions on Iran’s persecution of its own civilians.
“He has taken money from groups in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has taken money from individuals on his campaign who openly support Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida,” Rogers said several times throughout the debate, and accused El-Sayed of failing to condemn terrorist groups and attacks.
The Big Reads
Arrivederci, Reggio
Jewish preschool educators forced to condemn Israel to attend Reggio Emilia conference
A planned study trip to Italy for some 100 Jewish early childhood educators from the U.S. and Israel was canceled after participants were required to sign a statement condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza, prompting organizers to conclude that the trip’s political litmus test made such a trip untenable, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. The educators — members of the U.S.-based Paradigm Project — were scheduled to travel to Reggio Emilia, Italy, from Oct. 11–16. Their goal was to study the Reggio Emilia Approach to early childhood education, a method long embraced by Jewish preschools, and bring those insights back to their classrooms. But ahead of the trip, participants were asked to sign a statement declaring, “I distance myself from the occupation of Gaza and the violation of children’s and human beings’ rights in the occupied territories as well as in every places [sic] in the world,” according to a screenshot obtained by JI.
mayor unmoved
Mamdani brushes off pro-Hamas heckling at Oct. 7 vigil
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday shrugged off the protest — which featured jeers of “traitor” at the democratic socialist leader, and chants of “long live Hamas” — that sought to drown out an event he attended the night prior memorializing the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports. “I was proud to attend last night’s vigil, as I did last year, to listen to testimonies from family members of those who were killed on Oct. 7, and those who’ve been killed in the three years since, and all of whom united in a vision for peace and an end to the genocide in Gaza,” Mamdani told journalists after an unrelated event in Brooklyn. “As for those protesting me, I am the mayor of New York City, and this is what I signed up for.”
Buddy backlash: Politico spotlights concerns from Jewish allies of Mamdani who were dismayed over his Oct. 7 statement, among them T’ruah’s Rabbi Jill Jacobs, a backer of the mayor’s recently announced antisemitism plan who said Mamdani’s comments “missed the mark.”
conference quotables
NatCon speakers mark Oct. 7 by telling the Jews to stop complaining about antisemitism
Several speakers at the right-wing National Conservatism Conference in Jerusalem said on Wednesday that Jews complain too much about antisemitism — on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, which were followed by a sharp increase in hate crimes against Jews around the world, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. NatCon, as the conference spearheaded by right-wing Israeli American intellectual Yoram Hazony is known, was held in Israel for the first time this week. In a plenary on Wednesday titled “American Right: The Next Generation,” multiple speakers berated Jews for speaking out against antisemitism, accused Israel of drawing the U.S. into wars and mocked evangelical Christians' beliefs about Israel. They also blamed liberal and neoconservative Jews for mass immigration to the U.S.
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.
The Treasury Department announced sanctions on 17 new vessels tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “shadow fleet” used to clandestinely move oil and gas out of Iran…
OpenAI said on Thursday that Iranian operatives used ChatGPT to help place nearly 100 articles criticizing the Iran war under fake journalist bylines in roughly a dozen online outlets around the world…
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said he “strongly” backs the creation of an Oct. 7 memorial in Brooklyn; any future memorial, the funds for which are being privately raised, would require the approval of the mayor’s office to move forward…
The Denver school board voted to censure its vice president, Monica Hunter, over allegations she had made antisemitic comments to a Jewish member of the board; an independent investigation was inconclusive, finding that the allegations amounted to a “he said, she said” situation…
The former head of the Middle Eastern studies department at the University of Arkansas — who called for Israel to be “dismantled” and shared a social media post calling for someone to “thrust the dagger from Doha into the throats of the Zionists, so that all of them howl” — is seeking for a court to strike down the state’s recently adopted antisemitism law, saying it was used for her dismissal from the university…
A district court judge in California ruled that German singer-songwriter Alice Merton’s copyright lawsuit against Kanye West, now known as Ye, can proceed with references to the Holocaust and West’s documented history of antisemitism; West had sought permission to sample one of Merton's songs for his 2024 track "Gun to My Head," and chose to use it after Merton, who is a descendant of Holocaust survivors, refused...
Germany’s Left Party, which won a plurality of votes in last month’s state elections in Berlin, agreed to measures to address antisemitism within the party as part of coalition talks with the Social Democrats and Greens…
The Royal College of Pharmacy ended its relationship with the U.K. arm of Teva Pharmaceuticals, becoming the second British institution after the Royal College of Nursing to do so; the college cited the Israeli pharmaceutical company’s unspecified “activities” as the reason for its cutting of ties, which came amid pressure from anti-Israel activists…
British counterterrorism police arrested two Latvian men after they were found inside RAF Molesworth, an air base used by the U.S. military and NATO for intelligence operations. Police said there is no evidence at this stage linking the incident to the suspected Iran-related plot at RAF Fairford…
The Israeli Defense Ministry opened a national pavilion and led a delegation of defense firms — including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael — at the Marrakech Airshow in Morocco this week, marking Israel’s first official participation in a Moroccan defense exhibition since signing the Abraham Accords…
The Gaza Children’s Village network, a U.S. nonprofit providing food, medical care and education to Palestinian children in Gaza, is planning to use AI to monitor classroom lessons for “hateful” speech and ensure teachers adhere to a peace-focused curriculum…
Three Saudi citizens were killed in Houthi attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and a Saudia Airlines aircraft…
Canadian philanthropist and investor Stephen Jarislowsky died at 101…
JI Live Briefing · Free preview
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The Live Briefing is JI’s real-time feed — breaking news, notable content from across the web, video clips, images and more, all day. The items above are just a taste.
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Worthy Reads
Hatred on the March: In Fox News, Jeff Miller and Stuart Eizenstat, respectively the current and former chairs of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, raise concerns about the rise of antisemitism, aided by malign actors. “Furthermore, state actors like Iran, Qatar, China and Russia spread antisemitic and anti-Israel conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial to stir hatred of Jews and sow chaos in democracies. They are succeeding. Antisemitism is no longer lurking at society’s fringes. It is marching openly through its institutions. Violent antisemitism is at levels not seen since the Holocaust.” [FoxNews]
Facing the Palestinian Question: In The New York Times, Shira Efron, a senior fellow at RAND, posits that Israel’s next government must address questions around the Palestinians in order to improve the country’s global social standing. “No amount of walking is going to make the Palestinian question go away. The current government tried to settle the matter for good, seeking to bury the idea of the Palestinian question once and for all. Instead, this government may have exhumed it, turning it into a domestic issue in nations around the world and leaving whichever government comes next no choice but to finally reckon with it.” [NYTimes]
The Meaning of Mourning: In The Wall Street Journal, Kenneth Brander, the president and rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone, reflects on Jewish mourning practices. “We need the dead to take on an enduring role in the lives of the living. That takes time, and the shaping of time spent mourning is one of the purposes of ritual. In Jewish practice, when one says the name of a deceased person, one adds the phrase “may his memory be a blessing.” The goal of mourning is to make that phrase true: The memory of the dead actually improves our physical lives and our moral selves.” [WSJ]
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Picture of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented FlyDubai 1073 passenger Asaf Rajuan with the Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism during a ceremony yesterday at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. Herzog and his wife, First Lady Michal Herzog, honored Rajuan and five other Israelis for their successful efforts for their efforts to thwart an attempted hijacking by the plane’s co-pilot, who had attacked his Indian captain and attempted to crash the plane with 174 people, most of whom were Israelis, on board. Haim Zach/GPO
Wine of the Week
Tzora Vineyards Shoresh Blanc 2025
Shoresh is the Hebrew word for root, and this week I was shown what grows from it. I was at Tzora Vineyards, in the Judean Hills, in the company of my dear friend Yoram, tasting the 2025 Shoresh Blanc, arguably one of the three finest white wines produced in Israel today, when the winery manager insisted on opening the same wine from the 2016 vintage. With nearly a decade in the bottle, the older wine was significantly better than the 2025, and the pairing of the two made for a wine tasting made in heaven.
A blend of predominantly sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and semillon, the wine holds a subtle sweetness and a bright acidity in graceful balance. The front palate is overwhelmingly citrus; the mid-palate carries a whisper of vanilla, in the elegant, restrained manner of French chardonnay; and the finish is still sitting on my tongue three days later. This is a wine that will hold for a very long time. Serve it with the best cheese in your refrigerator. Buy the 2025 now, and give the roots time.
Birthdays
Evgeny Kissin, concert pianist and composer, turns 55 on Saturday
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
friday
Brian Lamb, founder and retired executive chairman and CEO of C-SPAN, known for his unique interview style, turns 85
Charles Miller, retired federal government manager and analyst
Bernard Dov Cooperman, associate professor of Jewish history at the University of Maryland, turns 80
Richard Marpet, Burbank, Calif., resident
David Jacobson, U.S. ambassador to Canada during the Obama administration, then vice-chair of BMO from 2013 to 2024, turns 75
Don Garber, commissioner of Major League Soccer since 1999, turns 69
David Gerstman, research analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis
Eric S. Kassoff, president of Wilkes Artis, he is active in AIPAC, the Washington JCC and the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, turns 66
Debby Arzt-Mor, retired director of Jewish learning at the Brandeis School of San Francisco
Todd Richman, managing director and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management and chair emeritus of Democratic Majority For Israel
Simon Sinek, best-selling author and motivational speaker, his 2010 TED Talk about leadership is one of the most popular talks of all time, turns 53
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, rosh yeshiva at Yeshivas Elimelech following 17 years as rabbi at Ohev Shalom Synagogue in Washington, D.C., turns 52
Neshama Carlebach, musician and singer, the protΓ©gΓ© of her late father, singer-songwriter Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, turns 52
Karin Elharar Hartstein, member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid., turns 49
Benjamin Berger, SVP for Jewish education, community and culture at Hillel International
Justin Barasky, partner at TKO Political
Ben Lusher, CEO at Denver-based energy firm Nexus Energy Partners, he was the national board chair of Moishe House (now known as Mem Global) until 2022
David Meyerson, executive director of international initiatives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform
Ian Karmel, stand-up comedian and Emmy Award-winning television writer, turns 42
Lily Goldstein, VP of portfolio management for LEO Impact Capital
David Cohen, counsel in O’Melveny’s NYC office, he was an executive assistant and advance associate in the Obama White House
Chaya Notik, physical therapist in Montreal
Jason Kaplan, VP at L'OrΓ©al, turns 36
Julia Schechter, senior manager of policy communications at Snap
Daniel Rubin, Israel-based VP at JP Morgan
Kayla Levinson Segal, manager of in-stock management at Amazon in NYC
Inbal Rabin-Lieberman, security coordinator of Kibbutz Nir Am on Oct. 7, 2023, where her team killed 25 terrorists and the kibbutz suffered no casualties, turns 28
Nick Itkin, foil fencer, he won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics (Tokyo) and an individual bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics (Paris), turns 27
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