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The RJC National Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas is back!
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PLEASE NOTE: The RJC’s Annual Meeting in Las Vegas is exclusively for current members of the RJC National Leadership. Leadership opportunities start at $1,000. More membership details are available here.

Omri Nahmias at the Jerusalem Post reports that Jewish organizations have begun endorsing candidates in the 2022 midterm elections. He writes:

The Republican Jewish Coalition has endorsed 20 members to date – two senators (Marco Rubio in Florida and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin), 14 members of the House and four House candidates.

“In 2020, RJC made a significant impact in highly competitive races across the country, with RJC PAC raising over $10m. for our endorsed House and Senate candidates,” said Sam Markstein, the coalition’s national political director.

RJC’s current and future endorsees in the 2022 Biden midterms are at the center of the political battlefield, and their races will determine control of both chambers of Congress this November, he said. “RJC is laser-focused on continuing to play a major role in helping the GOP retake majorities in the House and Senate, to fix all the crises caused by the Democrats – from skyrocketing inflation, to rising crime, and fecklessness on the world stage.”

“In the key battleground state of Florida, RJC is proud to have endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio for reelection in 2022,” Markstein continued.

“In a state that is famous for close elections, and where the Jewish community makes up roughly 3%-4% of the statewide vote, any shift towards the GOP makes a meaningful difference,” he said.

“The voting trends are undeniable, and incredibly promising for Republicans: in 2020, President [Donald] Trump received a record-breaking level of support in Florida’s Jewish community– 43%, according to exit polls from the Associated Press/New York Times.

“The erosion of Jewish voters’ support for Democrats in Florida – and across the country – bodes very well for Senator Rubio and other Republicans as we work to take back the House and Senate this November.”

The Biden administration’s remains determined to reenter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the JCPOA) or something like it, despite Iran’s recent demand that the US remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the State Department list of terrorist groups. The talks in Vienna have been suspended since March, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week: "We continue to believe that getting back into compliance with the agreement would be the best way to address the nuclear challenge posed by Iran…"

That has analysts worrying that, deal or no deal, the Biden administration will not take the actions against Iran – starting with strong sanctions – that are necessary to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions and protect the US and its allies, including Israel.

Benny Avni at the New York Sun describes what he considers a worst-case scenario: an Iran nuclear deal stuck in limbo:

An unfinalized deal that Washington would nevertheless decline to admit is dead could help Iran advance its nuclear aspirations… Yet an American plan to reimpose onerous global sanctions against the Islamic Republic is far from guaranteed.

Stoll: Biden leaves Americans vulnerable by shortchanging missile defense

Ira Stoll writes: "With Iron Dome, Israel will have a better missile defense than the continental United States. Israel’s leaders, unlike America’s, have placed a priority on deploying systems to protect its population."

On the passing of Orrin Hatch

The Republican Jewish Coalition mourns the passing of Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), a great conservative legislator and a friend of Israel and the Jewish community. Hatch was famous for working on a bipartisan basis to get important legislation across the finish line. Matt Sandgren penned a warm tribute to Hatch’s commitment to fighting hard on issues while showing respect for his opponents. In 2018, Sen. Hatch marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel – and the opening of the new US Embassy in Jerusalem - with remarks on the Senate floor. He talked about the importance of the US-Israel alliance and noted that as a sign of his respect for the Jewish people, he had worn a mezuzah around his neck every day for some four decades.

He helped save 10,000 Jews from the Nazis; his family only found out 63 years later

The Times of Israel reports: "Adi Daliot was in his 60s when he found out that his father, Hubert Pollack, helped save over 10,000 Jews in Nazi Germany during the years leading up to the Holocaust... Pollack is to posthumously receive the Jewish Rescuers Citation along with 12 other Holocaust-era heroes on Thursday, which marks Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, at the Forest of the Martyrs in the Jerusalem hills. Six million trees have been planted there in commemoration of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust."

In Israel and in Jewish communities around the world, today is "Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah" -- "Remembrance Day of the Holocaust and of Heroism." It is marked on the 27th day in the Hebrew month of Nisan, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

RJC staff have returned to their offices for in-person work. Contact information for our offices can be found on our web site. Please visit us online for the latest RJC news, to see details of upcoming events, and to donate to the RJC. Read past editions of this newsletter here.