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Republican Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY-17) has introduced legislation that would punish universities that "authorize antisemitic events on campus” such as the egregious anti-Israel and antisemitic commencement speech by Fatima Mousa Mohammed at CUNY Law School last month.

Fox News reports:

The "Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act" was proposed in response to a recent controversial CUNY Law School commencement speech, where the speaker, student Fatima Mousa Mohammed, accused the U.S. military and Israel of "indiscriminate" murder, and asked students to join a "revolution" against Zionism, capitalism and racism.

… Lawler is calling for CUNY to "face stiff penalties if they continue to let hate have a home" through his bill, which would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to add that an institution cannot "authorize, facilitate, provide funding for, or otherwise support" antisemitism.

Congressman Lawler’s bill defines "antisemitism" according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition. It would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to prohibit institutions of high education that authorize antisemitic events on campus from participating in student loan and grant programs.

Marc Rod at the Jewish Insider has an excellent in-depth interview of Rep. Lawler.

RJC New York will hold an in-person event on June 26 with Rep. Lawler.

Show your support for Rep. Mike Lawler,
a strong friend of Israel and the Jewish community,
by donating to his campaign through the RJCPAC.

This week, three Republicans leaders officially entered the 2023 Republican Presidential race: former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

Mike Pence

Mike Pence has served in Congress, as Governor of Indiana, and Vice President of the United States. He released a video to announce his presidential run, titled "Best Days." In the video, he says: "We can bring this country back; we can defend our nation and secure our border; we can revive our economy and put our nation back on a path to a balanced budget, defend our liberties, and give America a new beginning for life… We need government as good as our people… I believe in the American people."

Vice President Pence is a stalwart supporter of the State of Israel and a long-time friend of the RJC. You can see his remarks at the 2022 Annual Leadership Summit here.

Did you know? Before running for public office for the first time in 1990, Pence hosted a daily radio talk show in Indiana and a Sunday night TV show. He called himself, "Rush Limbaugh on decaf." As governor of Indiana, he put his conservative principles into practice, enacting tax reforms and supporting school choice in the state.

Chris Christie

Chris Christie has a reputation as a fighter, and he showed that clearly in his presidential campaign announcement this week. He told the crowd at his campaign kick-off event in New Hampshire: "I am going to be very clear — I’m going out there to take out Donald Trump. But here’s why: I want to win, and I don’t want him to win… There is one lane to the Republican nomination and he’s in front of it. And if you want to win, you better go right through him…"

Christie’s long career in public service includes serving as a local elected official, as US Attorney for New Jersey, and Governor of New Jersey. As governor, with a state legislature dominated by Democrats, Christie held the line against increases in state income tax, sales tax, and corporate tax rates. He was elected chairman of the Republican Governors Association; his record-breaking fundraising and extensive personal campaigning for gubernatorial candidates in 2014 helped the GOP to a net gain in Republican governorships that year, including pickups in three Democrat-dominated states: Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts.

Governor Christie spoke at the 2021 RJC Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas. You can see his remarks here.

Did you know? One of young Chris Christie’s Little League teammates, now the famous novelist Harlan Coben, once said: "If you were to ask who in our class would end up being governor, most people would tell you Chris Christie."

Doug Burgum

Doug Burgum doesn’t have the kind of national name recognition of Pence and Christie, but he has a solid record as governor of North Dakota and as a businessman. Burgum grew up in Arthur, an eastern North Dakota town of about 300 people, 25 miles northwest of Fargo. In 1983, he helped found Great Plains Software, which developed accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses. He built it into a world-class tech company and sold it to Microsoft in 2001. Burgum stayed on as a Microsoft vice president, focusing on enterprise software, until 2007. He founded a real estate development firm, a venture capital firm, and other businesses. He ran for office in 2016 having no political experience and won the open seat. He was re-elected in 2020 with over 65% of the vote.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on June 6, 2023 (paywall), Burgum wrote, "When I ran for governor in 2016, we shook up the political establishment—then cut more than a billion dollars in spending, balanced the budget, unleashed energy production, and diversified the economy. This year we achieved pension reform, helped pass term limits, and enacted the biggest tax cut in state history. I can do the same for America. The US has the hardest-working people in the world. But we need new leadership to unleash our potential."

You can see his campaign kick-off video here.

Did you know? Five years ago, Burgum said on Israel’s 70th anniversary that the Jewish state is "a tremendous ally," both for the country and for North Dakota, in particular.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has rolled out a new nationwide campaign to maximize pre-Election Day voting by Republicans, called Bank Your Vote (BankYourVote.com):

The fact of the matter is that we no longer have just "Election Day" – we have election seasons, with many states opening their polls for weeks. Republicans saw success in 2022 with absentee voting, early in-person voting, and ballot harvesting. Now, as we work to protect the House, flip the Senate, and win back the White House in 2024, we are doubling down and making the Bank Your Vote campaign our number one priority. Republicans continue to oppose bad laws in the courtroom, but we’ll also play by the rules we’re given. We’re turning the full power of our unmatched political ground game, data operation, legal resources, and messaging apparatus towards Banking Your Vote to chase down every ballot. Not only will we ballot harvest where it’s legal, but we’ll beat the Democrats at their own game.

Read the full article.

Read the RNC talking points paper on Bank Your Vote.

The Republican Jewish Coalition announced that Orit and Adam Kwasman have been named Leaders of the Arizona Chapter to spearhead the organization’s efforts in this critical battleground state. The Kwasmans have spent a combined 30 years involved in politics, campaigns, and the legislature and are an ideal fit to lead the organization’s grassroots efforts in Arizona.

The RJC has maintained an active presence in Arizona since the early 2000s. Given the rapidly growing Jewish community there and the fact that the state is one of the last true remaining "purple" battleground states, the RJC is expanding its role in Arizona, increasing community outreach and fundraising, and executing targeted get-out-the-vote efforts and advocacy initiatives.

Read about the Kwasmans and the RJC’s plans in Arizona here.

Disgusting, But True: Iran Takes Prominent Roles in UN

The Iranian regime was appointed last week as one of the vice presidents of the UN General Assembly, serving a one-year term starting in September, when the next UNGA session begins. In addition, the UNGA appointed Iran’s envoy, Heider-Ali Balouji, as the rapporteur of the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Committee of the General Assembly and a board member of the committee. In May, Iran's UN ambassador, Ali Bahraini, was appointed to the chair of the UN Human Rights Council 2023 Social Forum, a forum focused on using technology to promote human rights.

America’s Most Israeli Politician

Liel Leibovitz writes at Tablet Magazine about Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his worldview: "There are two nations and only two nations on Earth that were formed as havens for those fleeing persecution and seeking freedom," Cruz told me. "America and Israel. Israel’s very existence, the modern State of Israel was formed so that Jews across the globe would have a place to which they could go, to flee if need be the horrific scourge of antisemitism that has cursed history for millennia, to flee the immediate atrocity of the Holocaust. And, like Israel, America was also founded by people fleeing religious oppression, fleeing those that would not allow them to live according to their faith, according to their conscience. And we came to a new land where our nation was founded on the proposition that Jefferson famously penned: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' Those are extraordinary words. Those were revolutionary words, and only America and Israel embody that promise."

RJC offices are open! Contact information for our offices can be found on our website. 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.