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With the first Republican presidential debate less than one week away, the RJC PAC has launched a new page at Portal.RJCPAC.com where RJC members can donate directly to the GOP presidential candidates of their choice.

Your donation through the RJC PAC Portal has a big impact, because your contribution goes straight to the campaign you select AND the candidate will know you’re a proud RJC member who cares about the RJC’s priority issues.

The RJC PAC Portal is also the best way for RJC members to contribute to Senate and House candidates.

Bookmark the RJC PAC Portal and be sure to use that link whenever you’re making a political donation in this crucial election cycle!

We’re excited to announce the first set of confirmed speakers for the RJC Leadership Summit in Las Vegas. We hope you’ll join us, October 27-29, to hear from these great speakers:

Gov. Chris Christie

Sen. Steve Daines

Sen. Lindsey Graham

Amb. Nikki Haley

Vice President Mike Pence

Vivek Ramaswamy

Gov. Sarah Sanders

Sen. Rick Scott

More speaker announcements are coming soon!

For more information and to register, go to: www.RJCHQ.org/Vegas_2023. Early bird registration will end soon. This event is for RJC Leaders who are current in their dues. (Leadership begins at the $1,000 giving level.)

The Jewish Insider profiled the two Jewish Republicans in Congress, Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Max Miller (R-OH):

Bolstering Israel and combating antisemitism have been top priorities for both congressmen since their arrivals in Washington. After Miller was sworn in earlier this year, the first piece of legislation he sponsored was the resolution that removed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for controversial comments she made about Jews and Israel. Kustoff’s first bill after joining Congress in 2017 was the Combating Anti-Semitism Act, which would have increased the federal penalty for threats against synagogues, churches and other religious institutions.

Kustoff and Miller are the “tip of the spear on issues of concern to the Jewish community,” Sam Markstein, the national political director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said. "They’re always trusted and important voices in the room when these sorts of issues come to the fore."

Much more at the link.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

The Biden administration pushed through plans to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer aid to the Palestinians despite internal assessments that those plans could boost the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

State Department officials in 2021 outlined the concerns in private communications, asking the Treasury Department to exempt them from laws that bar the US government from injecting taxpayer aid into territories controlled by Palestinian terror groups. The Biden administration needed this authorization in order to move forward with its plans to unfreeze more than $360 million in US funds for the Palestinian Authority that were cut off during the Trump administration due to the authority's support for terrorists.

"We assess there is a high risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from US assistance to Gaza. There is less but still some risk US assistance would benefit other designated groups," the State Department wrote in a draft sanctions exemption request circulated internally in March 2021, shortly after Biden took office.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) issued a statement in response to this report:

"Today's report again confirms that Joe Biden and Biden administration officials are pathologically obsessed with undermining Israel. They made a day one decision to pour hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars into areas controlled by Palestinian terrorists, despite knowing that such actions would benefit terrorist groups that have the blood of Americans and Israelis on their hands. State Department officials knew that doing so risked violating the most basic American laws prohibiting assistance that benefits terrorists, and so they rushed to lawlessly exempt themselves from those restrictions.

"I led Republican efforts to stop such payments at the beginning of the Biden administration. Biden officials told Congress and the public that what they were doing was consistent with United States laws. It was clear at the time that they could not be telling the truth, and that their plans were brazenly inconsistent with anti-terrorism laws. Today's report confirms they knew they were lying…"

The devastating fires on Maui have caused an unfathomable loss of life and property.

The Hon. Linda Lingle, former governor of Hawai’I and former mayor of Maui, has suggested that donations to help the people of Maui be sent to the Maui Strong Fund of the Hawai'i Community Foundation. The Maui Strong Fund is putting 100% of each donation directly into the hands of non-profit organizations on the ground on Maui that are providing shelter, food, medical help, financial support, grief counseling, and other services.

Other ways to help:

• Jewish Federations of North America has established a Hawai’i Wildfire Fund.

• Rabbi Mendel and Chani Zirkind, the Chabad couple on Maui, are sheltering, feeding, and providing assistance to dozens of people from their Maui Kosher Farm.

The disastrous implications of the $6 billion Iran hostage deal

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, writes at The Dispatch that President Joe Biden giving $6 billion to Iran to ransom five American hostages is a bad deal in many disturbing ways. It sidesteps Congress and breaks the law; encourages the taking of more hostages by Iran and other bad actors, like Russia and China; and it allows the Iranians to continue their pursuit of nuclear weapons.

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.