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President Trump addressing the 2023 RJC Annual Leadership Summit.
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The Trump Administration is Good for the Jews
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Dr. Sheila Nazarian writes at JNS that the incoming administration of President Donald Trump will improve not only the US-Israel relationship, but the security of American Jews as well:
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Let’s look at what the incoming administration and the incoming Republican-led Congress have already done to help Jews and the Jewish state. It is useful to start with the president-elect’s cabinet picks, which include many people who have expressed unequivocal support for the safety of the American Jewish community and the security of the Jewish state.
...Trump’s incoming administration is shaping up to be one of the most strongly pro-Israel administrations in recent US memory. The incoming government doesn’t only bode well for Israel and US-Israeli relations but for American Jewish security. Trump has promised to combat antisemitism by deporting the foreign radicals who cheer on Hamas and Hezbollah, and stripping federal funding from universities that fail to enforce anti-discrimination laws when Jewish students are targeted for hate.
...The list could go on, but the broad takeaway should be clear: Instead of wringing their hands and prophesizing about doom, American Jews should look at the hard policy evidence ahead of them and recognize the promising signs it contains. We are safer when there is a government willing to enforce anti-discrimination laws and penalize college campuses that swing into overt antisemitism, and Israel is safer when it is dealing with American officials who sanction terrorists and stand unequivocally with its battle against evil. Jews should welcome an administration that values our security both at home and abroad, and Trump’s team so far shows every sign that they will do just that.
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L-R: Amb. Mel Sembler, long-time member of the RJC Board of Directors, and former RJC National Chairman Amb. Sam Fox at a presentation honoring Fox's leadership of the RJC, December 3, 2011.
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Remembering Sam Fox
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The RJC notes with deep sorrow the passing on Monday of former RJC National Chairman and Board member Sam Fox of St. Louis. RJC National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman and RJC CEO Matt Brooks said of him:
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Sam's business acumen and deep understanding of people and organizations made him truly extraordinary. His company, Harbour Group, has successfully built and acquired nearly 200 companies in dozens of industries.
He brought his considerable talents to the leadership of the RJC from its early days. As the national chairman who led us into the 21st century, Sam brought the organization to a new level of effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability. His work set the foundation for the tremendous growth of the RJC in the years since.
Sam served as US Ambassador to Belgium under President George W. Bush. He and his late wife Marilyn, of blessed memory, were highly successful in their diplomatic duties. They elevated the standing of the US in the eyes of the Belgian people and built strong trade relationships between the two countries.
Sam's extensive community and charitable activities include leadership in the St. Louis Art Museum, the St. Louis Area Council Boy Scouts of America, Washington University, BJC Hospital, the Fox Family Foundation, Opera Theater of St. Louis, the St. Louis Science Center, the St. Louis Symphony and the St. Louis Zoo.
Sam was generous with his time, with his wise counsel, and famously, with chocolates. He was a dear friend and respected mentor to many of us in the RJC.
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The St. Louis Jewish Light noted:
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Mr. Fox owed his success in business and civic leadership in part to his bold and creative thinking, clear vision, and quick, intuitive grasp of organizational strengths and weaknesses. But his success also grew from his remarkable personality. Intense and passionate, he loved life to the fullest and brought to it a ready sense of humor, refreshing candor, and a willingness to listen to other points of view.
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The St. Louis Public Radio article about his passing adds the story of how Amb. Fox's family came to the US:
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In 1913, Fox’s father fled the Ukraine, where he said killing Jews had become a national sport. He sailed from Belgium to the US on the Red Star Line. A century later, Fox preserved his father’s harrowing story at the Red Star Line Museum, which opened in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2013.
The story includes his father’s recollection that a miracle occurred when he arrived at Ellis Island in New York.
"He walked in as Michel Fuks, a member of a despised minority," Fox recalled in the museum’s oral history. "He walked out, thanks to the English translators at the immigration office, as Max Fox, a free man in a country that had declared, 'All men are created equal.'"
Eventually, his father made his way to St. Louis, but he didn’t care for the big city. He bought a horse and ended up in Desloge, Missouri, because, he said, "that’s where the horse died." His father worked at various jobs for seven years before he could afford to send for his wife and daughter.
Fox’s mother, Fejga "Fanny" Gold Fox, and his sister Esther arrived in 1921. The couple’s other four children would be born in America, Sam on May 9, 1929.
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Sam is survived by Pamela Fox Claman, of Israel, Jeff Fox, of St. Louis, and Steve Fox, of St. Louis, and their families.
Our thoughts are with Sam's family in this difficult time. May they be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
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Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra, addressed the 2024 RJC Leadership Summit.
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Omer Neutra, American-Israeli, Confirmed Killed on 10/7
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Our hearts go out to Ronen and Orna Neutra at the news this week that their son, American-Israeli IDF soldier Omer Neutra, was confirmed killed on October 7, 2023, fighting the Hamas invasion. JTA reports:
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[T]he Israel Defense Forces announced based on intelligence that Neutra was killed on Oct. 7 with two other soldiers serving in the tank he commanded. His body is still being held by Hamas, along with dozens of others presumed to be dead. Hamas is holding approximately 100 hostages in total.
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...Neutra, who was 21 on Oct. 7, is the son of Israeli parents who grew up on Long Island, where he attended Jewish day school and camp. Following graduation, he moved to Israel and enlisted in the military. He was serving as a tank commander when he was killed.
In the more than a year since his abduction, his parents Orna and Ronen became prominent faces of the movement to free the hostages. They spoke at the Republican National Convention this past summer as well as at a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition and numerous other forums. They have also spoken directly with President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump in an effort to free their son and the other hostages...
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Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli citizen and 'lone soldier' who was killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy)
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The RJC offers condolences to the Neutras in this difficult time. May they know no more sorrow. We continue to pray for the release of all the hostages and to call on Hamas to LET THEM GO.
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President Trump Calls for Immediate Release of Hostages
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National Review reports:
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President-elect Donald Trump on Monday told Hamas there will be “hell to pay” unless the terror group releases the rest of the hostages it kidnapped from Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks.
"Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action!" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
"Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity," he says.
"Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America," the former and future president added. "RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!"
...The strong statement comes just [hours] after the Israeli government confirmed the death of IDF soldier Omer Neutra, an Israeli-American from New York.
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Jonathan Tobin, the editor-in-chief of JNS, comments on the moral clarity that President Trump brings to this issue:
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Trump put the onus for achieving the release of the hostages—something all decent people should support—on the Palestinians. They were responsible for that rampage of mass murder, torture, rape and kidnapping. But by specifying that the "All HELL TO PAY" would be felt throughout the Middle East, he was also sending a powerful message to Hamas’s foreign backers. Iran, as well as nominal US allies like Qatar and Turkey, who have provided the terrorists with aid and diplomatic cover are also now on notice to secure the hostages’ freedom lest they, too, face Trump’s wrath once he returns to the White House on Jan. 20.
...[T]he mixed signals sent by [Joe] Biden, and later by [Kamala] Harris as well, about the war only served to encourage Hamas to refuse to negotiate seriously... Trump’s threats may not be enough to convince Hamas to give up their fight to hang on in Gaza. But they have given the Iranians, as well as Qatar and Turkey, a lot to think about. Whether or not they succeed in the short term, the president-elect has served notice to the region that those who have enabled the continuation of the war on Israel that began last Oct. 7 may be forced to pay a very high price for continuing to do so.
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Did you see the TRUMP KIPPAH that Matt held up during his GOP Convention speech?
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GET YOURS HERE!
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Biden photographed exiting Nantucket shop with anti-Israel book
At 3:33 p.m. on Friday, US President Joe Biden exited Nantucket Bookworks in Nantucket, Mass., carrying a copy of the book The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi, per the White House pool.
...The 2020 book, which bears the subtitle "a history of settler colonialism and resistance, 1917–2017," is a "landmark" history of the "100 years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history," according to the publisher's site.
It is also "the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective," which "upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory," per the publisher. "Instead, Khalidi traces 100 years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age."
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Hunter pardon cements Joe Biden’s record of shame and failure
President Joe Biden’s expansive pardon of his son Hunter Biden, not just for the tax and gun crimes he has been found guilty of but for all possible criminal conduct going back 11 years, confirms that Biden was never the honest defender of law and order the Democratic Party sold him as but was always an opportunistic fraud who will leave office in defeated disgrace.
It was not until House Republicans began investigating the Biden family that the truth started to come out. Congressional investigators have published ample evidence showing that Biden family members received at least $10 million from foreign entities funneled through more than a dozen shell corporations, all without a single member of Biden’s family registering as a foreign agent.
House Republicans produced emails, recordings, contemporary notes, and firsthand witness testimony showing that Hunter Biden repeatedly founded business deals with foreign entities on the belief that he could influence the behavior of his father, who was vice president at the time.
...The political cynicism of the Biden family crime cover-up is shameful. It now appears that the president had been planning to pardon Hunter Biden since at least early this year, reportedly informing top aides of his intention to do so, all while his spokesperson insisted on at least 10 occasions that Joe Biden had no such intention. The plan all along was to lie to voters long enough to get past the election before offering Hunter Biden the legal protection other Americans don’t get.
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Jon Ossoff lays the groundwork for 2026 reelection campaign
US Sen. Jon Ossoff doesn’t have a Republican challenger yet, but his bid for another term in 2026 is well underway. That’s evident in the weeks following November’s presidential election as the first-term lawmaker navigates two developments that set the stage for a tough campaign ahead.
...The first was a vote backing a pair of failed resolutions to limit U.S. weapons sales to Israel...
Already, the Republican Jewish Coalition said ousting Georgia’s first Jewish US senator will be its "top priority" in 2026.
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PA: Book Event with Dr. Tevi Troy
Join us for hear presidential historian Dr. Tevi Troy discuss his new book, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry.
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RSVP
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NY: Hanukkah Party
Our third annual New York regional Hanukkah party will feature special guest Congressman Mike Lawler.
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RSVP
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NV: Hanukkah Party
Save the date for a special Hanukkah event in Las Vegas.
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SAVE THE DATE
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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.
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Republican Jewish Coalition 50 F Street, N.W., Suite 100 | Washington, DC 20001
202.638.6688 | [email protected]
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