View Email in Browser     Visit RJCHQ.org     Donate     Unsubscribe

This Week:

• Will Democrats Fight to Save Their Party?
• Republicans Introduce Bill to Protect Houses of Worship
• RJC in the News
• Short Takes
• Week's Best Tweets
• Upcoming Events

The RJC's Annual Leadership Summit is just weeks away!

Join us in Las Vegas with these CONFIRMED guests!

August 30 - September 1 in Las Vegas

Click HERE to register today!

Republicans Introduce Bill to Protect Houses of Worship

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Representative Brad Knott (R-NC) are leading the way on bipartisan legislation to protect houses of worship during religious services. The Right to Worship Act would establish a 100-foot protection zone where conduct that disrupts a scheduled religious service or impedes attendance is prohibited. The legislation would also establish civil penalties for offenders and provide pathways for individuals, including state attorneys, to seek court orders and damages in federal court.

The Jewish Insider reports that the bill was developed in large part by RJC Board of Directors member Sander Gerber, who played an integral role in the Taylor Force Act.

The Republican Jewish Coalition strongly supports this measure.

RJC in the News

Jewish Dem defections threaten El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race decided by razor-thin margins

Jewish voters could provide the decisive margin in Michigan's November Senate election, particularly as some lifelong Democrats say they are prepared to cross party lines and vote for Republican Mike Rogers against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

Analysts point to Michigan’s last US Senate race decided by just 19,006 votes. With estimates placing the state’s Jewish population between approximately 105,000 and 130,000 adults, those votes could tip the scales in favor of Rogers.

… Sam Markstein, national political director and spokesman for the Republican Jewish Coalition, told Fox News Digital those voters could provide the decisive margin in November.

Markstein said the RJC analyzed primary results in Oak Park, Bloomfield Township, West Bloomfield and Southfield, four Oakland County communities with sizable Jewish populations. According to the organization’s analysis, [Haley] Stevens received approximately 37,000 votes across those communities, compared with about 20,000 for El-Sayed.

Her combined 17,000-vote advantage was greater than the statewide margin by which Rogers lost his 2024 Senate campaign to Democrat Elissa Slotkin.

"That’s a really big delta there that shows that Jewish voters do not like Abdul El-Sayed," Markstein said.

He called Michigan’s Jewish voters "not just a rounding error" and said Republicans have an opportunity to move more of them into their column in November.

Markstein also criticized El-Sayed’s response to the March terrorist attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. An armed attacker rammed a vehicle into the synagogue, where approximately 140 children were present, before opening fire. No children, congregants or staff members were physically harmed.

Schumer, Democrats are 'cowards' for backing El-Sayed, RJC says

The Republican Jewish Coalition called Democratic leaders "cowards" after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) pledged to help Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Dr.Abdul El-Sayed defeat former Republican congressman Mike Rogers.

…Sam Markstein, national political director and spokesman at the RJC, told JNS that “Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democratic Party are complete and total cowards.”

"Abdul El-Sayed is the most antisemitic candidate for the U.S. Senate in America, and yet, their party leadership is rallying around him," he said. "November is a clear choice between Democrat crazy and Republican common sense."

Schumer’s support for El-Sayed comes more than a year after the Jewish senator published Antisemitism in America: A Warning, a book about the resurgence of anti-Jewish hatred in the United States.

"In Michigan specifically, this is a choice between Mike Rogers, who will stand with Michigan’s Jewish community as he has always done, and Abdul El-Sayed, who will defend the people who come after us," Markstein told JNS, citing Rogers’s pro-Israel record.

"Where Democrats failed, Republicans will clean up their mess," he said.

Democrats' fundraising woes raise questions about whether Jewish donors are pulling back

For decades, Jewish donors have been among the Democratic Party’s most reliable financial backers, but as the party's divisions over Israel deepen and concerns about antisemitism mount, some longtime supporters are reconsidering where they send their political dollars.

… Republicans, meanwhile, see an opportunity to expand their coalition. Sam Markstein, communications director for the Republican Jewish Coalition, said his organization is actively courting disillusioned Democrats, pointing to figures like former Bernie Sanders supporter Shabbos Kestenbaum as evidence of a broader realignment.

"Every year or so, we feature former Democrat Jews who are now either changing their affiliation to unaffiliated or are supporting Republicans," Markstein said, adding that many express a shared sentiment: "'I’ve had enough of the party, and we’re coming over to the Republican side because the party left us.'"

Short Takes

Jewish Insider: Trump taps Will Scharf as White House counsel

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf will replace David Warrington as White House counsel effective September 1.

…Scharf, who is Jewish, has served as White House staff secretary since early 2025. At the time of his appointment to the position, Trump described Scharf as “a highly skilled attorney who will be a crucial part of my White House team.”

See also: "White House Counsels and Public Service", on the tradition of noble public service. 

Ondrasik: The haters come for Boy George over Israel. I know what it feels like.

Boy George, the flamboyant British singer who shot to fame in the 1980s … recently released a song entitled “We Will Dance Again.” He said he wanted to support his Jewish friends still reeling from the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists in Israel, in particular at the Nova music festival, on Oct. 7, 2023. “I stand with the Jews,” the lyrics go.

…Reactions were immediate and overwhelmingly furious…What makes Boy George so enraging to the haters is that he, like me, is not Jewish. That fact sends a signal: This is not a religious battle but a moral one. One of good versus evil, without relativity or equivocation. To the haters, that means Boy George must be ridiculed, marginalized or intimidated, lest he give license to others who might have been cowed into not voicing their support for the Jewish people.

…But he is unbowed, defiant, as he stands up for what's right. Boy George: good man.

John Ondrasik, a singer-songwriter, performs as Five for Fighting. He has been attacked for his support of Israel and the hostages of October 7

Jewish Insider: Atlanta Jewish Times publisher accuses Ossoff of 'lying' about Israel support

The publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times penned an open letter to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) on Wednesday pressing the senator over his repeated votes to block U.S. military sales to Israel, accusing Ossoff of failing to support Israel and of misrepresenting his positions to his Jewish constituents.

Tratt: Trump's foreign student crackdown protects Jewish students

Earn your degree and then leave.

That's the message being sent by the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it is eliminating a loophole that previously allowed foreign students to remain in America indefinitely while pursuing their studies.

…Recent moves to restrain rampant foreign student visa abuse are part of a larger campaign by the Trump administration to combat antisemitism at American universities.

Troy: Why D.C. Sleeps in August

It gets hot in Washington. Real hot. On Aug. 6, 1918, the temperature hit 106 degrees.

Washingtonians, including top government officials, have been coping with this heat since the earliest days of our Republic. In the days before air conditioning, there wasn't much to do about it other than get out of town. The congressional summer recess dates to 1791. As of 1970, it's a statutory requirement.

… Of course, all this August relaxing can lead one to wonder who's minding the store. As I have written previously, multiple presidents have been flummoxed by unanticipated August developments, including the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Watts Riots of 1965, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to name a few.

Tweets

Events