Don't Miss March Membership Madness at JAC!
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March 26, 2016



JAC members hosted an event in Palm Beach for Rep. Patrick Muprhy (FL-18), candidate for U.S. Senate from Florida. (l to r: Barbara Koch, Patrick Murphy, Merle Styer)

 
JAC members meeting discussing the issues with Rep. Patrick Murphy in Boca Raton. (l to r: Glen Goldman, Jim Mills, Patrick Murphy)


JAC members meeting with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Boca Raton. (l to r: Sandra Lippy, Betty Kane, Carol Smokler) 
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Have you been out working on JAC issues? Send us photos of you and your friends at candidate events, out campaigning, or advocating for JAC issues and will will post them!





Talking Points Highland Park
with special guest
Rep. Tammy Duckworth (IL-8)
Monday, April 11

___________________ 
 
  For more information and to RSVP, contact the JAC office at 847-433-5999 or info@jacpac.org


Mark your calendars for the  
2016 JAC Power of Women Luncheon 
Monday, June 6 
Lincolnwood, IL 
with Special Guest 

 


Reception with
Brad Schneider
Candidate for IL-10
and former U.S. Representative
Barney Frank
March 28
Highland Park, IL
Click for details
______________________

Reception with
Russ Feingold 
Candidate for U.S. Senate from Wisconsin
March 30
Chicago, IL
Click for details

 
  For more information and to RSVP, contact the JAC office at 847-433-5999 or info@jacpac.org


 
Call Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell 


Tell him #WeNeedNine.
 
202.224.3121

"We can't let the Senate spread that dysfunction to another branch of the government, to the Supreme Court of the United States. We must not let it fester until the vital organs of our body politic are too crippled to perform their basic functions they're designed to perform.
VP Joe Biden

The Supreme Court is too important. It is time for Senator McConnell to stop playing politics with our democracy. Call today and tell him #DoYourJob - give Judge Merrick Garland a hearing and a vote.

Then tweet and share. Ask your friends to do the same. We need a full court.

#WeNeedNine 
@SenMajLeader #DoYourJob #WeNeedNine 
@TeamMitch #DoYourJob #WeNeedNine

Meet the Candidates  

Russ Feingold

Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) is seeking to regain the seat he lost in 2010. He previously served three terms in the Senate and was a member of the Foreign Relation Committee, where he gained a a deep understanding of the Middle East. He has always been committed to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.

"We must never forget the depth and breadth of our alliance and always do our utmost to reinforce a relationship that has benefited both nations for more than six decades," he wrote in a letter to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Feingold is running against an extremely conservative, anti-choice candidate. While in the Senate, Feingold earned a 100 percent pro-choice rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America.

President Obama has called Feingold "an honest, independent-minded public servant who's not driven by what's politically expedient; he's driven by what he knows is right..."

Feingold's opponent refuses to support a hearing on Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland. "The President has fulfilled his constitutional obligation to nominate a potential justice, it's time for the Senate to do its job," Feingold said.

Button - Red DONATE  
This is an important seat to win back in our efforts to protect women's reproductive freedom. JAC has always been able to count on Feingold and we are proud to support him once again. He will be an important champion for all of our issues.
______________________

He will be in the Chicago area on March 30. Please contact the JAC office for further information or click here for details
JACPAC Endorses  
Hillary Clinton for President 
 
"A Hillary Clinton Presidency will be an important step to safeguarding JAC's issues; the women's vote will be critical to Hillary's success and JAC will be working hard to get the vote out, said Executive Director Marcia Balonick.

Read the full endorsement here
 
#I'mWithHer
#HillaryClinton #JACPACSupportsHillary 
 
"Let us do the hard work necessary to keep building our friendship and reach out to the next generation of Americans and Israelis so the bonds between our nations grow even deeper and stronger. We are stronger together, and if we face the future side by side, I know for both Israel and America, our best days are still ahead."
Read Hillary's full remarks to AIPAC
 



#I'mWithHer
#HillaryClinton 
 
  Join the
Jewish Women for Hillary
Campaign Update Conference Call

featuring
Ann Lewis and Rep. Steve Israel 

Monday, March 28
8:30 am CT (9:30 am ET)

#I'mWithHer
#HillaryClinton
 
Find Us Online:

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Israel & the Middle East
U.S. Blacklists Firms Involved in Iran Missile Program 
The U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted two Iranian companies on Thursday for supporting Iran's ballistic missile program and also sanctioned two British businessmen it said were helping an airline used by the country's Revolutionary Guards. 
Obama: No Israeli-Palestinian Peace Deal in My Presidency 
"This is not something I was able to get done," he said. "I am not that hopeful that it's going to happen in the next nine months. It's been 60 years; it's not going to happen in the next nine months." He said he expected, however, to continue his efforts to achieve Middle East peace after leaving office in January.
Read Full Article

After Brussels Attack, World Looks to Israel as Security Model 
After a string of extremist attacks targeting the heart of Europe in the past year, some analysts say Europe will finally have to implement a much tougher level of security not only at airports, but at 'soft targets' like shopping malls - the kind Israelis have been living with for years. 
Read Full Article

Turkey Ready to Work with Israel Against Terror
Ankara is willing to work together with Jerusalem in fighting international terrorism, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin Wednesday, in a rare phone call between the two leaders.
Read Full Article

Israeli Firm Helping FBI to Open Encrypted iPhone
Israel's Cellebrite, a provider of mobile forensic software, is reportedly helping the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's attempt to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California shooters.
Read Full Article

19 Yemeni Jews Arrive in Israel on Secret Rescue Mission
They landed in Israel late at night - a man in a dark suit and traditional headdress, wheeling a suitcase; a mother, veiled, in a long black robe and holding a sleeping toddler; and a rabbi carrying a Torah scroll believed to be more than 500 years old.
Read Full Article
Anti-Semitism & BDS
Illinois First State to List Companies Banned for BDS Activity 
An Illinois state agency named 11 companies barred from doing business with the state for boycotting Israel or its settlements, the first such designation by an official US body.    
Read Full Article

UC Regents: Anti-Semitism Has 'No Place' On Campus 
University of California regents said that anti-Semitism has "no place" on a college campus but declined to issue a broad condemnation of anti-Zionism as a form of discrimination. Instead, they unanimously approved a report on intolerance that decried only "anti-Semitic forms" of the political ideology, which challenges Israel's right to exist in Palestine.
Read Full Article

200+ Faculty Sign Petition Supporting Columbia-Israel Ties 
This petition follows the launch of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which is calling on the University to "divest from corporations that supply, perpetuate, and profit from a system that has subjugated the Palestinian people." 
Read Full Article

BDS Leaders Hate America: Listen to Their Own Words 
what many do not realize is that the BDS agenda threatens not only the Middle East's one democratic state; it threatens the entire democratic world, and the U.S. is in the eye of its storm. Don't believe me? Let's look at exactly what the most senior BDS leaders have to say about the United States.
Read Full Article
Reproductive Rights
Zubik v Burwell, the Latest Birth Control Case, Explained
You might think of Zubik as the sequel to Hobby Lobby. Both cases deal with contraception, religious freedom, and employer-sponsored health insurance. But while Zubik v. Burwell is less well-known than Burwell v. Hobby Lobby was, it might actually be a more important case.

FL Bill Says Dentists Can Provide Repro Healthcare 
According to FL legislators, dentists, optometrists and elementary schools provide adequate access to reproductive health care. So they have passed a bill to effectively defund Planned Parenthood and other clinics by preventing state agencies from working with abortion care providers.  
Read Full Article



New Indiana Abortion Restrictions Become Law with a Prayer 
Gov. Mike Pence made Indiana the second state in the nation to ban abortions sought because the fetus has a disability, signing into law an expansion of the state's already restrictive abortion laws. "I sign this legislation with a prayer that God would continue to bless these precious children, mothers and families." 
Read Full Article

When Abortion Opponents Turn Lies Into Law
Over the past five years, abortion opponents have quietly passed hundreds of restrictive laws. These laws try to deny access to abortion care, even when that means lying, delaying care, requiring unnecessary tests, making it cost more than it should, and shutting down reproductive health clinics. As a result, abortion care is being pushed out of reach for many.
Read Full Article

Birth Control Coverage Should Always Be Guaranteed  
The scientific evidence affirms what women already know-that contraceptive use leads to myriad health, social and economic benefits for them and their families. And yet fierce battles continue over the terms on which women can obtain the contraceptive care they want and need.
Read Full Article

Why Over-The-Counter Birth Control Is So Necessary  
 
Read Full Article

House Committee Wants Names of Fetal Tissue Researchers
A House committee is set to issue 17 subpoenas for names of people involved in fetal tissue research amid Democratic complaints of intimidation. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN-R) will ask for the names of researchers, graduate students, laboratory technicians and administrative personnel involved in the research on behalf of the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. 
Read Full Article
Separation of Religion & State
Religion Is No Excuse for Bigotry Against Women
Yet that is precisely the argument behind a landmark case before the Supreme Court this week, Zubik v. Burwell. It's the latest attempt by religious conservatives to deny women their fundamental right to reproductive health care.
Read Full Article

Justices Seem Split on Birth Control Mandate
The Supreme Court weighed moral theology and parsed insurance terminology on Wednesday in an extended and animated argument that seemed to leave the justices sharply divided over what the government may do to require employers to provide free insurance coverage for contraception to female workers..
Read Full Article

The DeVos Family: Conservative Religious Values thru Political Donations
Move over Kochs. It's time to introduce the DeVos family: religious conservatives in Michigan who for decades have helped funnel money into influential political battles, including local races, ballot measures, presidential elections, and key congressional contests in other states. 
Read Full Article
Beyond the Core
Packing Heat While Praying in the South 
A Mississippi bill would allow worshippers to carry concealed weapons--but some pastors are saying, 'Not in my church.'  
Read Full Article

New Campus Concealed Carry Law Roils University of Texas 
Public colleges and universities in Texas will no longer be able to ban the concealed carrying of handguns when a new law takes effect in August. Though the schools can impose some restrictions, they must generally honor a state-issued concealed handgun license on campus.  
Read Full Article

Five-Hour Lines to Vote in AZ? Thank SCOTUS 
After the Supreme Court gutted the VRA in 2013, Arizona could make election changes without federal oversight. The long lines in Maricopa County last night were the latest example of the disastrous consequences of that decision.
Read Full Article 

Warning: Perilous Climate Change in Decades, Not Centuries
The nations of the world agreed years ago to try to limit global warming to a level they hoped would prove somewhat tolerable. But leading climate scientists warned on Tuesday that permitting a warming of that magnitude would actually be quite dangerous.

North Carolina Bans LGBT Anti-Discrimination Bans and More 
Legislators returned to the state house to overrule a local ordinance in Charlotte banning discrimination against LGBT people. The law not only overturns Charlotte's ban: It also prevents any local governments from passing their own non-discrimination ordinances, mandates that students in the state's schools use bathrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate, and prevents cities from enacting minimum wages higher than the state's.
SCOTUS Watch
The Merrick Garland Project 
The Merrick Garland Project seeks to present Judge Garland's record in a unique way-by curating a selection of opinions he has authored while on the D.C. Circuit, condensing them, and organizing them by subject matter.  
Snub of Garland Could Cost GOP Jewish Swing Vote 
The GOP elites are in a tizzy over saving the Republican Party from Donald Trump and the other intruders, extremists and crackpots who have fallen in behind Trump.  But who will save the party from the elites? 

Vice President Dismisses 'Biden Rule', Discusses SCOTUS 
 
Election 2016
The 9 most interesting things Hillary Clinton told AIPAC
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference. Here are the most interesting nuggets from her speech.
From Left to Right, Israelis Sour on 'Opportunitst' Trump  
He's crude. He's blunt. He's inauthentic. He is not a man of peace. Left and right, religious and secular, Arab and Jew, Israelis don't have many kind words for Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner. 

Democrats' Cash Crunch Hurts Chances to Win Senate 
Democrats have expanded the Senate map this year, recruiting viable candidates in states no one expected them to compete in, such as Arizona and Missouri, and arguably positioning themselves to ride an anti-Trump wave to the Senate majority. But there's one big problem: Money.   
Read Full Article

Rep. Whose Parents Held in Internment Camps Slams Cruz 
A congressman whose parents were placed in Japanese internment camps during World War II was stunned to hear Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz's suggestion that the U.S. spy on Muslim neighborhoods.   
Read Full Article

The Slow-Motion Implosion of the Republican Party 
Trapped on all sides.That's where the Republican Party finds itself today, both in its nominating battle and in its implacable "not even a hearing" stance on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Merrick Garland.    
Read Full Article
FYI
Rio Olympics to Honor Israelis Murdered in Munich
The eleven Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the Munich Olympics in 1972 will be honored at a ceremony led by Brazilian and Israeli officials during the 2016 summer Olympic Games.
Cuban Jewish Leader: Obama Visit 'Transcendental Moment'
Barack Obama's historic visit to Cuba, the first by a sitting US president to the island in 88 years, was also a milestone for the country's small Jewish community of about 1,500 people.
Israeli Venture to Help CA Unveiled at White House
White House announces initiative to bring 10 Israeli early-stage water, energy, agriculture and transport tech startups into the California market.  
Read Full Article

Reading the Whole Megillah at the White House for Purim

Our members count on JACPAC to provide information on current events, candidates, and elections.  JACPAC depends on membership support to make this possible.

 

If you have not renewed your membership, please consider doing so today, to help us pursue a strong US-Israel relationship, reproductive rights, and separation of religion and state.  Together we can make this a better world!

   

Sincerely,

 
Marcia Balonick, Executive Director
Joy Malkus, Research Director

Dana Gordon, Membership & Outreach

Hollis Wein, Communications Director 

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Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs (JACPAC) is a pro-Israel PAC with a domestic agenda. We support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and advocate for reproductive health and the separation of religion and state and incorporate other issues of importance to the Jewish community, including gun violence prevention and climate change. In addition to providing financial support for U.S. Senate and House campaigns, JACPAC educates our membership with outreach events designed to inform and activate their participation in the political process.
Paid for by Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs. Contributions or gifts are not tax deductible. Contributions may total up to $5400 per individual ($2700 for the primary election, and $2700 for the general election). Federal law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation, and name of employer of individuals whose contributions exceed $200 in an election cycle. Corporate contributions and contributions from non-US citizens who are not lawfully admitted for permanent residence are prohibited. All contributions by individuals must be made from personal funds and may not be reimbursed or paid by another person.