May 6, 2016
HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
Obama Calls for Solidarity with European Jews 

"We stand with those who are leaving the European cities where they have lived for generations because they no longer feel safe, with the members of institutions that have been attacked because of their Jewish affiliations, and with the college students forced to confront swastikas appearing on their campuses.  And we call upon all people of good will to be vigilant and vocal against every form of bigotry."
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JAC's Power of Women Luncheon is weeks away and everyone is busy with the final details. (l to r: Betsy Brint, 2016 JAC luncheon co-chair; Marcia Balonick, JAC executive director; Dana Gordon; and Sally Higginson, 2016 JAC luncheon co-chair.)


JAC members with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Philadelphia this week. (l to r: Ruth Damsker, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jill Zipin.)


Conversation with
Hillary Rodham Clinton
May 19th
Park Ridge, IL
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Dessert Reception for
Brad Schneider
Candidate for IL-10
May 19th
Northbrook, IL

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 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 
 
 


Highland Park Council Meeting
Proclamation of Support for
Wear Orange Campaign

supporting
Gun Violence Awareness
Monday, May, 23
7:30 pm
Highland Park, IL
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Mark your calendars!
JAC Luncheon honoring
Betsy Sheerr
September 26th
Philadelphia
Watch for details.
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Want to host an event in your area? Give us a call! 
  For more information, contact the JAC office at 847-433-5999 or info@jacpac.org
Meet Senate Candidate
 NH Gov. Maggie Hassan

Maggie poignantly describes the first day of school for her son Ben, who was born with cerebal palsy and why she chose public service.
Her Senate race is shaping up to be one of the most competitive races in the country. Maggie's victory could help tilt the balance of power in the Senate. Hassan will be a strong voice for JAC. She deserves your support. If you will be in the Chicago area, please join JAC and meet Maggie on Friday, May, 13. Call the JAC office at 847-433-5999 for more information.
 


This Mother's Day, shop at stores that support gun violence prevention. Click here for a complete list of stores.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY FROM DONALD TRUMP


 Here are some of the most outrageous things Trump has said about women:
  • That giving your wife "negotiable assets" is a terrible mistake.
  • That women are essentially aesthetically-pleasing objects.
  • That sexual assault in the military is totally expected because what else could possibly happen when you put men and women together?
  • That bad press doesn't matter as long as you have a sexy girlfriend.
  • That women have a "great act" going on to trick men.
  • That Hillary would be a bad president because of her husband's actions.
"I am a proud lifelong fighter for women's issues, because I firmly believe what's good for women is good for America. ..."
 
Hillary will:
  • Ensure equal pay for women.
  • Defend women's health and reproductive rights against attacks.
  • Fight for paid family leave and affordable child care.

 
ELECTIONS MATTER
JOIN/RENEW YOUR JAC MEMBERSHIP
DONATE TO CANDIDATES
STAY INFORMED.




Israel & the Middle East
Israeli officials seized tons of materials headed to Gaza to be used for bomb making.
 
NATO Upgrades Israel's Status Amid Mounting Regional Threats
NATO has upgraded its ties with Israel, tightening its cooperation with the Jewish state amid mounting instability in the Middle East. Israel will now be able to open offices at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's headquarters in Brussels and complete a credentialing process for its representatives. The step is "important" and will help boost Israeli security, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Israel to UN: 'We're Not Opposed to the Return of Terrorist Bodies'
Israel is not opposed to the return of terrorist bodies to their families, Avinoam Segal Elad, an attorney with Israel's Justice Ministry, told the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva. Elad said the Israeli government accepts that "such bodies should be returned to their families." But, "security concerns may require the return to be postponed. 

House Committee Would Boost Israeli Aid By $200 Million
The House Armed Services Committee would boost funding to help procure and produce various Israeli missile defense programs by nearly $200 million above the level requested in the president's defense budget, according to the chairman's mark up of the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill.

Israel Seizes 4 Tons of Rocket Chemicals Bound for Gaza
Customs and Shin Bet officials at the Nitzana Border Crossing used by Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Authority seized the four tons of ammonium chloride concealed within a 40-ton shipment of salt. Ammonium chloride can be used in the production of long-range rockets and the quantity of material seized had the potential to yield hundreds of such weapons.

Hamas Under Pressure as Israel Makes Progress on Tunnels
For the first time since the August 2014 cease-fire ended Operation Protective Edge, Hamas launched cross-border mortar attacks against Israel. Hamas is targeting IDF units engaged in hi-tech tunnel detection work on the border between Israel and northern Gaza. Hamas is escalating the situation due its fear that it is about to lose its trump card - its tunnels.
Anti-Semitism & BDS
Is Professorial Anti-Semitism Finally Meeting Resistance?
After being denied tenure at the University of Illinois for his vitriolic expressions of hatred for Israel, Steven Salaita found himself a position at the American University of Beirut (AUB), which recently announced that it, too, is terminating his employment. Meanwhile, a group of eminent professors is suing the American Studies Association (ASA)-the first U.S. academic organization to endorse a boycott of Israeli scholars and institutions-for violating the terms of its charter.

Israeli Minister: Criticizing Israel Is the New Anti-Semitism
Israel's justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, slammed European leaders who criticize Israel and advocates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the country, accusing them of simply swapping old anti-Semitic tropes for a new format.
Reproductive Rights
A Summer of Abortion Violence Trials Starts Now
The Department of Justice trial against radical anti-abortion activist Angel Dillard began on Tuesday. But anti-choice violence will be before the courts all summer long. Dillard's case is the first of several trials lined up nationwide this summer concerning the legal limits of threats and violence targeting abortion providers and patients.

Doctor, Warned to Be Silent on Abortions, Files Civil Rights Complaint
A doctor who performs abortions at a hospital in Washington filed a federal civil rights complaint on Monday, charging that the hospital had violated the law by forbidding her, out of concerns for security, to speak publicly in defense of abortion and its role in health care.

The connections between repro health care access, women's economic security
Conversations about abortion rights and economic security "are mostly happening separately, overlooking the ways in which access to reproductive healthcare is inextricably tied up in a woman's ability to support herself and her family financially."
 
Bill Regulates Abortion Clinics Like Sex Offenders
The Alabama House voted Wednesday in a sweeping 73-19 decision to close abortion clinics located near schools. The bill's sponsor had likened abortion clinics to sex offenders, saying both should be kept away from children.
Separation of Religion & State
House GOP Moves to Reverse Federal LGBTQ Protections
Republicans on a U.S. House of Representatives committee are using the fiscal year 2017 defense authorization bill to undo President Obama's LGBTQ anti-discrimination measures for federal contractors.

Should Courts Get to Define Religion?
The Massachusetts Supreme Court will decide whether a local shrine should be tax-exempt -- a decision that could have broad implications for faith organizations in America. The Court's decision will be an important part of the ongoing debate in America about who defines religious practice and whether religion itself should be afforded a special place under the law.
Beyond the Core
 
President Obama sips Flint, MI, water during his visit to the city this week.

Federal Judge Rules Restrictive Voting Laws OK
A federal judge upheld a series of restrictive voting laws in North Carolina recently, the first of several key voting rights cases on the docket for 2016. Of the 17 states with new voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election this year, nine also have major ongoing lawsuits that could impact voting access before November.
 
As States Expand Gun Rights, the Police Object
Guns in bars. Guns in airports. Guns in day care centers and sports arenas. Conservative state lawmakers around the country are pressing to weaken an array of gun regulations, in some cases greatly expanding where owners can carry their weapons.

Georgia Governor Vetoes Guns On Campus Bill
Governor Nathan Deal, a Republican, vetoed legislation that would have allowed licensed gun owners to carry concealed handguns on Georgia's public college and university campuses. This legislation, applying to licensed gun owners ages 21 and older, would have banned weapons at campus housing and sports facilities but not at university daycare centers.

Obama Sips Flint Water, Urges Children Be Tested for Lead
President Barack Obama sipped filtered water in Flint, Michigan, on Wednesday and assured angry residents that their children would be fine in the long term despite the "complete screw-up" that contaminated their drinking water with lead.
Election 2016
What Will Trump Be Like As GOP Nominee? 
After a primary season that has broken the rules and confounded the experts, Republicans and Democrats are now grappling with the same questions: What kind of candidate would Donald Trump be in a general election, and how should Hillary Clinton run against him? One big lesson learned so far in the primary season is that his opponents waited too long to go after him and were timid when they did. Clinton and the Democrats probably would go early and hard against him.
Clinton's Foreign Policy Advisers Are Predictable, Experts 
Hillary Clinton's inner circle of foreign policy advisers stands out for not standing out. The names she has on her side are a who's who of the last 20 years of national security policy, from Madeleine Albright, to Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), the top party member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Other major insiders include Tom Donilon, the first-term national security adviser of President Barack Obama known for his closeness to Israel; Leon Panetta, a former Obama defense secretary; and Michele Flournoy, a former defense undersecretary.
 
The  World's Reaction to Trump
After Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination Tuesday night, the BBC rounded up the reactions from the global press. Aside from some gloating in authoritarian Russia and China, the reaction was pretty shocked.
SCOTUS
4 Major Decisions To Expect From The Supreme Court Soon
It's all over but the writing. Last week, the Supreme Court held its final day of scheduled oral arguments in its current term. Barring extraordinary events, the justices have now heard arguments in every case that they need to resolve before they begin their summer vacation in June. With a divided court following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, we have may entered a golden age of judicial liberalism. 

Some conservatives realize blocking Merrick Garland is a big mistake
With Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee, the stakes for the Supreme Court have become startlingly clear. The position of the Senate GOP under majority leader Mitch McConnell has always been firm that the next president should decide on Antonin Scalia's replacement - and that, accordingly, they will not so much as consider Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland.
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FYI
 
'Hamilton' creator Lin-Manuel Miranda sings in Hebrew 
Raise a glass! "Hamilton" is the show of the century - which is about how long you'll have to wait to get tickets. In the meantime, while you suffer through the interminable wait, we've got you covered: You can watch his toast to his bride -- probably the greatest wedding toast in the history.
Holocaust survivors' welfare is a public, private and community responsibility 
They survived unimaginable horrors, yet went on to live productive lives, despite the haunting memories, the profound loss and physical scars from years of deprivation. Now many Holocaust survivors need our assistance so they may live their twilight years with dignity.
Civil rights leader receives honor from Holocaust Museum 
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum gave its highest honor to a lion of the American civil rights movement, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-GA. The museum chairman said Lewis as a leader of "extraordinary moral and physical courage" and "an inspiration to people of conscience the world over."

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.