Mike Huckabee is not Jewish, but he makes the Jews In The News column this month because of the new position he now occupies. The former Arkansas governor was confirmed recently by the U.S. Senate as the Trump administration’s ambassador to Israel. The 53-46 vote installed a staunch supporter of Israel in a key Mideast post. However, Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, told lawmakers during a hearing last month that he would “carry out the president’s priorities, not mine,” he said.

President Donald Trump has nominated Yehuda Kaploun, a Miami businessman, to serve as the administration’s new special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. The announcement was celebrated by leaders of the Orthodox Union, but criticized by Jewish lawmakers, citing “inaccurate and disqualifying” remarks by Kaploun in connection with the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, having accused Democrats of refusing to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization. Kaploun holds a rabbinical degree and is part of Chabad, the Hasidic Orthodox movement also known as Lubavitch.

When Alan Garber, the Jewish physician and economist who now leads Harvard, wrote a letter to the community about why the country’s oldest university would not agree to the Trump administration’s demands, he spoke not just about academic freedom, but also about moral boundaries and identity.

“Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” he wrote. The Trump administration antisemitism task force immediately announced it would freeze $2.6 billion in funding to Harvard over its refusal to adopt the sweeping set of federal requirements.

Garber’s stance aligns him with other Jewish university presidents now navigating a volatile political landscape. Christopher Eisgruber of Princeton recently pushed back on the administration’s efforts to monitor campus discourse. MIT’s Sally Kornbluth and Wesleyan’s Michael Roth also have issued statements warning that free expression and academic independence are at risk.

Just hours after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family began Passover with a Seder in his official residence, an arsonist torched the room where they had celebrated. Arrested was 38-year-old Cody Balmer, who allegedly scaled a security fence and set fire to the Harrisburg, PA. home, where Shapiro, his wife and four children had celebrated the holiday earlier that night.

At a news conference, the Jewish governor said that the attacker would not deter him from practicing his faith. “If he was trying to terrorize our family, our friends, the Jewish community who joined us for a Passover Seder in that room last night, hear me on this: We celebrated our faith last night proudly… No one will deter me or my family or any Pennsylvanian from celebrating their faith openly and proudly.”

Jared Isaacman is Donald Trump’s nominee to be administrator of NASA. Isaacman, 44, is the billionaire CEO of Shift4, a payment processing company he started at age 16 in his parents’ basement in New Jersey. He is also a pilot and a commercial astronaut with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. In 2021, Isaacman self-funded a three-day SpaceX mission to space called Inspiration4, marking the first space flight manned by civilians rather than government astronauts, and the first private astronaut to conduct a spacewalk. A confirmation hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Danielle Sassoon, serving as the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, met with Emil Bove, the Justice Department official who ordered her to drop the case against New York City mayor Eric Adams, the center of a quid pro quo scheme in which for dropping corruption charges against him, he would enforce the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Sassoon refused and resigned her position. In her letter of resignation, she said the order to dismiss the case was “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts.” In her decision, she said she has always considered it her obligation “to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful.” As a conservative, and as a Trump appointee, Sassoon might have been expected to remain mute and simply follow orders. She did not.

Alex Bregman, the third-baseman who wore a Star of David on his cap following the Oct. 7 attacks, reportedly signed with the Boston Red Sox in a $100 million deal. It makes him the top-earning Jewish player in baseball history.