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Whatever one’s view on the Trump era, his administration made notable headway in the Middle East, writes AJC CEO David Harris in his new Times of Israel blog.

Facilitating historic agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, taking a tougher approach regarding Iran and its malign behavior, moving the U.S. Embassy to its rightful place in Jerusalem, and messaging the Palestinians that time is not necessarily on their side if they continue to reject two-state deals, are significant developments that the incoming Biden administration should consider in thinking about the region as it is today.

On the second commemoration of the Tree of Life shooting in late October, American Jewish Committee, of which our organization, Jewish Community Relations Council/AJC, is a regional office, issued its State of Antisemitism in America 2020: Survey of American Jews and Survey of the General Public. Among its many other findings, 88% of Jews found antisemitism to be a problem in the United States today, but only 62% of the general public agreed. More awareness and education are necessary.

This week, Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein joins us to break down the January 5 runoff elections in Georgia that will decide which party controls the United States Senate. Next, we hear from Melanie Maron Pell, AJC’s Managing Director of Regional Offices, on an antisemitic attack over this Hanukkah at the University of Kentucky and the importance of passing the NO HATE act, Manya Brachear Pashman on the new Wonder Woman movie, and Seffi Kogen on two Israeli TV recommendations for the long winter nights ahead.

In this week's AJC’s Shabbat Table, we read the climactic confrontation between Joseph and his brother Judah through the lens of repentance as defined by Maimonides. We also celebrate the 160th birthday of Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah and “mother of thousands” who created the Youth Aliyah system that rescued countless European Jewish children from the Nazis, resettling them in Youth Villages in Palestine. And we provide some discussion prompts about the normalization agreement between Israel and Morocco, two countries that developed quiet but warm relations in recent decades, but only established more official diplomatic ties after the UAE and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords.