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Herb Kohl, former Jewish senator from Wisconsin and Milwaukee Bucks owner, dies at 88
(JTA) — Herb Kohl, the longtime Jewish senator from Wisconsin who loved his Milwaukee hometown so much he bought its basketball team to keep it there, has died at 88.
Kohl was known for his soft-spoken, unobtrusive approach as a philanthropist, a retail mogul and a senator, an outlook he said he learned from his Jewish immigrant parents.
Kohl died Wednesday after a short illness, his namesake foundation said.
Elected to the first of four terms in the Senate in 1988, he became an influential member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he was a must-meet for pro-Israel lobbyists advocating for defense assistance for Israel. He was a leader on advocacy for children and the elderly, chairing the Senate Aging committee and authoring bills that expanded funding for school lunches and mandated child-safety locks on guns.
“There was always one constituency that everyone in the office knew was more important to Herb than anyone else, and that was children,” Brad Fitch, a one time spokesman for Kohl, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2011, after Kohl said his fourth term would be his last. “He would say, ‘They don’t contribute to campaigns, they don’t have a lobbyist.’ ”
He was also a leader in the Jewish community, helming a campaign that raised millions for Israel in a relatively small community in an emergency campaign after the 1967 Six-Day War.
Yet he abjured attention until his middle age, buying the NBA Milwaukee Bucks franchise in 1985, when he was 50, in order to keep them in the city, and then running for the Senate when he was 53.
“He loved sports, he loved Milwaukee and Wisconsin,” Bud Selig, the Jewish former Major League Baseball commissioner and a childhood friend of Kohl’s, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I think his career is so really unusual in this day and age.”
Kohl was born and raised in Milwaukee. His parents, Max and Mary, had immigrated to Milwaukee from Poland and Russia, respectively, in the early 20th century. Max Kohl opened a grocery store before Herb was born; by the time he reached adulthood, Herb Kohl, one of four siblings, had helped build an extensive chain of grocery and department stores. Kohl left the management in 1979 of a company that now has over 1,000 stores nationwide.
Kohl said his father instilled in his children a strong work ethic — Herb Kohl started work in the chain as a bag boy. He said he also learned from his father to keep his emotions in check.
“My father was a person who had a very strong control over his ego and his needs,” USA Today, in its obituary, quoted Kohl as once saying. “He was a very driven man, but he was not a person who had the need to belittle people or fight with people or reduce them. He learned to control those impulses, which we all have, I think. He was a very controlled, disciplined person, and he was very influential on me in that respect.”
In 2016, speaking to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Kohl said his father taught him to give back to a community that had welcomed them.
“My father once said, ‘Money is like manure. It’s not good unless you spread it around,’” he told the newspaper. “Maybe the day I die all the money will be gone. Whatever. I’ve had a productive life. A happy life. A healthy life. And I never forget it. I’m very grateful for all the good luck I’ve had in my lifetime.”
His Jewish expression was low-key but had significant effect. Kohl asked Ray Allen, a star player with the Bucks, to accompany him in 1998 on a tour of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and it changed the player forever. He was soon urging fellow players to join him on tours whenever they were in Washington to play the Wizards. Allen joined the museum’s council in 2016.
Kohl was for a period in the 1990s and 2000s part of an anomalous group of Jewish senators elected from northern midwestern states with small Jewish populations. Russ Feingold served as the junior Wisconsin senator from 1993-2011, and there was a rotation of Jewish senators in neighboring Minnesota in the same period.
Sen. Herb Kohl meets with then Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, May 12, 2010. (Office of Senator Herb Kohl)
In the Senate, the Democratic politician’s focus was on oversight and keeping spending within budgets. “I’m running as a businessman,” the Journal Sentinel quoted him as saying in its obituary. “I’m a person who hasn’t spent a nickel until he made a nickel.”
Kohl self-funded his campaigns so he wouldn’t be beholden to others, and he did not take kindly to the super-rich.
“The one thing I’ve never appreciated is when I meet people who are successful and some of them think it’s all about them, that they’re the ones who made the success and they deserve all the credit,” he told the Sentinel Journal in his 2016 interview. “Big egos. Dominating personalities. That’s a bad way to be. I don’t like people who are overweening in their self-esteem because they’re wrong and it doesn’t bode well for people around them. Too often, they’re also selfish and greedy. It’s a bad characteristic and I’ve always worked as hard as I can not to be suffused in that kind of thinking.”
President Joe Biden said his former Senate colleague, one of the richest men in Wisconsin, did not keep easy company with fellow multimillionaires.
“Throughout his career, Herb was unafraid to stand up to the business community that he’d come from, seeking to level the playing field for workers and make our economy more efficient and fair,” Biden said in a statement Thursday.
His passion was Wisconsin, where he was familiar with the minutiae of its dairy farms, holding up the budget in 1999 for hours until he got through the state’s farmers’ desired dairy pricing reforms.
The best part of Kohl’s day was meeting constituents. Each day between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. was coffee and muffins with Wisconsinites.
“Trying to drag Herb for a hearing away from those breakfasts was impossible,” Fitch said in 2011.
Kohl bought the Bucks in 1985 when it was rumored that their ailing owner was set to sell the team to buyers who would move the franchise. He dumped millions into the struggling team to keep it in Milwaukee, and when he sold it in 2014, he offered a discount in part to extract a promise that the new owners would keep the team in Wisconsin, and he pledged $100 million to build a new stadium to clinch the deal.
He also gave out $10 million to Bucks employees in bonuses.
“Every day I remind myself how fortunate I’ve been because so much of life is luck,” Kohl said told the Journal Sentinel in 2016. “I was born into a great family, had a great opportunity at Kohl’s, and on and on. I’ve had many, many great experiences and very few bad experiences. So what more can you ask for?”
Kohl, who never married, is survived by his siblings and their children. A nephew, Dan Kohl, helped found J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, and ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 2018.
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The post Herb Kohl, former Jewish senator from Wisconsin and Milwaukee Bucks owner, dies at 88 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iranian nuclear program degraded by up to two years, Pentagon says
A satellite image of Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility. Photo: File.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that US strikes 10 days ago had degraded Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, suggesting the U.S. military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, offered the figure at a briefing to reporters, adding that the official estimate was “probably closer to two years.” Parnell did not provide evidence to back up his assessment.
“We have degraded their program by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the Department [of Defense] assess that,” Parnell told a news briefing.
U.S. military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 using more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
The evolving U.S. intelligence about the impact of the strikes is being closely watched, after President Donald Trump said almost immediately after they took place that Iran’s program had been obliterated, language echoed by Parnell at Wednesday’s briefing.
Such conclusions often take the U.S. intelligence community weeks or more to determine.
“All of the intelligence that we’ve seen [has] led us to believe that Iran’s — those facilities especially, have been completely obliterated,” Parnell said.
Over the weekend, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said that Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program have been.
Several experts have also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes and could be hiding it.
But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week he was unaware of intelligence suggesting Iran had moved its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes.
A preliminary assessment last week from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggested that the strikes may have only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. But Trump administration officials said that assessment was low confidence and had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged.
According to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the strikes on the Fordow nuclear site caused severe damage.
“No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow. That being said, what we know so far is that the facilities have been seriously and heavily damaged,” Araqchi said in the interview broadcast by CBS News on Tuesday.
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Switzerland Moves to Close Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Geneva Office Over Legal Irregularities
Palestinians carry aid supplies received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Switzerland has moved to shut down the Geneva office of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed aid group, citing legal irregularities in its establishment.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.
The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.
Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.
With a subsidiary registered in Geneva, the GHF — headquartered in Delaware — reports having delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.
According to a regulatory announcement published Wednesday in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) may order the dissolution of the GHF if no creditors come forward within the legal 30-day period.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Swiss decision to shut down its Geneva office.
“The GHF confirmed to the ESA that it had never carried out activities in Switzerland … and that it intends to dissolve the Geneva-registered branch,” the ESA said in a statement.
Last week, Geneva authorities gave the GHF a 30-day deadline to address legal shortcomings or risk facing enforcement measures.
Under local laws and regulations, the foundation failed to meet several requirements: it did not appoint a board member authorized to sign documents domiciled in Switzerland, did not have the minimum three board members, lacked a Swiss bank account and valid address, and operated without an auditing body.
The GHF operates independently from UN-backed mechanisms, which Hamas has sought to reinstate, arguing that these vehicles are more neutral.
Israeli and American officials have rejected those calls, saying Hamas previously exploited UN-run systems to siphon aid for its war effort.
The UN has denied those allegations while expressing concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach food distribution points.
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Key US Lawmaker Warns Ireland of Potential Economic Consequences for ‘Antisemitic Path’ Against Israel
US Sen. James Risch (R-ID) speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Washington, DC, May 21, 2024. Photo: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch (R-ID) issued a sharp warning Tuesday, accusing Ireland of embracing antisemitism and threatening potential economic consequences if the Irish government proceeds with new legislation targeting Israeli trade.
“Ireland, while often a valuable U.S. partner, is on a hateful, antisemitic path that will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering,” Risch wrote in a post on X. “If this legislation is implemented, America will have to seriously reconsider its deep and ongoing economic ties. We will always stand up to blatant antisemitism.”
Marking a striking escalation in rhetoric from a senior US lawmaker, Risch’s comments came amid growing tensions between Ireland and Israel, which have intensified dramatically since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Those attacks, in which roughly 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 taken hostage, prompted a months-long Israeli military campaign in Gaza that has drawn widespread international scrutiny. Ireland has positioned itself as one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s response, accusing the Israeli government of disproportionate use of force and calling for immediate humanitarian relief and accountability for the elevated number of Palestinian civilian casualties.
Dublin’s stance has included tangible policy shifts. In May 2024, Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state, becoming one of the first European Union members to do so following the outbreak of the war in Gaza. The move was condemned by Israeli officials, who recalled their ambassador to Ireland and accused the Irish government of legitimizing terrorism. Since then, Irish lawmakers have proposed further measures, including legislation aimed at restricting imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, policies viewed in Israel and among many American lawmakers as aligning with the controversial Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
While Irish leaders have defended their approach as grounded in international law and human rights, critics in Washington, including Risch, have portrayed it as part of a broader pattern of hostility toward Israel. Some US lawmakers have begun raising the possibility of reevaluating trade and diplomatic ties with Ireland in response.
Risch’s warning is one of the clearest indications yet that Ireland’s policies toward Israel could carry economic consequences. The United States is one of Ireland’s largest trading partners, and American companies such as Apple, Google, Meta and Pfizer maintain substantial operations in the country, drawn by Ireland’s favorable tax regime and access to the EU market.
Though the Trump administration has not echoed Risch’s warning, the remarks reflect growing unease in Washington about the trajectory of Ireland’s foreign policy. The State Department has maintained a careful balancing act, expressing strong support for Israel’s security while calling for increased humanitarian access in Gaza. Officials have stopped short of condemning Ireland’s actions directly but have expressed concern about efforts they see as isolating Israel on the international stage.
Ireland’s stance is emblematic of a growing international divide over the war. While the US continues to provide military and diplomatic backing to Israel, many European countries have called for an immediate ceasefire and investigations into alleged war crimes.
Irish public opinion has long leaned pro-Palestinian, and Irish lawmakers have repeatedly voiced concern over the scale of destruction in Gaza and the dire humanitarian situation.
Irish officials have not yet responded to The Algemeiner’s request for comment.
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