This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. Opinion | Biden’s antisemitism plan is full of good ideas. Will it actually help Jews?
The White House’s first-ever official strategy to counter antisemitism was released with fanfare last week. Our opinion editor, Laura E. Adkins, says it is a step in the right direction but cautions that “understanding a problem and fixing it are two very different things.” Ove many months and across two continents, Laura has witnessed and discussed — with Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, and various members of the White House team — the deep work and reckoning they’ve done to understand these challenges and potential solutions. She calls the strategy “a major achievement” though says the “heavy-handed generalizations and platitudes throughout are a bit much.” “We’re in the midst of an outright war for America’s future,” Laura writes. “And as the report notes, antisemitism — as always — is but one symptom of a society in existential crisis. Real change will require deep economic, social and political effort. And that will start not with decrees from on high, but from social and civic relationships at the local level.” |
Elie Wiesel in Paris, 2001. (Getty) |
A new biography tells the complex tale of Elie Wiesel: There are the well-known stories – his survival from the Holocaust and his outspokenness against injustices around the world that earned Wiesel the Nobel Peace Prize. The new book, writes our reviewer, Julia M. Klein, also “highlights his idiosyncrasies, including a preference for instant coffee, and makes it clear he was no saint, not even a secular one.” Read her review ➤
Opinion | Israel is failing to protect its Arab citizens: The rate of violent crime in Arab communities has soared since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power, according to new data. “Under this government,” writes Abe Silberstein, who works for a nonprofit advocating for equality between Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian citizens, “Arab lives do not matter.” He adds that “the future of Israeli democracy is not only contingent upon the preservation of judicial checks and balances, but also on the state’s equitable treatment of its largest national minority.” Read his essay ➤ |
The Jewish inventors you never knew: Mr. Potato Head, the sewing machine, the TV remote control, shopping carts, Barbies, jeans, aspirin and a popular Easter candy – all were invented by members of the tribe. As we wrap up National Inventors Month, Dennis Eisenberg, an illustrator whose professional moniker is DenBerg, explores some of the items we employ on a daily basis. See the drawings ➤ Sarah Silverman’s new concert is her best argument yet for loving Jews: The comedian has gone sincere in recent years, with earnest conversations on her podcast about politics and antisemitism. Her new HBO special, writes our PJ Grisar, mixes the scatalogical and the spiritual. Like when she recalls a sign at a ritzy hotel that read “if you have diarrhea, or have had diarrhea in the past two weeks, you are not permitted in our pool.” She takes a beat before adding: “I mean, just say it: ‘No Jews allowed.’” Read his review ➤ Plus… - A Texas-based neo-Nazi group has ramped up its online and real-world activity since April, including providing links for its members to purchase firearms and ammunition.
- Ghosts of Beirut, a new drama from the creators of Fauda and loosely based on a true story, is “hokey fiction,” writes our critic.
- Ron DeSantis entered the presidential race, a Jewish movement relaxed its kosher laws, and Henry Kissinger turned 100. Test your IQ with our weekly Jewish news quiz.
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Join us at JCRC-NY’s 58th annual CELEBRATE ISRAEL PARADE on Sunday, June 4, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., 57th – 74th St. along NY’s Fifth Ave. |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
⚖️ Opening arguments in the trial over the killing of 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, are expected today, after jury selection completed last week. The accused gunman, Robert Bowers, 50, could face the death penalty. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AP) ? The New York Times goes behind the scenes of the Secure Community Network, which monitors reports of threats at synagogues, schools and other American Jewish institutions. Launched after 9/11 with a handful of employees, it has grown to 75 since the Tree of Life massacre. (NYT) ?❤️? Taylor Swift’s rumored boyfriend, rocker Matty Healy, reportedly performed a Nazi salute on stage and posted a list of famous Jews in Hollywood to his Instagram page. Swift fans penned an open letter to the pop star, writing that Healy’s past comments have hurt members of the “Jewish, Black, Chinese, Hawaiian, Inuit, LGBTQ+ communities, as well as women.” (JTA) ? Peruvian police confiscated 58 bricks of cocaine covered in Nazi flags and Hitler’s name on a ship headed for Belgium. Traffickers often label drugs with strange designs to distinguish their products. (Vice) ? Amazon aired the final episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel this weekend. While some critics say the series relied on shallow Jewish stereotypes, others claim it thrust a new type of heroine into the mainstream: “the anti-Jewish princess.” (JTA) ✝️ After meeting with Pope Francis this weekend in Italy, director Martin Scorsese announced that he is writing a movie about Jesus. This is not new territory for Scorsese, who was raised Roman Catholic. He previously made the 1988 epic, The Last Temptation of Christ, for which he received an Oscar nomination. (Variety) ? The man who spent $38.1 million on an 1,100-year-old copy of the Hebrew Bible — the most ever paid for a book — said in an interview that he decided to do it without ever seeing the volume. “I’m a lucky guy to be able to do this,” he said. (eJewishPhilanthropy) Shiva calls ➤ Marta Wise, who survived Auschwitz and the medical experiments of Josef Mengele as a child, died at 88. She spent her later years as a guide and speaker at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum … Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, the preeminent Haredi Ashkenazi leader in Israel, died this morning at 100. Hundreds of thousands are expected at his funeral today.
What else we’re reading ➤ Inside Congress’ little-known, makeshift Jewish caucus … What kind of Nazi was granddad? … Condoms and tikkun olam: An Orthodox woman strives to aid sex workers in Prague. |
June 5 at 7:30 p.m. ET: Join award-winning authors Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, and Yossi Klein Halevi in conversation with our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, about what’s next for Israel. The event will take place at 92Y in Manhattan, and you can also attend virtually. Buy tickets here ➤ |
On this day in history (1909): Benny Goodman was born. Known as the “King of Swing,” Goodman took his first clarinet lessons at a local synagogue in Chicago. Forward contributor Curt Schleier wrote that Goodman “changed the sound of jazz” by playing the first jazz show at Carnegie Hall in 1938 and leading one of the first integrated jazz bands in a time of segregation. |
A new documentary explores how Christians, Jews, Muslims and others observe the Sabbath, featuring interviews with Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and Judith Shulevitz, author of The Sabbath World. The film premieres on PBS on Thursday. Watch the trailer above and read an interview with the director here. — Thanks to Rebecca Salzhauer and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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