This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. In honor of Pride Month, which begins today, here’s a timeline of how the Forward covered LGBTQ+ history. Plus: Our archivist, Chana Pollack, looks back at the queer stories we covered – and some that we missed.
‘Jewish and queer, that’s your headline.’ That’s how Faith Soloway, the composer and lyricist behind A Transparent Musical, describes its themes. The musical, which opened last night in Los Angeles, is the next evolution of Transparent, the Emmy-winning Amazon series created by Faith’s sibling, Joey Soloway, based on their own upper-middle-class Jewish family, whose Poppa, late in life, became Moppa. Faith spoke to her old friend Gary Rudoren about it all. Read the interview ➤ This Israeli mom sued the school system so her child could express his gender identity. Mindy Levine has won two court cases to let her child Roee, who has identified as a boy from a very young age, remain in a religious school despite other parents’ objections, report our partners at Haaretz. “The religious community’s treatment of LGBTQ people is abhorrent,” said Levine, who will be the keynote speaker at the Jerusalem Pride Parade today. Read the story ➤
Pitching inclusion: All but one Major League Baseball teams participate in Pride Month celebrations, though some players have cited their religious beliefs to oppose it. Two Jewish pitchers are bucking that trend. |
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (Getty) |
Opinion | Why the debt ceiling compromise reflects deep Jewish wisdom: “We are not commanded to achieve justice,” argues Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, referencing the verse in Deuteronomy. “We are commanded to pursue it, suggesting that justice is a moving target. This fact opens the door to the possibility of reaching new compromises.” Compromise, he says, should be viewed “not as a betrayal of justice, but as the mandate we are meant to live.” Read his essay ➤ First-person | I wrote comedy for Mary Tyler Moore and Carl Reiner — and I support the writers’ strike: Sybil Adelman Sage says she grew up “in a family where humor was the antidote for tsoris” and “Jewish jokes were as essential as two sets of dishes.” She joined the Writers Guild of America in 1973, a time when the prevailing wisdom was to “write Yiddish, cast British.” In recent weeks, she’s been attending rallies supporting her fellow scriptwriters because, she says, “it will impact all of us.” Read her essay ➤ Plus… |
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 |
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (Getty) |
?? A drop in Eastern European antisemitism may be due to the “Zelenskyy effect,” according to a new survey released by the Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday. “There’s no doubt that having a Jewish president who is being praised for his response to Russian aggression seems to have affected perceptions of Jews,” said the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt. (Religion News Service) ⚖️ The Pittsburgh trial of the accused shooter in the Tree of Life massacre is shaping up as a seminar on American Jewish tradition, with witnesses offering an impromptu glossary of Jewish terms and ideas. (JTA) ✏️ A pencil gifted to Hitler by Eva Braun for his 52nd birthday could fetch nearly $100,000 when it is auctioned in Belfast next Tuesday. Such items “preserve a piece of our past,” a representative from the auction house said to defend the sale, “no matter if the history they refer to was one of the darkest and most controversial.” (The Guardian) ? A new group called “Jews against Soros” claims it will “fight back against the common left-wing smear” that opposing George Soros is antisemitic, as conspiracy theories surrounding the Democratic megadonor and Holocaust survivor continue to grow within the Republican Party. (Haaretz) ? A woman who was injured in the 2001 terror attack at a Sbarro restaurant in Israel and who has remained in a vegetative state for 22 years, died this week at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. (Times of Israel) ✍️ The actor Shia LaBeouf, who was raised Jewish, is currently writing a film about Auschwitz for director Abel Ferrara. Meanwhile, the duo have a film coming out this summer – about a 19th century saint in the Catholic Church. (Variety) ? In a wide-ranging interview, comedian Sarah Silverman talked about how much it affected her when her friend Dave Chappelle performed an antisemitic monologue on Saturday Night Live and how she’s been coping since the deaths last month of both her dad and step-mom. (New Yorker)
What else we’re reading ➤ When camels and bears roamed Tel Aviv: See the city in rare, century-old photos … How video games commemorate the Holocaust … It’s a giant musical about Jesus – with a Jewish producer. Will it make America believe? |
Dustin Hoffman shortly after the release of ‘The Graduate.’ (Getty) |
On this day in history (1968): Simon & Garfunkel’s single “Mrs. Robinson” from The Graduate hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts. Beverly Gray, author of Seduced by Mrs. Robinson: How The Graduate Became the Touchstone of a Generation, said that the casting of Dustin Hoffman, who is Jewish, opened the door for “a long line of ethnic actors who were finally able to be cast as romantic leads.” Monday 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 is live at 92Y in Manhattan, and online. Buy tickets here ➤ |
What was Yiddish summer camp all about? Our Yiddish editor Rukhl Schaechter spoke with Sandra Fox, author of the new book The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America and three former campers, who described color war and other beloved rituals at these oases where Yiddish culture, artwork and cooperation were valued alongside athletic competition. — Thanks to Beth Harpaz, Louis Keene, Tani Levitt, Rukhl Schaechter and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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