This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. Israel’s judicial strife showcased at parade in New York: Israeli cabinet ministers who traveled to the annual celebration were shouted down Sunday by protesters, as New York’s governor, mayor, and senior U.S. senator, Chuck Schumer, joined 40,000 people marching down Fifth Avenue. Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat who marched with some of the protesters, said Israelis are facing a “great existential challenge.” Read the story ➤
Opinion | Why I, as an Orthodox rabbi, am committed to LGBTQ+ inclusion: “Rabbis and communal leaders in particular have a sacred responsibility to provide support to the most vulnerable members in a community,” writes Rabbi Jonathan Leener, whose congregation, the Prospect Heights Shul in Brooklyn, will be hosting a Pride Kiddush. “If compassion is no longer a chief Torah value, we have drifted terribly far off course.” Read his essay ➤
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Visitors tour Yad Vashem in Jerusalem earlier this year. (Getty) |
‘Happy hour’ for Holocaust denialists: Dani Dayan, head of Yad Vashem, said it is preparing for the fast-approaching “post-survivor era,” when no one can ever again converse with a survivor, or hear one at a school assembly. In a wide-ranging interview, he also weighed in on the White House’s plan to combat antisemitism and on Polish attempts to whitewash its role in the Shoah. Read the story ➤
First-person | What to do if you got a Nazi relic in the mail: A red box with a swastika on it arrived at Peter Janovsky’s Manhattan apartment one day from France. Inside were two Hitler Youth medals. They “were like a plague to me,” he says, “their mere presence was disturbing.” Janovsky donated them to a Jewish museum, a different tack from Harlan Crow, the billionaire friend of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who owns a signed copy of Mein Kampf and two of Hitler’s paintings. Read his essay ➤ |
Moran Rosenblatt in ‘The Good Person.’ (Courtesy) |
In two daring new films from Israel, life and art are even messier than politics: Ella is a costume designer mending a Chanel dress for the widow of her lover. Sharon is a producer making a film with an Orthodox star who refuses to have women on set. The Other Widow and The Good Person, both being shown at the Israel Film Center Festival, ask tough questions about compromise and the barriers between the personal and the public. “Neither protagonist is OK,” PJ Grisar writes in his review, but then, maybe Israel isn’t either. Read the story ➤ Plus… - Page turner: A new book, Quantum Criminals, reveals the Jewish-inflected cynicism behind the slick musicianship of Steely Dan. Our music critic calls it “undoubtedly the best thing” he’s ever read about the band.
- Test your IQ: A GOP bill to defund colleges that host anti-Zionism events, why Israelis are flocking to a tiny town in Peru, the launch of “Jews Against Soros” and more. Take our weekly news quiz.
- ‘That Jewish News Show’: On the latest episode of our podcast, Laura E. Adkins and I chatted with culture reporter Mira Fox about Jewish and Christian groups proselytizing via billboards. Listen here, or wherever you get podcasts.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Mourners at the funeral of one of three Israeli soldiers killed in the cross-border incident with Egypt. (Getty)
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?? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would reexamine security procedures along Israel’s border with Egypt after an Egyptian officer fatally shot two Israeli soldiers this weekend. A third Israeli soldier and the Egyptian were killed in a shootout hours later. The IDF said the Egyptian’s entry into Israel may have been connected to a drug-smuggling operation thwarted by the Israeli Army. (JTA) ? Netanyahu appointed a new media adviser who has echoed former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud, and said that President Joe Biden is “destroying America.” (Haaretz, Times of Israel) ? A Utah school district has removed the King James Bible from elementary and middle schools after a parent said it violated the state’s new law prohibiting books with “vulgarity and violence.” (CNN) ⚽ Israel advanced to the semifinals of the Under-20 World Cup this weekend with a shocking 3-2 overtime win over the tournament favorite, Brazil. Israel will face Uruguay, which beat the U.S. 2-0 on Sunday, in Argentina on Thursday. (JTA) ? H&H Bagels said it plans on opening 10 stores in Washington, D.C., and Virginia. The bagels will be made in New York, frozen, and then shipped to the stores in other states — which should please fans who claim it’s the local NYC water that gives them their distinctive flavor. (Washingtonian) ?️ Kevin Pollak, who plays Midge’s father-in-law on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, is launching a podcast about the series today. Following a format that worked for stars of The West Wing, The Office and many other shows, Pollak plans to rewatch each episode with fellow cast members. First up is Luke Kirby, who plays the real-life comic Lenny Bruce. (Instagram) Shiva calls ➤ Thomas Buergenthal, a Holocaust survivor and human rights lawyer who became a judge at The Hague, died at 89 … Cynthia Weil, who wrote songs for Dolly Parton, the Righteous Brothers and others, died at 82 … Ilya Kabakov, a Ukrainian-born artist who illustrated some 150 children’s books before immigrating to the U.S. where he became famous for his drawings of the former Soviet Union, died at 89. Kabakov “proved that surviving, and even thriving, in an antisemitic society can permanently alter a sense of personal identity,” writes Benjamin Ivry in an appreciation.
What else we’re reading ➤ Kosherfest annual trade show to end after more than three decades … Happy and painful memories for Florida family that tried to restore “Hitler’s yacht” … That Adam Sandler bat mitzvah movie is coming to Netflix soon. |
Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET: Our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren will moderate a conversation about Israel’s future with Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, and author Yossi Klein Halevi. The event is live at the 92Y in Manhattan, and online. Buy tickets here ➤ |
On this day in history (1967): The Six-Day War began between Israel and the neighboring Arab countries of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israel’s swift victory dramatically shifted the dynamic in the region, leading to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights. Read an essay by Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, on how Israeli society has changed in the half century since that war.
Today: Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman of the United States, will speak about the White House’s plan to counter antisemitism at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Ohio. |
NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell interviewed U.S. Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann, as she returned to the town her father and his family fled after Hitler’s rise to power. “I don’t mince words,” Gutmann said, “because in order to move forward, we have to look back with honesty, with our eyes wide open.”
— Thanks to PJ Grisar, Jacob Kornbluh, Tani Levitt and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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