This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. Antisemitism-themed shows were big winners at Tony Awards
Leopoldstadt, about a Viennese family decimated by the Holocaust won best play; and Parade, about the real-life lynching of Jewish businessman Leo Frank, won for best musical revival. Our PJ Grisar shared these other Jew-ish highlights: “My ancestors, many of whom did not make it out of Poland, also thank you,” Brandon Uranowitz, who took a best featured actor Tony for his role in Leopoldstadt, said to playwright Tom Stoppard. Leopoldstadt also won for best direction of a play and best costume design. Alfred Uhry, who wrote the book for Parade, wore a bedazzled Star of David on his lapel as he accepted the Tony for best musical revival. And Michael Arden, the show’s director, called on the audience to come together to combat bigotry. The musical “tells the story of a life that was cut short at the hands of the belief that one group of people is more or less valuable than another and they might be more deserving of justice,” Arden said in his acceptance speech for best direction. “This is a belief that is the core of antisemitism, of white supremacy, of homophobia, of transphobia, intolerance of any kind.” |
Miriam Silverman with her Tony Award. (Getty) |
Miriam Silverman became the first person born on Good Morning America to win a Tony — for best featured actress in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. She thanked her parents for raising her to “live life with love, with conviction, radicalism and activism.” Other Jewish winners included composer Jeanine Tesori for Kimberly Akimbo; Joel Gray and John Kander, for lifetime achievement; Beowulf Boritt, for set design on New York, New York; and Charlie Rosen (with Bryan Carter), for his orchestrations for Some Like it Hot. Plus: Sean Hayes won for playing the Jewish protagonist Oscar Levant in Goodnight, Oscar. “This must be the first time an Oscar won a Tony,” Hayes quipped. (Nah, that was Oscar Hammerstein, who took eight between 1950 and 1996.) Then there was Shucked, a musical ode to … kitniyot. In the number performed for the telecast, the cast invited us to bring corn “to a bris, or a wedding, or a funeral.” Related… |
Smoke from Canadian wildfires casts a haze last week over New York City. (Getty) |
Why this rabbi can’t stop thinking about the apocalypse: Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner, who wrote a thesis on intergenerational trauma while getting a master’s degree in religious studies, noticed that her anxiety around climate change struck a familiar chord. “We are always on our metaphorical toes,” she said, “poised to run.” So she became a “climate-change chaplain” — one of at least 80 in the U.S. — offering in-person and virtual counseling on the topic to people across the country. “This work is an opportunity to get out of the numbness and the stuckness and start to gain agency.” Read the story ➤ Related: The smoke and orange haze that descended on the northeast last week should be a call to organize, argues Rabbi Jennie Rosenn of Dayenu, an environmental nonprofit. “Action,” she writes in a new OpEd, “can be a powerful antidote to anxiety.” Opinion | Tucker Carlson was too extreme for Fox News. His hate and antisemitism don’t belong on Twitter: Carlson has a new show on social media, where he continues to share conspiracy theories and “antisemitic, vile lies,” writes ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt. “Carlson has a First Amendment right to say what he wants. But there’s nothing in the Constitution that says it needs to be on Twitter, shoved in front of millions by an algorithm.” Read his essay ➤ Related: Here’s a running list of all the antisemitic comments made by Elon Musk. Plus… - Kentucky fried matzo balls: A Southern Jewish cook, Sara Bradley, nearly won the latest season of Top Chef. Food is “a special thing you do for someone you love,” Bradley told our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren. “Food is a celebration, food is what you bring for mourning, food is — I mean, it’s life.”
- Showing the Shoah: Plans for a Boston Holocaust museum will include an exhibit of a Nazi rail car, visible to passersby on the city’s Freedom Trail.
- Test your IQ: A statue of an antisemitic mayor, flooding in a Jewish community in Ukraine, and an investigation into an Israeli border incident. Take our news quiz.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
‘We think alike,’ George Soros, 92, said of his 37-year-old son, Alex. (Getty) |
? George Soros, a Holocaust survivor and Democratic megadonor, is giving control of his $25 billion empire to his 37-year-old son, Alex — who plans to donate heavily to support voting and abortion rights. “I’m more political,” Alex Soros said. The elder Soros, 92, is the frequent target of antisemitic attacks by those who disagree with his liberal politics. (Wall Street Journal) ⚽ Israel’s soccer team nabbed the bronze medal in the Under-20 World Cup, beating South Korea 3-1 on Sunday in Argentina. It was Israel’s first time in the tournament. (AP) ? A New Jersey man faces 36 criminal counts including arson and bias intimidation for allegedly burning down a house and spray-painting Nazi symbols on more than a dozen others last week. (Patch) ? Merely thinking about God can make people more generous to people of other religions, according to a new survey of 4,700 people in the U.S., the Middle East and Fiji. The findings surprised some of the researchers, given religion’s history of driving conflict. Respondents were 11% more likely to give money to people of a different religion after being asked what God wanted them to do. (Religion News Service) ? A convention celebrating Jews and comic books is scheduled for November in New York. It will feature panel discussions, exhibits and meet-and-greets with graphic artists. (N.Y. Jewish Week)
Mazel tov ➤ To Asaf Zamir, Israel’s former consul general in New York, and Maya Wertheimer, an Israeli actress, on getting married this weekend for a second time, with New York City Mayor Eric Adams officiating. The couple first wed six years ago in Eilat, but since the nuptials were performed by a Reform rabbi, the marriage is not officially recognized in Israel. Civil and religious weddings performed outside of Israel are recognized. |
Some people have called for St. Louis, named after an antisemitic crusader, inset, to change its name. (iStock/Wiki) |
On this day in history (1240): King Louis IX of France opened a public trial against the Talmud after a Jewish apostate penned a letter to the pope suggesting that the text was anti-Christian. The trial, known as the Disputation of Paris, pitted France’s rabbis against the king and triggered widespread public burning of the Talmud and related texts. In recent years, activists have suggested that the city of St. Louis, Missouri, should change its name over its namesake’s violent actions toward Jews and Muslims.
In honor of International Falafel Day, here’s the secret to making the perfect batch. |
Today would have been Anne Frank’s 94th birthday. To mark the occasion, go behind the scenes of our podcast series about the untold story behind her diary. Adam Langer, our executive editor and host of Playing Anne Frank, recently moderated a discussion at the Museum of Jewish Heritage featuring Eva Rubinstein and Peter Dan Levin (who played Margot Frank and Peter Van Daan in the original 1955 Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank) and Pauline Hahn and Steve Press (who played Anne and Peter in the 1958 touring company). Watch their conversation above, and catch up on our podcast here. — Thanks to PJ Grisar, Jacob Kornbluh, 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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