This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. He walked every block of the Bronx and found traces of a vanished Jewish world
Jews once made up nearly half the population of the Bronx. Today it’s 4 percent. William Helmreich documented remnants of that history throughout his book, The Bronx Nobody Knows, published posthumously this month. Helmreich was one of the first Americans killed by COVID-19 in the apocalyptic first wave of the pandemic. Our Beth Harpaz, a native New Yorker, took a tour of the Bronx with Helmreich’s son, Joe, and widow, Helaine, who had walked every step of the way with her husband, clocking 800 miles over nine months of exploring the Bronx together. Signs of the times: Helmreich found the ghosts of the Bronx’s past in small shops, in building names, and in churches whose Stars of David reveal their origins as synagogues. The area is still home to several kosher eateries, the Hebrew Home for the Aged, and a modern Orthodox yeshiva.
Prolific writer: In addition to his many guidebooks about New York City neighborhoods, Helmreich, a Jewish studies scholar, wrote a dozen other books – including The World of the Yeshiva and Against All Odds: Holocaust Survivors and the Successful Lives They Made in America. |
Something else Beth is working on: Beth, a self-described secular Jew who still fasts on Yom Kippur even though she doesn’t pray or attend services, is writing a story about other Jews that share a similar approach to the Day of Atonement. If that’s you, or you know of someone that fits the bill, send Beth an email at harpaz@forward.com, and she may set up a time to interview you. |
Opinion | Can a drug cure antisemitism? There is some early evidence that MDMA, more popularly known as molly or ecstasy, “can turn haters into lovers, making it a powerful potential tool for deradicalization,” writes our senior columnist, Rob Eshman. Perhaps the most compelling story, told in a new book, is of a neo-Nazi who stunned scientists by changing his belief system after taking the drug. A rare, bipartisan bill in Congress could make it easier to use. Read the essay ➤ Opinion | I was involved with AIPAC for 35 years. Their latest move convinced me to join J Street: When AIPAC endorsed 100 members of Congress who refused to certify Biden’s 2020 election victory, Rabbi Marc Israel left the organization. But it was, he writes, an “egregious fundraising letter in early August that pushed me over the edge” and into the arms of J Street, which is now leading American Jewish efforts to organize pro-democracy rallies in Israel and the U.S. Read the essay ➤
Opinion | I shared my father’s letters about Nazi horrors with a high school class: Deborah Levine’s father, Aaron, was part of a special wartime unit known as the “Ritchie boys.” They were trained as spies, liberated concentration camps, and interrogated Nazi prisoners of war. When Levine shared his story with a high school class in Tennessee, the students were initially skeptical that the Holocaust really happened. Levine writes that it “underscored for me how dire the state of Holocaust awareness is among young Americans.” Read her essay ➤ |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Vivek Ramaswamy, left, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott at the Wednesday debate. (Getty) |
?? At the GOP presidential primary debate Wednesday night, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley attacked entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy over his proposal to cut United States aid to Israel. Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blamed rising crime on local district attorneys with “George Soros funding.” (JTA) ?️ Yevgeny Prigozhin, who tried to topple the Russian government in June and is reportedly among those who died in a plane crash Wednesday, led a mercenary group named for the antisemitic composer Richard Wagner. Turns out Prigozhin was Jewish. (Forward) ⚖️ Malka Leifer, a former principal who sexually abused two sisters at an Australian Jewish school, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in jail. (Haaretz, Times of Israel) ?? A Moscow court extended by three months the detention of Evan Gershkovich, the Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter who’s been jailed since March. (WSJ) ? New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with anti-Netanyahu protesters, making him one of the most influential U.S. officials to engage directly with the protest movement while on a visit to Israel. (N.Y. Jewish Week) ?? A prominent Greek neo-Nazi is running for mayor of Athens — from jail. An alliance of center-left parties is working to get him disqualified. (JTA) ? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are staying this week at the Waldorf Astoria, a luxury hotel in Jerusalem, while their home is being renovated. (Times of Israel)
Shiva call ➤ David Jacobs, the creator of the TV series Dallas and Knots Landing, died at 84. |
On this day in history (1853): The first potato chips were made by George Crum, a chef in Saratoga Springs, New York. Despite the popular claim that Crum invented potato chips, historians have found earlier recipes recorded. To celebrate the ancient tradition of frying potatoes, which dates back to centuries before Crum, Forward senior columnist Rob Eshman has the secret to legendary latkes. |
“This is the Yom Kippur War of democracy,” Oscar-winning director Guy Nattiv says of the parallels between his new movie out this Friday – about Golda Meir and the 1973 Yom Kippur War – and the political turmoil roiling Israel 50 years later. Speaking of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his controversial plan to neuter the country’s Supreme Court, Nattiv said: “It makes me miss the leaders that I grew up on: Rabin, Shimon Peres, people with integrity.”
In this wide-ranging interview with me and Laura E. Adkins, Nattiv also talked about casting Helen Mirren, his directorial influences and his next movie: about his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, who moved to Virginia and joined a cult. — Thanks to Nora Berman, Beth Harpaz, 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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