This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. “I feel very heavy in my heart,” Laura overheard a girl of 4 or 5 tell her mother in Hebrew as she arrived in Jerusalem Tuesday.
The city was almost silent, oddly empty and marked by grief. “Was the religious woman with the beautiful headscarf crying in the street because we’re all so tired,” Laura wondered, “or because she’d just received the phone call no mother wants to ever get?” As the death toll from Hamas’ unprecedented assault on Israel now tops 1,200, and the Gaza Health Ministry saying 1,055 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes, the young girl Laura overheard spoke for many of us. “We all feel that way,” the girl’s mother said. “But in the morning it will be a little better.” Here’s the latest to know about the war this morning: • More details about the horrors of Saturday’s attack began to emerge. One town, Kibbutz Be’eri, lost about 10% of its population with 108 dead, while the IDF confirmed that they had found the bodies of children in another, Kfar Aza. The New York Times published its most detailed account of Hamas’ “Trail of Terror.” • Israel escalated airstrikes on Gaza and continued to amass troops along the border. Gaza residents said Israeli strikes were targeting mosques and schools in addition to health care facilities. • Hezbollah launched a missile attack at a village along Israel’s border with Lebanon. The IDF also reported launches from Syria into Israel. • Jewish schools in Israel and the U.S. asked parents to restrict their children’s social media use over reports of graphic content circulating from Israel and Gaza. • The New York City Democratic Socialists apologized for “the confusion” caused by a much-criticized Saturday post promoting a pro-Palestinian rally in a statement that nonetheless condemned Israel for “apartheid.” Separately, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a DSA member, condemned the rally, where a participant waved a swastika displayed on their phone. • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition pursued plans for an emergency unity government with opposition leaders. • President Joe Biden promised ongoing military aid to Israel, but some Israeli leaders are concerned that chaos in Congress could interfere. |
A Hamas member points to a line of the Hamas charter: “in order to face the usurping of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad.” (Abid Katib/Getty Images) |
A man evacuates a wounded girl from the site of an Israeli strike in Gaza on Tuesday. (Getty Images) |
Palestinian advocacy groups, meanwhile, are talking about the ‘root cause.’ Our Arno Rosenfeld reports found that groups like American Muslims for Palestine and the Council on American-Islamic Relations are following a tight script, expressing distress over atrocities while framing Israel’s policies toward Palestinians as the central cause of ongoing violence. “Rather than describing the assault as an isolated terrorist attack,” he writes, “these organizations argue that it was the inevitable result of Israel’s tight control of travel and trade into Gaza for nearly two decades.” Read the story ➤ Plus: • Vigils, rallies, fundraisers and support groups: How Jewish Americans are responding to Hamas’ attack on Israel • Kylie Jenner lost about 1 million followers after post supporting Israel Our Jewish community has become divided. Hamas’ attack reminds us that we must stand together. “Soul-searching is always in season,” Rabbi Avi Shafran writes in a new essay calling on “all our Jewish tribes” to examine the ways in which they might have contributed to deep splits within the Jewish community, and to find a route forward together. For his own Haredi community, Shafran recommends finding ways to connect emotionally and spiritually with Jews with different approaches to religious belief. “We need to foster a stronger sense of Klal Yisrael — a complete Jewish community,” he writes, through “concern for fellow Jews because they are, well, fellow Jews.” Read his essay ➤ Plus: • Midwife, soldier, father, friend: Families in Israel beg for help in finding four missing US citizens • Synagogues in Maine came together to mourn Israeli soldier who died fighting Hamas • Where US Jews can donate to support Israel’s hospitals, troops, survivors and more |
Join the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies & The Naomi Foundation for the 2023 Naomi Prawer Kadar Annual Memorial Lecture with academic and cultural critic Dr. Ilan Stavans, a virtual talk titled “Yiddish and Ladino: Forking Paths.” This event will take place at noon on Wednesday, October 25 on ZOOM. |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Jedidiah Murphy wears a skull cap that was a gift from one of his supporters, Rabbi Yehuda Eber, in the death row unit at Polunsky prison in Livingston, Texas in 2019. (Yehuda Eber) |
? Jedidiah Murphy, a Jewish man, was executed in Texas after a last-minute stay was overturned. Murphy, 48, had been sentenced to death for the 2000 shooting death of an 80-year-old; he said that he had no recollection of committing the crime, and was high on cocaine when he did so. (JTA) ? Europe increased security around synagogues after reports of celebrations of Saturday’s devastating attack across the continent, including by far-left French groups who called the attack “heroic.” In the U.K., a Jewish security organization said reports of antisemitic incidents since Saturday have come in at triple the level they did during the same period last year. (JTA, Reuters) ? People in Nazi clothing papered cars in Fort Worth with antisemitic material and were served at a taco restaurant. The taco chain said they would retrain staff on how to handle requests for service by hate groups. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) ? Harvard’s president condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel after student groups at the university called Israel “entirely responsible” for regional violence. The student group statements drew national criticism; “let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas,” Claudine Gay said. (Harvard Crimson) ?? This month, some buses in Rome will share the story of a 12-year-old boy who escaped the Nazis with help from tram drivers. Emanuele Di Porto, now 92, lived on the tram for two days after his mother shoved him out of a Nazi transport. (Associated Press)
What else we’re reading ➤ New Yorker editor-in-chief David Remnick on “Israel’s calamity — and after” … “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A chronology” … Why “the ‘high tide of American antisemitism’ makes Israel attacks foreboding.” |
Tina Fey, Lorne Michaels and Dennis McNicholas of Saturday Night Live after winning the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program at the 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in 2002. (Kevin Winter/ImageDirect/Getty Images) |
On this day in history (1975): Saturday Night Live premiered. The long-running series was created by Lorne Michaels, who was born Lorne David Lipowitz on a kibbutz in British-mandate Palestine, and was raised in Toronto. It helped launch the careers of Jewish comedians including Gilda Radner, Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg and Maya Rudolph. |
“There are moments in this life when a pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed upon the world,” President Biden said during his Tuesday remarks on Israel’s war. ”The people of Israel lived through one such moment this weekend.” — Thanks to Laura E. Adkins, Benyamin Cohen and Jodi Rudoren for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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