Israel projects 122-degree weather, rabbi refuses to resign, 'Swastika Man' on the loose, the secret Jewish history of Comic-Con, and Ivanka Trump's eulogy for mom includes Jewish joke. |
Dr. Paula Rackoff, right, crosses the Ukraine-Poland border, pushing a cart of medical supplies. (Courtesy) |
Saturday marks the 150th day since Russia invaded Ukraine. We begin this morning with a look at some Jewish volunteers in the region… Dr. Paula Rackoff, a rheumatologist from New York City, had planned to spend her summer vacation biking with relatives in Croatia. Instead, she enlisted a small group of colleagues for a weeklong medical mission to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Cycle of life: “I wanted to show up as a Jewish person, given the history of the country,” said Rackoff, whose grandmother was from Tarnopol, now part of Ukraine. During the Holocaust, “people weren’t there for us except for Righteous Gentiles,” she added. “It’s important that Jews show up not as victims, but as people willing to help.” Drugs in duffel bags: Many of the refugees fled the Russian assault with only as much as they could carry. Many have run out of critical medications after months away from home. Rackoff’s group brought six large duffel bags of antibiotics, blood-pressure drugs and anti-inflammatories. Virtually all the refugees they met had high blood pressure, but Dr. Debra Luftman, a cosmetic dermatologist, turned out to be the busiest of the team. “So many women had rashes from stress,” said Rackoff. Green thumbs: Laurie Blitzer, a lay leader with several Jewish organizations, traveled to Poland around the same time as Rackoff’s group of doctors and worked with the same Israeli organization, Lev Echad — Hebrew for One Heart. Blitzer, her husband and their two college-age children helped build a playground and plant a community garden. “We wanted to go hands-on and help,” she said. Improving history: Lev Echad is now working with the mayor of Lviv to build schools that can withstand bombs, bring in teachers from Israel, and provide mental-health support for kids. Tomer Dror, the group’s CEO, has many family members who hail from Ukraine. “Eighty years ago, they were killing us,” he said. “Now they raise their heads up with bright eyes when they see the Israeli flag.” Read the story ➤ More on Ukraine (browse all our coverage of the war here): |
Couples sealed their marriage with a kiss during the event. (Getty) |
A priest, a rabbi and an imam walked into a wedding — for 500 couples:So many weddings have been postponed and re-postponed during this pandemic era. But love persists. Last weekend, it was on public display at Lincoln Center, where a bevy of brides and grooms in gowns, tuxes and jazzy ensembles said a collective “I do” in a symbolic ceremony and danced the night away. “I thought it was sort of a schtick, but it turns out it wasn’t,” said Rabbi Matt Green, one of the officiants. He said it was his first time working directly with Christian or Muslim clergy. “The minister referred to Jesus as ‘rabbi Jesus’ on stage,” he recalled, chuckling. “And I was like ‘why not!’ You know, sure.” Read the story ➤ Chabad asked the new rabbi in Poway to resign. He said no.The small California synagogue has suffered both a shooting and a corruption scandal in the past few years. San Diego’s Chabad leadership has been locked in a months-long battle with Rabbi Mendel Goldstein, who took over its pulpit after his father pleaded guilty to a multimillion fraud scheme. The leaders claim the younger Goldstein’s intransigence is preventing the community from healing. But the rabbi says the congregation is growing with him at the helm. Read the story ➤ A new Holocaust documentary uses previously unknown photographs – taken by the prisoners themselves:Our critic, Simi Horwitz, called “From Where They Stood,” now in theaters, “an extraordinary, wholly unfamiliar, unprecedented film.” The prisoners kept the cameras concealed at all times, holding them at waist level or in crouching positions. “This is not a fun film,” Horwitz writes, “but it screams out to be watched; it’s a picture, literal and metaphorical, of what happened told by those to whom it happened, a visual howl from beyond the grave.” Read her review ➤ But wait, there’s more… - Comic-Con, one of the world’s largest pop culture conventions, returns to an in-person gathering today for the first time since before the pandemic. Looking back decades, it turns out the whole convention was the brainchild of 5 Jewish teenagers.
- The Jewish Vote, a progressive political advocacy group in New York, endorsed a congressional candidate on Wednesday who has expressed her support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
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While you were sleeping, a new episode of our “Bintel Brief” advice podcast was released. This week’s question comes from a high school student whose parents are immigrants, and who was deeply offended by a Dungeons & Dragons player scenario involving an ICE raid. The teenager was unsatisfied by her fellow D & D-ers’ apology, and hosts Ginna and Lynn are split over whether she should explain why or walk away from these friends. Chana Pollack, the Forward’s archivist, brings a similar-but-totally different Bintel dilemma from 1976, and the authors of a new book titled “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” join the pod to share their step-by-step guide to authentic apologies. Listen now ➤ |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
A raging brush fire in Haifa in 2016. Projections indicate increasingly hot temperatures in Europe and Israel. (Getty) |
☀️ Israel added heat waves to the country’s “threat map” and created an emergency plan that would require the military to prepare for extreme temperatures. As record-breaking heat waves strike Britain and Europe this week, data suggests Israel’s climate is warming at double the global average and could suffer spikes of up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. (Haaretz) 🌳 Seven trees dedicated to Holocaust victims were chopped down at the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp. The foundation that runs the memorial at the camp said it was “appalled at the deliberate attack on remembrance.” (AP, Twitter) 💕 A nice Jewish girl met a nice Jewish boy with “Be a Mensch” tattooed on his bicep while riding the New York City subway. They struck up a conversation, and then parted ways. It had all the makings of a romantic comedy. But they’d failed to exchange contact info, so the woman turned to social media. Her simple plea — Does anyone know this guy? — was retweeted tens of thousands of times. Until, finally … well, we won’t spoil the ending. (NY Jewish Week) 👋 A Toronto man dubbed “Swastika Man” because of the large symbol he painted on his chest, has been released on probation after pleading guilty to three separate hate crimes. The local Jewish community is worried he will strike again. (Algemeiner) ✍️ A new report finds that antisemitism is rampant in the entertainment and sports industries. Examples cited in the report, by a pro-Israel nonprofit called Creative Community for Peace, include a Netflix series that had a Yiddish-speaking villain and an NFL player who posted on Instagram what he thought was a quote from Hitler. (Jerusalem Post) 🥙 Max’s Kosher Cafe in Wheaton, Maryland, is closing after 28 years of serving the community — and serving falafel and shawarma at the games of the Washington Nationals and Washington Commanders. “If the right opportunity arose,” the owners said in a statement, “we would welcome the idea of reopening.” (Washington Jewish Week) Quotable ➤ Ivanka Trump, at her mother’s funeral, on how Ivana responded to her conversion to Judaism and marriage to Jared Kushner: “Ivanka must really love him if she’s willing to give up lobster.” (New York Times) What else we’re reading ➤ Nothing to sea here: Experts say a giant swarm of jellyfish near Haifa is totally normal … In Budapest, an underground ‘Gypsy music’ pub plays on Jewish heartstrings … New photos and a tour of the set of the Leonard Benstein biopic starring Bradley Cooper.
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Violinist Isaac Stern and conductor Leonard Bernstein at Carnegie Hall in 1960. (Getty) |
On this day in history (1920): The Polish-born violinist Isaac Stern was born. Stern is best known for his role on the soundtrack for the film adaptation of “Fiddler on the Roof,” which was released in 1971. Stern also helped save Carnegie Hall from demolition by arranging the Citizens’ Committee to save the Hall. Later, when the state of New York purchased the venue, he served as its co-chair, which is why its main auditorium was named after him when he died in 2001. It’s also the birthday of Ernest Hemingway (1899). You may not know that in his private correspondence and his first novel, Hemingway espoused antisemitic ideas and spread negative Jewish stereotypes. The author of a Hemingway biography wrote about this complicated legacy for us last year. In honor of National Junk Food Day, check out our secret Jewish history of those kosher fruit-jelly slices. Dept. of corrections: Wednesday’s newsletter listed an incorrect date for Operation Valkyrie, a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. It took place in 1944, not 1943. |
The Les Marx Sisters are three French singers who bring new life to Yiddish classics. They recently released their second album, “Arum dem fayer” (“Around the fire”) in which you’ll hear classic hits like “Oy mame bin ikh farlibt” (“Oy, Mama, am I in love!”), a song originally from the 1936 film “Yidl mitn fidl” (“Yiddle With His Fiddle.”) ––– Play today’s Vertl puzzle, the Yiddish Wordle Thanks to Beth Harpaz, Rukhl Schaechter, Rina Shamilov and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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