Talya Zax here, finishing up a week of filling in for Benyamin Cohen on the Forwarding desk. I’m the Forward’s innovation editor and supervisor of all Anne Frank discourse.

Today: A grisly attack in Australia, heirs of Holocaust survivors sue the Israel Museum, and a surprising outlet for pandemic grief.

Have a healthy, happy and meaningful Passover!

OUR LEAD STORY

How Jackie Robinson became a young Jewish boy’s lifelong friend.

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson made his first appearance with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field — and became the first Black player in Major League Baseball. Six years later, 7-year-old Ron Rabinovitz, the son of a lawyer active in the Civil Rights Movement, got a letter from the baseball star that began a profound friendship.

“To have Jackie Robinson sing ‘Happy Birthday’”: Rabinovitz and Robinson exchanged frequent letters, and Rabinovitz often came to see Robinson when the Dodgers played the Braves in Milwaukee, some 60 miles from Rabinovitz’s hometown. In 1955, Robinson hit a home run in one such game, then afterward hopped in the Rabinovitz family car to go celebrate Ron’s 10th birthday. It was, Rabinovitz said in an interview, “probably the best birthday I ever had.”

“Friends like you”: “It is friends like you that make me feel everything that happened was worthwhile,” Robinson once wrote to Rabinovitz. In 1972, when Rabinovitz worked in the clothing business and Robinson’s health was rapidly declining, the two saw each other for the final time. “After lunch, I hailed him a cab,” Rabinovitz recalled. “I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and told him how much I loved him.”

A timely anniversary: The 75th anniversary of Robinson’s first game falls on the first night of Passover. “He would have loved that,” Rabinovitz said. “He loved the Jewish heritage.”

Read the story ➤

ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

Iris Apfel sits for a portrait during her 100th birthday party. (Noam Galai/Getty)

For your Seder discussion: Three stories of oppression, liberation and empowerment. Three Jews of color share reflections on the holiday’s themes, and thoughts on how to keep them relevant. Though we start with the same Four Questions every year, noted Qian Julie Wang, author of a memoir of her immigrant experience, a new “why” always emerges that we may not feel equipped to answer. “When it comes, I hope you reflect on what it might teach you about Passovers past, present, and future,” she wrote, “and what new whys are still unasked.” Read the essays ➤

Iris Apfel released a clothing collection — and it’s perfect for Passover.Almost everything from the 100-year-old Jewish style maven’s first collection with H&M is already sold out, but our Mira Fox is already imagining next year’s Seder outfit. Rhinestone-bedazzled frog earrings? Brocade shoes affixed with beetle brooches? An “absolutely insane pea-themed suit with pearlescent beads sewn on for each individual pea?” Next year in Jerusalem; and next year, wearing Iris Apfel. Read the story ➤

I lost my dad to COVID. Opening up to a stranger helped me heal.Shortly after his father died in 2020, Barry Joseph signed up to participate in an oral history project about pandemic life in New York City. For nearly a year, Joseph shared every detail of his life through daily diaries and occasional Zoom calls, one of 190 participants in the project. And then he turned his contributions into a book, “Friday is Tomorrow, or The Dayenu Year.” “I hoped it would be viewed as an invitation to the reader,” he writes, “to take the time and space needed to consider and better understand their own story.” Read his essay ➤

Plus: Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff will host a Passover Seder tonight at the vice president’s official residence. It’s an evolution of a tradition started by former President Barack Obama, who became the first sitting president to host a Seder in the White House. The Second Family will be joined by Jewish members of their staff.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem. (Hazem Bader/Getty)

🚨 Early-morning clashes at the Temple Mount left at least 117 Palestinians injured. So says the Palestinian Red Crescent after Israeli police and Muslims attending morning prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque gave differing accounts of how violence broke out. Thousands were at the site for the second Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, which intersects this year with both Passover and Easter, creating increased tension in Jerusalem. (New York Times)

⚖️ Prosecutors plan to add terrorism charges against a man accused of attacking Hasidic Jews around Lakewood, N.J., last weekend. Dion Marsh, 27, who the authorities say hit three Jews with a carjacked Toyota Camry and stabbed another, has already been charged with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping, among other crimes. He also reportedly told his family to anticipate a “blood bath” before his violent spree. (NBC New York, New York Post)

📖 In a first, the heirs of a Holocaust victim are suing the Israel Museum. Ludwig Marum, a German politician, was murdered in a concentration camp in 1934. In 1986, the Israel Museum acquired a haggadah from 1300 C.E. that had been in his collection. Now, Marum’s heirs are suing the institution for restitution of the book, which is worth an estimated $10 million. (The Art Newspaper)

😟 Is Sen. Dianne Feinstein mentally fit to serve? Four Democratic colleagues of the 88-year-old Californian, and three of her former aides, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Feinstein’s memory is failing, with some saying that on bad days she does not always recognize fellow Senators. Other politicians said they have not noticed a change in her capacity. (San Francisco Chronicle)

🇩🇪 A neo-Nazi in Germany accused of trying to start a “race war.” Prosecutors said the man, who is affiliated with an American group known as Attomwafen Division, tried to found a terrorist organization and had been preparing to commit a “serious and dangerous act of violence.” German authorities conducted some 61 raids on suspected members of Attomwafen Division last week. (Euronews, DW)

😧 Four men who raped an Australian teenager scrawled swastikas across her body. The men also wrote the number 88 — a white supremacist symbol used to represent the phrase “Heil Hitler” — on the girl’s stomach in permanent marker. (Brisbane Times)

✝️ The Episcopalian Church is reconsidering Holy Week readings tinged with antisemitism. The week that marks the end of Lent and culminates with Easter has traditionally included excerpts from the Bible read on particular days that some are now concerned advance hate. A convention of the denomination’s leaders this summer will consider a resolution opening the door to changing “passages that use language that has been interpreted as antisemitic.” (Religion News Service)

🍲 In a new YouTube special, celebrities discuss antisemitism and Jewish joy. “Recipe for Change: Standing Up to Antisemitism,” released Thursday, features stars like Idina Menzel, Ilana Glazer, Hari Nef and Michael Zegen sharing a meal and discussing threats to the Jewish people. (JTA)

What else we’re reading ➤ An American rabbi traveled to help Ukrainian refugees — and try to find his Kyiv cousins … For Forward contributor Abby Pogrebin, a spike in antisemitism makes this year’s Seder different from any other … Billy Crystal’s return to Broadway.

ON THE CALENDAR

The front page of the Forward from 110 years ago shows how we covered the sinking of the Titanic.

On this day in history: The Titanic sank in the early-morning hours of April 15, 1912, killing more than 1,500 people in what remains one of history’s worst maritime disasters. Among the 39 Jewish victims were Sinai Kantor, a Russian émigré en route to a new life in the Bronx, whose pocket watch sold at auction a few years ago for $57,000; Benjamin Guggenheim, whose inheritance made him the second-wealthiest passenger aboard the ship; and Ida and Isidore Strauss, a co-owner of Macy’s. A new Titanic-shaped museum in Branson. Missouri, details their stories and those of another 30 Jewish passengers who survived. See the Forward’s front page from that fateful day and read an English translation of the original coverage.

Since 1955, April 15 has also been Tax Day, whose secret Jewish history dates back much further.

And today is the 40th birthday of Seth Rogen, who you may not have realized is very good at pottery.

On the Hebrew calendar, it’s the 14th of Nisan, the birthday in 1135 of Maimonides, the famous Sephardic Jewish philosopher.

YOUR WEEKEND READS

There’s just one story in this edition of our weekend magazine: Mira Fox’s deeply reported feature on an all-Mormon production of “Fiddler on the Roof” at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. On two visits to campus, Fox got to know the cast and crew, learned about the deep and complicated affinity that many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feel for Judaism, and became the production’s de facto consultant on all things Jewish. It’s a journey you don’t want to miss. Get your copy now ➤

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Play today’s Vertl puzzle (aka the Yiddish Wordle)

Thanks to Jodi Rudoren and Eliya Smith for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

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