WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Good morning. A Friday communications blackout in Gaza sparked global concern before systems were mostly restored later in the weekend. Separately, a mob proclaiming antisemitic slogans stormed a Russian airport as a flight landed from Tel Aviv. That and more of the latest from the war — plus a couple stories for those in need of a distraction — below.

ISRAEL AT WAR

Violent antisemitic threats appeared on a Cornell campus forum on Sunday. (Forward Collage/Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Antisemitic threats at Cornell shutter kosher dining hall as Jews hide in their rooms. As conflict over Israel’s war with Hamas has escalated at colleges around the U.S., Jewish students at Cornell faced terrifying threats on a campus discussion forum Sunday, with one reading, “If you see a jewish ‘person’ on campus, follow them home and slit their throats. rats need to be eliminated from cornell.” Rabbi Ari Weiss, director of the campus Hillel, said the spate of online hate left Jewish students “fearful for their safety,” and Cornell’s president pledged to focus “on keeping the community safe.” Read the story ➤

And:

Harvard president, citing history and ‘resurgence’ of antisemitism, appoints advisers to help root it out

Opinion | As Harvard president, I am committed to tackling the pernicious antisemitism on our campus

War is bad for tourism. But one Palestinian hotel owner remains optimistic about the future in Jerusalem. More than 300,000 Palestinians are residents of Jerusalem without being Israeli citizens; Sami Abu Dayyeh, a Christian from East Jerusalem and the proprietor of four hotels in Israel and the West Bank, is one of them. In an interview with our opinion editor, Laura E. Adkins, last week, Abu Dayyeh gave some insight into how Palestinians in Israel view the outlook for peace. Decades ago, he participated in multiple Israeli-Palestinian coexistence conferences, but now he thinks the movement for a lasting resolution will have to come from within Israel, saying, “How could you have a conference for the future with an occupier?” Read the story ➤

Israeli soldiers gathered near the Gaza border on Sunday blew the shofar. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

Plus…

As Israeli tanks reportedly approached Gaza City, the IDF said forces killed dozens of Hamas gunmen in ground battles overnight, and that it had struck around 600 Hamas-linked targets in Gaza in the last day.

An Israeli-German hostage held in Gaza was confirmed to have died, said Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Shani Louk, 23, was “tortured, paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists, and experienced unfathomable horrors,” a statement from the ministry said.

The Gaza Health Ministry said more than 8,000 Gazans had been killed in the strip since the beginning of the war. Communications systems in Gaza were restored after being knocked out during an Israeli bombardment Friday, while an aid convoy of almost three dozen trucks entered the strip yesterday. But humanitarian workers warned that the level of aid is still insufficient, as reports surfaced of thousands of Gazans breaking into warehouses for essential supplies.

The Shin Bet security service warned Israel’s government that increased violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank risks sparking a conflagration in the Israel-occupied territory. A settler reportedly shot and killed a Palestinian harvesting olives near the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday; separately, the IDF raided the Jenin refugee camp, killing four alleged terrorists.

A mob in the largely Muslim Russian region of Dagestan stormed an airport and shouted antisemitic slogans as a flight landed from Tel Aviv. “Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alex Ben Zvi is working with the Russian authorities to secure the well-being of Jews and Israelis at the site,” the Israeli government said.

Former President Donald Trump received a warm welcome at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition as he threatened to deport non-citizens who participated in pro-Palestinian rallies if reelected. Republican candidates who spoke at the meeting uniformly supported Israel’s military actions, while some, like Trump’s former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, heaped scorn on Trump’s criticism of Israel’s government in the days after the Oct. 7 massacre.

The House of Representatives will vote on a standalone $14.5 billion aid bill to Israel later this week, according to Republican leaders.

The Boston Workers Circle co-sponsored a rally calling for a cease-fire — causing tumult in the city’s Jewish community. (Sylvia Broude)

Opinion | The Boston Workers Circle was expelled from a major Jewish coalition. I’m heartbroken — and so proud. “As I grieve for the Jewish people, I grieve, too, for the Palestinians now experiencing unimaginable terror,” writes Miles Meth, a board member of the Boston Workers Circle, in a defense of the group’s choice to cosponsor a rally calling for a cease-fire — an action that led to their being pushed out of Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council. The Jewish community has a responsibility to hold complex truths about the war, Meth writes: “By standing for a cease-fire, my colleagues at the Boston Workers Circle and I have lived what is for me a deep Jewish principle, breaking free from the false binary that you either support Jews or support Palestinians.” Read the essay ➤

And:

An Israeli author was excited for his best friend’s wedding. After Oct. 7, it became a funeral

Israel’s antisemitism envoy urges American Jews to fight in the war for public opinion

A New Yorker is going viral for confronting someone who ripped down Israeli hostage posters

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ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

A postcard from Galveston, Texas, circa 1940. (Getty Images)

In Galveston, Texas, a refuge for Jews escaping pogroms — and perhaps a lesson for today’s ‘migrant crisis.’In the early 20th century, nearly 10,000 Eastern European Jewish immigrants found themselves in Galveston, as American Jewish leaders feared that too great an influx to East Coast seaports might fuel American nativism and even violence against the new arrivals. Yes, the Galveston Movement ended up as a footnote in history, our contributor Robert Zaretsky writes. But it’s a contemporary reminder of the upheaval caused by inflammatory rhetoric about migrants.

Magnificent permanent exhibit opens at Amherst’s Yiddish Book Center. One of the U.S.’s foremost Yiddish cultural centers got a total makeover — and it’s a beauty, writes Jennifer A. Stern, with new displays showcasing “the vitality and daring of Yiddish literature, art, music, journalism and theater — which burst onto the international scene in the late 19th century, and never paused to breathe until the catastrophe of the Holocaust.”

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

😞 As Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue marked the five-year anniversary of a mass shooting, its members are wondering how to honor recollections of the brutal event, and are reviewing artifacts preserved by archivists including bullet-ridden prayer books. (Washington Post)

😳 Neo-Nazis erected a giant wooden swastika in southern Germany in the garden of a private home; police said it was quickly removed. (WBAL)

😅 Saturday Night Live poked fun at Michigan State University for displaying a photo of Hitler during a football game. The image accompanied a question about Hitler during a trivia segment; “Weekend Update” host Colin Jost joked that the university “apologized after an image of Adolf Hitler appeared on a stadium video board at a football game. ... Even more upsetting, it was during the kiss cam.” (Detroit News)

👀 A Florida Moms for Liberty leader who pushed for an adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary to be banned from a library took part in an interview with a notoriously antisemitic TV host, Rick Wiles of TruNews, about the incident. Wiles has previously said “the American people are being oppressed by Jewish tyrants.” (Media Matters)

😨 Two prominent Australian neo-Nazis avoided jail time on charges related to a 2021 assault on hikers, with the judge wishing them good luck after handing down her judgment. (abc.net.au)

What else we’re reading ➤ “Kanye and Adidas: Money, misconduct and the price of appeasement” … “A Jewish family’s story of loss and restitution” … “I am a practicing Catholic and I am a proud Jew.”

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)

Members of Australia’s Jewish community rallied in front of the Sydney Opera House on Sunday to demand the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Thanks to Beth Harpaz for editing today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

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