Antisemitism, moon landings, Leonard Cohen and Major League Baseball's first Orthodox player

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Welcome to our new morning newsletter, where each weekday I'll walk you through what you need to know – showcasing the best of Forward journalism and Jewish headlines from around the web. In today’s briefing: Antisemitism rally in D.C., Major League Baseball's first Orthodox player, the 50 best cover versions of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and much more...

ONE BIG STORY ⚖️

Forward exclusive: Inside the antisemitic attack at L.A. sushi cafe

It was May 18, and Israel and Hamas were still in the midst of heightened violence in Gaza. Across the world, reports of antisemitic incidents were on the rise. And in Los Angeles, at the Sushi Fumi restaurant in West Hollywood, a group of Jewish diners were violently attacked. Two people were arrested and the LAPD launched a hate crime investigation.

But, according to a new report in the Forward, it may not be such a clear-cut case. "We decided to take a deeper look at a story that we were the first to report in the Jewish media, but that no one has really followed since," said Rob Eshman, the Forward's national editor, who assigned and edited the story by Meghann Cuniff. "We assumed there could be multiple, conflicting perspectives on what happened, and indeed, there are."

Cuniff spent a month reporting the story, sometimes driving two hours to track down sources and leaving notes on doors. "It was like a wild goose chase," she told me when I reached her by phone Sunday night. "We want to make sure we follow through and keep providing any new information and new perspective that we can on this."

Read the whole story > That attack outside L.A. sushi restaurant was antisemitic, right? Think again, says lawyer for accused

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE 📰

“No Fear: A Rally in Solidarity with the Jewish People” brought more than 2,000 to the Capitol Sunday. Arno Rosenfeld, who led our coverage from the event, wrote that what was likely the first major protest against domestic antisemitism in the nation’s capital to many people seemed like a pro-Israel rally. Rebecca Salzhauer, one of our summer interns, bussed to the rally with a group from Manhattan that was united by fears and prayers. We also dispatched photographer Eric Lee: check out his pictures on our Instagram page.

The rally came amid a national uptick in antisemitic attacks. On Friday, my colleague Molly Boigon sat down with Deborah Lauter, the head of New York City's Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, about what to expect in the months ahead.

7 OTHER THINGS AMERICAN JEWS ARE TALKING ABOUT ⚾️

Jacob Steinmetz, who is Orthodox, stays at hotels within walking distance to the baseball field to accommodate his Sabbath observance. Photo courtesy of Adam Mazza

1. Jacob Steinmetz, a 17-year-old from Long Island, may become the first known Orthodox Jewish baseball player to get drafted into the Major League. “It’s a great opportunity for him to continue to evolve as a leader and continue to show people you can break down certain walls, do certain things and not have to necessarily sacrifice your background for it,” his father, Elliot, told the New York Post. ... In other baseball news, Israel's Olympic team played an exhibition game against the FDNY yesterday in Brooklyn. Team Israel won 12-3.

2. Recovery efforts continue at the Surfside condo in Florida as the official death toll has now climbed to 90. “Our team continues to make incredible process de-layering the pile,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “And we’re working to bring closures to families as quickly as we possibly can.” Rabbi Leibel Miller, director of the Chevra Kadisha society of Florida, has been working around the clock to tend to the bodies of the victims. "We all realize that this is holy work," he said, "work that we really would rather not have to be doing."

3. SpaceIL, the Israeli organization whose dishwasher-sized "Beresheet" spacecraft crashed onto the moon’s surface two years ago in a failed landing bid, said on Sunday that it has raised $70 million from investors for a second mission to the lunar surface, to launch in 2024. If successful, Israel would become only the fourth country to land on the moon – after Russia, China and the United States.

4. Today we honor the lives of two extraordinary women: Esther Bejarano, a survivor of Auschwitz who used the power of music to fight antisemitism and racism in post-war Germany, has died at 96, and Symoine 'Sy' Laufe, a Jewish community leader in Pittsburgh, was 95. "In her long and accomplished life, Symoine 'Sy' Laufe was many things. A conformist wasn’t one of them," begins the obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "At 90, she became a Bat Mitzvah, because when she was growing up in the 1930s, that Jewish coming- of-age rite wasn’t available to girls."

5. Multiple lawsuits are arriving at New Jersey courts from Orthodox Jews claiming discrimination against their religious beliefs. In Fort Lee, several residents of a high-rise apartment building are suing the co-op board for turning off the Shabbat elevator. Meanwhile, in Toms River, an old chicken farm was set to become housing for Orthodox families – until the town took it using eminent domain. Now several people are suing.

6. In an insightful essay in The New York Times, author Marjorie Ingall explains why she thinks there are too many Holocaust books for kids. "By focusing so relentlessly on the Holocaust, we’re telling kids, Jewish and not, that the worst thing that ever happened to us is the cornerstone of our collective identity," she writes. "Are we trying to scare Jewish kids into loving their Jewishness?"

7. Netflix announced it is making a miniseries about Jewish billionaire Richard Sackler and his involvement in the origins of the opioid criss in America. Matthew Broderick has been cast as Sackler. ... Staying on the Netflix theme, the streamer revealed the release date for the Gal Gadot action thriller "Red Notice" co-starring Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds. It will debut on Nov. 12. "I can't wait for you to see this," said the Israeli actress.

FROM OUR CULTURE DESK 🎶

The top 50 cover versions of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah,' ranked: "Hallelujah" is perhaps the most recognized tune from the songbook of the late Leonard Cohen. "Thanks to its hymn-like pace, Biblical allusions, slow-building melody and an emotional Rorschach test of a chorus," writes our music critic Dan Epstein who provided a crucial public service by listening to scores of Cohen covers – including from Jennifer Hudson and the Yiddish rendition above that we helped produce. "'Hallelujah' has become the go-to over the last two decades for anyone looking to inject heart-tugging, eye-moistening, mic-dropping musical gravitas into, well, practically any situation that demands it."

Go deeper: Our culture reporter PJ Grisar asks: How Jewish is Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"?

Tavi Gevinson was the first influencer. On ‘Gossip Girl,’ she’s facing the consequences: One of the most talked-about shows on TV these days is the "Gossip Girl" reboot on HBO Max. "We came of age on the internet," writes our digital culture reporter Mira Fox, a millennial, in an essay about the series. "The first generation to have to truly grapple with what it means to be constantly publicly constructing ourselves online. Even as we may sneer at the superficiality of teens on TikTok, we were shaped by the same forces."

ON THE CALENDAR 🗓

🎥 On this day in history: Louis B. Mayer, the Jewish immigrant who co-founded the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio, was born on July 12, 1884. At his funeral in 1957, Spencer Tracy eulogized Mayer by saying, "The story he wanted to tell was the story of America, the land for which he had an almost furious love, born of gratitude."

🌍 Secretary of State Antony Blinken will deliver on-camera remarks upon the release of the 2021 Elie Wiesel Act report, the third since the law’s signing in 2019. It provides a required update on the U.S. government’s efforts to prevent and respond to atrocities around the globe.

🇮🇱 Wednesday @ 11:30 a.m. ET: Join Jodi Rudoren; editor-in-chief of the Forward, Libby Lenkinski of the New Israel Fund, Mishy Harman of "Israel Story" and Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie of Lab Shul for a series called "Israel Therapy" to talk through individual dilemmas about how to square Israel's policies towards Palestinians with Jewish values of social justice. Register here.

PICTURE OF THE DAY 📸

They say everything is bigger in Texas. Our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, found that out first-hand this weekend while attending the CPAC conference in Dallas at the Hilton Anatole Hotel. Former President Donald Trump was the keynote speaker at the event.

YOUR TURN: SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS 📝

A Bintel Brief, the Forward's signature century-old advice column, will soon enter an exciting new phase. And we want you to be a part of it. Send your questions and quandaries about navigating Jewish-American life/identity/culture to bintel@forward.com or leave us a voice mail: 201-540-9728.

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