JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Good morning. Today: Netanyahu to skip Auschwitz liberation commemoration over arrest fears; Israeli settlers set fire to West Bank mosque; and the Brooklyn Hanukkah party you’ll wish you were invited to.
This newsletter will be off until Jan. 2; through the holidays, we’ll be sending a single daily newsletter, in the middle of the day. See you in 2025! |
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An undated portrait of the Schick family; Renee Schick, second from left, founded the bakery whose origin story is invoked by Trader Joe’s’ Brooklyn Babka. (Courtesy of Deborah Schick Laufer) |
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They were a kosher bakery success story — 80 years later, people are still trying to make a buck off their babka. For shoppers at stores like Trader Joe’s, Kroger and Costco, “rugelach and rainbow cookies from a family bakery ‘since 1943’ offer a seemingly authentic alternative to Sara Lee and Chips Ahoy,” writes our contributor Andrew Silverstein. But “in reality, the old-school treats” — including Trader Joe’s’ extremely popular Brooklyn Babka — “are a new creation of private equity and immigrant labor, part of a boom of New York Jewish desserts at a time when Jewish New York bakeries are rapidly disappearing.”
Silverstein spoke to the son of Renee Schick, whose bakery, founded in 1943, has gone from a small business in which she cracked each egg by hand to ensure they met the rules of kashrut to a brand owned by a Japanese multinational. And he visited the Bronx bakery at which that multinationals‘ suite of traditionally Jewish goodies is made, largely by immigrants — and where several complaints about labor malpractice have been filed. |
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The Houthis are lashing out after the collapse of their plans in Syria — but that doesn’t mean they’re strong. (Mohammed Huwais / AFP / Getty Images) |
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Houthis could have killed Israeli children. Israel can’t quell the Islamist threat alone (Opinion). The Yemen-based group hasn’t just subjected Israel to an endless series of wartime airstrikes — the latest of which hit a school near Tel Aviv very early on Thursday morning. It’s also massively disrupted global shipping, and is one of the last functioning arms of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance.” In the wake of Syrian regime change, which appears to have destabilized Houthi plans for further action against Israel, our columnist Dan Perry argues that it’s time for the world to “take decisive action to quash the group.” Read his essay ➤
More from the war… With hopes for a ceasefire agreement before the end of the year still high, no further progress was reported from Thursday talks. (Washington Post)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will skip a commemoration of the upcoming 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, in Poland, over fears that the country might execute an International Criminal Court warrant and arrest him. (Times of Israel)
Israeli settlers set a mosque on fire in the West Bank village of Madra overnight, and vandalized it, including with a spray-painted word translating to “revenge.” (Haaretz)
Residents of a Syrian village near the Golan Heights say Israeli troops are preventing them from accessing the fields they farm for their livelihood. (Times of Israel)
Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, criticized Pope Francis’ call for an investigation into whether Israel’s war in Gaza constitutes a genocide, saying his remarks trivialize the weighty term. (Reuters)
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“The Fecalists / Feces Disposal,” painted by the prisoner Jozef Kowner in 1944. (Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Institute) |
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Paintings of unbearable life in the Lodz Ghetto. “How could Jews have made art in the hellish conditions of a World War II ghetto?” asks Jennifer A. Stern. A new exhibit in Warsaw explores that question, including one unsavory answer: Some of the works are so-called “official” art, commissioned by the ghetto’s Nazi-appointed “Elder of the Jews” to “show his Nazi bosses how hard Jews were working and how productive they were.” |
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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The Forward’s Jacob Kornbluh, standing, asks New York City Mayor Eric Adams a question on Thursday. (Courtesy of NYC Mayor’s Office) |
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In New York… The FBI arrested an 18-year-old Egyptian college student in Virginia on charges that he plotted a terror attack against New York City’s Israeli consulate. (Times of Israel)
Mayor Eric Adams told a group of Jewish journalists that the city’s springtime response to a spate of pro-Palestinian campus protests was intended to send “a loud message.” (Forward)
On the Hill… A House of Representatives report, released Thursday, detailed the results of probes by seven congressional committees looking into campus antisemitism, and recommended cutting government funding to universities that boycott Israel. (JTA)
Around the world… Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed an antisemitic tirade during his annual press conference, saying “They’re tearing the church apart” — in reference to the Russian Orthodox Church — “but they’re not even atheists. These are people without any beliefs, godless people, they’re ethnic Jews, but has anyone seen them in a synagogue? I don’t think so.” (JTA)
Two teenage girls were sentenced for a series of antisemitic attacks in London, including an attempted robbery that left a woman unconscious. (Guardian)
Also in the United Kingdom, a neo-Nazi who shared antisemitic, racist and homophobic views with his nearly 28,000 social media followers faces a decade in prison after being found with an “armory” in his home. (BBC)
What else we’re reading ➤ “Studs Terkel’s classic Working turns 50” (Jacobin) “As wars rage around them, Armenian Christians in Jerusalem’s Old City feel the walls closing in.” (AP) “For thousands of Jews, Israel still doesn’t feel safe after the Oct. 7 attacks. So they’re leaving.” (AP) “The cost of lawlessness on the West Bank” (Atlantic) “The U.S. has no special panel for Nazi-loot claims. Could that change?” (New York Times)
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Watch this, and wish you’d been at an early Hanukkah event, co-hosted by our former editorial fellow Sam Lin-Sommer, featuring dishes like sunchoke soup with butternut squash oil. Find it scandalous, or invigorating, or both: There were no latkes to be found. |
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Thanks to Benyamin Cohen for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Julie Moos for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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