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Naftali Bennett meets Emirati Crown Prince, Texas man threatens Chabad rabbis, D.C. opens coed yeshiva for adults, and 180 pieces of Bob Dylan's art now on display.
THE WEEK IN POLITICS Each Monday, Jacob Kornbluh, our senior political reporter, shares what’s in his notebook about New York, Washington, Jerusalem and beyond.
‘The president doesn’t like you guys now’: The inside story of Trump’s rage against Netanyahu: A new book by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid gives a behind-the-scenes look at what is now being revealed as a rocky U.S.-Israel relationship during the Trump administration, even as Washington helped negotiate deals between Israel and several Gulf Arab states.
In an interview with the Forward, Ravid said former President Trump and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cultivated an image of bromance, with no daylight between them, that was essential to each man’s domestic political positioning. “It was strategic for both of them to project this closeness and friendship for their base,” he said.
The book, published in Hebrew on Sunday, also details several incidents in which both sides yelled and threatened each other. In one, Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, screamed at Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s closest adviser and then ambassador to Washington, to get out of his office. Read the story ➤
Historic visit: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met this morning with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, in the first public visit of an Israeli leader to the country. Netanyahu secretly traveled to Abu Dhabi to meet the prince in 2018, according to Israeli news reports.
This Republican has an idea: Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state attacked by Trump and his allies for certifying President Biden’s election, says the U.S. should follow Israel’s model of coalition governments. In an interview, Raffensperger said he is still a proud Republican but that the party needs a more civil approach to politics, and to offer a more aspirational, positive message. Read the interview ➤
Standing up for Israel: U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a first-term Democrat from New York, said on Saturday that he has received death threats for standing up for Israel and expects a primary challenge from his left for doing so. “But I’m convinced I’m doing the right thing,” Torres told the Israeli-American Council at its summit this weekend in South Florida. “For me, one need not be Jewish or Israeli to see clearly the antisemitic double standard against Israel.”
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY The kosher Chinese restaurant Bernstein on Essex seen in a newly unearthed ad shot in the 1970s. (Kinolibrary) 📚 An Orthodox rabbi is leaving his pulpit to open a yeshiva in D.C. that welcomes people of all religious backgrounds, genders and sexual identities to study together. He already has a handful of students – including an engineer and single mom who’s leaving her career to study full-time. “In 99% of Orthodox yeshivas, women aren’t welcome, gay people and trans people aren’t welcome,” said the rabbi, Shmuel Herzfeld. “We’re losing people.” (Washington Post)
🚔 Federal charges have been filed against an Amarillo, Texas, man for threatening to murder three Chabad rabbis, the Justice Department announced. The U.S. Attorney said his “antisemitic statements were both disgusting and unlawful.” (CBS Dallas)
🍽 A kosher Mexicali restaurant that seems like a mix of Chipotle and Taco Bell recently opened in Los Angeles. It’s part of a trend of kosher eateries based on ethnic cuisines including Chinese, Japanese, French and Italia that are also attracting young non-Jews. (CNN)
🥡 Which reminds me: filmmaker Bex Schwartz unearthed a vintage 1970s TV commercial for Bernstein on Essex, a kosher Chinese eatery on the Lower East Side, while working on a project. Affectionately known as Schmulka Bernstein’s, it brought personal nostalgia to Schwartz: the Bernsteins were her cousins. (N.Y. Jewish Week)
🏀 Shahd Abboud is the first Arab team captain in Israel’s women’s professional basketball league. She is starting a cross-cultural training camp for girls to help Israeli Jews and Arabs see each other in a new way. (Fansided)
🏠 The current owner of a building in Germany tracked down the descendants of the Jews who lived there before World War II, and is planning a family reunion for them next summer. “The most painful rejection of these innocent and individual victims would be in the continued refusal to remember – in forgetting,” she said. “We should never let that happen.” (Boston Globe)
👸🏻 India’s Harnaaz Sandhu won the Miss Universe pageant early this morning in the Israeli resort town of Eilat. The annual competition was complicated by a Palestinian-led boycott and the emergence of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The 80 contestants spent last week visiting sites around the country, with journalists in tow. Sara Salansky of the Tourism Ministry said it created “a positive image for Israel.” (USA Today, Times of Israel)
FROM OUR CULTURE SECTION Six decades of Bob Dylan’s art on exhibit in Miami:Dylan has never been content to just write, sing and play his guitar. In addition to selling whiskey, making movies and once even starring in a Victoria’s Secret commercial, the shapeshifting artist has also made paintings, collages and sculptures. More than 180 of these pieces are now on display, along with handwritten song lyrics and archival pieces. See the art and read our story ➤
Why Green Lantern is one of the most Jewish superheroes:A comic-book artist who drew the character in 1959 modeled him after Jewish movie star Paul Newman. The story’s Guardians of the Universe, the oldest and wisest beings in creation, were modeled after David Ben-Gurion. In 2016, it was revealed that the Lantern himself was Jewish. Read the story ➤
ON THE CALENDAR Zal Yanovsky, pictured top center, with his band. (Getty Images) On this day in history: Zal Yanovsky, a folk musician who founded the band The Lovin’ Spoonful, died on Dec. 13, 2002. He spent most of his life in Canada, and is in that country’s Music Hall of Fame, but also briefly lived in Israel, where he busked on the streets of Tel Aviv. Yanovsky was one of the first rock n’ roll performers to wear a cowboy hat and fringed “Davy Crockett” style clothing, a trend later copied by Sonny Bono and David Crosby.
It’s also the birthday of Taylor Swift, who has perfected the time-honored Jewish tradition of “kiss-off” songs.
Last year on this day, we reported on a new book that questioned the health benefits of chicken soup.
On the Hebrew calendar, it’s the 9th of Tevet, when the Biblical prophet Ezra died.
Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET: Get a behind-the-scenes look at how this newsletter comes together. I’ll be chatting with Jodi Rudoren, our editor-in-chief, about how I choose the stories that end up here, how many cups of coffee it takes to make each edition, and how I’ve kind of been preparing for this gig my whole life. This is an exclusive event for our donors – so if you want to attend, click here to make a contribution and we’ll email the registration link.
PHOTO OF THE DAY That building you’re looking at? That the Forward’s Los Angeles office, circa 1927. At the time, we had more readers than any American newspaper, and bureaus in every major Jewish community. Rob Eshman, our L.A.-based national editor, recently made a pilgrimage of sorts to the Boyle Heights building. where the old news bureau has morphed into apartments for the new wave of immigrants.
––– Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh, Deena Kuperman, Lauren Markoe and Angelie Zaslavsky for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.
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