View this email in your browser |
|
|
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
|
|
The latest on campuses from across the country, Facebook and Instagram mull banning “From the river to the sea,” study explores why Sephardi Jews are more likely to get early-onset Alzheimer’s, and the secret Jewish history of the New York Knicks. |
|
ISRAEL AT WAR |
|
Israel's Eden Golan during a rehearsal Wednesday at the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden, where she received both cheers and boos. (Getty) |
A singer’s impossible mission — conquer Eurovision and redefine Israel’s image
Eden Golan, Israel’s contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest, is pulling off a dual act: Onstage, performing her powerhouse song “Hurricane,” and offstage, pretending that she is just a talented young woman having the adventure of a lifetime — not, for one charged week, the face of a country whose participation in the song contest has sparked months of protests.
Our Talya Zax traveled to Sweden to meet up with Golan, who, apart from rehearsals, is effectively confined to her hotel room under 24/7 armed protection until her performance tonight. “She has a name that appears handpicked for someone about to represent Israel on one of the world’s biggest stages,” Talya writes. “First, a synonym for an idyllic past, and last, the name of a still-disputed territory Israel seized in the Six-Day War.” |
|
Related: Eurovision and Sweden are bracing for protests as Golan takes the stage tonight. Police expect more than 20,000 protesters.
Plus… President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would not supply offensive weapons to Israel if it launches an all-out assault on populated areas in Rafah.
The first shipment of aid to the U.S.-built floating pier in Gaza departed today from Cairo.
Police in Amsterdam warned people to avoid a canal and thoroughfare in the city’s center as an effort to remove a pro-Palestinian encampment there turned violent on Wednesday.
Should “From the river to the sea” be allowed on Facebook and Instagram? The company’s oversight board is now considering the question. |
|
CONFLICT ON CAMPUS |
|
Flags were placed next to an encampment of pro-Palestinian students last week at Columbia. (Getty) |
On campus… In an open letter, hundreds of Jewish students at Columbia University wrote that their “concerns have been brushed off and invalidated” when calling out antisemitism on campus.
A pro-Palestinian student who disrupted a UC Berkeley dean’s backyard dinner by making a speech about the war in Gaza has filed a complaint, saying the dean attacked her because she is Muslim. The school is investigating the incident.
The University of Southern California’s academic senate, which primarily consists of faculty members, voted to censure the school’s president after weeks of turmoil on campus, including the cancellation of a Muslim valedictorian’s commencement speech.
Administrators at San Francisco State University negotiated with protest leaders over the school’s investments in Israel. That meeting took place on the campus quad and was livestreamed for all to witness.
Administrators at Trinity College in Ireland agreed to divest from three Israeli companies as part of a deal made with protesting students. |
|
David Banks, Chancellor of New York City Public Schools, speaks during a congressional hearing on antisemitism at K-12 schools. (Getty) |
Plus… Congress on Wednesday grilled school officials on their responses to campus antisemitism. What made this hearing different? The officials were from K-12 schools.
In a speech this week, President Joe Biden said America has seen a “ferocious surge” of antisemitism. Our language columnist explores the choice of words, and what it says about the president.
Washington, D.C.’s largest high school agreed on Wednesday to end its ban on an Arab student group’s attempt to screen a pro-Palestinian documentary after the ACLU brought a First Amendment lawsuit.
A number of prominent Republicans have seized on campus protests to show their support for Jewish Americans. Some of those same politicians spent years spreading anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, according to a new investigation. |
|
Riot police were called to break up an encampment at Dartmouth University. (Jeff Sharlet) |
Opinion | Dartmouth’s crackdown with riot police was far worse than the protest:Pro-Palestinian protesters at the Ivy League’s smallest school were met with state riot police along with officers typically called in to deal with high-risk situations like a terrorist attack. Professor Jeff Sharlet was appalled by the school president’s decision to call them to campus, calling it “a redefinition of civil disobedience.” Sharlet told our deputy opinion editor, Nora Berman, that it “was the nerdiest Dartmouth protest you can imagine. And the fact that the students met, basically, a paramilitary force, is just unbelievable.” Read her interview ➤ First in Forwarding ➤ The co-founder of Students Supporting Israel and a student who brought to light antisemitism at NYU were among two of the people chosen for Hadassah’s annual list of “18 American Zionist women you should know,” released this morning.
|
READERS LIKE YOU SHAPE EVERY PART OF OUR WORK |
|
Help us to provide Jewish news you can trust: reporting driven by truth, not ideology. Your support will make a real difference. |
|
– From our Sponsors: Hebrew College– |
| Jewish Educators: Meet the moment, grow your career | Jewish education today requires a new understanding and a new set of tools. Enroll in Hebrew College's new Graduate Certificate in Emerging Trends in Jewish Education to embrace this new era of learning. Learn how to support students in navigating the ongoing complexity of our world by develop a holistic approach that integrates intellectual, embodied, and social-emotional development. | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ALSO IN THE FORWARD |
|
Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks celebrates after making a three point basket. (Getty) |
The secret Jewish history of the New York Knicks: The 2024 squad, now competing in the second round of the NBA playoffs, are a throwback to an earlier era. Coach William “Red” Holzman, a member of the International Jewish Hall of Fame, was at the helm for the only two Knick titles in franchise history. And the team’s pioneering Jewish history predates Red, explains Mark Kornfeld. |
|
Plus… A viral ad for Apple’s new iPad drew complaints for showing a bunch of art supplies crushed in an industrial press. It’s something German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin warned us about.
Billy Joel turns 75 today. Here’s a roundup of some of his Jewish-themed songs. |
|
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
|
(Getty) |
✈️ Two Orthodox yeshiva students who had never met were both ordered off an American Airlines flight this week, after one raised concerns about the plane’s tail. One of them is now weighing legal action. (Forward)
🤔 A bill seeking to officially define antisemitism in North Carolina law moved through the state House on Wednesday, but faces the same critiques of a similar bill in Congress: It considers criticism of Israel as inherently antisemitic. (AP, Religion News Service)
🧬 A new study is seeking to explain why Sephardi Jews are more likely to get early-onset Alzheimer’s. The research team includes both Israeli and American doctors, and is funded by a $13 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. (Times of Israel)
Shiva calls ➤ Milton Diamond, a sexologist who revolutionized how the medical community categorizes infants with ambiguous genitalia, died at 90 … David Shapiro, a poet who became the face of the 1968 Columbia student protests when a photo of him smoking a cigar, while sitting behind the desk of the university president, was published in Life magazine, died at 77. What else we’re reading ➤ Donald Trump calls Joe Biden weak on antisemitism, ignoring his own rhetoric … How Jewish and Arab students at one of Israel's few mixed schools prepare for peace … The New York Knicks’ famous anthem was written by this Jewish entrepreneur.
|
|
VIDEO OF THE DAY |
|
Kate Winslet stars in a new movie as Lee Miller, the real-life war photographer who documented the horrors of the concentration camps and was famously photographed in Hitler’s bathtub. Watch the trailer above. |
Thanks to Nora Berman PJ Grisar and Louis Keene for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
|
|
Support Independent Jewish Journalism |
Without you, the Forward’s stories don’t just go unread — they go untold. Please support our nonprofit journalism today. |
|
|
|
|