JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Happy birthday to us! Today is the third anniversary of Forwarding the News’ debut, and we’re celebrating the way we always do: by bringing you the news. Today: Biden administration to shut down temporary Gaza pier; an octogenarian rabbi’s advice for the president; and the surprising reason a Star of David has been erected over a Rio slum.

OUR LEAD STORY

President Joe Biden at his Thursday press conference. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Last night, President Joe Biden gave his first solo press conference since November. Here’s what our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, had to say about the much-scrutinized appearance:


President Joe Biden took a tough stance on Israel in a press conference Thursday, saying he was “disappointed” by the constraints facing efforts to increase the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and blaming Israel for being “less than cooperative” on the matter. The president also described Israel’s war cabinet, which was disbanded after the exit of centrist minister Benny Gantz, as “one of the most conservative war cabinets in the history of Israel.”


The unscripted event was widely seen as a crucial opportunity for Biden to allay concerns about his candidacy by demonstrating command of world affairs following this week’s NATO summit in Washington, D.C. Although his performance was stronger than at the late June debate with former President Donald Trump that sparked broad concerns over his candidacy, he notably mixed up the name of Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her “Vice President Trump.” Earlier in the evening, the president raised eyebrows by accidentally introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin.”


Opinion | I’m an octogenarian rabbi. Biden should learn from this Jewish idea about strength. No one can tell Biden whether to heed calls to leave the presidential race. But as Biden faces a crucial juncture, he might benefit from thinking about two Jewish concepts of power, writes Rabbi Avi Weiss: One referring to proactive strength, and one encompassing the quieter, more nuanced toughness involved in stepping back at the right time. Read his essay ➤


Plus:

READERS LIKE YOU SHAPE EVERY PART OF OUR WORK

Reporting on the ground from Israel and campus takes resources.

Support the news that matters to you with a monthly donation.

ISRAEL AT WAR

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of the United States Congress in 2015. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Netanyahu’s speech: Some members of Congress will boycott. Who else have they snubbed? With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to address Congress on July 24, some members of Congress — mostly progressives — are debating whether to boycott the speech in protest of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. If they do, they’ll be participating in a significant recent tradition of Congressional boycotts of Israeli speakers: The last time Netanyahu spoke to Congress, in 2015, 58 members of congress refused to attend. But Israeli leaders aren’t the only ones meeting with resistance on Capitol Hill. Read the story ➤


Plus:


Latest on the war…

  • Rescued hostage Andrey Kozlov shared details of the torture he underwent during his seven months in Gaza, saying his captors repeatedly threatened to kill him and told him his family no longer cared about him.


  • The Israel Defense Forces released the results of a probe into the Oct. 7 attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where 101 civilians and 31 security workers were killed. The first IDF investigation into the events of Oct. 7 to be made public examines Israel’s military failures on the day of the attack — but survivors still have questions.


  • The Biden administration will shut down the temporary pier it constructed to help deliver aid to Gaza; in total, the pier was only functional for about 20 days. Separately, Samantha Power, the leader of USAID, said the U.S. would give an additional $100 million in humanitarian aid for Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank.


  • The administration also issued new sanctions against some Israeli individuals and groups involved in escalating violence in the West Bank. Also on Thursday, leaders of the G7 joined the EU and UN in decrying Israel for legalizing five new West Bank settlements.


  • Major Haredi rabbis told yeshiva students to ignore conscription notices from the IDF, as the military is currently set to start drafting them next month.

A pro-Palestinian protest encampment at California State University, Los Angeles, pictured in June. (Getty Images)

Opinion | Accusing Israel of genocide cost me a job — just another example of a university failing Jews. Raz Segal was set to become the head of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies — until the Israeli-American scholar’s assertion that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians led to a campaign against him. That the university rescinded his job offer, Segal writes, is just one example of American universities falling short when it comes to understanding the nuances of Jewish identity. “My treatment is emblematic of a much broader problem within American universities: As a whole, their administrators have utterly failed to understand the distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism,” he writes, “and therefore ended up reproducing an antisemitic stance themselves.” Read his essay ➤

– From our Sponsors: Spertus Institute –

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Playwright Antonia Cruz-Kent. (Courtesy of Antonia Cruz-Kent)

For a Jewish Boricua whose great-grandfather spoke Yiddish, theater is almost a birthright. Antonia Cruz-Kent, the daughter of the playwright Migdalia Cruz and great-granddaughter of a Forverts-reading Jewish insurance salesman, uses her new play to explore “loving, mourning, and embracing your ancestors as a Jewish Boricua, with family coming from two different, complex worlds.” In making her own path, and examining her blended heritages, she told Miranda Jackel, she takes a similarly “darkly poetic view of the world” to her mother’s, but with a very different artistic approach.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

D.C. police are investigating a Wednesday attack on a Jewish man as a potential hate crime. (iStock by Getty Images)

🚨  Police in Washington, D.C. are investigating a Wednesday assault on a Jewish man as a hate crime. Ariel Golfeyz, who was wearing a kippah at the time of the attack, said his assailant yelled about the war in Gaza while hitting him repeatedly. (NBC Washington)


😳  A New Jersey 18-year-old who discussed attacking synagogues was arrested over an alleged plot to attack an electrical substation. The man, who has shared white supremacist views, was arrested at Newark airport, en route to join a volunteer fighting force in Ukraine. (Associated Press)


👀  Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois became the first Jewish member of Congress to call on Biden to step down as the Democratic presidential nominee. (Times of Israel)


🕍  A 94-year-old synagogue near Houston sustained major damage from Hurricane Beryl; Congregation K’Nesseth Israel had recently been added to the National Register of Historic Places. (JHV)


😨  Under a Pentecostal drug lord in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a cluster of five favelas has come to be known as the Complexo de Israel, in reference to the evangelical belief that Jews returning to Israel will help herald the end of days. A Star of David erected above the complex can be seen for miles around. (Guardian)


Shiva call ➤ Dorothy Lichtenstein, arts supporter and widow of artist Roy Lichtenstein, died at 84. Calligrapher Mordechai Rosenstein died at 90.


What else we’re reading ➤ “DNA tests help man orphaned in the Holocaust meet family” … “In a one-‘clown’ Off-Broadway show, an actor takes the stigma out of mental illness” … “As Israel-Hamas war drags on, post-Oct. 7 unity fades as differences emerge over Israel advocacy.”

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Louis B. Mayer (right) with fellow film executive Jack L. Warner (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Louis B. Mayer, the Hollywood heavyweight who co-founded Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, was born on this day in 1884. Born to Jewish parents near Minsk and raised in Canada, Mayer first entered show business in Massachusetts before becoming one of the founding fathers of the American film industry.

Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh and Benyamin Cohen 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.