WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Israel seeks to restart hostage release talks, Kanye West goes on another antisemitic rant, and what back-to-back screenings of the new Taylor Swift and Leonard Bernstein movies reveals about each.

ISRAEL AT WAR, AND ITS IMPACT IN THE U.S.

An NYPD officer patrols a Brooklyn synagogue in October, shortly after the war began. (Getty)

Over the weekend, hundreds of synagogues and Jewish institutions across the U.S. received bomb threats:Synagogues in at least 17 states were affected, according to local media reports. In Alabama, the state’s only Jewish lawmaker, Phillip Ensler, posted a video to social media showing the moment that the Torah reading at his synagogue was interrupted and everyone in attendance was ushered outside. “This is exhausting,” he tweeted. “I pray for the day that we can worship and live in peace.” Read the story ➤

Related…

• Canadian officials charged a youth on Saturday with planning to “carry out a terrorist activity against” Jews. Police did not release additional information due to the person’s age.

  
  

• A man was arrested Sunday for shouting “Gas the Jews” and spraying a foul-smelling substance outside a synagogue in Washington, D.C.

  
  

• A 13-year-old boy in Ohio was charged after using a chat-based social media platform to plan a mass shooting at a local Reform synagogue. He is expected in court on Wednesday.

  
  

• My colleague Arno Rosenfeld looked at how congregations can protect themselves from swatting incidents and bomb threats.

Friends and family at the Sunday funeral of Alon Shamriz, a hostage taken by Hamas and mistakenly killed by Israeli forces. (Getty)

Hostages and the warfront…

• The director of the Mossad is set to meet in Warsaw today with the head of the CIA and the prime minister of Qatar, which has close ties with Hamas leadership, to discuss a potential new deal to secure the release of hostages.

  
  

• The renewed talks come as fallout continues after Israeli troops mistakenly killed three hostages who were trying to escape the terror group. At the Sunday funeral for one of them – Alon Shamriz, 26 – the family cast blame on Israel’s “irresponsible” government for his death.

  
  

• Inbar Haiman, a 27-year-old student from Haifa who was held captive since Oct. 7, was killed by Hamas, it was revealed on Saturday. Her body is still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Our Laura E. Adkins flew to Israel in October and met with Haiman’s friends and family. “She’s everything for me,” Haiman’s boyfriend said, “and everything for her family.”

  
  

• Four IDF troops were killed in fighting and another soldier died of his wounds, the army announced Monday, as Israel’s military continued its incursion into Hamas strongholds, seizing weapons and, in one home of a senior Hamas leader, suitcases stuffed with over $1 million in cash.

Pro-Palestinian activists gather on the UCLA campus. (Getty)

New survey of 51 colleges assesses Jewish students’ experiences of antisemitism:Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania and three University of California campuses were among the survey’s worst offenders. The list of schools with the least hostile environments included Tulane in New Orleans, Washington University in St. Louis and five schools in Florida. The study, conducted between Nov. 10 and Dec. 11, was timed to measure the impact of Hamas’ attacks and Israel’s war on Gaza. Read the story ➤

Related…

• We sent 11 reporters to colleges across the country to get a deeper understanding of what Jewish students are experiencing at this tumultuous time. Here’s what they saw.

  
  

• A sophomore at Columbia University says he refuses to choose between standing with Israel or the Palestinians. Our Israel Therapy column offers some advice.

What does ‘intifada’ actually mean? On college campuses and city streets, the word intifada has become central to pro-Palestinian protests. Some see it as a call for violence against Jews, inextricably tied to the Palestinian uprisings in the 1980s and early 2000s. But a closer examination of the word reveals a more nuanced translation. “I don’t think there’s any reasonable interpretation of intifada where it means genocide,” said Daniel Lefkowitz, a professor of language and culture in the Middle East at the University of Virginia. Read the story ➤

Nes and Stilla in the music video for "Harbu Darbu." (YouTube)

Why the No. 1 song in Israel represents a radical shift in Israeli pop music:In a country whose musicians are known for poignant reflections on conflict, tending more towards sadness than anger, it is somewhat jarring to see “Harbu Darbu,” a hawkish war cry, at the top of Israel’s music charts. A professor of Israel studies at Brandeis University said the song should be understood in the context of today’s Israeli youth, which is “more right-wing than the general population” and who “don’t really have a memory of the peace process.” Read the story ➤

First person | Is it time for me to conceal my Jewish identity in the United States? When Arielle Kaden lived in Germany a few years ago, she hid her Star of David necklace. She called it an “emotionally difficult” choice, and felt safe being publicly Jewish again once she returned to the U.S. “But after the attacks of Oct. 7 and the rise of antisemitic incidents in America,” she writes, “I’ve wondered: Can we really be so unafraid?” Read her essay ➤

Plus: Citing Israel’s war with Hamas, a prominent choir in Germany dropped from its program a musical piece written in the 18th century by composer George Frideric Handel that contains the word Israel in the title.

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ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

Back-to-back screenings of ‘The Eras Tour’ and ‘Maestro’ yield surprising insights into the enchantments of fame. (Getty)

Leonard Bernstein and Taylor Swift | Both musical geniuses, but only one movie captures the spirit of their artistry:“In many ways, the appeals of Bernstein and Swift run counter to one another,” writes our Talya Zax, who attended back-to-back screenings of Swift’s concert film and a biopic of Bernstein starring Bradley Cooper. Bernstein is “Jewish, chic in a disorganized and spontaneous way, brimming with passion,” while Swift was “raised on a Christmas tree farm, so polished and poised as to sometimes seem calculating, intensely self-aware.”

How the most influential Jewish play of the 20th century went on to possess the world: For 100 years, The Dybbuk has had the demonic power of mesmerizing and galvanizing audiences, and a new book explores its influence. There’s been a Yiddish version and an all-female production, a movie version and a television one. Leonard Bernstein even composed a Dybbuk ballet.

– From our Sponsor: Spertus Institute –

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

(Getty)

🇺🇸  Former President Donald Trump on Saturday reiterated his belief that immigrants “are poisoning the blood of our country,” remarks that, when Trump first said them in October, the Anti-Defamation League called “despicable” and could “inspire real-world violence like Pittsburgh and El Paso.” (CNN)

🎤  Kanye West went on a 10-minute antisemitic rant Friday, blasting rich people and his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, for enrolling kids “in Zionist schools,” and falsely claiming that there are 60 million Jews in the world. There are just over 16 million. (NBC News, NY Post)

🍪  Oreo is introducing a Jewish bakery-inspired black and white cookie, which will arrive on store shelves in January. (NY Jewish Week)

👿  The Satanic Temple said it plans to launch an afterschool Satan club at a Tennessee elementary school beginning in January. (AP)

🤔  Mayim Bialik will no longer be co-hosting Jeopardy!, where she had been splitting duties with Ken Jennings, a former champion. (USA Today)

📺  Curb Your Enthusiasm — which had a wealth of Jewish characters and plotlines since its debut in 2000 — is ending with Season 12, which premieres Feb. 4 on HBO and Max. (JTA)

Shiva calls ➤  Merle Goldman, a lifelong academic and leading expert on China, died at 92 … Michael Stone, a psychiatrist whose work studying evil led to a bestselling book and TV series, died at 90 … Charles Goodman, a Chicago Jewish philanthropist, died at 90.

What else we’re reading ➤  A U.S. senator writes about an “antisemitic occupation” at a Harvard library … Black American solidarity with Palestinians is rising and testing longstanding ties to Jewish allies … A new walking tour of Israeli restaurants in New York City becomes an exercise in togetherness.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Yarden Roman-Gat, an Israeli mom, saved her child from Hamas captivity, but spent 54 days in Gaza after the Oct. 7 massacre. Her mother-in-law was killed in the attack and her sister-in-law is still a hostage. She shared her story last night on 60 Minutes.

Thanks to Jaclyn De Bonis for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

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