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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Today: Hamas offers new ceasefire deal • Trump’s plan to hire Musk hatched at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave • Three Jewish coaches in March Madness’ Final Four • Plus: Alex Edelman, Mel Gibson and more. |
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Claire Shipman, co-chair of Columbia University’s board and its new acting president, testified before Congress last year at a campus antisemitism hearing. (Getty) |
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🎒 Campus crackdowns
Across the country, universities are firing faculty, banning student groups and using surveillance to find protesters — all while Congress and outside activists turn up the pressure. Here’s the latest…
At Columbia… Katrina Armstrong resigned as Columbia’s interim president amid backlash over campus antisemitism and the risk of losing $400 million in federal funding. (JTA)
She was replaced on an interim basis by Claire Shipman, co-chair of the university’s board of trustees and a former TV journalist. Shipman will be the school’s third president in less than a year. (New York Times)
Several Columbia alumni ripped up their diplomas at a Saturday protest organized by the School of International and Public Affairs’ Alumni for Palestine group. (NBC News)
On other campuses… Cornell University’s new Jewish president says he’s not too concerned that campus protests will trigger the kind of federal crackdown Columbia is facing. (JTA)
Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies is shaking up its leadership, with faculty heads being ousted following accusations that the center’s programming was antisemitic. (Crimson)
Yale Law School fired a research scholar after she declined to cooperate with an investigation into her alleged ties to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, a group sanctioned by the U.S. (Bloomberg)
Students at the University of Minnesota protested Saturday after immigration officials detained an international graduate student. This is the latest such campus arrest; you can catch up on them all with our tracker. (New York Times, Star Tribune)
UCLA indefinitely banned Students for Justice in Palestine and suspended a similar grad student group for four years. (Los Angeles Times)
Betar US, a far-right pro-Israel group, is targeting pro-Palestinian student activists with a so-called “deport list” it says it’s sharing with Trump administration officials. (Washington Post)
Congress moved forward with a bill requiring universities to disclose more of their foreign funding — a priority for Jewish groups wary of anti-Israel influence. (JTA)
Colleges are turning to surveillance footage and search warrants to probe students linked to pro-Palestinian protests — a shift experts warn may pose risks to civil liberties. (New York Times)
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Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick at the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave on Oct. 07, 2024. (Getty) |
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Elsewhere in politics… President Donald Trump came up with the idea to enlist Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency on Oct. 7, 2024, the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, after a visit to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave. (Forward)
Related: The Rebbe’s gravesite, referred to as the Ohel, attracts about a million tourists a year and is a popular stop for politicians. We went for a visit. (Forward)
Washington, D.C.’s Jewish federation is putting $180,000 toward aiding laid-off federal workers — the latest sign of how the Trump administration’s federal cuts are impacting Jewish groups. (JTA)
Cuts at the State Department wiped out $13 million in grants to Israeli institutions, mostly affecting agricultural, science and medical research. (Jewish Insider)
Opinion | In both U.S. and Israeli politics, enemies are dehumanized and their destruction is cheered, writes Robert Zaretsky.
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Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal poses with his Oscar as he recovers after Israeli settlers attacked him in the West Bank last week. (Getty) |
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Opinion | After winning an Oscar earlier this month for No Other Land, a documentary about settler violence in the West Bank, Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal was attacked by Israeli settlers and detained by the military. Jewish activists, familiar with such incidents, told our Nora Berman that while Ballal's ordeal drew international attention, similar settler violence against Palestinians is disturbingly routine. Read her essay ►
Related… A group of Modern Orthodox Jews in New York on Sunday hosted a conference critical of Israel, and screened a 20-minute clip of No Other Land. (Religion News Service)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apologized to its members for failing to fully show support for Ballal. (NPR)
Opinion | Last week saw the first mass protests by Palestinians in Gaza against Hamas. “I am amazed by what I see, in the strip where I was raised, and which I had to flee years ago due to threats by Hamas,” writes Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib. “The people of Gaza can do what neither Israel nor any other party can, which is delegitimize Hamas, and expose the terror group to the entire world for what it is: a violent, despicable entity that doesn’t care for its people’s well-being.” Read his essay ►
Related: Hamas abducted, tortured and killed Oday Nasser Al Rabay, a 22-year-old Palestinian man who took part in the protests, according to his family. (Times of Israel)
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Palestinians on Sunday attended Eid al-Fitr prayers, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan, in a camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip. (Getty) |
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Plus… Hamas said Saturday it accepted a new ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar. Israel is responding with a counteroffer, coordinated closely with the U.S. (CBS News)
Gaza’s bakeries could run out of flour within a week, the United Nations warned, as food aid has slowed since the ceasefire broke down. (AP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tapped former Navy chief Eli Sharvit to be his new domestic spy chief, despite the Israeli Supreme Court suspending the dismissal of the current one, Ronen Bar. (Times of Israel)
Netanyahu plans to travel to Hungary on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. Orbán has previously said he will not enforce the warrant. (Reuters)
President Trump is planning to visit Saudi Arabia in mid-May, marking his first overseas trip since returning to the White House. (Axios)
In London, police entered a Quaker house of worship and arrested pro-Palestinian activists. (New York Times)
Our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, shares the story of how two expat women, one Palestinian and one Israeli, launched a nonprofit to build toilets and send other supplies to Gaza. (Forward)
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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Left to right: Duke’s Jon Scheyer, Auburn’s Bruce Pearl and Florida’s Todd Golden. (Getty) |
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🏆 The Final Four teams in the March Madness college basketball tournament are set: Auburn, Duke, Florida and Houston. Three of the four coaches are Jewish. (JTA)
🚘 Police charged with manslaughter a Jewish wigmaker who caters to the Orthodox community after her car struck people leaving Shabbat services in Brooklyn. A mother and two of her kids were killed and a third child was hospitalized. (CBS News, Times of Israel)
🎤 Comedian Alex Edelman is letting other people perform his one-man show about being Jewish and sneaking into a White nationalist meeting. He checked out a performance in Minnesota. “I’d be really interested in seeing a non-Jewish, nonwhite, nonmale performer do a version of that.” (New York Times)
✝️ Mel Gibson plans to start filming the sequel to The Passion of the Christ this summer in Rome. (Deadline)
What else we’re reading ► As Germany reckons with its fascist past and rising extremism, a thorny question has emerged: What should be done with the graves of Nazis? (New York Times) … Pope’s openness about his frailty sets a powerful example in an aging world (AP) … Why hospitals ask you your religion — and why Jews shouldn’t be afraid to answer (NY Jewish Week)
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Sunday night’s 60 Minutes episode featured an interview with Yarden Bibas, the released hostage whose wife and two young sons were murdered by Hamas. The news magazine also spoke with other former hostages who recalled their experiences in captivity. Read more ► |
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Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh and Jodi Rudoren 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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