🏈 The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism will air a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl, at an estimated cost of $7 million. The group is funded by Robert Kraft, the Jewish philanthropist and owner of the New England Patriots … Relatedly, Connie Britton, Cindy Crawford and Lance Bass have joined dozens of celebrities in a series of new social media videos to combat antisemitism. (JTA/Wrap)
🤦 After a visit to Auschwitz this week, Elon Musk suggested that if social media was around in the 1940s, it could have stopped the Holocaust. Scholars call it a “fantasy scenario” and that Musk should “take an intro course on the Holocaust.” (JTA)
😞 The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to stop Alabama from proceeding with the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas. Several Jewish leaders hoping to stop the execution have compared the method to a gas chamber. (NBC News, Southern Jewish Life)
🇧🇷 A leading politician in Brazil called for a national boycott of Israel and expressed interest in the boycott of “Jewish companies.” (JTA)
🤷 The head of the U.N. will not make his usual appearance at a prominent New York City synagogue’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day event this Saturday. A spokesperson for the U.N. said the service should be “focused on healing and the testimony of survivors.” (NY Jewish Week)
Shiva calls ➤ Jerry Mahrer, who, at age 13, was the youngest internee at Tittmoning, a Nazi camp in Germany for American prisoners, died Jan. 22 at age 94. His father, Paul, a famous Jewish soccer player, was arrested in 1942 and imprisoned at Terezin camp; Jerry, his brother and mother were arrested a year later and eventually sent to the U.S. in a wartime prisoner exchange. … Howard Golden, who was the Brooklyn borough president for a quarter-century, died at 98. … Naomi Feil, a pioneering gerontologist who revolutionized dementia care, died at 91.
