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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Today: Trump amps up attacks on Harvard • Funerals for Capital Jewish Museum victims • Pentagon promotes antisemitic conspiracy theorist • and much more. |
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Chabad's Rabbi Levi Shemtov, with President Donald Trump, speaks earlier this month at a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House. (Getty) |
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For Orthodox voters, faith in Trump remains strong
Trump’s recent embrace of Qatar — including accepting a luxury jet from the Gulf nation long accused of backing Hamas — raised eyebrows among some of his most loyal Jewish supporters. So did his tariff policy, which squeezed Orthodox hubs like Lakewood, N.J., where many Haredi Jews work in e-commerce and import businesses.
Still, most remain firmly in his corner.
In interviews with my colleague Louis Keene, they cite the president’s tough talk on antisemitism, his support for detaining pro-Palestinian student protesters and his push to defund what they see as leftist universities that “poison the minds of an entire generation.” 🗳️ By the numbers: A new poll found 75% of Orthodox Jews approve of Trump — compared to 35% of Conservative Jews, 18% of Reform, and 19% of unaffiliated Jews.
🏛️ Power moves: Trump has elevated Orthodox allies to prominent roles, tapping Lubavitcher Yehuda Kaploun as antisemitism czar and appointing four Orthodox rabbis to his new Religious Liberty Commission.
🗣️ Quotable: “As much as you like the guy — and I really have come to respect him a great deal — he’s not going to do everything that I want him to do,” said Mayer Fertig, a Trump voter in Teaneck who owns an HVAC business.
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Elsewhere in politics… Kingsley Wilson, a deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense who has been criticized by both parties and Jewish groups for spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories, has been promoted to serve as the department’s press secretary. (Jewish Insider)
Our most-read story this weekend: John von Neumann, a Jewish mathematician, understood why Trump is a terrible poker player, writes Robert Zaretsky in an opinion essay.
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A tribute and flowers for Israeli Embassy staff members Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. (Getty) |
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Six categories of Jewish students fill in the “missing middle” pieces of the puzzle of campus antisemitism. (Illustration by Arno Rosenfeld) |
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More than two sides
A new Brandeis University study identifies a missing middle of Jewish students who have been overlooked: the ones that don’t fall into the most common binaries — pro-Israel and anti-Israel.
“There’s a vast number of people on college campuses that wouldn’t be comfortable with either of those labels,” said Jonathan Krasner, who is responsible for the research. “We wanted to understand where those people were coming from.”
My colleague Arno Rosenfeld explains the six distinct categories of Jewish students described in the new report.
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Plus… The Trump administration is set to cancel the rest of its federal contracts with Harvard — worth an estimated $100 million, and representing “a complete severance of the government’s longstanding business relationship” with the school. (New York Times)
President Trump said Monday he’s considering pulling $3 billion in previously awarded science grants from Harvard — whose professors he called “bird brains” — and redirecting the money to trade schools instead. Most of the funding, meant for biomedical research, isn’t typically done at trade schools. (Reuters)
Former President Jimmy Carter and the Lubavitcher Rebbe helped build the Department of Education. Can their legacy save it? (ARC Mag)
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An Israeli army officer and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem walk toward the border with the Gaza Strip on Monday. (Getty) |
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Crisis in Gaza… Jake Wood quit as head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation just hours before its launch, saying he couldn’t carry out the Israeli-backed aid program while maintaining neutrality and independence. The chief operating officer, David Burke, also resigned. (New York Times, Washington Post)
Nonetheless, the GHF began distributing truckloads of food on Monday in Gaza, but did not specify how much aid was distributed. (AP)
An intensified Israeli military campaign displaced nearly 180,000 Gazans in the 10 days leading up to May 25, according to an aid group. (Times of Israel)
President Trump seems to be growing impatient with Israel’s ongoing war, joining other allies including Germany, Britain, Canada and France. (New York Times)
White House envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas’ response to a proposed Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal is “disappointing and completely unacceptable,” after days of backchannel talks facilitated by a Palestinian American intermediary. (Axios)
Plus: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the Middle East this weekend, including stops in Bahrain and Israel — where she met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the Gaza border and prayed at the Western Wall. (New York Post, YouTube)
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Paul Reubens, left, reaches out to shake the hand of his alter ego, Pee-wee Herman. (HBO Max) |
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Pee-wee, unmasked
Our PJ Grisar reviews a new HBO Max documentary about Paul Reubens, the creator of the inimitable Pee-wee Herman character and son of an Israeli Air Force pilot. The actor sat for 40 hours of interviews — while he was secretly battling cancer — before he stopped cooperating. “To pull back the curtain we need to start with the public face,” PJ writes. “That for all Reubens’ efforts, and his striving to co-direct, his story was always for someone else to tell.” Go deeper ►
Also in our queue: Sarah Silverman’s new Netflix standup special tackles the death of her parents, and continues the Jewish tradition of laughing through grief, our Olivia Haynie writes in a review. |
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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The Texas State Capitol building in Austin. (iStock) |
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🎒 A bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every Texas public school classroom is nearing final approval and set to take effect in the 2025-26 school year. (CBS News)
🎅 Federal prosecutors say a 21-year-old neo-Nazi leader known as “Commander Butcher” has been extradited to the U.S. from Moldova for allegedly plotting to poison Jewish children in Brooklyn by posing as Santa and distributing tainted candy. (AP)
🧕 A bill in France that would ban headscarves in all sports — disproportionately targeting hijab-wearing Muslim athletes — cleared its first legislative hurdle. (AP)
⭐ A new study found that 26% of Jewish adults in the U.S. check horoscopes or consult astrology at least once or twice a year. (JTA, Pew)
Shiva calls ► Marcel Ophuls, a war documentarian best known for The Sorrow and the Pity, which debunked the myth of widespread French resistance to the Nazi occupation, died at 97 … Michael Roemer, who survived the Holocaust by escaping on a Kindertransport and went on to become an independent filmmaker and professor at Yale for over 50 years, died at 97 … Leslie Epstein, whose Holocaust novel King of the Jews was widely praised, died at 87 … Judith Hope Blau, who turned bagels into art, died at 87.
What else we’re reading ► This small North Idaho town kept to itself. Then a Christian nationalist church asked the U.S. government to intervene (Chronicle) … Catholics see a familiar political divide in Pope Leo XIV and his eldest brother (Religion News Service) … This Jewish self-defense class comes with a side of pastrami and pickles (New York Jewish Week). |
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Decades after their deaths in World War II, two Jewish American soldiers buried in Italy finally received headstones bearing the Star of David — thanks to a nonprofit’s efforts. CNN’s Dana Bash spoke with the families who made the journey overseas to honor them. |
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Thanks to PJ Grisar and Louis Keene 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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