Auction house under fire for $150M of Nazi-era jewelry, West Bank violence spikes, Vatican leading secret Ukraine peace mission, and children's choir sings Adon Olam for King Charles' coronation. |
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) last week in Israel. (Courtesy) |
Why this New Jersey congressman traveled to Israel twice in a week:Days after returning from a trip celebrating Israel’s 75th birthday, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a four-term Democrat, arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is set to deliver an address to the Knesset this morning. “This relationship is ironclad,” Gottheimer told our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh (referring to the U.S. and Israel, not him and McCarthy). Read the story ➤
How Harold Kushner overcame life’s disappointments and became a publishing juggernaut: The author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, who died Friday at 88, was “anecdotal in style with the kind of cracker barrel wisdom that provided narrative charm,” Benjamin Ivry wrote in an appreciation. Best sellers aside, some objected to Kushner’s view that God does not become involved with details of human life like illness. “If God cannot mitigate suffering,” opined one Kushner critic, “perhaps God is impotent altogether.” Read the story ➤
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A scene from 'Transatlantic,' about a group that saved Jewish artists during World War II. (Netflix) |
The heroic WWII rescue story that Netflix’s ‘Transatlantic’ leaves out: The new series takes liberties with the history of the Jewish Labor Committee, a group formed by Forward employees, that saved more than 1,000 Jews. Yet very few people have heard of the group; it did most of its work in secret. Andrew Silverstein, whose great-grandfather’s cousins were aided by the JLC, takes a closer look. Read the story ➤ A Jewish actor confronts antisemitism (on screen and off):Adam Goldberg has long played Jewish characters, his most famous being the title role in The Hebrew Hammer. He’s currently starring as a hacker who fights crime in The Equalizer. One recent episode featured him investigating a series of antisemitic incidents in Brooklyn. “I felt it was my obligation to do that part,” Goldberg told us. “I have two folders on my phone filled with screenshots of really heinous Holocaust-era imagery and tropes.” Read the story ➤ |
Jerry Izenberg, right, with Muhammad Ali. (Courtesy) |
Baseball, Nazis & Nedick’s hot dogs: In a new memoir, Jerry Izenberg, a 92-year-old sports columnist, recalls growing up Jewish in 1930s Newark. He went on to cover the first 53 Super Bowls, 54 consecutive Kentucky Derby races, and many Muhammad Ali fights. Asked why he decided to now write about his life, Izenberg said: “I’m getting old.” Read the story ➤ Plus: Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican who compared the Ukrainian government to Nazis, attended a Capitol Hill lunch honoring former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir — a native of Ukraine.
Not all superheroes wear capes, our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, writes in her latest column. Plus: Let us know about your female superheroes. |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Pope Francis said there’s a secret Vatican mission happening now to bring peace in Russia’s war with Ukraine. “I’m available to do anything,” he said on Sunday as he flew home from visiting with Ukrainian refugees and a Russian envoy in Hungary. (Getty)
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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Israeli soldiers and settlers clash with Palestinians in occupied West Bank: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager during a raid early this morning at a refugee camp near Jericho, according to Palestinian officials, and critically wounded a 20-year-old in a separate incident near Bethlehem. The Israeli military said 17 Palestinians were arrested during the raid, and that there were also clashes Monday with Palestinians burning tires, setting off fires and shooting at soldiers in other areas of the occupied West Bank. The violence came as Palestinian officials and an Israeli rights group reported that Israeli settlers beat three Palestinians in two separate incidents. (Haaretz, Times of Israel) 🇺🇸 If President Joe Biden doesn’t invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington soon, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he will. This is the longest a U.S. administration has gone without inviting an Israeli leader to the White House after they took office. (Haaretz) 💍 Christie’s auction house is expected to bring in more than $150 million Wednesday at one of the largest jewelry sales in history. The items come from the family of a German who purchased companies from Jews during the Nazi era, sparking controversy. “We are aware there is a painful history,” said the president of Christie’s. (New York Times) 🎶 A British children’s choir has recorded a new version of “Adon Olam” in honor of Saturday’s coronation of King Charles. The choir includes children who go to five local Jewish schools, and is accompanied by musicians from Ukraine. “Adon Olam,” Hebrew for “sovereign of the universe,” is typically sung at the end of morning prayers. (JTA) 🎭 After a sold-out run at New York’s National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, the Barry Manilow musical Harmony is going to Broadway in the fall. The show is about a sextet of Jewish and non-Jewish Germans who were one of the biggest acts in the world, before the rise of the Third Reich doomed them to obscurity. (NY Jewish Week; Read our interview with Manilow) 🕍 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, the new movie based on Judy Blume’s 1970 novel, was filmed on location in Charlotte, North Carolina, including at Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue. The congregation’s real-life rabbi, Michael Wolk, leads a Shabbat service Margaret attends with her grandmother. (Jewish Insider)
What else we’re reading ➤ This Missouri rabbi won’t stop fighting for his trans child ... Israeli archaeologists raze orchard in East Jerusalem, find nothing … This is what an $8 million synagogue renovation looks like.
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On this day in history (1786): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro” premiered in Vienna. It was Mozart’s first collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, a Jewish-born Venetian who converted to Catholicism, then embarked on a disastrous career as a priest before writing the librettos, or operatic scripts, for three of Mozart’s best-known operas. Da Ponte eventually immigrated to the United States, and is believed to be buried in Queens, New York. Jewish American Heritage Month begins today. “For generations,” said President Joe Biden, “the story of the Jewish people — one of resilience, faith, and hope in the face of adversity, prejudice and persecution — has been woven into the fabric of our nation’s story.” The Anti-Defamation League’s National Leadership Summit began Sunday in D.C.
It’s National Chocolate Parfait Day. If you’re so inclined, we hear there’s several places that deliver to the Forward newsroom. 😉
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A Small Light is a new miniseries that tells the story of Anne Frank, her family and those who helped them hide during the Holocaust. It stars Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank and Bel Powley as Miep Gies, Frank’s secretary, who put her own life in danger to rescue the family. “Had it not been for Miep, we wouldn’t even have this diary,” Schreiber said on Good Morning America. (Click above to watch the interview.) Added Powley: “She’s an everywoman. She did incredibly heroic things and she never wanted to be put on a pedestal.” The eight-episode series debuts tonight on National Geographic and Tuesday on Disney+ and Hulu.
Related: Listen to our Playing Anne Frank podcast about the cultural history of the play and movie based on the diary.
--- Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh, Lauren Markoe and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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