JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Israel offers Hamas chief safe passage out of Gaza in exchange for hostages, New York Hillels “anticipating violence” on campus, South Carolina bans Holocaust book for middle schoolers, Pulitzer Prize winner to pen George Soros biography, and Larry David is coming to your town.

THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Patrons at a California bar watch the Harris-Trump presidential debate. (Getty)

Vice President Kamala Harris rattled former President Donald Trump during a 90-minute debate Tuesday night in Philadelphia, a split screen in the cradle of liberty showing two vastly different visions for America.

• Trump painted a dark picture, saying that if Harris is elected, it would be “the end of our country,” that “Israel will not exist within two years from now,” and that “you’re going to end up in World War III.”

  
  

• Harris recounted the horrors of Oct. 7 and said she would continue to back Israel’s right to defend itself. Trump claimed “she hates Israel,” and later added that Harris also “hates the Arab population.”

► Here’s a recap of debate takeaways for Jewish voters.

Opinion…

The debate made it clear that Trump has zero good ideas about Gaza and Israel, argues our senior columnist Rob Eshman.

• “He could have boasted of the actions he took in support of Israel while in office,” Rob writes. These are positions adored by most of Trump’s Jewish supporters, not to mention his single largest donor, Dr. Miriam Adelson.

  
  

• “Trump, who rarely misses an opportunity to proclaim his achievements, blew past a clear one,” Rob writes. One reason why, he says, is the critical swing state of Michigan where 200,000 registered voters are Muslim, and are largely unhappy with Biden’s support for Israel.

  
  

• Read Rob’s essay ►

Former President Donald Trump talks to journalists after the debate. (Getty)

During the debate, Trump raised a conspiracy about immigrants eating cats. Is it the new blood libel?

Trump made a baseless allegation referring to an online conspiracy about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, stealing and eating people’s cats and dogs.

• The lie has echoes of another conspiracy theory, writes my colleague Mira Fox. The blood libel of the Middle Ages alleged “that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood in matzo. Later, the Nazis invoked the conspiracy to stoke and validate hatred against Jews.”

  
  

• The speed with which that rumor spread is the result of a public discourse that has been stoking hatred against outsiders of all varieties as a threat to white, Christian America.

  
  

• Read Mira’s story ►

Plus…

• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Harris made an “effective” case on the Gaza war and Israel-Palestinian peace.

  
  

• As soon as the debate was over, the Harris campaign challenged Trump to another one. The former president said he would “have to think about it.”

ISRAEL AT WAR

The entrance to a Hamas tunnel, where the bodies of six Israeli hostages were found, is located under a child’s bedroom in Gaza. (Israel Defense Forces)

The latest…

• Israel offered Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar safe passage out of Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages and Hamas relinquishing control of the strip, Bloomberg News reports.

  
  

• Two Israeli soldiers were killed and eight others were injured in a helicopter crash this morning in Gaza. The IDF said it was an accident that occurred while trying to land.

  
  

• The Israeli military released a video of the narrow underground tunnel — about 65 feet below a child’s bedroom — where they found six murdered hostages less than two weeks ago.

  
  

• Israel apologized for the “unintentional gunfire” in the West Bank that killed Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American activist.

  
  

• In Melbourne, 39 people were arrested and 24 officers were injured as pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed with police.

  
  

• From The NY Times: “Palestinians sheltering in schools in Gaza are trying to keep out armed militants to avoid being targeted by Israeli forces.”

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

A pro-Palestinian protester at a June rally against the Baruch College Hillel in New York City. (Getty)

Things are getting scary at Baruch College: In the latest edition of his antisemitism newsletter (sign up here!), my colleague Arno Rosenfeld shines a light on two alarming incidents targeting the school’s Hillel, which serves Jewish students from several City University of New York campuses. “We are anticipating violence,” said Ilya Bratman, who leads 10 Hillels in Manhattan and has been accused of genocide.

Plus…

• A new film revisits the criminal trial of a Jewish man accused of armed robbery and double murder. Was the case against him antisemitic?

  
  

• A zombie story about the Holocaust comes alive in an unorthodox new audio miniseries.

  
  

• Do you have to be a synagogue member to buy a plot in a Jewish cemetery? Our Bintel Brief column offers advice.

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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

George Soros, a Holocaust survivor and billionaire philanthropist, has long been a target for antisemitic conspiracy theories. (Getty)

Exclusive: Jonathan Eig, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Martin Luther King Jr., has chosen the subject of his next book: George Soros, the 94-year-old Holocaust survivor and billionaire philanthropist who has become the bogeyman for Trump Republicans.

📚  Speaking of books, a South Carolina school district banned a graphic novel about local Holocaust survivors for fifth- and sixth-graders, citing a new state law. (JTA)

🇵🇸  Harvard reinstated a pro-Palestinian student club “ending the group’s five-month suspension for violating the university’s protest guidelines.” (Crimson)

😲  The U.S. charged leaders of a white supremacist group with “with urging their followers to commit terror attacks against Jews and other minority groups. One of their proposed targets allegedly included a Jewish senator,” who was not named in the indictment. (JTA)

👏  The Senate said it will “hold a hearing on hate crimes on Sept. 17, the first such hearing that it has held since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and ensuing proliferation of antisemitic incidents across the United States.” (Jewish Insider)

🔥  Officials in Copenhagen arrested a 21-year-old man for allegedly setting a fire at a Jewish woman’s house. He could get up to 16 years in prison. (AP)

🇩🇪  A German rabbinical seminary and cantorial program faces an uncertain future after it was rocked by a sexual harassment scandal. In the meantime, last week there was a bright spot: the graduation of eight students. (JTA)

🗣️  Larry David is going on tour this fall, visiting Atlanta, Chicago and Denver, among other cities. “There are some tickets going on sale for this thing I’m doing,” said David, the co-creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. “It’s really nothing. It’ll be a total waste of your time.” (Variety)

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. As we’ve done in years past, we’re re-sharing this music video from Yiddish singer Lucette van den Berg. The song is “The Ballad of September 11,” which was composed by the late poet and songwriter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman several days after the attacks.

Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh, Lauren Markoe, Rukhl Schaechter and Talya Zax 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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