 JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.  Michigan prisons must start serving kosher meals, Herschel Walker distances himself from supporter with swastika, quite possibly the Jewiest 'Jeopardy!' question ever and more. 5 FROM THE FORWARD  Let’s get your Thursday started...
A rabbi is under investigation for arranging child marriages. One of his teen couples just got married anyway.In January of 2020, a boy celebrated his bar mitzvah. On Monday, he got married. Videos and text messages viewed by our Louis Keene show that the yeshiva run by Rabbi Yoel Roth hosted the wedding festivities of a couple believed to be 15 and 17 at the time of their March engagement. That’s also when the Forward first reported that the rabbi was under investigation by the New York Police Department and the Administration for Children’s Services. One Hasidic teenager said Roth talked to him about getting married when he was 16. Another person described the rabbi’s following as “a real cult.” Read the story >
This woman thought a Holocaust diet was a good idea: It can be almost physically painful to look at photos of concentration-camp prisoners, so emaciated that you can see the contours of a skeleton. Unless you’re Gwen Shamblin, a Tennessee church leader who took weight loss inspiration from those photos. Her controversial ministry is the subject of a new HBO docuseries. “Shamblin’s zealotry was just as tied to weight as it was to God,” writes our digital-culture critic, Mira Fox. Read the story >
Bestselling novelist Sally Rooney’s boycott of Israeli publishers continues to drive the Jewish conversation. Our staff filed three new articles to contextualize the debate...
The Sally Rooney boycott brouhaha is right out of a Sally Rooney novel: Our Talya Zax read the new book in search of insights into Rooney’s decision. What she found is a lot of life imitating art imitating life. “The fuss over Rooney’s choice of where to let the book be published has somewhat masterfully illustrated one of its central points,” she writes. “That the way we have learned to exchange ideas about the world in this very online, very alarming modern world erases meaning, rather than creates it.” Read the story >
‘What she’s doing is anti-translation.’ Our PJ Grisar spoke with translators in Israel who are concerned that Rooney is denying Israelis her greatest tool of persuasion: her writing. “I’m really sorry that she is not taking advantage of what she really knows how to do and that is write — she’s a very talented writer — and influence people’s opinions by writing,” said one, Aliza Raz-Melzer. Joanna Chen, who has translated Israeli and Palestinian authors, said: “I think basically she should rather engage in a dialogue than a cultural boycott.” Read the story >
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY  Former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally with Herschel Walker last month. (Getty Images) 🏈 Herschel Walker, the Heisman Trophy winner running for the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, canceled a fundraiser hosted by a woman who had a rendering of a swastika in a social-media profile photo. “Herschel is a strong friend of Israel and the Jewish community and opposes hatred and bigotry of all forms,” his campaign said. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Twitter)
🍰 Michigan prisons must provide full kosher meals to Jewish inmates, after an appeals court ruled that kosher snacks and vegan meal options did not suffice. Part of the case revolved around whether eating cheesecake was required on the Jewish festival of Shavuot. (Courthouse News Service)
📱 Social media was blamed for fueling the worldwide rise in antisemitism at a Holocaust conference being held in Sweden. A YouTube official pledged more than $5.8 million to help; Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg said the company is “now removing 15 times more hate speech than we were just five years ago – and we are not going to stop.” (AP)
✈️ An Israeli aid group, officials of the United Arab Emirates and a Jewish billionaire cycling enthusiast combined to help 125 vulnerable Afghans flee Taliban rule. (CNN)
🛑 Jewish groups are criticizing Republicans for stalling the confirmation of President Biden’s nominee for deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, Dilawar Syed, who would be the most senior Muslim in the administration. The GOP had claimed that Syed’s affiliation with Emgage Action, a Muslim-American advocacy group, could hurt businesses that work with Israeli companies. Now they are citing the SBA’s funds to abortion providers as a reason to delay the process. (AP)
✍️ Anne Frank’s complete handwritten manuscripts, plus commentary, are now accessible online for the first time, but only in certain countries due to copyright law. (Forward)
🎬 Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos doubled down on his defense of Dave Chappelle’s new comedy special, which mocks Jews and trans people, among others. “Content doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm,” he said. (Variety)
What we’re watching > The trailer for “The Shrink Next Door,” about a Jewish man whose psychiatrist took control of his house, his bank account and his life. Will Ferrell is playing him. Get a sneak peek here and read our interview with the real-life inspiration for this true-crime TV series.
ON THE CALENDAR  Hannah Arendt wrote a controversial account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann. (Getty Images) On this day in history: Hannah Arendt, an influential political philosopher, was born on Oct. 14, 1906. She coined the phrase “banality of evil” after watching the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann. “Sitting in a courtroom in Jerusalem,” writes our Robert Zaretsky, “the eminent political and moral thinker struggled to get her head around the motivations of a man who, seated below her in a glass box, was accused of crimes against humanity and against the Jewish people.”
This was also the day, in 1994, when Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the Oslo Accords.
It’s Be Bald and Be Free Day, which begs the question: How does Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s kippah stay on his bald head?
FROM OUR ARCHIVES  Stardate Forverts, 1956. Given pride of place at the lower left hand corner of the page was a brand spanking new Sara Lee product ad gants af yiddish, entirely in Yiddish of course. “THE NEW CHOCOLATE CAKE SENSATION!!!” it read. “Freshly frozen and ready to serve” it promised, in an original aluminum pan with slices demarcated – and equally portioned. Placed on the page between Ben Alter’s serialized novel “Children of Intermarriage,” Moshe Dluznowsky’s intriguing “Mark Heller’s Confession” and an ad for Wise potato chips, this was clearly a setup for a tasty binge Yiddish read.
A PODCAST WE RECOMMEND  The first episode of the new season of “Israel Story” takes listeners to the Jerusalem YMCA, a hub of communal activity, as it reemerges from its pandemic closure. A nine-person team spent an entire day at the facility, going back and forth among the gym, the kindergarten, the front desk, the event organizers, and the CEO’s office. You’ll meet Bob the Builder, a fake Argentinian bride, a psychoanalytically inclined “bell boy,” a two-timing husband, and dozens and dozens of other colorful characters. Listen now >
PHOTO OF THE DAY  (Getty Images) Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a meeting with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the State Department in D.C. Blinken also met on Wednesday with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who is on his first diplomatic trip to the United States. This morning, Lapid is scheduled to see representatives from AIPAC and other Jewish organizations.
Dept. of Corrections: Due to an editing error, Wednesday’s “Forwarding the News” misstated some details around Ben & Jerry’s decision to remove its ice cream from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The company did not cite the Human Rights Watch report accusing Israel of committing apartheid, and the pullout has not yet taken effect – it is scheduled to start at the end of next year.
Thanks to Rob Eshman, PJ Grisar, Jacob Kornbluh, Chana Pollack, Eliya Smith, Jake Wasserman and Talya Zax for their contributions to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.
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