WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

The woman who went viral at the D.C. rally, Kanye West and Kyrie Irving back in the news, and the Jewish ethics of presidential turkey pardons.

ISRAEL AT WAR

The latest: A Hamas leader said early this morning that Hamas is “close to” a truce agreement with Israel. President Joe Biden said on Monday he believes a deal is near to secure the release of some of the hostages. And last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet met with families of the hostages.

Boston-based Lisa Fliegel arrived in Israel shortly after the terror attack. (Getty)

Survivors of the Hamas massacre are suffering from trauma — meet the therapist helping them work through it: Lisa Fliegel has spent more than 30 years working with Israelis and Palestinians, as well as relatives of inner-city homicide victims and survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing. So when friends asked Fliegel – who is based in Boston, has dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship and served in the IDF – to fly to Israel to be with evacuees from kibbutzim and small towns, she didn’t think twice. “My whole philosophy is that therapists need to be in the trenches,” she said. Read the story ➤

First person | Judicial overhaul opponents are back on the streets Saturday nights, only it’s quieter now: Gone were the bullhorns and drums; in their place were posters of those kidnapped. But the underlying sentiment against Prime Minister Netanyahu that sparked 40 weeks of protests since January remains. “There is a lot of anger and anguish that’s bursting the seams of society,” writes Jessica Steinberg. “There has been this sense of a dam about to burst.” Read her essay ➤

Related: A viral video, a somber Israeli parody of a Simon & Garfunkel song, calls on the country’s right-wing politicians to “get out of here.”

Morgan Raum holding her “I’m Single” sign at the Israel rally last week in D.C. (KLivney Photography)

That woman with the ‘I’m single’ sign at the Israel rally? She wasn’t really looking for a husband: Throughout the event, mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers approached Morgan Raum to give her some version of “have I got a boy for you!” Millions liked the photo on social media. “It was just supposed to be funny,” the Hillel and Birthright alum told us. The flip side of the sign read: “Hummus not Hamas.” Read the story ➤

In Jerusalem, a market blooms to help Gaza-area farmers hit hard by the war: As many residents fled, Israeli farms near the Gaza Strip found they don’t have as many people to sell their crops to, so they are going direct to consumers at one of dozens of pop-up markets around Jerusalem. “I came to buy vegetables for Shabbat and to support the farmers,” said Ilana Nelson. “I hope they do this every week.” Read the story ➤

Sexism in the IDF? From Haaretz: “Over the past year, the Israel Defense Forces’ spotters situated on the Gaza border, all women, warned that something unusual was happening. Those who survived the Oct. 7 massacre are convinced that if it had been men sounding the alarm, things would look different today.”

Near Columbia University on Monday, posters of Israeli hostages have been replaced with those of Palestinians killed in Gaza. (Getty)

Plus…

• More than half of Jewish college students in the U.S. say they feel unsafe on their campus since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack, according to a new survey from Hillel.

  
  

• Deborah Lipstadt, who rose to fame combating Holocaust denial, said Monday she’s disturbed by the “speed and intensity” of people denying that Hamas committed atrocities in its Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel.

  
  

• A Palestinian poet whose dispatches on daily life in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas have appeared in several high-profile American publications was reportedly captured by the Israeli military.

  
  

• The Palestinian Authority is claiming that Israeli helicopters bombed Israeli civilians at the music festival on Oct. 7 to justify its attack on Gaza.

  
  

• An overwhelming majority of New Yorkers say they are concerned about antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war, according to a poll released Monday.

  
  

• A politician who said that Palestinians have “the right to resist” after the Hamas terror attack, was named Spain’s minister of children and youth on Monday.

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ALSO IN THE FORWARD

President Biden pardoned Liberty the turkey at a Monday ceremony at the White House. (Getty)

What does Jewish ethics say about pardoning a Turkey? Three rabbis weigh in: What can we learn about justice and mercy from the annual forgiveness of fowl crimes that President Biden presided over on Monday? Instead of being sacrificed as a mark of atonement, the turkeys are being given a second chance at life, which can be viewed as an act of charity. “We should be providing, you know, turkey dinners for people who are poor,” said Rabbi Joshua Hammerman. Then again, as a vegetarian, Hammerman thinks  “every turkey should be pardoned.”

In Germany, they were superstars — and then the Nazis came to power: Barry Manilow’s new Broadway show, Harmony, charts the improbable rise and ultimate disappearance of a sextet — three Jews, three gentiles — that reached international stardom in the 1930s. Describing one scene, our reviewer writes, “The group’s costumes get stolen in an act of antisemitic vandalism right before they’re supposed to perform at a Jewish-owned, high-society Berlin club. The Harmonists go on in their underwear and borrowed jackets, improvising a hilarious bumbling waiter act that ultimately becomes their breakout performance.”

Plus: In his new song, Kanye West explains why he can’t be antisemitic.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks speaks Saturday after a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. (YouTube)

🏀  Over the weekend, NBA star Kyrie Irving wore a kaffiyeh to a post-game press conference and accepted a gift of a Palestinian flag from a fan. Irving caused a stir in 2022 when he shared a link to a film rife with antisemitic conspiracies. (Algemeiner, Forward)

🇺🇸  A high school student in Virginia made a drawing of the American flag, replacing the stars with swastikas. When a fellow student leaked a photo of the drawing, trying to expose antisemitism at his school, the administrators suspended not only the person who drew the swastikas, but the student whistleblower as well. (Fairfax County Times)

🏚️  Austria is turning Hitler’s birth home into a police station, preventing it from becoming a haven for neo-Nazis. Yet, some think it should instead be used to teach about the Holocaust. (New York Times)

☕  A coffee shop in Jordan promoted a Holocaust-themed drink, with a post on social media showing a torch charring Star of David marshmallows. (The Messenger)

🤝  The BBYO youth group resurrected its presence in Asia with a conference in Taipei last week attended by 40 teens from Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. (JTA)

Shiva calls ➤  Three former members of the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary – Samuel Klagsbrun, Israel Francus and Avraham Holtz – died within days of each other … Herbert Gold, a novelist who wrote about the complexities of Jewish life in America, died at 99 … Phillip Ratner, whose sculptures of immigrants are fixtures at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, died at 86.

What else we’re reading ➤  For years, two men shuttled messages between Israel and Hamas. No longer … Elie Wiesel-inspired fellowship models peace building amid Israel-Hamas War … The Star of David is having a moment.

STAMP OF THE DAY

Alas, there’s no 2023 Hanukkah stamp from the U.S. Postal Service. The USPS only releases a new one every few years, the latest being its 2022 edition. But philatelists will love Canada’s new Hanukkah stamp, designed by artist Hélène L’Heureux. For more, check out our history of Hanukkah stamps.

Thanks to Adam Langer, Lauren Markoe 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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