WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Lincoln Memorial defaced with “Free Palestine” graffiti, rabbi accused of “sexualized” communication with students, former President Donald Trump denies plagiarizing Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and more than a quarter of British Jews have Christmas trees.

ISRAEL AT WAR

A Starbucks in Brooklyn was vandalized with pro-Palestinian graffiti. (Sarah Oren Brasky)

Why is Starbucks being targeted by activists for both Israel and Gaza? Protesters chanting “Starbucks supports genocide” have made headlines; vandalism has disrupted business in many locations – the latest incident was Wednesday in Brooklyn. At the same time, the world’s largest coffee chain has also been hit with boycotts and harassment from those supporting Israel. The reason it’s being attacked from both sides? Our Beth Harpaz explains. Read the story ➤

Opinion | Young Israelis and Palestinians are giving up on peace. It’s on all of us to fix that: “For years, I’ve been documenting the shift among Israeli Jews my age — not to mention Palestinians — toward militaristic jingoism and right-wing politics,” writes our opinion editor, Laura E. Adkins, who says we fail to reckon with this reality at our own peril. “It might fuel our righteous indignation to point out the extremism in other communities. But it is our absolute duty to stamp out extremism and nihilism in our own.” Read her essay ➤

Family and friends at the funeral for IDF Staff Sgt. Boris Dunavetski Wednesday in Tel Aviv. (Getty)

The latest on the war…

• The National Park Service said it will take several days to remove the red painted “Free Palestine” and other graffiti left by vandals at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

  
  

• Hamas reportedly rejected an Israeli proposal for a weeklong truce in Gaza in exchange for releasing around 40 hostages.

  
  

• Nearly 200 shuls and Jewish institutions were targeted with fake bomb threats this past weekend. The FBI believes it was a coordinated attack from outside the U.S.

  
  

• It’s “not your fault”: A mother sends love and support to the Israeli troops who accidentally killed her son, an escaped hostage.

Attendance at the weekly runs in Central Park have grown into the hundreds. (Camillo Barone)

In Central Park, runners race to save Israeli hostages: Run For Their Lives Manhattan has been running 1.5 miles while chanting “bring them home now” for eight consecutive Sundays, and its organizers say they’ll keep going until the last hostage has been freed. The group has now expanded to 52 locations worldwide. Read the story ➤

Etgar Keret on the guilty pleasure of social media outrage in a time of war: The famed Israeli short story writer says that he’s having a lot of sleepless nights since Oct. 7. “I decided that instead of counting sheep, I would do something more fashionable and count antisemites on TikTok,” he writes, adding that there’s a small upside: “Every time I come across a dishonest statement, I feel just a bit more honest.” But the downside “is that while I might feel a little better about myself, it comes at the cost of feeling much worse about the world.” Read his essay ➤

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ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

A young girl plays the song “Sunbeams” in Jonathan Glazer’s Zone of Interest. (Courtesy A24)

The song, and the Holocaust survivor, behind the year’s most stunning moment in film: The score for Jonathan Glazer’s Zone of Interest is anything but subtle. Sparingly used and often accompanied by a black screen, it’s crafted from distorted shrieks and synthesizers. But the most arresting piece of music was written in 1943 in the Auschwitz III subcamp, a simple melody played on piano. Its author, Joseph Wulf, was a historian who documented Nazi atrocities and the songs of his friends, yet, his own song “Sunbeams” was never published, only recorded. Our PJ Grisar writes about how the music ended up in a Golden Globe nominee and Oscar contender.

She’d never played a Jewish character before. Then, a hit play about antisemitism came along: Actress Francis Benhamou’s father is Sephardic, a Moroccan Jew, and she usually gets cast as Arab characters. But in Prayer for the French Republic, which won acclaim off-Broadway in 2022 and is now moving to Broadway, Benhamou finally gets her chance to play a version of herself. Her wish, she said, is for audiences to leave the theater “with a perspective that they hadn’t thought of. That it opens up their awareness. That they leave with hope.”

– From our Sponsor: Spertus Institute –

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Robert M. Beren Academy in Houston, Texas. (Courtesy)

🏫   Multiple alumni of a K-12 Orthodox school in Houston allege that the former head of school “engaged in sexualized” communication with them. The allegations are likely to shake the close-knit world of Jewish education, where the rabbi established himself as a visionary leader in stops on both coasts and in Texas in a career spanning four decades. (Forward)

⚖️  A white supremacist who made online threats to jurors and witnesses at the trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter was sentenced Wednesday to more than six years in federal prison. (AP)

🎒  The Tikvah Fund, a conservative think tank, is launching a Jewish day school in Manhattan. It comes at a time when conservatives have taken aim at elite educational institutions. (JTA)

🇦🇷  The U.S. Justice Department announced terrorism charges on Wednesday against a Hezbollah operative who allegedly helped plan the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina. (CBS News)

🤷  Former President Donald Trump, who recently described immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country,” said he was unaware that similar phrases were used in Hitler’s Mein Kampf. (JTA)

🎄 More than a quarter of all Jews in the United Kingdom have a Christmas tree, according to a new poll. (Jewish News)

What else we’re reading ➤  Here are some of the most compelling religion news photos of 2023 … A synagogue explores the rich, surprising history of Jews and chocolate … The 12 best (and worst) fake noses in cinema history.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

It’s the first day of winter and our Rukhl Schaechter shares how to talk about the season using Yiddish words.

Thanks to PJ Grisar 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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