WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Israel returns to ceasefire talks • Adidas sells final Kanye West shoe • Michael Solomonov’s new restaurant • And watch Israel’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest.

ON CAMPUS

Immigration officers arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University. (Getty)

Campus crackdown

U.S. immigration agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, an outspoken Palestinian activist who recently graduated from Columbia University and has been involved in anti-Israel protests as recently as last week at Barnard College. The arrest is a high profile escalation of the Trump administration's crackdown on campus antisemitism.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that the U.S. intends to deport Khalil, who holds a green card and is in this country legally.

  
  

• The arrest has deepened the divide between free speech advocates and anti-immigration hardliners, raising a sharp question: When do campus protests cross the line from political activism to supporting Hamas?

The U.S. State Department is using a McCarthy-era antisemitic law to cancel visas of foreign students who it determines to be “pro-Hamas.”

• The program, called “Catch and Revoke,” will use artificial intelligence to scan social media, news reports of anti-Israel protests, and lawsuits by Jewish student groups alleging campus antisemitism.

  
  

• It’s based on a 1952 law that codified immigration restrictions and was widely seen at the time as targeting Eastern European Holocaust survivors suspected of being Soviet agents.

From the desk of our editor-in-chief: Jews often find themselves in a constant defensive stance over antisemitism on college campuses, labeling every incident a crisis. In that climate, nuance and critical thinking can struggle to break through, writes Jodi Rudoren in her latest column.

From our Sponsor, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies

ISRAEL AT WAR

A man climbed up Big Ben in London on Saturday with a flag in support of Palestinians. (Getty)

Trump and the war…

• Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Mideast envoy, and Israeli negotiators are set to head to Qatar this week for talks about the next phase of the ceasefire. (Times of Israel)

  
  

• Adam Boehler, Trump’s hostage envoy, defended his recent talks with Hamas. Meeting with “bad people is part of my job,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. (Forward)

  
  

• Opinion | The White House should talk to anyone, anywhere if it can save the hostages, writes Noam Tibon, a retired IDF general who saved his family on Oct. 7. (JTA).

  
  

• Pro-Palestinian activists took responsibility for vandalizing one of Trump’s golf resorts in Scotland on Saturday, calling it a protest against his plan to remove Gaza’s Palestinian population. (AP)

Plus…

• Israel on Sunday cut off electricity to Gaza, crippling a desalination plant that supplies drinking water to part of the area, in an effort to pressure Hamas into extending a ceasefire. (AP)

  
  

• At least 41 hostages have died in captivity since Oct. 7 — some by Hamas, some in Israeli airstrikes — according to a new analysis. (New York Times)

  
  

• A man carrying a Palestinian flag was arrested after climbing London’s Big Ben and staying on a ledge for 16 hours. (Reuters)

ON CULTURE

Nuchem Shtisel, played by actor Sasson Gabai, in a scene from Kugel. (Courtesy Izzy)

News and notes…

• Kugel, the Shtisel spinoff, richly portrays a diasporic Hasidic community and is filled with subtle cultural references and the witty irony of the Eastern European Yiddish tradition, writes our Rukhl Shaechter.

  
  

• A new exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan, The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt, explores how the biblical queen was adopted as a figure of national self-determination in the Netherlands.

  
  

• The final novel by Chaim Grade, one of the leading Yiddish writers of the 20th century, is finally available in English.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Canada’s Liberal leader and Prime Minister-elect Mark Carney on Sunday. (Getty)

🇨🇦  Mark Carney, the newly elected leader of Canada’s Liberal Party and the incoming prime minister, has vowed to protect Canadian Jews amid rising antisemitism. But his stance on Israel is drawing scrutiny. (Forward)

👟  After cutting ties with Kanye West in 2022, Adidas said it would sell off its inventory of his shoe line, with some of the proceeds going to fight antisemitism. The last pair finally sold.  (JTA)

🏀  Yeshiva University lost to Tufts, 83-66, in the first round of the Division III men’s basketball tournament, thus ending their 18-11 season. (JTA)

👋  An Israeli high school student visiting Auschwitz was detained and fined for allegedly making a Nazi salute. (Times of Israel)

🎬  Director Brett Ratner, who is currently working on a documentary with First Lady Melania Trump, is also working on one about the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors. (Semafor)

🙏  The Disney+ animated series Win or Lose pulled a transgender storyline ahead of the show’s release. The streamer is now sparking controversy for including a Christian character who prays. (CNN)

🍽️  Chef Michael Solomonov, a five-time James Beard Award winner, is set to open his latest Israeli restaurant Friday in Miami. (Miami Herald)

Shiva call ► Uri Shulevitz, a Caldecott Medal-winning author who turned his early memories of fleeing the Nazis into magical childrens’ stories, died at 89.

What else we’re reading ► A Chicago synagogue calls itself “anti-Zionist.” What does that mean in practice? (NPR) … Two middle-aged women defied the Nazis. One “wrote” a book that betrayed the other (JTA) … Could Jews of Color help solve the rabbi shortage? (eJewishPhilanthropy).

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Israel unveiled the video for its entry to the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest: a song called “New Day Will Rise.” Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, will sing it and compete in May in Switzerland. Go deeper ►

Today’s newsletter made me:

🤓 Confident I understand issues impacting American Jews.

💡Curious to learn about something I read.

🤷🏽‍♀️ No different.

❤️ Love this newsletter? Check out what else the Forward has to offer!

Support independent Jewish journalism

With your help, the Forward will be ready for whatever news 2025 will bring. Make a tax-deductible gift and invest in the future of Jewish journalism.