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| WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | Today: Columbia student groups sued • Why Huckabee’s right (and wrong) about Palestinians • Is A.I. software antisemitic? • Kosher butcher charged and more stories. |
| | | | | |  | Hundreds of Palestinians marched Monday in Gaza against Hamas, demanding an end to the war. (Getty) |
| Palestinians protest against Hamas
In a rare display of public defiance, hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza protested against Hamas for a second day, chanting “Hamas out,” “We want to eat,” and “We want an end to the war.” (Times of Israel) Zooming out: The protests are the largest in Gaza since the war started and broke out as fighting and evacuations resumed, ending a ceasefire that had given residents a fleeting sense of stability and hope. The death toll has climbed again — surpassing 50,000 on Sunday, according to the local health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. (CNN)
What they’re saying: “I think the protests are coming really at an important time where Hamas is really being pushed from all sides — the Israeli government, the U.S. government, Palestinians writ large,” said one Middle East expert. (NBC News)
Plus… The site of the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival has become one of Israel’s busiest tourist destinations, drawing more than 200,000 visitors each month. (JTA)
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the killing of two Palestinian reporters in Gaza on Monday and urged an investigation to determine if they were intentionally targeted. (Washington Post)
Hamdan Ballal, the Oscar-winning Palestinian director of No Other Land, says he was blindfolded for more than 20 hours, kicked, punched, and hit by Israeli soldiers after being detained following an attack by settlers in the West Bank area featured in the documentary. (AP)
The Knesset is set to hold final votes Wednesday on a contentious bill that would give politicians far greater control over appointing judges, weakening the judiciary’s influence and fueling the coalition’s broader judicial overhaul. (Times of Israel)
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| | |  | Former Gov. Mike Huckabee at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday to be the next U.S. ambassador to Israel. (Getty) |
| Mike Huckabee… Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister who’s visited Israel more than 100 times, had his confirmation hearing Tuesday for U.S. ambassador to Israel and didn’t shy away from his Christian Zionist views. “We believe the Bible,” he told senators, “and that connection is not just geopolitical — it’s spiritual.” (Forward)
Opinion | Huckabee once said that there is “no such thing as a Palestinian.” While he “was, in one sense, clearly wrong,” writes Rabbi Avi Shafran, “in another, he was right. Palestinians exist. There are both Arab and Jewish ones.” See yesterday’s most-read story ►
Elsewhere in politics…
🤷 Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, politely removed himself after he was accidentally added to a group chat of Trump administration officials talking about bombing the Houthis. What would the Talmud have advised him to do? The sages knew that “sometimes Jewish law actually requires gossip, if sharing the information will right a wrong,” writes our Mira Fox. And “that learning lies in all places, even unexpected ones or ones that the rules of good manners might prohibit from us.” Go deeper ►
Related: This morning’s episode of The Daily podcast from The New York Times is an interview with Goldberg, who worked at the Forward early in his career.
Plus: Trump plans to nominate L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative pundit and staunch Israel supporter, as U.S. ambassador to South Africa, amid tensions over South Africa’s ties to Iran and its legal action against Israel at the Hague. (New York Times)
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| | |  | Thu. April 3 at 3 p.m. ET on Zoom: As news breaks at lightning speed, our Forwarding the News team works each morning to stay ahead of the headlines and contextualize what’s driving the American Jewish conversation to create clarity amid the chaos for our readers. We hope you’ll join us for a special event where we’ll take you behind the scenes of this newsletter to explain how we choose stories, which ones you read most, and more inside scoop. The event is free for current Forward members. For all others, a minimum $18 donation is requested. Register here ►
Coming tomorrow: Transgender stories may feel like a modern phenomenon, but the Forward has been covering them for nearly a century. We’ve dug up a November 1936 letter from a reader about his shtetl where Beyle became Berl. Stay tuned…
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| |  | | |  | Activists hold a demonstration last week in New York City against the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of Columbia’s protest movement. (Getty) |
| The latest… A new lawsuit against Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian student groups and several of their leaders claims, among other allegations, that Students for Justice in Palestine knew about the Hamas attack beforehand. (Forward)
A Jewish judge ordered the Trump administration to stop efforts to arrest and deport Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. (JTA)
Columbia rolled out a new policy banning doxxing and online harassment. The announcement follows calls from a Jewish group urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revoke the visa of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent campus protest leader. (Columbia Spectator)
The American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association sued on Tuesday to stop the Trump administration from deporting non-citizen anti-Israel activists, after the recent arrest of Khalil and others. (Guardian, Forward)
Groups representing Columbia professors also sued the Trump administration Tuesday over efforts to crack down on campus protests and impose outside oversight on the school’s Middle Eastern studies department. In private weekend meetings, faculty expressed their anger at Columbia’s interim president. (Times of Israel, Wall Street Journal)
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| | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
|  | | 🤔 Artificial intelligence software displays “concerning” bias against Israel and Jews, with Meta’s tool showing the strongest prejudice, according to a new Anti-Defamation League study. (Jewish Insider)
🥩 Remember that kosher butcher in Cleveland we wrote about in 2021 that was accused of being a front for a multi-million dollar laundering ring and illicit vape trade? Federal prosecutors have now charged the owner. (Cleveland.com, Forward)
🗳️ In New York, two former allies are now vying to represent their Orthodox neighborhood, pitting a career politician against one who embraces a Trumpian style. (JTA)
🇦🇷 Following a pledge by President Javier Milei, Argentina said it will declassify all government records — including financial documents — on Nazi fugitives who fled to the country after World War II. (Times of Israel)
Transitions ► Rabbi Getzel Davis resigned from his post at Harvard Hillel, citing the needs of his young family … Ilan Goldenberg, who handled Jewish outreach for Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign, is joining J Street.
Shiva calls ► Al Leff, a U.S. Army photographer in WWII, died at 103. Check out this photo essay about his life written by his daughter Katey … Stef Wertheimer, a billionaire businessman and former member of the Knesset, died at 98 … Kitty Dukakis, the first Jewish spouse of a presidential candidate, died at 88.
What else we’re reading ► Why some Israeli teens are choosing jail over the army (CNN) … She was released from Gaza. Now she’s campaigning for her partner still in captivity (New York Times) … Gal Gadot’s breakout song in Snow White is “deeply confusing” (Vulture)
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| | |  | A new documentary, Neshoma, brings prewar Amsterdam to life through the letters of 17-year-old Rusha, who writes to her brother in the Dutch East Indies about daily life in a city where one in 10 residents was Jewish. Inspired by real testimonies, it captures a vibrant world on the brink of destruction. |
| Thanks to Chana Pollack for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Julie Moos for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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