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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Hello from Jerusalem, where I spoke about my book last night at the Albert Einstein Archives at Hebrew University. Now, on to today’s news: Hostage families release disturbing Oct. 7 video, college protesters demand schools cut ties with Chabad and Hillel, why Jewish NBA fans are cheering on Kyrie Irving after antisemitic antics, and much more.

 ISRAEL AT WAR

A man places a Jordanian flag next to a Palestinian flag in a refugee camp near Amman on Wednesday. (Getty)

Opinion | It’s time for American Jews to recognize a Palestinian state: “Recognition is a blow to Hamas and its supporters who don’t want a Palestinian state beside Israel, but a Palestinian state instead of Israel,” writes our senior columnist Rob Eshman. “Gaza is in ruins, but recognition sends a message to Palestinians that the world is actively seeking an alternative to Israel’s open-ended occupation of the West Bank, to the cynical Hamas leadership that sparked this destructive cycle of conflict, and to the prospect of Israel asserting long-term control in Gaza.” Read his essay ➤


The latest…

  • Spain, Norway and Ireland said on Wednesday that they would recognize an independent Palestinian state.


  • The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released on Wednesday footage taken by Hamas bodycams of five female soldiers being abducted on Oct. 7. The families of the five soldiers want the footage seen; it includes terrorists describing the soldiers as “women who can get pregnant.”


  • Israel’s war cabinet unanimously approved new guidelines for Israeli negotiators in an effort to revive the talks on a hostage-for-truce deal with Hamas.


  • Is it too soon for an exhibit about the massacre at the Nova Music Festival, or is it just the right time? We sent our Odeya Rosenband to find out.

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CONFLICT ON CAMPUS

Pro-Palestinian students of Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania marched last month in Philadelphia. (Getty)

  • At Drexel University in Philadelphia and the University of California, Santa Cruz, pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded their universities cut ties the schools’ Hillel chapters. The Drexel protesters are also asking for the school to cut ties with the campus Chabad.


  • The Louis D. Brandeis Center filed a lawsuit against Harvard Wednesday, alleging that students and faculty celebrated Hamas’ terrorism daily, and that some professors spread “antisemitic propaganda” in class.


  • UCLA removed its police chief weeks after a violent attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment, during which officers failed to intervene.


  • The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee apologized to the Jewish community for reaching an agreement that ended a Gaza solidarity encampment in exchange for the school calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas and considering an academic boycott of Israel. “It is clear to me that UWM should not have weighed in on deeply complex geopolitical and historical issues,” he said.


  • A Minnesota high school’s just-published yearbook includes a couple of notable news items for each month of the school year. One entry called out Israel for declaring war on Hamas on Oct. 8, without mention of the attack the preceding day. School officials and yearbook staff have apologized.


  • Yeshiva University will give an award to Sen. John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, at its commencement ceremony next week. “During these challenging times,” the school said in a statement, “the leadership, service, and moral clarity of this American patriot and hero of Israel have been a beacon of hope.”

The front entrance to Queens College Hillel. (Sam Lin-Sommer)

Queens College has been a model of Muslim-Jewish cooperation. Can it stay that way after Oct. 7? Once hailed as a “laboratory for diversity,” the college’s more than 19,000 students hail from 145 countries. About one-sixth are Muslim and another 30% are Jewish. The war has strained the bonds between certain students, but in some places, the ideal of a pluralistic university is very much alive. Our Sam Lin-Sommer reports from the campus. Read the story ➤


Plus: In a new opinion essay, Rabbi Tamar Manasseh writes that campus protesters want more than a free Palestinian state. They want a better America.

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Kyrie Irving leaves the court after the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals. (Getty)

With antisemitism scandal behind him, Kyrie Irving is thriving — and Jewish fans in Dallas are cheering him on: “A lot has changed in the 18 months since NBA star Kyrie Irving tweeted out a link to a movie that denied the Holocaust,” reports our Louis Keene. And in November, he wore sneakers customized with the words “No more genocide” during practice; he also wore a black-and-white keffiyeh during a postgame news conference. But many Jewish Mavericks fans have decided not to let Irving’s off-court antics ruin a barnstorming playoff run. On the contrary: They are rooting for him to succeed. “When the ball’s in the air,” said one such fan, “I hope it goes in.”

Related: The Mavericks last night beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, where a player gave the team a new tagline. Our PJ Grisar notes that it recalls a memorable anecdote from the Torah, involving victory, prophets and one of the only instances in biblical literature of a talking animal.


Plus: A hubbub over former President Donald Trump’s campaign ad referencing a “unified Reich” is only the latest in a long string of such scandals. Here’s a list of every time Trump has invoked Hitler and the Nazis.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said she would vote for former President Donald Trump during a Wednesday speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. (Getty)

🇺🇸  Nikki Haley, who harshly criticized former President Trump during the Republican primaries, said on Wednesday that she plans to vote for Trump this November, and criticized President Biden for his handling of Israel’s war with Hamas. (Jewish Insider)


👏  More than 60 American Jewish organizations across the political spectrum are lining up behind a bill that would establish a coordinator of government efforts to fight antisemitism. (JTA)


☕  Vandals sprayed pro-Palestinian graffiti at four Starbucks stores in Ashburn, Virginia. Police are investigating. (Jewish Chronicle)


✍️  Evan Gershkovich, the Jewish journalist from The Wall Street Journal who has been imprisoned in Russia for over a year, will receive the 2024 Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism. (L.A. Press Club)


🍻  Lehrhaus, Boston’s popular Jewish tavern and house of learning, is set to to open a D.C. location next year. It’s the first step of a nationwide expansion plan that aims to have a Lehrhaus in eight locations by 2030. (Jewish Insider)


What else we’re reading ➤  A UCLA doctor is on a quest to free modern medicine from a Nazi-tainted anatomy book … Meet the Jews who helped launch the New York Road Runners club … A Sonic the Hedgehog spinoff features actor Idris Elba praising gefilte fish.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

In case you missed it: Our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, spoke at the City Club of Cleveland on Friday about the role of an independent, nonprofit Jewish news outlet in a time of war, campus protests and polarization. Watch the video above.

Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh, Jake Wasserman 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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