The foreign ministers of the UAE and Israel, shown earlier this year. (Getty) |
Our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, shares what’s in his notebook… In Dubai today, Israel signed an historic free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates, its first with an Arab country. The agreement will eliminate customs duties on 96% of food and agricultural products, cosmetics, medical equipment and medicine, according to Israel’s economic ministry. Meanwhile, an Israeli news station reported Friday that a senior Israeli official visited Saudi Arabia for talks on security, one of several recent signs indicating Riyadh could be the next capital to move toward normalizing relations with the Jewish state. In Jerusalem, the annual flag march through the Old City passed with no major violence, despite some clashes between Palestinians and the Jewish nationalists celebrating Jerusalem Day by chanting “death to Arabs” as well as early warnings of violence by Hamas. But Israel’s governing coalition remains unstable as it approaches its first anniversary. The leadership postponed an important bill that would extend emergency regulations for Israel’s civil authority in the occupied West Bank, after the Islamist party Ra’am refused to back the legislation. The opposition, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced it would oppose all legislation, and a new poll found a plurality of voters preferring Netanyahu as a leader over current Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Bennett appointed a new special adviser on foreign affairs, Keren Hajioff, following the surprise resignation of his senior aide Shimrit Meir and ahead of President Joe Biden’s expected visit to Israel next month. The Times of Israel reported that the Biden administration has elevated the position of Hady Amr, the current deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli and Palestinian affairs, to serve as special envoy to the Palestinians. |
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul at an April meeting with Holocaust survivors. (Don Pollard) |
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to sign a bill that would require the state to monitor compliance with Holocaust education requirements. Dani Dayan, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, said during a visit to New York last week, that even 80 years after the Holocaust, leaders still lack “the decisiveness and the determination” to confront antisemitism. Read the story ➤ Today is the last day of the public comments periodon a new proposal to set standards for secular studies at private schools, including yeshivas. Agudath Israel of America, which represents Haredi Jews, said it submitted 250,000 signatures opposing the proposal. A new Super PAC funded by prominent Jewish and Black donors is planning to spend at least $1 million campaigning to unseat U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who recently introduced a House resolution to recognize the Palestinian Nakba. Tlaib faces an August primary challenge from Janice Winfrey, who has been Detroit’s elected City Clerk since 2005 and has touted her support for Israel and opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. The group, Urban Empowerment Action PAC, was created by Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state legislator and a frequent speaker at AIPAC events. At least half of the funds the group has raised so far comes from Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund manager. |
'Putin should know better than to mess with babushkas,' writes Florina Rodov. (Illustration by Nikki Casey) |
Opinion | Putin is no match for my Ukrainian babushka: “Babushkas have endured war, famine, and genocide, so they have zero tolerance for fools,” writes Florina Rodov whose own grandmother learned krav maga to beat up a relative who was having an affair. “They will send you to your grave with a Yiddish curse as easily as they will strangle you with their bare hands. And, of course, they will fight to the death for their homeland.” As they are doing now during the war: One took down a suspicious drone with a jar of pickled tomatoes. Another spearheaded a Molotov cocktail-making operation. Read her essay ➤ Why a seemingly unconventional casting choice makes perfect sense in a story of Holocaust survival: Sky Smith, who is half-Asian, was recently cast to play a Jewish man trapped in Krakow during the Nazi occupation. “I believe in casting as part of the interpretation of the story, and part of how a story reaches its moment,” said Karen Hartman, the playwright. “What would happen if the person who is really carrying the torch of history is cast as a Jewish person of color?” Read the story ➤ Explainer: What is Masafer Yatta, the West Bank area that has so many activists, Jewish groups and politicians so worried ahead of President Biden’s likely visit to Israel this summer? But wait, there’s more… |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Actors in 'Stranger Things' on location in a former Nazi prison in Vilnius. (Netflix) |
😮 Season 4 of “Stranger Things,” which debuted this weekend on Netflix, was filmed in a Lithuanian prison where Nazis once jailed Jews – including Menachem Begin, who went on to become Israel’s sixth prime minister. Tourists can now spend the night in the prison in a “Stranger Things”-themed cell for $114 a night. (JTA) 🇮🇱 A New York City Councilwoman has pulled $50,000 in funding for the City University of New York Law School after its faculty endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. (Jerusalem Post) ⚖️ A U.S. Army reservist and alleged Nazi sympathizer who openly espoused antisemitic ideology was convicted for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The reservist, Timothy Hale-Cussanelli, took the stand in his own defense and claimed he didn’t know that Congress met in the building. “I know this sounds idiotic,” he said,” but I’m from New Jersey.” (CBS News) ⛪ Someone apparently armed with a power saw broke into a Brooklyn church, stole a $2 million gold tabernacle and beheaded an angel statue, authorities said. The diocese described the incident as “a brazen crime of disrespect and hate.” (New York Times, AP) 🐷 Speaking of church statues, a German court on Monday considered a Jewish man’s request to force the removal of a 700-year-old statue known as the “Jew pig” sculpture from a church where Martin Luther once preached. The verdict is expected next month. (AP) 🙏 Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a Harvard commencement address on Sunday that his public service is his way of expressing gratitude for the country where his family took refuge. Many of Garland’s ancestors immigrated to the United States to escape religious persecution before World War I. Some who stayed behind, he said, were killed during the Holocaust. The commencement celebrated graduates from the classes of 2021 and 2020 — including Eliya Smith, the Forward’s editorial fellow — whose ceremonies were delayed because of the pandemic. Mazel tov! (Harvard Crimson) 📙 A school district in Canada removed an Agatha Christie book from its curriculum for its antisemitism. The book, “And Then There Were None,” was published in 1939 and refers to one character as “little Jew,” “Jewboy,” and as having “thick Semitic lips.” (National Post) 💻 A couple accidentally showed themselves having sex while attending a bat mitzvah on Zoom after forgetting to join the virtual ceremony with their camera off. They eventually stopped after receiving a frantic call from another virtual attendee. (New York Post)
What else we’re reading ➤ There’s a new soccer field in the Bronx courtesy of the Abraham Accords … A controversial Israeli rabbi has been denied a U.S. visa. He blames the Reform movement … Faith-based foodies don’t stop at kosher or halal in search of eco-friendly eating.
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On this day in history: Mel Blanc, the voice actor behind Bugs Bunny, was born on May 31, 1908. Blanc, who voiced America’s favorite “wascally wabbit” as well as his compatriots Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, was the child of San Francisco-based German Jews. But his West Coast roots didn’t stop him from imbuing his characters with, as the Forward’s Benjamin Ivry wrote in 2020, “a blend of Brooklyn and Bronx tones.” Blanc’s best-known character, Bugs, lived a life that some critics found to have resonance with the Jewish experience. As Ivry wrote, “The typical plot of Bugs Bunny shorts, in which the hare is pursued by an adversary, often the hunter Elmer Fudd, could also be seen as archetypically Jewish.” Read more about Bugs Bunny’s Jewishness ➤ On the Hebrew calendar, it’s the 1st of Sivan when, according to the Book of Numbers, the rebellious Korach was swallowed up by the earth.
It’s also the final day of Jewish-American Heritage Month, and the White House is hosting a webinar about Jews in the U.S. military. The speakers include Prof. Deborah Dash Moore — a member of the Forward Association — as well as the head of the Jewish chaplains council, a retired Army colonel and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. RSVP here ➤
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Bradley Cooper portraying Leonard Bernstein, the music composer, at different stages in his life. (Netflix) |
Yep, that’s a virtually unrecognizable Bradley Cooper in the photos above, which were released by Netflix on Monday. He portrays both a young and old version of Leonard Bernstein in an upcoming biopic currently filming the movie in New York under the codename Rybernia. Find out why ➤ ––– Thanks to Jaclyn De Bonis, Jacob Kornbluh and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
Support Independent Jewish Journalism The Forward is a non-profit 501(c)3 so our journalism depends on support from readers like you. You can support our work today by donating or subscribing. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of US law. Make a donation ➤ Subscribe to Forward.com ➤ "America’s most prominent Jewish newspaper" — The New York Times, 2021 |
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