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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Israel’s top generals want Gaza ceasefire, Palestinian athletes prep for the Olympics, vandals damage 176 Jewish gravestones in Ohio, a Talmudic take on the Supreme Court and Trump immunity, and an oft-mocked Jewish actress from Harry Potter shares her story in new memoir.

OUR LEAD STORY

Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma state school superintendent, ordered public schools to teach the Bible. (Courtesy)

‘We have to cover history accurately’: Oklahoma superintendent explains why he’s forcing schools to teach the Bible

Ryan Walters, a former history teacher who is now Oklahoma’s school superintendent, ordered all public schools in his state to teach the Bible beginning this fall. His reasoning? Many key figures in American history were inspired by the Bible, and it would be “academic malpractice” not to teach it, he told me Monday afternoon.

Law and order: Walters said he’s prepared to defend against likely lawsuits that claim he crossed the line separating church and state. Some experts think he could be on the right side of the law. If what the schools teach is “that the people who founded America read the Book of Exodus. I think that that’s a reasonable argument,” explained Rabbi Michael J. Broyde, a law professor at Emory University. “That’s the Bible as inspirational literature.”

Class is in session: Walters said the Bible, which he reads every day, will be taught at Oklahoma public schools not only in history classes, but in all courses “where it’s applicable.” He pointed out that many mathematicians and scientists were inspired by the Bible. “Look at an art class,” he said. “How do you cover the artwork and not mention the Bible when you’re looking at the Renaissance?”

Red dawn: The new Oklahoma rule is part of a growing trend fueled by socially conservative activists and politicians to incorporate the Bible into educational curricula. Louisiana last month ordered all public school classrooms to display a poster of the Ten Commandments. (Jewish parents are suing.) Several school districts in red states have banned books they’ve deemed offensive, including a graphic adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary which contains a scene in which Anne walks by nude statues in a park.

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Noa Argamani, a hostage who was rescued in June, and her mother, Liora. (Courtesy Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

The latest…

• The mother of Israeli hostage Noa Argamani has died from brain cancer at 61, three weeks after her daughter’s rescue.

  
  

• Israel’s top generals want a ceasefire in Gaza, believing it to be the quickest way to get the hostages back and to better prepare if a new warfront opens up north with Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon.

  
  

• The Anti-Defamation League joined a lawsuit on behalf of U.S. victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, accusing Iran, Syria and North Korea of abetting the terrorists. They are seeking financial restitution under a 2015 law that compensates victims of state-sponsored terrorism through criminal penalties and seized assets.

  
  

• A new Israeli law, meant to cut red tape and make importing goods easier, is actually making it harder for U.S. donors and charities to send supplies to IDF soldiers.

  
  

• First in Forwarding: Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who founded a pro-Israel nonprofit last year as he considers a political comeback, released the group’s first television ad on Tuesday — 60 seconds that depict pro-Palestinian protesters as Hamas supporters.

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Former President Donald Trump at a campaign event on Friday in Virginia. (Getty)

The Talmud holds Trump to a higher standard than the Supreme Court: The court ruled Monday that Donald Trump may claim immunity from criminal prosecution for some of the actions he took as president. But Jewish wisdom takes a different approach. “The rabbis teach that the powerful and learned — kings and priests — bear much greater responsibility than the everyday person, who might simply not know that they’ve broken the law,” writes our Mira Fox. “Leaders, however, are expected to know what they’re doing.”

The press dismissed her as a ‘national trinket.’ Now this much-loved, sometimes mocked Jewish actress is telling her own story:Maybe you know Miriam Margolyes from her roles in Harry Potter and Call the Midwife — and about 150 other films and shows. Offscreen, she is an outspoken, ribald, 83-year old feminist, a Cambridge University-educated Jewish lesbian. She’s out with a new memoir that our reviewer calls “a thoughtful reflection on the art of acting, an advice manual for living well and a soapbox for her political views.”

Plus…

• On Sunday, 1 in 3 French voters picked a far-right party with a history of antisemitism. Our columnist Robert Zaretsky explains the complexities of the campaign.

  
  

• Goyhood, a new novel, is a “disaster-laced road trip across the American South with a more serious inquiry into American Jewish identity,” our reviewer writes.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Palestinian lightweight boxer Waseem Abu Sal training at a gym in the occupied West Bank, as he preps for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. (Getty)

🏅 Six athletes are set to compete for the Palestinian team at the Paris Olympics later this month. Only 26 athletes have represented Palestine in the Olympics’ history. (Times of Israel)

🪦  Vandals damaged more than 170 gravestones at two Jewish sections of a cemetery in Cincinnati. “The destruction includes tombstones dating back to the late 1800s, many of which have been knocked over, with some cracked in half,” the local Federation said in a statement. (The Enquirer)

🫄 A Kentucky judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by three Jewish mothers who challenged the state’s abortion law citing religious freedom concerns. (JTA)

🇻🇳  A Jewish family says they were kicked out of a restaurant in Vietnam when the owner raised his middle finger and shouted, “We only welcome humans, dogs, and cats.” (Jerusalem Post)

🎭  Actor Joshua Malina (The West Wing, Leopoldstadt) is set to star as a “secular, sarcastic, anti-religious Jew” in the London stage adaptation of Nathan Englander’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. Malina previously starred in a San Diego production of the play. (Deadline)

Shiva call ➤  The Kossover Rebbe, a Hasidic leader in Borough Park, died at 66.

What else we’re reading ➤  Yad Vashem’s biannual Holocaust educators’ conference wrestles with a new, post-Oct. 7 reality … Hundreds of audio recordings of historic lectures from famous Jewish thinkers are now available at the 92NY’s website … The Hadar Institute’s new plan has it minting rabbis, opening synagogues and sending teens to Israel. Is it a denomination now?

VIDEO OF THE DAY

There’s a new Israeli film making its U.S. debut this Friday, and it has nothing to do with the war. It tells a story of sexual identity and personal trauma, following a man whose return to Israel triggers a series of life-altering events. Our reviewer calls its “expressive cinematography” a “feast for the eyes.” Watch the trailer above.

Thanks to Mira Fox, Jacob Kornbluh and Lauren Markoe 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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Reporting from the ground in Israel and campuses takes resources. Support the news that matters to you with a monthly donation.