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| | | | WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | Today: Why Bruce Springsteen should listen to Rabbi Heschel • Israel’s allies grow angry over Gaza humanitarian crisis • Christian Zionists open Holocaust museum in South Korea • and much more. |
| | | | Eliana Goldin was a Jewish student leader at Columbia University. (Courtesy) |
| Jewish Columbia student’s ‘worst antisemitic attack’ on campus
Eliana Goldin graduated from Columbia University on Monday. On Tuesday, she went public with what she called “the worst antisemitic attack I faced personally on campus.” Goldin, 23, shared her story Tuesday in a viral thread on X, which now has nearly 1 million views. She said the student newspaper removed her as a columnist after critics unearthed an old Instagram post of hers, recasting it as inciting violence against Palestinians.
What happened next, Goldin said, was a wave of harassment. “People were saying I needed to be dealt with,” she said. “I went to public safety. I got threatening DMs. It felt like the whole campus thought I was a monster.”
Days after the column ran, the newspaper told her that the planned recurring column — Common Ground, about bridging divides between Zionist and Palestinian students — would not continue. An editor, Milène Klein, who is also Jewish, said Goldin wasn’t “fired” — and that the column ended to protect her safety amid escalating threats.
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| | More at Columbia… Columbia’s acting president Claire Shipman was loudly booed and met with chants of “Free Mahmoud” at a Tuesday graduation ceremony, a protest over the detention of campus activist Mahmoud Khalil by immigration officials in March. (NBC News)
Columbia’s full commencement is set to start at 10:30 a.m. Watch it here.
Additional reading: The inside story of how Columbia surrendered to President Trump (New York Magazine)
On other campuses…
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh was taken hostage and killed in Gaza, is set to give the commencement address Thursday at Yeshiva University. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Republican from New York who has become a vocal critic of campus antisemitism, will be honored at the graduation. (Times of Israel)
Related: Dozens of YU faculty members signed an open letter criticizing the school’s decision to host Stefanik. Students and their families, they wrote, “should not also be required to applaud a politician whose rhetoric has undermined democratic principles, emboldened racist conspiracy theories, and contradicted the core Jewish values of integrity and truth.” (Google Docs)
Plus… The federal government may seek to re-detain college students previously held by immigration officials over alleged pro-Palestinian activism on campus. (Scripps News)
The Trump administration escalated its attacks on universities, warning that schools could be penalized for allowing antisemitism or failing to protect Jewish students. A Department of Justice memo said universities risk violating the law if they accept federal money while tolerating discrimination or harassment. (Reuters)
Michigan State University agreed to pay $30,000 to settle a lawsuit with a quiz maker who said the school used an image of Hitler from his YouTube channel without permission during a 2023 football game. (WKAR)
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| | | | Bruce Springsteen performing last week in Manchester, England. (Getty) |
| Why Bruce Springsteen should stop listening to Trump and start listening to Rabbi Heschel
Last week, Springsteen kicked off his current tour, where he peppered his concert with remarks critical of the Trump administration. In his songs, the Boss sometimes adopts a prophetic tone. It reminded our music critic, Seth Rogovoy, of the words of the beloved 20th-century Jewish philosopher and activist Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: “What saved the prophets from despair was their messianic vision and their idea of man’s capacity for repentance.” Read his essay ►
Plus… More than half of U.S. voters — 54% — support Trump’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war so far, according to a new poll with a three-point margin of error. (Harvard CAPS/Harris, Algemeiner)
Trump unveiled new details of his sweeping plan for a multibillion-dollar U.S. missile defense system dubbed the “Golden Dome,” modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome, and said he expects it to be finished before he leaves office. (BBC)
Our most-read story yesterday: About a century ago, Hitler declared war on the “lying press” and targeted a feisty little newspaper. That sounds similar to what’s happening between Trump and media today, argues historian Terrence Petty in an opinion essay. |
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| | | | | A man holds a poster as right-wing demonstrators gather to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza on Thursday. (Getty) |
| The crisis in Gaza… Nearly all Senate Democrats have backed a resolution urging the swift delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. (JTA)
As Israel’s attacks escalates and Gaza faces a deepening hunger crisis, even some of Israel’s staunch Jewish supporters are now accusing the country of war crimes and using terms like “genocide.” (JTA)
Theo Von, a popular podcaster often described as “the next Joe Rogan,” traveled last week with Trump to Qatar. This week, he told his listeners that he thought Israel was committing genocide. (AP, X)
Israeli left-wing leader Yair Golan is doubling down on his criticism that Israel “kills babies as a hobby.” He added: “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state among the nations, what South Africa once was, if it doesn’t return to acting like a sane country.” (JTA)
Pope Leo XIV, during his first weekly general audience, described the situation in Gaza as “worrying and painful” and urged that adequate humanitarian aid be allowed into the war-torn enclave. (Times of Israel)
The European Union said that the 27-nation bloc will launch a formal review of its trade agreement with Israel. Separately, Britain, Canada and France have also begun weighing options. (Washington Post, JTA)
The Israeli military warned Tuesday that if Hamas refuses to release the remaining hostages, it is ready to seize additional territory in Gaza. (Times of Israel)
Plus: U.S. intelligence indicates that Israel is preparing to strike Iranian nuclear sites, even as the Trump administration pushes for a diplomatic deal with Tehran, according to sources familiar. (CNN) |
| | | | Rachael Fried, executive director of Jewish Queer Youth, poses with Tony Award-winning producer Rachel Sussman at the 2025 JQY Gala. (Abbie Sophia Photography) |
| Sushi, showtunes, Sussman
Rachel Sussman, the Tony-winning producer of Suffs and Alex Edelman’s Just for Us, was honored this week as the first-ever recipient of the Queer Jewish Icon award. The gala, hosted by Jewish Queer Youth and complete with a kosher sushi conveyor belt and Broadway stars belting showtunes, set the stage for Sussman’s powerful message: “With antisemitism and homophobia so rampant,” she said, “it feels even more important that we live in our truth and stand up for, protect, at-risk youth who need us most.” Go deeper ►
Our latest advice column: I’m not Jewish. Can I still use the name Yael?
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| | | | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | Israel’s Yuval Raphael performed in the finale of the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday. (EBU/Alma Bengtsson) |
| 🎶 Eurovision officials are defending their voting system after some countries questioned how Israel’s entry, boosted by a surge of paid audience votes, managed to place second in the contest. (JTA)
🇰🇷 A group of Christian Zionists in South Korea opened the nation’s first Holocaust museum on Monday, saying the effort was sparked by a surge in antisemitism since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. (JTA)
💡 A family that held onto a lampshade made from human skin — taken from a concentration camp in April 1945 as grim evidence of Nazi atrocities — has now donated the artifact to the Buchenwald Memorial museum. (BBC)
🐈 A new survey from researchers at Hebrew University reveals a feline paradox: Nearly a third of Israelis regularly feed stray cats, yet most still want to see fewer prowling their neighborhoods. (Journal of Preventative Veterinary Medicine)
What we’re watching ► Reformed, a new French comedy on HBO Max, about a female rabbi struggling for acceptance. It “explores, with deep honesty, the contradictions of modern, liberal Judaism,” our Mira Fox writes in a review. |
| | | | Watch comedian Elon Gold’s stand-up set that he performed at the Palm Beach Synagogue’s annual gala dinner. |
| Thanks to PJ Grisar and Jake Wasserman 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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