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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

It’s June 5, the day in 1916 when Louis Brandeis became the first Jew on the Supreme Court. Now, let’s start the day: Columbia to hire guards to escort Jewish students on campus, Fauda creators working on Oct. 7 movie, why Ohio wants to stop Hebrew Union College from selling its rare book collection, the dybbuk in Star Wars’ new series, and remembering a Chabad legend.

 ISRAEL AT WAR

Palestinians collect water in the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza in March. HIAS allocated $300,000 to provide aid in the enclave, but internal divisions mean that money has not yet been spent. (Getty)

HIAS allocated $300K for Gaza aid. Here’s why the money never got there: Shortly after Oct. 7, the nonprofit raised $2.3 million, some of which was earmarked to help Palestinian victims of the subsequent war in Gaza. But divisions within the Jewish refugee aid organization — especially between staff and the board — has prevented any money from flowing to Gaza. “It’s not easy being a Jewish humanitarian organization at this point in history,” said CEO Mark Hetfield. Read the story ➤


Driving the morning…


Israel launched a secret influence campaign by creating hundreds of fake social media accounts, according to a report this morning in The New York Times. Using AI and three fake English news sites, the posts were meant to urge U.S. lawmakers to continue to support Israel’s military.


🔎 Zooming out: Last week, OpenAI “identified and disrupted online campaigns” run by “state actors and private companies in Russia, China, Iran and Israel” that used artificial intelligence to covertly influence geopolitics.


The latest…

Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated Tuesday at Hunter College’s graduation in Brooklyn. (Getty)

Campus…

  • The Columbia Law Review’s entire website was taken offline after it posted an article by a Palestinian human rights lawyer that criticized Israel. The student-run publication’s board, made up of alumni and faculty, said it made the decision because the article had not gone through the normal review process.


  • Columbia University agreed to hire a “Safe Passage Liaison” to escort Jewish students who feel unsafe around campus. It’s part of a settlement in a class-action lawsuit.


  • A school district in British Columbia, Canada, apologized on behalf of a school that asked sixth and seventh graders if Israel should exist.


  • A North Carolina school agreed to settle a complaint with a non-Jewish eighth grader who wore an Israeli sports jersey and was bullied for being “perceived” as Jewish.


Plus…

  • The creators of the hit Netflix series Fauda are making a movie about Oct. 7, which will focus on the real-life story of Noam Tibon, a grandfather and retired general who gained international attention when he drove into danger and rescued his family from Hamas terrorists.


  • A Palestinian-American engineer sued Meta, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated for attempting to address bugs that suppressed Palestinian Instagram posts.


  • United Airlines is set to resume flights to Israel on Thursday. Delta previously announced it was also resuming flights this week.


Opinions…


Hamas’ leaders hold Netanyahu’s political future in their hands, writes Dan Perry. The outcome, he argues, will remake Israel.


During an interview, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a plea for a “Judeo-Christian civilization.” It’s a loaded term used throughout modern history in the struggle against communism, secularism, atheism and now Islam, writes historian Robert Zaretsky.

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STAR WARS

A scene from The Acolyte, a new Star Wars series. (Disney+)

Did you watch the new Star Wars show, The Acolyte, which debuted Tuesday on Disney+? Our culture reporter PJ Grisar did, and sent in this short dispatch: “Viewers were introduced to a space parasite called a dybbuk. Characters note that the creature is used to subdue violent criminals and that it does ‘weird stuff to your brain.’ It’s not unlike the dybbuks from Jewish folklore, restless spirits that possess living humans like a parasite latching onto a host. It’s likely that series creator Leslye Headland, who has dabbled in Jewish mysticism with her series Russian Doll, was paying homage to the legend.”


Related: The secret Jewish history of Star Wars

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Elliot Brandt speaking at AIPAC’s 2019 conference in Washington, D.C. (C-SPAN)

🇺🇸  AIPAC named its new CEO, Elliot Brandt, who has spent nearly 30 years at the organization. He will succeed Howard Kohr, who is retiring at the end of 2024. (JTA)


📚  To help with its struggling finances, Hebrew Union College wants to sell items from its rare book library. But the Ohio attorney general on Tuesday asked a judge to stop any sale, arguing that “the texts were entrusted to the library with the understanding that they would be preserved and maintained” for researchers, and that using proceeds from a sale to reduce college debt may be illegal. (AP)


🏀  A new Hulu series dramatizes the real-life story of the downfall of Donald Sterling, the Jewish LA Clippers owner, whose 2014 racism scandal led to his lifetime ban from the NBA. (JTA)


Geography lesson ➤  Mexico just elected a Jewish president. Here are four other countries besides Israel with Jewish heads of state.


Mazel tov ➤  Congrats to the hardworking team here at the Forward who took home 32 Rockower Awards this week from the American Jewish Press Association. Here’s the full list of winners.


Shiva call ➤  Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, who played an instrumental role in Chabad’s global expansion, died at 74.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Lena Dunham stars in Treasure, a new movie about a daughter who travels with her father, a Holocaust survivor portrayed by Stephen Fry, back to Poland to learn about their family history. Watch the trailer above; the movie arrives in theaters on June 14.

Thanks to PJ Grisar, Arno Rosenfeld, Jodi Rudoren 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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Reporting from the ground in Israel and campuses takes resources. Support the news that matters to you with a monthly donation.