Meet ground zero's Jewish chaplain and the Israeli architect who designed the 9/11 memorial

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In today's briefing: Bumps for Jewish students at Tufts and Barnard, meet the French Tucker Carlson, penguin rescued at Rosh Hashanah service, pre-Yom Kippur recipes and more.

OUR LEAD STORY 🕯

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

‘It was absolutely overwhelming’: Our interview with ground zero’s Jewish chaplain

Rabbi Alvin Kass is the NYPD’s longest-serving chaplain, having worked under seven mayors and 16 police commissioners. Twenty years after Sept. 11th, 2001, the Forward spoke with Kass about how his fellow NYPD chaplains and officers responded, and the spiritual lesson that can be learned from overwhelming devastation.

One event that has stuck with him is the Rosh Hashanah service he led for a federal emergency response team a week after that attack. “When the cantor blows the shofar, it is always an eerie sound,” he recalled. “But that day it particularly had a mystical effect upon all of us that no other shofar blowing ever had.” Read the story >

How the National 9/11 Memorial changed public grief – and the Israeli-American architect who designed it

Michael Arad was 34 years old when he won the contract to create a memorial at Ground Zero in 2004, besting more than 5,000 submissions. The designs he sketched in the grim weeks after the attacks have changed the way the country visualizes shared grief. “It’s how we end up understanding, not just events, but also ourselves,” he told a Forward intern, Sara Herschander. “And, our relationship to these events and to other people.” Read the story >

More of our 9/11 anniversary coverage:

From our friends at the Religion News Service: 9/11 became a catalyst for interfaith relations and cooperation

ALSO IN THE FORWARD 👋

The French Tucker Carlson is Jewish, xenophobic — and maybe a presidential candidate: “Born 63 years ago in a Paris suburb to Algerian Jewish parents, Eric Zemmour is no more like Carlson than a baguette française is like a French baguette at my local supermarket,” writes our columnist Robert Zaretsky. “While the two media figures share some ingredients — notably, animosity to immigration, aversion to Muslims and abhorrence of ‘political correctness’ — they have different pedigrees and appeal to different consumers.” Read the story >

Barnard College told observant Jewish students they had to go online during Rosh Hashanah: Ninety minutes after sending an email saying that students would need to break religious practice and use technology in order to meet the school’s COVID-19 protocols, the school quickly reversed course and apologized. Read the story >

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY👇

🐧 Meet the modern Orthodox new head of the Pittsburgh Zoo. This intriguing profile includes the story of the time someone brought a penguin into a Rosh Hashanah service. The animal was suffering an epileptic seizure and Dr. Jeremy Goodman jumped right in to ensure the bird was inscribed in the Book of Life. (Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle)

💰 Three people were charged with stealing tens of thousands of dollars by obtaining credit in the names of residents of the Surfside, Florida condo that collapsed. Among the seven targets were Frank Kleiman, a child of Cuban Jewish emigres, and his wife, Ana Ortiz. (NYT)

🔎 Tufts University is investigating the removal of a mezuzah from the doorpost of a Jewish student’s dorm room. “Regardless of intent,” the university president, Anthony Monaco, wrote in an email to students, the incident “is antisemitic and has caused harm.” (Tufts Daily)

🧪 Yuri Milner, the Israeli-Russian billionaire, is reportedly helping fund a “rejuvenation” company aimed at reversing the aging process. He previously donated $100 million to help search for aliens. (Technology Review)

🐶 This headline speaks for itself: He was sentenced to life in prison. Rescue dogs — and a rabbi — helped him find redemption. (JTA)

Flashback > Remember the TikTok user who combined the call of sea lions with the blasts of the shofar? Well, her dad is shepping nachas.

Shiva call > Joseph I. Kramer, known as the “country doctor” of the Lower East Side, died at 96. “He evolved from a pediatrician into a general practitioner, treating prostitutes, priests, bookies, Puerto Rican abuelas and more,” Alex Traub wrote in The New York Times. “He often accompanied patients to the pharmacy across the street and paid for their medicine, knowing they could not afford the drugs he prescribed.”

Long weekend reads > The hasidic rebbe who helped defeat Napoleon … New book tells the story of an American Jew turned Hindu holy woman … An oral history of the other thing that happened 20 years ago this week.

FROM OUR KITCHEN 🍅

End-of-summer tomatoes for Yom Kippur break fast: Apples may get the spotlight at Rosh Hashanah, but the holidays coming early in the English calendar this year brings opportunities to experiment. The tomato vines in the new garden of our food writer Liza Schoenfein are quite literally bearing fruit. Yours too? Why not end this year’s fast with some tomato jam on a bagel and tomato-olive-oil upside-down cake? Get the recipes >

Apples and honey chicken for the holiday you forgot about: Sure, we all were completely prepared for Rosh Hashanah (right?), but it’s already Friday and would you believe Shabbat starts in a few hours? Oh, and don’t forget about the pre-Yom Kippur meal lurking around the corner. No need to fret. Carly Pildis has the perfect idea. Get the recipe >

9 tips for an easy fast: Low blood sugar? Caffeine withdrawal? Yom Kippur can be difficult on your body, so we asked a nutritionist for some time-tested techniques. Read the story >

A PODCAST WE RECOMMEND 🎧

Did you hear about the “Shawshank Redemption”-style prison break this week? The authorities are still hunting for the six Palestinian prisoners who escaped an Israeli jail. Learn all about it on today’s new episode of “Unholy: Two Jews on the News.” The two Jews are Yonit Levi of Israel’s Channel 12 and Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian. The duo also look back at the effect of 9/11 on Jews and Israelis, and devise an alternative plot of “The White Lotus” starring... the Netanyahu family. Listen now >

ON THE CALENDAR 🗓

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Mark your calendar! Join David Duchovny and others for our virtual gala on Oct. 20, 2021. It’s an evening celebrating Jewish American narratives with storytellers Etgar Keret, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Miz Cracker and more. Plus our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, will talk with Duchovny about his Yiddish roots. (Little-known fact: His grandfather was a writer for the Forverts.) Register now >

PHOTO OF THE DAY 📸

Rabbi Zalman Groner of the Chabad Center of Metairie, Louisiana, delivers a generator to a member of the community. More than a week after Hurricane Ida, many in the state are still without power. In nearby New Orleans, Chabad served 180 Rosh Hashanah meals.

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