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| INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. SINCE 1897. Give a tax-deductible donation Welcome to our new morning newsletter, where each weekday I walk you through what you need to know – showcasing the best of Forward journalism and Jewish headlines from around the web. In today’s briefing: The secret Jewish history of the NBA Finals, the new front in the campus debate over Israel, a Yiddish paean to honor Woody Guthrie's birthday and more...
ONE BIG STORY 📺 A new reality show traces Julia Haart's journey from an Orthodox life to becoming a fashion mogul. Photo courtesy of Netflix 'My Unorthodox Life' is Netflix's new binge-worthy show One of the most highly-anticipated Jewish series debuts on Netflix today. “My Unorthodox Life” is a reality show that follows the journey of Julia Haart, who was raised in a deeply religious community and left it in her 40s to enter the fashion industry. Haart first led a lingerie company and now is the boss of one of the world’s largest modeling agencies.
“For Haart, glam outfits and stilettos are freeing,” our Irene Katz Connelly wrote in her review of the show, “synonymous with her escape from a community where she felt her body was a subject of shame.”
I first met Haart in the 1990s, when my father – a rabbi and principal of Yeshiva High School in Atlanta – hired her to lead Judaic Studies for the girls. Haart certainly stood out from the other teachers at our school, dressing like a fashion model as she taught the intricacies of Leviticus or the laws of Passover.
Our families became fast friends. We shared Shabbat meals. She attended my wedding. We’ve stayed in touch over the years, and I’ve watched her transformation as she left the Orthodox community and began an unexpected new chapter in her life.
Haart was beloved by her Orthodox students and many have not stopped being inspired by her. In Facebook groups, in recent days, they have taken to posting nostalgic 1990s-era photos along with fond memories. Haart loves them right back. “My issues and the way that I was treated have nothing to do with Judaism,” she told The New York Times in an article published on Tuesday. “Judaism is about values and community and lovingkindness and beautiful things. I feel very proud to be a Jew.”
Read the Forward’s review of “My Unorthodox Life” >
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE 🇮🇱 Photo courtesy of Professional Staff Congress New front opens up in campus debates over Israel: Dozens of faculty and staff at the City University of New York are quitting their union over an anti-Israel statement that one professor likened to “Hamas propaganda.” Officials of the 30,000-member union defend the statement as part of its historic support for causes around the globe. But some professors say that while they still support the union in principle, they cannot abide by its harsh critique of the Jewish state. And thanks to a Supreme Court decision, when they leave the union, so do their dues. As our Arno Rosenfeld reports, this is an entirely new front in the academic debate over Israel. Read the story >
6 OTHER THINGS AMERICAN JEWS ARE TALKING ABOUT ⚾️ Elie Kligman, drafted by the Washington Nationals, became the second Orthodox Jew in two days to join Major League Baseball. 1. Well, this certainly came out of left field. Remember earlier this week when we told you about the first Orthodox player to be drafted into Major League Baseball? You'll never believe this: Elie Kligman has become the second Orthodox baseball player drafted into the MLB in two days. I guess eight more and they'll have enough for a minyan. Pray ball!
2. A new book on mahjong and its cultural journey in the U.S. suggests that there is much to learn from the game’s history, particularly how to put the rising anti-Asian and anti-Jewish hatred of our time in context.
3. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman confirmed a report that former President Donald Trump was disappointed that former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was a close ally, congratulated Joe Biden when the networks called the election in November. “That's how democracies work," Friedman told radio host Zev Brenner. "The relationship between Israel and the United States is more important than any particular individual.”
4. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid entered quarantine on Tuesday after one of his aides tested positive for the coronavirus. Lapid was also tested for the virus and found to be negative.
5. In Tuesday's newsletter, I mentioned that the host of the podcast "The Cutting Room Floor" was accused of antisemitism after an interview she did with Jewish fashion blogger Leandra Medine Cohen. Our digital culture critic, Mira Fox, listened closely and puts a pox on both their houses.
6. A federal court has thrown out a lawsuit filed by Roy Moore, Alabama’s former chief justice and a failed Senate candidate, against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. The suit stemmed from a 2018 episode of the Showtime parody series "Who is America?" in which Baron Cohen pretended to be an Israeli military expert giving Moore an award for his support for Israel. Instead, the segment devolved into insinuations about sexual misconduct allegations against Moore.
FROM OUR YIDDISH EDITION 📚 Photo by Shulamit Seifler-Feller Meet the sociologist who left his Chabad community and wrote a pathbreaking study of ex-Hasidim: When Schneur Zalman Newfield studied at Chabad yeshivas, everyone thought he was a pious young man who had little knowledge of the outside world. In fact, he had a secret stash of contraband books – modern Yiddish literature, science and history texts, Russian novels. “The more secular literature and history I read, the more interested I became in learning further,” Newfield told our deputy Yiddish editor, Jordan Kutzik. “I had a thirst to learn about the outside world and others’ beliefs.” Years later – after learning English, receiving a GED and eventually earning a PhD from N.Y.U. – Newfield has written a book about his experience and that of others like him. Read the story >
Reclaiming my great-great-grandfather’s prayer book and the Yiddish world he lived in: On a trip to visit his grandparents, Gabriel Zuckerberg learned of an historical footnote – a holy book that his great-great-grandfather had used in the 19th century. “I decided then that I had to find this family heirloom,” writes Gabriel Zuckerberg about a college gap year that turned into a journey through his family ancestry. Read the story >
ON THE CALENDAR 🗓 🎼 On this day in history: Folk singer Woody Guthrie would have turned 109 today (he died in 1967). Together with his mother law – Aliza Greenblatt, a well-known Yiddish poet – he wrote many Jewish lyrics. In 2006, the Klezmatics released an album of Guthrie’s spiritual songs that won a Grammy Award. Earlier this year, we produced a Yiddish version of Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” and later hosted a Zoominar about the making of that music video.
🇮🇱 Today @ 11:30 a.m. ET: Join Jodi Rudoren; editor-in-chief of the Forward, Libby Lenkinski of the New Israel Fund, Mishy Harman of "Israel Story" and Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie of Lab Shul for a series called "Israel Therapy" to talk through individual dilemmas about how to square Israel's policies towards Palestinians with Jewish values of social justice. Register here.
PICTURE OF THE DAY 📸 Photo by Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images Israeli President Isaac Herzog (left) and Mohamed al-Khaja (right), the United Arab Emirates' ambassador to Israel, cut the ribbon at the UAE's new embassy on Wednesday. A product of the U.S. brokered Abraham Accords, the embassy is housed in Tel Aviv's new stock exchange building, highlighting the central role economic cooperation has played since the UAE became the third majority-Arab nation to recognize the Jewish state after Egypt and Jordan.
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