WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Feds investigating University of North Carolina for anti-Israel rhetoric, what it’s like being a gay Orthodox pulpit rabbi, and the significance of two Jewish Willy Wonkas.

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Iman Abid-Thompson, advocacy director for the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, spoke at a rally last month outside the White House. (Courtesy)

Palestinian advocacy groups seek ‘leverage’ with new political wings: The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights is launching a political action wing that plans to endorse 2024 candidates and spend money to help them get elected. The shift toward electoral politics is part of a growing trend among progressive organizations working on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, who feel like the time is ripe to mobilize a younger generation of voters. “I think it’s the first time that Palestinian human rights might emerge as a voting issue,” said Waleed Shahid, a former spokesperson for Justice Democrats, which helped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive Democrats get elected to Congress. Read the story ➤

As the war rages on, Jewish day schools still plan to send students to Israel: Schools committed to the spring semester trips are assuring families that they are building in extra security precautions, and adjusting itineraries to steer clear of the fighting. At the same time, students can expect to participate in volunteer opportunities, like delivering care packages to soldiers. Our intern Debbie Miszak shares how three high schools are prepping for the trips. Read the story ➤

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a funeral for an IDF soldier killed in the war. (Getty)

Opinion | Netanyahu’s one job was to prevent this catastrophe. Instead, he destroyed Israel as we know it: More than two months since the attack, “it’s a permanent twilight here now, between sleeplessness and not-quite-waking, between lucky to be alive and guilty for breath,” writes Bradley Burston, who lives in Jaffa. “Between feeling too much and going numb. Everyone has lost someone.” He blames Netanyahu who, Burston argues, ignored warnings of Hamas activity and bungled the response. Read his essay ➤

This Arab-Israeli high school comedy is the TV show about the conflict we all need right now: Created by Arab-Israeli TV writer Sayed Kashua, Madrasa sidesteps “the high-level government and political maelstrom to focus on everyday life,” writes our culture reporter Mira Fox. “Through the students’ relationships — with each other, their teachers, their families and their neighbors — it deftly takes on the complex politics of life in the most contested city in Israel without feeling, for the most part, heavy-handed.” Read the story ➤

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is under federal investigation. (Creative Commons)

Plus…

The U.S. Department of Education said Wednesday that it will investigate the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for allowing anti-Israel rhetoric on campus.

Police arrested dozens of anti-Israel protesters on Wednesday at New York’s JFK airport and Los Angeles’ LAX airport.

An Israeli military reservist recently auditioned to be Israel’s contestant at the Eurovision song contest. The 26-year-old was killed Monday in Gaza.

BEST OF 2023

Rabbi Shua Brick wants to shape a new way of thinking about queer Orthodox Jews. (Juliana Yamada)

This week in Forwarding the News, we’re revisiting some of our favorite stories of 2023…

Orthodox Judaism has its first openly gay congregational rabbi. This is his story:Rabbi Shua Brick, 29, always planned to become a rabbi. But as he came to terms with his sexuality in his late teens, his path to a congregational position became unclear; he couldn’t imagine the kind of Orthodox synagogue that would embrace the idea of a gay person teaching Torah. But at Oakland’s Beth Jacob, he found a home. “Talking about queer experiences is not as two-dimensional as talking about the permissibility or non-permissibility of very specific sex acts,” Brick told our Louis Keene. “There is a lot more to a person — a lot more to these questions — that is worth exploring.”

His synagogue barred him because he’s gay. Now, he protests outside each Shabbat:Brian Mandel and his husband had been members of their Orthodox South Florida shul for a decade, often taking steps to obscure their relationship; they knew from experience that Orthodox Jewish spaces could be unwelcoming to LGBTQ+ congregants. Then, last January, they say their rabbi told them the presence of a gay couple had made some of their peers uncomfortable, and barred them from services. “To me it’s a simple matter: I’m a Jew,” Mandel, who took up weekly protests outside the building, told Louis. “Where do I belong on Shabbos if not shul?”

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

A sculpture garden at the campus of American Jewish University in Los Angeles. (Courtesy)

🏫 American Jewish University’s sale of its 22-acre campus in Los Angeles to a Switzerland-based corporation fell through this summer. On Wednesday, AJU said it had reached a deal to sell the land to the Jewish school next door. (Forward)

⚖️ A number of national Jewish groups have come to the defense of a Muslim judicial nominee, saying Republican lawmakers inappropriately grilled him about his views on terrorism, Israel and antisemitism. (JTA)

🪲 Anophthalmus hitleri is a small, amber-colored beetle native to a few damp caves in Slovenia. Scientists are grappling with one glaring problem: It’s named after Hitler. (New York Times)

🔨 The Jewish community in Thessaloniki, Greece, announced plans for a Holocaust museum in 2013. A decade later, after years of land ownership and zoning issues, construction can finally begin. (Neos Kosmos)

Shiva calls ➤ Herb Kohl, a former U.S. senator and owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, and whose family founded Kohl’s department stores, died at 88 … Isaac Arazi, the leader of Lebanon’s tiny Jewish community, died at 80.

What else we’re reading ➤ Two Jewish Willy Wonkas is sweet revenge, considering the antisemitism of the author who created the character … In Germany’s struggle against antisemitism, the arts are suffering … The spiritual lessons of Netflix’s The Crown.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(Getty)

Barnabas Szollos, a skier representing Israel, took part in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup men’s downhill training on Wednesday in Bormio, Italy. The race itself takes place today.

Thanks to Mira Fox, Arno Rosenfeld 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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