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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
| WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | | Today: Nearly half of adults globally have antisemitic views, new study finds • Hostage families brace for imminent deal • House speaker credits Bible for anti-trans law • ‘Jewish Nobel’ given to non-Jew for first time • And watch a food blogger try kishke. |
| | | | Sen. Marco Rubio speaks at a Trump rally in November. (Getty) |
| Mister Secretary
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is expected to face a friendly audience from that panel when it convenes today to consider his nomination as secretary of state in the second Trump administration. Rubio, a foreign policy hawk, will likely reassure traditional Republicans that President-elect Donald Trump will continue U.S. aid to Israel, amid concerns that some in Trump’s inner circle are pushing an isolationist approach across the globe.
Trump’s national security picks are staunch Israel supporters, some of whom have denied the existence of the Palestinian people and back the annexation of the occupied West Bank. |
| | Other confirmation hearings… Yesterday: Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host tapped to run the defense department, was asked at his hearing if he was a Christian Zionist. “I am a Christian and I robustly support the state of Israel,” he replied.
Today: Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general, wants to crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters and reinstate Trump’s Muslim “travel ban.” She was also a registered lobbyist for Qatar.
Postponed: The hearing for Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor up for the top job in the Department of Homeland Security, planned for today, was pushed to Friday. Noem wrote in her memoir that she shot her dog, a decision our Mira Fox points out defied morality — and the Talmud. |
| | Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt said she expects the Trump administration to take antisemitism “very seriously.” (Getty) |
| Exit interview
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Biden’s antisemitism envoy, struck a remarkably optimistic tone Tuesday, saying she has “hope” that the Trump team will build on her antisemitism work, in part because her approach dovetails with a conservative worldview about how to protect Jews. Lipstadt, a renowned Holocaust scholar, has been a vocal proponent of an approach to antisemitism that’s rooted in a defense of Israel and Zionism, something that has become anathema to many on the left since Oct. 7 and is embraced by many in Trump’s orbit.
Speaking to a group of Jewish reporters she invited to the State Department, including our Arno Rosenfeld, Lipstadt said she hopes her replacement “will be a barn builder not a barn burner, who will build up as opposed to continuously shry gevalt,” using a Yiddish phrase that roughly means “make a stink.”
The roundtable came on the same day that the Anti-Defamation League released a major global survey, its first in a decade, which found that 46% of the world’s adults harbor antisemitic attitudes. Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, said the data showed that “antisemitism is nothing short of a global emergency.” |
| | Related: Trump is reportedly eyeing unconventional choices to replace Lipstadt, including Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, former Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind and social media influencer Lizzy Savetsky. (Forward, JTA)
🎉 Party planners: Miriam Adelson and Mark Zuckerberg are hosting an inaugural ball reception.
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| | | | A soldier walks by a wall covered with photos of hostages in a Tel Aviv train station on Tuesday. (Getty) |
| Israelis are holding their collective breaths this morning as final details are worked out for a potentially imminent ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
The hostages… Families of the hostages met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, concerned that a phased-release deal, starting with 33 hostages over six weeks, lacks a guaranteed timeline for freeing all captives, potentially leaving some behind. (Times of Israel)
Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv Tuesday night, calling for the return of all 98 hostages. In Jerusalem, hundreds gathered to oppose the deal, claiming it would put Israel in more danger. (Haaretz, Times of Israel)
Medical experts warn that released hostages will face health and psychological challenges, including significant weight loss, emotional trauma, and complications from poor hygiene and inadequate medical care. (Times of Israel)
An Israeli singer used artificial intelligence to create a music video that imagines the release of the hostages. It’s been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. (JTA)
Plus… Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israeli Jews must abandon ideas of annexing the occupied West Bank and accept the need for an independent Palestinian state if they hope for a secure future and regional peace. (Forward)
Dozens of countries are sending representatives to Norway today for talks to find a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (AFP)
Estimates of the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the war missed 25,000 deaths, a new study claims. (New York Times) |
| | | | | | Volunteers sort donated items at the Santa Anita Racetrack parking lot in Arcadia, California. (Getty) |
| Opinion | Los Angeles County has more Jews than any other U.S. county, and the fires leveled a synagogue and stripped congregants of their homes. How will the community recover and rebuild? “This is when it’s good to be Jewish,” Rabbi Jonathan Zasloff, who lost his home, told our senior columnist Rob Eshman. “Because, you know, the rabbis didn’t do everything well, but they did disaster pretty well.” Read his essay ►
🔌 Plug: Our LA-based reporter, Louis Keene, was on a BBC radio program sharing stories from the fire’s aftermath.
Catch up: All our wildfires coverage
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| | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | Speaker of the House Mike Johnson answers questions Tuesday after a vote on a bill about transgender student athletes. (Getty) |
| 🤔 The House passed a bill banning transgender students from girls’ sports. In an interview afterwards, House Speaker Mike Johnson quoted from Genesis and said the Bible was “pretty clear” on the issue. (Religion News Service)
🚧 Six men involved in the excavation of a tunnel beneath Chabad’s Brooklyn headquarters pleaded guilty to reduced charges, agreeing to pay fines and refrain from any construction at the site for three years, while four others have chosen to proceed to trial. (NY Jewish Week)
💬 In a departure from previous years, the Auschwitz museum decided that only survivors will speak at the upcoming 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, banning speeches by politicians. (Guardian)
🏠 A counter-extremism nonprofit bought the home overlooking Auschwitz that is at the center of the Oscar-winning movie The Zone of Interest. The group plans to open it to visitors for the anniversary, with eventual plans for star architect Daniel Libeskind to redesign the property. (New York Times)
🇮🇪 Irish President Michael Higgins, previously accused of antisemitism, is set to deliver the keynote address at Ireland's National Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration, sparking criticism from Jewish leaders. (Jewish Chronicle)
🏆 The Genesis Prize, often referred to as the “Jewish Nobel,” named Argentina President Javier Milei as its 2025 laureate, the first time the award has been given to a non-Jew or a head of state. Previous winners include Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Barbra Streisand. (JTA)
Transitions ► The Holocaust Museum Houston named Gary Weisserman its new CEO … The 21-year-old Israel-based Center for Women’s Justice will shut down in the coming months when its founder, Susan Weiss, retires … The Secure Community Network named Wendy Berger as chair of its board.
What else we’re reading ► A new novel is being described as a Palestinian-American Sex and the City (The Atlantic) … Inside the movement to redirect billions of taxpayer dollars to private religious schools (ProPublica) … Why the head of the Jewish Federations wants to ban TikTok (Times of Israel).
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| | | | Interfaith dining: What happens when a food influencer with millions of views on TikTok tries Jewish food for the first time? Watch as he toured Hasidic neighborhoods eating babka, blintzes, kishke, potato kugel, rugelach — and kosher Chinese food. |
| Thanks to Arno Rosenfeld and Talya Zax 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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