JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Scheduling: This newsletter will be off Friday, when you’ll receive instead links to news, features and opinion of the day. I’ll be back in your inbox on Monday.

Today: Harvard settles antisemitism lawsuits • Israel launches military operation in West Bank • Full-size replica of Anne Frank’s secret annex opens in NYC • A Jewish ‘Sopranos’ comes to TV • and a Jerusalem restaurant renames itself Pizza Trump.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Elon Musk makes a now-infamous gesture at an inauguration event. (Getty)

Defining moment or distraction?

Elon Musk — the top donor to President Donald Trump’s campaign who holds an outsize role in the new administration — continues to draw controversy over what looked like two Nazi salutes he made during an Inauguration Day speech in Washington.

Opinion | The fracas demonstrates how social media fuels cultural division while reducing serious issues to spectacles, argues our senior columnist, Rob Eshman. “We can argue endlessly and cleverly over that dumb salute, but it’s fundamentally a distraction” from the litany of executive orders issued so far by Trump — like pardoning Jan. 6 rioters who promoted antisemitic conspiracies and his planned mass deportation of immigrants. “Our more important task is to define those moments that truly matter, and throw our voices, talents, resources, time and energy into them.” Read his essay ►

Opinion | Musk, like Trump, politicizes aesthetics, ensuring that the visual gestures of tyranny are both familiar and meaningless. This, argues history professor Robert Zaretsky, trivializes fascism while amplifying its allure in an era of performative outrage. Read his essay ►

• Within hours of the incident, the Anti-Defamation League said Musk’s move was merely “an awkward gesture,” but how did it reach that conclusion? The group, which has famously fought with Musk in the past over antisemitism on X, his social media platform, is not saying. (JTA)

  
  

• Musk’s latest response: “The radical leftists are really upset that they had to take time out of their busy day praising Hamas to call me a Nazi.” (X)

Rep. Elise Stefanik testifies before the Senate on her nomination to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. (Getty)

In other Trump news…

• Rep. Elise Stefanik criticized the “antisemitic rot” within the United Nations and urged the defunding of its Palestinian aid agency during her Senate confirmation hearing, where she is being considered for the role of U.S. ambassador to the U.N. (JTA)

  
  

• An Episcopal bishop said she will continue to pray for Trump after the president demanded she apologize for saying at an inaugural prayer service Trump attended that he should have mercy on the LGBTQ+ community. (AP, Religion News Service)

  
  

• Trump made his first call to a foreign leader since becoming president. It was to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. (Times of Israel)

  
  

• A Jerusalem restaurant renamed itself Pizza Trump. It was previously called Klinton Pizza, after former President Bill Clinton, who visited Israel several times, and whose name the sign misspelled. (JTA)

Opinion | Trump’s inauguration was marked by the release of hostages from Gaza, signaling a theatrical approach to his second term, with potential implications for U.S. policy toward Iran and domestic issues like campus antisemitism. “What we’re witnessing now is a high-stakes change agenda set to unfold as the most spectacular reality show in world history,” writes Rabbi Pini Dunner. “And we are the audience.” Read his essay ►

ISRAEL AT WAR

Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, was chosen Wednesday to represent Israel in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest. (Getty)

Opinion | An Oct. 7 inquiry would have uncovered Israel’s systemic failures and recommended reforms, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition chose to obstruct the process. Our Tel Aviv-based columnist, Dan Perry, writes, “This decision, made nearly 16 months after the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, is a disgrace that lays bare the coalition’s priorities: avoiding accountability, delaying the truth, and protecting its political survival at the expense of the physical security — and mental health — of its citizens.” Read his essay ►

The latest…

• The chief of Israel’s military, Herzi Halevi, resigned and took responsibility for the failures that led to the Hamas attack. (JTA)

  
  

• Over 2,400 humanitarian aid trucks have entered Gaza since the ceasefire began on Sunday, with the United Nations reporting no major incidents of looting or disruptions. (Times of Israel)

  
  

• Israel launched an “extensive” military operation in the occupied West Bank, the day after President Donald Trump overturned former President Joe Biden’s executive order that imposed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers there. The IDF said it killed 13 Palestinian gunmen since the raid began. (New York Times, Times of Israel)

  
  

• Hostage Emily Damari, who was freed on Sunday, lost two fingers on her left hand while in captivity. It now looks like she’s giving the “rock on” sign, which has become an instant symbol of Israeli resilience and defiance. (JTA)

  
  

• Yuval Raphael, who survived the Nova music festival massacre by hiding under murdered bodies, won the Rising Star competition show on Wednesday. She will now represent Israel at Eurovision in May. (JTA)

ARTS & CULTURE

The cast of The Zweiflers have vibrant, multilingual family meals. (ZDF Studios)

Sopranos, but set in a Jewish deli

What if, instead of hanging out at Satriale’s Pork Store, Tony Soprano and his crew were regulars at a deli that served cholent? “The question no one asked,” writes our PJ Grisar, “has an answer in the German series The Zweiflers,” playing Sunday as part of the New York Jewish Film Festival, about a Frankfurt family who opened a traditional Jewish deli — after leaving behind the business of red-light district brothels. Read an interview with the show’s creator ►

Plus: The accordion is an instrument of sorrow and celebration — does that make it Jewish? The news that Maugein, the last accordion manufacturer in France, will cease doing business, raises the question of whether the “box of sobs,” as the French call it, is more Gallic or Jewish in its musical inspiration. Go deeper ►

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

A student displays a Palestinian flag during Harvard’s commencement in May 2024. (Getty)

On campus…

🤝  Harvard University settled two antisemitism lawsuits by pledging to address anti-Zionist speech on campus and strengthen partnerships with Israeli institutions.

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent alum who had initially joined the lawsuit, did not join the settlement. He is an emerging conservative voice, who spoke at the Republican National Convention and endorsed Trump. (JTA)

🤷  Harvard has also agreed to adopt a controversial definition of antisemitism as part of a legal settlement, while clarifying that it will not use the definition to limit academic freedom or discipline students. The definition includes some criticisms of Israel as examples of antisemitism. (Jewish Insider, New York Times)

🇮🇱  A committee at Johns Hopkins University declined a request from several student groups to cut financial ties with Israel. (Baltimore Banner) … The Rhode Island School of Design rejected a proposal from Students for Justice in Palestine to boycott Israel. (Algemeiner)

And elsewhere…

🇦🇺  There’s been a recent spike in antisemitic incidents in Australia, including the torching of a Jewish day care center this week. Local authorities are investigating whether foreign actors are paying criminals to commit the attacks. (AP, New York Times)

🇫🇷  There were 1,570 recorded antisemitic incidents in France in 2024, a 6% dip from 2023 when there was 1,676, according to data collected by the government and local Jewish groups. The new numbers are still much higher by comparison to previous years; 2022, for example, saw 436 antisemitic acts in France. (Times of Israel)

🏠  A life-sized replica of Anne Frank’s secret annex has opened in New York City, offering visitors an immersive experience to better understand her story. It features over 100 original artifacts, many displayed publicly for the first time. (JTA, New York Times)

🚂  A Belgian government panel recommended that the country’s railway apologize for its role in deporting Jews to Nazi death camps but concluded it should not provide financial compensation. (JTA)

😞  Ten years ago, 300 survivors attended the anniversary of their liberation from Auschwitz. This Monday is the 80th anniversary and, as survivors die or become too frail to travel, 50 are expected to make the trip. (Times of Israel)

📚  Journalist Lee Yaron’s book about Oct. 7 was named book of the year at the 74th National Jewish Book Awards. The group also honored Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, 91, with a lifetime achievement award (JTA)

🍿 The Brutalist, a film about a Holocaust survivor who became an architect, was nominated for the best picture Oscar this morning. A Holocaust film has not won the top prize since Schindler’s List in 1994. (Hollywood Reporter)

Shiva calls ► Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer Prize winner whose work spanned comics and cinema, died at 95 … Clinton Bailey, an American-Israeli who spent decades documenting Bedouin culture, died at 88.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(Jay Ehrlich)

The editorial staff gathered at Forward headquarters this week for a retreat. Pictured here, left to right in the back row are: PJ Grisar, Mira Fox, Arno Rosenfeld, Louis Keene, Jake Wasserman, Sam Shepherd, Talya Zax, Samuel Breslow, Jodi Rudoren and Adam Langer. And in front: Yours truly, Jacob Kornbluh, Rukhl Schaechter, Moishele Alfonso and Julie Moos. Not shown: Nora Berman and Olivia Haynie. Our founding editor, Abraham Cahan, looks on from the oil painting behind us.

Thanks to 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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