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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

White House invites hostage families to State of the Union, ADL to honor Jared Kushner, reviewing Adam Sandler’s new Netflix movie, and Dr. Ruth has some news.

SUPER TUESDAY

Asma Mohammed, an activist with Uncommitted Minnesota, speaks at a party Tuesday night. (Getty)

‘Uncommitted’ campaign opposing Biden’s support for Israel makes a mark in at least 5 more states

On Super Tuesday, significant numbers of voters in the Democratic primaries in Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina and Tennessee voted for “uncommitted” or “no preference” instead of for President Joe Biden.

By the numbers: The substantive showings suggest that what happened in last week’s primary in Michigan, a state with a large Arab American population and where more than 13% of voters chose “uncommitted,” was not an anomaly. In Minnesota, 19% of Democrats cast ballots for “uncommitted.” Polling shows unhappiness with Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas among younger and minority voters.

General election: The uncommitted percentages on Super Tuesday barely dented Biden’s overwhelming win in each state, but far exceeded 2020 percentages for uncommitted voters. Few believe the largely progressive uncommitted voters will opt for Trump, but there are concerns they will stay home in November, which could have an impact in tight swing states.

Plus…

In the North Carolina governor’s race, voters chose a Jewish Democrat and a Republican who says he apologized for past antisemitism.

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, had a poor showing in Super Tuesday’s races against former President Donald Trump. She plans to exit the race today.

ISRAEL AT WAR

President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday. (Getty)

The latest…

President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war before Ramadan, the Muslim holy month which begins Sunday night, adding that the fighting could become “very, very dangerous” if a truce is not reached.

Biden invited 17 relatives of Americans held captive or murdered by Hamas terrorists in Israel to his State of the Union address on Thursday. Joining them will be freed Israeli hostage Mia Schem, who was in captivity for 54 days and released in the last hostage deal on Nov. 30.

The parents of five victims of the Supernova Festival massacre filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press and Reuters over the alleged involvement of photojournalists with Hamas on Oct. 7. The news agencies have previously denied such claims.

Pro-Palestinian and human rights advocates sued the government of Canada on Tuesday in an effort to stop the country from exporting military equipment to Israel.

Three major internet cables under the Red Sea have stopped working. Some suspect Houthi rebels are behind the outage.

The University of California, Berkeley. (Charlie Nguyen/Flickr)

On campus…

The U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation Tuesday into violence that erupted at an event last week with an Israeli speaker at the University of California, Berkeley. It is one of the clearest signs yet that the department is moving unusually fast in responding to campus discrimination claims involving the Israel-Hamas war.

Jewish students at Columbia University are experiencing “isolation and pain” and the university isn’t doing enough to discipline unauthorized protests surrounding the war, according to a new report by the school’s antisemitism task force.

Tufts University is investigating an incident at a meeting Sunday where the student Senate passed anti-Israel resolutions. Jewish students say they were jeered and spat on.

Texas Tech suspended a professor for posting to social media what it called “hateful, antisemitic, and unacceptable,” about the war.

Barnard students may no longer display messages on their dorm doors, a response to the tense climate at the New York City college since the outbreak of the war. Our readers weighed in.

Opinion | The UN confirmed Israelis experienced sexual violence on Oct. 7. Why is it so hard for the world to believe? “People in Israel were raped and murdered. People in Gaza are on the brink of famine,” writes Lux Alptraum, a survivor of gender-based violence and a certified rape and domestic violence counselor. “There is so much misery within Israel-Palestine that debating the specifics — particularly with an eye towards discrediting the claims of people who are very clearly suffering — seems bleak and inhumane.” Read her essay ➤

Opinion | Five months after Oct. 7, my Israeli family still wonders ‘what the hell happened?’ David Levy, who lives on a kibbutz near Gaza, told his brother-in-law, Rob Eshman, our senior columnist, that he fears Israel doesn’t have an end game. “America killed, what, a million Vietnamese, and it still lost the war,” David said. “If the hostages don’t come home, or come home in a box, then no matter what the outcome is, for at least half of the population, this war won’t be perceived as won.” Read his essay ➤

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ALSO IN THE FORWARD

The Anti-Defamation League is honoring Jared Kushner with a major award this week. (Getty)

Opinion | By honoring Jared Kushner, ADL suggests Trump is now kosher — and betrays its founding values:The Anti-Defamation League is giving a major award to Trump’s son–in-law at its national conference this week. “That’s a misstep both because Trump has consistently emboldened those who hate Jews, and because the Israel-Hamas war has revealed the flaws endemic to Kushner’s approach to Middle East policy as a top Trump aide,” writes Peter Dreier, a professor of politics at Occidental College.

Is Adam Sandler’s Kafkaesque Tarkovskyesque Kubrickesque Netflix sci-fi drama better than it sounds? “As our planet gets ever more crowded, space films about loneliness are a useful way to focus and interrogate the human condition,” writes Dan Friedman in a review. “Sadly, though, despite putting on his weary everyman persona and beard for the serious role, Sandler cannot save the film.”

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Author Roald Dahl, left, and actor John Lithgow. (Getty)

🎭 Actor John Lithgow has been cast as author Roald Dahl in a new play about Dahl’s antisemitic views. Dahl wrote such children’s classics as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. (Guardian)

🍺 Police are investigating a group of raucous soccer fans at a Munich beer hall who were singing about the paramilitary wing of Italy’s National Fascist Party. One fan who performed a Hitler salute was arrested. (AP)

🇳🇱 The Netherlands is home to the Anne Frank House and museums about World War II, but next week it will open its first national museum devoted to Nazi persecution of Dutch Jews. (New York Times)

📚 Dr. Ruth Westheimer is publishing her 39th book, The Joy of Connections. After the pandemic, the 95-year-old was tapped by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to be the state’s “loneliness ambassador.” (X)

Shiva call ➤ Ben Stern, who survived two ghettos and nine concentration camps, died at 102.

What else we’re reading ➤ How the humble pickle became the latest target in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict … Orthodox Jewish women are creating a parallel entertainment market … On Curb Your Enthusiasm, Jewish culture is in the costumes, too.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, a Jewish congressman from California, won his primary on Tuesday in the race to fill the open Senate seat left by the late Dianne Feinstein. But his election party speech Tuesday night was marred by constant interruptions from pro-Palestinian hecklers. Watch the video above.

Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh 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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