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Sponsored by All Inclusive with Jay Ruderman JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. Give a tax-deductible donation Palestinian eatery gets trolled online, observant couple donates $18 million to Christian missionaries, Philly Jewish leader resigns and was McDonald’s McBagel good for the Jews? 5 FROM THE FORWARD It’s been a busy week, and we’ve finally made it to Friday…
In final weeks of Virginia governor race, accusations of antisemitism:The race between Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat trying to regain the office he held from 2014 to 2018, and Glenn Youngkin, a Republican businessman, is tighter than expected. Youngkin is being attacked for refusing to condemn down-ballot candidates accused of trafficking in anti-Jewish tropes and stereotypes. And the Jewish Democratic Council of America has partnered with a Republican anti-Trump group, The Lincoln Project, to remind Jewish voters of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017 to paint Youngkin as a mini Trump. Read the story >
Jews built Hollywood. So why is their history missing from the Academy’s new museum? One of our contributing writers, Sharon Rosen Leib, visited the $484 million Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and was struck by what was left on the cutting room floor – especially because her great-grandfather helped run Fox Studio in the first half of the 20th century. She says the omissions reveal a historical amnesia regarding the antisemitism Hollywood Jews faced. Read the story >
A top Federation official in Philadelphia resigns after bullying complaints: In July, the Forward’s Molly Boigon published a lengthy article about the myriad challenges facing the new chief of Philadelphia’s Federation, including employee accusations that the chief operating officer, Steven Rosenberg, screamed at subordinates and meddled in the operations of the Federation-funded newspaper to better align it with donors’ politics. One described a “frightening culture” where “people would be vaporized” at his behest. In an email to staff, Rosenberg said he would step down at the end of 2021 to “give room for the Jewish Federation to transition forward with a new management team.” Read today’s news > and the original investigation >
Opinion | Sally Rooney’s refusal to work with an Israeli publisher is antisemitic – just like all of BDS: The literary star has tackled the Middle East conflict in her previous books, but “authors are not the same as their characters,” writes Lahav Harkov, an Israeli journalist. “If someone writes about a murderer or a racist, there is no reason to assume the author is either.” But this week, Harkov argues, the novelist took her onstage persona into the real world. Read the OpEd >
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY Texas teachers wondered if this Holocaust novel would require an "opposing" perspective under a new law. 📚 A school administrator in Texas told teachers that if they have classroom books about the Holocaust, they should also provide access to books with “opposing” views. The comment may have been a misinterpretation of a new Texas law barring schools from teaching things that may make students feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” because of their race. (NBC News, JTA)
🍽 Hours after a customer complained they weren’t served because they are Israeli, a Palestinian eatery considered to be one of Brooklyn’s top new restaurants was flooded with one-star Google reviews. “We will go above and beyond to make sure you’re satisfied no matter the color, race, religion and ethnicity and that’s what Islam teaches us,” responded the owner, Abdul Elenani. The customer claimed to have a video of the incident, but it has yet to materialize. (Eater)
✡️ The Israeli government may soon debate a bill to improve the conversion system by opening it up to competition and a wider assortment of rabbis. The goal is to help the half-million Israelis who have some Jewish lineage but not a Jewish mother be officially recognized by the state as Jews. (Haaretz)
💾 The Hague has given Stanford University permission to digitize the Nuremberg Trial archives, the best record of World War II war crimes. More than 250,000 pages will eventually be accessible online. “The technology will allow users to discover and cut straight to material in a really dense corpus without being an expert on the trial or being a lawyer, and that is really powerful,” said Penelope Van Tuyl of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice. (Stanford)
🏥 A nonprofit supporting Christian missionary hospitals in Africa announced it received an $18 million donation, its biggest gift ever — from an observant Jewish couple. “We feel animated by the Talmudic teaching that saving a single life is saving a world,” said Rabbi Erica Gerson, who runs the nonprofit with her husband, Mark. (JTA)
What we’re watching > NBC is debuting a new docu-series tonight called “Home Sweet Home,” in which two families swap houses for one week. “The pairings are intended to set up each family for revelations about identity,” Gabe Cohn, a television critic, writes in The New York Times, “and to challenge potential assumptions about race, religion, gender and other issues.” One of the families on the show is Jewish and, in the trailer, you can spot the visiting clan attempting to light Shabbat candles.
One more thing we’re watching > The trailer for the new season of Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” It looks pretty, pretty good.
Shiva call > Myriam Sarachik, a groundbreaking physicist who paved the way for women in the sciences, died at 88. As a child, she and her family escaped the Nazis and made their way to New York City, where Sarachik was one of the first girls to attend the Bronx High School of Science. A longtime professor at City College, she is credited with providing the first data that confirmed what physicists call the Kondo effect. (NYT)
FROM OUR KITCHEN This week we’re talking bagels…
The Brooklyn Bagelfest was held upstairs from a Target and included bagel tastings, bagel-themed games, a kiddie pool filled with actual bagels and expert panels debating the hottest bagel gossip.But the real focus was posing for Instagram photos; those bagels in the kiddie pool got extremely smushed by the end of the day. Our roving reporters Eliya Smith and Mira Fox found the whole event to be overdone and under-baked. Read their story >
Is the death of the McDonald’s McBagel good for the Jews? When the pandemic hit and many commutes halted, the McBagel was one of more than 100 menu items the fast-food chain scrapped. And McDonald’s is not alone: Chick-fil-A also discontinued its bagels earlier this year. “Is the bagel no longer worthy of cultural appropriation?” asks our Andrew Silverstein. Read his story >
ON THE CALENDAR On this day in history: Moshe Sharett, one of the signatories of Israel’s Declaration of Independence and the country’s second prime minister, was born on Oct. 15, 1894. His short tenure was marred by what’s known as the “Lavon Affair” – a failed covert operation to bomb Egypt and cause chaos. The plan was reportedly devised without the knowledge of Sharett, who was working on peace talks with Egypt at the time. He ultimately resigned and was replaced by David Ben-Gurion, returning for his second stint as prime minister.
Also on this day… 1939: The New York Municipal Airport – later renamed LaGuardia after the city’s Yiddish speaking Italian-Jewish mayor – was dedicated. 1946: Hermann Göring, a Nazi war criminal, committed suicide the night before he was to be hanged. 1951: “I Love Lucy” debuted. Did you know that it’s Bob Dylan’s favorite television show?
In honor of National Shawarma Day, which is today, check out this recipe for shawarma stuffed peppers with tahini and herbs from Molly Yeh, Food Network host and Forward contributor.
GIF OF THE DAY
Dept. of corrections: A shonda! We misspelled a Yiddish phrase in yesterday’s newsletter. It should have been in gantsn af yidish, not ad gants af yiddish. We regret the error. Thanks to Mira Fox, Jacob Kornbluh and Rukhl Schaechter for their contributions to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. Support Independent Jewish Journalism The Forward is a non-profit 501(c)3 so our journalism depends on support from readers like you. You can support our work today by donating or subscribing. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of US law.
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