JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

On Monday, we announced our ambitious goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. Dozens of Forward readers have already stepped up to invest in independent journalism.

We’re entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. The stakes are high and we’re counting on your support!

Scheduling note: This newsletter will be off tomorrow, and back in your inbox on Friday.

Israel offering $5 million reward to any Gazan who returns a hostage • Christian nationalism rises in second Trump administration • The shadowy group tarnishing Sen. Chuck Schumer and his support for an antisemitism bill • And much more

OUR LEAD STORY

Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty speaks at a news conference outside a hearing of the Texas State Board of Education on adopting a Bible-infused curriculum for public schools. Rabbi Neil Blumofe is in the back, wearing a hat. (Courtesy Texas Freedom Network.)

Queen Esther in the classroom

A clash of religion and pedagogy is taking center stage this week as Texas decides whether to incorporate a controversial curriculum that would offer public schools Bible-infused lessons, with a strong emphasis on Christianity — and a strange fascination with Queen Esther.

• The curriculum uses Bible stories not to teach about religion, but for lessons in art appreciation, math, poetry and other subjects. In a unit teaching kindergartners how to place events in chronological order, it uses the story of God establishing the world in six days — creating light on the first day and humans on the last — as a sequencing task.

  
  

• The proposed second grade curriculum has a unit called “Fighting for a Cause.” There are 14 sections; two of them focus on Queen Esther. The others are about historical figures, including Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez and William Penn.

  
  

• The curriculum also includes inaccurate Jewish content including, in one instance, adding a new commandment to the Torah.

  
  

• An initial vote on the curriculum passed on Tuesday, with a final decision set for Friday. If approved, it would be optional for school districts to adopt — although the state is offering financial incentives if they do.

Related: The group behind Project 2025, the controversial blueprint for a second Trump administration, released a plan called Project Esther to protect Jews. It will do the opposite, argues Dove Kent, who teaches about antisemitism. Read her essay ►

An attendee at a February Christian conference in Nashville featuring Donald Trump wears a "Make America Pray Again” hat. (Getty)

One nation under God

President-elect Donald Trump has been privately promising groups of pastors and Christian activists that they'll have ideological influence over the White House, and the country. As our Mira Fox reports, powerful individuals and interest groups have been working to erode the boundary between church and state, hoping to create a country ruled by Christianity, and they see Trump as a divinely appointed soldier to help them do so. She offers up a guide to the Christian nationalists who could sway Trump. Go deeper ►

Related: According to polling, more than half of Republicans are “adherents or sympathizers” of Christian nationalism, an effort to blur the line between church and state. The movement has alarmed Jews and other religious minorities.

Plus: Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, has views that are consistent with a strain of Christian nationalism that believes in applying biblical laws to modern life. He also has a number of Christian and Crusades-inspired tattoos.

ISRAEL AT WAR

Israeli soldiers carry the coffin of Omer Moshe Gaeldor, a 30-year-old reservist, during his funeral today in Jerusalem, after he was killed in fighting in Lebanon. (Getty)

Votes, and a $5 million bounty

Opinion ► Congress is set to vote today on a bill that would give the Trump administration the power to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit deemed to be a “terrorist supporting organization.” Daniel Sokatch of the New Israel Fund, a nonprofit that aids both Jews and Palestinians, calls the move “dangerous” and sees parallels to a 2016 Israeli law. “Its message is clear,” he writes. “The Israeli left is a legitimate target, because they are the ones who are critical of Israel’s policies and support rights for Palestinians — which, according to right-wing logic, puts them in bed with terrorists. This is, of course, patently absurd.” Read his essay ►

Related: Some leading Jewish groups are supporting the bill

Plus…

• Sen. Bernie Sanders’ resolutions to block more than $20 billion in arms sales to Israel are up for a vote today. Some liberal Jewish organizations are supporting the effort, which is not likely to pass. The White House urged Democrats to reject it. (JTA, Times of Israel)

  
  

• Amos Hochstein, the U.S. envoy in the Middle East, is delaying a planned trip to Israel until Thursday, so he can stay in Lebanon and finish ironing out details of a ceasefire proposal with Hezbollah. (Times of Israel, Reuters)

  
  

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is offering $5 million and safe passage out of Gaza to anyone who returns a hostage. (NY Times)

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

The Florence Avenue Initiative spent $2 million on an ad campaign pressuring Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act. (Schumer photo: Getty; Collage: Arno Rosenfeld)

Shadowy antisemitism ad

Over the summer, a shadowy group which described itself as a coalition of “concerned Jewish donors” spent $2 million on ads slamming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for his purported opposition to a bill addressing antisemitism. Now, Schumer says he will attach the bill to another expected to sail through Congress. Our Arno Rosenfeld found records showing the ads were purchased by a Republican firm that has run other deceptive campaigns, underscoring the degree to which the cause of fighting antisemitism has become a political cudgel since Oct. 7. Read the story ►

Plus: There is a mystical reason why Jews place rocks on top of graves. A rabbi explains.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Pro-Palestinian students marched on Tuesday to demand UCLA divest from Israel. (Getty)

👮 Campus police clashed with protesters from Students for Justice in Palestine Tuesday on the UCLA campus. (KTLA)

🇵🇸  Demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags and shouting anti-Israel slogans marched through a Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood Tuesday night. (X)

🤦 A woman at a Panera in Chicago was charged with hate crimes after she verbally and physically assaulted a man wearing a sweatshirt with the word Palestine on it. (Haaretz)

🤔  A pro-Palestinian activist who called Jews “enemy number one” was invited to speak this Friday at a gathering of a Minneapolis teacher’s union. A teacher’s union in nearby St. Paul plans to vote next week on a resolution calling for the U.S. to stop sending military aid to Israel. (TC Jewfolk, CBS News)

😲  A Florida man allegedly had an AR-15 and a list of Black and Jewish targets, including Rep. Jared Moskowitz, for a potential Halloween shooting spree. (NBC News)

👾  Twitch, a major online video platform, has banned the use of “Zionist” as a slur, following a similar move by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. (JTA)

🎨  A Swiss museum is giving an undisclosed amount of money to a Jewish family for a painting by impressionist Camille Pissarro, which was sold under duress during the rise of the Nazi regime. (ArtNet)

🖼️  And in related news, a German museum struck a deal with a Jewish family to keep another Pissarro painting, in exchange for a financial settlement and help publishing a book about the family. (NY Times)

🍿  West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin is developing a film about Brooklyn’s Al Schwimmer, a post-WWII arms smuggler who helped create Israel’s air force. (Deadline)

Mazel tov ► To Dan Tadmor, a longtime Israeli museum leader, on becoming the new CEO at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

What else we’re reading…

• Recent access to Leni Riefenstahl’s private archive rekindles debate over her Nazi ties (NY Times)

• The world’s oldest spindle wheels may have just been found in Israel (Haaretz)

• Wicked author on souls, saints and religion in Oz (Religion News Service)

VIDEO OF THE DAY

In case you missed the “Jodi and Judd” show: Our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, interviewed Emmy-winning actor Judd Hirsch earlier this month at the Borscht Belt Film Fest, where they chatted about his life and career.

Dept. of Corrections: Apologies for three errors in Tuesday’s newsletter. We incorrectly described the relationship between President-elect Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick, his pick for commerce secretary. They are not golfing buddies. … The U.S. envoy in the Middle East is Amos Hochstein, not Amos Hochman. … And an ADL event was called “In Concert Against Hate,” not “In Concert for Hate.” I’ll drink more coffee next time!

Thanks to Lauren Markoe and Arno Rosenfeld for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Julie Moos for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

Support independent Jewish journalism

With your help, the Forward will be ready for whatever news 2025 will bring. Make a tax-deductible gift and invest in the future of Jewish journalism.