WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Another student arrested as Columbia’s deadline looms • Palestinian bagel guy faces angry Philly Jews • How to talk about spring in Yiddish • and much more.

POLITICS

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (Getty)

Pritzker’s warning shot

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, one of five Jewish governors in the U.S., is emerging as a leading Democratic voice pushing back on President Donald Trump, warning of creeping strongman rule and repeatedly invoking the Holocaust.

• Why it matters: Pritzker, a major Democratic donor and potential future presidential contender, is positioning himself as both a defender of democracy and a moral conscience for his party.

  
  

• What he’s saying: He often invokes the fact that he helped create the Illinois Holocaust Museum and that his family survived pogroms in Ukraine. “I have grown up understanding that large swaths of people can be under direct attack in an authoritarian regime,” he said. “That is currently the case.”

A pro-Israeli demonstrator talks to a New York City cop as pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally for Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil outside the Trump Building on Wednesday. (Getty)

On campus…

• Columbia University is close to caving to Trump’s demands so that the government will reinstate $400 million in federal grants and contracts — including banning masks on campus and stripping faculty control from its Middle East studies department. If it agrees by the Friday deadline, it would mark a major turning point in Trump’s escalating war on elite universities in the name of fighting antisemitism. (WSJ)

  
  

• Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil’s fight to stay in the U.S. is shifting to New Jersey — where he was being held when his lawyers first challenged his detention — after a New York judge ruled the case was outside his jurisdiction. (Axios)

  
  

• More than 2,400 Jewish scholars across the U.S. signed a letter condemning the Trump administration’s efforts to target students and university staff under the guise of fighting antisemitism. (Religion News Service)

  
  

• Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and a postdoctoral exchange student at Georgetown University, is being detained by federal immigration authorities. A Homeland Security official said he was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” He believes he’s being punished because his wife, a U.S. citizen, is of Palestinian heritage. (Politico, Haaretz)

  
  

• The University of Pittsburgh placed its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine on an “interim suspension.” (Pitt News)

  
  

• A professor at Sarah Lawrence College says the Trump administration has made it harder for him to teach Jewish Studies. (Slate)

Opinion | As Trump moves to gut Voice of America, it’s worth remembering its historic role in giving hope to oppressed Jews, writes Benjamin Ivry. “VOA, which started broadcasting in 1942 to fight Nazi propaganda, won the hearts of Jews and others internationally in dozens of languages. For decades, hearing the breath of freedom was intoxicating for oppressed Jews worldwide.” Read his essay ►

Plus: Why this was the worst week in antisemitism … until maybe next week.

From our Sponsor, Blue Cliff

THROWBACK THURSDAY

(Forward archives)

Passover pop

Every December, Santa Claus and cute polar bears return as brand ambassadors for Coca-Cola. But Coke’s holiday cheer isn’t just for Christmas. Our archivist, Chana Pollack, dug up this delightfully quirky ad from a March 1977 issue of the Forward, written in Yiddish and elaborating on the joys of kosher for Passover Coke.

Oddly, a menorah takes center stage. It’s seven-candled, mimicking the biblical one used in the ancient temple, and not the more common eight-pronged Hanukkah staple. Doubly confusing.

The ad helpfully concludes: Tab and Fresca are also kosher for Passover.

ISRAEL AT WAR

A young boy sits atop his family's belongings as Palestinians flee the northern Gaza Strip toward the south on Thursday. (Getty)

The latest…

• Israel seized part of a major corridor in Gaza, raising pressure on Hamas in the most significant ground operation since the ceasefire fell apart. (CNN)

  
  

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed Trump’s rhetoric, claiming a “leftist Deep State” is undermining the will of the people in both Israel and the U.S. (JTA)

  
  

• Israel shot down a missile from Yemen’s Houthi rebels early Thursday — the second since the Gaza ceasefire collapsed — as U.S. airstrikes against the Iran-backed group ramp up. (CNN)

  
  

• Sen. John Fetterman, Democrat from Pennsylvania and an outspoken supporter of Israel, visited the country this week. Netanyahu gifted him a silver-plated beeper as a memento of the September military operation when pagers belonging to Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon. (JTA)

  
  

• Israel dropped from fifth to eighth place in the World Happiness Report. Finland topped the list for the eighth year in a row. (The U.S. hit a new low.) (Times of Israel, Axios)

Opinion | An Israeli conference meant to fight antisemitism instead plans to give the stage to European far-right figures who spread it. The justification is “all rooted in the same illogical idea,” writes our contributing columnist Sruli Fruchter. “That working with the ‘soft’ antisemites — far-right parties who support Israel — is our only option to fight the ‘real’ antisemites.” He adds: “But this myopic perspective refuses to understand history’s testimony that while the far-right may not be today’s most pressing problem, it almost certainly will be tomorrow’s.” Read his essay ►

CULTURE

Jack Ruby, born Jacob Rubenstein, murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on live television. (Wikimedia)

Three quick things…

• Jack Ruby, born Jacob Rubenstein, ran a Dallas nightclub, showed up for minyan and once gifted his rabbi a puppy. Then he became an indelible part of American history.

  
  

• The first round of the March Madness college basketball tournament begins today. Jewish coaches lead four of eight top seeds. Danny Wolf, University of Michigan’s kosher-keeping 7-foot star, plays at 10 p.m. tonight against UC San Diego.

  
  

• Today is the first day of spring. Learn how to talk about it in Yiddish.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

New York Bagel Bakery in Philadelphia has served kosher-keeping customers for decades. Its longtime owner was recently accused of antisemitism, a charge he denies. (Google Maps)

🥯  A beloved Arab American–owned kosher bagel shop near several Philadelphia synagogues is facing backlash after Jewish customers spotted what they believe are pro-Palestinian posts on the owner’s Facebook page. Now, they’re calling for his kosher certification to be revoked. (JTA)

💻  The Pentagon removed or flagged tens of thousands of articles — including pieces on the Holocaust, 9/11, cancer awareness and suicide prevention — as it rushes to follow Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order to scrub all “diversity” content from its websites. (CNN)

🎒  The Texas Senate advanced bills that would mandate public schools to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom and let districts set aside time during the school day for student prayer. (AP)

🏳️‍🌈  Georgia’s attempt to revive its long-debated “religious liberty” bill stalled in a House committee Wednesday. Critics argue it would allow businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and others. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

📽️  Following public backlash, Miami Beach’s mayor has dropped plans to evict and defund a local indie theater over its screening of No Other Land, an Oscar-winning film about Israeli demolitions in the West Bank. (JTA)

⚽  An Amsterdam court on Wednesday sentenced four people to short prison stints for joining a mob that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans after a match on Nov. 7 — what prosecutors called a “Jew hunt.” (Times of Israel)

📈  Antisemitism in Switzerland soared to “unprecedented levels” last year, according to a new report. (Algemeiner)

💰 A Brooklyn comedian went viral for claiming to be wrongfully jailed— and raised tens of thousands of dollars for Palestinians in the process. But reporters found holes in his story, leaving donors wondering what’s real and what’s just another internet hustle. (Hell Gate NYC)

🎂 Happy birthday to comedian Alex Edelman who is now double chai, 36!

Shiva calls ► Former North Carolina state legislator Marshall Rauch, whose company was the largest producer of Christmas ornaments in the world, died at 102 … Ted Comet, the founder of New York’s Salute to Israel Parade, died at 100 … Jeffrey Klein, a founder of Mother Jones magazine, died at 77.

What else we’re reading ► How new documentary October 8 is a touchstone for people worried about antisemitism (Hollywood Reporter) … Muslims with tattoo regrets flock to a free removal service during Ramadan (AP) … As children, they fled the Nazis on the Kindertransport. Newly found papers tell their story (New York Times)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Pastor Paula White (third from right), the televangelist heading the White House faith office, led fellow Christian leaders in a prayer for President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

White has also adopted some Hebrew rituals and observances at her megachurch, like observing a version of Passover, fasting for Yom Kippur and wearing a tallit in an appeal for donations. Go deeper ►

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