WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Israel to withdraw thousands of troops from Gaza, accused murderer of synagogue president set to appear in court today, Princeton University hit with anti-Israel graffiti, and 24 perfectly plausible pop culture predictions for 2024.

ISRAEL AT WAR

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost a major battle at the Supreme Court on Monday. (Getty)

The latest…

• Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday struck down a controversial law passed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government that limited some of the high court’s power and had sparked months of protests across the nation. The unprecedented decision could catapult Israel into a constitutional and political crisis, in a time when it is already waging a deadly war with Hamas.

  
  

• Signaling a shift toward a more targeted strategy in the war, Israel said it would begin to withdraw several thousands troops from Gaza.

  
  

• The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which has spent months providing protection for Israel in the Red Sea, will return home to Virginia in the coming days, the U.S. Navy said on Monday.

  
  

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to the Middle East this week, his fifth trip to Israel since the war began.

  
  

• All of Israel’s major universities had to cancel their fall semesters as many students and faculty were called up to serve in the IDF. On Sunday, they belatedly and officially began the academic school year.

A display of photos of people killed during the Hamas attack at the Nova music festival site. (Getty)

An extensive investigation by The New York Times documents a campaign of coordinated sexual violence by Hamas on Oct. 7 in graphic detail. Using videos, photos, GPS data from cellphones and interviews with more than 150 people, including witnesses, medical personnel, soldiers and rape counselors, the Times pieced together a harrowing picture of the brutal sexual violence that unfolded in southern Israel that day. This morning, we’re sharing two essays about the report…

Opinion | Will anything make the world take Hamas’ sexual violence seriously? “Unfortunately, it’s too little, too late,” writes our opinion editor Laura E. Adkins of the new reporting. The evidence is “being met with denial and diminishment. Because ultimately, nothing — not a blockbuster investigation, not survivors testifying to the carnage they witnessed, not even substantial forensic evidence — will ever be enough to make Israelis human and worthy of sympathy in the eyes of many.” Read her essay ➤

Opinion | ‘Proving’ rape is hard. Denialism makes it impossible:“There’s a danger in putting too much stock in our collective ability to document and ‘prove’ sexual violence,” writes Lux Alptraum, a rape crisis counselor. “The tighter we cling to semen samples and horrific photos and vicious injuries, the more we isolate and alienate the victims and survivors who lack concrete documentation of their pain. And in the case of Oct. 7 specifically, an obsessive focus on the particulars of how victims were violated seems to miss the larger point.” Read her essay ➤

Mourners at the funeral of IDF soldier Constantine Sushko on Monday in Tel Aviv. Sushko, 30, was killed while fighting in Gaza on Saturday. (Getty)

How sitting shiva mirrors a therapeutic relationship: Joyce Slochower, an NYU professor and practicing psychoanalyst, has long said that both shiva and therapy create a much-needed space “that pulls you inward and toward yourself.” But the events of Oct. 7 complicate matters. “When you’re in mourning — sitting shiva, whatever you’re doing — you are grieving an event that has passed,” she said. “How do you grieve when you’re in the midst of trauma?” Read the story ➤

Plus…

• Here are the big issues dividing the U.S. and Israel as the Gaza war bleeds into 2024.

  
  

• Dozens were arrested in Turkey for allegedly spying for Israel, according to local media reports.

  
  

• More than 100,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes since October due to the war. Many evacuated to the resort town of Eilat, where they have been offered free lessons in scuba diving, an activity they find healing and therapeutic.

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ALSO IN THE FORWARD

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24 perfectly plausible pop culture predictions for 2024: In his annual list of prognostications, our PJ Grisar forecasts a viral celebrity conversion, Fran Drescher’s run for an important office and Bradley Cooper’s new role as a famed Jewish heretic. Plus: Drake’s new role as pitchman, a topical Curb Your Enthusiasm plot point and the reincarnation of a familiar figure in Joe Biden’s dog Commander.

Why it’s time to celebrate a glorious Yiddish writer who would have just turned 100:Our language columnist Aviya Kushner has spent the past few months thinking about Chava Rosenfarb, whose short stories, Aviya writes, “are complex, layered stories about guilt and forgiveness, but above all, they are about memory and the impossibility of forgetting certain things — ever.” In the wake of the Hamas attacks, Rosenfarb’s work has taken on new resonance.

In case you missed it: Our picks for the best Jewish books of 2023 included a saga about intertwined Black and Jewish communities in rural Pennsylvania, a kosher cookbook from Rome and a Palestinian memoir.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Samantha Woll, president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit, was found stabbed to death on Oct. 21, 2023. (Courtesy)

⚖️  The man accused of murdering Samantha Woll, the 40-year-0ld president of a Detroit synagogue, is expected in court today. Police and prosecutors maintain there’s no evidence the murder was a hate crime. (Detroit News)

Related: Woll’s congregation is working to carry on her mission of reinvigorating the historic downtown shul

✍️  An editorial cartoon in The Buffalo News about the war in Israel depicted skulls dripping from a sink with faucet handles shaped like Stars of David. A local rabbi says it blurs the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. (Forward)

🏫  Three areas of the Princeton University campus were hit over winter break with pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel graffiti. School officials and local police are investigating. (Daily Princetonian)

🍔  Thanks to a new bill signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, incarcerated New Yorkers will soon have more options for kosher and halal food. (Forward)

Shiva calls ➤  Zvi Zamir, the former Mossad chief who sounded the alarm on the Yom Kippur War, died at 98 … Shecky Greene, a comedian who for many years was one of the biggest stars in Las Vegas, died at 97.

What else we’re reading ➤  The girl who defied Hitler … In dementia, a grandmother is losing her English, but returning to Yiddish … The secrets of the Jewish leap year.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

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The iconic Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro was lit up this weekend in a jersey for Pelé, the legendary Brazilian soccer player and a devout Catholic, marking the first anniversary of his death.

Thanks to Laura E. Adkins and PJ Grisar 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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