WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Good morning. Today: More than 800 European and U.S. officials object to support of Israel in war; a man who tried to kill four Orthodox Jews pleaded guilty to hate crimes; and Larry David beefs with, uh, Elmo?

ISRAEL AT WAR

Can a marriage strained by the war be saved? (Yoav Einhar)

Israel Therapy: My husband doesn’t think Israel has the right to exist — and I’ve never felt more Jewish. She’s Jewish. He’s not. Their interfaith partnership was never affected by religious differences before. But when Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack left a woman reeling, grieving and discovering new depths in her connection to her Judaism — while her husband’s political objections to Israel became more intense — their marriage was suddenly imperiled. Our Israel Therapy advice column gave advice on how to recover — with a reminder that “this is a time when boundaries between the world of the news and our most intimate worlds of home and family have come to feel porous.” Read the advice ➤

Plus:

• Israel Therapy: I haven’t cried in 6 weeks. What’s wrong with me?

  
  

• Israel Therapy: How can I engage on social media without getting myself in trouble?

  
  

• Israel Therapy: I’m in college, and I refuse to choose between #standwithIsrael and #freePalestine

Palestinians walk by a Star of David painted on a wall in Gaza by Israeli troops. (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

Latest from the war …

• Hamas officials in Gaza pushed back after a Qatari spokesperson said the group had reacted positively to a proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release deal, saying they had yet to come to an agreement.

  
  

• The United Kingdom is considering recognizing a Palestinian state, its foreign secretary said, as a way to push for a two-state solution. Separately, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman suggested that the Biden administration is developing a plan to recognize a new, demilitarized Palestinian state

  
  

• More than 800 government officials across Europe and the U.S. released a public letter of dissent against their countries’ support for Israel in the war. Some 80 signatories are American, with the largest group coming from the State Department.

  
  

• Biden signed an executive order that will punish four Israeli settlers who have led or participated in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

  
  

• Seven workers at a Turkish plant owned by the U.S. company Procter & Gamble were freed after being taken hostage for nine hours by a man protesting against the war.

  
  

• Protesters continued to block humanitarian aid trucks from entering Gaza after access to two border crossings the group had previously targeted was restricted, moving their demonstrations to the port of Ashdod.

(Nora Berman/Lux Alptraum)

I started learning Hebrew for my father. I became obsessed with it after Oct. 7. “For years now, there’s been a growing movement to frame Yiddish as a morally superior way to connect with one’s Jewish identity,” writes Lux Alptraum, with the implication that the association of Hebrew with Israel has compromised the latter language. But especially after her Hebrew-speaking father died last summer, Alptraum writes, it became essential for her to seek out the beauty in Hebrew: “I felt compelled to embrace it, if only to prove to myself that Hebrew could be more than a language of right-wing nationalism,” she writes. Read her essay ➤

BDS has shown its true face in boycotting Standing Together. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and achieve full equal rights for Palestinians, made waves recently by denouncing Standing Together — “the only group within Israel that is speaking up for Gazans under bombardment,” writes deputy opinion editor Nora Berman. The move shows that BDS, which has long been controversial, is “strategically bankrupt,” she argues. Read her essay ➤

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Three generations of a Jewish family that immigrated to Punxsutawney around 1880. (Courtesy of The Free Press)

Groundhog Day: Meet the Jews of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Today is Groundhog Day. And boy, did the Jews of Punxsutawney help make that tradition an occasion to remember, foremost among them the late Sam Light, who inaugurated the tradition of wearing a top hat and tails to observe the meteorologically important movements of Phil, the groundhog who predicts whether winter will persist for another six weeks. Now, just a few Jews remain in the small Pennsylvania town; the community is so small that they have to drive 90 miles to Pittsburgh for kosher meat.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

A man who terrorized an Orthodox community in Lakewood, N.J., in 2022 pleaded guilty to hate crime charges on Thursday. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

⚖️  A New Jersey man who tried to kill four Jews in Lakewood, New Jersey, in 2022 pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges. Dion Marsh, 29, stabbed one of his visibly Orthodox victims — all of whom survived — in the chest, and referred to “the Hasidic Jews” as “the real devils.” (New York Times)

😨  A 17-year-old thought to be behind a major spate of swatting calls was extradited from California to Florida. The teenager’s alleged targets are believed to have potentially included a Jewish children’s hospital. (New York Times)

👀  A German official who formerly led the country’s efforts to track down neo-Nazis is now himself being monitored by his former agency, after publicly affiliating himself with the far right and showcasing apparent beliefs in antisemitic conspiracy theories. (BBC)

😦  A British lawmaker who represents a heavily Jewish area and was attacked over his pro-Israel stance announced he would not seek re-election. Mike Freers, who is not Jewish, said he had experienced “several serious threats,” including a December arson attack on his office. (Times of Israel)

What else we’re reading ➤ “The road to 1948: How the decisions that led to the founding of Israel left the region in a state of eternal conflict” … “Israel-Hamas posts cost 2 doctors their jobs. Then their fates diverged” … “A tiny Orthodox synagogue, a relic of the old Jewish Lower East Side, struggles to survive.”

VIDEO OF THE DAY

In a shocking altercation, Larry David assaulted Elmo from Sesame Street on Thursday’s Today Show. Al Roker and Hoda Kotb looked on aghast as the comedian pounced for the Muppet’s nose, as the cherry-red icon was heard saying, “Mr. Larry, Elmo liked you before.”

Asked to justify the unprompted attack, David merely said, “Somebody had to do it!” He later apologized, under pressure from Kotb and Savannah Guthrie. Elmo, though he is a diminutive 24 inches tall, was the bigger person and accepted.

Thanks to Benyamin Cohen 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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