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| | | Today: Potential ceasefire activity, Netanyahu’s assassination worries, Hasidic rapper endorses Trump and other Jewish RNC news, Dr. Ruth’s funeral, a herring fraud case, and much more. |
| | |  | Former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance at the Republican National Convention Monday night in Milwaukee. (Getty) |
| What a J.D. Vance vice presidency would mean for American Jews and Israel
Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio said in his first interview as former President Donald Trump’s running mate that Israel should end its war in Gaza “as quickly as possible.” He added that “after the war you want to reinvigorate that peace process between Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Jordanians and so forth.”
Trump’s decision to add Vance to the ticket has worried some in the Jewish community, as our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, explains this morning.
On antisemitism: Vance was critical of this spring’s campus demonstrations, but he has yet to sign on to either the bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act or a bill which mandates the Department of Education classify anti-Zionism as antisemitic. Vance was also a promoter of the Great Replacement Theory, which the ADL and others consider antisemitic.
On the war in Gaza: As a staunch supporter of Trump’s America First agenda, Vance has called out interventionist policies, and took a leading role in building opposition to President Joe Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s emergency funding plan for Israel and Ukraine. “If we are going to support Israel, as I think that we should, we have to articulate a reason why it’s in our best interest,” he said in May.
On the Jewish vote: Vance recently excused Trump after the former president accused American Jews of disloyalty to Israel and suggested they hate their religion by voting for Democrats. Vance called it a “reasonable” argument to make in courting Jewish voters.
And one more thing: Vance might face scrutiny for his past negative remarks about Trump, including referring to him as “cultural heroin” and a potential “American Hitler.”
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| |  | Leora Levy offered a prayer for the Israeli hostages at the RNC. (Getty) |
| More from the Republican National Convention… Leora Levy, a Jewish delegate, delivered a benediction at the opening of the convention on Monday, and offered a prayer for the freedom of the Israeli hostages.
Charlie Kirk, a young Republican activist long accused of antisemitism, gave a speech at the convention.
The Republican party platform being adopted this week pledges to “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.” Three Jewish organizations — including HIAS, the immigration aid group — say the policy is racist and, at times, antisemitic.
Nissim Black, a popular Hasidic rap star, endorsed Trump.
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|  | Hitler Youth recruits in a Nazi Party parade in Berlin on June 12, 1932. (Getty) |
| The Trump assassination attempt…
Opinion | 1932 was a pivotal year in the Nazis’ ascent. It’s a terrifying parallel for today:Trump embodied a “defiant invulnerability” after an assassination attempt, writes Peter Fritzsche, a history professor and author of several books about the Third Reich. “Leaving that Pennsylvania field, blood streaming from one ear and fist raised high, the double role Trump prefers — that of both a victim, and a savior whose righteous path is now marked out — seemed newly clarified, and newly persuasive.” Read his essay ➤
Opinion | Netanyahu is exploiting Trump’s attempted assassination to target left-wing dissenters in Israel:If criticism of politicians is “labeled as incitement to assassination, then our ability to freely speak the truth will have been dealt a crushing blow,” writes our deputy opinion editor, Nora Berman. She experienced this firsthand on a recent trip to Israel when she was having a private conversation about Netanyahu and someone nearby filmed her. “It felt like my first encounter with an Orwellian thought police,” she writes, “and a frightening glimpse of a future in which engaging in political dissent may be increasingly dangerous.” Read her essay ➤
Seeing Trump’s failed assassination as a sign of God’s favor is a very biblical mistake: “Trump’s followers immediately leapt into action to portray the incident as an act of God,” writes our Mira Fox. “Ministers, congresspeople and pundits have said he wears the armor of God, is blessed by God, is God’s chosen leader, is like Lazarus rising from the dead.” But, she points out, “the most human mistake, in the Bible, is thinking we know God’s will.” Read the story ➤ |
|  | | |  | President Joe Biden in an interview broadcast Monday. (YouTube) |
| This morning: There is a “flurry of diplomatic actions on multiple continents” including in the U.S., China and Egypt to negotiate a ceasefire and postwar plan.
➤ President Joe Biden said he’s been “very supportive of the Palestinians,” but that “Hamas is a bunch of thugs,” in an interview broadcast Monday. Speaking of the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, he said “nothing has happened like that since the Holocaust” and reiterated that he is a Zionist. “If there weren’t an Israel,” he said, “every Jew in the world would be at risk.”
➤ U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew expressed hope that Netanyahu would deliver a speech that strengthens bipartisan support for Israel when he appears before a joint session of Congress next week. More than a dozen Democrats have already said they would boycott the July 24 address.
➤ Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman with a history of antisemitic statements, denied the atrocities of Oct. 7. Israeli radio should keep playing his songs, argues novelist Etgar Keret in a new opinion essay. Art by “patently insufferable people,” can “make us feel and understand ourselves better,” he writes.
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| | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
|  | Anna Redman, a social media influencer and former contestant on The Bachelor, apologized for an Auschwitz outfit planning gaffe. (Reddit/Getty) |
| 🤦 A former contestant on The Bachelor apologized for her “flippant” social media post detailing outfit choices for a trip to Poland that included a visit to Auschwitz. (JTA)
🙏 At Dr. Ruth’s private funeral on Monday in New York City, friends and family remembered her “passion for human connection, her inimitable accent, her fierce independence and her enduring love for her family.” (NY Jewish Week)
☪️ Alabama has decided not to perform an autopsy on a Muslim death row inmate set for execution next week, after he voiced concerns that the “procedure would violate his religious beliefs.” (AP)
🥯 Everything bagel seasoning is banned in South Korea because it’s considered a narcotic. That hasn’t stopped people from trying to sneak it into the country. (NY Times)
What we’re listening to ➤ The third season of Exile, the podcast hosted by Mandy Patinkin featuring the untold stories of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, debuts today. The new episodes include one about a vaudeville performer who found his way into The Wizard of Oz as the Red Munchkin in the “Lollipop Guild.”
What else we’re reading ➤ Forgotten in a coconut field, an 800-year-old tombstone expands India’s Jewish history … Mexico “cancels” statue of Greek god Poseidon after dispute with local deity … New England fishermen sentenced in complex herring fraud case.
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| | |  | Paramount+ acquired the rights to stream We Will Dance Again, a documentary about the massacre at the Nova music festival. It will include interviews with survivors and footage of the ambush. The film is set to premiere sometime in the fall, likely tied to the first anniversary of the attacks. Watch the trailer above. |
| Thanks to Louis Keene, Jacob Kornbluh, Julie Moos and Talya Zax 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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