JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Josh Shapiro on Trump’s Gaza plan • ‘Tokin’ Jews’ on Tu B’Shvat • Farm-to-shul egg delivery • New Jewish baseball record • And much more.

3 quick things…

►  Vice President JD Vance is visiting Dachau today.

►  Hamas now says it will release three hostages Saturday as planned and continue with the ceasefire deal.

►  Today is Tu B’Shvat, the holiday celebrating nature. Here’s how to talk about it in Yiddish.

OUR LEAD STORY

(Getty)

Decoding Trump’s first moves

President Donald Trump’s first weeks back in office have been a steady stream of activity that can overwhelm or confuse anyone trying to keep track of it all. This morning we’re starting with four opinion essays examining his policies, historical parallels and what they mean for the U.S., Israel and the Jewish community.

Opinion | Trump’s plan to displace millions of Palestinians – by taking over Gaza – sounds eerily like the Nazi’s “Madagascar Plan” to resettle European Jews, writes Eric Kurlander, a history professor and an expert on the Third Reich. It was “the last serious, if highly problematic, effort to solve the Jewish Question in non-genocidal fashion. Similarly, Trump’s utopian designs to turn war-torn Gaza into a ‘riviera’ while deporting Palestinians elsewhere may not invariably constitute a veiled effort to commit genocide. But the potential for mass violence and ethnic cleansing is endemic to any such efforts.” Read his essay ►

Opinion | Too often, critics of the Trump administration are reaching for the analogy of Nazi Germany. “I understand the fear that undergirds that response,” writes Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin. But instead he points to three moments in U.S. history that he believes are a more resonant parallel. The most apt of which, Salkin argues, is the Red Scare of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who created a campaign of fear, distorted facts and led as a demagogue. Read his essay ►

Opinion | “For decades, U.S. administrations — Republican and Democratic alike — have sought to rein in right-wing Israeli governments, treating them as strategic allies but also problematic actors,” writes our Tel Aviv-based columnist, Dan Perry. Instead, Trump “is goading Israel into even more extreme positions, outflanking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. Of all of Trump’s many disruptions, this may be the most surprising — and the most dangerous.” Read his essay ►

Opinion | The start of Trump’s second term have been marked by executive orders and headline-grabbing initiatives. Jews shouldn’t trust him when it comes to antisemitism, writes Michael Gould-Wartofsky, who survived the 2017 neo-Nazi assault in Charlottesville. Read his essay ►

Plus: Trump has long said he wants to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Four Israeli scientists, including three Nobel winners, said they will nominate him if he secures the release of all the hostages. (Times of Israel)

- From our Sponsor, Friends of Mishpacha Orphanage Odessa

FORWARDING THE NEWS VIDEO

Special delivery

“Eggflation is back with a vengeance,” The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, as egg prices soar due to shortages from a bird flu outbreak. My sister in Boca Raton sent me a photo from the grocery store — the egg shelves were completely empty.

One place where the egg crisis is non-existent? My house. My wife, Eizabeth, and I are raising a flock of chickens we lovingly call the Co-Hens. And, to be honest, we have too many eggs. It’s time for an Eggsodus.

So yesterday afternoon, I packed up dozens and drove them to the local Chabad house, which serves Jewish students at West Virginia University. Rabbi Zalmen Gurewitz welcomed the haul, and told me they go through about 50 eggs for Shabbat dinner alone. “We use it in the matzo balls, the challah, the kugel,” he said. “Everything except the gefilte fish.”

CULTURE

Left to right: Susie Essman, Joy Behar, Tovah Feldshuh and Adrienne C. Moore are the first four members of a rotating cast in Behar’s new play, My First Ex-Husband. (Courtesy)

Of Tovah, tokes and the tropics

Actress Tovah Feldshuh has played a lot of Jews in New York City theater — including Rosie Brice in Funny Girl, Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony and the title character in the 1975 Broadway production of Yentl. This month, she’s portraying a Hasidic bride-to-be in My First Ex-Husband. So, does she have any marriage advice? “Marry like a Jew, divorce like a Catholic,” she told our Samuel Eli Shepherd. Go deeper ►

Tokin’ Jews, a brand that began as a social media page posting jokes, has expanded into selling kosher-certified cannabis edibles with Jewish-themed flavors like “Guava Nagila” and “Watermelon Sugar Chai,” as well as accessories like a Torah-shaped rolling device called the “Joint Scroller.” Go deeper ►

Torah Tropical is a new documentary exploring the struggle of Latin American converts to be accepted by the broader Jewish community.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Scarlett Johansson at the 2024 premiere of her movie Fly Me To The Moon. (Getty)

On campus…

🤦  Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, has compiled a new database of “woke DEI grants.” It includes a federally funded study on Hebrew and English linguistics, whose description references the fact that the Hebrew language assigns gender to nouns. (JTA)

🎒  Close to 200 Columbia University faculty members sent a letter to the school’s interim president, urging stronger safety measures for Jewish students. (Columbia Spectator)

💰  Boston University rejected a proposal from Students for Justice in Palestine to divest from Israel. “The endowment is no longer the vehicle for political debate,” the school’s president said. (Algemeiner)

👋  A Massachusetts middle school student performed a Nazi salute in class, prompting the principal to assure parents that “appropriate action” would be taken. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Holidays…

🔥  Rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel last year lit fires in forests already scorched by heat and unusual winds. It upended ecosystems, disturbed wildlife habitats and reversed years of conservation efforts by foresters to enhance biodiversity. The cascading effects are being felt today, on Tu B’Shvat. (JTA)

📅  Google Calendar no longer includes International Holocaust Remembrance Day and Jewish American Heritage Month in its default U.S. display. The tech giant said it removed them, along with other cultural events like Black History Month, for apolitical reasons — but critics see it as part of a wider nationwide rollback of diversity initiatives. (JTA, New York Times)

Elsewhere…

🇮🇷  Israel is considering strikes on Iran nuclear sites this year, U.S. intelligence agencies warned. (WSJ)

🖕  Scarlett Johansson condemned a viral AI-generated video that used her likeness and those of other Jewish celebrities to depict them giving the middle finger to Kanye West. “I am a Jewish woman who has no tolerance for antisemitism,” she said, but warned, “We must call out the misuse of A.I., no matter its messaging, or we risk losing a hold on reality.” (People)

😲  How did Kanye West get local TV networks to play his Super Bowl ad promoting a website that sold T-shirts with a swastika on them? He swapped in the offensive clothing after the ad was approved. (Wall Street Journal)

🎵  The rapper Macklemore is following up his May 2024 pro-Palestinian song with a new one slamming Israel. The music video, which juxtaposes photos from Gaza and the Holocaust, has garnered more than 14 million views on X. (JTA)

⚾  Alex Bregman, the third baseman who wore a Star of David on his cap following the Oct. 7 attacks, reportedly signed with the Boston Red Sox in a $120 million deal. It makes him the top-earning Jewish player in baseball history. (Forward)

🤔  A candidate to head Michigan’s Democratic Party is facing backlash for suggesting his party is “not the Jewish party” and that voices beyond American Jews should be heard in discussions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Forward)

Shiva call ► Yehuda Lindenblatt, a Holocaust survivor and the oldest New York City volunteer for Hatzolah, the Jewish ambulance service, died at 88.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro — one of three U.S. governors who are Jewish and named Josh — appeared on Stephen A. Smith’s sports podcast, where he weighed in on the Eagles’ Super Bowl win and President Trump’s plan to take over Gaza. “I thought it was an unserious proposal,” Shapiro said. “I thought it was a proposal that if he actually carried it out the way he said he was, violates international law.”

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

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