WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

The latest on a truce with Hamas, record label cuts ties with Roger Waters over anti-Israel comments, editor of Jewish newspaper pleads guilty to participating in Capitol riot, and a Rhode Island Jewish community is offering $50,000 to move there.

ISRAEL AT WAR

Palestinians receive food aid Sunday at a distribution center of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA. (Getty)

5 things to know about the UN group whose sole mission is to aid Palestinians: Allegations that a dozen employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, better known as UNRWA, participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks have led the U.S. and other countries to suspend donations to the agency, which provides humanitarian aid to Gaza. The U.S. provides $300 to $400 million annually to UNRWA, and has already sent $121 million since the war began. Our Beth Harpaz dives into the group’s controversial past and the impact it’s had in the current war. Read the story ➤

➤  UNRWA fired eight staffers, suspended two more and said it is conducting an internal investigation.

➤  At a Congressional hearing Tuesday, lawmakers called UNRWA a “terrorist-supporting entity” and the “identical twin” of Hamas.

➤  The IDF raided a weapons manufacturing plant in Gaza. Some explosive devices were found in bags marked with the UNRWA logo.

➤  Opinions: Marilyn Garson, who wrote a memoir about her time offering aid in Gaza, argues in an opinion essay that withholding funds from UNRWA is unethical … In The New York Times, opinion columnist Brett Stephens writes that the group should be abolished.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, meets with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Monday at the State Department. (Getty)

The latest on the warfront…

➤  Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is “hopeful” that Israel and Hamas are nearing an extended truce.

➤  A delegation of Hamas officials is expected in Egypt today to discuss a truce-for-hostage deal.

➤  There are reports that Hamas will only release the hostages if Israel ends the war in Gaza. But on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that will not happen.

Roger Waters performing in 2022 in Pittsburgh. (Getty)

Elsewhere…

➤  The second-largest teachers union in the U.S. is calling for a “bilateral cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war.

➤  The German-based record label BMG is reportedly severing ties with Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd co-founder who has a history of making anti-Israel statements and incorporating Nazi imagery into his concerts.

➤  More than 1,000 Swedish musicians are asking for Israel to be excluded from the annual Eurovision Song Contest, which Sweden is hosting in May. Israel has won the competition four times since 1978, most recently in 2018.

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

(iStock)

Could $50,000 get you to move to Rhode Island? This Orthodox community wants to find out: A recently launched recruitment project in Providence aims to find five to 10 frum families who want to “get away from the grind of New York or the grind of New Jersey” and “really join a community where they can make a difference.” The financial incentives are reminiscent of previous programs in Dothan, Alabama, and Meridian, Mississippi.

An heir to Broadway royalty returns to the Great White Way with an unlikely musical: With his adaptation of Days of Wine and Roses, composer Adam Guettel, son of Mary Rodgers and grandson of Richard Rodgers, is staging a comeback 20 years after his last musical debuted on Broadway. The material — alcoholism — may not be typical musical fare, but he prefers it that way. Describing his unconventional work, Guettel said, “I’m threading a needle.”

Plus…

➤  Roughly 3 in 5 Americans think Jews are more likely to face public bullying than any other religious group, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

➤  Among the items in a new Judaica gallery at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is an 18th-century Torah shield.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Hundreds were arrested after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol. (Getty)

⚖️  Elliot Resnick, the onetime editor of a Jewish newspaper who claimed that he was at the Capitol riot to cover it, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge for joining the attackers and obstructing a police officer. (JTA)

🎒 A Delaware school district will send staff to anti-harassment training and compensate the family of a Jewish student who alleged antisemitic bullying last June. (JTA)

🖼️  A 19th-century painting of the Western Wall, which spent years locked in a synagogue’s storage room, could fetch $3 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Thursday. (NY Jewish Week)

🤷  A Republican lawmaker in Oregon who suggested that non-Christians are unfit for public office said his comments were “grossly taken out of context.” (AP)

🎶  The New York Philharmonic will play music from the Oscar-nominated Maestro, about the life of composer Leonard Bernstein, at a special concert on Feb. 14. Bradley Cooper, the movie’s star and director, is set to participate in a post-performance conversation. (AP)

Mazel tov ➤  To Shterni and Motti Seligson, the director of media at Chabad, on the birth of a baby boy Tuesday.

What else we’re reading ➤  Experts debate whether an Ivy League antisemitism probe is overreach or overdue … Her childhood dream about the Holocaust brought this Israeli filmmaker all the way to the Oscars … Fanny Brice built her career on a Yiddish accent and a flair for zany parody.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Comedian Iliza Schlesinger discovered her family’s unknown Holocaust history in last night’s episode of PBS’s Finding Your Roots.

Thanks to PJ Grisar for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Lauren Markoe for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

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