| JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
| WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | | Brooklyn grocery caught between two sides of the war, Wikipedia says ADL is unreliable source of information, NBA champs may head to Israel, why Jews should celebrate Juneteenth, and why “Hava Nagila” suddenly became a TV fight song. |
| | | | At left, Willie Mays with Jacob Shemano. At right, Mays with Gary Shemano holding a photo of his parents with Mays. (Courtesy) |
| ‘Best friends I ever had’: Willie Mays’ treasured bond with a Jewish family
Willie Mays, considered the greatest all-around baseball player in history, died Tuesday at 93. Our sports reporter, Louis Keene, tracked down the Jewish family who considered Mays a member of the mishpacha.
Batter up: Mays was in the prime of his career in 1963, but his finances were a mess. The Giants’ star outfielder had plunged into debt amid divorce proceedings. Even with more than half of his career home runs under his belt, he was staring down bankruptcy. Then he met Jacob Shemano.
Home run: Shemano, a banker and financial adviser, offered to help on one condition: He wouldn’t take a dime for his work. What began with Shemano rescuing Mays from bankruptcy evolved into a close friendship that spanned generations, and made Mays an honorary member of the San Francisco Jewish community. He appeared at events so often that Mays was eventually invited into the local Concordia-Argonaut Club — a Jewish social club — as the first Black member.
Lox strikeout: Mays befriended Jacob’s son Gary, and stayed close with the family even after Jacob’s death in 1979, coming over to visit and spend the holidays. “He loved my mother until she made him eat some smoked salmon on a bagel for Thanksgiving and he couldn’t swallow it,” Gary said. “It was hysterical.”
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| | | | Shoppers exit the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn. (Getty) |
| The war comes to the Park Slope Food Coop. Could it also provide the blueprint for peace?The Brooklyn grocery store is famed for its cheap produce and its quirky community built around strict requirements that members work monthly shifts to shop. But now a schism is developing: Some members want to adopt BDS, the Israel boycott movement, while others oppose it. Coop board elections happen this month, and the tension has escalated to new levels, with members canvassing outside its front doors and firing accusations back and forth via the Coop’s newspaper, the Linewaiters’ Gazette. Read the story ➤
While we’re on the topic of Brooklyn: Pro-Palestinian activists spray-painted the homes of four Brooklyn Museum leaders last week. Many media outlets presented it as a black-and-white case of antisemitism. But it turned out to be more complicated. Our Arno Rosenfeld explains how everyone got the story wrong.
Sign up for Arno’s weekly antisemitism newsletter.
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| | “Give us the tools, we’ll do the job,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday. (Getty) |
| The latest…
Netanyahu on Tuesday accused the Biden administration of withholding arms shipments to Israel. While the U.S. placed a temporary pause on one shipment of bombs last month, other shipments have continued. The complaint came as Democrats signed off on the transfer of F-15 fighter jets to Israel. “We generally do not know what he’s talking about,” said the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre. Read the story ➤
Aftermath: The White House canceled a planned Thursday meeting with Israeli officials to send a message to Netanyahu, according to Axios.
Wikipedia’s editors declared the Anti-Defamation League an unreliable source of information on the Israel-Hamas war, arguing that the group tends to label legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitism. An overwhelming majority of editors also said the ADL is unreliable on the topic of antisemitism. Read the story ➤
Plus… The $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. built on Gaza’s shore to deliver humanitarian aid has largely been out of service due to rough seas and constant need for repair. Now it appears it will end operations weeks earlier than expected.
Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin, American-Israeli citizens whose son Hersh is being held in Gaza, met with a bipartisan group of senators Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
Earlier this week, we reported that Poland canceled soccer matches with two Israeli teams because of local backlash. Now Belgium, too, has said hosting an upcoming match with Israel would be impossible due to security concerns. |
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| | | | | An attendee at a neighborhood Juneteenth festival last year in Washington, D.C. (Getty) |
| | | | | Plus… New York City is considering a ban on masks on the subway, after masked pro-Palestinian demonstrators threatened Jews. “But it will punish immunocompromised Jews like me,” writes Rikki Baker Keusch in a new opinion essay.
New Jersey’s attorney general, Matthew Platkin, is making headlines for indicting a Democratic kingmaker. Another issue he’s passionate about? combating antisemitism.
Anouk Aimée, the Oscar-nominated French actress who was born Nicole Dreyfus, died at 92. “With her death,” writes Robert Zaretsky, “a certain idea of France — an idea, at least, that swept away Americans of my generation — also died.” |
| | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | Margot Friedländer, a Holocaust survivor, at a red carpet event last month in Berlin. (Getty) |
| 📸 A 102-year-old Holocaust survivor is gracing the cover of the summer edition of Vogue in Germany. After WWII, Margot Friedländer immigrated to the U.S. and became a dressmaker. In 2010, she moved back to Germany, where she continues to give talks about her Holocaust experience. (DW)
🇫🇷 French police opened an investigation into allegations that three teenage boys raped and beat a 12-year-old Jewish girl while yelling antisemitic comments at her. (Times of Israel)
🎞️ Germany’s largest Jewish film festival, now in its 30th year, kicked off Tuesday with movies running the gamut, including a romantic comedy about a cantor who falls in love with his adult bat mitzvah pupil. (Hollywood Reporter)
🐔 The headline of the day goes to this New York Times story about a new museum exhibit on the Holocaust: His family survived the Nazis by living in a chicken coop. (NYT)
🚀 Mel Brooks, who turns 98 next week, is working on a sequel to Spaceballs, his classic 1987 Star Wars spoof. The comedic actor Josh Gad, star of Broadway’s The Book of Mormon and Disney’s Frozen, wrote the script. (Variety)
Shiva call ➤ Elinor Fuchs, a Yale professor and scholar of American theater, died at 91.
What else we’re reading ➤ This Pride month, queer Jews are feeling the strain, and sometimes feeling unsafe, over Israel … Jewish presidents of universities faced unique challenges this spring … Sesame bagel ice cream sandwiches? Russ & Daughters’ classics inspire a limited edition line of ice cream treats.
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| | | | “Hava Nagila” is the typical soundtrack to Jewish weddings and b’nai mitzvah — and, these days, apparently, brutal hand-to-hand combat. Two streaming shows have recently used the iconic dance tune in the background of fight scenes. Watch one of them above, and then enjoy this story by our PJ Grisar with all the details. |
| Thanks to Mira Fox, Louis Keene, Lauren Markoe and Julie Moos 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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