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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
| WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | | Today: Ruth Bader Ginsburg • LeBron James • Matisyahu • Art Spiegelman • And how Trump’s Gaza plan echoes a Holocaust-era plan to send Jewish refugees to Alaska. |
| | | | Israelis hold posters of the Bibas family, all of whom were taken captive by Hamas. (Flash90) |
| The Bibas family
For more than a year, Israelis and others worldwide have clung to hope for the Bibas family: Yarden and Shiri and their two small redheaded sons, 4-year-old Ariel and Kfir, who was only nine months old when the family was kidnapped at Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023.
Yarden was released on Feb 1., but on Tuesday, hope for the rest of the family was shattered. Hamas said it would return the mom and two kids as dead bodies on Thursday. Their abduction became both a searing emblem of Israeli anguish and a flashpoint in the war’s bitter debate. Israel has yet to confirm their deaths.
Opinion | “I’m seething. I’m enraged at Hamas,” writes our senior columnist, Rob Eshman, who also points his anger toward pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Israel’s knee-jerk American supporters and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “a reverse Moses, who has brought plague after plague on his own people.” Read his essay ►
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| | A rally marking 500 days since the Oct. 7 attack, held Monday at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. (Flash90) |
| Across Israel — at a community center, outside a soccer stadium, in shops and on street corners — people stood in stunned silence as the news broke. “There is no consolation, no closure in this,” said one passerby. Added another: “So much has been put into the hope of a miracle that they’ll come home,” he said. “People are going to be broken and it’s going to take a lot of healing.” (JTA)
Related… The return of the Bibas family would mark a tragic end to 16 months of activism, protest and prayer on behalf of the family. (JTA)
The final six living hostages to be released Saturday under phase one of the ceasefire deal are Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem-Tov, Tal Shoham and Omer Wenkert, all of whom were abducted on Oct. 7, 2023; and Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed who have been held by Hamas since entering Gaza on their own in 2014 and 2015, respectively. (Times of Israel)
Plus… Two IDF soldiers on vacation in Amsterdam were quickly flown back to Israel after pro-Palestinian groups, seeing their social media posts from Gaza — including images of blindfolded detainees — pushed for their arrest. (Times of Israel)
Fiji said Tuesday it will open an embassy in Jerusalem, joining six nations — the U.S., Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, and Paraguay — that already have embassies in the city. (Times of Israel) |
| | | | The 2023 regional conference of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries at Alaska’s Matanuska Glacier. (Courtesy) |
| First in Forwarding
Rabbi Mendy Greenberg, a Chabad rabbi, grew up in Alaska and has helped sustain Jewish life in a place never meant to be a major Jewish hub. But more than 80 years ago, U.S. officials briefly considered a plan that could have changed that — one that proposed sending thousands of Jewish refugees to Alaska as they fled Hitler’s Germany.
The plan, known as the Slattery Report, died in Congress and was then forgotten. But now, as President Donald Trump talks about permanently relocating 2.2 million Palestinians from Gaza, the abandoned proposal to move an entire population from one country to another is suddenly historically resonant. |
| | Related: A new book sheds light on the frantic letters written by Jews seeking refuge in the Netherlands on the eve of the Holocaust. (New York Times)
Plus… A group of 70 rabbis, clergy and liberal Jewish groups are calling on New York officials to resist President Trump’s mass deportation orders, drawing a parallel to the biblical Pharaoh’s decree to kill Hebrew boys in ancient Egypt. (Forward)
A group of Israeli students and alumni from Columbia University issued a similar call against deportations. (Columbia Spectator)
The Senate confirmed Howard Lutnick, the Jewish billionaire and philanthropist, as commerce secretary. (AP, Forward)
Opinion by Cantor Sheri Allen | My ancestors left their homelands to escape antisemitism. Will my son have to leave the U.S. because he’s trans? Read her essay ► |
| | - From our Sponsor, Friends of Mishpacha Orphanage Odessa |
| | Chabad Odessa’s Jewish University Struck by Missile Attack |
| On Friday night, Chabad Odessa’s Jewish University suffered significant damage in a missile attack. Thankfully, all students and staff are safe. The university is committed to rebuilding and continuing its vital mission. Support recovery efforts at mishpachaorphanage.com/rebuild. Your help is crucial in restoring this cornerstone of Jewish education in Ukraine. |
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| | | | | Art Spiegelman in Disaster Is My Muse. (Courtesy Zipatone) |
| A new documentary, Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, delves into the Maus author’s influences — from MAD magazine to family trauma — and his ongoing fight against censorship. As our PJ Grisar writes, the film offers an intimate look at how Spiegelman’s past shaped his anti-fascist artistry and what continues to fuel his creative fire. Read his review ►
U.S. military schools banned a kids' book about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, citing President Trump’s executive order against “radical indoctrination.” Also on the chopping block? Freckleface Strawberry and a biography of a trans activist. The real lesson here, explains our culture reporter Mira Fox, is that censorship knows no bounds. Go deeper ►
Plus: LeBron James is in a war of words with a Jewish college basketball coach.
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| | | | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate, could be the next mayor. (Getty) |
| With growing calls for New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ resignation, Jumaane Williams, the next in line, would become acting mayor. Our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, breaks down Williams’ views and what they mean for the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. (Forward)
🪧 Clashes erupted Tuesday night in Borough Park, a heavily Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn, where pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-protesters faced off outside an Israeli real estate expo. A similar clash happened in L.A. in June. (Times of Israel, Forward)
🎒 Nearly one-third of Jewish college students feel that faculty have promoted antisemitism or created environments hostile to Jews, according to a new study from the American Jewish Committee and Hillel International. (AJC, Algemeiner)
🤦 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is under fire for appointing Scott Yenor to chair the University of West Florida’s board. A bipartisan group of Jewish lawmakers condemned Yenor’s “history of antisemitic and misogynistic rhetoric.” (Jewish Insider)
🧕 Amnesty International is calling on French lawmakers to reject a bill banning headscarves in sports. Backed by right-wing senators, the proposal targets all “ostensibly religious” symbols in competitions. (AP)
Shiva calls ► Marian Turski, a Holocaust survivor who co-founded Warsaw’s Jewish history museum, died at 98 … Rabbi Micah Ellenson, who served in pulpits and at Jewish schools, died at 47.
What else we’re reading ► John Irving’s new novel, Queen Esther, grapples with Israel and antisemitism (JTA) … A lonely holdout where Republicans still resist Trump: Mormon voters in Utah (New York Times) … Are young evangelical Christians losing their faith in Israel? (Religion News Service).
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| | | | Jewish rappers Matisyahu and Remedy collaborated on a new song about combating antisemitism. Watch the music video.
Join me tonight! I’ll be giving a Zoom talk about my Albert Einstein book at the JCC in Durham, N.C. at 7 p.m. ET. Register here.
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| Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh and Talya Zax 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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