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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Let’s start the week: Netanyahu disbands war cabinet, more than a dozen Muslim pilgrims in Mecca die in heat wave, UCLA taps son of Holocaust refugee as new chancellor, Seinfeld mocks pro-Palestinian heckler at Australia concert, and the pope’s advice to comedians. |
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Micha Shtiebel, an IDF reservist, sorts through his duffel bag containing equipment that he’s either bought himself or received from donors. (Yakov Binyamin) |
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Jerry Seinfeld, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty) |
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The latest… Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disbanded the war cabinet after two members resigned.
In the deadliest day for the IDF since January, 10 soldiers were killed on Saturday in separate incidents in Gaza.
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to host an event at the White House today to highlight the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas. The 80 invited guests include survivors of Oct. 7, as well as Sheryl Sandberg, who will screen parts of her documentary on the topic. Watch the event here.
In a lengthy report, Haaretz revealed the extent of antisemitism at Columbia University. In one incident, a professor told the class to not read mainstream media because “it is owned by Jews.”
Across the globe… A publicly funded arts center in Belgium apologized after it denied a request from a local Jewish school to hold an event there, citing Israel’s “genocide.”
A vandal defaced a sign outside Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan on Saturday by scrawling the word “Palestine” at the end of this verse: “How great are your tents O Jacob your dwelling places O Israel.”
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator heckled Jerry Seinfeld during a Sunday performance in Australia. “You’ve come to the right place,” Seinfeld said in jest, as security removed the protester. “It’s a comedy show, you moron.” |
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Shaina Taub quoted from Jewish text in her Tony win on Sunday. (Getty) |
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The 2024 Tony Awards were packed with Jewish winners, and one even referenced Ethics of Our Fathers. Our culture reporter PJ Grisar was watching — here are his highlights. Shaina Taub won for best book of a musical and best score for her musical Suffs, and paid tribute to her mentor Elizabeth Swados. Taub is perhaps the first person accepting a Tony to quote the Talmud.
Accepting a special Tony for his show Just For Us, comedian Alex Edelman said that his show, in which he chronicles his infiltration into a neo-Nazi meeting, was “about people sitting in a room who disagree with each other in ways that are fundamental and profound and trying to understand something about ourselves and those others.” Edelman said it’s “all the more necessary to find ways to do that” given the war in Gaza.
Winners for directing included strong cases of l’dor v’dor (from generation to generation) with Tony winner Julie Taymor’s niece Danya Taymor winning for her direction of the musical adaptation The Outsiders and Daniel Aukin, son of the directors David Aukin and Nancy Meckler, taking home a Tony for Stereophonic.
David Adjmi — who hails from the Syrian Jewish community in Midwood, Brooklyn — won for best play. He told PJ earlier this year that the drama was his “family play.”
Daniel Radcliffe, the actor (and new dad) won for playing the very Jewish-coded Charlie Kringus in Merrily We Roll Along, which also saw a win for Stephen Sondheim’s longtime orchestrator Jonathan Tunick. Sisters Maria (director) and Sonia Friedman (producer) won best revival, also for Merrily. |
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The Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross, Amichai Lau-Lavie’s drag persona, was a staple of Pride parades and Purim parties in Israel and the U.S. for years. (Courtesy) |
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Opinions…
He’s a 38th-generation rabbi, an icon in the queer community and grappling with the pain and trauma of Israelis and Palestinians. Our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, speaks with Amichai Lau-Lavie, the subject of a new documentary.
The Academy Museum made changes to its exhibit about the Jewish founders of Hollywood following backlash it faced that some parts were deemed antisemitic. But “this kind of whitewashing of Jewish history is ahistorical and anti-intellectual,” writes Emily Tamkin, author of Bad Jews.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s vote condemning IVF is the latest assault on fertility treatment that one in six Jewish families use. “It frightens me,” writes Amy Klein, the author of a book about infertility. |
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Mexico’s first female and first Jewish president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said her mother was born in Mexico. Genealogical documents show she was born in Bulgaria and survived the Holocaust. (Getty/Jewish Documentation and Research Center of Mexico) |
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In case you missed it: A Forward investigation published on Friday revealed that Mexico’s new Jewish president has not been telling the truth about her family’s Holocaust story.
Related: Mexican Jews love their country. But do they love the next president? It’s complicated.
Plus: Juneteenth is Wednesday. Here’s how Jewish communities are celebrating.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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Muslim pilgrims arrive Sunday for Hajj near Mecca in Saudi Arabia. (Getty) |
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☀️ At least 14 Jordanians died from extreme heat during Hajj as thousands made the Muslim holy pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, where the temperature reached 116 degrees on Sunday. (Guardian)
🏫 Julio Frenk was named the new chancellor of UCLA, the site of some of the most divisive campus protests this spring. Frenk is the son of a German Jewish father who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s. (LA Times)
💔 The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has 18,000 case files of Jewish immigrant men who abandoned their wives a century ago. A new exhibit featuring those records opens today. (NY Jewish Week)
Mazel tov ➤ To the Manhattan Jewish Historical Initiative’s Jewish Hall of Fame class of 2024, who will be inducted at an event this evening. They are: Rabbi Elie Abadie, Juju Chang, Judy Gold, Josh Einiger, Abe Foxman, Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, Dina and Jonathan Leader, Russell Robinson, Moishe Rosenfeld, Ethel Sheffer and Marcy Syms.
Shiva calls ➤ Eva Hanks, a founding member of the Cardozo Law School faculty, died at 95 … Martin Starger, producer of Sophie’s Choice and On Golden Pond, died at 92 … Frieda Johles Forman, an editor and translator who rediscovered Yiddish women authors, died at 87 … Heather Conn Hendel, a Manhattan teacher and Jewish matchmaker, died at 48.
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A hundred comedians from around the world — including Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien — met with Pope Francis on Friday. “Why are we here, and when are they going to throw us out?” O’Brien joked afterwards.
The pope told the comedians that their profession was needed “in the midst of such gloomy news, immersed as we are in many social and even personal emergencies.” He added: “When you manage to bring intelligent smiles to the lips of even a single spectator, you also make God smile.”
Francis also said it was OK to “laugh at God” much like “we play and joke with the people we love.” |
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Thanks to PJ Grisar 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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