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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Friday at 12 p.m. ET: Join our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, for a conversation about the complexities journalists face in reporting on the war abroad and antisemitism here in the United States. Register here ➤

In today’s Forwarding: Man accused of shooting Jews as they left synagogue pleads guilty, Jewish professors reject controversial definition of antisemitism, Netflix has a new Hitler series, and Martha Stewart is launching her own line of babka.

CONFLICT ON CAMPUS

A sign on the gates at Harvard, where the pro-Palestinian encampment was dismantled Tuesday. (Getty)

Colleges take down encampments — with cops or concessions

In tents and purposes: As spring semesters around the country come to an end, pro-Palestinian encampments — at least 10 in the past few weeks — are coming down, sometimes as a result of agreements between protesters and administrators, sometimes as a result of forceful action by police. The latest to come down was at Harvard on Tuesday.

Let’s make a deal: Most agreements involve amnesty for protesters and give them an opportunity to have input in university investment decisions — though without unconditional promises of divestment in Israel. Some Jewish leaders object to those deals, saying they ignore the needs of Jewish students.

Related…

In a rarity, the pro-Palestinian encampment at Cornell disbanded with neither arrests nor a deal.

A University of Delaware student was charged with a hate crime after vandalizing a Holocaust memorial on campus and “going on an antisemitic tirade.”

Around 1,200 Jewish university professors are calling on the U.S. Senate to reject a controversial definition of antisemitism rather than codify it as federal law. The professors believe it restricts free speech because it includes criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

MIT is hosting a music festival this week celebrating “Jewish joy” featuring Matisyahu, a DJ from the Nova music festival and others.

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ISRAEL AT WAR

Supporters of Israel attended an Israeli Independence Day event Tuesday in Chicago. (Getty)

President Biden notified Congress on Tuesday that he is moving forward on $1 billion in new arms sales to Israel, days after withholding a shipment of bombs.

Palestinians across the Middle East Wednesday observed Nakba Day, an annual commemoration of the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel before and during the War of Independence in 1948.

Turkey’s sudden ban on trade with Israel is already affecting Jews in both countries.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated against Google’s ties to Israel’s military at the tech company’s annual developer conference Tuesday in California.

How one public official made Palm Beach County the largest holder of Israel bonds: The Israel Bonds organization said it sold more than $3 billion in bonds since Oct. 7, nearly three times its normal annual total. And much of it is thanks to Joseph Abruzzo, who has invested $700 million of local taxpayer money in bonds that are helping the Israeli government finance its war against Hamas. “I am proud to stand with what I consider our greatest ally in the entire world,” said Abruzzo, who is not Jewish. Read the story ➤

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ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

(iStock)

First-person | What happened the first time I wore a yarmulke on the subway:Moishele Alfonso, who doesn’t consider himself religious, began wearing a yarmulke in public after Oct. 7, believing that the best way to combat Jew hatred is to act more Jewish. On a bus, he encountered a Christian missionary, and on the train he sat next to a Saudi man who wished him a Shabbat Shalom.

A Bintel Brief: At a Jewish senior home, one person is trying to sleep while the hard-of-hearing neighbor blasts the TV. What to do? The answer, our advice columnist suggests, brings to mind an old Yiddish expression about banging a teakettle — hakn a tshaynik.

NEW FROM THE FORWARD

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Los Angeles’ Pico-Robertson neighborhood, seen here shortly after the Feb. 2023 shootings. (Getty)

⚖️ The man accused of shooting two Jewish men as they left synagogue in Los Angeles last year will plead guilty to federal hate crimes, the Justice Department said Tuesday, averting a trial. He will face 35 to 40 years in prison, according to the terms of the plea agreement. Both Jews sustained minor injuries. (Forward)

💰 In a congressional primary Tuesday in Maryland, AIPAC’s affiliated super PAC poured $4.2 million into a race where both candidates’ views of Israel were identical. Its preferred candidate won. (JTA)

🇫🇷 A Paris Holocaust memorial was defaced Tuesday with painted red hands, a symbol used by pro-Palestinian protesters. The incident occurred on the anniversary of the first major roundup of French Jews under the Nazis in 1941. (Algemeiner)

🇬🇧 Officials in England charged three men with allegedly plotting a gun attack on the Jewish community of Manchester. (BBC)

Mazel tov ➤ To Andrew Silverstein for winning two awards from the New York Press Club for stories published in the Forward. One was for his deeply reported piece on how New York City housed Holocaust survivors, but falls short in housing today’s migrants. And the other was for a story exploring how eating foods like shawarma and hummus has become a political act since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Shiva calls ➤ Daniel Kramer, who photographed Bob Dylan’s rise in hundreds of pictures, died at 91 … Ivan Wolkind, a former executive at the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and who this month was named the new CEO of the Holocaust Museum in Houston, died at 56.

What else we’re reading ➤ Asian Jewish Americans have a double reason to celebrate their heritage in May … Iowa launches task force to combat antisemitism … Martha Stewart collaborates with Breads Bakery on a brand-new babka.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Netflix released the trailer for Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial, a new six-part documentary from Oscar-nominated director Joe Berlinger. The series, which debuts June 5, came about in part because of a 2018 study that discovered that two-thirds of millennials don’t know what Auschwitz is. “This is the right time to retell this story for a younger generation as a cautionary tale, and on a global scale,” said Berlinger.

Thanks to Marilynn Jacobs and Louis Keene 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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