Deborah Lipstadt picked as Biden’s an tisemitism envoy

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In today’s briefing: Israel vs. USA compete at Olympics and beyond, rabbi nominated to Supreme Court, why we're eating cheesecake today and much more.

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OUR LEAD STORY ✡️

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Deborah Lipstadt picked as Biden’s antisemitism envoy

President Biden plans to nominate Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian, to the ambassador-level post at the State Department today, our Jacob Kornbluh was among the first to report last night.

A brief bio: Lipstadt is a professor at Emory University in Atlanta and was the protagonist of the 2016 film “Denial,” about her successful defeat of a libel suit filed by a Holocaust denier she had criticized. She is the author of several books and a contributing columnist to the Forward. She has been considered a leading candidate throughout the Biden administration’s months-long search for a position whose prominence has been elevated amid a rise in antisemitism across the United States and the world.

Why it matters: The previously low-profile envoy position has been the subject of much heated debate among American Jews, as a proxy for a larger political battle over the relative danger of antisemitism from the right and left, and even how to define the term antisemitism. Progressive activists have pushed back against Zionist groups that often equate harsh criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

What they’re saying: “Dr. Lipstadt truly recognizes what a tremendous zechut and responsibility she has to serve our people and country,” said Rabbi Adam Starr, the spiritual leader of Congregation Ohr HaTorah, where Lipstadt is a member. “She’s the perfect person for the position.”

Read the story >

ALSO IN OUR PAGES ⚾️

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

As Team Israel took the field vs. the U.S. this morning, we explore a brief, random history of conflicts between the two nations: The U.S. is beating Team Israel 6-1 at the bottom of the seventh inning at the Tokyo Olympics as I send this email. To mark the moment, Louis Keene offers this brief, random history of conflicts between the two nations. Over the years, tension has simmered over things as small as pistachio nuts and as large as the Sinai Desert. Read the story >

In close Ohio election, Jewish vote could determine outcome:Jews in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District have been flooded with campaign mailers for a special election that could be the determining factor in a critical House primary on Tuesday. “This election is going to be close, and Jewish voters — whose turnout numbers are relatively high — may determine the outcome of the race,” said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. Read the story >

Jewish teen groups are rife with toxic sexual culture. Adults have to fix it that: In an OpEd, the CEO of Jewish Women International, grapples with a recent investigation describing groping during Shabbat dinners at youth conventions, over-sexualization, pressures to hook up and sexual assault. “Let’s stop worrying about encouraging people to have future Jewish children,” she urges fellow Jewish leaders and philanthropists, “and instead focus on the Jewish children we have today.” Read the essay >

4 THINGS AMERICAN JEWS ARE TALKING ABOUT 🍦

CARL LEVIN WAS THE LONGEST-SERVING SENATOR FROM MICHIGAN. (PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES)

1. Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York has a message for his city's Jews: If you want to be fully vaccinated by Rosh Hashanah, you need to get your first Pfizer shot by Monday. His message comes amidst rising concerns over the Delta variant, which is complicating High Holiday plans for synagogues. (JTA)

2. The Israeli government apparently sent a classified cable to its diplomats across North America and Europe asking them to launch a pressure campaign against Ben & Jerry’s and parent company Unilever to reverse their decision to not sell ice cream in West Bank settlements. (Axios)

3. Rabbi Marcus Solomon was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. He is believed to be the first orthodox rabbi to hold such a position in the country. (Australian Jewish News)

4. Chaim Deutsch, a former New York City Council member, was sentenced to three months in prison on Thursday for tax evasion. “This was not aberrant conduct that occurred on a single occasion,” said Eli Mark, the federal prosecutor who worked on the case. “It was deliberate conduct that occurred year after year.” (Brooklyn Paper)

Shiva call: Carl Levin, the Jewish Michigander who spent 36 years as a fierce inquisitor in the Senate, has died at 87. The former taxi driver and auto-line worker, who for decades kept his faded 1953 union card in his wallet, was his state’s longest-serving senator. (The New York Times)

Long reads for the weekend: How the pandemic helped me embrace being a rabbi’s wife … Why Yom Kippur is actually a Jewish holiday about time travel … How Williamsburg hipsters and real estate billions transformed this Hasidic sect.

One more thing: In Tuesday’s newsletter, we incorrectly stated that Louise Fishman, the abstract painter who died at 82, had her final show in 2016. It was in 2020. And: A retrospective of her work will be on display at the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, Ill. from August 2021 through February 2022.

OLYMPIC UPDATE 🥇

HANNA KNYAZYEVA-MINENKO AT THE TOKYO OLYMPICS. (PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES)

Jessica Fox, the Jewish paddler from Australia, has won gold in an Olympics event that is newly open to women thanks to her advocacy. Fox took home the top prize in canoe slalom Thursday, making her the first-ever woman to win a gold medal in the event in an Olympics.

And here’s the latest from Team Israel: Keep up with the athletes over the weekend and next week via this social media channel...

Check out all of our Olympics coverage >

ENJOY OUR WEEKLY MAGAZINE 👇

Every Friday, we curate some of our favorite Forward stories into a free, printable magazine for some restful offline weekend reading.

In this week's edition: the pitcher whose parents built Israel's first baseball field, the Jewish millennial who became a Civil War historian, faux pets help Holocaust survivors and much more.

You can read and print out the magazine by simply clicking here.

ON THE CALENDAR 🗓

🍰 National Cheesecake Day: The history of cheesecake takes the form of a Jewish argument — many opinions, little consensus — in large part, because the definition of a cheesecake is so hard to pin down.

📚 On this day in history: Inventor and memoirist Chaim Aronson was born on July 30, 1825. The author of “A Jewish Life under the Tsars” as well as an engineer, Aronson never achieved commercial success for his inventions due to what he thought was an unfriendly and antisemitic business climate in St. Petersburg, Russia.

🇮🇱 Upcoming event: Join us Tuesday at 11: 30 a.m. for a conversation about the complexities of covering the Middle East. Jodi Rudoren, our editor-in-chief and former Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times, will moderate a panel of current and former correspondents: Ethan Bronner, now of Bloomberg News; Daniel Estrin of NPR; and Janine Zacharia, who teaches at Stanford University. Register here.

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