WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas calls for hostage deal, Yiddish institution accused of promoting propaganda, student suing Columbia University over antisemitism, and sex tips from the Talmud for Valentine’s Day.

IN THE FORWARD

Tom Suozzi celebrates his victory Tuesday in New York in the special election to replace expelled Rep. George Santos. (Getty)

Tom Suozzi, a Democrat and a strong supporter of Israel, returns to Congress to replace George Santos: The race to replace the disgraced Santos centered around abortion, immigration and Israel, with both Suozzi and Mazi Melesa Pilip, an Ethiopian Israeli and IDF veteran, pledging to be strong advocates for the Jewish state. Republicans and Democrats across the nation watched the swing district contest closely, as a possible indicator of which party will take the White House and majorities in Congress in November. Read the story ➤

Out and about: House Republicans impeached Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Biden’s homeland security secretary. Our opinion columnist Rob Eshman earlier wrote about how the charges stem from an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

From our archives: Mayorkas’ ascension to a cabinet position was a moment of pride for Sephardic Jews, wrote a member of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America in an opinion essay.

Plus…

The ex-mother-in-law of a woman who raged against Jews and had a “Palestine” sticker on her gun when she opened fire in a Texas megachurch says the shooting had “nothing to do with Judaism.”

A Jewish man was attacked Monday in Staten Island by a man wielding a baseball bat who called him a “dirty Jew,” police said Tuesday.

ISRAEL AT WAR

An Israeli medical team transports a person wounded in a rocket attack fired from southern Lebanon in Israel's northern city of Safed on Wednesday. (Getty)

The latest…

An Israeli woman was killed and eight others were wounded as a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon slammed into Safed and an army base in the northern city this morning.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Wednesday for Hamas to hasten the release of hostages to spare Palestinian people further “catastrophe.”

Negotiations in Cairo for a ceasefire-for-hostage deal were extended for three days.

An Indiana man was arrested Tuesday after vowing to kill Jewish people and elected officials who supported Israel. The man started sending threats the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

“Hamas is Hitler’s successor”: Hostages’ families headed to The Hague to file a war crimes claim against the terror group in the International Criminal Court.

At left, a comic imagines people at YIVO discussing how to handle the criticism of the Hamas lecture series. The person who suggests inviting an Arab or Muslim speaker is tossed out of the window of YIVO’s offices in the Center for Jewish History, seen at right.

A Yiddish institution will discuss Hamas — many in the Yiddish world say they’re promoting propaganda: When the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research announced their plan for a webinar series about the connections between Hamas and Nazi and Soviet propaganda, dozens of Instagram commenters wondered what this had to do with Yiddish culture. Some comments went as far as to call the 99-year-old organization complicit in genocide. The series’ organizers says it isn’t pro-Zionist or even pro-Israel. But critics say that the program represented an escalation in a widening rift between liberal Yiddishists and the institutions they rely on for their work. Read the story ➤

Opinion | A campus story with a different twist? Jewish-Palestinian cooperation: A pair of University of Texas students, one Jewish and one Palestinian, are leading a movement to foster friendship and understanding, with chapters at their school as well as at Harvard, Williams College and the University of Pennsylvania. “Jews and Arabs are cousins in one family and we’re not inherent enemies,” co-founder Elijah Kahlenberg told our editor-at-large, Robin Washington. Read his essay ➤

VALENTINE’S DAY

(Midjourney)

Sex tips from the Talmud, just in time for Valentine’s Day:Many people think of religion as being puritanical; Valentine’s Day, named for a Christian saint, is, after all, more about roses than anything raunchier. Judaism is, on the other hand, pretty sex positive. The rabbis of the Talmud discuss sex frankly, and not just as a vehicle for procreation — their advice covers intimacy, pleasure and even positions. For Valentine’s Day, culture writer Mira Fox takes a tour of the Talmud’s sex advice.

How Tu B’Av, the ancient Jewish holiday of love, was revived for the modern era: Celebrated in the summer across the globe, it’s more than just a romantic ritual. For Orthodox girls of Eastern Europe in the 1920s and ‘30s, it became a festival of female empowerment. They took a nighttime hike to the woods, lit a campfire, sang and danced. “No power in the world could stop us,” one student wrote of the experience.

Plus: A love affair with a young Israeli in the 1980s swept one author off her feet. In the months since Oct. 7, she's been revisiting it.

Looking for love: Our Bintel Brief column has a long history of offering romantic advice. Here are some entries…

Is it possible to find your bashert on a dating app?

How many times do you ask someone out before you give up?

I have a crush on my rabbi. Is it OK to ask him out? (Rabbis didn’t love our advice.)

The Forward is made possible by readers like you.

Support our work with a donation of any size.

Want more Forward? Explore all our newsletters at forward.com/newsletters

– From our Sponsor –

AROUND THE WEB

The library at Columbia University in New York City. (iStock)

🏫 A graduate student is suing Columbia University, claiming she faced discrimination after an “explosion” of antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7. As we reported yesterday, a House committee is also investigating antisemitic incidents at Columbia. (Bloomberg)

🛑 The Australian government says it will outlaw doxxing — the release online of personal information without the subject’s permission — after pro-Palestinian activists published details about hundreds of Jews in Australia last week. (AP)

🤦 A Republican Senate candidate from Nevada has repeatedly invoked antisemitic tropes in his public statements. (Jewish Insider)

🇸🇦 Jared Kushner praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as someone who has “done a lot of things that have made the world a better place,” and shrugged off a question from a reporter about U.S. intel that found that the crown prince ordered the assassination of a Washington Post columnist. (Axios)

📘 A new book tells the story of a Polish “countess” who saved thousands of concentration camp prisoners from the Nazis. No one knew she was a Jew. (JTA)

Shiva calls ➤ Rabbi Jules Harlow, who edited what became the standard prayer book used in Conservative synagogues for a quarter century, died at 92 … Robert Chazan, a scholar who helped build the academic field of Jewish studies, died at 87.

What else we’re reading ➤ An odd couple of Jewish organizations unite to help migrants during cold nights …. Why did an Iranian singer record a beloved Israeli song? … A calendar collision means Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day fall on the same day this year.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Hulu released the trailer for its upcoming miniseries We Were the Lucky Ones. Based on The New York Times bestselling novel, the TV adaptation shares the true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of the Holocaust, following them across continents as they try to survive — and reunite. It premieres on March 28.

Thanks to Mira Fox, PJ Grisar and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

Support Independent Jewish Journalism

Without you, the Forward’s stories don’t just go unread — they go untold. Please support our nonprofit journalism today.