Everything you need to know about synagogue security funding + Holocaust survivor killed on way to shul

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Good morning! I'm Talya Zax, the Forward's innovation editor and top advocate for the artistic significance of high school theater. Benyamin Cohen is taking a few days off, so I’m filling in on the Forwarding desk. Today: Christian Dior's Jewish history, a Jewish skater's top score, Art Spiegelman speaks to Tennessee Jews, Happy Birthday Nikki Yanofksy.

OUR LEAD STORY

A deeper look at public funding for synagogue security: Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who freed himself and fellow congregants from an 11-hour hostage situation at their Texas synagogue last month, is slated to testify this morning at a Congressional hearing about federal funding for security at houses of worship.

Nonprofit leaders have been advocating a doubling of the federal program, which began after 9/11, to $360 million a year, after the Department of Homeland security was flooded with some 3,361 applications, more than half of which were turned down. Some states also provide similar security grants, and our Louis Keene took a closer look at a California program that has sent about $47 million to 291 organizations vulnerable to attack — including synagogues, mosques and abortion clinics — since 2015.

‘We’re feeling the stress of Poway, Pittsburgh, Colleyville’: Rabbi Jonathan Klein of Bakersfield, Calif., said he plans to use a $200,000 grant to build a fence around the perimeter of the synagogue campus, install security cameras and reinforce windows. “There’s plenty of other things that we need,” Klein said. But this is a great step forward.”

Not enough to go around: ButLisabeth Lobenthal, executive director of a synagogue in south Orange County, is frustrated that her application was rejected even as others got the grants who “easily could have written the check out of their operating budgets without even feeling it. Lobenthal said she would try to raise the money through fundraising instead – and apply again next year. Read the story ➤

Stay tuned: We’ll be publishing Rabbi Cytron-Walker’s remarks when the hearing begins. Go to forward.com at 10 a.m. ET➤

ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

I’ve been a hostage negotiator for kidnapped journalists like Daniel Pearl. Here’s what I wish everyone knew. Daniel Levin met Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, few years before his murder by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Levin has spent the years since Pearl's death working to free journalists in similar circumstances — and now, he wants the public to know how to help. “Meeting Danny shaped my own life choices in ways I couldn’t yet fully appreciate at the time,” Levin writes. Read the story ➤

A bit of Black (and Jewish) history you may not have heard of: Ten days after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, about 50 people gathered at the Brotherhood Synagogue in Greenwich Village for the first bridge-building effort between mainstream Jewish organizations and African Americans worshiping as Israelites. In an excerpt from her book about the little-known movement, Hatzaad Harishon, Janice W. Fernheimer tells how it hosted a racially integrated family summer camp in 1966 and 1967 and took young people to Israel a generation before Birthright — and then fell apart. Tonight at 7 p.m. (ET), our editor-at-large Robin Washington will explore this fascinating story at an event hosted by 92Y. Read the story ➤ Or buy tickets to the virtual event ➤

Yes, Christian Dior’s designs were beautiful — and they have a lot of Jewish history no one talks about: During World War II, Dior made dresses for Nazis’ wives. Later, he named his perfume line for his beloved sister, who fought in the French Resistance and survived the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Yet, in a major exhibit of the couturier’s creations at the Brooklyn Museum that closes Feb. 20, that history — and contradiction — is brushed over. A fashion show should, of course, be focused on clothing. But, “as much as haute couture often seems to exist in a vacuum,” writes our Mira Fox, “it is as much in dialogue with history as any other form of art.” Read the story ➤

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

🐭 Art Spiegelman talked to the Tennessee Jewish community after a county school board banned his book “Maus.” Spiegelman, whose graphic memoir won the Pulitzer Prize, said the decision was more ignorant than malevolent, but part of a troubling trend. “What’s going on now is about controlling: controlling what kids can look at, what kids can read, what kids can see,” he said in a conversation hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Chatanooga. “And it makes them less able to think, not more.” (JTA)

⛸️ The American Jewish figure skating Jason Brown posted his highest-ever score for a short program as the men’s competition opened in Beijing. It put Brown, who will skate his free program on Wednesday to music from “Schindler's List,” in sixth place. (NPR)

🕯️ A 99-year-old Holocaust survivor was killed while on his way to synagogue. Jack Mikulciner, who fought in Israel’s War of Independence and long owned a bakery in Brighton Beach, was hit by an SUV while crossing the street in his electric wheelchair to get to Shabbat services. “I can’t believe my grandfather, who survived so much, was killed in a car accident,” said his granddaughter Elke Weiss. A police investigation is ongoing. (New York Times)

🔬 A top Biden advisor resigned after allegations of bullying. Eric Lander, President Biden's science advisor, said Monday he would step down after an internal investigation substantiated allegations that he had violated White House policy. Multiple women had complained about Lander, a Jewish geneticist, with some saying he spoke to them in a "demeaning" or "abrasive" way in front of others. (Axios, Politico)

🇩🇪 A German state broadcaster fired five employees after an investigation over “structural antisemitism.” Deutsche Welle announced that an independent probe over allegations that employees had made antisemitic and anti-Israel remarks did not find a widespread problem. But five people were let go, and investigators suggested “measures in training and recruitment” to “avoid further individual cases.” (ABC News, Deutsche Welle)

👩 She lent money to Henry III, was imprisoned in the Tower of London (twice) and was a magnet for antisemitism. Meet Licoricia of Winchester, one of the most powerful moneylenders of her time and, per historian Robert Stacey, “the most important Jewish woman in medieval England.” As antisemitism once again rises across Europe, a statue honoring Licoricia, who was murdered in 1277, will soon be unveiled in her home city. It bears the emblem “Love thy neighbor as thyself” in Hebrew and English. (Smithsonian)

✡️ Disney+ greenlit a new series about the woman who hid Anne Frank. The woman, Miep Gies, organized the effort to hide Frank’s family and, after their capture by the Nazis, preserved Frank’s diary. Now, a new limited series from National Geographic and Disney+ will tell her story. The stories follows the recent the Netflix film “My Best Friend Anne Frank” and the animated “Where is Anne Frank.” (Deadline)

🙅 Does a plaque in Italy support the QAnon conspiracy theory? Not quite. For months, claims have circulated online that a small Italian sculpture provides historical support for a branch of QAnon. The plaque actually illustrates a different antisemitic conspiracy theory, depicting Simon of Trent, whose death was falsely blamed on Jews in an early instance of blood libel. In 1965, Pope Paul VI declared that the Jews who had been tortured and executed over the crime had been entirely innocent. (USA Today)

🏛️ Goodbye to a controversial rule on federal architecture. When former President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2020 making neoclassicism the preferred architectural style for federal buildings, some complained it rang of Nazism. Others, like art critic Blake Gopnik, shrugged; “It means virtually nothing,” he told NPR. No matter — the Biden administration reversed the order last week. (The Observer)

What else we're reading ➤ An Israeli talk show host said the Reform movement doesn't belong in Israel … Should President Biden designate foreign white supremacist groups as terrorist organizations? … Inside Vanity Fair's long-ago decision not to publish sexual-abuse allegations against Jeffrey Epstein.

ON THE CALENDAR

On this day in history: Nikki Yanofsky, a Canadian pop star, was born on Feb. 8, 1994. Her 2010 song “I Believe” was the official promotional song for both the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. A year later, her parents were shepping nachas as Yanofsky sang a special tribute to Barbra Streisand at the Grammys. “My mother and I saw all her films from ‘Funny Girl’ to ‘Yentl,’” said Yanofsky. “There is no singer alive that can be as perfect as Barbra Streisand.”

Also: Happy birthday, Martin Buber!

In honor of National Iowa Day, meet the Jewish corn farmers of the Hawkeye State.

Last year on this day, we reported on tiny Jewish communities across North America – including Fargo, North Dakota and Saskatoon in Canada – that were teaming up to raise $1.5 million to build mikvahs in their cities.

On the Hebrew calendar, it’s the 7th of Adar, the yahrtzeit of Moses, who died at 120 on this day in 1273 BCE. (Most Biblical commentators also say it was his birthday.)

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Mrs. Maisel is back for a fourth season — and we've finally got a full trailer. Watch for: Fast-paced banter, longing stares, cigarettes everywhere, positively bewildering hats, and a surprise appearance by a magician. Love Maisel or hate her, you can't help but admire her style. The new season premieres on Amazon Prime on Feb. 18.

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Thanks to Lauren Markoe, Benyamin Cohen and Louis Keene for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

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