Laden...
| JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. ➤ Give a tax-deductible donation
Chabad's complicated relationship with Putin, Bob Dylan's paintings go on display, home prices rise near Israel's only golf course, and Navy to name ship after Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
OUR LEAD STORY
The Innocence Project is known for using DNA evidence to exonerate people wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and murder, sometimes winning last-minute reprieves for inmates on death row. Now the group is heralding a case involving a man sentenced to just six months in prison 38 years ago – the first time it has successfully overturned a conviction due to antisemitism.
The background: When Barry Jacobson, a successful real estate developer, purchased a vacation home for his family in the Berkshires, he never imagined how much grief it would cause. Endless repairs kept cropping up and the house became a money pit. Then a fire damaged part of the house – and police accused Jacobson of arson.
The trial: The Innocence Project, in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League, raised questions about the prosecutor’s framing of the case as a very wealthy man nonetheless trying to collect more money. “All those rich, New York Jews come up here and think they can do anything and get away with it,’” one juror told another during deliberations. That was in 1984.
The aftermath: Jacobson, now 78, served only five weeks of the six-month sentence after his family successfully appealed to the parole board. But his lawyers say the conviction hurt his business; some lenders were reluctant to invest in real estate projects with a man convicted of arson. Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, said that even though Jacobson was not currently incarcerated, the case was important for his organization because it dealt with juror bias, an issue still prevalent today.
ALSO FROM THE FORWARD Bob Dylan's painting of the Manhattan Bridge in downtown New York. Two hundred artworks later, has Bob Dylan finally painted his masterpiece? For decades, Dylan has quietly painted not just with words, but on canvas in a palette that might be described as “Technicolor.” Our in-house Dylan expert, Seth Rogovoy, traveled to Miami, where roughly 200-odd artworks by the Nobel laureate are now on display, and are undeniably his aesthetic. “No matter what the influence or source material,” Rogovoy writes, “Dylan puts his paintings, drawings, and sculptures through the Bob Dylan grinder.” Read the story ➤
This Amsterdam neighborhood was once inhabited by Jews. None are left to celebrate its centennial: In a city that has been notably slow to acknowledge its role in the Holocaust, the 100th anniversary of the Betondorp district has drawn new attention to the scant memorials to the neighborhood residents deported and murdered under Nazi occupation. “I want to create a monument for East Amsterdam that focuses on Jewish life, not Jewish death,” said Rogier Schravendeel, an amateur historian who is trying to gather information about each and every one of the neighborhood’s former Jewish residents. Read the story ➤
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY Illustration by Mollie Suss. Images courtesy of Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and Getty. 🪑 The chair that a Texas rabbi threw at a hostage taker earlier this year will be donated to a Jewish history museum in Philadelphia, along with the teacup the rabbi offered to the visitor when he first entered the synagogue. They “represent the basic American ideals of embracing newcomers and bravery in the face of danger,” said the museum’s CEO. (JTA)
😮 Three teens with a machete allegedly threatened six Jewish boys on the Upper West Side, spewing antisemitic comments. New York City police say antisemitic hate crimes have skyrocketed in 2022, with 81 incidents reported by March 27, compared to 20 at the same point in 2021. (JTA)
💸 The New York attorney general warned the local Jewish community of discriminatory pricing ahead of Passover. In one example cited from previous years, Jewish customers were charged 50% more than typical rates to have their cars cleaned ahead of the holiday. “If we learn of any businesses engaging in such disgusting and antisemitic practices,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement, “we will not hesitate to take swift and serious legal action.” (JTA)
🇷🇺 Russian President Vladimir Putin has helped Chabad grow in size and power over the years. But now, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has put the Chabad of Russia “between a rock and a hard place,” as one expert put it. The group has been criticized by the west for its engagement with Putin and by Russian nationalists, often in antisemitic terms, for not fully backing him. (JTA)
🛫 A Ukrainian tourist flew to Israel in 2017 with a suitcase full of cocaine. He was arrested and has been jailed for years. After the war began, the prisoner asked that he be released to fly home and fight. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog agreed this week to let him go. (Times of Israel)
⛳ Caesarea is home to the only golf course in all of Israel, and home prices there have skyrocketed. But real estate agents say few buyers seem to want to actually golf. Instead, they’re looking for a beautiful view within commuting distance to Tel Aviv – or, as Debra Kamin put it in this profile, “an oasis of green that doesn’t require moving to a kibbutz or cooperative farm.” (New York Times)
🤖 More than 800 Jewish day school students and their homemade robots will be in New York today for a robotics competition. Get a sneak peek at the robots from the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Katz Hillel Day School of Boca Raton, two of the 37 schools in the tournament.
FROM OUR OPINION SECTION The funeral of Laura Yitzhak, 43, who was fatally stabbed by an Arab Israeli man in Beersheba last month. (Getty) Activists are calling to ‘globalize the intifada.’ It’s a call for death, not peace: Amid a wave of terror attacks in Israel, pro-Palestinian groups gathered for a rally in downtown Manhattan. Among their chants was to “globalize the intifada” – a call that has been echoed by the group Jewish Voices for Peace. Nora Berman, our deputy opinion editor, calls out the inherent hypocrisy. “It is unacceptable,” she writes, “to speak as the Jewish voice for peace while advocating for a term both Israelis and Palestinians understand to mean violent armed struggle against Israeli civilians.” Read her essay ➤
ON THE CALENDAR On this day in history: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sentenced to death for conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union on April 5, 1951. The Rosenbergs were the first two Americans to be executed for conspiracy during the Cold War. Some have argued that the trial was undergirded by antisemitism; less known is that the trial itself was, to use Deborah Lipstadt’s words, a “Jewish drama.” The trial featured “a group of American Jewish defendants,” wrote Benjamin Ivry, “with a Jewish judge and Jewish attorneys for the prosecution and defense.” VIDEO OF THE DAY Filmmaker Menachem Daum is offering Forward readers free access to his 2004 documentary “Hiding and Seeking” about his trip to Poland to meet the children of the farmers that risked their lives by hiding his family from the Nazis. Click here to watch (password: Menachem) ➤
––– Play today’s Vertl puzzle (aka the Yiddish Wordle)
Thanks to Nora Berman, Kayla Cohen, PJ Grisar, Arno Rosenfeld and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.
Support Independent Jewish Journalism The Forward is a non-profit 501(c)3 so our journalism depends on support from readers like you. You can support our work today by donating or subscribing. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of US law.
"America’s most prominent Jewish newspaper" — The New York Times, 2021 Copyright © 2021, The Forward Association, Inc. All rights reserved. The Forward Association, Inc., 125 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038 Click here to unsubscribe from this newsletter. To stop receiving all emails from the Forward click here. |
Laden...
Laden...
© 2025
