How Jews should confront the climate crisis. Plus: correcting Yiddish in The New York Times

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In today’s briefing: Sex abuse allegations at Jewish youth group, why somebody just built a shtetl, Israeli docs discover llama antibodies, celebrating RBG's left-handedness and more.

OUR LEAD STORY 🔥

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Five things Jews can do to stop climate change

Between floods and fires, we’ve seen some of the most extraordinary extreme weather events in 2021. And things don’t look to be getting any better. Rising temperatures have led to a “code red for humanity,” according to a landmark new report issued this week by 230 leading scientists from around the world.

Our national editor, Rob Eshman is based on the West Coast and has seen some of the worst droughts in recent memory. And yet, he sees a sliver of good news. “There’s hope,” he writes, “and where there is hope, there is a reason to act.”

With that in mind, Rob put together five ways Jews, individually and as a collective whole, can work to repair our broken world – including taking climate change as seriously as antisemitism.

“We are faced with a report telling us that in order to survive on this planet, period, we must stall, and hopefully reverse, climate change,” he notes. “Otherwise, we face the very real option of eradicating antisemitism by killing off humanity as we know it.” Read the story >

Incentives: The Jewish National Fund of Canada announced on Thursday a $1 million annual prize for Israeli researchers and nonprofit organizations coming up with climate solutions.

Related:

A message from our sponsor: Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning & Leadership

Jewish organizations need creative professionals who are educated and equipped with the skills to lead in changing times. Addressing this need, Spertus Institute’s MA in Jewish Professional Studies is a unique, accredited graduate program for those working, or seeking to work, for Jewish organizations. Next cohort begins January 2022. Generous funding available for qualified students. Applications accepted through September 23, 2021.

5 THINGS AMERICAN JEWS ARE TALKING ABOUT 🦙

1. Llama antibodies could be a powerful new tool against COVID-19. That’s according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Publishing in the journal Science, the researchers said they took antibodies from a llama they named Wally and discovered that it was many times more effective at preventing and treating the coronavirus, including various mutations of the disease. (Algemeiner)

2. Filmmakers constructed an acre-sized shtetl for a Ukrainian WWII film. Now they want to preserve it as a museum. The 18 buildings include a school with a Star of David on its gable and a synagogue with an interior that took a crew of artists two weeks to paint. “The main issue is to leave it in good hands,” said director Edie Walter. (JTA)

3. Rabbi Jordan Soffer, a leader of United Synagogue Youth 15 years ago, has publicly accused a former adviser and camp counselor, Ed Ward, of sexual abuse, joining two anonymous plaintiffs who filed civil lawsuits against Ward last year. This is not the first time that USY, an arm of the Conservative movement, has faced a sex scandal. In 2018, the Forward reported on a reckoning over molestation by another counselor. And it comes shortly after New Voices, a publication of college-aged Jewish journalists, released a damning investigation into the toxic and hyper-sexualized cultures at youth groups. “For a moment,” writes Meredith Jacobs, “let’s stop worrying about encouraging people to have future Jewish children and instead focus on the Jewish children we have today.” (Times of Israel, New Voices, Forward)

4. After successful trials of so-called booster shots in Israel, the FDA on Thursday authorized third doses of both the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for those with weakened immune systems. Israel began offering booster shots on Friday to anyone over the age of 50, becoming the first country in the world to do so. (CNN, Reuters)

5. Everyone may have already binged Netflix’s “My Unorthodox Life,” but people are still talking about it. The Style section of The New York Times explores how the series – about an Orthodox woman who went, as the name of her upcoming memoir suggests, “from long sleeves to lingerie” – uses fashion as a flash point to talk about Jewish views on modesty. It quotes Jewish historian Jonathan Sarna: “Modesty is not mentioned in the scriptures,” he notes. “Those rabbinical interpretations of modesty were retrojected into the biblical texts over time.” The article is appended with one of the best corrections I’ve seen in a long time: “An earlier version of this article misspelled a Yiddish word. It is davka, not zavka.” (NYT)

Shiva call: Prof. Rosemary Horowitz, a Yiddishist and academic, has died at 68. The child of survivors, Horowitz dedicated her career at Appalachian State University in North Carolina to Holocaust studies. She was an indefatigable pioneer in uncovering and publishing the work of Yiddish women writers and the most humble of scholars whose work shined a light on the martyred people whose voices were extinguished by the Nazis. (Watauga Democrat)

Long weekend reads: Why do American grocery stores still have an ethnic aisle? … The saddest village in Israel … The Reform movement is investigating itself over history of rabbinic sexual misconduct … The Dread Jewish Pirate Jean Lafitte.

FROM OUR KITCHEN 🍰

On the menu: As Shabbat approaches, excessive heat warnings have been issued in many parts of the country: New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon. Especially if you’re walking to synagogue, you’ll need something refreshing to eat. Carly Pildis suggests: an easy plum tart. She also suggests pouring some frozen drinks. Get the recipe >

In Tel Aviv, a culinary center tackles the age-old question: What is Israeli cuisine? Growing up on a kibbutz in central Israel, Naama Shefi was exposed to a variety of kitchens. Mediterranean ones, for sure, but also those of Jewish immigrants from around the world, including Yemen, and local Palestinians as well. “It’s clear that there are acts of cultural appropriation, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about an Israeli kitchen,” she said. “It’s a kitchen that has a great many influences.” Read the story >

ENJOY OUR FREE MAGAZINE 👇

We’ve curated some of our favorite Forward stories from this week into a free, printable magazine for some restful offline weekend reading.

In this week's edition, the most-watched Jew on television is ready for his next act, rabbis contemplate how the pandemic forever changed the sermon, a tour of the Yiddish theater mecca that became the ‘church of rock ‘n’ roll’ and much more.

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

ON THE CALENDAR 🗓

RUTH BADER GINSBURG WAS LEFT-HANDED. (PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES)

🇮🇱 On this day in history: Just last year, the United Arab Emirates became the third Arab nation, after Egypt and Jordan, to normalize its relationship with Israel. The agreement, called the Abraham Accords, led to increased business and intelligence cooperation between the two countries. It also led to Jewish tourists flocking to Dubai. “I wore my kippah proudly,” wrote Eli Beer, who took his family there for the festival of Sukkot. “No one in my family was afraid to show our Jewish or Israeli heritage.”

😱 It’s Friday the 13th, which is a perfect excuse to turn off all the lights, lock all the doors, hide a knife under the nearest pillow (just in case!) and watch some of the best horror movies of the 20th century. Here are five from Jewish directors.

👋 Happy International Left Handers Day! We’re taking the occasion to remember famous southpaw Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A friend of hers once remarked that Ginsburg, “who is left-handed but learned to play with right-handed clubs, played golf as she decided cases: aiming left, swinging right and hitting down the middle.”

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