WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Good morning. More than 100,000 people marched against antisemitism in France over the weekend, while across the English Channel, approximately 300,000 rallied in support of Gaza in London. Separately, Israel revised the official estimated Oct. 7 death toll to 1,2oo.

ISRAEL AT WAR

A book found in the rubble of Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 20, 2023. (Laura E. Adkins)

I found a book in the ruins of Kibbutz Be’eri — and then I had to find its author. While “choking on the dust and ash left behind from the burning of so many bodies and buildings” at the kibbutz, which was destroyed during Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, our opinion editor Laura E. Adkins saw a discarded copy of Haggai Linik’s 2011 novel Prompter Needed. In a conversation with Linik, Laura found particular poignancy in the fact that a book about the national implications of devastating grief was left abandoned during the assault. “You cannot walk in the streets and say, ‘Aah, I’m miserable,’” in Israel after the death of loved ones killed in military conflict, Linik said. “Everybody is miserable. You need to do with it something.” Read the story ➤

And:

As Hamas supporters deny rapes, investigation raises questions about whether forensic evidence from Oct. 7 was collected

We’re seeing a great awakening of American Jews. Can it last beyond fear and anger?In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, writes Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, Jewish communal engagement is at a high, with Jews in the U.S. “gathering with unusual intensity and frequency because we are traumatized, and want to feel connected to others who empathize.” And as Jews grapple with the sense that their place in American society is less secure than they once thought, he writes, “now is the time to find comfort and wisdom in our tradition.” Read his essay ➤

And:

How Tuesday’s rally in DC is trying to pitch a broad pro-Israel tent

Los Angeles charter school says teachers who taught first graders about ‘genocide of Palestine’ will not return

With Israel at war, what counts as a worthy Jewish cause?

Palestinian children filled containers with water in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, this morning. More than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza since war broke out, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.(MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)

Latest from the war…

Israel lowered its official estimate of the Oct. 7 death toll from 1,400 to 1,200, as its efforts to identify remains after the massacre draw to a close.

Israeli troops are nearing Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, a primary target of the ground operation that Israeli and American intelligence say is built on top of a major underground Hamas command center. Israel has avoided attacking the hospital in prior conflicts over humanitarian concerns; 32 patients have reportedly died there over the past three days, amid highly strained access to resources.

The U.S. conducted a third round of airstrikes against Iranian facilities in Syria in response to attacks on American troops in the area. Separately, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III downplayed ongoing Israeli clashes with Hezbollah as the U.S. works to prevent the outbreak of a broader regional war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back on suggestions, including from the U.S., that the Palestinian Authority should take control of Gaza following the war, saying in an interview that “Gaza has to be demilitarized and Gaza has to be de-radicalized. And I think so far, we haven’t seen any Palestinian force, including the Palestinian Authority, that is able to do it.”

Ohio State University. (Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On campus…

Ohio State University reported two antisemitic incidents that took place near campus over the weekend, including an alleged assault in which two students were attacked by suspects yelling an antisemitic slur.

Gunshots were fired at a Jewish Montreal school over the weekend, the third such incident in the region over the past week. No one was injured, but bullet impact marks were found on the yeshiva’s facade.

Columbia University became the latest campus to suspend its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, and also suspended the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, saying the groups had organized an event that “included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.”

The University of Maryland condemned “hateful, antisemitic” messages shared during a Thursday pro-Palestinian protest. Photos appeared to show the message “HOLOCAUST 2.0” written on the campus in chalk.

A Jewish civil rights organization filed complaints against the University of Pennsylvania and Wellesley College with the U.S. Department of Education, saying both schools “failed to keep Jewish students safe and are in clear violation of well-established federal civil rights law.”

Jewish students at MIT said a pro-Palestinian group physically prevented them from entering classrooms last week, with an open letter from the MIT Israel Alliance stating “Many Jewish students fear leaving their dorm rooms and have stated that they feel MIT is not safe for Jews.”

Former French Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande help hold a banner reading "For the Republique, against antisemitism" during a Sunday march against antisemitism in Paris, France. (Remon Haazen/Getty Images)

Global reactions…

Approximately 182,000 people took to the streets in Paris and other French cities to rally against rising antisemitism.

Hundreds of thousands of people attended a London march protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza, as a number of far-right counter-protesters were arrested and London’s police said they were looking for some protesters who reportedly carried antisemitic signs. The same day, Jewish families leaving a London synagogue on Saturday were reportedly confronted with pro-Palestinian protesters setting off flares. This morning, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fired Home Secretary Suella Braverman after she drew ire for accusing police of being overly lenient with pro-Palestinian protesters.

Police evacuated a Melbourne synagogue over Shabbat, as a pro-Palestinian protest took place nearby.

A Shabbat dinner in San Juan, Puerto Rico, attended by New York and Puerto Rican politicians, was reportedly interrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, with some of the protesters covering their hands in fake blood.

Even as posters of kidnapped children hang around Tel Aviv, people have returned to bars and nightlife — and dating. (Getty Images)

When bomb shelters become love nests: Some Israelis are using the war for pickup lines. On one dating app, a user wrote, “Mami, my bedroom is in the mamad” — the reinforced safe room in many Israeli buildings — “If u don’t feel safe, come to me.” The message reflects an unexpected new trend in Israeli dating after the Oct. 7 attacks, our Mira Fox writes, in which top-notch security precautions are suddenly sexy. But it’s not surprising that residents of a nation gripped by terror and uncertainty are looking for a bright side, Fox writes: “People living through war need moments of lightness, and there’s nothing as distracting as love — or, at least, sex.” Read the story ➤

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ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

Don Samuels, a candidate for the U.S. House in Minnesota. (Courtesy of Neighbors for Samuels

Why Don Samuels believes he can beat Ilhan Omar in 2024 rematch. Samuels, a former member of the Minneapolis City Council who previously challenged Omar in 2o22, losing to her by approximately 2 percentage points, cited Omar’s criticism of Israel in his Sunday campaign announcement. Samuels accused Omar of holding Israel to a higher standard than other countries, and told our senior political reporter Jacob Kornbluh that he supports President Joe Biden’s position on the war.

– From our Sponsor: Spertus Institute –

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

(Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

😨 Police responded to bomb threats at Jewish sites across New York City over the weekend. A grenade was reportedly found inside a pond at Brooklyn’s Holocaust Memorial Park. (NBC New York)

👀 Police released a suspect arrested in the killing of Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll without pressing charges. The unnamed man was reportedly close with Woll and attended her funeral. (Detroit Free Press)

😳 Former President Donald Trump reportedly bragged that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel compared him to Hitler, according to a new book, which claims that Trump said “she told me that there was only one other political leader who ever got crowds as big as mine.” A Trump campaign aide denied the allegations. (Daily Beast)

⌚ A Hebrew pocket watch frozen in time during the Titanic wreck went to auction. The watch, which belonged to a Russian Jew named Sinai Kantor, stopped at 2:25 AM — five minutes after the Titanic sank. (JTA)

What else we’re reading ➤“Raised to see Israel as a ‘Jewish Disneyland,’ two US filmmakers are telling a different story” … “The tunnels of Gaza: How the subterranean maze below the Gaza Strip works” … “Jewish refugees from Israel find comfort and companionship in a countryside camp in Hungary.”

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)

A Jewish man armed with a rifle held a child as he prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday.

Thanks to Jaclyn De Bonis and Jay Ehrlich for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

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