Is this the most copied Jewish building on the planet?

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Antisemitism at Florida State University, how Pittsburgh's Jews rebounded, protesting the Navy's beard ban, what shuls can learn from churches, the Jewish origin story of James Bond.

OUR LEAD STORY

A replica of Brooklyn's 770 building in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo: Robbins/Bechar)

How 770 Eastern Parkway became the world’s most-replicated Jewish building

While many people make the pilgrimage to Crown Heights to visit the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, it turns out that New York is not the only place to see its iconic Gothic Revival building. Around the world, construction is underway on at least six more replicas of 770 Eastern Parkway. When the building in Abuja, Nigeria, is finished, there will be at least one on every continent except Antarctica.

Seeing double: There are currently 35 copies of the building, including the new Chabad Center in El Paso. They range in fidelity to the original. In Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv, there is a brick-by-brick duplicate inside and out. Shoehorned between two skyscraper condominiums, the one in São Paulo “appears as out of place as a black-hatted Hasid in Ipanema,” writes our Andrew Silverstein.

A pair of photographers have documented many of the buildings. View a slideshow >

On brand: Unlike the rebbe’s portrait, Chabad’s most popular image, the building can be abstracted and reproduced in any context: Kiddush cups, postage stamps, even a bouncy castle. Like the McDonald’s golden arches, 770’s three-peaked roof is as much a trademark as it is an architectural motif.

Find out more about the significance of the buildings >

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

After the Tree of Life massacre, an inspiring story of a community coming together:As we approach the three-year anniversary of the killing of 11 Jews during Shabbat services in Pittsburgh, Mark Oppenheimer has a new book, published today, about how the community his ancestors helped found rebounded in its aftermath. “There are sad moments in reporting it, but it’s actually an incredibly hopeful story,” said Oppenheimer, co-host of Tablet’s “Unorthodox” podcast and coordinator of the Yale Journalism Initiative. “I actually found it one of the most uplifting things I’ve ever worked on.”Read the story >

How two Jewish nightclub owners changed the face of entertainment:George and Oscar Marienthal helped launch the careers of Barbra Streisand, Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart, Bette Midler and Steve Martin. They shattered race and gender barriers and attracted a new, socially conscious audience. The club is now the subject of a new documentary that our reviewer calls a “nostalgic oral history.” Read the story >

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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

A man receives a COVID vaccine shot at a hospital in Tel Aviv. (Getty Images)

💉 Israel will require a booster shot to be considered fully vaccinated. The new rule means that more than one million residents will have their vaccination passports cancelled – “mainly those who are eligible for, but have not yet received, a third vaccination shot.” (NYT)

💰 Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, blocked an attempt to fast track the $1 billion Iron Dome funding bill on Monday. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, brought the bill – passed by a 420-9 House vote last month – to the Senate floor to be approved by unanimous consent. Despite Paul’s objection, the Senate is expected to approve the replenishment of Israel’s missile-defense system. (Times of Israel)

🚔 Police at Florida State University have identified several teenagers behind a spate of antisemitic, racist and sexually derogatory flyers that were disseminated around the area. One of the handwritten signs, which read “KKK meeting next Friday,” was found on the lawn of the campus Hillel. (WCTV)

🧔🏻 Four sailors, a Hasidic Jew and three Muslims, are suing the U.S. Navy, saying its ban on beards violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Navy has long argued that in the event of an emergency, a gas mask may not completely seal around a bearded face. (Religion News Service)

🇮🇱 David Schoen, the Orthodox lawyer who defended President Trump during his second impeachment trial, was elected chairman of the Zionist Organization of America. The right-wing group also announced that it would continue to get funding from Dr. Miriam Adelson, the widow of billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who died in January. (JTA)

🍞 Diamond Bakery, the Los Angeles mainstay that was run by Holocaust survivors for most of its 75 years, was about to close down. But new owners have stepped in with a mission to retain its legacy for another century. “It’s both an honor and it’s terrifying,” said Brian Hollander, one of the new owners. (Eater, Forward)

🎬 David Duchovny has joined the cast of a new untitled comedy from Netflix starring Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jonah Hill. … This is as good a place as any to remind you that David, whose grandfather was a Yiddish writer, is the headliner at our upcoming virtual gala, “Have I got a story for you?” Register now for the free event on Oct. 20. (Deadline)

What else we’re reading > Why no one talks about Monica Lewinsky’s Jewishness, and why that matters … Israel’s absurd milk shortage … Dara Horn on what happens when the last Jew leaves Afghanistan.

FROM OUR OPINION SECTION

Want to fill seats in shul? Take a lesson from southern evangelicals: When Masha Shpolberg moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, she couldn’t help noticing that the local churches rarely struggled with attendance, while synagogue parking lots were often empty. To revitalize congregational Judaism, she suggests we take notes from her neighbors, making our institutions more affordable and embracing “cultural openness.” Read her essay >

I reversed the genders of every person in the Torah — and it finally feels complete: “Five years ago, I started rewriting the Torah by reversing the genders of all characters,” writes Israeli-American artist Yael Kanarek. “All of the men became women and all of the women became men. Divine influence was now moving through a mother-daughter lineage.” Find out more about Kanarek’s act of chutzpah, and why she did it. Read her OpEd >

ON THE CALENDAR

On this day in history: The first James Bond film, “Dr. No,” was released in Britain on Oct. 5, 1962. Rabbi Raphael Zarum of the London School of Jewish Studies has argued that Bond might be based on a Jewish agent in the British Secret Service known as the Ace of Spies. Nonetheless, writes our Benjamin Ivry, “early readers of the Bond series found them so essentially lacking in Yiddishkeit that a 1960s parody appeared by Sol Weinstein in Playboy Magazine about a spy named Israel Bond, code number Oy Oy Seven, in adventures entitled ‘Loxfinger’ and similar fairly obvious gags.”

It’s the birthday of Ray Kroc, the businessman who made McDonald’s a global behemoth. And you know you can count on our Seth Rogovoy to find the secret Jewish history of McDonald’s.

And it’s also the birthday of actor Jesse Eisenberg, whose most recent role found him portraying Marcel Marceau in a film about the Holocaust. “My grandfather, who came here in 1918, lost much of his family in the Holocaust, but he didn’t talk about it,” Eisenberg told us. “It was a generation that didn’t talk about its feelings. I will teach my son about the Holocaust. I come from a generation that has a different perspective.”

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