| WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION | | | IDF kills three Hamas commanders, neo-Nazis march in Wisconsin, and ADL chief praises Elon Musk despite Musk’s endorsement of antisemitic post. | ISRAEL AT WAR | | During a demonstration on Sunday night in London, protesters wave Israeli flags and hold photos of people held hostage by Hamas. (Getty) | The latest… Israeli fighter jets reportedly killed three Hamas commanders in the Gaza Strip overnight. A weapons warehouse was also destroyed.
A cargo ship in the Red Sea was hijacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who took 25 crew members hostage, according to Israeli officials. The ship did not have any Israelis on board, but is partially owned by an Israeli businessman.
Pro-Palestinian protesters in the U.S. are embracing disruptive tactics, including shutting down major thoroughfares.
Three Jewish Democrats in Congress are now calling for a ceasefire in the war.
On college campuses… Two Ohio Catholic colleges are offering “expedited” admissions for Jewish students who feel discriminated against at their current schools.
A coalition of Yale alumni, faculty, and parents complained to the school’s president and provost about what they perceive as a rising tide of antisemitism on the campus.
The Department of Education opened five new investigations into how colleges and K-12 schools are handling rising antisemitism and Islamophobia.
During a Saturday march starting on the University of Wisconsin-Madison's campus, nearly two dozen neo-Nazis stopped outside a synagogue and the Capitol grounds, where they shouted “Israel is not our friend” and “there will be blood.” | | Mourners of different faiths at the funeral of peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed by Hamas. (Getty) | Opinions…
And now, a word of hope about Israel and the Palestinians: The “most hopeful counterargument to the simplistic anti-Israelism on college campuses” are the myriad examples of Israeli nonprofits run by Jewish and Arabs seeking peace and understanding, writes our senior columnist Rob Eshman. If they “are standing together there, why would you stand against their shared country here? Nothing complicates a good slogan like reality.” Read his essay ➤
What Israel should actually be doing inside Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital: Our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, writes that she is yearning to see “Israelis rescuing and treating Shifa’s desperate Palestinian patients. I want to watch the Israel Defense Forces bring in the fuel required to power the generators to turn the incubators back on in the neonatal unit and get dialysis machines and ventilators pumping again.” Why? “It would also be the humanitarian thing to do. Which is to say, the Jewish thing.” Read her essay ➤
Related: The Associated Press reports that “31 premature babies in ‘extremely critical condition’ were transferred safely Sunday from Gaza’s main hospital and will go to Egypt, while over 250 patients with severely infected wounds and other urgent conditions remained stranded days after Israeli forces entered the compound to look for Hamas operations there.” | | On Thursday, New York City officials visited Kfar Aza, a Kibbutz devastated by Hamas. (Jacob Kornbluh) | ‘House of horrors’ | Shaken and tearful, a dozen New York politicians visit the devastation at a kibbutz near Gaza: “It’s surreal in the worst way,” Amanda Septimo, a Bronx assemblywoman, told our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, as they toured Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Hamas killed more than 50 residents last month. The trip was organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. Read the story ➤
Cancel culture comes for a documentary about Jews critical of Israel: Since Israelism was released in March, it has been screening across the country on college campuses, often at the invitation of Jewish or Israel studies departments. The film details efforts by Jewish institutions to control criticism of Israel, often by attacking such criticism as antisemitic. And in the past few weeks, the film has become the target of exactly the kind of coordinated campaign it exposes. Read the story ➤ | | The Forward is made possible by readers like you. | Support our work with a donation of any size. | | Want more Forward? Explore all our newsletters at forward.com/newsletters | | MUSK MELTDOWN | | Elon Musk in Germany in 2020. (Getty) | Opinion | Why is the ADL CEO praising Elon Musk for condemning antisemitism, despite ample evidence to the contrary?“I’m a firm believer in pluralism and dialogue, which includes building relationships with people with whom we disagree,” writes Peter Fox, a member of an ADL advisory board, in an open letter to Jonathan Greenblatt, the group’s CEO, who praised Musk days after the tech tycoon endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory. “But Musk consistently violates the basic tenets of decency, integrity and respect that ADL stands for. There comes a time when it’s just not worth it.” | | Related… A growing number of companies — including Apple, Disney and Sony — have halted their advertising on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after Musk endorsed an antisemitic post.
The Biden reelection campaign also said it would not advertise on X.
“Whether the anti-Jewish ideas of Musk and others become the new normal is not up to Jews; it’s up to everyone else,” Yair Rosenberg wrote in The Atlantic.
Under Musk’s leadership, X has become fertile ground for extremist recruitment, leading one columnist to call him “the most dangerous antisemite in America.”
Elon Musk has made some disturbing comments about Jews. Here’s a list. | | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY | | Newly elected President of Argentina Javier Milei speaks on Sunday after the polls closed. (Getty) | 🇦🇷 Javier Milei, a far-right pundit who says he wants to convert to Judaism, was elected president of Argentina on Sunday. (JTA)
💣 A bomb squad was called to a synagogue in Lakewood, New Jersey, after a grenade was found nearby on Sunday. The grenade was reportedly found to be “nonexplosive,” and nobody was injured. (Times of Israel)
📱 An Israeli Holocaust survivor with more than 460,000 followers on TikTok quit the platform on Sunday, blaming the move on antisemitic harassment. (Times of Israel)
☀️ Israel is expected to experience at least 80 days a year of 95-degree-plus weather by the end of the century, according to a new report. (Times of Israel)
✝️ Brazilian officials projected a Taylor Swift-inspired T-shirt onto the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro to welcome the pop star to town, where she was performing on the latest leg of her tour. (AP)
What we’re listening to ➤ Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt was on the New Yorker Radio Hour discussing a global spike in antisemitism, and our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, was on the podcast Search for Meaning offering insights from her previous trips to Gaza as Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times.
| | PHOTO OF THE DAY | | (Robert A. Cumins) | Robert A. Cumins, a veteran photojournalist and frequent Forward contributor, took this photo at Blair House in Washington, D.C. on March 2, 1979, as Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin hosted a Shabbat dinner for President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter a few weeks before the signing of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. After dinner, the Carters opted not to take the limousine the short distance back home. Instead, they walked, hand in hand, back to the White House. Rosalynn Carter died Sunday at 96. | Thanks to Robert A. Cumins for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Talya Zax for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. | | | Support Independent Jewish Journalism | Without you, the Forward’s stories don’t just go unread — they go untold. Please support our nonprofit journalism today. | | | | |
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