WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Kanye’s ‘Heil Symphony’ • Paintball’s Nazi problem • Yale’s Gaza hunger strike • and much more.

WELCOMING REFUGEES

Newly arrived South Africans wait to hear welcome statements from U.S. government officials in a hangar near Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday. (Getty)

‘Jews are untrustworthy’ and ‘dangerous’

A South African who arrived in the U.S. this week brought unexpected baggage: an apparent belief that Jews are “dangerous.” Charl Kleinhaus arrived as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to assist the country’s whites who say they are victims of racial persecution.

• Kleinhaus’ social media account tells a more complicated story than the one stamped on his immigration papers. It is filled with prayers for Israel and biblical affirmations — alongside posts promoting conspiracy theories long recognized as antisemitic.

  
  

• Now, as he begins a new life in the U.S., his resettlement is being aided under a decades-old State Department protocol by groups including HIAS, the Jewish humanitarian agency founded to help Jews fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe — and which now finds itself assisting someone who has reposted content from a Holocaust denier.

Related: South Africa’s chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, is a fan of President Trump, but believes the U.S. refugee program for Afrikaners is a mistake. (JTA)

CAMPUS

Alan Garber offstage at Harvard’s 2024 commencement. (Getty)

At Harvard…

• Amid a standoff with the Trump administration over campus antisemitism, academic freedom and lost research funding, Harvard said Wednesday its president, Alan Garber, will take a 25% pay cut starting in July. (New York Times)

  
  

• Learn more: Garber is a Jewish physician and economist who wraps tefillin daily and shares Torah lessons with Harvard’s Chabad students. (Forward)

  
  

• In my colleague Arno Rosenfeld’s new Antisemitism Decoded newsletter, he explains the nuances of the recently-published report from Harvard’s antisemitism task force. (Forward)

On other campuses…

• The Trump administration submitted a filing in federal court supporting a Jewish Studies professor who said she faced a hostile work environment at CUNY’s Hunter College, driven by antisemitic and anti-Israel protests. (New York Post)

  
  

• Prompted by incidents at the University of Arizona and Arizona State, state lawmakers are weighing a proposal that would let individuals sue teachers they believe have engaged in antisemitic behavior. (Capitol Media Services)

  
  

• A federal judge ordered the release of a Georgetown researcher detained in March during a Trump administration crackdown on pro-Palestinian academics, ruling the government had no evidence he posed a threat. He is married to a Palestinian American. (Politico)

  
  

• New York University apologized after a student commencement speaker talked about Gaza, after previously agreeing not to. (NYU, VIN News)

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THE MIDDLE EAST

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, right, welcomed President Donald Trump to Doha on Wednesday. (Getty)

The latest…

• President Trump, speaking in Qatar, said Oct. 7 was “one of the worst days in the history of the world, not only in this region” and the U.S. is working to make Gaza a “freedom zone.” (Times of Israel)

  
  

• In a sharp break from decades of U.S. policy that isolated Syria, President Trump met Wednesday with Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara — a former rebel leader once labeled a terrorist by the U.S. government. (CNN)

  
  

• A Palestinian gunman opened fire on Israeli cars in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, striking a Jewish pregnant woman en route to the hospital. She was rushed into an emergency C-section, but died overnight. Her newborn is in critical condition. (JTA, Times of Israel)

  
  

• Ms. Rachel, the wildly-popular music teacher turned YouTube star with over one billion views, has become a modern-day Mister Rogers. Recently, she’s waded into the Gaza debate. (New York Times)

Palestinians wait for food rations outside a distribution center Thursday in Gaza. (Getty)

Food crisis in Gaza…

• Police forcibly removed Ben Cohen, the peace activist and co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, after he disrupted a Wednesday congressional hearing where health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was testifying. In a news conference outside, Cohen said, “We are expected to be good Americans and look the other way as Israel prevents food, water and medicine from reaching the remaining people of Gaza.” (X)

  
  

• Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, added afterwards: “I don’t know if you know this, Ben, but I found out a couple of years ago I’m lactose intolerant,” adding, “but I still buy your ice cream.” (X)

  
  

• Following the lead of fasting students at California State University, pro-Palestinian activists at Yale have launched their own hunger strike to draw attention to the food crisis in Gaza. (Algemeiner, Instagram, Guardian)

  
  

• Leaders from Rabbis for Ceasefire, IfNotNow, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice launched an online petition calling on Jews to support food aid in Gaza. (Action Network)

Plus…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, a symbolic gift: a pager — the kind that exploded in the hands of Hezbollah operatives in September — engraved with the phrase “One tough Jew.” Whether pushing Israel toward a ceasefire or securing the release this week of the last American hostage held by Hamas, Witkoff has leaned into that motto as his diplomatic calling card. (Atlantic)

► Mike Huckabee, the former southern governor and new U.S. ambassador to Israel, says that since moving to Israel he’s homesick for Waffle House.

CULTURE

A group plays paintball at an outdoor shooting range. (iStock)

‘All my homies hate paintball Nazis’

An antisemitism scandal tore through the professional paintball community when Marcello Margott, a paintball world champion, posted to social media his trainee Dan Bilzerian’s vast collection of paintball equipment. Astute viewers noticed a paintball gun decorated with Nazi insignia. It’s not the first time Bilzerian has come under fire for antisemitism. Our Hannah Feuer has the details. Go deeper ►

Plus: The lesser-known Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer begins at sundown. It offers a brief respite from a time of mourning between Passover and Shavuot and is often marked by celebrations, weddings … and my bris 50 years ago today. Learn more about the holiday’s origins.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, is Jewish and has maintained a vocal pro-Israel stance. (Getty)

⚖️  A Las Vegas man who threatened Sen. Jacky Rosen, Democrat of Nevada, and her family with antisemitic messages has been sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison. (AP)

🎶  Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, released a new song overnight called, “The Heil Symphony.” This follows the release last week of his “Heil Hitler” song, which has racked up millions of streams, despite being banned from many platforms. (X, Spotify)

🌊  New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Brad Lander, the city’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, who is running to replace Adams, continue to trade barbs over antisemitism and Israel. “Gay kaken afn yam,” Lander said, using a Yiddish curse which translates to “go poop in the ocean.” (Forward)

🎥  A Chicago movie theater is facing backlash after abruptly canceling a documentary on campus antisemitism just four hours before showtime, citing concerns for “the safety and well-being of our community.” (JTA)

👮  Belgian police raided three Jewish homes in Antwerp on Wednesday over concerns that unlicensed mohels were performing ritual circumcisions on infants. (JTA)

🤦  A newly-elected politician in Britain angered a local Jewish group by suggesting — in a now-deleted social media post unearthed from 2022 — that circumcision leads to transgenderism in children. (The Times)

⚽  A popular BBC soccer announcer apologized after sharing an Instagram post  called “Zionism explained in two minutes” that was illustrated with a rat. The BBC had recently instituted anti-bullying rules for its talent. (Guardian, Deadline)

🎓  Jacqueline Kimmelstiel, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor who was forced out of school as a kid due to World War II, fulfilled her lifelong dream of attending college — spending a day taking classes and cheering at a basketball game in the Bronx. (New York Post)

🕍  Temple Emanu-El, a Massachusetts synagogue founded in 1937, is closing down and will be holding one of its final Shabbat services this weekend. (Jewish Journal)

What else we’re reading ► What Oct. 7 and its fallout cost a high school in Philadelphia (Religion News Service) … As Holocaust survivors continue to die, one of the oldest in Miami shares her story (Miami Herald) … These Manhattan restaurants are all booked — for Shabbat dinner (New York Jewish Week).

VIDEO OF THE DAY

KISS frontman Gene Simmons, born Chaim Witz in Haifa, joined CBS Mornings to talk about growing up in the U.S. as the son of a single immigrant mom who survived the Holocaust. “Every decision I was going to make,” he said, “I thought about my mother first.”

And in case you missed it: The New York Times had a fun story this week about a father and son, both devout KISS fans, who spent $12,495 to be Simmons’ roadies for one of his concerts.

Today’s newsletter made me:

🤓 Confident I understand issues impacting American Jews.

🔗 Connected to the Jewish world.

💡 Curious to learn about something I read.

🤷🏽‍♀️ No different.

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