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NJ town renames Main Street “Palestine Way," Hitler video game stirs controversy, recalling the guide that gave birth to the Catskills, and the mystery and history of charoset.
COUNTDOWN TO PASSOVER A kosher-chicken shortage may fowl up your holiday plans
Why is this Passover different from all others? In addition to forgoing leavened bread, Jews may be forced to skip chicken as well. One butcher is coaxing customers to just wing it and roast turkeys instead, while another is limiting chicken cutlets to two packages per purchase. In Los Angeles, one shop expects to run out entirely before the holiday begins next Friday.
Andrew Silverstein, who previously investigated the great cream cheese shortage of 2021, tackled this holiday’snew four questions in his latest installment of “Why is my favorite Jewish food not available?”
Is this a supply chain issue? Perhaps, although grocery store shelves seem to be amply stocked with non-kosher chickens.
Will prices rise? Yes. Overall poultry prices have already increased 12.5% in the past 12 months, thanks to higher costs in feed, fuel and labor shortages.
Is this related to the bird flu? The highly contagious virus is certainly not helping. There is currently an outbreak in 24 states and more than 20 million chickens have had to be euthanized.
Will they run out of macaroons next? Let’s hope not. Dayenu!
And now for the proverbial fifth question… Will this problem persist? “What is now a spring chicken problem for Jews,” Silverstein warns, “may evolve into a fall turkey problem for the rest of the nation.”
And while we’re on the subject of Passover planning… Let the world’s greatest expert on haggadot help you choose your guide this year. In Ukraine, much of the world’s matzah supply is under fire. More than two years into the pandemic, our entertaining skills may be rusty. Kim Kushner’s new cookbook is exactly what we need this Passover. Behold, the mystery – and incredible history — of charoset.ALSO FROM THE FORWARD ‘Sex with Hitler’ is a video game that, unfortunately, delivers exactly what it promises: The internet, of course, is rife with both lewdness and antisemitism. “Sex with Hitler,” a porn-style video game released on Steam, the biggest gaming platform for PCs, has both. In it, players explore World War II battlefields through the avatar of an ahistorically buff Hitler and have sex with busty anime women. It’s low-budget and crass and most of the players commenting seem to be in on the joke – if it’s a joke. Still, our digital-culture reporter, Mira Fox, wonders how a game so blatantly inappropriate is allowed on the popular platform. Read the story ➤
Opinion | I am a Ukrainian Jew. I have lost my mother to Russian disinformation: The war in Ukraine is dividing countless families like that of Michael Rozhkov. Born and raised in Kyiv, Rozhkov grew up in a free, democratic Ukraine, and had the opportunities and resources to travel and learn to think for himself. His mother, who was born in the Soviet Union, never learned the tools to question the state-sanctioned reality, and now is convinced that the Ukrainian military is exterminating its own people. “The Soviet Union is a thing of the past,” Rozhkov writes, “Yet my mother still believes in that fiction, that fairytale.” Read his essay ➤
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (left) may face Benjamin Netanyahu in a fifth election this summer. (Getty) 🇮🇱 A spat over Passover food rules in hospitals could topple the Israeli government and trigger the fifth national election in three years. In a surprise move, Idit Silman, a Knesset member from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s party, quit the government and made a deal with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now the leader of the opposition. Silman’s departure came after a fight with the leftist health minister over whether to allow patients to bring chametz into hospitals, and leaves Bennett and his partner, Yair Lapid, one vote short of the Knesset majority required to stay in power. Netanyahu is expected to speak today at a mass protest against the government. (Twitter, Times of Israel, AP, Haaretz)
👉 And speaking of Israel, Lapid, the foreign minister, plans to appoint actress and author Noa Tishby as his country’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, a week after Deborah Lipstadt took on a similar role in the U.S. Tishby, who currently lives in Los Angeles, has been an outspoken advocate for Israel in the fight against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Her grandfather, Hanan Yavor, was a member of the Israeli delegation to the United Nations. (Twitter)
🗳️ The City Council of Paterson, New Jersey, voted unanimously to rename part of Main Street “Palestine Way.” The area – home to Nablus Sweets, Ramallah Meat Market and Jerusalem Pharmacy – already has the nickname “Little Ramallah.” Alaa Abdelaziz, a council member, said he’s happy that “when people come into this city, they will recognize the resilience and the contributions of the Palestinian people in Paterson.” (NorthJersey)
🇮🇷 More than a dozen Democratic House members are expected to “raise concerns about the looming Iran deal” in a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol later this morning. Among them: Rep. Grace Meng of New York, the first Democrat to announce her opposition to a prior deal in 2015. (Forward)
🇵🇹 Portuguese prosecutors are investigating whether people have abused a program granting citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews who were expelled during the Inquisition so that they could obtain valuable European Union passports. At the heart of the current debate is the case of Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch, who gained Portuguese citizenship last year. The rabbi who helped Abramovich has been barred from leaving the country. (Wall Street Journal)
😬 Gil Ofarim, a German-Jewish musician, claimed last fall that he’d experienced antisemitism from staff at a Leipzig hotel. Now, he’s facing charges of defamation and wrongful suspicion, as officials say his description of the incident was misleading. Prosecutors have dropped their previous investigation into his claims. (Deutsche Welle)
📖 The Jewish Vacation Guide, first published around 1916 and written mostly in Yiddish, compiled a list of friendly places to visit and stay. “This is the genesis of the Catskills,” said Eddy Portnoy of the YIVO Institute. The guide went on to inspire the “Green Book,” widely used by Black travelers. (Washington Post)
CELEBRATING THE FORWARD'S 125TH BIRTHDAY The Forward at 125: A conversation with the four living editors-in-chief | The editors of the English Forward from 1990 to today, together for the first time, will talk about our history, present, and future. What would the Forward’s founder, Ab Cahan, make of today’s digital report, and of American Jewry? Join Jodi Rudoren, Jane Eisner, J.J. Goldberg, and Seth Lipsky for this unique discussion at 7 p.m. ET on April 26. Register now ➤ ON THE CALENDAR On this day in history: Aaron Bernstein, the German Jewish author and scientist whose work helped inspire Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, was born on April 6, 1812. Bernstein was a polymath who gained fame for his translation of the “Song of Songs” – and “The People’s Book on Natural Science,” a series intended to introduce the general public to basic scientific concepts.
It was in that series that Bernstein invited readers to imagine traveling with the electricity moving through a telegraph wire. Einstein read that passage as a boy, and it stuck with him, eventually prompting him to wonder how one might travel along a beam of light – a question that led him to one of his most extraordinary scientific breakthroughs. Alas, Bernstein died in 1884, when his most renowned protégé was only 5 years old.
Last year on this day, DuoLingo launched its Yiddish language course and Mitt Romney used Kedem Grape Juice for his Easter celebration. Needless to say, we were kvelling.
PHOTO OF THE DAY Children who fled the war in Ukraine made bracelets and ate snacks at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, Poland. More than 4 million people have left Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24. Millions more have been displaced inside the country. (Photo by Omar Marques/Getty Images)
––– Play today’s Vertl puzzle (aka the Yiddish Wordle)
Thanks to Nora Berman, Mira Fox, Jacob Kornbluh and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.
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