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| Sponsored by The Covenant Foundation JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. Give a tax-deductible donation Cleveland synagogue teacher pleads guilty, antisemitic incidents at Indiana University, new book is Holocaust fairy tale, fatty Jewish deli mainstay reimagined as diet chip and more. OUR LEAD STORY Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer and U.S. Rep. Karen Bass. (Getty Images) For L.A. mayor, a Jewish candidate vs. a candidate who represents the Jews
Eric Garcetti, who became the first elected Jewish mayor of Los Angeles in 2013, is term-limited, making next year’s election to replace him wide open. Four major candidates have announced their campaigns so far, most recently U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, who is Black and has represented the city’s most heavily Jewish neighborhoods for the past decade.
All politics is local: There are about 530,000 Jews among the nearly four million residents of L.A., the highest number of any American city except New York. Their politics vary by geography, religious observance, heritage and other factors. But the predominantly white Jewish electorate shares the liberal politics of the city overall and includes some of its biggest donors, like former Disney chairman and prominent Democratic donor Jeffrey Katzenberg – who is backing Bass.
The race is on: Bass announced her candidacy at the end of September – six months after L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer, who is Jewish. They are seen as the two frontrunners in capturing the Jewish vote, though the field is likely to expand before the primary in June 2022, whose top two finishers will face off in November.
Our L.A.-based Louis Keene has the inside story >
ALSO FROM THE FORWARD The Nike store outside the Dizengoff Center mall in Tel Aviv. (Photo: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Nike isn’t boycotting Israel — despite reports to the contrary: The sportswear behemoth told Israeli stores on Sunday it would no longer be shipping them shoes. Some Palestinian activists and media outlets quickly hailed it as a win for those advocating a boycott of the Jewish state, while others said it was a purely commercial decision. It turns out Nike is just ending sales to independent retailers, but keeping its Israeli website and 15 Nike Store locations in Israel. Read the story >
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY 🙏 An Israeli judge’s conclusion this week that “quiet” Jewish prayer should be allowed at Al-Aqsa mosque compound – also the site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City – has ignited Palestinian anger. (AP)
🚔 A former Sunday school teacher at a Cleveland synagogue pleaded guilty to more than a dozen offenses related to child pornography. The incidents occurred during the pandemic, when classes were taught online. His sentencing will take place later this month. (Cleveland Jewish News)
😡 Jewish groups at Indiana University have reported several antisemitic incidents since Rosh Hashanah. “Four different mezuzahs have been torn down since the start of our New Year, one of them was torn down twice,” said Rabbi Levi Cunin, the campus Chabad director. (Indiana Daily Student)
💾 Microsoft is doubling its workforce in Israel, hiring 2,500 new employees and building new campuses in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Beer Sheva and Jerusalem. The Seattle-based tech giant’s Israeli footprint includes R&D labs for artificial intelligence and driverless cars. (Calcalist)
🔪 A former Cutco knife salesman is awaiting trial for stabbing a Boston rabbi. The judge must decide: Is Khaled Awad, a man known to have voiced antisemitic beliefs and who was previously released from criminal charges for mental incompetency, able to stand trial for a hate crime? (Forward)
🎞 Nehemia Persoff, a 102-year-old character actor who has appeared in hundreds of classic Hollywood film and TV series, has published a memoir. Tom Tugend, a sprightly 96 in comparison, interviewed Persoff over Zoom. “Adding up the ages of questioner and responder yielded a total of almost two centuries,” writes Tugend, “matching the longevity of some of their Biblical ancestors.” (JTA)
Shiva call > Neal Sher, the U.S. government’s leading Nazi hunter, died at 74. During his time at the Justice Department, Sher transformed its method of merely relying on tips to one that systematically checked German records against U.S. immigration records. One of his targets was John Demjanjuk, the concentration-camp guard accused of being “Ivan the Terrible.” (NYT)
FROM OUR KITCHEN Wait, what?! Fatty, crispy gribenes – pieces of chicken skin fried in chicken fat – fell off Jewish deli menus years ago, a victim of the American public’s mid-century obsession with fat and cholesterol. But now, against all odds, gribenes are making a comeback – as a diet chip. Grab a napkin and read the story.
What to cook: Our food contributor Cambria Gordon is making a case for the spinach frittata that connects her to her Sephardic grandmother.
ON THE CALENDAR On this day in history: Harvey Pekar, the comic-book writer who popularized graphic novels as a form of memoir by documenting his Jewish upbringing in Cleveland in “American Splendor,” was born on Oct. 8, 1939. Growing up, Pekar’s first language was Yiddish and he devoured Yiddish novels. (He thought Isaac Bashevis Singer was an overrated author who “conned the public for years with his wise old man routine.”) In later years, and in a critically-acclaimed 2003 film in which actor Paul Giamatti portrayed him, Pekar was often described as a misanthrope. But his editor, Jeff Newelt, wrote in our pages that we should remember “Harvey as mensch, rather than as curmudgeon.” Also on this day: “Cats” opened in 1982 on Broadway, where it ran for 18 years. It was then turned into a Chagall-inspired movie, which our reviewer did not care for, although he did instead recommend the little-known Mel Brooks feline musical “Shinbone Alley.” In honor of National Hero Day, read about a Florida dentist that is treating Holocaust survivors for free.
A PODCAST WE RECOMMEND On this week’s episode of “Unholy: Two Jews on the News,” Israeli PM Naftali Bennett reveals the Mossad’s latest attempt to unearth information in a mystery that has haunted Israel for 35 years. Hosts Yonit and Jonathan are joined by Ronen Bergman of The New York Times to discuss the frustrating and futile search for missing Israeli Airman Ron Arad. Plus, their take on Sarah Silverman’s “Jewface” comment, and the heartwarming story of how London’s Jews came together to save a synagogue. Listen now >
VIDEO OF THE DAY In honor of Broadway’s reopening, international cast members of “Fiddler on the Roof” gathered to sing the “Sabbath Prayer” in nine languages – including Hebrew, Yiddish, Japanese and Tagalog.
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