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A Ukrainian Jew opens up about current crisis, rabbi forced to remove kippah upon arrest, 'Maus' author responds to controversy, and Gabby Giffords' bat mitzvah may be arriving in theaters.
OUR LEAD STORY 'They were telling me I wouldn't be a good enough parent,' said Elizabeth Rutan-Ram, with Gabriel, her husband. Adoption agencies have been rejecting Jews for years. This couple’s lawsuit could change that.
You may have seen headlines last week – right here in this newsletter – that a Jewish couple is suing a Christian adoption agency that refused to let them foster a child. One of our interns, Lauren Hakimi, spoke with the couple, Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram, and puts their case in national context: state judges and even the Supreme Court have been ruling in favor of these discriminatory practices.
The lawsuit: The Rutan-Rams are suing Holston United Methodist Home for Children – a private agency licensed and partly funded by the state of Tennessee – for discrimination. Tennessee passed a law in 2020 that made it legal for adoption agencies to decline to work with couples because of the agencies’ “religious or moral convictions or policies;” Holston’s website says it believes that “every child should be taught about Jesus.” There are similar laws in 10 other states.
An uphill battle: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year in favor of a faith-based agency in Philadelphia that refused to work with LGBTQ+ people. Citing that ruling, the state of Michigan announced just this week that it was reversing its 2019 policy preventing agencies that discriminate against same-sex couples from receiving state money, and settling a lawsuit from a Catholic adoption agency that challenged the ban.
Defense strategy: Bradley S. Williams, the president of the Tennessee agency, said the public funds are “used for the children” and for “non-religious expenses.” Foster parents, he added, “are not our clients and are not the intended recipients of public funds. Children are the intended recipients.”
Political pendulum: An Obama-era policy made it illegal for federally-funded foster care and adoption agencies to discriminate based on religion or sexual orientation. The Trump administration issued exemptions for faith-based organizations, but President Biden has removed them. Holston, the Tennessee agency, is suing the Biden administration.
Quotable: “We want everyone to be able to grow their family and bring a child into their home that needs a loving home,” said Gabriel Rutan-Ram.
ALSO FROM THE FORWARD Opinion | In Ukraine, I was never allowed to forget that I was a Jew: As the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine grows stronger by the day, Alex Stern, who was born there, feels quite separate from the conflict. Stern was 16 when he and his refusenik parents left in 1987 for the United States, their second attempt to flee the virulent antisemitism that had permeated every aspect of their existence in the former Soviet Union. “I do not feel like I have ‘skin in the game’ in this current period of rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine,” he writes. “I was made painfully aware in Ukraine that I was not Ukrainian.” Read his essay ➤
Are you or your family from Ukraine? We’d love to hear your feelings about the rising conflict, what you’re hearing from people still in the country, how you’re keeping up with the news or trying to help, and anything else you’d like to share. Just click on the blue button below. Share your story ➤Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. says Jews can never take their safety for granted: “When we say ‘Never Again,’ it is not only that we don’t want such a horrendous phenomenon to recur,” Amb. Michael Herzog said in his first interview with an American news outlet since he arrived in Washington in November. “It is the acknowledgement that something similar to that may recur.” He also discussed the role of his father – Israel’s sixth president – and grandfather in protecting Jews during and after the Holocaust. Read our interview ➤
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, center, celebrating her adult bat mitzvah in November. 🎞️ The filmmakers behind an Academy Award-nominated film about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg have chosen their next subject: former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords. The documentary, “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down,” will focus on how the Arizona Democrat has persevered after a 2011 assassination attempt left her partially paralyzed. Filming is nearly complete; perhaps the final cut will include footage of her late-in-life bat mitzvah in November of last year. (Variety)
🚓 After arresting a Florida rabbi for a traffic violation, law-enforcement officers made him take off his yarmulke while being booked into detention. Rabbi Berl Zwiebel sued the Broward County Sheriff's Office, claiming he was denied his constitutional right to practice his religion. After the lawsuit was filed, Zwiebel was arrested again for the same traffic offense, and again was asked to remove his yarmulke. Department policy calls for initial removal of all head coverings for security purposes; “religious apparel” is allowed once approved by a chaplain. (Miami Herald)
🇺🇸 Kesha Ram Hinsdale, a Vermont state senator who is of Jewish and Indian descent, could be the first Jew of color in Congress. “Even though it’s a truly unique story, it’s also a very American story,” she said. Hinsdale, 35, is running for Vermont’s lone U.S. House seat in this year’s midterms and would be the state’s first female and first minority Congress member. (Jewish Insider)
💉 When devising its COVID vaccine-distribution program, the Trump administration planned on first sending doses to political allies like Israel and deprioritizing vulnerable countries with weak health systems, according to a newly revealed document. The list “shows that U.S. officials initially planned to apportion the life-saving shots based on political preferences rather than serving the neediest first.” (Politico)
🇩🇪 Jews are not the only religious group fighting to get control of family heirlooms looted by the Nazis. More than 4,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses were sent to concentration camps during World War II and the group is now suing the German government in the hopes of getting back a family archive currently in a museum in Dresden. (New York Times)
📺 Claire Danes has been cast to star in the TV adaptation of “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” the extremely Jewish debut novel of Taffy Brodesser-Akner. In her review of the book, our Talya Zax called it “like Philip Roth, but feminist.” Danes will join previously announced cast members Lizzy Caplan and Jesse Eisenberg. (Deadline)
They said it ➤ Art Spiegelman, the author of “Maus,” described a Tennessee school board’s decision to ban the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust as “Orwellian.” “I’m kind of baffled by this,” he said. “It’s leaving me with my jaw open.” (CNBC)
YOUR WEEKEND READS Our weekend magazine is ready for you. This issue includes stories about a Jewish Olympian skating to the soundtrack from “Schindler’s List,” the debate over guns in synagogue, the interview mentioned above with Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., and a Forward investigation that found four times as many monuments to Nazis around the world as previously thought. Plus: Meet a 95-year-old artist who just can’t stop painting (and painting). Get your copy here ➤ ON THE CALENDAR On this day in history: Elijah Wood, the doe-eyed actor from Iowa, was born on Jan. 28, 1981. His greatest commercial success came from starring in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but that would only be telling part of the story: Wood, the son of deli owners, has starred in more than 70 films. One is “Everything is Illuminated,” based on the Jonathan Safran Foer novel about a Jewish American who goes on a mission to find the woman who saved his grandfather during the Holocaust.
Also on this day: The Warsaw Confederation, which sanctioned freedom of religion in Poland, was signed in 1573.
And one more: The Yale Daily News, which touts itself as America’s Oldest College Daily, launched on Jan 28, 1878. It has long served as a training ground for American journalists and politicians alike – some famous Jewish YDN alumni include former Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Michael Barbaro of “The Daily” podcast and our very own editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren.
Last year on this day, we reported on the death of Cloris Leachman, whom we called a “muse to Jews” including Mel Brooks and Ed Asner.
PHOTO OF THE DAY Around the world, people memorialized the victims of the Shoah during Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday. At the Vatican, Pope Francis spent an hour at his private residence with Edith Bruck, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor. “This unspeakable cruelty must never be repeated,” Pope Francis said. “I appeal to everyone, especially educators and families, to foster in the new generations an awareness of the horror of this black page of history.”
––– Thanks to Nora Berman, PJ Grisar, 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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