WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Welcome back. Columbia settles lawsuit with Jewish student • U.S.-Israeli aid effort in Gaza hits roadblocks • Why Christian TikTok influencers are promoting Jesus mezuzahs.

FIRST IN FORWARDING

Nik Jakobs holding the Torah donated to him by Temple B’nai Israel in White Oak, Pennsylvania. A moving truck is in the background. (Benyamin Cohen)

A Jewish farmer drove 600 miles to rescue a century-old synagogue. Now he’s building a new one — in a cornfield.

When Temple B’nai Israel in White Oak, Pa., held its final Shabbat service in April after 113 years, it felt like the end of the line. But for Nik Jakobs — a 40-year-old rancher from rural Illinois with four daughters and a degree in finance — it was a call to action.

• Higher ground: Jakobs offered to relocate as much of the synagogue’s sacred materials as he could to Sterling, Ill., where he’s planning to build a new synagogue on a two-acre cornfield next to a Lutheran church. The ark. The Torah. Even the stained-glass windows.

  
  

• Rooted in memory: Alongside the synagogue, Jakobs also plans to erect a Jewish museum. His aim: to honor his grandparents — all of whom survived the Holocaust — and the history of the synagogue that donated its relics.

  
  

• Behind the scenes: I spent the past month reporting this story — spending Temple B’nai Israel’s final Shabbat with its longtime members, and watching as, weeks later, they helped Jakobs disassemble their sanctuary.

  
  

• Zooming out: As small-town synagogues vanish quietly across the Rust Belt, Jakobs offers a different kind of eulogy — not just remembrance, but reinvention. “I’m gonna be hopeful,” Jakobs told me. “If we build it, they will come.”

ATTACK IN COLORADO

Local faith leaders held a prayer vigil Tuesday in Boulder for the victims of Sunday’s attack. (Getty)

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Egyptian national behind Sunday’s terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, at a rally for Israeli hostages, was charged with counts including attempted murder and a federal hate crime.

• Soliman posed as a gardener to get close to the crowd and admitted he aimed to “kill all Zionist people,” according to a police affidavit. (Times of Israel)

  
  

• Immigration agents also arrested and detained Soliman’s family, as they investigate whether they knew about his plans. (Colorado Public Radio)

  
  

• The White House on Tuesday posted to social media: “Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon. ✈️” (X)

Opinions…

Being Jewish in America today feels like walking multiple tightropes at once | “We should not trust fear or anger to be our guides,” writes Rabbi Jay Michaelson. “This may mean walking yet another tightrope: of vigilance but not paranoia, security but not panic, honoring our emotions without handing our lives over to them.” Read his essay ►

An Israeli-American doctor in the midst of the Boulder attack: ‘This did not come out of vacuum’ | Dr. Yonatan Gold was marching in support of the Israeli hostages when the attack began. He rushed to help the injured. Our senior columnist, Rob Eshman, asked him if he thought the shock of the attack might help tone down the toxic American rhetoric around the Israel-Hamas war. “No,” Gold said. “Look what happened with Sandy Hook. We saw what happened with guns, right? The most radical things that you could not even have imagined, that you would think would shake a community and shake a nation, shook the nation for five minutes.” Read his essay ►

I teach Jewish history in Boulder. Is my community taking the wrong lessons from Sunday’s attack? | “The refrain I have heard, over and over since the attack, is one that made me deeply uneasy: It’s the rhetoric,” writes Hilary Kalisman, a professor who teaches Jewish studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “But by flattening our understanding of why one man chose to commit an act of unspeakable violence, we risk making it harder — not easier — to talk to, rather than past, one another.” Read her essay ►

Plus…

• A number of influential conservatives are generalizing the extremist views of the suspect as representative of all Muslims and Arabs. “Islam is not compatible with western civilization,” said Charlie Kirk. (Forward)

  
  

• The Boulder JCC is set to hold a vigil this evening at 5:30 pm MT. Watch it here.

► Catch up on all our coverage of the Boulder attack

CULTURE

There’s a growing interest in Jewish ritual among American Christians. (Illustration by Mira Fox)

Why are Christian TikTok influencers promoting Jesus mezuzahs?

A mezuzah with a cross emblazoned across the front of the case — containing not just an excerpt from Deuteronomy, but also quotes from the New Testament? Our digital culture reporter, Mira Fox, digs into a new trend that, she writes, may have to do with Restorationism — “the belief that Christianity has become adulterated, necessitating a return to ancient roots and practices.” Go deeper ►

New book we’re reading ► The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück, about the true story of an unsung band of French women who resisted the Nazis in an all-female concentration camp. “They were traumatized, obviously, by what happened,” author Lynne Olson told our Olivia Haynie. “But the fact that they could get over it enough to not only to help themselves, but to have children, to have a happy home life, and to help others — that was what was so impressive to me.” Go deeper ►

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

A boy sits in the back of a cart transporting mattresses as displaced people flee from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order. (Getty)

In Israel…

🇺🇸  A U.S.-based consulting group that helped design and run the new U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has pulled out of the aid project, amid mounting criticism and operational turmoil. (Washington Post)

🛑  The GHF paused aid distribution Wednesday to allow for logistical adjustments after three days of deadly chaos near its four Gaza distribution sites. (Times of Israel)

✝️  The GHF’s first CEO quit hours before the program began last week. The group has now tapped Rev. Johnnie Moore, an American evangelical leader, to lead the aid organization. (Times of Israel)

On campus…

🏫  Columbia University settled with a Jewish social work student who sued the school over alleged antisemitic discrimination. (X)

🎒  Florida officials refused to confirm the proposed new president for the University of Florida, citing concerns over his handling of pro-Palestinian protests while president at the University of Michigan. (Jewish Insider)

🖼️  The Whitney Museum suspended its prestigious Independent Study Program after pro-Palestinian student artists clashed with administrators. (New York Times)

And elsewhere…

☀️  As millions prepare for the hajj, which starts today, rising heat and last year’s deadly toll are turning the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca into a test of stamina for worshippers and a safety challenge for Saudi Arabia. (New York Times)

🤷  The official 2025 National Mah Jongg League card has a misprint, causing a “kerfuffle” among devoted players — including the author of a book about the game called Searching for Bubbe Fischer. (Wall Street Journal)

Shiva call ► Helena Weinrauch, a Holocaust survivor known for her passion for ballroom dancing, died at 100.

What else we’re reading ► “Trump’s messianic rhetoric has soared since the assassination attempt” (Politico) … Study on clergy psychedelic use is published following decade of controversy (Religion News Service) … “No meat, no beer and hopefully no poison: the curious tale of Hitler’s food tasters” (Guardian)

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Nobody Wants This, Netflix’s rom-com about a synagogue leader and a sex podcaster navigating an interfaith romance, made headlines here at the Forward when it premiered last fall.

Season one ended on a cliffhanger. Now, we finally have news: Season two will drop on Oct. 23, 2025.

Related ► Mazel tov to our PJ Grisar, who was honored this week at the New York Press Club for his story about the rise of “hot rabbis.”

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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