WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Trump halts tariffs on Israel and others • Beloved kids' host under fire for sympathizing with Gazan children • Burger King settles kosher lawsuit • and the Great Matzo Riot of 1930.

POLITICS

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and President Donald Trump on Wednesday in the Oval Office. (Getty)

Campus dragnet

The number of international students swept up in a growing federal visa crackdown has surged past 400 — and many are being forced to leave the country with little notice or explanation.

Across the U.S., students have been pulled from classrooms, detained at airports, or given just days to pack up and go.

The Trump administration said Wednesday it’s now targeting individuals who promote antisemitism online, in addition to those who they say pose security threats. But critics say the Department of Homeland Security is casting too wide a net, ensnaring students with no history of hate speech or criminal activity, and no due process.

Here’s the latest this morning…

U.S. immigration officials announced they will now monitor the social media of visa applicants and international students for antisemitic content, with such posts potentially leading to denial of entry. (Axios, JTA)

The attorney for Mahmoud Khalil, a leader in Columbia’s protest movement, is reviewing new evidence the government says justifies his deportation; it was submitted by federal officials Wednesday, minutes before a 5 p.m. deadline. (WWLTV)

At least 50 international students at Arizona State University have had their visas revoked, according to an attorney representing them. This marks one of the highest known totals at a single school since the crackdown began. (Axios, Arizona Luminaria)

Dozens of international students at universities in North Texas — including Texas A&M and UT Austin — have had their visas revoked by U.S. officials, school administrators said Wednesday. (Dallas Morning News)

Some students at Fordham and NYU have had their visas revoked, though both schools declined to disclose how many, citing privacy concerns. (The City)

Thirteen pro-Palestinian protesters arrested during a Cornell event featuring Tzipi Livni, an Israeli politician, appeared in court Wednesday, with some charges dismissed and others opting to contest them. (WSKG)

The Georgetown Student Association set a vote on Passover calling for the school to divest from Israel. Said Rabbi Menachem Shemtov of the Georgetown Chabad: “Many Jewish students are out of town and observing the holiday at the time of the vote, effectively excluding them from the process.” (Jewish Insider)

Rachel Anne Accurso, known as Ms. Rachel, attends the Sesame Workshop gala last year in New York City. (Getty)

Elsewhere in politics…

President Trump abruptly paused many of the massive global tariffs that took effect last week. A 10% base global tariff still applies, a reduction for a country like Israel which originally had to pay 17%. (CNN, New York Times)

A prominent pro-Israel group is urging the Justice Department to investigate whether Ms. Rachel, a popular children’s entertainer likened to as a modern-day Mister Rogers, should be classified as a foreign agent, after she shared posts expressing sympathy for children in Gaza. (Guardian)

Florida’s newly elected Jewish congressman, Rep. Randy Fine, sparked backlash after calling Rep. Rashida Tlaib a “terrorist” and claiming some of her progressive colleagues “shouldn’t be Americans.” (JTA)

The Senate voted to confirm Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel. (Forward)

Opinion | Mike Huckabee’s old-school Christian Zionism is bad news for anyone who wants Middle East peace, argues Tristan Sturm.

From our sponsor, Hatikvah

ISRAEL

Vice President JD Vance met with freed Israelis hostages on Wednesday. (White House)

The latest…

President Emmanuel Macron said that France plans to formally recognize a Palestinian state in the coming months — a significant policy shift for a country that’s home to Europe’s largest Jewish population. (JTA)

Some supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu told freed hostage Liri Albag to “go back to Gaza” after she criticized the prime minister. “I fear what we have become,” she posted on social media, adding, “It is better to aim this poison at Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah and our hundreds of other enemies.” (JTA)

A large and increasing majority of Israelis prioritize bringing hostages home over toppling Hamas, according to a new survey. (Israel Democracy Institute)

Vice President JD Vance met with a group of freed Israeli hostages on Wednesday at the White House. (Times of Israel, X)

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli politician who was rebuffed from coming to the U.S. by the Biden administration, is planning a post-Passover trip to Florida and Washington, D.C. (Times of Israel)

The Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America is refusing to release the details of a land purchase deal in Jerusalem that would see a neighborhood built in a forest where environmentalists believe the wildlife should be protected. (Haaretz)

Opinion | Betar, an extremist Zionist group, is trying to get left-wing Jews banned from entering Israel. Emily Tamkin writes that what they are essentially saying is if “you are the wrong kind of Jew — say, one who supports the idea of rights and liberties for Palestinians — you deserve to be publicly called out and punished.” Read her essay ►

PASSOVER

A 1971 view of the Jerusalem Temple Church in a South Side neighborhood of Chicago. (Getty)

A place for Passover

Opinion | Chicago’s Rabbi Tamar Manasseh is hosting a Seder in one of the oldest Black churches in the country. “As we confront a new era of threats to our freedom,” she writes, “I want to honor them. So I am going to meld one of my precious traditions — Judaism — with another — the legacy of strength and perseverance of my ancestors, who moved to freedom through Underground Railroad stops just like this church.” Read her essay ►

Plus…

Streit’s, the iconic matzah brand, is marking its 100th anniversary this year. Inside the factory, at least six rabbis are on site 24 hours per day.

Why do many Haggadot include pictures of rabbits? It has to do with a Yiddish pun and a calendrical quirk.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

More than a dozen police were called to settle a rowdy crowd during the matzo riot of 1930. (Forward archives)

The great matzo riot of 1930

On an unusually cold spring day in 1930, just five months after the stock market crash, thousands of Jews flooded New York’s Lower East Side — not in search of jobs or shelter, but in pursuit of something that felt as essential: matzo.

The Forward described the scene: a breadline, but make it unleavened. Up to 5,000 people queued up at 225 East Broadway, hoping to secure a few brittle pieces of matzo before Passover. It was part of a charitable holiday offering for poor Jews — a tradition that had run smoothly for years. But in the early days of the Great Depression, demand surged.

When the distribution slowed, the crowd grew restless. Then rowdy. Then, as the paper delicately put it, they “started a tumult.”

People tried to storm the synagogue basement. Four overwhelmed beat cops called in an extra 15 officers. Order was eventually restored, but not before matzo earned its place in the pantheon of foods people are willing to brawl over.

Our front page dubbed it a “Matzo Riot.”

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Richard Gamboa Ben-Eleazar, left, holding his rabbinic ordination, and with Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a spokesperson for Neturei Karta, a staunch anti-Zionist Jewish group. (X)

🇨🇴 The Colombian Jewish community is stunned after Rabbi Richard Gamboa Ben-Eleazar was tapped to be the country’s director of religious affairs. He has referred to Zionists as Nazis and got his ordination from a Florida institution called the Esoteric Theological Seminary that advertises rabbinical degrees for $160. (JTA)

🇩🇪 The Alternative for Germany far-right party known for its extremist rhetoric and minimizing of the Holocaust won’t be joining Germany’s government, despite finishing second in national elections earlier this year. (JTA)

🇦🇷 Argentina’s top prosecutor in the 1994 Jewish community center bombing case has asked a federal court to issue arrest warrants for Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over his suspected role in the attack. (Jerusalem Post)

🍔 A sign outside an Israeli mall falsely advertised the Burger King inside was kosher, despite having lost its certification more than a year earlier. An observant man sued after eating a cheeseburger, and now the fast food chain has agreed to distribute $128,000 in meal vouchers to Israeli soldiers. (Ynet)

What else we’re reading ► How October 8 and The Encampments, two new documentaries on America post-Oct. 7, talk right past each other (JTA) … The evangelical-run Hobby Lobby is opening its first Manhattan store. Not everyone is happy (New York Times) … He was 8 years old when Nazis stole his book. At 103, he has it back (The Times).

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Rachel Goldberg-Polin — whose son, Hersh, was held captive in Gaza and killed by Hamas — is the guest on the latest episode of Dan Senor’s Call Me Back podcast. “We have actually an obligation this year to really beat ourselves up at the Seder because the whole point of Passover — it is supposed to be a commemoration of leaving the worst form of bondage and slavery that we ever experienced,” said Goldberg-Polin. “And how can we do that this year when we know there are 59 people who are still there, 24 of whom are still alive and in the worst, most horrific bondage that we can picture.”

Today’s newsletter made me:

🤓 Confident I understand issues impacting American Jews.

🔗 Connected to the Jewish world.

💡 Curious to learn about something I read.

😵‍💫 Confused about today’s Jewish news.

🤷🏽‍♀️ No different.

❤️ Love this newsletter? Check out what else the Forward has to offer!

Support independent Jewish journalism

With so much breaking news, you need Jewish journalism you can trust. Make your Passover gift today.