Facebook makes it harder to target religious groups, Pfizer CEO to donate $1M to Holocaust education, Jerusalem braces for a snow day, and the secret Jewish history of Dolly Parton.

TEXAS ATTACK AFTERMATH

An aerial view of Blackburn, England, the hometown of the hostage-taker. (Getty Images)

On the ground in Texas, our Arno Rosenfeld, spoke to rabbis at synagogues near Colleyville about the tension between community safety and the Jewish mandate to welcome strangers. Jacob Kornbluh, who is in England, explored how the local Jewish community is responding to the attack, given that the hostage-taker, Malik Faisal Akram, had been on the British intelligence service’s watch list for suspicion of terrorism since 2020.

All our Colleyville coverage is collected here. Read on for today’s highlights…

Stranger danger: The hostage standoff at Congregation Beth Israel might never have happened if Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker had not welcomed in a man who claimed to be looking for shelter on a cold Saturday morning. That desire to help is hard to turn off for many rabbis, who strive to embody the biblical imperatives of assisting the needy. “Being a fortress is not in the cards,” said Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis of Congregation Kol Ami near Dallas-Fort Worth. “We intend to be open to the world, we want to be a light unto the nations.” Read the story ➤

View from across the pond: In Britain, where antisemitic incidents hit record numbers last year, Jewish leaders absorbed the Texas attack with stoicism. “I don’t think the fact of anti-Jewish terrorism came as a shock to anyone,” said Dave Rich, who heads an organization that provides safety and security measures to the U.K. Jewish community. Rabbi Herschel Gluck, president of Shomrim in Stamford Hill, said his group of volunteers “provide the community a security blanket 365 days a year.” Read the story ➤

Security and training: Attorney General Merrick Garland got personal in a video conference with more than 1,200 synagogue leaders on Tuesday. “I know full well that this is every congregation’s worst fear,” he said, mentioning his own synagogue, Temple Sinai in D.C. “Mine has a police car stationed outside every important service.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is also Jewish, called for a boost in funding to help synagogues and other nonprofits pay for security. The Jewish Federations of North America rolled out a campaign this week to raise $126 million to provide training and facility upgrades to Jewish institutions; it and other groups are pushing Congress to double federal security grants to nonprofits to $360 million from $180 million.

The Secure Community Network is meanwhile pushing to enroll more people in the training program for congregants that Rabbi Cytron-Walker and two dozen of his congregants went through. “This is just like fire drills,” said Amy Asin, of the Union for Reform Judaism. “We don’t say it is enough for the rabbi or teachers to be trained. This has to be comprehensive across the entire community.” Read the story ➤

Be counted: Deborah E. Lipstadt, President Biden’s nominee to serve as the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, called for Jews to go to synagogue this Shabbat to show resilience against hate. Her suggestion made the hashtag #ShowUpInShul trend on Twitter.

In Colleyville: Anna Salton Eisen, a co-founder of Congregation Beth Israel, told her mother, a Holocaust survivor who will turn 100 on Saturday, about the crisis at their shul. “I saw it in her eyes: the pain, the fear, the memories,” Eisen said.

And we have three new essays in our Opinion section…

Keep up with our complete coverage of the hostage-taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas.

ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

Why did this man turn a cigarette box into a siddur? The interplay of words and graphics has been used to great effect in the last 20 years to enliven the core texts of Judaism. At their best, these illustrations can radically alter the way we read the underlying texts. Like an upcoming printing of the Book of Ruth that centers the story’s women and relegates men to the margins. Enter David Zvi Kalman, who runs a boutique Jewish printing press. For his latest project, he wanted to draw a comparison of rituals – one sacred, one mundane. Read the story ➤

Enough with the insincere apologies for antisemitism — and enough with the Holocaust comparisons that inspire them: Last week saw at least three public figures comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust or spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories about COVID. They were each quickly followed by apologies posted on social media that proffered deep remorse. But our Mira Fox wonders if such statements have become a kind of performance art. After all, shouldn’t they know better by now? Read her take ➤

But wait, there’s more…

In the Nazi-looted art case in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, there was a brief moment of levity, courtesy of Justice Stephen Breyer.
A museum near Tel Aviv has ceased operations after failing to reach an agreement with 47 artists who accused it of censorship, and demanded that their work be removed.
Want to shmooze online in Yiddish? Join one of these Zoom groups. Just remember to Tsind on dayn mikrofon (“Turn on your microphone”).

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

'We are all called upon by God to repair the world," said Albert Bourla, Pfizer's CEO. (Getty Images)

🏆 Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, won the Genesis Prize for his work developing the COVID-19 vaccine. Known as the “Jewish Nobel,” the award comes with $1 million, which Bourla said he would donate to “projects aimed at preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.” His parents were Holocaust survivors from Greece and he said the grants would focus “on the tragedy suffered by the Greek Jewish community.” (JTA)

💻 Starting today, Facebook will remove detailed ad targeting based on religion – like mentions of “Catholic Church” and “Jewish holidays.” In a statement, the social media giant said: “We’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups.” (Meta, Search Engine Journal)

📚 A new book claimed that the hiding place of Anne Frank was provided to the Nazis by a Jewish notary. Now that World War II and Holocaust experts have had time to review the claims, many doubt the methods and conclusion. “This is an enormous accusation that they made using a load of assumptions,” said the director of Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter. (New York Times)

🇮🇱 A faith-based organization in Alabama is becoming increasingly influential in Mideast politics, taking Congressional delegations to visit Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and behind the scenes of the Iron Dome military defense system. “I’ve seen many tours of Israel,” said Ari Sacher, a rocket scientist who works on Iron Dome. “This was head and shoulders the best tour.” (Times of Israel)

🎬 Hamas is making its own version of the popular “Fauda” TV series, telling the story of the Israeli conflict from the Palestinian point of view. All Israelis on the show are portrayed by Arabs, and women wear headscarves even when portraying secular Jews. Jamal Abu Alqumsan, a Palestinian director, called it a “tool of resistance.” (AFP)

Mazel tov ➤ To Rob Derdiger, a 2007 graduate of the University of Colorado, on becoming the new CEO of Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Jewish fraternity that operates on more than 150 college campuses around the world.

What else we’re reading ➤ Jerusalem is bracing for snow today … As sexual abuse cases hit the Haredi world, some vow to be silent no longer … On sale at a Tel Aviv antiques market: Swastika pins and SS cards.

ON THE CALENDAR

On this day in history: Katey Sagal, an actress who shot to fame on “Married with Children,” was born into a Hollywood family (mom was a singer, dad a director) on Jan. 19, 1954. Her godfather is Norman Lear. Sagal spent 11 years in the role of Peg Bundy – loud, sex-starved, and with a red boufant wig you couldn’t miss. She was able to avoid being typecast and went on to star in a number of other TV series – including as the matriarch of a West Coast biker gang on “Sons of Anarchy.” She is also an accomplished musician; her songs often appear on her shows.

In honor of Dolly Parton’s birthday, check out her secret Jewish history – including how two Brooklyn-born guys helped Parton make the leap from Nashville to mainstream pop stardom.

Last year on this day, we reported that the cast of the Folksbiene’s “Fiddler” released a video of them performing “God Bless America” in Yiddish in honor of President Biden’s upcoming inauguration.

In honor of National Popcorn Day, read about the Jewish man who first brought the buttery treat to movie theaters.

One week from today: Join us for a conversation about the Sephardic roots of Israeli cuisine. Chef Hélène Jawhara Piñer will make dishes from her Sephardic cookbook and chat with Rob Eshman, the Forward’s national and food editor. Register now ➤

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey attended a prayer service at a synagogue Tuesday morning ahead of his inauguration later in the day. The governor re-took the oath of office using the Bible of his Jewish father-in-law, the late Edward Brown Snyder. “My faith has been my anchor throughout my life and my governorship,” said Murphy, who is Catholic. “As I am sworn in to a second term, it will continue to serve as a source of strength and inspiration to build a stronger and fairer New Jersey with dignity and opportunity for all.”

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Thanks to Nora Berman, Mira Fox, Louis Keene, Jacob Kornbluh, Lauren Markoe and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

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