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| | | Israel strikes back at Lebanon after Golan Heights attack kills 12 kids, Trump tells Christians they won’t need to vote anymore and says Democrats hate Israel, archaeologists unearth part of the Great Synagogue of Vilna, and Jewish kayaker wins Olympic gold.
Scheduling note: Forwarding will be off for the next two days. I’ll be back in your inbox Thursday morning. |
| | | | Vice President Kamala Harris and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at an event earlier this month in Philadelphia. (Getty) |
| Angry about Gaza, will uncommitted voters commit to Kamala Harris? There is not much difference between Biden and Harris regarding the war, but there is some — Harris does not say she is a Zionist, called for a ceasefire earlier and has seemed more openly sympathetic to the Palestinian protest movement. Analysts and activists are now watching to see whether she will win back some of the far left that had threatened to stay home in November rather than support the man they lambasted as “Genocide Joe.” Read the story ➤
Related: Is Kamala Harris a Zionist?
Shapiro’s position on Gaza tests close bonds with Arab, Muslim community: For years, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who is on the shortlist to become Harris’ pick for vice president, was able to execute a balancing act that eludes many Jewish politicians: vocally supporting Israel while maintaining close ties with Arab and Muslim voters. And while some of those ties have frayed over the past 10 months of war in Gaza, Shapiro has worked hard to not abandon those relationships. Read the story ➤
Related: Will Josh Shapiro’s Jewishness hurt or help a Harris ticket?
Plus… Our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren argues in her latest column that a lame-duck President Joe Biden could end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “It’s what the world needs,” she writes, “and he might just be the only one who has a shot.”
There’s a photo circulating online of a young Doug Emhoff looking like the prototypical Jewish summer camp crush. Our digital culture reporter, Mira Fox, explains why this meme — and others from the Harris campaign — may play an important role in the election.
And on the Republican side…
Former President Donald Trump, while addressing a Turning Point USA Believers Summit in Florida on Friday night, implied that Christians would not have to vote after this November’s election. “I love you, Christians,” he said. “You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.” Trump also claimed that Harris, who is married to a Jew, “doesn’t like Jewish people” and that “any Jewish person who votes for Kamala, or a Democrat, should immediately have their head examined.”
At a Sunday meeting in New Jersey with Jewish GOP donors, Trump said, “Democrats hate Israel.”
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| | | | | Mourners comfort each other on Monday during the funeral of Guevara Ibrahim, 11, killed in a strike from Lebanon onto a soccer field the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. (Getty) |
| | | Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School in Creve Coeur, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. (Courtesy) |
| A Jewish day school hired a former ceasefire activist. Then came the backlash: A nonprofit professional says she was upfront about her politics when she applied for a job at Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School in St. Louis. But a deluge of complaints from parents after her hiring was announced prompted the school to withdraw its offer. She says she was the victim of pro-Israel bullying. Read the story ➤
Is it now illegal to donate to Israeli soldiers? “For nearly a year, American Jews have flooded Israel with donations for soldiers fighting in Gaza, even as the Israel Defense Forces said such supplies were not needed,” reports Asaf Elia-Shalev of the JTA. “Now, the Israeli military has announced a crackdown against the flow of unauthorized donations, setting up a potential showdown with some of its most generous supporters.” Read the story ➤
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| | | | Jakob Grün (Moisej Bazijan), left, and Avrum Goldstein (Mark Ivanir) have Shabbat dinner in the new season of Babylon Berlin. (Courtesy of MHz Networks) |
| | | | | | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | A mural of Anne Frank wearing a kaffiyeh in Bergen, Norway. (Courtesy of Töddel) |
| 🎨 A Norwegian artist is defending his mural of Anne Frank wearing a kaffiyeh. “Like the children and women of Gaza,” the artist said, “she suffered and died because of her ethnicity and religion and being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” (JTA)
🖼️ A Nazi-looted piece of art, from expressionist painter Egon Schiele, was returned to the heirs of its rightful owners on Friday. The twist? The people returning the painting were another Jewish family that survived the Holocaust. (JTA)
👷 Archaeologists unearthed parts of the Great Synagogue of Vilna, which was destroyed by the Nazis and razed by the Soviets. They found the floor, parts of the women’s section and a mikvah. (JTA)
🎞️ The comedic actor Jerry Lewis directed and starred in a film about a circus performer sent to a concentration camp where he entertained Jewish children headed for the gas chambers. The 1972 film was never released. A documentary about it, including unseen footage, will debut in September at the Venice Film Festival. (Hollywood Reporter)
Shiva calls ➤ Jill Schary Robinson, a novelist and memoirist who often wrote about the dark side of Hollywood, died at 88 … Martin Indyk, who twice served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel and as a longtime diplomat, worked for Arab-Israeli peace, died at 73.
What else we’re reading ➤ Israeli sports suffers drought as Gaza war sees overseas players stay away … Paris Olympics organizers say they meant no disrespect with Last Supper segment during opening ceremony … In New York, one family has been serving up Jewish food from Central Asia for 24 years.
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| | | | "It means everything to me right now,” Jessica Fox said Sunday after winning the gold medal. “It was just magical.” (Getty) |
| 🇦🇺 Jewish kayaker Jessica Fox, who was Australia’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremonies, won gold Sunday in the Women’s K1 canoe slalom. Fox’s younger sister Noemi is making her Olympics debut in the women’s kayak cross event where the two will compete against each other.
🇺🇸 The U.S. women’s rugby team, featuring Sarah Levy, played twice on Sunday, beating both Brazil and Japan. Their next match is against France today at 9:30 a.m. ET. Levy is the great-granddaughter of South African rugby star Louis Babrow, who famously debated whether to play a match in New Zealand on Yom Kippur in 1937. (He did compete, reasoning the holiday had not begun in his home country which was in a different time zone.)
👮 French police are investigating death threats against three Israeli athletes at the Games. In a separate incident, local authorities arrested a 15-year-old on suspicion of trying to harm Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who was in France for the Olympics.
Here’s a roundup of Jewish athletes at the Games, and when they are competing. Keep up with all of our Olympic coverage.
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| Thanks to PJ Grisar, Louis Keene, Lauren Markoe and Arno Rosenfeld for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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