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Convert goes on hunger strike to become Israeli citizen, neo-Nazi who intimidated Jewish journalists sentenced to prison, and man leaves Wall Street job to open a pickle shop.
OUR LEAD STORY Jewish protesters demonstrate outside of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm. (Photo: Erik McGregor) There’s a Jewish push to divest from fossil fuels. It’s not going so well.
Federations and foundations hold roughly $100 billion in assets from Jewish philanthropists, and pressure has been slowly mounting on them to divest from coal, oil and gas companies. It was a big topic of conversation at this week’s Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest and comes on the eve of Tu B’shvat, the Jewish holiday of trees, which begins Sunday evening.
A small but meaningful step: “I don’t think it is going to make or break the fossil fuel industry,” acknowledged Phil Aroneanu, chief strategy officer for Dayenu, a Jewish group focused on climate activism. “But it will have a cultural impact and help tell the story that we’re aligning our spiritual and moral compass with our investments.”
An uphill battle: A handful of Jewish nonprofits have so far explicitly moved toward divesting from all fossil fuels. Other federations and foundations offer sustainable investment funds – including San Diego, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Atlanta – but are not refusing to buy shares of stocks in energy companies. Fred Zeidman, a Jewish philanthropist based in Houston, dismissed the move toward socially-responsible investment as “that California left-wing whatever.”
Climate is the issue of the future: Jewish voters listed climate change as their top priority in a Jewish Electoral Institute poll last year, well ahead of issues like Israel, Iran and antisemitism. Yet until recently, most climate initiatives in Jewish synagogues and other organizations were limited to installing solar panels and hosting educational workshops. “If we act collectively through our investments and through our political action then we can actually get something done,” Aroneanu said.
Speaking of climate change, this essay we published yesterday is the No. 1 story on our site right now: My home almost burned in the Colorado wildfires. Jews have a special responsibility to fight back. ALSO FROM THE FORWARD Opinion | No Jew should have to starve for Israeli citizenship. But I did. For eight days, David Ben Moshe (pictured above) camped outside Israel’s interior ministry on a hunger strike, protesting the resistance to his application for aliyah. He had an Orthodox conversion in 2017, married a Jew and had Jewish kids. But he was, at various times, questioned: He didn’t look Jewish, he had a criminal record. One excuse after another. Until this week. “My efforts have paid off,” he writes. Read the essay ➤
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY Edward Ilyasov left his job on Wall Street to open a pickle shop. 🤦 Congressman Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio, compared workplace vaccine mandates to the way Nazis segregated Jews before imprisoning and, as he put it, “enslaving them.” Ohio is one 27 states opposing such policies at the Supreme Court. Its solicitor general, Ben Flowers, did not appear in person at the hearing Friday; he has COVID-19. (Twitter, Ohio Capital Journal)
🏫 Rabbi Shlomo Adelman, the principal of the Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck, N.J., has resigned following sexual assault accusations. A lawsuit accuses Adelman of molesting a boy at a Jewish summer camp in upstate New York in 1990. It was filed under New York’s Child Victims Act, which reopened the statute of limitations to allow for such suits. (JTA)
⚖️ A Neo-Nazi leader was sentence to seven years in prison for plotting to intimidate Jews and journalists of color. In one instance, a poster was glued to the window of the Arizona home of an editor of a Jewish publication. “Threats motivated by religious intolerance are antithetical to American values,” argued the prosecutor, Kristen Clarke. (Forward)
🦅 There’s an 800-pound eagle and swastika crest from a former Nazi ship sitting in a warehouse in Uruguay. Now, a local Jewish businessman has offered to buy it and explode it into “a thousand pieces.” He said every piece would be pulverized until “there will be nothing left.” (JTA)
🎭 Instead of cancelling performances due to the pandemic, the Boston-based Russian-Jewish theater company Arlekin Players moved shows online, combining elements of cinematography, 3D design, video gaming and Zoom calls. Audience members are required to participate: During a night scene in a new show, for example, people watching are asked to turn off the lights in their rooms. “If we’re not trying to do something new, then why do art?” said the group’s founder. (Times of Israel)
🥒 Edward Ilyasov went from crunching numbers to crunching pickles. A Bukharian Jew, Ilyasov, who is 29, left his Wall Street job to open Uncle Edik’s Pickles, based on a beloved family recipe. “They’re aged for about a week in a cold aging process” he said. (JTA)
FROM OUR ARCHIVES Saturday is National Bagel Day, and we have covered bagels endlessly during our nearly 125 years of reportage. Chana Pollack, the Forward’s archivist, dug up two items – both ads for that most perfect of bagel toppings, Philadelphia Cream Cheese. The first, from 1922, extols the virtues of the product being “untouched by human hands!” The second, from 1955, says that Philadelphia is the only brand uniquely intended for bagels (and matzah).
ON THE CALENDAR Ernestine Rose at the 135th Street branch of the New York City Public Library in 1930. (Getty Images) On this day in history: Ernestine Rose, dubbed by many as the first Jewish feminist, was born on Jan. 13, 1810, in Poland. She eventually moved to New York, where she was central to the women’s rights and anti-slavery movements. “Rose was unusual for both her time and place,” wrote Melanie Weiss in a review of a biography of Rose, “but she was firm in her beliefs, blunt with her opinions and, most important, a fiery public speaker.”
PHOTO OF THE DAY (Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images) The Sheba Medical Center opened Israel’s first pediatric Omicron unit this week. “Unfortunately, infection is spreading so fast that I expect this new ward to fill up within 10 to 14 days, and then we’ll need to open another,” said Dr. Moshe Ashkenazi. Medical clowns were on hand to help ease the stress of the young patients.
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Thanks to Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.
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