WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Good morning. The Israel Defense Forces retrieved the bodies of three Israeli hostages from Gaza. In Europe, police arrested seven people suspected of a terror plot with ties to Hamas. And in the U.S., a rabbi invited to a campus screening of a controversial Israel documentary said he faced harassment over his interactions with the filmmakers.

ISRAEL AT WAR

“The hardest thing to recognize is that our lives will never be the same again,” writes Tamar Shalem. (Courtesy of Bronfman Fellowship)

Opinion | ‘How can we ever go back to being anything like we were before?’ “If you ask me how I am now, I’ll answer ‘fine’ in an optimistic manner, quietly and tersely, and I’ll pull my shoulders up,” writes Tamar Shalem, 30, “But the truth is that nothing is fine.” Shalem, whose husband is serving on the Lebanon border, is an Israeli alumna of the Bronfman Fellowship, an educational program that brings American and Israeli Jews together. In dispatches for the Forward, Israeli fellows and alumni draw a picture of a nation drawn together in solidarity — but dealing, as well, with major fractures, both private and public. Read their stories ➤

And:

‘I have been mourning the loss of innocence’: Young Israelis share how they cope with their new reality

Jewish groups confront new questions: What counts as calling for genocide? And how should it be punished?

Some Israeli Haredim are joining the IDF. Can secular Jews get along with them? Israelis have long pointed to the refusal of Haredim to serve in the IDF as a major source of tension between the country’s secular and religious communities. But as more than 2,000 Haredim have joined the military since Oct. 7, it’s time for secular Israelis to reevaluate their perceptions of the ultra-Orthodox, writes Uri Kaufman: “One silver lining in the horrific tragedy is that Israelis both secular and religious are coming together.” Read his essay ➤

Demonstrators held signs and symbolic shrouds during a march in support of Gaza in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli on Friday. (IBRAHIM CHALHOUB/AFP via Getty Images)

Latest from the war…

The U.S. is pushing Israel to enter a new, more targeted phase of war, ending large-scale airstrikes and scaling back the ground invasion by the end of the year. But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant suggested that timetable does not align with Israel’s plans, saying, “It will last more than several months, but we will win, and we will destroy them.”

The IDF retrieved the bodies of three Israeli hostages; the young men had previously appeared alive in videos shared by Hamas. Separately, families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza demanded an “immediate explanation” from the government after new reports said the war cabinet declined to send the head of the Mossad, a national intelligence agency, to Qatar to help negotiate a new hostage deal.

The IDF said it would discipline soldiers who broadcast Jewish prayers from a mosque in the occupied West Bank during a military operation. Recent videos of IDF soldiers engaging in troubling behavior in Gaza and the West Bank have raised international ire — but left many Israelis untroubled.

An international coalition led by the United Kingdom demanded Israel ramp up efforts to curb violence by settlers in the West Bank, calling an escalation in incidents during the war “unacceptable.”

A new report from CNN suggests that almost half of the bombs Israel has dropped on Gaza during the war have been unguided, a use of imprecise munitions that may be a major factor in the civilian death toll. More than 18,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed to date.

Israeli forces have razed several cemeteries in Gaza, according to a new analysis from The New York Times.

A new poll finds support for Hamas growing among Palestinians, although the majority of Palestinians don’t approve of the terror group. The same poll found declining support for the Palestinian Authority — a potential sign of trouble for plans, endorsed by President Joe Biden’s administration, for the PA to take over Gaza’s governance after the war.

Denmark’s prime minister described the terror plot in which seven were arrested in Europe yesterday as being “as serious as it gets.” (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Internationally…

Seven people suspected of a terror plot and linked to Hamas were arrested in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. German prosecutors say the suspects had been charged by Hamas with amassing weapons to be used in potential attacks on Jewish sites.

A middle school teacher in Georgia was arrested over allegedly threatening to behead a 13-year-old Muslim student who said she found an Israeli flag hanging in the teacher’s classroom offensive.

Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania stopped $33.5 million from being used to fund the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school, citing criticism of the university’s response to campus antisemitism.

A student at Carnegie Mellon University sued the school over an architecture professor’s alleged “cruel campaign of antisemitic abuse,” saying the faculty did not step in after professor made comments including questioning “‘what Jews do to make themselves such a hated group.’”

A new study estimates that American Jews raised around $1 billion to support Israel in the first month of the war.

At a Dec. 5 screening of Israelism, from left to right, Rabbi Andy Bachman; Simone Zimmerman, who is featured in the film, and director Erin Axelman. (Sam Eilertsen)

Rabbi invited to discuss controversial Israelism film says he was ‘heckled, interrupted and yelled at.’At a recent screening of the documentary at Manhattan’s Hunter College, Rabbi Andy Bachman said he was accused of being “racist” and “an apologist for genocide” over his questions while moderating a conversation with one of the filmmakers. But students and faculty who attended the event say they felt Bachman’s questions failed to engage with the substance of the movie, and that he didn’t create sufficient space for student voices. “If you just want to talk about the history of Zionism, students are not interested in that debate,” one of the film’s directors said. “They are interested in the stories our film is telling.” Read the story ➤

The Forward is made possible by readers like you.

Support our work with a donation of any size.

Want more Forward? Explore all our newsletters at forward.com/newsletters

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Spielberg’s film left many scholars unsatisfied — but it’s a more complex film than it’s given credit for. (Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)

Schindler’s List is darker — and braver — than you may remember: Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning Holocaust drama, which turns 30 today, is both one of the most celebrated and dissected films in history. While a critical and commercial hit, many scholars of the Shoah took the director to task for choosing to focus on a gentile protagonist, for the film’s sentimentality and even for telling a story where Jews survive. But in rewatching the film, our PJ Grisar was surprised at how quietly subversive the film was. “The infamous charge of ‘kitsch’ from Nobel Laureate and survivor Imre Kertész is only part of the film’s sensibility,” Grisar writes. “While no one would accuse its presentation of nuance, not infrequently its verdict on human nature is realistic if not downright cynical.”

What to make of the Polish parliament Hanukkah incident. On Tuesday, the sixth night of Hanukkah, a far-right Polish lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to douse the candles of a lit menorah in parliament, calling it an emblem of “satanic Talmudic racist triumphalism.” The incident is a reminder, writes Zach Smerin, a Polish student studying in England, that while “the antisemitism among a section of Poland’s population is subtle,” as Poland’s Jewish population continues to increase, “the far-right can grow.”

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Polish President Andrzej Duda observes as Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and Rabbi Shalom Ber Stambler sing during a Thursday Hanukkah celebration in the lobby of the Polish Parliament in Warsaw. (WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

🕎 Polish parliamentary leaders joined a celebration of the last night of Hanukkah, in a move seen as a rebuke of the far-right member who extinguished the menorah, and of antisemitism at large. (Associated Press)

🗳️ New York Republicans have reportedly tapped an Ethiopian-born Orthodox Jew to run to replace former Rep. George Santos. Mazi Melesa Pilip, an IDF veteran, will likely face off against former Rep. Tom Suozzi, the Democratic pick, in a special election. (Forward)

😨 A 13-year-old boy was charged with two misdemeanors over an allegedly “detailed threat” against an Ohio synagogue. Separately, the FBI arrested a minor for allegedly perpetrating two swatting hoaxes against California synagogues. (Forward, JTA)

👀 Russian President Vladimir Putin put public pressure on the United States to reach a prisoner swap agreement to free Evan Gershkovich, the American Jewish Wall Street Journal journalist imprisoned in Russia since March, and Paul Whelan, an American who has been detained since 2018. (JTA)

Shiva call ➤ Zelda Kahan Newman, translator of Yiddish women’s poetry, died at 77.

What else we’re reading ➤“Twins who survived Holocaust describe their parents' courage in Bergen-Belsen” … “Why Israel has so many Palestinian prisoners” … “My Jewish Charlie Brown Christmas.”

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Families of hostages who remain in Gaza lit candles in Tel Aviv on Thursday for the final night of Hanukkah.

Thanks to Benyamin Cohen and PJ Grisar for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

Support Independent Jewish Journalism

Without you, the Forward’s stories don’t just go unread — they go untold. Please support our nonprofit journalism today.