Good morning, and chag sameach! Today: President Biden reassures Jewish leaders before Rosh Hashanah, a lavish auction of treasures from the Rothschild family, and an Israeli director’s new TV show finds humor in a juvenile detention facility. |
What happens when couples have different preferences when it comes to Jewish practice? (Image by Kayla Garb) |
I love traditional Rosh Hashanah services, but my wife says no.The Forward’s legendary advice column, A Bintel Brief, has been offering guidance for managing the conundrums of Jewish life since 1906. Recently, we took a spin through the archives to find the best (and worst) of our past advice for handling the High Holidays. “No way to make this a win-win:” What to do when a husband loves tradition on Rosh Hashanah, and his wife objects to gender-segregated seating? Our advice-giver in 1975 wrote that the husband should have “the last word,” feedback that prompted Shira Telushkin, a recent Bintel writer, to note disappointment “that the editors show so little compassion for his wife.” Read the advice ➤ “A teacher is a role model:” In 2007, Alan Dershowitz took a spin as Bintel, answering a question from a teacher wondering if they should cancel classes scheduled for Rosh Hashanah. “You will be respected for standing up for a principle,” Dershowitz wrote. Read the advice ➤ “Try to engage:” In 2020, a reader asked Bintel if they needed to forgive their father, a supporter of then-President Donald Trump, for Yom Kippur, writing, “Do I need to tell him that he’s hurt me by supporting so many immoral political initiatives?” Bintel’s advice: “Try to pinpoint the ways in which his actions have made you feel abandoned. Be honest, but try to be empathetic and oriented towards problem solving.” Read the advice ➤ Plus … • “I don’t observe Yom Kippur. Can I still take off class?” • “His mother died and I never called. How do I fix this before Yom Kippur?” |
A woman holds a placard in solidarity with Iranian protesters in front of the White House in October 2022. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images) |
Opinion | I struggled to reconcile my Iranian Jewish identity. The women’s protests made me whole. A year ago on Saturday, Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman, died in detention after being arrested on allegations that she was wearing her hijab improperly. Her death sparked a wave of protests inside Iran, and the international movement Women, Life, Freedom. In a new essay commemorating the first anniversary of Amini’s death, Mary Kohav writes that we must “uplift Iranian Jewish voices this Rosh Hashanah to express solidarity with the Iranian people in their fight for regime change, secular democracy, freedom of speech and equality for all.” Read her essay ➤ Why the Israeli ‘Euphoria’ creator couldn’t wait to go to jail: Ron Leshem, the mind behind the original Euphoria and Valley of Tears, just debuted his new series, Bad Boy, at the Toronto International Film Festival. Inspired by his run-in with comedian and former child inmate Daniel Chen, the show takes a gritty and often funny look at the world of juvenile offenders. “I fell in love with the story in a sense that it’s nothing like any ordinary prison,” Leshem said in an interview. “I felt the story needs to be told but it took almost 20 years to figure out how.” Read the story ➤ Plus … • “I have your back,” President Joe Biden told Jewish leaders in a pre-Rosh Hashanah call on Thursday, calling himself “committed to the safety of the Jewish people.” • Elon Musk, who’s drawn fire for attacking the Anti-Defamation League, will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week. It marks the second time Musk will have spoken with Netanyahu after drawing allegations of antisemitism: The two met by phone in June, after Musk made disparaging posts about George Soros. • Rosh Hashanah is all about honey: honey cake, apples and honey, you name it. So we spoke to an aspiring honey sommelier about the complexities of the honey world. One tidbit: “Honey sommeliers must learn to identify 22 different ‘mono-honeys,’ or honeys made from a single specific flower.” |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Investigators seized the Egon Schiele artworks "Russian War Prisoner," "Portrait of a Man" and "Girl With Black Hair" after the Manhattan district attorney's office issued warrants. (CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images) |
🖼️ Investigators seized three paintings by Egon Schiele after determining they rightfully belong to the heirs of a Holocaust victim. The paintings, which were taken from museums in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio after an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, were owned by the collector and cabaret artist Fritz Grünbaum. (New York Times) 🇮🇱 Netanyahu and Biden will meet next week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. It will be their first meeting in the U.S. since Netanyahu began his current term as prime minister; the meeting was originally planned for the White House, but reportedly rearranged over concerns that it would prompt major protests. (Haaretz) 😳 Two people were arrested in connection with an explosion at a park in Tel Aviv. The Friday incident caused no injuries. (Times of Israel) 😷 Synagogues are split on whether to revive precautions against COVID-19 for the High Holidays, as a new variant has caused a spike in cases and a new booster shot is on the verge of being released. “We’re just trying to move on with our lives,” one rabbi said. (JTA) 💎 An auction of furniture, jewelry, art and more from the Rothschild family is expected to earn $30 million at a fall auction by Christie’s — the same auction house that recently weathered a scandal over its decision to auction a jewelry collection tied to a Nazi fortune. (CNN) 📚 Argentinian police shut down a publishing house they accused of distributing Nazi literature and arrested the company’s owner, who has allegedly been disseminating Nazi propaganda for more than a decade. (JTA) What else we’re reading ➤ How young queer Jews are remaking Jewish prayers … The true Jewish history of Rosh Hashanah (which wasn’t always about the new year) … “A mystical pilgrimage to Andalusia helped me connect with my Sephardic Jewish identity.” |
Agatha Christie, pictured in 1926. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) |
On this day in history (1890): Mystery novelist Agatha Christie was born in England. And while Christie, the best-selling novelist in history, has been beloved by legions of Jewish fans, her early work wasn’t exactly inoffensive to them. As one scholar put it: “A kind of jingoistic, knee-jerk antisemitism colors the presentation of Jewish characters in many of her early novels, and Christie reveals herself to be as unreflective and conventional as the majority of her compatriots.” |
(Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images) |
An outer wall collapsed at a Jewish cemetery in Marrakech, Morocco, after a devastating earthquake struck the country last Friday. “For many, the earthquake had stripped away whatever little they had, leaving them with absolutely nothing,” an Israeli volunteer providing emergency relief wrote in an essay for the Forward. --- Thanks to Benyamin Cohen and PJ Grisar for contributing to today’s newsletter, and Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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