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Gang attacks Hasidic man on Shabbat, Zelenskyy speaks at Grammys, how coffee became kosher for Passover, and remembering 'Seinfeld' star Estelle Harris.
THE WEEK IN POLITICS Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Rabbi Levi Shemtov at the Chabad event in D.C. (Eliau Piha Studio) Our senior political correspondent, Jacob Kornbluh, on what’s happening in Washington, Jerusalem, and beyond…
Chabad hosts Congress for bipartisan conference celebrating the Lubavitcher Rebbe:On a rare occasion of bipartisanship in the nation’s capital, members of Congress came together last week to address a group of Chabad rabbis and supporters, peppering their speeches with Hebrew and Yiddish terms and noting their faith and commitment to religious rights. The event marked the legacy of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson ahead of the 120th anniversary of his birth next week.
The expressed adoration for Judaism was a reflection of the relationships Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch, has managed to create in the past three decades. “Even as we are as forceful as possible in the presentation of our views in the public sphere, we are very diligent in ensuring that our messages are delivered without partisan components,” he said in an interview. Read the story ➤ Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt met with Jewish cadets in Atlanta. (Courtesy) In her first appearance since her Senate confirmation, Deborah E. Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s antisemitism envoy, met Friday with a group of Jewish cadets and midshipmen who were attending the Jewish Warrior Weekend in Atlanta. Lipstadt described it to the Forward as “a moving experience.” She said a young woman born to Ukrainian parents who is expected to intern at the Pentagon in the summer came up to her and said: “I want to grow up to be like you.”
Though elevating the role to the rank of ambassador led to eight months of political theater and delay tactics, Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat from Nevada who pushed for the change, thinks it was worthwhile. The fancier title, and the increased departmental budget that came with it, is “sending a clear message to the world that combating antisemitism is a foreign policy priority for the U.S.,” Rosen said in an interview. Read the story ➤
In Jerusalem: Israeli President Isaac Herzog kicked off a week of festivities Sunday aimed at highlighting the special bond between Israel and Jews in the diaspora. Among the planned events: Nachman Shai, the minister of diaspora affairs, will go bar-hopping with Natan Sharansky, the former head of the Jewish Agency, to speak about the issue with younger Israelis.
ALSO FROM THE FORWARD In an overlooked comic from the early 1970s, the most Jewish superhero story ever told:Jack Kirby, the Marvel maestro who co-created Captain America, the Fantastic Four and many others, also had a masterpiece while working at rival DC Comics. Kirby’s “Fourth World” series features dueling deities. The good ones, the New Gods, have names that resemble biblical prophets and speak to a higher power in the form of a flame. The baddies are jackbooted totalitarians. “Kirby essentially based the good gods on Jewish figures and the evil gods on Nazis,” writes Roy Schwartz, our comics expert. Read the story ➤
First person | I went to Ukraine to find my roots. The KGB found me first: Howard Fineman, a veteran political reporter, recounts a trip he took in 1970, fresh out of college, as he drove his VW bus to his ancestral home of Bila Tserkva. The KGB agents who found him were straight out of central casting. But that trip, and later visits in more recent years, writes Fineman, “gave me a sense of why my grandmother spoke of the place in a wistful way at times. It is a beautiful landscape, full of passionate people who know and love their long history.” Read his essay ➤
But wait, there’s more… Stereotypes say Orthodox Jews avoid mental health treatment. The science says otherwise. The secret Jewish history of Carson McCullers, the folk-pop singer-songwriter and the subject of a new film. When you make chopped liver, should you use chicken or beef? This woman has the answer.WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY Thomas Develin was a security guard at the Columbus Torah Academy in Ohio. 😮 A security guard at a Jewish day school in Ohio was arrested for posting that he wanted to shoot children on the playground and their parents during pick-up. The guard, Thomas Develin, a 24-year-old former member of the National Guard, sent the messages in a private chat to fellow Guard members; they were reported to the police by the mother of a member of the chat who died. (JTA)
🚓 The New York Police Department have arrested a teenager in connection to a gang attack on a Hasidic man on the streets of Brooklyn Friday night. Police said that six people punched and kicked the man, who is 21, and forced him to the ground. The Anti-Defamation League has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the assailants. (ABC 7, Twitter)
😢 A woman was fatally shot by her husband Sunday at a Miami-area JCC where their child was taking a swim lesson. The police said the incident was an act of domestic violence, not antisemitism; those involved were not Jewish. The husband was later arrested. (JTA)
🇮🇱 The Palestinian man who killed an Israeli mother of six in a December 2020 terror attack, was sentenced to life in prison on Sunday. Benjamin Horgen, the victim’s husband, said the ruling “underscores the importance of the court really using all the power given to it by the legislature to take part in the war on terror.” (Times of Israel)
⚖️ A London judge sentenced a British real estate mogul to 18 months in jail after he refused to grant his wife a religious divorce following their separation. Jewish law prevents remarriage without such a decree. The judge said the man had also stalked and threatened to physically harm his wife. (JTA)
✈️ After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the March of the Living will resume its annual pilgrimage to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in Poland this month. The participants will be accompanied by eight survivors this year, down from 70 in 2019. (Times of Israel)
👍 Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Sagol family have teamed up to create a new leadership training program for Israeli mayors and their top aides. The $9 million program is modeled on one Bloomberg Philanthropies started at Harvard in 2016, and will include about 20 of Israel’s 260-some mayors each year. Bloomberg said the recent terror attacks in Israel “underscores the urgency” of the initiative, saying: “Mayors are on the front lines of every crisis.” (Bloomberg Philanthropies)
🎵 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared in a video at the Grammy Awards Sunday night, asking for support in telling the story of the war. “Fill the silence with your music,” Zelenskyy said in a pre-recorded message from a bunker in Kyiv. “Fill it today to tell our story.” (NPR)
SHIVA CALLS Estelle Harris and Jason Alexander at an event in Los Angeles in 2003. (Getty) Estelle Harris, the actress best known for her role playing George Costanza’s mother on “Seinfeld,” died at 93. Jason Alexander tweeted on Sunday about his TV mom: “The joy of playing with her and relishing her glorious laughter was a treat.” Read our appreciation ➤
Maks Levin, a Ukrainian photojournalist, was killed by Russian soldiers. He had been missing since March 13, and his body was found on Friday. He was 40.
Rabbi Everett Gendler, a leader in the civil rights movement who was jailed alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, died at 93. He was also the father of the Jewish environmentalism movement and spent the past two decades helping organize nonviolent resistance in Tibet with the Dalai Lama. Our Talya Zax interviewed him in 2016.
Leslie Cohen, a lesbian activist and author who in 1971 helped found the Sahara, an upscale lesbian club in New York City, died of cancer. She was one of the models for the “Gay Liberation” sculpture across from the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, and her 2021 memoir, “The Audacity of a Kiss,” was recently nominated for a Lambda’s Best Lesbian Memoir/Biography award.
ON THE CALENDAR A memorial for Sarah Halimi in front of the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles. (Getty) On this day in history: Sarah Halimi, 65, was attacked and killed in her Paris apartment by a Muslim man on April 4, 2017, sparking international uproar over antisemitism in France. Last year, France’s highest court ruled that her killer, Kobili Traoré, who was apparently motivated by the mezuzah on Halimi’s door, could not stand trial because he experienced a psychotic episode induced, in part by, cannabis consumption.
Last year on this day, we published one of our most popular stories of 2021: Is the legend of Murray’s Cheese only a myth?
On the Hebrew calendar, it’s the 3rd of Nisan, when Moses inducted the Levites into Tabernacle service.
––– Play today’s Vertl puzzle (aka the Yiddish Wordle)
Thanks to Laura E. Adkins, Kayla Cohen, PJ Grisar and Jacob Kornbluh for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected].
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