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“God will not forgive,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said early Monday morning as Russian forces killed fleeing civilians; the death toll is now more than 9,000.
THE WAR IN UKRAINE Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett leaving Moscow after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. We’re going to start the week, as we do each Monday, with a dispatch from Jacob Kornbluh, our senior political reporter…
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spent Shabbat at the Kremlin for a three-hour meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia about the war in Ukraine. Bennett said Sunday that Israel has a “moral obligation” to help negotiate a peace. He spoke by phone on Sunday with both Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who had a few days earlier questioned Bennett’s support of his country.
The optics: Israeli media reported on Sunday that the prime minister’s office did not release a photo of Bennett’s meeting with Putin because it was held on Shabbat. Bennett usually does not travel on Shabbat, but deemed it necessary as a matter of pikuach nefesh, the saving of lives; another Orthodox minister, Ze’ev Elkin, who has a long relationship with Putin, came along as a translator. Ari Kalman, a Haredi journalist, reported that Bennett and Elkin had a quick Shabbat meal upon landing in Moscow, with challah that Elkin brought with him from Jerusalem.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is scheduled to meet with his Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, in Riga, Latvia on Monday to discuss the Ukraine crisis. Israeli officials said the Biden administration encouraged Bennett to take advantage of Israel’s close relations with both sides to reach a ceasefire.
Deal on hold: An emerging agreement between the U.S and its allies with Iran on a return to the 2015 nuclear deal will likely be delayed due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. On Sunday, Blinken declined to give in to Russian demands for written guarantees that economic trade with Iran would be exempted from the new U.S. sanctions on Russia. The State Department did not respond to a question about whether Iran would be on the agenda for the Blinken-Lapid meeting.
A l’chaim like no other The Jewish billionaire caught in the middle of a vodka boycott:Is it time to throw back a shot of Stoli, or throw out the whole bottle? That question is vexing liquor store owners, bartenders and casual drinkers who want to show solidarity with Ukraine by boycotting an iconic Russian brand. The hitch: Stoli is made in Latvia.
At least part of the confusion over Stoli’s homeland stems from its success at branding itself as an authentic representative of Russia’s most famous product. But nothing could be further from the truth. Putin’s government dislikes Stoli so much that it passed a law prohibiting the brand from being sold in his country.
Elsewhere on the Ukraine beat… Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker (left) and President Volodomyr Zelenskyy. (Getty) Opinion | What the two leading Jewish heroes of 2022 have in common: President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker both rose to their moments in history. But “there’s no guarantee that Zelenskyy will find an analogous chair to throw at his attackers,” writes Robin Washington, our editor-at-large. “As horrific as the synagogue incident was, it didn’t hold the fate of a nation, or nations, or nuclear annihilation, in the balance.” Still, they both showed bravery and courage. Read his essay ➤
In America, as in Ukraine, the unthinkable has become thinkable: It’s just over a week since Russia’s invasion, yet more than enough time for the impossible to harden into the possible. And here in the U.S., too, where it was once “natural” to assume that members of both parties would acknowledge a candidate’s defeat or that an insurrection took place. But not anymore. It all reveals “the sheer plasticity of human beings,” writes Robert Zaretsky. Read his essay ➤
And more… The Ukrainian government gave more than 20,000 guns to ordinary civilians – including many Jews. “No one is sitting and doing nothing,” said one. Our culture reporter, Irene Katz Connelly, has curated a list of what to watch, listen and read to understand the war in Ukraine. She fled antisemitism in Ukraine. Now, Mila Kunis and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, are raising $30 million to help its refugees.As a public service during this crisis, we’ve removed the paywall from all our Ukraine coverage to make it free and accessible. Click here to support us with a tax-deductible donation. WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY ⛏️ Robbers in Buenos Aires stole the city’s Anne Frank statue. It’s the latest in a string of bronze statues that have gone missing in the area, leading to concerns about a Bronze Mafia. “If this were a case of antisemitism, there should be some vandalization of the statue, some signs, they should have destroyed the statue,” noted Ariel Gelblung of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “But that isn’t the case. It is for the metal.” (JTA)
🍲 Masbia, a kosher soup kitchen and food pantry, has partnered with DoorDash to deliver food to those in need in Brooklyn and Queens. DoorDash is “definitely an angel sent by God,” said the group’s leader, Alexander Rapaport. “Just as we were struggling and exploring delivery, they reached out to us.” (NY Jewish Week)
🕍 Synagogues in Chicago, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh are grappling with accusations of hostile workplace conditions against rabbis in the wake of the #MeToo movement. “My sense is people have greater comfort coming forward to express complaints,” said Rabbi Mary Zamore, director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network. (Religion News Service)
📸 Manon Ouimet, an artist, marked each stage of her conversion to Judaism with an image. In one of the photographs, for example, 613 pomegranate seeds are lined up to represent the Torah’s mitzvot. “Every stage of the conversion was filled with learning and self-reflection,” she said. “No moment was greater than another. It was just a living, breathing experience.” (Kveller)
Shiva call ➤ Rabbi Simeon Maslin, an influential leader in the Reform movement, died at 90. He was a past president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the author of “Gates of Mitzvah,” a 1979 book that many credit with bringing traditional rituals back into Reform practice. “In those days, for many Reform Jews, the word mitzvah usually only followed the word bar or bat,” wrote Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, a Maslin protegé. (Philadelphia Jewish Exponent)
Another shiva call ➤ Harold Simon, one of the founders of the Israeli Air Force, died at 101. A former member of the South African air force, Simon, who was known as “Smoky,” fought the Nazis and eventually emigrated to Israel where he joined in the War of Independence. “What characterized Smoky was empathy and love for the other, alongside courage that knew no bounds,” said his son, Saul, a reservist in Israel’s air force. (Jewish News Syndicate)
ON THE CALENDAR Rachel Weisz (left) and Deborah Lipstadt at an event in 2016. (Getty) On this day in history: Rachel Weisz, the Academy Award-winning actress, was born on Mar. 7, 1970. Her grandparents were from Eastern Europe and they fled as the Nazis took power. Decades later, in the film “Denial,” Weisz would portray Deborah Lipstadt, the Holocaust historian President Biden nominated as his antisemitism envoy. (The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to vote on the confirmation on Tuesday.) One hurdle for Weisz was masking her native British accent. “The thing about Deborah that really helped me unlock her spirit and her character is her accent, strangely,” Weisz said. “She’s from Queens, New York, and she’s very much on the front foot. She says what she thinks.”
It’s also the birthday of David Baltimore, a biologist and Nobel Prize laureate.
In honor of National Cereal Day, check out this recipe for chicken soup with matzo balls and Rice Krispies.
Also on this day: Napoleon captured Jaffa in 1799; and, in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell got a patent for the telephone, leading to more than a century of Jewish mothers nudging their kids to call home.
PHOTO OF THE DAY These children crossed into Romania by foot through the snow, where they caught a flight to Israel. (Getty Images) Hundreds of Ukrainians arrived in Israel on Sunday after fleeing their war-torn country. Among the new arrivals at Ben Gurion Airport were 90 Jewish orphans, ages 2 to 12, who were greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. “You are safe now,” Bennett said as he boarded their airplane. “You have reached safe shores.”
––– Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected].
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