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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Police arrest dozens of protesters at campuses across country, journalists covering the war get Pulitzer Prize, new bipartisan bill wants high schools to teach about Oct. 7 attack, what NASA’s new lunar time zone means for observant astronauts and the secret Jewish history of cicadas.

CONFLICT ON CAMPUS

Students gather around tents at a pro-Palestinian camp on Tuesday at Kings College at Cambridge University in England. (Getty)

Opinion | Can American Jews step back from the brink of conspiratorial paranoia? “Did you hear about the stabbing at Yale?” a woman asked our columnist Rabbi Jay Michaelson. He hadn’t. Although it was reported by some news organizations, it was a minor incident (a student was accidentally grazed by a flag, not stabbed). “We are concerned and scared,” he writes, “and so we are easy marks for people who seek to gin up outrage and sow discord for one reason or another.” Read his essay ➤

The latest…

• Police forcibly broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Amsterdam on Tuesday, arresting 120 after the demonstration “took on a violent nature.”

  
  

• Emory University, where dozens of protesters (including at least one professor) have been arrested in recent weeks, said Monday that it would be relocating its commencement ceremony off-campus.

  
  

• Tensions escalated Monday when a pro-Palestinian encampment at MIT refused to disperse after the school set an afternoon deadline.

  
  

• Police dismantled an encampment and arrested dozens of protesters at the University of California, San Diego. More than 40 were arrested at UCLA.

  
  

• The House Education Committee is now calling the presidents of Northwestern, Rutgers and UCLA to testify later this month; the Yale and Michigan presidents, who were previously called, are now being asked to submit written testimony.

People attend a Yom Hashoah ceremony on Monday held a block away from Columbia University. (Getty)

At Columbia…

Columbia University canceled its main graduation ceremony. Also on Monday, more than a dozen conservative federal judges said they will no longer hire clerks from Columbia. Read the story ➤

Opinion | I’m an Israeli Columbia student who was afraid to invite my parents to my graduation:Eleanor H. Reich feared potential violence at commencement, which was ultimately canceled. But she does hold out hope that “one day I will sit at my grandchild’s graduation, next to a Palestinian grandmother just like me, and that we will greet each other with pride and joy rather than hate and animosity.” Read her essay ➤

ISRAEL AT WAR

Palestinians who left Rafah after an evacuation order arrive in Khan Yunis with their belongings. (Getty)

The latest…

• The Israeli military sent tanks into Rafah overnight, and took control of the Gaza side of the border crossing with Egypt in what the IDF called a limited operation aimed at Hamas targets.

  
  

• Egypt, which has hosted negotiations between Israel and Hamas, warned that the Rafah operation could threaten ceasefire efforts.

  
  

• Israel said it would send a team to Cairo, likely on Wednesday, to go through details of the latest counteroffer from Hamas.

  
  

• Hamas said that the 33 captives it would release as part of the first phase would include both dead and living hostages.

Plus…

• The Pulitzer Prize committee on Monday awarded a “special citation” to journalists covering the war in Gaza, scores of whom have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

  
  

• The book A Day in the Life of Abed Salaman: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall, which documents the experience of a Palestinian father whose 5-year-old son was killed in a 2012 traffic accident in the city, won the Pulitzer for general nonfiction.

  
  

• A bipartisan bill is set to be introduced in the House today that would create a curriculum to teach about the Oct. 7 attack in high schools.

  
  

• A Palestinian American’s post of 50 common-sense statements about the war has gone viral on social media — with people on both sides praising it.

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ALSO IN THE FORWARD

An illustration of an astronaut enjoying a Friday night Shabbat dinner. (Midjourney)

NASA wants to create a time zone on the moon. Here’s what that means for Jewish space travelers:For starters, it will be a more accurate accounting of when Shabbat and Jewish festivals start and end. Prior to this, astronauts followed the time zone of mission control in Houston. But, as David Zvi Kalman explains, by only considering timekeeping, we are losing sight of much bigger issues related to Jewish space travel.

The secret Jewish history of cicadas: Trillions of noisy insects are emerging after more than a decade underground. Can you trap them? Eat them? The Talmud debates such questions. Others compare the cicadas’ singing to the music made by the biblical Jews as they crossed the Red Sea. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that an emergence of cicadas inspired Bob Dylan’s 1970 song “Day of the Locusts.”

Plus…

• In concentration camps, Jewish artists painted in secret, hid their work and traded art for food. A new website showcases their work.

  
  

• A Jewish sitcom from Britain, which centers around a family’s weekly Shabbat dinner, has been remade for an American audience. Do the jokes translate?

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

The White House said Biden’s remarks will “recommit to heeding the lessons” of “never again.” (Getty)

🎤  President Joe Biden is set to deliver the keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony at 11:30 a.m., where he is expected “to issue a clarion call to fight a swiftly rising tide of antisemitism.” (CNN)

🤝  At the March of the Living at Auschwitz Monday, Holocaust survivors and relatives of Oct. 7 victims stressed the urgency of remembrance. “This is supposed to be never again, but this is again,” said the father of a child who was taken hostage. (JTA)

🗳️  Sen. Bernie Sanders, 82, said on Monday that he would run for a fourth Senate term, invoking his criticism of the war in Gaza. “In my view,” he said, “U.S. tax dollars should not be going to the extremist Netanyahu government to continue its devastating war against the Palestinian people.” (JTA)

🎾  Diego Schwartzman, the 31-year-old Jewish tennis star who peaked at No. 8 in the rankings in 2020, announced his retirement. (JTA)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(Courtesy)

A.J. Jacobs, the bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically, has a new book out today: The Year of Living Constitutionally, in which he attempts to live by the letter of our country’s founding document. (Yes, he did quarter a soldier in his Manhattan apartment.)

“I always thought I could do a sequel to my Bible book about the Constitution,” A.J. told me. “The two texts are treated in similar ways — some people say we need to stick to the original meaning, and others say the meaning must evolve. So I traded in my robe for a tricorn hat and my sandals for a musket.”

And the biggest difference between the two? “The Constitution project was just as fascinating and enlightening as my Bible journey,” he replied, “though thankfully involved less facial hair.”

Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh and Jake Wasserman for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

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