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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Protesters arrested outside DNC, ceasefire talks may be “on the brink of collapsing,” Rutgers and George Washington University suspend pro-Palestinian student group, and judge upholds guilty verdict on 99-year-old former Nazi secretary. |
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DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION |
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Doug Emhoff, the potential first first gentleman, spoke Tuesday night at the DNC. (Courtesy Halie Soifer) |
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Cole Emhoff describes his dad as “goofy.”
That side of the second gentleman was on full display during his 14-minute speech at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night. Doug Emhoff was self-deprecating as he recounted the bumbling first voicemail he left for Kamala Harris when they were set up on a blind date. He spoke of Hebrew school in the same sentence as Little League. And he recounted the journey he took to more forcefully embrace his Jewish identity as an adult.
“Kamala has connected me more deeply to my faith, even though it’s not the same as hers,” he said, adding that “she makes a mean brisket for Passover. It brings me right back to my grandmother’s apartment in Brooklyn — you know, the one with the plastic-covered couches.”
Emhoff was introduced via a video narrated by Cole, which included pictures of Emhoff at his bar mitzvah and at Jewish summer camp. “We might not look like other families in the White House,” Cole said, “but we are ready to represent all families in America.”
Adding context: “It was an emotional release for Jewish delegates and activists who had arrived with a mix of pride and anxiety about their party and how Israel’s war in Gaza has threatened to divide it,” reports our Jacob Kornbluh who was inside the arena. “The prospects of a ‘First Mensch’ — of a Jew living in the White House and even putting mezuzahs up there — was a powerful antidote to the stresses of 10 intense months of emotional and political turmoil related to Oct. 7 and its aftermath.”
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Plus… Emhoff did not mention Israel or the war in Gaza during his remarks.
Rabbi Sharon Brous of Los Angeles, wearing a yellow ribbon pin to honor the hostages, opened the evening with an invocation.
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York also spoke. “As the highest ranking Jewish elected official in American history, I want my grandkids — and all grandkids — to never face discrimination for who they are,” he said. |
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A mile from the DNC, a tribute to the Israeli hostages features a 22-foot replica of the bloody sweatpants worn by 19-year-old Naama Levy, one of the 100-plus Israelis still in captivity in Gaza. (Jodi Rudoren) |
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Elsewhere at the Democratic National Convention…
A mile from the DNC, a giant pair of bloody sweatpants evokes the horror of Oct. 7: Several artists have set up a makeshift “hostage square” in a rented fenced-in lot as permits to assemble near the convention site or march around it were denied. “We’re still in our echo chamber here,” artist Tomer Peretz told our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, who visited the site Tuesday. Read the story ➤
Bonus: Watch a video of Jodi at the exhibit.
Plus… More than a dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested Tuesday after clashing with cops and burning a U.S. flag outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago, about two miles from the site of the DNC.
Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois told us he has one wish for his 63rd birthday, which he celebrated Tuesday. “I want the hostages home.”
Democratic politicians met with more than 80 leaders of the Orthodox community, which turned out en masse for former President Donald Trump in 2020. |
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READERS LIKE YOU SHAPE EVERY PART OF OUR WORK |
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Families of hostages and supporters demonstrate Monday outside a Tel Aviv event featuring Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Getty) |
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– From our Sponsors: Callan– |
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| Between the Temples Opens in Theaters Friday August 23 |
| Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane star in the heartfelt new comedy BETWEEN THE TEMPLES. A cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world upended when his grade school music teacher becomes his new Bat Mitzvah student. IndieWire calls BETWEEN THE TEMPLES "spiky, hilarious, and thoroughly unorthodox." BETWEEN THE TEMPLES opens only in theaters nationwide this Friday. |
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up tents in May on the campus of the UC Berkeley. (Getty) |
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No tents allowed
As fall semester begins, the University of California system — which includes 10 campuses across the state — introduced new rules that ban encampments, mask-wearing, and blocking paths and building entrances.
Context: This comes in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests across the UC system during the spring that led to the arrests of hundreds of students, millions of dollars in damage and in one high-profile incident, violence against student protesters.
Counterpoint: Pro-Palestinian activists said the decision to ban protest tactics that had been tolerated in previous protest movements (Vietnam, Occupy Wall Street, etc.) betrayed the school system’s bias against the Palestinian cause.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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A man holds an Israeli flag while counter-demonstrating against a pro-Palestinian protest at George Washington University in April. (Getty) |
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🏫 George Washington University and Rutgers both suspended local chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine from hosting campus events. (NJ, Jewish Insider)
🎒 There’s an antisemitic graffiti spree in Montgomery County, Maryland. Police are investigating new vandalism at four public schools this week. Earlier this month, vandals targeted schools in Bethesda, which is also in the county. (Algemeiner, Jewish Insider)
⚖️ Germany’s highest court upheld the 2022 guilty verdict of a 99-year-old woman convicted as an accessory to more than 10,000 murders in a Nazi concentration camp. Dozens of survivors testified in the trial. (JTA)
🏥 Someone made multiple antisemitic threats involving explosives against Jewish hospitals in 2021 in New York. An Oregon man was arrested and charged with the crime Tuesday. (NY Jewish Week)
😲 It was once a Nazi bunker in Hamburg, Germany. Now it’s a hotel and leisure complex with a rooftop bar and garden. (CNN)
What else we’re reading ➤ One thing is missing at Amsterdam’s new Holocaust museum: the perpetrators … Meet the Mennonites making the Amazon their home … Israeli scientists invent a system to grow fish and vegetables together.
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Our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, is in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. She met up Tuesday with Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, and Jim Gerstein, an expert on Jewish American public opinion, for a conversation about Democrats, Israel and how a Harris presidency might differ from a Biden one. |
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Thanks to Louis Keene, Jacob Kornbluh, Lauren Markoe, Julie Moos, Jodi Rudoren and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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