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| WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | | A lot of present-day Forward readers came to the publication through their relatives — a parent or grandparent who they remember reading the Yiddish Forverts.
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| | | Netanyahu to meet with Biden and Harris in D.C., Pope Francis calls for truce during the Olympics, teenage girl completes Talmud in record time, how a nice Jewish mother became an organized crime boss, and much more. |
| | | | Backers of Vice President Harris say she understands Israel’s security needs. (Getty) |
| Vice President Kamala Harris clinched the majority of delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination, and raised $81 million in the 24 hours since she entered the race. That’s the biggest single-day fundraising total in American history, and slightly more than the blockbuster Twisters made at the box office this weekend ($80.5 million).
As she hits the campaign trail in earnest, Jewish voters will be parsing her past statements on the Israel-Hamas war which, broadly speaking, do not differ much from those of President Biden. Indeed, pundits have described a bit of a Rorschach test, with both centrist Democrats and those to the left seeing what they want in Harris.
Some examples: She has, at times, both criticized and empathized with the campus protesters. She was the first in the administration to call for an immediate ceasefire, and she has also been vocal about condemning the sexual crimes committed by Hamas.
Here’s a look at some of her past statements and her critics’ concerns.
Related: Meanwhile, Jewish Republicans are smearing Harris as anti-Israel. “The shock troops of misinformation deserve high marks for speed, but not so much for accuracy,” writes our senior columnist, Rob Eshman.
More on Harris… Our former opinion editor, Laura E. Adkins, writes what she learned about Doug Emhoff during a trip they took last year to Auschwitz. “Thrust into a role he never asked for as a spokesman of the Jews and against antisemitism,” she writes, “Emhoff has handled the impossible role with grace.”
Ella Emhoff, Harris’ stepdaughter, has helped raise money for Palestinian children in Gaza. Will her advocacy hurt or help the Harris campaign? |
| | Vice President Kamala Harris swears in Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, while his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, watches in January 2023. (Getty) |
| The veepstakes…
Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona has strong ties to Jews and Israel, starting with his marriage by a rabbi to Gabby Giffords, the Jewish former congresswoman who survived a mass shooting in 2011. Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy captain, co-sponsored the bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act and has visited Israel at least twice since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Read the story ➤
Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania is proudly and publicly Jewish, and the experts we interviewed said that should help — not hurt — the campaign if he were chosen as Harris’ running mate. “The interesting thing is that, historically, that has always been a much greater concern for Jews,” while most other voters don’t care, said Jonathan Sarna, one of the leading historians of American Jewry. Read the story ➤
Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado was asked Monday on CNN if he’d accept the offer to be vice president. “Look,” he quipped, “if they do the polling, and it turns out that they need a 49-year-old, balding gay Jew from Boulder, Colorado, they got my number.”
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| | President Joe Biden in March. (Getty) |
| | | | | | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, flew to D.C. on Monday. (GPO) |
| ➤ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in D.C. on Monday, where he met with families of hostages held by Hamas. Some urged him not to deliver his speech to Congress unless there was a deal in place. “We view any speech that is not the announcement of the signing and closing of a hostage deal to be a total failure,” said Jon Polin, whose son, Hersh, is among the American-Israeli hostages.
➤ Vice President Kamala Harris is set to meet this week with Netanyahu. But she will miss his Wednesday speech to Congress. Here’s why. Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, will also miss the speech due to a scheduling conflict.
➤ Netanyahu’s itinerary also includes a one-on-one with President Biden, which is tentatively scheduled for Thursday. Biden, who is returning to the White House today after a bout with COVID-19, also plans to meet later this week with the families of American hostages in Gaza. It would be at least the second time that Biden has met with them.
➤ “I’ve got six months left to my presidency. I’m determined to get as much done as I possibly can,” President Biden said in a call to Harris campaign headquarters Monday. “I will be working very closely with the Israelis and with the Palestinians to try to work out how we can get the Gaza war to end, get to Middle East peace and get all those hostages home. I think we are on the verge of being able to do that.”
Around the world… Pope Francis called for a truce during the Olympics for countries at war. Both Israelis and Palestinians are expected to compete at the Paris Games, which begin Friday.
Prosecutors in Chicago have dropped charges against four Northwestern University teachers who were arrested for obstructing law enforcement at campus protests this spring.
The popular exhibit memorializing victims of the Nova music festival is heading to Los Angeles, after spending two months in New York City. |
| | | | A montage depicting Mrs. Mandelbaum’s ill-gotten gains and the raid on her shop. (Courtesy of Van Every, “Sins of New York,” 1930) |
| She was a nice Jewish mother — and an organized-crime boss: In Gilded Age New York, Fredericka Mandelbaum made a fortune from stolen goods and bank robberies. She was “marginalized three times over — immigrant, woman, Jew,” explains Margalit Fox, the author of a new biography, The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum. Yet, she was successful and “the police were never able to arrest her. And of course, the reason was, she was wining and dining them.” |
| | | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | Jared Kushner, left, was a senior adviser in the administration of his father-in-law, former President Donald Trump. (Getty) |
| 👀 New details have emerged about how much Jared Kushner’s grandparents relied on aid and shelter as refugees when they fled the Holocaust — and the Forward played a role. (Washington Post)
👟 Adidas apologized to Bella Hadid, the supermodel and pro-Palestinian activist, after it removed ads featuring her that commemorated the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 11 members of the Israeli delegation were murdered. (JTA)
👏 A group of Jewish Boy Scouts, flying home after completing a 100-mile hike in New Mexico, performed CPR on an elderly passenger on the plane, saving the man’s life. (JTA)
📖 The page-a-day cadence of studying the entire Talmud takes seven-and-a-half-years. A teenage girl just completed it in two-and-a-half years. (JTA)
On the Jewish calendar ➤ Today is the 17th of Tammuz, a fast day, and marks the start of the three weeks of mourning held each summer commemorating the destruction of the first and second Temples. It concludes with Tisha B’Av on Aug. 13.
What we’re listening to ➤ David Zvi Kalman, a Forward contributor, launched Belief in the Future, a new podcast about religion and technology. The first episode explores how the Amish and the Orthodox create innovative ways to maintain their traditions in an increasingly electrified world. Come for the Shabbos elevator, stay for the Amish black box phone!
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| | | | Did you catch the premiere Sunday night of Forbidden Love on TLC? The reality show, also streaming on Max, follows four interfaith couples that are dating, while navigating religion and pressure from family. Eli and Laurie (pictured above on the left) are an Orthodox Jew and a Catholic on her way to converting. Watch the trailer above. |
| Thanks to Louis Keene, Julie Moos 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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