JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Good yontif! This newsletter will be off for the end of Sukkot and will return on Monday. |
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Today: Trump’s praise of Hitler resurfaces, campus sukkahs spark controversy, U.S. mayor said he regrets divesting from Israel, Elie Wiesel’s Simchat Torah dispatch, and Jewish actress from Netflix’s interfaith romcom addresses the show’s stereotypes. |
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Scenes from Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. (Collage by Lauren Markoe) |
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A tightknit Jewish community grapples with traumas past and present
My colleague Lauren Markoe spent three days in Pittsburgh where she sat down for coffee, tea and hummus with rabbis, political organizers, poll workers and survivors of the Tree of Life tragedy. “To a person, they lamented the state of our divided nation,” Lauren writes. “Many also bemoaned divisions within Jewish Pittsburgh. Some said their synagogues have been places of refuge during this difficult season, others said they were scenes of sometimes painful debate.”
A community united in the wake of the synagogue shooting now finds itself in disagreements over Israel’s response to the Hamas attack and, especially, whether former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris is best suited to handle it and the antisemitism that has spiked in its wake. |
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Lori Salkin, the president of Kohelet Yeshiva, a Modern Orthodox high school, speaks at a Jewish get-out-the-vote center in Philadelphia. (Getty) |
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Also in the Keystone State
The path to the presidency runs through the heavily Jewish suburbs of Pennsylvania — the swing state with the most electoral votes. Our colleague Ron Kampeas of the JTA traveled to Philadelphia where he tagged along as more than 100 canvassers knocked on doors to mobilize Jewish voters. Go deeper ►
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, passed over for the vice presidential pick, has been working nonstop to help deliver his critical swing state for Harris. In the race’s remaining days, his spokesman told The New York Times, he plans to “spend time securing the votes of Jewish Pennsylvanians concerned over rising antisemitism and the wavering support of some Democrats for Israel.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition filmed a pro-Trump ad at Hymie’s Deli in Philadelphia. Now, the owner is facing “a barrage of criticism from locals,” reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Related: The Jewish vote could swing the election in seven key battleground states. Here’s how. |
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Former President Donald Trump talks to journalists after the September debate in Philadelphia. (Getty) |
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Opinion | I tracked anti-Jewish extremism for 25 years. Reelecting Trump will make it worse:“Tropes once confined to skinhead clubs and white supremacist internet forums now litter the rhetoric of pro-Donald Trump and MAGA feeds,” writes Rita Katz. “Trump gave these communities unequivocal support,” and has repeatedly said publicly that Jews who vote against him should “have their heads examined.” Read her essay ►
Plus… John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff and a retired Marine general, said in an interview with The New York Times he thinks Trump meets the definition of a fascist. Kelly also confirmed reports that Trump praised Adolf Hitler on more than one occasion, adding that he had to explain to Trump why “comments about Hitler were problematic.”
In a separate article in The Atlantic, two people said they heard Trump in a private conversation in the White House say, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” A campaign spokesperson denied the reporting.
Arab American voters prefer Trump over Harris by a slight margin, 45% to 43%, according to a new poll reported by Semafor.
Clarification: The subject line in yesterday’s newsletter implied our poll of American Jewish voters was taken two weeks before the election. It was conducted from Aug. 30 to Oct. 8.
And speaking of that poll: My colleague Arno Rosenfeld takes you behind the scenes to shed light on the complexities of polling Jews about antisemitism.
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A “Gaza solidarity sukkah” at the University of California, Berkeley. (Jewish Voice for Peace) |
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Solidarity sukkahs
Students at more than a dozen universities have built “Gaza solidarity sukkahs,” connecting the Jewish holiday, which is celebrated by living in temporary outdoor structures, to the pro-Palestinian tent encampments that popped up at schools across the country last spring. Police have dismantled several of the structures, spurring claims that they are infringing on the religious freedom of Jewish students. Go deeper ►
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Rabbi Zalman Gurewitz, the Chabad rabbi at WVU, and freshman Daron Walker. (Benyamin Cohen) |
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Automotive sukkahs
At West Virginia University, the Chabad rabbi retrofitted a 2014 Toyota Tacoma with a sukkah in the truck bed. When I stopped by campus Tuesday afternoon, Rabbi Zalman Gurewitz was helping a freshman shake the lulav and etrog while another student snacked on a kosher brownie in the sukkah.
Gurewitz said he’s seen a spike in interest in Jewish activities this semester — attendance at his weekly Friday night dinners has doubled this fall — due, in part, to a year of nationwide anti-Israel protests that compelled parents to call him this summer to ensure their children would have ways to connect to their Judaism on campus. |
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Ben Binyamin (left) and Gali Segal (right), a young couple who both lost their right legs on Oct. 7 at the Nova music festival, celebrated their wedding this summer. (Courtesy) |
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Opinion | Learning how to dance on Simchat Torah from two people that lost their legs: Engaged couple Gali Segal and Ben Binyamin were among those dancing at the Nova music festival when Hamas attacked. They survived, yet they each also lost their right legs. After months of rehabilitation, they walked down their wedding aisle on prosthetic limbs. “This is what it means to be Jewish,” writes Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann. “To dance with broken shoes, to celebrate with broken hearts, to move forward even when we’ve lost our footing, and to keep dancing even when the music seems to have stopped.” Read his essay ►
► Although most commemorations of the attack took place on Oct. 7, Simchat Torah is the one-year Hebrew yahrzeit of the attack. Synagogues are pondering how to mark the mournful anniversary on a holiday known for joy.
► Elie Wiesel traveled to Russia as a reporter for the Forward in 1965, On the night of Simchat Torah, he stepped into the Moscow Choral Synagogue and danced with young Russian Jews who dared to publicly celebrate the holiday under the watchful eye of the KGB. Read Wiesel’s dispatch.
► Watch this video to learn how to talk in Yiddish about Simchat Torah.
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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in 2021. (Getty) |
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Opinion | What if Sinwar had come out with his hands up?“Potent as he may yet become as a slain martyr,” writes Allan Ripp, “Sinwar could have generated greater power behind bars, fueling Palestinian liberation propaganda and protests, and inciting rage among Islamists, including those in the West eager to rally for a caged jihadist of such stature.” Read his essay ►
The latest… Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a strike earlier this month, Israel confirmed. (Guardian)
An 11-year-old Palestinian boy, Abdallah Hawash, was killed in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, allegedly by fire from the Israeli army. The IDF is investigating. (Haaretz)
The University of Haifa is delaying the start of its academic year by a week “in light of the security situation” with Hezbollah near the Lebanese border. (Times of Israel) |
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voted in favor of a resolution that condemned Hamas and equated the denial of Israel’s right to exist with antisemitism, which set off alarm bells at the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter. (Getty) |
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🤔 At its annual conference, the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter rejected a proposal to censure Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for hosting an online panel discussion with two leading Jewish experts on antisemitism, and for certain votes she took related to Israel. (Forward)
🎒 UCLA prioritized free speech over stopping protests, which led to harassment and assaults of Jewish students on campus, according to a new report from the school’s antisemitism taskforce. (WSJ)
👮 Police arrested 11 protesters who stormed and vandalized an administrative building at the University of Minnesota as part of an effort to push the university to divest from Israel.” (JTA)
🎨 A Native American painter was part of an artist-in-residency program in Vail, Colorado. But her residency was canceled after she promoted a painting accusing Israel of genocide. She’s now suing, claiming the town violated her First Amendment rights. (NY Times)
👍 Residents of Montville, N.J., have been calling the cops complaining about symbols appearing around town that look like the Nazi swastika. Turns out a similar religious symbol is used in the leadup to Diwali, which starts on Oct. 31.
🤦 The mayor of Portland, Maine, said he regrets supporting his city council’s successful resolution to divest from companies linked to Israel. The city had no financial stakes in the companies it voted to divest from. (JTA)
What else we’re reading ► New film stars Helen Mirren as a Holocaust survivor who guides her wayward grandson … Jewish cookbook author Jake Cohen now has his own TV series … Chabad built a 5,000-square-foot sukkah in Manhattan.
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In the latest episode of his podcast, Jonah Platt — the actor, musician and brother of Ben Platt — hosts actress Jackie Tohn, who plays the hot rabbi’s Jewish sister-in-law on Netflix’s popular romcom Nobody Wants This. Tohn opens up about her family’s Holocaust roots and the ongoing challenge in getting Jewish portrayals right in movies and TV. Watch it above. |
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Thanks to Lauren Markoe and Julie Moos 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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