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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
| WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | | | | | | Today: Hostage families sue Iran in U.S. court, Jared Kushner may return to help on Middle East, neo-Nazis march in Ohio, Mormon university’s Jewish quarterback ends nine-game winning streak, and why Netflix’s No. 1 movie should’ve been about a golem. |
| | | | Will Scharf, attorney for President-elect Donald Trump, at a September news conference. (Getty) |
| The gatekeeper
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Will Scharf, one of his personal attorneys, to be the White House staff secretary, a role that manages the flow of information to the president and among senior staff. He is a failed candidate for Missouri attorney general who last year co-founded a group called “Jews Against Soros.” The anti-Soros group rejected the idea that targeting George Soros — the Holocaust survivor, billionaire Democratic donor, and perennial target of right-wing conspiracy theorists — is antisemitic.
Scharf challenged an incumbent to become Missouri’s top law enforcement official, losing a Republican primary this summer. During the campaign, a Democratic candidate for the office accused Scharf of being a Mossad agent on a mission to destroy American democracy. |
| | | Jared Kushner during a 2020 meeting in the Oval Office. (Getty) |
| In other staffing news… CNN reports that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who served as a senior advisor during the first administration and was instrumental in the Abraham Accords, is likely to return in some capacity to help on Middle East issues. (CNN) Potential conflict of interest ► Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has invested $2 billion in Kushner’s private equity firm. (CBS News)
Boris Epshteyn, a Jewish senior adviser to Trump since 2016, has reportedly expressed interest in becoming the special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Epshteyn, a Russian immigrant, told Trump he had family members on both sides of that war. (NY Times)
Trump had been expected to pick Howard Lutnick, a golfing buddy, to be treasury secretary. He is now rethinking the choice. (NY Times)
Trump nominated Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Trade Commission. Carr is a co-author of Project 2025, the controversial blueprint for Trump’s second term which, among other things, erodes the separation of church and state. (NBC News)
One of our most-read stories last week was this guide to Trump’s Jewish advisers and pro-Israel cabinet appointments. |
| | Pete Hegseth wears his Christian pride on his sleeve — literally, and sometimes in Hebrew. (James Devaney/GC Images) |
| Christian defense
Trump appears to be sticking with Pete Hegseth, his nominee for defense secretary, despite allegations that the Fox News host paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault. (NY Times)
Meanwhile, other reporting on Hegseth shows he has views that are consistent with a strain of Christian nationalism that believes in applying biblical laws to modern life. The focus is on prepping the world for Jesus’ return, and leadership is exclusively male. Hegseth is against a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and once said that rebuilding a third Jewish temple on the spot of Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, is a “miracle” that could happen in his lifetime.
He has a number of religious-inspired tattoos, including a symbol used in the Crusades, when Christians tried to rid Muslims from the Holy Land. |
| | And in other political news… The Senate is set to advance a contentious, bill aimed at addressing rising antisemitism on colleges and universities in the coming weeks.
Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota joined a chorus of criticism of fellow Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she criticized AIPAC on Sunday, suggesting it was antisemitic. (X)
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat, launched a 2025 bid for New Jersey governor. If he won, four of the nation’s 50 governors would be Jewish guys named Josh. I spoke with rabbis named Josh who offered leadership advice from the biblical Joshua. |
| | | | | | Demonstrators outside the Tel Aviv headquarters of the Israeli military on Saturday night call for a deal to release the hostages. (Getty) |
| The latest… Families of American-Israelis held hostage by Hamas and Israelis soldiers killed since Oct. 7 are suing Iran in a U.S. federal court over their involvement in helping fund the attacks. (NY Times)
Aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are under investigation for possibly altering the official record of an Oct. 7 phone call warning him of the impending attack. (NY Times)
While visiting Israel over the weekend, Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham told Netanyahu to “do what you have to do” to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. (Axios)
In a forthcoming book, Pope Francis calls for an investigation to determine if Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide. (AP)
A Hezbollah rocket struck a Haifa synagogue on Saturday evening, the Israeli military said. The building was heavily damaged but nobody was seriously injured. (AP)
Amos Hochstein, a senior Middle East adviser of President Biden, is set to travel to Beirut Tuesday for ceasefire talks. (Times of Israel)
The Israel Defense Forces sent the first 1,000 of an expected 7,000 draft orders to Haredi men on Sunday. (Times of Israel)
Pro-Palestinian activists confronted CNN’s Dana Bash, who produced specials on antisemitism after Oct. 7, at a Philadelphia synagogue where she spoke Friday. “You have no shame, no decency, and no clue what you’re talking about,” Bash later said when posting about the incident on social media. Protesters also disrupted a September talk Bash gave at a bookstore. (NY Post)
Drink a cup of coffee in honor of an Israeli hostage today at 3 p.m. Our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, explains why in her latest column. |
| | | | Would Hot Frosty be a better movie with a golem coming to life instead of a snowman? (Netflix) |
| Hanukkah hunk?
The No. 1 movie on Netflix this weekend was Hot Frosty, a Christmas comedy about a snowman who turns into a hunky real-life love interest. “I don’t mean to be a grinch,” writes our culture reporter Mira Fox, but “the movie could have, perhaps, benefited by taking notes from the Jewish tradition of animating natural materials scooped off the ground. I’m talking about the golem.” Go deeper ►
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| | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | Columbus city leaders condemned Saturday’s neo-Nazi march as an act of "hatred and bigotry" that would not be tolerated. (X) |
| 🤦 About a dozen masked neo-Nazis marched through downtown Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, carrying flags with swastikas and spewing what Gov. Mike DeWine called “vile and racist speech against people of color and Jews.” (ABC News, NY Times)
😲 Police in Argentina, with the help of the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum, seized a large arsenal of Nazi weapons and Hitler-era memorabilia from a local man’s home. (JTA, Reuters)
🧠 A 9-year-old from Texas won the National Bible Bee for his age group, by memorizing 19 verses from the New Testament. (NY Times)
And on campus…
🎒 Ohio is budgeting taxpayer funds toward helping renovate religious schools, a further blurring of the line separating church and state. Critics worry such moves will become common in a second Trump administration. (AP)
🏫 In Oklahoma, the state superintendent has ordered public school students to watch a video blaming “the radical left” for the “erosion of religious liberty,” but many schools are refusing. The controversy follows the superintendent’s move this summer to require the Bible be taught to students in grades 5 to 12, which prompted parents to file a lawsuit. (AP, Oklahoma Dept. of Education)
🏈 Brigham Young University’s football team ended a nine-game winning streak on Saturday. The Mormon university had gone undefeated up until then, thanks to its Jewish quarterback, Jake Retzlaff. (AP)
On the calendar ► Ben Stiller is emceeing the Anti-Defamation League’s “In Concert Against Hate” tonight at the Kennedy Center in D.C. Among the performers are Sia and Eden Golan, Israel’s 2024 Eurovision contestant.
Shiva calls ► Pat Koch Thaler, a noted educator and sister to former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, died at 92 … Ithamar Gruenwald, a professor emeritus of Jewish philosophy and religious studies at Tel Aviv University, died at 87. |
| | | | | Thousands gathered on Friday for a celebration marking the return of a medieval statue of the Virgin Mary that survived the 2019 fire that engulfed the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. After five years of repair work, the building itself is set for a grand reopening on Dec. 8. (AP) |
| Thanks to Menachem Butler and Jacob Kornbluh for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Jodi Rudoren for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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