On campus…
💻 The Columbia University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine says its Instagram account was “permanently deleted.” As of this morning, their website was also down. (X)
Go deeper: In a December investigation, our Arno Rosenfeld explored the secret history and uncertain future of Students for Justice in Palestine.
😲 Vandals painted anti-Israel messages on Cornell University’s main administration building on Monday, the first day of the fall semester. Glass on the front door was also smashed. (Cornell Daily Sun)
💃 At the University of Michigan, pro-Palestinian activists won control of student government. And now they won’t fund groups like the Ultimate Frisbee club and the ballroom dance team until the school divests from Israel. (NY Times)
And elsewhere…
🇮🇱 “The Israeli military said it had freed a 52-year-old Arab Israeli man. He is the eighth hostage to be rescued alive of the approximately 250 abducted 10 months ago.” (New York Times)
💉 A project to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza to stop a potential polio outbreak is set to start on Saturday. Some doctors worry that “if a ceasefire does not begin it will be difficult to carry out the entire vaccination campaign.” (Haaretz, NY Times)
🖼️ A Pennsylvania museum is giving up a 16th century painting that was stolen by the Nazis. It will be sold at auction; the proceeds will be split between the museum and the heirs of the original Jewish owners. In a separate case, Germany returned a stolen Nazi painting to the heirs of the Jewish family that owned it. (NY Times, Algemeiner)
🐴 A new traffic law in Ohio requires the Amish to put flashing lights on the back of its horse-drawn carriages. They say that violates their faith. Harvard University’s Religious Freedom Clinic has jumped in to help, filing a complaint on the Amish’s behalf. (Religion News Service)
Shiva call ➤ Harvey Sigelbaum, a former Forward board member and an all-around super mensch, died at 87. He was devoted not only to the culture that the Forward embodied, but also to his decades-long close friendship with the late Harold Ostroff, the Forward’s general manager.
What else we’re reading ➤ At Camp Ramah in Ukraine, sports and Jewish traditions are an escape from war … In Holland’s Bible belt, a Christian family’s pro-Israel empire shifts into overdrive … This Jewish comedian hopes to set a new baseball record.
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