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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Shana Tovah! This newsletter will be off until Monday. |
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Today: Israel preps response to Iranian missile attack, Nova music festival survivor kills terrorist in Tel Aviv, VP candidates debate Mideast conflict, judge orders University of Maryland to let pro-Palestinian student group hold Oct. 7 event, and how a honey sommelier could make your Rosh Hashanah sweeter. |
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18 questions — and answers — on how life has changed for American Jews since Oct. 7
Judaism encourages inquiry. It’s the scaffolding of Talmudic debate. It’s why we teach kids to ask questions at the Passover Seder. It’s the foundation for that most basic of Jewish phrases: Nu? So as we approached the anniversary of the Hamas terror attack, our brainstorming began with a big list of open-ended questions. Some of those questions turned into traditional stand-alone stories — how Israel has infiltrated dating apps, for example, and how the war has divided the Yiddish world.
We ultimately boiled it down to 18 — chai — because it represents life. After all, the anniversary coincides with the High Holidays, when Jewish tradition teaches that God opens the Book of Life and we look to a more hopeful year ahead.
Here are some of the questions we tackled… Has there been a surge in synagogue attendance? Are people still going on Birthright trips? How is the war affecting U.S. elections? Have any colleges actually divested from Israel? How much more antisemitism is there in the U.S.? Who is converting to Judaism right now — and why?
Discover the answers to these questions, and many more ►
Got a question? If you don’t see it on our list, send it to [email protected], and we’ll try to address it in the weeks ahead. |
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A vigil at the Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles on Oct. 8, 2023. (Getty) |
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People stand on top of the remains of an Iranian missile in the Negev desert on Wednesday. (Getty) |
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Shula, on a street corner in Tel Aviv, was back to serving falafel and shawarma Tuesday night minutes after Iran’s attack. (Sophia Tupolev-Luz) |
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First-person | After missile strike, a Tel Aviv mom finds fresh falafel and quick return to normalcy: Roaming the streets moments after the all-clear was given, Sophia Tupolev-Luz stumbled across an open fast-food restaurant already back to cooking. “I went to the shelter. Then I came back,” the proprietor said. “People need to eat.” Read her essay ►
Attack in Jaffa…
Separate from the Iranian missile strike, seven people were killed in a terror attack in the Jaffa section of Tel Aviv — including a teenager, a dancer and a CrossFit coach.
He survived the Nova music festival. On Tuesday, he helped stop a terror attack: Lev Kreitman is the CEO of Midburn, Israel’s local version of the Burning Man festival. When two gunmen opened fire in Tel Aviv near his home, he leapt into action, shooting one of them. Read the story ►
And in other Israel news… The U.S. imposed sanctions on a group of “Jewish settlers known for establishing illegal outposts and attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.”
A retreat brought together 180 survivors of the Nova massacre to observe Shabbat, where they sang songs and shared stories from Oct. 7. |
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Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz at the vice presidential debate Tuesday in New York City. (Getty) |
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VP debate tackles rising conflict in the Middle East
Sen JD Vance said the Biden administration had boosted Iranian fire power by unfreezing “over $100 billion” in assets. Iran used that money, he claimed, “to buy weapons that they’re now launching against our allies, and, God forbid, potentially launching against the U.S. as well.” The claim is misleading. About $55 billion in frozen Iranian assets were unfrozen as part of the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration. Trump scuttled the deal when he was president. The Biden administration did not revive the deal or unfreeze Iranian accounts.
Gov. Tim Walz responded that Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and rocky relationships with world leaders committed to thwarting Iran allowed Tehran to advance its nuclear program. |
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Plus… Asked about former President Donald Trump’s remarks in which he said Jews would be partly to blame if he loses, one of Trump’s most trusted Jewish campaign surrogates defended the comment.
A new ad from the Republican Jewish Coalition “accuses Vice President Kamala Harris of helping to enable the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.”
Doug Emhoff said he approves of Andy Samberg’s “second gentle-mensch” impersonation on Saturday Night Live. “I’ve been watching that show my whole life and to think somebody’s playing me, first of all, it’s just so, wow!” Emhoff said, adding that “Samberg did a good job.” |
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Nathalie Emmanuel and Adam Driver in a scene from Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. (Lionsgate) |
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Megalopolis and The Brutalist build on Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead, then blow up her ideas:When Rand introduced the world to the ethically egoistic Howard Roark, she created an archetype of the architect as Great Man. Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded, decades-in-the making epic Megalopolis and its accidental companion piece, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, present their own architects. They show, as our PJ Grisar writes, “how a deeply personal act of creation, devised with others in mind, might benefit more than just one’s ego.” Read the story ►
Related: In an opinion essay, Rabbi Jay Michaelson weighs in on the homophobic and antisemitic clichés in Megalopolis.
And one more thing: This week is the 40th anniversary of the seminal book Amusing Ourselves to Death, which anticipated our image-saturated, post-literate world. It was written by a Jewish prophet of the 1980s who would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings, writes historian Robert Zaretsky.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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Police officers secure an area near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen this morning, after two blasts went off nearby. (Getty) |
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🇩🇰 There were two explosions early this morning “in the vicinity of the Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen, prompting the nearby Jewish school to close for the day.” There were no injuries. (AP)
🌱 Scientists discovered an ancient seed in a cave in Israel. They planted it, it’s now a tree and they think it may be part of an extinct “species with medicinal properties mentioned several times in the Bible.” (LiveScience)
🍯 What is it like to celebrate the High Holidays in New York City’s tenements at the start of the 20th century? A new exhibit in Lower Manhattan will show you. (Religion News Service)
🥯 A professor from Maine spent a month making bagels in a Polish town that has been a bagel desert “for more than 80 years.” He was trying to reconnect with his past: His great-great-grandfather owned a Jewish bakery in this town on the eve of the Holocaust. (Portland Press Herald)
What else we’re reading ► His mother was killed by Hamas. Her death transformed his life … Literary powerhouse takes aim at antisemitism with her new anthology … In new movie, actor who played Mrs. Maisel’s husband portrays another likable Jew.
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How to make honey balls and ginger candy for Rosh Hashanah: Chef Eve Jochnowitz and our Rukhl Schaechter learned how to make this dessert from the late Yiddish cultural activist Chayele Palevsky. Watch the baking demonstration above and check out the recipe here.
Related… Here’s a recipe for apple and thyme honey cake with toasted fennel and almonds.
A honey sommelier could make your Rosh Hashanah even sweeter. |
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Thanks to PJ Grisar, Jacob Kornbluh, Lauren Markoe, Julie Moos and Jodi Rudoren 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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Jewish journalism you can trust! |
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