WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Pro-Palestinian activists protest outside Jerry Seinfeld concert, the latest news and opinion from the warfront, and what the new Leonard Bernstein movie misses about the maestro’s Judaism.

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ISRAEL AT WAR

After playing in Israel, Ofri Naveh was recruited to West Virginia University. (Courtesy)

How an Israeli basketball player at West Virginia University is helping the war effort: “I lost friends,” Ofri Naveh said of the attack on Oct 7. The freshman forward is doing as much as he can from the U.S.: namely, raising awareness about the war on ESPN and using his status as a big man on campus (quite literally, he’s 6-foot-6) where he showcases his Judaism with pride. I caught up with him after a recent practice to talk politics, sports and the Israeli food he misses most living in Appalachia. Read the story ➤

A stew over naming rights for Middle Eastern food bubbles up on campus: The Yale dining hall removed the word “Israeli” from the “Israeli couscous” on its menu, but quickly put it back after complaints from Jewish students. While the controversy might seem like nothing more than a tempest in a teapot — or a salad in a steel tray? — it comes amid a surge in antisemitism and antiwar activism at universities nationwide. Read the story ➤

David Broza performing at a synagogue on Oct. 22, 2023, in New York City. (Getty)

Will it be OK? David Broza has done 116 pop-up concerts since the war broke out saying it will: “Three or four times a day for most of the last 68 days,” writes our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, the famed Israeli musician has been performing “for the deployed soldiers and for the spouses they left behind; for the families of the hostages and for the survivors of the music festival; for the volunteers, for the wounded, for the traumatized.” Broza told Jodi: “I give what I know how to give.” Read the story ➤

The debate over what should happen in Gaza after the war, explained: Does Israel stay in the Gaza Strip? For how long? And who takes its place? Our colleagues at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency look at the outcomes wanted by the United States and Israel, and how their differences are becoming more pronounced. Read the story ➤

Demonstrators gather during a "#Metoo unless you are a Jew" protest outside of the U.N. headquarters earlier this month. (Getty)

Opinions…

Opinion | Jew-hating is not a new feminist phenomenon: Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor of Ms. magazine with Gloria Steinem, has written about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for more than 40 years. She said she refuses to let Hamas’ brutal assaults on Israeli women be forgotten by her feminist friends who have minimized the atrocities and lacked compassion for Jewish suffering. Read her essay ➤

• Daniel May, the publisher of Jewish Currents, asks: Can American Jews support Israel without supporting the war?

  
  

• Should Harvard and MIT fire its presidents? Either way, it’s bad for the Jews, argues Jason Fields, a Newsweek editor.

  
  

• A Hanukkah prayer about the battle between the Hasmoneans and the Greeks talks about the “courageous” and the “weak.” Rabbi Avital Hochstein wonders, in the current war, which one are we?

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt touring two southern Israel communities massacred by Hamas. (Courtesy)

Plus…

• Families of American hostages held by Hamas met with President Biden at the White House on Wednesday.

  
  

• The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Ten countries voted against the resolution, including Israel and the United States.

  
  

• Around 70 Hamas gunmen surrendered to Israeli troops in northern Gaza, according to video released by the IDF.

  
  

• “It is vital to bear witness to the horrors perpetrated by Hamas, whose brutality and cowardice also cause untold suffering for the Palestinian people,” Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt said after a visit Wednesday to two kibbutzim that were attacked on Oct. 7.

Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica, have been vocal about their support for Israel to their millions of social media followers. (Getty)

• Pro-Palestinian activists protested outside a Syracuse theater where Jerry Seinfeld was performing standup. Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica, have been showing their solidarity with Israel on social media since the outbreak of the war.

  
  

• A rising South African cricket star and Jewish teen who observes Shabbat and keeps kosher dedicated an award to Israel. Then he was investigated for hate speech.

  
  

• Menorahs retrieved from the wreckage of Oct. 7 have been used at the White House and elsewhere. Here are stories of three of them.

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Leonard Bernstein during a 1948 rehearsal with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. (Getty)

Leonard Bernstein was far more Jewish than you’d know from Maestro: The new biopic focuses on Bernstein’s relationship with his wife, and in the process,  omits his music — which is inextricably linked to his Judaism. The composer-conductor first fell in love with music at the synagogue of his youth and later wrote works based on biblical text, prayer and Jewish myths, as well as leading the Israel Philharmonic for 25 seasons. Our culture reporter Mira Fox takes a deep dive into a side of Bernstein missing from the movie.

There’s a new database of Yiddish ‘trash’ fiction: Academics have paid relatively little attention to the sensationalist pulp fiction that was often published in Yiddish newspapers, including the Forverts. But Saul Noam Zaritt, a Harvard Yiddish professor, seeks to change that. “Trash is important to me,” he said.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Samantha Woll, president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit, at the shul’s centennial celebration and groundbreaking on a major renovation project, Aug. 14, 2022. (Andrew Lapin/JTA)

👮  A suspect was charged in the killing of Samantha Woll, the president of a Detroit synagogue who was stabbed to death in October. Police believe the suspect did not know Woll, and that it was a home invasion gone wrong. (Detroit Free Press, JTA)

📈  Sales of mezuzot, the Israeli flag, Star of David necklaces and prayer books have surged since the start of the war, Judaica shops report. (Jewish Insider)

🏫  The Education Department announced investigations into six more schools over complaints of campus discrimination — including Rutgers and UCLA. (New York Times)

🕎  An 11-foot public menorah placed by the local Chabad along a popular walking trail in Oakland, California, was destroyed and antisemitic graffiti was left on the base. (J. The Jewish News of Northern California)

📸  A Hanukkah celebration in the Dutch town of Enschede, home to about 45 Jews, took a turn after its mayor refused to be photographed with the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands. (JTA)

🎭  The Tony-winning revival of Parade, about the lynching of Jewish businessman Leo Frank, will embark on a national tour in 2025. (Playbill)

Shiva calls ➤  Guy Stern, a WWII “Ritchie Boy” who became a renowned Holocaust scholar, died at 101 … Mort Engelberg, a producer of hit films and presidential campaigns, died at 86.

What else we’re reading ➤  What does it mean to celebrate Hanukkah in this moment? … An Afghan synagogue thrives in Queens … Meet 29 remarkable women who lived and worked on the historic Lower East Side.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Watch Mickey Mouse celebrate Hanukkah in this new Disney video for preschoolers.

Thanks to Lisa Lepson, Rukhl Schaechter, Jake Wasserman 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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