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| INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. SINCE 1897. Give a tax-deductible donation In today’s briefing: Mel Brooks' great-nephew needs your vote, why climate anxiety is familiar to some Jews, the anniversary of Windows 95 and the Yiddish word for computer. OUR LEAD STORY 🙏 Is Facebook’s new prayer feature good for the Jews?
Inspired by increased use of its platform for religious purposes during the pandemic, the social media giant recently rolled out a new tool that allows users to create special posts for requesting prayers and an “I prayed” button. Some experts are concerned that it over-simplifies spirituality.
Good health vs. good grades: Matthew Ichihashi Potts, a professor at Harvard Divinity School, said the new feature puts too much focus on petitionary prayers – as in, Please God, let me get a good grade on my math exam. There is, he said, “this tendency to think of God as this cosmic vending machine, that if you put in the right kind of petition, that you get out what you ask for.”
Push-button prayers: “It’s so 21st century American, this inability to put work into anything,” Rav Amalia Mark told our digital culture reporter Mira Fox. “I sound like I’m 100 years old, but it’s that I can just click a button as opposed to the fact that prayer is really hard — putting in kavanah and intention takes work.”
ALSO IN THE FORWARD 🗳 TODD KAMINSKY WITH HIS GREAT-UNCLE, MEL BROOKS. What Mel Brooks taught his grand-nephew about politics and comedy: Todd Kaminsky, a New York State Assemblyman who represents Orthodox areas of Long Island and is now running for District Attorney of Nassau County, said he has been inspired by family his whole career. Sure, that includes his famous great-uncle, but it was his grandparents who set the path. “They thought it was very important that Jewish Americans stand up,” Kaminsky told us, “and do our best to make the country and the community better.” Read the story >
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY👇 'THERE'S NO PLACE I'D RATHER BE,' MAYIM BIALIK SAID OF STEPPING IN AS TEMPORARY HOST. 🚔 Two former police officers were charged by the Los Angeles County D.A. for allegedly spray-painting a swastika on the back seat of an impounded car. Thirteen other officers were placed on leave for allegedly exchanging racist, homophobic, and antisemitic messages. (CBS LA)
🗽 Kathy Hochul became the first female governor of New York at the stroke of midnight Tuesday, hoping to get back to business after months of distractions over sexual harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo. Here’s what Jewish New Yorkers should know about her. (JTA)
🙋 Mayim Bialik will host “Jeopardy!” full time for the next three weeks after Mike Richards, who was slated to co-host, resigned in disgrace over past comments offensive to women and Jews. “Happy to be of service to my ‘Jeopardy!’ family,” Bialik, who was originally slated to only host special episodes, posted on social media. Meanwhile, our PJ Grisar has thoughts on who should take Richards’ place – including Alan Dershowitz and Larry David. (CNN, Forward)
😷 Israel has hit a grim pandemic milestone: more than 1 million total COVID-19 cases. There were nearly 10,000 new cases in the last month, a seven-month high. (Haaretz)
✈️ Jewish Family and Community Services and HIAS, a national refugee-resettlement agency, are working to help Afghans fleeing the Taliban start new chapters in the United States. (JWeekly, Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle)
✏️ An Orthodox Jewish boys school is operating illegally, according to a lawsuit filed by the township of Brick, N.J. The school, which occupies a former synagogue, is in violation of zoning laws, the suit claims; neighbors have also complained that a residential house nearby is being used as a dormitory. (Patch)
🫀 Magen David Adom, Israel’s national ambulance service, announced it would place a life-saving defibrillator in every synagogue in Jerusalem before Rosh Hashanah. The project was funded, in part, by the International Fellowship for Christians and Jews. (The Jerusalem Post)
FROM OUR YIDDISH SECTION 💻 Yiddish Word of the Day – the computer: It’s safe to assume when our ancestors arrived in America a century ago, coming up with Yiddishisms for digital technology was likely not high on their list. But today’s Yiddishists are online like everyone else. In today’s short video, Rukhl Schaechter, editor of the Forverts, offers a quick language lesson on how to say email, text message, mobile phone and even the “reception is weak here.” Can you hear me now?
ON THE CALENDAR 🗓 AN EXUBERANT MAN BOUGHT TWO PACKAGES OF WINDOWS 95 ON THE DAY OF ITS RELEASE. (GETTY IMAGES) 🪟 On this day in history: Microsoft’s Windows 95 was released on Aug. 24, 1995. A review in Jewish Action magazine said it was worth upgrading because of the included Hebrew font gallery, a game called Mitzvah Mania and a Hebrew calendar app that, despite having a “remarkably complete yahrtzeit calculator” was marred by “difficulties in printing.”
🧇 It’s National Waffle Day, the perfect opportunity to make Molly Yeh’s Waffles à la Challah.
PHOTO OF THE DAY 📸 PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES Wheelchair tennis player Shraga Weinberg of Team Israel practices his swing during a training session at the Ariake Tennis Park in Tokyo, where the Paralympic Games start today and run through Sept. 5. It is the fifth time Weinberg, a 55-year-old accountant, has competed.
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