Good morning from the United Kingdom, where Israel’s Noa Kirel placed third in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday. (I voted for runner-up Finland: cha cha cha!) Today: Israel announces ceasefire with the Gaza Strip, an ice-cream truck at Auschwitz, and Adidas to sell Kanye sneakers for charity. . |
(Illustration by Tani Levitt/Getty/iStock/Canva) |
A lawsuit, a hotel bombing, an invasion: The moments you might not know about that shaped Israel. Seventy-five years after Israel declared independence, we asked journalists, artists, historians and more to tell us about the most important moments in Israel’s history that have gone overlooked in the public eye. Here’s a glimpse at what they shared: When anger at the British created unity: In 1945, three years before statehood, a set of feuding underground Zionist military movements created a united front in response to a policy limiting Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine. That unity among groups with a shared goal but divergent ideas about how to reach it paved the way for the new state. When Israel ended military rule over Palestinians: Prime Minister Levi Eshkol defied the advice of his nearest political allies to make this move in 1966. The policy didn’t last, but the fact that an Israeli leader took political risks for minority rights showed the importance of maintaining hope in democracy. When the government incentivized childbirth: In 1974, Israel decided to give families increasing monthly allowances based on their numbers of children. The policy is still in place today. With a birth rate of 3.1 per family, Israel is on track to tie with Bangladesh as the planet’s most crowded country in about 30 years. Read the story ➤ |
(Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz) |
Will Biden’s next ambassador to Israel be a woman? After Ambassador Tom Nides steps down this summer, his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, will temporarily fill the role — a reminder that a woman has never been appointed to the post. But our Jacob Kornbluh has learned that President Joe Biden has several women at the top of his short list for the nomination, including multiple former congresswomen and the outgoing head of a major political advocacy group. Read his scoop ➤ How the media covered Israel’s founding in 1948: Speaking of making history, our Matthew Litman took a look back at the front pages that heralded Israel’s declaration of independence, including our own. There were breathless reports of impending war, hectic scenes of Israelis celebrating President Harry Truman’s unexpectedly rapid recognition of the new state, and, Matt writes “reports of local daily life — scenes of a world in which, in the middle of one tremendous change, everything proceeded much as it had before.” Read the story ➤ Thinking about democracy in progress as Israel turns 75. Our editor-in-chief took a look even farther back for her latest column — to 1851, when the United States of America reached its 75th birthday. What she found was a nation rapidly expanding — and hopelessly dividing, a nation whose future was anything but assured. Read the column ➤ |
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A Palestinian in the rubble of a house in Gaza’s Nusseirat refugee camp. (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty) |
🇮🇱 Israel reached a ceasefire with militant groups in the Gaza Strip Saturday night after five days of fighting killed at least 33 in Gaza and wounded at least 147. On Sunday, Israel re-opened shuttered border crossings to allow Gaza to receive fuel and other necessities. (Haaretz) 😧 Also in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to dramatically increase funding for Haredi areas sparked backlash. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said on Twitter that the budget proposal, which would allocate hundreds of millions of extra shekels to Orthodox-run institutions, was part of a “campaign of destruction” that would severely damage the Israeli economy. (Haaretz) 😨 A 17-year-old migrant died in a Tampa-area shelter operated by Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services. The Honduran boy arrived at the shelter, which is unlicensed and operates without state oversight, on May 5. Sandy Brahman, the nonprofit’s CEO, declined to speak to reporters about the incident, but said the organization is “devastated.” (Tampa Bay Times) 😞 A spokesman for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum said an ice-cream truck that opened this month just outside the gates of the former concentration camp is an example of “aesthetic tastelessness” and “disrespect.” Separately, the museumis working to conserve the shoes of 8,000 children who were murdered in the camp. (JTA, Associated Press) ❗ Peru’s former First Lady Eliane Karp fled to Israel last week after her husband, former Prime Minister Alejandro Toledo, was imprisoned on charges that he accepted bribes while in office. Karp is wanted in a separate embezzlement case; Israel does not have an extradition agreement with Peru. (Haaretz) 👟 Months after cutting ties with rapper Kanye West, Adidas will sell its stock of excess Yeezy shoes and donate the proceeds. The company, which dropped West, now legally known as Ye, following his spate of antisemitic outbursts last fall, estimates that it has lost revenue on $1.3 billion worth of Yeezy inventory. Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said the profits would go to organizations that were “hurt by Kanye’s statements,” but did not respond to requests to clarify what that meant. (JTA) 📚 Fragments of a handwritten Maimonides manuscript was discovered in a library at Cambridge University. The 12th-century document was found in the university’s collection of materials taken from the Cairo Genizah. (University of Cambridge) Mazel tov ➤ To our staff writer Louis Keene, senior contributing columnist Rob Eshman and contributing critic Simi Horwitz, who are finalists for this year’s L.A. Press Club Awards.
What else we’re reading ➤ A quarter-century years later, still struggling with the end of Seinfeld … “I've kept my infertility struggles and IUI pregnancy secret as an Orthodox Jewish woman. Here's why.” … Meet the Jewish Harvardian who became an “unsung hero” of the American sports world.
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On this day in history (1940): The first nylon stockings were sold to the American public by the chemical company DuPont, after being shown at the 1939 World’s Fair. The company, which invented nylon, was run by a supporter of Hitler, Irénée du Pont, and provided Nazi Germany with patents, technology and materials throughout World War II.
In honor of National Chocolate Chip Day, check out our recipe for coconut and chocolate chip Macaroons.
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Israel’s Netta Barzilai — with whom I share an exact birthday! Hope you’re enjoying 30 like I am, Netta! — won Eurovision in 2018. This year, she made a glorious return to the show as part of a tribute to the music of its host city, Liverpool. Soaring in from the rafters on a gigantic metal bird, Barzilai absolutely rocked the 1985 Dead or Alive hit “You Spin Me Round.” (Watch for the moment, about 40 seconds in, when she reveals her own set of enormous inflatable wings.) --- Thanks to Benyamin Cohen and Rebecca Salzhauer for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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