WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Families of hostages march at U.N., antisemitic attacks spike in U.S. and, on a lighter note, Hallmark is making another Hanukkah movie.

Scheduling note: My co-host Talya Zax will be shepherding this newsletter for the next three weeks, while I embark on a tour across the U.S. to talk about my new book, The Einstein Effect. Here’s a list of events if you want to join.

ISRAEL AT WAR

An El Al cargo flight from JFK to Israel on Monday carried humanitarian aid in the belly of the plane. On the seats were posters of the more than 200 Israelis held hostage by Hamas. (Courtesy El Al Israel)

Could Biden’s support of Israel’s war cost him the 2024 election? Arab and Muslim communities in swing states are threatening not to vote for Joe Biden in next year’s presidential election, with Palestinian American Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, leading the condemnations. But the alternative, others warn, could be far worse, with former President Donald Trump and other GOP presidential candidates promising to, for example, deport foreign nationals who are critical of Israel or support Palestinian rights. Read the story ➤

A holy war? Some Christians are interpreting the violence as the culmination of prophecies about the End Times: “Sermons and discussions have popped up across social media, carefully mapping each group and location involved in the modern-day war to biblical figures and territories — Iran to Persia, Palestinians to the Philistines, modern Israel to the Israelites and Jerusalem to, well, Jerusalem,” writes our Mira Fox. In a video viewed 2.3 million times, a California megachurch minister explained how viewers should prepare for Armageddon: Accept Jesus. Read the story ➤

Tailors adjust a rope on an Israeli flag at a factory in Kfar Saba, Israel, that has manufactured thousands of flags used for funerals, state visits, government offices and the military. Employees at the factory have been working in 24-hour shifts to meet the demand. (Getty)

Plus…

An Israeli airstrike killed a top Hamas general early Wednesday morning. On Tuesday evening, two Hamas terrorists attempting to infiltrate into Israel via the sea were killed by Israeli Navy forces.

There’s been a 21% spike in antisemitic activity in the U.S. since Hamas attacked Israel, compared to the same time period last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Most Israelis (64%) fear for their physical safety or that of their immediate family members, according to a survey released this week.

Nazi sympathizers rallied in New York in 1939. In a new opinion essay, Rabbi Avi Shafran asks: Will history look back on today’s anti-Israel rallies with the same scorn?

ESPN visited with the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team, whose season is set to begin while the players are distracted by the war in Israel.

On podcast, GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy gets friendly with Alex Jones, who complains he’s more censored than Hamas: Ramaswamy said he doesn’t “believe in cancel culture” and “will talk to anyone,” including Jones, a conspiracy theorist who has espoused antisemitic views. The political newcomer has already come under fire for his suggestion to end Israel’s dependence on U.S. assistance, and could face some tough questioning at the upcoming GOP debate, co-hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition. Read the story ➤

Around the country…

Several relatives of Americans being held hostage by Hamas marched on Tuesday outside the United Nations, where the Security Council was scheduled to discuss a potential ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants, and negotiations to release the hostages.

Parents of at least four Jewish girls at a California middle school say their children were verbally attacked by a fellow student shouting “kill all Jews” and that Israel “deserved it.”

The Boston Workers Circle is withdrawing from an umbrella group representing much of the organized Boston Jewish community over disagreements on Israel’s war in Gaza.

Two people were arrested and a man was beaten to the ground when pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters clashed in Skokie, Illinois.

The Hamas attack on Oct. 7 hit close to home for a Jewish summer camp in New York. Four Israelis who attended the camp died that day.

Stay informed: You can follow our partners at Haaretz for live updates throughout the day. And we’ve taken down our paywall for coverage of Israel’s war with Gaza. Read all of our stories here.

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ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

(Getty/HBO)

Is John Turturro our greatest non-Jewish portrayer of Jews? A list of his best (and most problematic) performances:The actor, now starring in a stage adaptation of Philip Roth’s Sabbath’s Theater, has a long history playing members of the tribe. He was Primo Levi and Barton Fink, quiz show contestant Herb Stempell and sportscaster Howard Cosell. He’s played some of the Jewish people’s noblest ambassadors — and some of our biggest shandas. Our PJ Grisar has dug deep into Turturro’s filmography and produced a definitive ranking, arguing that, while Turturro may not be one of the chosen, his oeuvre boasts “a broader swath of American Jewry than most American Jewish actors get to play in a lifetime.”

An Oedipal tale of sex, violence, crooks, cutthroats and egg creams — set in the Jewish wilderness of the Lower East Side: In Jerome Charyn’s latest novel, Ravage & Son, the Forward’s founding editor Ab Cahan is a local potentate whose influence only goes so far in a world under the sway of assimilation, sex work and petty crime. Though the book is peopled with real characters, don’t expect an accurate history lesson. “The historical setting is just a painted backdrop, a pretext for brawny, vibrant pulp fiction,” writes Steven G. Kellman. Charyn’s New York is one “stripped of weather, electoral politics, the Automat, and gentiles.”

And: The Yiddish words “knipl” and “pekl” may sound cute, but once signified a lifeline for Jewish refugees.

– From our Sponsor: Spertus Institute –

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Nell Sutton, left, and Mark Ruffalo in All the Light We Cannot See. (Netflix)

👀 All the Light We Cannot See, a Pulitzer-winning novel, tells the story of an amateur radio enthusiast who lives in occupied France during World War II and is blind. On a new Netflix series based on the book, two of the actors are blind themselves, and a blindness consultant was brought in to help accommodate them. (New York Times)

🏫 Hebrew Union College said Tuesday it would discontinue four graduate programs. The decision comes a year after its 148-year-old campus in Cincinnati announced it would stop ordaining rabbis. (JTA)

🤦 A leading Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina frequently minimized the legacy of the Holocaust, in a series of previously unreported social media posts. (Jewish Insider)

🕍 The restored Eldridge Street Synagogue on the Lower East Side has made it possible for neighbors and visitors from diverse cultures to find themselves at home. “I want a giant welcome mat outside,” said its executive director. (Hyperallergic)

🏋️ One of the only rabbis in Charleston, West Virginia, is a self-described “comic book collecting, Peloton/fitness crazy, and now Lego building rabbi.” But in a recent interview he said his shul is “the real story.” (JTA)

🕎 Hallmark is making yet another Hanukkah movie. This one is about a woman who keeps reliving her parents’ Hanukkah party. “Can Zach, the ‘nice boy’ Grandma’s trying to set her up with, help her make it to tomorrow?” asks the tagline. Sounds like a Jewish Groundhog Day. (Kveller)

What else we’re reading ➤ His call for empathy has made this Jewish studies professor feel isolated … This Daily Show clip perfectly captures what it’s like being Jewish right now … This Golden Bachelor contestant is showing her Jewish pride on TV.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Tonight: PBS is airing Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life, a documentary about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. This Friday is the fifth anniversary.

Flashback: We visited Pittsburgh last year to talk with the survivors and see how the community was healing.

Thanks to Jaclyn De Bonis, Jay Ehrlich, PJ Grisar, Samantha Weinberg 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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