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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Jewish parents in Louisiana sue state over new Ten Commandments law, ADL chief fires back at Wikipedia, real estate company may have sparked pro-Palestinian melee in Los Angeles, rabbi who built largest LGBTQ+ shul retires, and a beloved kosher bakery chain files for bankruptcy.

OUR LEAD STORY

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, during a Saturday rally in the Bronx. (Getty)

It’s primary day in New York, where we’ve got our eyes on one race that has national implications…

Democrats Rep. Jamaal Bowman and George Latimer, a county executive, are challenging each other for a seat in Congress to represent a heavily Jewish district, which includes New Rochelle and part of the Bronx. Bowman criticized Israel relentlessly during the primary, and an AIPAC-linked super PAC spent $14.6 million on the race hoping to unseat him. If he loses, it would be the first defeat of a “Squad” member since the 2018 election.

Latimer told our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, that the Bronx race transcends the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I don’t think that every member of Congress is a secretary of state,” Latimer said.

“The concept that you have to be anti-Israel to be progressive is a fallacy,” he said. “If I win this race, it will send a strong statement that when we get lost in ideological extremes, we run the risk of losing; that people who believe that it’s trendy to attack Israel are failing.”

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at a campaign rally on Saturday for Rep. Jamaal Bowman. (Getty)

Opinion | Is Jamaal Bowman pro-Palestinian enough for pro-Palestinians? “It’s rare to see AIPAC and pro-Palestinian activists protesting the same event,” writes Rafael Shimunov, who spent months volunteering for the Bowman campaign. “To some on the left, it’s not enough that Bowman stands apart from almost all of his colleagues by demanding justice for Palestinians.” Those activists think “he should be protested until he’s publicly aligned fully with them. Which Bowman, who continues to support President Joe Biden — whose backing of Israel’s attacks on Gaza has alienated many on the left — is not.” Read his essay ➤

Related….

The outcome of the race may be a bellwether for Israel’s role in Democratic politics in the 2024 elections.

It’s not just Bowman and Congress: Progressives in down-ballot races have also made criticism of Israel central to their campaigns.

ISRAEL AT WAR

Haredi Jews visit Israeli soldiers to show their support as they deploy at a position near the border with Gaza in Southern Israel on Oct. 11. (Getty)

Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that the IDF must draft Haredi men into military service, and will freeze funding for religious schools that do not comply. The decision is potentially a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Haredim warn of ‘religious war’ after Supreme Court orders yeshiva draft: “If our young men have to stop studying Torah to go fight in the army, this country has nothing,” Israel Trabelsi, a 70-year-old Torah scholar and furniture salesman told our reporter, Susan Greene, today in Bnei Brak. “Our people aren’t going to stand for it. Just watch.” Read the story ➤

Related: At least 15% of Haredi men of draft age make up what’s known as the “lost boys,” who claim they are studying at yeshiva but can often be found in libraries throughout Jerusalem, where access to Wi-Fi is readily available, streaming music from Tupac Shakur or reading about evolution. Susan spent time with them back in March. Read the story ➤

Israelis call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach an agreement with Hamas and secure the release of the hostages at a Saturday rally in Tel Aviv. (Getty)

Opinion | Our relatives are held hostage in Gaza. We are begging American Jews to pressure Netanyahu to make a deal now:“Every moment in captivity is a game of Russian roulette with the odds stacked against you,” write a dozen family members of the hostages in a new op-ed. “Yet instead of doing everything possible to bring home our family members who were kidnapped on his watch,” they say they’ve “been disrespected and attacked in the media and at Knesset Committee meetings by Netanyahu’s bulldogs.” Read their essay ➤

Related…

Netanyahu recommitted to bringing back all the hostages after three families released newly discovered video of their loved ones’ abductions.

The IDF announced that Sgt. Maj. Mohammed El Atrash, a soldier who was abducted while fighting Hamas on Oct. 7, was killed that day and his body taken into Gaza. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it “bows its head in sorrow and with a broken heart.”

On campus…

A hospital affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, finds itself feuding over the war — with some Jewish doctors saying they feel uncomfortable and intimidated.

Antisemitism at Stanford University is “highly disturbing” and “pernicious,” according to a report released by the school.

The president of Dartmouth University, the only Ivy League school not under investigation for campus antisemitism and Islamophobia, said at a conference Monday that protesters’ encampments go against Dartmouth’s “academic mission.”

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ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, says the ADL is being singled out among the many advocacy groups that also do research. (Getty)

Opinion | The ADL chief thinks Wikipedia is biased. Is he right? Wikipedia recently decided to rate the Anti-Defamation League’s information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “generally unreliable,” because it blends advocacy and research. “Does anybody question the NAACP?” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt asked in an interview with our senior columnist, Rob Eshman. A Wikipedia editor Rob spoke with explained the ruling and offered a path forward.

She built the largest LGBTQ+ synagogue in the nation. What’s next? Retirement:Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan had a $40,000 budget when Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum arrived 32 years ago. Now the shul has a $5 million budget and 1,200 members. At her retirement party, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke and President Biden sent a congratulatory video. She says she now wants to spend time having “leisurely laugh-filled dinners” and “finally learning how to do PowerPoint.”

Plus: Why did pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate in front of Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles? Our Louis Keene reports it’s likely because the Orthodox congregation hosted an event encouraging American Jews to buy property in Israel.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry addresses reporters after a U.S. Supreme Court first amendment case in March. (Getty)

🎒 Nine Louisiana families — including three Jewish families — filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the state’s new law requiring public school classrooms display the Ten Commandments, arguing that it violates the Constitution’s separation of church and state. (JTA)

🇷🇺 The trial of Evan Gershkovich, a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, is set to begin Wednesday behind closed doors. The Jewish journalist has been detained in Russia for over a year on espionage charges. (CNN)

🌴 The Nazi-invaded Isle of Alderney in the U.K. was no “mini-Auschwitz,” according to a report from the British government. Previous estimates put the number of deaths on the island at around 40,000, but the new review said fewer than 2,000 people perished there. (Times of Israel)

🥐 Patis, New York City’s largest kosher bakery chain, filed for bankruptcy. Some sad patrons blame the company’s rapid expansion, opening more than a dozen locations since 2018, for the bakery’s financial troubles. (JTA)

Mazel tov ➤ To our Rob Eshman who won the columnist of the year award at the Southern California Journalism Awards, and Louis Keene who was recognized for his profile of Orthodox Judaism’s first openly gay congregational rabbi. Mazels also to contributor Simi Horwitz — and her editor, Adam Langer — for her two awards, in film criticism and and film commentary.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

In Between the Temples, Jason Schwartzman plays a cantor riddled with grief after the death of his wife. He comes out of his shell when he tutors a late-in-life bat mitzvah student played by Carol Kane. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and arrives in theaters Aug. 23. Watch the trailer above.

Thanks to Susan Greene, Julie Moos, Jodi Rudoren 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].

Support Independent Jewish Journalism

Reporting from the ground in Israel and campuses takes resources. Support the news that matters to you with a monthly donation.