WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Good morning. The U.S. is ramping up public pressure on Israel to protect civilians in Gaza. Stateside, a Philadelphia pro-Palestinian protest drew accusations of antisemitism after targeting a restaurant run by celebrity Israeli-American chef Michael Solomonov.

OUR LEAD STORY

Students at Jerusalem’s Keshet school volunteer to make meals in the parking garage. (Neil Weinberg)

In wartime Israel, everyone does their part — even if that means cooking dinner in a parking garage. In Jerusalem, a project born during one crisis — COVID-19 — has been adapted for another, with students at the Keshet school cooking meals that serve as many as 300 deployed soldiers and displaced kibbutzniks each day. Last week, our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, joined the operation, which began as an effort to keep the elderly poor fed in the early days of the pandemic, to help make mammoth servings of Moroccan fish, pasta bolognese and salad. “We have to feel like we’re helping,” one student said: “if we do nothing we feel meaningless.” Read the story ➤

Plus, more of Jodi’s dispatches from Israel:

• ‘Overwhelmed with joy and sadness’: Freed hostages speak publicly for first time at Tel Aviv rally

  
  

• Every soldier has a mother. And each has her own story.

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes on southern Gaza on Monday. (JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Latest from the war…

• Israel conducted airstrikes on southern Gaza and ordered Palestinians to evacuate. The area is already teeming with hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians who fled there on earlier Israeli orders to evacuate the strip’s northern reaches.

  
  

• U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, on a visit to the Middle East, demanded Israel do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the White House signaled that it was engaged in a major push to bring Israel and Hamas back to the negotiating table. Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would visit Qatar in an effort to work toward a new truce, and Germany’s government increased pressure on Israel to address the humanitarian crisis, with a foreign ministry spokesperson saying Israel must make it possible for Gazans to relocate to safety.

  
  

• The unprecedented scope of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza has been enabled in part by the military’s use of artificial intelligence to help determine bombing targets, per a major new report from +972 Magazine.

  
  

• A three-person panel in Israel is declaring some hostages dead in captivity, piecing together evidence from the testimony of released hostages and videos from Oct. 7 showing potentially fatal injuries.

  
  

• A majority of the 240 Palestinian prisoners Israel released in exchange for hostages during last week’s truce weren’t convicted of crimes, a New York Times analysis showed.

New York synagogues were on alert after a wave of bomb threats on Friday. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)

The homefront…

• A wave of bomb threats targeted 15 synagogues in New York State on Friday. Separately, an Ohio synagogue was evacuated over a bomb threat during Saturday morning services.

  
  

• A pro-Palestinian protester self-immolated in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. The protester is in critical condition; a consulate guard who tried to intervene was also injured.

  
  

• During a pro-Palestinian march in Philadelphia, some protesters reportedly shouted antisemitic remarks outside Israeli-American celebrity chef Michael Solomonov’s restaurant Goldie, in what Pennsylvania’s Jewish Gov. Josh Shapiro deemed “a blatant act of antisemitism.”

  
  

• A planned Hanukkah celebration in Williamsburg, Virginia, was canceled because of the war, with one organizer citing “folks feeling like we are siding with a group over the other.” The decision follows similar cancellations in New Brunswick, Canada, and a London borough that later reversed its decision.

Help! What to do when your colleagues don’t seem to care about how the Israel-Hamas war affects you? (Yoav Einhar)

Israel Therapy: No one in my office seems to care about the war or its effect on me. Michal, a New York City-based social worker with many relatives in Israel, wrote to our advice column “Israel Therapy” wondering if she should quit her job over frustration that none of her coworkers have asked about her family or wellbeing in context of the war. “I’m reminded of what my father taught me about Occam’s razor,” our columnist responded: “The simplest answer is often the right one. Maybe they do not know what you are going through or how you are feeling. So tell them.” Read the story ➤

Plus:

• Israel Therapy: Should I leave my home in NY to be in Israel with my grieving family?

  
  

• Israel Therapy: How can I engage on social media without getting myself in trouble?

  
  

• Israel Therapy: Should I sign onto an open letter calling for a cease-fire?

Struggling with a personal dilemma regarding Israel and its war with Hamas? Send a query to [email protected].

ICYMI: Our reporter Arno Rosenfeld answered questions about the war on Reddit last week — catch up on the conversation.

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ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

A visitor views an 1894 painting by Camille Pissarro. (Getty Images)

A Jewish artist so gifted, he could even teach a stone to paint. Camille Pissarro, a French artist Paul Cezanne called “the father of impressionism,” felt like a lifelong outsider, according to a new biography, in part because of his Jewishness. “During the Dreyfus Affair, when a Jewish French army captain was condemned to Devil’s Island on spurious charges of espionage, Pissarro eventually joined others in opposing the blatant injustice,” our reviewer writes. “The case aroused widespread, virulent antisemitism, and Pissarro feared that all Jews might be deported from France.”

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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

“I don't see any antisemitic, pro-Nazi or Holocaust denial movement on the right that has any significant traction,” said a Texas GOP leader. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

😮  The Republican Party of Texas voted down a clause of a pro-Israel resolution that would ban the party from associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers. The vote came two months after a prominent Texas conservative hosted the white supremacist Nick Fuentes; about half of the leaders who voted on the clause attempted to prevent records of their votes from being kept. (Texas Tribune)

🫤  Susan Sarandon apologized for comments at a pro-Palestinian rally that seemed to paper over the history of antisemitic hate, writing that her statement that Jews “are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country” was “a terrible mistake, as it implies that until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution.” Sarandon’s talent agency dropped her amid uproar over her remarks. (Times of Israel)

😓  Jewish actress Julianna Margulies apologized for suggesting the Black community had been “brainwashed to hate Jews” and that LGBTQ+ people were responsible for “antisemitic hate,” writing in a statement that she was “horrified by the fact that statements I made on a recent podcast offended the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities.” (Washington Post)

😢  One of the three Palestinian-American students shot in a November attack in Vermont is paralyzed from the chest down, his family said. (Reuters)

😧  Israeli police arrested a reservist soldier suspected of killing an Israeli civilian who intervened in a Jerusalem terror attack. Yuval Doron Castelman had opened fire on two assailants who attacked a bus stop on Thursday, killing three and injuring five; video suggested that he was shot after throwing away his gun and raising his hands in the air. (Times of Israel)

What else we’re reading ➤“A Jewish father collected hundreds of Nazi objects in the basement. His son is struggling with the most basic question: Why?” … “In U.S., some Muslim-Jewish interfaith initiatives are strained by Israel-Hamas war” … “Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, briefly explained.”

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Ori Rosner, head of the Israel Racing Pigeons club, released 140 pigeons Monday morning to represent the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

Thanks to Benyamin Cohen for contributing to today’s newsletter, and Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected].

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