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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Trump’s prediction of Israel’s demise upsets his pro-Israel supporters, Northwestern suspends professor involved in pro-Palestinian encampment, son of Ukraine’s chief rabbi dies on warfront, group of Orthodox women end sex strike, the controversy behind a Yiddish Harry Potter, and Mexico City’s bagel boom.

🇺🇸 ELECTION 2024 🇺🇸

The Jewish Democratic Council of America and the Republican Jewish Coalition are spending millions of dollars on get-out-the-vote efforts for Jewish voters in swing states. (Getty)

Millions of dollars, hundreds of volunteers

With just 54 days until the presidential election, Jewish groups are ramping up their get-out-the-vote efforts in the tightly contested swing states where Jewish voters could play a crucial role.

The Republican Jewish Coalition and the Jewish Democratic Council of America deployed dozens of paid staff and hundreds of volunteers to engage in grassroots efforts like phone banking and door-knocking.

The majority of the effort is concentrated in Pennsylvania, due to its sizable Jewish population and history as a swing state. Jews make up an estimated 3% of the Pennsylvania electorate. In 2020, Biden won the state by one percentage point.

The RJC launched a $10 million ad campaign and the JDCA is budgeting a more modest $2 million.

A TV in a living room showing the debate, where Trump said Harris “hates Israel.” (Getty)

Donald Trump set a deadline for Israel’s demise. His pro-Israel supporters are not happy

“If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now,” former President Donald Trump said at the debate. “I’ve been pretty good at predictions.”

The JTA reports: “Saying that Israel’s existence is contingent on a single person or event” is anathema for many in “the pro-Israel community, who see the country as the culmination of the lives and hard work of generations of Jews — and a military powerhouse highly capable of defending itself in a region rife with enemies.”

“It’s not a constructive thing to say,” said Michael Makovsky, CEO of a conservative Jewish think tank. “And it’s bombastic and it’s inaccurate, and it’s a very serious issue, and he shouldn’t have said it.”

Plus…

Clear choice? Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are both vague on the Israel-Gaza war, but in starkly different ways, argues our columnist Dan Perry. “Neither is planning to radically reshape the U.S.-Israel relationship,” he writes, “but only one of the two has ideas about how to productively move it forward.”

Trump bump? A new Pew Research Center poll shows a far larger share of American Jews supporting Trump, 34%, compared to a poll released earlier this week from the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which pegged it at 25%. But Pew’s sample of Jewish voters was less than half the size of JDCA’s, and its margin of error, at 6.6 percentage points, was nearly twice as large.

🇮🇱 ISRAEL AT WAR: DAY 342 🇮🇱

Sarah Friedland, a Jewish filmmaker, won two awards at the Venice Film Festival. She used her speech to criticize Israel and express her support for Palestinians. (Getty)

Protesters have shown up at the Oscars, the Grammys and now the fall film festivals:The fact that there are protests is not necessarily notable, notes our culture reporter Mira Fox. She argues that “the constant race to cover individual incidents distracts from the real story: the conceptual drift into increasingly extreme poles of the conflict, and the fact that the Overton window on Israel has shifted.” Read the story ►

Plus…

Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Ramy Youssef and hundreds of other actors are calling on their Hollywood union “to keep people from being blacklisted for their views on Palestine.”

The Noguchi Museum in New York City said it fired three employees on Wednesday who came to work wearing kaffiyehs, a violation of its dress code.

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⚾ ALSO IN THE FORWARD 🧙

Mark Vientos of the New York Mets revealed a Hebrew tattoo on his chest after hitting a home run. (Getty)

A home run celebration unveils a Hebrew tattoo — with a typo

Mark Vientos, who plays third base for the New York Mets, tore off his jersey, revealing a tattoo on his left pectoral muscle. There were the Hebrew letters הפלפמ — ha’pelpem — above the numbers 4:6, suggesting a chapter and verse of the Bible.

Vientos isn’t Jewish. Neither is the verse. And the Hebrew is a little off, reports my colleague Louis Keene.

There is, however, a New Testament book whose title is similar: Philippians, which was written in Greek. Perhaps Vientos thought Hebrew made it seem more authentic.

And, in case you’re wondering, here’s what’s written in Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

The cover for Harry Potter un di kamer fun soydes. (Illustration by Jonny Duddle)

The second Yiddish Harry Potter book arrives, and J.K. Rowling is she who must not be named: The translation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is being celebrated for its witty use of traditional Yiddish dialects. But for some Yiddishists, the decision to continue the project of working on Rowling’s prose, given her hostility to trans people, is a fraught one. “The fact of the matter is that the mere mention of her name, which you’ll notice I don’t use, is deeply, deeply triggering to most, if not all, trans people,” said Yiddishist Lili Rosen. Read the story ►

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🤔 WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY 🤔

A pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus of Northwestern University in April. (Getty)

On campus…

🇵🇸 Northwestern University suspended a journalism professor and canceled his fall classes as it investigates his involvement in a pro-Palestinian campus encampment in April. (Daily Northwestern)

🏫 The Black Student Union at the University of Michigan said “it would withdraw from the TAHRIR Coalition, a group of more than 90 pro-Palestine student organizations, citing concerns that Black voices and identities are not valued within the coalition.” (Michigan Daily)

And elsewhere…

💔 A six-month “sex strike,” mounted on behalf of an Orthodox woman whose husband refused to divorce her, has ended. He has now offered her a get. (NY Jewish Week)

🤦 The board of elections in Cobb County, an Atlanta suburb, abruptly canceled its meeting this week after an unidentified attendee shouted “Heil Hitler” during the public comment period. (WSB-TV)

🤷 Jewish Currents, a left-wing magazine, claims the space where it was supposed to host a Sunday conference abruptly canceled because of the magazine’s pro-Palestinian leanings. The host said it was due to emergency repairs to the building. The conference will take place at a different location. (JTA)

💎 An archive in Germany returned jewelry stolen by the Nazis at concentration camps to the heirs of 12 Polish inmates. More such ceremonies are planned. (AP)

🏺 A 3,500-year-old jug smashed by a 4-year-old visiting an Israeli museum is restored and now back on display — and still not inside a case. (Times of Israel)

Shiva call ► Anton Samborskyi, the son of a leading rabbi in Ukraine, died on the warfront.

🥯 VIDEO OF THE DAY 🥯

Mexico City is experiencing a bagel boom. All across town, bakers are forming mounds of dough into puffy, twisted rings just blocks away from where artisans press masa into flat tortillas.

The art of hand-rolling the dough — a skill that requires practice and back strength to master — is part of what bagel mavens say separates bready, machine-rolled supermarket bagels from fluffy, chewy treasures.

Before completing his internship, our Sam Lin-Sommer visited Bagels Lepu, an early pioneer in the city’s hand-rolled bagel movement, owned by Scottish-American baker Fahra Bellak, and tried a variety of their sandwiches and schmears.

Thanks to PJ Grisar, Louis Keene, Lauren Markoe and Jodi Rudoren 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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