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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Congress increases budget for antisemitism envoy; discrimination against Jews becomes a key factor in choosing colleges; former employee sues Kanye West for praising Hitler; and prisoners sue to watch eclipse for religious reasons.

ISRAEL AT WAR

A mural in Tel Aviv’s Florentine neighborhood captures the mood in post-Oct. 7 Israel. (Susan Greene)

Reporter’s notebook: 13 things about Israelis in wartime I’ve noticed by living among them

As the Forward’s Israel correspondent, Susan Greene, who has been in the country since January, has spent most of her time interviewing Israelis affected by Oct. 7 and its aftermath. She’s also noticed a number of things that don’t fit neatly into her news stories, yet help her understand the society around her. Here are some …

Israel smells like weed: “It helps take the edge off,” the father of a kidnapped Nova music festival attendee told Susan while toking up outside the hostage family headquarters in Tel Aviv.

The Iron Dome really works: During Susan’s first week in Tel Aviv, she watched it knock a rocket away from the urban core, like in a video game. “We’re in love with our fireworks,” Gideon DeBeer, a retired U.N. worker living in Jaffa, told Susan. “Every day in Israel is like the Fourth of July.”

There are dogs everywhere: A neighbor prepares chicken liver for her beagle’s breakfasts and steak for his dinners. “I saw her a few weeks ago carrying a bag of meat from the Wagyu beef butcher down the street,” Susan writes, “and told her it made me think about the starvation in Gaza.” The neighbor responded, “Apples and oranges,” and has been ignoring Susan since.

A car used by World Central Kitchen was hit by an Israeli strike while delivering food in Gaza. (Getty)

Deaths of aid workers…

Chef José Andrés, the head of the World Central Kitchen — a humanitarian group that saw seven volunteers killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza on Monday — wrote that “Israel is better than the way this war is being waged,” in nearly identical essays published Wednesday in both an Israeli newspaper and in The New York Times.

“I have heard the ancient Passover stories about being a stranger in the land of Egypt, the commandment to remember — with a feast before you — that the children of Israel were once slaves,” he continued. “It is not a sign of weakness to feed strangers; it is a sign of strength. The people of Israel need to remember, at this darkest hour, what strength truly looks like.” Read the story ➤

Plus…

The Biden administration said it was “outraged” at the attack on civilian humanitarian workers delivering food. The IDF called it a “grave mistake.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “tragic” and apologized on Tuesday.

A range of American Jewish groups expressed anguish over the deaths of the aid workers. But they're divided on who to blame.

The editorial board of Haaretz, one of Israel’s most widely read newspapers, said the killing of World Central Kitchen’s aid workers was a final straw, and called for a ceasefire.

Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh, prays during the funeral of his son, also a journalist with Al Jazeera, who was killed in January in Gaza. (Getty)

Opinion | Banning Al Jazeera moves Israel one step closer to dictatorship: Israel’s defenders often call it the Middle East’s only democracy. But democracies don’t censor the press, argues Eric Alterman. “It’s one thing to censor particular reports that put one’s soldiers in harm’s way in wartime. No one can argue with that,” he writes. “But to shut down a news service because you don’t like its political orientation? That is the stuff of dictatorship — the kind of authoritarian behavior the same Jewish leaders love to condemn in those Arab governments.” Read his essay ➤

On a prayer mission at the Israeli embassy, a Christian faces pro-Palestinian activists: Israel Nehemiah Musonda, a 37-year-old Pentecostal, was praying Tuesday outside the Israeli embassy in D.C. wrapped in an Israeli flag. Prayer is his full-time job, said Musonda, who faced outrage from protesters encamped outside the embassy. He said he is inspired by Jesus and the late Revs. Billy Graham and Martin Luther King Jr. Like them, he said, he wants to “unify people in prayer.” Read the story ➤

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ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, at a February event in New York. (Getty)

Amid cuts across the federal budget, Congress boosts funding for antisemitism envoy:Total funding for the office, run by Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, is now almost four times higher than it was at the start of the Biden administration. “As antisemitic bigotry has reached a global fever pitch,” said Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat and former synagogue president who lobbied to increase funding, the work of the envoy’s office, “could not be more needed.”

A scandalous Jewish NBA rivalry is taking shape — in the owner’s box: “Fourteen of the NBA’s 30 franchise owners are Jewish,” reports our Louis Keene. “Two of them absolutely despise each other. And it has nothing to do with basketball. Instead, it’s about — wait for it — mortgages.” Their teams, the Phoenix Suns and the Cleveland Cavaliers, face off tonight.

Plus: The German national soccer team said it will swap out jerseys featuring the number 4 after people noticed that it resembled a Nazi SS symbol.

NEW FROM THE FORWARD

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Students on the University of Pennsylvania campus in December. (Getty)

🏫 Most Jewish parents say the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath have impacted their teen’s college search, per a new survey from Hillel out today. Hillel’s CEO said it’s a “wake-up call for universities that their positive actions, or failure to act, is going to have real consequences when it comes to their ability to attract Jewish students.” (JTA)

📈 The number of U.S. adults who say there is a lot of discrimination against Jews has doubled in the last three years, according to a new survey, jumping from 20% in 2021 to 40% today. But Jews did not take the top spot. The religious or ethnic group in the U.S. that experiences the most discrimination is Muslims. (Pew, JTA, Religion News Service)

🇺🇸 Former President Donald Trump hinted at the antisemitic Great Replacement theory on Tuesday when he referred to immigrants as “animals” and “not human.” (Reuters)

🤦 A former employee of Kanye West is suing the rap star and fashion mogul for creating a hostile work environment by calling Adolf Hitler “great” and disparaging Jews in front of staff members at Donda Academy, the private California school founded by West. (New York Times)

🎒 The Oklahoma Supreme Court debated Tuesday whether the state can directly fund religious education, in a case involving a proposed Catholic charter school. Their ruling could have larger ramifications on the use of tax dollars for religious schools. (AP)

😎 Six inmates of various faiths are suing a prison in upstate New York for not allowing them to watch Monday’s solar eclipse. They claim the celestial event has religious significance and not being able to view it violates their rights. (New York Times)

What else we’re reading ➤ Protests over the war in Gaza intensify at art museums in America … Jews are prolific writers. Has A.I. wound up with too much of their work? … Animal chaplains offer spiritual care for every species.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Comedian Alex Edelman spent six years honing his one-man show, Just For Us, about his infiltration of a white supremacist meeting in Queens. If you missed it on Broadway, or during a recent run in Los Angeles, you’re in luck: It debuts as a special on HBO Saturday.

Edelman visited The Today Show on Tuesday to chat about his comedy, the rise in antisemitism, and pottery.

Dept. of corrections: An interview with Harvard professor Noah Feldman mentioned in yesterday's newsletter was conducted by Emily Tamkin, not Nora Berman.

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

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