|
WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
|
|
Today: Dozens of students’ visas revoked across country • Government layoffs may impact aid to Holocaust survivors • Jewish coach heads to NCAA championship • And a 900-year-old kiddush cup goes up for auction. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Netanyahu and Trump during their February meeting at the White House. (Getty) |
|
Mr. Netanyahu goes to Washington
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with President Donald Trump today at the White House to talk U.S. tariffs on Israeli goods and the ongoing war in Gaza. (Axios) What’s happening: Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Israeli Minister Ron Dermer are expected to join, and Netanyahu is also set to meet with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. A joint Trump-Netanyahu press conference is expected later today. (Times of Israel)
Why it matters: The meeting comes amid global market jitters. Tel Aviv stocks, like other markets around the world, dropped for a second day, as Trump’s new tariff policy stoked fears of a wider trade war. (Globes)
Zooming out: The meeting falls a year-and-a-half after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Hostage families protested outside Netanyahu’s home this morning, demanding action. (Times of Israel)
Analysis: Trump and Netanyahu are using similar playbooks as they face domestic turmoil, writes Luke Broadwater. (New York Times)
Flashback: At their last meeting in February, Trump sparked global outcry by announcing a plan to take over Gaza and forcibly relocate Palestinians. At the time, our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, wrote that Trump’s plan should be taken seriously, not literally. (Forward)
Elsewhere in politics… Ed Martin, a Trump-nominated prosecutor, is facing backlash over past remarks praising a Nazi sympathizer and citing biblical Jews in Egypt to defend slavery. (Forward)
Widespread layoffs and major restructuring at the Department of Health and Human Services may jeopardize programs that provide aid to Holocaust survivors and deliver kosher meals to homebound seniors and people with disabilities. (JTA)
“Goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds,” a sign reads. “Tesla. The Swasticar.” British satirists are having a field day mocking Elon Musk. (New York Times)
|
|
|
|
 |
Jewish activists rally to support Rümeysa Öztürk, a detained pro-Palestinian Tufts University graduate student. (Ron Newman) |
|
Protest, policy and power
College campuses are emerging as battlegrounds in a growing national fight over protest, immigration and antisemitism. What began as student-led demonstrations has expanded into something larger: university crackdowns, federal visa revocations and new efforts to police campus speech. For Jewish students, that’s created a complicated landscape — where support for safety, free expression and civil rights don’t always align.
Here’s the latest… At least nine universities — including Harvard, Stanford and several University of California schools — announced late last week and over the weekend that students there had visas revoked, and some had been deported. (Boston Globe, NBC News)
The Trump administration says it has revoked over 300 student visas, mostly targeting international students tied to pro-Palestinian protests. At the heart of those efforts lies a key constitutional question. (Marshall Project)
Many Jews at Tufts are outraged that ICE detained a Turkish grad student, Rümeysa Öztürk, but they're hesitant to protest alongside activists who’ve linked her case to anti-Israel rhetoric. (JTA)
A federal judge ruled that Öztürk’s immigration case should be heard in Vermont, rejecting the government’s push to keep it in Louisiana, where she’s currently detained. (NBC News)
Columbia is taking a tougher stance on campus protests, adding 36 new patrol officers with arrest powers to its security force. (New York Times, Reuters)
Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the school’s protests and one of the first to be detained by immigration officials, wrote in a letter to the Columbia community that university leaders “manufactured public hysteria about antisemitism without once mentioning the tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered under bombs made of your dollars.” (Spectator)
Trump’s aggressive tactics, like arresting activists in the name of fighting antisemitism, have left many American Jews feeling conflicted — torn between concern and cautious approval. (New York Times)
The White House is pushing to penalize schools over student activism — but Wesleyan‘s president says colleges shouldn't just give in. (New Yorker)
Emerson College allegedly fired a staffer after she screened a film critical of Israel. She’s now suing the school. (Intercept)
According to an analysis, 27 of the 47 policies in the Heritage Foundation's Project Esther plan to fight antisemitism — particularly on university campuses — are being discussed or have moved toward implementation. (Politico, Forward)
The Anti-Defamation League says its campus antisemitism report cards are working — 19 schools, including Northwestern and Stanford, have already improved their grades by adopting new policies in the month since the report dropped. (JTA)
Opinion | Alexander Pascal co-wrote Biden’s antisemitism strategy. He believes Trump is making the problem worse. (Forward) |
|
|
|
 |
Protesters hold a Palestinian flag after a Saturday march to the ICE building in Washington, D.C. (Getty) |
|
The latest… Over the weekend, Israel's military admitted its soldiers made mistakes in the killing of 15 emergency workers in Gaza last month, after a new video of the attack emerged that contradicted their original account. (New York Times)
Omar Mohammad Rabea, a 14-year-old Palestinian-American, was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, in what the military called an anti-terror operation. (Guardian)
Starvation was the likely cause of death of Walid Ahmad, a 17-year-old Palestinian who died in Israeli prison, according to an Israeli doctor who observed the autopsy. (AP)
Hamas launched 10 rockets at southern Israel on Sunday night — the largest barrage in months — injuring one person. (Times of Israel)
The University of Haifa reversed its decision and will now screen the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, which portrays the demolition of a Palestinian village in the West Bank. (Haaretz)
The Hebrew name of a spotted orange butterfly was changed to honor Ariel Bibas, the red-headed boy kidnapped and killed by Hamas. (Times of Israel)
|
|
|
 |
|
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
|
 |
Alojzy Maciak, a Holocaust survivor, attends a commemoration ceremony Sunday to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp. (Getty) |
|
🇩🇪 At a ceremony Sunday marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald, former German President Christian Wulff warned against “radicalization and a worldwide shift to the right.” (AP)
🍽️ Eighty years after Auschwitz, kosher food will now be available in its town of Oświęcim — a move meant to serve visitors and honor the memory of the once-thriving Jewish community. (JTA)
🏀 Of the three Jewish coaches who made it to the NCAA men’s Final Four, only one — Florida’s Todd Golden — is still standing, set to face a Houston team with an Israeli player in tonight’s championship game. (JTA)
🏆 A 900-year-old kiddush cup — possibly used during the time of Genghis Khan — is expected to fetch up to $5 million when it hits the auction block at Sotheby’s this fall. (JTA)
What else we’re reading ► Journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner takes on the Holocaust story she once vowed never to write (New York Times) … Passover's hottest tourist attraction for Israelis: A demilitarized zone in Syria (Haaretz) … A long-lost satire of Jews in Hollywood gets a new life (Hollywood Reporter)
|
|
|
|
 |
Musician Avi Ganz released his second single — a genre-blending spin on a classic Passover Haggadah tune originally composed by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, mixing Balkan, Middle Eastern and R&B influences into a funky groove. |
|
Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Julie Moos for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today’s newsletter made me: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Support independent Jewish journalism |
|
Support Jewish journalism this Passover. Your gift will go twice as far with a match by the Forward board. |
|
|
 |
|
