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| | | | WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | Today: Trump calls Schumer a Palestinian • The Jewish star of March Madness • How the Forward covered WWII egg rations • And much more. |
| | | | Protesters gathered in New York City this week to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil. (Getty) |
| 🎒 Catch up quick
Columbia warned its journalism school students who are not U.S. citizens about publishing anything — including to social media — about Gaza, Ukraine, or Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the pro-Palestinian protest movement who was arrested by immigration officers. “Nobody can protect you,” said the school’s dean. “These are dangerous times.” (New York Times)
👉 Related: ICE investigators, who usually focus on drug smugglers and human traffickers, are searching the internet for campus protesters whom they could accuse of supporting Hamas. (New York Times)
⚖️ In court: Judge Jesse Furman, who had blocked the Trump administration’s order to deport Khalil, ordered the case be unsealed — a rare move in immigration detention proceedings. The attorneys for Khalil, who is being detained in Louisiana, are working to win his release or at least bring him back to New York this weekend to be with his wife, who is eight months pregnant. (Forward)
Opinions… Rob Eshman: Khalil’s arrest is a shanda for democracy and for Jews
Marianne Hirsch: I grew up under an authoritarian regime. This is right out of their playbook |
| | | | An aerial view of the West Virginia State Capitol Building in Charleston, West Virginia. (iStock) |
| Proposal aims to make Bible the law
A West Virginia Republican introduced legislation to elevate the Bible and give the Old and New Testaments prominence in the state’s public buildings, educational institutions and even the legal system. It’s yet another sign of rising Christian nationalism — and has sparked pushback from both Jews and Christians. Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston pointed out that the legislation’s language endorses the Protestant canon of 66 books, but the Catholic Bible contains 72.
"If this passes, I hope West Virginia is ready for some changes," A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically, told me. "The state will have to make polygamy legal, since it is perfectly fine in the Bible. Solomon had 700 wives.” |
| | 📖 Related: Oklahoma’s state superintendent ordered all classrooms to have a Bible. He asked local officials for $3 million so he could buy 55,000 copies of his preferred Bible, a $60 edition endorsed by President Trump. They balked and now the superintendent is seeking donations. (Religion News Service) |
| | | | President Trump claimed that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is “not Jewish anymore.” (Getty) |
| The latest… President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Wednesday, calling the New York Democrat “a Palestinian.” Trump added: “He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore.” (Forward)
In a shift from his earlier stance on Gaza, Trump clarified Wednesday that his proposal to take control of the territory would not involve “expelling any Palestinians.” (Times of Israel)
United Nations-backed experts accused Israel of “genocidal acts” for systematically destroying women’s health care clinics in Gaza. Israel, which refused to cooperate with the report, said the commission is biased. (AP, Reuters)
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, left the hostage negotiations in Qatar and flew to Russia, where he is expected to press Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated ceasefire with Ukraine. (ABC News)
Some Israelis are paying tribute to the murdered redheaded Bibas boys by dressing up for Purim as their favorite superhero, Batman, and carrying orange balloons. (Times of Israel) |
| | | | | | | Jews love their eggs.
According to a Dec. 1930 article in our paper, New York’s Jews consumed a staggering one billion eggs a year with an affinity for white (rather than brown) ones — “which the Jewish consumer seems to prefer,” we wrote.
During World War II, food shortages hit home as the U.S. rationed sugar, meat and canned goods to support troops overseas. With ration books in hand, Americans had to plan meals wisely — no stamp, no steak. In the photo above, from the May 21, 1943 edition of the Forward, we explained to our Yiddish readers how to fill out the books.
From that same issue is a photo of a woman holding a carton of eggs in one hand and, in the other, a box of dehydrated eggs, which could be turned into powder and easier to ship to soldiers.
So, even in hard times, Jews always found a way to stay sunny-side up.
🥚 Related… Ever hear of farm-to-shul eggs? Watch this video of me delivering eggs from our chickens, the Co-Hens, to the local Chabad for Shabbat dinner.
Passover requires tons of eggs. Amid the avian flu, what’s a Jew to do? |
| | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | Anthony Cumia has posted Holocaust jokes online and cozied up to white supremacists in the years since SiriusXM fired him as longtime co-host of Opie and Anthony. (Getty) |
| 🎙️ A conservative radio host was fired in 2014 over sexual content and hate speech, and in the years since has praised a white supremacist, celebrated racist lynchings and railed against “Jews and n---.” WABC in New York City gave him a radio show that debuted this week. (Forward)
👏 An update on a story we told you about yesterday: The Trump administration withdrew a job offer to an anti-Israel commentator who had been tapped to be deputy director of national intelligence. (Times of Israel)
🎞️ The mayor of Miami Beach wants to cut funding and end a lease with an independent theater after it screened No Other Land, an Oscar-winning documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Miami Herald)
🏀 When March Madness begins, keep your eye on Danny Wolf, University of Michigan’s kosher-keeping 7-foot star who’s helped lead his team to a 22-8 record. (Detroit Free Press, Forward)
🏳️🌈 A Wider Bridge, a pro-Israel LGBTQ+ group, has appointed Rabbi Denise Eger as its interim executive director, following the departure of its previous leader, who was charged with sexual misconduct four months ago. (JTA)
💰 The UJA-Federation of New York donated $2 million for a community center in Israel for the survivors and families of the victims of the Nova music festival. (eJewishPhilanthropy)
What else we’re reading ► Washington-area Jewish community braces for impact of mass federal layoffs (Jewish Insider) … Is taking Ozempic during Ramadan cheating? (Religion News Service) … A 100-year-old former synagogue in the East Village to become luxury condos (NY Jewish Week). |
| | | | Rabbi Jaclyn Cohen and Cantor Randall Schloss of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles have re-written the lyrics to the hit song “Popular” from Wicked, and whipped up a Purim parody. Bonus: Check out Cohen’s Lizzo parody from Purim 2023. (I promise, we’re not related.)
Ok, one more bonus video: Ever seen For Your Consideration? It’s a film by Christopher Guest (This Is Spinal Tap, Best in Show) that follows a group of actors whose unfinished movie, Home for Purim — a melodrama set in the 1940s American South — somehow sparks Oscar buzz. It stars Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy and more of Guest’s regulars. Watch the trailer here, and stream it on Amazon Prime.
Plus… How Esther and Vashti each navigated palace intrigue can teach us different ways to deal with this fraught political moment, writes Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove in an opinion essay.
Purim is a holiday about concealing and revealing. Which is why stuffed dried Turkish eggplant is the holiday’s perfect recipe, explains Rob Eshman.
🚘 I’ll be heading to Princeton this weekend for festivities around Albert Einstein’s birthday. Let me know if you want to meet up for coffee!
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| Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh, Chana Pollack and Arno Rosenfeld for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Julie Moos for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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