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I’m curating the news this morning near the Lower East Side, where the Forward was founded more than a century ago. Today: Russia may release jailed Jewish journalist, judge dismisses campus antisemitism lawsuit, updates from the Olympics, and why a couple lost at sea rushed to a Jewish deli after being rescued.

ISRAEL AT WAR

People burn an Israeli flag during the funeral of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday in Iran. (Getty)

It’s been 300 days since the Oct. 7 attack, and there’s a potentially dangerous escalation of the war, as three terror chiefs were killed — two from Hamas and one from Hezbollah. Let’s walk through what you need to know…

• Israel said it killed Mohammad Deif, Hamas’ top military chief and a planner of the Oct. 7 attack, in a July strike in Gaza, something that had been rumored but not confirmed until today.

  
  

• This comes on the heels of the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a key figure in the ceasefire negotiations, who was killed this week in Iran. Which itself came days after the killing of Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top military commander, in Beirut.

  
  

• Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a direct strike on Israel in response to Haniyeh’s killing. The Shin Bet, Israel’s version of the Secret Service, is on alert for potential assassinations, advising Netanyahu and other government officials both in Israel and abroad to lower their profiles.

  
  

• The U.S. reiterated its “unwavering commitment” to defend Israel if it’s attacked, said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

  
  

• Security has increased around the Israeli delegation at the Olympic Games in Paris. Even before the recent assassinations, the athletes received threatening “phone calls inviting them to their own funerals” and warning them of another “Munich 1972.”

  
  

• Several airlines are avoiding the airport in Israel. Lufthansa diverted a Tel Aviv-bound flight to Cypress. United and Delta have temporarily canceled flights to and from Israel. (Our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, was scheduled to depart Ben-Gurion Airport this morning, but his outbound flight was canceled.)

What’s next? Will Iran actually retaliate? Can Hamas fight on? And what about the hostages? Scholars and experts weigh in.

Analysis and opinion…

• Back-of-the-envelope analysis: Here are seven winners and six losers in the assassination of Hamas’ top political leader.

  
  

• The killing of Ismail Haniyeh was a big gamble — but one that could spark an endgame, argues our columnist Dan Perry.

  
  

• Israel has removed one danger and replaced it with uncertainty, writes our senior columnist, Rob Eshman.

Barry Rosen, a former hostage in Iran, at a Friday night service at American Mensa’s annual gathering last month in Kansas City. (Benyamin Cohen)

He was a Jewish hostage in Iran. Now he’s advocating for captives in Gaza: Barry Rosen spent 444 days in captivity during the final year of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. And he has spent the past four decades advocating for hostages all over the world — a calling not chosen, but embraced. That mission has intensified in the months since Oct. 7. “It’s part and parcel of my DNA that I’m going to be there for hostages as long as I possibly can be,” Rosen told me. Read the story ➤

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ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Danny Kaye with Imogene Coca, circa 1939. (Courtesy of NYU Special Collections)

Once upon a time, a Yiddish-ish play starred Danny Kaye, Jerome Robbins and Judy Garland: “In the ominous summer of 1939, the entertainers at Camp Tamiment in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains had their eyes on Broadway and the New York World’s Fair, even as an inescapable dread haunted them from Europe,” writes Eve Sicular. “The anxious 1939 zeitgeist brought forth a Yinglish Gilbert and Sullivan spoof for an audience that largely got all the jokes.”

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

A reporter wrote that most JD Vance staffers are tall, “with the notable exception of his chief of staff, Jacob Reses (second from left), who walks around like Gulliver among the Brobdingnagians.” (Getty)

The election…

🇺🇸 He attended a Modern Orthodox day school, used to be a Democrat, and became a legal fellow at the Tikvah Fund, a think tank dedicated to melding Jewish tradition and conservatism. Meet JD Vance’s Jewish chief of staff. (JTA)

📺  The Jewish Democratic Council of America released its first ad in support of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. (YouTube)

On campus…

🎒 A federal judge ordered the University of California, Los Angeles, to craft a plan by the end of this month to safeguard Jewish students on campus. (AP)

🏫  Five major Jewish organizations — the ADL, AJC, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Hillel International and Jewish Federations of North America — issued a four-page recommendation to help universities tackle antisemitism this fall. (eJewishPhilanthropy)

⚖️  A federal court dismissed a lawsuit from a group of Jewish students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who claimed the school had not done enough to protect them. (Bloomberg Law)

And elsewhere…

🇷🇺  Jailed Jewish American journalist Evan Gershkovich and Jewish dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza are among 30 prisoners held by Russia who may be released as part of a prisoner swap. (JTA)

🕌  A 43-year-old man who had just parked and was about to attend a prayer service was shot and killed outside a Philadelphia mosque. No suspect has been arrested and a motive is not known. (AP)

🏥  Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital — “founded in 1889, initially as a dispensary serving mainly Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side” — will close due to financial struggles. (NY Times)

🥐  Patis, New York City’s largest kosher bakery chain, filed for bankruptcy and, on Wednesday, abruptly closed one of its busiest locations, near Times Square. (NY Jewish Week)

🥪  An Oklahoma couple got lost at sea for two days, floating in the Gulf of Mexico. After they were rescued, they drove directly to a Jewish deli in Houston to enjoy a black-and-white cookie and a triple-deck sandwich with corned beef and pastrami called “Fiddler on the Roof of Your Mouth.” Said the man: “Where we’re from, we just don’t have that kind of food.” (NY Times)

Shiva call ➤  David Biale, a professor of Jewish history who wrote award-winning books, died at 75.

OLYMPIC UPDATE

Australia’s Jemima Montag after crossing the finish line and winning bronze on Thursday in Paris. (Getty)

Australian Jewish walker Jemima Montag won the bronze medal today in the 20km walk. It was an emotional moment for Montag, whose grandmother sought refuge in Paris after fleeing Auschwitz.

Australian kayaker Jessica Fox won her second gold medal of the Paris Olympics on Wednesday. Fox has another chance to add to her total when she competes in the kayak cross event on Friday, alongside her younger sister, Noemi.

Sarah Levy and the U.S. women’s rugby team won the bronze medal, the first-ever Olympic medal for both the team and its Jewish forward.

Did you know? Jewish fencers make up nearly a third of the U.S. Olympic fencing team. Speaking of which, fencer Nick Itkin won bronze.

Earlier this week, there were images going viral on social media purporting to be of Israeli swimmers and gymnasts advocating to bring the hostages home. The photos are not from the Olympics, and one also appears to be altered.

Bella Hadid, a supermodel and pro-Palestinian activist, said she regrets working on a campaign with Adidas in which she modeled a sneaker originally designed for the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 11 Israelis were murdered in a Palestinian terror attack. “I would never knowingly engage with any art or work that is linked to a horrific tragedy of any kind,” Hadid said. “In advance of the campaign’s release, I had no knowledge of the historical connection to the atrocious events in 1972.” She added: “Antisemitism has no place in the liberation of the Palestinian people.” Read the story ➤

Here’s a roundup of Jewish athletes at the Games, and when they are competing. Keep up with all of our Olympic coverage.

Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh and Jake Wasserman 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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