WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

British rabbi and family go into hiding amid surge in antisemitism, U.S. and Middle East partners to present timeline for a postwar Palestinian state, rabbinical courts hit with RICO lawsuit, and Marvel casts movie with Jewish superhero.

OUR LEAD STORY

The Lakewood Church in Houston is in a former NBA arena. (Getty)

FBI found antisemitic material in church shooter’s home, ex-mother-in-law says

Genesse Moreno burst into a Houston megachurch on Sunday and began shooting. Her rifle had a “Palestine” sticker on it and she had reportedly attended some pro-Palestinian rallies in the area. Her ex-husband’s family is Jewish, and on Wednesday our Beth Harpaz interviewed the shooter’s ex-mother-in-law, a rabbi named Walli Carranza.

Faith based: Lakewood Church, located in a former NBA arena, is not an overtly political church. Carranza said Moreno “was practicing as a Muslim when my son met her. She was wearing a hijab.” The FBI told Carranza that Moreno “wrote antisemitic things” including “Death to Jews” on a painting.

Mental health: But Carranza couched those details by saying: “We cannot fuel this as being an Islamic-Jewish battle.” She said Moreno was schizophrenic and blamed the “deranged irrational mind of a person who is not being treated.”

Family ties: Moreno was killed by off-duty officers; her 7-year-old son, Sam, who is Carranza’s grandson, was shot in the head in the exchange of gunfire and critically injured. Carranza said she hoped to help sort out custody issues for the boy and planned to “sit shiva” with Moreno’s mother while “respecting her tradition. We need to be compassionate. This mother has lost her daughter.”

ISRAEL AT WAR

Smoke billows Thursday morning over Khan Yunis, where the Israeli military stormed a hospital looking for the bodies of dead hostages. (Getty)

The latest…

This morning: Israeli forces stormed Nasser Medical Complex, southern Gaza’s largest hospital, after a prolonged standoff. The Israeli army said it was a limited operation seeking the remains of hostages taken by Hamas.

Two-state solution imminent? “The Biden administration and a small group of Middle East partners are rushing to complete a detailed, comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and Palestinians, including a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, that could be announced as early as the next several weeks,” The Washington Post reports. “The urgency of the effort is tied directly to a proposed pause in the fighting and release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas that is being negotiated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.”

On campus…

The Department of Education opened a probe into Johns Hopkins University over alleged antisemitism on campus since the war began. A right-wing Jewish activist who is unaffiliated with the school triggered the federal investigation.

MIT suspended a pro-Palestinian student group for skirting campus rules on demonstrations.

A woman reacts while watching footage of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel during a gathering outside the International Criminal Court at The Hague on Wednesday, as some 100 members of the hostages' families filed a "crimes against humanity" complaint at the ICC against Hamas. (Getty)

Across Europe…

A rabbi at several British universities is now in hiding with his wife and two children on the recommendation of police, because he received death threats upon returning from Israel where he served as a reserve soldier.

The U.K. recorded its worst year for antisemitism since 1984, when it began tracking such data. The number of antisemitic incidents across the country reached 4,103 — nearly double the previous high in 2021 — amid a surge after the outbreak of the war.

Ireland said it would donate approximately $21 million to UNRWA, the embattled U.N. agency that offers aid to Palestinians. Many countries paused contributions to the group after it was discovered that some of its employees may have helped Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks.

Organizers of an Israeli film festival in Barcelona say they were forced to change locations at the last minute because of harassment directed at the theater that was slated to host the event.

Republican opposition to Israel aid is the latest headache for the pro-Israel community:Over the past few weeks, when both chambers of Congress sit down to vote, it is a faction of Republicans, allied with Donald Trump, who have impeded additional foreign aid to Israel. “This new Republican Party will soon throw Israel under the bus,” said Nachama Soloveichik, the spokeswoman for presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Read the story ➤

Plus…

Israel will not defeat Hamas in Rafah without confronting Gaza’s future, argues Alex Lederman of the Israel Policy Forum in a new opinion essay.

President Biden joined TikTok this week. His account is already flooded with comments about Gaza. (Related: Recent analyses found that the deluge of pro-Palestinian content on the app is influencing young Americans.)

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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

The Washington Wizards’ Deni Avdija had a record night Wednesday. (Getty)

😲 The founder of a popular Yiddish-language children’s magazine filed a federal RICO lawsuit against several rabbinical courts and a former business partner, alleging a conspiracy to sabotage his business. (Shtetl)

🥩 A top court in Europe ruled that a ban on ritual slaughter can stand. The rule was first implemented in 2017 in response to complaints from animal-rights activists, but in recent years has widened as part of an agenda by right-wing parties to reduce the presence in society of Islam, and in some cases also Judaism. (JTA)

🇮🇹 Italian police on Wednesday raided the homes of 24 people who are under investigation for promoting fascism during a gathering at a restaurant in a Jewish neighborhood at which they praised Adolf Hitler and mocked Anne Frank. (Times of Israel)

🏀 Deni Avdija, the Israeli forward who plays for the Washington Wizards, exploded for 43 points and 14 rebounds Wednesday night, becoming the first player to record those numbers for the team in nearly a half-century. (Forward)

🎬 Jewish actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach was cast as Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. Grimm is one of Marvel’s canonically Jewish characters, having had a bar mitzvah and Jewish wedding in the comics. He also seems to take inspiration from the story of the Golem. (Variety)

❤️ Huma Abedin, the former top aide to Hillary Clinton and the ex-wife of disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner, revealed in a Valentine’s Day post on social media that she’s in a relationship with Alex Soros, the son of George Soros, the Democratic megadonor and Holocaust survivor. (New York Post)

Shiva call ➤ Anthony Epstein, one of the pathologists who discovered the Epstein-Barr virus, died at 102.

What else we’re reading ➤ Two students, two views, one campus conflict in the Midwest … The first traditional Hindu temple in the Middle East promotes a message of interfaith tolerance … Did Taylor Swift get Kanye West kicked out of the Super Bowl?

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Here’s the trailer for the new movie about Bob Marley, which arrived in theaters Wednesday, and stars Jewish actor Kingsley Ben-Adir as the reggae icon. There have long been claims that Marley himself may have been of Syrian Jewish ancestry — and his music has a deep connection to Judaism.

Thanks to PJ Grisar and Talya Zax 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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