Jewish Republicans endorse Democrat for governor, Torah snatched from Vegas hotel, rabbi's father helped legalize abortions, why Zabar's is being sued, and the secret Jewish history of Boris Becker. |
Police tape at the scene of the Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, Illinois. (Getty) |
Robin Washington, our editor-at-large, spent the last two days in Highland Park, Illinois, covering fallout from the massacre at Monday’s July Fourth parade that killed seven people and left dozens more wounded. Shortly before 21-year-old Robert E. Crimo III confessed, Robin spent time at the Country Kitchen, eating lunch with several Jewish residents in their 60s. They spoke about what could have led Crimo, who lived near the parade route, to do such a thing, and what might happen next in the town of 30,000, about half of whom are Jewish.
“I think the Highland Park Jewish community is looking at this as the most personal and intense version of what’s going on in the country,” said Marc Slutsky, a psychiatrist. “This is a much more dangerous world.” Read the story ➤
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Mary Bernier at a shrine to the victims that includes church-shaped memorials that her husband carved for each victim. (Robin Washington) |
Robin also visited a memorial steps from where the shots erupted. Despite the fact that five of the seven people slain were part of Jewish families, a Chicagoan named Jose Serrano Gallegos carved wooden churches in their honor, similar to ones he had made for the 19 children and two teachers killed May 24 in Uvalde, Texas. Mary Bernier, Gallegos’s wife, told Robin that the churches were modeled after a cathedral in his native Mexico, and that he could carve a synagogue or a Star of David to add to the memorial. “I think in this situation,” she said, “no faith rejects the other.” Also at the shrine were seven wooden posts topped by blue hearts, one for each person killed. The Rev. Quincy Worthington, whose Highland Park Presbyterian Church, hosted a prayer vigil Tuesday night, said that some local Lutherans had made the hearts, rather than crosses, since several of the victims were Jewish. Told that the markers also appeared to feature ichthys, the Christian sign of the fish, Worthington replied: “small steps.” More from Highland Park |
Candles and flowers were joined by anti-gun messages at the memorial. (Robin Washington) |
Opinion | Jewish tradition compels us to not become numb to gun violence: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel would have been the first to demand that “thoughts and prayers” offered in lofty speeches be replaced by a bodily commitment to justice, writes Rabbi Menachem Creditor, the founder of an anti-gun violence group for clergy. “In one of the final interviews Heschel gave before his death,” Creditor notes, “he articulated an essential commitment we must internalize for the sake of our wounded nation: ‘I don’t accommodate myself to the violence that goes on everywhere.’” Read his essay ➤ Rep. Brad Schneider, who represents Highland Park and was preparing to march in Monday’s parade when the shots rang out, told our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, that he’s “holding on to the anger” and is “hopeful” that members of Congress will join forces to ban assault weapons. He called guns like the one Crimo used “weapons of war that don’t belong on our streets.” Read the interview ➤ Of blessed memory |
Left to right: Katherine Goldstein, Irina and Kevin McCarthy. (Courtesy) |
‘She was everything’: Irina McCarthy, a Russian Jewish immigrant, was killed along with her husband, Kevin, who shielded their 2-year-old son during Monday’s attack. The boy, whose name is Aiden, continues to ask for his parents. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than $2 million has been raised to assist him and his grandparents, who will now raise him. Michael Levberg, Irina’s father, called her “the love of my life.” Read her obituary ➤ ‘The nicest person I’ve ever met’:The day before Katherine Goldstein, 64, was murdered, she visited the botanical gardens, went to Dairy Queen, and watched a movie. On the Fourth of July, she took her older daughter, Cassie, to the parade. “I got to have 22 years with the best mom in the world,” Cassie said after the shooting. Read her obituary ➤
Stay informed throughout the day with our ongoing coverage of the shooting in Highland Park.
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George Michaels, a Jewish assemblyman, after casting the deciding vote to allow abortions in New York state. (Getty) |
How a Jewish legislator’s last-minute vote legalized abortion in New York in 1970: It was Passover eve, and Assemblyman George M. Michaels was having a change of heart. He represented a heavily Catholic district and was planning to vote against a bill legalizing abortion. Instead, with tears in his eyes, Michaels, acknowledging that his constituents would “condemn me for what I am about to do,” voted in favor. More than 50 years later, his son, a rabbi, and his granddaughters reflected on the ramifications of that fateful vote — it cost Michaels his seat in the Assembly — and his broader legacy. Read the story ➤ Opinion | The U.S. government should continue looking into death of a Palestinian American journalist:The State Department released a report this week that said the bullet was “likely” fired by an Israeli soldier, unintentionally — a report that, our Rob Eshman argues, pleased nobody. “Palestinians and Israel’s critics trashed it as a whitewash,” he writes. Meanwhile, Israel’s staunchest defenders cried foul, calling it antisemitic. “If an investigation roots out bad actors among IDF soldiers, that’s good for Israel,” Eshman says. “If a report reduces the likelihood another journalist will die during an Israeli operation, that’s good for Israel. If a full and transparent report exonerates the IDF, that’s good for Israel.” Read his essay ➤ 2022 Midterms: Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, is the Democratic nominee for governor, facing a far-right Christian nationalist, Doug Mastriano, in November. On Wednesday, 10 prominent Jewish Republicans in the state endorsed Shapiro.
And one more: How an elite group of Jewish refugees helped defeat the Third Reich
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Jack Abraham with his family Torah, which has been used by Jewish travelers around the world. (Courtesy) |
💎 A New York jeweler who travels frequently to industry trade shows often brings his family Torah scroll with him and organizes services at the gatherings. During a trip last month to the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, he said, the Torah was stolen. He’s offering a $10,000 reward. (NY Jewish Week) ✡️ Baruch Lebovits, a Brooklyn cantor from a prominent Hasidic family who was convicted of sexually abusing a teenager, died at 71. Hundreds attended his funeral in Jerusalem and a separate gathering in Borough Park. An obituary in an Israeli Orthodox news outlet did not mention his conviction, guilty plea or time in prison. (JTA) 🤝 A federal judge told Texas prison officials that they can carry out next week’s scheduled execution of a death row inmate only if they grant all of his religious requests, including allowing his spiritual adviser to hold his hand while he receives a lethal injection. Meanwhile, attorneys for the inmate are hoping to delay the execution so that he can donate a kidney. (AP, NY Post) ⚖️ Attorneys battled Wednesday over what evidence the jury should see during the sentencing trial for the 23-year-old man convicted of killing 14 students and three teachers at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. Among the details being debated: the swastikas carved on his gun’s magazine. (AP) 🇷🇺 Exiled from Russia, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt is officially out as Moscow’s chief rabbi after 29 years. “I am leaving a community in distress,” Goldschmidt said. “But from the outside, I will do my utmost to help my beloved community.” A spokesperson for the Moscow Jewish Religious Society said: “There is no question of successors, perhaps there will be none.” (JTA) Mazel tov ➤ To Israeli singer Daniela Pick and her husband, movie director Quentin Tarantino, on the birth of their second child, a girl. The couple splits their time between Los Angeles and Tel Aviv.
What else we’re reading ➤ Who would sue Zabar’s? This company … A Georgia monument, seen by some as satanic, was damaged from a predawn explosion … Primatologist Jane Goodall to set up a conservation organization in Israel.
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Boris Becker with his mother, Elvira, who was born Jewish in Czechoslovakia. (Wikimedia) |
On this day in history: Boris Becker, arguably one of the best tennis players of the modern era, became the youngest person to win men’s singles at Wimbledon on July 7, 1985. Becker, then 17, grew up in Germany though his mother, Elvira Pisch, has Jewish roots. She was born into a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia, and raised Catholic during WWII. Last year on this day, we reported on a new book that claimed former President Donald Trump once told his chief of staff that “Hitler did a lot of good things.”
Today at 3 p.m. ET: A new documentary about Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” highlights the Jewish roots that shaped the song’s creation – including an interview with Cohen’s rabbi. Our PJ Grisar, whose deep dive into “Hallelujah” won an award from the American Jewish Press Association last week, will speak with the directors about their film and the song. Register now for the free virtual event ➤
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(Tim De Waele/AFP via Getty) |
Simon Clarke of Team Israel won the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday amid a chaos of crashes on cobblestoned streets. Clarke, 35, was in tears as he crossed the finish line. “After the winter I had when I had no team,” he said, “to then have Israel ring me up and say ‘We’ll give you that chance’ just gives you such a reality check to make the most of every opportunity.” ––– Plus: Play today's Vertl puzzle, the Yiddish Wordle Thanks to Jordan Greene, Jacob Kornbluh, Jodi Rudoren and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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