 | WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |  | | Good morning. Fallout from the testimony of university presidents before Congress continues, with University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill facing calls to resign. And: our absolutely comprehensive guide to all the Hanukkah-themed entertainment you could possibly want. | | Looking for a Hanukkah gift for your loved ones? Give them the gift of truthful, unbiased Jewish journalism!
When you make a gift in someone’s honor, you’re powering the Forward’s independent journalism. It’s the perfect gift for anyone who relies on our breaking news coverage, diverse opinion columns and daily Yiddishkeit content. | | ISRAEL AT WAR |  | Demonstrators at the March for Israel in Washington, D.C. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) | How the Israel-Hamas war exposed a rift in Haredi Orthodox Judaism. A number of Haredi leaders instructed their congregants to steer clear of the March for Israel three weeks ago — and the ensuing controversy is roiling the Haredi world. Some leaders cited concerns that the march featured speakers “whose entire essence is the opposite of Torah;” others, that the rally appeared to give Israel primacy over religious observance in the Jewish world. But to many Haredim, the march was an important moment to stand against antisemitism and mourn the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack. “This is what it expresses,” one Haredi rabbi said of resistance to the rally: “that Haredi society sadly, tragically, always finds a reason to say no.” Read the story ➤
Opinion | University presidents waffled in condemning calls for genocide. Jews are on our own as much as ever. “I’ve personally heard Jewish students at elite academic institutions — as well as parents of students, and even fellow faculty members — express that they feel unsafe on campus,” writes contributing columnist Dany Bahar, a professor at Brown University. After the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania appeared reluctant to answer a hypothetical question as to how they would respond to calls for Jewish genocide on campus with concrete condemnation at a Congressional hearing this week, he writes, the picture is bleak. Read his essay ➤
|  | Palestinians search through rubble after an Israeli airstrike on the southern Gaza city Khan Younis. (Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images) | Latest from the war… Hostage Eitan Levy died in captivity, the municipality in which he lived announced. Levy, 53, was a taxi driver, and was driving a client to a kibbutz on the Gaza border when the Oct. 7 attack began; the circumstances of his death remain unknown. Separately, Dror Kaplun, 68, a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri previously believed to be held hostage, was confirmed to have been murdered on Oct. 7.
President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “much more assistance” to civilians in Gaza “was urgently required across the board” in a Thursday phone call. Separately, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Palestinian Authority is working with the U.S. to develop a plan for Gaza’s governance after the war.
The well-known Palestinian author Refaat Alareer was killed with several members of his family in an airstrike on Gaza. More than 17,000 Palestinians have been killed in the course of the war to date, per latest estimates.
Egypt reportedly warned Israel that diplomatic ties between the countries would be at risk if displaced Palestinians are allowed to flee into the Sinai Peninsula.
Ariel Zohar, whose entire family was murdered on Oct. 7, celebrated his bar mitzvah, wearing tefillin that belonged to his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, that were rescued from the ruins of his family home.
The son of Gadi Eisenkot, a current Israeli government minister and former chief of the Israel Defense Forces, was killed in Gaza.
The assailant who staged an attack near the Eiffel Tower in Paris last weekend, killing one and injuring two, intended to target Jewish sites; Le Monde writes he “told investigators that he had carried out the act in reaction to the Israeli army's bombardment of Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7.”
|  | No one was injured after shots were fired at an Albany synagogue Thursday afternoon. (Angus Mordant/Bloomberg via Getty Images) | Stateside… Shots were fired at an Albany synagogue on Thursday afternoon, with the gunman shouting “Free Palestine” during the attack. No one was injured, and a 28-year-old man is in custody.
The liberal pro-Israel Jewish group J Street said it was on the brink of reversing its support for the war, writing “If we do not see evidence soon that the government of Israel is, in fact, making meaningful changes to its conduct of the war and its attitudes regarding post-war arrangements, then J Street will no longer be able to provide our organizational support for the current military campaign.”
Rabbi David Wolpe resigned from Harvard’s newly-formed Antisemitism Advisory Group, writing on X that “the ideology that grips far too many of the students and faculty, the ideology that works only along axes of oppression and places Jews as oppressors and therefore intrinsically evil, is itself evil.”
The board of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school called on university President Liz Magill to resign. A donor reportedly pulled a $100 million donation from the school over Magill’s remarks at a Congressional hearing over antisemitism on campus, citing a “permissive approach to hate speech calling for violence against Jews and laissez faire attitude toward harassment and discrimination against Jewish students.”
More than 500 staffers from 140 Jewish organizations around the country have signed an open letter demanding that Biden work toward a cease-fire.
Hundreds gathered at Manhattan’s Columbus Circle to light a menorah and call for a cease-fire at an event featuring “prayers, songs and speeches from activists, rabbis and politicians who denounced Israel’s offensive in Gaza.”
| |  | Want more Forward? Explore all our newsletters at forward.com/newsletters | | ALSO IN THE FORWARD |  | Gene Siskel, left, and Roger Ebert in 1986. (Norm Staples/Getty Images) | Every American Hanukkah special, movie and TV episode worth knowing about. It wouldn’t be a proper American Hanukkah without a wide and occasionally bizarre array of themed entertainment to enjoy for the holiday. For those unsure what to watch over the weekend, our PJ Grisar has “a rundown of the most significant cultural artifacts commemorating our little zealously armed resistance to Hellenic assimilation in 165 B.C.E.” | | A rabbi on his last conversation with friend and mentor Rabbi David Ellenson. Ellenson, a former president of Hebrew Union College, died unexpectedly this week at 76. Only hours before his death, in a conversation with Zev Eleff, the co-editor of a book to which he had contributed an essay, he was reflective, commenting on the war, the joys of being a grandparent and the freedom of losing track of institutional Jewish politics in retirement. “I will miss his guidance, his friendship and his scholarship,” Eleff writes. “Most of all, I will miss his smile.” | | | | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |  | A rendering of the planned memorial to the victims of the Tree of Life shooting, as part of a broader reimagined complex at the site of the synagogue. (Studio Liebskind) | 🕍 Plans for a Pittsburgh memorial to the victims of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting were unveiled. A committee including a representative from each of the nine families who lost loved ones in the attack helped advise on the design. (Forward)
🗳️ New York Democrats announced that their candidate for the special election to replace former Rep. George Santos would be Tom Suozzi, a vocal supporter of Israel who previously held the seat for six years. Jewish voters form approximately 13% of the electorate in the district. (Associated Press, Forward)
😟 The Department of Homeland Security issued a new safety guide for houses of worship, aiming to help religious groups prepare for targeted attacks on their communities. (Associated Press)
👀 Rep. Mike Johnson said that before his recent election as speaker of the house, “the Lord told me very clearly” to be ready to become “Moses” leading the U.S. through a “Red Sea moment ”while addressing the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. (X)
🕎 Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff are lighting three menorahs through Hanukkah, including one on loan from the Tree of Life synagogue. (JTA)
What else we’re reading ➤ How Germany’s “cultural scene navigates a clampdown on criticism of Israel” … “Why I built my own tribe for Hanukkah” … “Norman Lear’s many American families.”
| | PHOTO OF THE DAY |  | (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) | Well, well, well, what have we here: just a person dressed as a gigantic dreidel marching alongside a would-be Seleucid soldier at the Annual Menorah Lighting ceremony. | Thanks to Benyamin Cohen for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. | | | Support Independent Jewish Journalism | Without you, the Forward’s stories don’t just go unread — they go untold. Please support our nonprofit journalism today. | | | | |
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