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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Good morning from Scarsdale, New York, where the Forward reported in 1930 that there were Jewish farmers who produced “eggs that taste like fresh air.”
Today: Student journalists fear reporting on protests • Jewish coach wins NCAA basketball championship • and the secret Jewish history of Betty Boop.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday. (Getty) |
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Tension over triumph
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last-minute trip to Washington this week to meet with President Donald Trump was meant to be a diplomatic win. Instead, it highlighted how much has changed.
Their Monday meeting in the Oval Office had the optics of a reunion between longtime allies, but beneath the smiles was a growing list of disagreements.
Netanyahu, under pressure at home and abroad, hoped to secure concessions from Trump — including relief from newly imposed U.S. tariffs and support for his hardline stance on Gaza and Iran. Instead, Trump used the moment to announce his own foreign policy pivot: reopening nuclear talks with Tehran. Trump said the U.S. and Iran would hold “direct” talks on Saturday, the first such meeting since the 2015 nuclear accord. Trump, who withdrew from that agreement in 2018, said if the talks were not successful, “Iran is going to be in great danger.” (JTA)
Trump refused to lift the new 17% tariff on Israeli goods — imposed despite Israel dropping all remaining duties on U.S. imports in a last-minute bid for exemption. (Times of Israel)
Trump again floated his idea for the U.S. to take over Gaza, displacing millions of Palestinians while the area is rebuilt. “It’s an incredible piece of important real estate,” Trump said. (JTA)
Trump offered to mediate between Turkey and Israel, telling Netanyahu he could help resolve tensions — but “you have to be reasonable.” (Axios)
Elsewhere in politics…
Ahead of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s visit last week, the U.S. Naval Academy removed a display honoring Jewish female graduates along with nearly 400 books — including some on the Holocaust, antisemitism, and the history of white supremacy in America. The change was intended to comply with an order to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. (JTA)
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The University of Michigan announced this month it was closing down its D.E.I. offices. (Getty) |
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On campus… Harvard plans to borrow $750 million from Wall Street as a precaution, just days after the Trump administration said it would review $9 billion in federal funding to the university as part of its campus antisemitism crackdown. (Bloomberg, Crimson)
An attorney representing a pro-Palestinian demonstrator who was arrested last year at the University of Michigan was detained at the airport and asked to surrender his cellphone. (Detroit Free Press)
Rep. Jerry Nadler, the House’s most senior Jewish member, slammed Trump for using Jewish safety as a political smokescreen to target elite universities, calling him a “would-be dictator” who “doesn’t give a damn about antisemitism.” (Guardian)
Amid a Trump-led crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism, student journalists are pulling their bylines, fearing legal risks, online attacks and career fallout. (Guardian)
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A woman walks through rubble today outside a building hit by Israeli air strikes in Gaza. (Getty) |
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The latest… An Israeli strike Monday near a Gaza charity kitchen was one of a series of strikes that killed over 30 people, mostly women and children, according to hospital officials. (AP)
A new lawsuit filed on behalf of the families of Oct. 7 victims — including the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin — accuses Bashar Masri, a Palestinian American businessman, of helping Hamas hide their tunnels under properties he owns in Gaza. (Jewish Insider)
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan pulled a promo for an upcoming interview with freed hostage Liri Albag on Monday, after she asked for its removal following online backlash from Netanyahu supporters over her criticism of the prime minister. (Haaretz, Times of Israel)
Swedish teens were recruited by gangs with ties to Iran to target the Israeli embassy in Stockholm and other sites of Jewish interests, according to the country’s security service. (CNN)
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Shell-shocking birth
Mommy the Galápagos tortoise, a beloved fixture at the Philadelphia Zoo, just became a mom for the first time — at nearly 100 years old. She and her partner Abrazzo welcomed four hatchlings, in what appears to be a record-setting birth for the species. Millennia before Mommy earned her given name, the biblical Sarah was told, at the age of 90, that she would conceive against all odds. “If past is prologue,” writes our PJ Grisar, “this monumental nativity could change everything.” Go deeper ►
Plus: In honor of the arrival of the Betty Boop musical on Broadway, here’s a look back at the character’s Jewish origin story. (Forward)
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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Florida coach Todd Golden celebrates after winning the college basketball championship. (Getty) |
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🏀 Israeli-American guard Emanuel Sharp of the University of Houston was blocked in the final seconds of the NCAA title game Monday night, sealing the Florida Gators’ dramatic 65-63 comeback win. Florida’s Todd Golden became the first Jewish head coach to win March Madness since 1988. (JTA)
🇩🇪 A 99-year-old former Nazi camp secretary — likely the last person Germany will ever convict for Holocaust-related crimes — has died, according to the court where she was tried. (JTA)
💻 Microsoft fired two employees who disrupted its 50th-anniversary event to protest the company’s A.I. work with the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers. (AP)
🎭 A play about Roald Dahl’s antisemitism — the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and other beloved children’s books — took home three honors at the prestigious Olivier Awards, London’s top theater ceremony. (JTA)
🏡 A Brooklyn street was renamed Lubavitcher Rebbe Way, in honor of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who lived in a nearby house before his death in 1994. (New York Jewish Week)
🏃 Nev Schulman, the Jewish host of MTV’s Catfish, ran the Jerusalem Marathon this weekend to support an Israeli group that pairs blind runners with sighted guides — a role he’s taken on in races across the U.S. (Algemeiner)
What we’re listening to ► When the Wolves Came, a new podcast about the fissures within U.S. evangelicalism over Christian nationalism, and the pastors who are resisting.
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Passover is all about asking questions — and my pug Fergus and I have one for you. |
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Thanks to Chana Pollack and Talya Zax 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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Today’s newsletter made me: |
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Support independent Jewish journalism |
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Support Jewish journalism this Passover. Your gift will go twice as far with a match by the Forward board. |
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