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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Today: Columbia student expected in court • Trump nominee compared Biden to Hitler • Riot outside Reform synagogue in Israel • The Tao of JB Pritzker • and much more. |
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene opposed an earlier version of a bill to combat antisemitism because she said it rejected “Gospel” that “the Jews” handed Jesus to executioners. (Getty) |
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Fighting antisemitism, with a Christian loophole
A Senate committee is expected to vote today on whether or not to advance a new version of the Antisemitism Awareness Act. Republicans added an amendment to the bill, posted online Tuesday, which caught the eye of our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh. The loophole reinforces the First Amendment right to preach that the Jews killed Jesus and it protects the statement from being considered antisemitic.
The amendment is a concession to Christian conservatives like Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, who worried that the bill infringed on their religious liberty.
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Watch the hearing live. Here are some related stories from our colleagues at Jewish Insider…
► Dozens of new amendments were introduced, according to Sen. John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado and a co-sponsor of the bill. The Anti-Defamation League, AIPAC and other Jewish groups urged Senators to back the bill and reject any amendments that would significantly alter it. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Jewish Maryland Democrat, is asking his Senate colleagues to vote against it. (JI)
► The committee is also expected today to discuss the bipartisan Protecting Students on Campus Act. “Jewish students and their families are depending on strong leadership to protect their civil rights,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican from Louisiana and the chair of the committee, is expected to say in his opening remarks. (JI)
► More than 20 Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, plan to introduce a bill today that would cut U.S. funding to any United Nations agency that tries to expel, suspend, or limit Israel’s involvement in their work. (JI)
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Doug Emhoff during a 2023 visit to the factory in Krakow, Poland, where Oskar Schindler saved roughly 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. (Laura E. Adkins) |
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Elsewhere in politics… The Trump administration removed some Biden appointees from the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum — among them, Doug Emhoff, the Jewish husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris. “Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized,” Emhoff said in response. (JTA, New York Times)
Ed Martin, the Trump-nominated prosecutor who apologized last week for his past praise of a Nazi sympathizer, is facing fresh scrutiny from Senate Democrats after newly surfaced audio revealed he compared former President Joe Biden to Adolf Hitler. He also questioned American Jews’ commitment to their religion if they vote for Democrats. (Forward)
A new Pew survey found that white evangelicals continue to strongly support Trump, even as 59% Americans disapprove of his performance. (Religion News Service)
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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing to collect troves of personal medical data. (Getty) |
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Perspectives…
Opinion | Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s health secretary, sparked alarm by proposing an autism registry — a move Terrence Petty, a historian of Nazi Germany and father of a son on the autism spectrum, warns echoes the regime’s collection of medical data on the disabled. Read his essay ►
Opinion | Two Jewish governors — Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro and Illinois’ JB Pritzker — have both criticized the Trump administration. Our senior columnist, Rob Eshman, wonders: Who has the better approach? Pritzker’s tough guy or Shapiro’s bridge builder? “For now,” he writes, “Democrats seem to prefer Pritzker’s way: Embrace your faith, and fight.” Read his essay ► |
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators last week outside Harvard University. (Getty) |
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At Columbia… Mahmoud Khalil, a leader in Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protest movement, can move forward with his lawsuit against the government, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. Khalil is challenging the Trump administration’s deportation order against him. (Axios)
Mohsen Mahdawi, a detained Columbia student who the government claims could “potentially undermine” efforts toward Middle East peace, is expected in court today to plead his case that government officials infringed on his free speech and due process rights. (NPR)
A student theater group at Columbia recently performed a Shabbat-observant production of Indecent, which recounts the story of the first same-sex kiss on Broadway, staged in a 1923 Yiddish play. (Spectator)
At Harvard… Harvard released two highly anticipated reports Tuesday, spanning more than 500 pages, that describe widely divergent views of campus life over the past two years, with students on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict describing incidents of discrimination and alienation at the nation’s most prestigious university. (Forward)
Two Harvard students accused of assaulting a Jewish classmate over suspected pro-Israel views avoided criminal trial, after a judge ordered them to complete anger management and 80 hours of community service. (Crimson)
And elsewhere: A vandal who splashed red paint across a Dartmouth University building says it was a demonstration against the war in Gaza. (JTA) |
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Attendees embrace at a joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony on Tuesday. (Getty) |
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Israel marked its second Memorial Day since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. It’s a time, writes Dr. Yael Braudo-Bahat in a new opinion essay, to focus on how post-traumatic stress disorder is impacting Israeli soldiers.
The latest… Israeli police arrested three people suspected of assault during a riot by right-wing activists at a Reform synagogue in Ra’anana, where attendees had gathered to watch a live feed of a joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony organized by bereaved families from both sides of the conflict. (JTA)
Iranian state media reported Wednesday that a man convicted of spying and collaborating with Israeli intelligence was executed, amid ongoing tense nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington. (Reuters)
Irish rap group Kneecap, now under police investigation, publicly distanced itself from Hamas and Hezbollah after Ireland’s prime minister urged them to clarify their position. (JTA)
Organizers canceled tonight’s Independence Day torch-lighting ceremony in Jerusalem due to strong winds and brush fires raging nearby. (Times of Israel)
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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Karin Prien arrives for a meeting Monday in Berlin. (Getty) |
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🇩🇪 Karin Prien, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, is set to become Germany’s first Jewish woman to be a government minister since the Nazis. (i24 News, Times of Israel)
⛺ B’nai Brith Camp in northern Ontario and co-executive director Jacob Brodovsky, a 15-year veteran, parted ways following allegations of anti-Israel sentiment and backlash from parents. (Canadian Jewish News)
📈 One in three Jews say they’ve become more involved in the Jewish community since Oct. 7, 2023, according to a new survey from the Jewish Federations of North America. (eJewishPhilanthropy)
Mazel tov ► To our Talya Zax on being a finalist for a Poynter Journalism Prize … To Zac Agichtein of my alma mater, the Atlanta Jewish Academy, who signed to play basketball for Sarah Lawrence College.
Shiva call ► Seymour Weiner, who became a social media star after being featured as a Mets “Veteran of the Game” last season, died at 98 … David Horowitz, an author and conservative commentator, died at 86.
What else we’re reading ► Meet Pennsylvania’s only Jewish sheriff (Jewish Exponent) … Cross necklaces are popping up everywhere (New York Times) … 18 things to know about the Jewish star of HBO’s The Last of Us (Hey Alma).
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In case you missed it: Members of the Forward’s news team gathered this week to break down President Trump’s first 100 days — and what they’ve meant for American Jews. They discussed campus antisemitism, the war in Israel, Christian nationalism, Elon Musk and much more. |
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Thanks to Ron Kampeas, Jacob Kornbluh, Arno Rosenfeld, Jake Wasserman 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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