WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Jewish high school basketball team escorted to safety after antisemitic slurs cancel game, poll finds Donald Trump a person of faith, Australia makes performing a Nazi salute punishable with jail time, and all the Jew-ish angles to last night’s Golden Globe Awards.

ISRAEL AT WAR

The latest: An Israeli strike on south Lebanon on Monday killed a senior Hezbollah commander, according to Lebanese sources … Clashes in the occupied West Bank Sunday killed a 3-year-old Palestinian girl and an Israeli police officer, among others.

The International Court of Justice hears a case last year in The Hague. (Getty)

All eyes will be on The Hague this week where Israel faces charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice: The charges, brought by South Africa, stem from Israel’s attacks in Gaza during the current war with Hamas. Israel has called the accusation “an absurd blood libel,” but is nonetheless deploying a legal team to the Netherlands to defend itself. What’s behind South Africa’s accusation and how will Israel make its case? Read the story ➤

Opinion | Calls to depopulate Gaza are a dangerous pipe dream: Some right-wing Israeli politicians have, in recent days, suggested resettling Gazans outside of the Strip, including alleged talks with third countries. The idea is basically the opposite to that of left-wing anti-Israel activists who are calling for one Palestine, from the river to the sea. “Anyone familiar with Israelis’ and Palestinians’ parallel histories of refugeehood and exile,” argues Evan Gottesman, “should understand that displacement and dispossession will not extinguish a people’s national aspirations.” Read his essay ➤

A new TV ad, paid for by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, features the eight American hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for nearly 100 days. Watch it above.

The hostages…

Ahead of the 100-day mark of the Hamas attack, a delegation of hostage family members traveled to Qatar on Saturday to meet with the country’s prime minister. Qatar has played an integral role in negotiating hostage release deals between Israel and Hamas.

Some families of the hostages will be in Washington, D.C., on Monday and Tuesday where they plan to meet with Congressional leadership and State Department officials.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, is being criticized for calling those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and now serving prison time as “hostages.”

On Sunday, the IDF gave a tour to journalists of some of the network of tunnels that Hamas reportedly used on Oct. 7 to attack Israel. Above, two Israeli soldiers stand guard at the entrance. (Getty)

Plus…

Jennifer Garner’s daughter was photographed wearing a sweatshirt with a watermelon on it, which has become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. How did this fruit get linked to the war?

There’s a viral social media post going around that implies Zionist doctors are out to harm their patients of color. Our digital culture reporter, Mira Fox, explains why it sounds eerily like a Soviet-era antisemitic conspiracy theory.

After an anti-Israel protest in Los Angeles, vandals defaced a local cemetery with “Free Gaza” and “Intifada” graffiti.

An Israeli Chicago Bulls fan was slain on Oct. 7. The team’s star forward sent a gift to his mother.

Meet Susan Greene, our first full-time Israel correspondent in nearly seven years. (Courtesy)

News from our newsroom…

The Forward hired Susan Greene, a Pulitzer Prize winner, to report from Israel. “Maybe all that any of us can do is ask better questions of more people and listen more carefully to the answers,” she told our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren. Susan will be stationed in Israel for six months.

Covering a war costs money. We’re stretching to hire Susan, and also need to pay to support her work in Israel. Transportation, translation, security, photography. If you want to help make it possible, to make sure everyone has access, always, to our independent Jewish journalism about the conflict, make a tax-deductible donation today.

The Forward is made possible by readers like you.

Support our work with a donation of any size.

Want more Forward? Explore all our newsletters at forward.com/newsletters

ABOUT LAST NIGHT

Robert Downey, Jr. and Cillian Murphy (seated) won Golden Globe Awards Sunday night for their performances in Oppenheimer. (Getty)

Our PJ Grisar watched the Golden Globes Sunday night, where Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s drama about the Jewish physicist behind the atom bomb, was the night’s big winner, netting major awards for actor, supporting actor, director, score and best dramatic motion picture. Barbie, its accidental companion piece, based on a toy of surprising Jewish origins, won for best song and the new category of cinematic and box office achievement. Maestro, about another iconic Jewish American figure, Leonard Bernstein, fell short of its nominated categories, walking away empty-handed.

Some Jew-ish highlights…

Jewish-Buddhist actor Robert Downey Jr. won his fourth Golden Globe for playing Lewis Strauss, the onetime president of New York’s Temple Emanu-El and Atomic Energy Commission chair who was the main force behind revoking J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance. (As PJ previously reported, part of Strauss’ dislike of Oppenheimer stemmed from their divergent approaches to Jewish identity.) In a strange gaffe in his acceptance speech, Downey said dozens had approached him to say he was “unrecognizably subtle as Leonard Strauss,” getting his character’s name wrong. Maybe he had Maestro on his mind.

Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, the real-life couple who co-wrote Anatomy of a Fall, won for their screenplay. Triet, who directed, won for best non-English film as well. Harari is the grandson of Jewish Egyptian-French actor Clément Harari, known for playing a rabbi in the 1998 film Train of Life.

J. Smith-Cameron, nominated for her role as Gerri in the farewell season of Succession, was spotted wearing a yellow ribbon pin to raise awareness for the people still held hostage in Gaza.

– From our Sponsor: The Association for Jewish Studies –

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Former President Donald Trump speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in October in Las Vegas. (Getty)

🇺🇸 Most Republican voters consider former President Donald Trump to be a person of faith, ahead of more vocally religious Republicans like former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Mitt Romney, according to a new poll. (Deseret News)

🏀 A girl’s basketball game between two New York high schools was canceled in the midst of play after one team hurled antisemitic insults at the team from a Jewish private school. Security was needed to safely escort the Jewish team off the court. The coach from the opposing team was fired. (NY Jewish Week)

🏫 House Republicans plan to use investigations into antisemitism on college campuses as a way to more broadly attack elite institutions of higher learning, and potentially rile up their base in an election year. (New York Times)

👏 Australia banned performing a Nazi salute or displaying a swastika in public. Violators of the new law may be punished with up to 12 months in prison. (Times of Israel)

🎒 A teacher at an Illinois public school proselytized students, leading a Muslim student to convert to Christianity. The parents of the Muslim student sued the school district, but a federal judge has now dismissed the case. (Religion News Service)

🎞️ The marketing materials for a new movie about a man who saved more than 600 children from the Holocaust left out any mention of the word “Jewish.” Following criticism, Warner Bros. will amend the materials. (Variety)

Related: Here’s the real story behind the movie.

Shiva calls ➤ Joseph Lelyveld, the son of a rabbi and a former top editor at The New York Times, died at 86 … Menachem Daum, a gerontologist-turned-filmmaker who co-directed a film about Hasidim in America, died at 77.

What else we’re reading ➤ Residents of Hitler’s alpine home rise up against neo-Nazi visitors … The Chicago rabbi serving as a bridge between Black and Jewish communities … A small Spanish city’s bid to build Europe’s biggest Buddha.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(Getty)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he departs from Abu Dhabi for Saudi Arabia on Monday, during his weeklong trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East.

Thanks to PJ Grisar 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.

If you’ve received this newsletter in error, our apologies! You can update your email preferences, or email us at [email protected] and we’ll update our records.