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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Israel kills top Hamas leader, why Ireland favors the Palestinians, Harvard Hillel hires new rabbi, Brooklyn synagogue demolished under mysterious circumstances, modern women with the name Vashti, and where to find the best egg cream (hint: it’s not in New York).

OUR LEAD STORY

Former President Donald Trump this past weekend in Ohio. (Getty)

Trump: Any Jew who votes for Democrats ‘hates their religion’

Former President Donald Trump, in an interview Monday, said: “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”

Trump was responding to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, who last week called for new elections in Israel.

Swift reaction: “To make Israel a partisan issue only hurts Israel and the US-Israeli relationship,” Schumer said in a response to a tweet from our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh. “I am working in a bipartisan way to ensure the US-Israeli relationship sustains for generations to come, buoyed by peace in the Middle East.” Rep. Kathy Manning, Democrat of North Carolina, added that Trump’s rhetoric is "particularly disgraceful and dangerous at a time when Jews are facing dangerous levels of antisemitism nationwide.” The ADL called Trump’s remarks “defamatory.”

Pattern of division: This is not the first time Trump has tried to divide the American Jewish community along party lines. Since at least 2019, he said that Jews who vote for Democrats are “very disloyal to Israel” and that some Jews “don’t love Israel enough,” adding the caveat that he wasn’t referring to Orthodox Jews. Trump also said that “evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country,” and that Jews who disagree with Trump are disloyal. Our Louis Keene compiled a list of every time Donald Trump has accused American Jews of disloyalty ➤

ISRAEL AT WAR

An Israeli soldier grieves at the Monday funeral for IDF Capt. Daniel Perez. His family thought he was a hostage before his death was confirmed Sunday. Perez was apparently killed on Oct. 7, and his body remains to Gaza. A coffin with blood belonging to Perez, gathered from his tank’s last battle site, was lowered into the grave. (Getty)

Opinion | Jews have been cursed to be lonely. The war is a reminder to fight back against that fate: “Whether voluntarily lonely — as in the case of Abraham who left his home and set off alone for Canaan — or confined to ghettos,” Jews have historically dwelt apart, writes Michael Oren, formerly Israel’s ambassador to the United States. A rise in anti-Zionism and antisemitism after Oct. 7 brought that back into focus. But, Oren writes, “it is still possible to defy this fate, no matter how inevitable it seems.” Read his essay ➤

Opinion | There is a well of untapped solidarity between progressive Jews and Haredim after Oct. 7: “Despite our differences, the shared grief we’ve experienced can serve as an impetus to appreciate one another’s unique contributions to our people and country, regardless of how we each decide to vote at the end of the day,” writes Nurit Siegal. “Or is total political unity a prerequisite to building empathy, respect and admiration between us?” Read her essay ➤

President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday. (Getty)

Plus…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden spoke on the phone Monday, and Netanyahu agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to D.C. to discuss an alternative approach in Rafah that would target key Hamas elements without a major ground invasion.

Israel killed Hamas’ third-in-command in the Gaza Strip, the White House confirmed on Monday.

Ireland has historically favored the Palestinians in the Mideast conflict. “We see our history in their eyes,” the prime minister said.

A group of volunteers scrub pro-Palestinian graffiti from the sidewalk outside of Effy’s Café in New York City. (Jackie Hajdenberg)

Manhattan residents on Monday cleaned up pro-Palestinian graffiti sprayed near Effy’s, a kosher restaurant.

To evade pro-Palestinian protests, some Jewish and Israeli events in New York City are keeping their locations low-profile.

Washington Monthly published an essay by an Israeli writer that was retracted last week from the literary journal Guernica after that magazine’s editors and co-publisher accused it of being an “apologia for Zionism.”

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ALSO IN THE FORWARD

Left to right: Vashti Dubois, Vashti Bunyan, Vashti Harrison and Vashti Cunningham. (Courtesy/Getty)

Hello, my name is Vashti | Meet a church bishop, a singer, an author and an Olympian: Vashti may not be the hero of the Purim story, but her defiance of King Ahasuerus did make her something of a feminist icon. There are characters named Vashti in novels by Charlotte Brontë and Toni Morrison, and a tiny Texas town that bears her name. Our Beth Harpaz spoke with several Vashtis about the fallen queen who paved their way. “Vashti is a source of power, mystery, courageousness and honor,” said Vashti Dubois, founder of the Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia.

She gave $1 billion to provide free medical school tuition. Her parents helped Jews fleeing Hitler: Ruth Gottesman made international headlines last month when her gift made the Albert Einstein College of Medicine tuition-free in perpetuity. Gottesman grew up in a family known for philanthropy: Among their many charitable activities, her parents helped find homes for child refugees from World War II. They adopted one and raised her in their Baltimore home alongside Gottesman and her two sisters.

Plus…

Billionaire Elon Musk, in an interview posted Monday, pushed back against accusations that he’s been tolerating and promoting antisemitic posts on the social media platform he owns. He then went on to accuse some Jewish philanthropists of funding groups that are antisemitic.

Many believe the New York egg cream, the deceptively named seltzer-and-milk drink, was invented in the early 1900s by a Jewish immigrant on the Lower East Side. But, according to a panel of experts, the country’s best egg creams may be located in a scrappy city a hundred miles southwest of New York.

NEW FROM THE FORWARD

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

(iStock)

🎒 A school district in Virginia is being criticized for announcing that middle school students could opt out of a talk by a Holocaust survivor on Monday, citing Jewish students’ “trauma.” (JTA)

🔥 An arsonist with a tattoo reading “KILL Rabbi Max” was sentenced to decades in prison for setting fire to a rabbi’s home in 2019. (JTA)

🕍 A Brooklyn synagogue dating back to 1907 was demolished on Sunday. The reason why may include a legal dispute, an application for historic landmark status, and a plan for a six-story condo on the property. (WABC, Times of Israel)

👮 Police at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are investigating vandalism over the weekend at the Golda Meir Library, which has been at the center of student protests. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

📘 Pope Francis has written an autobiography, which comes out today. In it, the 87-year-old says he has no plans to resign and isn’t suffering from any health problems that would require doing so. (AP)

Mazel tov ➤ To Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, formerly the Jewish chaplain at Yale, on becoming the new executive director of the Harvard Hillel.

Shiva calls ➤ Ed Mintz, who created an exit polling system called CinemaScore allowing audiences to rank films (a precursor to Rotten Tomatoes), died at 83 … Cass Warner, a filmmaker and granddaughter of Harry Warner, co-founder of Warner Bros., died at 76.

What else we’re reading ➤ The forgotten history of Hitler’s establishment enablers … Virtual worshippers are satisfied, but more Americans choose in-person services … How Israel’s Black Panthers radicalized its Mizrahi Jews, and changed the country.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

🌼 Today is the first day of spring. How do you say flower, tree and leaf in Yiddish? Our Rukhl Schaechter has the answers. Plus: why the Yiddish word “branch” is connected to periodicals and the Talmud.

Thanks to Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected].

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