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| | | WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | Today: Mamdani defends ‘globalize the intifada’ as free speech • ADL lays off staff • Social security cuts impacting Holocaust survivors • and Jewish quarterback in trouble at Mormon university. |
| | | | Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump in April at the White House. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) |
| Trump ties U.S. aid to Netanyahu’s trial
President Donald Trump is pressuring Israel to end Prime Minister Netanyahu’s corruption trial, calling it a “political witch hunt” that could derail hostage talks with Hamas and Iran negotiations — and suggesting U.S. military aid could be at risk if the case continues, an unprecedented move tying Israel’s security to one leader’s legal troubles. (JTA, Axios)
Opinion | The many charges against Netanyahu — dating back to 2020 and including bribery, fraud and breach of trust — are not trivial, writes our Tel Aviv-based columnist, Dan Perry. “As to your threat that the U.S. might withhold aid over the trial — well, that’s blackmail,” Dan writes in an open letter to Trump. “It sounds more like a mafia tactic than a legitimate use of foreign policy. It’s only right to remind you that U.S. aid to Israel is designed to advance shared strategic and security interests, and the U.S. will suffer if Israel is not able to uphold its side of that bargain.” Read his essay ►
Opinion | Can Trump’s Middle East nuclear strategy be called dangerous if it isn’t even a strategy? “We are left with a paradox,” writes Terrence Petty. “The same man who derides NATO, cozies up to autocrats and hurls figurative firebombs at America’s democratic institutions is, for now, playing statesman in the world’s most volatile region.” Read his essay ►
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| | People walk past shops selling dried fruits and nuts at the Tajrish Bazaar in Tehran on Monday. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images) |
| War with Iran… In an overnight post to social media, Trump said he is not talking to Iran or offering them anything “since we totally OBLITERATED their nuclear facilities.” (Times of Israel)
Describing the U.S. attack on the underground Fordo facility, Trump told Fox News, “The bomb went through it like it was butter, like it was absolute butter.” (Times of Israel)
The U.N.’s top nuclear inspector warned that Iran could resume uranium enrichment within months, contradicting Trump’s claim that Tehran has abandoned its nuclear ambitions following a U.S. strike. (New York Times)
Officials are warning that Iranian sleeper cells or sympathizers in the U.S. could pose a rising threat — including possible attacks on Jewish communities. (Jewish Insider)
Trump administration immigration officials have begun arresting Iranians living in the U.S. — including the wife of a U.S. citizen in New Orleans and Iranian Christian asylum-seekers in Los Angeles, which has the largest Iranian community outside Iran. (AP, Religion News Service, Forward)
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| | Holocaust survivors at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in April. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) |
| Trump cuts are hurting Holocaust survivors, advocates say
A 100-year-old Holocaust survivor in Illinois was stunned to receive a Social Security notice demanding a refund. Advocates say she’s not alone. A glitch in a program for low-income seniors wrongly flags restitution payments to Nazi victims as income, disqualifying many survivors from benefits. Though those payments are legally exempt, errors persist — and attorneys say the Trump administration’s staffing cuts and office closures have made it harder to resolve them, leaving some of the nation’s most vulnerable Jews trapped in bureaucratic limbo. Go deeper ►
Plus… A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a bill Friday to help families of Holocaust survivors recover or get compensation for art looted by the Nazis, aiming to fix legal hurdles that have stalled previous restitution efforts. (Jewish Insider)
Jack Moran, a U.S. soldier, helped free Andrew Roth from the Buchenwald concentration camp 80 years ago. Now, both nearing 100, they reunited for an event at the Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. (NPR)
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| | | | Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani at the New York City Pride March on Sunday. (Noam Galai/Getty Images) |
| Mamdani won’t police speech
Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, refused to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” again on Sunday, despite repeated calls from some Democratic colleagues and Jewish organizations, writes our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh.
“I don’t believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech,” Mamdani said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, following his resounding victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“My concern is, to start to walk down the line of making clear what language I believe is permissible or impermissible takes me into a place similar to that of the president,” he added, referencing the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and permanent U.S. resident who was held for months by the federal government for deportation over his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests. |
| | | | | | Bob Vylan performing at the Glastonbury festival on Saturday in England. (Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Imagesy) |
| The Israeli military ordered evacuations in northern Gaza on Sunday ahead of escalating operations against Hamas, while President Trump urged Israel to “make the deal in Gaza” as ceasefire talks resumed.
Here’s the latest… A Knesset committee advanced a bill Sunday to shut down the news division of Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, and its Arabic-language channel, drawing sharp criticism from the Attorney General’s office, which warned it threatens press freedom by punishing outlets that defy government pressure. (Haaretz)
On Saturday at Glastonbury, the U.K.’s biggest summer music festival, a British punk band called Bob Vylan led thousands in chanting “Death, death to the IDF” during one of at least two pro-Palestinian performances at the event. (JTA, New York Times)
Leo Terrell, who heads the Justice Department’s task force to combat antisemitism, said he plans to consult with the State Department ahead of the band’s U.S. tour to prevent the spread of violent antisemitic rhetoric. (Jewish Insider)
During the 12-day conflict with Iran, Birthright trip organizers rushed to evacuate thousands of participants, with CEO Gidi Mark noting that while they’ve long handled security threats, this situation was on “a different level.” (Washington Post)
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| | | | Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan were longtime fans of each other’s work, but never met until this new duet. (Streisand: PL Gould/Getty Images; Dylan: Blank Archives/Getty Images) |
| Babs, Bob, and bistros
Barbara Streisand’s new album of duets features a collaboration with Bob Dylan. “On paper they seem an unlikely vocal duo,” writes Seth Rogovoy, our music critic and the author of a book about Dylan. “Some might even call them Beauty and the Beast.” But, they have “the virtuosity of jazz vocalists” leading to an “utterly gorgeous” sound. Go deeper ►
Opinion | Eyal Shani, a celebrated Israeli chef with dozens of restaurants around the world, was once a global icon. Now he’s feeling the heat, with some customers protesting the eateries. But when our senior columnist, Rob Eshman, went to lunch at Shani’s downtown Los Angeles restaurant, he found that “the diners, enjoying their plump sandwiches, seemed oblivious to all,” adding that they “appeared deeply comforted. Shani’s food appeared to ground them in the moment. It might have been born out of the conflict, but it somehow transported diners far from it.” Read his essay ► |
| | | | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt speaks onstage at the ADL's national conference in March. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images) |
| 🔎 Amid record fundraising, the Anti-Defamation League laid off 22 employees, as part of an effort to focus its work more narrowly on antisemitism as it shifts away from broader civil rights and public policy work. (Forward)
🎒 A Seattle family is suing the state’s largest school district, alleging it failed to address ongoing antisemitic harassment — including death threats and a student spitting on their daughter — that ultimately forced her to leave high school. (KOMO News, King 5)
💰 Far-right pundit Candace Owens accused Rabbi Shlomo Riskin — the widely respected founder of Ohr Torah Stone, a Modern Orthodox educational institution — of bribing pastors to criticize her, a claim the organization denounced as “entirely false, baseless, and defamatory.” (JTA)
🏳️🌈 The Supreme Court ruled Friday that parents who object to LGBTQ-themed storybooks on religious grounds may pull their children out of public school during those lessons. (New York Times)
🇸🇪 A far-right Swedish political party apologized for its past ties to Nazism and antisemitism, aiming to reposition itself as more mainstream ahead of next year’s national elections. (JTA)
🏈 Jake Retzlaff, a Jewish quarterback at Brigham Young University and a pitch person for Manischewitz, plans to transfer schools. He’s facing possible suspension for violating the Mormon school’s honor code for having premarital sex — an admission that emerged while responding to a 2023 civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault. (ESPN, Salt Lake Tribune)
🏀 Daniel Guetta, a 6-foot-2 basketball player from Israel, committed to Oklahoma State in Stillwater, where he will start in the fall. In the Sooner State, he joins fellow Israeli Ofri Naveh, who recently signed with the basketball team at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. (X, Sports Illustrated)
Shiva calls ► Mortimer Matz, the public relations guru who co-founded Nathan’s annual hot dog eating contest, died at 100 … Lalo Schifrin, the Grammy-winning composer of the theme to Mission: Impossible, died at 93.
What else we’re reading ► “Young Republicans are fueling the GOP’s generational divide on Israel” (Washington Post) … “After centuries of isolation, ultra-Orthodox Jews engage with the world more than ever” (AP) … “America deported her for publishing a book titled Lesbian Love. Years later, she was murdered by the Nazis for being Jewish.” (Smithsonian Magazine)
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| | | | One of my go-to comfort binges is Somebody Feed Phil, the Netflix series where Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal eats his way around the globe with a fork and a grin.
In earlier seasons, each episode ended with a sweet video call to his parents from his hotel room. After they passed away, Rosenthal started phoning famous friends instead — and in the new season, that means a post-Australia catch-up with none other than Mel Brooks, who turned 99 on Saturday. The Netflix version only runs a few minutes, but Rosenthal just dropped the full 20-minute cut online. It’s a delight.
Related… FX is nearing a deal to make a TV series based on Young Frankenstein, the 1974 Brooks comedy. (Deadline)
Our Talya Zax’s new essay on why Brooks’ wisdom matters more than ever (Forward)
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| Thanks to Ron Kampeas, Jacob Kornbluh 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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