Ukraine voices, news and analysis + Purim week begins

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Sierra Club cancels trips to Israel, Purim parties back on the calendar, N.Y. sets new guidelines for yeshiva education, and Natalie Portman on the hunt for vegan bacon.

THE WAR IN UKRAINE

A woman evacuates the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on Sunday. (Getty)

Officials from Ukraine and Russia met via a video link Monday morning, a day after Russia attacked a military base very close to the Polish border, threatening an expansion of the war into NATO territory.

‘We are the memory-keepers now’

In the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, American Jews have been following the news from an emotionally close range.

We’ve been inspired by the heroic leadership of Ukraine’s proudly Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We’ve watched as Jewish organizations have galvanized across Ukraine’s borders to help rescue refugees. We were horrified at the missile that struck close to the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial complex, the ravine where the Nazis slaughtered more than 33,000 Jews in 1941. And we’ve been rediscovering the history of Ukrainian Jewry and its influence on our poetry and literature, rediscovering in some cases our own roots in the country.

We invited readers with particular connections to Ukraine to share their stories. Read them here ➤

More voices, news and analysis

Masha Shumiatska in green, center, pictured with her 10 housemates in their kitchen in Lviv.

First person | ‘Everyone believes Ukraine will win – it’s just a question of the price we will pay’:Masha Shumiatska left Kharkiv and is now staying with friends in Lviv. There are 10 people – and six cats – and they sit down for dinner together each night. “It’s the 40 minutes a day during which we try to not talk about the war,” she says. “Each day I see more destruction of our country, it raises my desire to rebuild, whatever it takes.” Read her account ➤

How is the Russia-Ukraine war different from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?Some Palestinians and their advocates have been comparing the two, noting that Ukrainians who throw Molotov cocktails at Russian soldiers are being celebrated as heroes, while Palestinians who attack Israelis are often denounced as terrorists. Our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, devoted her weekly column to explaining why such comparisons are inappropriate, including the vast difference in the stakes. “Russia is a nuclear superpower with an increasingly unstable and dictatorial leader,” she writes. “This could literally lead to World War III.” Read her column ➤

And more…

Follow all our Ukraine coverage here.

JACOB KORNBLUH'S POLITICAL NOTEBOOK

The Yeshiva Kehilath Yakov School in the South Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. (Getty)

Our senior political correspondent on what to expect this week in Washington, New York and Jerusalem…

Exclusive: Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Nations urged Jewish American leaders “not to be complacent” about Russia’s aggression and Vladimir Putin’s “criminal ideology.” The ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, told the group in a meeting on Friday that his late grandfather had survived the Buchenwald concentration camp, and asked them to advocate for the entry of Ukrainians into the U.S. and Israel “in a manner that is not discriminatory,” according to audio obtained from the briefing. He also suggested the leaders urge Russian Jews to speak out against the war.

The Biden administration is considering options to salvage the nuclear deal with Iran. A deal was all but finalized before last week, when Russia tried to tie its signing of the deal to a shield from Ukraine-related sanctions. Now Washington would like to exclude Russia, a signatory to the 2015 deal and member of the group that monitors compliance.

Israel’s opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, released a video on Sunday addressed to “every American family” that criticizes the “desperate rush” to approve a deal that he said would be “even worse than its predecessor.” Netanyahu, who created controversy with a speech about Iran to Congress in 2015, said a new deal would endanger “your country, the United States, and also the entire world.”

Meanwhile, the American Jewish Committee sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the administration not to return to the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. And the Associated Press reported that the State Department is paying $2 million a month to protect former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Brian Hook, his senior advisor and envoy on Iran, in the wake of “serious and credible” threats from Iran.

New York State’s education department plans to present new guidelines for secular education in yeshivas and other private schools to the Board of Regents at its monthly meeting today. The new regulations offer nonpublic schools several options to demonstrate that they meet state standards and take into account different religious and cultural methods for teaching. Orthodox groups have already criticized the new proposal.

U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, who is challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York in this year’s Democratic primary, said the state “should be hands off” on yeshiva education. “Most yeshivas perform well, Suozzi, who is competing with Hochul for Orthodox support, said in an interview with the Forward. “One size fits all does not work.” He said the education department should avoid issuing mandates to yeshivas that are performing well and “try and help” those that are failing. New York City Mayor Eric Adams expressed a similar view last year. Read the story ➤

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

A Purim party in New York City from pre-pandemic times. (Courtesy)

🎭 Purim starts Wednesday night and, after two years of COVID restrictions, New York’s Jews are ready to party like it’s 2019. “The Purim story is about finding ludicrousness in the face of crisis,” said Sophie Ellman-Golan, who is organizing an event on the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library. “When the world is upside down, we’ll turn upside down as well, but we’ll do it with creativity, with art and with ritual and with love for each other.” (JTA)

😮 Speaking of Purim, a string of recent antisemitic attacks have left a Chicago neighborhood on edge as they prep for the holiday. West Rogers Park is home to a dozen or more Jewish schools and some 30 synagogues. “I may not be going to Temple for Purim,” said one nervous resident. (Forward)

✈️ The Sierra Club canceled its scheduled trips to Israel after anti-Zionist activists said the group was “greenwashing the conflict” and “providing legitimacy to the Israeli state, which is engaged in apartheid against the Palestinian people.” The environmental nonprofit has long offered trips to Israel to explore the country’s biodiversity, bird migrations and desert landscape. (JWeekly)

👀 A small stick made by an Israeli startup can read aloud anything you wave it over, providing help for those with poor vision and dyslexia. It was named one of the best inventions of 2021. (Time)

🐷 Natalie Portman is on the hunt for vegan bacon. The actress has teamed up with a French startup to create a plant-based meat that mimics the taste of pork. They spent three years testing it 5,000 times – and may have finally cracked the code. No word yet on whether it will be certified kosher. (Times of Israel)

What else we’re reading ➤ With snowfall in the forecast, a white Purim is expected in Jerusalem for the first time in decades … Italian Jewish communities are hoping to digitize 35,000 Jewish texts … The best Jewish moments from season 4 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

What we’re watching ➤ This 11-minute documentary about a rabbi who suffered a stroke and has spent the pandemic, alone, in a long-term care facility. His daughter used Zoom interviews with her dad and a video camera installed in his room to make the film. “In this time of isolation,” he said, “we’re all perfecting the art of longing.” (The New York Times)

ON THE CALENDAR

On this day in history: Albert Einstein, the world’s favorite genius – and the subject of my forthcoming book – was born on March 14, 1879. When traveling, he was stopped everywhere he went by photographers and autograph seekers. On a visit to Tokyo in 1922, thousands of Japanese fans took part in an all-night vigil outside of the hotel where Einstein and his wife were staying. When he walked out onto the balcony, the throngs cheered with rapture.

In 1929, when Einstein published a paper attempting to explicate his unified field theory, 100 journalists waited on his doorstep as if it was the birth of a royal baby. Upon the paper’s publication, a department store posted it in the window to the crush of huge crowds. Einstein himself couldn’t grasp the appeal. “No living being deserves this sort of reception,” he remarked. Others may beg to differ; the Dec. 27, 1999 issue of Time Magazine declared Einstein the “Person of the Century.”

In the clipping above from 1947, a Forward headline proclaims: “Albert Einstein’s Mother Thought He’d Grow Up To Be A Gornisht.” Gornisht is Yiddish for “nothing” or “zilch.”

It’s also the birthday of Billy Crystal. Here's what he loves about being Jewish.

And it’s Pi Day (3.14 … get it?) Read about the secret Jewish history of the notable number.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Photo: Gil Cohen/AFP via Getty Images

Ukrainian Jews who fled their war-torn country took refuge on a mattress in a hangar in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital, on Sunday. The complex was mostly filled with women, children and senior citizens. Many husbands and fathers have remained behind to fight the Russians.

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Play today’s Vertl puzzle (aka the Yiddish Wordle)

Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh and Eliya Smith for contributing to today’s newsletter.

You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected].

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