If you were wondering why I missed last week's newsletter, it's because I was in Rhode Island for a family beach vacation (yes, Rhode Island has beautiful beaches; it's an island.) We missed the apparent "calamari comeback" heralded at the Democratic National Convention (who knew?) but made the remarkable Cliff Walk, perhaps the perfect pandemic activity -- a little exercise, a little architecture, good fencing and great sea breeze, modest crowd on a weekday morning with everyone ready to mask up as they pass. (Pro-tip if you go: leave a car at Narragansett Avenue -- that's the farthest the trolley will take you back.)

Since we were staying so close to Newport, we also had to swing by Touro Synagogue, the nation's oldest. As expected, we weren't able to go inside and examine the details of the chandeliers and columns that its architect, Peter Harrison, designed for the proud Palladian-style building completed in 1763 -- the synagogue has been shuttered to the public since March. Instead, the guides are giving "tours" in Touro's lovely garden, and my daughter and I got a private history lesson about the nation's earliest Jews from a synagogue member named Juliette. 

Maybe you know this history. The very first known Jews on these shores were 23 Spanish and Portugese refugees who arrived in New Amsterdam from Dutch Brazil in 1654. They formed Cong. Shearith Israel on what was then called Mill Street, in Lower Manhattan, in 1730. (The synagogue moved several times and is now on the Upper West Side, which is why Touro generally gets billed as "the oldest.")  Rhode Island, a breakaway colony from Massachuetts rooted in religious freedom, attracted Jewish settlers as early as 1658. These were also of Spanish and Portugese origin, but came via Barbados, where a community had existed since the 1920s. They formed a congregation called Nephuse Israel, or "Scattered of Israel," and by 1677 purchased land for a cemetery. 

The thing that stuck with me most about the story Juliette told us was that when it came time to build a synagogue, in the late 1750s, none of the members of what was by then renamed Cong. Jeshurat (Salvation of) Israel knew what it should look like. Generations of their families had apparently remained proud, committed Jews without ever stepping foot in one. Juliette said they relied on Isaac Touro, the Dutch-born cantor they recruited in 1960 to lead them (he soon became a rabbi, too), to advise Harrison on the specifics, from pillars to pews. 

Maybe I'm stretching here, but it resonated because here we are, five months since most American Jews stepped foot inside a sanctuary. We're reinventing rituals right and left, creating virtual high-holiday services with mobile-shofar squads; hybrid Bnei Mitzvahs; Zoom havdalah and chevruta. The American synagogue model was already in deep trouble before the pandemic began -- not the interior design, but the fundamental notion of prayer as the central point of Jewish life and the paid-membership model, have  been declining in their pull for decades. Whenever we can go back to our synagogues, what will we remember most of the before times? What will we add from the Covid/virtual era?

You can see in the photo of Touro above that it sits a bit askew on its lot -- because, Juliette explained, the bimah faces Jerusalem. Surely that and other essentials will not change. But this moment calls for reinvention, reimagination. As much as those early Rhode Island Jews needed Isaac Touro to tell them how the ark should look, he also needed them to shape Jewish life for a new place and time. 

Some of that new Judaism was on display at the DNC this week, with "Momala" Harris accepting the Veep nomination in part from her Jewish stepdaughter (that video made me cry). And regardless of the result in November, there will continue to be Jewish in-laws in the White House: if you need a guide, try Irene Connelly's walk-through of Joe Biden's Jewish relatives. For your weekend reads, I'm offering a break from electoral politics between the conventions. Instead, I hope you'll spend some time with Aiden Pink's investigation into why colleges don't report antisemitic vandalism as hate crimes; Avital Chizhik Goldschmidt's reporter's notebook about Belarus; Molly Boigon's revisiting the Crown Heights riots; and, since I can hardly let a week go by without mourning this summer's loss of camp, Irene's interview with the makers of a new documentary, "Boys' State." You can download or print those stories via the blue button below. 
 

 Also in that PDF is the latest Bintel Brief, about whether a congregant should tell the synagogue board that their rabbi was seen at a sex party; a review of a new biography of Stanley Kubrick; a very personal essay by our news director, John Kunza, about the convert's "impostor syndrome;" and a mini profile of the man Biden calls "his rabbi."

In honor of the Democratic convention, the wayback machine brings you a favorite of the old Forverts, Eleanor Roosevelt. The legendary first lady was frequently in our pages, but you might not know about her close encounter with a knish. As our archivist, Chana Pollack, explained in her latest story on the Urban Archive app, back in 1942 a knish maven named Gussie Schwebel sent a telegram to the White House urging Mrs. Roosevelt to sample the knish -- "which is very wholesome and easy to produce" -- and consider including it in the meal plan for the armed forces. A secretary wrote back, inviting Mrs. Schwebel to bring some knishes to Mrs. Roosevelt on her next visit to New York, but, alas, the plan was thwarted (perhaps because of the Forward's front-page story) when a crowd showed up. Here's hoping today's knish-makers will send samples to Momala -- we will be happy to cover it!

Speaking of Momala, this morning I joined Meredith Jacobs, CEO of Jewish Women International and former editor of Washington Jewish Week; Laura Adkins, Opinion editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency; and Tema Smith, contributing columnist at the Forward, for a discussion of the convention and other news. It was a sneak preview for a new Meet the Press-style "show" we're planning to launch Sept. 11 called "Women on the Week: Round Table, Sharp Perspectives." You can check out the video of today's talkfest here (it's only 30 minutes!), and watch Forward newsletters for future signups. 

After a bit of a slowdown for summer, we've got a bunch of neat events on the docket these next few weeks:
<> Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET, I'm moderating a panel with Ruth Messinger, Daniel Posen, Nir Braudo and Terry Newman about Jewish social justice entitled "The poor of your town come first." (Register here.)
<> Next Monday (8/31) at 8 p.m. ET, Rob Eshman and Andres Spokoiny of the Jewish Funders' Network will talk with Lisa Greer about her new book, Philanthropy Revolution. (Register here.)
<> Sept. 8 at 12:30 ET, I'm chatting with former Amb. Michael Oren about his new book of short stories, "The Night Archer." (Register here.) 
<> And mark the calendar: just in time for your break-fast planning, I'll host our amazing Lox Columnist, Len Berk, and Melissa Clark of NYT Cooking, for a talk about all-things-appetizing, Sept. 22 @ 5 p.m. ET. (Register here.) YUM

Shabbat Shalom,


Jodi Rudoren
Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]