WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Good morning. Gunshots were fired at two Jewish schools in Montreal, and Harvard’s president shared details on the university’s plan for combating antisemitism. Separately, the Palestinian Authority gave insight into the circumstances under which it would be open to taking over Gaza, and Israel agreed to daily pauses in fighting.

ISRAEL AT WAR

Four weeks into the Israel-Hamas war, a separate pernicious conflict is roiling American college campuses. (Graphic by Matthew Litman)

Special report: What’s it really like to be Jewish on campus right now? Conflict over the Israel-Hamas war has sent shockwaves across American campuses, with Jewish and Muslim students alike feeling newly unsafe, and universities’ ability to manage complex political situations while preserving fundamental academic values coming under sharp scrutiny. To get beyond the now-daily headlines chronicling the latest alarming incidents, we dispatched reporters to 11 campuses around the country to learn what students are really experiencing: “What emerged,” we found, was “a portrait of unease and anxiety, of a shifting landscape in which many of the nation’s brightest young people find themselves lonely, confused and concerned about what is unfolding around them.” Read the story ➤

Latest from campuses…

A gunman fired at two Jewish schools in Montreal overnight on Wednesday, only days after a synagogue and Jewish center in a city suburb were reportedly targeted with Molotov cocktails. Separately, a pro-Palestinian protest planned for Montreal’s McGill University on Thursday, the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, was advertised with photos of broken glass, a move the university’s president deemed “antisemitic.”

Twenty Jewish Brown University students were arrested after occupying a campus building in a protest advocating for a cease-fire.

Harvard President Claudine Gay, who had previously announced initial plans for a new campus effort to combat antisemitism, released some details about the strategy, and announced an Antisemitism Advisory Group including writer Dara Horn and Rabbi David Wolpe.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff visited Cornell to meet with Jewish students still reeling from violent antisemitic threats allegedly issued by a junior last month.

Palestinian families fled norther Gaza for the strip’s south on Thursday, as Israel committed to daily pauses in fighting to help aid civilians. (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

🇩🇪 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “ashamed and outraged” at a new outbreak of antisemitism in Germany during a speech commemorating the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht. (Reuters)

👀 Hillary Clinton compared former President Donald Trump to Hitler, saying that Trump, who is currently running for president, explicitly intends to erode American democracy if reelected. (Guardian)

🖼️ Heirs of a Jewish art collector who died in the Holocaust filed suit demanding the return of 12 paintings by Egon Schiele from two museums in Vienna. Fritz Grünbaum’s heirs already won restitution of seven works by Schiele from American museums in September. (Art Newspaper)

❤️ Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a famous sex therapist, will be New York State’s first Loneliness Ambassador, a role she advocated to have created to help combat a “loneliness epidemic.” (New York Times)

😞 Antisemitic graffiti was scrawled in Rome’s Jewish quarter on Thursday. “Events like this cause dismay, enormous concern,” said Alessandro Luzon, Rome’s liaison with the Jewish Community, adding that they bring “to mind the period of racial persecution.” (Times of Israel)

🙄 Australia’s Kmart website removed a Christmas ham sold in a bag reading “Merry Ham-mas” after a Jewish association complained that the message was tone-deaf in wake of the Israel-Hamas war. (JTA)

What else we’re reading ➤“Holocaust survivors in Israel faced fresh horror when Hamas attacked” … What to learn as the 100th anniversary of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch and the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht fall during the same week … The Jewish Ukrainian grandmother who invented drip painting before Jackson Pollock.

Shira Hoffer in Harvard Yard with a sign for her hotline providing resources and information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Courtesy of Shira Hoffer)

The Israel-Hamas debate has gotten fierce — and confusing. So this Harvard junior started a hotline. Shira Hoffer, 21, is a Modern Orthodox religion and social studies student who, upon sending an offer for nonjudgmental conversation about the war to her dormitory listserv, encountered genuine curiosity: “I don’t know so much about this and I really want to learn more,” one student wrote, “but I guess my question is: What’s the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” So Hoffer set up a textable hotline for questions about the conflict, staffed by volunteers around the world, which she’s been advertising during dueling on-campus protests. “People are being pushed to take a stand even when they don’t know anything — which is kind of wild,” Hoffer told our reporter Mira Fox. “It’s something I think is sort of unique to this conflict.” Read the story ➤

‘I have been mourning the loss of innocence’: Young Israelis share how they cope with their new reality. The Bronfman Fellowship has been bringing Jewish American and Israeli teens together in Israel for nearly four decades. As war unfolds, the fellowship’s current participants write in a collection of new reflections, they’re encountering terrifying new challenges — and seeing new resilience in their communities. Read the story ➤

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ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

Julie Benko starred in Funny Girl on Broadway, and understudied for Beanie Feldstein and Lea Michele. (Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)

I played Fanny Brice on Broadway. Here’s what she taught me about being an actor. As Barbra Streisand’s memoir, My Name is Barbra, hit shelves this week, Julie Benko, who recently took a turn in the shoes Streisand made famous as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, reflected on what the role taught her. “I quickly discovered that my journey with Fanny didn’t just belong to me,” Benko writes. “This story of a Jewish woman succeeding in a non-Jewish world has inspired generations.”

In the shadow of death and motherly disappointment, Albert Brooks changed the world of comedy. A new documentary, directed by Brooks’ longtime friend Rob Reiner, highlights Brooks’ deft touch in combining comedy with reflections on mortality, writes our PJ Grisar. The documentary is centered on a conversation between Brooks and Reiner in a “white tablecloth restaurant,” and gives off “a sense of urgency for a living tribute” to a man who helped define a new era of American comedy.

– From our Sponsor: Spertus Institute –

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz cleaned the memorial “stumbling blocks” for Holocaust victims Hans Goslar and Ruth Judith Goslar on Thursday, as he commemorated the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht. (Henning Schacht - Pool/Getty Images)

🇩🇪 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “ashamed and outraged” at a new outbreak of antisemitism in Germany during a speech commemorating the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht. (Reuters)

👀 Hillary Clinton compared former President Donald Trump to Hitler, saying that Trump, who is currently running for president, explicitly intends to erode American democracy if reelected. (Guardian)

🖼️ Heirs of a Jewish art collector who died in the Holocaust filed suit demanding the return of 12 paintings by Egon Schiele from two museums in Vienna. Fritz Grünbaum’s heirs already won restitution of seven works by Schiele from American museums in September. (Art Newspaper)

❤️ Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a famous sex therapist, will be New York State’s first Loneliness Ambassador, a role she advocated to have created to help combat a “loneliness epidemic.” (New York Times)

😞 Antisemitic graffiti was scrawled in Rome’s Jewish quarter on Thursday. “Events like this cause dismay, enormous concern,” said Alessandro Luzon, Rome’s liaison with the Jewish Community, adding that they bring “to mind the period of racial persecution.” (Times of Israel)

🙄 Australia’s Kmart website removed a Christmas ham sold in a bag reading “Merry Ham-mas” after a Jewish association complained that the message was tone-deaf in wake of the Israel-Hamas war. (JTA)

What else we’re reading ➤“Holocaust survivors in Israel faced fresh horror when Hamas attacked” … What to learn as the 100th anniversary of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch and the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht fall during the same week … The Jewish Ukrainian grandmother who invented drip painting before Jackson Pollock.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

As Germany marked the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, soccer fans displayed a banner reading “no forgetting” at a match in Freiburg im Breisgau.

Thanks to Jaclyn De Bonis and Jay Ehrlich 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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