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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
| WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
| | | Good morning. Today: A tallit-wearing televangelist in Trump’s D.C. • Ukrainian Jews translate Torah • The gimmicky premiere of Blazing Saddles |
| | | | Demonstrators call for the hostage and ceasefire deal to continue outside the Tel Aviv branch office of the U.S. Embassy on Feb. 4. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images) |
| President Donald Trump’s Tuesday proposal for the U.S. to take over Gaza has thrown a wrench into conversations around the future of the Middle East. Here are three perspectives to help you make sense of what, exactly, it all means:
Opinion | Trump’s plans for Gaza could undermine the ceasefire. The hostages will pay the tragic price. With negotiations over Phase 2 of the ceasefire deal set to begin shortly, writes Alex Lederman of the Israel Policy Forum, Trump’s off-the-cuff proposal for U.S. interference has imperiled the lives of the hostages who remain in Gaza. Why? Because the message that his plan, which has garnered broad Israeli support, sends to Hamas “is that Israel has no intention of actually leaving Gaza as long as Palestinians still live inside of it” — a fundamental change in the terms of engagement. Read his essay ➤
Opinion | Don’t let Trump’s theatrics distract from the true horror of his plans for Gaza. The outrage machine kicked into high gear in the wake of Trump’s proposal, with quick rebukes coming from all corners of the American and Arab political environment — even as many Israelis embraced the plan. “But I hope that, when we strip away the attention-drawing theatrics of this announcement, we remember that the cruelest and most ridiculous part of it is an idea Trump floated last month to far less fanfare: forced displacement of Gaza’s entire Palestinian population,” writes our columnist Emily Tamkin. Read her essay ➤
Opinion | In Trump’s Gaza pronouncement, a disdain for humanity worthy of Caligula. To understand the psychology behind Trump’s proposal, our culture columnist Robert Zaretsky proposes turning to a play about the notorious Roman emperor Caligula by Nobel laureate Albert Camus. Camus cast Caligula, whom many historians have suggested was mad, as being a master of understanding life’s absurdity — including the absurdity of his own power, which let him set “no value on the lives of Romans or anyone else’s,” and decide that, on his whim, “there will be a catastrophe, and I will stop the catastrophe when I choose.” Read his essay ➤ |
| | The International Criminal Court is facing new pressure from President Donald Trump. (Michel Porro/Getty Images) |
| Plus… Egyptian officials reportedly warned the Trump administration that the president’s proposal could endanger the country’s long-standing peace treaty with Israel. (Times of Israel)
Jordanian experts warned that the plan could pose a serious threat to Jordan’s security, with one saying “Jordan could cease to exist if this displacement plan is executed.” (Times of Israel)
A coalition of American Reform Jewish organizations, including the Union for Reform Judaism and the Association of Reform Jewish Educators, issued a letter decrying Trump’s plan as “unrealistic and dangerous.” (Union for Reform Judaism)
Trump signed an executive order placing sanctions on the International Criminal Court — among them a ban on ICC officials entering the U.S. — in response to the court’s unfavorable decisions regarding Israel, including its issuance of an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (BBC) |
| | | | | | Televangelist Paula White and President Donald Trump on Feb. 6. (Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images) |
| Thursday was a big day for faith-based initiatives in Washington, D.C. At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump announced a series of moves aiming to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government,” including by establishing a new White House Faith Office led by the controversial celebrity televangelist Paula White. (White is known for incorporating Jewish rituals into her church, including by wearing a tallit.) And on Capitol Hill, Jewish members of Congress formed an official caucus, which they say will “gather to share experiences, exchange ideas and advocate for the issues important to the American Jewish community.”
Plus… Just three days before Trump’s inauguration, an 89-year-old Iranian Jewish refugee arrived in the U.S. His story shows just how high the human costs of the Trump administration’s shuttering of refugee programs might be. (JTA)
Trump tapped Tom Rose, a former publisher of The Jerusalem Post, to serve as ambassador to Poland. (Haaretz) |
| | | | Yiddish has experienced a resurgence. Is Ladino next? (Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images) |
| Why Ladino is having a big moment — both in New York and the rest of the world. Last Sunday was “Ladino Day in New York — a vibrant celebration of the language that was central to the culture of Sephardic Jews worldwide for more than 500 years,” writes our language columnist, Aviya Kushner. Participants in the festivities had a bounty of items to toast, as Ladino has recently shown up “on Netflix, The New Yorker crossword puzzle, and in a fantasy novel on the bestseller list.” |
| | How I became a vulgarizer — and why you should become one too. What is a “vulgarizer,” and why is being called one a good thing? After being told, much to his bemusement, that he was exactly that, the author and cartoonist Ken Krimstein dug into the term’s meaning — and found that, far from being insulted, he had been complimented as someone who made “the complicated easy to understand. Accessible, even enjoyable.” |
| | | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
| | A menorah marks Hanukkah in Lviv, Ukraine, on Jan. 2. (Les Kasyanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images) |
| 🇺🇦 Amid the war with Russia, Ukrainian Jews are translating the Torah into Ukrainian for the first time, in part as a reaction to the prevalence of Jewish texts in Russian in the country. (Kyiv Independent)
🎹 Pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim announced that he has Parkinson’s disease. The 82-year-old, who together with the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said founded the coexistence-minded West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, said he would keep as professionally active as possible. (New York Times)
✝️ Richard Williamson, a twice-excommunicated Catholic priest who spread antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial, died at 84. (New York Times)
⚾ Time for iconic mascot Mr. Met to shed a tear, if an anthropomorphized baseball wearing an eternal smile of “maybe this year” hope is able: Jewish outfielder Harrison Bader is leaving the Mets for the Minnesota Twins. (New York Jewish Week)
What else we’re reading ➤ “The oligarchs who came to regret supporting Hitler” (Atlantic) “Trump is targeting antisemitism in schools. Experts fear other civil rights will be ignored” (Associated Press) “A brief history of Gaza's tortured role in the Middle East conflict” (NPR) |
| | | | | Fifty-one years ago today, Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles premiered at a drive-in theater in Burbank, California — with guests seated on horses, rather than in cars. Opinions differ as to how well the film has aged, but to at least one Forward critic, it remains Brooks’ best work. |
| Thanks to Benyamin Cohen 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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