Ohio lawmaker warns against teaching 'both sides of the Holocaust,' Presbyterian group calls Israel apartheid state, Beanie Feldstein's surprise announcement, and the secret Jewish history of 7-Eleven. |
Joe Biden makes his first trip to Israel as president this week. Here’s what our senior political correspondent, Jacob Kornbluh, will be watching there and beyond... Biden said in an Op-Ed in The Washington Post this weekend that his direct flight from Tel Aviv to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday should signal “a more stable and integrated Middle East, with the United States playing a vital leadership role.” A recent poll showed 55% of Americans want to see Biden broker an Israel-Saudi Arabia peace deal. The president is slated to arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, where he will be welcomed by interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid, then tour the Iron Dome battery and new Iron Beam laser-rocket defense system. Biden will also meet with Holocaust survivors at Yad Vashem and receive Israel’s presidential Medal of Honor. On the agenda: The White House indicated that Biden will walk a tightrope on the two-day visit, given that Israel is now headed by a caretaker and headed to yet another election. He is expected to meet with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud Party is leading in the polls. Jon Finer, Biden’s deputy national security adviser, said at a briefing with Jewish leaders on Friday that the president is “attuned to the critical importance” of the U.S.-Israel alliance “that goes beyond the relationship between any two leaders.” Israeli officials will seek more assurances on the Iranian nuclear program, as a new report showed Iran has escalated its uranium enrichment.
What about the Palestinians? Biden is scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethelem on Friday and visit the Augusta Victoria Hospital, a Palestinian medical center in East Jerusalem. Lapid spoke with Abbas on Friday, the first phone call between an Israeli premier and the Palestinian leader in five years; the day before Abbas met with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a development the White House welcomed as a positive step.
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Jason Greenblatt (seated) and Jared Kushner at a Middle East peace conference in 2019. (Getty) |
Jason Greenblatt, who was the last Mideast peace envoy to engage with the Palestinians, said in an interview that he’s pleased to see Biden “acting more cautiously” on the Palestinian track, but expressed concern about giving Abbas “small diplomatic wins” without demanding an end to his policy of giving stipends to the families of Palestinians killed while attacking Israelis. Greenblatt details his work on the Abraham Accords and his views on the Palestinian conflict in a book being published July 19 called “In the Path of Abraham: How Donald Trump Made Peace in the Middle East — And How to Stop Joe Biden from Unmaking It.” Read our interview with Greenblatt ➤ Representatives of the owner of the Washington Commanders football team have accused Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, of “insensitivity to sacred Jewish traditions” for ignoring requests to reschedule a congressional hearing about claims of sexual harassment in the team’s front office. The owner, Dan Snyder, is in Israel to observe his mother’s first yahrzeit. Maloney is in a rare incumbent-vs.-incumbent primary next month against Rep. Jerry Nadler, who has made a big issue about his status as New York City’s lone Jewish member of the House. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican up for reelection, railed against the “governing, ruling class” that controls academia, the media and Hollywood in a recent campaign speech, a reference that raised some eyebrows. Julie Alderman Boudreau, head of research at American Bridge, a Democratic-affiliated rapid-response group, accused Rubio of appealing to “far right extremists by trafficking in age-old antisemitic tropes.” A Rubio spokesperson called it a “silly accusation.” A tweet by an Ohio state representative alleging that a bill introduced by Republicans would require educators to present “both sides of the Holocaust” garnered more than 30,000 retweets over the weekend. State Rep. Casey Weinstein, a Democrat and one of two Jewish lawmakers in the Ohio legislature, said the bill is set to be considered in the fall but he’s “staying ahead of it” to warn about the implications. Earlier this year, Weinstein was the target of an anti-vaccine protest that invoked the Holocaust. The New York Police Department said it tallied 23 attacks against Jews last month, and that they comprised 39% of reported incidents of hate crimes.
Follow Jacob on Twitter for the latest about Biden’s trip to Israel and other Jewish political scoops.
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'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' is her own brand of superhero. (Amazon) |
The greatest Jewish superhero on television isn’t who you think it is: While many were eager to glimpse the Yiddishkeit of Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight on the Disney+ show, Robert Zaretsky, our culture critic, was not impressed. Watching the series with his daughter, he decided that Mrs. Maisel is the true Jewish superhero fans had been clamoring for. Her superpower? Humor. “Thanks to her slashing wit, Midge notches a body count that dwarfs Magneto’s,” Zaretsky writes of the Marvel character, and “unlike Magneto, she tends to leave most of her victims with a smile.” Read the story ➤ What does Christianity really say about abortion? After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, op-eds and tweets noted the heavy influence Christianity had on the court’s decision. But the Bible says virtually nothing about abortion directly; the religious morality surrounding the issue is drawn from a specific Christian style of interpretation of seemingly unrelated passages — or passages that Jews interpret to support abortion. Culture writer Mira Fox breaks down the verses most commonly cited by religious Christians. Read the story ➤ But wait, there’s more… The largest Presbyterian denomination labeled Israel an apartheid state. ADL’s extremism expert on why he thinks the Highland Park shooter was not targeting a particular racial or religious group. |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Beanie Feldstein, who starred as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of 'Funny Girl,' announced she is leaving before her planned Sept. 25 exit because, as she put it, 'the production decided to take the show in a different direction.' |
😷 Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jew in Congress, has tested positive for COVID. The Senate is set to reconvene this week after a two-week recess; a Schumer spokesperson said his case is mild and he will work remotely “through virtual meetings” and with “his trademark flip phone.” (CNN) 🚘 Uber drafted its own legislation for the Knesset in 2017 and sought favor with then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a bid to operate freely in the country, according to a trove of 124,000 Uber-related documents obtained by The Guardian and published on Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Uber, which has not operated in Israel except for a brief pilot program five years ago, announced last week that it hopes to enter the Israeli market. (Times of Israel) ✝️ Far-right political candidates are mixing Christian religious fervor with conspiracy theories, and calling for the end of the separation of church and state. “Jesus Christ is King of Kings and we are going to lawfully, peacefully and democratically take back this country and our culture in his name,” said Andrew Torba, the founder of a conservative social media platform, who is endorsing Doug Mastriano, a Christian nationalist running for Pennsylvania governor. (New York Times) 🎨 The city of Boise, Idaho, is spending $35,000 to put a human rights mural near its Anne Frank Memorial, which was was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti in December. Meanwhile, white-nationalists circulated posters on social media for their third annual “Hills of Hate Camp” music festival in Boise this past Saturday. (Idaho Press, Idaho Statesman) 👮 The Anti-Defamation League said a suspect was in custody after the FBI received word of a “potential threat to an unconfirmed Jewish facility” in San Antonio this weekend. The warning had led the Jewish Federation of San Antonio to suspend gatherings and synagogues to cancel services on Saturday. The threat was lifted later in the day when the FBI gave the all-clear. (JTA) Mazel tov ➤ To Elyse Buxbaum on becoming the chief operating officer of the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
What else we’re reading ➤ Tensions over Israel at Harvard have led to cyberbullying of students and faculty … Archaeologists reveal oldest inscription in Jerusalem … Julia Haart, star of Netflix’s “My Unorthodox Life,” sues husband for more than $250 million.
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In this video clip, Cindy asks a rabbi to be on the beit din for her conversion to Judaism. (Netflix) |
On this day in history: The TV series “Orange Is the New Black” premiered on Netflix on July 11, 2013. A major plotline of the show’s third season involved the conversion to Judaism of Cynthia Beverley Hayes (portrayed by Adrienne Moore), who was also known as Tova and Black Cindy. Cindy’s efforts to convert kicked off after Litchfield became a private prison, at the encouragement of another inmate, Lolly Whitehill. “If you tell cafeteria workers you’re Jewish, you’ll get kosher meals, which is way better than prison food” Whitehill said, “and they can’t question your religion, because it’s illegal.” The season concluded when the prisoners broke through Litchfield’s fence and ran to a nearby lake, where Cindy cried with joy as she completed her conversion with a ritual dunking. Last year on this day, more than 2,000 people marched in D.C. for an antisemitism rally that was likely the first of its kind in the nation’s capital. On the Hebrew calendar, it’s the 12th of Tammuz, the birthday of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.
It’s 7-Eleven Day! (July 11, 7/11, get it?) A perfect time to check out our secret Jewish history of 7-Eleven.
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(Jack Guez/AFP via Getty) |
More than 100 people watched 17 endangered sea turtles released into the Mediterranean this weekend from the coastal city of Netanya. The animals received months of intensive rehab at Israel’s Sea Turtle Rescue Center. Scientists glued satellite tags to the shells of several of the turtles so that they can continue studying their behavior in the wild. ––– Play today’s Vertl puzzle, the Yiddish Wordle Thanks to Jordan Greene, Jacob Kornbluh and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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