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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Happy birthday to my wife, Elizabeth, who I’m not even sure reads this newsletter.
Today: Donald Trump, JB Pritzker, Pope Francis, Mahmoud Khalil, Yeshiva University, Betty Friedan, Hitler’s Mein Kampf and a wedding at Katz’s Deli.
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Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney at a rally last week. (Getty) |
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🇨🇦 What today’s elections mean for Canada’s Jews and Israel
Mark Carney, a former banker representing the Liberal party, heads into today’s election as the frontrunner to win a full term as prime minister. Carney’s surge comes after President Donald Trump announced steep new tariffs and threatened Canada’s sovereignty, a move that alienated voters from Conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre. Carney, a practicing Catholic, has spoken out strongly against antisemitism and has vowed to protect the country’s 335,000 Jews after a wave of attacks since Oct. 7 — including firebombs and gunshots at synagogues.
But some of his critics worry he is not staunch enough in his support of Israel. Carney touted Canada’s arms embargo against Israel and seemed to agree with a heckler’s claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Poilievre, who hitchhiked through Israel in his youth, has described Canadian Jews as “the true Indigenous people.” |
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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (Getty) |
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Elsewhere in politics…
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, addressing a crowd Sunday in New Hampshire as he potentially lays the groundwork for a presidential run, invoked his Jewish background while criticizing Trump. “Stop tearing down the Constitution in the name of my ancestors,” Pritzker said. “Do not claim that your authoritarian power grabs are about antisemitism. When you destroy social justice, you are disparaging the very foundation of Judaism.” (X, New York Times)
Related: How JB Pritzker uses the Holocaust to position himself as the Jewish face of Trump resistance
Opinion | Lucinda Rosenfeld, who has spoken out against the Israeli government’s war in Gaza, has been called a traitor by fellow Jews. “I can’t help but wonder how many days away we are from seeing a legal U.S. resident of the Jewish faith — whether green card holder, naturalized citizen, or citizen from birth — seized in the same terrifying manner as Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts grad student Rümeysa Öztürk,” she writes. “If and when this happens, will Trump’s Jewish supporters continue to make excuses and find justifications? I fear the answer is ‘yes.’” Read her essay ►
Our most-read story of the weekend: Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke? |
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On campus… More than 550 rabbis and cantors have signed an open letter accusing the Trump administration of “abusing the issue” of antisemitism as a justification for its attempted deportations of foreign students. (JTA)
The Trump administration reinstated the visa registrations of thousands of international students whose legal violations were minor or had been dismissed. (JTA, Politico)
Leaders from several top universities have quietly formed a coalition to push back against the Trump administration, which has frozen or canceled billions in research funding over claims that the schools failed to address antisemitism on campus. (Wall Street Journal)
Yeshiva University said its new campus LGBTQ+ club cannot “use pride flags, symbols, emojis, or related terminology in its materials or activities.” (Commentator)
The Savannah College of Art and Design said a flyer advertising a campus party that claimed “no Jews” would be allowed was not created by a student and that no such event ever took place. (JTA) |
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Palestinian children carry water-filled jugs back from a distribution point in a refugee camp in Gaza on Monday. (Getty) |
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The latest… The United Nations said that its stock of food in Gaza has run out amidst an Israeli blockade that began on March 2. Israel has previously accused Hamas of diverting aid. (AP)
The UN’s top court began this morning a week of hearings at The Hague on Israel’s humanitarian responsibilities toward Palestinians. (BBC)
The American Jewish Committee kicked off its annual conference Sunday in New York, with remarks from Noa Argamani, a freed Israeli hostage, and the parents of Edan Alexander, the last living American still being held in Gaza. (AJC, X)
At Sunday’s London Marathon, 59 runners wore yellow hats and photos of the 59 remaining Gaza hostages, dedicating their run to raising awareness after 570 days of captivity. (Jewish News)
Israel’s under-23 fencing team clinched gold at the European Championships in Estonia on Saturday — but the celebration was overshadowed when the Swiss team they defeated turned their backs during the playing of the Israeli national anthem. (Times of Israel)
Officials are investigating voting irregularities at the World Zionist Congress, where an election will determine how $5 billion in funding will be spent on Jewish and Israeli causes over the next five years. (Times of Israel) |
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David Denby’s new book explores how four Jewish luminaries transformed American culture in the postwar era. (Courtesy) |
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End of eminence
In a new book, Eminent Jews, author David Denby argues that there was a golden age of American Jewry — and it is now over. He frames the book by looking at the life and influence of four people: Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan and Norman Mailer. “As they liberated themselves,” Denby writes, “they became sages, secular rabbis without shawl and tefillin, exemplars of full-bodied, fearless life, unrespectable but still demanding the utmost of themselves and other people.” Go deeper ►
Plus: Sunday night’s episode of HBO’s The Rehearsal shifted its surreal comedy lens onto the idea of German shame after the Holocaust.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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Cardinals stand at the funeral for Pope Francis on Saturday at the Vatican. (Getty) |
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✝️ Hundreds of thousands of mourners paid their respects to Pope Francis at his funeral Saturday in the Vatican. Meetings to choose his successor begin this week. (New York Times)
🗣️ The American Jewish Committee and the USC Shoah Foundation are launching an effort to gather 10,000 firsthand accounts from Jews about their experiences with antisemitism around the world since World War II. (JTA)
📕 An Israeli press scrapped plans for a new Hebrew edition of Mein Kampf, after infighting between the book’s editor and publisher. (Haaretz)
👮 New York police made six arrests and are continuing to investigate clashes between protesters and counter-protesters outside Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights, sparked by a Thursday visit from Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right minister. (Forward)
⚖️ George Santos, the disgraced former congressmen who lied about his family’s Holocaust history, was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in prison for aggravated identity theft and wire fraud charges related to his 2022 campaign. (NBC News)
Shiva call ► Nechama Grossman, Israel’s oldest Holocaust survivor, died at 110.
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Last year, Nicolas Heller directed the first-ever commercial for New York’s iconic Katz’s Deli. This month, he returned — to get married. Heller and Naomi Otsu tied the knot at the famed deli, where guests dined on corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, The New York Times reported. |
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Thanks to Jacob Kornbluh 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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