Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Joe Biden attended a Zoom shiva for his childhood crush as Russia’s Ukraine invasion loomed

(JTA) — Every week is busy for a U.S. president, but last week was unusually turbulent for Joe Biden. He finalized his choice of Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Jewish Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, began preparing for his first State of the Union address and received news that the Centers for Disease Control would ease its COVID-19 mask guidelines — all while focusing on the White House’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that he was sure was coming.

In the midst of it all, he took some time out to attend a Zoom shiva, and to comfort some of his Jewish family members, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Joan Olivere, née Berger, died on Sunday, Feb. 20, “suddenly but peacefully,” an obituary read. She was the mother of Hallie Olivere, Joe Biden’s former daughter-in-law, through his late son Beau. She was also Joe Biden’s childhood crush.

“I was the Catholic kid. She was the Jewish girl. I still tried. I didn’t get anywhere,” he has joked.

After Beau Biden died in 2015, Hallie Olivere began dating his brother Hunter in 2016, saying that they bonded while supporting each other in the wake of Beau’s death. Hallie and Hunter broke up by 2019, and Hunter is now married to South African Jewish filmmaker Melissa Cohen.

Hours after Joe Biden watched Russian President Vladimir Putin give a heated speech on Monday, Feb. 21 that raised the specter of war worldwide, he attended the Zoom shiva in the evening.

But he didn’t stop there — officials told the Times that Biden took calls from grieving family members throughout the week, “sometimes between national security debates and meetings with world leaders.”

Biden is a proud Catholic, but all of his children have or had Jewish spouses.


The post Joe Biden attended a Zoom shiva for his childhood crush as Russia’s Ukraine invasion loomed appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.