? Matt Cohens around the world have joined a group chat where they are “100% supportive of Matt Cohens doing whatever it is they do and supporting them unconditionally.” They share life updates like new jobs, marriages, graduations, that time one of them appeared on Jeopardy!, and other Matt Cohen-related antics. (Washingtonian)
?? An Orthodox woman’s wig appears to have protected her when she was shot in the head with some sort of beads. It was unclear whether the assault, in Brooklyn, was being investigated as a hate crime. (NBC New York)
? In a secret book club in Kabul, teen girls are finding comfort in the diary of Anne Frank. “And they are struck by the parallels,” reports Diaa Hadid of National Public Radio. “Just like them, Anne was only a kid – one who was starting to learn about the world – when she was forced into hiding because of a violent, oppressive government.” (NPR)
?? Israeli forces or civilians have already killed more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2022 than in any of the past seven years. 81 Palestinians have been killed so far this year, 31 in the Jenin area; in 2015, Israelis killed 99 Palestinians in the West Bank. (Haaretz)
? Second gentleman Doug Emhoff met with Jewish abortion rights advocates Monday at the White House. He expressed support for those who argue that various state-level abortion bans violate Jews’ religious freedom since Jewish law allows for abortion in many cases and requires it in some cases not allowed under the state bans. (Religion News Service)
? A Chabad preschool in Manhattan keeps receiving toys from Amazon – around 1,000 since June – sent by an anonymous donor. “I came in here one morning and there were, like, 30 boxes,” said Deborah Landesman, the preschool’s assistant director. Overwhelmed, the school has been paying it forward by donating toys to others in need. (NY Post)
?️ Police in Germany were searching on Wednesday for a man accused of shouting antisemitic insults at a rabbi and his son at an underground subway station in Berlin. (Haaretz)
? David Strathairn, the Oscar-nominated actor, is starring in a new one-man play as Jan Karski, the real-life member of the Polish Underground who warned the Allies to no avail of the Holocaust in progress. Karski died in 2000 and was posthumously awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2012. (New York Times)
Shiva call ➤ Susan L. Solomon, co-founder of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, died at 71. Her work was inspired by her mother’s death from cancer and her son developing Type 1 diabetes.
What else we’re reading ➤ Israeli archaeologists found two structures they thought were synagogues; they were wrong both times … American Jewish University plans to sell its Los Angeles campus to an international education company … Off-Broadway’s “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish announced additional casting.