This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. A true story of Nazi escape, Superman and Marilyn Monroe
The American Way, a new book from authors Bonner Siegler and Helene Stapinski, is a true story that has all the makings of a Hollywood movie: The publisher of DC Comics uses his influence to rescue a Jewish family on the eve of the Holocaust. Along the way, there are cameos from Marilyn Monroe, Joe Dimaggio and even a young real estate developer named Donald Trump. I recently caught up with the authors for a video chat about this fascinating, untold chapter in history which has been called the rare “feel-good Holocaust story.” Pulp fiction: Harry Donenfeld, a fast-talking and shrewd businessman, made his fortune peddling racy magazines and was eventually charged with obscenity. He pivoted and found respect and largesse publishing comic books, introducing the world to Superman. “He was also a mensch,” Stapinski said. “He was very good to the Jewish community, and helped out anyone who asked.” Train spotting: Donenfeld served as an American sponsor to bring over a German Jew, Jules Schulback, and his wife and daughter, who narrowly left their home the day before Kristallnacht. In New York, Schulback became a furrier and maker of home movies. When he heard that Monroe was filming The Seven Year Itch around the corner from his apartment, he grabbed his 16-millimeter Bolex camera and made his way to the front of the crowd. That’s where he caught the famous footage of Monroe’s billowy white skirt blowing in the wind as she walked over a subway grate. Up, up and away: Siegler is the granddaughter of Schulback, whom she describes as his own kind of superhero. She said her zayde felt like the lone survivor of Krypton and, once he gained a modicum of success in America, did whatever he could to save other Jews from Nazi Germany. Watch my conversation with the authors… |
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Fashion photos published in the Forward were often accompanied by sewing instructions. (Archive) |
There’s 11 days left in Women’s History Month. Throughout the early part of the 20th century, the Forward reached out to women in a variety of ways, whether it was to inform them of their political rights, coach them on proper manners or organize cooking contests with cash prizes. Our predecessors even provided readers with sewing patterns for the stylish clothing modeled on its fashion pages. The editor of the Yiddish Forward, Rukhl Schaechter, takes a dive through the archives. Read the story ➤ The surprisingly gradual but unmistakably dramatic transformation of Mel Brooks: A new biography of the comedy legend confronts the question comedians get paid to ignore: What does this all mean? The author sensibly gets his answer out of the way on the first page of the introduction — Brooks’ humor, and perhaps postwar Jewish humor in general, he says, was defined by a contradictory need “to be loved, accepted, adopted by all; and the irresistible, rebellious urge to take the universal, the standard formula, and to make it funny by making it Jewish.” Read the story ➤ But wait, there’s more… |
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 at an event in Tampa. (Getty) |
- A Florida education bill aimed at severely curtailing race and gender studies, could also inadvertently affect the state’s Judaic studies programs.
- Speaking of education, it was a pair of Sunday School teachers in New Jersey who inspired Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist, to give his fortune away to charity. “They set my moral compass,” Newmark told our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, for her latest column.
- At the World Baseball Classic last week, Team Israel’s locker-room talk turned to the protests currently roiling the country.
- Members of which religion are most liked in America? Which Jewish comedian just won the Mark Twain prize? Test your knowledge of the latest Jewish headlines with our news quiz.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Noa Tishby, left, and Asaf Zamir are under fire for their comments criticizing Israel’s government. (Getty) |
? Israel’s envoy in New York, Asaf Zamir, was summoned back to Jerusalem Sunday after he said at a gala that he was “deeply concerned in the direction the country is going right now.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry is also reportedly considering cutting ties with Noa Tishby, the actress who serves as Israel’s envoy to fight antisemitism, over her criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan in a recent OpEd and on Friday night’s episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. (JTA, Times of Israel) ?? President Joe Biden told Netanyahu in a 45-minute phone conversation on Sunday that upholding democratic principles, including “genuine checks and balances” is a cornerstone of the U.S.-Israel relationship. (Haaretz, Washington Post) ?? A former U.S. Marine who lives in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank was shot and seriously wounded Sunday as he drove through the Palestinian village of Huwara. The attack came nearly a month after bands of Israeli settlers responded to the killing of two brothers with a violent rampage through Huwara that many have described as a pogrom. (JTA, Haaretz) ?? Meanwhile, leaders of Netanyahu’s coalition say they plan on pushing their judicial reform plan through before Passover, and Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right minister of finance, said at a memorial service that there’s “no such thing as Palestinians,” and that his grandparents were the “real Palestinians.” ?️? A Chicago-based yeshiva is publishing the first-ever collection of Jewish legal opinions written by and for trans Jews. The “Torah thrives when people are bringing their life experiences to the text and asking their questions of the text,” said Rabbi Becky Silverstein, co-director of the Trans Halakha Project. “That’s how Judaism and Torah has stayed alive through so much of Jewish history.” (JTA) ?? During a somber march to the Thessaloniki train station on Sunday, about 1,000 people marked the 80th anniversary of the first deportations of Greek Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Some 46,000 Jews left the station in 1943; only 1,950 returned. (AFP, AP) Mazel tov ➤ To our intern, Sarah Nachimson, who received the Chandler Award for excellence in student reporting from the Religion News Association. Read her Forward articles here. Shiva call ➤ Mel Zuckerman, founder of the Canyon Ranch spa resorts, died at 94. A public celebration of his life is scheduled for April 17 at the University of Arizona, where the college of public health is named after Zuckerman and his wife, Enid.
What else we’re reading ➤ For Zionist LGBTQ group, Israel’s right-wing government has created an urgent crisis … Across the United States, a push to observe Muslim holidays in school calendars … Trader Joe’s is launching its own brand of matzo. |
On this day in history: In the year 131, Halley’s Comet was recorded at its nearest point to the sun for the sixth time. Many centuries later, in 1835, Hayyim Zelig Slonimski of Bialystok, a mathematician and astronomer, published Kokhava de-shavita, a Hebrew book about the comet. Slonimski’s efforts in the sciences earned him a visit with the king of Prussia in 1858.
In honor of National Proposal Day, we’re remembering this one that took place in a Yiddish library. |
Liraz Russo, the Israeli pop sensation known as Static, released his new single this month. The video has already racked up more than 1.6 million views. — Thanks to PJ Grisar, Tani Levitt, Rukhl Schaechter and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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