This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. The secret Jewish history of the Belmont Stakes: The final leg of the Triple Crown, this Saturday on Long Island, is run on land that was farmed by Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews dating back to the 17th century. And the race was named after a Jewish immigrant: August Belmont (né Aaron Schonburg), whose political career – chair of the Democratic National Committee, broker of international trade deals, U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands – transcended the racetrack. Read the story ➤
Opinion | Elon Musk is the most dangerous antisemite in America: “No other person has ever had this much power over media and to spread a message,” our columnist Elad Nehorai says of the Twitter CEO. It’s not just that Musk has reinstated the accounts of notorious antisemites, or that he links George Soros “to the Rothschilds or implies a shadowy elite are controlling the world,” Nehorai says. Its that he taps into existing prejudices and fears, giving his 140 million followers a convenient scapegoat for complex societal problems. Read his essay ➤
Related: Elon Musk swooned over Mel Gibson this week, and Musk’s comment on a bigoted post recalls an earlier exchange with Kanye West. |
‘We need our American allies to help us rebuild,’ said Labor Party head Merav Michaeli. (Getty) |
Fighting to save Israel’s liberal democracy — and her own political life: As Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary, the country’s founding political party is “on the brink of collapse,” writes our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh. Trying to stave off that collapse is Merav Michaeli, the 56-year-old former journalist and staunch feminist who now leads the Labor Party. “There are many similarities between what Netanyahu does and what Trumpism does,” Michaeli told Jacob in an interview. “It’s the same values that are at stake.” Read the story ➤
The $65 million deal to sell American Jewish University’s campus just fell through: Nine months after AJU agreed to sell its 22-acre Bel Air campus to an international education corporation, the buyer backed out, citing xenophobic opposition. “It is crystal clear to us,” said a rep for the buyer, “that there are individuals in the neighborhood who do not want international students in their community.” Read the story ➤ |
Wildfires in Canada caused hazy conditions in New York City this week. (Getty) |
Plus… - Dark times: New York City was engulfed in thick, orange smog from Canadian wildfires this week. It reminded our Mira Fox of a biblical apocalypse.
- Transparent: While an increasing number of Americans are taking a harder line against issues related to gender inclusivity, Jews remain the most sympathetic religious group, according to a new poll.
- Bintel Brief: A father asked us whether he’s “code-switching” if he uses Yiddish terms with certain friends but avoids them with others. Our advice columnist suggests it may reflect subconscious worries about being Jewish in a non-Jewish world.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
A volunteer carries a dog during an evacuation from a flooded area in Kherson, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Getty)
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?? A Ukrainian rabbi warned that massive flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine may force most of the remaining Jews in the area — about 600-700 — to leave. “My home is gone,” said a local volunteer for the Joint Distribution Committee. “My life is gone.” (JTA) ? The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights is investigating allegations that the State University of New York at New Paltz refused to intervene when Jewish students were expelled from a campus group for being Zionists. (N.Y. Post) ? Tiny bones found at a birdwatching site in northern Israel may be flute-like instruments dating back 12,000 years. Researchers say the perforations in the seven found bones suggest they may have been used to imitate bird calls, as duck hunters do to attack their prey today — possibly the earliest such whistles in the world. (Haaretz) ? An Israeli nonprofit is working on training artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT to be less antisemitic. “It is one of the best forms of hate speech to start training generative AI on, because it’s so nuanced,” the group’s CEO said. (Axios) ? Joan Rivers kept track of 65,000 of her jokes in a card-catalog system she kept in her home. The collection is now headed to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, N.Y., where it will join the archives of George Carlin and Carl Reiner. (New York Times) ⛺ The Jewish CEO of Goldman Sachs loves summer camps so much, he’s decided to invest in them. (Bloomberg)
? The Israeli-based sandwich shop Sherry Herring, which served neither sherry nor herring, will close its much-celebrated outpost on Manhattan’s Upper West Side after less than two years in business. (N.Y. Jewish Week) |
In this week’s edition of our print magazine: In Weimar Germany, the gay Jewish doctor Magnus Hirschfeld performed the first gender-affirming surgeries and built a library at the Institute for Sexual Research. The Nazis book burnings in 1933 destroyed his life’s work. Our books reporter, Irene Katz Connelly, explores what led up to that fateful day. Plus: Stories on antisemitic attorneys, Israeli politics and how an Israeli mother whose 13-year-old son died by suicide is using art to ensure that no parent goes through what she did. Download your copy now ➤ |
On this day in history (1981): Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. The actress has been outspoken about Israel and Judaism throughout her career, and has criticized Israel more aggressively in recent years. In 2018, she won the Genesis Prize for her humanitarian work but declined to travel to Jerusalem to receive it.
Here’s a Jewish take in honor of National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day. |
Ilay Feingold of Israel, left, is challenged by Anderson Duarte of Uruguay during Thursday’s match. (Getty) |
Israel lost to Uruguay, 1-0, in the Under-20 World Cup semifinals Thursday in Argentina, ending the team’s fairytale run, which included upsets against Japan and Brazil. The Israelis will battle South Korea for the bronze medal on Sunday.
— Thanks to Beth Harpaz, Louis Keene, Matthew Litman, Tani Levitt and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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