This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. Some people think Mount Sinai is in Saudi Arabia. Does it matter? Mount Sinai is, according to Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition, where God descended from the sky and gave Moses the Ten Commandments. For centuries, the mainstream consensus has been that the peak is in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula — that’s how the area got its name. But some believe the true location is in Saudi Arabia, and Christian pilgrims have been flocking there seeking proof of the biblical event. Our Mira Fox explores. Read the story ➤
Bubbe and the pimp who lived upstairs: Lisa Mayer, who hosts The PooPooPoo Podcast, recalls her grandmother’s favorite Hebrew phrase: V’haskel lev, which means one should have an understanding heart. It was perhaps coincidence that the man who lived on the second floor was Mr. Haskel. He’d been running a prostitution ring for years, Mayer writes, with clients in 103 cities all over the U.S. and Canada. “She never spoke badly of Mr. Haskel and didn’t call him a weirdo,” Mayer notes. “Maybe after all those years as a rabbi’s wife, she admired a successful businessman.” Read her essay ➤ |
Edie Windsor outside the Supreme Court as it deliberated her historic case in 2013. (Getty)
|
Opinion | LGBTQ+ people gained civil rights 10 years ago — thanks to this Jewish lesbian: Edie Windsor was the 83-year-old plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing marriage equality. The ruling’s “ripple effects created a greater sense of freedom for everyone,” writes Peter Fox, a writer active in the ADL and the American Jewish Committee. “For decades, queer people existed on the fringes of society. Now we’re included — and often celebrated — by the mainstream.” Read his essay ➤ Antisemitism on campus: Our Arno Rosenfeld, who has chronicled flare ups over Israel at George Washington University, CUNY and numerous other U.S. schools, spoke to +972 Magazine about the challenges of covering a topic that is often subsumed by external politics. “My goal as a journalist is to report exactly what is going on,” Rosenfeld said. “If an allegation is made, what is all of the information we can get about that incident? Who’s making the allegation? What appears to be the motive?” Plus… |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
‘All of our rabbis are long-bearded men,’ said Myriam Ackermann, seen here with her husband, Emile. ‘We need women to be involved in Jewish life as well.’ (David Khabinsky) |
? France has its first female Orthodox rabbi. Together with her husband, also a rabbi, the couple run Ayeka, one of the only Modern Orthodox congregations in Paris. (JTA) ⚖️ A grand jury indicted a 19-year-old Michigan man accused of making violent threats over social media and talking about targeting a synagogue near Lansing, the state capital. (Department of Justice) ? Cards promoting white supremacy were found inside books about the Holocaust, Nazis and civil rights at a bookstore in Petaluma, California. This was the second time such cards were found at the store in three months. (Press-Democrat) ⚽ Soccer players in Italy were banned from wearing the number 88 on their jerseys as part of an initiative to fight antisemitism. “H” is the eighth letter of the alphabet and 88 is often used by neo-Nazis as a reference to “Heil Hitler.” (AP) ⚽ Also from the sports desk: Israel’s Under-21 soccer team pulled off an unexpected 1-0 win over the Czech Republic on Wednesday to qualify for the European Championship quarterfinals. The team will next face Georgia on Saturday. (Times of Israel) ? Purple hues that adorned curtains and robes 3,000 years ago at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem likely came from snail guts processed at a dye factory in modern-day Haifa, archaeologists have discovered. (Haaretz) ? The USDA approved meat that is grown from cells in a laboratory to be sold in restaurants and food stores. Does that mean it’s kosher? It’s complicated. (CNN) Shiva calls ➤ Peg Yorkin, a feminist organizer and philanthropist, died at 96 … Joseph Pedott, the entrepreneur who sparked the Chia Pet craze, died at 91.
What else we’re reading ➤ Tel Aviv art museum implicated in “conflict of interest” involving Nazi-linked jewelry auction … The woman who bought a mountain for God … Mark Schiff, Jerry Seinfeld’s longtime opening act, brings tefillin on tour. |
On this day in history (1888): George Freidric Handel’s “Israel in Egypt,” a choral rendition of various Bible verses, was recorded on a phonograph cylinder. It was long thought to be the first known musical recording, but lost that title in 2009, when an 1860 recording of the French folk song “Au clair de la lune” was discovered. Nu? A Yiddish music festival, a klezmer concert and a summer vacation where everyone speaks in Yiddish are among the upcoming events on our Yiddish community calendar.
Tune in: At 11:45 a.m, Laura and I will be interviewing the editor of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle for our podcast, That Jewish News Show. We’ll be asking her all about the trial of the Tree of Life shooter, now in the penalty phase. Watch our conversation live here or catch up here on past episodes of the show. |
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked about the mass protests against a judicial overhaul, a deteriorating security situation in the occupied West Bank and an escalating threat from Iran in a video interview with the Wall Street Journal published this morning. Netanyahu also said he’s certain that he will soon meet with President Biden at the White House. “This issue of the invitation clouds people’s views,” he added. “In fact, the security cooperation, the military cooperation and the intel cooperation, including cyber, is stronger than it’s ever been under our two governments.” — Thanks to Mira Fox, Tani Levitt, Lauren Markoe, Arno Rosenfeld, Rukhl Schaechter and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
|
