This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. Jewish audiences and Samuel Beckett revered this clown – so did Adolf Hitler: Charles Adrien Wettach was known as Grock, the “king of clowns,” and was often spoken of in the same breath as Charlie Chaplin. His great-nephew donated an archive of 1,000 items to a museum in Switzerland. But before an exhibit goes up, the curators are investigating the clown’s Nazi ties. While Chaplin satirized Hitler, Grock welcomed Hitler into his dressing room. Indeed, Hitler saw Grock’s show more than a dozen times. Read the story ➤
When a Carole King or a Susan Sontag goes missing, it’s good to have a Jewish detective on the case: Daniel Weizmann’s first detective novel features a Lyft driver and his confidante, Ephraim “Double Fry” Freiberger, who wears a Grateful Dead yarmulke and spends his free time studying Torah on his boat, The Shechinah. Did Weizmann set out to write a novel that’s so, well, Jewish? Read our interview with the author➤
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A woman stands by rubble in the occupied West Bank after last week’s IDF operation in the Jenin refugee camp. (Getty)
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Opinion | After Jenin, Palestinians hate the Palestinian Authority even more. But it’s still the only shot at peace: “The PA is undoubtedly loathed and unappreciated on both sides of the conflict,” argues Muhammad Shehada, our contributing columnist from Gaza. “At the same time, its existence is indispensable to both peoples: to maintain stability and security, provide a lifeline to Palestinians, disincentivize violence and, ultimately, negotiate a settlement to the conflict.” Read the essay ➤ Opinion | What Jewish law says about balancing free speech and public safety on the internet: A Trump-appointed federal judge last week limited what the White House could talk about with social media companies. If someone on Twitter is, for example, spouting antisemitic conspiracy theories, the government would not be allowed to alert the folks who run the platform. “As Jewish law recognizes and Jewish history reminds us,” writes Rabbi Jay Michaelson, “the value of free expression exists in dynamic tension with protecting vulnerable people from harm. And justice lies somewhere within it.” Read the essay ➤ |
Elizabeth Tsurkov’s name may be familiar to many Forward readers. (Facebook)
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Plus… - Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Princeton University graduate student and foreign policy expert who was kidnapped by an Iran-backed Shi’ite militia, was a contributor to the Forward. She wrote more than a dozen OpEds focusing on Israel, Iran and Russia.
- Goldwin Smith was described by one historian as “perhaps the most vicious antisemite in the English-speaking world.” Cornell University is debating what to do about a building named after him.
- Since we’re halfway through 2023, our editor-in-chief rounded up 18 of our best stories (so far) this year for your summer reading pleasure.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
?? President Joe Biden slammed the “extremists” in Israel’s government during a Sunday interview on CNN. Biden also declined to say whether he would invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, but said his administration was talking to Israeli officials regularly “trying to tamp down what’s going on.” He also said the Palestinian Authority has “lost its credibility.” (JTA) ?? The Knesset is set to vote today on the first of three key parts of the Netanyahu government’s proposed judicial overhaul. Anti-government protesters have planned what they are calling a “day of disruption” for Tuesday, aiming to block roads and the airport, as they did in March. (Haaretz, Times of Israel) ? Kanye West has involved Dov Charney in trying to relaunch his Yeezy fashion business. Charney, the Jewish founder of American Apparel, printed the rapper’s infamous “White Lives Matter” shirt and has been sued for sexual harassment by employees. (Complex, Puck) ? A Hasidic man told the police that two men accosted him in the wee hours of Saturday morning as he walked in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The attackers reportedly asked the man if he was Jewish, then stabbed him in the arm with a screwdriver. (Twitter) ? Fire departments across the country have seen a decline in volunteers. The one in the Orthodox enclave of Monsey, New York, however, is bucking that trend, by working around a restriction on people with beards entering buildings that are ablaze. (NBC New York) ⚾ The newest Jewish player in Major League Baseball is Jake Gelof, a third baseman from the University of Virginia who was picked up by the Los Angeles Dodgers in Sunday’s draft. Gelof’s older brother, Zack, is part of the Oakland Athletics organization, and played for Team Israel at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. (Twitter) In case you missed it: The New York Times had a fascinating weekend profile of Uri Geller, the Israeli mentalist who became a household name 50 years ago when he bent a spoon using his mind. For decades, magicians tried to debunk Geller’s psychic powers, but they have since had a change of heart. One of them has written a new book praising his former rival, Bend it Like Geller. Geller himself has created an eclectic museum in Tel Aviv.
Shiva calls ➤ Rabbi Shalom Gold, the founder of Congregation Zichron Yosef in Jerusalem, died at 88. Before making aliyah in 1982, Gold served as rabbi of Young Israel of West Hempstead, where he helped build one of the first eruvs in North America … Henry Kamm, who fled the Nazis and later became a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times, died at 98. |
Mel Blanc asked that Porky Pig’s famous phrase, ‘That’s all, folks,’ be displayed on his grave. (Wikimedia) |
On this day in history (1989): Mel Blanc, known as the “man of a thousand voices,” died. Blanc, who voiced America’s favorite “wascally wabbit” as well as his compatriots Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, was the child of German Jews. He imbued his characters with, what our Benjamin Ivry called “a blend of Brooklyn and Bronx tones.” Ivry also pointed out that the plot of many Bugs Bunny shorts, “in which the hare is pursued by an adversary, often the hunter Elmer Fudd, could also be seen as archetypically Jewish.”
In honor of National Kitten Day, check out this story by Irene Katz Connelly about an Orthodox New Yorker who feeds the city’s feral cats. |
Michael Woods, 36, a Canadian who is riding for Israel at the Tour de France, won the ninth stage on Sunday. Woods is one of eight cyclists in the race wearing the Star of David on their uniform – none of whom are Jewish. — Thanks to PJ Grisar, Louis Keene, Jacob Kornbluh, Gall Sigler and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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