This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. For some Jewish Republicans, Nikki Haley is the best Trump alternative
Former President Donald Trump was indicted on Tuesday in a criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In an email to supporters yesterday, Trump said his “persecutions” were “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.” Meanwhile, the campaign of his closest presidential challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is stumbling. Some see Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as a formidable contender. Our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, met up with her – and her fans – on the campaign trail. Building bona fides: Haley, 51, captured the attention of the Jewish community when Trump appointed her in 2017 to the U.N. There she led the fight against anti-Israel resolutions, and became a source of pride for hawkish Israel supporters. Defender of Israel: As Israel convulses over its government’s judicial overhaul plan, Haley has staked out a position likely to endear her further to conservative Jewish Americans. She criticized President Joe Biden for pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek compromise, and she called on the Democratic leadership to censure a group of progressive House members who lambasted Israel. Jewish aides: Haley hired Nachama Soloveichik, a conservative political consultant, to lead her communications team. She is a scion of the distinguished Soloveichik Orthodox rabbinical dynasty, and sister of Rabbi Meir Soloveichik. Path to nomination: Though Haley is low in the polls, some Jews say it’s far too early to write her off. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Fred Zeidman, a Republican donor, who has in recent years become one of Haley’s advisers on Israel. “Nobody’s going to beat Donald Trump, I hate to say that.” But he also hopes that Trump will be forced out of contention by his legal troubles. |
Protesters demonstrating outside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco in 2019. (Getty) |
(Nathan & Solomon Birnbaum Archives) |
How Tu B’Av, the ancient Jewish holiday of love, was revived for the modern era: Celebrated today across the globe, it’s more than just a romantic ritual. For Orthodox girls of Eastern Europe in the 1920s and ‘30s, it became a festival of female empowerment. They took a nighttime hike to the woods, lit a campfire, sang and danced. “No power in the world could stop us,” one student wrote of the experience. Read the story ➤ Our Bintel Brief column has a long history of offering romantic advice. Here are some recent entries… |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, center, arrives at the site of an attack on Tuesday. (Getty) |
?? A Palestinian gunman shot and wounded five people at a hamburger restaurant in the Israeli settlement of Maaleh Adumim in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday before an off-duty policeman getting a haircut at a nearby barbershop shot him dead. (JTA) ?️ A former member of the Israel Defense Forces has joined the race for Congress in New York, hoping to unseat Rep. George Santos, whose brief political career has been beset by scandals, including that he lied about having relatives that died in the Holocaust. (NY Post) ? Remember the 39-year-old Texan who posed as a Hasidic Jew, adopted nine boys and was charged with sexually abusing kids? One of his sons has now been charged with abuse too. (Times of Israel) ?️ According to newly revealed documents, the CIA agent tasked with intercepting Lee Harvey Oswald’s mail was Reuben Efron, a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania who wrote essays about spy stories from the Torah for Jewish Bible Quarterly. (JTA) ?? The Jewish Museum of London is closing after 13 years due to decreased attendance and donations after the pandemic. It hopes to reopen at some point in the future. (BBC) ? Jewish doctors in the Warsaw Ghetto conducted a study on the impact of starvation on 100 patients. Their medical research was smuggled out, buried and lost for decades. Until now: A Tufts University professor studying famines in conflict zones discovered the crumbling pages. (Times of Israel) ? Jerry Falwell Jr., the former president of Liberty University and son of the school’s founder, the late Jerry Falwell Sr., is suing the Christian school for using his dad’s likeness without permission. At issue is a hologram of the elder Falwell and a custom font based on his handwriting. (Religion News Service)
What else we’re reading ➤ 18 things to know about Barbie actress Ariana Greenblatt … For Reps. Boebert and Greene, faith and fundraising go hand in hand … Here are the best places outside of New York to get a great bagel. |
‘Taking the Census’ by Francis William Edmonds is the earliest known depiction of the U.S. Census. (Wikimedia) |
On this day in history (1790): The first United States Census was conducted, recording a population of 3,939,214. As the country grew, the Census Bureau proposed new categories for data collection, including, most recently, an option for respondents to identify their race as Middle Eastern/North African. The new category is meant to include anyone from ethnic groups with origins in the region, including Israel, but some Mizrahi Jews say it still doesn’t meet their needs. |
“My favorite thing was Operation Pimp My Ride,” Julia Haart said of her recent trip to Ukraine, her second this year to the war-torn country. The project takes decades-old, broken Russian tanks and repairs them. “The Ukrainians use Russia’s own weapons against them, which I just think is so awesome.” Julia, the star of Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life and a native of Moscow, joined Laura and me on Tuesday for the new episode of That Jewish News Show. Watch our conversation above, or listen on-the-go wherever you get podcasts. — Thanks to Lauren Markoe, Rebecca Salzhauer and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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