This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. A neo-Nazi is building a training compound in Maine. Bangor’s Jews are not afraid.
A prominent neo-Nazi plans to build a training camp for his followers on 10 acres of woods in Maine. More than 90% of Maine’s 1.3 million residents are white, making it the whitest state in the nation. Our Beth Harpaz starts things off this morning with the details… Controversy: In the past year, Christopher Pohlhaus has been photographed waving swastika flags and chanting “Sieg Heil” at anti-LGBTQ+ protests. His followers have talked about destroying or vandalizing Jewish cemeteries. A local Planet Fitness gym banned Pohlhaus from using its facilities because his clothing had offensive images and slogans, and he has a swastika tattoo on his chest. Reaction: Jews have lived in Maine for more than 200 years. The state is also home to 15 Jewish congregations and several Jewish summer camps. Brian Kresge, the president of Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor and a Maine National Guardsman, was defiant when asked about Pohlhaus. “I am not afraid,” he said. “With the High Holy Days looming, all of Bangor’s three congregations have great security systems and practices — and more than a few armed congregants.” |
Senator Dianne Feinstein in a wheelchair last month on the subway under the Capitol. (Getty) |
Opinion | After yet another health crisis, why won’t Sen. Dianne Feinstein step down with dignity? The 90-year-old senator was rushed to the hospital after a fall at home. For author Emily Tamkin, it brought to mind her zayde, also a public servant, whose yahrzeit is today. “My grandpa stopped being a judge while he could still give it his all,” Tamkin writes. She adds that “sometimes the most respectful thing we can do for those who have served us is to tell them that someone else should take a turn serving now.” Read her essay ➤ In William Friedkin’s most Jewish movie, a mouth-watering elegy to the New York deli: Did you know Friedkin, who died this week, directed a movie written and produced by Norman Lear, starring an unknown Elliot Gould and a smorgasbord of kosher meat? The Night They Raided Minsky’s is a bittersweet ode to the heyday of burlesque and vaudeville. It’s at its most effective, our PJ Grisar writes, as a tribute to pastrami. Read the story ➤ |
Thousands of passengers were stranded at the airport in Maui in the aftermath of the wildfires. (Getty) |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
The Zone, an Orthodox Jewish camp in Gilboa, New York, is at the center of the concealed carry debate. (Courtesy) |
? New York state’s concealed carry law forbids private citizens from carrying guns in places where religious activities are conducted. Two staffers at a Jewish summer camp – where a man recently brandished a machete – are challenging the law in court, claiming that its restrictions leave staff and children vulnerable to antisemitic attacks. (JTA) ?? A Palestinian terrorist was killed by Israeli forces near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus before dawn on Thursday, according to Palestinian health officials. (Haaretz) ?? An employee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver was fired after she confronted its CEO and demanded a tougher stand against the threats facing Israeli democracy. The federation claims the dismissal was not over politics. (Haaretz) ?? Ukraine said it’s “deeply disappointed” after Israel nixed health services for 14,000 refugees due to a lack of funds. Israeli officials hope a source of funding will be found soon. (Haaretz) ?? Australia will refer to the West Bank as “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the country’s foreign minister announced this week. Two Australian Jewish groups issued a joint statement calling the change “inaccurate, ahistorical and counterproductive.” (JTA) ? The first recording of Hasidic nigunim performed exclusively by women was recently released. The ensemble behind it has a sold-out concert tonight in Manhattan. (NY Jewish Week) Shiva call ➤ Cantor Philip Sherman, an actor (Orange is the New Black) also known as the busiest mohel in New York, died at 67. He once performed 11 circumcisions in a single day and, by his own estimate, more than 26,000 circumcisions during his 45-year career.
What else we’re reading ➤ James McBride’s new novel explores Black and Jewish affection and tensions in the 1930s … Years in the baking, Israeli doctor’s cookie could take bite out of peanut allergies … David Corenswet, the next Superman, has deep Jewish roots in New Orleans. |
Jane Eisner, at left, the Forward’s editor-in-chief from 2008 to 2019, interviews Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2018. |
On this day in history (1993): Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first Jewish woman to serve on its bench. In announcing her appointment, President Bill Clinton praised Ginsburg’s work as a feminist legal pioneer, calling her “the Thurgood Marshall of gender equality law.” Ginsburg credits her legal beginnings to the summers she spent at a sleepaway camp in the Adirondacks, where she practiced giving arguments as the “camp rabbi”.
Pop star Christina Aguilera is scheduled to perform a concert tonight in Tel Aviv. |
In case you missed it: More than 1,300 people tuned into our conversation this week on Zoom hosted by the Forward’s Yiddish editor, Rukhl Schaechter, about what our great-grandparents ate in the shtetl on a typical Wednesday. — Thanks to Laura E. Adkins, Rachel Fishman Feddersen, PJ Grisar, Rebecca Salzhauer and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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