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Elon Musk accuses ADL of being ‘biggest generators’ of antisemitism on Twitter, threatens $4 billion lawsuit Musk also suggested Monday that the Anti-Defamation League does not represent the interests of the Jewish people. Our Jacob Kornbluh kicks things off this morning with some context. Long history: Animosity between Musk and the ADL dates back to last fall when Musk, the world’s richest person, took over the social media platform. Musk disbanded Twitter’s safety team and allowed back on neo-Nazis and antisemites. At the time, the ADL called for advertisers to boycott Twitter. $4 billion lawsuit: As antisemitic content has proliferated on Twitter in the ensuing months, the ADL has been at the forefront of reporting such posts and trying to get users banned. Musk characterized these efforts on Monday as “aggressive” and “trying to kill this platform,” and suggested he would file a $4 billion lawsuit against the ADL. Ban the ADL: A campaign to ban the ADL, led by a far-right activist, flooded Twitter in recent days. The ADL said it was “unsurprised yet undeterred” that “trolls have launched a coordinated attack on our organization.” Musk endorsed the effort last week. ADL funding Twitter: Meanwhile, the ADL continues to pour money into Twitter’s coffers by advertising on the platform. The ADL “needs to be where the antisemites and extremists are,” a spokesperson told us last month. “We need to be able to reach people.” |
Teenagers Tal and Edo are part of a new generation leading protests in Israel. (Courtesy) |
New this morning: Netanyahu is reportedly in talks to compromise on the judicial overhaul. Sources say both sides may agree to an 18-month freeze of the controversial legislation. More than 200 Israeli high school students on Sunday declared they will refuse to serve in the Israel Defense Forces “due to the ongoing dictatorship in the occupied territories, and the developing dictatorship inside Israel.” One teenager told our colleagues at Haaretz that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to limit the power of the judiciary “really opened their eyes.” Read the story ➤ Our Mira Fox traveled to Israel last month and met up with teenagers protesting the government – including Tal and Edo, both of whom are delaying their required army service for a year. “Over the course of our three-hour conversation in Hebrew,” Mira reports, “the boys talked at length about their love for Israel — and their fear for its future.” As Edo said, “We don’t have another country.” Read the story ➤
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Shoes piled up outside the shipping container where the Burning Man Shabbat service was held. (Courtesy Danielle Kushner) |
With Burning Man caked in mud, Jewish camp saved the day: A deluge of rain and mud stranded tens of thousands at the annual festival in the Nevada desert this weekend. But that didn’t stop around 150 Jewish attendees from packing into a shipping container for Shabbat services and a Friday night dinner they won’t soon forget. One person described the warm atmosphere as a “cuddle puddle.” Read the story ➤ Plus… - Small groups of neo-Nazis spread antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ messages Saturday outside Disney World and in the nearby Orlando, Florida, area. This is at least the third time in 15 months this has happened. Here’s why they’re targeting Disney World.
- Following a report in the Forward about a monument to Nazi collaborators near Philadelphia, the American Jewish Committee is now calling for its removal.
- A weightlifter banned for posing with an Israeli athlete, a Haredi mob attacked a female politician, and a monument to Nazi collaborators discovered in Detroit. Take our weekly news quiz.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Assistant football coach Joe Kennedy kneels in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022. (Getty) |
? Joe Kennedy, the football coach whose on-field prayers led to a landmark 2022 Supreme Court decision in favor of freedom of religion, returned Friday night to Bremerton High School in Washington for his first game back in eight years. After his team won the game, 27-12, he walked to the 50-yard line, knelt down and prayed. (AP, Kitsap Sun, Seattle Times) ?? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with 10 members of the Congressional Black Caucus in Jerusalem on Sunday as he tries to improve his standing with the Biden administration and among Democrats. (JTA) ✝️ A Swiss university is looking to hire a Jewish studies professor — as long as they’re Catholic. Some local Jews are looking for a workaround. (JTA) ?? Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Jewish president of Ukraine, named Rustem Umerov, a Muslim government official, the country’s next minister of defense. (New York Times) ? Kanye West spent the summer working on new music and is reportedly soon going to release a new album, his first since going on several antisemitic tirades last fall. (NBC News) ? Lea Michele ended her year-long run Sunday as Jewish comedian Fanny Brice in Funny Girl on Broadway. She performed an extra song at the final show: “My Man,” which includes lyrics from Brice and was sung by Barbra Streisand at the end of the film version, but was left out of the revival. (New York Times) Shiva call ➤ Rabbi Calmen Weinreb, a longtime teacher at the Ner Israel high school in Baltimore, died at 76 … David Rowland, a lawyer who won back looted art for Jewish heirs, died at 67
What else we’re reading ➤ An oral history of the creation of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical … New cookbook highlights South Carolina’s Jewish history and cuisine … Why Yiddish is having a moment. |
Jack Kerouac in 1956, a year before ‘On The Road’ was published. (Tom Palumbo/Wikimedia) |
On this day in history (1957): Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road was published. Kerouac harbored antisemitic beliefs: He “would rant for hours about the Jewish literary mafia that he believed had placed a moratorium on publication of his work,” the writer Jack McClintock told Esquire in 1969, and his father referred to Allen Ginsberg, one of Kerouac’s Jewish peers in the Beat movement, as “the cockroach.”
In honor of National Cheese Pizza Day, check out our investigation into who serves the best kosher pizza in New York City. |
The secret Jewish history of Jimmy Buffett: There was a surprisingly kosher side to the famed musician, who died this weekend at 76 – even if his idea of paradise involved the consumption of cheeseburgers. He teamed up with Jewish novelist Herman Wouk on a Broadway musical, hosted a shul in his Margaritaville resort in Times Square and had one of his songs translated into Yiddish. In the video above, watch that song performed by Lorin Sklamberg of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics alongside Yiddish singer Sasha Lurje and violinist Craig Judelman. Read the story ➤ — Thanks to Louis Keene, Jacob Kornbluh and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected]. |
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