June 9, 2023

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Sokolof Awards reception

Israel advances to the second round of men’s under-20 World Cup Page 2

SPONSORED BY THE BENJAMIN AND ANNA E. WIESMAN FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND

The Lady in Gold (Spoiler Alert: She was no lady.)

SHIRLY BANNER Library Specialist On June 15 at 1 p.m., the Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group will gather for their monthly meeting. Group members have the choice of meeting either in person in the Benjamin & Anna Wiesman Reception Room in the Staenberg Jewish Community Center or via Zoom. This month they will be discussing The Lady in Gold by AnneMarie O’Connor. New participants are always welcome.

From My Kosher Jewish Kitchen: Cobbler for Spring Page 7

Karen Sokolof Javitch, left, Sokolof Award recipients: Emily Woods, Lauren Dolson, Ainsley Meyerson, Julia Edelstein, and Brianna Sadofsky with Gary Javitch.

Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest wins runner-up prize at Cannes Film Festival Page 12

DIANE WALKER JFO Foundation Fund & Scholarship Administrator he Sokolof Awards reception was held Sunday, May 21, in the Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Community Engagement Venue of the Staenberg Omaha JCC. The reception honored the 2023 recipients of the Sokolof awards: • The Phil & Ruth Sokolof Honor Roll Merit Scholarships:

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• For High School Seniors: Ainsley Meyerson and Lauren Dolson • For Health Care: Julia Edelstein and Brianna Sadofsky • The Karen Sokolof Javitch Music Fund Award: Ilana McNamara • The Phil & Ruth Sokolof Outstanding Jewish Teacher Award: Emily Woods The awards were created with a bequest from the late Phil Sokolof. Phil and Ruth Sokolof were well known throughout Omaha See Sokolof Awards page 2

911 dispatcher and rabbi take the stand at Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial

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Spotlight Voices Synagogues

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RON KAMPEAS PITTSBURGH | JTA When Shannon Basa-Sabol was asked to recount the events of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in court on May 30, what stood out was her memory of the death of Bernice Simon.

Basa-Sabol, a 911 dispatcher, took the stand for close to an hour, describing the ins and outs of her job.

But when the crowded courtroom heard a recording of Simon’s 911 call from the Tree of Life Congregation,

The memorial at Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Oct. 27, 2019. Credit: LightRocket via Getty Images

Basa-Sabol paused and began to sniffle. She described telling Simon to stay quiet, then hearing multiple gunshots over the phone.

“Are you still with me?” Basa-Sabol said on the recording of the call. “Bernice, can you hear me?”

Speaking on the witness stand on Tuesday, Basa-Sabol said she had realized Simon no longer had “sufficient breathing for life.”

“I was hearing her being shot,” she said.

See Tree of Life trial page 3

If you’ve seen the movie Woman in Gold you might be familiar with part of the story behind Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Adele BlochBauer and the landmark court case brought by Maria Altmann and several other of Adele’s heirs to reclaim the painting. Anne-Marie O’Connor’s book provides one with much more of the background history surrounding the painting. Those involved, both in the past and a century later, include the extended Bloch-Bauer-Altmann families Adele Bloch-Bauer herself, Gustav Klimt in the years leading up to the Nazi period, and subsequently Adolf Hitler, Maria Altmann and her lawyer Randal Schoenberg.

Adele’s family traces its roots to Jewish Vienna’s high society in the 1880s where her father was head of both one of the largest banks in the Hapsburg Empire and the Orient Railway. Adele’s beauty captured the eyes of numerous suitors, including Gustav Klimt, who reputedly not only painted Adele but also seduced her. She eventually married Ferdinand Bauer, a wealthy sugar-beet magnate twice her age.

The marriage did nothing to end the illicit affair with Klimt.

Klimt was a notorious womanizer who had multiple affairs and a weakness for the ladies whether he was bedding them or painting them. Klimt’s two portraits of Adele reveal two different stages of his relationship with her - the infatuated See The Lady in Gold page 2

2 | The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023

News

The Lady in Gold

LOC AL | N AT I O N A L | WO R L D

Israel advances to second round of men’s under-20 World Cup JUAN MELAMED BUENOS AIRES | JTA In its first-ever appearance in the tournament, Israel’s under-20 men’s soccer team advanced to the second round of the FIFA U20 World Cup with a lastminute goal against Japan on Saturday.

Israel was an underdog going into the match, but the victory was made even more improbable by something that happened in the 68th minute of the game: an Israeli player was ejected after receiving a second yellow card for a harsh foul. Israel proceeded to score both of its goals in the 2-1 win while down a man.

The winning goal was scored in the final few minutes of play. “This is incredible!” exclaimed the English-language announcer.

“This is, maybe, the biggest win in the history of Israeli soccer. Historic, historic,” team manager Ofir Haim said to the Israeli Kan broadcaster after the match, with tears in his eyes.

With the victory, Israel advanced from the group stage into the knockout round, marking the first time an Israeli team has done so in any FIFA World Cup. The Israeli men’s team scored one

Continued from page 1 and throughout the country for their dedication to their community, for their charitable and philanthropic efforts and for their business and personal accomplishments.

This year’s recipients were again some of the community’s best and brightest.

All are great examples of the scholarship criteria of scholastic performance, ex-

Israel players celebrate after beating Japan at the FIFA U-20 World Cup at Mendoza Stadium in Mendoza, Argentina, May 27, 2023. Credit: Marcio Machado/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

goal in its only appearance in the general World Cup in 1970.

Jewish Argentines turned out in large numbers — at times in the thousands — to support the Israeli team in their group stage matches over the past week.

In their first, a loss against Colombia, some Jewish fans shouted down a group of Colombia supporters who unfurled a Palestinian flag.

Before and during their second match, a tie with Senegal, members of

the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement brought tefillin around to Jewish fans in the stands and outside the stadium in La Plata.

“This is for all of Israel, I dedicate this to you. I have no words,” Haim added.

The tournament was originally to be played in Indonesia, but FIFA, the international soccer body, stripped the country’s hosting rights after it protested Israel’s appearance in the competition.

Sokolof Awards emplary character, personal achievement, community service and for our Outstanding Jewish Teacher of the Year, exceptional contributions as a teacher and mentor to the education and overall achievements of their students.

Each recipient will receive a $10,000 award.

Ilana McNamara was unable to attend as she is currently finishing her 4th year

at Oberlin College and Conservatory.

Each year, the anonymous Sokolof Committee, chaired by Jody Malashock, takes on the work of sifting through applications and nominations from phenomenal students and teachers. And each year, the committee is impressed by the caliber of applicants and so proud of their achievements.

Continued from page 1 man as shown in his painting of Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I and a much-aged and unflattering portrait of Adele as shown in his second work.

Klimt’s works were both praised and criticized by Austria’s art society as being both radical and erotic. Eventually Klimt fell from favor only to return to being coveted as Hitler and his associates took power and were amassing an impressive art collection. As Hitler and his Nazi era began to take hold in Austria, the Bloch-Bauer family’s Jewish roots caused more and more of their wealth and possessions to be taken or to have family members jailed in an attempt to force them to turn over control of their businesses. When Adele BlochBauer I was confiscated by the Nazis, any Jewish identity connection was erased as it was renamed Lady in Gold and displayed in Vienna’s Baroque Belvedere Palace along with other confiscated Jewish-owned art.

In 1998, Maria Altmann who was the niece of Ferdinand and Adele Bauer, contacted Randol Schoenberg, the grandson of her best friend Gertrude Zeisel, in hopes of securing Holocaust restitution of her family’s confiscated Klimt collection, especially the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Randol and Maria’s lawsuit (on behalf of her and the remaining Bloch-Bauer heirs) resulted in an intense landmark legal precedent-setting case.

Please feel free to join us on June 15 in person or via Zoom to find out whether justice prevails and Gustav Klimt’s infamous painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer is returned to her rightful heirs. The Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group meets on the third Thursday of every month at 1 pm. New members are always welcome.

The Group receives administrative support from the Community Engagement & Education arm of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. For information about the group and to join in the discussion, contact Shirly Banner at 402.334.6462 or sbanner@jewishomaha.org.

ORGANIZATIONS B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS The award-winning B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS speaker program currently meets Wednesdays via Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. Please watch our email for specific information concerning its thought-provoking, informative list of speakers. To be placed on the email list, contact Breadbreakers chair at gary.javitch@gmail.com.

INFORMATION ANTISEMITIC/HATE INCIDENTS If you encounter an antisemitic or other hate incident, you are not alone. Your first call should be to the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in Omaha at 402.334.6572, or email JCRCreporting@ jewishomaha.org. If you perceive an imminent threat, call 911, and text Safety & Security Manager James Donahue at 402.213.1658.

Changing your address?

Please give us the following information: Your name, old address and new address and when you want the address change to go into effect.

Call 402.334.6448 or email us at jpress@jewishomaha.org

The Jewish Press

The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023 | 3

Tree of Life trial their mental disabilities, trusting and pure,” Soo said, adding Continued from page 1 Basa-Sabol was the first witness in the trial of Robert Bow- that fellow congregants would help them “tie a shoe lace, tuck ers, the man accused of murdering 11 Jews in their Pittsburgh in a shirt, find a page in a prayer book.” synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. For “That morning David Rosenmonths, survivors, relatives of thal stood at the front of the victims and the Jewish comchapel helping to lead the munity of Pittsburgh have anopening prayer” he had memticipated the trial, which began orized, she said. “His devotion Tuesday, hoping for closure to the faith made up for the while worrying that the profact that he could not actually ceedings would retraumatize read the prayer book.” people, even as no one doubted Then, she described the carthe culpability of the accused. nage, referring to the defendant’s As the prosecution and dealleged statements of hate on fense gave their opening stateGab, a social media platform ments, it was clear that the trial U.S. Courthouse and Post Office, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nov. friendly to right-wing extremists. would air graphic details from 16, 2010. Credit: Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images He allegedly condemned HIAS, the attack. But while lawyers and witnesses recounted the the Jewish refugee aid group that partnered with Dor Hadash. events of the day, the courthouse was also the scene of em“That same morning the defendant was making his own braces, tears of comfort, discussions of Jewish tradition and preparations to destroy, to kill and defile,” Soo said. “He hated even laughter as those who lived through the tragedy con- Jews, he called them ‘the children of Satan … the most bloodnected with and supported one another. thirsty, evil demons who ever walked the face of the earth.’”

Families of victims and survivors were in the courtroom and She read out the Gab entry Bowers allegedly posted while he monitoring via videolink elsewhere in the Joseph Weis Federal was parked outside the synagogue complex. “HIAS likes to bring Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh. Social workers and psy- in invaders that like to kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch chologists were on hand to help them through the proceedings. our people get slaughtered, screw your optics, I’m going in.”

Reporters were asked not to conduct interviews in the building.

“And the defendant did go in,” Soo said. She described some At a break, Tim Matson, a policeman injured in an exchange of the congregants’ deaths in detail, and concluded by reading of fire with the suspect, sought out Andrea Wedner, who was out the 11 names of the murdered: Cecil and David Rosenthal, shot and whose mother, Rose Mallinger, was killed. They hugged. couple Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Rose Malinger, Joyce FienMaggie Feinstein, the director of the 10/27 Healing Partner- berg, Richard Gottfried, Jerry Rabinowitz, Daniel Stein, Melvin ship, which provides post-traumatic therapy for the commu- Wax and Irving Younger. nity, watched closely over the nine or so family members in The defendant, clad in a green sweater over an open-colthe courtroom, and handed them tissues. lared light blue shirt, stared ahead and scribbled notes. He “Today marked the beginning of a very difficult and painful never looked at Soo, who spoke at a podium to his right. trial that is the direct result of an incredibly terrible action by In her opening statement, Bowers’ lead attorney, Judy Clarke, one person,” Feinstein wrote in an email after the court was said the defense would not contest the events, or Bowers’ responadjourned. “It represented an important step in the process sibility for them. Clarke is known as “the attorney for the damned” of justice, because these court proceedings are a way for our for her determination to keep her clients from execution. She has society to take up the burden of remembering and telling the defended the Unabomber, the Boston Marathon bomber and one truth about what happened on October 27, 2018.” of the conspirators who planned the 9/11 attacks.

On the witness stand, Jeffrey Myers, the rabbi of Tree of Life “This senseless act, the loss and devastation, were caused Congregation, cried as he described how he recited the by Robert Bowers,” she said. “There is no disagreement, there Shema, thinking he was about to die. is no dispute and there will be no doubt as to who shot the 11 “I thought about the history of my people, how we’ve been per- congregants. On Oct. 27, 2018, Robert Bowers, the man seated secuted and hunted and slaughtered for centuries,” he said. “And at that table, loaded with ammunition and firearms entered about how all of them must have felt in the moments before the synagogue.” their death, and what they did was recite Deuteronomy, chapter Clarke suggested that her defense would focus on whether 6, verse 4, ‘Hear, O, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” the defendant’s motives met the standards required by the The defendant is accused of murdering 11 people and wound- government’s charges, particularly regarding the 22 death ing six at three congregations that met in the same building, Tree penalty charges. of Life, Or L’Simcha and Dor Hadash. He faces 63 charges, 22 of “We can at least do our best to uphold the rule of law by figwhich are death penalty charges that relate specifically to alle- uring out, to the best of our ability, what were Mr. Bowers’ mogations that he targeted Jews: 11 counts of obstruction in free ex- tives and intent,” she said. She argued that her client’s ercise of religious belief resulting in death and 11 counts of hate statements, which focused on his deluded belief that Jews crimes resulting in death. Prosecutors previously rejected a guilty were intent on replacing white people, do not make clear that plea so that they could pursue the death penalty, a punishment his intent met the standards enshrined in federal law. that families of victims and congregational leaders have debated.

“These statements are outrageous,” she said. “The fact that Jury selection began last month and took three weeks, cul- they were made raises more questions than they may answer.” minating in the selection of 18 jurors and alternates: 11 men Carol Janssen, another employee from a 911 call center, testiand seven women. fied, and in the afternoon, for a number of hours, Eric Olshan, a In their opening statements, prosecutors and defense lawyers Jewish U.S. Attorney, asked Myers to guide the jurors through a alike warned that the trial would revisit the attack in horrific tour of a physical scale model of the synagogue that was brought detail. Judge Robert Colville emphasized the presumption of into the courtroom. Myers described the building, its congreinnocence, telling the jury that Bowers had a “clean slate” un- gations and the fundamentals of Judaism to an attentive jury. less the prosecution was able to persuade them otherwise.

Shabbat ends “when three stars are in the sky,” said Myers, He warned jurors to avoid reading about the case in the who wore a black suit and white kippah and delivered his tesmedia, and not to discuss it with friends or even with each timony in measured tones. He wore a kippah because “it reother. And he added what he acknowledged was a recent and minds me that I’m in God’s presence wherever I go.” novel caution: “Persons, entities or even foreign governments Myers occasionally smiled at the jury when he cracked a may seek to manipulate your opinions,” instructing them not joke, eliciting laughter, as when he recalled what a SWAT team to click through if they saw messages relating to the trial pop- advised him when they reached him in the synagogue: “Rabbi, ping up on their computer. run your ass off.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Song Soo’s 31-minute statement, deAnd, as the defendant stared at him, Myers memorialized livered in a steady tone that only occasionally fluttered with his murdered congregants, affectionately recalling their selfemotion, set forth her case in vivid terms: A community that appointed roles during Sabbath services. He remembered one had come together for decades in love and caring for each of the victims, Cecil Rosenthal, who always beat him to the other, and for Jewish tradition, was shattered by a gunman de- synagogue so he could be in place to greet all comers. “I would termined to murder Jews. say to him jokingly, ‘Cecil did you sleep here again?’”

“In the Tree of Life synagogue, the words ‘Tree of Life’ are writDavid Rosenthal, he said, sang prayers “loudly,” while Rose ten in Hebrew high above the bookstand that holds the Torah, Mallinger routinely led the prayer for peace, “that all people the holiest book in the Jewish faith,” she said. “The Tree of Life can live together in freedom and peace.” synagogue had anchored the corner of Wilkins and Shady for As he recalled the moments of the shooting, Myers said, he decades. As they did every Saturday men and women of the Jew- felt he would not be angry at God, “because it was not God ish faith made their way to the synagogue to observe Shabbat.” who did this. I was prepared to meet my fate.” He sobbed.

She noted that the Torah portion that week, Vayera, “was The scheduled Torah reading from Genesis 12, he said, narfrom the Book of Genesis and was about welcoming strangers.” rates how Abraham welcomes three strangers.

She went on to describe the warmth of those who were killed “I was going to talk about the Jewish imperative to welcome and dwelled on Cecil and David Rosenthal, men in their 50s all guests whoever they may be,” he said. “But I never gave that with developmental disabilities who loved to greet congregants. sermon.”

“In many ways, they were like children, childlike because of The defense declined to cross-examine the rabbi.

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4 | The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023

As The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ends, will its Jewish legacy be more than a punchline?

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ficial types replace an exploration of what the period was acSHIRA LI BARTOV tually like for American Jews.

JTA After five seasons, 20 Emmy awards and plenty of Jewish jokes, “However ‘Jewish’ Sherman-Palladino wants the show to be, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel airs its final episode on May 26.

‘Maisel’ fails to grapple with the realities of the moment in JewThe lauded Amazon Prime show from Amy Sherman-Pal- ish American history it portrays,” Brownfield wrote. “Which ladino has enveloped viewers in a shimmering, candy-colored is ultimately what leaves me queasy about its tone — the version of New York during the late 1950s and early 1960s — shtick, the stereotypes, the comforting self-parody.” a world in which “humor” has meant Jewish humor and “culMeanwhile, Andy Samberg took a jab while co-hosting the ture” has meant Jewish culture.

2019 Golden Globes with Sandra Oh. “It’s the show that makes But as it comes to an end, the show’s Jewish legacy is still audiences sit up and say, ‘Wait, is this antisemitic?’” he joked. up for debate: Did its representation of Jews on mainstream Others have criticized the show’s casting: Its titular heroine, TV make it a pioneer of the 2010s? Or did it do more harm her parents Abe and Rose Weissman (Tony Shalhoub and than good in the battle for better representation, by reinforc- Marin Hinkle) and Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby) are all played by ing decades-old comedic tropes about Jews? non-Jews. A debate over the casting of non-Jewish actors in The comedy-drama folJewish roles has heated lowed the vivacious up in recent years, takMidge Maisel (Rachel ing aim not only at BrosBrosnahan) on a journey nahan as Midge Maisel, from prim Upper West but also at Felicity Jones Side housewife — left in as Ruth Bader Ginsberg the lurch after her husin On The Basis of Sex, band has an affair with Helen Mirren as Golda his secretary — to an amMeir in Golda and Gaby bitious, foul-mouthed Hoffmann and Jay Ducomic fighting her way plass as the Pfefferman through the male-domisiblings in Transparent. nated standup comedy Comedian Sarah Silverindustry. Her New York man popularized the Jewishness colored her Alex Borstein, left, and Rachel Brosnahan in a scene from Season 3 of The term Jewface to critique jokes, her accent, her Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Credit: Amazon Studios the trend. mannerisms and much of her daily life.

“Watching a gentile actor portraying, like, a Jew-y Jew is just That’s because the whole landscape of the show was Jewish, — agh — feels, like, embarrassing and cringey,” Silverman said from the well-to-do, acculturated intelligentsia (such as on her podcast in 2021.

Midge’s parents) to the self-made garment factory owners Midge’s rise as a comedian is interlocked with her ally and (such as her in-laws). Even the radical Jewish comic Lenny one-time fling, the fictionalized Lenny Bruce. His character Bruce, a countercultural icon of the midcentury, appeared as has a softened glow in the show, but in reality, Bruce was a recurring character who propels Midge’s success. branded a “sick comic” for his scathing satire that railed Henry Bial, a professor specializing in performance theory against conservatism, racism and moral hypocrisy. Between and Jewish popular culture at the University of Kansas, said 1961 and 1964, he was charged with violating obscenity laws the emergence of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in 2017 exempli- in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York; and he fied a shift to more overt portrayals of Jews on TV — especially was deported from England. At his Los Angeles trial in 1963, on streaming services. Although Jewish characters featured in Bruce was accused of using the Yiddish word “shmuck,” taken TV shows throughout the 20th century, such as The Goldbergs as an obscenity to mean “penis.” He incorporated the charge in the 1950s, Rhoda in the 1970s and Seinfeld in the 1990s, their into his standup, explaining that the colloquial Jewish meanJewishness was often more coded than explicit. Network tel- ing of “schmuck” was “fool.” evision, seeking to attract the majority of Americans coveted Driven to pennilessness by relentless prosecution, police haby advertisers, feared alienating audiences who couldn’t “re- rassment and blacklisting from most clubs across the country, late” to ethnic and racial minorities. he died of a morphine overdose in 1966 at 40 years old. The “If there are only three things you can put on television at 8 real Lenny Bruce’s tragedy lends a shadow to the fictional o’clock on Tuesday night, then there’s a lot more incentive for Midge Maisel’s triumphs. networks and advertisers to stay close to the herd, because The United States that he struggled with until his death also you’re competing for the same eyeballs,” said Bial. “But when looks comparatively rosy through the lens of The Marvelous people can watch whatever they want whenever they want, Mrs. Maisel, whose protagonist battles misogyny but takes litthen it opens up for a much wider range of stories.” tle interest in other societal evils — including still-rampant Other shows such as Transparent, Broad City and Crazy Ex- antisemitism. Some critics have noted that she is oblivious to Girlfriend, which debuted in 2014 and 2015, are often cited along- segregated facilities when she tours with Black singer Shy side Mrs. Maisel as part of a new wave of Jewish representation. Baldwin, then nearly outs him as gay during her set.

Riv-Ellen Prell, a professor emerita of American studies at Mrs. Maisel takes place in a supersaturated fantasy 1958 New the University of Minnesota, argued that Midge subverts the York, one where antisemitism, racism, homophobia and even stereotype of the “Jewish American princess.” At the start of sexism are barely a whisper,” Rokhl Kafrissen wrote in 2018. the show, she appears to embrace that image: She is finanReflecting on the criticism that had piled up by 2020, Shercially dependent on her father and husband and obsessive man-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino, also an exabout her appearance, measuring her body every day to en- ecutive producer and a lead writer for the show, told the sure that she doesn’t gain weight. Despite living with her hus- Jewish Telegraphic Agency that trying to appease every Jewish band for years, she always curls her hair, does her makeup and viewer was a futile exercise. spritzes herself with perfume before he wakes up.

“We knew that if we show a Jewish family at temple — if we “She looks for all the world like the fantasy of a Jewish Amer- show them and talk about Yom Kippur and all those kinds of ican princess,” said Prell. “And yet she is more ambitious than things — there are going to be people who are going to nitpick imaginable, she is a brilliant comic who draws on her own life. at specifics that maybe we didn’t get exactly right,” said PalYou have Amy Sherman-Palladino inventing the anti-Jewish ladino, who is not Jewish. “But a lot of the feedback that we’ve princess.” gotten has been ‘Thank you. Thank you for leaning into it and Bial said that Midge’s relationship with her Jewishness defies showing Jews being Jewish, as opposed to just name checking another stereotype: That identity is not a source of neurosis them as Jewish.’” or self-loathing, as it often appears to be in the male archeSherman-Palladino added: “[T]here are many different types of Woody Allen and Larry David, or in Rachel Bloom’s kinds of Jews! To say, ‘oh, Jewish stereotypes,’ well, what are Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Through the spirited banter, the pointed you talking about? Because we have an educated Jew, we have exclamations of “oy,” the titillation over a rabbi coming for Yom a woman who was happy to be a mother, we have another Kippur break fast — Midge’s Jewishness is a source of com- woman striking out as a stand up comic, and, you know, Susie forting ritual, joy and celebration.

Myerson’s [Alex Borstein’s character] a Jew! We’ve got a broad “She has anxieties and issues, but none of them are because range of Jews in there.” she’s Jewish,” said Bial.

However The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is assessed in the future, Some critics argue the show’s depiction of Jewish culture re- it will remain significant for thrusting a new kind of Jewish lies on shallow tropes. In a 2019 review, TV critic Paul Brown- heroine into the mainstream consciousness, said Bial.

“Because of its popularity, its longevity and frankly its quality, field said The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel repurposed stereotypes to appear “retro chic.” He pointed to a consistent contrast be- it’s going to be the example,” Bial said. “In the history of Jews and tween the Weissmans (the assimilated, cultured Jews of the TV, this is going to be the chapter for the late 2010s and early Upper West Side) and the Maisels (the boorish, money-fo- 2020s — you have to mention Mrs. Maisel. It is very clearly a landcused Jews of the Garment District), arguing that these super- mark in Jewish representation, particularly for Jewish women.”

The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023 | 5

A ‘gender-sensitive’ translation of the Hebrew Bible has hit digital shelves. Not everyone is happy. found, Call to Him while He is near.”

JACKIE HAJDENBERG “The RJPS makes the case that the art of JTA A new Bible translation that eschews gen- Bible translation is always a work in progress, dered pronouns for God is now available and should take into account not only our through Sefaria, the online library of Jewish deeper understanding today of biblical Hetexts, prompting backlash on social media from some who see the change as a sacrilege.

The Revised Jewish Publication Society edition of the Bible, which the 135-yearold Jewish publishing house has released in partnership with Sefaria, is the first major update to the JPS translation of the Tanakh in nearly 40 years. So far, only the books comprising the Prophets, the Hebrew Bible’s second section, are available on Sefaria.

A side-by-side comparison of the 1985 edition of the JPS The new English transla- Tanakh and the 2023 gender-sensitive edition demonstrates tion refers to individuals slight changes in the English translation. Credit: Design by with pronouns that are con- Jackie Hajdenberg sistent with traditional gender norms. But brew but also the significant changes that unlike nearly all translations of the Bible have occurred in the use of English over the throughout history, the new edition, known past decades,” said JPS’ director emeritus, as RJPS, does not refer to God with mascu- Rabbi Barry Schwartz, in the announcement line pronouns. It doesn’t use feminine pro- for the new translation of the Bible. nouns either: Instead, God is referred to “Tanakh is the foundational text of the simply as “God” throughout the text.

Jewish people, and we share Sefaria’s desire For example, Isaiah 55:6 reads, “Seek GOD for everyone to be able to access it in lanwhile you can, Call out while [God] is near.” guage that is appropriate and meaningful for JPS’ landmark 1985 translation, by contrast, them while remaining faithful to the original,” reads, “Seek the LORD while He can be See Gender-sensitive translation page 7

News LO CA L | NAT IO NAL | WO RLD

Orthodox rabbis calls for immediate release of Evan Gershkovich

tence of up to 20 years in a BEN SALES penal colony.

JTA “As Americans, we conAn umbrella association demn how our fellow citiof American Orthodox rabzen, Evan Gershkovich, has bis is calling on the Russian been unlawfully arrested government to release Evan and detained by Russian ofGershkovich, the imprisficials,” read a statement by oned Jewish reporter for the the group’s executive vice Wall Street Journal. president, Rabbi Mendy The Rabbinical Alliance Mirocznik. “As Jews, we are of America said in a stateoffended by the apparent ment on Sunday that Rusresurgence of governmental sia should “do immediate Russian antisemitism. As justice by releasing Evan rabbis, we protest this inGershkovich.” The alliance, also known as the Igud The Wall Street Journal reporter justice and demand that HaRabbonim, says it repre- Evan Gershkovich appears in a court Russia does the just, moral sents more than 950 Ortho- in Moscow on April 18, 2023. Credit: thing and immediately frees dox rabbis and makes Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Evan Gershkovich so he can frequent statements on Getty Images safely return to his family.”

Jews in America and around the world have public affairs in the U.S. and Israel.

Gershkovich, 31, who is the son of Jewish taken action to support Gershkovich since his refugees from the Soviet Union, was arrested arrest, with some reviving practices that retwo months ago and charged with espionage, called the movement to free Soviet Jewry duran accusation he, the Wall Street Journal and ing the Cold War. Earlier this month, the the United States government deny. Last Jewish Federations of North America held a week, his pretrial detention was extended rally calling for his freedom. until the end of August, and he faces a sen-

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6 | The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023

Above, left and below: Staff at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home celebrated National Skilled Nursing Care Week, including the special T-shirts for the occasion.

Young Omaha Emerging Leaders event. Above: Front row: Carrie Epstein, left, Daniel Rahav, Lissy Kane Spooner and Sarah Abrahamson.

Back row: Josh Sullivan, left, Alan Tipp, Josh R. Cohen, Rachel Grossman, Anna P. Gutnik, Josh M. Cohen, Carlos Gomez and Daniel Grossman; below: Anna P. and Margie Gutnik, left, and Jay Gordman; below: Lissy Kane Spooner, left, Rachel Grossman, Sarah Abrahamson, Josh R. Cohen and Daniel Grossman; and bottom: Josh Sullivan and Josh M. Cohen.

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Above, below and bottom: Last day of religious school at Temple Israel.

Above: On May 5, 2023, at the Annual Meeting of the Preservation Association of Lincoln (PAL), preservation awards were presented. On behalf of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Ellin Siegel, accepted the 2023 Stewardship Award presented

by PAL President Kay Logan-Peters. This award recognizes the continuing stewardship of the Temple’s historic building.

TISH Shabbat Above: Brian Fahey, Sara Cowan and Leora Azriel; below: Ryan Welner and Hilary Rubesin.

The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023 | 7

From My Kosher Jerusalem Kitchen: Cobbler for Spring SYBIL KAPLAN Walking in Jerusalem’s shuk, the fruits for spring and summer are beginning to appear—apricots, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, cherries and all kinds of apples.

Cobblers were said to have originated among the American colonists.

Wikipedia says: The origin of the name cobbler, recorded from 1859, is uncertain: it may be related to the archaic word cobeler, meaning “wooden bowl,” or the term may be due to

the topping having the visual appearance of a ‘cobbled’ stone pathway rather than a ‘smooth’ paving which would otherwise be represented by a rolled out pastry topping.

Sybil Kaplan is a Jerusalem-based journalist, author and compiler/editor of nine kosher cookbooks. She is a food writer for North American Jewish publications, and she leads walks of the Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English.

PEACH COBBLER This came from an old newspaper.

Ingredients: 1 cup flour 3/4 cup sugar 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 4 Tbsp. unsalted pareve margarine 1 large egg 1/4 cup non-dairy milk 5 cups pitted and sliced peaches 4 tsp. cornstarch 1/4 tsp. cinnamon Non-dairy vanilla ice cream Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a shallow baking dish.

In bowl, mix flour, 2 Tbsp. sugar and baking powder. Cut in margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Beat together egg and non-dairy milk. Add to flour mixture until dry ingredients are moistened and a dough forms.

Put peaches, remaining sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon in a saucepan. Cook until peaches are tender and syrup is clear, thick and boiling (5-7 minutes).

Pour peach mixture into baking dish. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons in six portions over peach mixture. Bake in preheated 400 degree F. oven 20 minutes.

Serve with pareve vanilla ice cream.

Serves six.

Gender-sensitive translation

Continued from page 5 Schwartz added. “Tanakh” is an acronym for the three components of the Hebrew Bible: the “five books of Moses,” Prophets and Writings.

The lack of divine pronouns in the RJPS translation comes as non-traditional pronouns — and debate over their use — have become increasingly prevalent in public discourse. A 2021 study by the Pew Research Center found that more than a quarter of American adults know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns, up eight percentage points since 2018. Meanwhile, many conservatives have decried the use of gender-neutral pronouns, and multiple Republican-led states have passed laws effectively permitting educators to refuse to use the pronouns their students prefer.

The RJPS translation, one of at least 12 available through Sefaria, has sparked backlash online from some Orthodox Jews who believe the new translation is not aligned with their values. Arguing that the translation is an example of progressive political ideology seeping into religion, some have said they will stop using the app over the RJPS translation.

Yehiel Kalish, the CEO of Jewish ambulance corps Chevra Hatzalah, announced last week via Twitter that he had deleted the app. Other prominent figures in the Orthodox world also condemned the new translation.

“Sefaria is a tremendous resource for the [world of ] Torah,” tweeted Yochonon Donn, news editor of Mishpacha Magazine, which reaches a haredi Orthodox audience. “Messing around with [holy books] to conform to western ideas of equality is an unacceptable breach. If this is true, I can’t see people learn-

ing from an unholy source.”

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, a right-wing Orthodox political advocacy organization, tweeted that “to be more inclusive of atheists, they’ll provide a ‘historically accurate translation’ that avoids mention of the Supreme Being. ‘In the beginning, heaven and earth were created.’”

Sefaria has always featured texts relevant to Jews with a range of approaches — a spectrum that has only widened as the digital library has added (and begun supporting the creation of) contemporary texts and translations.

Publishing the RJPS is “about having different translations that are available,” said Sara Wolkenfeld, Sefaria’s chief learning officer.

(Sefaria’s CEO, Daniel Septimus, is on the board of 70 Faces Media, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s parent organization.)

“We are always working to include Jewish texts that are studied by the full range of Jewish learners,” she said. “And that’s why we chose to include the newest JPS translation, but among the many other translations that we’ve already hosted in the library.”

Sefaria also has translations from Orthodox-geared publishing houses, such as the Koren and Metsudah versions, and even translations into French and German. Users can select their own preferred English translation, and RJPS is not the default translation for the Book of Prophets.

“People should know that Sefaria is a library for the entire Jewish people,” Wolkenfeld said.

“And our mission is to provide access to Torah and to bring Torah into the digital age. That’s really what we’re aiming for.”

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8 | The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023

Voices The Jewish Press (Founded in 1920) Margie Gutnik President Annette van de Kamp-Wright Editor Richard Busse Creative Director Howard Kutler Advertising Executive Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Editor Gabby Blair Staff Writer Sam Kricsfeld Digital support Mary Bachteler Accounting Jewish Press Board Margie Gutnik, President; Abigail Kutler, Ex-Officio; Seth Feldman; David Finkelstein; Ally Freeman; Mary Sue Grossman; Natasha Kraft; Chuck Lucoff; David Phillips; and Joseph Pinson.

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Ice cream and waffles ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor It’s been weeks, and I still can’t stop thinking about that ice cream truck that was parked outside of Auschwitz.

“Since early May,” Shira Li Bartov wrote for JTA, “an ice cream stand has sat some 200 meters (about 218 yards) from the camp’s red-brick ‘Death Gate’ where double rail tracks led directly to Nazi gas chambers. A photo of the stand circulated on social media, showing a kiosk with a pink logo reading ‘icelove,’ along with signs advertising ‘ice cream’ and ‘waffles’ in Polish.”

It grates at me, because there is a wrongness here that I can’t just ignore. And in true European fashion, nobody can really agree who is in charge, or who can make this thing go away: “Local authorities in Oswiecim are investigating the ice cream stand’s location, according to Notes from Poland.

Municipality Mayor Andrzej Skrzypinski announced that it was set up on private property, based on a contract between the owner of the land and the owner of the kiosk. However, it’s still unclear whether the operation is allowed under the local zoning plan, which requires approval from the governor of the province.”

It’s not the first time that bureaucracy superseded common sense. What I want to know: who are these tourists who reinforce the operator of the truck by buying their products? Who are the people who come out of Auschwitz and say, ‘You know what I could go for? A waffle!’ Seriously. If nobody buys anything, that truck would surely disappear

quickly, wouldn’t it? stories about shoes and selection and train tracks, In 2020, Alex Benjamin published an amazing ar- juxtaposed with strawberry and chocolate, or ticle in the Jerusalem Post titled The ordinariness maybe vanilla, and would you like whipped cream of Auschwitz. with that? Who can visit a place like this and “I don’t know what the gates of hell should look switch their mind set immediately after? like,” he wrote, “but if you, like me, try to imagine I have never been to Auschwitz. I am too scared it, you don’t picture bucolic countryside surround- of the ghosts who I am convinced hover there. But ing it, a McDonald’s drive-thru close by, parents what feels even scarier is the idea that tourists are pushing their children up the street, kids loitering capable of walking around, to see the sights, take a around bus stops trying to look cool and old people selfie and come out thinking about mundane chatting outside the shops. As a dear colleague put it, “Where is the monster? It would be easier to deal with if there was a monster here.” That perfectly encapsulates what is so scary and upsetting about the place: there’s no monster. The gates of hell have a parking lot, a pizzeria over the road, and students in An ice cream stand sits outside of the former Auschwitz camp in Oswiecim, Poland.

Credit: Dagmar Kopijasz of the Foundation of Memory Sites Near Auschwitz-Birkenau tight jeans and Ugg boots chewing gum while waiting to have a look in- things like ice cream. Because if they do that, if they side. Our Jewish ground zero, literally the site of our can experience the place where such horror hapworst nightmare, the scar that each and every one pened and their appetite is unaffected, it means carries in our heart, is an ordinary place.” they don’t really get it. The experience didn’t truly Benjamin might be on to something; perhaps it’s sink in, and Auschwitz has just become another the ordinariness of the ice cream truck that upsets tourist attraction; a story that happened too long me. The millions of dead, the endless loss, trauma, ago to affect us.

When a breast cancer diagnosis knocked me down, a network of Jewish women lifted me up KAREN E. H. SKINAZI JTA On the way home from the hospital where I was given my diagnosis of grade 2 invasive lobular breast cancer, I directed my husband, through my tears, to stop at the kosher store.

“I don’t want to see anyone right now,” I said, knowing the inevitability of running into someone we knew in the small Jewish community where we live, “so can you go in?” He pulled into the parking lot. “We need challah,” I reminded him. It was Thursday, after all. The next evening was Shabbat.

Time doesn’t stand still for cancer.

My hospital appointment took place two days after the front page of the New York Times declared: “When Should Women Get Regular Mammograms: At 40, U.S. Panel Now Says.” I was 48. Breast cancer has long been the second most common cancer for women, after skin cancer. It is also the most lethal after lung cancer. Statistically, though, most women affected are postmenopausal, so unless there was a specific reason to test early, women were screened regularly from the age of 50. Now, the advice has changed. Breast cancer is rising in younger women. For women in their 40s, the rate of increase between 2015 and 2019 doubled from the previous decade to two percent per year.

Why is this happening? Air pollution? Microplastics? Chemicals in our food? We don’t know.

In the days following my appointment, there was a proliferation of articles about the topic. Importantly, doctors explained that the cancer women are diagnosed with in their 40s tends to be a more aggressive type of cancer. Cancers in premenopausal women grow faster; many breast cancers, like mine, are hormone sensitive. (Got estrogen? Bad luck for you.)

When I posted the news about my diagnosis — on Facebook, because I’m an oversharing type — I was stunned by the number of friends my age, more discreet about their lives, who sent me messages to tell me they had recently gone through the same thing. Everyone had advice. “If you can do a lumpectomy, you’re very lucky. It’s not a major op-

eration, and you’ll preserve your breast.” “Cut it all off ! Immediately! Just get rid of all it and you’ll never worry again! Do you want to spend the rest of your life in mammogram scanxiety?” “Ask plastic surgeons for pictures, and pick the cutest new boobs out there. You won’t regret it.” “The radiation burns—that’s something no one ever tells you. Get yourself some Lubriderm and lidocaine, mix into a slurry, slap it on a panty liner, and tuck it in your sports bra.”

Credit: Getty Images

I’m not sure why I thought I was immune. Or maybe I didn’t — maybe I just never gave it much thought. Even when I found the lump on my breast, I was dismissive. I went to the doctor, and she asked if anyone in my family had had breast cancer. “Oh, who knows? They were all murdered,” I said blithely.

Her eyes bugged. “In the Holocaust,” I added. “Your… mother? Grandmother? Sisters?” “Oh! No, no history of breast cancer in my immediate family.”

Add to that, my mother and sister both tested negative for the BRCA gene mutations, and that’s my Ashkenazi side. The thing is, though, most women who test positive for breast cancer have no family history of it.

But also, I’d done everything right! If you look through the preventative measures, I took all of them. I had three kids by 35, and I breastfed them.

I have a healthy, mostly plant-based diet; I walk and cycle everywhere. I’m not a drinker or smoker. I eat

so many blueberries!

Several of the articles that have been published in recent days are emphasizing the particular danger for Black women, with good reason: They have twice the mortality rate of white women. But as I did my research, I realized that Jewish women should also be on high alert. We’ve long known that one in forty Ashkenazi women has the BRCA gene mutation, significantly raising the risk of breast cancer (50% of women with the gene mutation will get breast cancer) as well ovarian cancer, which is much harder to detect and far more deadly. So many of my friends who reached out to me to tell me of their breast cancer experiences are Jewish; interestingly, not one has the BRCA mutation. Are these high numbers indicative or anecdotal? Are Jewish women generally more susceptible to breast cancer? This seems to be an important area of future research.

For me, that research will come too late — as did the guidance. For now, I have to accept that this cancer diagnosis is part of my life, that just as I will pick up challah every Thursday, I will wake every morning and take my hormone-blocking Tamoxifen. I will lose sleep every night about which surgery to have until I have the surgery, and then I will lose sleep every night about whether it was fully successful. And there’s plenty more in store for me that isn’t pretty; so it goes.

But here’s a good thing that’s already come out of this diagnosis: When the responses to my Facebook post flooded in, they were not only along the lines of “Refuah shleimah” and “I’ve just been through this too,” but also, “Thank you for sharing!

I’m going to book my mammogram right now!”

Karen E. H. Skinazi is Associate Professor of Literature and Culture and Director of Liberal Arts at the University of Bristol in the UK. She is author of Women of Valor: Orthodox Jewish Troll Fighters, Crime Writers, and Rock Stars in Contemporary Literature and Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2018).

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023 | 9

A manufactured ‘mainstream’ wants the White House to define antisemitism on its own flawed terms LILA CORWIN BERMAN JTA As the Biden administration nears the long-awaited announcement of its National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, tensions have emerged over what definition of antisemitism the White House will use. According to Jewish Insider, “major mainstream Jewish groups” are battling against the “left” to define antisemitism, suggesting that the groups’ preferred definition, that of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, is the mainstream one.

The framing determines a winner before the contest even begins — this is the power play of the term “mainstream.”

Here’s how it works: A purportedly neutral source — Jewish Insider, say, or the Associated Press — names a set of players as the “mainstream.” Without any discussion of method or sources, the characterization produces reality. The self-fulfilling designation allows a select group of organizations to command the center. These groups and their spokespeople then use their “mainstream” power to naturalize and normalize their own agenda, like defining the IHRA definition as the “gold standard” despite concerns that it chills legitimate criticism of Israel, or condemning “progressive” voices for their refusal to conflate anti-Zionism and antisemitism, or chastising Rep. Rashida Tlaib for commemorating the Nakba, the “catastrophe” that befell her people with the creation of Israel.

Game on.

The strategy of claiming the center to control it is nothing new. In the annals of American Jewish institutional formation, it’s happened again and again. Just witness the names of organizations: the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the American Jewish Committee, the Zionist Organization of America and the list could go on and on. One after the other, these groups have claimed to be the center, the “mainstream.”

As a historian who has written about many of these groups, I can tell you that every claim to be the united front, the central address, the singular American Jewish organization has rested on the surety that most American Jews believed no such thing. Indeed, words that posture such a “mainstream” are best read as indicators of dissent, debate and fracture.

When it comes to confronting antisemitism, some of today’s Jewish leaders might imagine that American Jews can achieve unity that has long eluded them or Jewish institutional

life. They might be so certain of this vision as to pretend that it is true, with fundraising and media blitzes that appear to speak on behalf of all Jews. Slick advertising campaigns, whether on television and social media or highway billboards, and a hotly contested and poorly constructed yet exclusive definition of antisemitism may make it seem that the Jewish “mainstream” speaks as one, loudly for all Jews and all people who care about fighting antisemitism.

Credit: JTA illustration by Grace Yagel

But don’t let the powerplay bulldoze you. Those television and social media blitzes? They are the product of one megadonor’s imagination and thick wallet. The pink highway signs that deliver glib “lessons” against antisemitism in the form of snark? They are brought to you by the same high-networth family that advertised its storage company with similarly cheeky taglines. And even the creation of and campaigns to endorse the IHRA definition have specific histories and funding sources.

None of this is to say that those efforts should be dismissed because they have histories and are tied to narrow but deep pockets of wealth. The problem comes when those histories and sources of power go unacknowledged and instead parade themselves as the “mainstream,” the authentic truth of what all Jews must believe.

In the power plays to claim the Jewish “mainstream,” institutions and their leaders are trying to silence those who disagree with their policies and politics. The term “mainstream” acts as a cudgel against efforts to build solidarity between Palestinians and Israelis who oppose the actions of the Israeli government. Its purveyors vocally and consistently defend harsh anti-boycott laws, on the books in several American

states, that penalize institutions or individuals for engaging in or promoting boycotts against Israel. Or they helicopter onto American college campuses to pressure university administrators to subscribe to the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

Instead of arriving at the field ready to play an honest game, “mainstream” Jewish institutions and their leaders want to be the only players. To argue that we must all agree on one definition in order to talk about antisemitism is like clearing the field before the game even begins.

Because this is more than a game — because hatred and bigotry fuel violent crimes at an alarming rate in the United States — Jewish and non-Jewish people who have a stake in the conversation about antisemitism should refuse to play.

Publications that insist on anointing a “mainstream” ought to be called out. And the press, instead, should investigate the role that some of its agents play in advancing the power play of the “mainstream” — including, for example, Jewish Insider, which is less than transparent about its own history and sources of funding.

As a participant in one of the “listening sessions” convened by the White House in February of this year, I can report that the scholars who joined me around the table (OK, Zoom screen) had a wide range of perspectives. When asked to share our views on antisemitism, none of us got to call ourselves the “mainstream” expert on the questions. Instead, we identified the methods, sources and theories that authorized our understandings of the roots and manifestations of antisemitism.

I can only hope that the other listening sessions and the White House process has proceeded accordingly, with little reverence for the self-appointed Jewish “mainstream.” A resolve to understand the diversity of views and what led people or groups to them will upset any single view — or definition.

A successful strategy will not be cowed by the “mainstream” but instead will highlight the varieties of truly and authentically held ideas that together can animate efforts to stem the tide of antisemitism and bigotry.

Lila Corwin Berman is a professor of history at Temple University and author most recently of "The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex: The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institution."

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

The White House intends to fight antisemitism. That starts with a sensible definition.

WILLIAM DAROFF JTA In the coming days, the White House is expected to release what President Joe Biden has called “the first-ever U.S. national strategy to counter antisemitism.” It will likely include calls to action by Congress, state and local governments, as well as guidance for technology and other companies, civil society and faith leaders.

In preparation, the Biden administration sought input from a wide range of Jewish community members and stakeholders, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which I lead. In addition to this engagement with the forthcoming report on antisemitism, I will travel to Cordoba, Spain, next month for the United Nations antisemitism summit, and then to the European Parliament in Brussels with parliamentarians from across the globe convening against antisemitism.

In both settings, the message of world Jewry remains unchanged: Adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, known as IHRA, is an essential and seminal tool to combat anti-Jewish hate Support for adopting the IHRA definition is significant, as seen in a letter last week from over 175 Jewish community organizations around the world, a letter last week from over 600 rabbis from all four Jewish streams and dozens of letters from American Jewish organizations, all making the important case for adoption of the IHRA definition. Members of Congress have weighed in. Mayors have weighed in. Across the board, a strong and clear consensus of support exists for the definition.

The IHRA definition is the most authoritative and internationally accepted definition of antisemitism. Forty-one nations, as well as hundreds of local governments, academic institutions, NGOs and other entities have formally adopted in different ways the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Over half — 31 — American states also adopted it.

Since the Obama Administration, the U.S. Department of State has utilized and promoted the IHRA definition (and previously, its similarly-phrased predecessor from the European Union’s Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia). Both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt are leaders in advocating for its usage around the globe. The U.S. Department of Education also employs the IHRA definition as a tool in determining antisemitism discrimination in Title VI discrimination cases.

Credit: JTA illustration by Grace Yagel

The IHRA definition continues to gain significant attention and support among governments and civil society actors.

Fifty-one of the 53 member organizations of the Conference of Presidents adopted the definition – a clear recognition from every corner of a disparate Jewish community that we are unified when it comes to applauding the comprehensive approach it provides for labeling and addressing antisemitism.

One particular aspect of the IHRA definition that draws attention — and criticism from some groups — is its treatment of the relationship between anti-Israel bias and antisemitism.

For too long, definitions of antisemitism failed to account for how anti-Zionism often serves as a cover for antisemitism.

Forms of antisemitism that are masked as “anti-Zionism” and

that deny the right of the Jewish people to self-determination are among those most frequently encountered by many Jews today, whether or not they are Zionists, as documented in surveys by the Anti-Defamation League and by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.

The IHRA definition addresses the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, while not conflating legitimate criticism with actual antisemitism. Critics fail to identify actual instances where the IHRA definition suppressed free speech. In fact, over the last 20 weeks, as debates raged around the world over Israel’s proposed judicial reform — with hundreds of thousands of Israelis of all political stripes expressing virulent criticism of the Israeli government’s proposed overhaul — I have yet to hear one individual accuse the critics of being antisemitic. Despite the fact that the IHRA definition is so ubiquitous, legitimate speech that is critical of Israeli government policy is not censored. When put to the test, the IHRA definition does not do what its critics say it does.

We at the Conference of Presidents steadily campaign for states, localities, international governments and organizations to adopt the IHRA definition. The Biden administration seems poised to reassert their ongoing endorsement of the IHRA definition, pushing back yet again against those who distort the nature of the definition’s treatment of legitimate criticism of Israel governmental policies.

In a time when antisemitism in the United States has become all too often lethal, this would mean a vital and praiseworthy evolution of policy.

William Daroff is the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. In that capacity, he is the senior professional guiding the Conference’s agenda on behalf of the 53 national member organizations. Follow him at @Daroff.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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Synagogues

10 | The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster Street Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 712.322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California Street Omaha, NE 68154-1980 402.492.8550 bethel-omaha.org

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific Street Omaha, NE. 68154 402.556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org

CHABAD HOUSE

An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 South 120 Street Omaha, NE 68144-1646 402.330.1800 OChabad.com email: chabad@aol.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN South Street Temple Union for Reform Judaism 2061 South 20th Street Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

Capehart Chapel 2500 Capehart Road Offutt AFB, NE 68123 402.294.6244 email: oafbjsll@icloud.com

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME 323 South 132 Street Omaha, NE 68154

TEMPLE ISRAEL

Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 13111 Sterling Ridge Drive Omaha, NE 68144-1206 402.556.6536 templeisraelomaha.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: TIFERETH ISRAEL Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Boulevard Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 402.423.8569 tiferethisraellincoln.org

B’NAI ISRAEL Monthly Speaker Series Service, Friday, June 9, 7:30 p.m. with our guest speaker, Bob Goldberg, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Our service leader is Larry Blass. Everyone is always welcome at B’nai Israel!

For information on COVID-related closures and about our historic synagogue, please contact Howard Kutler at hkutler@hotmail.com or any of our other board members: Renee Corcoran, Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Howard Kutler, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Ann Moshman, Mary-Beth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber.

Handicap Accessible.

BETH EL Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON MINYAN SCHEDULE: Mornings on Sundays, 9:30 a.m.; Mondays and Thursdays, 7 a.m.; Evenings on Sunday-Thursday, 5:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Kiddush sponsored by Nate and Hannah Schwalb; Mah Jongg Shabbat following services and lunch; Havdalah, 9:40 p.m. Zoom Only.

SUNDAY: Torah Study, 10 a.m.

THURSDAY: The Needlework Gang, 1 p.m.

FRIDAY-June 16: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY-June 17: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Kiddush & Kittens following services; Havdalah, 9:45 p.m. Zoom Only.

Please visit bethel-omaha.org for additional information and service links.

BETH ISRAEL FRIDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Summer Camp JYE BI 2023, 8:30 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 8:38 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m.; Kids Class, 7:30 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 9 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:48 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Dreyer’s Farewell Party, 5 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.

MONDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Summer Camp JYE BI 2023, 8:30 a.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.

TUESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Summer Camp JYE BI 2023, 8:30 a.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Summer Camp JYE BI 2023, 8:30 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.

THURSDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Summer Camp JYE BI 2023, 8:30 a.m.; Character Development, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Ari; Women’s

Rosh Hodesh Meeting, 7:40 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.; Parsha Class, 9 p.m.

FRIDAY-June 16: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Summer Camp JYE BI 2023, 8:30 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 8:41 p.m.

SATURDAY-June 17: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m.; Kids Class, 7:30 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 9 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:51 p.m.

Please visit orthodoxomaha.org for additional information and Zoom service links.

All services are in-person. All classes are being of-

CHABAD HOUSE fered in-person and via Zoom (ochabad.com/academy). For more information or to request help, please visit www.ochabad.com or call the office at 402.330.1800.

FRIDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/ Lechayim; Candlelighting, 8:38 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 9:47 p.m.

SUNDAY: Sunday Morning Wraps: Video Presentation, 9-9:30 a.m. and Breakfast, 9:45 a.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Personal Parsha, 9:30 a.m.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

TUESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 7 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Mystical Thinking (Tanya), 9:30 a.m.; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

THURSDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Parsha Reading, 10 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Advanced Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study (Sanhedrin 34), noon; Introduction to Alphabet, Vowels & Reading Hebrew, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) Class, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY-June 16: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ocha bad.com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 8:41 p.m.

SATURDAY-June 17: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed

by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 9:51 p.m.

Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch.

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL Note: Some of our services, but not all, are now being offered in person.

FRIDAY: Pride Shabbat: Kabbalat Shabbat Service with lay leadership and music by Leslie Delserone and Peter Mullin, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: TBD; Shab-

bat Candlelighting, 8:39 p.m.

SATURDAY: Pride Shabbat: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. with lay leadership at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Beha’alotcha; Havdalah, 9:48 p.m.

SUNDAY: Tifereth Israel Annual Meeting, 11 a.m.; Men’s Bike/Coffee Group meet, 10:30 a.m. at RockN-Joe, just off of 84th and Glynoaks. For more information or questions please email Al Weiss at albertw801@gmail.com; Community Social Action Committee Meeting, 1:30 p.m. at SST; Pickleball, 3-5 p.m. at TI. MONDAY: Federation Board Meeting, 1 p.m. via Zoom.

FRIDAY-June 16: Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: TBD; Shabbat Candlelighting, 8:42 p.m.

SATURDAY-June 17: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Sh’lach; Havdalah, 9:51 p.m.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

FRIDAYS: Virtual Shabbat Service, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month at Capehart Chapel. Contact TSgt Jason Rife at OAFBJSLL@icloud.com for more information.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home’s service is currently closed to visitors.

TEMPLE ISRAEL

In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Batsheva Appel, Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin, and Cantor Joanna Alexander FRIDAY: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. In-Person; Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom.

TUESDAY: Temple Israel Annual Meeting, 7 p.m. InPerson & Zoom.

WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m. In-Person.

THURSDAY: Thursday Morning Class, 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel via Zoom.

FRIDAY-June 16: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. InPerson; Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY-June 17: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. InPerson & Zoom; Tot Havdalah, 4 p.m. RSVP Required.

Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

JEWISH PRESS NOTICE

The Jewish Press will be closed on Tuesday July 4. There will be no Jewish Press on July 7, 2023. Questions? Call 402.334.6448.

Israeli minister cancels LA speech due to protests and ‘bad vibes’ BEN SALES JTA An Israeli government minister canceled a speech in Los Angeles in the face of a protest, in part over what the local Israeli consul described as “bad vibes.”

Ofir Akunis, Israel’s science and technology minister and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, was due to speak on Tuesday at an event at BioscienceLA, a Los Angeles-area center for life science innovation. He arrived in the country ahead of the Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City on Sunday, where he will march as part of a delegation of Israeli government officials.

An activist movement led by Israeli expatriates who oppose the Israeli government’s proposed weakening of the judiciary, called UnXeptable, has vowed to protest the parade delegation. A local chapter of that movement showed up at the event in L.A. on Tuesday and, like the anti-government street protesters in Israel, chanted “Shame” in Hebrew.

Akunis did not show up for the speech. After the audience waited two hours, Hillel Newman, the Israeli consul general in Los Angeles, announced that the minister would not be speaking.

“I have to apologize on behalf of the minister,”

Newman said from the podium. “In the end he decided he’s not coming. He said that he felt that his presence here might cause more provocations of

Ofir Akunis, Israel’s minister of science and technology, pictured in Jerusalem, Jan. 29, 2023. Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

the people outside and the protesters, and he said he didn’t want to bring a bad feeling or bad vibes to anything associated with him and the state of Israel.”

Neither the consulate general nor BioscienceLA responded to requests for comment. Akunis’ office

said in a statement that his “successful visit is going as planned.”

“If there is a space for nonviolent arguments about Israel’s internal affairs, it is only in Israel, and as we knew to expect provocations from leftist protesters, we chose not to have them in the international arena,” read the statement, according to Neria Kraus, a reporter for Israeli Channel 13.

UnXeptable has organized protests overseas in solidarity with the mass street protests that have taken place in Israel against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul. Akunis is not the first Israeli government official to cancel a speech to an American audience due to protests. Netanyahu backed out of speaking at a Jewish Federations conference of North American Jewish leaders last month in Tel Aviv because of protests, and the next day, far-right lawmaker Simcha Rothman was repeatedly shouted down at one of the conference panels.

In a statement following Akunis’ cancellation, UnXeptable said, “We’ve started.”

“Whoever tries to destroy Israeli democracy will not enjoy a quiet visit in the United States,” the statement said. “We will be everywhere that they are, and we will prevent them from spreading lies.”

News LOC AL | N AT I O N A L | WO R L D

Goodbye, Kosherfest. Hello, Kosher-Palooza: A trade show swap reveals a changing industry pointing for anyone that’s in the industry,” she said. “I just JACKIE HAJDENBERG found there weren’t that many vendors anymore. It really had JTA After more than three decades, an annual trade show of slowed down.” kosher foods that saw the evolution of the cuisine in America The demise coincided with a rapid explosion of accessible grow from gefilte fish and pastrami to “facon,” gluten-free kosher products — in some ways making the show a victim cookies and CBD gum is no more. of the success of its field.

“Exhibitors feel Kosherfest has run its course,” the company “This year we’re celebrating the centennial of American that organized the two-day event, Diversified Business Com- kosher certification, and efforts by certifiers during that cenmunications, announced on Wednesday. tury have left the kosher industry in an excellent position,” said The company’s statement attributed the decision to shifts David Zvi Kalman, a scholar at the Shalom Hartman Institute in the supermarket industry and in how stores display and of North America who studies trends in Jewish life. purchase kosher products. Buyers for supermarkets, it said, “The fact that there are kosher products up and down the are increasingly likely to buy kosher products at general trade shows rather than events specific to kosher food.

“As this buyer is responsible for sourcing and purchasing a wide array of products, they are more likely to attend food events displaying items not just exclusive to kosher,” the company said. “A certified kosher only food show such as Kosherfest is too niche for their attendance.”

The decision to cancel Kosherfest — which has included more than 325 exhibitors displaying their products and has drawn as many as 6,000 attendees each fall — comes as kosher food has gone mainstream. As of 2018, according to the Visitors check out a booth at Kosherfest. Credit: Julia Gergely Boston Globe, some 40% of packaged food and drink sold in supply chain means that manufacturers can easily source the United States was certified kosher. Last year, Rabbi Eli kosher ingredients, and ingredient manufacturers have an inLando, the executive manager of OK Kosher, a certification centive to certify to stay competitive,” Kalman added. “While agency, said Jews make up just 20% of kosher products’ con- effective marketing has been important to the industry’s sumer base, according to the publication Food Dive. growth — it saved the [Orthodox Union] from a period of stagAt the same time, supermarkets and other pillars of the nation in the 1950s — there are now strong network effects kosher marketplace have been joined by social media influ- that encourage companies to certify even without the help of encers in promoting new food products to Jews who keep events like Kosherfest.” kosher. That shift was accelerated during the pandemic, when In a statement commenting on the end of Kosherfest, its Kosherfest was suspended for a year before returning to founder, Menachem Lubinsky, said he was proud of the muted crowds in 2021. Recently, it had been showing signs of show’s 33-year run. Lubinsky sold the show to Diversified strain. Last year, the fair was still recruiting vendors just days Business Communications in 2004 but remained involved in before its opening. Vendors who had reserved booths for this its production. year will have their payments refunded, the company said.

“Looking back, I can proudly say that the show was an Some longstanding Kosherfest attendees thought the show amazing run and the impetus for a glorious chapter in the had shifted to cater too much to influencers, while some in- growth of kosher and the Jewish community,” Lubinsky wrote. fluencers said the show never felt totally accessible to them.

“The last three plus decades of the show was a period when “The food industry has evolved and social media influencers tens of thousands of products became kosher, dozens of huge definitely have a voice and a presence and they get products modern kosher independent supermarkets were launched, in front of consumers,” said Chanie Apfelbaum, a kosher cook- there was an explosion of kosher restaurants of diverse book author and social media personality under the moniker themes, dozens of new kosher cookbooks published, and we “Busy in Brooklyn.” “So, it’s definitely something that was nec- witnessed the advent of a new era in social media and the Inessary that they weren’t really ready to bring to the table.” ternet to name but a few of these gigantic accomplishments,” Apfelbaum, who said she had been introduced to Korean he added. Kosher became popular in every area of life.” cuisine after meeting a chef at Kosherfest, will be hosting a With kosher products readily available in many places, obcooking competition at Kosher-Palooza, a new event that will servers said kosher-keeping consumers are increasingly looktake place later this month at the same New Jersey convention ing for unique or boundary-pushing food experiences — a center that previously hosted Kosherfest. niche promoted by Fleishigs Magazine, a lead sponsor of Kosher-Palooza is geared to individual consumers, accord- Kosher-Palooza. “More than just the authority on kosher ing to its website, with wine tastings, blind taste tests and cooking, Fleishigs serves up kosher like never before,” the magcooking demonstrations taking place alongside displays of azine, whose name is a Jewish term for meat dishes, promises. new products.

“Kosher consumers are demanding fresh, new products that “You (and your appetite) are invited to a massive celebration we want to see on the market and that’s what we want,” Apfelof all things kosher with hundreds of food brands, cookbook baum said. “That’s what we’re looking for.” authors, influencers, and experts, all under one roof,” anOne convener of discussion about new frontiers in kosher nounced a press release for the event distributed last month. dining is Elan Kornblum, publisher and president of the Great Among the companies highlighted on Kosher-Palooza’s Kosher Restaurants Magazine and the creator of the Great website is KosherCatch, a New England-based fresh fish com- Kosher Restaurant Foodies Facebook group, which boasts pany. Its founder, Jeffrey Ingber, said he had been a longtime more than 82,000 members. Kornblum will be hosting a meetKosherfest attendee but thought the show had waned recently. and-greet at Kosher-Palooza but this week took a moment to “Over the past 10 years there was nothing new to see, which lament Kosherfest’s end in his Facebook group. is a surprise because there are emerging products and new “In the 20 years I went, I certainly have had great memories, products and creative products coming out every year by met some great people from all over the world and did a lot manufacturers,” he said. of business here,” he posted about Kosherfest. “Sad to see it Apfelbaum said she had seen the same thing. “Definitely end.”

Kosherfest in the last couple of years has been very disap-

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The Jewish Press | June 9, 2023 | 11

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12 | The Jewish Press | January 1, 2023

Entertainment C U LT U R E | M OV I E S | M US I C

Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest wins runner-up prize at Cannes Film Festival Israeli singer and relocated to Tel Aviv during the pandemic, ANDREW LAPIN The Zone of Interest, a sobering drama about a Nazi com- presented Glazer with the Grand Prix during the festival’s mander’s behavior during the Holocaust, won the Grand Prix awards ceremony. at this year’s Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, as one of sevObservers at the event had thought the movie, which preeral new arthouse films about the legacy of antisemitism that premiered at the festival.

Based on a novel by Martin Amis, the film is a fictional portrayal of the life of Rudolph Hoess, the real-life Auschwitz death camp commandant. It shows his family’s efforts to live blissfully unaware of the atrocities their patriarch is inflicting on Jews a short distance away from them. The movie was directed by British Jewish filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, who has amassed a cult fol- The Zone of Interest won the Grand Prix at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Credit: A24/Mica Levi lowing for cerebral movies such as Under The Skin and Birth. miered in competition to rave reviews on the same day Amis The Grand Prix is essentially the runner-up prize at the his- died of esophageal cancer, had a shot at the top prize, the toric film festival on the French Riviera, which this year was Palme d’Or. It was competing against nearly two dozen films, bestowed by a jury including Oscar-nominated Swedish di- including Kidnapped, a historical drama about the Catholic rector Ruben Östlund and the actors Brie Larson and Paul Church’s kidnapping of Italian Jewish child Edgardo Mortara Dano. The director Quentin Tarantino, who is married to an in the 19th century.

Glazer shot The Zone of Interest on location at Auschwitz, in German, and he told reporters at the festival that he hoped the film adaptation would “talk to the capacity within each of us for violence, wherever you’re from.”

The film will be released this fall by specialty distributor A24, which is also handling the release of another boundarypushing film about antisemitism that premiered at Cannes: Occupied City, a four-hour documentary about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen. The film is co-produced by McQueen’s wife Bianca Stigter, who also made the acclaimed Holocaust documentary Three Minutes: A Lengthening.

Also premiering at the festival out of the main competition was The Goldman Case, a courtroom drama based on the reallife 1975 trial of left-wing French Jewish radical Pierre Goldman, who claimed he was a victim of antisemitic targeting by police and who was later murdered. Anselm, a 3D documentary about the German painter Anselm Kiefer, who frequently addresses his country’s Nazi past in his work, also debuted at the festival.

Iris Knobloch, the new president of the Cannes Film Festival, is Jewish and is also the first woman to hold the position.

Her mother Charlotte Knobloch has for decades been president of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria.

Iris Knobloch told Indiewire at the festival that her parents, both Holocaust survivors, had instilled a love of movies in her.

“My parents went to the movies almost two times a week, because they didn’t have a youth, so it was a way to recapture those moments,” she said, adding that this experience taught her “that cinema is an important opportunity to get to a broad audience with the right message.

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