We’re back!
Housekeeping notes: I’m sorry this is a day late! I wanted to include all of my work from the week, and one piece published this morning. Also, to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to write my mini-essay on until yesterday evening.
Not next Monday but the Monday after that, paid subscribers will get November’s ET Ask Home, a monthly questionnaire. I know I say this all the time but I’m so excited about this coming month’s guest.
For those of you who are new, the regular newsletter (i.e. what you are reading right now) is divided into three sections, which are a roundup of news, my views on a subject, and some stuff about Jews. This week (and I guess all weeks, but especially right now), some of the individual links in the section on Jewish news could be in straight news, and the reverse is true, too. I tried to use my best judgment and I hope it makes sense.
Also for paid subscribers: I’m thinking about what paid-only features to offer next year, in 2024. If you have any opinions on this—if you like the monthly questionnaire but not the reading list, for example, or if you think I should keep both, or if you’d rather something entirely new—please do feel free to let me know either in the comments or via email.
And anyone else should feel free to email (polite, constructive) feedback, too.
And now onto news, views, and Jews.
THE NEWS
For the Forward, I wrote about why I find the argument that “these Jews who disagree with me are not really Jewish/antisemites” is offensive, intellectually lazy, and misses what I consider to be a key component of Jewish peoplehood.
For the New Republic, I wrote about Jewish members of Congress, who are decidedly not calling for a ceasefire, and Jewish Hill staffers, many of whom are.
I am very briefly quoted in this RNS piece about American Jewish polarization.
I recommend this London Review of Books essay by Amjad Iraqi (in the interest of full disclosure, Amjad has edited me at +972). And this by Adam Shatz, also in the London Review of Books, is worth reading, too.
I highly recommend friend of the newsletter Marc Tracy’s great New York Times piece on the cancellation of Palestinian cultural events.
This is a good piece on the limits of comparing Hamas to ISIS.
For something completely different: The Czech government is trying to address labor shortages by increasing quotas for foreign workers.
This blog on the new speaker of the House made me laugh even though developments are objectively not funny.
India will resume visa services for Canadians.
This is a fun story about Taylor Swift dining out.
This week, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich turned 32 in a Russian prison. He was arrested roughly seven months ago for journalism, which is not, and should not be treated as, a crime.
MY VIEWS ON…
…A few nice things!
Elephants.
My dog.
Jhumpa Lahiri’s new short story collection, Roman Stories.
How Taylor Swift’s Reputation album has taken on a new meaning because, when it came out, her reputation had, as she sings, “never been worse,” but time passed and that did, too, and so now “Look What You Made Me Do” is fun and campy.
Neil is coming home from a work trip today.
This video of Beyoncé.
Going to the movies.
Fall weather.
Calling my parents. Texting my sister.
Friends who will tell you, when everything you do feels small and grim, that you’re doing what you can, and who will remind you, when you wonder why you started writing about any of this at all, that it is your right and a privilege to try to do this work well.
AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS
I’ve recommended this speech by Austrian Jewish musician Isabel Frey to several people this week so I am sharing it here with you.
I encourage you to watch this entire video clip of Amira Hass, the Israeli journalist who has covered the West Bank and Gaza for the last three decades. If you can’t watch all of it, please at least watch the last minute and a half.
Isaac Chotiner interviewed Netanyahu biographer and journalist Anshel Pfeffer.
I really appreciated this conversation between Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American activist and Josh Leifer, a figure on the Jewish left, about what has happened, is happening, and what comes next. I am including it in this section because of what Leifer said about trends he’s seeing in American Jewish spaces.
A group of Jewish writers and artists in Germany signed an open letter against antisemitism—and against repression of pro-Palestinian speech.
Ruth Margalit has a dispatch on the devastation at kibbutz Be’eri. I don’t normally add trigger warnings to articles I share, but please know that this is incredibly difficult and upsetting to read.
This piece by Israeli novelist David Grossman on who Israel will be after the war will almost certainly depress you, but you should read it anyway.
An Arab-Jewish conference was canceled after the owner of the venue where it was to be held was warned of “consequences” by the Israeli police.
I thought this interview with leftist Israeli lawmaker Ofer Cassif was interesting for its assessment of the political mood and context (I personally thought it was less specific in its solution than in the diagnosis of the issues).
Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll was found, murdered, outside her home. She was only 40 years old. The motive is not yet known. May her memory be a blessing.
That’s it for now. Hope to see you back here soon.
-ET