We’re back!
Housekeeping notes: This week, paid subscribers got August’s ET Ask Home. This month’s guest was Andrew Leber, who was, I thought, exceptionally thoughtful.
Paid subscribers to this newsletter also get the premium version of The Election Tricycle, a weekly podcast I co-host on this year’s elections in the United States, United Kingdom, and India.
With that! Onto news, views, and Jews.
THE NEWS
For the Forward, I wrote about why many American Jews should be—and why I am—excited to vote for Tim Walz even though, unlike Josh Shapiro, he is not Jewish.
For the Nation, I wrote about why the idea that Kamala Harris snubbed Shapiro out of or in response to antisemitism is cynical, bad faith, and incorrect.
For Slate, I wrote about a pro-Palestine protest at Harris’s Michigan rally and why I think she should approach these moments not as points of conflict with protesters, but opportunities for communication with American voters.
This week on the Election Tricycle, Tom and I discussed riots in the United Kingdom and Kamala Harris’s VP pick.
I thought this interview with Nancy Pelosi was interesting. Whatever else you want to say about her, she understands power.
From CBS: “The nation's oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), will do something it has not done since its founding in 1929 — it will endorse a presidential candidate…The organization's political arm, the LULAC Adelante PAC, will endorse Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday.”
MY VIEWS ON…
…some thoughts from my travels!
Despite plane delays, ground stops, and a mechanical issue with a train, I managed to get home from my book research trip on Saturday. I have now been home almost a week and wanted to write down some stray thoughts I had from the trip (as opposed to the organized thoughts, which will go in the book that I now need to write).
Warsaw is a top 10 city. Also, I’m not sure when it got so much vegetarian/vegan food, but I’m glad it did. Also also, I’m not sure how I know as many people as I do in Warsaw, but I’m glad I do.
Krakow is very charming but it’s strange that the square by the Old Synagogue is full of what I will here describe as “Jew themed” restaurants.
There is nothing like a long but not too long train ride in Europe. My ride from Krakow to Prague was weirdly calming and therapeutic. My ride from Prague to Berlin was not that but I did meet a retired couple from Florida, a missionary from Oklahoma, a mom from Belgium, and a Dutch teenager who was backpacking around Europe. I told her that she’d remember this in 10 years as the summer she stayed in hostels and met strange Americans on the train who said things like, “you’ll remember this in 10 years.”
There is a place in Prague called Kampa Park. There’s a museum there. There’s a cafe where you can sit and look at the park and the river. You can cut through the park to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant that your friend’s been going to for 15 years. You can sit there and be glad that you’re there together now.
This is cliche, but: I am glad I have reached a point in my life where I can appreciate travels to some of my favorite places in the world and also how nice it is to come home.
AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS
If you are in Washington, DC, consider coming to this event on Wednesday on Marjorie Feld’s new book, The Threshold of Dissent: A History of American Jewish Critics of Zionism. I’m moderating!
I loved this JTA report on Walz’s Master’s thesis and real life approach toward Holocaust education and remembrance.
The Forward now has a tracker of Trump calling Jews who vote for Democrats disloyal etc (lol).
From the Guardian: “Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: ‘No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.’”
From Haaretz: “Israel says that it will send a negotiating team to Doha or Cairo on August 15, after the United States, Qatar and Egypt announced that the framework for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and a hostages-for-prisoners deal is ‘now on the table.’”
-ET