‘Sorry, I forgot to write that we will not hire Jews’: Lawyers’ antisemitic emails revealed

Two prominent LA lawyers resign after making offensive comments about Jews: The attorneys, who recently launched their own firm with four California offices and eight more nationwide, stepped down on Monday after the Forward reported on internal emails revealing that they cultivated a culture of bigotry and disparagement. Among the revelations: they refused to hire someone because they are Jewish, mocked an opposing lawyer for being Sabbath observant, and used the term “Jew” as a verb to describe getting a lower price on hotel rooms or office space. Read the story ➤

Why did top federation leaders sponsor a conference promoting Israeli settlements? Jewish Federations of North America and UJA-Federation of New York were among the sponsors of a conference that opened with a speech from Meir Porush, an Israeli government minister who has said that the Women of the Wall should be “thrown to the dogs” and compared Reform Jews to pigs. In addition to the federation groups, notable sponsors included several Israeli government ministries, the Orthodox Union, Nefesh B’Nefesh and El Al airlines. Read the story ➤

The cast of ‘Some Like It Hot.’ (Marc J Franklinear)

The very Jewish song that got cut from Some Like it Hot: The musical, based on the 1959 film and set in Prohibition-era Chicago, is the most nominated production at this year’s Tony Awards, set for Sunday night. And it almost contained a number called “The Uptown Yiddishe Blues.” In an interview, composer Marc Shaiman said he was sad to lose the song about the musical kinship between Black and Jewish music. He even shared a demo of the track with us. Read the story and listen to the song ➤

First-person | My dad stormed Normandy on D-Day — and relived the fight against Nazis every night: Today is the 79th anniversary of that largest seaborne invasion in history, so we’re sharing an essay our Beth Harpaz wrote about her father’s experience. “It might sound strange to modern parents who fret about exposing their kids to stories about war and other terrible things, but I loved hearing my father’s battle tales,” she writes. “I was in his thrall every night as I pushed my green peas into my mashed potatoes while hearing him describe taking out a nest of German machine guns or hunting down Nazis in the dark.” Read the essay ➤

The Princeton University campus. (iStock)

Opinion | What campus life is really like at a ‘hotbed of antisemitism’: Rabbi Gil Steinlauf, the Jewish chaplain at Princeton University, says anti-Israel protests and far-right speakers often generate headlines, but they’re not the biggest issues facing his students. And those students are frustrated by “those at both ends of the political spectrum” who attack each other publicly, he writes. “This turns a campus conversation into a cable news-ready battle. It misrepresents the positive lived experiences of other Jewish students.” Read his essay ➤

Plus…

• Virtual minyans: Apple unveiled its long-awaited augmented reality goggles on Monday. It’ll cost you $3,499, so start looking through your couch cushions for spare shekels. In the meantime, our columnist, Rob Eshman argues that Jews should get in on the ground floor of the metaverse. And our contributing reporter, Andrew Silverstein, describes how some Jews are already finding religion there.
• Crowded field: Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and Jared Kushner nemesis, is expected to officially join the race for the Republican presidential nomination today.
• False idol: The first episode of The Idol, the controversial new HBO series, is chock full of Jews — but not the noblest depictions of them, writes our PJ Grisar.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Ukraine’s Azov Regiment has drawn controversy due to its far-right roots. (Getty)

🇺🇦  Ukraine has worked for years to contain a fringe far-right movement whose members wear symbols steeped in Nazi history. But some Ukrainian soldiers sporting Nazi iconography are fueling Russian propaganda that this is a war against Nazis. (New York Times) 

✝️  Speaking of the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis dispatched a cardinal to Kyiv on Monday to help broker a peace. (Religion News Service)

🎒  Oklahoma approved the country’s first religious charter school – it is online, and Roman Catholic– setting up a new church-state battle. (New York Times)

📞  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi spoke on the phone this morning to discuss a joint investigation into this weekend’s border incident where three Israeli soldiers were killed by an Egyptian officer. (Haaretz)

🕍  More Americans are choosing in-person prayer services over virtual ones, according to a new Pew Research survey. Jews are the least likely to Zoom in, with 19% saying they worship online at least once a month, compared to 58% of Black Protestants, 47% of evangelicals and 24% of Catholics. (Religion News Service)

🎶  London’s mayor and several local rabbis have tried to stop concerts tonight and tomorrow night in the city by Rogers Waters, who wore an SS-style uniform and compared Anne Frank to a slain Palestinian-American journalist at a show last month in Berlin. (Evening Standard)

🎸  In other concert news, Guns N’ Roses performed for three hours to a sold-out crowd of 60,000 Monday night in Tel Aviv. (Times of Israel)

💔  And one more piece of music news: Taylor Swift is reportedly no longer dating rocker Matty Healy, who was accused of performing a Nazi salute on stage and posting a list of famous Jews in Hollywood to his Instagram page. (Entertainment Tonight)

What else we’re reading ➤  Israel declassifies file on Nazi who enlisted in the IDF and spied for Egypt … Anti-hate mural showcasing Jewish diversity goes up in L.A. … Way before Barbie got the Hollywood treatment, she was ‘born’ with Jewish roots.

ON THE CALENDAR

‘Sex and the City’ featured the interfaith wedding of Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler). (HBO)

On this day in history (1998): Sex and the City debuted on HBO. Writing for the Forward on the show’s 20th anniversary, Jenny Singer remarked that it “launched a thousand self-administered orgasms and was hailed as watershed women’s programming.” But it treated “Jews about as well as Thomas Aquinas, the 13th century philosopher who wrote that Jews, despite their being criminals, should still be allowed basic necessities.” The new season of the series’ reboot premieres June 22.

It’s also the birthday of Harvey Fierstein, the Tony Award-winning writer and performer.

And in honor of National Applesauce Cake Day, check out this recipe from cookbook author Julia Turshen.

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