Bahrain official courts New York Jews • UJA raised $250m in pandemic year • How Ramah camps beat COVID

A 96-year-old reporter interviews a 102-year-old actor.

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Good morning, New York. Condolences to fans of the Yankees, whose season ended last night with a 6-2 loss to the Red Sox in the win-or-go-home American League Wild Card Game. Mets fans know your pain.

GOODWILL TOUR: A Bahrain Foreign Ministry official met with rabbis and Jewish leaders in New York to encourage them to invest in the kingdom and travel there. (JTA)

  • Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa began his trip on Monday by speaking with leaders of UJA-Federation.
  • He then met the rabbis, including Bini Krauss, principal of SAR Academy in Riverdale; Rachel Ain of Sutton Place Synagogue, and Yehuda Sarna, a chaplain at NYU. He later met with students and faculty at Yeshiva University.
  • Why it matters: Despite qualms about human rights practices, many American Jews appear eager to reward the Arab nations that signed normalization agreements with Israel.

STEPPING UP: UJA-Federation of New York raised $249.6 million in its fiscal year ending June 30, an increase of 9% over the preceding year. (eJewish Philanthropy)

  • “Our donors have stepped up in really significant ways,” said Mark Medin, executive vice president of financial resource development. “Individuals are suffering and organizations are suffering.”
  • The philanthropy will replace and rehire people let go during the pandemic “where appropriate and necessary,” said Medin.
  • The annual campaign raised $163.2 million, planned giving and endowments raised $46.2 million, and capital and special campaigns brought in $40.2 million, UJA told The Jewish Week.

NO SPOILERS: Gov. Kathy Hochul is scheduled to make an “announcement” today at 10:45 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. We’ll have details when she does.

UNTIL 120: The character actor Nehemiah Persoff, who moved to New York from Israel with his family at age 10, has published a memoir at age 102. (JTA)

  • Persoff, who had memorable roles in classics like “Some Like It Hot,” “Yentl,” “The Wrong Man” and “An American Tail,” sat down with JTA correspondent Tom Tugend — who is himself 96.

ENDANGERED: Our colleagues at Alma profile NYC filmmaker Erica Rose, whose Lesbian Bar Project is an effort to document, map and support the few remaining lesbian bars in the United States.

ICYMI: Beefed-up security, tolerance education, addressing the structural flaws in civil society: What is the best way to fight antisemitism in New York City and beyond?

  • Watch a video of Monday’s conversation, sponsored by the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and New York Jewish Agenda and moderated by the Jewish Week’s Andrew Silow-Carroll, with three professionals on the front lines of fighting hate.

AROUND THE JEWISH WORLD, WITH JTA

THE ARTS

Brooklyn Magazine visits the Shtetl Art Gallery, the first Hasidic fine art exhibition space, located in the basement of the Condor Hotel in Williamsburg.

Two New York Jewish writers welcomed the paperback publications of their recent novels. Max Gross’ “The Lost Shtetl” is about a forgotten Jewish village forced to face the 21st century; Nessa Rapoport’s “Evening,” set during shiva, is about the fraught relationship between two sisters.

WHAT’S ON TODAY

The Olga Lengyel Institute presents a discussion with the historian and Holocaust expert Timothy Snyder, Levin Professor of History at Yale University and author of “Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning” and “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” Register here. 5:00 p.m.

Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who found himself at the center of a firestorm for his decision to report the infamous phone call that led to President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, will tell his personal story in this Museum of Jewish Heritage program moderated by CNN Senior Global Affairs Analyst Bianna Golodryga. 5:00 p.m.

Join UJA-Federation of New York and The Jewish Week for a conversation between Dara Horn — author of the new essay collection, “People Love Dead Jews: Reports From a Haunted Present” — and Abraham Foxman, national director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League. Their wide-ranging conversation will touch on Jewish memory, history, identity and antisemitism. Monday, Oct. 11, 6:00 p.m. Register here.

Photo, top: Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa meets with Rabbi Yosef Kalinsky, a Yeshiva University dean, at the university on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. (Courtesy of the Reut Group)

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