Good morning, New York. Lots of news today: a boycott controversy, a hate crimes arrest, a councilwoman’s apology and a union drive. Let’s get to it:
BOYCOTT NEWS: A Brooklyn-based marketing firm said it won’t work with a Jewish think tank because of its “significant programming in Israel.” Read JTA’s exclusive on the dispute between Big Duck, the marketing firm, and the Manhattan-based Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, which says anti-Israel “litmus tests” take aim at the large Jewish majority that connects with Israel. (JTA)
ARREST: The NYPD nabbed a suspect in the Dec. 26 attack on a Jewish man in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn who was wearing an Israeli army sweatshirt. Othman Suleiman, 27, of Staten Island was charged with hate crimes on Tuesday. (Times of Israel)
- ICYMI: Our Julia Gergely examines how one progressive Jewish group, in the wake of the attack, urged neighbors to look out for one another, and to step in when they see an act of hate.
BEYOND COMPARE: New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino apologized for comparing COVID vaccine requirements to Nazi Germany. The Queens Republican had been barred from council chambers because she refused to say whether she is vaccinated. (New York Jewish Week)
REMEMBER THEIR NAMES: Families searching their Jewish roots have a powerful new tool: New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage and Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust authority, agreed to include Yad Vashem’s vast database of Holocaust victims on the museum’s affiliated JewishGen genealogy website. (New York Jewish Week)
SCREEN GEMS: The New York Jewish Film Festival begins tonight! We have recommendations for some of the most intriguing documentaries and scripted films on the bill. Co-presented by the Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center, the festival runs Jan. 12-25 with a mix of live and online screenings, plus Q&A’s with the films’ creators. (New York Jewish Week)
- Photo, top: The documentary “The Lost Film of Nuremberg” screens tomorrow. (Courtesy of the Jewish Museum)
GIVING NEWS: A Muslim civil rights group says that the country’s biggest Jewish federations, including New York’s, allow donors to fund Islamophobic groups through their donor-advised funds. (JTA)
UNION LABELS: Staff at New York’s Jewish Museum are pushing to unionize. The museum said it “will respectfully engage in any process that transpires.” (Hyperallergic)
“PURE EVIL”: It’s been slightly over two years since a man with a machete attacked Jews attending a Hanukkah party in Monsey, New York, killing Josef Neumann, 72. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Gov. Kathy Hochul were among the dignitaries marking the anniversary at a virtual event yesterday. (Jerusalem Post)
GIVING & GETTING
Yeshiva University’s Office of Student Life donated more than 50 pounds of food and 1,200 water bottles to survivors of Sunday’s deadly fire in the Bronx. Students delivered the supplies to three different hotels housing displaced families.
WHAT’S ON TODAY
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Theater for the New City presents New Yiddish Rep in “Crazy Meshugga Hurricane Earthquake,” by Amy Coleman. This six-character play is the story of an unlikely connection that develops between a middle-aged secular Jewish woman and a young Hasidic man struggling with schizophrenia. Directed by David Mandelbaum. $18 gen. adm., $15 seniors & students. Box office: www.theaterforthenewcity.net. 212-254-1109. 155 First Ave (at E. 10th Street). Through Jan. 19.
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