I’m the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who teaches in a prison. One of my students has a swastika tattoo: “It was so large, it almost wrapped around his arm,” Judith Hertog writes in a new essay. She decided to be vulnerable and share her family’s story with the inmate. Who, in turn, shared his. “The swastika was just a footnote in his own story, not even worth recounting,” she says. “In the end, symbols mean nothing beyond the stories we tell.” Read her essay ➤

Opinion | We are teaching the Holocaust wrong: Sarah Ellen Zarrow, a professor of Holocaust history, argues that merely teaching about hatred as the driving force behind the Shoah “leads us to reductive, self-satisfied, and flattening platitudes.” “How can we say ‘never again,’” she asks, when we “see the Holocaust as an instrument for teaching a general morality, rather than a serious object of inquiry?” Read her essay ➤

Podcast | Playing Anne Frank: Spend Yom Hashoah bingeing our seven-episode series diving into the backstory of the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play and Oscar-winning film, The Diary of Anne Frank. Host Adam Langer explores how this iconic work shaped the lives of the cast and crew of those productions — and of teenagers who played Anne just last year. Listen now ➤

ALSO FROM THE FORWARD

‘Love is Blind’ is not necessarily the picture of a healthy relationship. (Netflix)

The rabbis warned us against reality shows like Netflix’s Love Is Blind: The fourth season of the wildly popular series wrapped up with fans watching with bated breath to see which couples made it to wedded bliss. But as is so often the case, the relationships are trainwrecks that viewers can’t turn away from. It’s a style of humiliation and shaming that the Talmud prohibits, writes our culture reporter Mira Fox. Read the story ➤

Plus…

• Several former rabbinical students sent a letter to the Conservative movement demanding an investigation into what they described as a culture of sexism and sexual harassment at the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies.
• A Republican congressman with ties to white nationalists likened the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine to aiding a Nazi regime.
• Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said the Israeli government should slow down the judicial reform process.
• It’s been a month since the death of Chaim Topol, who gained worldwide fame for his role as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Now his family is opening up about another of Topol’s roles: as a real-life Mossad agent. Our PJ Grisar whipped up a musical response. Cue “If I Were a Hit Man.”

Jewish leaders need tools and training to respond to the troubling rise in antisemitism. A new Spertus Institute program fills this critical need. 

This program gives front-line leaders the opportunity to work with a team of experts to equip them to respond to antisemitic incidents with knowledge, strength, and skill. 

Preferred admission deadline is June 1 for Fall Cohort.  

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Israel ground to a halt for two minutes this morning as a nationwide siren sounded in the country’s annual ritual for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Drivers left their cars and stood with heads bowed. (Getty)

📬  The Supreme Court will hear a case today that could clarify how far employers must go to accommodate workers’ religious beliefs. It started with a Christian U.S. postal worker who refused to make deliveries on Sundays. (AP)

🛫  A group that sends Christian teenagers on Birthright-style trips to Israel is expanding, thanks to a $12 million grant from the Marcus Foundation, the charitable organization of Bernie Marcus, the Jewish philanthropist and co-founder of The Home Depot. (eJewishPhilanthropy)

🎭  Jake Gyllenhaal said his dream job would be to play Tevye on Broadway. “I’d love to do that,” the actor said Monday night at the premiere of his new movie. Also at the event was Jamie Lee Curtis, Gyllenhaal’s godmother, who recalled that Gyllenhaal was on track to star in Fiddler during his senior year of high school, but dropped out of the musical to be the lead in the 1999 film October Sky. (Variety)

🇵🇸  Marcus Mumford, the lead singer of Mumford and Sons, will perform in a pre-recorded music video for a joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial service next week. Mumford has previously participated in events promoting coexistence in Israel, with his longtime friend, Tamer Nafar, a Palestinian rapper. (JTA)

🕺  A new dance club in Williamsburg is bringing Tel Aviv party culture to Brooklyn. The owner says the club’s ethos stems from a rite of passage. “What’s really striking about going to a bar mitzvah is that everyone dances,” he said. “It’s the entire family, from the old folks to everyone. It’s just this joyous occasion. American white bread culture doesn’t have a lot of these elements.” (NY Jewish Week)

👩‍❤️‍👨   Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking reality series was such a success that the company decided to make a spinoff: Jewish Matchmaking. It features an American-Israeli woman who sets up strangers on dates and debuts May 3. (JTA)

What else we’re reading, Yom Hashoah edition ➤  Holocaust survivors, descendants join forces on social media … He predicted the Holocaust, promoted liberal values and paid for it with his life … Not just Anne Frank: What a treasure trove of Dutch diaries reveals about the Holocaust.

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ON THE CALENDAR

The post-earthquake ruins of Temple Emanu-El’s original building. (Courtesy J. The Jewish News of Northern California)

On this day in history (1906): An earthquake registering 8.0 on the Richter scale struck San Francisco. Among those affected were 10,000 Jewish laborers living in the South of Market neighborhood. The Emanu-El, precursor of today’s J. The Jewish News of Northern California, was the first weekly paper in the city to return to publication, with an issue that helped Jews whose homes had been destroyed in the quake reconnect with their loved ones.

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