GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 1 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 2 Hitler wanted his 1936 Olympics to wow the world. The Forward highlighted protest games instead. By David Ian Klein Culture The modern Olympic games, first held in Athens in the summer of 1896, predate the Forward’s founding by less than one year. In the 52 winter and summer games to take place since, the Jewish stories have ranged from tales of perseverance and success, as in the victories of Jewish athletes like Mark Spitz and Aly Raisman, to profound tragedy, most notably the killing of Israeli team members by Palestinian militants at the 1972 Munich games. But of all those games, for Jews, one will always be most infamous: Hitler’s 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. And as this year’s summer Olympics begins in Tokyo, a city that was once the capital of an Axis power, we decided to look back on how we covered that notorious event. What we found: While the event has gained ignominy in history, a dive into the Forward’s archives reveals that at the time, the paper hardly covered it at all. Instead, we focused our attention on an event largely forgotten by history: the World Labor Athletic Carnival, put on by the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) at New York’s Randall Island Stadium — today, Icahn Stadium — as an alternative to Hitler’s games. It’s easy to imagine that a major international event like the Berlin Olympics, with the uniquely Jewish layers of political complexity it held, might have been a sure subject of interest in the Forward’s pages. Its relative absence can only be read as a conscious choice to deny a platform to fascism and, give voice, instead, to a resistance movement. Germany was picked as the 1936 Olympic host in 1931, before the Nazis rose to power. With Hitler in office, Jews were almost entirely prevented from participating in the games. Countries looking to appease or curry favor with the Reich did not want to offend the host nation by running afoul of the Nazi’s antisemitic policies. The games ran between August 1 and 17, 1936, during which time the Forward printed only six articles about them. Most of that coverage was focused on the politics of the games, Hitler’s presence and antisemitism, rather than the sporting events themselves.The Nazis treated the games as an opportunity to spread their propaganda of Aryan supremacy, including through the making of Leni Riefenstahl’s documentary about them, “Olympia.” But looking back, it’s clear that many American Jews didn’t want to give them any more attention than absolutely necessary. “In all the factories, in the working class neighborhoods, in the English and Yiddish press, all anyone is talking about now is the great sports carnival of the labor movement in New York,” noted one Forverts article, which also stated that tens of thousands were expected to spend Saturday and Sunday in the city watching the event. “Among the celebrities coming specially to the sports carnival will be New York’s governor, Herbert Lehman, who will present Hitler wanted his 1936 Olympics to wow the world. The Forward highlighted protest games instead. Courtesy of Forverts Archive GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 3 a ‘loving cup’ with his inscription to the winners.” The Forward reported. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia also attended. “This will be the biggest sports Olympiad, and in many aspects, will surpass the Olympics currently being held in Nazi Germany,” the article claimed. After the Nazis took power, the IOC faced pressure to move the games from Berlin. In 1935, the American Olympic Association even suggested moving them to Rome. When the IOC chose to keep the games in Germany, however, Jewish and anti-fascist groups around the world began to push for a boycott in a rebuke to the Olympic Committee’s perceived normalization of the Nazi regime. And they fought, as well, for other opportunities for the world’s athletes to engage in Olympic-level competition. The New York games were part of series of similar events held by left wing groups around the world, the flagship of which was supposed to be the People’s Olympiad, which was set to be held in Barcelona until it was prevented by the onset of the Spanish Civil War. In New York, the festivities were attended by the city and state’s leading politicians. Among the 400 participants were past Olympic champions, like Ed Gordon, who took the gold medal in the long jump at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. One athlete who gained particular fame and glory on Randall’s Island was the so-called “jumping janitor,” George Vargott. At the event, Vargott set what was then the world record for the pole vault, flinging himself 14 feet and 4.5 inches — an inch and half better than the highest height achieved in Berlin that year. While today the Carnival has largely been forgotten, at the time, the success of the New York event made for a powerful symbol. In giving it much more prominent coverage than the Olympics, the Forward was making an ideological stand — although it also didn’t hurt that the JLC’s founder and leader, Baruch Charney Vladeck, was at the time the Forward’s manager. “The World Labor Athletic Carnival was a unique publicity vehicle to support those in New York and around the world who actively opposed holding the Olympics in Berlin and thereby giving prestige and legitimacy to Hitler and his regime,” the JLC wrote on the 80th anniversary of the event. – David Ian Klein covers breaking news and international Jewish communities for the Forward. You can reach him at Klein@forward.com and on Twitter @davidianklein. Ben & Jerry’s may be first major test of American anti-BDS laws By Arno Rosenfeld News Ben & Jerry’s announcement Monday that it will end sales in the occupied West Bank may cause a pint of trouble for its parent company as it tests Americans laws intended to bar companies that boycott Israel from state government contracts and pension funds. More than 30 states have passed legislation meant to deter boycotts of Israel by penalizing companies that refuse to do business with the Jewish state, and some proponents of these laws now say they should also apply to companies like ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s that refuse to do business with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “Selective boycotts are just as illegal as total boycotts,” said Marc Stern, chief legal officer for the American Jewish Committee, which has lobbied for laws meant to stem the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at Israel. The company’s decision is roiling Jewish Twitter, pro-Israel supporters have inundated the company with demands to roll it back and several kosher markets in New York and elsewhere have decided to drop the product. The company’s decision is roiling Jewish Twitter, pro-Israel supporters have inundated the company with demands to roll it back and several kosher markets in New York and elsewhere have decided to drop the product. But Jeremy Ben Ami, president of the liberal pro-Israel group J Street, said critics are wrong to deem Ben & Jerry’s move as a boycott of Israel because the settlements are not an internationally recognized part of Israel, and that calling for economic equality without political equality is an untenable position for the Jewish establishment and pro-Israel organizations to hold. “Either this is all part of Israel, in which case everybody who lives in the occupied territory should have equal rights, or there’s a distinction,” Ben-Ami said. “You can’t have your ice cream and eat it too.” Stern said several states — including New York, New Jersey and Illinois — go farther than the rest, with laws that ban state agencies from contracting with companies that refuse to do business with Israel or with “territories controlled by Israel,” or prohibit public pension funds from investing in them. Hitler wanted his 1936 Olympics to wow the world. The Forward highlighted protest games instead. GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 4 If those laws are applied in the case of Ben & Jerry’s, it could have repercussions far beyond whether or not workers are able to dig into a bowl of Cherry Garcia at state cafeterias in Albany. The Vermont company is owned by Unilever, a multinational company based in London with $50 billion in revenue from sales of products like Hellman’s mayonnaise, Lipton tea and Dove personal care products. Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, wrote a letter to governors in the 35 states that have passed some form of anti-boycott legislation, saying that “rapid and determined action must be taken to counter such discriminatory and antisemitic actions.” But critics chafed at the notion that a boycott of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are widely considered illegal under international law, was equivalent to participating in the BDS movement, which effectively calls for end to Israel’s status as a Jewish state. Ben & Jerry’s announcement that it would not renew its license with an Israeli company that manufacturers and distributes its products in the West Bank also stated that it would maintain its presence in Israel “through a different arrangement,” a line that was apparently inserted by Unilever without consulting Ben & Jerry’s independent board of directors. Meera Shah, a senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal, said that details of laws meant to crackdown on the BDS movement was less important than their goal of cracking down on activism aimed at Israel. Palestine Legal, an American nonprofit, tracks and opposes anti-BDS laws. “Israel and its allies use anti-boycott laws to smear Palestine advocacy regardless of the actual provisions, applicability, or constitutionality of the laws—or the focus of the activism,” Shah wrote in an email. “Going after an ice cream company for supporting Palestinian rights exposes how desperate Israel and its allies are to avoid accountability for human rights abuses.” The question of whether companies — or artists, scholars and tourists — can distinguish between Israel and the territory it controls in the West Bank goes to the heart of recent debates over Israel’s status as a democracy. Over the past year, human rights organizations have increasingly sought to treat Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as a single entity under the control of the Israeli government, with several groups leveling claims of apartheid because Palestinians in the occupied territories do not have citizenship. A recent poll showed that 25% of American Jews agreed with the statement that “Israel is an apartheid state.” Israel’s supporters counter that both Jews and non-Jews have equal rights in Israel and that the West Bank and Gaza should be viewed as separate regions. But for the purposes of economic activity, such distinctions blur. “We’d want to see when it comes to economics that Arabs and Jews, whether they are in the West Bank — Judea and Samaria — or in the entirety of Israel, they are treated the same in the economic sphere,” said Michael Dickson, Israel director of StandWithUs, which said more than 10,000 of its supporters had emailed Ben & Jerry’s Tuesday calling on it to reverse its decision. While Ben & Jerry’s said it would end sales in all of the West Bank — not only in Jewish settlements — Stern, with the American Jewish Committee, said the problem was that it was a strategy intended to place blame on a single party to the conflict. While Palestinians in Ramallah might not be able to purchase the ice cream, Israel would bear the financial toll of the decision. “This is designed to bring economic pressure on Israel,” Stern said. “The Palestinians are roadkill.” There have been a handful of lawsuits related to anti-BDS laws in states like Arkansas, where the law was curtailed, and Arizona, where a similar measure was upheld. The last high-profile case of an American company deciding to end its operations in the West Bank came in 2018, when the travel rental platform Airbnb decided to remove listings in Israeli settlements. The company ultimately reversed the ban but said it would donate proceeds from rentals in the West Bank to humanitarian organizations. – Arno Rosenfeld is a staff writer for the Forward, where he covers U.S. politics and American Jewish institutions. You can reach him at arno@forward.com and follow him on Twitter @arnorosenfeld . Ben & Jerry’s may be first major test of American anti-BDS laws GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 5 What was lost in the Ben & Jerry’s Israel meltdown By Abe Silberstein Opinion Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop distributing its products in West Bank settlements has unleashed a head-swirling discourse about BDS, ice cream and antisemitism that is quite disproportionate to the effect the Vermont-based company will actually have. But all this Chunky Monkey is hiding a more a concerning story: Despite the anger of some pro-Israel advocates in the states, the political consensus in Israel is significantly more pro- settlement than most American Jews are willing to tolerate. Regardless of whether Bennett, Lapid or Netanyahu is calling the shots, the slow creeping expansion of the West Bank settlements is a given. A survey taken last year by the Israel Democracy Institute found that a clear majority of Jewish Israelis even supported outright annexation. The notion that Israel can and should build in the occupied territories has been the unquestionable position of the Israeli center for quite some time. Yair Lapid, the foreign minister and centrist anchor of the new coalition government, confirmed this in his strident statement denouncing Ben & Jerry’s: No doubt there is an element of political showmanship at play. Meretz, a left-wing party, has long been associated with settlement boycotts. Indeed, one of its members of the Knesset came to the defense of Ben & Jerry’s. Yet they are a member of the coalition government and hold important ministries. If boycotting settlements was truly such a despicable act — anti- Jewish! — then why is Lapid relying on the support of those who support such actions to keep the government going? It is obvious that much of Lapid’s harsh rhetoric is a patriotic point- scoring exercise that stops precisely where it becomes politically inconvenient. Yet the uncomfortable fact hovers over this conversation: Besides the Zionist left (Meretz and a handful of Labor Knesset members) and Arab Israeli parties, representatives of mainstream Israeli Jews are not only fully supportive of slowly incorporating settlements into Israel — even in the absence of a final status agreement with the Palestinians that includes land swaps — but intent on portraying international opposition as anti-Israel or even antisemitic. The main disagreement between the Israeli center and right is how far into the West Bank the de facto annexation process should go, not whether it should happen at all. With Israel threatening Ben & Jerry’s with legal action based on anti-BDS laws in U.S. states, the Jewish Israeli consensus on settlements is set to shock American Jews who are generally opposed to settlements and are more willing to see them evacuated than their Israeli counterparts. When Netanyahu was in power, liberal American Jews had a figure onto which they could easily project their misgivings about the political direction of Israel. Netanyahu was not only a figure poles apart in values from the median American Jew, but did whatever he could to associate himself with the Republican Party and Donald Trump. His recent governments’ palpable contempt for Reform and Conservative Jews made matters even worse. The same cannot be said for this government. Bennett himself may be on the right or even far-right, but the coalition government he leads is not. It is broad-based and seeks to lower tensions in Israeli society. It wants rapprochement with Democrats and American Jews. Even on an issue as highly charged as the Biden administration’s attempts to revive the Iran nuclear agreement, the Bennett government will not repeat the alienating hijinks of Netanyahu’s opposition to the original agreement in 2015. American Jews are about to be confronted with an Israeli government that has no plans to advance a two-state solution and is intent on legitimizing settlements. But it is also a government much more friendly and receptive to American Jews who remain emotionally attached to Israel. The Reform and Conservative Jews who were spurned by Netanyahu now have a genuine partner to advance important objectives, including at the Western Wall. When it comes to major American Jewish groups, including liberal ones, the incentive structure favors accommodation. Leaders want to turn a new leaf and work with the new Israeli government, but younger progressive Jews more vocal in their anti-occupation views may not play along. The extent to which American Jews were disenchanted with Israel v. Netanyahu will be revealed earlier than many thought — and we have Ben & Jerry’s to thank for that. – Abe Silberstein What was lost in the Ben & Jerry’s Israel meltdown Photo by Emmanuel Dumand GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 6 I played Israeli professional baseball. Here’s why this year’s Olympic team gives me hope. By Rabbi Jason Bonder Opinion As Israel’s Olympic baseball team makes its way to Tokyo, they might capture more hearts here in America than back home. After all, it feels like there are more baseball diamonds in my town of Maple Glen, Penn., than there are in the entire country of Israel. But while baseball may not be at the heart of Israeli culture, the successes and the timing of this Olympics gives Israel’s team the great opportunity to add significance to the most essential of Israeli emotions — hope. Growing up on Long Island, New York, my hope, like so many young Americans, was to play major league baseball. Unlike most Americans, I would often write about this dream of playing ball in Hebrew, for class assignments at Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County. Baseball was a large factor in my choice to leave Jewish Day School after eighth grade and attend public high school. The decision led to one of the most formative experiences of my life so far – co-captaining the 2003 Class AA Nassau County and Long Island Championship Plainview Hawks. We lost the New York State championship game, but it was a journey that will guide me for the rest of my life. As one high school teammate got drafted by a major league team and many others headed off to Division I colleges, this formative experience also marked the time when I began to lose hope that I would play major league baseball. During opening convocation at Division III Muhlenberg College, in Allentown, Penn., we were asked to write a note to our future selves. After playing four years of varsity baseball at Muhlenberg, tears of joy rolled down my face when I opened that letter during graduation festivities. There on that paper, I found the words, “Did you do everything you could to play pro ball?” As I read that question, my contract was already signed and my plane ticket was already booked to fly to Israel to play for the Tel Aviv Lightning in the first (and only) season of the Israel Baseball League. Had I written, “Did you get drafted by a big league team?” Reading the letter would have been a complete letdown. But, thankfully, that’s not the question I asked. Now, as a rabbi, thinking back on that moment all these years later, I realize something new about that question. I was unknowingly asking my future self – “Did you hold onto the hope?” It was my first time in Israel when I went to play ball. I was excited to practice my Hebrew and I anticipated encountering the Israel I had imagined when learning about the country through textbooks and through the stories of those who had been there. Of course, like anyone seeing something for themselves, I was often surprised. I learned so much from all my teammates and friends. Especially the Israelis who shared generously and candidly about their life experience. It was through conversations on the bus rides to and from the field when I internalized the fact that Israel was simultaneously a country with incredible achievements and a country that, like every country on earth, isn’t perfect. What astonished me most from my season in Israel was that even the Israelis I met who were the most critical of their country, had a palpable sense of hope. It is that hope that ultimately led me to rabbinical school. Now as a 35-year-old rabbi, I no longer hold onto the hope of playing pro ball, although I do still play hardball in the Greater Philadelphia Men’s Adult Baseball League. Instead, the hope I cling to is for a brighter future for the Jewish people and for Israel. A future when diversity and inclusion is cultivated and celebrated. I see that hope reflected in Israel’s Olympic baseball team. To avoid sunlight shining directly into the hitter’s eyes, baseball fields were traditionally aligned so that the pitcher faced west when facing home plate. This, incidentally, is where lefty pitchers like me got the nickname “southpaw,” as their arms were towards the southern side of the field when standing on the mound. If the pitcher is facing west, it means that when the batters of Team Israel dig their spikes into the clay of the batter’s box, they will be engaging in a ritual far greater than baseball. Assuming the fields on which they play adhere to this old cartographical tradition, these athletes will become the latest group of folks to do something that has been done for thousands of years: wear fabric of blue and white and face east. Team Israel represents a new hope that may not have been in the consciousness of the early Zionist thinkers, an inclusive hope that will echo from the baseball stadiums of Japan and the halls of the Knesset, to the cities and streets of Israel and throughout the world. In Israel’s national anthem, we’re reminded that “so long as forward to the East the eye gazes towards Zion, our hope is not yet lost.” I played Israeli professional baseball. Here’s why this year’s Olympic team gives me hope. GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 7 The words of Hatikvah left out many who are essential to Israel’s story, including Mizrachi Jews who for centuries faced west towards Jerusalem in prayer and Ethiopian Jews who faced north and the people of Christian, Muslim, Druze and Baha’i faiths with whom the Jews mentioned in Hatikvah share in collective hope. But the diverse players of Team Israel are reimagining what it means to face east with purpose and clarity. Some of them, like Tal Erel and Shlomo Lipetz, grew up in Israel; most did not. Most grew up with a strong and consistent connection to Judaism; some of them, like Ian Kinsler and Ty Kelly, did not. Now, unified by Israeli citizenship, Team Israel is uniquely poised to expand the definition of hope in an increasingly diverse Israeli society today. The team has likely fielded many questions about their Israeli- ness; critics are quick to point out that very few of the team members were born in Israel. But those kinds of questions are less about the team and more symbolic of the failure of those asking the questions to fully understand the miracle of the modern state. Yes, the miracle of Israel is the fulfillment of a Jewish hope to be a free people in our land. But it is also so much more than that. It is a miracle that Israel is a place where its citizens have freedom of religion. It is a miracle that Israel is a democracy guided by ancient Jewish wisdom. It is a miracle that Israel brought a people from powerlessness towards immense strength — something Team Israel exemplifies on the ball field through 90-plus mile-per-hour fastballs and 400-plus-foot home runs. Their efforts on the ball field will hopefully strengthen and expand these miracles for all those who share in them. – Rabbi Jason Bonder is the Associate Rabbi of Congregation Beth Or in Maple Glen, Penn. He played baseball for the Tel Aviv Lightning in the first and only season of the Israel Baseball League in 2007. I confess that I was in a pretty bad mood yesterday when it was time to log in to view “Shadow Kingdom,” a global, online pay-per-view event starring Bob Dylan. I had spent a large part of the day reading deeply into the news — about the upswing in COVID, catastrophic and deadly natural events blamed on climate change, more evidence that Trump was an incipient dictator and how post-presidential Trumpism is increasingly looking like neo-Fascism — in sum, a big mistake reading the news, oh boy. Add to that my inability to make the Dylan broadcast leap from my laptop to my big-screen TV with its enhanced audio (I have never been able to figure out how to do this), and I was desperately relying on Dylan to snap me out of my funk with some of those magical, mystical moments he so often provides in live performance. In hindsight, that was a lot to put on Mr. Dylan. And in the end, I blame my disappointment over the next 50 minutes not on him but on myself. Clearly, from a quick perusal of social media, mine is a minority opinion. Judging by the raves and hosannas plastered all over the internet, I may even be the only person in the world who did not enjoy the broadcast. Killjoy was here, and he bore a remarkable resemblance to me. The lead-up to “Shadow Kingdom” was filled with great expectations based on just a few hints — and some out-and- out deceptions — from the marketing about what viewers could expect to see for their $25 plus service fees. We were told it was going to be a virtual concert, Dylan’s first concert since the pandemic shutdown derailed the Nobel Prize- winner’s Never Ending Tour of 30-plus years. We knew that Dylan’s backup band would consist of an entirely new lineup of younger musicians, rather than the road warriors who have been traveling the globe with Dylan for decades. And that was OK — in fact, it was promising and even exciting. Speculation ran rampant that some of these musicians would be drawn from those who appeared on last year’s critically- hailed “Rough and Rowdy Ways” — including Fiona Apple and Blake Mills, who had collaborated with old Dylan friends and sidemen including Jim Keltner, Don Was and Benmont Tench. We were promised new arrangements of old favorites, and as we got closer to the date of airing, the event gained the subtitle “The Early Songs of Bob Dylan.” The synergy Culture Bob Dylan’s overblown new music video offers only a ‘Shadow’ of transcendence By Seth Rogovoy I played Israeli professional baseball. Here’s why this year’s Olympic team gives me hope. To donate online visit Forward.com/donate Create a Future for Courageous Jewish Journalism To donate by phone, call 212-453-9454 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 8 produced by the marketing and the rumor mill made this a must-see. And besides, the Master just turned 80 years old this past May, and no one knew if he would ever hit the road again (we still don’t know if he will). Could this be some sort of valedictory? A lot of what we believed or were led to believe did not pan out. There was no Fiona Apple or Blake Mills. Instead, the quartet of backing musicians were real unknowns. Competent ones, for sure — a bassist, a couple guitarists, and an accordion player (curiously, there was no drummer) — although the post-event chatter hailed them as the second coming of The Band. (Please, the last thing we need in the Dylan world are any more second comings.) As far as “early songs,” that depends on your definition. Most Dylanologists would use that term to apply to songs from Dylan’s first four albums, those released between 1962 and 1964. The three “electric” albums released in 1965-66 would constitute the next chapter after “early,” which contained the bulk of the folk-protest songs for which he probably is still known best. In fact, the setlist of the event drew largely from his “electric” period that remains most beloved to his fans, if not thought of as “early” — songs including “Queen Jane Approximately,” “Tombstone Blues,” “Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine,” and “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.” He largely avoided the “hits” — there was no “Like a Rolling Stone” or “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35” (that’s “Everybody Must Get Stoned” to you), no “Just Like a Woman” or “Ballad of a Thin Man.” He threw in a few late-1960s numbers (“The Wicked Messenger,” “To Be Alone with You”) and dipped into the 1970s with a gorgeous rewrite of “Forever Young.” The 1989 song “What Was It You Wanted” was the only outlier, a dark, moody number that perfectly fit the dark, moody timbre of the whole program. At this point you may notice that I am not referring to the broadcast as a “concert,” because it was not one. It was a kind of 50-minute music video, filmed on a set suggesting a speakeasy or a roadhouse, with an audience of actors sitting at tables, downing beers, smoking cigarettes, and occasionally getting up to dance. The only hint of COVID was that the musicians — not including Dylan and not the café patrons — were masked. But that could well have been a Dylan joke; he’s made a side career of referencing masks in songs (“he had a face like a mask”), films (“Masked and Anonymous”), and concert patter (“Happy Halloween! I’m wearing my Bob Dylan mask”). Although we saw Dylan singing and the band playing, it was all pre-recorded; Dylan was lip-syncing (aided by some strategic microphone placement in front of his face) and the musicians were just going through the motions, hence the “music video” comparison. One was put in mind of Dylan’s 1964 appearance on the Canadian TV show “Quest,” when a young, fresh-faced Dylan sang a bunch of genuinely “early songs” on a set resembling a log cabin bunkhouse where a handful of actors playing woodsmen sat around smoking cigarettes and pretty much ignoring the monkey in the corner. The more things change.... Musically, it was all very one-note. It was a very good note, for sure, and Dylan liberally sprinkled new lyrics into the songs and he emphasized melody over rhythm (several arrangements dispensed with rhythm almost entirely, with the musicians just following in the wake of his rubato delivery, much like on the recording of “Murder Most Foul” from last year’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways”). The arrangements, although new, did not stray far from the Americana rootsiness that has prevailed throughout the Never Ending Tour, lacking the fiery electricity of his mid-1960s albums or his mid-1970s tours with The Band and the Rolling Thunder Revue. I am perhaps unfairly saving the best for last, and that was Dylan’s vocals. He sang quite beautifully and melodiously (when he wasn’t talk-singing his way through numbers including “Tombstone Blues” or the apt finale, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”). Whether it was because of a year-and-a-half of resting his voice due to the COVID-imposed tour hiatus, or the care that went into the studio recording of the music — care not always taken on his studio albums of the past decade or two — Dylan sang with the sweetest voice, albeit burnished by age, we have heard from him since the 1970s. Gone was the froggy croaking, the elastic phlegm, and the inscrutable mumbling. His diction was impeccable; a listener unfamiliar with the numbers could easily discern the lyrics, a phrase that has rarely if ever been written about Dylan’s singing. So why was I left so disappointed? Why didn’t my mood lighten after a miserable day, capped by some lovely new arrangements and recordings by Bob Dylan? While I am a strong believer in appreciating art on its own terms and not wishing that an artist did something else, I just could not work up enthusiasm for a new Bob Dylan music video. Even a good one. If anything, the broadcast made me long to see Bob Dylan’s overblown new music video offers only a ‘Shadow’ of transcendence GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 9 Dylan in concert again — a feeling I had sworn off at least half a decade ago, having seen just too many mostly indifferent live performances. Because even at those concerts, which after a while came to seem not worth the bother, there were glimpses of transcendence, a line or a look that sent chills up my spine, when Dylan seemed to be channeling a kind of otherworldly energy. Dare I say, moments of divine sparks. That is a lot to put on any human, I know. And I need to learn not to begrudge Bob Dylan his artistic heights as a mere mortal, but to cherish the memories that have served me well, of those times when Dylan has levitated a crowd and made us feel the intense power of all his raging glory. – Seth Rogovoy is a contributing editor at the Forward, and the author of “Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet” (Scribner, 2009). After a year of a global pandemic that has sickened and isolated millions of people under lockdown, Stacey Prussman proposes a unique recovery program for New Yorkers. “I want to bring fun back into New York City,” Prussman, a longtime Jewish comedian from Brooklyn, said in a recent interview. Art, culture and food is what Prussman is highlighting in her campaign for mayor of New York City, including the idea of opening more vegan kosher delis across the city. “I know that might sound like not political, but in reality, that’s what New York needs right now,” said Prussman, the Libertarian Party’s nominee for mayor of New York City and one of at least five independent candidates in the November 2 general election. Prussman, whose Hebrew name is Sheina Chana, has been a stand-up comedian for the past 20 years and in recent years a motivational speaker on eating disorders, mental health and animal welfare. She started her performing career in her 20s, playing Dorie Grossman in the Off Broadway Jewish play called “Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral.” After recovering from an eating disorder, she became an advocate for people with addictions and eating disorders, and then became more involved in local politics to help raise funds for the various groups she worked with. The idea of running for mayor came up in a conversation with Larry Sharpe, who was the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in 2018. The coronavirus pandemic, she said, gave her more time to actually prepare for the race. Insisting, like almost all longshot candidates do, that she’s “running to win,” Prussman suggested that her years being on stage gave her the confidence to put herself forward as the voice for those tired of politicians and who want to see the city restored to its former vibrancy. “We hear a lot about public safety, but there is so much more to New York than that,” she said during an hour-long interview at a Brooklyn diner, contrasting herself with the major party candidates, Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, who have both focused in their campaign on fighting crime and gun violence. “We live in the News ‘I want to be the Jewish mother of New York City’: Meet mayoral candidate Stacey Prussman By Jacob Kornbluh Bob Dylan’s overblown new music video offers only a ‘Shadow’ of transcendence To donate online visit Forward.com/donate To donate by phone, call Call 212-453-9454 The Forward is the most significant Jewish voice in American journalism. Our outstanding reporting on cultural, social, and political issues inspires readers of all ages and animates conversation across generations. Your support enables our critical work and contributes to a vibrant, connected global Jewish community. The Forward is a nonprofit association and is supported by the contributions of its readers. Create a Future for Courageous Jewish Journalism GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 10 energy of feeling fearful and scared. Yes, we want to feel safe, and that’s important. But we also want to feel free and alive. I don’t suggest that I am anti-police at the moment, but I don’t want it to be like ‘safety, safety, safety.’” “I do things big, so I chose running for mayor,” she added. Prussman, who grew up as an only child in a lower middle class Jewish family in South Brooklyn, said she always “felt akin to being mayor” because she liked Ed Koch, the former three-term mayor, who was also Jewish. “I just remember he was New York,” she said. “Good or bad mayor, I don’t know, I just remember he was the guy that made you feel good.” One of her ideas to help the city combat rising hate and antisemitism is to make sure more high school students are taught how to cook. “Food is love, it’s creative and it’s a way to connect with the other students,” she suggested. “And then when they get older, they know how to make their own food and be healthy and to enjoy a meal together with someone from a different culture and background.” Prussman said the schools could collaborate with the private sector, bringing in kosher and other ethnic restaurants “so we can learn about each other’s culture through cooking.” “I want to be the Jewish mother of New York City,” Prussman quipped. As a vegetarian, Prussman said her dream is to see vegan Jewish delis stocked with all the delicacies of her childhood and be cruelty-free at the same time. “My favorite deli sandwich is vegan pastrami and cheese,” she said, adding that it’d also be kosher for observant Jews who are forbidden to eat meat and dairy together. Prussman has never been to Israel, but she said she wouldn’t object to going on an educational trip to Israel if offered. (Some candidates in the recent city primaries had pledged not to.) “I think traveling is also a way to build bridges,” said Prussman, who has family in Israel. Asked about her views on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Prussman said that she personally doesn’t believe in boycotts as a tactic and she certainly wouldn’t want to see members of her family hurt by BDS, but she didn’t offer a clear position on the matter. As a third-party candidate, Prussman knows her chances are slim, but said the media should give her the fair coverage she expects. “It’s not just Eric Adams and the other guy with the red beret,” she said, referring to Sliwa, who is known for his signature Guardian Angels hat. “I believe that my messaging will ring true to a lot of people,” she said. – Jacob Kornbluh is the Forward’s senior political reporter. Follow him on Twitter @jacobkornbluh or email kornbluh@forward.com. For more than 27 centuries, Jews lived in the region around Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-independent Kurdish Regional Government. Once home to a Jewish community numbering in the tens of thousands, the Kurdistan region and wider area of Northern Iraq is also, many believe, the final resting place of the prophets Nahum and Jonah and where lived one of the first female rabbinic figures, Asaneth Barzani. The city of Erbil was even once the capital of the Jewish kingdom of Adiabene, after the conversion of its Queen Helene and her son Monobaz in the first century AD. Today however, no native Jewish community remains. Along with the rest of Iraq’s Jews, most Kurdish Jews left in the 1950s under pressure from the government following the establishment of the State of Israel. Levi Meir Clancy, a Los Angeles native who has spent the last several years in Erbil, has devoted himself to resurfacing its Jewish story and showcasing the region’s ethnic diversity. To that end, he has spent years collecting Jewish artifacts — he now has more than 700 — from the region and elsewhere in Iraq for an exhibition titled, the “Museum of Ours.” It’s a project of the “Foundation of Ours,” which Clancy, who was raised in a Reform synagogue, founded to preserve Jewish life and promote tolerance. The foundation also serves as a synagogue, hosting services for Jews who visit the area. “The mission is to support Jewish expression in the Kurdistan region, but also to provide platforms for reconciliation with all the components in the society,” the foundation’s website says. In addition to hosting the museum, the foundation also hopes to provide support for Jewish pilgrims who may one day decide to visit the r