The US Just Struck Iran

The US struck Iran near the Strait of Hormuz; Iran fired back at a US base in Jordan. American forces hit dozens of Iranian sites Tuesday, including Iranian state oil tankers for the first time. Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired 13 missiles at the base; Jordan intercepted 10, with no US casualties reported. ¹

California becomes the first state to define "Jewish" as an ethnicity. Lawmakers passed the bill Monday, adding Jewish identity to state demographic forms starting in 2030. Four more Jewish-focused bills passed the same week, including a synagogue buffer zone. Governor Newsom has until September 30 to sign. ²

Northeast Philadelphia's last Jewish deli served its final pastrami sandwich. Steve Stein's Famous Deli, open 60-plus years, closed August 23; its 83-year-old owner cited his age and a landlord who wouldn't fix the roof. "The amount of people that came in here in the last two weeks, their comments are very touching," Stein said. His son hopes to reopen smaller in the suburbs. ³

Daryl Hall converted to Judaism almost 60 years ago, and his favorite part of it is a sitcom writer. The Hall & Oates singer studied under a rabbi in West Philadelphia in the late 1960s after meeting his future wife, Byrna Lublin, and says it still shapes how he sees things. Asked his favorite thing about being Jewish on the podcast "Naked Lunch," Hall answered: "Nat Hiken," the writer-producer behind "Sergeant Bilko" and "Car 54, Where Are You?" He picked a TV writer over the holidays or the food. ⁴

Today is 20 Elul, ten days before Rosh Hashanah, and the shofar sounds every weekday morning through the end of the month. On this date in 1796, Jews in Holland won full civil emancipation. ⁵⁶