By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
INTERNATIONAL
Holocaust survivor and documentarian Bernard Offen, 96, who was imprisoned in the ghetto in Krakow, Poland, and later was an inmate at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp complex, spoke Tuesday at a ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the liberation of those camps by Soviet forces. January 27 is now designated as “International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Offen remarked: “I see resurgent hatred. I see violence that is once again being justified. And I see people who believe that their rage counts for more than the life of another.”
Around the world, the occasion was marked with somber ceremonies. Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella said the viruses of hatred, racism, and oppression, borne of superficiality, indifference, cowardice, or self-interest, led to the evil of the Holocaust.
In Omaha, Nebraska, Scott Littky, the executive director of the Institute for Holocaust Education, said Holocaust survivors taught succeeding generations such lessons as “doing better, of how bad humanity can get, but that we have a duty to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
King Charles III and Queen Camilla lit candles at Buckingham Palace and met survivors including Helen Aronson, 98, who was imprisoned as a child in the Jewish ghetto of Lodz, Poland, and centenarian Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. Earlier, Bergen-Belsen survivor Marla Tribich met with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his Cabinet at 10 Downing Street, telling them, “We survivors never imagined we would witness antisemitism at the level it is today. … Remembering the past is no longer enough. I speak to you, leaders of this country I proudly call home, and I plead that you do what needs to be done.”
*
Rachel Bombach, Chief Policy Officer of the Democratic Majority for Israel, send a memorandum on Tuesday to Capitol Hill Democrats, forecasting that “Hezbollah’s continued rearmament and entrenchment present a real risk of renewed conflict, civilian harm, and regional destabilization.” She warned: “Iran’s continued support to Hezbollah enables the group to reconstitute as Tehran’s most capable proxy force and raises the risk that Hezbollah could retaliate against Israel in the event of another U.S. strike on Iran.”
*
Daniel Chamovitz, President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Brendan Nelson, president of Boeing Global, on Tuesday, Jan. 27, inaugurated a new partnership between the aerospace giant and the university to create a cybersecurity research center in Beer-Sheva, Israel. Yuval Elovici, the research center’s head, commented: “This collaboration is poised to advance new security capabilities for the next generation of aviation technologies while using the latest AI developments.”
*
President Trump on Monday threatened South Korea with a 10 percent increase in tariffs from 15 to 25 percent on lumber, autos, and pharmaceuticals because the Asian ally’s parliament has yet to approve a trade deal agreed to last year. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and South Korean Industry Minister Kim Jung-Kwan have scheduled a meeting in Washington, D.C. immediately following Kim’s current meetings in Canada.
*
NATIONAL
Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, said the initial statement crafted by the White House in the immediate aftermath of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti “was based on reports from CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) on the ground.” He also stated “The White House provided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota to force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptor teams. We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol.”
Kristi Noem, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, read the initial statement crafted by Miller to reporters a short time after Pretti was shot. It said that Pretti “wanted to maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Video taken by witnesses disputed Noem’s statement that Pretti had been “brandishing” a gun.
Back in Minnesota, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minneapolis) had just told a town hall meeting that Noem should be impeached when a man identified as Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, who had been sitting in the audience approached her on foot and sprayed her blouse with an unknown liquid fired from a syringe. Security personnel detained him and he was later booked in Hennepin County jail for third degree assault. Immediately afterwards, Omar was asked to have herself checked out medically. She responded: “We will continue. These fucking assholes are not going to get away with it.” She stayed at the podium for almost 30 minutes answering questions. Mayor Jacob Frey said later that the Somalia-born Omar was okay.
*
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been named Columbia University’s president effective July 1, 2026. A legal scholar who previously served as dean of UCLA’s Law School, Mnoochin is well versed in such First Amendment issues as when the right for students to protest crosses the line into disruption and illegal assembly.
*
STATE and LOCAL
San Diego’s 5-member City Council Rules Committee grapples with the issue of Balboa Park parking fees on Wednesday, Jan. 28. Strongly against the fees, which were implemented Jan. 5 of this year, are committee members Vivian Moreno and Raul Campillo, while Sean Elo-Rivera and Kent Lee have been critical of the “haphazard” way the city has gone about implementing them. Joe LaCava, president of the City Council and chair of the Rules Committee, is now proposing that the fees for San Diego city residents be suspended.
It’s a reversal for LaCava who voted to approve Mayor Todd Gloria’s parking plan, as did Rules Committee members Elo-Rivera and Lee. Also initially voting for the plan were City Council members Jennifer Campbell, Henry Foster, and Marni Van Wilpert
*
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman and Bill Essayli, Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Los Angeles area, have hailed the arrest on charges of fraud of Alexander Soofer, head of the nonprofit agency Abundant Blessings. The prosecutors alleged that Soofer diverted many thousands of dollars of government funds to his own use while the homeless people he was supposed to help with food and housing were shortchanged or ignored. Hochman said: “He was living the high life while the people were suffering; the homeless lived on the streets with no shelter, no food.”
*
Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.
I have known Bernard Offen since the early 2000s, when I was making my film Klezmer on Fish Street. I was shooting in Kraków at the time and met him there. Bernard, his brothers, and his father all survived the Holocaust—Auschwitz-Birkenau—and later made their way to Detroit, where they opened a highly successful furniture business, Offen Brothers. Being from Detroit myself, and with relatives in the furniture business, I had heard of the Offen Brothers store many times long before meeting Bernard. About ten to twelve years ago, Bernard also lived part-time in San Diego (Coronado). Bernard represents a deeply humanistic model of Jewish life—grounded in empathy, history, and moral responsibility. In that sense, he stands in stark contrast to figures like Stephen Miller, whose public actions reflect none of those values and bear no meaningful relationship to Jewish ethical tradition.