Poland is the only country in the European Union that has failed to establish a comprehensive program to address the issue of confiscated Holocaust, or Communist-era, private property. Rather than moving forward, Poland is about to make another wrong turn in confronting the continuing violation of property rights. On hold for the last year has […]
Poland and Holocaust restitution Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBUENOS AIRES, Argentina (WJC) — The fathers of two victims of the 1994 AMIA center bombing were admitted Tuesday by a judge as plaintiffs in the case against former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner that could reopen the investigation of the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman into a cover-up of Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing.
Diaries belonging to Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS and architect of the Holocaust, have been recovered in a Russian archive after being thought lost for more than 70 years. The diaries, which are being published in daily excerpts by the German newspaper Bild, cover 1938 and the crucial war years of
Last week, an international, multilingual cast performed Shakespeare’s controversial play, “The Merchant of Venice,” in the secluded main plaza of the city’s historic Jewish Ghetto. It was the first time the play was performed in the iconic location. Enclosed by tall tenements and the arched windows of 16 th-century synagogues, audiences — US Supreme Court
Venice welcomes back Shylock in marking its Jewish history Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History
By Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall SAN MARCOS, California — In 2007, I received an unexpected invitation: interviewing Elie Wiesel for a program at the Carlsbad Library (California). The city has an annual program in which residents discuss a common book; that year, it was Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir Night. To culminate the program, the city
Reflections on a somber interview with Elie Wiesel Read More »
International, Jewish History, San Diego CountyBy Rabbi Ben Kamin OCEANSIDE, California — When Khizr Khan, the brave and dignified Muslim father whose son, Capt. Humayun Khan, gave his life fighting for this country in Iraq, Mr. Khan challenged Donald Trump: “Have you ever even read the Constitution of the United States?” Khan said more in his grieving and passionate words
Khizr Khan also illuminated Hebrew Scripture Read More »
Jewish History, Jewish Religion, USACALGARY, Alberta, Canada — Marcel Marceau, famed French mime, passed away on September 22, 2007 Yom Kippur, at the age of 84. While most remember Marceau as the preeminent performer of silent art; the unsurpassed entertainer who could say more with silence than an actor with volumes of lines; the incomparable artist who could make his
Marcel Marceau: The sound of silence Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryMinister of Education Naftali Bennet announced on Sunday this year’s winners of the Education Minister’s Prize for Jewish Culture in the field of literature: Haim Sabato and Sarah Friedland. The committee responsible for electing the winners wrote of Sabato: “His work […] reveals the world of the Sephardic traditions of Torah – in which sharpness
Winners of Jewish Culture Prize for literature announced Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Middle EastPope Francis on Friday walked alone through the notorious wrought-iron “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) gate as he visited the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Free for once of his security entourage or cardinals, he sat on a bench among the trees and bowed his head in prayer, remaining at length in silent
Pope walks alone through Auschwitz Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryWith the Olympic Games set to open in Rio de Janeiro next week, the Israeli Mission to the United Nations on Thursday held the first of its kind memorial event at the UN to honor the Israeli athletes murdered in the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics. Michal Shahar, the daughter of slain Olympic shooting
UN remembers Israeli athletes murdered in 1972 Olympics Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East, Sports & CompetitionsHidden beneath the surface of Parshat Pinchas, the sages uncovered a story of great poignancy. Moses, having seen his sister and brother die, knew that his own time on earth was coming to a close. He prayed to God to appoint a successor: “May the Lord, God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a
Moses’ disappointment Read More »
Jewish ReligionMembers of the burial society that arranged the funeral of former Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, who died in 2008, revealed this week that they said a secret “Kaddish” prayer over his body, despite his son (now MK) Yair Lapid’s request that they not do so during the funeral. The Kaddish prayer is traditionally said over
The secret Kaddish for Tommy Lapid Read More »
Jewish Religion, Middle East“Chacham” Yom Tov Yedid, the oldest Rabbi in the Syrian Jewish community in the US, died on Wednesday night in New York. He was 93. In his younger years, Rabbi Yedid served as the chief Rabbi of the famed and ancient Jewish community in Aleppo Syria, while it was still thriving and growing, before pogroms
Former Rabbi of Aleppo, Syria, dies in New York at 93 Read More »
Jewish History, Middle East, Obituaries & memorials
By David Pratt KINGSTON, Ontario, Canada — When Elie Wiesel died on July 2, a voice was stilled that had spoken for the voiceless millions who perished in the Nazi concentration camps. In May 1944, Wiesel was deported from Romania to Auschwitz at the age of fifteen, and was liberated from Buchenwald eleven months later.
From suffering, adversity, to the Nobel Prize Read More »
International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education