By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — When I came to live in Israel fifty years ago, and even before that on my occasional visits to the country, my father equipped me with a typewritten list of names and addresses of relatives. I dutifully visited most of them, and so I got to know the numerous […]
A reunion of cousins in Israel Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Travel and Food
By Jerry Klinger Herman Stern was a small-town North Dakota clothier based in Valley City. He was isolated, remote from any major Jewish community. He and his wife lived their lives modestly and with community respected dignity on the Dakota Plains. Stern became a major, American Holocaust rescuer. On Oct. 15, 2016, the State Historical
Holocaust Rescue and Herman Stern Read More »
Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, USAWhere the Jews Aren’t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region by Masha Gessen, Nextbooks, Schocken, New York ©2016, ISBN 978-0-8052-4246-1, p. 147, plus notes, published sources, and index, $25.00 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – In 1908, about a decade after the first Zionist Congress, the British government offered territory
A history of the Soviet Union’s failed Jewish republic Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish HistoryDespite Portugal’s offer to grant citizenship to Sephardic Jews descended from Jews persecuted in the Inquisition, 92% of applications are still pending, with only 292 out of 3,838 approved in the past year and a half. However, no applications have been denied thus far. Portugal’s “law of return” allows those who can prove “a traditional
Portugal sitting on citizenship applications from Jews Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBy Richard L. Cravatts, PhD BOSTON, Massachusetts –Seeming to parallel the dystopian world described by George Orwell in 1984 in which history and fact are manipulated to serve political ends, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently voted 24-6 to approve a resolution stripping the Temple Mount and Western Wall of its
The chief of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, has received “death threats” after she criticized a series of controversial Arab-backed resolutions which seek to erase the Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations organization said on Monday. “The director general has received death
Death threats for condemning anti-Israel UNESCO resolutions Read More »
International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle EastIn an interview with Channel 10 on Friday, UNESCO chairman Michael Verbes said, “I am aware of the connection between Israel and Jerusalem, and I will never deny it. Jerusalem’s Old City and its walls are a UNESCO world heritage site since 1982, and have been recorded as being holy to three religions. This is
UNESCO chairman apologizes for decision Read More »
Jewish History, Middle EastDepartment store magnate aided Jewish and general communities Linda Forgosh, director of the Jewish Historical Society of NJ, holds her book, Louis Bamberger: Department Store Innovator and Philanthropist. Photo by Robert Wiener A cardboard replica of Louis Bamberger and the landmark clock outside his department store is the logo for “Meet Me Under Bamberger’s Clock.”
Exhibit opens on Newark’s philanthropist, Louis Bamberger Read More »
Jewish History, USABy Joe Spier CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — At 10 o’clock in the morning on April 16, 2007 sirens sounded all over Israel and the country came to a standstill, people stopped what they were doing, pulled over in their cars and stood in remembrance. It was Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day to remember
Liviu Librescu — hero of the Virginia Tech massacre Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USABy Barry Shaw NETANYA, Israel — UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization voted on 13th October against the very principles that it was created. UNESCO was founded in 1945 after World War Two to establish humanity’s moral and intellectual solidarity. It says it strives to build networks among nations to enable this
The Temple Mount, UNESCO and Western shame Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East, USABy Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — The Hebrew Free Burial Association has been burying indigent Jews in the New York area since 1888, and in recent years has been doing its interments in Staten Island. One intriguing aspect is that volunteers from synagogues,and yeshivas in the area and beyond attend the funerals to
Coincidence, providence and free burials Read More »
Jewish History, Joel H. CohenLA JOLLA, California (Press Release) –Holocaust survivor Lou Dunst could have lived life consumed by anger and resentment after his horrific experiences during World War II. He had been left for dead in the Ebensee concentration camp in Austria when United States troops broke through the gates with a military tank. Soon after his liberation
UCSD establishes Lou Dunst Memorial Lecture Read More »
Jewish History, San Diego CountyClose For a Palestinian insurgent supposedly determined to see Israel destroyed, Paul Hadweh looks remarkably like his fellow students at the University of California, Berkeley. I met the 22-year-old senior on the rooftop of a campus building, overlooking the expanse of San Francisco Bay, which glimmered in the pure light of late afternoon. He wore
The Berkeley Intifada Read More »
Jewish History, Middle East, USA“History has had its day in court and scored a crushing victory.” – The London Times, April 14, 2000 If there is anything Dr. Deborah Lipstadt affirms after being sued for libel by a Holocaust denier, it is that there is a vast difference between truth and opinion. The professor of modern Jewish history and