Jewish History

The 4’11” Jewish woman who entered the lion’s den to spy on Nazi Germany

Marthe Cohn being filmed by director Nicola Hens for the upcoming documentary ‘An Unusual Spy.’ (Courtesy) LOS ANGELES — The 4’11” French Jewish woman was walking through a field of snow when the ground underneath her began to crack. She was a spy for the Allies, sent to infiltrate the German front, but her military […]

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International, Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Family challenges fate of Swedish WWII hero Raoul Wallenberg in court

More than 72 years after the disappearance of a young Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis, his family is going to court to challenge Russia’s claims of how World War II hero Raoul Wallenberg ended his days. The first hearing in the case is set to take place

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International, Jewish History

German court drops case against ailing Auschwitz medic

A German court on Tuesday said it had dropped a case against a 96-year-old former medical orderly at the Auschwitz death camp because he suffers from dementia, ending one of the last high-profile Nazi prosecutions. Wheelchair-bound Hubert Zafke had faced 3,681 counts of being an accessory to murder at the concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

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International, Jewish History

Never Again is now

By Jeanette Friedman PARADISE VALLEY, Pennsylvania — I will never forget the first question I asked my father about the Holocaust. Believing Ben Gurion’s lie, and the Zionist party line about sheep going to the slaughter, I asked him why he didn’t fight back. He laughed and gave me the perfect example of something we

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Jewish History, USA

Story of the Jewish people (abridged)

Professor offers trends, lessons in condensed Jewish history Jewish history professor David Myers said despite a recent resurgence of anti-Semitism, American history is “bending toward ever greater integration into American society.” Photo by Scarlett Freund It may sound unlikely, if not impossible, but in just over 100 pages of his new book and in the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

In Greece, a city struggles to come to terms with its Jewish past

Walking through the bustling center of Thessaloniki, Greece, Hella Kounio Matalon points off to the distance. “Most of the properties that we see on this road are former Jewish properties,” she said as she walked around Thessaloniki on a recent morning, recounting the city’s Jewish history. Matalon knows that history well, partly because of her

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International, Jewish History

Website will aid S.D. Jewish researchers

SAN DIEGO  (SDJW)– Scholars looking to research San Diego’s Jewish history as well as genealogists hoping to learn more about their own ancestors can now refer to a website created by the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego to learn what is in that organization’s collection. The web address is http://jhssandiego.pastperfectonline.com/.  Collections are grouped into

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Jewish History, San Diego County

1850s teen diarist Victoria Jacobs Franklin recalled

  By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — The San Diego History Center on Sunday welcomed three Arizona women whose family lent to its museum the diary of mid-19th century teenager Victoria Jacobs for the current exhibition about the history and heritage of the local Jewish community. The visitors included Alden Hardy Carroll, the great-great

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, USA

Take a walk through Sephardic Montreal’s 70-year history on a new urban tour

Visitors to the Museum of Jewish Montreal can see a glorious — and sometimes troubled — side of the city’s Jewish past like never before By Julie Masis MONTREAL — This September, the Museum of Jewish Montreal will launch its first Sephardic walking tour. The two-hour excursion tells the history of the city’s Moroccan, Iraqi,

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International, Jewish History

They fled the Nazis for the US, then served their new country to take down Hitler

In his new book, Bruce Henderson talks about the German-speaking Jewish soldiers who escaped WWII Europe, only to go back in uniform to collect intelligence By Rich Tenorio Guy Stern’s on-the-job training began 10 minutes after he landed at Omaha Beach — one of the Allied entry points into Normandy in 1944. Three days earlier,

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International, Jewish History, USA