The Biden administration’s actions beg two disturbing Jewish-themed questions: Why would a president lie about such an insignificant detail as visiting a Pittsburgh synagogue? How can a U.S. Foreign Service officer be effective at his job when he demeans Jews and homosexuals? [Bruce S. Ticker]
OpEd: Two Jewish Issues the Biden Administration Must Clear Up Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, USA
Though the weather threatened, and Covid leered increasingly, menacingly about us, an Anne Frank Children’s Human Rights Memorial was dedicated in Antigua, Guatemala, September 3. [Jerry Klinger]
Antigua, Guatemala, Dedicates Anne Frank Statue Amid Noisy Protests Read More »
International, Jerry Klinger, Jewish History
Meticulous research documents the lives of the Rabinowitz family in small town Poland; their suffering after the Nazis invaded; their miraculous escape to the forest, where they survived in hiding for several years; their post-war relocation to Italy, while awaiting permission to immigrate to Palestine; their decision to move instead to the United States; their lives in Connecticut; and the marriage of daughter Ruth to a future rabbi, from whom author Rebecca Frankel received her Jewish education. [Donald H. Harrison]
Biography Tells of Jewish Family’s Holocaust Survival in the Forest Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, USA
(JNS) U.S. President Joe Biden may have gotten himself in hot water during a well-meaning teleconference with Jewish religious leaders in advance of the High Holidays on Thursday. The teleconference was facilitated by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Rabbinical Council of America and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. During the roughly
Biden: Antisemitic Violence is Violence against America Read More »
Jewish History, USA
After a year’s absence, Western States Jewish History, a half-century-old journal, has made its reappearance in a new format. No longer a quarterly, the journal will be published semi-annually by Texas Tech University Press, under the editorship of Jonathan L. Friedmann, professor of Jewish Music History at the Academy for Jewish Religion-California in Los Angeles. [Donald H. Harrison]
‘Western States Jewish History’ Now Semi-Annual and Peer-Reviewed Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak
This is a biography of two Dutch Jewish sisters who survived much of World War II living under assumed identities in a country villa located on a high knoll in the middle of the woods near Amsterdam. [Donald H. Harrison]
Biography Tells of Hiding in a ‘High Nest’ from the Nazis Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History
Famed Mossad agent Yael Man, whose contributions to the intelligence agency made her a national Israeli hero, passed away on Sunday at the age of 85. Man served as an undercover agent in Lebanon, gathering intelligence on the Palestinian Liberation Organization under the guise of a British screenwriter. [JNS.org]
Mossad Agent Yael Man, 85 Read More »
Jewish History, Middle East
When Eytan Stibbe heads off to the International Space Station at the end of the year, becoming only the second Israeli ever to go into space, he’ll take with him a 1,900-year-old coin recently unearthed in the Judean Desert. [JNS.org]
Israeli Astronaut to Carry Ancient Coin to International Space Station Read More »
Jewish History, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education
B’nai Brith Canada said it wants reassurance from the University of Victoria (UVic) that an upcoming course on anti-Semitism will not become a “forum for antisemitic views” because of its professor. [JNS.org]
University of Victoria’s Proposed Antisemitism Course Under Scrutiny Read More »
International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education
A member of the U.S. House of Representatives is under fire for a tweet that compared coronavirus restrictions to the murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. [JNS.org]
Congressman Criticized for Comparing COVID Restrictions to Nazi Laws Read More »
International, Jewish History, USA
A prosecutor in Argentina told Israel Hayom he will not stop trying to apprehend those responsible for the 1994 deadly bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, following news that one of the alleged terrorists was named Iran’s new interior minister. [JNS.org]
Argentina: Still Hope to Capture and Try AMIA Bombing Suspects Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East
The Jewish Welfare Board was created on April 9, 1917, three days after the U.S. declared war on Germany. It wanted to provide services to Jewish troops similar to what Catholic servicemen received from the Knights of Columbus and Protestants from the YMCA. In 1919, after the war was over, the JWB printed tens of thousands of these reassuring cards depicting a grinning doughboy and distributed them to servicemen to send to family and friends. [Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]
Pandemic Postcard Messages, 1918-1920 Read More »
Jewish History, Lifestyles, Oliver Pollak, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
The headline in the adjoining news clipping is hype. “May” is not “will” or “shall.” Booster describes real estate developers, hucksters and visionaries who wanted to profit from growing communities and increases in real estate prices. Saul Voorsanger, who emigrated from Holland with his wife Sarah in 1893, promoted the growth of the Jewish population. He was a salesman and publicist and the brother of Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Jacob Voorsanger. The rabbi started Emanu-El, San Francisco’s weekly Jewish newspaper in 1895 and died in 1908. Sol, Saul or S. became editor. During 1912 several newspapers reported Voorsanger’s visiting chambers of commerce in San Diego, Visalia, Fresno, Modesto, Kings, San Joaquin, and Dinuba. He solicited advertising for a special 75,000 copy edition of Emanu-El to recruit better-off Russian Jews to buy and farm California land, a chimera. [Oliver B. Pollak]
Growth of Jewish Communities Promoted in the Early 20th Century Read More »
Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, USA
By Jerry Klinger KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — At-risk to his own life, Roddie Edmonds saved approximately 200 Jewish POW G.I.s during the Holocaust. He is the only American G.I. honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations. East Tennessee is part of the Republican flyover country to the coastal elitists. Images of the Beverly
Historical Marker for Holocaust Hero Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds Finally Dedicated Read More »
Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, USA