By Rabbi Ben Kamin OCEANSIDE, California — More than fifty-two years ago, a Dallas businessman named Abraham Zapruder unwittingly filmed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The 26.6 seconds of silent color 8mm imagery would remain the most examined film in history for decades. When it was eventually shown on television to the American
Don’t the dead deserve some privacy? Read More »
Jewish Religion, USAAUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU, Poland – A sombre and visibly moved Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wiped away tears several times Sunday as he paid his respects at the biggest and most notorious of the network of death camps run by the Nazis. Walking alongside Auschwitz survivor Nate Leipciger of Toronto and the President of the Montreal Board of
Emotional day as Trudeau pays respects at Auschwitz Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryExcavations at a late-Roman era synagogue in the Galilee have unearthed more staggering mosaics depicting biblical scenes, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced this week. The ongoing dig at the 5th-century CE Huqoq Synagogue has previously uncovered brilliant floors featuring people, beasts and heroes from antiquity never before seen in ancient Jewish
Noah’s Ark, splitting of Red Sea appear in newfound mosaic at ancient synagogue Read More »
Jewish Religion, Middle East“The fiercest arguments we have in parliament are over Israel.” These words, spoken by the chairman of the Dutch Foreign Affairs Committee, startled me. But they failed to faze the other committee members from the both the left and right. On the contrary, they all readily agreed. In the end, only I displayed surprise. “Let
Europe’s Continuing Fixation on Jews Must Not Grip U.S. Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East, USABy Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Judaism has always encouraged diversity of opinion among its adherents. Historically, it has been those who have insisted on unanimity of belief who have ended up on the defensive. However, the motivation of those who hold diverse opinions has always been subject to scrutiny. In putting forward differing
How a dispute can better the community Read More »
Jewish ReligionConservative and Reform Jews held a mixed-gender egalitarian service at the Western Wall plaza on Thursday amid jeering from a handful of protesters but few other disturbances. The organizers said they complied with an attorney general order not to pray at the site and held a singing and dancing service instead. “It passed totally quietly,”
Despite heckles, pluralistic services at Western Wall pass ‘quietly’ Read More »
Jewish Religion, Middle EastStrains of the Israeli national anthem “Hatikvah” overpowered the sounds of morning rush hour as some 200 protesters demonstrated outside the Supreme Rabbinical Court at the entrance to Jerusalem on Wednesday morning. The protest was organized by former students of New York Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, the former principal of the Ramaz High School and spiritual
The rate of intermarriage in the UK has reached more than one in four, according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. The report, titled “Jews in Couples: Marriage, Intermarriage, Cohabitation and Divorce in Britain,” offers both positive and negative approaches towards the issue. On one hand, it shows that Jews are accepted in the
More than one in four UK Jews now intermarried Read More »
International, Jewish ReligionEfraim Zuroff has accomplished much in his long career, but there’s one thing he’s particularly proud of: He’s the most hated Jew in Lithuania. His Lithuanian friend Ruta Vanagaite agrees: She called him a “mammoth,” a “boogeyman” and the “ruiner of reputations”—and that’s just in the introduction to a book they co-authored. Last summer, in
The Last Nazi Hunter Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBefore, During, and After the Holocaust—from Africa to Berlin to North Carolina (c) By Edwin Black In recent years, some in the African-American community have expressed a disconnect to Holocaust topics, seeing the genocide of Jews as someone else’s nightmare. After all, African-Americans are still struggling to achieve general recognition of the barbarity of the
Nazi Policy and Black Victims Read More »
Edwin Black, International, Jewish History, USAFORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (Press Release) — Corey Samuels’ journey to tell the story of her grandfather, Holocaust survivor Henry Oertelt recently culminated in an emotional donation of Oertelt’s personal belongings to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Oertelt had been liberated by General Patton’s Third Army during the Flossenburg death march in April 1945. He arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota, in
Family donates Survivor Henry Oertelt’s effects to Holocaust Museum Read More »
International, Jewish History, USABy Edwin Black After Hitler’s defeat in May 1945, many Nazis melted away from the Reich, smuggled out by such organizations as the infamous Odessa group andthe lesser-known Catholic lay network Intermarium, as well as the CIA and KGB. They ensured the continuation of the Nazi legacy in the postwar Arab world. Egypt was a prime
When Iraq expelled its Jews to Israel Read More »
Jewish History, Middle EastHillary Clinton’s campaign on Tuesday rebuked comments by pro-Palestinian Jewish journalist Max Blumenthal, son of longtime aide Sidney Blumenthal, regarding the recent death of Holocaust survivor and political activist Elie Wiesel. “Secretary Clinton emphatically rejects these offensive, hateful, and patently absurd statements about Elie Wiesel,” Jake Sullivan, senior policy adviser to the presumptive Democratic presidential
Clinton campaign slams ‘offensive’ Max Blumenthal remarks on Elie Wiesel’s death Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, USACHICAGO — Abner Mikva was turned down in his first attempt at civic duty with a line that became embedded in Chicago’s political lore, “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.” Undeterred, the young, liberal outsider from Hyde Park forged ahead for a sterling career as a state legislator, congressman, federal appellate judge and presidential adviser,
Abner Mikva — lawmaker, judge, presidential adviser — dies at 90 Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, USA