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Books

The Last Generation Of Jews In Poland

The title of Efraim Shmueli’s book, The Last Generation of Jews in Poland (Academic Studies Press), is a little misleading. Shmueli, a Polish Jew born in Lodz in 1908, focuses on the storied Jewish community of Poland during the 1920s, when it was home to 3.3 million Jews, representing nine percent of its population. It […]

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Middle East

Turkey’s Erdogan — A Hopeless Case

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a hopeless case as far as Israel is concerned. Turkey’s impetuous president is and has been extremely and unfairly critical of Israel since gaining national office in 2003. Time and time again, he has hurled gratuitous insults at Israel to satisfy his Islamic base at home, curry favor with the Palestinians, […]

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Film

The Last Metro Revisited

Francois Truffaut’s feature film, The Last Metro, was released in 1980, eleven years after Marcel Ophuls’ past-breaking documentary, The Sorrow and the Pity, opened in theaters in France. In his stunning movie, Ophuls exposed the crimes of the collaborationist Vichy regime, which allied itself with Nazi Germany and betrayed French Jews in the name of […]

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Commentary

Unruly Palestinian Protesters Should Not Be Tolerated

The Toronto Police Service is currently reviewing a pro-Palestinian demonstration that led to the abrupt cancellation of a dinner that was to be hosted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Art Gallery of Ontario on March 2. “If it is determined that illegal activity occurred, charges can […]

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Middle East

Gantz’s Trip Exposed Israel-U.S. Tensions Over Gaza

Benny Gantz’s unauthorized visit to the United States earlier this week is likely a reflection of the growing tensions between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the future of the Gaza Strip. Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, the leader of the centrist National Unity Party, […]

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Middle East

Israel’s Gaza Campaign: A War In Progress

Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip has evolved into a classic textbook example of how a well-trained, superbly equipped modern army conducts intensive urban warfare in a densely-populated area whose 2.3 million residents have often been cynically used by the governing authority as human shields. Israel’s air, land and sea offensive has been […]

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Books

A Woman Who Helped Shape Modern America

Anna Marie Rosenberg may be the most famous American woman you have never heard of. Life magazine, in the 1950s, described her “far and away the most important woman in the American government, and perhaps the most important official female in the world.” Life may well have been engaging in hyperbole, but Rosenberg was certainly […]

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Commentary

Russia And Ukraine Bogged Down In A War Of Attrition

Two years on, Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine has bogged down into a messy World War 1-style stalemate — a costly trench war of attrition that has consumed men and materiel at an alarmingly rapid pace. In the past few months, however, the revitalized Russian army has gained ground in the east and the […]

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Commentary

Israelis Need To Share Military Service Equally

For decades now, Israeli politicians have spoken of the pressing need to pass legislation mandating military service on a compulsory and equitable basis. This would mean that the vast majority of ultra-Orthodox Jews would no longer qualify for draft exemptions and would have to share the burden of defending the homeland along with secular and […]

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Film

Trust: A Family Squabble

Family dynamics can be confusing and confounding. Almog Avidan Antonir’s feature film, Trust, which will be available on ChaiFlicks and streaming platforms such as iTunes, Amazon Prime and Google Play from February 27 onward, makes this point abundantly and painfully clear. The Abelmans, a splintered Jewish family, are brought together in Los Angeles for the […]