Ilse Koch, a symbol of barbarism in the Third Reich, spent almost 24 years in prison, even as Nazi perpetrators who committed far greater crimes during the Holocaust received relatively light sentences or often escaped prosecution altogether. The wife of Karl Koch, the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, she acquired notoriety for allegedly having […]
Israel’s relationship with the United Arab Emirates is like no other in the Arab world. Israel has forged peace treaties and normalization accords with several Arab states since it signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979. But the bilateral ties Israel has formed with the UAE remain unique, as a recent news story indicated. […]
When the third round of U.S.-mediated Israel-Lebanon talks ended at the State Department in Washington on May 15, the United States announced a 45-day extension of the April 16 ceasefire in Lebanon. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott sounded an upbeat note, describing the two-day talks as “highly productive.” “We hope these discussions will advance lasting […]
Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud Party, is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, having held his post, on and off, for 18 years now. First elected in 1996, he went down to defeat in 1999, only to regain his job in 2009 after serving as foreign and finance minister. Swept out of office in June […]
The United States and Israel appear to have reached diametrically opposed conclusions regarding the outcome of the still unsettled war in Iran. The conflict erupted on February 28 when the U.S. and Israel jointly attacked Iran, targeting its leadership and military assets in daily air strikes. The war wound down on April 8 following a […]
To Lithuanian historian Algimantas Kasparavicius, the greatest tragedy of 20th century Lithuania occurred not when it lost its statehood following the Soviet Union’s invasion in June 1940, but a year later, when Nazi Germany stormed into the country and proceeded to murder nearly all of its Jewish citizens in the Holocaust. It goes without saying […]
It was surely a distressing sign of the times in Canada. Josh Matlow, the councillor who represents the Toronto district of St. Paul’s in city hall, sounded an alarm in his latest newsletter. His informative monthly bulletin usually deals with local community topics ranging from design in public spaces to ravine protection. But in this […]
Israel, the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East, once enjoyed wide bipartisan support among Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress, but that era of goodwill has virtually vanished, much to Israel’s detriment. Israel’s special relationship with the United States in the past few decades has rested on a foundation of bipartisanship and […]
Philippe LeGuay’s The Story of Annette Zelman is a wrenching, heart-felt drama about the intersection of love and betrayal in Vichy France. Now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform, it is based on real events. During the Nazi occupation from 1940 onward, a Jewish fine arts student named Annette Zelman (Ilona Bachelier) fell in love […]
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer got it right. “There’s no getting away from the fact that this was not a one-off,” he said shortly after two Jewish men were stabbed in broad daylight in London’s heavily Jewish Golders Green district on April 28. “There has been a series of attacks on our Jewish community, particularly […]