For Menajem Aguirre and his wife, Isska Dvash, immigration to Israel would be a dream come true. The young couple from Cali, Colombia, think of little else after having bought airplane tickets to Israel for themselves and their two young daughters, Jaia and Ruth. They are members of Beit Israel, a small community of Christians […]
German troops marched into the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on July 20, 1941, less than a month after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. In short order, its 30,000 Jewish residents, comprising about one-third of the population, were singled out for persecution and mass murder in line with Nazi Germany’s genocidal policy. Waleriy Shalyga’s spare and […]
Alex Osmolovsky’s documentary, The Community, profiles a Jewish community under siege. Ukraine has been at war since the Russian invasion in 2022, and Ukrainian Jews have been caught up in the violence. His movie will be presented at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, which runs from June 5-15. He presents a rosy picture of a […]
Property restitution is an unresolved issue in Poland as far as Jews are concerned. While Poland has returned Jewish communal property expropriated by the Nazis during the Holocaust, the Polish government has yet to return Jewish private property to their rightful owners or descendants. Dana Modan’s movie, The Property, is inspired by this knotty problem, […]
The late Abraham Stiller was a heroic figure. A Jewish community leader in Helsinki before and during World War II, he single-handedly helped imperilled Austrian Jewish refugees find a refuge in Finland. Klaus Haro’s Finnish movie, Never Alone, documents his herculean efforts to assist them in their hour of need. It will be screened at […]
Nir Oz, a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip, was attacked by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. The intruders killed, injured and abducted one quarter of its population of 400 men, women and children. Dani Rosenberg, an Israeli filmmaker, visited Nir Oz about a month later with the intention of making a film about this […]
The unification of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, was one of the defining moments of the Six Day War period. Until 1967, Jerusalem was divided into western and eastern sectors. Israel controlled the western half. Jordan was in charge of the eastern portion. Israelis were not allowed into East Jerusalem and Arabs were not permitted to visit […]
Israel’s Arab citizens were placed under military rule from the end of the 1948 War of Independence until 1966. Under this draconian arrangement, they were subjected to nightly curfews, their movements were strictly circumscribed, and they were forbidden to work outside their towns and villages unless they obtained special permits. This system was overseen by […]
Avida Livny’s Israeli documentary, A Deal With the Devil,? delves into one of the most controversial chapters of the Zionist movement in British Mandate Palestine. It will be screened at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, which runs from June 5-15. In August 1933, seven months after Adolf Hitler’s appointment as chancellor of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine […]
The killing of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. last week has focused renewed attention on the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States. Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, who were engaged to be married, were fatally shot by Elias Rodriquez, a 31-year-old anti-Israel activist from Chicago. […]