Much to the probable detriment of Jews and Christians in Turkey, Turkish school textbooks have been increasingly influenced and shaped by political Islam during the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Islamization of the curriculum goes against the grain of Turkish secular practices brought in by the great reformer Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the first […]
Syria has been in agony for the past ten years, its self-inflicted torment expected to fester indefinitely. A decade ago, on March 15, President Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist regime violently crushed peaceful demonstrations around the country, setting off a civil war in this predominately Sunni Muslim nation. Syrians in large numbers took to the streets to […]
The circumstances of Robert Levinson’s abduction, arrest and probable death in Iran remain a deep mystery. The former FBI agent disappeared on the Iranian island of Kish on March 7, 2007 and has not been seen in person since that dark day. Several days ago, though, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called upon Iran “to provide […]
Egypt’s Ministry of Education recently made an important announcement: a new course on common values from the three Abrahamic religions — Islam, Judaism and Christianity — had been approved and will be phased in at schools throughout the country. This is an encouraging development. For the first time ever, Muslim students in Egyptian schools will […]
Charles Wahl’s quirky Canadian movie, The Mohel, deals with an ancient religious tradition, the brit milah, the solemn yet joyous circumcision ceremony which initiates an eight-day-old Jewish male into the fraternity of Jewish peoplehood. Performed by a mohel, a rabbi trained in this specialized surgical procedure, it’s the oldest custom in Judaism. Wahl’s competently-crafted film, 14 […]
Poland emerged broken and destitute from the ashes of World War II. Six million of its inhabitants, Jews and Catholics alike, had been murdered or had died during the German and Russian invasions of September 1939. Several of its cities, notably Warsaw and Wroclaw, had been virtually destroyed. Polish journalist Magdalena Grzebalkowska offers an impressionistic […]
Israel’s chilly bilateral relations with Jordan may be thawing following a series of recent meetings between Israeli and Jordanian leaders. In the past few weeks, Defence Minister Benny Gantz has met King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi has conferred with Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi to discuss a range of political and economic issues […]
Of all of the thorny issues exacerbating Israel’s protracted conflict with the Palestinians, the “right of return” is doubtless the most complex one. It turns on the unwavering demand by Palestinian refugees to go back to their original homes in what was Palestine and what has been Israel since its declaration of statehood in 1948. This […]
The first image in Matthew Bissonnette’s reflective movie, Death of a Ladies’ Man, is a giant-sized mural of the late poet Leonard Cohen on the side of a building in Montreal. This is not a haphazard choice on the part of the director. The spirit of Cohen’s songs, at once melancholy and plaintive, permeates this […]
Germany’s neo-Nazi scene is at the center of David Wnendt’s wrenching movie, Combat Girls, which will be digitally screened from March 11-13 by the Goethe Institut in Toronto in conjunction with the Toronto Jewish Film Society and the Neuberger Holocaust Education Center. Wnendt focuses on two young, impressionable women who are drawn into a skinhead […]