Blood libel, the scurrilous ritual murder accusation that has been levelled against Jews, is one of those terribly false myths that has caused untold suffering over the centuries. The accusation, which has been repeatedly denounced by Christian churches, is bound up with the patently absurd tall tale that Jews kill Christian children for ritual or […]
The status of Soviet Jews deteriorated sharply after World War II as the Cold War intensified and Jewish citizens in the now-defunct Soviet Union developed a more acute national identity, says a European scholar. Alongside this development, the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in the Soviet state, headed by Joseph Stalin, was damaged by a […]
Adolf Hitler is the epitome of evil, the arch aggressor who ignited World War II and the malevolent force who conceived and implemented the Holocaust. For much of the period after 1945, Hitler’s Nazi regime was viewed through this prism, as the Federal Republic of Germany accepted full responsibility for Hitler’s unprecedented crimes against Jews […]
Being partial to the plaintive melodies of American country music, I looked forward to Marc Abraham’s biopic about Hank Williams, the iconic American country singer and songwriter. Williams, an original, carved out of niche for himself with memorable songs like Cold, Cold Heart, Hey, Good Lookin, Your Cheatin’ Heart and I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry. […]
Sebastian Rejak, Poland’s envoy to the Jewish Diaspora, has spent the past two-and-a-half years assiduously cultivating relations with Jewish communities throughout Europe and North America to improve his country’s ties with the Diaspora. Most recently, he worked behind the scenes to stir awareness of the new Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World […]
When I tuned in to Israel Radio in Tel Aviv on October 6, 1973, I already had a sinking feeling that Israel was on the verge of war with its Arab neighbors. The night before, Israel had begun to mobilize its armed forces, giving credence to fears that war was imminent, but the somber newscast […]
Governments can play a decisive and positive role in shaping public opinion about Jews. Diana Dumitru, a Moldovan scholar, learned this lesson while conducting research on regional variations in civilians’ attitudes and behavior toward Jews in the borderlands of Romania and the Soviet Union during the Holocaust. To determine how ordinary Christian civilians responded to […]
Benjamin Brown left an extraordinary legacy. One of the first practising Jewish architects in Canada, he designed several of the most distinctive buildings in Toronto, Canada’s biggest city. He succeeded in spite of the endemic antisemitism that held Canada in its grip before World War II and that placed obstacles in front of talented Jews […]
In the wake of this week’s terrorist attacks in Brussels, for which Islamic State claimed responsibility, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out, quite correctly, that the international community is now engaged in “a global war against terror.” Having made this pertinent observation, Netanyahu careened off course by making a causal link between Islamic State […]
Approximately one million Muslims have flooded into Europe in the past year, the majority having been admitted by Germany in a grand humanitarian gesture. Haunted by visions of its Nazi past and its central role in the Holocaust, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has urged Europeans to emulate her example. Merkel’s openness to the migrants, many […]