Nearly 25 years have elapsed since a seminal conference in Washington dealt with the greatest cultural robbery of the 20th century. Prior to and during World War II, Nazi Germany went on a systematic rampage, looting paintings, drawings, sculptures, books and religious items from their rightful Jewish owners. The Nazis forced them to sell these […]
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman made a remarkable disclosure a few days ago when he told Fox News that Saudi Arabia and Israel are moving “closer” each day to a historic normalization agreement. Salman, the de facto ruler of the oil-rich desert kingdom, issued this encouraging comment following an interview with the Atlantic magazine […]
Donald Trump, the former president of the United States and the current frontrunner for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, is peddling incendiary and dangerous rhetoric about American Jewish voters. On his Truth Social website on September 17, he posted a Rosh Hashanah greeting that was both self-congratulatory and unsettling. Under his portrait and against the […]
It is abundantly clear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention to radically overhaul the judiciary, a highly contentious and divisive proposal that has sparked months of nation-wide protests and exposed deep political and social rifts in Israeli society, has adversely affected the armed forces and emboldened Israel’s external enemies. In recent weeks, senior military intelligence […]
Randol (Randy) Schoenberg’s obsessive quest to plumb the depths of his family’s history led him and his son on a journey of discovery in Europe. Their eye-opening trip is the subject of Matthew Mishory’s absorbing documentary, Fioretta, which will be screened in its world premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival on September 30. Shortly afterward, […]
Tough, smart and resourceful women are at the center of Queens, an Israeli television series starting on September 19 on the MHZ streaming platform. They’re called upon to protect the family turf after Yaakov Malka, an underworld boss of Sephardi origin, is bumped off, along with his son and several associates, while partying aboard his […]
On a sparkling late summer day 30 years ago today, the tremors of a seismic shift in the Middle East were felt as two sworn enemies chose reconciliation, coexistence and peace over hostility, tension and war. On September 13, 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his arch nemesis, Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the […]
Is Israel an apartheid state? The question itself arouses deep emotions, acrimonious debate, and implies that Israel has strayed far from its liberal democratic values as the world’s only Jewish state. I’m raising this explosive and divisive issue in light of Tamir Pardo’s recent remarks. The former director of the Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency, […]
Some of Hollywood’s best films, notably It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes To Town and You Can’t Take It With You, were written by Robert Riskin, one of its finest screenwriters. During his heyday in the mid-1930s, when he was one of the most high-profile, well-paid scriptwriters, he basked in critical acclaim and enjoyed […]
Ten years after its formation, the extreme right-wing Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) is a force to be reckoned with in the country that produced Nazism, gave rise to Adolf Hitler, and conceived and implemented the Holocaust. Increasingly popular in eastern Germany — where a Soviet-sponsored Marxist state existed for 40 years until 1989 — […]