Elie Wiesel, the late Jewish novelist and human rights activist, was deeply affected by the Holocaust. He was personally traumatized by it and drew on its horrors as a writer. Oren Rudavsky’s documentary, Elie Wiesel: Soul On Fire, which is scheduled to be broadcast by the PBS network on Tuesday, January 27 at 9 p.m. […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unyielding in his refusal to create a state commission of inquiry to investigate Hamas’ one-day invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, the worst military and intelligence failure in Israel’s history. Claiming the lives of roughly 1,200 people and resulting in the abduction of 251 Israelis and foreign nationals, […]
Certain Polish nationalists were prepared to reach an accommodation with Nazi Germany, despite its record of atrocities in Poland. As might be recalled, six million Polish citizens, including three million Jews, perished during the six-year German occupation. The Israeli historian Yaacov Falkov meticulously documents the sporadic negotiations between the Polish government-in-exile in Britain and Germany […]
On June 18, 1941, Warner Bros. released Underground, an anti-Nazi propaganda movie designed to whip up animus against the fascist regime in Germany. It appeared in U.S. theatres shortly before the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union and six months before the United States abandoned its status as a neutral power and entered World War II […]
The arson fire that recently damaged Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, the oldest synagogue in the southern state of Mississippi, caught my attention. Jackson is not a common destination for Canadian tourists, but almost 16 years ago, my youngest daughter and I explored Mississippi during an intriguing one-week trip and spent a couple of days in […]
There was a discernible disconnect between U.S. President Donald Trump’s fiery rhetoric to intervene in Iran’s anti-government protests and his failure to act on his threats. According to Iran Human Rights, at least 3,428 Iranian protesters were killed and thousands were injured during the nation-wide demonstrations. Convulsing the country for about two weeks from December […]
Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas hordes from the Gaza Strip invaded southern Israel in a murderous rampage that sparked a two-year war between Israel and Hamas, Palestinian protesters and their supporters have staged hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrations in Toronto. They have demanded sanctions against Israel, which has cordial relations with Canada, and have called […]
Aaron Sapiro was a Jewish American folk hero who has faded into obscurity. A century ago, he created newspaper headlines when he filed a lawsuit against the American industrialist Henry Ford on the grounds that his notoriously antisemitic newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, had defamed him as a Jew and damaged his reputation as a lawyer. […]
The Islamic Republic of Iran has weathered another wave of anti-government protests, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed on January 12. By his reading of the volatile situation, the regime has seized “total control” of the streets. His claim has yet to be verified, but, as the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War indicates, […]
Last June, the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, was vandalized by Iain Aspenlieder, a middle-aged lawyer formerly employed by the city. He daubed the words “FEED ME” in blood-red paint on the memorial, which commemorates the victims of the Holocaust and recognizes the 40,000 or so Jewish survivors who found a new home […]