Raoul Wallenberg, the Swede who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust, was officially declared dead by Sweden in 2016. But 72 years after he vanished into thin air, the circumstances of his disappearance and the precise date of his death are still a mystery, much to his family’s anguish and frustration. Wallenberg […]
The Alternative for Germany, a marginal far right-wing political party founded four years ago, is on the cusp of a historic breakthrough. The AFD, which currently holds 13 seats in German state assemblies and in the European Parliament, is widely expected to win eight to 11 percent of the votes in the September 24 general […]
Shlomo Amar, the chief rabbi of Jerusalem and the former chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel, is unfit to hold his position. Last November, following a decision by the Israeli government to establish an egalitarian prayer space at the southern end of the Western Wall, Amar had the gall to brand the Reform branch of Judaism […]
The manager of Germany’s national soccer team, Joachim Loew, deserves a pat on the back and a congratulatory handshake. Much to his credit, he lambasted German hooligans who shouted “Sieg heil” — a popular Nazi slogan — during a World Cup qualifying game in Prague on September 1, the 78th anniversary of Germany’s invasion of […]
President Donald Trump is playing a dangerous game and sending a muddled message. In the wake of the ugly events in Charlottesville, Virginia, last week, he soft-pedalled neo-Nazi-instigated violence and rhetoric, equally blamed both sides for it, compared white supremacists to left-wing protesters and claimed there were “very fine people” in each camp. What arrant nonsense. […]
U.S. President Donald Trump is not a person who minces words, yet he was strangely mute in identifying the motley gang of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan members who incited bloody demonstrations at a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend which resulted in the death of a 32-year woman. In […]
As Holocaust deniers go, Ernst Zundel was by far one of the most notorious ones, easily in the same slimy league as David Irving, Robert Faurisson, Arthur Butz and Ditlieb Felderer. A German national who lived most of his adult life in Canada, Zundel died on August 5 at his home in Germany. He was […]
Islam is supposedly a religion of peace and friendship, but if you’re Jewish, you may be excluded from its friendly embrace. Sermons delivered by two imams in California recently prove this point yet again. At the Davis Islamic Center, Ammar Shahin prayed for the Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem to be freed “from the […]
Is a synagogue a security risk? The question inspires derision, but unbelievably enough, a municipal council in Australia recently banned the construction of a Chabad-affiliated synagogue, Congregation of Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe, on precisely these specious grounds. The decision, taken in the Sydney suburb of Bondi, was upheld by a land use court, […]
Much to its credit, Germany — a nation still in the process of striving to overcome its Nazi past — has passed a law that will force social media companies to delete extremist messaging and posts on their digital platforms. The legislation, drafted by Justice Minister Heiko Maas recently, goes into effect in October. It […]