A new wave of Democrats swept into the U.S. Congress last month after mid-term elections in November, wresting control of the House of Representatives from the Republicans. Among the novices are the first two Muslim women ever to serve in Congress — Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who have been respectively assigned […]
Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, is widely admired and feared. Its fearsome reputation, the stuff of legends, informs Inside the Mossad, a four-part Israeli series now available on the Netflix streaming network. In the first few moments, Rafi Eitan, the Mossad’s chief of operations from 1950 to 1981, tells a story about an Israeli […]
The 19th century German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine wrote, “Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned too.” What an insightful prophecy! As the Holocaust — a Nazi genocidal project — unfolded throughout Europe during World War II, Germany engaged in the greatest book theft in history, ransacking private and public collections. “The […]
By any yardstick, Emanuel Ringelblum was a heroic figure. As the Nazi occupation of Poland deepened, he began keeping a diary of daily events in the Warsaw ghetto, where he lived. As the oppression intensified and he came to the realization that the Germans were intent on exterminating Polish Jews, he brought together fellow Jews […]
Israeli and Russian interests in Syria — Russia’s closest ally in the Middle East and Israel’s longtime enemy — have been on a collision course for the past few months. Nonetheless, Israel and Russia have managed to maintain a constructive dialog to soften the edges of their differences over Syria. Since last September, when Russia […]
An important document was released on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. The Holocaust Revisionist Report, sponsored by Yale University, Grinnell College and the European Union of Progressive Judaism, addressed a problem found, in particular, in four European Union member states: Poland, Hungary, Croatia and Lithuania, all of which have cordial relations […]
Israel has never been as safe, prosperous and internationally accepted as it is today. Yet its future is uncertain, Gregg Carlstrom argues in How Long Will Israel Survive? The Threat From Within (Oxford University Press). According to Carlstrom, the Israel correspondent of The Economist and The Times of London, the Jewish state has never been so […]
The Israeli adventure drama, When Heroes Fly, has arrived at the Netflix streaming network. The 10-part series, set in Israel and Colombia, unfolds in Hebrew, Spanish and English. Four Israeli buddies, who fought together in the 2006 war in Lebanon, team up in a daring mission to find an Israeli woman supposedly killed nearly a decade ago. […]
Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody immortalizes the late, lamented pop singer Freddie Mercury. This exuberant biopic rises to sublime heights at times thanks to Rami Malek’s star turn as Mercury. Malek portrays the iconic British musician as self-confident yet vulnerable, flamboyant yet lonely, heterosexual yet gay, secular yet attached to his Zoroastrian faith. It is apparent […]
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, warned the Security Council on January 22 that Syria would attack Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel if Israeli air strikes against Damascus International Airport do not cease. In response, Israel deployed the Iron Dome missile defence system in the greater Tel Aviv area. Jaafari’s threat is very serious and […]