Police in the Canadian city of London, Ontario, are now in the midst of ascertaining whether an antisemitic article published in an Arabic-language community newspaper recently promoted or incited hatred against Jews, or was simply a manifestation of free speech. In its June/July edition, Al Saraha, distributed in the city’s Middle Eastern grocery stores and […]
They were idealistic left-wing Jews whose overarching objective was to build a “shenere un besere velt,” a more beautiful, better world. Secular in orientation, steeped in socialism, dedicated to the Yiddish language, committed to the Soviet Union as their ideological fatherland and determined to improve the lot of the Jewish working class, they were members […]
Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, should hang his head in shame. Caving in to pressure from the city’s ultra-Orthodox and national religious camp, he announced he would not attend today’s gay pride parade. “It is their right to march,” he said of the people to plan to participate in the annual event. “The city […]
Woody Allen’s 47th film, Cafe Society, which opens in Canada on July 29, is a valentine to the bittersweet nature of love and romance and a barb about Hollywood glamour. A workmanlike movie narrated by Allen and infused with the velvety sounds of pre-war jazz, it’s set in the late 1930s as a nice Jewish […]
The reclusive Turkish cleric who heads Turkey’s influential Hizmet (Service) movement has become front-page news since the recent abortive coup in Turkey. Fethullah Gulen, who lives in semi-seclusion in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, has been accused by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of masterminding the July 15 attempt to overthrow him. Erdogan called the failed military coup […]
As Poles wrestle with the extremely complex legacy of the Holocaust in Poland, where three million Polish Jews perished in six short years, a cabinet minister in Poland’s government has suggested that historical accounts of the 1941 pogrom in the town of Jedwabne may be nothing more than “very biased opinions.” As reported by the […]
Turkey was plunged into chaos on July 15 after a faction within the Turkish armed forces calling itself the “Peace at Home Council” launched a coup. Tanks were deployed in major cities, Turkish airspace was closed and international flights were suspended. More than 160 civilians were killed and 1,440 wounded. The authorities said 104 suspected coup-plotters had […]
Sizing up the Iran nuclear agreement on its first anniversary on July 14, U.S. President Barack Obama said it had “succeeded in rolling back Iran’s nuclear program (and) avoiding further conflict.” Sticking to the same theme, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the landmark accord, signed by Iran and six major powers in Vienna, has […]
Bad Reichenhall, a neat and attractive town in southern Germany, is ringed by the crystalline Bavarian Alps. It’s surely one of the most beautiful places in Europe. I was born here after the most destructive war in history. A destination which attracted more than one million visitors last year, it draws nature buffs, mountain climbers, […]
Judging by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s surprise visit to Israel a few days ago, Egypt has begun playing a more active diplomatic role in the virtually impossible quest to settle Israel’s perennial conflict with the Palestinians. Shoukry, the first Egyptian foreign minister to set foot on Israeli soil in nine years, held intensive talks […]