President Franklin D. Roosevelt mobilized the Hollywood film industry to boost national morale and enhance understanding of the United States’ participation in World War II. Jewish directors and screenwriters ranging from George Cukor to Budd Schulberg played a significant role in wartime filmmaking. They produced documentaries and movies that were at once educational, entertaining and […]
Israel’s security cabinet, acting on a resolution proposed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz, announced earlier this month that 11 new settlements will be built and 8 illegal outposts will be legalized in the West Bank. Smotrich, a settler himself and an ardent champion of the settlement movement beyond the pre-1967 […]
A pragmatic voice of reason was heard in Lebanon a few days ago. Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji went out on a limb and minced no words when he criticized Hezbollah and Iran, both of which have destabilized Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbor, for the past four decades. Rajji, in fighting words, declared that Lebanon’s security […]
The fog of war inevitably creates human tragedies. This is the way it has been since time immemorial. Neither soldiers nor civilians are safe in a combat zone. The latest war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which ended this past October following a U.S. brokered ceasefire, was not any different. While more […]
The Jewish community in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia was virtually decimated during the Holocaust, with 85 percent of its members having perished during the German occupation. Nitza Gonen’s documentary, The Forgotten Ones, now available on the Izzy streaming platform, is billed as the first film to document this tragedy. The narrator, identified only as Stella, was a […]
Better late than never. This aphorism applies to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. As he now admits, just a few days after two Muslim terrorists killed 15 people at a Chanukah celebration at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, his government could have been far more proactive in ensuring the safety of Australia’s Jewish community. “It is […]
President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza Strip peace plan, approved by the United Nations Security Council on November 17, has not advanced beyond its first and least difficult phase. Its second and most problematic phase will not be addressed until 2026. The plan is grounded in a ceasefire that ended the two-year Israel-Hamas war, which caused […]
An unusual chapter in Russian history unfolded between 1827 and 1856, when Jewish boys and men were kidnapped and forcibly brought to camps, known as cantons, to be trained as soldiers in the Tzarist army. Often snatched when they were as young as six years old, they were sent to vocational schools, after which they […]
The Festival of Lights was tragically and momentarily dimmed in Sydney, Australia, on December 14 when two gunmen opened fire on a Chanukah festival on Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in the bloodiest antisemitic incident in Australian history. One of the victims, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was a Chabad emissary who organized this festive event. Arsen […]
Years ago, I visited Marrakesh, a city in Morocco on the edge of the great Sahara Desert. I found it picturesque and exotic, a pleasant tourist destination of narrow cobblestone streets, gated residential homes, sandstone fortresses, and a central square brimming with snake charmers, hawkers and hustlers. While passing through its old quarter of crumbling […]