Herbert Gildin was one of the lucky ones. He slipped out of Nazi Germany by the skin of his teeth, finding refuge in neutral Sweden and then the United States. Whether or not he was a Holocaust survivor in the strictest sense of the word is debatable, but Gildin certainly experienced the savagery of a […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin expected a cakewalk when he launched his misbegotten invasion of Ukraine on February 24. He assumed that his modernized armed forces would sweep across the country in a blitzkrieg, seize Kyiv, the capital, and other major cities, and declare victory. Putin was dead wrong. He and his closest associates miscalculated, thinking […]
Before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shot to international stardom as the charismatic leader of a besieged nation invaded by its Russian neighbor, he was a comedian who starred in Servant of the People, a popular television series in Ukraine made by his production company. Currently available on Netflix, this amusing sitcom is a remarkable case […]
When World War I ended in 1918, a wave of antisemitic violence erupted in about 500 cities, towns and villages in territory contested by Ukrainians, Russians and Poles. During the course of this blood-soaked era, which coincided with the outbreak of a civil war in the newly-created Soviet Union, almost two-thirds of all Jewish homes […]
A former Israeli cabinet minister and a Palestinian from a prominent Palestinian family are promoting a two-state solution in the form of a confederation between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Yossi Beilin and Hiba Husseini discussed their plan in a Zoom talk on March 21 sponsored by Americans for Peace Now. As Israel’s deputy […]
Nearly 80 years have elapsed since the execution of Sophie Scholl, the courageous German political activist who sought to topple Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime. Hailed as a heroine in contemporary Germany, she was a member of White Rose, a small but militant organization, based in Munich, that conveyed its pointed messages of resistance through trenchant […]
Gerard Oury was clearly influenced by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy when he directed The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, an uproarious and madcap French comedy now being screened online by the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation. Although it was released in 1974, it has not been dulled by the […]
In what is probably the greatest population upheaval since World War II, more than three million Ukrainians have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on February 24. The vast majority of the refugees have gone to Poland, Romania, Hungary and neighboring countries. As of March 18, 12,600 displaced Ukrainians had arrived in Israel. Of these, 3,650 […]
The Sierra Club, a non-profit environmental protection organization headquartered in California, has wisely reinstated its trips to Israel after having cancelled them under pressure from anti-Zionist groups. Palestinian and progressive activists, having accused the club of “greenwashing” Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, pressured it to boycott Israel in what can only be described as a […]
The Israeli media claims that Israel bombed Iran’s fleet of drones, or unmanned airplanes, in a major air strike in Iran last month. The news was first reported three days ago by Al Mayadeen, a television station in Lebanon linked to Hezbollah. Dailies in Israel, ranging from Haaretz to The Jerusalem Post, picked up the story. […]