What was life like for a Jewish businessman in Adolf Hitler’s Germany? Hella Rottenberg and Sandra Rottenberg provide the answer in their intriguing book, The Cigar Factory of Isay Rottenberg: The Hidden History Of A Jewish Entrepreneur in Nazi Germany, published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press. The man they have chosen to profile is none […]
In one of the most audacious deception operations of World War II, Britain tricked Nazi Germany into thinking that Allied armies would invade Greece rather than Sicily. The Germans fell for the ruse, thereby saving thousands of soldiers’ lives and bringing Germany and the Axis powers one step closer to ignominious defeat. John Madden’s competently-crafted […]
European Jews on a fairly considerable scale drifted into the visual arts world as collectors and dealers in the 19th century and became, against all odds, arbiters of taste. Once regarded as outsiders on the margins of high culture, they were suddenly thrust into positions of prestige and influence. Charles Dellheim, a professor of history […]
Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American to be elected to the U.S. Congress, introduced a unique and controversial resolution in the House of Representatives on May 16. Its chance of passage is extremely slim, but its very appearance is unsettling and surely a sign of the times. Tlaib’s resolution broadly calls on the United States […]
Hezbollah and its allies lost their parliamentary majority in Lebanon’s May 15 election, but Hezbollah remains a potent and potentially destabilizing force in Lebanese politics as well as a major threat to Israel. Four years after the last election, Hezbollah, backed by Iran and largely supported by the Lebanese Shi’a population, managed to regain its […]
On May 13, in what may have been a significant shift in Russia’s policy, Russian forces manning an S-300 air defence system opened fire on Israeli aircraft striking targets in northwestern Syria. The Israeli jets had just bombed an Iranian base in the Masyaf area when the Russians let loose with a barrage of missiles, […]
A few days ago, Israel took yet another step to consolidate its problematic occupation of the West Bank. On May 12, the Ministry of Defence advanced plans to build 4,427 new homes in Jewish settlements there. In addition, the ministry retroactively legalized two unauthorized outposts, Mitzpeh Dani and Oz V’gaon. It also approved a plan to […]
Payton Gendron’s murderous rampage in Buffalo, New York, is yet another jolting and disturbing reminder of the deadly dangers of white supremacy in contemporary America. Gendron, an 18-year-old from a small town in central New York state, drove 300 kilometres to kill 10 shoppers at a Tops Friendly Market store on May 14. Eight of […]
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, having purchased the giant social media company Twitter for a cool $44 billion, has said he would be receptive to welcoming back former U.S. president Donald Trump to the platform. I can live with Trump’s reappearance on Twitter, his blatant and dangerous lies and half-truths about the last U.S. presidential election […]
Left- wing Labor Zionists in Palestine and Israel attempted to build an egalitarian and socialist society within their web of cooperative settlements. The children they raised in this cloistered milieu from the 1920s to the 1970s were expected to transmit their parents’ and grandparents’ hopes and dreams to future generations, but this would not be […]