Jewish history

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  8/24/2020
  

  The Passing of Pioneering Historian Moses Rischin Marks the End of an Era

  by Jonathan Sarna

  Moses Rischin, the last survivor among the bold group of scholars who created the field of American Jewish history following World War II, died last week in San Francisco at the age of 94. His passing marks the end of an era.

• 
• SOURCE: Times of Israel
  

  US Holocaust Survivor Who Spent Decades Fighting For Family’s Looted Art Dies

  Family of biochemist and tabletop designer Martha Nierenberg, 96, says they’ll continue legal battle for art collection, stolen by the Nazis and still held by Hungary.

• 
• 7/3/2020
  

  New Novel "The Collaborator" Explores the Moral Ambiguities of a Holocaust Rescuer

  by Diane Armstrong

  Do we have the right to judge the actions of people in life and death situations? Are we honour-bound to keep promises, no matter to whom they were made, and in what situations? Can a man be a hero and a collaborator?

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  6/29/2020
  

  In Search of King David’s Lost Empire

  The evidence of David’s life is sparse. Was he an emperor? A local king? Or, as Biblical archaeologist Israel Finkelstein claims, a Bedouin sheikh?

• 
• 6/14/2020
  

  The SS Officer's Armchair

  by Daniel Lee

  The discovery of a trove of documents in an old armchair led the author on a five-year search for information about a previously anonymous Nazi, whose history intersected with the author's family in surprising ways.

• 
• 5/3/2020
  

  Lessons on Isolation and Humanity in a Family's Letters from Hiding

  by Daphne Geismar

  A virus doesn’t discriminate. But our social structures, systemic biases, and policy choices have made some populations particularly vulnerable. This pandemic has changed us. We must make changes so this tragedy, like the Holocaust, isn’t repeated.

• 
• SOURCE: The New York Times
  4/7/2020
  

  What Were the Origins of the Holocaust?

  A review of German historian Gotz Aly's new book "Europe Against the Jews: 1880-1945."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/11/2020
  

  Ruth B. Mandel, a Voice for Women in Politics, Dies at 81

  Her experience fleeing the Nazis on the doomed “Voyage of the Damned” informed her faith in democracy as head of the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

• 
• SOURCE: Jewish News
  3/22/2020
  

  Czech Museum Director Fired

  Director of the Lidice memorial, Martina Lehmannová, was let go amid accusations that the government is trying to whitewash inconvenient facts to suit its preferred narrative.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  3/19/2020
  

  Civic Republicanism: Good for the Jews

  The ancient roots of communal liberty.

• 
• SOURCE: Jewish News of Northern California
  2/26/2020
  

  This Historian Draws Lessons About Family Separation at U.S.-Mexico Border from Kindertransport Artifacts

  Craig-Norton’s findings offer parallels to the migrant child-parent separation issues of today and provide valuable lessons.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  2/23/20
  

  A Bittersweet Homecoming for Egypt’s Jews

  A rare ceremony at an ancient synagogue brought 180 Jews back to Egypt, decades after they were pressured to leave. But few Egyptians knew about it, highlighting government ambivalence.

• 
• SOURCE: Haaretz
  2/18/20
  

  George Steiner: The Last Viennese Jew

  by Arie M. Dubnov

  The Holocaust was an impulsive rebellion by 'polytheistic instincts' against the 'noble tyranny' of Jewish monotheism, claimed Jewish American essayist and literary critic George Steiner, who passed away this month, aged 90.

• 
• SOURCE: Retropolis
  1/27/20
  

  The first transport of Jews to Auschwitz was 997 teenage girls. Few survived.

  Though Auschwitz was liberated on Jan. 27, 1945, most of the surviving girls weren’t there to see it.

• 
• 1/26/20
  

  BBC Whitewashes U.S. Refusal to Bomb Auschwitz

  by Rafael Medoff

  The new BBC documentary about the question of bombing Auschwitz deserves an award—for creative fiction. Through omissions, distortions, and “re-enactments” of conversations with imaginary dialogue inserted for effect, the BBC has made a shambles of the historical record concerning this important issue.

• 
• 1/14/20
  

  Annual Jewish Film Festival, Following New Wave of Anti-Semitism, Offers Hope and Inspiration

  by Bruce Chadwick

  Given the attacks on Jews all over the country, the Jewish Film Festival, one of the oldest in the United States, could not have come at a better time

• 
• 12/29/19
  

  Why Holocaust Education Is So Important Today

  by Claudia Moscovici

  The Never Again Education Act is an effort by a bipartisan group of US legislators in both the House and the Senate to promote Holocaust education.

• 
• 12/18/19
  

  Why FDR Turned Away Jewish Students

  by Rafael Medoff

  American immigration policy was governed by a strict quota system, based on national origins. But the law contained three major exceptions: clergy, professors, and students could be admitted outside the quota restrictions.

• 
• SOURCE: The Third Narrative Blog
  12/14/19
  

  Trump's Executive Order, Jewish Identity, and Free Speech

  The prevailing notion that Jews are basically followers of a religion does not adequately define most Jews, who are either not religious or only marginally so. 

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  12/15/19
  

  In Era of Hardening Identities, Trump Order on Jews Kindles Questions Old and New

  The president said he wanted to target anti-Semitic speech on campuses, but in the time of new nationalism, nothing is really that simple.