Monday, June 03, 2019
European Leaders Are Making a Show of Taking Anti-Semitism Seriously. But Will They Actually Do So?
Last week, Sweden’s prime minister announced a conference on anti-Semitism to take place in October 2020 and to be attended by European heads of state. It will be held in the southern Swedish city of Malmo, the location of numerous anti-Semitic incidents in the past few years, some of which were violent—the most recent involving a youth group affiliated with the prime minister’s own party. Ben Cohen notes that the conference, despite its apparent good intentions, poses several dangers:
[T]he first potential danger [is] that the conference will allow Malmo to clean up its image as a center of anti-Semitism without cleaning up its act. The degree to which a conference on anti-Semitism hosted by a left-wing government in Europe would be willing to address the elephant in the room—the anti-Semitism that doesn’t come from the far right—is as yet unclear . . .
First, there is the need to recognize that anti-Semitism is politically promiscuous and can be found with equal venom on the left and the right. . . . Second, government efforts against anti-Semitism have rightly pushed a broader message of tolerance and openness. . . . But [these efforts] also require . . . recognition that anti-Semitism is a problem not just of the ethnic majority but of minorities as well, and particularly Europe’s multiple Muslim communities.
At the present time, if a swastika is daubed on a Jewish building in Germany and the perpetrator remains unidentified, the police will categorize the crime as “far right,” despite having seen the profusion of signs equating the Star of David with the swastika at numerous left-wing, anti-Zionist demonstrations. That perhaps exemplifies why a wholesale transformation of how anti-Semitism is understood by law-enforcement officials, teachers, and social workers is necessary.
Gerald Steinberg: Boycotts, antisemitism and free speech
Are ethical guidelines or legal restrictions legitimate means of responding to the singling out of Israel through boycotts and similar attacks? Or, as critics of these measures claim, are these guidelines anti-democratic infringements on free speech and attempts to prevent criticism of Israel?
The intensity of this debate has been increasing in parallel to the rise in violent antisemitic attacks in which the perpetrators justify their actions as responses to Israel and Zionism. Clashes surrounding BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaigns add to the friction, including (unsuccessful) efforts by activists to boycott the recent Eurovision song contest held in Israel, as well as the latest BDS initiatives led by global NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In responding effectively, it is necessary to encompass the “old” theologically-based form, from the right of the political spectrum, as well as the “new” dimension that targets Israel, as David Hirsh (Goldsmiths College, London University), documents in his book on Contemporary Left antisemitism.
These concerns have produced a growing global consensus based on the working definition of antisemitism, adopted in 2016 by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and built on an earlier EU version. This document has been officially endorsed by the 32 state members of IHRA (France was the most recent addition). It has been used for training of police in the UK and elsewhere in order to provide criteria by which hate crimes directed at Jews can be identified with consistency. There are proposals to include in ethical guidelines for journalists and media platforms – the recent case of a New York Times cartoon, for which the editors apologized, highlighted the importance of an accepted definition of antisemitism. Other potential venues include influential NGOs and the United Nations.
Meet @mohsaud08, who gives us all hope for the future https://t.co/iXxwr75bzh #Israel #SaudiArabia
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) June 3, 2019
Jeremy Corbyn, a Pro-Terrorist Prime Minister?
Sadly, ever since Corbyn's unexpected election as leader in 2015 and the rapid growth in the numbers of far-left members who adulate him, antisemitism has become the core identifying characteristic of the Labour Party.George Galloway sacked by TalkRadio over antisemitic gloating that Liverpool’s victory over Tottenham Hotspur meant there would be “No #Israël flags on the Cup!”
The evidence for massive antisemitism and anti-Zionism (in breach of some clauses in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Definition of Antisemitism, recognized after a long struggle by the Labour Party) within Labour ranks has been building for over two years.
"The dossier details 100,000 emails, including tens of thousands showing how Labour ignored complaints that supporters promoted anti-Semitism, the former staffers told Private Eye.... The protection of anti-Semites was on a scale and at a level that the public does not begin to understand." – Claire Ellicott, Daily Mail, May 16, 2019.
TalkRadio has sacked George Galloway from his role as a radio host following comments in which he conflated Tottenham Hotspur’s many Jewish fans with Israeli citizens. In a clearly antisemitic tweet, Mr Galloway stated: “Congratulations to the great people of #Liverpool to the memory of the socialist miner #BillShankley [sic] to the fallen #96 to those who fought for justice for them and to the Liverpool dockers. No #Israël [sic] flags on the Cup!”UK Jews call on Labour to disown candidate who liked ‘Zionist slave master’ post
In announcing Mr Galloway’s dismissal, TalkRadio said: “TalkRadio has terminated George Galloway’s weekly show with immediate effect. As a fair and balanced news provider, TalkRadio does not tolerate anti-semitic views.”
The tweet had provoked considerable backlash on Twitter. Liverpool’s Head of Club and Supporter Liaison, Tony Barrett, tweeted: “Please don’t include Liverpool Football Club in this bulls***. It’s the club of Ronnie Rosenthal and Avi Cohen. It’s the club of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane. It’s the club of Parson Jackson and Bill Shankly (with no e). It’s a club of all flags, all religions, all nations and none.” David Wolfson QC responded angrily to Mr Galloway’s reference to Liverpool’s legendary manager Bill Shankly and the ninety-six victims of the Hillsborough tragedy, tweeting: “My Dad as a local solictor knew Bill Shankly. Offered a ticket, he told Shankly he couldn’t go on a Saturday as an orthodox Jew, so Shankly gave him a ticket to a midweek game — in the directors’ box. That’s who Shankly was. Don’t use his name or the 96 to promote your vile smears.”
Twitter however refused to take action.
UK Jewish groups on Sunday called on the UK Labour Party to disown a candidate who liked a Facebook post that said British Prime Minister Theresa May had a “Zionist Slave Masters agenda,” in yet another anti-Semitism scandal to rock Britain’s main opposition party.Corbyn still campaigns with Lisa Forbes, Labour’s candidate in Peterborough by-election, after learning she “enjoyed reading” comments under post claiming ISIS was created by Mossad
A recent investigation by an independent journalist uncovered that Lisa Forbes, who is running as Labour’s candidate in a byelection in Peterborough on Thursday, had liked the slave master post. She also commented: “I have enjoyed reading this thread so much” on a post that repeated the conspiracy theory that the Mossad and CIA are behind the Islamic State terror group.
Forbes said it was a misunderstanding and apologized, adding that she would nevertheless take anti-Semitism awareness training.
However, a joint statement by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust said her excuse that she had not seen the anti-Semitic content “stretches the limits of credulity, especially given the high profile problems in Labour and the previous anti-Semitism scandals in Peterborough Labour circles.”
“Unless Labour disowns Lisa Forbes as a candidate, it will only confirm the Party’s shameful descent into the racist mess for which they are now being investigated by the EHRC,” the statement said, referring to the recent probe launched by the UK racism watchdog.
Jeremy Corbyn has continued to campaign with Lisa Forbes, Labour’s candidate in the Peterborough by-election, even after learning that she liked a Facebook post that said that Theresa May has a “Zionist slave master’s agenda” and commented that she “enjoyed reading” comments beneath a post claiming that ISIS and other extremists were created and funded by the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad.Labour's Apologetic Peterborough Candidate Was Active in Israel Hate Group
When approached by the Peterborough Telegraph, she apologised and pledged to “deepen my understanding of antisemitism so I can act as an ally, challenging antisemitism wherever it occurs.”
Ms Forbes was joined by Jeremy Corbyn for campaigning on Saturday ahead of the by-election. Mr Corbyn refused to answer a journalist’s question if Pete Willsman will be expelled from Labour after he was suspended for claiming in a recording that the “Israeli embassy” and an “agent” are “behind all this antisemitism against Jeremy.”
This latest revelation in the Labour antisemitic crisis was uncovered by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin.
It is beyond disturbing that Ms Forbes has liked and commented positively on posts espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories, and that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party continue to endorse her nonetheless, with no sign of even the façade of disciplinary proceedings. We will refer this incident to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for consideration during their statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party.
Labour’s Peterborough candidate Lisa Forbes was forced to apologise over the weekend for having endorsing a Facebook post saying Theresa May has a “Zionist Slave Masters agenda.” Guido can now reveal that Forbes has quietly deleted Facebook posts that attracted vile anti-Semitism in the thread below, totally ignored by Forbes herself when someone in her network alleged “ISIS leader Al-Baghdadi is a Jewish Mossad agent.” Perhaps it’s no wonder that Forbes signed a letter to Labour’s NEC calling on the party to not adopt the IHRC definition of anti-Semitism in full…BDS Continues to Normalize Antisemitism on Campus and Elsewhere
Like her party leader she accuses the BBC of being “pro-Israel”, this is now a matter of course for Corbynistas. Guido can also reveal that as recently as just a few months ago Forbes posted in an anti-Semitic hate group that talks of “Zionist rats”. The group itself posts content alleging the Jewish State has “improper influence” and “spends a fortune perverting our democracy”, promotes rallies organised by Hamas and proscribed terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A member of the group even questioned why more Palestinians don’t go out to stab Jews. Why is Forbes active in such a deeply questionable group..?
The most prominent aspect of BDS in May was the expanded policing on college campuses of pro-Israel support. At DePaul University, the faculty council officially condemned a faculty member after writing an op-ed in which he said that there should not be a Palestinian state, and voiced what some consider to be other controversial views on Israel. The university provost also condemned the op-ed.
Furthermore, the New York University Department of Social and Cultural Analysis voted to boycott the university’s Tel Aviv campus, on the basis of Israel’s laws barring BDS supporters from entry, and for its alleged discrimination against Arab and Palestinian students.
The department’s proclamation of noncooperation “seeks to protect the department from complicity with these forms of racial, religious, and political profiling.” Yet no evidence of Israel barring or harassing NYU students was cited, and the allegations regarding Arab and Palestinian students in general were vague. The university quietly expressed disapproval of the resolution. The university’s branch of the American Association of University Professors issued a statement in support of the department and criticized the university’s low-key disapproval, while over 140 medical school faculty members condemned the department and the university’s growing atmosphere of antisemitism. A student also filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging it had permitted antisemitic harassment and intimidation.
.@Sarah_McTernan I really enjoyed your #Eurovision performance and think you were unlucky not to make it through to the final. Either way, don't let the nasty haters get you down! https://t.co/KQrmdZdfyD
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) June 2, 2019
San Francisco State University Begins Complying With Terms of Settlement in Antisemitism Suit
San Francisco State University has begun complying with the terms of a March landmark legal settlement protecting the rights of Jewish students, though questions remain as to how it will affect the atmosphere on campus.Success: ‘Fanatic Jews Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque’ Photo Captions Corrected
Due to the settlement, which addressed two lawsuits alleging antisemitic discrimination at SFSU, “the university has an obligation and the proper mechanism to address antisemitism for the first time in its history,” said Brooke Goldstein, executive director of The Lawfare Project, which represented the plaintiffs alongside Winston & Strawn LLP.
California State University has already paid a contribution toward litigation expenses, as required by the terms of the settlement, while its lawyers are in contact with The Lawfare Project “to ensure that the university fulfills its obligation to issue a statement affirming that Zionism is an important part of Jewish identity,” Goldstein said.
Professor Marc Dollinger of SFSU’s Jewish Studies department also confirmed to The Algemeiner that his committee was making progress on hiring the school’s first Coordinator of Jewish Student Life.
Dollinger said the recent announcement that Lynn Mahoney, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs for California State University, Los Angeles, will take over as SFSU’s new president in mid-July “is also exciting and hopeful for the future.”
While Goldstein expressed satisfaction that “Jewish students will have access to institutional support when they are victims of antisemitic or anti-Zionist bigotry” in the future, she cautioned that “there is still a lot of work to be done at SFSU to make the campus safe for all Jewish students.”
How did this happen?
While the photos appear to be taken from the mainstream Getty Images photo service, further investigation reveals that the real credit lies with Anadolu Agency, an international news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. The agency is state-run.
The series of photos on the Getty Images website is even titled: “Fanatic Jews’ raid Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound.”
The photos with the appalling captions that appeared on the Mail Online site can be found here, here, here, and here.
And the photographer? Faiz Abu Rmeleh, in addition to his work for Anadolu Agency, is also involved with the Activestills organization, which makes no secret of its particular political bias:
Activestills collective was established in 2005 by a group of documentary photographers out of a strong conviction that photography is a vehicle for social and political change. The collective views itself as part of the international and local struggle against all forms of oppression, racism and discrimination. It is composed of Israeli, Palestinian and international photographers, operating locally in Palestine/Israel and abroad.
Activestills approaches the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as one, working to expose the most blatant attack on human rights and freedom within these borders: the Zionist settler-colonial project led by Israel against the Palestinian population. One of our main topics of documentation is the various forms of resistance against the colonial project, on both sides of the Green Line.
So we have a blatantly politicized photographer whose mission is to promote Palestinian “resistance” against Israel, presumably including portraying violent Palestinian riots on the Temple Mount as the result of “fanatic Jews.”
While we do not know if Faiz Abu Rmeleh came up with the captions, his photos were distributed by the Anadolu Agency. That a Turkish state-run organization would produce anti-Israel propaganda is hardly surprising.
What is disturbing is how Getty Images accepted these captions on their own website while Mail Online’s editors failed to check the veracity of those captions when posting the photos in their own story.
All in all, a perfect storm of anti-Israel hate allied to a lack of vigilance on the part of Mail Online.
Horrendous reporting from @SBS Arabic here.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 3, 2019
A group of Jewish pilgrims visited the compound without entering the mosque, much less taking it by "storm". Moreover, describing Israelis as settlers is unfounded and designed to undermine them.
Utterly vicious from @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/WSH4CsxziK
PLO terminology returns in BBC Jerusalem Day report
As we have had cause to note in the past, the BBC Academy’s style guide includes instruction for the corporation’s producers and journalists on the correct terminology to be used when reporting on Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.Honest Reporting: The (Not So) Hidden Media Agenda
That guidance was generally followed in the past but in late 2014, audiences began to see the employment of different terminology by some BBC journalists. The term ‘al Aqsa Mosque compound’ – or even just ‘al Aqsa Mosque’ – was employed to describe what the BBC previously called Haram al Sharif with increasing frequency from November 2014 onward.
So how and why did that deviation from the BBC’s recommended terminology come about? The change in language first appeared in November 2014. At the beginning of that month – on November 5th – the PLO put out a “media advisory” document (since removed from its website) informing foreign journalists of its “[c]oncern over the use of the inaccurate term “Temple Mount” to refer to Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem”. That directive is of course part and parcel of the tactic of negation of Jewish history in Jerusalem used by the PLO and others.
On June 3rd visitors to the BBC News website saw yet another example of that BBC adoption of PLO terminology in the synopsis to a filmed report by the Jerusalem bureau’s Tom Bateman titled “Clashes break out at Jerusalem holy site”.
“Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian worshippers broke out at Al Aqsa mosque compound, the holy site also known to Jews as Temple Mount.”
What I’m about to write doesn’t apply to all media. However, over the past two decades of working with the media, whether directly or in a public relations capacity, I’ve definitely noticed an unwritten code.New York Times Promotes Palestinian Cookbook With False Refugee Claim
When it comes to Israel, many media outlets have a pre-written agenda. This won’t come as any surprise, of course, to followers of HonestReporting. But I thought it was worth recording my experiences…
Roll back twenty years. I was a bold, carefree, fearless student at Manchester University in the UK. I decided to spend a summer in Jerusalem getting some work experience. (These were the days when I wanted to be a foreign correspondent.) I approached two major UK news channels and got accepted for internships at both.
I arrived at the first, hungry to learn and quickly volunteered to accompany the reporter to a riot in Ramallah. But what I saw when we arrived surprised me. There was no riot going on. There was a bunch of people hanging about, waiting for the cameras to arrive. When we did (and our flak jackets and helmets were safely in place), only then did they start to throw stones and glass bottles. And as soon as we left, the ‘rioters’ left too.
I asked the reporter if that often happened, and he confirmed that, yes, that was generally the way it worked. So the foreign media unwittingly became a partner in stone and bottle throwing riots against Israel. If the cameras hadn’t arrived, arguably the riot I witnessed might never have happened.
I remember a conversation with the reporter on the way back. I asked him why many people perceived his news channel to be biased against Israel. He replied that the British people like to support the underdog. That’s why, until 1967, people admired this plucky, young state. However, post-Six Day War, the tides began to turn, and the Palestinians began to be viewed as the underdog.
The New York Times has already devoted not one but two food-section articles to boycott-Israel-promoter Yasmin Khan’s book of “recipes and stories from the Palestinian kitchen.”BBC Watch prompts removal of Nazi analogy from BBC Arabic website
Now, even though the book was published in July 2018, the Times has published yet a third article, this one in its Sunday book review, touting the cookbook as one of “75 of the latest and greatest books to keep you company as temperatures climb and days grow long.” Leave aside the promotional-hype-overkill and questionable news judgment of the Times lavishing more editorial attention on a book that’s already been out for a year. The Times Book Review promotes the Yasmin Khan book with three inaccurate claims.
The Times writes, “Israeli food has been celebrated since Yotam Ottolenghi came on the scene over a decade ago. The culinary traditions of Palestine? Not so much.”
That’s inaccurate. Ottolenghi’s “Jerusalem” hit cookbook — well, take it from a 2013 problematic but nonetheless telling report in the Times itself: “‘Jerusalem: A Cookbook’ was written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, chefs who grew up on opposite sides of the divided city, Mr. Tamimi in the Arab East, Mr. Ottolenghi in the Jewish West… The book’s recipes are traditional in Jerusalem, or loosely inspired by the city, gathering influences from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish cooks who live there.” Haaretz describes Tamimi as a “Palestinian-British chef.”
As documented here last week, on May 15th the BBC Arabic website published an article about a demonstration which had taken place a few days earlier in London.
“In a sub section titled “British sympathisers” readers were told that “[t]he British capital London witnessed a mass demonstration last Saturday to commemorate the anniversary and highlight the suffering of Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip”. No information was given concerning the organisers of that demonstration or the fact that its speakers included a Hamas-linked professional activist.
Readers were then told that an unnamed member of staff from BBC Trending […] had met some of the demonstration’s participants in order to understand why they “give up on a day of relaxation and good times with the family to engage in political action…”.”
Five participants were interviewed and their context-free and often inaccurate claims and statements were uncritically amplified by the BBC – including an antisemitic Nazi analogy from an interviewee named as ‘Jay’.
“I was very sympathetic to the victims of the Holocaust and I visited the Jerusalem Museum [sic] to know more about them, however the fact that the Israelis commit violent acts that bear the same level of atrocity against the Palestinians is beyond my comprehension”
The IHRA working definition of antisemitism includes:
“Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
The blockade is imposed by Israel and Egypt together. Without Egypt, there would be no blockade at all. Please acknowledge this basic reality, @BelTrew and the @Independent. pic.twitter.com/B9L5Uv5pcW
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 3, 2019
How Google search teaches people - that “Jews are evil and the #holocaust didn’t happen pic.twitter.com/0p1EUkb4MO
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) June 2, 2019
Herzog: ‘Moral obligation’ to remove Chicago monument of Nazi collaborator
The Jewish Agency’s chairman of the Executive, Isaac Herzog, expressed his support last Wednesday for the efforts of Jewish leaders in Chicago and elsewhere who have protested the recently erected monument in the city honoring a Lithuanian World War II-era commander who collaborated with the Nazis.Brooklyn bicyclist smacks Orthodox Jew in latest hate crime to hit NYC
Earlier last month, Lithuanian-Americans unveiled a monument in Chicago to Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, a Lithuanian war hero for his leadership of Lithuania’s resistance to Soviet occupation.
According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Ramanauskas mentions in his memoirs that he led a gang of vigilantes that persecuted the Jewish community of Druskininkai, Lithuania.
In his meeting with a group from Chicago’s Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, the city’s Jewish Federation, Herzog underscored the “moral obligation” to expediently remove the monument to Ramanauskas.
“It is inconceivable that on the soil of the United States – the best friend of Israel and the Jewish people in the international community – there is a memorial to an alleged murderer who cooperated with the Nazis and was involved in the mass slaughter of Jews,” Herzog said. “I discussed it at length with the incoming president of the Federation, Lonnie Nasatir – himself a lawyer with record of fighting antisemites – who I am confident will take further action to confront local authorities so that the monument will be removed as soon as possible.”
A teen bicyclist slapped an Orthodox man in the head, knocking off his fedora, as he passed him on a Brooklyn street in the latest anti-Semitic crime in the city, officials said Saturday.Auschwitz museum slams anti-vaccinations protesters in stripes
The 27-year-old victim was approaching the corner of Flushing and Nostrand Aves. in Williamsburg at about 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday when the teen rolled by and smacked him in the back of the head.
The assault was unprovoked, officials said, adding that the victim was rattled, but not seriously injured.
The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, officials said.
The city is struggling to tamp down a spike in anti-Semitic incidents.
As of May 26, cops were fighting a 71% increase in hate crimes over the same time period last year. As May drew to a close, cops had investigated 183 hate crimes, compared with 107 during the corresponding period in 2018.
The Auschwitz museum condemned Polish anti-vaccinations protesters who marched on Sunday in the Polish capital wearing striped uniforms under the banner ‘Dr Mengele kills again,’ the news-site www.o2.pl reported on Sunday.Neighbors of San Francisco Holocaust memorial receive anti-Semitic hate mail
In a reference to the criminal medical experiments conducted by Josef Mengele during the Holocaust, the protesters suggested that vaccinations are not safe and do not promote health, but are part of an on-going medical experiment.
The picture posted by the protesters online caused an uproar.
Social media users attacked the protesters for comparing vaccinations to the suffering Holocaust victims went through under the hands of the Nazis. The Auschwitz museum also criticized them for 'exploiting a tragedy' to oppose 'vaccinations that save lives,' English news-site Notes from Poland reported.
This is not the first time protesters in Poland attempted to get public attention by linking their cause to the memory of the Holocaust.
Residents of San Francisco that live on the same street as a Holocaust memorial received anti-Semitic hate mail including a reading list of Holocaust denial titles.An Incredible Auschwitz Exhibit and Experience Comes to New York
The letters arrived at every home on San Francisco’s 34th Avenue in late May, J. The Jewish News of Northern California reported.
“It is hoped that you will all buy some of these books in this list and that you will realize that the Holocaust is a complete lie,” the letter said.
The full-page, single-spaced letter was signed by the Barnes Review. The Barnes Review is a bi-monthly magazine founded in 1994 by Willis Carto’s Liberty Lobby and headquartered in Washington, D.C. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Barnes Review is “one of the most virulent anti-Semitic organizations around,” and its journal and website are “dedicated to historical revisionism and Holocaust denial.”
The Holocaust Memorial at California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco’s Lincoln Park is located in a grove of trees outside the Legion of Honor museum. Mounted in 1984, it depicts a man standing behind a barbed wire fence, flanked by corpses. It is maintained by the San Francisco Arts Commission.
The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, which hosts the sculpture, responded in a statement.
“These hateful mailings prove the necessity of hosting pieces like the Holocaust Memorial in our public spaces,” Tamara Barak Aparton, spokesperson for the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, said in a statement. “The Holocaust Memorial inspires empathy in thousands of our visitors each year and reminds us to be vigilant against the rising tide of anti-Semitism.”
A new exhibit at New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is filled with chilling artifacts outlining the transformation of Auschwitz from a Polish town known as Oswiecim to the largest documented mass-murder site in human history, where one million people were killed.Virtual Reality is Reinforcing the Memory of the Holocaust
Nearly 20,000 people have already seen “Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away” — the most comprehensive exhibition about Auschwitz ever shown in North America. Seventy-four years after the liberation of Auschwitz, this is the first traveling exhibition in the United States dedicated to the camp’s historical significance. The exhibition opened on May 8, the anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, when the Allies celebrated Nazi Germany’s surrender and the end of World War II in Europe.
Visitors are given a glimpse into the exhibit even before stepping foot inside the museum itself. Outside there is an original German-made Model 2 freight-train car used for the deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in occupied Poland. Inside, the exhibit’s 20 galleries are filled with more than 700 original objects and 400 photographs, mainly from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
The exhibit thoroughly details Jewish life and culture in pre-war Europe, all the way through the rise of Nazism and the Third Reich, the construction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, deportations, life in the concentration camp, liberation, and the ultimate creation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
As a generation of survivors have begun to fade away, this group of young Israelis are trying a new approach to Holocaust remembrance and combating denial. Our Ariel Levin-Waldman has the story.
Last survivor of Sobibor death camp uprising dies, aged 97
Semyon Rosenfeld, who was the last living Holocaust survivor who participated in the revolt and escape from the Sobibor death camp, died Monday at the age of 97 in a hospital in Rehovot, near Tel Aviv.
Rosenfeld, who moved to Israel from the Ukraine in 1990, was survived by his two sons and five grandchildren. He had been living in a retirement community in Yad Binyamin in central Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted an obituary on his Facebook page.
“Seymon Rosenfeld, Holocaust survivor and the last from Sobibor, has passed away,” Netanyahu wrote. “Semyon was born in 1922 in a small village in Ukraine. He joined the Red Army, was taken captive by the Nazis, but managed to escape the death camp and continue to fight the Nazis. May his memory be blessed.”
