Thursday, April 24, 2025

04/24 Links Pt2: The Jews Who Saw Around History’s Darkest Corner; Objectively Pro-Hamas; Hamas threatened to kill hostage in call to his freed wife

From Ian:

Haviv Rettig Gur: The Jews Who Saw Around History’s Darkest Corner
In their conversation, Ben-Gurion told his Arab interlocutors that he expected six to eight million Jews to ultimately populate the forthcoming Jewish state, because Jews were imperiled in Europe. Arslan and al-Jabri, despite agreeing to strict confidentiality and telling Ben-Gurion their conversation was informal and off the record, published his comments with mocking derision in the November 1934 edition of their journal La Nation Arabe. A frustrated Ben-Gurion would not meet prominent Arabs again for a year and a half.

What did Ben-Gurion know? What was he trying to say? And what were his Arab interlocutors failing to hear?

In October 1938, a month after Chamberlain’s capitulation at Munich and before most people dared to even imagine anything so insane, Ben-Gurion was already warning of a coming annihilation of the Jews, as Tuvia Friling writes in his brilliant two-volume book, Arrows in the Dark.

“The outbreak of a world war—which the Arabs are so vehemently in favor of—will place us once again in danger of abandonment and absolute siege. . . . Hitler is not only the enemy and annihilator of the Jews of Germany. His sadistic and jealous desire is to annihilate the whole of world Jewry,” Ben-Gurion said.

This dire foreboding was the logic behind the Zionist willingness to negotiate with the Nazis for the rescue of Jews, as in the Haavara agreement. This was an agreement in 1933 between the Zionist leadership and the Nazi regime to allow Jews to leave Germany with some of their property. (Nazi Germany did not allow Jews to take their property with them when they fled, causing many to stay behind in hopes of surviving the new regime and rebuilding their old lives.)

Many diaspora Jewish leaders, especially in America, were angered by the agreement, which they felt legitimized dealing with the Nazis just when they were trying to push for a global boycott of Germany. But the Zionists insisted on the policy, not because they downplayed Nazi intentions, but because they believed the Nazis were infinitely worse than Jews in the diaspora really understood. These Zionists understood (not all of them, but enough of the ones who mattered) that every Jew who could be convinced to leave Germany early through the Haavara agreement, some 60,000 by 1939, would be literally saved by it.

In December 1938, just a few weeks after Kristallnacht, Ben-Gurion again offered an explicit, public prediction of extermination. “The Nazi pogrom of last November,” he said at a conference in Jerusalem, “is a signal for the destruction of the Jews of the world. I hope I will prove wrong. But I suspect that this German pogrom is but the beginning. It started in Germany. Who knows what will happen tomorrow in Czechoslovakia. . . in Poland, in Romania, and other countries? Until now even Satan did not dare to carry out such a plan. Now everything is permissible. Our blood, our honor, our property. . . . There are no limits as to what can be done to the Jews.”

And in June 1939, three months before the outbreak of war: “Hitler is a fact and he can be relied upon in this regard. If there is a world war and he takes control of Europe, he will carry out this thing; first of all, he will annihilate the Jews of Europe.”

The Zionists, almost entirely alone, saw it coming.

And so on Yom HaShoah we remember not only the dead, though we spend most of the day recalling their names and lives and stories and the whole lost civilization of European Jews. We remember not only what we have lost, but also that it was by our own initiative and wisdom that the survivors came out of that great death and into a new day, a new/old Jewishness, an unapologetic survival and flourishing.

So let the antisemites rage, let them build their moral worlds on our story in thick layers of hatred, conspiracy, and righteous pretense, offering us, as ever, the most reliable signal of their dysfunction and decline. There’s nothing new in that.

What is new is us—our clarity and purpose, a Jewish collective shorn of the blindnesses and vulnerabilities of the past.

This Yom HaShoah in Jerusalem, I will think about what we might have been able to do for our brethren if we’d been established and strong just a decade sooner. I will think about our strength as much as our weakness, about the ever-present, unfulfillable duty to rebuild what was destroyed. I will reflect on the evil stories told of us that never really go away, but that don’t, in the end, matter anymore. Because those who could see around history’s dark and dangerous corners finally freed us from their grip.
Seth Mandel: Heroism and the Holocaust
UnBroken is an unusual Holocaust documentary. The film, now streaming on Netflix, tells the story of seven siblings, the Webers, who survived the war together—the only known group of siblings of that size to do so.

That statistic is obscure but evocative: Large families simply didn’t stay together and survive, if they survived at all. Amazingly, the Weber siblings weren’t broken up until they got to America and put in separate foster homes.

That doesn’t mean their family was intact, however. Their parents’ fate follows the opposite trajectory from that of the kids: For Lina and Alexander, it is a love story that becomes a tragedy.

Alexander was a German traveling salesman who met Lina Banda in Hungary and fell in love with her. Alexander was Catholic, however, and Lina’s father was an Orthodox rabbi. So Alexander converted and the two married. To start anew, they moved to Berlin with two children in tow. They had five more together in Berlin before Alexander was arrested in 1933, likely for the crime of being married to a Jew. He left prison a beaten and broken man.

Lina, meanwhile, had begun working to help Jews escape Germany, sometimes even hiding them in her family home. This further fractured the marriage, as Alexander repeatedly warned her she’d get caught. She did get caught and was eventually killed in Auschwitz.

The children—Alfons, Ruth, Senta, Gertrude, Renee, Judith, and Bela—were then arrested as well and housed in a local hospital. When they were temporarily sent home, a farmer named Arthur Schmidt, who was a friend of the family, smuggled them out of Berlin and to his and his wife Paula’s farm in Worin. The mayor of Worin was the only one besides the Schmidts who knew of the Webers’ presence in town, and he helped forge ration tickets to make sure the kids had enough to eat.

The Weber children repeatedly found themselves saved by righteous gentiles. At one point they were cared for by the famous Catholic social worker Margarete Sommer (although the film misses an opportunity to talk about Sommer’s work); later, the Berlin house they were hiding out in was bombed and they were trapped underground until Schmidt, who was in the house next door, dug them out. Eventually the family made it into the care of the Joint Distribution Committee and out of Europe—but without their father. They were only permitted to emigrate by claiming to be orphans. Alexander survived by renouncing his conversion to Judaism, though he too eventually made it out of Germany.

The siblings weren’t all reunited until 1986. Ten years later, at a family gathering, Alfons presented his siblings and their families with a brief written memoir of their story, which later became the backbone for the documentary, helmed by Beth Lane, daughter of the youngest Weber sibling.

Yet the movie has nothing resembling the triumphant tone of the usual stories of survival, and in that sense it’s likely a preview of the Holocaust documentaries to come. The amount of time that has passed means that even when we meet the survivors themselves on-screen, we won’t be meeting any more heroes who saved them. (There is only one living recognized member of the Righteous Among the Nations residing in Israel, the 90-year-old Jarosława Lewicka.) The Schmidts died a decade after the war and a good half-century before they were added to the Yad Vashem registry of righteous gentiles. The mayor of Worin, Rudolph Fehrmann, died soon after the war. We see his grandson meet Lane in the film.
Gil Troy: Hmm... maybe anti-Zionism really is antisemitic
You don't need to like Trump to recognize his efforts to combat antisemitism
True, it is confusing. US President Donald Trump is polarizing. His sledgehammer approach to genuine problems like campus Jew-hatred risks backfiring. Universities are justifiably mobilizing to defend their autonomy from presidential bullying and to protect critical scientific research from governmental blackmail. But universities seem far more passionate about defending their prerogatives than defending their Jewish students after letting Jew-hatred fester for years.

As anti-Trump Jews reject the boldest governmental assault against Jew-hatred in American history, they should instead become (F. Scott) Fitzgeraldian Zionists, holding “two opposing ideas in mind at the same time” while still retaining “the ability to function.”

Liberals should join conservatives in thanking President Trump for getting universities to do more against Jew-hatred in a few weeks than they did for years. And all must admit that anti-Zionist antisemitism has become so central to modern progressivism that you can’t really fight campus Jew-hatred without bold, systematic campus reform.

Read Trump’s statements carefully. It’s good to ban masks, penalize protesters’ crimes swiftly, hire based on merit, admit based on merit, and foster an open-minded, liberal campus culture that welcomes diverse viewpoints backed by thoughtful, substantive scholarship. But that’s not the government’s job. Universities should have developed such initiatives internally, not been force-fed them externally.

Simultaneously, it’s also true: Universities double down when assaulted by outsiders, especially by unpopular presidents, and most especially by Donald Trump. So, it’s possible to condemn Trump’s tactics while applauding much of his vision and – trigger warning – thanking him for showing the way, even for critics repudiating other aspects of his agenda.

And to my seemingly bold but sniveling Jewish colleagues joining this long chain of un-Jews betraying their people in the pathetic quest to be popular among our enemies, I offer a simple definition: Jew-hatred is an obsessive hatred that exaggerates the centrality and supposed wickedness of Jews and anything Jewish – the Jewish people, Jewish traditions and values, Jewish institutions, and Israel, the Jewish state.

This disproportionate hatred is often expressed in demonization, delegitimization, and double standards – Natan Sharansky’s “3 Ds.”

Be honest. Most protesters share that obsessive hatred. And you’re legitimizing it.


‘I tried to accept death’: Freed hostage recounts abduction, captivity and release
Whether the threat was abusive Hamas guards, hunger, illness or Israeli strikes, there were moments during Tal Shoham‘s 505 days of captivity at the hands of terrorists in Gaza when he didn’t think he’d be alive the next morning.

There were “many times that I separated from life and… tried to accept death,” the 40-year-old Israeli, who also holds Austrian citizenship, told The Associated Press. “There are so many ways to die there.”

Shoham was one of dozens of hostages released from Gaza in February as part of a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel that has since been broken.

His wife, two children and three other family members were also kidnapped on October 7, 2023, and were freed a month later.

His parents-in-law were among the approximately 1,200 people murdered by Hamas-led terrorists during the onslaught as 251 were taken hostage, triggering the ongoing war.

Shoham said he spent half his captivity in apartments and the rest in underground tunnels. He was sometimes bound, starved, beaten and threatened with death, and initially didn’t know if his family was alive.

After his wife was released, Shoham said, someone identifying himself as a member of Hamas called to warn her not to talk about what she’d been through or they’d kill her husband. As he recounted his own experience, Shoham said there were details he wouldn’t discuss, fearful of endangering remaining hostages.

With ceasefire talks at a standstill, terror groups in Gaza are still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.


Hamas threatened to kill hostage in call to his freed wife
Tal Shoham, who was freed from Gaza as part of the hostage deal with Hamas on Feb. 22, revealed on Thursday that the terrorists had called his wife, freed during previous ceasefire, and threatened to kill him if she talked about her own experiences in captivity.

Adi Shoham was taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre alongside her two young children. They were released after 50 days in captivity as part of the first ceasefire agreement with the terrorist group.

Tal Shoham, a 40-year-old Israeli with dual Austrian citizenship, was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7 while visiting his wife’s extended family for the Simchat Torah holiday. Shoham’s in-laws were among the approximately 1,200 people murdered that day.

Speaking with the Associated Press on Thursday, Shoham said that after his wife was freed, an individual identifying himself as a member of Hamas called to warn her not to talk about what she’d been through.

If she did, the terrorist said, her husband would be murdered, Shoham told the AP, adding that there are still details of his captivity he cannot discuss due to fear of endangering the remaining 59 hostages.

Upon entering the Strip, a Palestinian terrorist jumped on top of the car, pointed his gun at Shoham with “murder in his eyes” and ordered him to kneel, Shoham recalled. He refused, not wanting to be killed on their terms, he said.

Shoham said he spent half his captivity in Gaza apartments and the rest in tunnels. He was sometimes bound, starved, beaten and threatened with murder, and initially didn’t know if his family had survived.

His Hamas captors transported him and other hostages by ambulance, he said. The Israeli hostages were blindfolded, cleanly shaven and dressed in clothes intended to make them blend in with locals.


Seth Mandel: Objectively Pro-Hamas
During the lead-up to Israel’s reestablishment in the form of a modern nation-state, the leader of Palestinian Arab nationalism was a blond-haired and blue-eyed Nazi official named Amin al-Husseini. It is not difficult to discern what the expected end state of this ethnonationalism looked like. This is particularly relevant today, on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

We have now established the character of this protest: It is anti-Semitic incitement to violence.

The last slogan has the same flaw. “Intifada revolution” is the violent overthrow of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. It does not have any other meanings in this context.

A crowd that chants these slogans is both anti-Semitic and rooting for the side in the current war that wants to kill the Jews and dismantle the State of Israel. That party is Hamas. Among the crowd were those wearing Hamas headbands, in case the point wasn’t obvious enough. The people in this crowd, who are chanting the same slogans as the “pro-Palestinian” mobs at virtually every other campus, are objectively pro-Hamas and rabidly supportive of extreme violence against Jews.

And here’s the thing: The people yelling “shame” and “boo” are the same people yelling for Hitlerian bloodshed on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The crowd isn’t split between moderates and wackos.

In addition to yelling (and playing the occasional accordion), the protesters developed one more habit: throwing water bottles at Jews walking past them. Since there seems to be some confusion over whether throwing objects at people is “speech,” we should point out that it definitively is not. While it may not exactly be deadly, it is a violent act.

To sum up: The “pro-Palestinian” protest groups are actually pro-Hamas. They are violent. They call for violence against Jews. They are anti-Semitic in its most base and undeniable form, which is enthusiastic support for the explicit racial purification-by-Arabization of the one Jewish state.
Seth Mandel: How Many Yalies4Palestine Does It Take To Read a Rulebook?
While I never went to Yale Law School, I feel confident in saying that in neither case have the Hamasniks discovered a secret loophole.

Yale appears to agree. According to a statement on its website, “staff identified students who had been warned or disciplined in previous incidents that violated university policy. Those students have received written notice today that they are subject to immediate disciplinary action. The university continues to investigate the event actively and will hold those who violated university policies accountable. Those who violate the university’s policies and instructions (https://secretary.yale.edu/student-life/use-outdoor-spaces) regarding use of outdoor spaces face law enforcement and disciplinary action, including reprimand, probation, suspension, or expulsion.”

The statement also had some news for the event’s organizers: “Last night, Yalies4Palestine sent out calls over social media for others to join the event, and this morning joined with an unregistered group in public statements taking credit for the event. This occurred only one day after Yalies4Palestine had met with Yale College officials to discuss recent policy violations and were warned that further violations would jeopardize the group’s privileges. Because Yalies4Palestine has flagrantly violated the rules to which the Yale College Dean’s Office holds all registered student organizations, Yale College today notified Yalies4Palestine that the College is withdrawing its status as a registered student organization.”

The statement further asserted that anti-Semitism is bad and that the cause of academic freedom is not served by physically preventing students from moving about on campus. This last one is somewhat controversial these days: Most academics and students are willing to admit that Jewish students also have academic freedom but only if you put them under oath.

We’ll see what the individual disciplinary actions turn out to be, but the incident has already drawn the attention of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, so Yale will be closely watched on this one. Good thing the Hamasniks have made it so easy for them this time by ostentatiously flaunting their objectively evil intentions.
Trump Signs Executive Order Overhauling College Accreditation To Combat 'Ideological Overreach'
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that will overhaul the college accreditation process in an attempt to fight left-wing "overreach" on campuses.

The order makes it easier for universities to change accreditors and for new accreditors to gain federal recognition. Trump views a restructuring of the accrediting system as his "secret weapon" to counter "ideological overreach" in higher education, administration officials told the Wall Street Journal.

To earn accreditation—and access to federal funds—institutions must meet wide-ranging standards, including academic quality, admissions policies, and financial stability.

Trump and other Republicans have said that the process operates like a cartel—suppressing competition and shielding underperforming institutions, according to the Journal. While the federal government awarded over $120 billion in loans, grants, and work-study funds to students at accredited schools in the last academic year, colleges with low graduation and job placement rates rarely lose their accreditation.

The Wednesday order is part of the Trump administration's broader campaign to reshape higher education.

The administration has revoked federal funding to several elite universities over years-long anti-Semitic activism on campus and their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. The frozen funds include $2.2 billion to Harvard University and $1 billion to Cornell University, as well as hundreds of millions to Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton University.

According to CNN, Wednesday's order also asks the secretary of education to "hold higher education accreditors accountable including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination for poor performance or violations to the federal Civil Rights Act," a White House official said.
US’s NIH bans grants for schools that boycott Israeli companies
A new policy from the US National Institutes of Health bars colleges and universities from receiving funding if they boycott business relations with Israel.

The policy, which was announced Monday, added to the terms and conditions for schools that receive funding from the NIH, which awards tens of billions of dollars in research funding via nearly 50,000 grants.

It also bars eligible schools from operating any diversity, equity, inclusion or accessibility programs if they want to receive funds, part of a broader anti-DEI offensive across the Trump administration.

The policy stated that a discriminatory boycott included “refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business.”

While pro-Palestinian student groups have long advocated boycotts of Israel, including at last year’s wave of campus encampments, those efforts have not found success. Administrations have almost universally rebuffed them or voted them down. Last year, the president of California State University was placed on leave after announcing an academic boycott of Israel.

The new policy is effective immediately and will apply to all NIH grants. If schools are found to institute Israel boycotts or DEI programs, they could be asked to pay back the funds.

“NIH reserves the right to terminate financial assistance awards and recover all funds if recipients, during the term of this award, operate any program in violation of Federal anti-discriminatory laws or engage in a prohibited boycott,” the policy read.
Trump calls Harvard ‘antisemitic,’ ‘threat to democracy’
U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Harvard University in a Truth Social post on Thursday, calling it “an antisemitic, far-left institution.”

Harvard has “students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our country apart,” the president wrote. “The place is a liberal mess, allowing a certain group of crazed lunatics to enter and exit the classroom, and spew fake anger and hate.”

“It is truly horrific! Now, since our filings began, they act like they are all ‘American Apple Pie,’” he continued. “Harvard is a threat to democracy, with a lawyer who represents me, who should therefore be forced to resign immediately or be fired. He’s not that good, anyway, and I hope that my very big and beautiful company, now run by my sons, gets rid of him ASAP!”

The Trump Organization confirmed that it had parted ways with William Burck, the lawyer representing the Ivy League in its ongoing legal battle against the Trump administration, according to USA Today.

Harvard announced that it would be suing the Trump administration after it froze $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million worth of contracts to the Ivy League school unless it met certain demands, which Harvard rejected. Trump also directed the Internal Revenue Service to look into removing Harvard’s tax-exempt status.


Harvard University Extended a Fellowship Offer to Ousted Columbia Prof Accused of Anti-Israel 'Indoctrination'—Then Rescinded It Without Explanation
Harvard University quietly extended a fellowship offer to a former Columbia University professor who was let go after a Wall Street Journal exposé accused him of "pro-Palestinian indoctrination"—then revoked it without explanation, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Kayum Ahmed, a former director at George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, posted a screenshot last week of his April 3 acceptance letter as a fellow with Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights Policy, complete with official letterhead and executive director Maggie Gates’s name and title.

"I'm pleased to share that I’ve been appointed as a Fellow at the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, for the 2025–2026 academic year," Ahmed wrote in a caption accompanying the screenshot.

When the Free Beacon reached out about the offer on Monday, a Harvard Kennedy School spokesman said it was "made prematurely" without going through the proper "vetting process" and was "under review." The next day, the spokesman said Harvard had revoked Ahmed's fellowship.

"After completing our standard review and vetting process, Harvard Kennedy School has decided not to move forward with this fellowship," the spokesman said. "While we cannot comment on the specifics of personnel matters, all fellowship candidates are evaluated on many factors—including their suitability to the role, commitment to free and open inquiry, integrity, and ability to add to the intellectual life of the school." Though the spokesman did not explain what caused the decision, he did suggest that it was not based on Ahmed's controversial past at Columbia, saying, "As a school committed to free speech and ideological diversity, we do not disqualify candidates because of their views or because they are controversial."

The reversal comes as Harvard engages in an escalating battle with President Donald Trump, having sued his administration Monday over its decision to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding in an attempt to quell campus anti-Semitism. For Ahmed, that battle—not a mistake in "process"—explains the school's fellowship offer U-turn.

"So let's be honest: the real error—according to those pulling the strings—was that I refused to remain silent in the face of genocide," Ahmed wrote in a Wednesday LinkedIn post. "They want obedience. I want resistance."

That "resistance" was the focus of the March 2024 Journal report, which said Ahmed indoctrinated his students to hate Israel through lectures that labeled the country a "colonial settler state" that has "oppressed indigenous populations" and "displaced" Palestinians, leading to "health consequences."

"He puts the idea into everyone's head that the Jews stole the land and it should belong to the indigenous people," a graduate student who took the class told the Journal. That rhetoric, some students and faculty members said, showed Ahmed was "abandoning context, advocating a pro-Palestinian bias, spreading disinformation and expecting an adherence to anti-Zionism."
What Happened When ‘The Encampments’ Director and a Leading Pro-Israel Creator Debated Gaza
The War in Gaza that began 18 months ago has spurred a host of cultural and media products, and the personalities to go with them. Movies like No Other Land, October 8th and The Encampments have all stormed the box office in recent months amid the hostilities overseas (and on American streets). Consumers flock to these pieces to decipher — and to reinforce and telegraph — where they stand.

The topic has spilled into other entertainment realms too, as it did this weekend with the Irish group Kneecap’s controversial posting of anti-Israel messages during its Coachella set. Related Stories

Among the leading figures in this fray is Hen Mazzig. Mazzig is an Israeli-born activist and author with collectively more than half a million followers on X and Instagram, where he often posts pro-Israel opinions on the news and advises others on how to do the same. He’s also the creator of And They’re Jewish with Hen Mazzig, a new YouTube series that debuted this month in which he visits with Debra Messing, Emmanuelle Chriqui and other public personalities to talk about their work and Jewish identity.

Among the emerging figures in this fray is Kei Pritsker, an activist and journalist who lived at Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian encampment last year and filmed a lot of it for what would become The Encampments, the new Macklemore-executive produced documentary about Mahmoud Khalil and other activists that was released in theaters this month; Pritsker is one of its two directors. (The Hollywood Reporter reviewed the film last week.) Pritsker is a self-described pro-Palestine activist with strongly oppositional feelings toward Israel.

In a rare meeting between an ardently pro-Palestine and ardently pro-Israel cultural figure, Mazzig and Pritsker agreed to a debate. There were no preconditions on what would be discussed — and as you’ll see from the conversation, no restrictions on what the two would offer up about the causes they believe in. The two met virtually last Thursday to talk with passion and intensity about Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Trump, college campuses and many other roiling questions.
The left’s vile Hitler-Trump analogies dishonor the Shoah
Normalizing violence rather than Trump
This is a dangerous brand of politics because it seems to be rooted in a view that it’s not enough to oppose the president by normal democratic means. Many who belong to the party that claims it is the defender of democracy aren’t chastened by its defeat last year and the way it was abandoned by working-class voters of all races. Instead, they believe that the appropriate reaction to Trump 2.0 is “resistance.” This further polarizes an already deeply divided country and raises the prospect of normalizing political violence, which, as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro discovered during Passover in the state’s capital of Harrisburg, is now more likely to come from antisemitic Israel-haters who have swallowed leftist propaganda rather than from right-wing extremists.

It also turns the debate over every issue into one that winds up where Trump’s opponents appear willing to oppose and vilify even his most reasonable positions. That’s true of his determination to take action against antisemitism on U.S. college campuses. It can also lead to them to dishonestly lionize unworthy persons who are falsely put forward as martyrs of his administration’s policies. One example is the absurd comparison of a deported criminal illegal immigrant who was an MS-13 gang member accused of domestic violence to Alfred Dreyfus, the innocent victim of an antisemitic conspiracy in 1894 in France, as The Forward did this week in another unhinged article.

Trump’s opponents did the same in 2020 when the Jewish Democratic Council produced a video comparing the Republicans to the Nazis that was shamefully endorsed by historian Deborah Lipstadt and former Anti-Defamation League leader Abe Foxman, who were competing for the post of Biden’s antisemitism envoy, a State Department position. Lipstadt, who won that competition, recently confessed that, in contrast to Trump’s willingness to take action against Jew-hatred, the Biden administration failed to do so while not explaining why she was silent about that when speaking up would have mattered.

That Trump, who has been the most pro-Israel president since the founding of the modern-day State of Israel, as well as the most active and effective opponent of antisemitism ever to sit in the Oval Office, should be compared to Hitler is not merely egregious but a reflection of something truly sick in contemporary political discourse.

The real scandal here is not the offense given to Trump, who can take abuse as well as dish it out with the best of them. Nor is it the blithe obtuseness to public sentiment outside of the bubble of liberal elite opinion that his opponents demonstrate by resorting to such calumnies. The problem is that we’ve gotten to the point where there is simply no penalty in the public square for engaging in Holocaust analogies that ought to be beneath contempt and out of bounds for even the bitterest political dispute.

Expecting good taste from Larry David may be as ridiculous as anything his semi-autobiographical character on his “Curb Your Enthusiasm” show did. But the fact that a publication that still claims to be the “newspaper of record” for the nation, no matter how outdated that title might be, would publish and highlight a piece comparing the president to Hitler tells us something important. It shows that despite the lip service they give it, the chattering classes and the liberal establishment care nothing about the Holocaust or its lessons. The same is true for Gore, the editors of The Forward and so many other partisans who have succumbed to the same temptation over the last decade as they struggled in vain to contain their loathing for Trump.

Silent about Hitler’s heirs
For them, the memory of the Six Million, including 1.5 million children, and the eliminationist campaign of the Nazis isn’t sacred in of itself. Nor does it seem to be a reminder of their duty to demonstrate solidarity with the efforts to thwart those who seek the genocide of the Jews today by Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorists who aren’t so much analogous to Hitler and his supporters as they are the 21st-century successors to his ideological campaign to exterminate the Jewish people. Clearly, for Trump-haters, the Shoah is just a political cudgel to be wielded against opponents as they adhere to the absurd solipsistic belief that anyone they don’t like is Hitler.

It also ill behooves those on the left, including Jews, who have been largely publicly indifferent to the war on Israel being waged by the genocidal Islamists of Hamas and other Iranian terror proxies, as well as the surge of antisemitism that was unleashed after the Palestinian attacks and atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, to be throwing around Holocaust analogies.

Discussions of the Holocaust should remain separate from partisan battles. Those who wish to speak of it—no matter whether they are Jewish or non-Jewish, Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal—should understand that the most important way to honor the legacy of the Holocaust is to stand in solidarity with Israel. The Jewish state is its only true memorial and the guarantee that powerlessness will never again permit the mass murder of millions of Jews. By contrast, nothing degrades the memory of what the Nazis did more than to invoke this tragic history in order to virtue-signal distaste for a political opponent like Trump.


Harvard, do you hear yourself?
Earlier this month, the federal government withheld billions in funding from Harvard. Last week, the IRS considered whether the school should even keep its tax-exempt status.

Harvard’s response? They’ve labeled these moves as somehow “unlawful.” But they can’t explain how, because they’re wrong.

First, as it relates to funding, no institution is simply entitled to billions of taxpayer dollars. The federal government has the absolute right to attach conditions to the programs it pays for, especially when it comes to compliance with applicable civil rights laws.

Contrary to what Harvard’s leadership may believe, this isn’t a First Amendment issue. The government is not suppressing free speech but exercising its own speech. And the Supreme Court has been crystal clear about this.

In Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans (2015), for example, the court explained that “when government speaks, it is not barred by the Free Speech Clause from determining the content of what it says.” In fact, the court has persistently refused “to hold that the government unconstitutionally discriminates on the basis of viewpoint when it chooses to fund a program dedicated to advance certain permissible goals, because the program in advancing those goals necessarily discourages alternative goals.”

In short, there is no First Amendment issue here because the government is not telling Harvard what to do: Harvard is free to keep on discriminating to its own heart’s content — just not on the government’s dime.

Second, the IRS has full authority to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, and it is not a close call.

Over 40 years ago, the Supreme Court in Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) ruled that the IRS could (and should) revoke a university’s tax-exempt status because its racially discriminatory practices violated public policy. In fact, in some ways, this case is even easier, because not only is discriminatory antisemitism in this context against public policy, it is also actually unlawful under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

The fight against antisemitism has never been about Jewish exceptionalism, but rather Jewish equality, and while some talking heads might laugh at the idea of taking anti-Jewish hate just as seriously as other forms of discrimination, thankfully, the government is not laughing.


Yale Derecognizes Students for Justice in Palestine Chapter After Group Blocks Jewish Students' Access to Parts of Campus
A Yale administrator began handing out cards to protesters around 10:00 p.m., notifying them that they were "in violation of Yale University policies regarding free expression, peaceable assembly, and/or disruption." The notice went on, "Please stop your current action immediately. If you do not, you may risk university disciplinary action and/or arrest."

Yale issued an 11:00 p.m. deadline for the students to dismantle the encampment, but the organizers didn’t announce its dissolution until around 11:30 p.m., citing threats of "retribution" from the administration.

A university spokesman said Wednesday that at least some students present will face discipline, including possible suspension or expulsion.

"During the interaction, staff identified students who had been warned or disciplined in previous incidents that violated university policy. Those students have received written notice today that they are subject to immediate disciplinary action," the spokesman said. "Those who violate the university’s policies and instructions … regarding use of outdoor spaces face law enforcement and disciplinary action, including reprimand, probation, suspension, or expulsion."

Soon after, Yale stripped Yalies4Palestine's status. It’s unclear how the revocation or threats of discipline will affect the group's planned protest against Ben-Gvir’s Wednesday evening visit.

"Let us recognize what we’ve done in a moment of severe repression. We have shown this university that we are not afraid to escalate! And we will escalate for Gaza until liberation is won," Yale SJP and Yale Palestine Actions wrote on Instagram Wednesday morning. "We are now rested. Are now energized. And we are and have always been powerful. Today we call for all students and all people to rally, to shout, and to proclaim: Ben-Gvir out of Yale! Ben-Gvir out of the US! Ben-Gvir out of Palestine."

"This is only the beginning. The popular university for Gaza will not stop until Palestine is free," the groups concluded. "Intifada until victory!"

The encampment and planned protest comes as the Trump administration ramps up its efforts to combat anti-Semitism in higher education. Unlike other Ivy League institutions, Yale has not had any federal funds frozen. Columbia and Harvard, meanwhile, have seen $430 million and over $2 billion paused, respectively.

Yale did not respond to a request for comment on whether the students involved would face discipline.

Other anti-Israel groups organizing Wednesday evening’s protest include the Connecticut chapters of American Muslims for Palestine, a prominent Hamas-linked advocacy group accused of serving as the terrorist group’s "propaganda arm," the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and Democratic Socialists of America, among others.

Yale Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine also endorsed the protest on its Instagram story on Tuesday.

McInnis took the reins at Yale in July after leading Stony Brook University since 2020. In April 2024, McInnis sent in the police less than 48 hours after Stony Brook students formed an encampment, resulting in 29 arrests.

Last month, Yale Law School fired Helyeh Doutaghi, a research scholar and member of Samidoun, an organization sanctioned by the U.S. government for acting as a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a foreign-designated terrorist organization. Her contract was terminated after refusing to cooperate with the university’s investigation.


Columbia Radicals Ditch Reported Encampment Plans After University Threatens Arrests
On Tuesday night, Columbia students planned two encampments at a secret meeting in a Brooklyn community center—one beginning Thursday at 1 p.m. and a second that would launch Friday. The first failed to materialize after the university threatened disciplinary actions—and possibly arrest—if they moved forward with their plan to launch the encampments.

"We have been made aware of possible plans to establish encampments on Columbia’s campuses. We want to clearly communicate that camping and encampments on Columbia’s campuses are prohibited by University Policy," Columbia’s public safety department announced in a university-wide email Wednesday evening.

"Participants will be instructed to disperse," the email continued. "Individuals who refuse to disperse will be identified and sanctions, including potential removal from campus and possible arrest, may be applied."

The Columbia agitators’ decision to back down Thursday allowed Claire Shipman, Columbia’s new acting president who promised to enforce policies restricting unsanctioned and disruptive protests, to avoid having to make good on her administration’s threat. But she could face a serious test if the radicals move forward with an encampment on Friday. Organizers plan to establish it on the Manhattanville campus, which, unlike the main campus, is publicly accessible, and aim to stay indefinitely, according to NBC News.

Nearly a year ago, anti-Israel agitators first set up tents, terrorizing Columbia’s campus for two weeks and culminating in the violent takeover of Hamilton Hall. It took the university nearly a year to punish the students involved with multi-year suspensions, expulsions, and temporary degree revocations.

Last year’s encampments also provided the Trump administration with significant ammo in its decision to freeze over $430 million in Columbia’s federal funding and place demands on the university to curb campus anti-Semitism.

Asked what measures the school is taking to prevent students from setting up encampments, a Columbia spokeswoman pointed the Free Beacon to a Wednesday statement.

"Our focus is on protecting the safety of our community and ensuring that the University is able to proceed normally with all academic activities. We are closely monitoring, as always, for any disruptions, and campus activities are currently proceeding as usual," the statement read. "Encampments are prohibited under University Policies and participating in an encampment may also trigger University Rules violations. Any violations of University Policies and Rules will be addressed immediately according to our procedures."

A "March from City College to Columbia" is also planned for Friday afternoon. "As a fascist Trump/Elon regime cuts our universities’ funding, sends ICE on students, and threatens free speech, our universities must make a choice: stand with fascism or stand with us," a flyer for the protest reads.


Jonathan Dimbleby claims communal leaders making antisemitism worse by failing to criticise Israel
Former BBC presenter Jonathan Dimbleby has accused Jewish communal leaders of making antisemitism worse through a failure to criticise the Israeli government.

In observations likely to spark criticism, the former current affairs presenter said he “mutually agreed” to walk away from a recent speaking engagement at a Jewish event to mark a Belsen Nazi concentration camp anniversary after the organiser objected to him also wanting to make the “distinction between antisemitism and anti-Netanyahuism”.

The celebrated historian – whose war correspondent father Richard had entered Bergen-Belsen with the British liberators in April 1945 -was speaking to Roger Bolton’s Beeb Watch podcast about the rise of populism and parallels between current political trends and historical threats.

Dimbleby, 80, told the latest episode of the podcast of his desire to use the enagement in front of a Jewish audience to make his point on Israel, despite a request for the organisers to offer his thoughts on the notorious camp.

Explaining himself Dimbleby said:”I thought it would be very useful if more of the Jewish community leaders in the Jewish community here made that distinction—not only because, but partially because—one of the consequences of not being critical of the government of Israel today is that it exacerbates that antisemitism, which is so horrific, because it allows antisemites to say, ‘Oh, well, they all—none of them care about the Palestinians. They all want to—they all want to slaughter Palestinians.’

“And that is really dangerous.”

Liberated prisoners interact with the British soldiers on the site of the newly liberated Bergen Belsen Camp. April/May 1945. Pic: The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections

The former BBC current affairs presenter Dimbleby revealed:”“Very recently, I was invited to address a meeting of Jews to mark—associated with—Belsen.

“And I talked to the organiser and said—we talked about how many people likely there, what sort of people, etc.—and it was going to be a Jewish audience. And I said, “I’ll gladly do so, but I want to say something at the end of it.” I wanted to say that it was important to me that distinction between antisemitism and anti-Netanyahuism, if I can put it like that, was made, because they are distinct. ”

But he told the latest episode of Beeb Watch’ podcast that the request did not meet with the approval of the event organiser.

“So I said I wanted to say that, and the organiser said, very courteously—we had a perfectly courteous conversation—’I don’t think that would be quite appropriate for this session’,” revealed Dimbleby.
Setting the Stage for Hate: Kneecap and Coachella’s Collapse of Conscience
What does accountability look like when a $600 ticket buys you fear instead of joy, hostility instead of unity? What is the responsibility of an organizer when they provide a platform to groups that violate the very principles music is meant to uplift?

Tollett doesn’t get to hide behind silence. Neither does Goldenvoice, nor AEG. And neither does the music industry. As a Jewish executive who has spent my lifetime in this business. I’ve celebrated its power to uplift, to inspire, to unite. But I watched this moment in stunned disbelief. And I have heard the silence of those responsible.

I think every link in the chain failed. From the booking agents to the stage managers, from the brand partners to the artist liaisons. Each had a chance to say this isn’t right. And no one did. The result? Coachella became a vehicle not for joy, but for intimidation. Not for healing, but for harm. It didn’t have to happen.

We pride ourselves on being cultural leaders. Let’s focus on building bridges not burning them. So now the question is: What will we do about it? Will Tollett address the uproar? Will Goldenvoice apologize — not just with corporate platitudes, but with meaningful action? Visiting the Nova Exhibition as Tollett did doesn’t absolve him of responsibility. If anything, the fact that he had a window into the horrors those festival-goers endured makes his decision to turn a blind eye to this all the more disappointing. Will the industry stand up and draw a line between freedom of expression and platforms of hate?

We’ll see. But know this: the silence of those responsible in our industry is no longer ignorance. It’s complicity. And I for one won’t forget.


Kneecap shares tweet accusing Israel of ‘owning politicians’ and ‘controlling corporate media’
Irish rap group Kneecap has shared a social media post claiming that Israel “owns politicians” and “controls corporate media,” after facing widespread criticism for its anti-Israel messaging during a performance at the Coachella music festival.

The band’s official X profile shared a post from another account saying: “What happened at Coachella is Israel's worst nightmare.

"They're learning that no matter how many politicians they own? [sic] And how much corporate media they control? [sic] They can't wipe out the truth any more. Those days are over.”

The group seemingly endorse the statement, adding the caption “this” with an emoji pointing at the quoted tweet.

The Belfast-based hip-hop trio, known for its vehement Irish republicanism and pro-Palestinian advocacy, has gained prominence in recent years, in part for their heavily politicised lyrics. They were interviewed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for his Peace and Justice Project in 2023 and starred in a biopic about the band last year.

However, the group has also generated controversy for its members comments, particularly around Israel. It drew international attention after projecting the slogan “f*** Israel, free Palestine” above its set at the popular Coachella festival this month.

Members of the group have also accused Israel of genocide, waved the Hezbollah flag on stage and posed for a photo with a book written by the group’s late leader Hassan Nasrallah.

It comes after the Metropolitan Police confirmed that it had referred the group to its Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit. The referral is understood to relate to a video allegedly showing one of the members of the trio shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” during a performance in London last year and not related to the tweet.


Israeli demolitions put end to PA-backed illegal construction in Judea nature reserve
Israeli enforcement authorities tore down additional illegal Palestinian Authority structures in a protected nature reserve in the eastern Gush Etzion region of Judea, the Israel Hayom daily reported on Thursday.

Two buildings were razed on Thursday morning as part of a third wave of demolitions, according to the Hebrew-language newspaper, which noted that an Israeli demolition ban had been in place until a year ago.

At the orders of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry with responsibility for civilian matters in Judea and Samaria, enforcement is expected to commence soon on the southern side of the nature reserve, it said.

“We are determined to put an end to the illegal takeover,” Smotrich said in remarks cited by Israel Hayom, in a reference to Palestinian Authority plans to create a de facto Arab state by seizing large swaths of territory.

The Israel Hayom report noted that there has been a complete freeze in P.A.-backed illegal construction in the nature reserve.

On Dec. 12, Israel’s Civil Administration demolished the first illegal structures, marking the first significant enforcement operation in Area B of Judea and Samaria since the signing of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.

The action came as a result of a Cabinet decision prompted by recent exposés of unauthorized Palestinian construction in the Judean Desert.
130 Gazans leave for Europe, South America
Some 130 Palestinians left the Gaza Strip on Wednesday through Ramon Airport in southern Israel.

Around 110 Gazans flew to France, while the remainder will settle in Bosnia and Chile, according to Channel 12 News, which cited Israeli officials.

On April 1, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel visited Ramon Airport to inspect “the voluntary departure process” of Palestinians from Gaza.

“Dozens of Gazans were flown to Leipzig, Germany, on a designated flight accompanied by German diplomats today,” said the Population and Immigration Authority, part of the Interior Ministry, also on April 1.

“Since the beginning of the initiative, hundreds of Gazans have been flown to a third country, most of them to Germany, Romania and the United Arab Emirates,” the government body stated at the time.

The Security Cabinet on March 22 approved Defense Minister Israel Katz’s proposal to establish a directorate within the ministry to facilitate the voluntary emigration of residents from the Strip.

Katz stressed that the initiative aligns with the vision of U.S. President Donald Trump, who is seeking to turn the 25 miles of Gaza’s coastline into a real estate development and relocate some 2.2 million residents.

“We are working with all means to implement the U.S. president’s vision, and we will allow any Gaza resident who wants to move to a third state to do so,” stated Katz last month.

A survey published in the British Telegraph last month revealed that 52% of Palestinians from Gaza, or more than 1.1 million people, would leave the Strip either temporarily or permanently if given the opportunity.


Lebanese Anger toward Hizbullah Is Rising
In the 148 days since a ceasefire was reached on the northern front, the IDF has eliminated 140 Hizbullah operatives - an average of nearly one a day.

Israel's policy is clear: any attempt by Hizbullah to strengthen itself will be thwarted.

Hizbullah is attempting to rebuild its command and control structure, including reorganizing its headquarters, regional commands, brigade commanders, and field officers.

This is a preliminary step toward rebuilding its military capabilities, including the Radwan Unit, a force intended to capture Israeli communities, which emerged from the war battered and weakened.

The IDF is not only monitoring these developments but is actively working to prevent them from becoming renewed threats.

"We must act constantly to prevent the monster from resurfacing," said a senior military official.

He added, "There are significant areas where the Lebanese army is enforcing measures against Hizbullah far more than we expected before the ceasefire, but we always want more."

The atmosphere in Lebanon is no longer the same. Recent Israeli strikes have sparked angry reactions in Lebanon - against Hizbullah.

Local bloggers and journalists have accused Hizbullah of dragging the country into unnecessary conflicts.
Red line crossed: Lebanon slams Iran envoy hurt in pager attack over Hezbollah ties
The new Lebanese government is outraged at the Iranian ambassador, accusing him of crossing a red line. On Tuesday morning, the London-based Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji will summon Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani for a meeting after a controversial post he published four days ago on the social media platform X.

Ambassador Amani was injured during the exploding pager operation against Hezbollah in September 2024. He lost one eye, sustained injuries to the other, and was flown to Iran for medical treatment. He resumed his post in Beirut in December.

On Friday, Amani commented on Lebanon's calls for Hezbollah to disarm, writing: "The project of disarmament is a clear conspiracy against nations. While the U.S. supplies the Zionist enemy with the most advanced weapons and missiles, it prevents other nations from arming themselves and strengthening their armies, pressuring them to reduce or destroy their stockpiles under various pretexts."

Amani also wrote that: "When countries succumb to demands for disarmament, they become vulnerable to attacks and occupation, as seen in Iraq, Libya and Syria. In Iran, we are aware of this conspiracy and its threat to the security of the region's peoples. We warn others not to fall into the trap of the enemies. Maintaining deterrence is the first line of defense for sovereignty and independence, and it must not be compromised."

The post was poorly received by Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Rajji. According to Asharq Al-Awsat, sources in the Lebanese Foreign Ministry indicated that Rajji decided to summon Amani over his remarks. Amani is expected to meet with officials at the ministry within the next two days. The sources added that Amani will be informed of Lebanon's official stance, which rejects his comments and views them as "direct interference in Lebanon's affairs."

Rajji addressed the issue of weapons in Lebanon during a press conference in Cairo alongside Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel-Atty. "The restriction of weapons in Lebanon is a demand of the state and the Lebanese people, not merely an international demand," he said.


Erasing history: How Holocaust denial and distortion is fueling antisemitism
On the eve of Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) in Israel, we must renew our commitment to historical truth as the world grows dangerously comfortable with forgetting.

We are commemorating this somber day amid levels of antisemitism unprecedented in the post-Holocaust era. New data from the Anti-Defamation League’s Global 100 survey, the most comprehensive global assessment of antisemitic attitudes ever conducted, reveals troubling layers of ignorance and trivialization surrounding the Holocaust — alongside an unsettling connection between misconceptions about this historical tragedy and today’s antisemitism.

A boy jumps across the stelae at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews Of Europe in Berlin, Germany. John Hicks/Getty Images

ADL’s Global 100 survey, encompassing responses from countries representing 94% of the global adult population, found that less than half of respondents — just 48% — acknowledge the historical reality of the Holocaust. Moreover, we found a clear connection between Holocaust awareness and antisemitism: People who accept the historical truth about the Holocaust are much less likely to harbor antisemitic beliefs. Only 31% of those who accurately recognize what happened during the Holocaust hold antisemitic views.

In Europe, where the largest number of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, awareness of this historical atrocity remains high, with 97% of European Union residents acknowledging the Shoah. At the same time, knowing about the Holocaust hasn’t stopped Europeans from denying or downplaying it — and those who do are far more likely to hold antisemitic beliefs.

The numbers tell a disturbing story. For instance, while only 9% of EU residents and 4% of Britons believe the Holocaust has been exaggerated, a higher percentage of those respondents hold antisemitic views (59% and 65%, respectively) than among individuals who don’t think the Holocaust has been exaggerated. This pattern is especially evident in Poland, the country where the highest numbers of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. There, among the 14% of respondents who indicated that they believe the Holocaust has been exaggerated, a staggering 76% express strong antisemitic attitudes. Compare that figure with the percentage of respondents who acknowledge the historical reality of the Holocaust and express strong antisemitic attitudes: 39%.

To put it simply, these numbers suggest that downplaying the Holocaust opens the door to wider antisemitism, even in the very countries where the genocide happened.
Who Betrayed Anne Frank? We May Now Learn the Answer
Think of the Holocaust in the Netherlands and a single image likely comes to mind: a smiling teenage girl, her dark hair tucked behind her ear, her eyes expressive. Published in more than 70 languages, Anne Frank’s chronicle of the two-plus years she and seven others spent hiding in the back rooms of an Amsterdam building, sustained by non-Jewish friends, is a global phenomenon. Thanks in large part to Anne’s story and iconic status, there is a general perception that the Dutch were a nation of resisters who protected their Jewish neighbors.

The truth is more disturbing. Anne was among more than 100,000 Dutch Jews murdered by the Nazis, who exterminated around 75 percent of the prewar population—the highest rate anywhere in Western Europe. (For a comparison: 25 percent of French Jews and 42 percent of Belgian Jews were murdered.) Explanations for how this happened range from the geography of the Netherlands—a low-lying country bordered by Germany that lacks mountainous or heavily forested regions where people could have hidden—to the Dutch culture of obedience and faith in bureaucracy: When the Nazis told Jews to register with the authorities in 1941, they largely did, supplying their persecutors with a ready-made list of names and addresses.

But what if the behavior of the Dutch themselves was a significant contributor to the low survival rate of their Jewish compatriots? The unveiling in January of a newly digitized postwar Dutch archive, which makes public for the first time the names of people investigated for collaboration with the Nazis, offers an opportunity to answer that question. It has also generated enormous controversy in a country that in many ways has failed to fully examine its complicity in the genocide of its Jewish community, preferring a national mythology that stresses tolerance and resistance. With evidence to the contrary now a keystroke away—not to mention a recent surge in antisemitism that manifested in a shocking attack on Israeli tourists last November—the long-delayed reckoning may be at hand.

Comprising 32 million pages of files on more than 425,000 Dutch people who were investigated by a special court set up after World War II, the Central Archives of the Special Jurisdiction (known by its Dutch acronym, CABR) has been kept under restricted access for around 75 years. Several years ago, the Dutch government announced that the complete archive would be digitized and available to the public starting on January 1, 2025.

Many historians believe that the archive’s digitization is an essential step in bringing the Netherlands in line with the standards set by other European countries for maintaining and preserving wartime archives. “The archive holds a tremendous load of information on this era. It can and will bring out lots of stories and insights on the complexity of the history,” Gertjan Broek, a researcher at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, wrote via email.

In prior decades, researchers who wished to use the archive had to travel to The Hague and snag one of the limited seats available at the archive reading room; no photocopying or scanning was permitted. Until recently, they also had to prove that their subject was dead. And the only way to search the paper archive is by the name of a person accused of collaboration.
1,250 Jewish gravestones in Belarus returned to their original sites after 80 years
More than 1200 remnant gravestones from the destroyed Jewish cemetery in Brest-Litovsk (Belarus) are finally being returned to their rightful place today. After decades in storage, the sacred stones will become the centre-piece of a powerful new memorial, as reported by Jewish News, now under construction on the original cemetery territory.

The site was established as a cemetery in 1835. By 1941, more than 35,000 Jews were buried there.

Between 1941 and 1944, the Jewish community was decimated by the Nazis and their collaborators. The cemetery was desecrated, the headstones were repurposed, and in the 1970s, a portion of the sacred ground was paved over for the Lokomotiv Sports Stadium.

Since its destruction, the site was never marked or acknowledged as a Jewish cemetery—even though the bodies remained. For decades, without a single standing gravestone, the burial ground faced the threat of being forgotten entirely.

The memorial, designed by USA artist Brad J. Goldberg, will honour the Jews buried on the land and the countless others who perished in the Holocaust. Each surviving gravestone, discovered by the townspeople of Brest over the years, will now stand as a silent witness to a vibrant community lost and a reminder of resilience and remembrance.

An official opening ceremony is being planned by city authorities for 28th July, marking both the liberation of Brest in 1944 and the day, 60 years ago, when Soviet authorities sanctioned the construction of a running track over the cemetery.

The project has been made possible through the collaborative efforts of The Together Plan (UK), its US-based partner Jewish Tapestry Project, and the Jewish Religious Union of Belarus.

To finish the memorial, a final fundraising campaign is underway and The Together Plan is calling on supporters around the world to take part in a global walkathon—inviting people everywhere to literally “take steps” toward completing this vital project.
Record number of antisemitic incidents recorded in Holland
Dutch Jews on Thursday said they had documented 421 antisemitic incidents last year, a record tally that surpassed by 11% the previous all-time high, reported in 2023.

The data reflect “an antisemitism crisis, which requires crisis management measures,” wrote the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, the Jewish community watchdog that published the report.

The Dutch government’s National Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism, Eddo Verdoner, called the reality reflected in the data “shameful,” but added that antisemitism is becoming more openly tolerated because perpetrators are no longer ashamed.

“I hear heartbreaking stories from children, students and adults who are harassed and mocked because of their Jewish identity. They hide a Star of David necklace, don’t dare to wear a kippah, or conceal their Jewish background out of fear,” Verdoner wrote in reaction to the CIDI report.

Several violent incidents included in the annual report happened on Nov. 7-8, 2024.

On those dates, hundreds of Muslim men participated in a series of attacks on Israelis who were in Amsterdam for a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and a local team. In coordinating the attacks on instant messaging platforms and online, several perpetrators referred to the action as a “Jew hunt” and used antisemitic rhetoric.

Europe’s largest coordinated pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust, the incident shocked Dutch Jews and others.

The assaults underlined for many both the level of hostility toward Jews within Muslim immigrant populations, and perpetrators’ ability to use technology to coordinate attacks in real time while bypassing authorities.

“The most dramatic increases were seen in public spaces, where antisemitic incidents surged by 45%,” CIDI said in a statement about its report, published on Israel’s national Holocaust commemoration day. “Visibly Jewish individuals were increasingly subjected to verbal abuse, threats and harassment,” according to the report.

Vandalism targeting Jewish property rose by 44%, including the tearing down of mezuzahs from doorposts and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and memorials. Meanwhile, some Jewish students are reportedly avoiding university lectures out of fear of hostility.
Teenager in France sentenced to 16 months in prison for attacking rabbi
A teenager who attacked a rabbi in a central French city was sentenced to 16 months in prison by the juvenile court on Wednesday, after a long day of hearings in which he denied responsibility.

The attack took place last month as Rabbi Arie Engelberg was walking with his nine-year-old son from a synagogue in Orleans, about 110 kilometers (about 70 miles) south of Paris.

After the teenager was arrested, he told investigators that he was Palestinian, but later said during a hearing that he was Moroccan and 16 years old.

According to his lawyer, the teenager arrived less than a year ago in France, where he has no family.

On Wednesday, he was given a 12-month sentence for the attack, as well as additional time in prison for other cases, including refusing to undergo police testing while in custody and possession of illegal narcotics after being found with two grams of cannabis resin.

He was ordered to remain in detention, Orleans public prosecutor Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren told AFP, adding that the teenager was also banned for five years from the Loiret district where the assault occurred.


JPost Editorial: Remembering all those taken from us, by the Nazis and by Hamas
On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, as we recite the names of those lost to Nazi genocide, we also remember the names of those taken from us – not nearly as long ago, but already far too long ago.

Their memories intertwine to strengthen our resolve, even as we struggle through tears to say their names. Israel exists precisely because history has taught us the cost of defenselessness.

Our national day of mourning reminds us why Israel must remain strong, not just for ourselves, but as guardians of a promise made to past generations and kept for future ones. “Never Again” means securing our homeland against those who still pursue the unthinkable.

This is not only in the Land of Israel, but worldwide. Following the October 7 attack, the gigantic waves of antisemitism have been a regular flow, pouring over and drowning Jewish communities worldwide, who are feeling cornered, defeated, and alone. And here, again, they are targeted simply because they are Jews.

During the Holocaust, the world was indifferent to the mass suffering of the Jewish people. While Jews were being burned by the millions and persecuted beyond all measure, the world turned a blind eye, and it was only after the release of the Jews as a victorious act of war that the world recognized that the Jewish people were victims and that justice leaned towards our people.

But now, despite surviving the worst pogrom since the Holocaust, the world is not seeing that same image. How can we, as a country, attempt to recover from old scars when the new injuries that have marred the skin above them continue to fester and bleed?

On Wednesday night, as we lit memorial candles in our own homes – we watched our children’s faces illuminated in its glow and thought of all we have lost, but also all we must protect.

This flame connects us to our past and guides us toward our future. Through our grief, we find strength. Through our memories, we find purpose. This is our covenant with history, written not in ink but in tears and determination, and we shall honor it with every breath we take.
Torchlighters on Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2025 - 80 Years since the Defeat of Nazi Germany
Six Holocaust survivors lit torches at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, April 23, at the Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony in memory of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. Here are their stories:
Monika Barzel was born in 1937 in Berlin. Her mother, Edith, a surgical nurse, had to work long hours at the Jewish hospital in Berlin to support the family. In 1942 her grandmother, Gertrud, was deported to Theresienstadt, where she was murdered. Monika went to live with her mother at the hospital, along with the children of four other doctors. In 1943, the Gestapo ordered the director of the Jewish hospital to downsize. He was forced to choose 300 people, who were then deported to Auschwitz. Monika boarded the train, but was later told to get off. When the Red Army liberated the hospital, hundreds of Jews were still alive there. Monika completed dentistry studies in London and immigrated to Israel in 1963.
Arie Durst was born in 1933 in Lwow, Poland (today Ukraine). In 1941 Nazi Germany occupied Lwow. During the Nazi roundups of Jews, Arie and his mother would hide in the potato and coal cellar in the home of Kasia, a non-Jewish woman who had previously been Arie's nanny. After Arie's brother Marian was taken and murdered, Arie's mother Salomea obtained forged papers for herself and Arie and moved to Warsaw and assumed the identity of Polish Catholics. In 1944 they were caught by the Germans and deported to the Pruszkow labor camp but escaped from the moving train.


Arie's father had survived the war in a Polish army unit in the Soviet Union and had reached Tel Aviv. He obtained entry permits for his wife and son, and the family was reunited in 1945. Arie became a doctor and was awarded a citation by the IDF for performing an impromptu operation under fire. He established Israel's first transplant unit and was Head of Surgery at Hadassah Hospital. Gad Fartouk was born in 1931 in Nabeul, Tunisia. In 1942, Nazi Germany occupied Tunisia. After the family's money ran out in bribes to Germans conducting manhunts, "We were hungry and skinny, and looked everywhere for food....We would go to the field next to the house and gather mallow, which became our staple diet. We scavenged for food in the bakery's garbage bins." After the war, Gad immigrated to Israel in 1948 and enlisted in the Palmach.

Rachel Katz was born in 1937 in Antwerp, Belgium. The Germans occupied Belgium in 1940. Her father, Benjamin, was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was murdered in 1942. Her mother and three siblings moved from one hiding place to another. Maria Lubben, a neighbor, moved the family into her own home, and later, she found a hiding place for Rachel and two of her siblings in a convent near Antwerp. Lubben was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. Later the children returned to Antwerp and lived in hiding with their mother under assumed identities with the assistance of the Belgian underground until Belgium was liberated in 1944. Rachel immigrated to Israel in 1957 and today serves as the chairperson of the YESH Holocaust Children Survivors in Israel association. Arie Reiter was born in Vaslui, Romania, in 1929. In 1940, the antisemitic Romanian regime shut down Arie's elementary school. His father, Lazer, was sent to a Romanian forced labor camp, where he died in 1943. In 1944, Arie was sent along with dozens of other children to a labor camp where he was put to work paving a road in the forest and constructing a wooden bridge over the river. After the Red Army liberated the camp, Arie walked 80 km. back to Vaslui barefoot. Arie immigrated to Israel in 1951 and eventually became deputy director of Mizrahi bank.

Felix Sorin was born in 1932 in Mogilev, Byelorussia. When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Sorins fled eastward. In the ensuing chaos, Felix was separated from his family and was left alone in German-occupied territory. He reached Minsk, where he was incarcerated in the ghetto and witnessed the murder of Jews. He escaped, and upon arrest, passed himself off as a Russian orphan and was sent to an orphanage. Felix did not reveal his identity until the Red Army liberated the region in 1944. His father and older brother fought in the ranks of the Red Army, his mother and sister also survived, and the family was reunited. He became a researcher and lecturer at the Odessa Polytechnic, and in 1992, Felix and his family immigrated to Israel.
One in 10 Israeli Shoah survivors died in past year
Approximately 120,000 of the Holocaust survivors who made the Jewish state their home after the 1941-1945 destruction of European Jewry remain alive as of this month, the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs revealed ahead of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins on Wednesday evening.

According to the Israeli government figures, around 10% of the country’s Shoah survivors, or 13,000 people, have died since last year’s Yom Hashoah, full name: Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day in May 2024.

“In the past year, we have lost about 10% of Holocaust survivors in Israel,” Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs Ya’akov Margi stated in remarks published by his office on Tuesday.

“This places a double responsibility on all of us: first, to intensify our efforts to provide the remaining survivors with a life of dignity and comprehensive emotional and social support; and second, to act decisively to document their stories, preserve their testimonies, and pass on their legacy to future generations,” the minister added.

Approximately 32% of survivors living in the Jewish state receive some form of support from the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry, he said. The ministry supports the development and expansion of services for survivors with an annual budget of 77 million shekels ($21 million).

The statement noted that some 2,500 Shoah survivors were impacted by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel, including around 2,000 who had to be evacuated to safety from their homes.
The Last Jew to Leave the Sobibor Death Camp Alive
At the Eichmann trial, Yaakov Biskowitz presented a detailed map of the Sobibor death camp that he drew himself, which contributed significantly to exposing Nazi atrocities and assisted in archaeological excavations that uncovered gas chambers and crematoria that had remained buried and hidden underground for decades.

The camp was established in 1942, and shortly afterward, Yaakov, 15, arrived there with his parents and sister Hinda. His mother and sister were immediately sent to the gas chambers, while his father was selected to work in the camp as a carpenter and Yaakov worked with him. Yaakov witnessed how those who didn't work were shot or sent to gas chambers, and he worried about his father, who had fallen ill with typhus. "I would carry him to work every day," he recounted. "He sat in the corner, and I worked for him too."

"I did my best, but the day came when I could no longer carry him. That day, two SS men came, removed him from the barracks, and led him to the shooting pit, accompanied by beatings and shouting. They shot him in front of me. I wanted to run after him, but the workers who were with me held me back." Biskowitz remained in Sobibor for one year and four months, making him one of the few Jews who survived so long in a death camp, where the average life expectancy did not exceed two months.

The Israel Police Heritage Center has produced a virtual reality exhibit dedicated to Yaakov's work exposing the mass murder at Sobibor. Dr. Yossi Hemi from the History Department of the Heritage Center explains, "With the cessation of frequent transports to the camp, towards spring 1943, the Jews understood that the place would be closed and all its inhabitants eliminated. Then the Jewish underground members began to organize for the revolt, in which hundreds of prisoners participated." The Jewish prisoners invited the Nazis to try on new leather coats, shoes, or to inspect items they had crafted for them. Every SS man who entered was attacked with axe blows or knives. Sixteen camp staff members were eliminated. Yaakov himself stabbed one of them.

The guards eventually shot hundreds of the Jewish prisoners. Only 47 camp residents survived. During the revolt, Yaakov failed to reach the fence and was forced to flee toward the crematoria. He hid in a shooting pit until after midnight, when only guards remained in Sobibor. Under the cover of darkness, he managed to escape and became the last living Jew to leave the camp. At 17 he joined the partisans. In 1947, he boarded an immigrant ship bound for Palestine that the British intercepted and diverted to Cyprus. Two years later, he immigrated to Israel and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. In 1952, he began a long career in the Israel Police.
Israel halts for Yom Hashoah, honoring the Six Million
Israel came to a standstill on Thursday morning as a two-minute siren sounded nationwide at 10 a.m., marking Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah).

Pedestrians stood still, drivers exited vehicles and public transportation halted in a powerful display of collective memory for the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem as part of the official state commemoration. The event honored Holocaust martyrs and heroes, and was attended by top government officials, dignitaries, and Holocaust survivors.

Established in 1951, Yom Hashoah is observed annually on the 27th of Nissan. The siren tradition began in the 1960s and has become one of Israel’s most solemn national rituals, uniting the country in remembrance and reflection.

“We bow our heads in memory of the victims,” Netanyahu said during the ceremony. “Their legacy obligates us to defend our existence and ensure never again means never again.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lays a wreath at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on April 24, 2025. Photo by Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO).

Public ceremonies, educational programs, and survivor testimonies are taking place throughout the day across Israel and Jewish communities worldwide.
Survivor lights torch, prays for hostages at Yad Vashem
Holocaust survivor Gad Fartouk, 93, lit one of six memorial torches at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on Wednesday night during Israel’s official state ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Held on the eve of Yom HaShoah, the event honored the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and resonated deeply this year as the nation continues to grapple with the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre and the ongoing hostage crisis.

Before kindling the flame, Fartouk offered a heartfelt prayer: “May all the hostages come home soon. Amen.”

According to Yad Vashem, Fartouk was born in 1931 in Nabeul, Tunisia, into a close-knit, observant Jewish family. His early life reflected the peaceful coexistence between Jewish and Arab neighbors—an atmosphere shattered by the Nazi occupation in 1942. After his father was detained following Shabbat services, the family fled to Hamam-Lif, adopting false identities. His mother passed away during the war, and the family endured hunger, fear and separation until the German retreat in 1943.

Fartouk eventually immigrated to Israel in 1948, helping to establish Kibbutz Karmia, and later became a photographer in Ashkelon. With his late wife, Mona, he raised a large family—his way, he often says, of defying the Nazis.

This year’s ceremony was held under the theme: “In Their Deaths, They Commanded Us to Live: Bearing Witness, Remembering, and Rebuilding.” Fartouk was joined by five other survivors chosen to light memorial torches: Rachel Katz, Arie Reiter, Felix Sorin, Monika Barzel, and Arie Durst.

In his remarks, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said:

“From this mountain of memory, Yad Vashem, we declare: We will not forget, we will not forgive and we will not remain silent. Not in the face of Hamas, not in the face of Iran, and not in the face of those who wish us harm—whether with missiles, machetes, or lies.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the ceremony, drawing a firm connection between the Shoah and the threats facing Israel today:

“Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were defenseless. Today, we are no longer helpless. The State of Israel is strong, the IDF is strong, and we will do whatever is necessary to return our hostages and defeat our enemies.”


IDF PodCast: Holocaust Survivors Who Became Heroes
In this episode of Mission Brief, Sergeant First Class in the reserves D sits down with Shani farhi (lourie), Head of pedagogy section in the International Institute for Holocaust Education to talk about “Netzer Aharon”- The holocaust survivors who were the last descendants of their family. They fought for the establishment of the state of Israel.

These were men and women who emerged from the horrors of the Holocaust and went on to fight for the survival of a newly established Jewish state. Their stories are not only a testament to survival, but to the power of rebuilding, defending, and believing in something greater.

When they died, they had no family to remember them. Now they’re remembered by the nation, and we have to make sure their stories are heard.


Trump recognizes Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust
U.S. President Donald Trump asked Americans on Wednesday to observe the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust by upholding “the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution by remembering the lessons of this atrocity so that it is never repeated.”

The request came in a presidential proclamation, honoring “the blessed memories of the six million Jewish men, women, and children who were viciously slaughtered by the genocidal Nazi regime and their collaborators—one of the bleakest hours in human history,” while also recognizing victims of the Holocaust from other targeted groups.

“We once again honor every Holocaust survivor who has imparted their wisdom to younger generations,” Trump wrote. “Today and every day, we commit to preserving their stories.”

Trump recognized the “worst outbreak of antisemitism on American soil in generations” in the wake of Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent Israeli military response.

“For that reason, my administration is proudly upholding the basic truth that antisemitism has no place in a civilized society,” Trump wrote, referring to his executive order and other actions to root out antisemitism, with a focus on American college campuses.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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