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Thursday, January 15, 2026

01/15 Links Pt2: Is America still good for the Jews?; When Synagogues Burn; Missing Anne Frank; Rachel Goldberg-Polin publishing memoir on grief-filled journey after son’s abduction

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Do Jewish Organizations Have the Resources For This Battle?
Indeed that is the main lesson, and it has far-reaching implications. Within the progressive coalition, it seems the expectation is that each crop of candidates will be more vocally anti-Zionist than their predecessors.

Which is why the Jersey City case is so interesting. On the one hand, one is tempted to say that the stakes are low in Jersey City—it has a Jewish population of 6,000 compared to nearly a million in New York City. Nor does it set any sort of national cultural or media tone the way Gotham does.

But on the other hand, that is why it is worrying that the outgoing mayor feels the need to put up these guardrails. BDS’s primary purpose in the U.S. is to foment suspicion and exclusion of Jews. That the DSA and similar progressive organizers are trying to blanket the country’s city councils with anti-Zionist fanatics shows their level of dedication to the spread of anti-Semitism. Your local town’s decision to divest from Israel may have no tangible economic effect, but it isn’t intended to: The point is to spread the social and cultural effects of anti-Semitism.

This doesn’t really have much to do with Israel at all. Jews are the targets, and not just in major U.S. cities or in state governments but everywhere.

All of this has been clarifying. And it means American Jewish organizations must find the resources to join the fight on all fronts.
Stephan Daisley: Is America still good for the Jews?
Just ten or twenty years ago, the U.S. was the most philosemitic nation on Earth with the exception of Israel.

The Constitution guaranteed religious pluralism and the culture was one in which Jews flourished in every conceivable profession and civic field.

Support for Israel was firmly bipartisan. By the dawn of the 21st century, antisemitism had been all but expelled from the mainstream.

A nation founded on liberalism and Protestant ethics is one primed to feel not just sympathy but solidarity with God's chosen people.

Jews found a home in America because it was their God who built the house. The Jews cannot be written out of America's story because their tradition is its co-author.
When Synagogues Burn
You cannot claim to care about antisemitic violence while elevating people who have celebrated those who preach it.

You cannot decry burning synagogues while honoring those who helped paint targets on them.

Because when public figures tell the world that Jewish institutions are “satanic”—or decline to challenge those who do—they are not engaging in provocative rhetoric. They are creating moral permission structures. They are telling unstable, angry, or radicalized people that Jews are evil—and that evil, in their minds, deserves to be destroyed.

That is how an idea becomes an accelerant.

Candace Owens did not light the fire in Jackson. Tamika Mallory did not. Louis Farrakhan did not. But they helped make it thinkable. They helped turn Jews from neighbors into metaphysical villains. And once that transformation occurs, a synagogue is no longer seen as a house of worship—it becomes, in the imagination of a radicalized mind, a legitimate target.

This is what antisemitism looks like in 2026. Not only swastikas and slurs, but influencer-driven demonology: Jews recast as cosmic enemies whose symbols, institutions, and very existence are portrayed as corrupt, satanic, and illegitimate.

So, the question for Mayor Mamdani is not whether he condemns arson after the fact. Almost anyone who is not steeped in antisemitism can do that. The real question is whether he is willing to confront the people who helped build the narrative that made it feel justified.

Because Jews do not need more empty – after the fact – statements of concern.

They need fewer people in positions of power who flirt with, excuse, or elevate those who traffic in the language that turns synagogues into kindling and Jews into targets.


David Collier: From Slogan to Industry: The Invention of “Anti-Palestinian Racism”
In recent years the term anti-Palestinian racism (APR) has moved from activist discourse into the language of public institutions across multiple Western democracies. In the UK it has now been raised in both Houses of Parliament. In the U.S. a group of elected officials turned the phrase into a political weapon. In Canada, the Canadian government provided funding to support the creation of APR educational resources. And in Australia, the public broadcaster recently gave favourable coverage to a report claiming anti-Palestinian racism was “widespread.”

If you are not paying attention, you should be. While APR markets itself as part of serious anti-racist discourse, in reality it functions as a dangerous, antisemitic tool. APR doesn’t just try to name a prejudice. It rewires the moral rules. It turns Zionism into racism, Jewish self-definition into exclusion, and antisemitism safeguards into “censorship” – then demands institutions enforce that inversion as policy.

Once inverted framing takes hold, everything becomes distorted. Neutrality is recast as hostility. Jewish communal safety is treated as an obstacle. And the most aggressive forms of anti-Israel activism are rebranded as “anti-racist” virtue. None of this directly causes violence, but it changes the climate: what can be said, what must be tolerated, and further marginalises a Jewish community that is already under considerable threat.

And the truly scary part of all this? It was designed that way.

The pro-Corbyn network that incubated APR
Today I publish a report (available for download) that traces the origins of the term anti-Palestinian racism, and shows how it evolved from a fringe activist slogan into a deliberately weaponised framework within the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The turning point came on 4 September 2018. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party had just voted to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, along with all its examples. The NEC adoption was a major defeat for Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.

Until then, APR was largely confined to the online activist ecosystem around the Electronic Intifada, a fringe anti-Israel outlet.

Inside a key Corbyn support group there was an immediate reaction. Palestine Live was a Facebook group set to “Secret” visibility. Members included leading figures from Israel-hostile organisations, along with journalists and community organisers. The UK-founded network had an international feel, with representation from groups in North America and beyond.
Jake Wallis Simons: TE Lawrence does need a trigger warning – but not for the reason you think
Above all, however, Lawrence embodied an obsession with all things Arab, uncomfortably allied with colonialism. This was symbolised by the capture of Jerusalem in December 1917, described by Lloyd George as a “Christmas present” for the British people. General Allenby took possession of the city on foot, as a “pilgrim”, rather than on horseback in the manner of a conqueror. Lawrence, resplendent in his headdress, walked with him.

It is not so much his life as his legacy, over which he of course had no control, that must earn Lawrence our trigger warning. His twin passions of Arabism and paternalism later acquired great cultural toxicity. Consider, for example, the Foreign Office.

Not long before October 7, 2023, the UK’s Deputy Consul General in Jerusalem led a British running team at a “Palestine Marathon” event, held to protest the “apartheid wall” built to keep suicide bombers out. In photographs, diplomats posed wearing T-shirts emblazoned with maps of the region that showed no sign of Israel’s borders.

Months later, a Foreign Office adviser in the Gender and Equalities department – yes, really – signed a petition dismissing reports of rape by Hamas as “propaganda”. The following year, Britain unilaterally recognised a state of Palestine without requiring it to disavow terrorism first; and this week, the Government rejected pleas to ban Iran’s terrorist Revolutionary Guards from our shores, a craven stance that originates in the Foreign Office.

“If we must offend one side,” remarked Chamberlain in 1939, as he prepared for the appeasement of reversing Balfour’s promise, “let us offend the Jews rather than the Arabs.” It was in response to this betrayal that the Jewish revolt in Palestine began, which eventually succeeded in pushing British troops out and clearing the way for the state of Israel. Ironically enough, therefore, Zionists were indigenous anti-imperialists, the very opposite of the white colonisers with whom they are disingenuously associated today.

Perhaps it is this neocolonial disdain for the uppity Jews that fuels Israelophobia among people of breeding. Perhaps it is the old Arabism. Most of all, however, from the West Midlands to our consulate in Jerusalem, it stems from a sense that it’s always easier to offend the Jews. Appeasement, in other words. And where has that always led us?
‘Wholly inadequate’: Ryvchin lashes Labor’s hate speech bill
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin has called the Albanese government’s proposed hate speech bill “wholly inadequate” and demanded it stop Islamic hate preachers who “hide behind scripture”.

Alongside a failure to name Islamic extremism, the bill also carves out protections for those quoting religious texts, sparking fears it could empower radical preachers to use interpretations of the Quran and Hadiths – a record of the speech and actions of the Prophet Muhammad – to spread hatred.

Mr Ryvchin warned the exemption was “wholly inadequate” and “unacceptable”.

“We cannot have people using religious texts to incite violence against fellow Australians in the present day,” he told Sky News.

“It's all a question of the application of the law, how the courts choose to interpret it… but if it's done in a way that allows clerics to hide behind scripture and incite violence against other Australians, that's utterly unacceptable and defeats the purpose of the law.

“We've had a situation in this country for a considerable period of time, even before October 7, where clerics have used religious texts, not to hold them up as something outdated or something antiquated or irrelevant, but actually something that Muslims today are obligated to do and perform in pursuit of their religious duties and obligations.”

Mr Ryvchin addedd the Bondi Beach terror attack, which prompted the government to draft the 500-page document, was not a “spontaneous” act, but a “process” which required acknowledgment and effective action.

“It did not come through a spontaneous act, it did not come through mental disorder, it came through a process of indoctrination, of radicalisation and that's what we need to root out,” he said.

His warning came after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson demanded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cancel next week’s early sitting of parliament due to a lack of support for the bill, with even the Greens objecting to the legislation.

Greens leader Larissa Waters said on Thursday the minor party would “not support” the bill in its current form due to the laws potentially disrupting “legitimate peaceful protest”. Calls to remove ‘religious text defence’ from proposed hate speech bill

A majority of criticism levelled at the proposed legislation centres on its potential to impose restrictions on free speech.
Government must ‘root out’ antisemitism in society

Jewish leaders urge the Opposition to pass proposed hate speech laws
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has urged the federal Opposition to pass the government's proposed hate speech laws.

The council stated that while the opposition's criticisms are valid, the laws also have important positives, such as introducing a new listing regime to prescribe extremist hate organisations.

They argued that the defeat of the bill would be a retrograde step and that the status quo is no longer tolerable after the anti-Semitic terror attack in Bondi.

The council urged the opposition not to allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good, and to seek amendments to remove the bill's shortcomings rather than outright rejecting it.




Bondi terror attack heroes to be honoured for bravery
Members of the public who risked their lives to save others during the Bondi Beach terror attack will be awarded for their bravery.

Waverley Council has granted three people the honour during a meeting over the future of the footbridge used by the attackers.

Councillors and community members discussed whether the structure should be removed.


The hypocrites of the Adelaide Writers’ Week choked on their own rules
The martyrs of Adelaide Writers’ Week have choked on their own hypocrisy, discovering that the selective free speech rules they spent years writing also apply to them.

It comes after festival director Louise Adler resigned in support of Randa Abdel-Fattah, declaring she “could not be a party to silencing writers”.

It is curious how the gatekeepers of culture seem to have only just discovered the noble virtues of free speech.

For Adler, this new mindset is haunted by the fact she herself attempted to cancel a prominent Jewish journalist in 2024.

How awkward. How completely devastating to the notion that cancel culture is unduly targeting poor Palestinian academics.

Indeed, the supercilious bluster, drowning in cliches, that Adler spewed onto the pages of The Guardian looks almost comical now that we know she spearheaded a campaign to cancel New York Times columnist Thomas L Friedman in 2024.

“(Adelaide Writers Festival) is the canary in the coalmine. Friends and colleagues in the arts, beware of the future. They are coming for you,” she wrote just two years later.

Just as progressives came for anyone who diverged from its way of thinking for years and years.

Fast forward to 2026. Ms Abdel-Fattah was removed from the Writers' Week—not because she is Muslim, Palestinian, or critical of Israel—but because she actively encouraged spaces to be culturally unsafe for Jews (sorry, “Zionists”).

And yet, almost instantly, she has been anointed the free-speech Rosa Parks of Australian letters.

She wasn’t merely outspoken. She appeared to express support for Hamas and flirted with October 7 apologetics.

She described October 7 as a “glimmer of hope”, which was “palpable, real and exhilarating”— the intifada can be bloody, so don't be squeamish!

What a hill to die on. The defence of a woman who though the slaughter of Jews was exhilarating. So exhilarating, apparently, that she published a photo of the glimmer of hope that was murderous paragliders floating into the music festival to commit heinous acts.


Alex Hearn: Rabid Israelophobia has infiltrated the classroom
When Damien Egan, the Labour MP for Bristol North East, arranged to visit Bristol Brunel Academy in September, it should have been routine. A careers talk with students about parliamentary life. Instead, what followed was a chilling demonstration of how anti-Israel activism has become a vehicle for hate.

The visit had to be cancelled after a campaign by the National Education Union (NEU) and the Bristol branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). Their objection? Egan is Jewish, married to an Israeli, and serves as vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

And so, in a shocking move, the school moved to ban an MP simply because activists disagreed with his views. It capitulated to those who explicitly stated that Jewish MPs who support Israel are ‘not welcome in our schools’. Teachers at the school were even planning to wear keffiyehs on the day of his visit and preparing ‘work that [they] could do with students’ to prime them against their MP before he could even speak.

In a grotesque inversion, school leaders justified the ban by citing ‘safeguarding concerns’. But the real safeguarding failure belongs to the school itself, which capitulated to hate. The activists depicting Egan’s visit as dangerous weren’t engaged in principled political opposition. They were excluding and demonising a Jew.

In the worldview of these educational activists, Jewishness is acceptable only when apologetic and distanced from the world’s only Jewish state. An MP can be pro-Palestine and welcome in schools. But a Jewish MP who supports Israel’s existence? Apparently, he symbolises a ‘genocidal assault’ from which children must be protected.

The campaign against Egan was mounted by an interconnected network. There is the PSC, which has been organising near-weekly marches against Israel since it heard Israeli Jews had been slaughtered in their homes by Hamas on 7 October 2023. It has a long and active affiliation with the NEU, encouraging members to join rallies that have been characterised by anti-Jewish racism. During a rally in 2021, the NEU’s general secretary, Daniel Kebede, told the crowd to ‘globalise the intifada’.


NHS doctor is arrested by police on suspicion of expressing support for Hamas after posting on X about Gaza suicide bomber mother whose son was October 7 terrorist
A suspended NHS doctor who praised a female Palestinian suicide bomber and her October 7 terrorist son as 'martyrs' has been arrested on suspicion of expressing support for Hamas.

Footage captured the moment police officers entered the South Gloucestershire home of Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, 31, during the early hours of this morning, and told her she had been detained.

The trauma and orthopaedics doctor reacted in a shocked manner as she was told she had been arrested under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Police later confirmed her arrest pertained to online posts 'allegedly expressing support for a proscribed organisation – Hamas' during November and December 2025.

Her latest arrest marks the fourth time she has been detained since October, when she was first arrested for 'malicious communication times three and for inciting racial hatred'.

Dr Aladwan is also currently the subject of an investigation by the General Medical Council (GMC). In November she was suspended from practice for 15 months over a series of alleged anti-Semitic and pro-terrorism comments that she has posted online.

Concerns were raised about her fitness to practise after a series of posts on X in which she talked of a 'Jewish supremacy', labelled Israelis 'worse than Nazis' and allegedly showed support for Hamas and the October 7 attacks on Israel.

Others labelled Britain's chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis 'Rabbi Genocide' and claimed the wide media attention following the Manchester synagogue attack, in which two men died and others were injured, was an example of 'Jewish supremacism'.

Just hours before her latest arrest, Dr Aladwan referred to a female Palestinian suicide bomber and her son, who went on to become a terrorist killed during the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, as 'martyrs'.


Medical tribunal criticised after dismissing case against British-Palestinian doctor
In a social media statement late last week, Abu Sitta wrote “WE WON. The General Medical Council tribunal has thrown out the complaint made by UK Lawyers for Israel, accusing me of support of violence and terrorism and antisemitism.”

A spokesperson for UKLFI said: “We are very concerned that the GMC failed to give information to the tribunal about the dates of the posts, information we had provided to them. As a result of this omission the tribunal was unable to prove that the pro-Hamas tweet they were considering had been posted after the full designation of Hamas in November 2021. In fact it had been tweeted on 13 December 2022.

“We are also disappointed that the GMC only presented the tribunal with two of Dr Abu Sitta’s many re-posts, commemorating those who carried out violent acts, which UKLFI had provided to them. These showed a pattern of behaviour by Abu Sitta. The GMC also ignored other concerns about Abu Sitta.

“As a result of the GMC’s poor presentation of the case, it seems that the tribunal has made it acceptable for doctors to commemorate acts of violence and pay tribute to terrorists. This decision has failed to protect the public from this individual, and has failed to maintain public confidence in the medical profession, or to maintain proper professional standards and conduct for its members.”

However, Jewish News understands that the GMC did provide the tribunal with a full evidence bundle. This included a copy of the original referral information sent by UKLFI to the GMC, which stated, for example, that Dr Abu-Sitta had reposted the Hamas-related tweet on 13 December 2022, together with relevant information about context.

A GMC spokesperson said: “We presented the tribunal with all of the available evidential material, ensuring it had all the information needed to reach an independent decision.”

Jewish groups expressed their dismay at the tribunal decision. A Board of Deputies spokesperson said: “It will be of deep concern to British Jews that the MPTS has again cleared an individual despite the GMC arguing that their statements in relation to Palestinian extremist violence constituted misconduct. This reinforces concerns we have been raising consistently with government and shows the urgency of Lord Mann’s rapid review into antisemitism in the NHS in all parts of the UK.”

With Abu Sitta’s links to Glasgow, Scottish Jewish organisations also shared their concerns, with a Jewish Council of Scotland spokesperson saying that the MPTS’ decision in relation to Abu Sitta “underlines the Jewish community’s concerns across the UK about antisemitism within the NHS.” A Glasgow Jewish Representative Council said that Abu Sitta’s ” language and conduct as Rector of the University of Glasgow has been an ongoing cause of concern to the Jewish community in and around Glasgow: this decision of the MPTS will do little to allay these concerns.”

Legal organisations which supported Abu Sitta have said in turn that they plan to file a complaint against UKLFI with the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority.


Britain's biggest teachers' union probes claims of anti-Semitism within its ranks
Britain's biggest teaching union has brought in a top KC to investigate accusations of 'institutional antisemitism'.

The National Education Union (NEU) is using Karon Monaghan of Matrix Chambers to look into allegations of a 'hostile environment' for Jewish members.

The NEU said it is part of a wider inquiry into 'how debate of contentious issues is handled within the union' and 'the processes for member complaints'.

The probe was commissioned by Daniel Kebede, the General Secretary, in recognition that 'debate on contentious issues can often be complex'.

Launched more than a year ago, the inquiry has been kept secret until now.

The Daily Mail knows of at least one Jewish member who has been interviewed by investigators after filing a complaint about antisemitism.

The revelation comes amid a row this week over a school in Bristol cancelling a visit by a Jewish MP following pressure applied by the local NEU branch.

A number of other recent incidents within the union have been labelled 'antisemitic' by Jewish members.


Studies Conclude CBC Consistently Biased Against Israel
This week, B'nai Brith Canada released a study of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's bias against Jews and Israel across social media. While the CBC is generously funded by the government, it seems to only reflect the views of one segment of the public. The study found that 55% of CBC coverage between Oct. 2024 and April 2025 was pro-Palestinian, 38% was "balanced," and only 6% was favorable to Israel.

In addition, a study by the HR Canada Charitable Organization looked at 2,700 CBC articles published between Oct. 2023 and June 2025 and found "a consistent pattern of narrative imbalance that privileges Palestinian perspectives, while systematically minimizing or abstracting Israeli and Jewish experiences."

The study determined that CBC was 13 times more likely to describe a Palestinian as a human being - with a name, a role or lived experience. Israelis, meanwhile, were depicted as human less than 1% of the time. The HR Canada study noted that CBC coverage of Israeli civilian suffering - or the Israeli experience in general - dropped sharply after Dec. 2023 and fell to nearly zero for the remainder of the Hamas-Israel war.

If the CBC was privately owned, any anti-Israel bias would be its own business. But CBC gets $1.5 billion from us taxpayers. And it's not right or fair that it only presents the point of view of those who mainly detest the Jewish state.


Seth Frantzman: After Kurdish forces were expelled from Aleppo, Kurds fear new Syrian offensive
It is clear that there is intense concern now that the clashes in Aleppo may be a curtain-raiser for more clashes in eastern Syria.

The major concern now shifts to Dayr Hafir and a front line between the SDF and Syrian government forces that stretches along areas near the Euphrates River. The SDF had seized some of these areas when the Syrian regime fell, especially a pocket of control near Dayr Hafir. This area is near the village of Maskanah.

Pro-government Turkish media outlets are chomping at the bit for a conflict. This reflects Ankara’s views.

TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation), for instance, reported: “Syrian army sends reinforcements to eastern Aleppo amid tensions with YPG terror group.”

This is how Ankara’s media allies often refer to the SDF, calling it a terrorist group.

It is unclear if Western countries or others can get Damascus to de-escalate, or whether the battles in Aleppo will now lead to worse clashes along a long front line between the SDF and Damascus-backed forces.

Both Damascus and the SDF are backed by the US.


Missing Anne Frank
Review: The Many Lives of Anne Frank Ruth Franklin
As Franklin shows, Anne Frank’s transformation into a universal symbol erased her Jewishness. Twenty-eight years ago, she was reborn as a little boy in Spain; now, she sometimes wears a keffiyeh. The brilliant girl whose life and tragedy were determined by the fact that she was a European Jew is somehow no longer a part of the story of European Jewry. Franklin sees this—she has documented the process more exhaustively than anyone before her—and yet the more she tells us about the icon, the further away Frank feels.

The feeling of distance lies at the heart of another recent book, French-Romanian novelist Lola Lafon’s When You Listen to This Song: On Memory, Loss, and Writing. Published to acclaim in France in 2022 and now translated into English by Lauren Elkin, the book recounts the night Lafon, whose own family was devastated by the Holocaust, spent alone in the Anne Frank House in August 2021. Although she weaves in bits of her own life story, the main thread is an account of her stay, given over to fragmentary poetic reflections on Frank and her legacy. The latter, Lafon concludes, has not put the girl completely out of reach. Not yet. But only a direct encounter can break through the crust of images and the feeling of absence these images create.

However, Anne Frank turns out not to be the only, or even the primary, encounter in the book. Although their projects are very different, neither Franklin nor Lafon is entirely content to focus on this particular Jewish girl born on the edge of a historical abyss.

Franklin succeeds in making her biography fresh. That is no faint praise, considering that the documentary material is meager and Anne Frank is already the great explorer of her own inner life. Moreover, most of the traditional work of biography—tracking down sources, turning the archive into a narrative—has already been done by predecessors like Ernst Schnabel and Melissa Müller. But Franklin combines the gifts of a talented biographer (her 2016 book, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, was justly celebrated) and the broad knowledge of a serious scholar to create a well-paced, informative narrative.
Harry Olmer, Holocaust survivor and Windermere Boy, dies aged 98
Harry Olmer, a Holocaust survivor who endured years of forced labour in some of the Nazi regime’s most brutal camps before rebuilding his life in Britain and dedicating decades to Holocaust education, has died aged 98.

Born Chaim Olmer in 1927 in Sosnowiec, Poland, he was the fourth of six children. After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, antisemitic persecution intensified rapidly.

In the spring of 1940, his family fled to his grandmother’s village of Miechów-Charsznica, hoping conditions might be safer. Instead, Jewish residents were subjected to forced labour, including street cleaning, road repairs and work in German homes.

In 1942, Jews from Miechów-Charsznica and surrounding villages were expelled from their homes and held in a field for several days before a German selection. Some men and those deemed unfit for labour were shot. Women and children were deported to Bełżec extermination camp, where they were murdered on arrival. Harry, his brother and his father were among those sent to Płaszów labour camp in Kraków, where he worked on a railway line.

After a year, he was transferred to Skarżysko-Kamienna, one of the most lethal forced labour camps in occupied Poland. There, tens of thousands of Jewish prisoners were exploited in chemical factories owned by the German HASAG company. Olmer was forced to fill shells and landmines with acid – work that was both exhausting and highly toxic. Thousands died from poisoning, epidemics, starvation and exhaustion, while the SS carried out periodic selections in which weakened prisoners were shot.

In July 1944, as the Germans began their retreat, a final selection took place. Olmer was among approximately 6,000 prisoners sent onward to Buchenwald concentration camp. He was later transferred to Schlieben, a Buchenwald sub-camp attached to another HASAG factory, where he was again forced into dangerous industrial labour. In April 1945, with the Soviet Red Army advancing, surviving prisoners were sent to the Terezín ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Olmer was liberated there on 8 May 1945.

Following a period of recuperation, he arrived in Britain later that year as part of the group of child survivors known as “The Boys”, evacuated to the Lake District. Despite speaking no English on arrival, he completed his Highers in 1947, qualified as a dentist, became a British citizen in 1950, and later served in the army as a dentist. He went on to practice for decades, retiring only in 2013.
Cyclist to trace ‘Never Again’ across Poland in 1,000km Holocaust remembrance ride
A Czech endurance cyclist is setting off today at 3pm local time on a 1,000-kilometre ride across Poland to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, tracing the words “Never Again” across the route map in a powerful act of remembrance.

Lukáš Klement is beginning the journey at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp departing from the site’s Gate of Death beneath the Nazi slogan Arbeit macht frei – “Work makes one free”.

The route, which spans southern Poland, has been deliberately designed so that the completed trail spells out “Never Again”, a phrase first adopted by Holocaust survivors and now widely recognised as a warning against antisemitism, fascism and genocide.

The ride is being carried out in cooperation with Israel’s ZAKA Search and Rescue organisation and is expected to take around 50 hours to complete. Members of the public have been invited to accompany Klement for the opening kilometre as the ride gets underway.

Explaining his motivation, Klement said: “After the attack in Sydney and just before Holocaust Remembrance Day, this is my answer to the terrorists: a cross-border, cross-cultural project that connects people regardless of race, gender, or religion.”

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed each year on 27 January, marking the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945.

For Jewish communities, the phrase “Never Again” carries particular historical weight. First used by liberated prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp, it has since become central to Holocaust remembrance and the ongoing fight against antisemitism.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin publishing memoir on grief-filled journey after son’s abduction
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, who has become known worldwide for her advocacy on behalf of her son and others abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, has a memoir coming out this spring.

Random House, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced Thursday that “When We See You Again” will be published on April 21.

“I sat down to write my pain, and out poured loss, suffering, love, mourning, devotion, grief, adoration and fracturedness,” Goldberg-Polin, a Chicago-born educator who now lives in Jerusalem, said in a statement. “This book recounts the first steps of a million-mile odyssey that will take the rest of my life to walk on shattered feet.”

Goldberg-Polin will also narrate the audio edition of “When We See You Again.”

Her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was attending a southern Israel music festival when terrorists attacked. He was captured after having part of his arm blown off by a hand grenade while huddling with several others in a local bomb shelter.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin and her husband, Jon, traveled the world calling for the release of Hersh and others, meeting with US President Joe Biden and Pope Francis, speaking at the United Nations and appearing at protest rallies. Each morning, she would write down on a piece of masking tape the number of days her son had been in captivity and stick it on her chest.

She continued her efforts after Israeli officials announced in September 2024 that the bodies of her son and five others had been found in an underground tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli officials said they had been shot at close range as their Hamas captors sensed that Israeli troops were nearing. Tens of thousands crowded into a Jerusalem cemetery as Hersh was laid to rest.

According to Random House, Rachel Goldberg-Polin will tell her story in “raw, unflinching, deeply moving prose.”

“She describes grief from within the midst of suffering, giving voice to the broken as she pours her pain, love and longing onto the page,” the announcement reads in part. “It is a story of how we remember and how we persevere, of how we suffer and how we love.”




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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

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