Wednesday, April 15, 2026

04/14 Links Pt2: Who Is Holocaust Education For?; Czech FM: As the West Morally Rots, We Stand with Israel; What the Guardian should have asked Francesca Albanese

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Who Is Holocaust Education For?
Today is Yom Hashoah, which means speeches and conversations and debates about the lessons of the Holocaust. Yet we often pay much more attention to the content of those lessons than to whom the lessons are addressed. Who is listening, and who, specifically, cares? These, too, are questions that should be asked more often.

A couple of recent news stories shows us why these questions are so important in this day and age.

The Times of Israel interviews the leading publisher of Holocaust memoirs in Europe, revealing a disturbing irony of October 7: That day was the deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust, with the attacks themselves closely mimicked Holocaust-era Nazi violence, and yet the anti-Semitism unleashed in their wake has made the world less willing to talk about the Holocaust at all.

It does make a twisted kind of sense. Supporters of October 7 surely see the attacks, at least to some degree, as an extension of the campaign to extinguish world Jewry. In 1948, the failure to achieve that was termed the “nakba.” Now pro-Palestinians have appropriated the word “Holocaust” itself. Why would they recognize its unique connection to Jewry when they are clearly practicing a form of supersessionism that seeks to erase Jews from history?

As the profile of Liesbeth Heenk, the non-Jewish head of Amsterdam Publishing, notes: “Since then, the entire narrative has changed…. Sales are down since the war. Bookshops and cultural venues that once welcomed Holocaust memoir authors are increasingly saying no. Readers, Heenk suspects, are increasingly reluctant to engage with Holocaust material openly under the growing threat of antisemitic backlash.”

Heenk tracks sales and readership numbers well beyond her own company, so she is an authoritative voice on Holocaust-book statistics. Heenk also faces harassment and is under police protection just because she publishes books on the Holocaust. “It’s insane that I’m trying to help people learn from the lessons of history, and now, I’m being told, as a publisher, that I’m on the wrong side of history.”

That’s because, in the modern West, learning the right lessons from history is itself what puts one on the supposed “wrong side of history.” History, to the enemies of the Jews, is incomplete, even a failure. They want a manual, not a memoir.

And so, “People riding public transport or walking the streets do not want to be seen reading a book about the Holocaust. There’s a stigma related to everything about being Jewish, and the Holocaust, as a term, is being abused in a major way.”

So who’s still reading the books that tell us what actually happened, and which has no modern parallel? Jews, obviously, but also Germans: “I publish a lot of books in German, because they read these stories more than in the English-speaking world.”

Now, you might think that if the descendants of the victims and the perpetrators of the same crime are reading the same books about it, they probably know what they’re doing. And that’s true. Which raises the uncomfortable point of fact that Holocaust literature is for people who want to prevent another Holocaust, and such people are a dwindling portion of the marketplace in the enlightened West.
Seth Mandel: The As-A-Jew Writers Guild
The complaint is that the Jewish Book Council is too Jewy.

The whole thing is odd, because these writers are fairly successful. So I’m not sure why they would fear having to compete with Jewish writers who actually like Jews. They’re doing just fine! What these anti-Zionist Jews want is DEI for Israel-haters. They would like their disdain for their fellow Jews to earn them protected-class status. They want to be rewarded materially not for their talent but for their viewpoint, and they want those who share their opinions but lack their talent to be rewarded materially, too.

In one fell swoop, this open letter entirely debunks the notion that one must possess empathy if one is to be a successful novelist. The line about featuring Jewish Israeli writers being insulting to non-Jews in Gaza and Judea and Samaria is exceptionally daft: The organization is called the Jewish Book Council. How much anti-Judaism do you expect them to spotlight?

Complaining that the Jewish Book Council engages with too many Israelis is not the kind of thing that is meant to open a good-faith dialogue about Jewish diversity. Which is why I think at least part of this temper tantrum is geared toward de-Judaizing the culture more broadly.

The Jewish Book Council is a rare lighthouse in the storm for Diaspora Jewish creatives in the post-October 7 world. Israelis are being full-on blacklisted and Jews are being sidelined throughout the arts world, unless they are confessional as-a-Jews who use their voices to denounce their coreligionists. The writers of this open letter want that same discrimination applied to Jews by the Jewish Book Council. I would say you have to at least admire their chutzpah, but I don’t want to offend them by using Jewish terminology.
As the West Morally Rots, We Stand with Israel
Petr Macinka is deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
I am in Jerusalem because the Czech Republic still remembers what it means to be surrounded by those who want you erased from the map. When Israel was fighting the war for independence and the rest of the world looked away, we sent weapons. The situation remains the same today. When other countries speak of punishing Israel for defending itself against brutal terrorism, we stand to defend the attacked nation. When other countries stop military shipments to Israel, Czech arms exports to Israel grow.

In a world that is rapidly becoming more dangerous, a true ally is defined by what he delivers. This means we will treat Jerusalem with the dignity it deserves as the beating heart of Israel. We are two nations that refuse to be lectured by those who have never faced a real threat. We do not care about the opinions of those who have lost the ability to distinguish between an aggressor and its target. The Czech Republic stands with Israel because it is the only rational choice for a civilized nation.


Zelensky signs law criminalising antisemitism in Ukraine
Acts of antisemitism in Ukraine will now carry explicit criminal sanctions, following the passage of a new law that introduces prison terms of up to eight years for the most serious offences.

The legislation, known as Law No. 2037-IX, was signed into law on Monday by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is himself Jewish.

While previous measures defined and condemned such behaviour, the measure embeds sanctions directly into criminal law, creating a clear framework for prosecution.

Under the new law, offences including incitement to hatred, discrimination, and restriction of rights motivated by antisemitism can now result in fines of up to 1,000 Hryvnia, restrictions on liberty, or prison sentences of up to three years, with penalties increasing in severity under aggravating circumstances.

Acts involving violence, threats, deception, or abuse of official position can lead to sentences of up to five years.

And in cases involving organised groups or serious consequences, offenders may face between five and eight years in prison. The law also allows courts to bar individuals from holding certain positions.

The legal definition of antisemitism, as well as the principle that such acts must carry responsibility, was established in the country in September 2021 through the signing of the foundational law “On Preventing and Combating Antisemitism in Ukraine”, though the framework stopped short of establishing criminal penalties.

Ukraine’s relationship with antisemitism is historically complex. The country is home to centuries of Jewish life and culture, as well as sites of profound tragedy such as Babyn Yar, where tens of thousands of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.

Today, Ukraine maintains an active Jewish community and hosts annual pilgrimages to Uman, which draws tens of thousands of Chasidic Jews from around the world for Rosh Hashanah.
Stephen Pollard: What the Guardian should have asked Francesca Albanese
As for Albanese herself, we are told in the first paragraph that she is wildly popular. ‘Before we could start, the waitress wanted a photo with the Italian human rights lawyer. So did the cashier. Then the cook came out of the kitchen in his whites for a group photo. Some of the customers wanted their turn. Albanese was gracious with all comers and chatty in three languages, so the process took some time. Albanese, 49, has been getting similar rock star welcomes everywhere she goes lately.’

And no wonder. The woman is a veritable heroine. A goddess. A saviour. As the interviewer puts it: ‘Albanese’s demonisation by the Trump administration [she has been sanctioned by the US] has only enhanced her status as a popular hero to some. She is part of a small but striking resurgence of the left spurred by Gaza outrage in the west that also includes Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York and the rise of Zack Polanski and the Green party in the UK.’

But here’s the thing. At no point in the interview does it occur to the interviewer to point out to readers, let alone to quiz Albanese, why she has been sanctioned by the US. Or why governments of so many different political hues – including France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria– have sought to have her removed as a UN rapporteur. Even the UK government called last month for an ‘urgent investigation’ into Albanese over her ‘series of comments.’ But there is barely any mention at any point in the interview of just why it is that she arouses such anger in her role.

Instead we get this: ‘When I canvassed others in the international human rights field on their views of Albanese before our interview, I found great admiration for her commitment and impact, caveated in a few cases by regret that she has mixed the language of the dispassionate lawyer with the passionate rhetoric of a political campaigner.’

‘The passionate rhetoric of a political campaigner’ is one way of describing how Albanese has described not just Israel but Jews. According to the interviewer, ‘she has used her megaphone consistently over the past two years not just to condemn the Israeli government and its military, but also the constellation of western states and corporations that have abetted them.’ She has used that megaphone to make other points, too.

She used it to criticise French President Emmanuel Macron’s characterisation of the October 7 attack as the ‘largest antisemitic massacre of our century’. She tweeted in response to his words that that the victims, ‘were not killed because of their Judaism but in response to Israel’s oppression.’ The attack was, she said, a ‘reminder’ of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.

She questioned the truth of the sexual assaults and rapes committed on 7 October, 2023 and has written that ‘the Israeli lobby is clearly inside [the BBC’s] veins’ and spoken of ‘Israel’s greed’. In 2024, she retweeted a claim that the ‘Israel lobby has bought and paid for Congress.’ She has written that the US is ‘subjugated by the Jewish lobby’.

Last September, she said that ‘380,000 children under five’ were killed in Gaza – more than the entire population of children under five in Gaza. At a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on 24 March, Albanese was directly challenged on her words by the director of NGO UN Watch, Hillel Neuer. ‘On September 15, you said “380,000 children under five” were killed in Gaza. Are you aware, this is more than the entire population of children under five in Gaza? Albanese did not respond.

None of this – not a word, not a dot, not a comma – is deemed by the Guardian as worthy of bringing to readers’ attention. Which surely says all you need to know about them.


Activists seek court order on Australia-Israel defense ties
Anti-Israel activists in Australia have asked a federal court to compel the country’s defense ministry to divulge more information on defense deals with Israel, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday.

The application filed in the Federal Court asked it to “compel” the Australian Government’s Department of Defence to provide documents related to any active permits granted before Oct. 7 2023, ABC reported, quoting from the application by a group called the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ.)

ACIJ, which has accused Israel of perpetrating a “genocide” in Gaza, is headed by Rawan Arraf, whom the Sydney Criminal Lawyers news site has characterized as an “Australian Palestinian lawyer.”

The application also extends to information about “exports that are not directly supplied to Israel,” the ACIJ said in a statement. “The arms exports may include components and materials that form part of global military supply chains. Australia is known to provide sole-source components, including F-35 fighter aircraft components and material used in armoured military vehicles.”

The Defence Department declined to provide ABC with a comment on the filing, explaining it would not comment on an active legal matter.

Senator David Shoebridge, the Greens’ defence and foreign affairs spokesperson, welcomed the ACIJ application, ABC reported, saying it was “a critical legal step to help end Australia’s export of weapons and weapon parts to Israel.”
Hillsdale professor warns of Jew-hatred on the right
The promise of “Never again,” that the Holocaust won’t recur, won’t be realized by “guilting the world” but instead by “being strong, by having institutions, by having firearms, by knowing how to defend them.”

That’s according to David Azerrad, assistant professor and research fellow at Hillsdale College’s school of government in Washington, D.C., who spoke to JNS on Tuesday, on Yom HaShoah, after delivering a lecture about Jew-hatred on the online Right on Monday night.

Azerrad, 48, gave the April 13 talk at Southern Methodist University, in the Dallas area. The private school and the SMU Chabad sponsored the talk, which part of the school’s Nate and Ann Levine endowed lecture in Jewish studies.

A Moroccan Jew from Montreal who lives in Potomac, Md., with his wife and baby, Azerrad told JNS that he differentiated between Jew-hatred on the political Right and “wokeness on the Left” and spoke about the growing number of online “influencers” like former Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly and antisemitic podcasters Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens pushing a “blame the Jews” approach to politics.

“It’s a race to the bottom,” Azerrad said. “They earn a revenue, but it’s not issued by an institution.”

“My thesis is that this is more worrisome for the Right than it is for Jews,” he said.

On the Left, “it’s institutionalized in universities, in corporate America and every HR department. It’s the law of the land that you ought to discriminate against men and whites in order to achieve equity,” he told JNS. Where the Left blames straight white males, “for a segment of the online Right, the answer is Jews,” Azerrad said.

He previously worked for nine years as director of the Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics, where he said he “never once encountered antisemitism. I felt perfectly at home,” he said.

“The biggest threat confronting American Jews is not online antisemitism on the right. It is intermarriage and assimilation,” Azerrad said.

The lesson that Jewish communities should take from the Holocaust and modern Jew-hatred is that “no one’s coming to the rescue,” according to Azerrad. “We should defend ourselves. The congregants should be armed.”
'No Other Lie' Documentary Review
No Other Lie is a documentary featuring reporter Kassy Akiva as she navigates a land dispute in Israel. The film streamed on Daily Wire Plus.

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The Academy Awards decided to give their formerly prestigious Best Documentary Feature Film to the documentary No Other Land. The filmmakers claim that Israel is bullying Palestinian settlers out of the Masafer Yatta area. The problem is, it was all false. Akiva sets out to gather the facts that the Oscar-winner conveniently left out of their Hollywood movie.

Akiva sits down with experts, politicians, and activists to paint a very different picture than the one presented by Hollywood. For instance, the film claims that Palestinians have been living on the land since the 1800s, but aerial footage shows that it has largely been vacant, with it being used as an Israel Defense Forces training zone.

This film does not take a sledgehammer to the Hollywood film, but a scalpel, with our host meticulously taking apart the claims made. We get a broader look at the tense situation without any sort of Hollywood spin.

A shocking scene reveals that several, often liberal, activists will intentionally try to provoke tensions for the sake of content and to spread propaganda. It highlights the importance of looking beyond headlines and thumbnails.

One of the most interesting sequences is when we are shown the ancient Jewish city of Susya, a site that is over 1,600 years old. It shows that it has a deep connection to Israel and Judea.

Technically, there are a few places where the editing felt a bit too quick or chaotic, but overall, it is well-made. The cinematography highlights the beauty of the region, our host is insightful, and the people interviewed were informative. It is an interesting and often sobering look at a place not many Americans can even find on a map.

When approaching situations like the Israeli conflicts, it is important to explore the truth. Unfortunately, Hollywood is not interested in awarding truth, but agendas that celebrate the “current thing.” Akiva and her crew went into a tense situation to reveal the truth and lay out the facts, helping to debunk an Oscar-winner in the best way possible.
‘The Sea’ is a pro-Palestinian narrative portrayed as a human-interest story
Throughout the film, Israeli authorities (army and police) are portrayed as Gestapo-like goons. In the final scene, Khaled is almost at the beach, his dad has just caught up with him, but the “cruel” Israeli policeman stops the boy and questions him as to where he is going. The cop orders Khaled to lift his shirt. The boy doesn’t understand Hebrew, so the dad, who does, explains what he needs to do. The police officer then orders both of them to line up against the wall to check for suicide bombs; then they are taken away in a police car. In the final scene, Khaled’s father nods to his son as the police car passes by “The Sea.”

The Palestinian producer of the film wants the audience to grasp how the “occupation” and denial have caused the suffering of Palestinian Arabs at the hands of Israelis. Early on, there is a fleeting mention of Khaled being a good warrior, and we see him practicing with a sling shot loaded with a sizeable rock. Absent, however, is the mention of the “pay-for-slay” policy of the P.A., which rewards terror against Jews with financial compensation.

The film was released in July 2025 amid the national trauma Israelis were suffering following the horrendous, unprovoked massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas terrorists and the kidnapping of 251 others on Oct. 7, 2023. It was produced while Israelis continued to endure rocket fire and drones raining down on them, and while hostages were still being held in tunnels deep underground in Gaza.

It completely ignores the anguish of Israeli children who had and still have mere seconds to run for cover out of fear for their lives. The Israeli director would have done well to show a split screen showing Khaled’s journey along with an Israeli boy yearning to play football outside his shelter, and his inability to see his friends in school, which has been closed because of the war.

This film is a clever piece of Palestinian propaganda wrapped in a humanistic story of a young boy wanting a glimpse of the sea. I, too, had a dream when I was 12, to see the biblical sights in Jordanian-occupied Judea and Samaria. But for me to have ventured there as Khaled did to Tel Aviv would have meant certain death. For Khaled, however, life was never in danger.
The Big Friendly Jew-Hating Giant
By some estimates, the American Jewish community is currently spending some $600 million a year to combat Jew hatred. Now, a new play on Broadway seems destined to further enflame passions, spark alarm, and raise questions about what motivates the antisemitic surge—as well as debate how Americans, and intellectuals, in particular, should respond to it.

Giant, starring the incomparable John Lithgow, opened on March 23 on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre after a wildly successful run in London’s West End, where it sold out every show at the Harold Pinter Theatre for 14 weeks. The play focuses on the scandal surrounding Roald Dahl, one of England’s most celebrated and successful children’s authors. Dahl’s inexpiable sin was writing an antisemitic review of a book in 1983 about Israel’s invasion of Lebanon a year earlier.

Though it may seem odd or perhaps quaint in the age of the internet and social media that a book review could spark such vehement controversy, Dahl was a god in the world of children’s literature. Some 300 million copies of his books had been sold worldwide when the furor over his book review erupted. A generation of children had grown up reading his best-selling books—James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Big Friendly Giant, and more.

Rosenblatt, who is Jewish, was prompted to write his play—his first—after reading about the controversy sparked by the review that Dahl had written for the Literary Review—a small but influential British monthly known mainly for its annual Bad Sex in Fiction award. The book, God Cried, by Tony Clifton and Catherine Leroy, is an avowedly pro-Palestinian account of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon to destroy the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s operational bases there. "God Cried is not objective and could never have been,” Clifton wrote of the book he coauthored.

Rosenblatt has said that he wants audience members to draw their own conclusions and recognize the complexity of human nature.

In the review, Dahl wrote that Israel’s invasion of “what used to be Palestine” and its “mass slaughter of the inhabitants” led him and others to change their view of Israel. “We all started hating the Israelis,” he wrote. “Never before in the history of man has a race of people switched so rapidly from being much-pitied victims to barbarous murderers.” The review also assailed “American Jewish bankers” and “Jewish financial institutions” for supporting Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and called upon Jews everywhere “to follow the example of the Germans and become anti-Israeli.” (Subsequently, a review editor confessed that the magazine had sometimes substituted “Israelis” for “Jews” to make the review slightly less antisemitic.)

The play focuses on a single afternoon in Dahl’s country house, then under construction, in which his British and American publishers—both Jews—try to persuade the then 66-year-old author to retract or “clarify” the odious views in his review, fearful that the scandal will depress sales of his forthcoming book, The Witches.
If Kanye can be banned from Britain, why not Islamist extremists?
UK home secretary Shabana Mahmood has banned Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, from Britain, revoking his electronic travel authorisation and declaring his presence ‘not conducive to the public good’. The Wireless Festival he was due to headline this summer has been cancelled.

This is an extraordinary step. The most immediate question it raises is: if the government can bar Kanye West, then why on Earth does it not bar figures who pose a far more direct threat to the UK?

Why not Hasan Ali al-Taraiki, the London-based Bahraini cleric who has attended conferences with senior figures of Hamas and Hezbollah? Taraiki is also a member of the ‘International Union of Resistance Scholars’, an organisation closely aligned with Iran.

Or Muhammad Sawalha? Sawalha was a senior Hamas operative who ran the group’s terrorist operations in the West Bank, yet he has for years lived comfortably in a north London council house after escaping to Britain in the 1990s. American Treasury officials, who have sanctioned Sawalha, have alleged that he continued to work for Hamas and laundered money to support its terrorism after his arrival in the UK.

And how about Zaher Birawi? In January, Birawi was subjected to American sanctions over his ‘secret ties’ with Hamas. He held a leadership role with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, which is considered to be a front organisation for Hamas.

These are not under-medicated rappers. These are individuals with documented or alleged connections to Hamas – a proscribed terrorist organisation responsible for indiscriminate rape, murder, torture, mutilation and hostage-taking on 7 October 2023.
Iran secures UN role with backing from UK, France, Canada, Australia as US stands alone
ECOSOC nominated the Islamic Republic of Iran to the U.N.’s Committee for Program and Coordination Wednesday, a body that helps shape policy on human rights, women’s rights, disarmament and counterterrorism.

The nomination is widely expected to be finalized, as the United Nations General Assembly typically approves such recommendations without a vote.

At the same session, ECOSOC elected China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia and Sudan to the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, which oversees accreditation and access for thousands of NGOs operating within the U.N. system.

The United States was the only member state to formally break from consensus.

In remarks delivered April 8, U.S. Representative to ECOSOC Ambassador Dan Negrea said the U.S. "disassociates from consensus" on both decisions, calling several of the countries involved unfit for such roles.

"The regime threatens its neighbors and has, for decades, infringed on the Iranian people’s ability to exercise their basic human rights," Negrea said, adding that "we believe Iran is unfit to serve" on the committee.

The decision drew sharp criticism from UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog group.

Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital: "By their cynical actions at the UN, major Western states have betrayed their own human rights principles, severely undermining the rules-based international order that they claim to support."

"We note that the EU states clearly had another option. They did take action in recent years to stop Russia from getting elected to similar bodies, and so we deeply regret that they failed to do the same now to stop the election of serial violators such as Iran, China, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia and Sudan."

"We salute the United States for their moral clarity and leadership in objecting to the election of the Islamic Republic of Iran and other brutal regimes."

Neuer warned the composition of the NGO committee could allow authoritarian governments to influence which organizations are accredited, potentially sidelining independent human rights groups.

"This means dictatorships will have a majority on the committee in order to deny United Nations accreditation to independent organizations that call out their human rights violations, and to accredit more fake front groups created by the regimes," he said.


Israeli forces find dozens of Palestinian illegals in garbage truck at Samaria checkpoint
Security inspectors foiled an attempt to smuggle about 40 Palestinians into Israel inside a garbage truck in northern Samaria, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Crossing Points Authority said on Monday night.

The CPA said its personnel stopped the truck at the Shomron Crossing after it arrived from the east, and discovered the Palestinians hiding in the vehicle’s refuse compartment.

“In a security inspection, about 40 Palestinians, illegal residents, were discovered as they were trying to infiltrate into the center of the country,” according to the statement.

All those involved were handed over to security forces for further questioning, the authority said.

According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, the detainees, who were allegedly headed for cities including Netanya, Tel Aviv and Rishon Lezion, were removed with the help of fire and rescue crews, while the Israeli driver, from Kafr Qassem, was arrested after initially refusing to cooperate and being found to lack a proper license for the vehicle.


SEIU pulls endorsement of Michigan regent candidate in light of Hezbollah support
The Michigan arm of the powerful SEIU labor union announced on Tuesday that it had rescinded its endorsement of Amir Makled, an attorney running for the University of Michigan board of regents, in light of Makled’s deleted social media posts praising the terrorist group Hezbollah.

“This decision follows new information that was not available at the time our endorsement was made,” the statement read. “As an organization, we hold our endorsed candidates to a high standard and expect alignment with our values and the interests of our members.”

Makled is a Dearborn trial lawyer who represented an anti-Israel protester who was arrested during the 2024 anti-Israel encampments at UM’s flagship Ann Arbor campus. A Detroit News report found that Makled had deleted posts praising Hezbollah’s leaders and retweets of antisemitic messages from the far-right influencer Candace Owens. Makled did not comment on the matter in the Detroit News report, and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider on Tuesday.

Makled is running an insurgent campaign to be one of two Democratic nominees for UM regent. Two seats are up for election in 2026, and both of them are held by Democrats — Jordan Acker and Paul Brown — who were first elected in 2018. Makled is singling out Acker, who is Jewish and has faced antisemitic attacks from anti-Israel activists at the university. The regents play a key governing role for the university, including on matters including student protests and divestment.


Rabbis give Mamdani failing grade on first 100 days as NYC mayor
To mark his first 100 days in office, Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, talked about how many potholes he has filled. He should be focusing on mending his relationship with New York City’s Jews, according to Jewish leaders.

“Unfortunately, in his first 100 days, Mayor Mamdani has done nothing to allay the concerns I expressed before the election regarding his stance on Israel and the safety of Jewish New Yorkers,” Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, who leads Park Avenue Synagogue, a Conservative congregation on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, told JNS.

Mamdani, who is Muslim, has said that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested in the Big Apple, and his spokeswoman said that synagogues violate international law by hosting pro-Israel events.

“At a moment when anti-Israel rhetoric is increasingly bleeding into antisemitic violence—from Bondi to West Bloomfield, Mich.—his refusal to recognize that danger, coupled with the voices he elevates and the company he keeps, reflects a troubling mix of naïveté and negligence toward the very communities he has been entrusted to protect,” Cosgrove told JNS.

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, spiritual leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform congregation on the Upper West Side, told JNS that he hopes that Mamdani “avoids rhetoric and policies that reflect his antagonism towards Israel.”

“There is enough for him to do just to run the city. One place to start would be to cease accusing Israel of ‘genocide.’ It is a modern-day blood libel,” Hirsch said.

Moshe Davis, who ran the mayoral office to combat Jew-hatred under Eric Adams, Mamdani’s predecessor, and a frequent critic of the current mayor, told JNS that Mamdani could have made better choices than attending and hosting Passover events that emphasized aspects of the holiday other than the redemptive one that pines for “next year in Jerusalem.”

“One hopes the mayor actually opened the traditional Haggadah during his many seder photo-ops this year rather than just using our traditions for optics,” Davis told JNS.

“Had he, he would have learned that we are an ancient nation with an ancestral homeland,” Davis said. “Mayor Mamdani claims he’s not an antisemite and says he’ll commit resources to fight anti-Jewish hate. So far, it seems like the Jewish community’s concerns are not a priority for this administration.”


Potholes or Palestine? A local election consumed by ideological obsession
Next month large swathes of the UK, including the whole of London, will hold local elections. I’ll be casting my vote. Before I do, I’ll be thinking about local issues which affect me and which the council has the power to influence.

This will include potholes and bin collections, naturally, but also things like housing and planning – a considerable new housing development is being proposed near me and I support it, though I would very much like to ensure that if it goes ahead the necessary infrastructure will be in place to support it. It also includes libraries – a number of them have closed in the borough where I live. Local councils also have responsibility for certain education provisions which could potentially affect my family. I’ll be voting with that in mind as well.

It would be wrong to say that the Green Party does not concern itself with such issues – they do. They have local manifestos which cite a range of issues of concern to local residents. But they also have something else – an obsession with Israel.

The following is, verbatim, the language of a video released by Green Party candidates in Haringey this week:

“Voting Green in the Haringey local elections on 7 May is a vote against genocide. As a councillor I will take all appropriate steps to uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, 2. Support efforts to prevent, and ensure accountability for, Israel’s crimes of genocide, military occupation, ethnic cleansing and apartheid. 3. Ensure my council is not complicit in and does not help to normalise Israel’s violations of international law, including through the council divesting pensions and any other funds it administers from complicit companies and through its procurement policies.”

That was it. Nothing else.

The Green Party and its defenders will put forward the following case. They will say that the Gaza War (which they refer to as the “Gaza genocide”) is the defining moral issue of our times (which ignores a whole host of other horrifying conflicts going on in the world, but bear with me here). If you hold that opinion, as many Green supporters do, then it is profoundly irresponsible – indeed, immoral – not to consider one’s stance on Israel as being a contributing factor when going to the polling station.

But let’s dig into this a little deeper. I was interested in the language around “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people” in the video. It is a phrase that is regularly used in many places, including in United Nations resolutions. But the place I have seen it most prominently within a Green Party context is in the recent “Zionism is Racism” motion put forward at the Green Party’s Spring conference. The relevant paragraph (the fourth resolution it calls on the Greens to adopt) says:

“The Green Party affirms the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination, including the right of the Palestinian people to resistance and liberation from Israeli occupation, domination and subjugation, and acknowledges that the struggle to achieve that liberation by all available means under international law is legitimate.”

In a further helpful clarification, one of the appendices at the end of the motion specifically refers to the right to “armed struggle”.


NHS consultant suspended as hospital probes ‘wipe Israel off map’ speech
An NHS consultant filmed calling for Israel to be “wiped off the face of the map” has reportedly been suspended and is under investigation following a speech at a London protest.

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust confirmed it is reviewing concerns about vascular surgeon Ranjeet Brar after footage emerged of remarks he made outside the US Embassy on 4 April.

According to UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), Brar has been suspended from his hospital role for at least two weeks. The Trust has not publicly confirmed the suspension but said it is taking the matter seriously.

In a written response, Chief Executive Professor Clive Kay said: “We are aware of the footage in question, and I can confirm that we are reviewing the concerns raised… for reasons of confidentiality, fairness and due process, it would not be appropriate for us to comment on individual cases or any potential actions.”

He added that any issues meeting the required threshold would be addressed through formal procedures, stressing the Trust’s duty to challenge “discrimination in all its forms” and ensure hospitals remain “welcoming and safe places for everyone”.

Separately, Brar was arrested on 9 April in connection with the content of the speech and later released.

Footage from the rally shows Brar praising Iran and calling for Israel to be destroyed, as well as urging the closure of the Israeli and US embassies in London. He also referred to “financiers in the City of London” as “parasites”.

UKLFI said it had been contacted by a Jewish patient at King’s College Hospital who expressed concern about being treated by the doctor, citing fears about potential bias.


Brandeis University study finds nearly half of Jewish students experience antisemitism on campus
A new study on campus discrimination highlights that at least a third of Jewish, Muslim, Black and Asian students have encountered hate and hostility at their universities.

The report, “Antisemitism and Prejudice on Campus,” released Tuesday from the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, draws on data from an October 2025–January 2026 survey of nearly 4,000 undergraduates at 303 four-year schools across the country — including an oversample of Jewish respondents.

The study found that a significant minority of students, regardless of their background, held views that minority groups viewed as prejudicial.

Furthermore, Jewish students on campus expressed concerns about antisemitism from both the political right and the political left, about antisemitism related to Israel and about antisemitism expressed as traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes.

Nearly half of Jewish students (47%) reported experiencing some form of prejudice on campus because of their Jewish identity. According to the report’s authors, much of this figure came from Jewish students’ higher reported rate of exposure to graffiti and posters with offensive images and language.

Jewish and Muslim students were also asked if, in the past academic year, they had ever been blamed for the actions of either Islamic extremists (for Muslim students) or the Israeli government (for Jewish students). The report noted that although these two questions are not exactly comparable, similar proportions of both groups (just under 20%) responded in the affirmative.

37% of Jewish students and 47% of Muslim students reported a hostile campus environment, while 34% of Black students reported similar hostility.

Notably, those concerns were not shared by the majority of students outside of those minority groups.

The report found that 17% of students were likely to hold views expressing anti-Black resentment, 9% held hostile views about Jews, 15% held views about Israel that most Jews find antisemitic and 4% held hostile views toward multiple religious and racial minority groups (including Jews). These views were evident among students from across the racial, religious and political spectrum.
American University Advertising for Jewish Students, Mirroring Efforts From Dartmouth
American University is recruiting Jewish students through an ad in a Brooklyn-based Jewish newspaper describing the school as a "place where Jewish students feel at home." The move follows similar efforts from Dartmouth and Brown universities as other Ivies, namely Harvard and Yale, experience declines in their Jewish populations.

American took out the advertisement in the Jewish Press, a weekly newspaper that serves Brooklyn's Orthodox community. The ad touts American's A rating on the Anti-Defamation League's Campus Antisemitism Report Card.

"At American University, Jewish students are an active and valued part of campus life, with vibrant programming through AU Hillel and student organizations," the advertisement reads.

Dartmouth has also promoted Jewish life on campus. Its admissions office published a Q&A with a Jewish student about Dartmouth Hillel and kosher dining in December in a post geared toward students "thinking about campus Jewish life as a part of [their] college search." Brown has taken similar steps; the university's agreement with the Trump administration, struck in July, allows the university to conduct "outreach to Jewish Day School students to provide information about applying to Brown." University president Christina Paxson has spoken about "doing recruiting in religious day schools" as a way to increase intellectual diversity at Brown.

Harvard and Yale have taken more reticent approaches.
Why Vanderbilt Is Getting Jewish Life Right and Others Aren’t
This spring, at Vanderbilt University, more than 600 students gathered for a Passover seder – not in a campus center or dining hall, but on the football field at FirstBank Stadium. A space built for spectacle, rivalry, and school pride was transformed, for one evening, into something sacred.

The symbolism matters. So does the scale. And so does the timing of it all.

One week before the seder, Bloomberg reported that Vanderbilt’s regular-decision acceptance rate for the Class of 2030 had dropped to 2.9 percent – lower than Harvard, lower than Princeton, lower than schools that have spent a century cultivating their selectivity mystique. The headline named the obvious: Vanderbilt has become more competitive “as it avoids the campus controversies that have engulfed many top schools.” Tucked inside that dry admissions sentence is one of the most important stories in American higher education. Jewish families already understand what the data are now beginning to confirm. The market for talented students has spoken – and it is now speaking loudly in Nashville.

This is not just an admissions story. It is a case study in how institutional trust is built – and lost. When universities fail to enforce their own norms or articulate clear moral boundaries, they do not simply generate bad headlines. They trigger exit. Students and families, especially those with the most options, respond not to rhetoric but to signals: Who is in charge? What is tolerated? What kind of community am I entering?

In that sense, what is happening at Vanderbilt is not accidental. It is the result of institutional choices the market is now rewarding.

For generations, ambitious Jewish parents knew the college roadmap by heart: Harvard, Columbia, Penn, Yale – the great northeastern institutions that once excluded Jews with official quotas, then welcomed them, and then watched as Jewish students helped build them into world-class research universities. These schools were more than prestigious. They were symbols of arrival, of the great American bargain: work hard, achieve, belong. They were, in a very real sense, home.

That roadmap is breaking down. And Jewish families are not waiting for institutions to fix themselves.

The Atlantic has documented the shift: Jewish students leaving elite northeastern campuses and heading south – to Vanderbilt, Tulane, Emory, and the University of Florida. The numbers are striking. Vanderbilt now enrolls more than 1,000 Jewish students, roughly 15 percent of undergraduates. Clemson’s Hillel has quadrupled in size. The University of Florida has seen a 50 percent surge in Jewish student participation since 2021, its 6,500 Jewish undergraduates making it one of the largest Jewish student populations in the country. Tulane’s Jewish population is now over 30 percent of undergraduates — one of the highest concentrations anywhere. By Hillel estimates, Southern Methodist University now has more Jewish undergraduates than Harvard.
BBC doc shows students praising 7 October and branding Zionists ‘Nazis’
A BBC documentary has captured student activists on US campuses praising the 7 October Hamas attacks, chanting support for “resistance”, and repeatedly comparing Zionists to Nazis, amid escalating tensions over free speech and the Israel-Gaza war.

The second episode of Speechless, broadcast as part of BBC Storyville, examines how the conflict reverberated across American universities, focusing on protests, encampments and clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students.

The film shows that within a day of the 7 October attacks, a joint statement by Harvard student groups declared: “We… hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” adding that “the apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”

In footage from campus demonstrations that followed, activists are heard chanting: “Glory to the martyrs. Glory to the resistance. We will liberate the land. By any means necessary.”

One protester, addressing a crowd, referenced Hamas’ breach of the Gaza border fence using Nazi imagery, asking: “Do you guys remember the photos of the bulldozer breaking through the Nazi border?” before describing 7 October as producing “joyful and powerful images”.

Another student defended the use of imagery associated with the attacks, saying: “We are so horrible for showing a paraglider. What about their jets? Israeli jets have killed thousands and thousands of Palestinians, but that’s okay?”

The documentary, directed by filmmaker Ric Esther Bienstock and commissioned and executive produced by Lucie Kon, then follows events at Cornell University, where it documents growing hostility and breakdowns in dialogue on campus.

At one point, the film shows a message circulated within a campus encampment warning students that a documentary crew was on site, advising them to “be wary of what you say” and describing the director as a “Zionist”.

The film also shows the crew later being unable to access the encampment.

A Jewish student, Maya, describes being confronted after identifying herself as a Zionist during a discussion with other students.

“You said you’re a Zionist? You’re the reason we’re all here. You’re the reason they’re all dead. You’re a racist country,” she recalls being told, before the individual turned to others and said: “This girl… she’s a proud Zionist. She’s a racist. And that’s how we’re going to know her.”

She adds that the exchange demonstrated “we can’t even have a proper discourse in this country”.


Stephen Pollard: Lewis Goodall and Israel’s alleged world domination
Play the ball, not the man, goes the maxim. But sometimes you really do need to play the man, because the man – in this case, Khawaja Asif, the Pakistan defence minister – is the point.

Last week, after the US and Iran took up the offer of his boss, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to host talks between the US and Iran, Asif posted his thoughts on X: "Israel is evil and a curse for humanity, while peace talks are underway in Islamabad, genocide is being committed in Lebanon…I hope and pray people who created this cancerous state on Palestinians land to get rid of European Jews burn in hell.”

It would have been more surprising if Asif had not at some point revealed his desire for Zionists to burn in hell. Pakistan has never recognised Israel’s existence, and he recently said the Muslim world should treat Israel and India as “true and eternal enemies.” Asif is not exactly backwards in coming forwards with his view of Israel.

But – this is the bit about playing the man – one has to conclude that like many of the most crazed Jew-haters, Asif is not the brightest spark in the firmament. How did he react to the widespread coverage his tweet received? He deleted it.

It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Pakistan’s defence minister that when you publish a statement that the world notices, you don’t obliterate all memory of it simply by deleting it, then pretending – as he is now doing – that you didn’t actually say it.

Given his status as a minister in Pakistan, you’d think Asif might actually have stood by his comment. It’s not as if Jew hate is a disqualifier to public office in Pakistan, where open antisemitism is the norm. Indeed, given where we now are here in the UK, there are a number of British MPs and wannabe MPs one could easily imagine posting the same words as Asif and then absolutely not later deleting them.

But while we aren’t – yet – at the levels of open and widely supported Jew hate to be found in Pakistan, there has been a barely less insidious development here. Sentiments which have been classic antisemitic themes for centuries have entered the mainstream, voiced by people who would never consider themselves to be in any way antisemitic, merely “open minded” commentators and analysts.

Take Lewis Goodall, one of the News Agent podcasters alongside Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, and a phone-in host on LBC. Goodall is the archetypal left-liberal “progressive”, one of those people whose views on any given subject can be predicted with total accuracy because he never deviates by a jot from the ideological catechism. When he speaks on Israel, it is entirely predictable what he will say but also instructive, because it confirms the received progressive wisdom. Sure enough, last week Goodall opined for his listeners.

He suggested not only that Israel is malign, but that this tiny state somehow controls the world –an accusation that eerily echoes the classic antisemitic conspiracy theory of Jewish world domination, here repackaged with the Jewish state standing in for the Jews.

“The entire fate of the world and stability of the world is constantly driven by the actions of Israel, that many people believe increasingly acts like something of a rogue state... Are we powerless in this? Are we powerless in the West, in Britain and Europe and the United States? Are we powerless, increasingly, to determine our own fate and the stability of the world? Because ultimately, Israel is in the driving seat.”

It’s quite something, isn’t it? Goodall – who, as I say, I am sure doesn’t consider he has the least animus against Jews – is spouting rhetoric about Israeli control of the world itself that leaves everyone else powerless (to be accurate, he poses it as question in a neat rhetorical trick).
Smashing Stuff: Palestine Action, AFP and Journalistic Ethics
“Smashing stuff can also be very quick to do. With an efficient sledgehammer in your hand, you can cause quite a bit of damage! Smashing windows often only takes one or two swings. But air conditioning units, cameras and other external equipment can sabotage the profits of your target even further,” advises the “Underground Manual” of Palestine Action, an organization which Britain designated a terrorist organization in July. The manual offers more handy hacks on how best to get into the (Palestine) action including: “Fire extinguishers can be repurposed and refilled with blood-red paint, so when it’s sprayed it makes a big splash and can cover a massive area within seconds — perfect for a get away action.”

And, for the more gung-ho activists, the manual encourages: “If you’re feeling up for it, and know the site back to front, then breaking into your target and damaging the contents inside is obviously a very effective tactic.” Drawing on the manual’s helpful hints on how to most effectively carry out criminal acts and get away with it, the organization’s members inflicted £55 million worth of damage in vandalism of British military sites.

In failing to report any of the violence and criminal activity which Palestine Action detailed in its manual and committed in England, Agence France Presse took a sledgehammer to the news agency’s own working manual. AFP’s editorial standards and best practices, for its part, calls for “accurate, balanced and impartial news,” along with the fast and transparent correction of misreporting. It advises journalists “to seek the truth and not passively report information as it is presented to them. They should challenge their sources and question the facts.”

AFP’s April 12 article, “Police say over 500 arrested at pro-Palestinian rally in London,” fails to provide readers with even the slightest shred of information about the violence or illegal acts undertaken by the banned Palestine Action organization, whitewashing the group as merely a non-violent protest organization unfairly muzzled by London Metropolitan Police.


California Senate committee advances bill classifying Jewish identity as ‘ethnicity’ in state data
A California Senate committee advanced legislation that would require state agencies to recognize Jewish identity as an ethnicity in demographic data collection.

SB 1387, introduced by Henry Stern, a Democratic state senator, and co-sponsored by Josh Lowenthal, a Democratic state assemblymember, would mandate that agencies collecting data on ancestry or ethnic origin “use a separate collection category and tabulation for Jewish ancestry or ethnicity.” Reporting requirements would take effect in 2027.

Under the measure, which was passed out of committee in a Senate Committee on Governmental Organizations hearing on Tuesday, demographic data would be published in aggregate form, without personally identifying information. The proposal would apply broadly across state agencies that collect data for programs including education, health care and social services.

Lowenthal told JNS that he co-sponsored the measure to ensure “all communities deserve representation” and improve Jewish communities’ “ability to access public resources and protection within the judicial system.”

“Sadly, Jewish communities have long been misrepresented in California’s demographic data,” Lowenthal said. “Currently, California tracks Jewish identity through religious affiliation.”

Citing data from the Pew Research Center, Lowenthal said that a significant share of American Jews do not consider religion central to their identity.

“This study supports what Jewish communities have been saying for years: being Jewish is also a cultural identity and an ethnicity,” Lowenthal told JNS. “Thus, the current system both undercounts and misrepresents Jewish identity.”

Lowenthal said the state relies on demographic data to “fairly allocate public health and educational resources, as well as monitor the effectiveness of its programs for represented communities.”

“It would also make tracking incidents of hate crimes and disparities against Jewish communities more accurate,” he told JNS, adding that he hopes accurate demographic data will offer “greater protection to Jewish communities being affected by prejudice and hate.”
Neo-Nazi pleads guilty to trying to give Hezbollah intel on Israeli officials in US
A man in the United States linked to white supremacist movements pleaded guilty Monday to attempting to give Hezbollah information on Israeli officials.

The charge stems from efforts to provide the Iran-backed terrorist group with “a list of personally identifiable information for individuals purportedly affiliated with the government of Israel,” according to criminal information filed in February.

Regan Prater also pleaded guilty to setting a fire that destroyed an office at a historic social justice center in Tennessee, a court document shows.

Sentencing is scheduled for September 9 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A public defender representing Prater did not immediately respond to an email and phone message requesting comment.

Prater was arrested last April in connection with the arson at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market. The arrest came six years after the March 2019 blaze, which caused more than $1.2 million in damage, prosecutors say.
Synagogue targeted in first such arson attack in modern N. Macedonian history
A Skopje synagogue and Jewish community center was targeted in an attempted arson attack on Sunday morning, according to the local Jewish community and North Macedonian Interior Ministry, which community members described as the first such incident in the country's modern history.

A door and courtyard were charred by flames, according to photographs shared by the Jewish community with The Jerusalem Post. The damage in the pictures aligned with the fire seen in a video published on X/Twitter by Israeli Ambassador to North Macedonia Vivian Aisen on Sunday.

Alleged surveillance footage depicted two men climbing a fence before dousing a building with an accelerant. After they retreated to the other side of the fence, the suspects hurled a firebomb that set the accelerant alight.

The incident is still being investigated by law enforcement, according to the Interior Ministry, and surveillance cameras were being reviewed and witnesses interviewed to discover the identities of the perpetrators. The police officers that had arrived at the scene identified a fuel canister and fire damage.

In a statement, the Jewish Community Board urged the authorities to fully investigate the incident, but also thanked the Interior Ministry and other services for their timely response.

The board expressed shock at the attempted arson, with Board Deputy Head Rahamim Mizrahi telling the Post, “This is the first time that such an incident has occurred in the recent history of the Jewish community in the Republic of North Macedonia."

“Ever since 1943, when our community was literally destroyed by the Bulgarian fascist occupiers, nothing like this has happened since then. Unfortunately, for the past couple of years – and especially after October 7, even in Macedonia, which is a pearl in the Balkans, with no antisemitism whatsoever – the mood has swung, especially among the hardcore leftists, and my guess is elements of the radical left and radical Islamist movement.”
On Yom Hashaoh, Polish Parliament member unleashes antisemitic tirade against Jews
Polish Parliament member Konrad Berkowicz accused the Jewish state of genocide on Wednesday, comparing it to the Third Reich and displaying an Israeli flag with a swastika in place of a Star of David, while delivering an antisemitism-studded speech at the Sejm, Poland’s parliament building on Tuesday.

“Israel is committing genocide before our eyes with particular cruelty. Israel is the new Third Reich, and its flag should look exactly like this,” he declared, before unfurling the flag.

Berkowicz, 41, is a member of the Confederation Liberty and Independence coalition, an alliance of two far-right parties known simply as the Confederation (Konfederacja). The group won 18 seats in the 2023 parliamentary elections, up from 11 in 2019. Poland’s lower house of parliament contains 460 seats.

He also accused “the Jews” of using “banned” phosphorus bombs to kill children.

While not banned, phosphorus bombs are tightly regulated. The Israel Defense Forces has been accused of using them before, an accusation the Israeli military has declared “unequivocally false.” Nevertheless, Berkowicz accused Israel of killing “dozens of thousands of women and children” using such munitions.

Confederation social-media accounts publicized the speech, among them Sławomir Mentzen, one of the Confederation’s co-chairmen and head of the New Hope Party, who wrote in the description on X: “Israel is the new Third Reich!”

Wlodzimierz Czarzasty, Poland’s Speaker of the Parliament, responded harshly to Berkowicz.

“Such actions constitute a blatant violation of the authority of the Sejm and the rules of parliamentary debate. There is and will be no place in the Polish parliament for symbols and messages referring to an ideology responsible for some of the greatest crimes in human history, as well as for antisemitism,” he said in a statement.

“This behavior is particularly outrageous on Yom Hashoah [Holocaust Remembrance Day], which reminds us of the tragedy of millions of Jewish victims of German Nazism and obliges us to maintain the highest standards of responsibility in public life,” he said.


PA turns Hitler’s ally into a Palestinian icon
Many countries and leaders who aligned with Adolf Hitler or maintained Nazi ties during World War II have since expressed shame and apologized. Others have tried to deny or obscure those connections. But none openly celebrates its links to Hitler or seeks to instill pride in them among its people — except the Palestinian Authority.

As Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is vital to remember that the PA continues to honor an Arab-Palestinian war criminal Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who allied himself with Hitler and bore responsibility for the murder of 5,000 Jewish children, along with many thousands of other civilians.

While others with Nazi ties have tried to bury the evidence, the Palestinian Authority has astonishingly chosen to showcase it. On official PA TV last year, a program highlighted Husseini’s relationship with Hitler, even airing footage and images of him alongside Hitler and other Nazi leaders as proof of his stature and importance.

After the pictures were shown, a PA official explained: “The Palestinian people appreciates its leaders and appreciates this man [Husseini] and what he gave the Palestinian cause.”

PA TV also proudly explained that Husseini had individual contacts with Hitler, who personally requested that Husseini establish a Waffen-SS army division made up of Muslims, which he did: “In Germany, he [Husseini] met with Hitler, and Hitler told him: “As long as we are in World War II, establish a [Nazi Waffen-SS] division to help us, [built] of Muslims from North Africa. We promise you to cancel the Balfour Declaration and to establish a Palestinian state, and that you will be its ruler.”

Haj Amin agreed to this. There are symbols on their shirts that this group are Muslim [Nazi] soldiers in Europe belonging to the Mufti in Europe.” [Author of Haj Amin al-Husseini Tayseer Jabara Official PA TV, Under the Mandate, June 18, 2025]

Husseini wrote in his memoirs about his agreement with Hitler: “Our fundamental condition [to Hitler] for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world.”

In his Arabic broadcasts on Nazi radio during WW2, he implored the Muslim unit: “Kill the Jews wherever you find them – this pleases God, history and religion.”


Nuremberg prosecutor posthumously awarded Congressional Gold Medal
Leaders of the House and Senate honored the lead prosecutor of one of the Nuremberg trials with a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal, the body’s highest civilian honor, on Tuesday to mark Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Benjamin Ferencz, who died in 2023, was the lead prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen trial, one of the subsequent Nuremberg trials, which convicted 24 Nazis for the murders of more than 1 million people, including Jews, Romani and other victims of the SS on the Eastern Front.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that recognition of Ferencz had “long been due” for his role in prosecuting “the largest murder trial in human history.”

“The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian honor that Congress can bestow upon anyone,” Johnson said. “Today we’re proud to confer that great honor on Benjamin Ferencz for his life of servant leadership and his courage in the face of evil.”

Born in 1920 in what is today Romania, Ferencz emigrated to the United States with his Hungarian Jewish family when he was 10-months-old. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was recruited as the youngest prosecutor at Nuremberg, aged 27.

In 2022, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill to award Ferencz the Congressional Gold Medal for his lifetime of service dedicated to his motto: “law, not war.”

Tuesday’s ceremony to award the medal included lawmakers, members of the Trump administration, an Army color guard representing units that liberated concentration camps, a military band and more than 25 Holocaust survivors.

Sarah Bloomfield, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, read an acceptance letter from Donald Ferencz on behalf of his father.

“My dad came to the United States as part of those huddled masses yearning to be free, and his life exemplified that it’s not so much where you come from as where you’re going that counts,” Bloomfield read.

“Though he never saw the gold medal itself, he knew that it had been officially authorized, for which he was profoundly grateful,” she read.


Honoring Jewish rescuers, young and old, at Yom Hashoah ceremony in Jerusalem
Jews who risked their lives saving fellow Jews during the years of World War II were honored at a Yom Hashoah ceremony on Tuesday in Jerusalem, as speakers drew connections between the Holocaust and Oct. 7 heroism.

The annual event, held by the B’nai B’rith World Center and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, is “the only Yom Hashoah event dedicated annually to commemorating the heroism of Jews who endangered their own lives to rescue fellow Jews during the Holocaust,” according to organizers.

The Jewish Rescuers Citation was posthumously awarded to four individuals, including Shoshana Jansje Litten Serlui of the Netherlands, who worked with the underground movement led by Johan (“Joop”) and Wilhelmina Dora Westerweel to rescue Youth Aliyah trainees by securing forged documents, food rations and hiding places. Johan Westerweel was executed by the Nazis in August 1944. Wilhelmina Westerweel was arrested, spent time in concentration camps, but was returned to Holland after the war as part of a prisoner exchange.
Torchlighters on Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2026
Six Holocaust survivors lit torches at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on Monday evening, April 13, at the Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony in memory of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. Here are their stories:

Saadia Bahat was born in 1928 in Alytus, Lithuania. The Germans invaded in June 1941 and the family was expelled to the Vilna ghetto. In September 1943, the Germans demanded volunteers to work in camps in Estonia and Saadia volunteered. In Estonia, Saadia passed through six camps, chopping trees and laying railway tracks. The work was sometimes carried out in freezing temperatures without adequate clothing, and under starvation conditions that led to the deaths of many. Liberated by the Soviets, he reached Mandatory Palestine in 1946. Saadia enlisted in the Haganah, volunteered in the Palmach, and was wounded in action. He later worked in the Rafael armament development authority for 37 years, receiving the Israel Defense Prize.

Miriam (Daisy) Bar Lev was born in 1936 in Tel Aviv. When riots broke out in Mandatory Palestine, the family moved to Amsterdam. In 1940, Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands, and in 1942, the Germans ordered the Jews to wear the Yellow Star on their clothing. Six-year-old Daisy and her parents hid when the deportation of Jews to the extermination camps began, before they were ultimately caught and deported to Bergen-Belsen. In April 1945, Daisy and her mother, who had been traveling for weeks in a cattle car, were liberated by the Red Army in Germany. They reached Israel in 1946, where Daisy, now Miriam, served in the IDF, studied nursing, and worked in the national health service.

Ilana Fallach was born in 1937 in Benghazi, Libya. In late 1940, the British bombed Benghazi and many family members were killed. In 1942, the Italian regime loaded the extended family onto a cattle truck and after five days reached the Giado concentration camp. At the camp, food was sparse, moldy, and worm-ridden, and many inmates succumbed to starvation and disease. The camp was liberated by the British army in 1943. In the wake of anti-Jewish riots in Benghazi, the family fled to Tripoli, and immigrated to Israel in 1949. Ilana talks about the Holocaust of Libyan Jewry to educational groups.

Moshe Harari was born in 1934 in Paprotnia, Poland. In 1941, the family was transferred to the Mordy ghetto. In August 1942, German soldiers and Polish policemen rounded up the Jews in the market square with the intent to murder them, but his family managed to escape to the forest. After roaming from one hiding place to another for six months, they reached a Polish farmer called Lipinski in the village of Widze who hid them in return for payment. The Red Army liberated the area in 1944. The family headed to Eretz Israel in 1947 and were intercepted by the British and sent to a detention camp in Cyprus. Eventually reaching Israel, Moshe worked in the military industry for decades.

Avigdor Neumann was born in 1931 in Sevlus, Czechoslovakia (today Vynohradiv, Ukraine). In 1939, the town came under Hungarian rule. In March 1944, the Germans invaded Hungary and the family was sent to Birkenau, the largest camp in Auschwitz. Avigdor told Dr. Mengele that he was a mechanic and passed the selection. The next day, he was informed that his mother, sisters, and brothers had been murdered. On Jan. 18, 1945, Avigdor was forced on a death march before he was liberated by the U.S. army. He eventually reached Israel and fought in all of Israel's wars until the Yom Kippur War, when he was wounded.

Michael Sidko was born in 1936 in Kyiv, Ukraine. In September 1941, the Jews of Kyiv were taken to the Babi Yar ravine, where Michael and his older brother Grisha witnessed the murder of their mother and siblings. The two started hiding in the cellar of the building they had lived in. Sofia Krivorot-Baklanova and her daughter Galina also lived in the building. Sofia was a teacher at the school Grisha had attended, and she knew that the boys were Jewish. Every time policemen and German soldiers came to check the building, Sofia told them that Michael and Grisha were her sons, and Galina said they were her brothers. Sofia and Galina were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 2004. Michael immigrated to Israel with his family in 2000.


WATCH: Israel comes to standstill as Jewish nation bows in memory of the 6 million murdered in Holocaust
A two-minute siren wailed across Israel on Tuesday morning, as the Jewish nation came to a standstill to commemorate the Six Million murdered at the hands of the Nazis and their allies.

“In 10 minutes time, the siren for Yom Hashoah will be sounded throughout Israel,” Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust remembrance center, tweeted ahead of the annual siren.

“For the duration of the siren, work is halted, people walking in the streets stop, cars pull off to the side of the road and everybody stands at silent attention in reverence to the victims of the Holocaust,” added the museum.

Established in 1951, Yom Hashoah is observed annually on the 27th of the Hebrew month of Nissan. The siren tradition began in the 1960s and has become one of the nation’s most solemn national rituals, with public ceremonies, educational programs and survivor testimonies set to take place throughout the day.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command reminded Israelis that if missiles or drones are fired at the Jewish state from Iran or Lebanon during the siren, the sound would immediately be replaced by a rising and falling alarm.

“If an alert is received, act in accordance with the Home Front Command’s instructions,” the military body stated.




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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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