A force for constructive communal consciousness
Farid Bang, left, and Kollegah at the Echo Award ceremony in Berlin, Germany, April 12, 2018. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
(JTA) – No legal action will be taken against two German rappers who created an uproar with their anti-Semitic lyrics.
The state prosecutor in the western German city of Dusseldorf announced Saturday that the controversial lyrics in the song “0815” that drew several complaints against hip-hop artists Kollegah and Farid Bang were not grounds for prosecution. [Read more…]
Jews from the Warsaw ghetto surrender to German soldiers after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April-May 1943. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
(JTA) – According to new research done in Poland, two-thirds of the local Jews who hid there from the Nazis did not survive the war, mostly because of the actions of their non-Jewish neighbours.
The figure comes from a two-volume work of 1,600 pages that historians from the Warsaw-based Center for Research on Holocaust of Jews have compiled over the past five years. It covers nine out of Poland’s 13 regions, the Tok FM radio station reported Sunday. [Read more…]
Karen Palayew, Ottawa Chair, March of the Living
‘Whilst we can remember the past, we cannot write the future. Only our children, the future of our community, can do that.” -Janusz Korczak
We all hold on to memories from our past, memories of experiences that have had a resounding impact on our lives.
I have a clear memory of being in Israel at 19 years of age and visiting Yad Vashem. I was walking through the outdoor garden exhibits and came upon the statue of Janusz Korczak – a larger than life memorial of him standing with wide outstretched arms, embracing children, his eyes filled with sorrow and compassion. That day, I learned that he was a pediatrician and an educator. He ran an orphanage for Jewish children in Warsaw, and had a unique way of working with them. He believed in a democratic approach, honouring the children’s individuality and giving each of them a voice to be heard. I learned that he was offered sanctuary by the Nazis and how he chose to stay with the children of the orphanage, ultimately accompanying them to the gas chambers of Treblinka on August 7, 1942. [Read more…]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (centre) in quiet contemplation during a visit to the National Holocaust Monument, September 27, 2017. (PMO)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, attending a gala in Toronto, May 8, marking 30 years of the March of the Living (MOL) and honouring Holocaust survivor educators and MOL National Director Eli Rubenstein, announced he will make a formal apology in the House of Commons for Canada’s refusal to admit Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany on board the MS St. Louis in 1939. More than 900 refugees were on board the ship and more than 250 of them were ultimately murdered during the Holocaust.
“When Canada denied asylum to the 907 German Jews on board the MS St. Louis, we failed not only those passengers, but also their descendants and community. An apology in the House of Commons will not rewrite this shameful chapter of our history. It will not bring back those who perished or repair the lives shattered by tragedy. But it is our collective responsibility to acknowledge this difficult truth, learn from this story, and continue to fight against anti-Semitism every day, as we give meaning to the solemn vow: ‘Never again.’ I look forward to offering this apology on the floor of the House,” said Trudeau. [Read more…]
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressing the Palestinian National Council in the West Bank city of Ramallah, April 30, 2018. (Flash90)
(JTA) – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas apologized to Jewish people offended by his recent speech in which he blamed the Holocaust on Jews.
“If people were offended by my statement in front of the [Palestinian National Council], especially people of the Jewish faith, I apologize to them,” Abbas said in a statement sent Friday by his office. [Read more…]
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaking at a session of the Palestinian Central Council in Ramallah, in the West Bank, Jan. 14, 2018. (Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
(JTA) – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that Jews caused the Holocaust with their “social behaviour,” such as money lending.
Speaking Monday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas also said that Jews do not have a historical connection to the land. [Read more…]
March of the Living participant Maya Avni and Holocaust survivor Ruth Gottlieb Katz participate in the candle lighting. (Howard Sandler)
Yom HaShoah ceremony brings candles, history and fresh insights to packed hall
“Candle lighting is – yes – to commemorate and to remember,” said Ruth Gottlieb Katz. “But, more importantly, each of the six flames must continue to burn brightly, as a beacon call to action by each of us.”
Gottlieb Katz was one of six Holocaust survivors who performed a moving candle-lighting ceremony on April 11 at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre to begin the 2018 Yom HaShoah community commemoration. Born in Berlin in 1927, she, along with her fellow survivors, brought unique insights to the occasion. [Read more…]
‘My father prayed and recited the Ten Plagues. The next day, Russian soldiers told survivors they were free to go.’
My father, Arthur Schwartz, arrived in Canada 70 years ago as one of the 1,123 Jewish orphans that Canada admitted after the Holocaust.
Born in Kosice, Czechoslovakia, in 1923, he grew up in an Orthodox Jewish working-class family. [Read more…]
An original one-man Holocaust drama is to be presented as part of Ottawa’s Yom HaShoah commemoration, Louise Rachlis reports:
Do human beings have the capacity to learn from history?
That’s the question being asked by actor-playwright Roger Grunwald in “The Mitzvah Project,” an acclaimed combination of theatre, history lesson and conversation that comes to Ottawa on April 11. [Read more…]
(JTA) – An unidentified person wearing a ski mask hurled a smoke grenade into a Ukraine bookstore during a lecture about the Holocaust.
At least 45 people were attending a talk titled “A terrible story: The Holocaust. Memory. Pain. Lessons” at the E bookstore on Monday evening in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, when the incident occurred. Witnesses described the perpetrator as a teenager, though they did not see his face. The incident ended without injury. [Read more…]