Holocaust

StandWithUs Gala Draws 750+ San Diegans in Support of Israel

Israeli-American actress, producer, author and social media influencer Noa Tishby told over 750 StandWithUs supporters on Sunday night that the fight against anti-Israel haters is “a marathon not a sprint” but predicted that “at the end of the day we’re going to be okay.” (Donald H. Harrison)

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Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Philanthropy & Volunteerism, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

S.D. Jewish Community Supports Shattered Israeli Sister City While Developing Holocaust Education Program Locally

Approximately 550 members and friends of the Jewish community on Saturday evening, Nov. 16, attended a dinner sponsored by the Jewish Federation of San Diego that was dedicated to helping people in southern Israel to rebuild after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre and to providing Holocaust education here in San Diego. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish History, Philanthropy & Volunteerism, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Technology, USA

Humane Society Gift Shop Items Provide Double Benefits

When I returned recently from a camping trip at San Elijo State Beach, it was with Chanukah items from the nearby thrift shop of the Rancho Coastal Humane Society. They were gifts not only for us, but also for the critters because all proceeds go to feed and house the animals at the society. [Cailin Acosta]

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Cailin Acosta, Holocaust, International, Israel, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Nova Festival Massacre Survivor Relates His Ordeal to Rancho Santa Fe Chabad Audience

Chabad Rabbi Levi Raskin hosted Shohan Cohen, who survived the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre at the Nova Festival. Speaking Wednesday night to a packed audience, the bright 21-year-old recounted the traumatic experience of witnessing death around him as cars and people were blown up. He survived by hiding under the concert stage with a plastic sheet he found. [Sandy Scheller]

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Holocaust, Israel, San Diego County, Sandra Scheller, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Daughter Pictures Life of Mother Who Died Two Hours After Giving Her Birth

Two hours after Lola Kantor was born, her mother died of complications in childbirth. Lola was given her mother’s first name, but, of course, she had no memory of her. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, International, Israel, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Violin is the Centerpiece of a Holocaust Story

Nazis pounded on the door and confiscated the treasured violin, throwing it onto a flatbed truck, breaking its string, and then putting it in storage in a cellar, where dust filled its body and extreme weather warped and cracked it.  In the years after the Nazis’ defeat, the cellar was found, and the violin located.  A luthier lovingly repaired it. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors

What Hitler’s General in the Netherlands Was Really Like

De Vries has every reason to express dismay about a man who admires Hitler, a man who wishes his generals were more like Hitler’s generals. For it is one of those generals, totally loyal to the Führer and blindly following his orders, who was directly responsible for the deportation of 110,000 Dutch Jews — 75 percent of the entire Dutch Jewish population at the time — to Nazi concentration camps. Only approximately 5,000 returned home alive after the war. [Dorian de Wind, The Moderate Voice]

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Antisemitism, Dorian de Wind, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, News Media, The Moderate Voice, USA

Editorial: Kamala Harris for President and a Democratic Slate for Congress

I am disgusted by the rhetoric at the Trump rally in New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday and alarmed that such major news organizations as The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have decided to make no endorsements in the presidential race. I was mulling endorsements before, but now I feel the time is imperative to take a stand, even though I know that whichever way I decide, I’ll disappoint some of our readers. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Antisemitism, California, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Israel, Opinion, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Comparing Trump to Hitler is Immoral, Misleading, and Potentially Dangerous

Comparing Trump—or any modern figure—to Hitler ignores the unique atrocities committed by Hitler, who orchestrated the genocide of six million Jews and millions of other marginalized people. The Nazi regime’s campaign of systematic extermination is unprecedented and incomparable to any contemporary American political situation. Equating Trump’s actions with Hitler’s dilutes the severity of the Holocaust and risks turning its horrors into mere political rhetoric, disrespecting the memory of those who suffered under the Nazis. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Opinion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Simchat Torah: Should We Dance or Cry?

As we approach the one-year anniversary [on the Hebrew calendar] of the devastating attack on Simchat Torah, a day celebrated as one of the most joyous in the Jewish calendar, we are confronted with a profound paradox. Over 1,200 people were murdered, and hundreds more were taken hostage. How can we reconcile such joy with such deep sorrow on this powerful day? [Rabbi Shmuly Begun]

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Holocaust, International, Israel, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Historical Fiction: A Look at What Might Have Turned a Troubled Boy into a Gestapo Persecutor of the Jews

This psychological probe into the life of Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo Butcher of Lyon, is highly readable piece of historical fiction starting with his boyhood as an abused illegitimate child and ending with his death in a French jail and reflections from contemporaries on his life and that of his most famous victim, Jean Moulin, leader of the French resistance. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, International, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Jewish Federation Cosponsors March of the Living Trip for San Diego County Residents

Jewish Federation of San Diego alongside trip co-chairs Sonia Israel, Shari Schenk, and Jeff Schindler, invite members of the local Jewish community on a deeply meaningful journey marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps during the International March of the Living in Poland. [Press Release]

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Holocaust, International, Israel, Jewish History, Press Release, San Diego County, Travel and Food