Holocaust

Beth Israel Lecture to Cover ‘Antisemitism in Visual Art Since the Middle Ages’

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — On Wednesday, January 18, from 7-8 p.m., the Congregation Beth Israel Men’s Club Speaker Forum presents, “Antisemitism in Visual Art Since the Middle Ages,” a lecture by Claudia Hercman. Hercman was born and raised in Buenos Aires, within the Argentinian Jewish community. She is a tour guide and translator. She […]

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Holocaust, International, Jewish History, San Diego County

Postwar Encounters with the Holocaust

My friend Susan Ferraro, who lives in a rural part of Northern California. tells me that since about the age of 7, she had fantasized about becoming a Jew. It started, she said, when she read Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl. As children often do, she imagined herself invulnerable; death being something that unfortunately happened to other people. If she had been born Jewish, and living at that time, she could have prevented those Nazis from hurting Anne and her family and those hidden with them in the secret annex. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Israel Greenlights Project to Document Holocaust Survivors’ Testimonies

(JNS) Israel on Sunday approved a proposal to allocate 3.5 million shekels ($1 million) toward documenting the testimony of Holocaust survivors worldwide. Addressing the final weekly Cabinet meeting of his government, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said, “Ten years ago, when I was finance minister, I was the driving force behind the decision to increase

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Holocaust, International, Israel

Yad Vashem Releases Rare Photos of Kristallnacht Pogrom

(JNS) A newly discovered photo album recently donated to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum, features rare photos of the events of the November Pogrom of 1938, termed “Kristallnacht” by the Nazis. The museum released the photos to the public on Wednesday. The album contains photographs of vandalized Jewish homes, images of Jews in dressing gowns

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Holocaust, International, Israel

Abraham Accords-Focused NGO Plans to Combat Jew-Hatred with Holocaust Education

By Jacob Kamaras LA JOLLA, California (JNS) — On Oct. 27, the fourth anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, hatred of Jews was a palpably inescapable reality in America—from the Kanye West scandal, to a series of antisemitic incidents in Los Angeles, to the discourse

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California, Holocaust, Israel, Jacob Kamaras, Middle East, San Diego County

Hitler’s Portrait and a Response to Antisemitism

Some of you may have heard about an incident at Carmel Valley Middle School, where a teacher there had on display, among several pictures of other historical figures, a photo of Adolph Hitler. When confronted by a student who protested, the teacher responded that while Hitler did some bad things he also displayed strong leadership qualities. Parents and community members were rightfully very concerned and expressed that concern to school district leaders. [Heidi Gantwerk]

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California, Heidi Gantwerk, Holocaust, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Lecturer to Discuss Holocaust Poetry Oct. 22

UC San Diego Literature Prof. Amelia Glaser, who has specialized in Jewish studies, will lecture on “Babyn Yar in Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry” at 7 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 22, at Temple Emanu-El, 6299 Capri Drive, San Diego.  The lecture focuses on the Nazi execution of 33,771 Jews at a ravine Sept. 29-30, 1941, and the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s memorial poem written 20 years later. [Temple Emanu-El News Release]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Holocaust, International, Jewish History

Getting it Wrong on FDR and the Holocaust

By Rafael Medoff The latest film from Ken Burns, “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” has aroused controversy with its claim that President Franklin D. Roosevelt did his best to help save Jews from the Nazis. As Donald Harrison notes in his October 5 column, filmmakers Burns, Sarah Botstein, and Lynn Novick contend that “FDR would

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Holocaust, International, Opinion, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Pros and Cons of Ken Burns’ Holocaust Documentary

Many readers of San Diego Jewish World know Baron via his political satire columns, but I asked my colleague to put his hat back on as a Holocaust scholar to assess how well Burns’ documentary had covered the subject.[Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Jewish History, Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Bringing to Life, Through the Arts, the Victims of the Holocaust

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — We Are the Tree of Life (WATTOL) founder and director, Jackie Gmach, is adept at recognizing talent and recruiting them to participate in her initiative. In Israeli-born dancer and circus performer, Tammuz Dubnov, Gmach struck gold. Dubnov is not only young, handsome and talented, but he is committed to

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Eileen Wingard, Holocaust, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

How Books Were Somehow Protected in One of Hitler’s Death Camps

By Dorian de Wind The Moderate Voice AUSTIN, Texas — If you thought that book burnings were a barbaric relic of the Middle Ages, think again. In the 1930s, in Nazi Germany, Austria and, later, in occupied territories, the Nazis conducted massive burnings of books they felt contained anti-Nazi ideology – including books written by

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorian de Wind, Holocaust, International, Opinion

UCSD Announces Holocaust Living History Workshop Schedule

How did the exploitation of men, women, and children in countless camps across Europe and North Africa fit into National Socialist ideology? What was the role of fascism in this ideology? And how did the victorious allies punish the Nazis for imprisoning and enslaving hundreds of thousands of people? All too often these questions are sidelined by the understandable focus on mass murder. Despite major advances in Holocaust historiography over the last several decades, however, scholars still grapple with these issues. [UCSD Holocaust Living History Workshop news release]

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California, Holocaust, International, Jewish Religion, San Diego County