Kirk Douglas poses in 1950. (PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES (JTA) – Kirk Douglas, the legendary actor who portrayed legions of tough guys and embraced his Jewish heritage later in life, died at his home in Beverly Hills on Wednesday. He was 103. Over a career that spanned 87 films — including 73 big screen features and… Read more »
Israeli President Shimon Peres, center, meets with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, right, and former Major Leaguer Brad Ausmus, who will manage Israel's team in the World Baseball Classic, in Jerusalem, May 24, 2012. (Kobi Gideon/ GPO/FLASH90/JTA) WASHINGTON (JTA) — For decades, the joke in Israel went: How do you know when Shimon Peres is headed for defeat? When he announces that he is running. Peres — today Israel’s extremely popular president and on Wednesday a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom — always seemed doomed to… Read more »
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — President Obama made a simple and very basic mistake when he spoke of Polish death camps during the presentation of a posthumous Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a Polish resistance fighter who was among the first to report German atrocities in his country. The… Read more »
The White House expressed its regrets about President Obama’s use of the term “Polish death camp.” In a statement Wednesday morning, Tommy Vietor, the spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said the president “misspoke” during his presentation of a posthumous Medal of Freedom a day earlier to Jan… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — By the time he was 26, Jan Karski had been imprisoned by the Soviets, tortured by the Gestapo, and nearly drowned while escaping from a hospital in German-occupied Slovakia. Had he chosen then to end his service in the World War II-era Polish underground, few would… Read more »
