Rohingya refugees are seen on the second anniversary of the Rohingya crisis in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Aug. 25, 2019(Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
(JTA) — She was 16 years old and alone in a refugee camp in a foreign country when we met her. Sobbing, she told us how she hoped that her brother might be somewhere in this camp, “camp number 18.” She had heard that he might be alive — if… Read more »
Sarah Jeong's anti-white tweets prompted a debate over the definition of racism and, subsequently, anti-Semitism. (Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA; photo: Wikimedia Commons)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Are Jews too powerful to be considered “victims” of racism? Some progressives think so and have been downplaying accusations of anti-Semitism in light of a debate over prejudice and power. This week, The New York Times took heat for hiring Sarah Jeong, a technology writer,… Read more »
The "Americans and the Holocaust" exhibition is on display at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Holocaust historians ask what Americans knew at the time, the focus often is on the politicians and lawmakers whose votes and initiatives may have mitigated the Nazi genocide against the Jews. An exhibit opening this month at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here asks the… Read more »
President Donald Trump watches the lighting of memorial candles during the annual Days of Remembrance Holocaust ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, April 25, 2017. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Donald Trump got the memo on the Holocaust and the Jews. In a barrage of statements this week from the president and his aides, the Trump administration wants you to know, he gets it, he really gets it: The Holocaust describes a genocide committed only… Read more »
Peter Hayes The Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum will explore “The Holocaust: What Do We Need to Know Now?” with a free lecture on Monday, March 13 at 10 a.m. Peter Hayes, chair of the academic committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, will identify the central questions… Read more »
A view of the interior of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2010. (Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An exhibit over 20 years old against an iPhone: Docents at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum are increasingly noting the battle with hand-held devices to keep the interest of young people. Now a $20 million gift to help revitalize the Washington, D.C., museum will aim to… Read more »
BOSTON (JTA) – On a recent morning, a group of seventh-graders in Natick, Massachusetts, was absorbed in a video of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s acceptance speech of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. “Why did he win?” asked their teacher, Tracy Sockalosky. She guided the discussion to the importance of remembrance, a… Read more »
Left to right, Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane von Furstenberg and Andy Cohen at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's event in New York, Feb. 26, 2013. (Neilson Barnard) NEW YORK (JTA) — Diane von Furstenberg takes a seat at her long, farm table-inspired desk inside her office on the fifth floor in this city’s Meatpacking District. The studio is so vividly colored, so overly patterned and so decked out in exotic tchotchkes, von Furstenberg is one of… Read more »
(Jewish Ideas Daily) — On July 10th, dignitaries from the U.S., German, and Israeli governments attended a celebratory ceremony at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum marking the 60th anniversary of the first agreement between the West German and Israeli governments and the Jewish “Claims Conference” to grant modest financial… Read more »
President Obama embraces Elie Wiesel before delivering a speech about the Holocaust and its meaning at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, April 23, 2012. (Courtesy USHMM) WASHINGTON (JTA) — One by one, the emails from the White House arrived in inboxes across Washington on Monday morning, each highlighting a unique initiative toward a different corner of the globe: Syria. Iran. Uganda. The unifying factor was the president’s appearance that day at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial… Read more »
Sol Factor, who was given up by a mother who was in a displaced persons' camp, is looking for information about his family tree. (Courtesy Sol Factor) The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — Sol Factor recalls a happy childhood in circa-1950s Boston suburbia with his physician-father Joseph, teacher-mother Bernice and younger sister Rachel. His first life, as Meier Pollak — born in 1946 near a displaced persons’… Read more »
JTA’s new “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — Even after seven decades, Peter Nurnberger’s most basic biographical facts remain elusive. The Slovakian doesn’t know his birth date, his natural parents’ fate or whether they had any other children. Peter’s adoptive parents… Read more »
