Israel-Hamas War At 8 Months: Disastrous

On May 7, 2024 the war between Israel and Hamas begins its eighth month. Some 1,200 Israelis were murdered by 1,000 Hamas operatives on October 7, 2023. In the seven months since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. Among them, according to the Israeli Defense Force, were 11,000 Hamas soldiers, along …

Passover Reflections on Jewish & American History

 “No people has ever insisted more firmly than the Jews that history has a purpose and humanity a destiny,” Paul Johnson wrote in “A History of the Jews” (1987). Reflecting on Passover, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observed that in retelling the saga of the exodus from Egypt, Jews commit themselves to a “momentous proposition: that history has meaning” …

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia Have Deep Roots in American History. Writers Seek to Counteract Bigotry

Given the unprecedented, staggering rise in anti-semitism and anti-Muslim behavior in the U.S. since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, historian and author Dan Gardner points out on his Substack that Henry Ford, inventor of the mass production assembly line technique and founder of Ford Motor Company, led a movement of anti-Semites in the early …

Krastallnicht: What Happened On the Night of Broken Glass?

On November 9-10, 1938, a violent Nazi pogram against Jews occurred in Germany and Austria. More than 91 people were murdered. It foreshadowed the Holocaust. https://youtu.be/-y0uwd9QAYE?si=DWcgdtUFZ0_dhGOK https://www.history.com/news/kristallnacht-75-years-ago?cmpid=email-hist-inside-history-2023-1108-11082023&om_rid=%20~campaign%20%3D%20hist-inside-history-2023-1108

‘Israel’s 9/11.’ Global Instability

Militants from Hamas, the organization that has governed (or occupied) the Gaza Strip since 2007 after defeating the more moderate Palestinian faction Fatah, surprisingly broke through security into Israel and killed hundreds of innocent civilians at a music festival in Southern Israel over the weekend. Israelis were reportedly murdered in their cars, their homes, on …

Israel at 75: A Nation in Political Turmoil

DW Documentary: "The state of Israel is in political turmoil as it marks its 75th anniversary. While there is still no end in sight to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Israeli society itself is more divided than ever before. The founding of the Jewish state was a dream come true for Jews around the …

Holocaust Survivors in Post-War Germany

DW Documentary (German television): "May 1945, Germany. The Nazis have been defeated; the concentration camps were liberated. But tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors remain in the land of the perpetrators. DW tells the story of their struggle to rebuild their lives - and the present-day campaign to keep their memory alive." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rbAVmmZmps&t=37s "When World …

History of Jerusalem Is History of the World

In anticipation for a trip to Israel, I read Simon Sebag Montefiore’s book, Jerusalem: The Biography, in which he asserted that the history of Jerusalem is “the story of the world,” with so many illustrious characters in world history playing important roles there. Ironically, life is Jerusalem today, as violent as it seems to be, is less …

Dachau: A Walk Through Germany’s First Concentration Camp

History Underground: "Before there were places like Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Sobibor, there was Dachau. Located just outside of Munich, this was the first concentration camp of the Third Reich that became the model for all of the others. In April 1945, Dachau was liberated by men of the 42nd & 45th Infantry and 20 Armored …

What Happened Right Before Jewish Concentration Camps Were Liberated?

Channel 4 Documentaries: "A powerful, revelatory account of one of the most hideous crimes in human history told from the perspective of 16 Holocaust survivors, using restored colourised archive footage." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Fk2v0zQFU&t=45s