Jewish history

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  11/30/2021
  

  Hanukkah Today Would Make the Maccabees Roll Over In Their Graves

  The holiday's modern popularity as a Christmas analogue for assimiliated Jews is ironic; the Maccabees sought both to overthrow Greek rule in Judea and to end Hellenistic Judaism.

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  10/26/2021
  

  Do Liberal Activists Need to Reconnect with the Religious Left?

  by Julian Zelizer

  The rise of conservatism in Christian political engagement and the increasing importance of Israel to many American Jewish organizations should not discourage liberal activists from reviving the legacy of Rabbi Abraham Heschel and interfaith social justice organizing. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  10/14/2021
  

  Is the Academy's New Museum Neglecting the Jewish Pioneers of Hollywood?

  "After touring the museum’s seven stories, I discovered that Hollywood’s pioneers, who busted their tucheses building the industry it celebrates, ended up on the cutting room floor."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  10/19/2021
  

  "This Obstinate Little Man": Tom Segev on Ben-Gurion as the King Lear of Zionism

  "Ben-Gurion was not a saint and should not be made into one posthumously. An unvarnished account of his vices is essential, but so is an appreciation of his merits." A reviewer says Tom Segev's new biography sheds little light on his influence over the Zionist movement and the Israeli state.

• 
• SOURCE: Jewish Telegraphic Agency
  10/10/2021
  

  Latvia Grants Holocaust Restitution, Denies Responsibility

  Many Latvians today insist that their nation was a victim of Nazi aggression, rather than complicitous in antisemitic atrocities. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  10/7/2021
  

  Anne Frank's Complete Manuscripts Available Online for First Time

  "In addition to providing historical context, the digitized edition delves into the material details of the manuscripts, from the writing materials Frank used to the annotations and photographs she added to her diary."

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  9/13/2021
  

  A Fringe Group Attacked Anne Frank; A Writer Reflects on How Her Story Became Central to School Lessons

  "Something has gone wrong if the diary is taught widely while our current struggles with racism are verboten in schools. I took a deep dive into how her story has been studied, taught, rewritten — and exploited."

• 
• 8/22/2021
  

  The International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War were the First Jewish Resistance to Fascism

  by Giles Tremlett

  The International Brigades drew 35,000 volunteers to oppose the forces of fascism in 1936, including 5,000 Jews, who deserve recognition as the first armed fighters against the political movement that culminated in the Holocaust.

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  8/16/2021
  

  Appeals Court Sides with Polish Holocaust Historians

  The decision is seen as a victory for historians and academic freedom in a Polish political climate where denying Polish complicity in the Holocaust is part of right-wing politics. 

• 
• 8/15/2021
  

  Educating Teen Holocaust Survivors Holds Lessons for Teaching after Trauma

  by Bernice Lerner

  The author's mother survived Bergen-Belsen and was relocated to an experimental school in rural Sweden. Can her experiences and those of other young women students (and their teachers) shed light on the challenges of educating traumatized children?  

• 
• 8/15/2021
  

  Prologue to Annihilation: An Interview with Stephen Norwood

  by Eunice G. Pollack

  Stephen Norwood's new book focuses on the response of British and American Jews to rising antisemitism in the early 1930s, a period less frequently studied by Holocaust historians than the years after Kristalnacht.

• 
• 8/1/2021
  

  "Without Pressure from Germany": Hungary's Revisionist History of the Deportation of 18,000 Jews

  by Karl Pfeifer

  The Hungarian government has sought to deny and obscure its responsibility for the deportation of Jews beginning in 1941. 

• 
• SOURCE: Jewish Currents
  7/28/2021
  

  Selling the Holocaust?

  Writer Menachem Kaiser discusses the genre of Holocaust writing and the engagment of the generation of grandchildren of survivors with Jewish Currents editors Arielle Angel and Maia Ipp. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/24/2021
  

  Spain Pledged Citizenship to Sephardic Jews. Now They Feel Betrayed

  The Spanish government has recently begun rejecting most applications for citizenship from the descendants of Jews expelled from Spain during the Inquisition; most applicants under the initiative launched in 2015 had been accepted. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times
  7/9/2021
  

  UIC Prof. Richard S. Levy, One of the Foremost Experts on the History of Antisemitism, Dead at 81

  In addition to many articles, translations and contributions to books, Mr. Levy edited the two-volume 2005 book “Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution.”

• 
• 7/4/2021
  

  My Parents' Survival Story Implies A Broader 'Intersectionality'

  by Ralph Seliger

  The attack on Baghdad's Jews in 1941 underscores the ongoing vulnerability of Jews to mob violence. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  6/28/2021
  

  The Surfside Disaster is Our Generation's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Moment

  by Hannah Lebovits

  The deadly collapse of the Surfside condo building near Miami should be a call for Jewish Americans to protest for reform in the way that Jewish immigrant workers did after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/18/2021
  

  Children of the Holocaust Who Are Anonymous No More

  Researchers using digital enhancement have been able to identify some passengers filmed on a train transporting them to concentration camps; some of those identified are survivors. 

• 
• SOURCE: 60 Minutes
  5/9/2021
  

  The Ritchie Boys

  Stories from members of the Ritchie Boys, a secret U.S. WWII intelligence unit bolstered by German-born Jews.

• 
• 5/9/2021
  

  Reflections on Russia's "Victory Day"

  by Nadya Williams

  Russia's observance of Victory Day prompts reflection on the ways Holocaust survivors and their descendants lived lives shaped by this trauma.