Jewish history

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  4/13/2022
  

  Is "Passover" a Mistranslation?

  "Jews will begin celebrating this holiday, which commemorates the exodus of the enslaved Israelites from ancient Egypt, on Friday night. In the Hebrew Bible, this festival is called “Pesach.” In English, it is known as “Passover.” But what if that’s a mistake?"

• 
• SOURCE: LitHub
  4/9/2022
  

  James Baldwin's Essay "Negroes are Anti-Semitic Because they're Anti-White" 55 Years Later

  by Jacques Berlinerblau and Terrence L. Johnson

  "He appears to be attacking one thing (i.e., the Jews), yet his true targets lie elsewhere."

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  3/29/2022
  

  Can the Past be Repaired?

  by Sophie Gonick

  Menachem Kaiser's memoir of attempts to reclaim a Polish building lost by his Jewish grandfather during World War II raises questions about the right to property as parts of historical memory, and the problematic aspects of seeking reparation through restoration of ownership.

• 
• SOURCE: WNYC
  3/25/2022
  

  One American Family's Debt to Ukrainians

  The writer Franklin Foer heard echoes of a family history in Putin's claims to "denazify" Ukraine. He went to Ukraine to investigate the story. 

• 
• SOURCE: Jewish Currents
  3/28/2022
  

  "We Need New Stories of Post-Soviet Jews"

  A team of historians and Jewish and Russian Studies scholars introduce a project to examine the more recent history of Jews in the former Soviet Union. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Metropole
  3/28/2022
  

  From Religious Separatism to Political Mobilization: "American Shtetl" Reviewed

  by Bob Carey

  A new book examines the growth of the Kiryas Joel community of Hasidic Jews in rural New York State, and the tension between religious community and secular power. 

• 
• SOURCE: CBN
  3/22/2022
  

  Dutch Publisher Recalls Anne Frank Book after Report Challenges Findings

  A panel of historians and other experts in the Netherlands concluded that the investigators had relied on poor readings of sources and fabrication to name a fellow Amsterdam Jew as the person who betrayed the Franks' hiding place to the Nazis.

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/22/2022
  

  Does Zelensky's Image Upend Stereotypes about Jewish Masculinity?

  by Miriam Eve Mora

  The emergence of Ukraine's Jewish president as an exemplar of wartime valor challenges longstanding stereotypes about Jewish men. 

• 
• SOURCE: Jewish Currents
  3/3/2022
  

  Our Oligarch? Do Roman Abramovich's Donations Link Major Jewish Philanthropies to Putin?

  by David Klion

  Abramovich was one of a number of Soviet Jews, excluded from the Communist Party, who moved aggressively into the post-Soviet economy, amassed great fortunes, and either held or fell from favor with Vladimir Putin. Are his enormous donations to global Jewish charities reputation laundering? 

• 
• SOURCE: Salon
  2/7/2022
  

  "Blacks and Jews" Authors: Whoopi Not the Enemy, but Gaps of Understanding are Real

  Attributing either the Holocaust or anti-Black racism to "man's inhumanity to man" ignores the specific roles of ideology and politics in creating systemic racism. The authors of a new book on Black-Jewish relations in America discuss how discourse goes astray between the general and the specific. 

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  2/1/2022
  

  The Banning of Maus: Even Dumber Than You Think

  David Corn says that for the students of McMinn County, "their intellectual development is being held hostage by board members who are stuck in another era, who find vulgarity in an old pop song, and who cannot be bothered to do their own homework."

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  

  Child Holocaust Survivor: Whoopi Goldberg's Remarks "Careless" and "Saddening"

  Survivor and Holocaust educator Joan Salter says that the TV host's remarks grossly miss the nature of antisemitic ideology, oppression and genocide under Nazism. 

• 
• SOURCE: USA Today
  2/2/2022
  

  Whoopi Goldberg's Confusion about Racism and the Holocaust Matters Because it's Common

  by Jonathan Zimmerman

  The TV host's remarks about the Holocaust illustrate the pervasive hold of the idea that race is a biological fact instead of a set of social categories that have changed across time and place. Historians should take this moment to educate rather than condemn. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  1/31/2022
  

  Dutch Publisher Stops Printing Book Alleging Fellow Jew Betrayed Anne Frank's Family

  Two Dutch historians of the World War II period argue the book's claims that Arnold van den Bergh turned the Franks over to the Nazis are poorly supported speculations. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/24/2022
  

  Yizker Bikher Books Commemorate Holocaust Deaths – but also Celebrate Jewish Communities’ Life

  by Jennifer Rich

  There is another way to honor those 6 million murdered: remembering the ways they lived, not only the ways they died.

• 
• 1/23/2022
  

  Antisemitism is Toxic and Persistent. It's Not Inevitable

  by Ralph Seliger

  International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27) follows an armed hostage incident at a Texas synagogue. The author reflects on moments when societies have chosen to embrace or reject antisemitism at moments of crisis and concludes that while the risk to Jews today is real, it is not inevitable.

• 
• 1/23/2022
  

  A Ten Year Old's Witness to the Liberation of Auschwitz

  by Bernice Lerner

  Jerzy (George) Ogurek had beaten the odds to survive in Auschwitz for three months when the Red Army arrived to liberate the camp. 50 years later, none of his colleagues at Boston University knew of his ordeal.

• 
• 1/23/2022
  

  For Child Survivors of Auschwitz, "Who Am I" was the Most Difficult Question

  by Alwin Meyer

  For child survivors of Auschwitz, efforts to reunite them with families after forced separation in the camp often proved to be an ongoing source of pain and confusion.

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  1/17/2022
  

  Will SCOTUS Uphold Claim of Heirs for Return of Pissarro Painting Stolen by Nazis?

  Lower courts have agreed with the Spanish government that US courts are not empowered to adjudicate claims of looted art; if the Supreme Court agrees it could chill further attempts to use American law to return artworks stolen from Europe's Jews by the Nazis. 

• 
• SOURCE: Times of Israel
  1/18/2021
  

  Outcry over Sparse Representation of Jews in Movie History at New Academy Museum in Hollywood

  The contributions of Jewish pioneers of film seem oddly invisible in the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures; some prominent donors hope this changes.