anti-Semitism

Trump Expresses Condolences over Shooting of Israeli Diplomats in US Capital

Trump Expresses Condolences over Shooting of Israeli Diplomats in US Capital

President Donald Trump called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday to express condolences and his personal shock for the murder of two Israeli embassy personnel in Washington, D.C., Yaron Liszczynski and Sarah Milgrim.

Netanyahu thanked Trump for the efforts he and his administration have made to fight anti-Semitism in the United States.

The shooter Elias Rodriguez targeted an AJC event for young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum near the Israeli embassy. This was the first successful assassination of a foreign diplomat in Washington, D.C., since the car-bomb killing of former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in 1976.

Jewish Communities across Africa

Jewish Communities across Africa

Photo: Delegates from around the world attended the Jewish Africa Conference

The third Jewish Africa Conference, an event spearheaded by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Mimouna Association (Morocco) and the American Sephardi Federation (ASF), took place during April in Cape Town.

The conference was supported by the Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies, with a welcome address by chair of the board Adrienne Jacobson. Predecessor conferences were held in New York in 2019 and in Rabat, Morocco, in 2022. The event took place at the Old Shul, the SA Jewish Museum and the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town.

According to Wayne Sussman, director of the AJC Africa Institute who oversaw conference proceedings, “We all know that the South African Jewish community has made a rich contribution to Jewish life around the world. This is also true with other African Jewish communities. They have strong traditions and customs. Many made a huge impact on their respective countries. This conference allowed Jews from across Africa and scholars interested in Jewish African life today to come together and make sense of how we carry on building our respective communities and ensure we preserve our past properly.”

While we in South Africa tend to think of Jewish life from an Eastern European bias–because the bulk of our community is of Ashkenazi origin–Jewish life in fact traces a great deal back to Africa. With roots in ancient Egypt, Jewish religious and cultural practice are certainly a significant feature of the African continent.

Read more
No More Student Visas for Harvard

No More Student Visas for Harvard

Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday the cancellation of visas for foreign students at Harvard College.

The Trump administration had been demanding information from Harvard about misconduct by foreign exchange students there. Harvard refused to furnish that information.

Noem told Fox News current foreign student visa holders at Harvard would have to seek enrollment at other universities and Harvard’s participation in the foreign student visa program had been suspended, meaning no new visas would be issued for foreign nationals seeking to matriculate or continue studies there.

The Trump administration’s conflict with Harvard College stems from attempts to insure the civil rights of Jewish students and teachers be respected at American universities.

Hamas Activist Murders Couple, Wounds Two in American Capital

Hamas Activist Murders Couple, Wounds Two in American Capital

Elias Rodriguez, 30, from Chicago, opened fire outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., Wednesday evening just after 9:00 P.M. local time. Ear-witnesses inside the museum reported two volleys of shots which killed an Israeli couple leaving an event there and wounded two more. All four victims worked for the Israeli embassy adjacent to the museum. Rodriguez had been seen walking outside the museum apparently waiting for the event to end.

Event organizers required registration before divulging the time and place of the event, which was intended for young diplomats, according to media reports.

The suspect reportedly hid his gun outside then posed as a pedestrian fleeing the shooting to gain entrance to the museum. Security let him in. When police arrived on the scene outside, the young man began chanting “free Palestine.” He told police he was unarmed and surrendered to them, continuing his chanting in handcuffs.

According to media reports, Israeli spokespeople have said they will strengthen security at Israeli diplomatic installations around the world because of this event and rising anti-Semitism.

This was the first successful assassination of a foreign diplomat in Washington, D.C., since the car-bomb killing of former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in 1976.

Update: Media outlets have dropped the report of two additional victims wounded in the attack.

Holocaust Historian, Litvak Wife Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community

Holocaust Historian, Litvak Wife Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community

Noah and Frances Schoen (Milinsky) visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community May 12. The family lives in Pittsburgh. Noah is an historian and teacher who reseraches the Holocaust. His lectures discuss forms of anti-Semitism from prejudice to genocide. He was an eye-witness at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2012 when a gunman opened fire on the congregation.

His wife teaches children aged 11 to 14 and leads summer youthg camps. Her father’s family comes from Panevėžys and immigrated to America early on, preserving their Litvak heritage.

Chairman Gennady Kofman spoke to them about the Community’s current activities and showed them around the archive collection, and they talked about anti-Semitism in Europe and America. Kofman gave them a tour of the northern Lithuanian city focusing on Jewish heritage sites.

Read more
New Film Looks at Anti-Semitism on American College Campuses

New Film Looks at Anti-Semitism on American College Campuses

A new film called October 8: The Fight for the Soul of America was just released. Directed by Wendy Sachs with appearances by Debra Messinger and others, the documentary examnines the rise of support for Hamas on US college campuses since the October 7, 2023, massacre of Jews in Israel, and the concomitant rise in anti-Semitism in American academia and around the world.

An alternative title, October H6TE, is also circulating, and the subtitle is variously The Fight for the Soul of America and Globalize the Intifada (the latter appearing on official movie posters).

According to wikipedia:

The film covers the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. It describes how “anti-Israel sentiment came to a fever pitch in the immediate aftermath of the massacre” and argues such sentiment “morphed into anti-Semitism”. The film includes interviews with Michael Rapaport, Noa Tishby, US representative Ritchie Torres, US senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Sheryl Sandberg, Dan Senor, Scott Galloway and Mosab Yousef. It explores the organization Students for Justice in Palestine and argues that SJP promoted anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism on campus. The film also covers the role of social media in allegedly stoking anti-Semitism among young people.

Read more
Vilnius Cinema Denounces Own Israeli Film Week, Deletes Denunciation Post

Vilnius Cinema Denounces Own Israeli Film Week, Deletes Denunciation Post

by Geoff Vasil

The Skalvija movie theater in Vilnius hosted Israeli Film Week in early May as announced earlier.

Pro-Hamas protestors associated with the website palestina.lt decided to disrupt Israeli Film Week. According to one eye-witness a group of about 6 Hamas supporters entered one of the viewing halls and disrupted the film Seven Blessings (2023, Israel) being screened May 6. Movie theater staff asked them to leave and they reportedly did.

Skalvija then apologized to Hamas supporters on their facebook page, saying members of their “collective” were also anti-Israeli. They explained they had no choice but to host Israeli Film Week because they were not a commercial theater but an arm of city government, and that they had been ordered to show Jewish films. They said they hadn’t advertised the Israeli films in any way on their own website or through any other channels, and that the event was entirely funded by the Israeli embassy in Vilnius.

That post created public controversy and Skalvija “collective” leaders quickly deleted it. The municipality of Vilnius responded to the deleted post saying affiliates and agencies of the municipality were always welcome to discuss issues with the city, and that neither the municipality nor its agencies and departments were responsible for setting foreign policy.

{alestina.lt claimed they would protest Israeli Film Week from May 6 to 9 with daily pickets by 15 people or less outside. There were no further reports by eye-witnesses of protests inside or outside of the theater. Palestina.lt claimed on their facebook page the city of Vilnius had issued them a permit for a protest by up to 15 people outside the theater on May 6, the day 6 people reportedly entered a viewing hall and disrupted the movie..

University of Washington Breaks Up Hamas Sit-In

University of Washington Breaks Up Hamas Sit-In

The University of Washington in Seattle was the site of an attempted occupation by pro-Palestine protestors late Monday night. Members of the Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return (SUPER) group affiliated with the UW attempted to occupy and barricade the engineering library on campus, which was reportedly still open with student visitors. SUPER UW protestors outside addressed their own members with bullhorns, pushed obstables in front of the main doors and lit a dumpster on fire,

UW Police requested help from the Seattle Police Department and police in riot gear arrested around 30 protestors inside the building for criminal trespass after they failed to heed police instructions to leave the building in the early hours of Tuesday. The trespassers were booked into King County Jail.

The University of Washington released a statement the next day expressing zero tolerance for the property damage and alleged anti-Semitic statements promulgated by the Hamas supporters. They estimated the property damage came to around $1 million.

Protestors had brought bedding subsequently abandoned during the arrests and appeared to have planned an extended occupation of the building.

New Holocaust Education Initiative in Poland and Lithuania

New Holocaust Education Initiative in Poland and Lithuania

A new project called “Education against Anti-Semitism. Learn from the Past to Understand Today’s Challenges. A Selection of Multimedia Teaching Aids” began in April. Over 2 years project participants will create and publicize a varied selection of multimedia aids based on individual historical sources for use by Lithuanian and Polish teachers, history teachers, human rights educators and young people from 14 to 19.

The aim is to foster understanding of the current state of anti-Semitism and the danger of stigmatization and isolation through teaching about the Holocaust.

The coordinator is the Polish organization Ośrodka Karta. Partners include Fundacja Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej, Ośrodek Brama Grodzka — Teatr NN, Fundacja Pogranicze, Fundacja Otwarta Edukacja and the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The project is dunded by the EU but is editorially independent.

Integration and Inclusion Forum

Integration and Inclusion Forum

The Ethnic Minorities Department and the British Council are holding a two-day conference and discussion on integration and inclusion on May 22 and 23 at Novotel Hotel in Vilnius. Those wishing to attend should register by May 15 at www.inforum.lt.

The conference will host experts on minority integration and human rights, media representatives, politicians, members of Lithuania’s ethnic minority communities, foreign speakers and more.

The Integration and Inclusion Forum is part of events to celebrate Lithuania’s Ethnic Minorities Day May 21, which kicks off with an awards event at St. Catherine’s Church in Vilnius at 3:00 P.M. The awards will be given to those who have distinguished themselves through their work with Lithuania’s ethnic minorities.

Remembering the Victims at Ponar

Remembering the Victims at Ponar

Members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Lithuanian foreign diplomats, politicians and members of the community at large marked Yom haShoah at Ponar Thursday with a solemn ceremony, an air-raid siren, a moment of silence and speeches. Yom haShoah is one of several days on the calendar dedicated to remembering the six million victims of the Holocaust in Europe. In Israel air-raid sirens sound and all activities cease in memory of the dead on this day.

“I call myself a Lithuanian woman of Jewish ethnicity and I would like to live in my own country not in fear, and it’s not Jews who must combat anti-Semitism, it’s the state which must provide for the safety of all its citizens,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said at the event. She also noted there is still no monument to the Righteous Gentiles who saved Jews from the Holocaust in Lithuania, despite seven years of discussion.

“History isn;t just lines in a textbook and facts. History includes feelings which we must pass on to our children, that they might understand what children who witnessed the murder of their parents felt. What anguish mothers experienced seeing their children murdered. These are what should be the lessons of history,” she continued. She is one of the few left in Lithuania who heard stories of the Holocaust directly from her parents and grandparents who were victims of it.

Read more
How Yiddish Writer Chaim Grade’s Last Novel Was Rescued and Wrestled into Print

How Yiddish Writer Chaim Grade’s Last Novel Was Rescued and Wrestled into Print

Photo: Chaim Grade’s Sons and Daughters was originally serialized in the 1960s and ’70s in New York-based Yiddish newspapers (from YIVO and Alfred. A. Knopf via JTA).

The editors discuss how a previously-lost decades-old manuscript was found and pieced together. It’s being called “probably the last great Yiddish novel”

by Andrew Silow-Carroll, April 7, 2025

JTA–Sixty years after he first began serializing it in the Yiddish press and 42 years after publisher Alfred A. Knopf acquired the book, Sons and Daughters–the last novel by the late, great Yiddish novelist Chaim Grade–lands in bookstores this week. To call it long-awaited is an understatement.

How the novel came to be published in English translation is a story of family intrigue, literary detective work and dogged creativity on the part of its translator and editors.

The result, a sprawling 600-plus-page book about a rabbi in 1930s Lithuania and the different paths taken by his children, is “quite probably the last great Yiddish novel,” the critic Adam Kirsch writes in the introduction. Dwight Garner in a New York Times review calls it “a melancholy book that also happens to be hopelessly, miraculously, unremittingly funny.”

Full story here.

Second Civil Society Forum on Combating Anti-Semitism

Second Civil Society Forum on Combating Anti-Semitism

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky represented Lithuania at the second Civil Society Forum on Combating Anti-Semitism and Fostering Jewish Life held in Brussels on April 1 and 2.

The forum was set up by the European Commission.

More than 250 EU and international organizations, specialist and activists attended this year’s forum. Participants discussed strengthening social dialogue and new initiatives to increase mutual understanding. Katharina von Schnurbein was an organizer of the forum and is the EC’s coordinator for combating anti-Semitism, and is a friend of the LJC.

Read more
Lithuanian Administrative Court Blocks Removal of Nazi Monument in Ukmergė

Lithuanian Administrative Court Blocks Removal of Nazi Monument in Ukmergė

Photo: Marker commemorating Juozas Krikštaponis. Though the city was ordered to remove the bas-relief and inscription, they didn’t do so. Photo by Gediminas Nemunaitis

Ukmergės žinios, April 5, 2025

The Lithuanian administrative court for regions handed down a decision in the case of commemorative markers honoring Juozas Krikštaponis in Ukmergė (Vilkomir).

The cort found partially in favor of the plaintiffs and annulled a decision issued by the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania (Genocide Center) on August 23, 2023, calling for the removal from the marker stone of the image of the Lithuanian partisan and accompanying inscriptions.

Relatives of Krikštaponis, the Lithuanian Union of Freedom Fighters and the Lithuanian Association of Political Prisoners and Deportees opposed the decision by the director of the Genocide Center and took their complaint to the administrative courts.

The administrative court for regions found the Genocide Center’s decision to remove the bas-relief of Krikštaponis was made without adhering to the law, and that the Center failed to provide clear, specific and reliable evidence that Krikštaponis was complicit in crimes of genocide against Jews.

Read more
Hungary Welcomes Netanyahu, Leaves ICC

Hungary Welcomes Netanyahu, Leaves ICC

Hungarian president Viktor Orban welcomed Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on a visit to the capital Budapest Wednesday. Orban extended the invitation back in November. Shortly after the visit Wednesday Orban announced Hungary was withdrawing from ICC membership, joining non-members Israel, United States, China, Russia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Burundi and others.

Full story here.

The Rabbi on Shortwave

The Rabbi on Shortwave

by Borukh Gorin, lechaim.ru

It was the early 1980s. On the coffee table stood a VEF-202–heavy, solid, with the smell of plastic and Soviet electronics. Its long antenna, like a taut nerve, caught the voices of a distant world. On the dial–London, Paris, Monte Carlo, and between them the frequencies that carried what was absent from Soviet news: the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Liberty.

There was a whole world on shortwave. On Kol Israel, I listened to Jewish music–old songs that seemed somehow familiar and distant at the same time. On the BBC, Seva Novgorodtsev talked about Western music, which we only knew about from rare records copied onto reels. And Svoboda talked about things that our newspapers were silent about. About Jews in the USSR, who “don’t exist.” About refuseniks, who are not allowed to leave. About synagogues that are still standing, but people are afraid to come to them.

And there was also a religious program.

I listened to Rabbi Haskelevich. I always listened alone.

Read more
Panevėžys Commemorates Righteous Gentile Day

Panevėžys Commemorates Righteous Gentile Day

The Panevėžys Regional History Museum hosted an event to mark Righteous Gentile Day last week.

The Lithuanian parliament declared the day back in 2023 to coincide with Yad Vashem’s award of the title of Righteous Gentile to Ona Šimaitė back on March 15, 1966. She was the first Lithuanian given the distinction for her rescue of and aid to Vilnius ghetto inmates.

The commemoration in Panevėžys included speakers and a screening of the documentary film “Ponivez, Lithuania, 1932” about the Jewish community in Panevėžys or Ponevezh before the Holocaust.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman spoke at the event and delivered a message from Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky who was unable to attend in person.

Immigration Arrests Pro-Hamas Protest Leader at Columbia University

Immigration Arrests Pro-Hamas Protest Leader at Columbia University

March 9, 2025

A prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student encampment movement was arrested Saturday night by federal immigration authorities, who claimed they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney.

Mahmoud Khalil was at his university-owned apartment blocks from Columbia’s Manhattan campus when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the building and took him into custody, his attorney Amy Greer told the Associated Press.

Khalil has been one of the negotiators with school administrators on behalf of the anti-Israel pro-Palestinian student protesters, who set up a tent encampment on a Columbia lawn last year. He became one of the most visible faces of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia.

One of the agents told Greer by phone that they were executing a State Department order to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil, who graduated in December, was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that, too, according to the lawyer.

Full story here.