Michael Berenbaum
Michael Berenbaum is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute and a professor of Jewish Studies at American Jewish University.
Nine Reasons Why Biden May Not Have Called Bibi Until Now
I sleep far less comfortably worrying about the domestic issues dividing Israelis from another and the polarization of the American populace.
Understanding Blinken Through His Stepfather, Holocaust Survivor Samuel Pisar
Secretary of State-elect Antony Blinken was reared for his job by his stepfather, a Holocaust survivor.
The Certainty of My Vote for Joe Biden
The American people are in a strange place this fall, days before election day.
We are living through five crises simultaneously. A health crisis. An...
The Struggle for a Jewish History of the Holocaust
They were most willing to confront the dark side of Jewish behavior. Dworzecki’s admonishment: “Remain Silent or tell the whole truth.”
Chasidism Taught Through a Modern Lens in Two-Volumes
Judaism will be much enhanced by such adaption as has been this reader.
Steven Lowenstein, Distinguished Jewish Historian and National Book Award Winner, Dies at 75
Steven Lowenstein, a distinguished Jewish historian and accomplished social worker died on May 31, the 8th day of Sivan at the age of 75.
Born...
Rabbi Recalls the Life of Harold M. Schulweis, A Rabbis’ Rabbi
One of the few delights of this period of enforced home stay has been the possibility of reading all those books one has wanted...
The Last Sonderkommando, Jewish Prisoners Forced To Operate Gas Chambers, Has Died
Dario Gabbai, the last of the Sonderkommando — those prisoners forced to work in the vicinity of the gas chambers — died March 25,...
Lithuania’s Hidden Holocaust and the Writers Who Revealed It
“Our People: Discovering Lithuania’s Hidden Holocaust” is a powerful, poignant and painful exploration of the murder by bullets of Lithuanian Jews by Lithuanian nationalists...
How Ignorant Can They Be?
When Republican impeachment lawyer Steven Castor and Republican representatives implied Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman might have dual loyalty to the Ukraine, many Jews cringed....
Everything You Wanted to Know About German Jewry — and More
Recently, a group of scholars from Hebrew Union College, American Jewish University (AJU), UCLA and USC gathered to honor Steven Lowenstein on the forthcoming...
Jews Bar Jews From Their Own Synagogue in Poland
Last week I was in Poland for five days to participate in events marking the rebirth of Jewish life — not death — in...
Anti-Semitism: A Time for Concern, Not Panic
About a decade ago, I appeared on a panel with the late Robert Wistrich, who had coined the phrase “The Longest Hatred” to describe...
A Remarkable Life: From Arab Sahara to Jewish Los Angeles
As I read Ed Elhaderi’s powerful memoir — “Nomadic Soul: My Journey From the Libyan Sahara to a Jewish Life in Los Angeles” —...
North Africa and the Holocaust
As I was working with the team creating the Dallas Holocaust Museum and Human Rights Center, we decided to tell the story of the...
Simcha Rotem, Fighter in Warsaw Ghetto, 94
Simcha Rotem, who was among the last known fighters from the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, died Dec. 22 in Jerusalem after a long illness....
Capturing the Mind and Heart of Jimmy Carter
There has been a spate of White House memoirs in recent months, many intended to settle scores; publicize gossip, accusations and rumors to score...
Night of Broken Jews: Remembering Kristallnacht
The massacre of 11 people at the Tree of Life Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh has prompted comparisons to the 1938 attacks on the synagogues...
Pity Mahmoud Abbas
Only a confirmed hater of Palestinians — and a confirmed anti-Semite — could believe that they have the leadership they deserve.
Permit me to explain.
Last...
THE POLISH JEWISH STORY: A Historian Examines A Complex Relationship
Some books are timely, others are useful and still others are good. Joshua D. Zimmerman’s “The Polish Underground and the Jews 1939-1945” (Cambridge University...
Remembering Why We Must Remember the Holocaust
January 27th, the anniversary of the Soviet liberation of Auschwitz, is the day designated by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Observed...
The Matriarch of Beth Am: Rose Pilch Turns 100
When Rose Pilch was called to the Torah one recent Shabbat at Temple Beth Am, the entire congregation stood up in admiration and celebration....
Spicer and his critics are historically off
My Passover holidays were interrupted by the news, shared by friends in the synagogue, that the press secretary to the president of the United...
The paradox of today’s anti-Semitism
Jewish community centers and synagogues have received threatening calls. Headstones at Jewish cemeteries have been overturned in suburban St. Louis, Philadelphia and Rochester, N.Y.,...
Howard David Pilch, Attorney, Jewish Philanthropist, 69
Howard David Pilch, of Beverly Hills, died Aug. 30 at 69. An attorney, he was a former president of Temple Beth Am and a...
Howard David Pilch, attorney and Jewish philanthropist, dies at 69
Howard David Pilch, of Beverly Hills, passed away at the age of 69 on Tuesday, Aug. 30. He was a former President of Temple Beth Am and a prominent Jewish philanthropist.
With gratitude toward Donald Trump
No one compares to Adolf Hitler. He was incomparably evil. Nothing in American politics compares to Nazism. Nothing, not now – and hopefully never!
With gratitude toward Donald Trump
No one compares to Adolf Hitler. He was incomparably evil. Nothing in American politics compares to Nazism. Nothing, not now – and hopefully never!
Elie Wiesel, the moral force who made sure we will never forget the evil...
Elie Wiesel, the world’s best-known and most-influential Holocaust survivor, is no longer.
Jews could laugh everywhere, even in the Holocaust
Chaya Ostrower, “It Kept Us Alive: Humor in the Holocaust,” Translated by Sandy Bloom. (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2014) pp. 439.
