Growing up in France, I often went to Italy for summer vacations and I even remember driving through San Remo in the 60s. Little did I know about the significance of such a small Italian town as it pertains to the history of Israel and the Jewish people. San Remo is the location […]
Growing up in post-World War II Paris, I remember my father telling me that during the German invasion of France, all Jews progressively saw their rights disappear and property being confiscated from them. He told me of his Jewish father Lucien Melnick who fought in the Great War of 1914-1918 as a French […]
This coming June, The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) will meet for their General Assembly in Detroit, Michigan. Among the many items on the agenda you can be sure to find BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). PCUSA is hoping to pass a resolution that would result in divesting from Motorola, Caterpillar and Hewlett-Packard because […]
This week, President Obama is on his way to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where he will meet with the Saudi King and his entourage. Most political analysts believe that this could end-up being a historic meeting comparable to the one that last took place in 1945 between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and then King Abdul […]
Demographics can tell us a lot about the way a society is evolving. Demographics can change our culture. Demographics can re-shape the political profile of a region or a country. They obviously can turn any economy around. What might be less known but nonetheless as important to understand, is that the world is […]
On November 10, 1938, simultaneous violent attacks on Jewish businesses, Synagogues and properties occurred all over Germany. Kristallnacht or “The Night of Broken Glass” was a new phase in anti-Semitism and it helped it to reach a point of no return. As the civilized world voiced its outrage at the violent pogroms, Hitler ignored it all and […]
This coming March, the third Christ at the Checkpoint Conference (CaTC) will take place in Bethlehem. The theme for this year's conference is taken straight out of the Lord's Prayer found in Matthew 6:10: "Your Kingdom Come". By their own declaration, the organizers of CaTC have a mission defined as follows: The mission […]
There is no doubt in my mind that organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League or the Simon Wiesenthal Center are instrumental in fighting bigotry and xenophobia in general and anti-Semitism in particular. They are very involved in tracking, exposing and fighting all kinds of anti-Semitism worldwide. Yet, I still believe that the best […]