Josie Glausiusz

Apply for a Blog

Dec 5, 2024, 1:18 PM

The Worst of It

At a meeting at the White House on April 13, 1938, Jewish leaders met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to plan a conference to to help political refugees from Germany and Austria, including Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins. Although the president pushed for an ambitious secret rescue plan, he opposed the 1939 Wagner-Rogers bill that would have permitted the US to take in 20,000 Jewish children from Germany in addition to the existing German-Austrian quota of 27,370. (US Library of Congress)

Stephen Miller prompted me to write this post. Yes, THAT Stephen Miller, Trump’s new “homeland security” advisor. The Stephen Miller who told the New York Times in November, 2023, that “Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers...

Sep 21, 2020, 10:50 PM

Raising Our Voices in Honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Candles left on the steps of the Supreme Court following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Credit: Rosa Pineda, via Wikimedia Commons

On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, at around 8 o'clock in the morning, a flock of sheep came ambling over the hilltop of Titora, on the edge of my town of Modiin, Israel. Their woolly presence seemed à...

Jan 23, 2020, 7:25 PM

Who is Honored at Yad Vashem?

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro during a visit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem on April 2, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

On Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, May 2nd 2019, I stood on the balcony of my home in Israel when the siren howled at 10.00 a.m. My feelings were some combination of sad, complicated and discomfited. As the daughter...

Jul 31, 2019, 9:06 PM

Savor the Journey

The Torah portion of Masei (“Journeys”) which we read this Shabbat in Israel, is one of my favorites. (In the Diaspora this Shabbat, it’s read together with the previous parsha of Matot, thus reuniting the two communities after three...

Jul 4, 2019, 6:59 PM

Stav Shaffir will have her day

Member of the Knesset Stav Shaffir speaks at a meeting in Modiin on June 24, 2019.

The MK gave me the time of day -- added to her fearlessness, willingness to speak hard truths, and pledge to rebuild the Labor party, and we've got a leader

Mar 31, 2019, 4:41 PM

Vote to Protect Our Planet

In the run-up to the elections here on April 9th, the burning issue in Israel -- will Benjamin Netanyahu be re-elected yet again as prime minister, despite facing indictment on corruption charges? -- has all but effaced the burning...

Nov 26, 2018, 12:25 PM

In memory of my two great-grandfathers, soldiers of the Great War

My mother Irene Glausiusz and I visit the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Ramla for a "Service of Remembrance and Dedication" on November 11th, 2018, the centenary of the armistice ending World War I

On November 11th, 2018, my mother Irene Glausiusz and I drove to the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in the Israeli city of Ramla for a "Service of Remembrance and Dedication," to mark the centenary of the armistice signed at...

Aug 13, 2018, 3:04 PM

Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue

Protesters holding signs at the Families Belong Together March in Los Angeles on June 14, 2018. Left to right: Jenni Shaw, Joshua Jacobs, Rachel Simmons, Shachar Cohen-Hodos. Photo credit: Aryeh Cohen.

Rummaging through my filing cabinet this morning, I came across a yellowed clip from the Jerusalem Post, dated May 15, 1992. “Saving Terrorist Ruled a Mitzva,” the headline reads. The article, by Judy Siegel, described how then-Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi...

Apr 10, 2018, 10:35 PM

The Sword on Top of the Wardrobe

When I was a child, my father, Gershon Glausiusz, kept a curved sword, in a sheath, on the top of a wardrobe in his office in our house in London. Although he had hidden it out of the way,...

Jan 21, 2018, 3:20 PM

A state founded by refugees does not expel refugees

Illustrative: Supporters of the African Student Organization listen to asylum seekers talk about their experiences studying at Israeli universities in Tel Aviv, on June 21, 2017. (courtesy Eli Tesma)

We have a country of our own, but we have not learned the lessons from our own appalling history

Load more

About Me

Josie Glausiusz is a journalist who writes about science and the environment for magazines including Nature, National Geographic, Scientific American, Undark and Hakai. Her Hakai Magazine article Land Divided, Coast United won the 2015 online media award from Amnesty International Canada. Follow her on Bluesky: @josiegz.bsky.social