Michael Berenbaum

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Jan 31, 2025, 11:28 PM

I had a conversation with a devout Jew in synagogue last month, during one of the dark days of a very dark year. He is a regular at a daily minyan and always has a sefer nearby. He asked in despair:...

Nov 7, 2024, 5:04 AM

Reflections on Kristallnacht and its Significance in a Post-October 7th World

Eighty-six years ago this week, a series of pogroms took place in Germany and Austria. More than 1,000 synagogues were burned, their pews destroyed, sacred Torah scrolls, and holy books set aflame. More than 7,000 Jewish businesses were ransacked...

Nov 2, 2024, 3:10 AM

Yehuda Bauer (1926-2024): An Appreciation

A Tribute to Yehuda Bauer who died this week at the age of 98, productive to the very end, teaching to the very end, engaging in the most important issues of our time to the every end, He was a...

Oct 23, 2024, 1:10 AM

Why Don’t Israelis Like the US? Why Don’t They Wish Us Well?

The more I read of Israeli support for Donald Trump in the Presidential election, the more I am forced to ask why Israelis don’t wish America well? More than most countries, Israelis should know the peril of having a leader,...

Aug 16, 2024, 8:24 PM

Can a museum – any museum – ‘eliminate hate?’

Visitors view the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC on March 19, 2015. (Eliyahu Parypa via iStock)

True, Holocaust museums are at a crossroads, just not the way Edward Rothstein thinks they are

Feb 1, 2024, 9:45 AM

Lawrence Langer: An Appreciation (1929-2024)

Lawrence Langer (1929–2024) was the foremost scholar of the Holocaust in the field of literature and testimony. The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination (1975), his first work on the Holocaust, was followed by The Age of Atrocity: Death in Modern Literature...

Oct 25, 2023, 4:00 AM

By Michael Berenbaum and Gilbert Kahn -- When they began to operate in the spring 1942, they had a capacity of 800. By the time they were operating at full efficiency in 1943, 2000 Jews could be murdered in each of...

Aug 22, 2023, 7:24 AM

The political roadblocks to building a Romanian Holocaust museum

Is it antisemitism or a desire to dodge an honest confrontation with history that has torpedoed establishing this important institute?

Jul 30, 2020, 4:59 AM

Tisha B’av 5780

I’ve always found it comforting that—despite how tumultuous the world may be—the Jewish calendar remains a constant in our lives. As we observe another Tisha B’av this Thursday with fasting and lamentations, I am reminded of past summers when...

Apr 23, 2018, 1:08 PM

‘Schindler’s List’ at 25: How Steven Spielberg’s deeply Jewish story spoke to the masses

The 'girl in red' scene from the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List. (YouTube screenshot)

How this deeply Jewish story turned Steven Spielberg into a major moral voice of our generation

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About Me

Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, author and Emmy-Award Filmmaker. Former Project Director overseeing the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and former President and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.