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Sep 6, 2026, 9:37 AM

The Judenplatz: Vienna Waits for You

There is a Vienna seen and celebrated, where tourists line up for a sense of majesty and the nostalgia of empire. They pass through the splendid halls of Schönbrunn Palace, beneath the chandeliers of the Opera House, and through...

Eliyahu V. Sapir

Sep 5, 2026, 5:42 PM

The face and the voice

TL;DR: Europe knows what to do with a Jewish face in a photograph: name it, mourn it, preserve it, learn from it. A Jewish voice is harder. It can disagree with the lesson, demand protection in the present, and...

Aug 30, 2026, 3:02 PM

HOW DARE YOU? Israel Is Not Your Political Playground

Photo Credits: Sabine Sterk ( AI)

Greta Thunberg may have contributed at least one immortal sentence to modern culture: “How dare you?” Whatever you think of her politics, the phrase was brilliant. Short, dramatic and endlessly reusable. So today, I am borrowing it. How dare you? How dare people...

Aug 24, 2026, 4:26 PM

In my city, the only Zionists are Iranians

Germany's parliament is moving to jail people for denying Israel's right to exist. It cannot enforce the laws it already has, and the people paying for that are Iranians. A man walked past an Iranian opposition rally in central Stuttgart,...

Alexander A. Winogradsky Frenkel

Aug 24, 2026, 12:40 AM

Tshurbes, Mud and blossoming

On August 24, Ukraine marks its Independence Day. In 2026 the date cannot be separated from the war that followed Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Yet another August comes to mind. On August 21, 1968, Warsaw Pact forces entered...

Aug 22, 2026, 9:29 PM

Jewish life and antisemitism in Athens

Aron Kodesh at Etz Chaim Synagogue (Photo: By the author John Meister)

On a quiet corner in the Thiseio district of Athens, two historic buildings stand directly across from each other. Together, they tell the extraordinary story of Greek Jewry. On one side is Beth Shalom, the neoclassical, marble-clad Sephardic synagogue....

Aug 18, 2026, 12:26 AM

My One-Minute Prayer at Birkenau

Every visitor to Poland arrives with a different story. Some come as students. Some come as historians. Some come because their grandparents survived. Others come because their grandparents never left. Each deserves to remember in their own way. Before we arrived, I...

Lauren Gladstone

Aug 14, 2026, 8:21 AM

Can You Belong to a Place You’ve Never Lived?

Above the orignal entrance to "De Dierense Shul". Photo taken by the author

I have never prayed in the synagogue in Dieren, the Netherlands. I don't know the rabbi. I've never attended a Shabbat service there or celebrated a holiday with its congregation. I don't receive its emails or know the people...

Aug 13, 2026, 8:37 PM

Rabbi Michael Molho of Thessaloniki

At times, this blog will highlight important parts of the history of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki. In this first post, we will pay homage to Rabbi Michael Molho. Rabbi Michael Molho (Thessaloniki, 1890-Buenos Aires, 1964) was a prominent rabbi...

Aug 11, 2026, 6:07 AM

Unholy Vows: The Wolf in a Bishop’s Robe

In March 1971, readers of the United Israel Bulletin were confronted by a headline that left little room for ambiguity: “War Criminal Remains a Free Man in U.S.” Its editor, veteran United Nations correspondent David Horowitz, opened with an accusation...

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