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Oct 9, 2026, 6:32 AM

Treasure Trove: On Thanksgiving in Canada and Other Places

From the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, Toronto (www.herzlcollection.com). Photograph by David Matlow.

The Thanksgiving holiday which gives us this long weekend in Canada has a long tradition in our country. Long before European explorers arrived, First Nations across Turtle Island (for some Indigenous peoples, Turtle Island refers to the continent of...

Oct 7, 2026, 2:35 AM

No Disclaimers. No Retreat. Proudly Zionist.

The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin lights up with the Israeli flag in solidarity after a multi-front Hamas attack, October 7, 2023. (Press and Information Office of the Federal Government)

For years, many European Jews followed an unwritten rule: keep your head down, practice Jewish life quietly, and leave Israel out of polite conversation. The thinking was simple. If we kept our Zionism discreet, we could avoid conflict. We could...

Oct 1, 2026, 10:34 PM

Can Jews Live Freely in Berlin?

Berlin Governing Mayor Kai Wegner, left, speaks with Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal at an event in Berlin, Germany, before the September 20, 2026 state election. Jewish life and the fight against antisemitism have become central issues in the debate over Berlin’s next government. Picture: Michael Kuenne

After Berlin’s election, Governing Mayor Kai Wegner warns that the Left poses a security risk. But the deeper question is whether the city’s next government can protect Jewish Berliners’ right to live visibly, openly and without fear. If you live...

Donna Swarthout

Sep 30, 2026, 4:41 PM

Who Will Light the Menorah at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate this Year?

Anyone without the experience of an American Jew living in Berlin would be convinced of a new reality. The Left (Die Linke) party has won the September 20th Berlin state election and will now bring its antisemitic views and...

Sep 29, 2026, 2:53 AM

Of course the Berlin Die Linke is antisemitic. That’s the point.

To succeed, every populist party must name a clear enemy. For far-right parties, like Germany’s Alternativ fur Deutschland (AfD), it’s migrants. According to the AfD, migration is the cause of crime, violence, social decay, and economic stagnation. The identification...

Sep 28, 2026, 7:34 AM

A New Nazi Germany?

There are many reasons I care about Germany. First, my mother was a German Jew who survived the Holocaust but lost much of her family in Hitler’s infamous gas chambers. Second, I lived there for a while as a young...

Sep 27, 2026, 4:50 AM

The Europe Behind Lisbon’s Two Doors

The year 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of Portugal’s membership in the European Union (EU). The country joined what was then the European Communities (EC) on January 1, 1986, consolidating its transition from dictatorship to democracy. Four decades later,...

Sep 22, 2026, 1:21 AM

The AfD’s Rise Should Alarm Israel

Eighty years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, a party accused of harboring extremists and minimizing the crimes of the Holocaust has won a stunning electoral victory. For Jews in Germany, Israel and across Europe, the question is no...

Janet Bond Brill

Sep 9, 2026, 9:41 PM

An AfD Leader Called It a Monument of Shame. Edna Was Born at Miła 18.

My mother-in-law was born at Miła 18. In October 1934, the address meant nothing beyond the life unfolding inside it. It was an apartment building in Warsaw, on a street that had not yet been walled into a ghetto. Her...

Alexander A. Winogradsky Frenkel

Sep 9, 2026, 9:32 PM

Germany and the Geography of Memory

The Germany I Encountered The recent elections in Saxony are the occasion for this essay, but they are not its subject. Electoral results belong to the immediate political moment. The deeper question is what happens to historical memory when borders,...

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