All posts tagged: International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Massachusetts man threatened to kill Jews as antisemitic incidents rise

Massachusetts man threatened to kill Jews as antisemitic incidents rise

(RNS) — Federal authorities charged a Massachusetts man Monday (Jan. 29) with threatening to kill members of the Jewish community and bomb places of worship. John Reardon, 59, of Millis, Massachusetts, about 32 miles southwest of Boston, was charged with one count of using a facility of interstate commerce, in this case a phone, to threaten a person or place with harm via an explosive. According to the charging documents, Reardon called Congregation Agudas Achim, a synagogue in Attleboro, Massachusetts, last week and left a voicemail threatening to kill Jews. “The allegations here about the series of threats Mr. Reardon made against the Jewish community are deeply disturbing and reflect the increasing torrent of antisemitism across our country and right here in Massachusetts,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement. The charges are only the latest in a spate of antisemitic incidents this past week. On Sunday, a prominent Washington rabbi said he was kicked out of a Lyft ride and violently attacked by the driver. Rabbi Menachem Shemtov, the 29-year-old leader …

How many Holocaust memorial days do we need?

How many Holocaust memorial days do we need?

(RNS) — “So, did I hear that today is some kind of Holocaust memorial day?” A friend asked me that question this past Friday. “Yes,” I replied. “It’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day.” “Got it,” he said. “But, isn’t there also that day in the spring … ?” “Yes,” I replied. “That would be Yom HaShoah.” A respectful pause. “And then, isn’t there also one in November?” He was referring to the commemoration of Kristallnacht. His implicit question hung in the air: Why do we need three Holocaust memorial days? Why, indeed? Let’s look at the calendar of Jewish Holocaust memory — in the order of the cycle of the Jewish year. First: Nov. 8-9, 1938. Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, the true beginning of mass violence against the Jews of Germany and Austria. When Jews remember Kristallnacht, what are they remembering? We remember that we were passive, because this is what the Nazis did to us.  It is not only what the Nazis did to the Jews. It is also what the Nazis attempted …

Pope says Holocaust Remembrance Day reminds world that war can never be justified

Pope says Holocaust Remembrance Day reminds world that war can never be justified

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis recalled the extermination of millions of Jews in calling Wednesday for the upcoming Holocaust Day of Remembrance to reaffirm that war can never be justified and only benefits weapons makers. At the end of his weekly general audience, Francis referred to Saturday’s commemoration, which has become fraught this year given Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and a rise in antisemitism in Europe and around the world. “The remembrance and condemnation of that horrific extermination of millions of Jews and of other faiths, which occurred in the first half of the last century, help us all not to forget that the logic of hatred and violence can never be justified, because they deny our very humanity,” Francis said. Italy’s Jewish community has denounced a rise in antisemitic sentiment, including what leaders call the improper use of terms like “genocide,” following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel and Israel’s military response in Gaza. On Tuesday, the head of the umbrella group of Jewish communities in Italy, Noemi Di Segni, announced …

Elon Musk visits Auschwitz after uproar over antisemitic messages on X

Elon Musk visits Auschwitz after uproar over antisemitic messages on X

KRAKOW, Poland (AP) — Elon Musk, who has been accused of allowing antisemitic messages on his social media platform, X, visited the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp on Monday, saying afterwards that the tragedy of the Holocaust “hits you much more in the heart when you see it in person.” Musk toured the most notorious extermination camp established by Nazi Germany during World War II before attending a conference on antisemitism organized by the European Jewish Association in the nearby Polish city of Krakow. He admitted to having been “naïve” about the extent of antisemitism until recently, saying that is because most of his friends are Jewish and he has had little contact with it in his own life. “In the circles that I move, I see almost no antisemitism,” Musk said at the conference in a discussion with Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro. “And, you know, there’s this old joke ‘I’ve got like this one Jewish friend.’ No, I have like two-thirds of my friends are Jewish. I have twice as many Jewish …