At Copenhagen’s Jewish Museum, I climbed into a wooden rowboat, put virtual reality goggles over my eyes and was suddenly in a boat with Joseph, a Danish Jew rowing through his memories of escape and his feelings of sadness and loss. I was, for the first time, feeling the trauma that my family must have felt as they ran. International Holocaust Remembrance Day is soon upon us. On January 27, we will commemorate the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism.   In remembering the Holocaust, there is light amid the darkness. Many individuals ros ..read more

In the mid-1990s, the Paris-based historian Diana Pinto hoped that the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union would catalyze a fresh chapter in Jewish Europe. She envisioned a universal, non-Jewish public sphere that would stand for democratic values, in which Jews would interact as citizens in a pluralist context.  Perhaps nowhere has it been more difficult to enact this universalist vision than in Germany, where a commitment to remembering the horrors of antisemitism is cemented not only into the Jewish consciousness, but the national ethos. Yet today, many of Pinto’s ideas have be ..read more

The online game Fortnite is ordinarily an “online shooter” style experience, pitting masses of players against each other on an online battlefield, popular both for its fast-paced action and its highly memeable expressions and dances. While the game allows users to create their own maps and game modes, these generally haven’t strayed from the game’s fast-paced and combat-oriented tone. A new user created map, however, seeks to change that. The Voices of The Forgotten Museum, created by Luc Bernard, is a “map,” or user-created virtual space with buildings and other geographical features, in For ..read more

The dramatic uptick of antisemitism in America is the result of a near-perfect storm of factors. We know some of the major ones: Trump-era hangover, TikTok, and “normalization” thanks to celebrities such as Ye (Kanye West). But Holocaust education in schools may be yet another ingredient in this toxic stew. Wait, what? How could an effort aimed at educating children of all backgrounds about the most evil result of antisemitism actually be fueling it? Counterintuitive as it may be, this is the conclusion of well-known novelist and frequent Moment contributor Dara Horn in a new Atlantic magazine ..read more

By now it is widely recognized in the Jewish world that antisemitism is on the rise in America. According to the Audit of Antisemitic Incidents for 2022 released Thursday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), antisemitic incidents of all kinds rose 36 percent from 2021. Of these, 53 percent were against visibly Orthodox Jews. The 3,697 incidents in 2022 was the highest yearly total since ADL began its tracking in 1979. However the report also highlights a less-publicized element of that uptick: Antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault in middle and high schools, which increased by a stark ..read more

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a 2006 novel about the son of a fictional commandant of Auschwitz who befriends a Jewish inmate his own age, has been made into a film, a ballet and an opera. The hugely successful novel was described by its author, John Boyne, as a Holocaust “fable,” or morality tale, but it has faced sharp criticism by Holocaust educators and others in the Jewish community for distorting history and putting a feel-good overlay on a tragedy.  The book has been denounced by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum for its inaccuracies and unrealistic imaginings of what Auschwitz w ..read more

The Wisdom Project at Moment: Inspirational conversations with wise people who have been fortunate enough to live long lives. This week’s conversation is with Ann Jaffe, 91, a retired Judaic studies teacher from Wilmington, Delaware. Ann Jaffe was born in 1931 in the village of Kobylnik, then in Poland, now Belarus. When she was 10, the Nazis invaded Russia. They stormed her village, ultimately sending most of the town’s 350 Jews to almost certain death. Ann was one of only 32 survivors from her town.  The Nazi officer looked at her and said, “Are you the seamstress here in tow ..read more

I heard the story of Henny [Brenner]. I find it terrible how Jews were persecuted. She was such a strong woman and had to go through so much. I think there should be a movie made about her life. My brother Hardy and I received the letter containing these words, written by 11-year old Romy from the German town of Emden last year, after our mother had just passed away at the age of 95. January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and along with the grief and anger I always feel on this day, Romy’s letter gives me hope. She never met my mother, but developed an intimate familiarity with ..read more

About Actor David Strathairn, nominated for an Academy Award for his role as journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck, has dedicated himself to portraying great men. He’s currently performing as Jan Karski, the World War II hero who risked his life to carry his harrowing eye-witness report about the Holocaust from war-torn Poland to the Allied Nations and, ultimately, the White House, only to be ignored and disbelieved. Strathairn is in conversation with playwright Derek Goldman and Moment’s books and opinion editor Amy E. Schwartz about the play, Remember This: The Lesson ..read more

Moment brings you essential independent reporting from the Jewish community and beyond. But we need your help. Your support is critical to the work we do; every tax-deductible gift, of any amount, keeps us going. Thank you for reading and thank you for your help. Donate here. *wakes up to both Anne Frank and Holocaust trending* me: ah, so it’s going to be one of *those* days — sarah (@Smarahsplatt) September 16, 2020 I couldn’t have said it better myself at @Smarahplatt. I’m sure any proud member of Jewish Twitter felt similarly disheartened when they saw that both “Holocaust” and “Anne ..read more