Czech Senate to consider property restitution

Published on July 16, 2012

Czech Jewish leaders said they hoped their Senate would approve restitution of confiscated religious property.

Monument honors helpers of Czech Jewish family that hid in woods from Nazis

Published on April 10, 2012

Nearly 70 years after a Czech Jewish family sought refuge from the Nazis by retreating into a nearby forest and relying on non-Jewish locals for help, an American high school teacher has helped erect a permanent monument to their memory.

At Chanukah, Czech Jews marvel at blessings of Havel’s revolution

Published on December 22, 2011

On the first night of Chanukah, I stood in the splendid reception hall of the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Prague as the ambassador himself lit the first candle in an imposing gilded menorah and chanted the blessings over the flames.

For Jews, Vaclav Havel wasn’t just a friend but a champion of freedom

Published on December 20, 2011

Vaclav Havel was a friend of the Jews and of Israel, but prominent Jews who mourned his passing this week said the Czech leader’s greatest legacy was his universal message of freedom.

Czech Jews mourn Vaclav Havel, revolution leader and ex-Czech president

Published on December 19, 2011

Along with their fellow countrymen, Czech Jews mourned the death of former President Vaclav Havel.

Czech Holocaust memorial is vandalized

Published on August 15, 2011

Vandals spray-painted graffiti on a Holocaust memorial in the Czech Republic.

Countries agree on rules for restitution

Published on June 10, 2010

Some 43 countries have agreed on non-binding rules for the restitution of property seized by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Czech politician quits over gay, Jewish comments

Published on April 1, 2010

Derogatory comments by the Czech Republic's former prime minister about Jews, gays and the Catholic Church led Thursday to his resignation as chairman of his conservative political party.

Mirek Topolanek had been under strong pressure from within his Civic Democratic Party to step down following the comments to the editorial staff of the gay magazine Lui. He announced last week that he would not lead his party's campaign in a May 28-29 election or run as a candidate.

Czech ODS Party Seeks Revival After Chairman’s Comments on Jews

Published on March 26, 2010

The Czech Civic Democrat party, which has ruled since 2006, named Deputy Chairman Petr Necas, 45, as number one on its election list yesterday, replacing Chairman and former Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.

Czech Republic: Doctors’ Group Apologizes to Jews

Published on March 19, 2010

A Czech doctors’ organization apologized to Jewish doctors Thursday for the persecution they endured in pre-World War II Czechoslovakia, an official of the organization said. In October 1938, before the Nazis invaded, organizations of Czechoslovak doctors, lawyers and others issued a memorandum urging the government “to take energetic measures” to prevent Jews from practicing. “We apologize for what our predecessors did to you,” stated a document by the Czech Medical Chamber in Prague. Many Jewish doctors lost their jobs when the government banned them from working in state institutions. The Czech bar association issued a similar apology a year ago.

Israel flag flies,  a Czech surprise, voter fraud, bridge to understanding

Published on October 10, 2008

" . . . The blue and white now waves proudly on prestigious Wilshire, along with the Stars and Stripes. And we are all the more enriched for it. Kol hakavod! . . "

Books: Czech teen’s words and art put a face on the Holocaust for me

By Daniel A. Olivas
Published on June 7, 2007

Ginz was a Czech Jew, born in 1928, who died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz at the age of 16. His diary had been lost for 60 years but resurfaced in 2003.

Congress OKs bill barring military chaplains from mentioning Jesus in official prayers

Published on October 5, 2006

Briefs courtesy of Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Community Briefs

By Melissa Maroff
Published on May 4, 2006

Community Briefs

A Tale of Two Torahs

By Andrea Adelson
Published on October 3, 2002

About this time two years ago, congregants of Tustin's Congregation B'nai Israel lined their synagogue's sanctuary, making a human chain as Rabbi Eli Spitz unrolled a 150-year-old Czech Torah that survived the Holocaust. In places, its letters were faded and illegible making it un-kosher, ritually unfit for use.

Test of Fear

By Tom Tugend
Published on June 7, 2001

Millions of civilians faced the ultimate test of character when Nazi armies occupied their countries and started deporting their Jewish neighbors.

Remembrance Through Art

By Tom Tugend
Published on December 14, 2000

The Holocaust, impossible to grasp in its entirety, has been depicted, in part, through every conceivable format and medium. Two joint exhibitions, now at The Jewish Federation's Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, surprise with new and affecting insights into the measureless catastrophe.

A Miracle Reawakened

By Magnus Bennett
Published on June 15, 2000

The fading Hebrew inscriptions that adorn the walls of a small storeroom in the town of Terezin can be seen in virtually any synagogue around the globe.But thousands of Jews have been flocking to the recently discovered room because of its unique role in history - as a makeshift synagogue during the former Czech ghetto's darkest days.

Forwarding a Hoax

By Richard Allen Greene
Published on May 11, 2000

Heard the one about the father who told his children he was leaving their mother in order to get them to come home for Passover?

Art as History’s Witness

Published on October 22, 1998

It was 1942 when 29-year-old Eli Leskley, a Czech-born Jew, was sent to Theresienstadt, a fortified ghetto 50 kilometers from Prague. As a visual artist, he was assigned to the sign workshop, where he had access to paper, paint, ink, pencils and other art supplies. With what must have been a combination of remarkable courage and an overpowering need to document what transpired there, Leskley secretly painted dozens of prison-life scenes, mostly with watercolors and ink on office-sized paper taken from the workshop.

Art as History’s Witness

By Diane Arieff
Published on June 26, 1997

Paintings from Terezin are on exhibit at the Jewish Federation Building