Scars of Israel’s ‘Numbered’

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on April 10, 2013

How the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum changed my life

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on April 3, 2013

My daughter, Ilana, then a young college student, asked if she could go with me to the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, on April 22, 1993 (the date was tied to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising’s 50th anniversary). I said: “I will be leaving very early.” She responded: “I’ll be up.”

‘Rachel Corrie’ on stage: agitprop or art?

By Tom Tugend
Published on August 23, 2011

“The American Jewish community has a problem keeping silent,” says scholar Michael Berenbaum, and he ascribes the “problem” to guilt over our collective failure to speak up during the Holocaust.

Should Israel care what we think? Should we care what Israel thinks? If not now, when?

Published on January 31, 2008

Should Israel Care?

The four pieces addressing the cover story have missed one aspect of the debate ("Why Should Israel Care What We Think About Jerusalem?" Jan. 25). The government of Israel, in making decisions on the fate of Jerusalem, is not operating in a vacuum. It is subject to enormous pressures by the international community that is acting in its own interest.

Almost every Arab country attended the Annapolis conference last November to influence and voice their interest in the ultimate outcome of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and on the issue of Jerusalem. Thus, decisions on the fate of Jerusalem are influenced by a large group of players whose considerations are not always aligned with Israel's.

Books: Kristallnacht’s memory revealed and recovered

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on November 2, 2006

Kristallnacht marked the end of Jewish life in Germany; a pivotal turning point in what later became known as the Holocaust. A generation is passing, but it is a generation that has left behind voluminous records, testimonies and memoirs, video recordings and diaries, letters and notes.

In 2003, We Are STRONG

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on December 4, 2003

Reichminister Joseph Goebbels delivers a speech to a crowd in Berlin urging Germans to boycott Jewish-owned businesses. He defends the boycott as a legitimate response to the anti-German "atrocity propaganda" being spread abroad by "international Jewry." April 1, 1933.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Today Is Different

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on December 4, 2003

The top 10 reasons why the vulnerability of the 1930s cannot be compared with contemporary Jewish vulnerability:

An Enabler of Genocide

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on March 8, 2001

Edwin Black's new book, "IBM and the Holocaust" (Crown) has generated significant interest. Full-page advertisements in the New York Times and other prestigious newspapers and interviews on the "Today Show" and other prominent television programs have all been part of its marketing program. Despite its many substantial problems, the work is important.

Rescuing the Spiritual Elite

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on December 14, 2000

The Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust: The Activities of Vaad-Ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1933-1945, Efraim Zuroff, Yeshiva University Press, 316 pages, $39.50

The Diminished Assault on Truth and Memory

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on April 20, 2000

In the wake of the Littleton shooting tragedy, a nation of finger-pointers has rounded up the usual suspects: media violence, guns, video games, the Internet. But for Jonathan Kellerman, this laundry list -- inevitably brought out in the wake of such violence -- omits one major source of responsibility: the perpetrators. "We'll blame society," says an unsurprised Kellerman. "And we'll forget about it until the next tragedy."
Kellerman is not being cynical or prophetic, just reflective.