Former schoolmates reunite after apology ad goes viral
The two have spoken several times on the phone, and look forward to meeting each other
On Yom Ha’atzmaut, we need passion, not stagnation
Without doubt, the Jewish community needs people with strong convictions and the willingness to speak out, writes Michael Diamond
Reparations – from the shtetls to urban America
It seems that partial justice is the only kind available in an imperfect world
Mimouna and Jewish-Arab cultural symbiosis
The history of Mimouna, the festival that traditionally marks the end of Passover for the Jews of Morocco, is unknown. It appears to have no clear basis in classic Jewish sources
A matzah factory on Ontario Street
Apparently, for reasons unknown, the matzah factory on Ontario Street, established in 1908, ceased operation after only a few seasons
BACKSTORY: The Belleville Jew and Orangeman
George Benjamin: the only known Jew to become a grandmaster of the Orange Lodge, the Protestant organization highly critical of Roman Catholicism
BACKSTORY: One foot in Belfast, the other in Peterborough
Literary scholar Leon Litvack now lives in Belfast but still fulfils the role of spiritual advisor and sometimes cantor for Beth Israel Congregation in Peterborough, Ont.
BACKSTORY: Dreyfus – From Devil’s Island to Auschwitz
Alfred Dreyfus: an innocent soldier caught in the greatest political convulsion since the French Revolution
BACKSTORY: Stalin and Hitler at the movies
It was in their infatuation with moving pictures as tools of propaganda and self-aggrandizement that Hitler and Stalin’s narcissism converged perfectly
BACKSTORY: Purim on the SS Negba
For the Holocaust survivors and North African Jews on the way to Israel aboard the ship Negbah in February 1951, the Purim celebration was significant
