Holocaust Memorial of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation in Florida

27 January 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Miami / South Florida, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Daniel Di Palma/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Daniel Di Palma/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Holocaust Memorial of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation is a Holocaust memorial at 1933-1945 Meridian Avenue, in Miami Beach, Florida.   read more…

Ecclesia and Synagoga ✝ ✡

26 December 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Ecclesia and Synagoga of Notre Dame de Paris © Ingsoc/cc-by-sa-3.0

Ecclesia and Synagoga of Notre Dame de Paris © Ingsoc/cc-by-sa-3.0

Ecclesia and Synagoga, or Ecclesia et Synagoga in Latin, meaning “Church and Synagogue” (the order sometimes reversed), are a pair of figures personifying the Christian Church and the Jewish synagogue, that is to say Judaism, found in medieval Christian art. They often appear sculpted as large figures on either side of a church portal, as in the most famous examples, those at Strasbourg Cathedral. They may also be found standing on either side of the cross in scenes of the Crucifixion, especially in Romanesque art, and less frequently in a variety of other contexts.   read more…

Hanukkah 🕍 🕎

25 December 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

© YB13D/cc-by-sa-4.0

© YB13D/cc-by-sa-4.0

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. This year, Hanukkah begins on 25 December and ends on 2 January 2025.   read more…

Portrait: Simone Veil, first President of the European Parliament and Holocaust survivor

25 December 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, Portrait Reading Time:  7 minutes

in 1982 © European Union

in 1982 © European Union

Simone Veil was a French magistrate, Holocaust survivor, and politician who served as Health Minister in several governments and was President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, the first woman to hold that office. As health minister, she is best remembered for advancing women’s rights in France, in particular for the 1975 law that legalized abortion, today known as the Veil Act (French: Loi Veil). From 1998 to 2007, she was a member of the Constitutional Council, France’s highest legal authority.   read more…

Dutch National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam

16 November 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  8 minutes

Nationaal Holocaust Museum © Ceescamel

Nationaal Holocaust Museum © Ceescamel

The Dutch National Holocaust Museum (Dutch: Nationaal Holocaust museum) is the first official museum on the Holocaust in the Netherlands. It is located in an historic building in the Jewish Cultural Quarter of Amsterdam, near a former child care center that played a role in rescuing Jewish children. The museum tells the story of the Holocaust through the lives of individual victimised men, women, and children. There is a floor-to-ceiling display of all the laws limiting and obliterating the rights of Jews in the Netherlands, who since the eighteenth century had been Dutch citizens with equal rights.   read more…

The MS St. Louis and the Voyage of the Damned

9 November 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hamburg Reading Time:  12 minutes

Memorial plaque to the Voyage of the Damned at St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken, Brücke 3, Hamburg, Germany © Ajepbah/cc-by-sa-3.0

Memorial plaque to the Voyage of the Damned at St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken, Brücke 3, Hamburg, Germany
© Ajepbah/cc-by-sa-3.0

MS St. Louis was a diesel-powered ocean liner built by the Bremer Vulkan shipyards in Bremen for Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). She was named after the city of St. Louis, Missouri. She was the sister ship of Milwaukee. St. Louis regularly sailed the trans-Atlantic route from Hamburg to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and New York City, and made cruises to the Canary Islands, Madeira, Spain; and Morocco. St. Louis was built for both transatlantic liner service and for leisure cruises.   read more…

First anniversary of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel

7 October 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  14 minutes

© Ecrusized/Rr016/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Ecrusized/Rr016/cc-by-sa-4.0

On 7 October 2023, the paramilitary wings of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and the DFLP launched a series of coordinated armed incursions into the Gaza envelope of neighboring Israeli territory, the first invasion of Israel since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. This incursion fell on the day of Simchat Torah, right after the festival of Sukkot, a Sabbath day. The attacks initiated the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, almost exactly 50 years after Operation Badr and the greater Yom Kippur War of 6 October 1973. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups named the attacks Operation Al-Aqsa Flood (or Deluge), while in Israel they are referred to as Black Saturday or the Simchat Torah Massacre and internationally as the 7 October attack.   read more…

Jodenbuurt in Amsterdam

1 October 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  6 minutes

© flickr.com - Paul Arps/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – Paul Arps/cc-by-2.0

The Jodenbuurt (Dutch: Jewish neighbourhood) is a neighbourhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands. For centuries before World War II, it was the center of the Dutch Jews of Amsterdam — hence, its name (literally: Jewish quarter). It is best known as the birthplace of Baruch Spinoza, the home of Rembrandt, and the Jewish ghetto of Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.   read more…

Dirndl

28 September 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

© Adam Jones, Ph.D/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Adam Jones, Ph.D/cc-by-sa-3.0

A dirndl is a feminine dress which originated in German-speaking areas of the Alps. It is traditionally worn by women and girls in Austria, Bavaria (south-eastern Germany), Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Alpine regions of Italy (South Tyrol). A dirndl consists of a close-fitting bodice with a low neckline, a blouse worn under the bodice, a wide high-waisted skirt and an apron.   read more…

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