TEL AVIV, Israel — Sitting on a thin mattress in an underground bomb shelter that reeked of urine, Tasfa Mara said he’s happy where he is. The 24-year-old Eritrean escaped forced conscription, beatings and a treacherous trek across three countries before reaching his promised land. “Only Israel safe,” he said in patchy English, his hands and feet heavily bandaged from … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP)- Israel’s Holocaust memorial launched an Arabic version of its Web site Thursday, including vivid photos of Nazi atrocities and video of survivors’ testimony, to combat Holocaust denial in the Arab and Muslim world. Among those featured on the Yad Vashem site is Dina Beitler, a survivor of the Nazi genocide that killed 6 million Jews in World War … Read More
JERUSALEM — Israel’s government on Monday endorsed the ambitious plan of a private entrepreneur to install the world’s first electric car network here by 2011, with half a million recharging stations to crisscross the tiny nation. Supporters hailed the undertaking as a bold step in the battle against global warming and energy dependency, but skeptics warned that much could still … Read More
SDEROT, Israel – Worn down by thousands of rockets fired from the nearby Gaza Strip, an estimated one-seventh of the people of this Israeli town have fled. Many more say they would go if they could. The mayor says life here has become “impossible.” This is all welcome news to Gaza’s Islamic militants, who say their goal is to turn … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — In 1942, 8-year-old Moshe Bar-Yuda walked hand-in-hand with his father to a collection point in his hometown in Slovakia and watched him being shipped off to a Nazi labor camp. The boy never saw him again, and for 66 years was left to wonder about his father’s fate. Because of a newly opened Nazi archive, the mystery … Read More
ABU DIS, West Bank – With the Muslim call to prayer wailing from a mosque, some 20 Palestinian students crowd into a classroom on the outskirts of Jerusalem to study the origins of the Jewish state. The Israel studies program at Al Quds University in the West Bank claims to be the first in the Arab world, drawing an eclectic … Read More
JERUSALEM — A teary-eyed President Bush stopped in front of an aerial photo of Auschwitz on Friday at Israel’s Holocaust memorial and said the U.S. should have sent bombers to prevent the extermination of Jews there. Yad Vashem’s chairman, Avner Shalev, quoted Bush as saying the U.S. should have “bombed it.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush referred to … Read More
JERUSALEM — Sixty years after jumping off a bridge to his death, the last descendant of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, was buried Wednesday in a Jerusalem cemetery bearing his grandfather’s name _ bringing an end to a torturous family saga and finally fulfilling Herzl’s century-old will. Herzl’s son also committed suicide. He had a daughter who was … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — In 1939, 5-year-old Erna Blitzer left France with her parents and older sister for a vacation to visit relatives in Poland. They never made it home. She was on the run from the Nazis for the next five years. During that time, she watched her mother die. Her father was forced to witness the execution of his wife’s … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of trees line Yad Vashem’s Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, honoring the people who saved Jews during World War II. On Monday, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial honored its first “righteous tree,” a hollow 33-foot high birch that hid Jakob Silberstein as he escaped Auschwitz. Polish-born Silberstein, 83, recently returned to the Czech countryside to recover … Read More
MOSHAV HIBAT ZION, Israel — The charred hut and blackened chimney are all that remain of what was one of Israel’s best-kept secrets. It was the Jewish state’s first and only crematorium. But more than that, it was a symbol. To secular Jews it meant the right to choose one’s own exit from this world. To religious Jews it was … Read More
TEL AVIV, Israel — Shahar Peer is wearing an olive green military uniform now, far removed from her star turn at the U.S. Open two weeks ago. Peer, ranked No. 16 in women’s tennis, made it to the quarterfinals in New York. But in a country where military service is mandatory, the Israeli player has other duties these days. She … Read More
Published in Fall 2007 edition of Guilt & Pleasure magazine. Aunt Jeanette passed away on Oct. 16, 2008 [url href=”http://aronheller.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Aunt-Jeanette.pdf” content=”See ‘Globe and Mail’ obituary” target=external] I remember visiting my Aunt Jeanette’s cluttered, mothball-smelling apartment in Toronto as a teenager. Inspecting her collection of memorabilia, I stumbled upon a black-and-white photo from the 1930s of a stunning woman in provocative … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) – Police said Sunday they have broken up a cell of young Israeli neo-Nazis accused of a string of brutal racist and anti-Semitic attacks, videos of which were played on television to a stunned national audience. The eight suspects, all immigrants from the former Soviet Union in their late teens or early 20s, are seen in the videos … Read More
PETAH TIKVA, Israel (AP) _ My first childhood dream was to be a major league baseball player. My second was to be a broadcast journalist. It’s always good to have a backup plan, and growing up in Israel, with its zero tradition of baseball, I needed one. After all, one’s chances of becoming a shortstop in the Middle East were … Read More