Clara Landsberg, a Jewish-born teacher, social worker, and pacifist, lived at Hull House in the room directly adjacent to Jane Addams’s for roughly 20 years and made significant contributions to the Chicago settlement house. However, scholars have paid scant attention to her story until now, perhaps because she never sought prominence during her lifetime.[1] While researching her connection with Bryn Mawr College as part of a larger project on early Jewish women students at the Seven Sisters schools, I have discovered that shortly after graduating in 1897, Landsberg left Judaism to become Episcopalian. Afterward, she maintained ties with her influential Jewish parents but also became a member of the nation’s Protestant elite and of an international sisterhood of pacifists. Like many leading women intellectuals and social workers of her day, Landsberg lived with her lifelong partner—a woman—in a predominantly female world. This article will provide an overview of Landsberg’s biography, with a focus on her role at Hull House. read more

 “My Name is Sara,” which opens nationally on July 22, is based on the life of Sara Góralnik (1930-2018), a pre-teen Jewish girl who passed as a Christian during World War II. It was produced in association with the USC Shoah Foundation.

It is presented in the tradition of “Europa Europa,” as each film chronicles Jewish youngsters who must hide their true identities to outlive the Holocaust and the madness around them.

Director Steven Oritt has employed an approach that is universalistic while also being specific. read more

“Cognitively she will probably be fine, but at the age of six she will have a hunchback”—I heard this crushing unforgettable phrase from the director of the Child Development Institute Sheba Medical Center in Israel. Shunamit was at the time two and a half years old, after hospitalization due to high fever and seizures, and with a referral for diagnosis and treatment at the Child Development Institute. The director of the institute sat on one side of the office desk, and I, with Shunamit on my lap, on the other side of the desk. And in between there were tests and more testing, and a growing gap between therapist and patient. read more

In a blink of an eye, women in America lost their freedom. On Friday May 24, 2022 women woke up to the horrific news that they were robbed of owning their bodies. Six power-lusting Justices, with a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land, told women they are no longer equal citizens. They told women that a single-cell organism is worth more than any woman’s life. Disregarding the Constitution’s requirement of the separation of church and state, six Justices ruled that one set of religious beliefs is enough to push all girls and women into bondage of forced pregnancies. Unlike men, women no longer have control over their own bodies. read more

As the last Holocaust survivors die, despite documentation and recorded oral histories, the connection to lived experience disappears with them.

In “I’m Still Here,” the story of Ella Blumenthal is recounted against the backdrop of her 98th birthday. (She is currently 100 years old.) Surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and friends, for the first time she fully reveals the details of her five-year ordeal during World War II. She has previously withheld them from those closest to her.

The cheerful demeanor of an older woman in a green running suit may be the image she presents to the world, but her personal history is always with her­­–like the twenty-four relatives she lost in the Holocaust. read more

Recently, an overwhelming number of media outlets from around the world have reached out with requests for interviews. This letter serves as my answer to these requests and is my testimony from Ukraine.

What happened just over a week ago was impossible to believe. Our country was peaceful; our cities, towns, and villages were full of life.

On February 24th, we all woke up to the announcement of a Russian invasion. Tanks crossed the Ukrainian border, planes entered our airspace, missile launchers surrounded our cities. read more

Was it a dream? From my window I could see Moshe and Mustafa arguing. They were standing in front of the most magnificent house in town. The house had been designed by a renowned architect and built flawlessly by master carpenters using the most exquisite materials. Funny, from this distance – Moshe and Mustafa looked so similar, you could really only discern who was who by Moshe’s kipa and Mustafa’s kafiya.

They were arguing over the ownership of the house. Each claimed that it was his. As they argued people gathered behind each of the men. There were lawyers with copies of official deeds to the land. There were politicians and negotiators and rabble rousers shaking their fists and making their case. And then I saw the smoke. The house was on fire. Mustafa and Moshe didn’t notice, the crowd in their intense fury did not notice. The house burned and burned until nothing was left of its beauty and grandeur. All that was left were its smoldering ashes. Was this a dream? Was this a nightmare? read more

Just moments after the attack on the Capitol began on January 6 we wrote:
Our country and the world are watching, fearful and stunned, the attack of pro-Trump supporters invading the Capitol building. Today, January 6, 2021 a wild crowd following Trump’s unhinged call earlier to “Stop the Steal” invaded the building where top political leaders of this country have gathered today. Lawmakers have gathered in a joint session to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. The terrifying mob streamed into the building threatening the joint session of Congress including the Vice President, the Speaker and the leaders of the Senate. The mob endangered lives and threatened democracy. read more

Senator Warnock Address to the Senate
December 14, 2021

Wrestling with my conscience. Before we left Washington last week, we in this chamber made a change in the senate’s rules in order to push forward something that all of us think is important. We set the stage to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, and yet as we cast that vote to begin addressing the debt ceiling, this same chamber is allowing the ceiling of our democracy to crash in around us.

The American people have been pushing for leaders in Washington to address voting rights. Everywhere I turn I have been hearing from my constituents in Georgia. They are deeply worried. I heard it all weekend. I’ve been hearing it over the last several months. And I submit that they are worried for good reason. They know their history. They are witnessing what is happening to our democracy in real time. And they see the handwriting on the wall. They see the sweeping voter suppression proposals in 49 states, and the dozens of new laws that have now popped up across the nation, fueled by the big lie that seeks to delegitimize the voices of millions of Georgians and Americans who made their voices heard, made history, and more importantly made a difference last November and last January. read more

It’s difficult enough for an individual to understand and come to terms with the actions and psychology of their family. It’s even more complex when a revered and beloved relation is part of the country’s history where you were born. Michal Weits, the director of “Blue Box,” is confronted by both challenges.

It’s not surprising that her documentary took her fourteen years to complete.

Aided by remarkable archival footage and the 5,000 pages of personal diaries of her great-grandfather, Yosef Weitz, she embarks on a trek to deconstruct her forbearer’s beliefs and the actualities that built the state of Israel. read more