Editorials
Blog by Dr. Shimon Samuels published in The Times of Israel
23 April 2020
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-new-version-of-the-lutheran-new-testament-is-not-good-news-and-should-be-called-out-by-all-christians-as-fake-news/
In the early 16th century, Martin Luther – a German priest and leader of the Protestant Reformation – led a call for pogroms against Jews and synagogue desecration.
In the 1990s, the Lutheran Church belatedly condemned the antisemitism of its founder. A pale rendition of the Catholic ‘Nostra Aetate’.
Read more: The new version of the Lutheran New Testament is...
Blog by Dr. Shimon Samuels published in The Jerusalem Post
1st April 2020
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Steps-against-a-blood-libel-that-is-still-bleeding-opinion-623238
The horrifying story of Simon of Trent not only resulted in the torture and execution of the local Jewish community, its imagery provoked a widespread surge in antisemitic violence throughout Europe.
Giuseppe Alberti, Alleged martyrdom of Simonino da Trento, 1677, oil on canvas, Trento, Castello
del Buonconsiglio. Provincial monuments and collections (photo Museo Diocesano Tridentino).
In 1989, on vacation in Tuscany, I drove through the beautiful resort of Marina di Massa. By chance, I noticed a poster outside the church of San Domenichino announcing an international poetry contest.
Blog by Drs. Shimon Samuels and Graciela Vaserman Samuels published in The Jerusalm Post
19 March 2020
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Malthusian-coronavirus-Nowhere-to-run-to-621640
Now released, we are warned, as senior citizens, to remain in quarantine. In any case, there seems logically little place else to hide from the virus.
Air travelers walk, after further cases of coronavirus were confirmed in New York, in Terminal 1
at JFK International Airport in New York (photo Reuters).
Landing in Israel from the AIPAC convention in Washington, I was sent into a mandatory 14-day isolation.
Now released, we are warned, as senior citizens, to remain in quarantine. In any case, there seems logically little place else to hide from the virus.
Blog by Dr. Shimon Samuels published in The Jerusalem Post
16 February 2020
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Churchills-definition-of-Belgium-A-manufactured-country-617734
“Usury” was the grounds for deportation of the Jews of Antwerp by the Duke of Brabant in 1261, who called for them to be expelled or destroyed.
Sir Winston Churchill, 1941. Photo Biblioarchives/Libraryarchives/Flickr.
As Belgium today leads a United Nations Security Council campaign against Israel, while crying for dead Jews of 75 years ago at the Jerusalem Holocaust Forum, we may find Winston Churchill's definition eminently relevant:
Blog by Dr. Shimon Samuels published in The Jerusalem Post
10 December 2019
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Cemetery-desecrations-610534
Among endangered minorities in Europe, it is mainly the Jews who are killed twice.
Graves desecrated with swastikas are seen at the Jewish cemetery in Westhoffen,
near Strasbourg, France (photo Reuters).
Last week, another Jewish cemetery in Alsace, France, was defaced by swastikas on 107 tombstones.
On a late Sunday afternoon in September 1988, driving from Paris to London, I passed through the suburb of Streatham. On an off chance, I turned into the street of the Jewish cemetery where 23 members of my family were buried. I visited my mother’s grave, then continued to the older rows to my grandparents’. The tombstone was cracked and defaced as were many others in that section.