August 3, 2016
4:19 am

Shaul Bassi, the 'Merchant in Venice' Project Director and coordinator of the Venice Ghetto 500 anniversary committee, on the Ghetto Nuovo bridge in Venice, Italy, July 2016. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)

Venice welcomes back Shylock in marking its Jewish history

Audiences gathered for six sold-out shows of controversial play in secluded main plaza of city’s historic Jewish Ghetto

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

June 6, 2016
10:13 pm

American rapper Kosha Dillz performing at the Tempel Synagogue during Night of the Synagogues in Krakow, Poland, on June 4, 2016. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)

In Krakow, Night of the Synagogues bolsters Jewish pride

Houses of worship transformed to house art exhibits, concerts and movie showings in one-night mini-festival organized by community leaders

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

January 16, 2016
5:52 am

Pope Francis addresses the crowd during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on November 18, 2015. (AFP/Andreas Solaro)

What Pope Francis synagogue visit says about Catholic-Jewish relations

Pontiff to meet with Rome’s chief rabbi, solidifying interfaith relations that started with John Paul II’s visit 30 years ago

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

September 10, 2015
3:31 am

Tourists at Auschwitz photographing the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' gate, July 2015. (Ruth Ellen Gruber/JTA)

Auschwitz ‘showers’ highlight challenge of Holocaust tourism

The well-being of visitors and the integrity of the historical commemoration is a difficult balance for emotionally charged WWII sites

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

May 18, 2015
6:33 pm

The College of Charleston's new dining hall is modeled after Grins Vegetarian Cafe, a popular kosher eatery at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. (Courtesy of Grins Vegetarian Cafe/ JTA)

If you build a kosher cafeteria, they will come

In South Carolina, a kosher-vegetarian dining hall seeks to bring diverse populations to the table

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

November 22, 2014
2:55 pm

Revelers dancing at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, one of many Jewish culture festivals in Poland. (Photo credit: Wojciech Karlinski)

New museum reflects growing Polish interest in all things Jewish

Thousands have toured POLIN’s galleries telling the story of 1,000 years of Jewish life in the country

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

July 12, 2014
3:28 pm

A small crowd attends the dedication ceremony of a monument at the Jewish cemetery in Rychwal, Poland. (Ruth Ellen Gruber/JTA)

Has Poland become a model of Holocaust memorials?

A renewal of memory — from Belzec to Rychwal — leaves room for optimism, says chief rabbi Michael Schudrich

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

June 28, 2014
6:07 am

Bride Katka Reszke and groom Slawomir Grunberg, made their wedding a celebration of Polish Jewish revival, June 22, 2014. (Ruth Ellen Gruber/JTA)

Big fat Polish Jewish wedding celebrates communal renewal

Couple turns nuptials into open-air public event with klezmer bands, kosher food and two officiating Orthodox rabbis

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

June 13, 2014
4:35 pm

Passersby look at the Holocaust-related and other memorabilia left by citizens protesting the monument to the 1944 German occupation, under construction behind sheeting across the street in downtown Budapest. (Photo credit: JTA/Ruth Ellen Gruber)

Boycotting state Holocaust commemorations, Hungary’s Jews forge new path

Groups refuse nearly $1 million in government grants to protest what they see as the whitewashing of country’s complicity in Shoah

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

May 24, 2014
4:48 am

Pope Francis greets people during a meeting with members of the associations founded by Blessed Luigi Novarese at Paul VI audience hall on May 17, 2014 at the Vatican. (Photo credit: AFP Photo/Tiziana Fabi)

‘Outreach’ and ‘interfaith’ buzzwords for Pope’s Israel trip

Argentina’s Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Sheik Omar Abboud join former colleague on visit; pinnacle to be ecumenical joint prayer service at Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

April 25, 2014
10:40 pm

Pope John Paul II places a letter between the stones of Jerusalem’s Western Wall on March 26, 2000. (photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom/Israel Government Press Office via Getty Images/JTA)

From pope to saint: Two men who revamped Jewish-Catholic ties

On the even of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Vatican will canonize two former pontiffs who focused on reconciliation

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

June 22, 2013
7:24 am

Author Adam LeBor (photo credit: Szabolcs Dudas)

New novel gives spy games a feminist sabra spin

Creating a modern Israeli heroine, author Adam LeBor crosses Lisbeth Salander with biblical Yael and lets her loose at the UN

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

April 23, 2013
12:38 pm

People laying flowers at Umschlagplatz at the Warsaw Ghetto, the monument at the site from which Jews were deported to Treblinka. (Ruth Ellen Gruber/JTA)

An alternative Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial

During last week’s commemorations, the grave of the uprising’s last surviving commander was blanketed in daffodils. Here’s why

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

April 18, 2013
8:46 pm

Aerial view of the new Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in Warsaw (photo credit: courtesy)

At long last, Warsaw’s Museum of the History of Polish Jews

More than 20 years in the making, the museum’s dedication this week coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

February 13, 2013
6:24 pm

Pope Benedict XVI leads a mass in the Kidron Valley, outside Jerusalem's Old City, in May 2009 (photo credit: Lior Mizrahi/Flash90)

Benedict’s papacy: Close Jewish relations with occasional bumps

‘History will view him as the last of the traditional European pontiffs, the last pope who personally experienced World War II and the Holocaust,’ says AJC’s senior interreligious adviser

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Writer: Ruth Ellen Gruber

Venice welcomes back Shylock in marking its Jewish history

Audiences gathered for six sold-out shows of controversial play in secluded main plaza of city’s historic Jewish Ghetto

In Krakow, Night of the Synagogues bolsters Jewish pride

Houses of worship transformed to house art exhibits, concerts and movie showings in one-night mini-festival organized by community leaders

What Pope Francis synagogue visit says about Catholic-Jewish relations

Pontiff to meet with Rome’s chief rabbi, solidifying interfaith relations that started with John Paul II’s visit 30 years ago

Auschwitz ‘showers’ highlight challenge of Holocaust tourism

The well-being of visitors and the integrity of the historical commemoration is a difficult balance for emotionally charged WWII sites

If you build a kosher cafeteria, they will come

In South Carolina, a kosher-vegetarian dining hall seeks to bring diverse populations to the table

New museum reflects growing Polish interest in all things Jewish

Thousands have toured POLIN’s galleries telling the story of 1,000 years of Jewish life in the country

Has Poland become a model of Holocaust memorials?

A renewal of memory — from Belzec to Rychwal — leaves room for optimism, says chief rabbi Michael Schudrich

Big fat Polish Jewish wedding celebrates communal renewal

Couple turns nuptials into open-air public event with klezmer bands, kosher food and two officiating Orthodox rabbis

Boycotting state Holocaust commemorations, Hungary’s Jews forge new path

Groups refuse nearly $1 million in government grants to protest what they see as the whitewashing of country’s complicity in Shoah

‘Outreach’ and ‘interfaith’ buzzwords for Pope’s Israel trip

Argentina’s Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Sheik Omar Abboud join former colleague on visit; pinnacle to be ecumenical joint prayer service at Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher

From pope to saint: Two men who revamped Jewish-Catholic ties

On the even of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Vatican will canonize two former pontiffs who focused on reconciliation

New novel gives spy games a feminist sabra spin

Creating a modern Israeli heroine, author Adam LeBor crosses Lisbeth Salander with biblical Yael and lets her loose at the UN

An alternative Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial

During last week’s commemorations, the grave of the uprising’s last surviving commander was blanketed in daffodils. Here’s why

At long last, Warsaw’s Museum of the History of Polish Jews

More than 20 years in the making, the museum’s dedication this week coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Benedict’s papacy: Close Jewish relations with occasional bumps

‘History will view him as the last of the traditional European pontiffs, the last pope who personally experienced World War II and the Holocaust,’ says AJC’s senior interreligious adviser

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