Jewish refugees

European refugees, denied entry to the United States in New York and Mexico at Veracruz, line the rail of the Portuguese steamer Quanza and talk to relatives on the pier when the ship stopped to refuel at Norfolk, Virginia, September 11, 1940. One passenger, a German, was captured by an army guard after diving overboard in Hampton Roads. (AP Photo)

August 15, 2019, 2:59 am

Nearly turned back, a ship of Holocaust refugees got help from Eleanor Roosevelt

At NYC premiere of documentary ‘Nobody Wants Us,’ filmmaker Laura Seltzer-Duny says US first lady’s efforts to save Jews aboard the SS Quanza should be emulated today

By Cathryn J. Prince

Young Jewish refugees at a camp near Windermere in England, 1946. Laws passed after World War II shaped US refugee admission program. (Kurt Hutton/Getty Images)

July 25, 2019, 1:52 am

Jews helped inspire America’s refugee program. Stephen Miller might end it

Echoing a dark period in US history, the architect of Trump’s immigration policies now wants to take asylum admissions down to zero

By Ben Sales

Detail from Haifa, 1959, photograph by Dorothy Bohm, mother of Monica Bohm-Duchen, who conceived of the 'Insiders/Outsiders' festival celebrating contributions to British society by refugees from Nazi Europe. (Courtesy)

March 2, 2019, 9:03 am

Year-long UK arts fest celebrates contributions of refugees from Nazi Europe

Curator of ‘Insiders/Outsiders,’ opening March 2, says Jews fleeing persecution produced influential music, art, writing and design in their adopted country

By Anne Joseph

Iranian Islamic Republic Army soldiers carry posters of the Ayatollah Khomeini during the revolution of 1979. (Keystone/Getty Images/via JTA)

March 1, 2019, 5:57 am

40 years after Iranian Revolution, LA’s Persian Jews are still feeling the pain

Thousands of Jewish families recall traumatic memories of violence, imprisonment, anti-Semitism and chaos after dictator Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power

By Karmel Melamed

Holocaust-era hero and founder of Universal Pictures Carl Laemmle. (Courtesy James L. Freedman.)

February 10, 2019, 5:37 am

He put Dracula on the big screen, and saved hundreds of Jews from a real monster

A new documentary sheds light on Carl Laemmle, a German-Jewish immigrant who founded Universal Studios and fought to rescue 300 Jewish families from Nazi Germany

By Rich Tenorio

Jewish immigrants on a farm 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Quito. (Courtesy Eva Zelig)

December 8, 2018, 1:43 pm

How tiny Ecuador had a huge impact on Jews escaping the Holocaust

A new book by author Daniel Kersffeld tells how when many countries shut their doors to Jewish refugees, one welcomed them in, allowing them to thrive in the arts and sciences

By Rich Tenorio

Nadia Batool Bokhari, a Pakistani journalist forced to seek refuge in the United States because of her job. (Courtesy)

December 3, 2018, 2:34 am

Female Muslim journalist persecuted in Pakistan reboots life in the US with HIAS

The onetime Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society applies humanitarian Jewish values to ‘strangers’ as a powerful mix of climate change and conflict drive migration to new heights

By Cathryn J. Prince

Prince Charles marks the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport with a reception for former refugees, at St James' Palace on November 20, 2018. (YouTube screenshot)

From the WebNovember 22, 2018, 1:24 pm

Prince Charles hosts Kindertransport refugees to mark 80th anniversary

Heir to the throne speaks to ‘Kinder,’ who share their stories during lunch at at St James’s Palace, UK’s Jewish News reports

Clemet Attlee smiles at the cheering throngs which gathered at Transport House, in London on July 26, 1945, to hear Labour’s great victory at the polls. Violet Attlee stands beside her husband,left. (AP Photo)

November 20, 2018, 10:16 pm

UK PM Clement Attlee hosted Jewish boy fleeing Nazis in 1939, never spoke of it

Then-Labour opposition leader opened home to Paul Willer, now 90 years old, who describes him as ‘a gentle man and a gentleman’

By TOI staff

Synagogue in Hanover, Germany, set ablaze during the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938 (public domain)

November 10, 2018, 4:35 pm

How to explain the ‘timid’ reaction of American Jewish leaders to Kristallnacht?

Amid the worst pogrom to take place in Germany since the Middle Ages, most US Jewish communal leaders told their constituents to keep quiet

By Matt Lebovic

Jewish refugees aboard the German liner St. Louis, June 29, 1939. (Planet News Archive/SSPL/Getty Images/via JTA)

May 9, 2018, 6:17 pm

Canada to apologize for turning away Nazi era ship of Jews

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says refusing German liner MS St. Louis carrying 907 German Jews was blight on country’s past

By AP

Unemployed men queued outside a Depression-era soup kitchen opened in Chicago by the mobster Al Capone in 1931. Economic uncertainty fueled Americans’ anxieties about taking in large numbers of refugees from Europe. (National Archives at College Park-Still Pictures via JTA)

May 2, 2018, 5:36 am

Exhibit shows ordinary Americans knew a lot about Holocaust as it was happening

Opening this month at US Holocaust Museum, ‘What did Americans know?’ presents a sobering assessment of how citizens reacted to news coming out of Europe

By Ron Kampeas

Sipora, a Jewish refugee from Iran, looking out the window of her daughter’s Netherlands home, Feb. 15, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

February 24, 2018, 11:26 am

Jewish grandmother sentenced to death in Iran; Holland won’t grant her asylum

Persian language teacher ‘Sipora’ was convicted in absentia for running underground organization that found housing for women with abusive husbands who could not get a divorce

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman star in the 1942 classic film 'Casablanca' (Courtesy Warner Bros. Films)

February 23, 2018, 1:31 am

Real-life ‘Casablanca’ story is even more dramatic than the Hollywood classic

It didn’t have a Bogie or Bergman, but as a new book explains, the Moroccan port city had actual heroes who worked to save its predominantly Jewish refugees from the Holocaust

By Rich Tenorio

Rexhep Hoxha, left, and Fatos Qoqja in a bar in Tirania, Albania, November 8, 2017. Qoqja is pictured with a medal that his father received for saving Jews during the Holocaust. (Cnaan Liphshiz/via JTA)

January 19, 2018, 11:59 am

What made Muslim Albanians risk their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust?

While experts aren’t sure if religion played into a highly secretive sect’s humanitarian acts, Jewish refugees were 10 times more likely to be saved than in neighboring countries

By Cnaan Liphshiz