Matt Lebovic

Scene from a Nazi documentary filmed in the Theresienstadt ghetto during the summer of 1944 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

August 5, 2019, 11:51 pm

74 years since liberation, a visit to Theresienstadt finds an eerie ghost town

Unique in the Nazi empire, Theresienstadt was both a way-station to Auschwitz for Jews and a well-planned show camp to deceive diplomats about the Holocaust

By Matt Lebovic

A lesbian couple hold hands during the Tel Aviv Gay Pride parade on June 3, 2016 (David Silverman/Getty Images via JTA, File)

July 18, 2019, 4:52 pm

In the US, gay conversion therapy continues in some Orthodox communities

Although many jurisdictions have banned the controversial ‘cure,’ some Jewish practitioners of the discredited ‘science’ are still operating clandestinely

By Matt Lebovic

Child's record player given to neighbor of Otto Frank on the occasion of Anne Frank's birth in Frankfurt, Germany, on display at New York City's Museum of Jewish Heritage through December 2019 (Musealia/Iciar Palacios)

July 18, 2019, 2:25 am

In first, massive traveling exhibit brings Anne Frank artifacts to North America

Part of the seven-month ‘Auschwitz’ exhibition at New York City’s Jewish Heritage Museum, the items evoke the Holocaust icon’s childhood and two years in hiding

By Matt Lebovic

Illustrative image: Marc Mezvinsky and Chelsea Clinton combined Jewish and Methodist traditions during their wedding ceremony on July 31, 2010. (Genevieve de Manio, via JTA)

July 12, 2019, 3:46 pm

When American Jews described their own intermarriage as a ‘Second Holocaust’

Nearly 30 years ago, reports of a 52% interfaith household rate had some US Jewish leaders denouncing ‘assimilation’ as silently completing Hitler’s work

By Matt Lebovic

Plan rendering for memorial park at the site of the former Great Synagogue of Oswiecim, Poland, set to open on November 28, 2019 (courtesy: Auschwitz Jewish Center)

July 4, 2019, 4:01 am

Memorial for 400-year-old Jewish community to be built in town next to Auschwitz

Few visitors to Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp pass through Poland’s Oswiecim. That might change as sites tied to the city’s Jewish past are preserved, restored, and digitized

By Matt Lebovic

'Dear Kitty' and 'Anne Frank: The Collected Works,' both published in 2019

June 11, 2019, 9:12 pm

For Anne Frank’s 90th birthday, ‘dueling’ versions of her diary published

Although her last journal entry was penned 75 years ago, the young writer and her works are still being reinterpreted to craft her literary legacy

By Matt Lebovic

The former Nazi death camp Sobibor, in eastern Poland, where more than 200,000 Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. A long-anticipated museum and visitor center is under construction, September 30, 2017 (Elan Kawesch/The Times of Israel)

June 3, 2019, 11:50 pm

With death of last Sobibor survivor, experts feud over site’s transformation

After passing of Sobibor revolt participant Semyon Rosenfeld on Monday, there will be no survivors to witness completion of the former Nazi death camp’s makeover next year

By Matt Lebovic

Illustrative: In this photo from August 11, 2017, multiple white nationalist groups march with torches through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Mykal McEldowney/The Indianapolis Star via AP)

May 3, 2019, 4:28 pm

‘Siren call’ of a Fourth Reich is spreading, warns Nazi Germany expert

‘Counterfactual’ historian Gavriel Rosenfeld’s new book takes on old-new fears of the Reich’s revival in our time

By Matt Lebovic

Anne Frank, aged 12, at her school desk in Amsterdam, 1941. (public domain)

May 1, 2019, 8:56 am

‘My aunt might have betrayed Anne Frank,’ writes son of Secret Annex helper

Writer Joop van Wijk has spent years piecing together his mysterious Aunt Nelly’s wartime activities, cutting through lies that concealed her Nazi collaborator past

By Matt Lebovic

American historian and author Deborah Lipstadt poses for photographer at the Rome Film festival in Rome, October 17, 2016. (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

March 16, 2019, 2:34 am

Lipstadt: Jews need factual ‘ammunition’ to combat anti-Semitism

On the heels of her book, ‘Antisemitism: Here and Now,’ Deborah Lipstadt urges Jews not to panic about the resurgence of Jew-hatred in the US, but to arm themselves with knowledge

By Matt Lebovic

Pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, New York City, in 1939 (public domain)

January 3, 2019, 4:36 am

How Hitler’s ‘fake news’ assault on America came perilously close to succeeding

In ‘Hitler’s American Friends,’ historian Bradley W. Hart reveals the extent to which US citizens aided, abetted, and otherwise supported Nazi Germany

By Matt Lebovic

The first 'Oneg Shabbat' archive cache is recovered from the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, September 1946. (public domain)

December 11, 2018, 9:15 pm

Can we handle the uncomfortable truths unearthed in WWII’s Oneg Shabbat archive?

A $2-million pledge from Taube Philanthropies promises to fix ‘glaring omissions’ at National WWII Museum and grow distance-learning for Holocaust-related programs

By Matt Lebovic

An 'Enlightenment' scene with guests in the home of Moses Mendelssohn, by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim,1856 (public domain)

November 25, 2018, 6:48 am

Early ‘Jewish jokes’ are anything but funny, argues new book

Very little is known about the origins of Jewish jokes, but one expert has started to unravel the mystery — and he’s not amused

By Matt Lebovic

Elie Wiesel (left) with student Ariel Burger, author of a book based on Wiesel as an educator (courtesy)

November 22, 2018, 4:05 am

From Elie Wiesel’s classroom, lessons in sainthood and redemption

As the late Holocaust survivor’s teaching assistant, Ariel Burger learned to unpack his own personal life with guidance from Nobel Laureate Wiesel, his mentor of two decades

By Matt Lebovic

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