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Anne Frank’s diary, ‘Schindler’s List’ among titles at center of major Florida book-ban lawsuit
(JTA) – A Florida school district is heading to court in a closely watched legal challenge to its decision to remove more than 1,600 books, including Anne Frank’s original diary.
“Schindler’s List” and a young-adult novel about a teenage girl in Auschwitz are also among the slew of books that have been pulled from shelves and are now being held for “further review” in Escambia County, in Florida’s Panhandle. The district shared the list publicly in December, saying that its removals comply with state law.
Now, Escambia County is due in court Wednesday for a hearing about a lawsuit challenging the removals. The suit brought by publishing giant Penguin Random House, literary speech activist group PEN America, local parents and several bestselling authors argues that the district’s book bans discriminate against people of color and LGBTQ people.
Such books have been the target of a national, conservative push to remove material that some argue is offensive. The push has been strongest in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has championed the effort and enshrined it in state law. In a sign of how seriously the state is taking the lawsuit, Florida’s own attorney general is advocating on the district’s behalf.
As has frequently been the case, Jewish books have been caught up in the dragnet in Escambia County.
In addition to Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl,” Escambia has also removed other books about the Holocaust, including “Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography,” by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón; “Schindler’s List,” the novel about Oskar Schindler by Australian author Thomas Keneally that was adapted into Steven Spielberg’s movie; and “The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel” by Antonio Iturbe and Salva Rubio, based on the true story of Holocaust survivor Dita Kraus, who hid books from the Nazis in the camps.
A representative for Escambia County schools did not respond to a request for comment. But a chart on the district’s website noted that the books it has stored for review are “based on community standards and/or by a committee.”
The Florida Freedom to Read Project, a statewide free-expression activist group, shared a copy of what it said was the district’s book appropriateness checklist with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. It requires school media centers to “check sex, romance & nudity,” “check violence & scariness” and search sites such as Google Books for “terms related to sexual content” for each title.
“All classroom copies must be removed from student access until the title has been reviewed according to community standards,” the district noted. The district also suggests specialists look up the book on BookLooks, a book-review site with ties to Moms For Liberty, the conservative activist group that has driven much of the book-ban momentum.
Florida law requires schools to pull and review books if a resident alleges they contain “sexual” content, but enforcement methods differ by district, which activists say is a result of unclear guidance from the state.
“Once all books with any depiction or description of sexual conduct or age assigned as “adult” by the publisher were pulled from the shelves and put into storage, the media centers were allowed to open back up,” Stephana Farrell of Florida Freedom to Read Project told JTA.
The case in Escambia County is one of several currently unfolding against local and state book-ban laws — and is not the only one to involve Jewish books. Recently a federal judge in Iowa, blocking parts of that state’s own book-ban law, suggested it was keeping Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir “Night” out of schools.
But the Escambia case has attracted outsized attention, as it puts Florida’s strict book laws, and the stance of DeSantis, who is running for president, in the legal hot seat. Spurred by a teacher challenging 100 books she said were sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate for children, the Escambia case has led to the firing of the district superintendent and the resignation of the library services coordinator; photos of district bookshelves covered with black paper have become a potent symbol of the school book wars.
The inclusion of “The Diary of a Young Girl” is especially notable. A recent graphic adaptation of Frank’s diary has been removed from several schools in Florida and elsewhere, because some parents and legislators have objected to its illustration of sexual passages from her book. But Escambia County marks the first instance in which Frank’s original diary is known to have been removed from schools since the “parents’ rights” movement driving the book purge gained steam in 2021.
Several leading proponents of the movement have publicly stated their support for the original Anne Frank diary’s inclusion in classrooms, and school districts that pulled the new adaptation have defended their decision by noting the original remains available.
Bruce Friedman, a Jewish parent in Florida who successfully pushed for the removal of the diary’s graphic adaptation and hundreds of other books in his own district, told JTA last year that schools “should stick” with Frank’s original diary. “We’ve made it into part of mainstream America to read that diary,” he said.
And Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the parents’ rights group Moms For Liberty, also told JTA last year that she believes schools should teach Frank’s diary.
The Anne Frank Fonds, the Swiss group that controls the diary, has also weighed in. “We consider the book of a 12-year-old girl to be appropriate reading for her peers,” the group said last year.
The foundation was responding to bans of the illustrated version, which it authorized and which has become a frequent target for book-ban advocates. The other books about Judaism and the Holocaust that have been temporarily or permanently removed from schools include Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” Bernard Malamud’s “The Fixer” and Elisabeth Kushner’s “The Purim Superhero,” a children’s book about an LGBTQ Jewish family, which was also pulled from a Florida Panhandle district.
Among the other titles being held for review in Escambia County are dictionaries, thesauruses, the Guinness Book of World Records, and science books by National Geographic.
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The post Anne Frank’s diary, ‘Schindler’s List’ among titles at center of major Florida book-ban lawsuit appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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