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Sophie Scholl and her anti-Nazi resistance movement are spotlighted in ‘White Rose: The Musical’
(New York Jewish Week) — In the summer of 1942, a group of determined students and faculty at Germany’s University of Munich banded to speak out against the Nazi regime.
Led by Sophie Scholl and her older brother, Hans, they called themselves the White Rose. The fervently Christian siblings led the resistance group in sounding the alarm about the Nazis’ atrocities and the mass murder of Jews in Europe by dispersing anti-Nazi leaflets across German cities and embarking on a graffiti campaign throughout Munich and the surrounding region.
But in February 1943, less than a year after the White Rose’s inception, the Scholl siblings were caught scattering leaflets in the university’s main atrium. They were reported to the Gestapo and, just days later, at ages 21 and 24, they were executed by guillotine. Several other founding members were also executed for treason and many of their young collaborators were imprisoned.
Despite the tragic ending of the White Rose movement, their nonviolent acts of resistance have galvanized generations of young people to speak out. And now, the story has inspired “White Rose: The Musical,” a new 90-minute show that opens off-Broadway on Thursday.
The musical, starring Jo Ellen Perlman (Netflix’s “The Prom”) as Sophie Scholl and Mark Cefalo (Broadway’s “New York, New York”) as Hans Scholl, spotlights the courage and plight of the resistance group. “To me, it is the ultimate ally story,” the show’s creator, Brian Belding, told the New York Jewish Week. “We need more of those stories of people stepping out of the comfort and privilege that they have and actually standing up for people that are oppressed.”
Belding added that he dreamed of making a show about the White Rose since he first heard their story as a college student 35 years ago — he even wrote a screenplay for a movie at the time. “It was something that grabbed me from a young age, when I was basically the age of the students in the White Rose,” he said. “It was a story that I felt I should have known, but I didn’t.”
But life, as it often does, had other plans, and Belding became a high school history teacher in the Bay Area — where every year he taught his students about the bravery of the White Rose.
Teaching students year after year is what really “kicked me into action,” Belding told the New York Jewish Week.
“The students just always responded and they were engaged in stories, not just about the White Rose, but resistors, and especially young resistors, people they could identify with,” Belding said. “Too many history lessons are these guys in powdered wigs, you know, making speeches. We can study these dates and names of battles. But these were young people who were frustrated with what was going on, who were upset and angry and were trying to figure out a way to cope and, most importantly, to see if they could change it. That’s what my students identified with.”
Belding eventually decided to take time off from teaching in 2019 to pursue the project in earnest. He first tried to write a historical novel but found the idea came to life the most when he imagined it as a musical, so he set to work on writing the book and lyrics.
Though Belding is not Jewish, he said he worked carefully with Jewish dramaturg Emily White to make the show culturally, religiously and historically sensitive. With White’s guidance, Belding developed a (fictional) Jewish character in the White Rose who is forced to hide their identity in order to stay safe.
White said that working on the show as a Jew — and the fact that it is a true story — was “deeply important” to her. “When I have the ability to utilize historical documents and research in my process, helping to guide a story, it adds both a layer of authenticity and a unique responsibility in approaching the work,” she said.
White added that, while working on the script, she kept a quote from Holocaust survivor and “Night” author Elie Wiesel at top of mind: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”
“I have always been taught this is an essential part of being Jewish, but also an essential part of being a citizen of the world,” White said. “We are all bound in each other’s oppression, and we all have a responsibility to help stop oppression from happening.”
“The incredible efforts put forth by the young people in the White Rose, who weren’t direct targets of Nazi discrimination cannot be understated,” the dramaturg added. “These people could exist today, and make an impact.”
Belding concurs with White’s sentiments, saying the main message of the musical is to “stand up for what you believe in, even if it means standing alone” — quoting none other than Sophie Scholl.
“White Rose: The Musical” opens Thursday, Jan. 25 and runs for 12 weeks at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd St.) Tickets start at $37.50.
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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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