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Barbra Streisand, Billy Crystal, Jamie Lee Curtis and more headline Claims Conference Hanukkah event for Holocaust survivors
(JTA) — The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany hosted its seventh annual International Holocaust Survivors Night event Monday with a slate of Jewish celebrities, communal leaders and heads of state — many of whom drew connections between Holocaust memory, the ongoing war in Israel and subsequent rise of antisemitism around the world.
The event, tied to the fifth night of Hanukkah, was streamed online and co-hosted by TV news anchors Katy Tur and Tony Dokoupil. It featured appearances from several Jewish Hollywood stars, including Barbra Streisand, Billy Crystal, Rob Reiner, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jason Alexander and Mayim Bialik. Broadway legend Barry Manilow and the cast of his play “Harmony” performed, as did the Jewish a capella group Six13.
Crystal was one of many speakers who invoked the themes of light and darkness, echoing the many events Jewish communities across the United States are holding during a Hanukkah holiday that coincides with the war in Israel.
“This year has more significance than others, perhaps, because the seeds of antisemitism are growing around us once again,” Crystal said in his remarks. “But as we light these candles, you are a symbol of hope and perseverance and courage and that is what we all need again during these difficult days.”
The lineup also included Israeli President Isaac Herzog, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and current and former cabinet officials from Germany, Austria and Israel. A number of Holocaust envoys, survivors and educators also spoke, as did leaders from many Jewish organizations in the U.S. and around the world. The event concluded with a candle lighting at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
“Our hearts connect around the world tonight in these darkest moments of winter, in an hour of deep grief and longing we come together with our precious survivors, to recall that our light still shines,” Herzog said. “It is indeed a dark moment. We have all been jolted into a terrible new reality, where the worst moments for our people have come into our present once again.”
Since he became the German chancellor, Scholz has been a vocal supporter of Israel and sought to combat antisemitism, especially in his country, where one watchdog found that antisemitism had surged over 300% since Oct. 7.
“I try to imagine how much the images from Israel, how much antisemitic hatred on the internet and on the streets around the world must be hitting you of all people right in the heart,” Scholtz said in German. “This idea pains me a lot. You have experienced immeasurable horror and suffering. You have fought for your lives with unimaginable strength. We will ensure that the crime against humanity of the Shoah committed by Germans will never be forgotten.”
On Sunday, thousands rallied against antisemitism in Berlin. And after a German synagogue was hit with two Molotov cocktails in October, Scholtz responded by saying that “antisemitism has no place in Germany.”
Leon Weintraub, who survived Auschwitz, spoke at Monday’s event and shared his experience being in Israel on Oct. 7.
“On Oct. 7, I woke up from the sirens in the center of Tel Aviv. All at once, I was again in September 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland,” he said. “A terrible feeling, a shiver, a feeling of dread to be again in a war. We celebrate Hanukkah now, the festival of lights. I hope that the light will also bring the people enlightenment. That people will rethink and look at us people of Jewish descent as normal, equal human beings, and not as some kind of ‘other.’”
The Claims Conference, which negotiates and distributes reparations for Holocaust survivors and their families, earlier this year had secured a record $1.4 billion aid package for the estimated 240,000 remaining Holocaust survivors around the world.
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The post Barbra Streisand, Billy Crystal, Jamie Lee Curtis and more headline Claims Conference Hanukkah event for Holocaust survivors appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.