RSS
Jewish Life Stories: Hasidic filmmaker Menachem Daum, pioneering publisher Carol Hupping Fisher
This article is also available as a weekly newsletter, “Life Stories,” where we remember those who made an outsize impact in the Jewish world — or just left their community a better or more interesting place. Subscribe here to get “Life Stories” in your inbox every Tuesday.
(JTA) — Filmmaker Menachem Daum, a member of Brooklyn’s Gerer hasidic movement whose documentaries challenged preconceptions about haredi Jews and Polish gentiles, died Jan. 7. He was 77.
A gerontologist by training, Daum and his frequent collaborator, Oren Rudavsky, made the 1997 PBS documentary, “A Life Apart: Hasidism in America,” which introduced many Americans to his community from a rare insider’s perspective. In “Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust” (2004), he traveled to Poland in part to dispel his religious sons’ mistrust of gentiles by finding the Polish family that helped save his parents during the Holocaust. And in “The Ruins of Lifta” (2016), he and Rudavsky documented the efforts of an Israeli-Arab group trying to prevent an empty Arab village from being demolished by Israeli developers.
Daum was born October 5, 1946 at the Landsburg Displaced Persons Camp in Germany, and lived in Brooklyn most of his life. Last year, Daum told the news site Shtetl that he made “A Life Apart” as a way to honor his father, a Holocaust survivor and devoted Hasid. And he made “Hiding and Seeking” to challenge his community’s discourse around gentiles. “As a Jewish filmmaker, I use film to challenge stereotypes,” he told the Jewish Standard in 2022. “If Jews thought that all Poles were incorrigible antisemites, I can show films about the Poles who protected my family, and Poles who now are going to great lengths to protect Jewish cemeteries.”
Author and filmmaker Eva Fogelman, whose advice Daum sought in making “Hiding and Seeking,” told JTA she appreciated his “courage to speak out against intolerance within a religious community that was healing itself from persecution and is not ready to embrace ‘the other.’”
A bat mitzvah at 91
Holocaust survivor Eugenia Unger, then 91, celebrates her bat mitzvah in Buenos Aires in 2017. (Facebook screenshot)
In 2017, after decades in which she shared her experiences of surviving the Majdanek and Auschwitz concentration camps, Eugenia Unger made national news in Argentina by celebrating her bat mitzvah at age 91. She was called to the Torah at the Herzliya Jewish community center and synagogue in Buenos Aires, which also organized a birthday celebration in her honor. She told Argentine media that “the culmination of my whole life is my bat mitzvah.” One of the founding members of the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires in 2000, she wrote three books about her experiences. Unger died Dec. 19 in a private hospital in Buenos Aires. She was 97.
A tireless defender of public health
Sidney M. Wolfe (1937–2024), physician who challenged drug companies. (Wikimedia Commons)
In 1967, the Cleveland-born physician Sidney Wolfe traveled to the South to provide medical care during voter registration drives. There he met the consumer activist Ralph Nader, and the two would go on to found Public Citizen. As head of its affiliated Health Research Group, Wolfe demanded accountability from the pharmaceutical industry and government regulators, leading campaigns to drive dangerous or mislabeled prescription drugs and devices off the market. His book “Worst Pills, Best Pills: A Consumer’s Guide to Avoiding Drug-Induced Death or Illness” was a perennial bestseller. In 1992, Manhattan’s Central Synagogue presented him with its annual Shofar Award, given to those “whose accomplishment, mission, and goals in pursuit of social justice are informed by the highest principles of Judaism and the Jewish people.” Wolfe died Jan. 1 at his home in Washington. He was 86.
A Jewish publishing pioneer
Carol Hupping Fisher of the Jewish Publication Society served as publishing director, managing editor and chief operating officer. (Courtesy Fisher family)
When Carol Hupping Fisher interviewed at the Jewish Publication Society in the late 1990s, it felt like a perfect fit. “I was pursuing my Jewish education as somebody getting ready to convert,” Fisher, who grew up Protestant, told the Jewish Exponent in 2016, “and I was in publishing, so it was a beautiful blend of my personal life getting to extend … into my professional life.” Fisher would go on to become publishing director, managing editor and chief operating officer for the Philadelphia-based JPS, shepherding over 100 books into print — including “Etz Hayim,” the Conservative movement Torah commentary — and overseeing a partnership between JPS and the University of Nebraska. Before joining JPS, she was the first female and youngest vice president of publishing at Rodale Press, a publisher of health and wellness magazines and books. Raised in Merrick, New York, she died Dec. 14 of glioblastoma at her home in Collingswood, New Jersey.
A “rabbi’s rabbi” and scholar of Yiddish
Rabbi Emanuel S. Goldsmith was a professor, pulpit rabbi and co-editor of “Dynamic Judaism: The Essential Writings of Mordecai M. Kaplan.” (Queens College)
As a scholar of Yiddish literature, Rabbi Emanuel S. Goldsmith taught Jewish Studies at Queens College and other universities, and was the author, in 1997, of “Modern Yiddish Culture,” described as the first history of the 20th-century Yiddishist movement. As a pulpit rabbi he led congregations in Scarsdale, New York; Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. And as a committed Reconstructionist Jew, he became an expert in the work of his teacher and the movement’s founder, Mordecai Kaplan. “Manny was a rabbi’s rabbi,” Mel Scult, co-editor with Goldsmith of the book “Dynamic Judaism: The Essential Writings of Mordecai M. Kaplan,” wrote in a tribute. “Manny’s scholarship was vast, and he was particularly proud of the contacts and articles he published making Kaplan known not only to the Jewish community but also to many Christian colleagues.” Goldsmith died Jan. 5. He was 88.
A rabbi’s son who helmed The New York Times
Joseph Lelyveld served as executive editor of The New York Times during a period of peak profits and expanding readership. (©Nita Lelyveld/Penguin Random House)
Joseph Lelyveld, a rabbi’s son who became a renowned foreign correspondent and who served as executive editor of The New York Times from 1994 to 2001 — a period of peak profits and expanding readership — died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 86. Lelyveld’s father, Arthur, was a leader of the Reform movement and a civil rights activist who helped influence President Harry S. Truman’s decision to recognize the State of Israel. In a 2005 memoir, Joseph recalled how his preoccupied parents shipped him off as a child to live with a Seventh-Day Adventist family and later his paternal grandparents in Brooklyn. As the son of a prominent Zionist, Lelyveld served as an intermediary with Jewish critics of the Times’ Israel coverage, but eventually lost his patience. “There has never been a Times correspondent who was considered honorable by the more extreme faction of pro-Israel readers,’’ he told a researcher in 2012.
Faces of Israel’s Fallen
David Schwartz, left, and Yakir Hexter were photographed learning together in the beit midrash, or study hall, of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, in a program for Israeli soldiers. (Via Facebook)
Two Israeli combat engineers who were chevrutas, or study partners, at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut were killed Monday in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in the Gaza city of Khan Younis, the IDF said. David Schwartz and Yakir Hexter, both 26, were part of a paratrooper force, and, as the Times of Israel explained, “tasked with some of the most dangerous work as part of the IDF’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, scanning Hamas’s tunnel networks and destroying them, along with other sites, with explosives.”
Schwartz was married to Meital Schwartz, whose father Joseph Gitler is the founder and chairman of Leket Israel, the country’s largest food non-profit. David’s sister Shira Meirman is currently an Israeli emissary at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto. Both soldiers, who studied together as part of an army program for religious troops, had family connections to Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a Modern Orthodox seminary in Riverdale, New York: Schwartz, from Elazar, was a nephew by marriage to YCT alumnus Rabbi Marc Gitler of Denver, Colorado; Hexter, from Jerusalem, was the nephew of YCT board member Rabba Yaffa Epstein of New York’s Jewish Education Project. Schwartz and Hexter were among nine Israeli soldiers killed in combat on Jan. 8, including six troops killed in an explosion in central Gaza. Their deaths raised the toll in Israel’s offensive to 185.
—
The post Jewish Life Stories: Hasidic filmmaker Menachem Daum, pioneering publisher Carol Hupping Fisher appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Lithuanian Government Blasted for Plans to Convert Historic Jewish Cemetery Into Conference Center
Jevgenius Kevicius prays in front of the chapel of Vilna Gaon in a Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, Aug. 7, 2007. Photo: Reuters
The Lithuanian government has come under fire for its decision to move forward with construction on the historic Snipiskes (Piramónt) Jewish Cemetery in the country’s capital of Vilnius and to convert it into a conference center.
In 1971, when Lithuania was still part of the Soviet Union, the Soviets built the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace on top of the Jewish cemetery after destroying the historic graveyard located in the neighborhood of Piromont, now known as Šnipiškės. The burial site dates back to the 15th century and was once the burial place for thousands of Lithuanian Jews, including revered rabbis, scholars, and community leaders, according to the Auschwitz Jewish Center Fourndation (AJCF). It is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Vilnius.
In 2004, the Sports Palace was closed and began to fall into disrepair. It has been vacant ever since and is often vandalized.
The Lithuanian government announced on July 28 that it will revive former plans, proposed more than a decade ago, to turn the now “unused and abandoned” concert and sports center into the Vilnius Congress Centre. “The territory of the former Vilnius Jewish Šnipiškės old cemetery located around the building will also be cleaned up and commemorated,” according to the announcement. The building also hosted the founding congress of the Lithuanian Reform Movement in October 1988 and a farewell ceremony for victims of Soviet violence in January 1991.
“When implementing the project, attention will be maintained both to the significance of this place for the history of Lithuania and to the memory of the events that marked it,” said since-resigned Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas. He announced his decision to step down as prime minister on Friday.
The goal of the new construction is to promote business and conference tourism to Lithuania, while also addressing the fact that country still does not have an A-class conference center, according to the government. It added that according to preliminary estimates from the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, the proposed Vilnius Congress Centre could generate up to €133 million annually and create up to 1,200 jobs in sectors ranging from tourism, logistics, and event organizing.
Proposals to convert the site into a convention venue started in 2015, but they have always been met with backlash from Jewish groups because of the historic Jewish cemetery located on the land.
The decision to convert the site into a convention center is a “painful betrayal of Lithuania’s own past commitments and a desecration to the interned deceased,” said Pinchas Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow and the current President of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER). The rabbinical alliance represents more than 700 religious leaders across Europe.
Goldschmidt noted in a statement that a special committee, established by the previous Lithuanian government in 2023, concluded that the site of the historic Jewish cemetery should not be developed further, and drafted proposals on how it should be commemorated with a memorial site within the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace. “We now urge the current government to honor those conclusions, which were reached through serious consultation and international engagement,” he said.
“This is not a matter of politics, but of moral and historical responsibility. Thousands of Jewish graves lie beneath that site,” Goldschmidt added. “Turning it into a venue for entertainment and gatherings is a profound desecration to their dignity. We call on the Lithuanian authorities, particularly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to reverse this decision and recommit to protecting Jewish heritage and faith, as they have previously pledged.”
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, said the local Jewish community was not consulted regarding the construction and that it could cause disrespect to those buried at the site. “I fear this project will attract Jews from around the world – not for conferences, but to witness how a civilized democratic country desecrates Jewish graves,” Kukliansky told Lithuania’s LRT RADIO.
The American Jewish Committee expressed “shock at the Lithuanian government’s surprise announcement.”
“We urge the Lithuanian government to immediately reverse course,” the AJC said in a statement. The move “reverses an internationally endorsed decision of the previous government, which rightly committed to transforming the site into a place of Jewish remembrance and education. The Jewish group added that the “abrupt nature of this decision raises serious questions and casts a shadow over Lithuania’s stated commitment to Holocaust memory and Jewish heritage.”
“The decision by Lithuania to desecrate what is among the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Europe is a grave insult to the memory of the dead and to the conscience of the living,” said AJCF Chairman Simon Bergson. “Cemeteries are eternal places of rest, and this betrayal reverberates far beyond Lithuania. It undermines the universal promise to preserve Jewish memory and respect for the sanctity of the dead.”
“Lithuania once vowed to protect the Vilnius cemetery and honor it as a place of remembrance,” added AJCF Director General Jack Simony. “To renege on that promise now is a profound breach of trust — not only with the Jewish community but with all who believe in the integrity of Holocaust memory. This is not about stones and soil; it is about the eternal dignity of human beings whose remains lie there.”
“Vilnius must decide whether it will be remembered as a guardian of memory or as a force of its destruction,” added Simony. “We cannot allow silence to pave over sacred ground. This is not only a Jewish issue. It is a human issue. History is watching.”
The AJCF has urged the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to designate the Jewish cemetery as a protected heritage site under international law, and called on the European Union “to hold Lithuania accountable to its previous pledges and its responsibility to preserve cultural and historical memory.” The AJCF also called on the United States government, which has a statutory obligation to safeguard Jewish cemeteries abroad, to get involved and ensure the preservation of the Jewish site.
Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas criticized the government for not consulting with city officials before making the decision. He told LRT RADIO that the city was already making progress on developing an alternative site for a A-class conference center, near the parliament building.
“The government announced – without any discussion – that the space would become a conference center. We weren’t sitting idly by; we were moving ahead with our own plans. Learning about this from a press release was unexpected,” Benkunskas said. The mayor noted that Paluckas reassured him, early in his term as prime minister, that there would be no changes regarding the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace on top of the old Jewish cemetery, and any moves regarding the building would include conversations with city officials.
Vice Minister of Economy Agila Barzdienė insisted that the government followed necessary protocol before announcing the construction plans, according to LRT. He said the site is already not being “treated as sacred or supervised.”
“It’s a central location that is now neither respected nor secured, it brings no benefit for the country. The ministry’s suggestion is to exploit conference tourism which is one of the most profitable and useful sectors for any city,” Barzdienė said. The minster added that the city’s plans to build a conference center at an alternate location are too costly and not something either the city or state can afford.
RSS
German Soccer Club Backtracks on Signing Israeli Player Shon Weissman Following Outcry Over His Israel Support
Shon Weissman of Granada CF during the match between Granada CF and FC Cartagena of La Liga Hypermotions on April 20, 2025, at Cartagonova Stadium in Granada, Spain. Photo: IMAGO/Samuel Carreno via Reuters Connect
The German soccer club Fortuna Düsseldorf has backed out of plans to sign Israeli striker Shon Weissman, who has stirred controversy with past comments on social media in support of Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday, Fortuna Düsseldorf said in a German language statement on social media that it intensely looked into having Weissman, 29, join its club but “ultimately decided to refrain from signing him.”
The second-division soccer team was close to finalizing a €500,000 deal to have Weissman transfer from the Spanish club soccer Granada CF, local German media reported recently. After the news went public, fans of the German soccer team shared screenshots of since-deleted, online posts by Weissman in which the Haifa native expressed support for the Israel Defense Forces and its military operations in the Gaza Strip following the Hamas mass terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The athlete was accused by anti-Israel social media users of supporting genocide and “the mass bombing of civilians in Gaza.”
Weissman liked and reposted messages that said “wipe Gaza off the map” and suggested there were “no innocents” in the Gaza Strip, according to Haaretz. Weissman’s agent, Boaz Goren, said that the posts and likes were not by Weissman but a social media manager who had access to his accounts, the Israeli newspaper reported.
Fortuna Düsseldorf at first defended Weissman. Replying to a post on X that featured a quote from Weismann, taken from Wikipedia, the soccer team said on Monday that “judging people you don’t know” based on a Wikipedia article “doesn’t really fit our vibe.” Less than 24 hours later, however, the team announced that it would not pursue a deal with Weissman.
The Israeli striker responded to the news in a statement shared on Instagram. He said a person will always stand with their country “no matter what” and that “loyalty isn’t up for debate,” especially “when your people are still burying their dead.”
“I am a son of a nation still grieving from the horrors of October 7,” he wrote. “That black day, when entire families were murdered, kidnapped, and brutalized, remains an open wound for me … It’s both possible and necessary to oppose harm to innocent people on both sides but I won’t allow myself to be painted as someone who promoted hate. If that’s hard for some to accept they should take another look at what happened on October 7th.”
He said in conclusion: “I am deeply grateful for the support I’ve received from people that actually know me, and I will continue to proudly carry the Israeli flag wherever I play.”
Weissman joined Granada in 2023 and his contract with the team expires in late June 2026. He began his career playing for Maccabi Haifa and has also played for Austria’s Wolfsberger AC and Spain’s Real Valladolid.
RSS
Iberia Launches Investigation After Kosher Meal Delivered With ‘Free Palestine’ Message Sparks Backlash
Kosher meal tray served on an Iberia flight from Buenos Aires to Madrid, marked with the handwritten label “Free Palestine.” Photo: Screenshot
Spanish airline Iberia has launched an investigation after a Jewish passenger on a flight from Buenos Aires to Madrid received a kosher meal labeled “Free Palestine” — one of the latest in a string of anti-Jewish incidents amid a sharp rise in antisemitism across Spain.
On Monday, Argentina’s main Jewish umbrella organization, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), reported that a passenger on a flight from Buenos Aires to Madrid received a kosher meal labeled “Free Palestine.” Kosher meals are prepared in accordance with traditional Jewish dietary laws.
According to DAIA’s report, several other Jewish passengers were also given trays marked with the initials “FP.”
“We strongly condemn this discriminatory act and have contacted the airline authorities to demand explanations and immediate action,” DAIA wrote in a post on X.
Grave acto de antisemitismo en vuelo de @Iberia denunciado en la DAIA
En el vuelo IB0102 Buenos Aires–Madrid, el pasajero Salvador Auday recibió su bandeja de comida kosher con la leyenda “Free Palestine”. Otros pasajeros judíos también recibieron bandejas con las iniciales… pic.twitter.com/2srkgOGIQU
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) August 4, 2025
Iberia confirmed that several passengers discovered “handwritten pro-Palestinian messages” on their meal packaging during the flight.
The Spanish airline said the crew quickly documented the incident, assisted those affected, and that the captain personally apologized to the passengers.
“Iberia is conducting a comprehensive investigation, involving both its internal teams and external catering suppliers, to fully understand the incident and implement all necessary corrective actions,” the airline told The Algemeiner.
“We unequivocally condemn all forms of discrimination, hate speech, and any behavior that violates the dignity of individuals,” the statement read. “These actions are completely unacceptable and contradict the core values of respect and inclusion that define our company’s identity.”
This incident follows a separate controversy involving Spanish airline Vueling, which faced backlash after forcibly removing a group of French Jewish teenagers from a flight from Valencia to Paris, allegedly for singing in Hebrew.
The forced removal of the group has triggered political outrage in France, after their group leader was handcuffed by Spanish police and a government minister insulted the teens as “Israeli brats.”
The Spanish low-cost airline denied the allegations, insisting the incident was not related to religion but rather that the group was removed because of its members’ “highly combative attitude that was putting the safety of the flight at risk.”
Spain has seen a significant increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes and anti-Israel sentiment following the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with the local Jewish community facing harassment, intimidation, and assaults.
The Spanish government has also been one of the harshest critics of the Jewish state since the start of the war in Gaza, mounting a sustained effort against Israel in international forums.
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Spain halted arms shipments from its own defense companies to Israel and launched a diplomatic campaign to curb the country’s military response.
At the same time, several Spanish ministers in the country’s left-wing coalition government issued pro-Hamas statements and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with some falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”