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New York Times Reporter Apologizes for Leaking Personal Data From Jewish Group Chat Later Used to Harass Jews

A taxi passes by in front of The New York Times head office, Feb. 7, 2013. Photo: Reuters / Carlo Allegri / File.

A reporter for The New York Times has apologized for leaking data from a WhatsApp group chat for Jews in Australia that was then published online by anti-Israel activists who also harassed members of the chat.

Natasha Frost told The Wall Street Journal she shared the information from the group chat with only one person, who disseminated the data without her permission.

“Its subsequent dissemination and misuse happened entirely without my knowledge or consent,” she said in a statement shared by a Times spokesperson. “I was shocked by these events, which put me and many others at terrible risk. I deeply regret my decision, and I have no plans to comment further.”

The New York Times has taken disciplinary measures against Frost as a result of the incident. “It has been brought to our attention that a New York Times reporter inappropriately shared information with the subject of a story to assist the individual in a private matter, a clear violation of our ethics,” a spokesperson for the newspaper told The Wall Street Journal. “We have reviewed the matter and taken appropriate action.”

Frost — who is based in Melbourne, Australia — writes The New York Times’ weekday newsletter, The Europe Morning Briefing. She joined the publication in 2020 and before that worked for other media outlets such as Radio New Zealand and the BBC. She was raised in New Zealand and Singapore, and is a citizen of Austria and the United Kingdom. She graduated from the University of Oxford and Columbia Journalism School. Her latest piece for the Times was published on Monday.

In November, Frost obtained access to a WhatsApp group for Jewish creative professionals and academics in Australia that was set up in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. In December, several members of the group called for action against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) because of its decision to hire Lebanese-Australian journalist Antoinette Lattouf to host a Sydney radio show for five days. On social media, Lattouf has criticized Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, accusing the Jewish state of committing war crimes and genocide.

ABC ultimately cut Lattouf’s contract short and she filed a complaint, alleging that she faced racial discrimination and an unlawful dismissal. Frost co-wrote a story about Lattouf’s firing that was published by The New York Times on Jan. 23. Frost left the WhatsApp group chat days before the story went live and personal data from the chat was leaked online not long afterward.

During her time in the group chat, which had roughly 600 members, Frost downloaded and shared 900 pages worth of content that was later obtained by anti-Israel activists and widely shared online. The activists called it the “Zio600” list and published online a transcript of conversations from the group chat, as well as a spreadsheet that included names, photos, job titles, links to their social media accounts, and other personal details of many of the group’s members. Some of those mentioned in the leaked data were also harassed online and in person.

One Jewish member of the chat, gift shop owner Joshua Moshe, said he and his wife received hateful emails and phone calls in which they were called baby killers and genocidal maniacs. The couple’s shop in northern Melbourne was vandalized several times, and someone left Moshe an expletive-filled voicemail and then texted him a photo of his five-year-old son. Some group members faced such terrible harassment that they were forced to move or install additional security at their homes.

As a result, Australia’s Attorney General Mark Dreyfus proposed passing a new law that would make doxxing a criminal offense.

“The increasing use of online platforms to harm people through practices like doxxing, the malicious release of their personal information without their permission, is a deeply disturbing development,” Dreyfus, who is Jewish, told reporters in February. “The recent targeting of members of the Australian Jewish community through those practices like doxxing was shocking but, sadly, this is far from being an isolated incident.”

In May, the Australian government announced that it would bring forward legislation in early August to outlaw doxxing and amend the country’s Privacy Act.

The post New York Times Reporter Apologizes for Leaking Personal Data From Jewish Group Chat Later Used to Harass Jews first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Holocaust Survivor Marian Turski Dies Aged 98

Marian Turski speaks on the occasion of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in front of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw, Poland, April 19, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Holocaust survivor Marian Turski, who became a journalist in Poland and headed an international committee of Auschwitz survivors, has died at the age of 98, said the Polish weekly magazine Polityka, where he worked as a columnist.

In an article on Tuesday announcing Turski‘s death, Polityka described him as “an exceptional guardian of memory, an outstanding man whose voice was heard all over the world.”

Born as Moshe Turbowicz on June 26, 1926, in Druskieniki, in what is now Lithuania, Turski was sent to the Lodz ghetto at the age of 14.

In 1944 he was transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland, where both his father and brother died.

In 1945 he survived two death marches, firstly from Auschwitz to Buchenwald, a concentration camp in Germany, and then from Buchenwald to Theresienstadt, where he was liberated by the Soviet Red Army.

More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold, and disease at Auschwitz, where most had been brought in freight wagons, packed like livestock.

After World War Two Turski lived in Lower Silesia, southern Poland, before moving to Warsaw, where he worked as a historian and journalist. He started working at Polityka in 1958 and was the author of several books.

He was made an honorary citizen of Warsaw in 2018, in part as recognition for his work in setting up the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in the city.

In January, Turski gave a speech at the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in which he warned against rising antisemitism.

“We see in the modern world today a great increase in antisemitism, and it was antisemitism that led to the Holocaust,” he said.

“Let us not be afraid to convince ourselves that we can solve problems between neighbors.”

Over 3 million of Poland’s 3.3 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.

In all, between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically killed 6 million Jews across German-occupied Europe, along with gypsies, sexual minorities, disabled people, and others who offended Nazi ideas of racial superiority.

The post Holocaust Survivor Marian Turski Dies Aged 98 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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My Message to Donald Trump: The Jews Need You

US President Donald Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room at the White House in Washington, US, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis

What happens when the past starts to look dangerously like the present? The hate my family fled in the Soviet Union is back, not just in distant countries but in my city, on social media, and even in the political discourse of this country.

My ancestors didn’t survive oppression by being passive. In the Soviet Union, they fought to preserve their identity, even when being Jewish was a crime. Synagogues were destroyed, Hebrew was banned, and Jewish people were persecuted in every aspect of life. Yet, they kept their faith and traditions alive, passing them down secretly, risking everything to do so.

They weren’t just surviving — they were resisting. And that resistance is part of the reason I’m here today.

But now, in 2025, the same struggle is back: the slurs on the subway walls, the antisemitic graffiti at parks, the casual hate directed at Israel. It’s not just words, it’s a message: Jews don’t belong.

After the October 7th Hamas massacre, we saw a spike in antisemitic incidents, and the climate is growing more hostile. This isn’t some far-off problem; it’s here in America, and it’s escalating.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House makes the need for action even more straightforward. Under the Biden administration, antisemitism surged, and yet the response was mostly silence or half-hearted condemnations. Jewish communities were left exposed as attacks increased. This can’t continue.

We need leadership that takes direct, meaningful action to combat antisemitism — not just when it makes headlines, but every day. Now back in office, Trump has the responsibility to prioritize this fight. His words and actions will shape the future of our country, and it’s time to show authentic leadership by actively protecting Jewish communities.

Antisemitism has become normalized in many spaces, and it’s not something we can hope will fade. We need policies that protect Jewish people, enforce stronger laws, and educate against hate speech. This is about more than just rhetoric. It’s about taking action that ensures we are not targeted simply for being who we are.

I hear the slurs, see the symbols, and witness the spread of harmful stereotypes, often with no consequences. Whenever I speak up, it feels like I’m fighting an uphill battle. But I’m not alone.

This is part of a larger fight. We need leaders, not just in my school or community, but in the White House, who will stand against hate and take tangible steps to protect us.

The responsibility to fight antisemitism can’t fall solely on students or Jewish communities — those in power must take it up. President Trump, this is your moment. Do not let this crisis go unaddressed. If you genuinely want to leave a legacy of strength, act now. Make fighting antisemitism a priority.

We must ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself. The stakes are too high. We cannot afford to wait for another crisis to occur. If you want to be remembered for more than just words, show the courage to lead the fight against antisemitism.

The writer is a high school student from Great Neck, New York, passionate about advocacy and government. Through his writing and activism, he engages others in meaningful conversations about US politics, international relations, and Israel’s significance as both a homeland for the Jewish people and a key ally of the United States

The post My Message to Donald Trump: The Jews Need You first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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CBS’ Margaret Brennan Said ‘Free Speech’ Enabled the Holocaust; She Has No Idea What She’s Talking About

People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki

It was bad enough when Whoopi Goldberg of The View infamously said the Holocaust was not about race. On Sunday, Margaret Brennan of CBS’ Face The Nation interviewed Secretary of State Marco Rubio. During the interview, Brennan said, “free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide” in Nazi Germany.

Was it freedom of the press when Nazis shut down the Munich Post, which for a decade had been warning against Hitler and covered the suspicious death of his niece? What about all of Hitler’s critics and enemies — why would they have to flee if there was free speech?

What an actual dictator does is close down free speech to maintain groupthink. Brennan embarrassed herself using the buzzword of “weaponizing” without understanding its meaning, or the fact that it was a lack of freedom of the press that was weaponized to help Hitler conduct a genocide.

In March 1933, Hitler passed the Enabling Act and, in his speech, said that “the entire educational system, the theatre, the cinema, literature, the Press and the wireless, all these very things will be used as a means to this end and valued accordingly. They must all serve for the maintenance of the eternal values present in the essential character of the people.”

So now that we established as of 1933 there was no freedom of the press, how could Brennan claim a “weaponization” of free press caused a genocide? Perhaps, she has no idea of what she is talking about, and she should make an on-air apology if she has not already.

I would not expect that she or Goldberg would have read a book called Mein Kampf. But Hitler wrote: “Again and again our Jewish press has known how to concentrate special hatred on England, and many a good German simpleton has fallen into the Jewish snare with the greatest willingness, drooled about ‘strengthening’ German sea power, protested against the rape of our colonies, recommended their reconquest, and thus helped furnish the material which the Jewish scoundrel could pass on to his fellow Jews in England for practical propogandist use.”

Perhaps Brennan could educate herself by watching a film or play about Sophie Scholl and the White Rose members. Scholl and her compatriots were executed for handing out pamphlets that called for resistance. They declared Hitler was a liar. She was 21 when she was executed. Strange, I don’t see any students today being executed for free speech.

Such reports on national news networks assume that the general public has little knowledge of the Holocaust, which is sadly true. If anyone is weaponizing anything, it is Brennan using scare tactics to try to compare modern day political figures to Hitler, which is a tough comparison to make considering no American leaders have advocated for Jews to be eliminated, whereas Hitler used that terminology and hatred from the very beginning.

Be skeptical any time you hear the phrase “weaponized.” Many podcasts and anti-Israel speakers have tried to ignore antisemitism by saying it is being “weaponized” by Jews. You may also hear that Jews “weaponized” the Holocaust to create the state of Israel.

If Jews, after seeing the horrible genocide, understood the need for a Jewish state — and the countries of the United Nations voted for establishment of Israel due to the savagery of the Holocaust — that is called understanding the consequences of events. It is not called weaponization.

The author is a writer based in New York.

The post CBS’ Margaret Brennan Said ‘Free Speech’ Enabled the Holocaust; She Has No Idea What She’s Talking About first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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