To purchase tickets for the VR tour at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial, which will take place on Sunday at 1 pm ET, visit: https://mjhnyc.org/events/vrlearningauschwitz/
Watch a trailer for the VR tour below.
RSS
NYC Museum of Jewish Heritage Opens Auschwitz Virtual Reality Tour
The sign “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work makes you free”) is pictured at the main gate of the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland. Photo: Reuters/Pawel Ulatowski
New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will debut on Sunday a new experience that will allow visitors to take a virtual reality tour of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
With the use of VR technology, including VR headsets, visitors will get a firsthand perspective of Auschwitz through a 48-minute immersive and educational tour narrated by Rabbi Yisrael Goldwasser, an internationally acclaimed speaker on the topic of the Holocaust.
The VR experience was developed by the New York City-based nonprofit organization Spirit of Triumph. In 2020, two Orthodox women in Israel wanted to make a VR tour of Auschwitz, but the former Nazi concentration camp had never permitted the kind of access they needed to create the VR experience. The COVID-19 pandemic made the Auschwitz site available for filming.
“What has been preserved of the Auschwitz death camp is the ultimate historic artifact. To visit the camp in person, or to explore it now through this extraordinary VR technology, is a deeply moving experience,” Jack Kliger, president and CEO of the museum, told The Algemeiner.
“As the Holocaust recedes farther with each year, and as we lose our last generation of living survivors, we must explore new means to engage with this history and firsthand testimony,” he added. “The stoic barracks of Auschwitz remain our enduring eyewitnesses.”
More than 1.1 million European Jews were murdered in the notorious concentration camp as part of the Nazis’ “Final Solution” between 1941 and 1945. For those who have never been able to visit the site of the former Nazi camp in person, the VR tour offers them an opportunity to see nearly every area of the site. The tour includes overhead footage shot by drones that reveals the size and scale of the camp, which is hard to comprehend during on-the-ground tours.
The VR tour “is designed to foster critical conversation and inspire in its audience empathy and a commitment to combat hatred,” the museum said in announcing the initiative. “VR technology offers an opportunity to promote a profound understanding that transcends traditional classroom learning by transporting those who experience it beyond the confines of their four walls.”
“Participants will be able to explore the haunting landscapes and barracks, fostering empathy and a deeper understanding of the Holocaust,” the museum added.
The post NYC Museum of Jewish Heritage Opens Auschwitz Virtual Reality Tour first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
Continue Reading
RSS
Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
The post Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.
Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.
Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.
Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.
Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.
The post Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors first appeared on Algemeiner.com.