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Shoah Museum in Rome Acquires Another Defaced Mural of Holocaust Survivor
Edith Bruck, in white, attends the unveiling event for the AleXsandro Palombo mural “The Star of David” at the Shoah Museum in Rome, Italy, on April 7, 2025. Photo: Ariel Nacamulli
The Shoah Museum in Rome unveiled on Monday a second Holocaust-related mural that was recreated and acquired by the institution after being defaced by antisemitic vandals in Milan earlier this year.
The mural, titled “The Star of David,” depicts Italian-Hungarian Holocaust survivor, writer, and poet Edith Bruck, and was created by Italian contemporary artist aleXsandro Palombo. The artwork shows Bruck dressed in striped concentration camp prisoner uniform with an Israeli flag draped over her shoulders. Palombo debuted the mural in Milan in January, in honor of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, but mere days after its unveiling, the large blue Star of David on the Israeli flag was scrapped off by vandals and Bruck’s face with later defaced. Palombo has since recreated the mural, and it is now in display at the Shoah Museum.
In the original mural, Bruck stood under the words “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work makes you free”), which is the phrase featured on the main gate at the site of the former Auschwitz concentration camp. Palombo also named the artwork after the slogan, but he left out the wording when recreating the mural for the Holocaust museum and has renamed the artwork “The Star of David.”
Bruck attended the mural’s unveiling ceremony on Monday at the Shoah Museum. The event was also attended by Israeli Ambassador to Italy Jonathan Peled; Victor Fadlun, president of the Jewish Community of Rome; and Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.
“The mural must live precisely because it was vandalized, and so it will live, and everything related to memory and what I have personally experienced must live,” Bruck said. “After they defaced it, it will finally live, it will live because it has returned to Rome, where I live.”
The artwork has been added to the museum’s permanent collection and it stands beside another of Palombo’s Holocaust-related murals – titled “Anti-Semitism, History Repeating” – which was acquired by the Shoah Museum in January after it was defaced three times. That mural depicted two Auschwitz survivors — Italian Senate member for life Liliana Segre and Italian author Sami Modiano. The two murals are now displayed in front of the Portico d’Ottavia outside the Casina dei Vallati, which is in the ancient Jewish Ghetto of Rome and currently home to the Shoah Museum.
Palombo has had several of his Holocaust-related murals vandalized in antisemitic attacks, including one that features Bruck, Segre and Modiano together.
“After the despicable defacement in Milan, welcoming today aleXsandro Palombo’s mural at the Museum of the Shoah Foundation is an act of resistance and responsibility,” said Mario Venezia, president of the Shoah Museum Foundation. “Edith Bruck, like Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano, has dedicated her life to dialogue and testimony, speaking to thousands of young people and engaging with institutions. Today, we are here to reiterate that memory cannot be erased, neither by paint nor by the hatred of those who attempt to rewrite history. We will continue to defend it, to honor the survivors and for all new generations who believe in the value of knowledge and respect.”
“Edith Bruck came to the inauguration of aleXsandro Palombo’s work to show that we have no intention of accepting these forms of violence, responding in a peaceful, non-violent way,” added Venezia. “It’s important because her gesture is a civil response to an act of vandalism. We have Edith with us, and we will always have her in our hearts and minds.”
The post Shoah Museum in Rome Acquires Another Defaced Mural of Holocaust Survivor first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
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Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
The post Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
The post Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.