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A Holocaust cattle car in Times Square makes a moving, if jarring, statement
(New York Jewish Week) — Times Square may be best known for its flashy billboards, roving bands of knock-off Elmos and hordes of gawking tourists. But on Tuesday, Holocaust Remembrance Day, visitors to the “crossroads of the world” could also see a replica of the kind of cattle car that transported millions of Jews to their deaths in Nazi-run concentration camps.
The cattle car was parked at the intersection of 46th and Broadway, across from a Forever 21 and the TKTS Ticket window, where curious visitors could step inside and see a film, projected on its four walls, detailing the horrors of the Holocaust.
The “Cattle Car: Stepping In and Out of Darkness” exhibit was developed in 2020 by ShadowLight, a Toronto-based Holocaust education nonprofit, and Southern NCSY, the Florida branch of the Orthodox Union youth group. NCSY’s “Hate Ends Now” tour is traveling the country with a mission to promote Holocaust education and combat antisemitism.
“This exhibit is one of the country’s most innovative Holocaust education tools, and today we’ve brought it to the crossroads of the world,” said Todd Cohn, executive director of Southern NCSY. “If you want to make the world aware of a cause, this is the place to do it.”
On Tuesday morning, while lots of people walked by without looking up, as many in New York are wont to do, several stopped in their tracks to take a look around, snap some pictures and scan the QR code to learn more about the cattle car and the Holocaust. Others took selfies and one asked if the exhibit was a celebration of Passover, which Cohn took as an opportunity to teach about Judaism and the memory of the Holocaust.
“This is amazing to see,” said Yael Shimoni-Degani, an Israeli tourist who was walking through Times Square while visiting her daughter who lives in New York City. The pair was waiting to go inside. “It’s very important to remind people what happened,” Shimoni-Degani said.
The cattle car will be parked in Times Square until 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, or Yom Hashoah, which is marked as Holocaust Remembrance Day by Israel and Jews worldwide. Rotating groups from area Jewish high schools were invited to visit throughout the day. An event scheduled for 7:00 p.m., open to the public, was to feature Holocaust survivors, U.S. Army veterans who were involved in liberating the camps, Israeli emissaries and local politicians. The crowd will be invited to sing prayers and light yahrzeit candles in memory of victims of the Holocaust.
A group of students from The Ramaz School exits the “Cattle Car: Stepping In and Out of Darkness” exhibit in Times Square, April 18, 2023. (Julia Gergely)
Attendees are closed inside the cattle car — an effort to make tangible the experience of victims and survivors. The 20-minute video provides a timeline of the Holocaust and and includes testimonies from survivors Hedy Bohm and Nate Leipciger. The video concludes by urging viewers to take responsibility for their actions, asking questions like, “How did the world let this happen?” and “How can you raise your voice?” Statistics on rising antisemitism, racism and violence against LGBTQ communities are displayed.
“While inspiring the Jewish future is our core mission, the general public is just as much our intended audience today,” Cohn said, noting the “universal message” of the exhibit. One of the goals of “Hate Ends Now,” which has toured the Florida state capitol and will move onto college campuses in Boston next week, is to “make sure hate doesn’t go unchecked,” Cohn said, especially in a time of rising antisemitism.
There was a large security and police presence nearby, and an officer inside the exhibit.
Dini Hass, an educator at the Ramaz School who had brought a group of students to tour the exhibit, told the New York Jewish Week that visiting the cattle car was an incredible experience and an opportunity to share her family’s story as the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors. “To have this in the middle of Times Square is one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen,” she said, admiringly.
Writer Dara Horn, however, was skeptical that exhibits like this — especially those mounted in such a public space like Times Square — actually have the power to turn the tide of antisemitism, despite their well-meaning intentions.
“I came to the disturbing conclusion that Holocaust education is incapable of addressing contemporary antisemitism,” said Horn, who recently toured the country taking stock of different Holocaust education initiatives. “There’s a bunch of reasons for that. One is that it’s been used as this case study outside of history and it’s used for public moral education. I can’t think of any other event in history where we isolate it from any kind of context and it’s become an atrocity that we are required to universalize.”
Horn noted that her comments were not specific to the “Hate Ends Now” exhibit, rather to the broader effort of Holocaust education and combating antisemitism among the general, non-Jewish public. She also conceded that, for Jewish communities, Yom Hashoah and Holocaust education exhibits are important in that they offer a moment to mourn and honor the dead.
And yet, she said, “This becomes the one thing people know about Jews — that they were murdered in the Holocaust — and now it is there to teach us something about humanity,” she added. “There’s a huge problem where the general public is taught about the Holocaust, and knows absolutely nothing about Jews who are alive today, or about the lives and contents of Jewish civilization in Europe that was lost.”
As someone who is well-informed about the Holocaust, educator Dini Hass said that she is often shocked by how little both Jews and non-Jews know about the Holocaust. “If something like this makes even one person stop for a second to think about the Holocaust and want to learn about it, then it’s doing its job,” she said.
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Joel F. Brown named next Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Forward Association
Joel F. Brown has been named the next Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Forward Association, the nonprofit entity that publishes the Forward, America’s most influential and widely read nationwide Jewish publication. He has served as a member of the Forward board and of the Forward Association for 10 years.
Brown most recently served with the Chicago-based law firm Goldberg Kohn as a principal in its Commercial Finance Group. He has written and lectured on a wide variety of finance-related legal topics and was named one of the 2021 Best Lawyers in America honorees in Banking and Finance law. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and of New York University School of Law.
Since retiring from the practice of law in 2024, Brown has been pursuing a Masters Degree in Jewish Studies from the Spertus Institute. Brown also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, has served as President of Am Yisrael Conservative Congregation (Northfield, Illinois) and is affiliated with the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Brown said, “I am honored to assume this important role in supporting the Forward’s ongoing storied history of reporting on the Jewish American experience in all its diversity. Over the next few years, I expect the Board will help guide the Forward in its mission to cover the full spectrum of Jewish American politics, culture and religion, with an emphasis on reaching new audiences, and in particular younger audiences.”
About the Forward
The Forward is America’s leading voice in Jewish journalism, delivering incisive coverage of the issues, ideas and institutions that matter to American Jews.
The Forward‘s independent, non-ideological perspective on world and national news, and its unparalleled coverage of Jewish arts, culture and opinion, have made it the most influential and widely read nationwide Jewish publication today, and it has been honored with the most journalism awards of any Jewish media organization.
The Forward reaches more than 100 million viewers annually across its website, social media, email newsletters, events and podcasts. The Forward‘s free e-newsletters include the Forwarding the News morning briefing and others highlighting areas of special interest like Yiddish and antisemitism.
Leading outlets turn to the Forward‘s journalists for analysis and interviews, including The New York Times, CNN, Fox, NPR, Politico, Haaretz and The Washington Post. The Forward has been archived by the U.S. Library of Congress and named one of the top nonprofit news sites by Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab.
The post Joel F. Brown named next Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Forward Association appeared first on The Forward.
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Eurovision Faces Major Test as Countries Weigh Israel’s Participation
Construction work is ongoing in the main hall of Wiener Stadthalle the venue of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, in Vienna, Austria, Nov. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
The Eurovision Song Contest faces a “watershed moment” on Thursday when members of the body that organizes the contest may vote on whether Israel can compete in 2026, as some nations threaten to withdraw if it is not excluded due to the Gaza war.
European Broadcasting Union members will convene to discuss new rules designed to prevent governments and third parties from disproportionately promoting songs to influence voters after controversy this year over Israel’s second-place win.
If members are not convinced the rules are adequate, there will be a vote on participation, the EBU said, without naming Israel specifically.
Public broadcasters from Slovenia, Ireland, Spain, and the Netherlands have all threatened to boycott the event, scheduled for May in Austria, if Israel is allowed to take part, citing concern over the Palestinian death toll in Gaza, where Israeli forces had been waging a military campaign against the ruling terrorist group Hamas until a recently implemented ceasefire.
EUROVISION AIMS TO BE NON-POLITICAL
The televised annual celebration of pop music, watched by around 150 million viewers worldwide, aims to be non-political, but the Gaza war has embroiled it in controversy. A boycott by some of the competition’s biggest European backers, including Spain, risks a major drop in audience numbers and potential sponsorship.
This year, critics accused Israel of unfairly boosting the second-place finish of its entrant Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists that triggered the conflict. Israel has not responded to these accusations but frequently argues it has faced a global smear campaign.
“We very much hope the package of measures will assure members that we have taken strong action to protect the neutrality and impartiality of the Song Contest,” the EBU said.
Eurovision expert Paul Jordan, who did a PhD on the contest, said it was a “watershed moment” for the competition.
“This is a real crisis point for Eurovision and the EBU … I think it probably has to go to a vote,” Jordan said.
Ben Robertson from fan site ESC Insight noted the potential impact of a loss in audience, but added without Israeli inclusion, Eurovision risks becoming more isolated.
NORWAY CALLS PROPOSED CHANGES ‘PROMISING’
The Israeli foreign ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Luxembourg’s RTL broadcaster backed the proposed changes, while Norway’s NRK broadcaster described the EBU’s signal of major change as “promising.”
If a vote against Israel were successful, Germany would probably withdraw and not broadcast the contest, a broadcasting industry source told Reuters. German broadcaster ARD did not comment. Austrian host broadcaster ORF wants Israel to compete.
Sources within Israeli broadcaster KAN told Reuters it believed discussions about excluding Israel were unjustified, asserting that KAN was in full compliance with EBU rules. It also noted KAN’s support for Israeli acts that have delivered what they described as memorable Eurovision performances.
Russia has been excluded from Eurovision since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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Belgian Police Detain Former EU Foreign Policy Chief Mogherini in Fraud Probe
European Union VIce Presiden and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini (L) is seen during a talk with Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh in Hanoi, Vietnam, Aug. 5, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Kham
Belgian police on Tuesday detained former European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and a current senior EU diplomat as part of a fraud investigation that included raids at several sites, three sources familiar with the probe said.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said the investigation focused on “suspected fraud related to EU-funded training for junior diplomats.” It involved searches at the EU‘s diplomatic service in Brussels, at the College of Europe – an elite university in Bruges that educates many EU officials – and at the houses of suspects.
Mogherini and senior diplomat Stefano Sannino, both Italian nationals, are well known in Brussels diplomatic circles and news of their detentions sent shockwaves through the EU community in Brussels.
Mogherini was the EU‘s high representative for foreign and security policy and head of its diplomatic service from 2014 to 2019. She became rector of the College of Europe in 2020.
TENDER OF TRAINING PROGRAMME PROBED
Sannino previously served as the most senior civil servant in the diplomatic service between 2021 and 2024 and is now director general of the European Commission’s department for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf.
The EPPO said in a statement that three people had been detained but withheld identities, citing the ongoing investigation. Neither Mogherini nor Sannino could be reached for comment.
The prosecutor’s office said its investigation centered on the establishment of the European Union Diplomatic Academy – a nine-month training program for junior diplomats, which was awarded to the College of Europe in 2021-2022 by the EU diplomatic service following a tender procedure.
It said there were “strong suspicions” that confidential information was shared during the process with one of the candidates participating in the tender.
“Prior to the searches, the EPPO requested the lifting of the immunity of several suspects, which was granted,” the statement said. “All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty by the competent Belgian courts of law.”
A spokesperson for the EU diplomatic service confirmed police visited its offices on Tuesday as part of an investigation into activities that took place before the current foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas took office.
The diplomatic service is “fully cooperating with the authorities,” added the spokesperson, Anitta Hipper. “Since it’s an ongoing investigation, we will not be able to say more.”
The College of Europe said in a statement it would “fully cooperate with the authorities in the interest of transparency and respect for the investigative process.”
“The college remains committed to the highest standards of integrity, fairness, and compliance — both in academic and administrative matters,” it said.