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Doug Emhoff will visit Oskar Schindler’s factory during Poland and Germany visit
(JTA) — Doug Emhoff’s itinerary on an upcoming trip to Poland and Germany includes a stop at the factory where Oskar Schindler saved over 1,000 Jews, a Shabbat dinner with local Jewish leaders and a visit to a United Nations center housing refugees from Ukraine.
Senior administration officials outlined the trip’s details in a call with reporters on Wednesday, a day before the second gentleman heads overseas, where he will be accompanied by Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism.
As the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice president, Emhoff has made fighting antisemitism a main focus. Last month he convened a group of top Biden administration officials to discuss the topic, and he has toured Jewish college groups and other Jewish institutions in recent months. As officials noted on Wednesday’s call, the administration is working towards releasing a “national action plan” on fighting antisemitism.
Here’s a summary of the itinerary for the trip, which coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Friday
Emhoff will attend a commemoration ceremony with other government officials and some survivors to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum. The day is tied to the date in 1945 when the Nazi concentration camp where more than 1 million Jews were murdered was liberated. He will then join a Shabbat dinner in Krakow with members of the small but vibrant local Jewish community.
Saturday
In the morning, Emhoff will visit the former Schindler Enamel Factory, which now hosts two museums (one of fine art and another on the history of Krakow). It’s estimated that Oskar Schindler, immortalized in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film “Schindler’s List,” helped over 1,000 Jewish workers there avoid being sent to death camps.
After that, Emhoff will join a roundtable with Polish community leaders, antisemitism experts, religious leaders and academics who “promote tolerance, education and inclusiveness.”
Then Emhoff will visit a site run by the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, which is housing refugees from Ukraine who have fled the violence there. Emhoff will talk with refugees and UNHCR officials.
Sunday
Emhoff will tour Krakow’s historic Jewish Quarter and meet with Jewish community leaders before traveling to a southern Polish town to talk with locals about the country’s prewar Jewish history. He will then depart for Berlin.
Monday
In Berlin, Emhoff will convene a group of special envoys and coordinators working to combat antisemitism in their respective governments — Lipstadt’s “counterparts from various European and other countries.”
Emhoff will then tour the Topography of Terror Museum and the Museum of Jewish Life before participating in a dinner hosted by U.S. Ambassador Amy Gutmann, which will include German government officials and Jewish community leaders. Gutmann’s Jewish father fled Nazi Germany as a college student in 1934.
Tuesday
Emhoff will host a roundtable with Jewish, Muslim and Christian faith leaders, discussing “interfaith dialogue and understanding.” He will then visit a local synagogue and a series of memorials in Berlin, including the famed Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Along the way, he will meet with German officials and a small group of Holocaust survivors before returning to the United States.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’
Rep Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, on Sunday likened the Trump administration’s immigration rhetoric to Nazi depictions of Jews.
“It reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany,” Omar said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, commenting on a social media post by Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, in which he suggested that “migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.” Miller, who is Jewish, is the architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Omar called Miller’s comments “white supremist rhetoric” and also drew parallels between his characterization of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. to how Jews were demonized and treated when they fled Nazi-era Germany. “As we know, there have been many immigrants who have tried to come to the United States who have turned back, you know, one of them being Jewish immigrants,” she said.
Now serving as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Miller is central to the White House’s plans for mass deportations and expanded barriers to asylum. During Trump’s first term, Miller led the implementation of the so-called Muslim travel ban in 2017, which barred entry to the U.S. for individuals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and pushed to further reduce a longtime refugee program.
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany.” pic.twitter.com/GAjIMqFq26
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 7, 2025
Miller’s comments echoed similar rhetoric by Trump after an Afghan refugee was accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House last month, killing one.
Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting last week that Somali immigrants are “garbage” and that he wanted them to be sent “back to where they came from.” The president also singled out Omar, a Somali native who represents Minnesota’s large Somali-American community. “She should be thrown the hell out of our country,” Trump said.
In the Sunday interview, Omar called Trump’s remarks “completely disgusting” and accused him of having “an unhealthy obsession” with her and the Somali community. “This kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president,” she said.
The post Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Nigeria Seeks French Help to Combat Insecurity, Macron Says
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has sought more help from France to fight widespread violence in the north of the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, weeks after the United States threatened to intervene to protect Nigeria’s Christians.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has witnessed an upsurge in attacks in volatile northern areas in the past month, including mass kidnappings from schools and a church.
US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of possible military action in Nigeria, accusing it of mistreating Christians. The government says the allegations misrepresent a complex security situation in which armed groups target both faith groups.
Macron said he had a phone call with Tinubu on Sunday, where he conveyed France’s support to Nigeria as it grapples with several security challenges, “particularly the terrorist threat in the North.”
“At his request, we will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations. We call on all our partners to step up their engagement,” Macron said in a post on X.
Macron did not say what help would be offered by France, which has withdrawn its troops from West and Central Africa and plans to focus on training, intelligence sharing and responding to requests from countries for assistance.
Nigeria is grappling with a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast, armed kidnapping gangs in the northwest and deadly clashes between largely Muslim cattle herders and mostly Christian farmers in the central parts of the country, stretching its security forces.
Washington said last month that it was considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel Nigeria to better protect its Christian communities.
The Nigerian government has said it welcomes help to fight insecurity as long as its sovereignty is respected. France has previously supported efforts to curtail the actions of armed groups, the US has shared intelligence and sold arms, including fighter jets, and Britain has trained Nigerian troops.
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Netanyahu Says He Will Not Quit Politics if He Receives a Pardon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the state memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Iron Swords War on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem on Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not retire from politics if he receives a pardon from the country’s president in his years-long corruption trial.
Asked by a reporter if planned on retiring from political life if he receives a pardon, Netanyahu replied: “no”.
Netanyahu last month asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon, with lawyers for the prime minister arguing that frequent court appearances were hindering Netanyahu’s ability to govern and that a pardon would be good for the country.
Pardons in Israel have typically been granted only after legal proceedings have concluded and the accused has been convicted. There is no precedent for issuing a pardon mid-trial.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in response to the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and his lawyers have said that the prime minister still believes the legal proceedings, if concluded, would result in a complete acquittal.
US President Donald Trump wrote to Herzog, before Netanyahu made his request, urging the Israeli president to consider granting the prime minister a pardon.
Some Israeli opposition politicians have argued that any pardon should be conditional on Netanyahu retiring from politics and admitting guilt. Others have said the prime minister must first call national elections, which are due by October 2026.