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Harrisburg diocese condemns Auschwitz gates in Catholic school’s Halloween float
(JTA) — Catholic leaders in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, have apologized after a local Catholic school included a replica of the gates of Auschwitz in its Halloween parade.
“I was shocked and appalled to learn that the Halloween parade float from Saint Joseph Catholic school in Hanover included a replica of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp gate, bearing the words ‘Arbeit Macht Frei,’” Timothy Senior, the city’s top Catholic bishop, said in a statement on Saturday, after images of the display began going viral.
The words over the gate to Auschwitz mean “Work makes you free” and was intended by the Nazis as a cruel deception for the prisoners who entered through them, largely Jews who would be gassed and worked to death.
Senior said the feature had not been included in an approved plan for the float.
“The inclusion of this image — one that represents the horrific suffering and murder of millions of innocent people, including six million Jews during the Holocaust — is profoundly offensive and unacceptable,” he said, adding, “I express my sincere apology to our Jewish brothers and sisters and to all who were hurt or offended by this display.”
The Halloween parade, which was livestreamed on Thursday, showed around a dozen children marching alongside the float. Images of the display were shared on the Hanover Area Watch Group Facebook page, where criticism from local parents and residents resounded in the comments.
The display was the work of Galen S. Shelly, a York, Pennsylvania, resident who explained his use of the gates in a comment on the Facebook page early Saturday morning.
“I wanted to illustrate the idea none of us get out of this life alive,” Shelly told PennLive of the display. “I never intended anything to be like this. I couldn’t have anticipated it. I made a mistake and I ask everyone’s forgiveness.”
The display drew condemnation from the York Jewish Community Center, Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, which also thanked Senior for his acknowledgement of the display in a joint statement on Saturday.
“The recent use of Nazi imagery on a float in a Halloween parade in Hanover is another painful reminder that hateful symbols and rhetoric still find their way into public spaces,” the statement read. “These acts, intentional or not, contribute to fear and anxiety among Jewish individuals and all who understand the devastating history those symbols represent.”
The company that volunteered to pull the float, Metcalf Cleaning, issued its own apology on Facebook Saturday, writing that it was “not involved in the creation of its decorations or messaging.”
“Regrettably, the float contained a phrase in German that was later found to be derogatory,” the statement read. “At the time, we were unaware of its meaning and significance. We recognize that we should have taken a closer look at the float prior to the parade, and we are truly sorry for that oversight.”
The post Harrisburg diocese condemns Auschwitz gates in Catholic school’s Halloween float appeared first on The Forward.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.