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Rabbi of firebombed N.J. synagogue: ‘We’ve unfortunately been preparing for this’
(JTA) — A New Jersey synagogue is crediting recent safety improvements after a Molotov cocktail thrown at its door overnight caused little damage.
Still, Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield canceled activities on Sunday as the police investigated, marking the second time in recent months that the suburban congregation suspended activities because of an antisemitic incident.
Last November, the Reform synagogue of about 500 families near New York City briefly closed its doors while the FBI investigated a “credible threat” against New Jersey synagogues; an 18-year-old man was later arrested for making a threat online.
The latest incident took place around 3 a.m. Sunday when, according to security camera footage, a man approached the synagogue and threw what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail, a homemade bomb, at the door before fleeing. The man was wearing a ski mask and a shirt that appeared to have an image of a skull and crossbones, according to a picture that police distributed.
The building suffered only superficial damage, an outcome that Rabbi Marc Katz attributed to the safety investments made over the past several years, funded largely by state homeland security grants. The synagogue has added shatterproof glass to its door and upgraded its security cameras, which generated a relatively clear image of the man who threw the device.
“Everything worked the way it was supposed to,” Katz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Sunday afternoon. “We’ve unfortunately been preparing for this day for a while and we were ready.”
The synagogue canceled religious school, where roughly 200 children had been expected, and a rehearsal for the year’s Purim play largely out of concern that it would be upsetting for community members to see evidence of the assault and the investigation, Katz said. On Monday, a scheduled book talk by Rabbi Joshua Stanton, whose recent book tackles the challenges facing American religious institutions, has been postponed to make way for an evening event focused on the incident.
But Katz emphasized, including in his communications to community members, that the community’s normal activities were also ongoing. On Sunday morning, he said, he had officiated at a baby naming, and other activities would proceed as planned on Monday.
Katz said there had been no warning prior to the Sunday incident. But he noted that Montclair has experienced multiple apparently antisemitic incidents in recent years, including swastikas found on playgrounds and etched on desks in the high school.
“Every few months, something happens. But this is the first time that there’s something directly against our congregation to this magnitude,” he said. “If things had been different, like even the wind blowing differently, we could be having a very different conversation. … That’s what’s so scary about this.”
Katz said that even as the incident had left him and his congregants shaken, it was not just antisemitic incidents such as the attacks on synagogues in Pittsburgh; Poway, California; and Colleyville, Texas that had created an atmosphere of fear in the community. He said that every year he asks teenagers in the congregation where they feel more unsafe, at synagogue or at school, and every year the answers come back split.
“Our kids are suffering and they’re not just suffering because they’re Jewish,” he said. “So we have to be responding with a bit of a wider lens even than just what our own community is facing.”
In his letter to congregants, Katz noted that Ner Tamid’s trauma stood alongside other crises in the United States, alluding to multiple shootings targeting Asians in California and the release of footage showing police officers beating a Black man to death in Memphis.
“This has been a horrible week for many, for the AAPI community, for the African American community, and yes, for us,” Katz wrote. “If you don’t know what to do in light of this, then offer up support to a community who is equally at a loss. Perhaps in our collective anger and grief, we can find a way out together.”
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The post Rabbi of firebombed N.J. synagogue: ‘We’ve unfortunately been preparing for this’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Pope Leo Says Catholic Church ‘Unwavering’ in Its Opposition to ‘Every Form of Antisemitism’
Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a statement reaffirming the Catholic Church’s “unwavering” opposition to antisemitism.
“On Holocaust Remembrance Day, I would like to recall that the Church remains faithful to the unwavering position of the Declaration #NostraAetate against every form of antisemitism,” the pope posted on the X social media platform. “The Church rejects any discrimination or harassment based on ethnicity, language, nationality, or religion.”
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, I would like to recall that the Church remains faithful to the unwavering position of the Declaration #NostraAetate against every form of antisemitism. The Church rejects any discrimination or harassment based on ethnicity, language, nationality, or…
— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) January 27, 2026
The post concluded with a link to Nostra Aetate, a declaration from the Second Vatican Council and promulgated on Oct. 28, 1965, by Pope Paul VI that called for dialogue and respect between Christianity and other religions. The theological reform called for a position of Christian-Jewish brotherhood, advocating “the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham’s stock.”
Leo offered his message opposing antisemitism as the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating antisemitism released its newest research into global hate against Jews.
The report documents 815 “serious” incidents around the world — including 21 murders of Jews — as well as 124 million antisemitic X postings and more than 4,000 anti-Israel demonstrations.
“On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we are called not only to remember, but to act. The ministry stands alongside Jewish communities, monitors and collects information in real time, and pursues the perpetrators of antisemitism and hatred wherever they are,” Amichai Chikli, the Israeli minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, said in a statement.
Chikli urged a proactive strategy, arguing that “antisemitism is rising in various arenas – yet our responsibility is not to remain on the defensive, but to go on the offensive.”
Leo has repeatedly spoken out against antisemitism and promoted Nostra Aetate since he began his papacy last year.
In October, the pontiff condemned antisemitism and affirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to combating hatred and persecution against the Jewish people, arguing his faith demands such a stance.
Speaking in St. Pete’s Square at the Vatican, Leo acknowledged the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, saying, “I too confirm that the Church does not tolerate antisemitism and fights against it, on the basis of the Gospel itself.”
“This luminous document teaches us to meet the followers of other religions not as outsiders, but as traveling companions on the path of truth; to honor differences affirming our common humanity; and to discern, in every sincere religious search, a reflection of the one divine mystery that embraces all creation,” Leo continued.
He then added that the primary focus of Nostra Aetate was toward the Jewish people, explaining that Pope John XXIII, who preceded Paul VI, intended to “re-establish the original relationship.”
Nostra Aetate details the close bonds between Jews and Christians.
“The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant,” the proclamation states. “Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles making both one in Himself.”
The document also opposes antisemitism, proclaiming that “in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”
Jewish leaders have expressed optimism for interfaith relations under Leo’s leadership.
Rabbi Noam Marans, director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee (AJC), told The Algemeiner in May that “his remarks to the Jewish people have actually been extraordinary.”
At the time, just after being elected to the papacy, Leo met with Jewish leaders and other faith representatives at the Vatican. “Because of the Jewish roots of Christianity, all Christians have a special relationship with Judaism,” he said during the meeting. “Even in these difficult times, marked by conflicts and misunderstandings, it is necessary to continue the momentum of this precious dialogue of ours.”
Before the beginning of Leo’s pontificate, Israeli-Vatican relations had come under strain due to the late Pope Francis’s statements about the war to defeat Hamas in Gaza, including his suggestion that the Jewish state was committing genocide.
There has been a recent rise in promoting antisemitism among some Catholic podcasters and social media influencers, especially on the political right. Nick Fuentes, for example, has praised Adolf Hitler and even called for the extermination of Jewish people from American civilization.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) wrote that Fuentes “frequently makes his support known for the Traditionalist Catholic view that rejects the Nostra Aetate, the papal document that declared that modern Jews bear no guilt for the death of Christ.”
The ADL revealed that in March 2024 on Telegram, “Fuentes wrote that he and his followers ‘rightly defend the traditional Catholic view,’ blaming Jews for ‘crucifying our Lord.’”
Nostra Aetate explicitly rejects such rhetoric, stating that the death of Jesus cannot be charged “against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.” It also states that “the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures.”
Recent Catholic convert Candace Owens, who joined the church in April 2024, has also used her platforms which enable her to influence millions of followers to demonize the Jewish people. A study released in December showed how Owens and fellow podcaster Tucker Carlson boosted their anti-Israel content last year.
US Vice President JD Vance also converted to Catholicism in recent years, joining the church in 2019. Vance has disputed the rise of antisemitism on the political right and failed to counter antisemitic statements when confronted with them in public settings. On Friday, Axios published secret recordings of US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) telling donors last year that “Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same.”
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Tim Walz: Get Anne Frank’s Name Out of Your Mouth
Former US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hold a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US, Aug. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
Many Holocaust survivors I’ve interviewed have said it pains them when people compare anyone to Hitler and the Gestapo, or compare things to the Holocaust to try to get attention or make a political point.
They’ve also mentioned how people use Anne Frank’s name for political purposes, because most schoolchildren have read her diary.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), who, after a scandal involving alleged fraud in his state, announced he is not running for re-election, recently said the following: “We have got children hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank…”
As January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, many, including Jews, will make false comparisons to the Holocaust, because they imagine this makes them noble and a fighter for social justice.
Anne Frank died in a concentration camp called Bergen-Belsen weeks before its liberation by British forces who found thousands of corpses and about 55,000 emaciated prisoners. The camp was of course run by Nazis. Frank hid in what was known as the annex in Amsterdam for 761 days. She had no option to be deported to another country safely, nor was she in Amsterdam illegally. She knew being discovered likely meant death.
I am sure illegal immigrants fear being deported and some legal immigrants may fear detention. Walz could have said that without invoking the name of Anne Frank. He did this because his goal is to paint Federal agents with a big red Nazi brush. It is also understandable that many are angry after a Federal agent shot Alex Pretti, with video footage showing Pretti did not brandish his gun, and Walz would be correct to rebuke Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security for her characterization of Pretti.
But it is important to know about communist propaganda.
In 1967, the Soviets realized there was a branding problem. The country regretted its support for Israel officially becoming a state in 1948, because it since had become a strong ally of America. The solution? The rebrand of Israel via Holocaust inversion.
Imagine! Those who rose from the ashes of the Holocaust had done so, only to become Nazis themselves. What a twist to the story! Israel would not be the David, but, rather, the Goliath.
It took some time, but by 1975, they passed Resolution 3379 at the United Nations, where the text stated that, “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” Fifty years later, this effort has gone past their wildest dreams, with the help of Qatari funding. Most of the world lambasts Israel at every turn, blaming Israel as one of the world’s worst oppressors. Even those propagandists never thought there would be a day where Jews were called “Zio-Nazis.”
This is why Walz sees nothing wrong with a false Anne Frank comparison. Some Jews, blinded by their hatred of President Trump, don’t stop to think about the damage of false Nazi comparisons.
This does not mean one should not criticize any president or demand accountability. Sadly, people are captured by a narrative that is popular, and are not interested in much else.
A false comparison doesn’t strengthen a point, it only takes away credibility. When anyone makes any claim, you should ask: What is your evidence for that? If they don’t have it, you should tell them to use a correct phrase and retract a claim or characterization if it is false.
The reason false Nazi comparisons are a problem is that they have become a prominent component of antisemitism.
It is the Jewish way to fight against racism and to seek justice. But those who make false Holocaust comparisons dishonor the memories of those who died in the Holocaust.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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Soccer Clubs Around the World Mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day With Commemorative Events
FC Bayern and Munich FC Augsburg holding a poster to commemorate the Holocaust #WeRemember campaign. Photo: IMAGO/MIS via Reuters Connect
Soccer clubs around the world commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday by pledging to honor victims of Nazi persecution through campaigns, memorial events, and other gestures to show the importance of remembering the atrocities of World War II.
Germany’s professional leagues — including FC Bayern and Augsburg – held over the weekend a series of memorial events and matches across the country opened with a moment of silence dedicated to the #WeRemember campaign by the World Jewish Congress. The campaign aims to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive. This year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in 1945.
Vor dem Spiel haben beide Mannschaften der Befreiung Auschwitz‘ gedacht. Im Stadion gab es eine Schweigeminute.#WeRemember #DSCKSV pic.twitter.com/U098DdMbiW
— Arminia ist wieder da (@arminiawiederda) January 23, 2026
In Italy, a commemorative ceremony in memory of Jewish Hungarian soccer player and coach Árpád Weisz was held Tuesday morning at Stadio Renato Dall’Ara and organized by Bologna FC. Those in attendance included Bologna FC CEO Claudio Fenucci, a delegation from the club’s youth sector, Bologna City Councilor for Sport Roberta Li Calzi, and Emanuele Ottolenghi, vice president of the Jewish community of Bologna.
Weisz lived in Italy and led Bologna to league and international victories. He also coached Fiorentina and Inter Milan, and was the first coach to claim Italian titles with two clubs. He additionally is credited with discovering talented players such as Giuseppe Meazza. He, his wife and two children were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they were murdered by the Nazis. He died in 1944 at the age of 47.
The FIGC, which is the governing body of soccer in Italy, is running a campaign on its official website and social media channels to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. The campaign features an image of empty seats in a stadium, to remember those murdered by the Nazis.
“Remembering is not enough; there is an absolute need to stay aware of one of the greatest tragedies in human history,” said FIGC President Gabriele Gravina. “To know is to prevent, to fight, to protect, to respect. [Soccer], with its social impact, can serve as a powerful platform to spread messages of profound significance, especially to younger generations, who did not experience this atrocity firsthand but have both the right and the duty to understand it.”
England’s Manchester United marked Holocaust Remembrance Day by making a pledge “to listen, learn, and carry the legacies forward of the millions of innocent lives that were taken under persecution.”
The Football Association, which is the governing body of soccer in England, said in a released statement that International Holocaust Remembrance Day “is for everyone. It brings people together from all walks of life to strengthen communities and stand up against hatred and discrimination.”
“As the years pass, we’re growing more distant in time from the Holocaust and from the other, more recent genocides that are commemorated on HMD. That distance brings a risk – memory fades and the sharp reality of what happened becomes blurred, abstract, or even questioned,” the FA added. Soccer “has the power to bring people together in so many ways, can eradicate social barriers and be a force for good across communities. One of our key commitments is to do everything in our power to deliver a game free from discrimination and that will never stop, which is why IHMD is so important.”
The British club Chelsea FC hosted on Tuesday at its stadium a free exhibition, open to all visitors between 10 am and 2 pm, which highlights “the achievements, struggles, and resilience of athletes before, during, and after the Holocaust.” Visitors also learn about the role sport played in fighting against Nazi persecution, and the exhibit shares the stories of Jewish athletes persecuted under Nazi rule as well as the post-Holocaust rise of Jewish sports figures such as Mark Spitz, one of the most decorated Olympic swimmers of all time. The exhibition is produced by Yad Vashem in partnership with the Jewish Ethics Project and the soccer team’s Jewish Supporters’ Group.
Tottenham Hotspur hosted a Holocaust Memorial Day event for faith leaders and students, while Fulham FC shared on its website and YouTube channel a video of Holocaust survivor Barbara Frankiss talking to three Fulham players about her experience facing Nazi persecution and the importance of Holocaust remembrance.
We were honoured to host Haringey’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day event, uniting faith leaders and students from across our community to reflect on this year’s theme ‘Bridging Generations’.
#HolocaustMemorialDay #HMD2026 pic.twitter.com/dQIZk4VpUF
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 27, 2026