History

This week in Jewish history: The SS Exodus, Tisha B’Av, and Nobel pioneers

From the destruction of the Temples to Nobel Prize breakthroughs, the coming weeks mark defining moments of Jewish loss, resilience and achievement.

‘SS EXODUS,’ now derelict, in Haifa Port, 1952.
Visitors view the Lincoln Memorial Undercroft during the grand opening on June 25, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Lincoln Memorial to pull historic documents from public display over fear of heat damage - report

An AI-generated political cartoon.

The global war to delegitimize Israel: The war for which Israel built no shelters - opinion

Palestinian women walk past a mural of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Hebron on the 21st anniversary of Arafat’s death. Ruth Wasserman Lande argues that the Palestinian narrative was created by the Soviet Union.

Middle Israel: How Jews and Palestinians became masters of historical denial


Games of chance and society in the Middle East

A historical look at how chance-based games shaped culture, law, and society in the Middle East.

Was Netanyahu chosen by God, or judged too harshly by man? - opinion

There was a young man who was chosen. He did not choose himself. In fact, he had no plans to enter politics and no ambition to become prime minister. Yet God often chooses people who never expect it.

Israeli cabinet minister and former military chief Gadi Eisenkot is consoled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he attends the funeral of his son Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25, an Israeli solider, who was killed in northern Gaza during the ground operation by Israel's military in Gaza.

Outcry in Germany over controversial plans to demolish Nazi bunker for luxury apartment building

The bunker is part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed over a period of ten years, and which served as the headquarters of the Nazi regime until the last week of World War II in Europe.

Kai Wegner (L,CDU), Governing Mayor of Berlin, Manja Schreiner (C,CDU), Senator for Mobility, Transport, and Christian Gaebler (L,SPD), Senator for Urban Development, view a public housing construction project

Breaking the individual to break the collective - opinion

Occupation does not begin at a border. It begins inside the human mind. That is why sexual violence has remained such an effective weapon across centuries.

 Demonstrators hold signs against what they describe as international silence over sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women during the attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, at a protest in Jerusalem, November 27, 2023.

The Somme, 110 years on: The Jewish soldiers who fought and died

The Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest and most infamous battles in history, was intended to break the German lines and bring World War I closer to an Allied victory.

British infantry soldiers running out of their trenches at the signal to assault  the Somme, France, 1916.

Sorin Hershko, soldier most severely wounded in Entebbe, honored on operation's 50th anniversary

The recognition was awarded by the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, whose chairman is Chemi Peres, son of former prime minister Shimon Peres.

An Israeli hostage is greeted on her return to Israel after Operation Entebbe on 3rd July 1976, in which, Israeli special forces rescued 100 hostages held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine following their hijack of Air France Flight 139.

On this day: Bodies of Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Yifrah found in West Bank

The murder of the three teenagers led to the IDF’s invasion of Gaza the next week, launching the 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge.

Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel (L-R).

Jewish hero’s inclusion in French Panthéon uncorks divisions over who wears mantle of resistance

About 80 national heroes have been inducted over two centuries in the Paris monument, from philosopher Voltaire and writer Victor Hugo to magistrate and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil. 

A portrait of the late historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch adorns the facade of the Pantheon before his induction ceremony along with his wife Simonne Vidal in Paris, France, June 23, 2026.

Damascus synagogue tours highlight renewed interest in Syrian Jewish history and diaspora ties

Tours of synagogues and meetings with religious leaders highlight renewed interest in Jewish history and unresolved questions over historic sites, property, and diaspora ties.

A rabbi holds a Torah scroll at the Ifrange Synagogue in the Jewish quarter in Old Damascus on April 29, 2025.

Resurrecting Herodium: A royal desert fortress awakens After 2,000 years

"Herodium became a living testament to the enduring roots of Jewish history."