Raphael Lemkin started thinking about the injustice of the fact that there is punishment for killing a single person, but for the extermination of entire nations there is none already in 1921, while studying philology at the Lviv University. To his question about this discrepancy, the professor replied: “Consider the case of a farmer who owns a flock of chickens. He kills them, and this is his business, his sovereign right. If you interfere, you are trespassing.”
The sovereignty of countries then assumed complete freedom of action for the rulers, up to the extermination of large groups of the…
The United States will have to speed up its efforts to solve a difficult task — to catch up with and overtake China in the development and introduction of a digital currency. The Federal Reserve System and the Department of the Treasury have only recently started talking about the priority of a digital dollar introduction, or Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC. In the meantime, China has not only already developed its digital yuan, but is also actively testing it both in the country and far beyond its borders. …
NATO was founded in 1949 to counter the Soviet threat and coped with its task effectively. President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder worked at the Pentagon in the 1980s, was the US Ambassador to Austria and saw at first hand the effectiveness of such interstate alliances.
Today Ronald Lauder proposes to create an analogue of NATO, but in the Middle East region. Middle East Defense Organization (MEDO) — such a name may be given to the Middle East analogue of NATO, and, according to Lauder, there are all the prerequisites for this, and most importantly, the readiness of…
In his annual letter to shareholders, the founder of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett called the US “an incubator for unleashing human potential” and advised “Never bet against America.” Buffett is confident in the American entrepreneurial spirit and, despite some economic disruptions, is optimistic about the continued US leadership in the world.
Berkshire Hathaway is today the world’s largest investment fund that owns assets in American companies. All four of Buffett’s diamonds are also American: the insurance business, the BNSF railroad company, a 5.4 percent stake in Apple, and the energy company Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
While Buffett is confident in their…
To the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, together with the Israeli Yad Vashem Memorial Complex of the Holocaust history, is preparing a large-scale project aimed at perpetuating the memory of the heroes who saved Jews during the Holocaust — the Book of the Righteous Among the Nations in Ukraine.
The title of the Righteous Among the Nations started to be applied to the saviors of the Jews only since 1953, when the Law on the establishment of Yad Vashem was adopted in Israel, and since 1963, on behalf of the State of Israel…
The first film adaptation almost fell through. In 1969, having met with Andrei Tarkovsky in the Peking hotel in Moscow, Stanisław Lem was horrified when he learned about Tarkovsky’s vision of the future film. Lem sarcastically remarked that instead of Solaris, Tarkovsky was going to shoot Crime and Punishment, but still gave permission to shoot, since it was not in his rules to prohibit anything.
As a result, thanks to Tarkovsky’s film, Solaris became Lem’s most famous work, eclipsing his Summa Technologiae philosophical essay. …
Everyone drinks and has fun on this day. Purim is the most cheerful holiday in the Jewish calendar. Jews joke that on Purim you need to drink until you stop distinguishing between Haman and Mordechai, and the traditional treat on this day is hamantaschen cookies, which are sometimes called Haman’s hat, but more often Haman’s ears.
Purim is celebrated in honor of the happy deliverance of the Jews from the threat of total annihilation. About 2,500 years ago in Ancient Persia, Haman planned to kill all the Jews, but thanks to Esther, a pupil of Mordechai, instead of exterminating the Jews, Haman himself paid with his life.
Chag Purim Sameach!
The recent meeting of the world leaders at the World Economic Forum online, as it turned out, has been only a rehearsal for the real forum, which is scheduled to be held in Singapore on August 17–20. The head of the forum, Klaus Schwab, has already announced the Singapore meeting and outlined the topics the participants will focus on.
First of all, climate change, reskilling and upskilling of workers, as well as ensuring food security are highlighted. …
Israel is nearing the finish line of vaccinations and is preparing to resume usual lifestyles and normal economy performance. At the end of last week, the Ministry of Health issued a Green Pass for those who have been vaccinated and cured of the coronavirus. Holders of this document will be able to move around the country practically without any restrictions and visit any institutions and events.
It will take some time for the general implementation of the Green Pass system, but for now, the government has decided to extend the quarantine restrictions for two more weeks. If earlier Ben Gurion…
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, manifestations of state-supported anti-Semitism disappeared in Europe, but it was replaced by the so-called political anti-Semitism — the use of anti-Semitic rhetoric by politicians to win the sympathy of voters.
Despite only few instances of physical violence against Jews and acts of vandalism, general sentiment in Europe, as a result of insufficient counteraction to political anti-Semitism, paints a threatening picture: one in four Europeans today hold anti-Semitic views. This data is provided by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in its report Choosing Antisemitism: Instrumentalization and Tolerance of Antisemitism in Contemporary European Politics.
ADL calls…
Boris Lozhkin
President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine and Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress. https://borislozhkin.org/
