Iron and brows furrowed at thoughtful Remembrance Day event A United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day (UNIHRD) event was held this week in the tiny New Zealand South Waikato town of Tirau, (population 690). Over 120 people attended the event, filling the local (and only) church in town, Tirau…
How you can remember In 2005 the United Nations designated 27 January as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. This day marked the liberation of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. The UN resolution…
I am a Zionist I am a Zionist. If I announced that, on walking into a party in New Zealand, I would quite likely get a worse reaction than if I declared that I am a P-addicted, ISIS sympathising prostitute. It’s not the kind…
How can NZ help persecuted minorities of the Middle East? In the aftermath of the Holocaust, humanity struggled to comprehend the enormity of six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. A simple two word phrase was coined, which summarised the determination to avoid the repeat of such genocides: ’Never again’….
Update: The lie was up for one day The “maps that lie” billboard that was posted in Ellerslie, Auckland, was taken down one day after it was put up. Ad-Vantage Media responded to complaints and self-regulated when it was made aware of how the billboard advert distorted the…
Kia Kaha Yachting New Zealand As a sporting nation, we recognise the need for a fair go and our sportspeople are some of the most admirable. Performances off the “pitch” show a true character and provide, often, more inspiration for us less athletically gifted. So…
Ellerslie billboard advertisement an old lie A full-sized billboard advertisement has been purchased in Ellerslie, Auckland, purporting to show a map of Jewish areas of 1947 Palestine and 2016 Israel with “STOP THE OCCUPATION” and “FREE PALESTINE” written beside them (see below). It is a lie…
Waikato Professor’s defense of academic freedom honoured “There is a chronic, endemic antisemitism in academe and in the intellectual world of New Zealand,” wrote Professor Colin Tatz, founding director of Sydney’s Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, in 2007. Professor Tatz highlighted cases of holocaust denial…
Auckland celebrates Hanukkah A diverse group of over 1,000 Aucklanders gathered at Albert Park to celebrate the last night of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday that remembers the rededication of the Temple and celebrates the triumph of religious freedom from the Greek-Syrians over 2,000 years ago….
Update: Professor Poynting’s anti-Semitic letter Mon, Nov 30 – As we reported, a University of Auckland Professor of hate crime, Scott Poynting, worte an anti-Semitic letter to the Waikato times. Mon, Dec 07 – The Waikato Times published two letters that call out Professor Poynting’s…
Happy Hanukkah from Shalom.Kiwi Many religions and cultures have festivals of light. Auckland recently celebrated Diwali, symbolising the triumph of light over darkness; Christmas is just around the corner where trees used to be decorated with candles for Christmas lights. The Jewish festival of…
Jewish refugees from Arab lands seek recognition at UN The Syrian refugee crisis and the “forgotten millions” have dominated news headlines in recent months with potent images of young children washed up on beaches, forever seared in our minds. While currently at record levels, the movement of peoples fleeing…
Accessing Israeli hi-tech models for Kiwi success Earlier this month, Australian Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy went on a trade mission to Israel to “unearth secrets of the country’s startup miracle”. Business Insider reports that we can all learn a lot from Israel as it has…