Toby Axelrod (JTA) Archives

Toby Axelrod (JTA)

April 7, 2026, 12:57 pm

Frankfurt cinema declines to participate in Jewish film festival, spurring backlash

The Jewish community of Frankfurt called the decision a 'devastating societal signal'

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

Rabbi Gesa Ederberg is installed as the president of the Rabbinical Assembly at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck, New Jersey, March 11, 2026. (Courtesy RA)

March 19, 2026, 2:02 pm

Berlin rabbi makes history as first European to head Conservative rabbis’ association

Rabbi Gesa Ederberg is also likely the first convert to Judaism to hold the role

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

Brothers David, Eitan and Ariel Cunio, from left, stand outside the Berlin theater Babylon before a screening of a documentary about their family, Feb. 20, 2026. (Toby Axelrod)

February 23, 2026, 11:46 am

Former Israeli hostages see film about their captivity rewritten after their release

David and Ariel Cunio and their families received standing ovations at a screening adjacent to the Berlinale.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

A rabbi and defendant in a court case appears in the district court in Tiergarten, Berlin, Jan. 16, 2026. His attorney, Galina Rolnik, sits next to him. (Courtesy)

January 23, 2026, 9:17 am

Berlin rabbi convicted of ‘sexual assault and sexual coercion’ of woman he offered to help

The conviction comes more than three years after the rabbi was fired by the organised Jewish community.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

Real estate photograph from Robles Casas & Campas

August 27, 2025, 10:15 am

Spotted in a Nazi’s daughter’s real estate ad: a painting looted from a famed Jewish art dealer

The painting was owned by Jacques Goudstikker, who died while fleeing the Nazis in 1940

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

July 3, 2025, 9:30 am

Danish man was helping Iran plan attacks on Jewish targets in Berlin, police say

German authorities believe a special unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is behind the scouting operation

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

February 21, 2025, 12:03 pm

German Jews express alarm after J.D. Vance’s comments boost far-right AfD ahead of election

Alternative for Germany political party is topping 20% in some polls ahead of the vote on Sunday.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

June 17, 2024, 5:21 pm

Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry take a father-daughter trip to Auschwitz

Tragicomedy Treasure, in UK cinemas now, is a story about how a legacy of violence can affect anybody

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

Nazis and their Dutch collaborators used the GVB public tram system to deport Dutch Jews during the Holocaust. (Courtesy Willy Lindwer)

March 11, 2024, 9:50 am

Dutch tram company that carried Anne Frank to her doom sought compensation after the war

Most of the Jews forced onto the trams did not survive: More than 100,000 Dutch Jews — three-quarters of the country’s Jewish population — were murdered in the Holocaust.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

Actress Helen Mirren and Guy Nattiv, film director and screenwriter, attend the Cinema for Peace Gala Berlin, Feb. 19, 2024. (Fabian Sommer/Picture alliance via Getty Images)

February 26, 2024, 3:55 pm

‘Golda,’ biopic about Israeli leader at war, wins top prize from Cinema for Peace Foundation

Nattiv and Mirren attended the awards ceremony in Berlin where their prize was presented by 102-year-old Margot Friedlander, one of the oldest remaining Holocaust survivors.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

The grand mufti of Bosnia, Husein ef. Kavazović, shakes hands with Menachem Rosensaft, who was born in a displaced persons camp, at a ceremony marking the launch of a new peace initiative in Srebrenica, Bosnia, Jan. 28, 2024. (Courtesy Srebrenica Memorial Center)

February 1, 2024, 9:25 am

Holocaust and Srebrenica survivors launch Jewish-Muslim effort to prevent genocides

The event took place at the Srebrenica Memorial Center, a museum marking the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces in the summer of 1995.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

December 12, 2023, 8:54 am

Berlin drops Mahmoud Abbas’ Holocaust hate speech case due to diplomatic immunity

At issue was Abbas’ comments made during a press conference with German Chancellor in which he accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” since its war for independence in 1948.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

An aerial view of the palace in Köthen, Germany. (Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt, Henrik Bollmann/Wikimedia Commons)

September 27, 2023, 8:57 am

Study shows right-wing extremist attitudes on the rise in Germany

A new survey indicates that 8% of people in Germany have a right-wing extremist worldview, up from 2-3% in previous years.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

19 September 2023, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Jamel: Sven Krüger (l), a right-wing extremist known throughout Germany, is accompanied by a police officer during a search operation on his property. Federal Interior Minister Faeser has banned the right-wing extremist association "Hammerskins Germany" as well as its regional offshoots and the sub-organization "Crew 38". According to the ministry, police task forces searched the homes of 28 suspected members of the association in ten German states in the early morning. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa (Photo by Jens Büttner/picture alliance via Getty Images)

September 21, 2023, 10:51 am

Germany bans neo-Nazi group to send ‘signal against racism and antisemitism’

The Hammerskins, a local spinoff of a group founded in the United States in the late 1980s, are accused of promoting criminal activities and of opposing the German constitution.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

September 19, 2023, 2:50 pm

Medieval German synagogue added to UNESCO World Heritage list

Erfurt’s Old Synagogue dates back to the 1090s, when its first stones were laid.

By Toby Axelrod (JTA)

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