A Boy Named David
by Symi Rom-Rymer
David, the recently released feature film directed by Joel Fendelman and written by Fendelman and Patrick Daly, sets out to tell one story,...
Roma Life Today
Since the mid-1970s and early 1980s, Roma activists and groups such as the International Romani Union and Roma National Congress have worked to transform the scattered Roma into a cohesive political force. Nevertheless, the Roma remain fragmented and continue to face social exclusion, extreme poverty and discrimination.
Roma in the Holocaust
What Jews call the Holocaust, the Roma (also known as gypsies) call Porrajmos, their “devouring.” Between 220,000 and 500,000 Roma were murdered by Nazi Germany and its sympathizers during World War II. Despite the enormity of these numbers, the Roma experience during the Holocaust is not widely known, even among the Roma themselves.
Hate Speech in the Netherlands
by Symi Rom-Rymer
Last week, popular far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders was acquitted of all charges of inciting hatred against Muslims. The allegations made against him...
Shuttering Yale's Center on Anti-Semitism
By Symi Rom-Rymer
Yale University announced yesterday that it is closing its Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA). According to Thomas Mattia, an official...
Is NPR Anti-Israel?
by Symi Rom-Rymer
It’s practically impossible for a news organization, especially one like NPR, that is considered left-of-center, to cover the Middle East conflict and not to...
Lars von Trier Acts Up…Again
By Symi Rom-Rymer
This past week at the Cannes International Film Festival, Danish film director and provocateur Lars von Trier announced in a press conference for...
Bosnian Jews and the Siege of Sarajevo
By Symi Rom-Rymer
People have wrestled with the question of what drives human beings to commit genocide since the end of the Holocaust. Less often considered...
Celebrating Bin Laden's Death
By Symi Rom-Rymer
When President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden in the late hours of May 1st, the country breathed collective sigh of...
The First and Final Nightmare
By Symi Rom-Rymer
When 69 year-old Sonia Reich ran out of her Skokie home late one February evening in 2001, no one knew why. Insisting that...
Reflecting on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
by Symi Rom-Rymer
One hundred years ago today, 146 immigrant women, primarily Jewish and Italian, died while trying to escape a fire that raged through the...