West Virginia reflects on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — Monday was the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz during the Holocaust, and to mark the date, West Virginians around the state took time to remember and reflect.
The West Virginia Commission on Holocaust Education helped arrange for Auschwitz survivor Howard Chandler to speak at Wheeling Park High School. 12 News spoke with Commission member Laurent Levy, who is currently working towards a PhD at Gratz College in the Holocaust and Genocide Studies program.
Levy said that a major lesson from the Holocaust that West Virginia needs to be vigilant of is 'other-ism'. Levy explained 'other-ism' as 'anybody that is an 'other', anybody that is not like us, anybody that is different can therefore be discounted.' Levy said. 'That is sort of a 'watch guard'.'
53 people detained by ICE in West Virginia
Levy added that something that often gets forgotten about the Holocaust is the people who risked their lives trying to save others.
'They put their own lives and the lives of their families on the line to hide Jews to shelter them, to protect them, to feed them. My mother is the direct beneficiary of one of those people,' Levy said.
Levy's mother, Dr. Edith Levy, was a Holocaust survivor and helped found the Commission. Levy said he was influenced by his mother at a young age as he heard her speak about her experiences. Levy said interest in the Commission was renewed in 2019 amidst public outcry against a photo of West Virginia correction trainees doing Nazi salutes.
During the last West Virginia legislative session, the commission pushed to mandate teaching the Holocaust in West Virginia schools but was ultimately unsuccessful. Levy said that the commission does not plan on pushing for the legislation this session, saying that it's a quick session and the change in governor will make the session too crowded with other potential legislation.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
NY judge censured for throwing a fit at school board over his son not being named class valedictorian
A Nassau County judge was censured by a state commission after he threw a fit and publicly chastised a school board for not naming his straight-A son the valedictorian of his graduating high school class last year. Long Beach City Court Judge Corey E. Klein was censured — or written up for misconduct — by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the Albany-based group announced Monday, noting the judge agreed to the censure. Klein stormed into an April 2024 public school board meeting, seeking to challenge its decision and policies that led to his son not being designated top of the class, according to the commission. When the school district lawyer Christopher Powers tried to interrupt Klein's tirade, the judge told him not to 'try to outlawyer me' and pressed on, the group said. Members of the board continued to try and stop Klein's nonsensical rant and even turned off his microphone. Yet he continued to shout, his voice booming as he apparently grew tired of Powers' continued reference to him as 'Counsel.' 'You can refer to me, Counsel, as judge,' Klein said, according to the commission. 'If you are going to try to be a lawyer, then refer to me by my title as well, okay. Thank you,' he added after his microphone was turned back on. As board members tried to explain that the public meeting — which was also streamed online — was not a proper setting to appeal the decision on his son's viability for valedictorian, Klein started to shout over them, the commission said. 'I'm gonna stay up here now and I'm going to continue speaking,' Klein stubbornly insisted. 'Your Honor. We are not in court at this point,' Powers tried to interject, but to no avail as Klein steamrolled over him. 'The fact that I'd have the audacity, okay, because it's the end of my kid's career, to come up here and question a decision that you made, okay, so you try to sic your pit bull attorney on me. It's beyond reproach that you don't do something like that, okay,' Klein eventually concluded after his heated back-and-forth with the board, the commission said. The ranting judge was also accused of helping a professional acquaintance get out of $500 worth of unpaid parking tickets, according to his censure. The person's car was booted as a result of the unpaid tickets, and Klein reached out to numerous police departments to have it removed. Officers, thinking Klein was acting within his capacity as a judge, removed the boot and the acquaintance eventually paid the tickets, according to the commission. 'It corrodes public confidence in the judiciary when a judge lends the prestige of judicial office to advance a private benefit. Doing so impulsively, in an unseemly public argument over who should be a high school's honoree, or as a favor to a parking ticket scofflaw, is especially irresponsible,' Commission Administrator Robert H. Tembeckjian said in a statement. Klein has been a Long Beach judge since 2015. His term doesn't expire until the end of 2034, according to the commission.
New York Post
7 hours ago
- New York Post
Amid the horrific rise in Jew-hatred, the US Holocaust Museum must reexamine its role
The murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in Washington and the attack on Jewish seniors, including Holocaust survivor Barbara Steinmetz, in Boulder, Colo., remind us that the lessons of the Holocaust remain unlearned. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum can help teach those lessons — if it concentrates on antisemitism as opposed to other hatreds, as it should, and goes beyond the Nazi horror. Advertisement Recall that the Holocaust occurred in European countries where ordinary citizens cooperated or stood indifferent to the mass murders of their neighbors. Today, after decades of proclaiming 'never again,' antisemitism in the US has hit a frightening new peak. The Holocaust Museum is supposed to educate about the dangers of antisemitism. Advertisement But as a proud member of its council, I know first-hand that it needs to do much more to fulfill that important role. The museum's weak connection to the Jewish people stems from its design, created when antisemitism seemed a thing of the past. Since then, it has shifted focus to combatting other forms of hate. The museum also provides no context of Jewish history before 1930 or after 1945. Advertisement And a planned multimillion-dollar renovation of the main exhibit hall could make the museum even more woke and disconnected. Frankly, the operation is in danger of becoming a liberal monument to the dangers of immigration enforcement and conservative politics. What the museum should be doing instead is teaching Americans that antisemitism is the world's oldest hatred, dating back 4,000 years when Nimrod is said to have thrown Abraham into a fiery furnace, and gaining steam with the rise of Christianity. More important, the museum needs to teach the story of Jewish survival; the founding of Israel in 1948, the wars of 1967 and 1973, and the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. Advertisement It should cover pogroms that spurred the Zionist movement, helping make the case for the existence of a Jewish state. And it should emphasize America's cherished opportunities for Holocaust survivors and their families. Nineteen months after the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the museum lacks focus on the ongoing crisis. It reaches thousands of teachers and visitors but teaches broadly about hate, and not enough about antisemitism in particular. It fails, for example, to address antisemitism's recent surge, particularly at US universities. A Harvard-Harris poll in April found 51% of American 18- to 24-year-olds favored Hamas over Israel. Clearly, the museum needs to do a better job of reaching and teaching young people about Israel, Jewish history and current events. Indeed, no metric shows the museum contributing to any reduction in antisemitism. Sadly, all signs suggest it is failing in this regard. Advertisement The good news: President Donald Trump has made combatting antisemitism a priority and has begun cleaning house at the museum. Last month, he removed several Biden appointees, including Ron Klain, Doug Emhoff, Tom Perez, Susan Rice, Jon Finer and Anthony Bernal, none of whom were suited for the council. Rice had politicized Biden's National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism by excluding anti-Zionism and including Islamophobia. Advertisement Finer called members of the Israeli government 'abhorrent,' slamming it at a meeting with Arab American leaders in Dearborn, Mich., last year. Emhoff, appointed just three days before Trump took office, resisted his removal, claiming it 'dishonors the memory of 6 million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.' That's nonsense: Replacing these partisan figures has nothing to do with the 6 million murdered Jews, the Holocaust survivors or their descendants. On the other hand, the new council members appointed by President Trump will bring expertise from their careers as well as their skills and their important values. Advertisement Again, the US Holocaust Museum was created to preserve the memory of the Shoah and protect future generations from violent antisemitism. To accomplish this at a time when Jews face their biggest threats in decades requires greater oversight by the council and a broader, bolder outlook that addresses today's emerging problems. It's time to rethink the facility's role and what it is supposed to do to combat antisemitism. Advertisement It's time make the US Holocaust Museum great again. Martin Oliner, a lawyer and the son of Holocaust survivors, was mayor of Lawrence village from 2010 to 2016.
Boston Globe
8 hours ago
- Boston Globe
‘She knew nothing about it': Newton judge Shelley Joseph denies helping defendant evade ICE in 2018
Monday's hearing involves the latest chapter in a saga that stretches from President Trump's first term to his second, amid a renewed immigration crackdown that has sparked As part of that agreement, Joseph admitted she knew that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were waiting to detain defendant Jose Medina-Perez, that she asked them to leave the courtroom, and that she had an off-the-record conversation with court parties that violated court rules. But she did not admit wrongdoing or deliberately helping Medina-Perez avoid ICE. Advertisement The Advertisement Joseph's disciplinary case is being heard before Denis J. McInerny, a former deputy assistant attorney general with the Department of Justice, and the commission has appointed former Superior Court chief justice Judith Fabricant as special counsel to prosecute the case. McInerny will submit his findings to the Commission within 30 days of the hearing, and the Commission can then recommend discipline to the Supreme Judicial Court. Only the Legislature can remove a judge from the bench for misconduct. The hearing began with a site visit to Newton District Court Monday morning. Proceedings resumed in Boston with the questioning of defense attorney David Jellinek, who acknowledged hatching the plan to help his client evade ICE. Fabricant accused Joseph of allowing an off-the-record conversation in violation of court rules, and accused her of lacking transparency when she later discussed the incident with senior judges. 'She did not volunteer information she should have volunteered,' Fabricant said. The hearing is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning, with testimony from former Middlesex assistant district attorney Shannon McDermott, the prosecutor for Medina-Perez' case. The controversy dates back to April 2018, when Medina-Perez, a Dominican national who had been deported twice before, was in court to face charges for possessing drugs and for being a fugitive from justice. An ICE agent had shown up to the courthouse to detain him, and Joseph had him wait outside the courtroom, what she said was in accordance with policy set by Newton District Court's First Justice Mary Heffernan. Advertisement Joseph and the prosecutor agree on a certain set of facts. On the day at issue, Medina-Perez had switched from a court appointed defender to Jellinek, a veteran private attorney who frequently practiced in Newton District Court. After a lunch break, Jellinek asked for a side bar conference, telling Joseph and McDermott that he was concerned ICE had misidentified his client and was going to detain him anyway. Jellinek then asked to go off-the-record, leading to a 52-second unrecorded conversation between himself, Joseph and the prosecutor. McDermott agreed to drop the fugitive charge, and Joseph ordered Medina-Perez released without bail pending his next hearing on the drug counts. Instead of exiting through the front door, which would be typical, Jellinek and the court officer went downstairs with Medina-Perez and released him through a back door, which the waiting ICE agents did not discover until he had already left the building. But what exactly was said during that 52-second gap in the tape recording remains under dispute. Jellinek, who was given immunity by federal prosecutors, told a grand jury he told Joseph of his plan to help Medina-Perez avoid capture, and that she agreed to it. 'My impression was she did also did not want ICE necessarily to pick up the wrong person,' Jellinek said at Monday's hearing. But Joseph's attorneys argued that Jellinek had incentive to exaggerate the judge's knowledge to avoid facing federal charges himself. Thomas Hoopes, one of Joseph's attorneys, described Jellinek's deal as a 'get-out-of-jail-free card.' 'Did anyone explain to you how rare it is for the mastermind of any crime — federally — to be immunized?' Hoopes said. Advertisement 'I never had that conversation,' Jellinek said. Mulvey described Jellinek as the 'mastermind' of an 'ill conceived scheme,' saying Joseph was left in the dark about his true intentions. 'Nobody told her Medina Perez had gone out the back door,' Mulvey said. 'She knew nothing about it.' Jellinek denied deceiving Joseph, and defended his behavior as legitimate advocacy for his client's interests. He said he asked to talk off-the-record because he knew helping Medina-Perez leave by the back door was 'right on the edge of acceptable or appropriate.' 'I was trying to protect everybody, but myself and the judge especially,' Jellinek said. Joseph is not the only judge to face federal prosecution for allegedly helping a defendant evade ICE. Last month, a federal grand jury Shelley Murphy can be reached at
