Menachem Z. Rosensaft

Menachem Z. Rosensaft is the associate executive vice president and general counsel of the World Jewish Congress. He teaches about the law of genocide at the law schools of Columbia and Cornell Universities. He is the author of Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen.

Adonai Wept
The voice of Jeremiah, the prophet of the destruction of the Temple, confronts the devastation of the Holocaust
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Anti-Semitism Makes a Comeback in Germany
The threat is real, starting with right-wing paramilitaries and also including some Muslim bigots and their political enablers on the left. But the German state is determined to fight.
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
The Poles Who Tried to Save My Father
The unknown story of the Bernese Group, a collective of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists in Switzerland who forged passports to try and help Jews escape the horrors of the Holocaust
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
The Long and Tortured History of Genocide
As we commemorate Yom Ha’Shoah, reflecting on how the frameworks to prosecute genocide and crimes against humanity were constructed
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
The Democratic Genius of Pshyskhe’s Hasidic Masters
The democratic essence of modern Judaism was forged by the Hasidic rabbis of early 19th-century Pshyskhe
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Poles and the Holocaust: A Reckoning With History
The tragic reality is that most Poles were neither heroes nor demons but simply watched in silence while Jews were being taken away under their eyes
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
My Journey to the Past
Sons and daughters of survivors, looking for a sense of closure in Poland
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Remembering My Father in Auschwitz
Nothing about the Shoah was logical or made sense. Our task, our mission, today and always, is not to try to understand, but to remember.
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Remembering Rabbi Aaron Panken
The late president of Hebrew Union College died this weekend in a plane crash. May his memory be a blessing.
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
On the 75th Anniversary of the Destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, Remembering Those We’ve Lost
On a train from Berlin to Poland last week, I thought about my brother Benjamin, who was five-and-a-half when he was murdered by the Nazis. Today I honor his memory and the memory of all who perished in the Holocaust.
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Poles and the Holocaust in Historical Perspective
As the controversy surrounding Poland’s new law continues, it’s crucial to keep the facts and the complexities of the subject in mind
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Farewell to Sam Bloch, Champion of Holocaust Survivors
From fighting with the partisans to working to preserve the memory of the Holocaust, my father in law was a tireless defender of the Jewish people
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
How to Prevent the Next Atrocity
Three-quarters of a century after the Holocaust, we’ve learned some important lessons, but as Bosnia, Rwanda, and Syria remind us, there’s still much work to be done
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Ratko Mladić’s Genocide Conviction, and Why it Matters
I cannot in good conscience condemn the perpetrators of the genocide in which my brother and my grandparents perished unless I also condemn the perpetrators of all other acts of genocide, including the genocide that took place at Srebrenica
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Croatia Is Brazenly Attempting to Rewrite its Holocaust Crimes Out of History
An alarming and expanding wave of revisionism in Eastern Europe
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Reclaiming a National Jewish Identity After the Holocaust
The son of two Holocaust survivors reflects on the British liberation of Bergen-Belsen, and the fight for identity, rights, and better conditions in Displaced Persons camps
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
Remembering Elie Wiesel: A Tribute From a Friend and Disciple
The Holocaust survivor, Nobel laureate, author, activist, dead at 87
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft
The Legal Lessons of Bergen-Belsen
Considering the legacy of Nuremberg, and the jurisprudence of international criminal and human rights law, on the 71st anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen
byMenachem Z. Rosensaft

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