Mordechai D. Rodgold

This Week in 1939 — The Voyage of the Damned Less than four months before the outbreak of WWII, the German liner MS St. Louis sailed from Hamburg with 937 passengers — almost all Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. They carried valid Cuban landing permits & U.S. quota numbers that would have let them enter America soon. They believed they were escaping hell. They were wrong. Cuba reneged on the visas at the last second — many had been sold via bribes. Only 29 were allowed off in Havana. The rest were ordered out of Cuban waters at gunpoint. The ship turned north, within sight of Miami. The Roosevelt administration refused entry. U.S. Coast Guard cutters shadowed the vessel with orders to block any landing — even if desperate passengers tried to swim ashore. Passengers sent frantic telegrams directly to FDR begging for asylum. FDR never replied to a single one. The State Department coldly cabled back: passengers “must await their turns on the waiting list.” Canada slammed the door on Jewish refugees the hardest. Director of Immigration, Frederick Blair, made his government’s position brutally clear: “None is too many.” Jewish refugees were simply not wanted. Captain Gustav Schröder — a decent German who defied the Nazis — flew the flag at half-mast in protest and wrote in his diary: “Even slaves in antiquity had monetary value. Jews have none.” The St. Louis was forced back to Europe. 288 went to Britain and survived. The remaining 620 were dumped in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. 254 of them — more than 40% — were murdered in the Holocaust. Gassed at Auschwitz. Shot into mass graves. Starved, beaten, or worked to death. Entire families who had clutched visas and dreamed of safety were condemned by the very democracies that claimed to oppose Hitler. Cuba betrayed them for politics and bribes. The United States turned its back. Canada declared, “None is too many.” Every single one signed death warrants with bureaucratic indifference. This is the Voyage of the Damned — a permanent indictment of a world that shrugged while Jews were hunted. That is why a strong, sovereign Israel is not optional. It is non-negotiable. Never again will Jews be forced to sail the seas begging strangers for the right to live. Never again will our survival depend on the fleeting “kindness” of nations that look away when it matters most. Israel is the guarantee: a Jewish state, a Jewish refuge, a Jewish future — secured by Jewish strength, not by the mercy of others. Am Yisrael Chai.🇮🇱

59 years since the reunification of Jerusalem ✨🤍 Old photos, new memories - same magical city. Jerusalem always finds a way to bring the past and present together. Happy Jerusalem Day 🇮🇱

In the heart of Jerusalem is a place that feels like the heart of humanity itself. 🤍 Shalva offers life-changing care, education, and support for children and adults with disabilities, as well as their families - building a global center of excellence grounded in dignity, inclusion, joy, and love. A powerful reminder this Jerusalem Day that Israel’s capital is not only a city of history, but also a beacon of compassion.

Israel’s Rivka Bayech won bronze at the European Taekwondo Championships in the under 46kg category 🥉🥋🇮🇱 This marks Baich’s fifth career medal at the European Championships, an incredible achievement 👏 Israeli excellence on the mat!

In 1947, the UN offered a two-state solution. The Jews said YES. The Arabs said NO. Neighboring Arab countries invaded the young Israel. If you reject peace and start a war, you can’t claim victimhood. History matters. 🇮🇱

I commend the President of Honduras Nasry Asfura @TitoAsfuraPHN - a strong leader with values and principles - for his decision to designate Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as terror organizations. This is another important reinforcement in the global campaign against terrorism, which endangers security throughout the world, including in Latin America. 🇮🇱🇭🇳

Quantum computing. Cancer detection. Drug development. 🇮🇱 Israeli-founded startup NVision just raised $55 million for breakthrough technology that could help doctors know within days - not months - whether cancer treatments are working. Israeli innovation is shaping the future of medicine and technology. calcalistech.com/ctechnews/arti…

The Palestinian Authority is reinforcing and institutionalizing its notorious “pay-for-slay” policy - a system designed to incentivize the murder of Israelis. The PA through its court has now cleared the way to reinstate payments to more than 1,600 convicted terrorists.

"I'm trying to remember the chapter in The Diary of Anne Frank where she goes surfing in the middle of being hunted during a genocidal campaign." Sky News Australia's James Macpherson eviscerates the false 'Gaza genocide' narrative.

“The Truth About Hamas” is difficult to read, and impossible to ignore. “Every night I wake to it and apologize to her,” says Nova survivor Yoni Saadon, who hid beneath the body of a murdered woman to stay alive. The Wall Street Journal displays the Civil Commission’s report - testimonies, forensic evidences and hostages accounts, that the world must neither forget nor deny. wsj.com/opinion/hamas-…

Mahmoud Abbas admits that Pay-for-Slay Continues Mahmoud Abbas at the 8th Fatah Conference complained that the PA needs money “to pay prisoners.” Abbas’ words today: "All this needs to be paid to public employees, to prisoners, and so on, and other expenses."

Jerusalem Day is a time to reflect on how Israel’s story weaves together past, present, and future all at once. 🇮🇱✨ The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, sits in our capital, Jerusalem, embodying the vibrant democracy of the State of Israel. Standing before it is the Menorah 🕎, a symbol of the living spiritual heritage of the Jewish people and our deep-rooted connection to this land and to Jerusalem.

A little glimpse of Jerusalem on her day 🇮🇱🤍

They walked through deserts, famine, and violence with one dream: Jerusalem. Thousands of Ethiopian Jews, known as Beta Israel, never made it to Israel. They died on the journey carrying generations of faith, hope, and longing for Jerusalem. Today we remember them. 🕯️🇮🇱

Don’t blame Israel for ‘politicising’ Eurovision. It followed the rules while other countries broke them. thejc.com/opinion/the-ne…

The Iranian regime is outsourcing terror to Australian soil. 🇦🇺 It uses Telegram to recruit local criminals to spy on the Jewish community and gather intelligence. From the 2024 firebombings of a Melbourne synagogue and a Sydney deli to the Iranian state-sponsored spy rings today, the threat is evolving. dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/revea…

For years, Iran’s terror proxies Hamas and Hezbollah built vast underground networks beneath Gaza and southern Lebanon: kilometers of tunnels used to store weapons, hide operatives, house command centers, and launch attacks against Israeli civilians, including the October 7 massacre. This week, the IDF uncovered and dismantled major sections of these networks in Gaza (including Rafah) and in the Labbouneh area of southern Lebanon - exposing a massive terror infrastructure deliberately embedded beneath civilian areas.

Following the publication by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times of one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times.