Free Republic

Among the some 1,500 artworks found in Cornelius Gurlitt's hoard, 14 were proven to have been looted under the Nazis. The last of these has now been sold at auction.A pencil drawing by Carl Spitzweg auctioned at Christie's on Wednesday would not normally have garnered much attention. After all, the small-format portrait didn't break any auction records — even though it reached a far higher price than the auction house's initial estimate of €1,000-1,500 ($1,300-1,700), ultimately fetching €18,750. It's the drawing's provenance that makes it so provocative: The work was originally owned by Dr. Henri Hinrichsen, a Jewish music publisher...

Many people – essayists, writers, and commenters – have questioned why it is that American Jews are not just staunch Democrats, but have overwhelmingly remained so in light of the clear cynical calculation that Democrats are making with regard to currying favor with Muslims over Jews in this country; e.g., my latest essay on that: Attention American Jews: Sit at the table or be on the menu (CARTOON). For example,, comedian and 9-12 patriot Evan Sayet wrote an excellent essay back in 2011; Why Jews Support the Democratic Party (bolding added): To be called a Jew, all you have to...

A British organization has launched an ambitious project aimed at restoring old, abandoned synagogues across Europe and bringing them back to community life, and commemorating communities that were wiped out in the Holocaust. The Foundation of Jewish Heritage has identified 3,300 pre-Second World War buildings used for Jewish prayer, of which at least 19 could be brought back into use - out of an estimated total of 17,000 that were in use before the Second World War. The remaining buildings, of which just 718 are still being used as synagogues, have been carefully catalogued based on their artistic, urban, and...