History

The first days of the Work of Saint James are recorded in the journals kept by the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in Ein Karem, Jerusalem.

Brother Yohanan Elihai, pioneering member of the kehillot, was interviewed in the Sabbath edition, June 5, 2015, of “Mekor Rishon”.

Hillel Seidel, a childhood friend of Osvald Rufeisen, dedicated an important part of his book, Adam BeMivhan (A man tested), to a detailed account of the life of Rufeisen. The book can now be read on line.

Suzanne Millet passed away on Saturday, March 28, 2015. May her memory be a source of blessing.

Sister Anne-Marie of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary reports on a day in the community in Florence, Italy.

On Saturday, April 26, 2014, Father Giuseppe Girotti, a Dominican priest, will be beatified.

Father Roman, responsible for the Haifa kehilla, reports on a moving ceremony to honor Slawa, a member of the kehilla in Haifa.

A new exhibition about the Righteous Among the Nations was inaugurated in the Yad VaShem Museum last June.

On Saturday, June 15, 2013, Odoardo Focherini will be declared blessed in his hometown of Carpi in northern Italy.

On October 11, 2012, the Church celebrates the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Second Vatican Council.

Why would a Jewish Holocaust survivor choose to be buried in a Catholic cemetery? Yossi Sarid tells the fascinating and moving story of Tosca…

On May 10, 2012, among those recognized as a model of faith is a new blessed, Odoardo Focherini from Carpi, Italy, who saved many Jews during the Shoah and died in a Nazi camp in 1944.

On Tuesday, February 28, 2012, Yad Vashem held a ceremony honoring Sister Marie Emilienne and the late Father Joseph Caupert as Righteous Among the Nations from France.

The website of the Saint James Vicariate publicized the upcoming ceremony to honor Mother Marie-Veronique (Philomene Smeers) as a Righteous among the Nations at Yad VaShem.

On November 3, 2011, Yad VaShem in Jerusalem will hold a ceremony in which a Belgian nun will be declared a Righteous Among the Nations.

"Yediot Ahronot", a Hebrew language Israeli daily revealed the fascinating story about the saving of 1200 Jews from Europe during World War II. Thank you to the member of the Jaffa kehilla who sent us the article.

A special event was celebrated in Rome: a mass was celebrated in memory of two anti-Nazi diplomats, who listened to the voice of their conscience. The news item was published by ZENIT.

Father David Neuhaus writes: On my recent trip to Paris, our friend Samy Auszenkier gave me the book of Peter Dembowski about the Catholic Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, which has recently been translated into French.

Irena Steinfeldt, Director of the Righteous among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, published a short article on Catholic clergy who saved Jews during the Shoah in the July 2009 edition of Yad Vashem Jerusalem Quarterly Magazine (vol. 54), 15. With her permission we reproduce the article here.

The Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in Ein Karem brought out photo albums during the Easter week and remembered how the Hebrew speaking communities went out to participate in the solemn mass that Pope John Paul II celebrated in the Galilee in March 2000.