WASHINGTON, D.C. — The annual Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) luncheon was held May 19 on Capitol Hill, bringing together bipartisan members of Congress, foreign ambassadors, and civic, business, and religious leaders in the historic Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building to honor the enduring contributions of Jewish Americans to the United States.
The event was co-chaired by Malcolm Hoenlein, CEO Emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Eric J. Gertler, Executive Chairman of U.S. News and World Report. It honored entrepreneur and philanthropist Elliott Broidy with the Visionary Award, Nobel Prize winning physician Dr. Harvey J. Alter with the Dr. David Nassy Award, and Rabbi David Baron of Temple of the Arts in Beverly Hills with the Creativity in the Jewish Community Award.
In accepting the Visionary Award, Broidy reflected on the values his parents instilled in him — his father a decorated World War II veteran, turned schoolteacher, his mother a nurse — and the lesson they passed down: that success carries with it a responsibility to give back to family, community, and country. He praised Dr. Alter as an embodiment of tikkun olam for identifying a virus that was silently claiming millions of lives, and recognized Rabbi Baron’s work building curricula around altruism and empathy in young people as among the most consequential being done in America today.
Broidy described the luncheon as more than a celebration of JAHM, calling it a reaffirmation of the shared responsibility to confront hatred and protect the values of tolerance, democracy, and human dignity at a moment when antisemitism has risen sharply both in the United States and around the world.
Various U.S. Senators participated in the program, including Richard Blumenthal, John Fetterman, John Hickenlooper , Elissa Slotkin, Ron Wyden, James Lankford, Jacky Rosen, Pete Ricketts, Jeff Merkley, and Tim Sheehy. U.S. Representatives Randi Fine and Ken Calvert also delivered speeches.
Rabbi Pini Dunner of Young Israel of Beverly Hills delivered remarks on the honorees, as did Rabbi Mordechai Suchard of The Gateways Organization and Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Executive Vice President of American Friends of Lubavitch.
The celebration traces its roots to the early 1980s, when Jewish Heritage Week was launched following discussions between Malcolm Hoenlein, President Ronald Reagan, and author and humanitarian Elie Wiesel, later evolving into the month-long observance recognized today.
The event was organized by Project Legacy under the leadership of Ezra Friedlander, whose work has made the Capitol Hill JAHM luncheon one of the most visible annual expressions of Jewish American civic life in Washington. Through Project Legacy, Friedlander has built a platform that brings elected officials, faith leaders, and community figures together each year to recognize Jewish Americans whose lives reflect the breadth of that community’s contributions to the nation. “This year’s honorees reflect a deep commitment to public service, innovation, philanthropy, and the fight against hatred and intolerance,” Friedlander said.
This article was originally published on JBizNews.
A rare convergence of Jewish American religious leaders, civic organizations, business executives, and foreign diplomats gathered on Capitol Hill on May 19 during Jewish American Heritage Month to recognize Nobel laureate Dr. Harvey J. Alter — whose discovery of the hepatitis C virus and the screening protocols it spawned have saved millions of lives — underscoring the urgency of scientific preparation at a moment when the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is spreading rapidly across the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, prompting major airlines to suspend or reduce service to affected regions.
The event, the annual Jewish American Heritage Month celebration organized by Ezra Friedlander’s Project Legacy, drew nine U.S. Senators, three U.S. Representatives, and ambassadors and trade ministers from Canada, Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt, Germany, and South Korea. The gathering was co-chaired by Malcolm Hoenlein, CEO Emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Eric J. Gertler, Executive Chairman of U.S. News & World Report. Held in the historic Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building, the event demonstrated the depth of Jewish American institutional reach across government, finance, philanthropy, religious life, and international commerce.
The timing is acute. As of May 24, the World Health Organization had recorded more than 1,000 suspected and confirmed Ebola cases and at least 231 deaths in the outbreak. Airlines including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Air France have suspended or sharply reduced flights to Kinshasa and other Central African hubs, citing operational and safety concerns. The flight suspensions are already disrupting trade and threatening to isolate the region from international commerce and medical supply chains.
The honorees — Dr. Alter, entrepreneur Elliott Broidy, and Rabbi David Baron — represented the breadth of Jewish American institutional contribution. Dr. Alter, the 2020 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine for identifying the hepatitis C virus, embodied the Jewish American role in science and public health. His decades of work at the National Institutes of Health in the 1970s and 1980s proved that an unknown virus was driving post-transfusion hepatitis. The screening systems his research enabled have driven transfusion-transmitted hepatitis in the United States to near zero. His discovery spawned pharmaceutical franchises at Gilead Sciences, Merck, AbbVie, and Bristol Myers Squibb. Broidy, recipient of the Visionary Award, reflected the Jewish American entrepreneurial and philanthropic tradition. Rabbi David Baron of the Temple of the Arts in Beverly Hills, honored with the Creativity in the Jewish Community Award, represented the religious and cultural institutions anchoring the community’s identity.
The religious leadership present was notably diverse and unified. Rabbi Pini Dunner of Young Israel of Beverly Hills, Chairman of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce West Coast, delivered remarks alongside Rabbi Mordechai Suchard of The Gateways Organization and Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Executive Vice President of American Friends of Lubavitch. This constellation — Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, and Lubavitch leadership appearing together on a Capitol Hill stage — demonstrated institutional cohesion across religious movements.
U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal, John Fetterman, Tim Sheehy, John Hickenlooper, Elissa Slotkin, Ron Wyden, James Lankford, Jacky Rosen, and Pete Ricketts addressed the gathering, alongside Representatives Randi Fine, Ken Calvert, and Jeff Merkley. Senator Blumenthal emphasized that Dr. Alter could have monetized his hepatitis C discovery for enormous personal gain but instead released findings to the public-health system. Senator Fetterman delivered what attendees described as an unusually passionate bipartisan statement of support for the Jewish American community. Senator Sheehy framed scientific generosity as a uniquely American strength. The bipartisan presence — nine senators from both parties — signaled political consensus around the value of Jewish American institutional power.
Jewish American Heritage Month, observed each May since 2006, traces to 1980 when Congress designated April 21-28 as Jewish Heritage Week through conversations between Malcolm Hoenlein, President Ronald Reagan, and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. President George W. Bush expanded it to a full month of May in 2006, recognizing over 370 years of Jewish American contribution to science, business, law, and public service since 1654. The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History now stewards the observance with more than 200 organizations.
Ezra Friedlander, organizer of the event through Project Legacy, said: “This year’s honorees reflect a deep commitment to public service, innovation, philanthropy, and the fight against hatred and intolerance.”
The commercial dimension was substantial. Duvi Honig, Founder & CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce and co-founder and secretary of the Multicultural Business Coalition, who chaired World Trade Week NYC on Wednesday, spoke to the gathering’s purpose. “Building bridges through unity is what speaks to me most,” Honig said. “Each attendee walked away with new or reinforced relationships to help build a better tomorrow.” The ambassadors and trade ministers represented nations with which the United States maintains multi-billion-dollar trade flows in life sciences, defense, semiconductors, energy, agriculture, and finance.
Elliott Broidy, in accepting the Visionary Award, reflected on lessons from his parents about the responsibility that accompanies success. He praised Dr. Alter as an embodiment of tikkun olam — the Jewish concept of repairing the world — for identifying hepatitis C. Broidy framed the luncheon as a reaffirmation of shared responsibility to confront hatred and protect the values of tolerance, democracy, and human dignity at a moment when antisemitism has risen sharply.
The Capitol Hill gathering serves a dual purpose: honoring specific achievements, but also functioning as a high-level networking forum where ambassadors, senators, business leaders, and religious figures reinforce relationships that undergird international commerce, diplomatic coordination, and policy alignment. For the Jewish American community, the event demonstrates that institutional unity across Orthodox and non-Orthodox Judaism, business and nonprofit sectors, and civic and religious leadership remains a competitive advantage.
The recognition of Dr. Alter arrives as the global health system confronts the Ebola outbreak, making his innovation as a Jewish American leader who helped save millions of lives through epidemic-related medical breakthroughs even more meaningful amid the growing health and commercial disruption now unfolding. His career — patient, federally funded basic research conducted over decades for public good — produced breakthroughs that created entire pharmaceutical industries and prevention systems now viewed as essential global infrastructure. It also reflects the very purpose of Jewish American Heritage Month: recognizing the extraordinary contributions Jewish Americans have made to science, medicine, public service, innovation, and humanity as a whole.
A dozen members of Congress participated in an annual Jewish American Heritage Month lunch in the Russell Senate Office Building, held this year on May 19.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), and Reps. Randi Fine (R-Fla.) and Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) took part.
“I am proud to be here as a Jewish American woman,” Slotkin said. “It’s just never been a harder time in my lifetime to be a Jew in America.”
“As a Democrat, it’s my responsibility to call out antisemitism in my own party, just as I hope that Sen. Lankford calls out antisemitism in his party,” the senator said.
Elliott Broidy, a businessman and philanthropist who was presented with a visionary award, told the audience that he is motivated to give back to his country because his parents taught him that success comes with responsibility.
Dr. Harvey Alter, a Nobel-winning physician, and Rabbi David Baron, of Temple of the Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif., also received awards.
“After years of intensive research, I’ve understood now why there’s such a preponderance of Jewish scientists. It’s because they all had Jewish mothers,” Alter said.
Elliott Broidy and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) at a Jewish American Heritage Month celebration on Capitol Hill, May 20, 2026. Credit: Lenchevsky Images. Picasa
Malcolm Hoenlein, CEO Emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Eric Gertler, executive chairman of U.S. News and World Report, co-chaired the event. “Jewish Heritage Week gives us an opportunity to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this great country,” Hoenlein told attendees.
“This year’s honorees reflect a deep commitment to public service, innovation, philanthropy and the fight against hatred and intolerance,” stated Ezra Friedlander, who organized the event.
By Jewish Heritage Celebration Committee, May 19, 2026
The annual Jewish American Heritage Month celebration on Capitol Hill will be held in the month of May on 19, bringing together members of Congress, foreign ambassadors and leaders from across the civic, business and religious communities. The Congressional Honorary Host Committee includes US Senator Tim Scott, US Senator Jeff Merkley, US Senator Pete Rickett, US Representative Grace Meng.
During Jewish American Heritage Month, we honor the countless contributions of Jewish Americans throughout the United States 250 years of independence, and we celebrate their unwavering commitment to the values that make our country great.
President Trump, in his proclamation for May 2026 as Jewish American Heritage Month, calls upon Americans to celebrate the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies. “I further call on all Americans to celebrate their faith and freedom throughout this year, during this month, and especially on Shabbat to celebrate our 250th year.”
The Capitol Hill event will honor Elliott Broidy, entrepreneur, public safety expert, and philanthropist, who will receive the Visionary Award during Jewish American Heritage Month on Capitol Hill for his leadership in national security, education, cultural philanthropy, and efforts to combat antisemitism, extremism, and intolerance.
Rabbi David Baron, spiritual leader of Temple of the Arts, will be receiving the Creativity in the Jewish Community Award for his contributions to Jewish cultural and religious life, Holocaust education, and public service through media, philanthropy, and international remembrance initiatives.
Dr. Harvey J. Alter will be presented the Dr. David Nassy Award in Medicine for his Nobel Prize-winning research leading to the discovery of hepatitis B and C viruses, breakthroughs that revolutionized blood safety and transformed the treatment of chronic liver disease.
“I am deeply moved to be recognized at the Capitol during Jewish American Heritage Month,” said Broidy. “Jewish Americans have helped build this country, and today, as antisemitism rises at an alarming rate, it is up to all of us to stand up to hate and advance the Judeo-Christian values on which America was founded.”
The event, organized by Project Legacy under the leadership of Ezra Friedlander, honors leaders whose lives and work reflect the enduring contributions of Jewish Americans to the fabric of this nation. Celebrating Jewish Heritage began in the early 1980s when Malcom Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman Emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a prominent figure in American and world Jewry, accompanied by author Elie Wiesel, met with President Ronald Reagan in the White House to launch the National Jewish Heritage Week, which has since evolved into a month-long celebration accords the country.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz was the primary legislative leader behind the establishment of Jewish American Heritage Month. In 2006, she led a bipartisan congressional effort resulting in George W. Bush’s first presidential proclamation of May as Jewish American Heritage Month.
Once again, this year U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), Troy A. Carter, Sr. (LA-02) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) introduced a bipartisan Jewish American Heritage Month Resolution to recognize the significant contributions of Jewish Americans to the society and culture of the United States.
Malcolm Hoenlein, along with Eric J. Gertler, Executive Chairman of U.S. News and World Report will chair this year’s event.
“Jewish American Heritage Month is a moment to reflect on where we’ve come from, to celebrate what we’ve built and to recommit ourselves to protecting our most meaningful values,” added honoree Mr. Elliott Broidy. “I’m proud to stand alongside my fellow honorees and to carry that message into the halls of Congress.”
The Los Angeles-raised philanthropist is being honored for decades of work in public safety, Jewish communal life, and the fight against antisemitism.
Elliott Broidy will be among three Jewish Americans honored at this year’s Jewish American Heritage Month luncheon on Capitol Hill, receiving the Visionary Award at a ceremony on Capitol Hill on May 19th.
The annual event, organized by Project Legacy under the leadership of Ezra Friedlander, has honored Jewish American leaders since the early 1980s, when Jewish Heritage Week was established following discussions between Malcolm Hoenlein, President Ronald Reagan, and Elie Wiesel. Broidy will be recognized alongside Nobel Prize-winning physician Dr. Harvey J. Alter and Rabbi David Baron of Beverly Hills’ Temple of the Arts.
Broidy, 68, grew up in Los Angeles, the son of a World War II veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart and later became a schoolteacher, and a mother who worked as a nurse. He started working at age eleven – paper routes, Fuller Brush sales, plumbing jobs, salmon fishing in Alaska – and at 18 used his savings to buy a coin-operated laundromat to help put himself through the University of Southern California, where he earned a degree in accounting.
After becoming a CPA and working at Arthur Andersen, he spent nine years running the family office of Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell, advising on investments in more than 120 companies. He later founded Broidy Capital Management. By his mid-thirties, he had begun making significant charitable contributions to hospitals, synagogues, social services organizations, and educational institutions across the United States and Israel.
The September 11 attacks drew him deeper into public life. He served three years on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, six years as a commissioner of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Fund, and six years on the board of the Simon Wiesenthal Center-Museum of Tolerance.
The October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel prompted a further expansion of his giving. He has since directed significant support toward Holocaust remembrance, countering extremism through organizations including the Counter Extremism Project, and strengthening Jewish communal infrastructure in the United States and Israel.
“This celebration is an opportunity not only to honor the contributions of Jewish Americans throughout our nation’s history, but also to reaffirm our shared responsibility to confront hatred and protect the values of tolerance, democracy and human dignity.”
This year’s event is chaired by Malcolm Hoenlein and Eric J. Gertler, Executive Chairman of U.S. News and World Report.
This essay, written by author, artist, and filmmaker Inna Rogatchi, is the second of two parts and was originally published in The Times of Israel. Part I can be found here.
Thought-provoking and unusual exhibition The Birdman of Auschwitz: Science and Faltered Conscience has been opened at House 88 in Oswenziem, Poland, in a direct proximity to Auschwitz camp. The exhibition which evokes fundamental questions that has become acutely relevant today again, is located at the house in which Rudolf Höss’ family was happily thriving during his years as the Auschwitz Commandant, and even during his absence there. Since 2025, the house has become a site-specific awareness and education point of ARCHER Project that fights antisemitism and terrorism.
The Birdman of Auschwitz exhibition at ARCHER in House 88, Oswienciem, Poland. April 2026. Photo: Michael Bojara. (C) CEP?ARCHER. With kind permission.
The Story of Moral Creeps, Their Actions & Traces
The Birdman of Auschwitz exhibition presents in documents, photos, and artifacts the story that if it would be first laid out as a script , it might not get far as the Hollywood script-gatekeepers would think that the imagination of the script writer was too wild. Once again, history itself has proved to be the most surprising author. In this case, it happened through a very able and thorough British historian Nicholas Milton on whose book The Birdman of Auschwitz ( 2025) the current exhibition at ARCHER at House 88 is based.
The visitors of the exhibition and the readers of the book will learn the story of a very well-known and highly esteemed scientist in the pre- and post- WWII Germany and Austria, Gunter Niethammer, who was the head of the Department of Ornithology at the Museum of Natural History in Vienna just on the brink on WWII.
At the same time, the man was a devoted Nazi. Like many of his scientific colleagues, Niethammer did rush to prove his loyalty to the Nazism and join the party early, to guarantee the smoothness of his career. At the same time, he actually belonged to the Nazi elite, via his family circle.
Niethammer was the nephew of an ultra-nationalist writer Hans Grimm, the one who invented and created a concept of Volk onhe Raum, A People Without Space, at the early moment of the formation of the Nazi ideology, in 1926, next year after publication of Mein Kampf.
nuFiD-vYSZviVYUb_rj3ij__anPXDTzYgA.woff2The cover of two volumes of the Nazi expansionist ideology, the novel by Hans Grimm. First edition, 1926. Credit: Creative Commons.
Not only that line, Volk onhe Raum, has become the title of Grimm’s very well-known novel, but because of that, the novel was probably the most-read book in Germany and Austria all the years from its release throughout the war, until 1945, at least. There is statistical data with this regard. Grimm’s 1345-page novelized ideology has become the backbone of the explanation of the necessity of expansionist global war. And its author has been very well-known in the top-layer of the Reich. So his nephew Gunter, who has been quite close to his writer uncle, had a very solid and far-stretching backing in his career and life in general, too.
Niethammer joined the Nazi party in 1937, when he was 25. Two years later, he joined the SS. Immediately after, he joined the Secret Field Police. He knew exactly what he was doing, why and what for. He was turned away from the Luftwaffe, mostly likely due to his age (he was over 30 at the time), and also due to the fact that he had no military background. He ended up as a guard in Auschwitz, staying there on duties at the main entrance. The most inviting point for bird-watching, naturally for the Nazis.
In a half of a year, he started to use his family and academic connections to get transferred from under that huge Arbeit Macht Frei sign over his head while on duty. At the same time, he tried hard to be useful for Rudolf Höss, who did not mind having a freshly-hunted game for his family dinners. There is an existing statistic, for example, that only during one month between September and October 1942, Niethammer provided over 100 wild ducks for Höss household for an upscale nutrition.
In demonstrating his patronage, Höss assigned Niethammer to ‘special ornithological duties’ in Auschwitz. It is thanks to the Nazis’ punctuality in maintaining their documentation that we have the documents about it. Otherwise, it would be too kitschy to believe in such sick fantasies of these humanoids.
As a proof of his usefulness and existence of those ‘special ornithological duties’, methodical Nazi Niethammer cared for publishing a scientific paper on his effort in Auschwitz. It also exists, and the copy of it is one of the stunning exhibits at House 88. There is the photo of the scientific ornithological paper from Auschwitz in 1942, with a proud SS stamp in the headline.
The copy of the Niethammer’s scientific paper published in 1942, exhibited at The Birdman of Auschwitz. (C) CEP/ARCHER. With kind permission.
The degree of perversion of those supposed-to-be humans was, in fact, far higher than it has been known publicly for decades after WWII. Importantly, it was a focused, deliberate effort by far too many people after the war to diffuse the scale of crimes against humanity committed by all those ‘white-color Nazis’, such as architects, scientists, engineers, and anyone else who did make the Shoah happen in the industrial scale or was such a willing Nazi fellow traveller. This is the shameful and screaming fact of history which has to be addressed in full detail, today and tomorrow. There is no statute of limitation for covering up the crimes against humanity.
Nicholas Milton, the author of The Birdman of Auschwitz book ( 2025) which has provided the material for the ongoing exhibition at ARCHER House 88 in Oswenciem, has shared with me one of his surprises while researching for his very thorough book: “Can you imagine that when the Red Army has liberated Auschwitz and went through the premises, including the Höss house, what did they find in his safe? The copy of that scientific publication of Niethammer, with his hand-written dedication and gratitude to Höss. The point is that Höss actually kept it in his safe, it was something important and meaningful for him”, – emphasized Nicholas.
If there would be any ornithologist who hunted delicacies for the Auschwitz commandant and his family, Höss most likely would not give a damn to whatever paper his private hunter might publish. But in the case of Niethammer, his family was well-known politically, and his uncle was literally an ideologist-at-large for the very core of the Nazi Germany’s expansionist zealotry. Höss’ guard on his special ornithological duties in Auschwitz belonged to the Reich elite. No wonder that his hand-written gratitude was regarded as something of value and perhaps something potentially useful by one of the Reich most notorious criminals.
While Niethammer was thoroughly enjoying his scientific activities in Auschwitz and elsewhere, his happy family, an exact version of Höss idyllic monsters, frau and four sons, were living all the time from 1940 through May 1945 in Vienna, in a large house of a Jewish family, whose owners were kicked off from their property unceremoniously, and later on, the owner of the villa and her mother were sent to their death in the concentration camps. The 83-year old mother of the owner, Sofia Grunspann was murdered in Treblinka in 1942. And the owner of a lovely villa Rudolfina Liatcheff has vanished without trace, somewhere in the one of the camps that the bastard whose family has seized and occupied her house, was so busy with his scientific ornithological observations. The murky irony did stop there: nowadays once forcibly seized by the Nazis Jewish villa in Vienna houses the Embassy of Libya.
Villa, confiscated property of Liatcheff family, in Vienna, at Blaasstrasse, 33. (C) Creative Commons.
Entertainment, Auschwitz Style
To add to all this mounting macabre, the exhibition at House 88 tells about ornithological museum, or show-room, in the extermination camp, that has been set there by Niethammer with backing by the special order by the camp’s commandant Höss, in one of the barracks, for the entertainment of the Auschwitz officers and personnel. It is not black humor.
As it is known, Auschwitz has become the place of the worst of moral perversity, additionally to its monstrous mass extermination. The Nazis set up three orchestras there, two male ones and one female one, of which my great-aunt Alma Rose after her arrest and deportation to Auschwitz from the Drancy in July 1943 was forced to lead. They also have a cinema for the officers and personnel, as it is known. And as it transpires from the exhibition at ARCHER at House 88 and Nicholas Milton’s book, they also cared enough to set up an ornithological museum in the extermination camp. According to Milton, during his inspectional visit to Auschwitz on July 17-18, 1942, Himmler visited the museum as well. The Zone of Interest, indeed.
There is one telling episode of the kind of ornithology that Niethammer exercised in Auschwitz. Nicholas Milton has told me about it specifically, and since that, the episode pierces my mind. “Among the species of the Niethammer’s hunted and stuffed birds that are on display at the current exhibition, there is sadly not the Black redstart, which does exist and belongs to the Niethammer Auschwitz trophies at the Vienna Natural History Museum collection. It is a nice bird that looks like a robin. In Niethammer’s papers, there is a specific description regarding the Black redstart, in his own handwrite”.
The Nazi ornithologist’s observation was the following: “June 25, 1941. The nest is found in a brickyard at the camp where amongst the bricks piled up by the prisoners the female (Black redstart bird) had built a loose cup of grass lined with hair, wool and feathers’, the hair and wool once belonging to the prisoners, the wool coming from the prisoners clothes and uniforms”. This kind of ornithology. This kind of science. This kind of conscious behavior of a humanoid in the midst of the engineered genocide.
Authentic prisoner robe from Auschwitz exhibited at The Birdman of Auschwitz at ARCHER in House 88 exhibition. Photo: Michal Bojara. (C) CEP/ARCHER, with kind permission.
That humanoid, after a brief, due to the intervention of his international scientific colleagues, just three years imprisonment in Poland after the war, has lived thirty more years, flourishing in his career and being recognized at many levels, both in Germany and internationally. He was elected as President of German Ornithological Society, the Chairman of German Zoological Society, Director of museums, professor of universities. There are as many as nine bird and other species officially named after him, still today. Of course, he was such an expert on the bird’s nests made with ‘formerly human hairs’. Shame is not enough for all those people and institutions who have blurred and covered up the Niethammer’s complicity in the crimes against humanity both in Germany and anywhere else for good three decades. This is actually co-complicity from all those individuals and institutions, and it has to be understood and known this way, for the sake of normality of this and next generations.
Expanding the Painful Lessons
Probably, with this in mind, the people who are leading the Ornithology Department of the Vienna Natural History Museum nowadays, have become alerted with regard to their Niethammer collection of more than 90 species hunted by him in Auschwitz during WWII. Based on ongoing dialogue with them, Ambassador Mark Wallace has told me about them re-visiting the collection, and their plans to expand the Museum’s loan to ARCHER project with more species to be shown publicly, and also possibly in the expanded tour of this stunning exhibition.
That would be sobering and highly important.“Can you imagine, all these birds who were hunted and stuffed by that beast Niethammer personally, and which all bears his own nitty hand-written labels with the SS stamps of each of them, during past 85 years had been never shown to anyone, not for once, none of them. Now they, the material witnesses of the Nazi evil, will be shown internationally, and hopefully, will evoke people’s attention to the evil that has ruled that darkness that was the Shoah, and by seeing it as it is, and learning the story behind it, people will become more vigilant to the same-creed of evil which has been awakened so ugly today. This is one of the ways to show the wide public one of the dark faces of hate and crime, and to make people think about it, in general as well This is what we are aiming for at CEP and ARCHER Projects, fighting the hate of today by evoking the understanding and compassion by the authentic means of history for which we are looking tirelessly”.
It is quite uneasy and demanding emotionally and mentally, but an absolutely necessary thing to do today. Because tomorrow it might be too late.
From the left: historian Nicholas Milton, Ambassador Mark Wallace, director of ARCHER in House 88 Jacek Purski at the preview event of The Birdman of Auschwitz exhibition in Oswienciem, Poland. April 2026. Photo: Michal Bojara. (C) CEP/ARCHER. With kind permission.
Birdsong from Silence, Light from Darkness
In their determination to fight the evil of yesterday and today, Ambassador Wallace, his colleagues, principle co-funders of the ARCHER projects, such as Robin and Elliott Broidy, Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan and Dafne Recanati Kaplan, the CEP and ARCHER team, are going further than exhibiting artifacts. They are determined to fight the evil at its very housing. It can be done in different ways, what matters here is the principle and the intention.
In the case of the theme of birds over Auschwitz, the ARCHER team has placed four bird-houses in the garden made in part from wood from the Höss fence. As the exhibition’s curator Nicholas Milton has told me, “We plan to use the bird boxes to bring back birdsong to Auschwitz in memory of the victims.”
Nicholas also mentioned that in mid-April this year, the birds already sang at the premises, quite vividly so. It looks like the famed architect Daniel Libeskind who in early 2025 was telling his friend Ambassador Mark Wallace that the birds will sing there again, was right.
The birds that in Jewish tradition symbolizes Jewish souls and are connected to it directly, in their behavior also always feel human warmth, and the character of human activities, in a primary meaning, good or bad it is, roughly. This is a scientific fact, too.
In this first major awareness and educational, historic exhibition at ARCHER in House 88, we can see embodiment of the idea that Mark Wallace was graceful to share with me in one of our conversations: “Birdsong from silence, Light from Darkness”. Simple and clear, as moral clarity and determination to act for its sake should be, to be efficient and worthy.
Permit me to introduce myself as I am unknown in Spain, a country whose Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, fills me, thousands of American Jews like me, and millions of American Christians, with great dread.
I am an entrepreneur based in Florida and dedicate much of my time to philanthropic causes. Most recently, I have supported the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a, non-profit international policy organization working to combat the growing threat posed by extremist ideologies. I helped CEP purchase the house at Auschwitz just outside the perimeter of the death camp. It was the house in which the camp’s commandant Rudolf Höss had lived with his family. Many readers here will be familiar with the house from having seen “The Zone of Interest” (2023), a film about the comfortable banality of Höss’s idyllic domestic life while he planned and oversaw the murder of a million Jews.
That house, in which a monster once lived, has now become a center for research and investigation on organizations that are behind the rise of antisemitism around the world.
For those of us who dedicate our lives to the fight against antisemitism, and to a vigorous defense of a Jewish State in Israel, the attitude of Mr. Sánchez has been greatly troubling. Ever since the murderous attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, Sánchez has not wasted an opportunity to treat Israel a pariah. He gives loud and frequent voice to the international leftist libels that describe Israel as an “apartheid” state and characterize its war of self-defense in Gaza as a “genocide.”
Sánchez has been at the forefront of European political efforts to recognize a Palestinian state and conferred such recognition on the Palestinians on behalf of Spain without even the most minimal concession by the Palestinians of Israel’s right to exist. He inveighs against Israel and its elected prime minister at every opportunity, and has now added to his anti-Israel zealotry a loud and gaudy opposition to the American-Israeli war against Iran. We understand, of course, that his motives are cynical: What better way can there be for him to distract attention from the corruption of his Socialist government than to posture as an international progressive poster-boy against the war.
The damage that Sánchez has done to Spain’s standing in Washington is incalculable and should be of concern to all right-thinking Spaniards. President Trump has, not surprisingly, threatened to cut all trade with Spain as a result of Mr. Sánchez’s hostility. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal suggested, also, that Spain should face punitive economic consequences under the Ribicoff Amendment to the Tax Reform Act of 1976 for boycotting Israel as a matter of national government policy.
More broadly, I write this piece so that Spanish readers are informed that their government is heaping shame on Spain’s good name among many in the United States and around the world. Not only do many American Jews regard him as a misinformed, uneducated, rabid antisemite, but millions of Christians do as well. I am widely involved in communities in Florida, California, and New York, and I have lost count of the number of people, both Christian and Jewish, who have expressed pain, and even disgust, at the hostility that Sánchez has displayed toward the only Jewish State.
There are 2.3 billion Christians in the world, and they are the majority in 120 countries. There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world in 52 Muslim countries. In 30 of those countries, over 90% of the population is Muslim. There are only 15 million Jews in the world. Israel is the only country in the world where Jews are the majority. Of the 10 million people living in Israel, approximately 7 million are Jews and 2.1 million are Arabs. There is no apartheid in Israel. Arab Israelis go to public schools with Jewish Israelis, they are members of parliament, they work together in businesses and hospitals, and they serve as justices of the Supreme court of Israel.
Sánchez’s hostility shares horrific overtones with the Spanish Inquisition, a period when hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism, thousands were tortured to determine if they had really converted, and at least 2,000 were killed. Estimates indicate that between 40,000 and 100,000 were exiled.
It’s a period that lives in infamy and it is being recalled now in the minds of Jews and Christians alike. Whereas the previous conservative government did the right thing by creating a law in 2015, that granted dual citizenship to Jews who could link their heritage to Spain, the next progressive government and the one that followed led by Sánchez did not. Before the law expired in 2019 and was not renewed, over 4,300 Jews were granted such citizenship. Now, no care is taken to disguise the hate and animosity of the Jewish people by the Spanish government. The Spanish people must wake up to the damage that Prime Minister Sánchez is doing, and the bridges he is burning.
The arson attack in London’s Golders Green, targeting ambulances operated by a Jewish volunteer rescue organization, shatters a basic rule of civilized society. It reaches far beyond the Jewish community of the United Kingdom. It signals something much broader: the erosion of lines that once held.
Ambulances save lives. They do not carry ideology. Anyone who burns them does not protest. They declare that nothing remains off limits. And when the target is Jewish, the meaning is unmistakable.
Burning a Jewish ambulance is not protest. It is permission. Permission for the next target, the next escalation, the next line erased.
This attack fits a pattern that grows more violent, more organized, and more brazen.
In Michigan, a gunman drove a vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, forced entry, and opened fire. The attack unfolded in the middle of the day at a synagogue with a large preschool. Children were inside. A security guard suffered injuries, and dozens of first responders required treatment after the fire and smoke. No ambiguity surrounded the motive. The target told the story.
Months earlier in Sydney, two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people gathered for a public Jewish holiday. The attack stands as the deadliest antisemitic assault in Australia’s modern history.
In recent weeks, attackers firebombed Jewish institutions across Europe, including in Belgium and the Netherlands. The same network claimed responsibility in London. This is not coincidence. It is a coordinated campaign.
The targets are not random. Synagogues, schools, community centers, and ambulances form the backbone of Jewish life. They are visible, rooted, and essential. Attackers strike them to send a message: Jews do not belong.
Philanthropy has always been one of the most meaningful expressions of what I consider true success. As a businessman, I’ve had the good fortune to achieve financial success. But I have always believed that achievement without giving back remains incomplete.
I view giving not as a checkbox or a duty, but as a privilege. From the earliest stages of my career, I understood that thriving in business often means having the ability to help other people thrive—whether that means supporting hospitals, education, or the institutions of community that bind us together. On my website, I wrote the following words: “The true measure of philanthropy isn’t in what you give, but in the lives you help transform. There’s no greater reward than seeing your efforts turn into lasting impact—and knowing you played a part in making the world a little safer, kinder, and more just.” The sentiments behind these words motivate me every single day.
Central to my giving has been support of Jewish and pro-Israel causes. I believe deeply in the enduring value of Jewish life, Jewish heritage, and the strength of the State of Israel. Supporting institutions that nurture Jewish education, community, identity, and safety is about ensuring that future generations are grounded in values, culture, and purpose. I’ve been proud to contribute to organizations that embody that mission because I believe in vibrancy, continuity, and strong foundations.
Following the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, my wife Robin and I intensified our support for initiatives combating antisemitism and extremism by becoming involved with The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and legal efforts aimed at reducing antisemitism on U.S. campuses and elsewhere.
I provided some of the funding that enabled CEP to purchase the former home of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, located directly next to the site of the death camp. This house has been transformed by CEP into the Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism, and Radicalization: ARCHER at House 88 (88 was and is code for “Heil Hitler” because “H” is the eighth letter of the alphabet). ARCHER is dedicated to fighting antisemitism and other forms of ideological and violent extremism that represent a threat to humanity by, among other things, using cutting-edge technology to disrupt extremist financial networks. I am Co-Chair of The Fund to End Antisemitism, Extremism & Hate which raises funds to ensure that ARCHER has the financial support it needs for its vital work.
Subsequently, I acquired an original architectural drawing, or whiteprint, of the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau. This evil, but highly significant, document represents the earliest design concept of Crematoria II and III at the massive Birkenau complex, in which hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered. I secured the artifact for $1.5 million, a symbolic amount honoring the 1.5 million Jewish children who were killed by the Nazis. That money will support an early childhood curriculum that will inoculate young students against hate and extremism by teaching values like altruism and empathy.
We are living through dark times of resurgent antisemitism and increasing Holocaust denial.
The whiteprint is irrefutable proof of the Nazis’ genocidal intent, and the meticulousness with which that was manifested. It is my strongest hope that it will help to undermine Holocaust denial while, at the same time, educating future generations about the Holocaust. As such, it will be exhibited at Holocaust memorials and institutions dedicated to fighting antisemitism before it is permanently donated to a Holocaust museum.
My philanthropy also extends into other spheres, including healthcare and hospitals. Health is the bedrock of opportunity, of life itself. Giving to hospitals means supporting the caregivers, the research, the infrastructure that allow people to survive and thrive. It means being part of something larger than oneself—making sure that when people face their hardest moments, there is help. I’ve supported hospitals because I know that no matter your background or your beliefs, the fragility of life is universal—and our willingness to step up when people need care says something about our community, our values, our humanity. Specifically, my wife and I are donors to Boca Regional Hospital, The Cleveland Clinic in Weston, FL, and the Boca West Children’s Foundation.
Giving back has become integrated into how I see my place in the world. For me, philanthropy is about responsibility, legacy, and hope. It’s about creating conditions where others can flourish, where communities are stronger, healthier, and more stable. I believe that when we invest in others, the return is moral as well as financial or reputational. It’s the feeling of making a difference, of doing something that matters.
In a world of challenges—including antisemitism surging to levels not seen since the Nazi era—giving back offers a way to say: “I see you. I’m with you.” It reminds us that success carries with it a purpose and a duty to help others. That’s why philanthropy matters to me.
How the Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism and Radicalization (ARCHER) is combining artificial intelligence, digital forensics, and philanthropy to identify, expose, and disrupt extremist networks before they spread.
In recent years, the fight against extremism and hate has become more urgent than ever. With rising antisemitism, violent extremism, and radical ideologies, the old methods of combating hate are insufficient in today’s hyper-connected world. As an entrepreneur I focus on investing in businesses that advance public safety and national security. I’ve come to realize that to effectively fight the forces of hate and irrationalism, we must innovate and combine cutting-edge technology with philanthropy.
The Changing Face of Extremism
Historically, extremism was something seen in isolated pockets of society: radical groups operating underground, often in the shadows. Today, however, the rise of social media, encrypted messaging apps, and global connectivity have brought extremist ideologies to the forefront. Radical, violent extremism, including virulent antisemitism which incites the susceptible and misinformed to violence, are no longer confined to hidden extremist groups; they thrive online, in the dark corners of the internet, and increasingly in public view.
ARCHER at House 88: A New Approach to Fighting Extremism
That is precisely why I decided to support the creation of the Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism and Radicalization (ARCHER) at House 88, an initiative of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a non-profit, non-partisan organization that was founded in 2014 by Ambassador Mark Wallace, Senator Joseph Lieberman, and former Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend.
With my help, alongside philanthropist Dr. Thomas Kaplan, CEP purchased the former home of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss at 88 Legionów Street (“88” was code for Heil Hitler because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet) in Oswięcim, Poland. The house, adjacent to the concentration camp, has been transformed into ARCHER, which represents a paradigm shift in how we combat antisemitism.
What sets ARCHER apart from other organizations fighting antisemitism is its relentless focus on action. ARCHER doesn’t just create programs that describe the horrors of the past or organize remembrance events, as important as those are, or research how many violent extremist or antisemitic incidents occur around the world. ARCHER develops AI-driven software tools to track violent extremist content on the internet, expose extremist networks, and disrupt the funding of terrorist and extremist organizations. The leadership and staff consist of former government intelligence officials, subject matter experts, and researchers who write important reports about existing an developing threats, and advise governments, multi-government commissions, and tech companies about how to counter these threats.
CEP and ARCHER use real-time data to identify hate before it spreads and strategically mobilize resources to stop it. In the fight against extremism, technology has proven to be both a weapon for hate and a tool for combating it. We expose extremist networks in reports, webinars, podcasts, social media, and traditional media to ensure that hate speech is no longer tolerated and allowed to proliferate under the guise of free expression. We are expert at finding all extremist content on the internet thanks to our partnership with the father of digital forensics, Dr. Hany Farid of the University of California at Berkeley. In 2016, Dr. Farid adapted his PhotoDNA software—designed to find missing and exploited children content on the internet—to create “eGlyph technology,” which enables social media platforms and governments to track where a particular piece of violent, inciting, extremist video, audio, or image has been uploaded and by whom. ARCHER is currently updating this software to enable platforms and governments to use general natural language queries to find all newly uploaded or downloaded extremist content, rather than searching for each identified piece individually.
Getting harmful and inciting extremist content off the internet, tracking terrorism finance globally, and teaching governments how to find and eliminate such material are all part of the arsenal ARCHER will use to counter the proliferation of extremist ideologies. Social media platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok play an enormous role in the radicalization process, so it’s imperative that we hold tech companies accountable for the content being spread through their platforms. To help achieve that mission, CEP helped craft the language for the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act 2023, which requires platforms to take down violent extremist content or face severe fines. The law also requires platforms to use the type of technology that CEP developed to find such content.
Philanthropy in the Fight Against Hate
Philanthropy has always played a critical role in shaping our societies. As someone who has been privileged to support initiatives that promote public safety, security, and education, I’ve come to believe that fighting extremism requires not just government or military intervention, but active philanthropic engagement.
That belief is reflected in my work with The Fund to End Antisemitism, Extremism and Hate, which I co-chair with Dr. Kaplan. The Fund was created to support ARCHER at House 88 and ensure that the initiative has the resources necessary to develop its research, technology, and global partnerships over the long term. Initiatives of ARCHER’s scale require sustained investment, and philanthropy can play a unique role in helping ensure that organizations working to counter extremism have the independence and resources they need to act decisively.
That same sense of responsibility also guided my decision to acquire the original architectural whiteprint for the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The document is a chilling reminder of how bureaucratic systems and meticulous technical expertise were mobilized in service of genocide. I acquired the document for $1.5 million to honor the memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered during the Holocaust, many of them in crematoria like the one depicted in the whiteprint. That money will support the creation of a global early-childhood curriculum that teaches altruism and empathy—precisely the traits necessary to inoculate young children against extremism and hate.
I want the document to be studied and used as a powerful educational tool. It is irrefutable evidence of the Nazis’ genocidal intent and the thought and purposefulness that went into their attempt to wipe Jews from the face of the earth. My plan is to exhibit it at institutions dedicated to Holocaust commemoration and combating antisemitism before donating it permanently to such an institution.
Through education, action, and thoughtful philanthropy, we can make a profound difference in the world.
A Call to Action
We cannot do this work alone. These are global, whole-of-society problems and they require global, whole-of-society solutions. Each of us must take responsibility. As business leaders, philanthropists, and citizens, we have a duty to combat hate wherever it resides—whether it’s in our own communities, on the internet, or in the policies of other nations.
As we move forward in this battle, I’m reminded of a cry that has been seared into my consciousness from a young age: “Never Again.” The phrase was popularized by Elie Wiesel, the author of so many important works that described the horrors of the Holocaust and the genesis of the hate that led to it. But in his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech he added, “Sometimes we must interfere.” Hate doesn’t disappear of its own accord. We must fight to ensure that it cannot find fertile ground in which to grow.
In Conclusion
The future of global security and peace depends on our ability to work together—to harness the power of technology, philanthropy, and international cooperation to fight against the forces that threaten our shared values of tolerance, freedom, and human dignity. Only by working together can we arrive at a safer, more just world, one free from hate and the horrors that flow from it.
Elliott Broidy is an entrepreneur who has used his extensive experience and talent to found, invest, and in some cases, manage as CEO, more than 160 companies over his four-decade career. Since 2014, he has focused on technology businesses (including, more recently, AI) in the defense intelligence, homeland security, public safety, and law enforcement sectors.
