Rabbi Abraham Cooper

I will never forget that cold winter day. January 17, 1981. A 'whose who' of Jews, led by Simon Wiesenthal, Eli Wiesel, and Nobel laureates along with anonymous survivors of the Holocaust, came to Stockholm, Sweden to say a belated thank you to an unheralded hero, Raoul Wallenberg, and to...

Simon Wiesenthal said the history of mankind is a history of crimes. No crime in the annals of history has been as well documented -- by the perpetrators, bystanders, interveners and victims -- as Nazi Germany's Final Solution, the state-sponsored genocide that systematically murdered 6 million European Jews. Against this...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO, denounced China's state-run media for equating Nobel Prize-winner the Dalai Lama to the Nazi perpetrator of the World War II Holocaust during which 6 million Jews were systematically murdered.

According to the New York Times, the commentary...

A statement from the Simon Wiesenthal Center on the murderous outrage at Jewish Day School in Toulouse, France that left four dead, a seriously wounded teenager and a community plunged into mourning:

All the House of Israel mourns the heinous, cowardly, anti-Semitic murders of a young rabbi,...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO, is calling for the canceling of a Swedish Christian Art exhibition that depicts Israelis as gun-toting rats devouring the "Holey Land" [sic] and urges authorities to investigate if government funds are being used to legitimize anti-Jewish hatred. (See...

Commencing with Ash Wednesday, our Christian neighbors are now commemorating Lent. There are many and varied customs associated with Lent in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Coptic traditions, but the common denominator is the undertaking of a period of reflection, repentance and abstinence. In Iceland, for decades, the entire "Hymns...

Jan. 27, the anniversary of the day Soviet soldiers liberated the Auschwitz death camp in 1945, is the annual International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The United Nations, which will convene a solemn ceremony at its world headquarters, features online this statement by Holocaust...

If religion were Wall Street, we should be calling for its occupation. The New Year is supposed to generate a bit of optimism, but in early 2012 we are not feeling very optimistic when it comes to organized religion. We sense that it is failing where it is needed most...

Through the magic of Skype, I met a real hero. And the fate of this man and his mission will inform us about the ultimate outcome of the Arab Spring in Libya and perhaps across the entire region.

Meet David Gerbi, a 50-something psychoanalyst from Rome. But David was...

The ushering in of a Jewish New Year naturally is a time of personal and communal reflection, and this year there is much to take stock: The Palestinian demands for a state, a threatening nuclear Iran looming large on the horizon, a Turkish President gone wild with premeditated verbal abuse...

UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS -- As an official of an accredited human Rights NGO, I am here at opening week of the U.N.'s General Assembly session, along with other human rights NGOs, to confront three issues:

1. The appearance of the soon-to-be-nuclearized bully Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose regime continues to...

At most Interfaith events I attend, there is at least one reference to the shared spiritual values of the three Abrahamic Faiths. But in reality, too little of our forefather Abraham's legacy has translated to "good faith" on the ground.

One reason is how little we know about each other....

On July 9, 20,000 Malaysians gathered in Kuala Lumpur to demand more transparency in electoral laws in connection with next year's national elections.

Police unleashed tear gas and chemical-laced water on the demonstrators and temporarily detained nearly 1,700 of them. According to reports, authorities also detained six opposition activists without...

I've been with the Simon Wiesenthal Center since the day our human rights organization began back in 1977. An important part of my work is combating the world's oldest hate, anti-Semitism. Hate crimes, Holocaust denial, Nazi War Criminals. Difficult and emotional issues to be sure, but I always try...

President Obama speaks for all American when he personally thanks the heroic Navy SEALS and CIA operatives who freed the world from its most hated terrorist. In a world bereft of true heroes, these anonymous patriots certainly fit the bill.

But just days after the Osama bin Laden take-down,...

Holocaust education is the latest obstacle to Middle East peace! That stunning contribution to Holocaust revisionism is at the core of "Jewish and Muslim Perspectives on the Land of Israel-Palestine," a document released by the Methodist Church in the U.K. that strips Hitler's war against the Jews of...

It's not been a good day for God. We are now learning the details about a horrific attack on U.N. aid workers in Afghanistan that left as at least 11 people dead including two U.N. workers who reportedly were beheaded. The igniter of the mass murder was Terry Jones, an...

Let's face it. The people's revolt in the streets of Egypt caught everyone by surprise and so-called experts and pundits are still scrambling to contextualize it and prophesy about the nation's future.

But the 18-day drama proved that revolutions are messy -- even ones birthed on Google...

The State of Israel is roughly the size of the state of New Jersey, 1/20th the size of California. Now, as genocider-wannabe, Ahmadinejad tours Lebanon, Israel's northern and central civilian communities are threatened by 60,000 rockets in Southern Lebanon, deployed by Iran's lethal lackey. Meanwhile, Hamas continues to launch missiles...

The Festival of Sukkot, the Jewish week-long Thanksgiving, is loaded with symbols and symbolism. In the time of Solomon's Temple, 70 sacrifices were brought on behalf of the 70 nations of the world. Jews today, like those of Solomon's time, vacate their homes and move into a Sukkah (a hut)...