February 28, 2012: A nun and a deceased priest were honoured as “Righteous Gentiles” for saving three Jewish children in France during the Holocaust. Last year, the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad VaShem decided to award Father Joseph Caupert, Sister Marie-Emilienne and Mother Marie-Rose Brugeron the title of Righteous Among the Nations. The ceremony recognizing Mother Marie-Rose Brugeron will take place in France.

Sister Marie Emilienne received the medal and certificate of honor as did the nephew of the late Father Joseph Caupert at a ceremony at the French embassy and in the presence of Gabrielle Hochman, who survived the Holocaust in hiding at a Catholic orphanage.

Gabrielle Hochman’s family’s story began in 1923, when David and Hella-Zyssa Hochman emigrated from Poland to France and settled in the city of Metz. They bore two children, Annie and René, and after the German invasion in 1940, they moved to Nice, where Gabrielle was born.

Three years later, Italian forces ruled the region after the Nazi occupation, and the Hochmans turned over their three children to the French Jewish humanitarian organization, Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE). The OSE saved approximately 5,000 children, including non-Jews, during the war.

The father, with the help of his Catholic brother-in-law, hid the children in a convent in Mende under the supervision of Father Joseph Caupert and Mother Superior Marie Rose Brugeron. They and Sister Marie-Emilienne kept the girls’ Jewish identity secret, and the nun took it upon herself to protect Gabrielle whenever there was danger from the Nazis. She did not even disclose the girl’s Jewish identity to the nun who was taking care of her.

The Hochman parents went into hiding elsewhere, but the mother was sent to Auschwitz by the Nazis after the Gestapo caught her on her way to visit her children. She was murdered by the Nazis on November 2, 1942. After the war, the father and his two girls were reunited but never discussed their experiences of the Holocaust. The fate of her brother Rene remains unknown.

Gabrielle Hochman began inquiries in the 1990s with the Association of Jewish Children Hidden during the Holocaust. The OSE found her name on a list of children who were secretly hidden. She traveled to France in 1994 to meet Sister Marie-Emilienne, who was honored three years later in Mende.

February 2012: The Vatican took over the Legion of Christ in 2010 after the order revealed that its founder had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children. Now the female branch of the scandal-plagued Legion of Christ religious order is in turmoil following the resignation of its director and the decision of a group of 30 members to split off from the movement.

The Vatican launched an investigtion into the women’s branch after discovering problems in their highly regimented life. The Legion confirmed that Malen Oriol had resigned as the assistant to the Legion’s general director. In that role, Oriol headed the Legion’s branch of consecrated women. Beloved by Pope John Paul II for its orthodoxy, six hundred [600] women live like nuns working in Legion schools, recruiting and fundraising.

Discovered in the City of David, across from the Western Wall, were mysterious 3,000-year-old carvings. In an archaeological excavation carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the City of David, a discovery was made that continues to perplex archeologists.  The V-shaped carvings were cut into the limestone floor, and each V is approximately 2 inches deep and 20 inches long.

“The discovery was made in a complex carved out of the bedrock near the Gihon Spring. The archeologists, Professor Roni Reich and Mr. Eli Shukrun believe that the discovery is dated sometime between the 18th Century BCE and the 8th Century BCE. The archaeologists at the dig cannot find any clues that explain why the shapes were carved and what they mean.

Ancient Jerusalem's mysterious "V"

Excavations at the City David have been ongoing for a number of years, and the room is located near the only natural water supply to Old Jerusalem. One interesting clue is that the walls were built in very straight lines and the floors are very level, indicating that the structure was important to whoever built it.

A century-old map of an expedition led by the British explorer Montague Parker 100 years ago includes the shape of a ”V” drawn in an underground channel not far away. Another fact that may, or may not, be a clue is that is not known if the room was built during Jewish rule of Jerusalem or by idol worshippers centuries beforehand.

One more clue: a stone, similar to a grave marker of today, was found upright in the room and may date back to a pagan era.