Hello everyone! Please visit this site for my translation of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s classic Tomer Devorah (The Kabbalah of Forgiveness), a text often studied at precisely this time of year as we strive to improve our relationships with each other, with G-d, and with ourselves. The site also features a series of brief videos on each…

The Jews of the Danube Fall 2018 Lecture Series From its headwaters in Germany’s Black Forest to its final destination in the Black Sea, the Danube River flows through ten countries and over ten centuries of Jewish history. Great cities like Vienna and Budapest punctuate its course through East-Central Europe, the cradle of much of…

The invisible yet palpable echo of the crypto-Jewish tradition resonates through Portugal like the far side of a conversation faintly overheard in another person’s cell phone. A rush of sibilants or an exclamation of laughter confirms the reality of the distant interlocutor, even though we do not see her before us. The history of Portugal’s…

Join me in this global effort to prepare for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur this year!

Hasidim of the Aish Kodesh should take note: this is likely the face of one of the murderers of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira hy”d. Jakiw Palij, a longtime resident of Queens, New York, was recently extradited to Germany for filing false information while immigrating to the United States after World War II. Palij served as…

Hello students, friends and colleagues– We still have a few hours before the onset of Shabbat and the possible arrival of Mashiach, but if we have to make it through another Tisha B’Av– If you are in Fort Lee, NJ Sunday morning or Crown Heights, Brooklyn Sunday afternoon, please join me for presentations on the…

Thanks to Ben Rothke for this kind review of Torah from the Years of Wrath in this week’s Jewish Link of New Jersey. I am very grateful to be a part of the community that values and spreads the teachings of the Piaseczno Rebbe; nice to see positive reviews! Keeping the Faith By Ben Rothke…

  Hello everyone– My father’s yortsayt is coming up next week, and as in previous years I hope to begin another cycle of study of Maimonides on Teshuvah. Please visit the Maimonides on Teshuvah page page to learn more about how to participate in this free, Global Study of Maimonides program. Posts will also appear…

Their screams suffuse the entire universe, and yet the universe does not revert to primordial waters. It continues to exist as if completely unaffected, Heaven forbid.

It was about this time of year, five hundred years ago, when we were refugees seeking asylum in Portugal. Then they seized our children. If we don’t care about what has been happening to migrant families today—shame on us.

Hoping that Moshiach will arrive before July 22. If not, then this is a great time to listen to the insights of Rabbi Zev Goldberg on the traditional Kinot. I’ll provide historical context. We did this last year and it was really meaningful. Hopefully this is the last Tisha B’Av we will have to mark…

Good morning fellow students of Jewish history. In a few hours we will begin Shabbat Hazon, marking the last transition to Tisha B’Av, the most tragic day in the Jewish calendar. As in previous years, I hope to lecture on the history of the Roman-Jewish war that resulted in the destruction of the Temple. This…

I wasn’t surprised that YouTube censored my recent video as “Hate Speech.” It’s happened before.

No responsible teacher wants to teach students to “hate each other” or “hate America.” But we all participate in a sacred covenant with our students: They expect us to tell them the truth.  Please click here to read this article on JTA.

Please join me on Sunday, July 11 for a panel discussion on the history of antisemitism, appropriate for the Nine Days. Discussants include Professor Adam Mendelsohn, director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies & Research and Associate Professor of History at the University of Cape Town, Professor Karen Milner, Gauteng Chair of the SA Jewish Board of…

A brief sampling of some of the humiliations of exile that the Jewish people endured over their millennial exile, shocking yet overshadowed by the far greater tragedies of violent massacres. Lecture delivered on the 17th of Tammuz, on Zoom and live at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst. Premiere with live chat scheduled for Sunday, July…

Hello students of Jewish history! I am very pleased to let you know that we now have a very auspicious number of students in this new experimental online course, A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz. I know some of them from earlier interactions on YouTube and in selected classes, and it promises to be a lively…

Hello fellow students of Jewish history! Here’s a new experimental online course. Please click here for a look at what’s going on: A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz.