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.

Great conversation with Max Sklar on The Local Maximum podcast!

Okay, this is going to be something different: four concentrated lectures on absolutely all of Jewish history, skipping the boring parts so we can cover it all. Free and open to the community; might be recorded for the Internet but depends on if anyone asks hard questions. Join us! Wednesdays in September 2019, 7:30-8:30 pm…

A world-class scholar of the Holocaust speaks at Touro College.

I’m really looking forward to lecturing at Citi Field next month as part of the incredible Torah NY gathering. There are going to be some absolutely phenomenal speakers there, including Rabbis Moshe Elefant, Moshe Schwed, Ya’akov Trump, Stephen Weil. They have also let me know that there’s a secret 10% discount for all registrations that…

Please join us at Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst for four lectures in Jewish History! Details below.

This week was unusually busy for interviews! Kind of surprised that people want to talk to me about this stuff, but really glad there are others who find this research FASCINATING. Yesterday I had a great convo with Rabbi Sholom Licht for a print article in Jewish Action. Our discussion began with the Jewish History…

“We were only a few broken Jews with two books, but…the day of the Siyum HaShas was my day of victory, the day of victory for all survivors, and the day of victory for every ‘Talmud Jew.’” The brick crematoria of Dachau had barely cooled when the surviving remnants of European Jewry were called upon…

I think Torah New York is going to be amazing! Please come by and say hello. I will be hanging out with Rabbi Moshe Schwed and Ec Birnbaum, talking about the launch of the amazing new AllDAf app for Daf Yomi study. Please click here for more information on this amazing event!