Shimon Huberband was a student of the Rebbe and an amateur historian working for Emanuel Ringelblum’s underground Oneg Shabbat archive (Rabbi Huberband, who was killed along with Ringelblum and most of the archivists, was probably instrumental in convincing the Rebbe to entrust his manuscript to Ringelblum for burial). Rabbi Huberband  visited the court of Piaseczno…

Brief overview of the life and work of Hakham Ovadia Yosef, prominent Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel. Final installment in the Spring 2018 Lecture Series: The Sephardic Diaspora. Sponsored by Katie and Vick Crespin of Miami Beach, FL In honor of the Six Million and all who were killed just for being Jewish.

Hello everyone– Had a great time here at the “Touro of Cambridge.” Great colleagues, great students, but looking forward to returning to the Mighty Avenue J for tomorrow’s lecture on Hakham Ovadya Yosef, last of the Spring 2018 series). Here’s a couple photos my wife took of me at my old hangouts: Widener Library and…

Brief lecture on the Crypto-Jews. Part 9 of The Sephardic Diaspora series. If you have difficulty seeing the video please click here.

The brief sense of relief felt by Warsaw Jews at the beginning of Passover 1941 did not last. Decrees expelling Jews from several towns were scheduled for the intermediate days of the holiday, and pressures upon the Jewish community increased dramatically. Diarists of the Ghetto record widespread confusion among the population over new Nazi policies…

Really looking forward to this.

Good morning students of Jewish History! Just a reminder that we will not be meeting tonight; classes will resume on Monday May 7.  You can always use the extra time to catch up on some reading! Click here for a few suggestions.  Looking forward to learning with you next week, the penultimate lecture in the…

Good morning– Just a quick note to those who attend in person at the Mighty Avenue J campus: we will not be meeting this Monday, April 30. Planning to reconvene on Monday, May 7 with the penultimate lecture of the season–the history of the Crypto-Jews. Fascinating stuff, I think. H P.S. Seeking sponsors for the…

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Here’s the video of the talk I gave at The WELL, my favorite institution of Sephardic Studies in New York. Really wonderful audience. Having difficulty seeing the video? Click here.

In early April 1940, Warsaw Jews were distressed to witness the initial construction of walls in several parts of the city. Up until this point, the concentration of Jews in certain parts of Warsaw was effected by administrative decree, with few permanent physical structures demarcating the boundaries of the ghetto. Debates raged within the Nazi…

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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!