The Jews of Bukhara (Sunday in Denver); the Maimonidean Controversy; Save the Date for Roslyn NY
Really looking forward to speaking to the Or Avner community in Aurora, CO!
The Maimonidean Controversy
Save the Date: Shabbaton in Roslyn NY, December 20-21
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Free Download of Maimonides on Teshuvah by Dr. Henry Abramson
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) was one of the greatest minds the Jewish people ever produced: philosopher, jurist, physician, and an extremely prolific writer who left us classics like The Guide for the Perplexed and the Mishneh Torah. For several years I have been in the habit of reviewing his Laws of Repentance in the weeks leading up to the…
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Pope Gregory I and the Jews (This Week in Jewish History) Dr. Henry Abramson
Pope Gregory I (“the Great”) was one of the most influential Church leaders of the medieval period. His policy on the treatment of Jews in Christian Europe, known by the Latin phrase “Sicut Judaeis,” instituted an official if ambivalent position that lasted from the sixth century to the beginnings of the modern era.
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Jewish Children Forced Into the Tsar’s Army (This Week in Jewish History)
Reeling from the humiliating defeat of the Crimean War, the Russian Empire decides its policy of forcibly conscripting Jewish boys into military service is counterproductive, and finally abandons the cruel decades-old policy of taking underage children into thirty-one years of military training and service.
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The Fox in the Ruins: The Roman-Jewish Wars (HIS 155 Lecture 1.3)
To view the Prezi associated with this lecture, please click here. Excerpt from “The Jewish Diaspora: A Brief History” Henry Abramson 3. The Roman-Jewish Wars Our sources for the Roman-Jewish wars of the first and second centuries are more substantial than those of earlier periods, primarily because the importance of developments in this tiny…
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Judaism and the Origins of Christianity HIS 155 Lecture 1.4
Born in turbulent times, Christianity emerged from its intensely Jewish roots to become the official religion of the Roman Empire within a remarkably brief period of time. As a daughter religion to Judaism, however, dissent between the two faiths slowly dominated the discourse as Christianity became less of a Jewish movement, and more of a…
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Jews, Lepers and the Black Death (This Week in Jewish History)
The summer of 1321 was plagued with rumors that Jews had entered into a conspiracy with lepers (some versions also included Muslims) to poison the wells of Europe, resulting in mass hysteria and mob violence. King Philip V was eventually able to quell the movement, but it resurfaced twenty years later in a much more…
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Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (This Week in Jewish History)
In August of 1778, the non-Jewish writer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wrote to his brother of a new literary project designed to further tolerance of Jews in German society. The result was Nathan the Wise, a sensation that was initially banned by the Church and heavily criticized by antisemites of the day.
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The Pale of Settlement (This Week in Jewish History)
Officially banned in 1479, no Jews lived in the Russian Empire until Tsarina Catherine II conquered a major portion of Polish territory, instantly inheriting the largest single concentration of Jews in the world. Under her rule the Pale of Settlement was established, determining the region where Jews were allowed to reside, however tenuously, until the…
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Two Jews, Three Opinions: Jews and Judaism in the Year Zero (HIS 155 Lecture 1.2)
To view the Prezi associated with this lecture, please click here. Excerpt from “The Jewish Diaspora: A Brief History” Henry Abramson 2. Jews and Judaism in the Year Zero Two Jews, three opinions. The year zero was not nearly as auspicious or significant for Jews as it would later be for Christians. Jews observe a…
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“They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.” (HIS 155 Lecture 1.1)
Instructions: please watch the lecture, review the reading below, and kindly take the anonymous poll. Thank you! To view the Prezi associated with this lecture, please click here. Excerpt from The Jewish Diaspora: A Brief History Henry Abramson 1. What is Jewish History? “They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.” So runs the…
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The Strange Story of Shabbetai Tsvi (This Week in Jewish History)
Devastated and demoralized after the violence of the Khmelnytsky rebellion, the Jews of Europe were astounded to hear that a young Kabbalist named Shabbetai Tsvi had proclaimed himself the long-awaited Messiah.
The Jews of Bukhara (Denver, CO); The Jews of the Lesser Antilles; Varieties of Crypto-Jewish Identity; Wait, Alexander Hamilton was Jewish?
Looking forward to a wonderful Shabbat in the Denver Jewish community!
Our Itinerary of Discovery in the Western Caribbean
Channel Members
Premiering at 10am ET
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness: Spanish Cover!
Happy to see this Spanish translation of The Kabbalah of Forgiveness forthcoming in the next few weeks! The cover is really striking. Thanks to Jésica Neuah at Editorial Perspectivas!
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Monday Night: Rabbi Eli Mansour on The Cairo Geniza! Me too. At The WELL
Can’t see the video? Try clicking here.
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The Window at Pomeranz! Gan Eden?
Wow–just heard that Torah from the Years of Wrath got promoted to the window display at M. Pomeranz Books in Jerusalem! Thanks to my friend Dr. Mike Chigel for plugging the book to MR. POMERANZ HIMSELF, shown here just outside the display!
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Sephardim and the Holocaust
In commemoration of Yom Ha-Shoah, our Jewish History lecture on Monday night will be dedicated to a topic frequently overlooked in discussions of the Holocaust: the experience of Sephardim. Please click here for details. Most of my own published work on the Holocaust has been in the Askhenazic world, notably my recent study of the…
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With Rabbi Eli Mansour for The WELL
Very honored to be speaking with Rabbi Eli Mansour for The WELL, a wonderful new institution dedicated to women’s education in the Sephardic community. Please spread the word! This lecture is open to men and women.
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Ukrainians and Jews in Revolutionary Times, 1917-1920
Available from Amazon Hardcover 15% off at Lulu After the fall of the Russian Empire, Jewish and Ukrainian activists worked to overcome previous mutual antagonism by creating a Ministry of Jewish Affairs within the new Ukrainian state and taking other measures to satisfy the national aspirations of Jews and other non-Ukrainians. This bold experiment ended…
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7th Day of Passover in the Warsaw Ghetto
After several weeks without recording a drashah, perhaps related to the horrendous typhus outbreak of the late winter of 1941, the Rebbe delivered a series of powerful derashot for the Passover holiday. On the Seventh Day of Pesach he turned his attention to the subject of Torah learning. The memoirs of Chaim Kaplan, a former principal, describe…
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Passover in the Warsaw Ghetto: Inspiration for the Second Seder
Passover in the Warsaw Ghetto: Inspiration for the Second Seder Taken from Torah from the Years of Wrath (Aish Kodesh) אני מבקש ומתחנן לפני כל אחד מישראל שילמוד בספרי, ובטח זכות אבותי הקדושים זצוקלל״ה יעמוד לו ולכל ביתו בזה ובבא “I request and plead every person of Israel to study my works—surely the merit of…
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Who Was Judah Touro? The Sephardic Diaspora pt. 6
Brief lecture on the life and work of Judah Touro, an important 19th-century American philanthropist for whom, together with his father Isaac, Touro College was named.
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The Piaseczno Rebbe on Shabbat Ha-Gadol in the Warsaw Ghetto (April 5, 1941)
School principal Chaim Kaplan recorded the bleak mood in the Warsaw Ghetto on the eve of Passover of the Hebrew year 5701 (1941): Like the Egyptian Passover, the Passover of Germany will be celebrated for generations. The chaotic oppression of every day throughout this year of suffering will be reflected in the days of the…
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A ‘NOVUM IN THE HISTORY OF THE COSMOS:’ Dr. Norman Ravvin on The Piaseczno Rebbe
Really nice to see that readers in my native Canada are encountering the Piaseczno Rebbe: Here’s a new review by Dr. Norman Ravvin, appearing in the current Canadian Jewish News. Note to my dear readers: the book is in Judaica stores, on Amazon and Kindle, but my favorite (and the best value) is the beautiful…
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Rabbi Josh Rosenfeld on the Aish Kodesh
I’m grateful to Rabbi Josh Rosenfeld for his kind and thoughtful review of Torah from the Years of Wrath, which appeared in this month’s Jewish Action. Please click here to read his thoughts on the work of the Piaseczno Rebbe.
Visits to Synagogues in Bordeaux and Libourne (France); Another Open Letter to Jewish Participants in anti-Israel Protests re: Amsterdam; Conference Presentation on Sheptytsky and WW II
Fantastic Voyage of Discovery with Kosher River Cruises
A Difficult Conversation
Recent Conference Presentation in Toronto
Wait, Christopher Columbus was Jewish? Documentary on Roman-Jewish War now Online
Surprised how much attention this got.
Herod’s Tragic Reign
The Fatal Conflict
How Jewish Culture will Thrive after October 7; The Jews of Al-Andalus Part II
Remarks at Lander College for Men
Maimonides and the Controversy over His Work
Jewish Resilience After October 7; American Jews, Post-Honeymoon; The Jews of Al-Andalus
Three Strategies
Jews under the Visigoths II; The Spanish Golden Age
Public at 10am ET (44 minutes)
Online Courses in Jewish History
Jewish Life in Visigothic Spain; Commemorating October 7
This is one of the most bizarre periods of Jewish history, and that’s saying a lot.
New Lecture Series: The Sweep of Sephardic History; Faith in Times of Crisis: Commemorating the Tragedy of October 7
New Lecture Series: The History of Sephardic Jewry
