A remarkable self-portrait of an unusual Italian scholar This brief video is offered on the occasion of my father’s yahrzeit.

Sadly, another Tisha B’Av. Kinot with Rabbi Zev Goldberg in Fort Lee. The Roman Conquest of Jerusalem Why do we Mourn Today? Webinar with Rabbi Ya’akov Trump and Rabbi Ashie Schreier of YILC Monday: Rabbi Leone da Modena and the Struggle with Addiction in 17th c. Venice

Tisha B’Av webinar with Rabbi Ya’akov Trump and Rabbi Ashie Schreier of YILC Establishment of the Ghetto in Venice Tisha B’Av in Fort Lee, NJ

Proud to have worked with Unpacked on this complex topic. The Halbturn Amulet and what it means for the early history of Jews in central Europe Hopefully no Tisha B’av this year, but just in case.

Visiting French memorials to Jews who fell in World War I and II (11am ET) Tonight at 7pm: Josephus and Jewish Identity, With Rabbi Ya’akov Trump Experimental livestream for channel members.

Three Reflections on the Meaning of Judaea Capta in Jewish History Honored to be meeting the unique congregation I’ve heard so much about, led by Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt and Rebbitzen Avital Chizik-Goldschmidt. I plan to offer three lectures on aspects of captivity in Jewish history, looking at the very different biographies of Josephus, Rabbi Kalonymus…

Rebel Hero or Roman Traitor? A brief (12m) video version of my recent article on Aish.com. The draft book chapters are in Biblical Jewish History course. A complex figure! I spend a lot of time thinking about him and his work.

What is the Meaning of Jewish History? I gave this series of talks last week in Teaneck and managed to duck most of the hard questions (phew). Not so sure I will get off so easily in Fair Lawn! Please join us. SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE WITH DR. HENRY ABRAMSON Parshat Shlach, June 24-25Sponsored by:-Eve Thaler for the…

A brief overview of his courageous scholarship. I spoke about him at a recent Shabbaton in Teaneck, and someone from the UK was in the audience: Dr. Roth pronounced his first name SEH-sil, not SEE-sil. If I had realized this when I made the video I would have used the English pronunciation rather than the…

What is the Meaning of Jewish History? Very honored to be serving as a Scholar-in-Residence at Congregation B’nai Yeshurun. Three new lectures on “What is the Meaning of Jewish History?” will examine at the Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods with a view to understanding some of the complexities of interpreting the fascinating, profound history of…

The recent translation of the work of Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg (Rav Shagar, 1949-2007) promises to elevate his distinctive thought to a broader audience of readers (Faith Shattered and Restored: Judaism in the Postmodern Age), many of whom will resonate with Dr. Yitzchak Mandelbaum’s comment on his discovery of Rav Shagar: “I knew I had…

The Rebbe’s entry for Parashat Bo (January 13, 1940) is unusual. Recorded in the scribe’s careful hand, with minimal annotation, it has two bold diagonal lines drawn through the center of the text, indicating that the Rebbe rejected it altogether. A brief and uncharacteristic first-person comment is appended: “more of what we said I do…

Really nice to meet with Jésica Neuah of Editorial Perspectivas to work on the tentative cover and book design of the Spanish edition of The Kabbalah of Forgiveness! Great to work with her and the whole team. G-d willing the book will be released in the summer of this year.

I had chills listening to Rabbi Shlomo Katz review the Rebbe’s words on this week’s parashah. I am grateful for his kind words of praise for my recent book on the historical context of the Aish Kodesh, but to tell the truth, I hardly recognized my own words from the masterful treatment they received from…

Chaim Kaplan recorded the mood in the Warsaw Ghetto in January 1942:  The cold is so intense that my fingers are often too numb to hold a pen. There is no coal for heating and electricity is sporadic or nonexistent. In the oppressive dark and unbearable cold your mind stops functioning. Yet even in such…

Five months into the Nazi occupation, the Jews of Warsaw struggled to keep up with the barrage of administrative decrees inflicted upon them by the Germans. When the Rebbe spoke on Parashat Vaera, which fell on January 6, 1940, the worst was still far off. The Nazis had replaced the leadership of the Jewish Council…

The winter of 5702 brutalized the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto with unforgiving cold. Chaim Kaplan, a school principal whose journal Scroll of Agony survived the war, recounts in his typically blunt prose how the physical privations of January 1942 affected the spiritual life of Ghetto inhabitants: Gone is the spirit of Jewish brotherhood. The…

The Sephardic Diaspora Spring 2018 Lecture Series Monday Nights @ 7:00 pm Main Auditorium, Touro College, 1602 Avenue J Brooklyn NY 11230 (718) 535-9333 Free and Open to the Public No hard questions, please. Image: Eleanora of Toledo, student of Benvenida Abravanel February 5: Who Was Benvenida Abravanel? February 12 :Who Was Samuel Usque? (No Class Feb…

On December 27, 1941, the Piaseczno Rebbe delivered his last recorded drashah on Parashat Vayigash in the Warsaw Ghetto. The previous month was especially brutal: an especially cold winter, combined with a severe coal shortage, exacerbated the typhus epidemic, and each morning a detail of the chevra kadisha patrolled the streets to collect the bodies…

Really pleased to receive author copies of the new Ukrainian translation of my first book! Thanks to translators Anton Kotenko and Oleksandra Nadtoky and all the great people at Dukh i Litera.

Brief video describing the life and work of Don Yitshak Abravanel (Abarbanel), a great Portuguese-Spanish Jewish thinker and leader.  Part of The Jews of Sepharad series.   Click here to view books by Dr. Abramson (remarkably amazing Chanukah reading)