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

  • Touro Dean Eyes Women’s Role in Kabbalistic Tzfat

    The Jewish Star, January 27, 2016 By Celia Weintrob On Rosh Chodesh Shevat, women who attended the Ohel Sara Amen Group in Lawrence enjoyed a lecture by the witty and informative Dr. Henry Abramson about the contribution of women to the Kabbalistic fellowship in Tzfat. Identifying himself as a “specialist in the history of ideas,”…

  • Christians, Jews, and Science in 1616

    Christians, Jews, and Science in 1616

    “Nicholas Copernicus’ book “On the Revolution of the Earth Around the Sun” should be suspended…and that all similar works which contain these teachings should be prohibited.” (Bishop of Albano, March 1616) “Nicholas Copernicus, a scholar of genius…in this domain man is completely at liberty to discover the theory which seems to him to be most…

  • ALEXANDER DOES IT AGAIN!

    ALEXANDER DOES IT AGAIN!

    Battling unseasonably frigid temperatures, Alexander heroically completed his fourth full marathon in Miami today! A tremendous achievement! Most importantly, with your support he surpassed his fundraising target, bringing in a total of $3,299 for Friendship Circle, helping children with autism and other disorders! Congratulations to Alexander, and thank you all for participating!

  • People of the Book: The Ways of the Righteous

    People of the Book: The Ways of the Righteous

    “When I speak, I regret what I say, but when I am silent, I do not regret. And if I may regret my silence once, I regret speaking many times over.” —Gate 21: The Gate of Silence, The Ways of the Righteous Is it possible that The Ways of the Righteous, among the most influential works…

  • E-Reading for the People of the Book: How Jews will Adapt to the Digital Revolution

    Source: E-Reading for the People of the Book: How Jews will Adapt to the Digital Revolution We are living in a Gutenberg moment, plunging wildly into an unprecedented age of transformation whose dark contours obscure the uncertain future. The Information Revolution dwarfs the 18th century Industrial Revolution, which was really great at making things bigger…

  • Letter of Nachmanides

    Letter of Nachmanides

    Please enjoy this week’s column in the Five Towns Jewish Times! The Letter of Nachmanides People Of The Book: Classic Works Of The Jewish Tradition By Dr. Henry Abramson “Accustom yourself to speak gently to all people at all times. This will protect you from anger—a most serious character flaw which causes one to sin.”…

  • February Schedule of Lectures

    February Schedule of Lectures

    Jewish History @ Avenue J A Community Project of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences 1602 Avenue J Monday Nights, 7-8pm Free and Open to the Community Lectures by Dean Henry Abramson No hard questions, please. February 2016: Jews of the Seventeenth Century Feb 1. David Gans Scientist, historian and theologian, Rabbi Gans bridged the…

  • TONIGHT! VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE

    TONIGHT! VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE

    Questions about college? Like to know more about our academic programs, financial aid and scholarships, earning college credit while learning in Israel? Attend our Virtual Open House, this evening from 7-8 pm! Please click here to RSVP (or visit las.touro.edu) and we will happily send you the link to view the presentation and participate in…

  • Hayom yom…

    Hayom yom…

    Please enjoy this week’s article in the Five Towns Jewish Times! http://5tjt.com/hayom-yom/

  • Virtual Open House this Monday!

    Virtual Open House this Monday!

    Students and parents! Interested in learning more about study at the mighty Avenue J campus of Touro College in Flatbush? Please join me in our Virtual Open House on Monday, January 11 at 7 pm! I’ll present some essential information on our academic programs and provide the basics on Financial Aid, Scholarships, and our very popular Israel…

  • Rabbi Chaim Vital, “The Gates of Holiness”

    Please enjoy this article from the Five Towns Jewish Times! http://5tjt.com/the-gates-of-holiness/

  • Who Was Rabbi Chaim Vital?

    Who Was Rabbi Chaim Vital?

    Rabbi Chaim Vital (1542-1620) was the principal disciple of the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Arizal). Three days after the death of his master, Rabbi Vital received a vision in a dream that consumed his scholarly life for decades: preserving the mystical heritage of the great Safed tradition. Please click here for the Prezi.

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


  • Excerpt from The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Now Online

    Excerpt from The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Now Online

      An excerpt from The Kabbalah of Forgiveness: A Reader’s Guide to Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s The Palm Tree of Devorah, a new translation and commentary on the 16th-century classic of Kabbalistic musar, is now available online.  Anticipated publication date is August 2013.  The Palm Tree of Devorah first appeared in 1588 and became and instant classic.…

  • Stephen Samuel Wise and the Jews of America

    Stephen Samuel Wise and the Jews of America

    A presentation on the life and work of Stephen Samuel Wise (1874-1949), an important American communal leader. The lecture will take a broader focus, looking at the history of Jewish settlement in the United States during the 19th century and the major issues facing this immigrant community through the middle of the twentieth century.  The…

  • Menachem Begin: A New Israel

    Menachem Begin: A New Israel

    A study of the life of Menachem Begin (1913-1992). A native of Poland, he was a proponent of Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Revisionist party that stood in dramatic contrast to the dominant left-wing tendency in the Zionist movement. A major figure in Israel’s struggle for statehood, and a founder of the Likud party, he was elected to…

  • Mitnagdim, Hasidim, Maskilim: The Cultural Geography of Jewish Eastern Europe

    Mitnagdim, Hasidim, Maskilim: The Cultural Geography of Jewish Eastern Europe

    This lecture presents a broad overview of the three main intellectual-religious trends present in 19th century Jewish Eastern Europe: the traditionalist Mitnagdim, the innovative Hasidim, and the modernizing Maskilim. Good as an overall introduction, although I go into more detail on all of these movements in other lectures on this website.  Taped on April 21,…

  • Golda Meir and the Foundations of Israel

    Golda Meir and the Foundations of Israel

    A presentation of the life of Golda Meir (1898-1978), spanning her immigration to Israel in 1921 through the end of her term as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel in 1974. The lecture will discuss the foundations of the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community, and touch on the major social and military conflicts that Israel…

  • Evgenia Ginzburg: Jewish Life Under Stalin

    Evgenia Ginzburg: Jewish Life Under Stalin

    Evgenia Ginzburg (1904-1977) was a Jewish woman who endured the horrors of the Stalinist Gulag.  Charged and convicted of anti-Soviet activity in 1937, she was sent to the infamous work camps of Siberia for nearly two decades until her case was reviewed two years after Stalin’s death.  She was ultimately rehabilitated, and published her memoirs…

  • Emanuel Ringelblum: Heroic Scholar of the Warsaw Ghetto

    Emanuel Ringelblum: Heroic Scholar of the Warsaw Ghetto

    An examination of the life and work of Emanuel Ringelblum (1900-1944), the heroic Polish scholar who organized the underground Oneg Shabbat society in the Warsaw Ghetto. Ringelblum recognized the extreme and unprecedented nature of the Nazi onslaught early in the war, and brought together a group of highly dedicated volunteers who recorded every aspect of…

  • Solomon Mikhoels: Jews and Jewish Art in the USSR

    Part I: Part II: Part III: Solomon Mikhoels (1890-1948) was one of the most prominent actors and directors in early Soviet Russia. His career coincides with the brief flourishing of Yiddish culture under the policy of korenizatsiia, or “indiginization,” when the Communist authorities sought to develop folk culture as a means of developing loyalty to the…

  • Shimon Dubnow: The Politics of Jewish Identity in the Modern World

    Shimon Dubnow: The Politics of Jewish Identity in the Modern World

    Shimon Dubnow (1860-1941), a noted historian and activist whose theories of Jewish survival in the diaspora were extremely influential in the shaping Jewish identity in the modern world, from the future of Russian Jewry to the establishment of the modern Federation movement in the United States.  Dubnow’s scholarship was inextricably intertwined with the effort to…

  • Moses Mendelssohn and the Haskalah Movement

    Moses Mendelssohn was a hugely influential thinker in 18th-century Germany.  An unusually gifted intellect, he became the primary spokesperson for the emancipation of Jews in the 18th century, and his cause was championed by many non-Jewish liberals of the era. Heralded as the founder of the Reform movement even though Mendelssohn himself maintained an observant…

  • Nathan of Hanover and the Ukrainian Revolution of 1648-1649

    Nathan of Hanover and the Ukrainian Revolution of 1648-1649

    Nathan of Hanover is best known for his moving chronicle of the Khmel’nyts’kyi (Chmielnicki) Rebellion. Entitled Yeven Metsulah (“The Abyss of Despair”), it records with remarkable fairness the social, political, economic and religious background of the mid-17th century Ukrainian movement against the Poles, along with the horrible pogroms perpetrated in the context of that violent…

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


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.

Dropping on Sunday, September 22 at 10am ET. 70 minutes.


A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz

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

Public at 10 am ET. Duration: 72 minutes.
Channel Members: Duration 70 minutes.
Channel members: 44 minutes.

Shabbat in Silver Spring; The History of Sephardic Jewry; Jews, Wine, and Bordeaux; Napoleon’s 1808 Decree on Jewish Names

Stories of Personal Transformation for Elul


Napoleon’s 1808 Imperial Decree on Jewish Names


The History of Sephardic Jewry (Lecture, 75 minutes)

Jews, Wine, and Bordeaux (7 minutes)


A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz

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