RESURGENCE in Jewish History (Shabbaton at YILC, 5 Towns); Intrepid Rabbi-Explorers of the 3rd Century; Sephardic Diaspora in the New World

Really looking forward seeing my friends at YILC!


Meet the Intrepid Explorer-Rabbis of the 3rd Century


Recap of last week’s Guide for the Perplexed Seminar


Sephardic Jews in the New World


Eurafrican Jews in the Caribbean; Jewish Caribbean Migration Patterns; and a retrospective mini-documentary

Hard to believe such beautiful places exist!


Jewish Caribbean Migration Patterns


Eurafrican Jews in the Caribbean


The Sephardic Diaspora: Europe


Want to learn more Jewish History? Try one of these online courses!

Saga of Sephardic Jewry (New Online Course!); Volume II:Chapter 2 now online; Benjamin of Tudela; Guide for the Perplexed; Review of Koren’s New Mikraot Hadorot

Jewish History Lab Report: Friday, January 3, 2025


Benjamin of Tudela, Great Jewish Explorer of the 12th Century!


The Saga of Sephardic Jewry: New Course Now Online!


Stunning new work of Torah Scholarship: The Koren Mikraot Hadorot


Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed: Battle of the Translators

Shabbat in Rosyln, NY; Hello from Jerusalem;

Really looking forward to meeting this community!


Message recorded from Jerusalem last week


Medieval Antisemitism and the Spanish Inquisition

Invitation to LCM Breakfast; Caribbean Jews and the History of Chocolate; Spanish Disputations and the Pogroms of 1391

Please join me at our First Annual Breakfast!


Jews and Chocolate! Who knew?


Disputations and the Pogroms of 1391

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

  • The Mishnah: Creating a Portable Judaism HIS 155 Lecture 1.5

    The Mishnah: Creating a Portable Judaism HIS 155 Lecture 1.5

    Compiled by Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi in an exceptionally difficult time for the Jewish people, the Mishnah created the possibility of creating a “portable Judaism.” After the destruction of the Temple in 70 and the dramatic escalation of the diaspora, the Mishnah allowed Jews to define their religion within an intellectual and textual context, outside of…

  • Philo Judaeus of Alexandria: Jews in the Greek World

    Philo Judaeus of Alexandria: Jews in the Greek World

    Virtually ignored by Jewish philosophers, Philo of Alexandria represented the high point of synthesis between Greek and Jewish thought in the ancient world, and had a huge influence on early Christian thinkers. A prominent representative of the Egyptian Jewish community to the Roman Emperor, and well-respected in his day by his coreligionists, he nevertheless had…

  • The Dreyfus Affair (This Week in Jewish History)

    The Dreyfus Affair (This Week in Jewish History)

    Wrongly accused of espionage, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to Devil’s Island on the basis of remarkably tenuous evidence. May critics, including the famous writer Emile Zola, argued that Dreyfus was unfairly charged simply because he was a Jew in the French army. As evidence mounted that another officer was guilty, the Dreyfus Affair exposed…

  • Who Was Josephus?

    Who Was Josephus?

    Captured by the Romans, Josephus was a Jewish general who ultimately served as a military advisor to General Titus. Josephus recorded his first-hand observations of the destruction of the Temple, and went on to a brilliant literary career in Rome, describing Jews and Judaism to a wider audience. Who was Josephus–traitor to his people or…

  • Rembrandt and the Jews (This Week in Jewish History)

    Rembrandt and the Jews (This Week in Jewish History)

    Rembrandt is well-known for his depictions of Jewish subjects, both as contemporary portraits and as models for Christian biblical characters.

  • Who Was Josephus? Fall 2013 Lecture Series in Jewish History Resumes This Week

    Who Was Josephus? Fall 2013 Lecture Series in Jewish History Resumes This Week

    Photo: Aryeh Abramson looks out over Iroquois Falls, Ontario, Canada, where he spent the Sukkot vacation visiting his grandparents. Captured by the Roman General (and later Emperor) Vespasian while defending the Galilee, Josephus ultimately turned against his coreligionists and served as an advisor to the forces besieging Jerusalem during the first Roman-Jewish War. His first-hand…

  • Free Download of Maimonides on Teshuvah by Dr. Henry Abramson

    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…

  • Pope Gregory I and the Jews (This Week in Jewish History) Dr. Henry Abramson

    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.

  • Jewish Children Forced Into the Tsar’s Army (This Week in Jewish History)

    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.

  • The Fox in the Ruins: The Roman-Jewish Wars (HIS 155 Lecture 1.3)

    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…

  • Judaism and the Origins of Christianity HIS 155 Lecture 1.4

    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…

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


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


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