Thanks to Ben Rothke for this kind review of Torah from the Years of Wrath in this week’s Jewish Link of New Jersey. I am very grateful to be a part of the community that values and spreads the teachings of the Piaseczno Rebbe; nice to see positive reviews! Keeping the Faith By Ben Rothke…

  Hello everyone– My father’s yortsayt is coming up next week, and as in previous years I hope to begin another cycle of study of Maimonides on Teshuvah. Please visit the Maimonides on Teshuvah page page to learn more about how to participate in this free, Global Study of Maimonides program. Posts will also appear…

Their screams suffuse the entire universe, and yet the universe does not revert to primordial waters. It continues to exist as if completely unaffected, Heaven forbid.

It was about this time of year, five hundred years ago, when we were refugees seeking asylum in Portugal. Then they seized our children. If we don’t care about what has been happening to migrant families today—shame on us.

Hoping that Moshiach will arrive before July 22. If not, then this is a great time to listen to the insights of Rabbi Zev Goldberg on the traditional Kinot. I’ll provide historical context. We did this last year and it was really meaningful. Hopefully this is the last Tisha B’Av we will have to mark…

July brought new tribulations upon the Jewish community as the Nazis, energized by their victories on the western front, formally eliminated virtually every non-governmental organization in the General Government. Charitable agencies, cultural leagues, and of course political groups were abolished, for both Jews and Poles. The ghetto population increased by tens of thousands as Jews…

My fourteen-year old son was the first to see the damage, and you gave me the precious opportunity to teach him some ancient truths about our long-standing relationship.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Zev Brenner of the famous Talkline last week; really pleased that there’s a lot of interest in the work of the Piaseczno Rebbe. The broadcast was aired last Saturday night and will be rebroadcast again tonight at 8pm EST on WSNR AM 620. Here’s the link to the…

Dean Boylan has been a mentor of mine since I joined Touro in 2006. Proud to be with him this morning at the Harvard Club as he receives the Education Update Outstanding Educator of the Year Award. With Dean Moshe Sokol of Lander College for Men and Executive Dean Robert Goldschmidt of the Mighty Avenue…

Is it possible for a person to be struck and not experience physical pain?

Meet Mr. Hunter Ross Loren, a precocious 13-year old who, together with his uncle Alan Loren, contacted me this week to discuss Jewish history. Hunter is an avid fan of Jewish history–especially, of all things, the Jews of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth–and he is probably my youngest student online. As a follow-up to his Bar Mitzvah,…

Video from “Ukraine in the World” conference, Harvard University, May 2018.

Colleagues, I’m pleased to post a version of my new experimental course online for the public good. Please visit bit.ly/survivejewishhistory to access the course. The course is divided into twelve Existential Crises, covering historical eras from the Hellenistic to the Spanish Expulsion. Undergraduate students are required to complete several academic exercises to “survive” each level and…

Nonetheless, I proclaim my faith in God, that God is beyond limitation and nature, that God will save us. Let us go up and take it over, beyond reason and beyond logic.

Hello Jewish History fans– Here’s a new project you might find interesting. A few months ago I came across the work of Ken Bain (What the Best College Teachers Do), which inspired me to take a dramatic new look at the way I’ve been teaching a bread-and-butter course for a long time: History of the…

“It is not sufficient for a person to merely perform a commandment to fulfill one’s duty as a Jew, rather one must transform one’s self into a Jew in the sense of and you will be a nation of priests unto Me, and a holy nation.”

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.