Hello fellow students of Jewish history! I am delighted to inform you that, beginning in April 2019, we will embark on a pilot project to explore the historical aspects of the Talmud as part of the incredible OU Daf Yomi Initiative led by Rabbi Moshe Schwed. We will start with tractate Bechoros and, with favorable…

Hello everyone–it’s still a while till our first public lecture on campus, but I was so fascinated by this topic I had to talk about it with you. I hope you enjoy the video! Don’t forget to print out and post the Spring 2019 Schedule of Lectures on your refrigerator of your home, or wherever…

The Jews of Italy Lectures in Jewish History (Spring 2019) The Origins of Italian Jewry Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto: Persecuted Genius Tuesday, February 12, 7:00 PM Sponsored by the Chaim Yaakov Shlomo College of Jewish Studies The Shul, 9540 Collins Avenue, Surfside FL 33154 Torah from the Years of Wrath: The Warsaw Ghetto Writings of…

Brief overview of the earliest settlement of Jews in the Italian peninsula, up to the first Roman-Jewish War.

The Jews of Italy Lectures in Jewish History (Spring 2019) Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto: Persecuted Genius Tuesday, February 12, 7:00 PM Sponsored by the Chaim Yaakov Shlomo College of Jewish Studies The Shul, 9540 Collins Avenue, Surfside FL 33154 Who Was Josephus the Jew? Monday, February 25, 7:00 PM Touro College Main Auditorium, 1602 Avenue…

Weighing only 90 pounds, his first act upon liberation was one that would characterize the remainder of his life: he presented the American commanding officer with a list of names of war criminals to be apprehended for prosecution.

Proud to be included in this series–really hoping to see some of my Florida friends in February! Here’s a recent video on the same topic (really an introduction):

Hold off on the letters, please! Everything’s in.

Nominated for a Covenant Award—I need your support!

Twelve Lectures on Mesilat Yesharim, Lecture One. Offered in conjunction with a class I plan to begin this Shabbat at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst.

Brief overview of the life and works of Bertha Pappenheim. Although she is often recognized as “Anna O,” who had a huge influence on the history of psychoanalysis, most of her life was actually dedicated to the rights and protection of women and children.

Final lecture of the Fall 2018 lectures in Jewish History. No hard questions, please.

Tonight at Machon Chana: part two of The History of Sephardic Jewry series. Last week we looked at the origins of Spanish Jewry and the Muslim period; tonight we will focus on the Reconquista up to the Expulsion of 1492.

Main Auditorium of the Mighty Avenue J campus of Touro College 1602 Avenue J, Brooklyn NY 11230 7pm  Free and open to the community.  No hard questions, please.  For more information please click here. 

My old friend Dr. Michael Chigel tagged me on Facebook this morning with his remarkably kind and generous unsolicited review of Torah from the Years of Wrath. I’m deeply moved and grateful to Mike for promoting the Torah of the Aish Kodesh, as well as for the undeserved praise he lavished on my small contribution, but also…

Very pleased to see this revised edition of my first book available. Includes a new foreword and afterword.  

To the Hasidim steeped in the religious significance of the ritual calendar, the Sabbath known as Zakhor (March 23, 1940) must have seemed a cruel redundancy. Literally called “remember,” the Sabbath preceding the holiday of Purim is named for a few publicly read Torah verses (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) that memorialize the attack of Israel’s primordial enemy,…

Hey friends in Crown Heights! Please drop by and say hello.

(Well, not Yehudah Ha-Levi, but a lecture about the great Spanish-Jewish poet-philosopher of the 12th century). With Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum. 

Sponsored by Brandon Sultan in honor of the Sultan and Benarroch Families, whose Sephardic roots are expressed in a desire to honor the Convivencia; and also in loving memory of Mrs. Jean Milstein, whose relentless optimism was an inspiration to all.

Someone told me that this was printed in The Vues. I’m not a Rabbi, but I’m kind of pleased that Ari Hirsch asked for my opinion anyway. Makes me feel like I actually belong in Brooklyn, somehow, if I’m included in this paper known as “the Heimishe Voice.”

The last weeks of winter 1942, ironically, represented a kind of plateau for the Jews of Warsaw. The typhus epidemic abated, and the Nazis had established some work facilities (“shops”) that led many to believe that through productive labor, the Jews would endure. The general feeling was, in the words of historians Barbara Engelking and…

The life and times of an important woman of the early post-Expulsion generation of Sephardic Jews. Can’t see the video? Click here please.