Lectures in Jewish History and Thought. No hard questions, please.
With Dr. Sharon Liberman Mintz, Judaica curator for Southeby’s, at a private viewing of this amazing 14th century Spanish Bible.
This article appeared in Radio Svoboda at: http://www.radiosvoboda.org/content/article/27692726.html. I understand an English translation is forthcoming for readers who aren’t yet fluent in Ukrainian. 26.04.2016 «Чорнобиль не загинув» – нащадок чорнобильських рабинів Радіо Свобода Рід рабинів Тверських налічує понад 50 тисяч нащадків, але святим місцем для них залишається український Чорнобиль Впродовж останніх 30 років український Чорнобиль…
http://www.aish.com/jw/s/The-Mysterious-Miraculous-Sarajevo-Haggadah.html The Mysterious, Miraculous Sarajevo Haggadah by Dr. Henry Abramson The amazing story of the 700 year old Haggadah, the Muslim librarian who saved it from the Nazis, and how his children were miraculously saved by Israel. Resplendent in deep blues, brilliant yellows and alluring reds, the 14th century Sarajevo Haggadah was created during the…
Here’s the interview Pesach Charney and Nissim Lazari conducted at jrouteradio.com on April 4. Hope you enjoy it!
http://www.aish.com/jw/s/The-Soviet-Campaign-to-Eliminate-Passover.html The Soviet Campaign to Eliminate Passover by Dr. Henry Abramson “Red Haggadahs” were published in the 1920s with the explicit goal of replacing belief in God with faith in Communist Russia. One of the most unusual episodes in the long history of anti-Semitic persecution is the Soviet anti-Jewish campaign of the 1920s. Utilizing formerly…
Brief overview of the history of Jewish immigration to the United States and demographic developments to the beginning of the 21st century.
Appointed as the head of Napoleon’s Grand Sanhedrin, respected Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva David Sintzheim created a political modus vivendi for Jews in modern Europe. Click here for the Prezi associated with this video.
Tractate “Prohibition”People of the Book: Great Works of the Jewish Tradition Dr. Henry Abramson “Reverend” Gershon Kiss of Brooklyn captured the spirit of Purim brilliantly in his 1929 parody of the Talmud, “Tractate Prohibition,” which pokes fun at both Rabbinic dialectic and American society. Written in a combination of Hebrew, Aramaic and the occasional Anglicism…
Intimidated by neither power nor position, Rabbi Yaakov Emden left a remarkable literary legacy in the form of his autobiography, Megilat Sefer. This brief lecture provides an overview of his life and work, including his epic controversy with Rabbi Yonasan Eibeschutz. R. Yaakov Emden, Megilat Sefer People of the Book: Great Works of the Jewish…
Detractors and admirers alike called him a “zealot, the son of a zealot” a fitting title for arguably the most divisive figure in early eighteenth-century Jewish history. A native son of Jerusalem, Rabbi Moshe Chagiz (1671-1751) originally journeyed to Europe to raise funds for his beleaguered Yeshiva. Within a short period of time, however,…
Two hundred years ago, Sefer Ha-Brit was a fixture in the library of every educated Jewish home. First published anonymously in 1797, this hugely popular 800-page tome appeared in forty editions, including translations into Ladino and Yiddish. It was widely read by Ashkenazim and Sefardim, western and eastern European Jews, Hasidim, Mitnagdim and Maskilim…
People Of The Book: Classic Works Of The Jewish Tradition This article originally appeared in the Five Towns Jewish Times on March 3, 2016. Click here for a video lecture on the topic. By Dr. Henry Abramson Working in the abandoned Judaica collection of the Kiev Vernadsky Library during the immediate post-Soviet period, a brilliant…
A mysterious figure of the early 18th century whose work, recently discovered by Dr. Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern, sheds light on the world of popular culture from which Hasidism emerged.
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)
Brief video on the life and times of Abraham Senior, important 15th-century Spanish Jewish financier. Suggestions for Chanukah Reading! Click here to order.
Kindling the candles for the Festival of Lights, we bless G-d for performing miracles of freedom “in those days, in this time.” The commentators have long resolved the jarring use of apparently non-parallel prepositions: in those days, meaning long ago, but in this time, meaning at the present point in the calendar year. For survivors…
This lecture turned out nicely, I think. If you haven’t heard Rabbi Ya’akov Trump, you’re in for a treat–skip past my part to about 26:00 for the good stuff. A century from now, people will say, “Trump, Trump…wasn’t there also a President by that name?”
Henry Abramson 